Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Kyle Larson’s Late Push Wins the Brickyard 400, Playoff Predictions, and more!

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

On Episode 45 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick and co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith bring you a comprehensive breakdown of the Brickyard 400 and the latest NASCAR updates! Kevin highlights Kyle Larson’s epic double overtime victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, emphasizing how Larson’s skill and strategy secured the win. The team also reviews the significant crash in Stage 2 that knocked out William Byron and AJ Allmendinger. With just four weeks remaining before the playoffs, they discuss who’s on the playoff bubble and what to expect. Catch all the excitement and analysis in this must-watch episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether it's a good race or a bad race, it doesn't matter. It does not matter to me. It's a historic racetrack. Our cars have gone there for now 30 years. And to be able to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an honor. And it needs to be on the oval. We don't need any more irrelevant years at the brickyard racing on the road course and going backwards down the front straightaway. Please.

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vinci. And I'm not sure who this guy is. This guy is on vacation. Mamba is on vacation before we even start vacation. I said to him, I was like,

it looks like you're headed to Barbados today. What's going on? I'm on vacation, y'all. We got two weeks off. I'm going to Brazil. I cannot wait. I show up in a retro shirt and you show up in some sort of Barbados out. It's like a linen fit.

The sunglasses, Tortoise. Can we see your hair? Huh? Go see your hair? My hair, it's not in braids right now. So it's just kind of just out. Free flowing.

He's got a nice. A little fedora-esque hat on? Is there any way that we can just buzz your hair down to the ear? Like, just buzz it. You want to do that? Like a one or a two. What are you going to give me if I let you do that? I'll give you a high-five.

Do you see how this works? This is always like a give-and-take with you too. Listen, I'll let you. I will do it. I'll give you some new retro shirts that you're supposed to wear on the show that you didn't wear today. You got to, you got a sponsor a vase for me and I'll let you cut my house. Oh my God.

This is like a really big ask now for you. You know how long? I'm going to look dumb. You know, look dumb for a minute. You've got that handled. I can't throw my notes at you, but I really want to. Yeah, I mean, we just started the show. I know.

That's why I need a... You don't know. You're going to wear those shades the whole time? I don't know. We'll see. You have to wear the shades the whole time. Absolutely. I mean, you could just look like this.

That's how I use my bifocals. Yeah. Look down at the bottom and it's less shade. And it's light in the bottom. You know, we got the turtle shell heat waves on. So... Well, as you mentioned, though, you are going to some weddings and the break time that's coming up.

Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick, he got invited to both VIP weddings. Who schedules their weddings during the off season? The off weeks of the season. Sorry. The weddings should be scheduled during the off season. Listen,

nobody wants to spend their break going to your wedding. I can tell you that. It was a year, like two years ago, whenever Bubba got married, I had seven weddings in that time frame. Everybody's mad. Because everybody's going to be mad that they got to spend their off weeks at a wedding.

Oh, I'm sorry, you got to go to Brazil? Did you go to December wedding? No, you weren't. When was your wedding? My wedding? This was in Vegas. It was in Vegas. After a race. It was in between two races.

Oh, so that's better. Yeah. But you guys didn't like invite people, right? Or was it like a small group? No, no, no. We had like 150 people. Oh, you did? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, it was. And that one, our wedding wound up being at a good time because Dale had died. Right. And then we had the wedding scheduled. And we kind of went on as everybody did. But I'm just giving you grief. You schedule your wedding whenever you want.

It just seems strange. Not his wedding. He didn't even have a girlfriend. Yeah, not my wedding. That it's during the two off weeks. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's the beginning of the off weeks, though. And I think one for Daniel, Daniel's going to go run the NASCAR Brazil race.

Oh, trust me. I have no idea all the logistics and planning that goes into this. This guy. So, well. Just know I'll be looking good at both. We should have two more married couples when they. come back to racing. Better than two divorced groups.

We might have two divorce. You never know. To be determined. But as I mentioned, we're approaching a break coming up. So we're going to kind of recap the season as a whole. Of course, look back on Indianapolis. We got your sips. And we appreciate the closers because now our happy hour podcast is on FS1.

So you can see episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will keep you guys posted on the time. So that's awesome. Now we know I got dressed up. He's on TV. We're on TV. We're a big-time TV guy now. That's right. I'm in a T-shirt.

Speaking of the closers, I need to, I need a quick shout out to Aaron and Zach from Baltimore. They listened to the show. I told them, you know, we talked about going to the Wild Beaver. I showed up after the truck race Friday, and they were there. They're like, the only reason we're here is because we listen to the show. That's so awesome. So shout out to you, boys. Appreciate you all.

I asked my wife, I showed her the picture because you were trying to blame it on being late. I said, have you ever heard of the Wild Beaver? like, no. I said me neither. So I didn't feel as bad. I felt like she had spent some time in Indy that she should know the Wild Beaver. She probably should have. But maybe it wasn't there. No, I think it's been there. It's like a staple of it. It is. I went this weekend too, but I didn't see you. My daughter obviously thinks that my wife is some sort of long-standing staple as well. We were driving down the road. We were coming home from our little trip that we were on. And she looked, she looked, I looked in the mirror and she's like, Dad, Mom, do you think that there was a roof on that, that little buggy that mom used to ride in?

Did they have cars when you were a kid, mom? Or did you ride in one of those buggies? And I was like, oh man, here we go. Mom is looking at me like, are you serious? What in the world is she talking about? Is she serious? I look in the mirror and Piper is dead ass serious. Like she is not joking one bit.

She looks back at Piper, looks in the back sheet, and she realizes that she's serious. And I'm like, do you think that thing had wooden tires, Piper? It's a wagon. We went right into digging, but you just never know what's coming out of the six-year-old's mouth.

You really don't. And that seems so random. Just a random thought. It was very random, driving down the highway. You just taking L's out here. Yeah. Yep. I love hearing the family stories.

