Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Michigan Recap, NASCAR Heads to Mexico City, Bob Pockrass on Court Ruling Fallout, and more!

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith break down everything you need to know from a wild weekend at Michigan — from Denny Hamlin’s clutch fuel-mileage win to Ryan Blaney’s misfire and Alex Bowman’s scary wreck. The crew also highlights standout runs from Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs, then turns their attention to the historic Mexico City Cup Series race, debating how the international venue could shape NASCAR’s future. Then, FOX NASCAR Insider Bob Pockrass joins the show to explain the latest twist in the NASCAR antitrust lawsuit as the U.S. Court of Appeals vacates a key ruling. Mamba delivers this week’s funniest and most viral NASCAR content in Social Sips, and the crew closes it out with Last Call — their grade for Denny Hamlin’s burnout and predictions for Mexico City. 0:00 - Intro 2:29 - Michigan Recap 24:45 - Mexico City Preview 32:48 - Bob Pockrass On Antitrust Lawsuit Filed By 23XI 43:17 - Mamba’s Social Sips 49:10 - Last Call! GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Terms: draftkings.com/sportsbook. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Sponsored by DK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He definitely seems to be getting more and more comfortable with the position that he's in with the fans. They love to hate him. Just keep that same energy. Just got to carry that same confidence week 36. As my wife would say, f***ing around to find out. I have a lot of Espenior zero. All you need to know is Cervesa and Banyo, beer and bathroom. You run with the squirrels, you get your nuts cracked, right?

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Bincey, and he's Mama Smith, and I'm also the most coordinated person on set. That is, no. I've seen him grow up baseball. There's no way. You don't think I'm coordinated? Huh?

You don't think I am? You? K.B. Come on. I was an athlete. Really? Yeah. You were a runner?

Yeah. What was your event? 800 meters, 4 by 4 relay. Yeah. I did the mile some. All right. And so maybe I'm not coordinated. He thinks I'm probably big cluts.

Climsy. I mean, he was a wrestler. Is that clumsy, Caitlin. Oh, man. Climsy Katie. I don't like this. Now you're in trouble. Now you're in trouble.

Guys, before we start, a very special happy birthday. It's right. His birthday today. How old are you? Another year older. Hey, thanks, guys. 33. 33.

Oh, young pup. And I looked this good. I look good today, y'all. 33. You got a little of this in there. I know about the ladies love that part. Yeah. Yeah.

It shows wisdom and maturity. That's right. We've had this talk before. Wisdom and maturity. Yeah. Mixed you're trying to copy my beard, though. I see you're starting to grow that thing out. It is growing in a little bit.

bit. Is that intentional? I just really don't give a shit right now. I mean, it's your shit. You have to be perfectly honest. I just don't care. That's fair. If it's gray and I just don't feel like shaving it. We like that.

That's okay. Hey, happy birthday. I hope you have fun tonight and do something cool. We'll do something cool. Celebratories. We've got a big show on tap today for everyone. We have to recap everything that happened in Michigan. Preview the Big Race in Mexico.

Bobby P. is going to join the show, which is super exciting, and of course you have your Sips. We got Sips. A bunch of closers were out at Michigan. They were stopping me. Shout out to you guys. They wanted me to tell Kevin something.

They were like, make sure you let Kevin know that our favorite part of the show is Mabas Social Sets. So I wanted to make sure I let out. Well, I mean, it's very evident that you're lying. Look at the Instagram.

That was, I mean, Michigan was a really successful place for us, and we've always been fortunate to have a lot of fans up there. So that was always a huge stock. stomping ground for ass kicks. Well. Harvick fans are you saying? Harvick fans.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm telling you guys, it was like 95% plus full. Really? Yeah. No, when they did the anthem and you looked up to their grandstands, it was a sea of people. It was amazing. There was a good showing in all the races I thought throughout the course of the weekend.

My first race there, I'll never forget it. We went up there at the end of 1999, went to the Michigan race. race to announce, and I'll never forget standing in the back of Earnhardt's pits and looking up at the stands. And it's just a wall of people because the grandstands at Michigan, they're steeper than most places and more on top of the racetrack. But it's a cool place to stand and watch. You don't even have to watch the race. You can just listen to the reaction of the fans. Those people are rowdy. When it's packed, they are rowding. Speaking of the reaction of the fans, let's dive right into this. Denny Hamlin winning,

and he was greeted by a chorus of claps and booze, I would say, from that crowd. You already talked to him today. He loves it. Yeah, pretty masterful performance, though, there out of that team. Are you talking about afterwards or during the race? After when he got out of the car, I'm saying the booze and clas. I asked him about that. I said, you seem so comfortable and you're like you're having fun with it.