Every weekend there's something else. Well, now he's there so much. Yeah, it's great. You know what the really dangerous part about this is, is this podcast. Why? And the fact that I have the capability to rewind and watch things and really pinpoint who the ding-dong is.

The ding-dong. During the accidents or the moments or whatever the situation is. Well, we got a lot of ding-dongs to talk about. We got a lot of incidents. I want to start, though, Treetops, the race back on the Oval at Indianapolis. What do you think as a whole? I love Indy. I love the Oval.

I love the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I love everything about it. I like the fact that there was a good crowd on hand to support the event. I know that Roger Pinsky and everybody, Doug Bowles and everybody at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, put a lot of emphasis and thought into how to bring the Brickyard back, obviously the 30th anniversary. And we had a very entertaining race. Yes, we did.

And everything seemed to go pretty well with everything that they did at the Speedway. So whether it's a good race or a bad race, it doesn't. It doesn't matter. It does not matter to me. It's a historic racetrack. Our cars have gone there for now 30, 30 years. And to be able to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an honor. And it needs to be on the oval. We don't need any more irrelevant years at the brickyard racing on the road course and going backwards down the front straightaway. Please. Yeah, I guess Kevin said those wins don't count. Those don't count. If you kiss the bricks, don't count. You were out there obviously doing pit reporting and stuff this weekend for Fox. What would you think about the weekend as a whole? Yeah, the whole weekend, I mean, going back to IRP, as we should be. I hope the, now the Xfinney cars put on a fantastic show on the big track.

I just would love to see them back at IRP. I think, I think that the big Indianapolis oval or rectangle, whatever we want to call it, I think that deserves to be cup racing and top former indie car racing, and let's just leave it at that. But it was great. I forgot how much I missed it. Like, you forget, like, you know, it's been, what is it? been four years or so since we did that because you won the last one, I guess. So it's been a while since we've been on that track and that configuration. And it was great racing.

And it was fun. It's technical. You forget how technical it is. Like you're not just driving with all the banking. You really kind of think about where you're putting your race car. So I loved every bit of it. Yeah. And I think when you look at it, when you look at IRP and you look at the races that we've had out there,

they had a great crowd at IRP as well. And I'm with you. The Xfinity race was great. Riley Herps did a great job, put himself in position to win the race. They obviously had great race cars, and the racing was fantastic to watch. But I just, I think that the brickyard is, you know, should be preserved for that highest level of racing on the Oval. And the Xfinity series is great, but it's not the Cup, Cup series.

And I think that, like you said, the ND500, the Brickyard 400, that should be it. And I think that, you know, the Xfinity cars back at IRP would be a great show. think the fans have obviously shown that they'll support it. I love the indie fans. I just think that they're so well educated when it comes to racing. I mean, if you live in indie, you're just, you're born around racing and your town is, you know, is entrenched in the Indy 500 and they're, they're just knowledgeable race fans. And I think seeing the crowd that we, that we had to support those races at IRP is, it's a, it's a place where the Xfinity cars need to be, in my opinion, as well. I just, I don't like 165 miles an hour down a straightaway.

It just doesn't seem fast enough to me. I was with a couple people who had never been before to the brickyard. And I could tell they were just blown away as soon as the race started, which it's always cool to see people's reactions to the first time they see something like that. And we saw a little bit of everything in this cup race. I would say, but Kyle Larson and the five team won. By the way, who chose them? I think it was me, wasn't it?

No, it was not. It was you? Okay, Kaelin. I'm sorry. But like if I can get any, wins and anything. Like, I just got to have a moment where I'm happy about it. I mean, we heard about it about four

minutes after he crossed the finish line in the group text. It's like, oh, hey guys, by the way, I picked him earlier today. No big deal, though. I'm just happy she's comfortable enough to gloat on her accomplice. To gloat ever to Kevin Harvest. And now she's finally getting comfortable enough to

talk trash. Not talk trash, but just baby steps. In a very respectful way. Yes, exactly. And So we appreciate your trash talking. Keep it up. Keep it up. Okay.

So Kyle Arson has now got three crown jewel wins. And this was a big one you could tell for him and the team. But it came, they battled through some attrition to get it done. They did. And when you look back at this win, it is a very typical next-gen race. And when you look at Indy, you look at Pocono. You look at every race now. There's going to be strategy involved in it.

There's going to be moments that change the direction of the race. And your car is going to have to have some sort of capability. ability to do things that everybody else couldn't. And at the end of that race, their strategy put Larson in position to do things that everybody else wasn't able to do. Everybody in front of him was saving gas. They were at a disadvantage on tires. He found a very unique way to enter the corner and go through the center of the corner and put himself in position to make passes. And ultimately, everything fell his way at the end with Keselowski running out of gas, having to go to pit road. We have the other discussion that we'll have with with the restart and who was in charge

or who had control of the race at that particular point on the restart. But they did everything that they had to do to capitalize on the end of that race and wind up in victory lane at the brickyard. So, you know, those guys, Cliff Daniels and his team usually find a way to put themselves in position to have a chance from a strategy standpoint. And they have one of the best behind the wheel. Yeah, I was happy for them from the standpoint of They were running that McLaren Paint scheme, the papaya ones they called it. And I thought that was really cool

Because it was Kyle's idea to bring it back And run it for Indies since they didn't get to finish off the double And then they're able to get redemption. That's true. That's true. I thought that was really cool. You know, Kyle's great. He's probably the best race car driver on the planet right now

And he's able to show it. He's with one of the best teams and probably has the best crew chief pairing that he could ever need to be successful. And he just finds ways. And, you know, sometimes he cross those limits and he gets wrecked and puts himself in weird situations. But I will take – It's fun to watch. I will take Kyle Larson winning as much as he does over, you know, maybe not on some of them

because we're always going to have a chance to win if Kyle Larson's driving. Great up for – And when you look at the F1 race, McLaren also won the F1 race too. They got a big weekend. We'd love to have Zach Brown on this show. There you go. I think that would be a fun conversation to hear his take on on Kyle Larson and his abilities because I think he could go right into an F1 test

and be up to speed on the day one. Listen, with the McLaren, the IndyCarine, I mean, Kyle Arson could end up at a F1 McIran situation. I still want to see a test. I want to see him test at F1. He will haul the mail. Also, how about him dropping a hint that he may be doing the double again? That wasn't a hint.

That was true. backpedal all that he wants. And we had Kyle Larson on with our victory lap this week. And he can backpedal all that he wants. He said he's going to come back, wants to come back and kiss those bricks on the front straight away at the Indy 500. And I'm here for it. I think everything that Kyle Larson does in racing, some people get a little annoyed with

everybody talking about Kyle Larson, but he races more than anybody on earth. And he's successful in everything that he does. And I like watching Kyle Larson race and do things that other people don't do. And I think it's great for our sport. It's not only great for our sport, it's great for racing. And I want to see him back at the Indy 500. I'd love to see him run a race beforehand. I'd like to see him run one of the ovals at some point because they do some of those doubleheaders.

I don't know if that would work with the schedule. I don't know. Just do it. Just skip practice. He doesn't need practice. Look at him. He's mapping out his future already. All right, Kyle.

All right, young money. Yeah. We'll have to follow and see if that announcement is coming down the line for Kyle Larson. You mentioned some people were annoyed with him. And I also want to add, though, you can see the Victory Lap interview with Kevin and Kyle now. One of the drivers who was annoyed, maybe not with him, but the situation was Ryan Blaney. Walk me through everything that was going on here once Brad Kosalski obviously had to pit because they stayed out an incredibly long amount of time. That was miraculous in some ways. What did you make of all this? Well, Brad must have saved a ton of gas.

At some point when he was in the middle of the pack at the beginning of that run and how all that shook out, So this is a very unique situation, and I think that we said it earlier. Kyle Larson had a lot of things fall his way in order to win the race. And this restart situation with Brad pulling off the racetrack and Kyle assuming the front row on the inside on the restart, I'm not sure that, well, I know I'm not, I know I'm sure that Kyle Arson didn't know whether he was in control or not in control. We heard Tyler Reddick talk about it after the race, not knowing the exact snobes. of who was the controller of the restart at that particular point. But Ryan Blaney was a control car. The restart was tight. I went back and watched it a couple times. I don't see anything that

I would call a penalty or from Larson jumping the start. I think he just, they took off about the same time and he just beat Blaney through the gears. It looked like to me. So a very unique scenario that wound up ultimately being the thing that won him the race. But when we did our victory lap interview, you heard Kyle Larson reference. We wanted to pick behind Brad because we thought he might run out of gas on the pace laps coming to the green. So there's this constant thought process of things that are going on. And that was definitely a part of the conversation of Larson and those guys picking behind Brad thinking that they might run out of gas. And Blaney obviously felt like he was in a good position because he felt like Brad might not go on the restart. But

Ryan flipped out. He flipped out. He was. He was. A lot of F. Angry. Maybe we need some radioactive segments on this show because there was a few pieces that we could play right now with Blaney and Larson and everything that went on. But you get into this scenario if you say, okay, well, NASCAR should throw the caution. Well, now we have a fuel mileage race. And now we're going to go two more laps with a caution. There's just some of these things that just happen. And it's just luck of the racing gods. And Kyle Larson, got that moment, you know, where he was granted a gift because they were coming to the green. He said it was BS, killed his race, benefited Larson, obviously. He called him a golden boy. He called him a golden boy. Honestly, though, when I was listening back to some of it, do you think it's just also partially, everyone wants to win at that track? It means so much to win at the brickyard that it felt like he was even more fired up for that reason. I think everyone wants to win, period, point

blank, right? But add on top of, we're back on the oval of the brickyard, out on top of R.P. now owns this facility and like what it means for Penske to go to Victory Lane there. And they had called pretty much the perfect rate. Like they did everything that they needed to do to win that race and something completely out of their control, which is why it's racing, right? That stuff happens. But it just was, it was really unfortunate because had Brad made it what? Another 10, 20 yards? Yeah.

He's not pulling off or at least Ryan's, you know, going to. to assume the lead when they do take off. And I think in Ryan's interview, he said he didn't want to get behind Brad because he was afraid that he was going to run out of fuel in a non-opportune situation. So it's interesting when you risk, the risk that the five took versus, you know, not the risk that the 12 took, but, you know, it worked out for the five and those guys and it just really didn't for the 12. They arguably, you can't say should have won the race, but like the way it kind of played out,

you would assume that Ryan takes the lead, you know, that calls. caution comes out. He can trolls down into one. If he's able to handle the lead, then he wins to race. So it's just, it's tough. The unique thing, too, I mean, Blaney wrecked a couple of restarts before that. It wasn't that long before that. I mean, he was dead sideways, car on his door. And that's, that's one of the things that since we raced at the oval last is different now. These guys are much more aggressive on the restarts. We saw Kyle Arson doing a lot of very unique things with his car. He dived down to the inside and make those. kind of dive bomb passes at the last second. So this next-gen car kind of changed the characteristic of how you race. And we heard Kyle Larson saying in a Victory Lab interview, it raced. He said if he had his eyes closed, he couldn't tell you which car he was in. That's crazy. As far as how the car raced, the handling characteristics that come with the car.

And for me, I view that as a good thing because we know how much people love the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indy 500. and hearing Kyle Larson say that there's really no difference. He did say that he felt faster in a stock car than he did the Indy car. That's interesting. So there were just a number. I think it's so interesting to hear Kyle's comments from IndyCar to Stock Car, Indy 500 to Brickyard 400. And hear those similarities is very interesting. I think that I think him running the Brickyard 500 definitely helped.