He's like, look, I give them the first opportunity to show their reaction. And then I figure if they can flip me off and boo at me, then I can go right back at him. So he definitely seems to be getting more and more comfortable with the position that he's that he's in with the fans. But I think they love to hate him. Yeah. And it's good to have that. Did he say, Daddy? So I don't know.

I don't know what is going. I don't know what he's going on with his word. So when he goes out and they do the initial interview when he was Kim Kim and he's on the start finish line, he goes, Daddy. I beat your favorite. Sorry, I beat your favorite driver. I think, you know, he did say daddy. I think he said, Daddy, I'm sorry. But yeah, because I think his dad was the one that got frustrated with him

talking about everybody when he says he thought it was disrespectful. Oh, that was, he didn't want him to say that anymore. But I think he went right back into it. I just honestly, D.H. bro, just keep that same energy. Like, like, if you're going to do it, I want you to bring it every single time you go to Victory Lane. I beat your favorite driver because, like, just keep that same energy. Just got to carry that same confidence, week 36. Week 36.

If he's all the way to Phoenix with that confidence. Could be dangerous. Could be dangerous. That's your champ pick, right? Denny Hamilton? That was last year. This year, it's Christopher Bell. All the years running out.

Oh, it was. Right? Aren't you see Bell? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good call. Well, I just want to go back to Denny for a moment. He was very complimentary. Of course, of his crew chief was like,

I'm glad we could win this one for Chris Gale. I mean, just what did you think of the job he did, managing the fuel situation and being able? to get this one. Well, and I thought Chris Gale's comments were interesting after the race because pit crew didn't have a great stop on the last stop. But him from a crew chief standpoint, it sounded like he was, that was a great confidence builder for him being able to manage that race. And that's a typical Michigan race. You've got to manage the fuel. You've got to manage the strategy. All the things that go with that. That's part of being able to win at Michigan. And I think for Chris

Gail having that confidence booster of being able to do all that and put them in victory lane with being on the right sequence and having the fuel right and all the things that he did on that particular day. Huge confidence. We've seen him win it with pit crew. Now we've seen him win it with strategy. We've seen Denny just beat him. So 11 car definitely is starting to gather that momentum that they need.

But we got to carry it all the way through. We have to get through the end of the summer with the same speed. We have to start the playoffs with the same speed, the same mentality. I remember last year, playoffs started and it just completely unraveled. So they've done a great job of rebuilding this scenario and putting Chris Gale in there. I think they didn't have to rebuild much with the team being the same. But, you know, I think so far it's been successful. You said it about the, you know, the fuel mileage and managing that, like this race and Pocono,

it's kind of a crew chiefs kind of track because of strategy and making sure you're holding your driver back enough you know when Danny was making his run through and William was out front

right and William talked about this in his post race he's like yeah it's just kind of the nature of the beast at this place when you're doing a mile and a half when you're doing fuel mileage race

I'm burning probably a little bit more and we're just short but we're out front so how like how are you going to be mad about winning the race and dominating like you have been and then at the end of it

You're just not in the right situation. And it sucked for the 24 group, but they are locked in. Like, they're bringing super fast race cars every week. And there's this pass for it that Denny made on the 24 right before he ran out of gas. So both those, it was a great race. Great battle for the end. You didn't know what was going to happen.

Sorry. Yes, the interview with Denny Hamelin and Kevin, Victory Lap is available now, by the way. But, yeah, William Byron, his crew chief told him, Rudy Fugel just run. Like, they have that win in the bank. So I think that was sort of the mentality for them. And sometimes being the fastest car is a detriment in not being able to do something different than the fastest car. And we saw this bite them at the 600 as well. You know, the adjustments that they made and the way that the track went, you know, they weren't as good as the other cars at the end of the race.

But when you go to Michigan, you got to know that there's going to be strategy. You're going to have to have a fuel strategy. And sometimes the right fuel strategy isn't being the fastest car. And you have to be able to put yourself in position to have all that right when the last run starts. I think interestingly enough, the 77's flat tire probably hurt the 24 more because the 77 wasn't going to make it either.

But he was towing the line, right? He was out front. So William was able to save a little bit more until he was now the leader. So that changed a lot of that little strategy. I'm not saying that that would have been the difference to making him all the way, but it might have made it a little bit more interesting at the end.