Like, because some of the moves, if he said it felt that similar, then he's like, oh, I know what to do here. I've been in this situation. more recently than these guys had, I think it was at the end of stage one, maybe two, I forget which one. He kept, he was trying to get by Blaney and he kept showing early and showing early just trying to get Ryan to make a mistake

because it's really one groove. Like if you get in the gray and you lift for a second, like you're losing, what, it was like 10 or 12 car length. So like he was putting the pressure on guys. Yeah. So Kyle Arson, obviously things worked out for him and his team, but a number of incidents, I want to go through some of these key moments in the race.

Go back to stage two. This was with William Byron and AJ Almondinger. This was a pretty bad accident that took place. And William Byron, this has been interesting because at the start of the season, we saw so much momentum out of that group, a lot of wins, and it's been a little bit more quiet. They haven't been running poorly by any stretch of the imagination, but it's been a little bit more of a quiet summer.

What did you see here? Well, like I say, this rewind button for me is very dangerous. And I think when I hear William Byron's interviews, is he's very frustrated because he feels like his cars are running good. And I think in this scenario, when they wreck here, he's, as he put it, back there with the squirrels, he was very frustrated with Chase Brisco. And, you know, this wreck started. As you'll see, Briscoe just come up the racetrack right here.

I went back and listened to the end car. You could hear Briscoe lift once they got connected right here. But I thought he got tight. But, you know, it sounds like he just came up the racetrack trying to protect that position. and Byron was already there. And when they make contact, he lifted. But you see these big shots. Glad everybody's okay because those were big shots right there.

Yeah, they're big hits. I mean, so he's mad at, he's mad at Briscoe, right, for kind of using them up. But the 41, like, Priest kind of stuck his nose in there. And it wasn't really, it was a hole, but it wasn't like. Well, that's what ultimately caused the crash was Priest going in the middle and the inside an outside car, not knowing he was in there. And kind of, that's what started the crash that actually took everybody out. But the thing that started that scenario was when the 14 and 24 made that contact and

check those cars up. But William Byron, you know, they have the speed. Let's not forget, we're at a bunch of very unique racetracks right now with Pocono and Indy and road courses and got all these one-off racetracks that we're going to that, we're not going to race on in the playoffs. So, you know, I think some of these traditional racetracks, aside from the road course piece of it that we have in the playoffs that kind of shakes everything up,

it really kind of allows for some unique scenarios. And I still feel like these guys that are racing for 16th or not racing for 16th. I think they're racing Chris Busher in 15th. I just have this feeling that somebody is going to win outside the box at Daytona. You know, definitely has been standing by that statement. Has been. You know who's in that wreck that, like, is not having fun either? Two guys, Harrison Burton, if there's a wreck, it seems like he finds it.

And AJ Almondinger, like, I mean, even when it's going okay for those guys, it falls apart. Speaking of that, you led me right to my next driver with Kyle Busch. Started 34th, but he was able to make gains throughout this race. At one point, he was in the top five. It seemed like he was poised for a top 10 before an incident in the very end, contact with the 11 with three to go. 25th now. for Rowdy Bush and 112 points below the cut line. Yeah.

This is a loaded scenario because, you know, I feel like Kyle is driving way over his head. You know, his cars are off the pace on certain weeks. But in this scenario, he's passing Denny Hamlin. He's in the top five passing Denny Hamlin and just way over drives the corner, drives into the side of Denny Hamlin and wrecks himself. So he's had a ton of bad luck. He's as frustrated as I have ever seen Kyle Busch in his racing career. He handles it better than he did before.

But he's also crashing a lot in practice. He's crashing in these scenarios where he just needs to finish, gain some points, and just get the car rolling across the start finish line. He's been in scenarios where it hasn't been his fault. But this one is 100% on him with a car that they ran in the back with part of the day. Right. But wound up in the front making a pass in the... inside the top five, you've got to finish those. You got to get those to the start finish

line and finish those days out to stop the bleeding because right now, I mean, it's bleeding from, he's bleeding from every direction that you can bleed from. And I just, you know, I think in some of those situations, you just got to take a deep breath. And maybe it's, let's finish fifth instead of fourth or fourth instead of third and get to the finish line. We've got to finish to get some momentum going because now that momentum that you could have had is dead in the water because you just plowed it into the fence. If you look at the races that he's wrecked out, he's almost, like, I think there's like six

when he's wrecked out of the top 10, like from running in the top. Like, he's just been crazy. But even if, even if 50% of them are dumb luck. So I'm saying. Let's get the other 50% to the finish line. We got to... At some point, you got to be,

you got to be the guy that is getting those cars to the start finish line. You can't keep making the mistakes that you're making when you know you're way behind the eight ball anyway. That was wild. So Kyle Bush obviously frustrated. I think so too is Martin Shrek's Jr. Another team that it's surprising to see at this point in the year,

they have not gone to victory lane. And this was an eventful race for them as well, serving a penalty right out of the gate. And we see him also get into the wall at one point. Some situation with Ross Chastain, too. What did you see from all this? Well, I didn't see, you know, I saw Kyle Larson and Martin make contact and Ross come down to racetrack and they were three wide.

But really the incident was caused from the five. and the 19 making contact in the middle of corner. So I think Martin's counting him down. I think at this point, he knows he's, you know, he's, he's retiring. They want to do good. But moments like this make him make him pretty happy that he knows he only has 14 more. That's probably true. Yeah.

He is. We are on cruise control here. I mean, they had a bad start to the race. Come down pit road and have sort of penalty and like make your way through. And then you're like, eh, okay. but even in that replay, you could see, like, Larson, he was tight on Larson's door, and Larson, like, gets a little free.

I don't know if he clipped a little bit of the... It's a little bit bumpy down there. I think they just got connected. And then once they got connected, he was in the gray and then see you later, brother. Yeah. And, you know, everybody was holding everybody tight. But in the end, I felt like he,

Martin kind of put himself in that position to have the contact and then he wrecked. So I just think that, you know, I think that I don't think that, it's going to get a lot better. I think they have the speed to be able to go out and win races, but it's all going to have to work out right for them to be able to do that. So Martin Trex Jr., obviously a former champion in the Cup series.

So too is Joey Legano and Jimmy Johnson, and we saw an incident between these two. And obviously, Jimmy doesn't race that often with us anymore, but this was not how that team probably would prefer their day to go. No, and he was actually, he had decent track position. And, you know, we saw an incident that was very similar to the priest's incident where he was in the middle. The two cars on the inside and outside didn't know he was really there. This is the exact same scenario that started this wreck with Hosevar,

kind of poking his nose in the middle, and then he had Blaney on the outside that just came down the racetrack, didn't really know he was there. I don't remember who was on the inside, but they caused the crash. And when Blaney got turned to the left, it actually hooked the right rear of Jimmy Johnson, which hooked the left rear of, Joey Lugano and all those guys wound up in the fence.

So the only thing I can say, when you look right here, I don't think Hosevar is doing anything wrong. He's clearly in the middle of the racetrack and the 12 comes down on him. But with this many guys that are frustrated with Hosevar, at this point, it's always going to be his fault because it seems like he's in the middle of a lot of things. And I think that just comes with time, being able to have the understanding of when to stick your nose in there, when to not try to take a position, or when to hit a guy,

or when to hit a guy or when to spend a guy out under caution and when not to spend a guy out under caution. But you hear so many guys talk about Hosevar and how frustrated they are with the way that he races and the things that he does, that it just seems like it's always going to be his fault at this particular point. And you go through spells. I've been through spells of times like that, but he's definitely going to have to learn the, the cover. style of racing. It's much rougher than it used to be. And you've got to be, you got to air to the aggressive side. But he's definitely getting the brunt of the blame. Do you think we should have an unk intervention for him? Because we know that Kevin is invested in a lot of these young guys

and helps them. Maybe you need to step in there and just give a little coaching. I love every one of these guys. I love the fact that they're out there doing what they do. But unfortunately, my job is to critique it now. And for them, and I have that rewind button. But I, but I, I, just listen. I listen to all the guys that just talk about Hosevar and they make these, these kind of, you know, comments towards the way that he's doing things and the way that he's going about it. But I think a lot of that comes with your rookie year. And when you're a guy that stands on the gas and is worried about going forward and trying to go fast, you're going to have some of these moments. So he's definitely in the character building year. Yes, yes. At the

beginning of the season, he had a lot of bright moments. Now it's kind of like he's going to a big learning curve. They're getting harder. because guys are not, guys just keep cutting him less and less slack because they feel like they're getting run into and in situations that, that they shouldn't be getting run into. But I don't,

I don't think that was his fault. But they're all going to blame it on him because... It's easy to blame him. Because he's the guy that's easy to blame it on right now. But that particular instance, I think the 12 chops the 77, not knowing that he's there. Yeah, and that's how I viewed it.

No, and the 12, yeah, and the 12, like he's going into turn one. They're funneling down in there. You really, if you're, on the third groove on the top and a turn on any of these turns, like you're completely screwed. So like he was trying to force his way back

to a lane that he could get a runoff. 77 was there though. 77 was there. Yeah. It wasn't like the 41 where the 41 kind of was late. 77 was there already getting into the corner. So one other team we've been talking about for a couple of weeks is Ty Gibbs and Joe Gibbs racing.

Once again, there was some sort of an engine issue happening on that car. And you said it just last week. You're like, this is getting a little concerned. We're approaching the playoffs. You can't have things like this happening. I just feel like the, and we've seen this before with, you know, the engine group at Toyota, when you have these moments, you have to be on edge because we've seen it happen in the playoffs.

Yeah. And now we've had four of these moments that we know of that have happened. Short succession. Yeah. In a pretty short amount of time. So there's obviously an issue there. You're going to have to shift. They're going to be high RPM racetracks.

You're going to have to go to these places. you shift pretty much everywhere that you go, except for the speedways. And so these engine issues are a huge concern for me as you go into the playoffs because it seems like they could pop up at any moment, you know, with whatever's happening to the engines. We saw them raise the hood.

I was, I had to text Bob Packers today. I'm like, did you hear this the same way that I heard this? And, you know, you hear them reference the engine issues on the radio and they say they'll talk about it next week. So I'm concerned. We were concerned last week And now I'm even more concerned Because here it is again

I think it's like five races Hopefully they get it out of the way before the playoffs Yeah the problem The problem is you can't get out of that engine cycle Yeah and the problem is too is like the biggest The D race even if you make it to the chain Even if you make it a Phoenix If you're if your Achilles heel

Is these shifting racetracks Well the last one the one that matters the most is Phoenix And you got to do it there a lot And it's like man like And you don't know Right? I think all their cars almost have had it. Like it's been random. It's not like the same car. So like you got the may pop strategy right. Golly. It's tough. May pop at any moment. May pop at any way. I didn't know what that meant at first. The May pop. Okay, so that was the brickyard.

That was a very eventful race, race weekend as well. As I referenced at the top of the show, we now have a two-week break. So that begs the question on who's got the momentum, who's going to be stressed the whole time over the two weeks? I would say, obviously, Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports have the most momentum right now, given what we've seen over the last couple weeks. Would you agree? 12 cars in the hunt. And we didn't say that at the beginning of the year. The 12 cars in the hunt.

Who's we? Oh, that's his boy. I've been riding 12. You agreed. I've been riding 12 the whole time. Well, you were riding at 12, but you were a little slow at the beginning of the year. Oh, they were a little slow at the beginning of year, too. But they have got the ship headed in the right direction.

They've been performing well in contention that Jonathan calls a great race. Week after week, he does a great job on the pit box. And they're firing on all eight cylinders for sure. I think Ligano is not quite. like the 12. I don't think Cendrick, you know, has anything for, for those two cars. I think that, you know, the 24 has been off. I think that's just part of next-gen racing, right?

Like, especially when you go through these unique racetracks through the summertime, you just have these different places that you just keep going. And you've got to ride the wave at the right time. The five is obviously good. They call a great strategy. Gabe Hart and those guys call a great strategy. But you're just going to get caught up in these wrecks. and you're going to have these moments of just things not going right.