What is that like for a driver when it's imminent that you're going to run out? And you're just kind of out there like, well, we'll see how this goes. Yeah. I mean, it's terrible. Just because you know you have no chance and you're frustrated inside the car and you want things to be different. But I mean, the strategy starts on lap zero. It starts when you fire that engine up on pit road. And you hope that they have the right plan.

But you don't really know what that plan is because you don't know how the day is going to work out. You don't know when the cautions are going to fall. It got wild there. in stage two. You know, we saw Alex Bumman take a massive hit there. And so when those types of things start to happen, then the strategy starts to go all over the place. And you see middle of the field, front of the field,

back of the field kind of start to do their own thing. And it's just the opposite of whatever the front does. So, you know, sometimes you've got to pit like a loser, even if you're the winner. And you've got to give up that track position because hope becomes a bad strategy. if you're hoping for another caution. So it's really hard to tell yourself

when you're leading the race to pit like a loser, but sometimes you have to. Pit like a loser and hope is not a strategy. I hope is not a strategy. Carson Hosevar, you referenced him, having a very solid day, picked up stage points. Do you think he's a guy,

I think he could win, but definitely could point his way in. Well, the points are getting ready to change. You've marked my word. Three weeks from now, the points are getting ready to change just because of the road. course season coming up.

Oh, squiggly season. Yeah. My boy, Brad Perez, he calls it squiggly season. Yeah. And I just think that if we get one or two of these wildcard winners that we, you know, are throwing into the possibilities of being able to win with an SVG or A.J. Almondinger. Suarez, honestly.

Swares. You just don't know how these road courses, especially a new road course in Mexico City and in a street course that's, I mean, it might be laid out the same, but it's not. not going to, it's just, it's treacherous. It could bite you at any moment. It could rain. There's so many things that could possibly go wrong. So I don't know. I think that that bubble is great to look at, but I think that bubble could be two spots higher in the guys that have points, which is like 40 some points. 41 Briscoe, 20 Bush or 13 Bowman. Yeah. So I mean, the bubble could be, you know, where Briscoe sits currently. So I don't know. You know, I think it's,

you talk about pointing your way in. I think Josevar is scoring stage points. I think he's fast enough to win. I think he's fast enough to score those stage points consistently. He's just a new player. And the way that he handled the Stenhouse thing this week, it seems like there wasn't really any animosity there. They talked through it.

They were pitted neck. They were garage dogs. But I'm just saying it doesn't seem like there's any lingering effects from them. So the politics of the internal, dealings with situation like that seem to be getting corrected a little better each time. So I think he's progressing and he still has the speed. Yeah. No, he can definitely win a race.

They've been super aggressive and I think they have confidence as a group and as an organization that they can go off and win races. And, you know, someone else that had a good day needed was Ty Gibbs. Yes. Ty had a super good day. I was able to chat with Ty at the NASCAR experience. I interviewed him beforehand. I talked to Cheddar, his car chief on pit road. And they just had a lot of confidence this weekend.

They just felt like they had a good car. And Ty was frustrated, too, that he couldn't go and be the attacker. Like, you want to be attacking. You don't want to be on defense. Yeah. But, you know, he understood that he had to do what he had to do. But he can get it down on a road course, too. Like, the team Penske thing with them having four solid guys that they can rely on,

the JGR team has the exact same. thing. There's four. And now the 19 is starting to show speed, at least, you know, obviously in qualifying, they're really quick. So if they can just translate that into some race stream, well, I mean, you look at the 19 and the 54, if they can translate the, you know, the solid finishes or the qualifying efforts, the polls and things like that into just one win.

Yep. And you get three of the four that are in the mix and on solid footing. You know, that's a huge step for Joe Gibbs racing. if the 54 or the 19 get to victory lane. So, you know, when I look at, I don't think the Penske guys, they've typically not been that good on the road courses. I don't look for them to make any noise, you know, on the road courses. They, the guy that really stuck out this weekend from a Ford standpoint was the 17 car of Chris Bush.

Oh, he had big smoke. He had big smoke. And he was really good. Priest had a great finish, Kozlowski was up there. So the Fords were there. just didn't get back to Victory Lane. Yeah, you mentioned Chris Busher, won a stage, ended up runner-up.