We saw it with the 20 car. We've seen it with the 48 car. Those guys all perform well, though. And it's just getting hot at the right time. I'm super concerned for Ross Chastain in the one car. I feel like Bubba's kind of, they've kind of got their ship righted. And I feel like when their ship is right and headed in the right direction, they have more speed than the one.

And now it's only seven points apart for 16. But I still believe Chris Buescher is the spot. I think that that's the guy that technically will be the 16th place guy as we get, you know, through these races. Because I just feel like somebody's going to win at Daytona. But I'm concerned for the one just because of the fact that they haven't shown the speed that the 23 has. And in general, they've had some bad luck. Seven points above the line right now for Ross Chastain. Seven below is Bubba Wallace, who I feel like,

you know, had a good race. I mean, they were up front, leading laps. I mean, doing the things they need to do, want to stage. And he seemed pretty optimistic in his interview. He's like, I'm a little disappointed to see the points where they're at, but I feel like I'm going to have a good two weeks, just kind of low-key. Yeah, I mean, they did everything they came in to do at speed. He was upset with himself that he put the team behind earlier in the week

and not getting the qualifying effort that they need because qualifying is so important. But if I'm the 23, I feel good about it and I feel good because of 45. Tyler Redick is, I think he's 15 points out of the regular season points championship. Like, he's close. Like, he's making speed. And you wouldn't know it, by the way, Tyler acts after a race when he finishes anywhere between second and 40th. You just think that it was the worst. Yeah, the world was ending.

He did all right this weekend. He was a little. He was better this week. But I think he's still the bridesmaid. He's still finished. I know he's going to get married, but he's still the bride's made. at this particular point because, you know, he's frustrated with the fact that he hasn't won as many races as he thought. Right.

When he has the ability, the strategy, the speed, whatever it is, he's had the ability to win more races. And as a driver, I've been there. That is frustrating. When you feel like you're not capitalizing, it almost bothers you more than wrecking and running bad because of the fact that you know how hard these races are to win. And he knows. He knows he should have won more races up until this point. Who do you think has had the most impressive season so far? You can only pick one.

One team. Most impressive. Well, I think if you go with straight wins, I mean, it has to be the five car. They miss a race. They've won four races. They're still leading the points, doing all the things that they're doing. You know, I still think that they just have this over-the-top dynamic from top-to-bottom driver, crew chief team. I was fortunate to be in the middle of that at the All-Star Racing.

and witnessed that, it is, it is an absolutely phenomenal team. But there are other ones out there. You know, I look at the 11, the 12, the 5, they all have this just, this great dynamic from crew chief to driver to team that just, it just works. And they, they figure out a way to make it happen. But, you know, I think when you look outside of those top guys, I saw it again this weekend, Todd Gillen, is in the mix, you know, coming to the green flag.

He's right behind Larson, you know, coming to the green flag. you know, coming to the green flag for that restart that won Larson the race. So there's a lot of guys that have done better than I thought they would do. And there are some that have just not done as well as I thought they would. I think Blaney and the 12 group coming off of a championship, no championship hangover. I mean, they weren't aggressively fast at the beginning of the year. They were like 8th to like 12th. I think we mentioned that early on in the season.

But now they're consistently in the top five. and they're showing speed to win races. So I think them backing up what they did last year and maybe turning the heads because they're Ford and the Ford struggled early on. Also, I have to give a call to Justin Haley. I mean, he didn't really, I think the last couple weeks have been a little rough for them,

but like up to this point, surprisingly fast and in the mix more times. And I think that to me, the RFK cars got better, but they still don't have the speed that they had last year. Right. Chris Busher especially. They had this flash of, like three or four weeks where they had some meal. Amazing, yeah.

And then since then, it's just kind of gone away. So it'll be interesting to see who gets hot with the last 10 weeks. They needed that darling tournament. Well, I mean, they still got it with Brad, but the 17th needed it probably as bad, maybe a little bit worse. And I feel like Brad is, they grind away. Yeah. And I don't feel like that the 17 car has been able to grind away at a race like Brad and his team have been able to do that.

That's typical Brad. You know, he's race like that for years. He just shows up at the end of the race and in position, whether it's from strategy or whatever they've done, fast car, slow car. They just figure out a way to wind up having a chance at the end like they did this week. That was. Somehow, some way.

They figured out. I don't feel like, uh, you know, Bisher and his team have been able to, to be able to do that this year like, like the six car has. And neither one of them have had the consistent speed like they had last year.

Drivers below the cut. Briscoe 83 below Bush 112. Do they make it? Yes, no. No. Okay? No. No. I mean, as bad as I want Kyle Bush to win a race. Oh, didn't he do the reverse psychology pick this? I did. I think because he thought maybe that would see, you just need to stop. I was. Kevin makes me have to pick him. Because he almost got to pick. Yeah. Yeah, you have no choice but to make a minute. And in all, in all honestly, too, I may have took a nap for a small portion of the race. That's disappointing. I'm over there, Saving away on our notes. Yeah, and you crush it.

And you absolutely crushed it. I woke up and Kyle Bush is passionate for you. He's passion for fifth. And I'm like, I'm excited, right? This is the end of it. And then the next quarter he was in the fence. I'm like, oh, my God. It's because of you.

Jynxed. A mom of curse. Total jinx. I should have stayed asleep. But yeah, no, they're not. No to both. No to both. No to both.

They got to win one. I just don't really have this one. I just don't really have this one. All right. Well, we just have four weeks to go for some of these teams to make some magic happen. So it's time now. for your segment. Now stop.

Just stop. Put your sun... This is not going to be any good. Put your sunglasses on. You've got to at least look cool for your own segment. That'll look cool for your own segment. All right. Now start over.

Now start over. Start over. Now you look normal. The only thing to make it better is if you had a cigar hanging out of your mouth. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your favorite segment of the show. Mamba's social sips. And for all of you watching on FS1, this is a good. going to make your week, I promise you.

All right. So we're going to start right here. I was fortunate enough to get the call up because Josh Sims had got pulled to do some other stuff. So I got called up to do the truck race at IRP and do pit road from there. So I did practice and qualifying as well. And if you're new to the show, when Kevin

was in the booth, I gave him a we, the closers all gave him a word of the week. And one of the words of the week that we used was yeat. And Kevin used it at Dover. And I'm like, you know what, I can do it better than he did it. So I just slid it in there this week. Let's roll the footage.

Let's hear the word of the week. So what's it going to take around here? I feel like it's really hard to pass and really hard to get around people. You can get wide, but you've got to pick your moments. Oh, yeah, without it out. This place is very racy. I mean, I love it. It's one of my favorite short tracks that we go to.

I was so glad to see it back on the schedule. So hopefully you go pick up a win here. All right, guys. Watch out for the 88. Might have to yeat one of these kids out of the way to get that. win. Oh yeah. Here we go. I've not used that one before. Adam says I haven't used that one

before. I was dying. I was dying laughing. I was dying laughing up there. That was good. He did good. Yeah, that was a very natural execution. I thought you did good during the whole practice qualifying broadcast. Thanks. It did pretty good. It's different. There's a lot of information coming in.

There is. You talked about the emails at the beginning. I didn't realize how many like there was and like you got Bob helping you and all the producers and everybody. And Yeah, if you just pay attention, you don't really need to do anything when you get there because you're so informed that you can pretty much cover anything. The information that is coming in at you is a lot and it's fast. But it was great.

Had a great time. Thanks for crafting for having fun with us. So going back to last week, Chicago, we're in Chicago. And Kevin mentioned that he didn't love the burnout. The burnout that the drifting attempt that Alex Bowman did. Well, Alex Bowman made it. a nice little edit for you, Kevin. A little response.

You know what I love about this? And this is, you know, if you're going to drift, don't spin out and hit the wall. But I love the fact that I had no idea that Alex Bowman did this. And I also love the fact that he fired back. We can have fun. I can critique you. You can critique me.

Feel free to fire back because I'm here to just cover what I see. And that, to me, is a poor drifting attempt. When your nose first did into the wall, But your Corvette looks great. Yeah. I mean, you're doing a very good job, you know, drifting around the racetrack. So we were actually driving home as well. And Keelan chirps in from the back seat.

He's like, ooh, Dad, you're taking some heat. I'm like, heat from what? He's like, apparently you critiqued Alex Bowman's drifting attempt after the race, and he's a drifter. I said, what? He's a drifter. I had no idea. There you go.

Alex Bowman's a drifter. He's a lot of new things on happy hour. He's a drifter. Stand on it. And by the way... Oh, stand on business, Kemp said. Stand on. Okay.

That's right. Stand on it. But, you know, I don't know what that means. Did I say something? Yeah, you said something kind of cool. Did I say something that meant something? You just ruined it, so don't worry about. No, no, he's good.

I do like Alex Bowman. No, I know. I think they do a great job, but don't take it personally, Alex. We're having fun. Bowman, stand on business, bud. All right. Speaking of something who stood on business, they said that this kid would never win a race. Hmm.

And he won Vegas last year in his home, his hometown, which was awesome. And he did one of the, one of a phenomenal job driving through the field here at the end and taking the lead in the exfini race. Riley Herpes, congratulations my guy. The past, the last corner pass when like they come down the stretch to get the white. And I'm like, oh, he's making the pass here. Oh, here comes a 20. I thought the race was, I thought they had both. I did too.

I thought it was over. I thought it was over. And then you go down that back straight away, and he makes the pass coming out of three. And then they touched doors and dead sideways. And I talked to Riley after the race. I said, did you lift? He said, it was the brickyard.

I am not lifting. Never checked out of the gas. Slid that thing back straight and got to the start finish line first. So that was a great, great finish. It was amazing. And I thought that they were going to be picking their cars out of the fence because he was. I did too. When they touched, he was so sideways.

And they didn't catch it on the broadcast right. away. And I'm like, I was like, holy shit. I thought the replay was going to be of him backed into the film. I didn't think they were making it out. So congratulations. Sirahas really needed a shot in the arm. They qualified one two with Cole Custer and Riley, finish one two, Riley, Cole Custer. So shout it to them. So speaking of not great finish. Speaking of teammates that finished one two. Okay.

F1 race that. I don't know where they raced at this weekend, to be honest. I think it's Hungary. Hungary. It's a Hungarian, Grand Prix or something. I don't know. Yeah, the McLarence. The McLarence won, which is cool. Like, you know, at this point, if Red Bull doesn't win, it's kind of, like, shocking. And you kind of pull for that. But so, Lando, Norris, has the lead. Or he, they pit him, right, first before his teammate.

He comes back out. He has the lead. The Oscar Piastri cannot catch him. And I think it was like a 20-lap run. Can't catch him. Hands up three to five seconds. behind. They're radioing to Lando to

to back up to Oscar and let him pass because Oscar was in front when they did the strategy. Now, this is what I have a problem with this. I, there's no way in God's green earth that I think that I could lift out of that. You called the strategy if he would have caught me, I guess, and then we

you want me to let him go? They called the strategy and I totally disagree with everything that happens in F1 when they let one guy go by and not the other guy. But they were calling the strategy for Piaustri to stay out so that they could keep Hamilton backed up and so

that and then they made it right at the end so but it's still still not great. It's not great at all Oscar's first win. Yeah. And like that doesn't feel like a real win to me. Yeah. I mean I'm not a driver but that's... I don't know. Their culture is different over there. I just have I just

they have no problem with it. When we would go to the go-kart races over there with Kieland there were 100% moments where they would sit in the tent and give team owners for the for the for the kids racing carts so it's it's it's dealt with that way all the way from the the very bottom of their ladder system all the way all the way through the very top at at f1 it's a it's a much different culture that's like frowned upon in our world yeah can you imagine no i can't not imagine out yeah like we if we because because it's i don't

know to me i guess i look at it it's like kind of not fixing the race but it's like if manipulating the outcome yeah and like we it's stats driven at the end right yeah yeah So, like, as a driver, like, you only are as good as your stats. So, Landau has one last, one last win. Well, that was the way that that that one worked out. I mean, what do you think about the way that ours worked out this week? The last caution. Yeah.