He seemed pretty dejected there, Anthony. You just sense the disappointment, obviously. But they're doing a lot of things right as of late. I get his disappointment. When you have a car like that, and you don't capitalize on it, you don't get those very often. And he saw that last year

when he had those moments where he didn't capitalize. It cost him the playoff position that he needed and didn't get himself to where he ultimately they wanted to be at the end of the year. So he knows, on those days, when you have the capability in the car, that you've got to capitalize on it and they didn't. The difference for him two years ago was he was able to capitalize in those moments.

And I think he ended up with like three wins in a season. They had that hot summer streak. Last year, they had, they didn't, you know, they missed out on Kansas by about a fingernail. And then, you know, Darlington, him and Reddit got into it. And so this year, it's kind of a little bit like it was last year. So it's frustrating when you know you can win the race and it's just not falling together. So they've been running up front, a team that hasn't been that's been going through a bit of a rough stretch as of late. You referenced them earlier, the 48, Alex Bowman, really hard hit.

He was okay, fortunately. But they've just had a tough go. I mean, when you look at their finishes in the last really like almost two weeks. Yeah, and I don't think that's, it's not anything different than the way. that it's been for them the last couple years. It's like they get these little bursts and then all of a sudden they're just flat again. So, you know, I think it's definitely,

if I was them, I would be concerned because you get yourself in these wrecks by being around those cars. And you run with the squirrels, you get your nuts cracked, right? Oh, that sounds like something really a little George. Yeah, that's where I heard it. Yeah, it makes it.

But, you know, you get in those positions where you got four wide guys that are, I mean, the racing, the further you get backs, the more difficult it becomes, and you wind up in position like this. So nothing of his doing, but you're just around the wrong cars. Yeah, that was a super hard hit. And let me rephrase this. Yeah. You're in the wrong part of the pack. It could be, it could be the cars up racing in the front next week that are in the back of the pack like that. It's just the back of the pack, no matter which cars there are, it's just difficult.

25th back is a hornet mess. It's not fun doing that because everyone is trying to get that little bit because that little bit might help get two more in the next lap. And that situation right there, obviously I think that it was Cindrick and Custer kind of got together and then he just got shot out of a cannon straight into the fence.

And the fact that he was able to do his interview right after the infill care center was a massive event. And he's taking a lot of hits, Kevin on it. And he said it was the biggest. hit he's ever taken in a stock car. And he said that last year at Indy too. Yeah. And he hit a ton.

So like, I hope he's okay. Yeah, definitely. For sure. Another unusual, uncharacteristic event was with Ryan Blaney. Almost at first when I was watching, I thought he was trying to come to pit road. That's what I thought. It appears he just kind of flossed it on his own. Yeah.

It looks like he just got too far up the racetrack and got himself out of the groove and wound up, wound up spinning out. You see him up there in the gray. right there. Got a little bit of damage from the wall. Didn't make a ton of noise this weekend. No. He was around like night to 12th.

And then this happened. And then I think that was kind of it. They didn't have enough pace to get back up to where they needed to be. Yeah. And I think it's, look, you're going to have that in the next gen car. You're going to have those weekends where you just tenth is good. Yeah. This is not like the old car where you can hit it every single week.

But that's the expectation that we have for Blaney. Yeah, yeah. And that's the expectation that Blaney has for Blaney is to put himself in a position to have that performance every week. And when you go to Michigan, Ford puts a lot of pressure on you to go up there and run well because they take it personally when they don't leave with Heritage Trophy. You know that the Chevy camp and the Ford Camp, back to back years having the Toyotas take that Heritage Trophy home.

Yeah. In their backyard, oof. they're going to come back next year to Michigan and they're going to be firing on all selling for sure. Last two years, I mean, Ford just hasn't had that ace in a hole. Who's that? He'd someone to close the deal. Speaking of Ford,

what about Zane Smith? It was good to see him have a solid day, his best performance of the year in seven. Zane has been sneaky quiet all year. And we've seen him in position to have good finishes and sometimes things happen. But he's had a few of these finishes that have just been really, really quiet.

put themselves in a position to have a solid day. And they've done a really good job. Zane Smith. Nice to see that. Yeah. This is birthday today. Yeah. You guys share us their birthday? Yeah.

I like that for you guys. I know. You guys send each other happy birthday texts. Yeah, of course. Okay, good. No, not the same age. I got like a decade on him, I think, almost. Yeah, I saw him this weekend on the way to the poor John.