I mean, should it have been in caution? I, the last caution. Yeah, the last question. Yeah, the last one, I wish they would have thrown it before they got to the line. I thought that was, you know, I thought the call at the end of our race was not good. When Priest spun out, he was. was mid-pack. He wound up, nosing into the fence barely. And the left, the tire was flat. He was on the rub blocks. The tire was flat. He was not

going anywhere. And they waited and waited and waited. And he wasn't moving sitting up on the racetrack. The caution should have been thrown in turn four. And it just doesn't seem like there's as much consistency as there needs to be when it comes to these, these calls at the end of the race, whether you throw a caution or not throw a caution. So I just, I didn't like the way that the race ended with the caution not being thrown. Yeah, and Ellen Sawyer had an interview with Alex Weaver after the race and explained that they were watching it. And I think that the 41 was also, and he was close to a gap,

where if he could have got going and he did initially go, and then it just stopped. And it's like, you just were sitting there like praying for the caution and come up before they got to the line because it was going to be a great. Well, I can tell you this. Whoever was watching that needs to be talked to because the left-year tire was It was down. The tire was down.

I don't remember exactly which one it was. I think it was left here. But they had a tire that was down. It was sitting on the rub blocks. And when they sit on the rub blocks, they don't move. And I just believe that it was, that was a miscall. It was a badly miscall. It was a bit unfortunate by that one ended.

Because it was a great race. It was a great race. You hate to see that. I just hate that you have the controversy at the end. Yeah, well, of course. Right, we want to see it end everyone in the gas and getting all they can get. And speaking of getting all you can get, a side segment to social sips is the grading of the burnout. And we talked about Kevin's burnout from Indy last week.

And how it needs you need to do it all the way from turn one. I said that sounds like a Larson thing. And by golly, if it wasn't a Kyle Larson thing. This is arguably the best burnout of the year, Kevin. Oh, now I see, now, so now I see why the tire blew out before he got to the start finish line, because he did three donuts. Good donuts. Good donuts. And my favorite, one of my favorite things about the next-gen car is how the pipes go out

and it blows the smoke out of the side of the car like that. But this was an absolutely magnificent burnout. And I think I had a little bit too much RPM, didn't quite make it back to the start finish line is what I initially thought, but it's the donuts. It's the donuts. You see the tire blow out right there. And as a driver, you hear the tire start to come apart. So that's when you know to stop.

but he was super close to being at the start finish line. So that would have made it perfect if he had stopped right there before the start finish line with the tire still smoking. So where we had... He gave him a magnificent, which I haven't heard of him used that.

It was really good. Because right now, right now, it's really good. SVG's, Xfinity win at Sonoma is the top because of things with Austin Hill flipping him off while he's drifting behind him.

So are you saying that Kyle Larson's beats SVG? So SVG is sitting at like a 9. Yeah, the taunting after the race and the middle finger getting flipped off and all the proper drifting in a stock car, not a drifting car, just takes the cake. So if SVG is at a 9.6, this is a 9.6. So am I a Russian judge, a Chinese judge or an American judge? I mean, who's my athlete? We're USA here, baby.

Okay, we're USA. Well, I'm going to give it a 9.2. 9.2. That's pretty good. Pretty sporty. It was pretty good. Because you could have, you know, we kind of, we could have gotten closer to the start, finish line. If we're looking for a 10, I'm going to need, I'm going to need the overall judge, Piper Harvick, to come in on.

Yes, that's what we really need to have her way and each week. Because this one is pretty high up. We know she's a tough critic as well. Okay, guys, time now for our last call. And this week, we're giving our picks for the championship, not a race because we have two weeks off, which I already know yours. And I'm going to agree with you. Yeah. I'm going Denny Hamlin.

I would love to see Denny Hamlin. and finally get his first championship in the cup series. He's had a Hall of Fame worthy career. That's the last box, really, that needs to be checked. We're going 11. What do you say? Oh, you're not a loud one. We're team 11.

You're team 11. So you don't want to pick one because you're such bad luck that you don't want to pick one. No, I'm bad luck with race race. If there's someone you don't like, you should pick him because then it won't happen. You got four choices. You try to sucker me in. You try to sucker me in. I see what you did there.

No, I'm going, I said it earlier. I think it's time to see a back-to-back champion. and we haven't seen one since Jimmy Johnson. Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, the 12 group, Jonathan Hassler. They're going to go back to back this year and make it three in a row for Team Penske as a whole.

You mentioned Jonathan Hassler, obviously, crew chief for Ryan Blaney. Your former crew chief, Rodney Chilters, is your guest this week. This is so exciting. This should be an easy combo. It'll be very easy. And I think for me that the timing is great

because of the fact that he accepted a position at Spire. Big changes in his career, and everything that he's been used to for the last 10 years is going to the scenery is going to change. The manufacturer is going to change. The people are going to change. The owners. I mean, there's just a huge change. So I've already been through it.

They went through it with a driver change this year with Josh Barry. And then obviously everything happened with Stewart Haas Racing. So I think I'll have some great insight as to what he's thinking. Real quick. Just off the cuff, Ronnie Childers, Corley Joy, next year in the playoffs. that's a good good i don't know we'll have to we'll just have to see how those cars we'll have to see there's too many things in between now and there is so much because you don't know who's going to change the body you don't know if the rules are going to change you don't know this you don't

know that so i got to have all the details first i'm not getting in the middle of that yet listen rc i i believe in rc if we all do three votes for rc okay we look forward to that conversation you can see a new episode on thursday then we will be back august 12 after the break so make sure you Subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. Leave us a five-star review. And we will see you the closers after Richmond.