He's glad everyone got their business done this weekend. No, Zane's been doing a good, I think people forget that he was a former Truxist champion. That's right. Like he almost did it two years, and he almost got a ride at J.R.ette. Like, he has been good his whole career. It's just like timing and when you get somewhere. And it was kind of wonky with him because he was with trackhouse. Yes.

Right. It's almost like it worked out better for him. It kind of has. It's almost like he shouldn't have left where he was and just rode the system. And not always, the grass isn't always greener on the other side. And a lot of that is chemistry, timing, personnel, all the things that go with it. But it was not good at Spire last year. If he was still in the same situation with Trackhouse, if I was in him, I'd be sweating bullets because now you got Connor in there too.

So now it's Ross, Daniel, Connor, and SVG. Like, there's running out of room at Trackhouse. It's going to be interesting to see the complexion of that team come next season in Trackhouse and how that's all going to look. You referenced the fact that Zane Smith was a former competitor in the Truck Series. Big News came out this weekend pertaining to the Truck Series. Rams Return, guys. This is cool, right? I mean, this is always a big deal when someone new comes in.

It is. Yeah. And we would encourage them to, you know, follow our friend Mamba to have our social sips over here. Sponsored by Ram. Yeah. Since he's such a huge fan. I am a massive fan of that company. So it's really neat to see Ram come back to the truck series.

They were always such a big part of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and everything that happens and has happened with it through the years. So they just, I mean, it's just NASCAR. They're just a NASCAR brand. They are NASCAR. They are a NASCAR brand. And I don't know why they ever left. 13 years ago, right?

I'm happy that they're back. I can't wait to see who their teams are going to be in the truck series. I think it will be, that will be very interesting to see that play out. Maybe they've already got them picked. But building these programs is always intriguing. You have some history of that. You know how to build a program like that? Yeah.

Yeah, we can build anything. Yeah. But, you know, I think it's a great time to come into the truck series because of the spec engine. You don't have to develop an engine. You basically are going to develop the arrow side of things with your body. They're kind of like, yeah. It's like a nose is really... Yeah.

And it's a lot simpler to get started in the truck series. The hard part will be getting everything situated for Cup and the timing of the... Is that 27? Is that 28? Yeah. You know, what is that timing? But to have them back in the Cup series is going to make it better for the Toyota Chevy and Ford teams because those manufacturers are going to have to lose some people. And they're going to have to either keep spending the same money with less teams

or spend a little bit more money. So as a team owner in the past, when more manufacturers compete, the better it is for the team because you get more funding, which means you can sell the sponsorship for less. Yeah. Everything gets easier. Stalantis has so many different brands, you know, that they can go a lot of different ways. And everyone is assuming that it's going to be the Dodge brand that would be in the cup in XRA series.

But maybe it's not. Maybe they want to use an alpha-rameo or something else. You never know. And I think all that is super intriguing. It's exciting. It should be exciting for everybody. It took a long time for it to get to this point. They had Anderson Silva, UFC champ out there.

He was doing the unveil. I was expecting Vin Diesel, but Anderson Silver is cool too. Those people were so excited. The fans were so excited. It's a good time to be in NASCAR. And if anyone else wants to come and join us, come on with it.

And Ram, I expect to be hearing from you guys about this Mamba Social Services. One more plug to try and get Ram on the show. Yeah, we look forward to seeing where Ram will align as far as those trucks teams go. So the other series, He's one of the other series that race this weekend was ARCA. Butterbean, once again, got the win.

His third win of the year just loved this story. He's a dog. What he represents the short track racers across America, always cool to see him with. Yeah, Butterbean is just a great person. Had the success to go out on a racetrack and in the cars tour and get himself this opportunity next. And he's going out on a racetrack and doing the exact same thing.

And that's winning races. So, you know, to be able to beat Corey Heim, from a driver's standpoint, it has to give you great confidence to be able to go out and do that. So that also sends the message to the rest of the teams that Corey Heim didn't just show up and things changed. Butterbean still won. So that is, you know, for the perception for him is great as well. So it couldn't happen to a better guy. I mean, Brendan is a great dude and goes out on a racetrack and gets it done.

I love Butterbean. That team, that 28 team, most of those guys were with me at MDM Motorsports. when we had our ARCA team. You know, you got Shane Huffman is kind of leading that group. I love Shane. I love Scho. is over there. Aaron Hodges, Dylan Teasley.

Like, there's some really good guys that have been just at that level for a long time. We're really good at building these race cars. And he couldn't be with a better group of guys. I love those guys so much. You make a great point because I interviewed him this weekend. He referenced that fact. Just how solid his team is. Just racers like himself.

He said they do bonfires together. They're always going golfing. Apparently, Butterbeen's not. a good golfer, but he said that's really strengthened their unit is spending that much time together off the track. So it certainly is showing for them. Okay, guys, this is interesting, because we're going to another country this weekend. We are. We're going global, international for NASCAR here on the Mexico City race weekend. What, I mean, we have no idea really what's expect with this. No. Yeah, expect the unexpected. And, you know, it sounds like, you know,

if we don't have a baby, maybe, maybe or maybe not Denny Hamlin. He can expect him to be there. He might be there, he might not, based on what he said on Monday. So, or on the victory lap. So it's, it's, I like going to new places. Some of these guys, most of these guys have, well, most all of them haven't been there. But I think going to Mexico for me was a great experience when I went the last couple of times I went.

It was like 05, 06, I believe. The last time we went was 08. Is that right? Something like that. Maybe it was 6 and 7. I don't know. But I went a couple times. And you hear so much chatter. The shops can start all this nonsense on the shop floor about, you know, this guy is going to boycott or this is going to happen.

Oh, my God, this could happen. And then you go on the trip and it's like, oh, that was no big deal. Yeah. So typically NASCAR and, you know, everybody has this organized pretty thoroughly. and, you know, I think that the hardest part is getting everything from Michigan. Thank God it didn't rain down to Mexico City. So they've typically got this stuff pretty buttoned up, and it'll be a good experience for the competitors.

I got a 50-plus page email. I bet. With the travel and everybody. Are you going? Yeah, yeah. I'm going out. I'm really excited. Do you speak Spanish?

I hablo, Espenior, zero. No. A hablo. A hobo. A hobo. Nothing. No, I don't. All you need to know is

Cervesa and Banio. You're in bathroom. I mean, look, I got some people there, so they'll take care of me. All you need to know is stay in the hotel. No, I'm not staying in the hotel. There's no way I'm staying in it. Trust me, no one's taking me.

They're going to give me right back. Yeah. The fact that I've been here this long is shocking. As my wife would say, f*** around to find out. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to stay, I'm going to stay where all the peeps are. We're going to have a really good time.

I know in Darlington, Darlington at the beginning of this season. There were some folks that came all the way from Mexico to that race and pulled me aside and told me how excited they were in the city. It's excited. So I can't wait to get out there. We'll see how excited they are about how many people show up. Yeah, that's true. We hope a lot.

What's the process been like doing the travel? What's been different about it? All the different things you've had to do? So there's been, yeah. So, yeah, there's some, like, some type of immigration. I don't know if it's immigration. It's some type of letter that you got that we have. have to get signed and like we had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and it's not like going

on a vacation. This is a work. Right. This is a work trip. Not a, you're just going with your wife and kids. So, but they got it all mapped out. All the hotels are all mapped out. We're traveling all together.

So we're really traveling as a whole industry. Yeah. In and out. Which, I don't know, it's like a field trip. So, yeah. I wonder if Kyle Bush had to get a special letter to go back in there. Yeah. He must have.

Yeah. He must have. Yeah. He's got a special part in. He's just something changed. She's already been there once. He's been promoting it. Maybe that's how he got to accept it.

I'll promote this whole thing for you guys. It's going to be very interesting. It was cool to hear all the process with the haulers, the red Michigan, the path they were taking to get down to Mexico. Obviously, it's a huge undertaking for them on the travel side. Let me tell you about those haulers. Tell me. So with the last year that we went with KHA,

they hit one of those big concrete, I don't know, pillars in the middle of the road to keep people from driving it as they were turning out. Oh, no. And so the convoy left our hauler because they had to go at a certain time. Right. So they stayed with our hauler, and we couldn't get it across the Mexican border. So we had to bribe the UPS.

We had to bribe UPS to get our truck back across the border because they were going to keep it. So it also. Bribed. What do you mean? Bribe. Like, we had to pay them cash. UPS?

Wow. Yeah, the Mexican side of the UPS. Oh, oh. Facility. At the border. They wouldn't let the truck cross the border until a certain amount of money was handed to them. I thought you meant, like you had to pay. Yeah.

You had to hook up to the dollars. So, yeah, my holler got stuck and eventually they got it back. The trailer was able to get across the border. But it was quite the fiasco getting the truck and trailer out of the country. Quite the kerfuffle. But luckily, the exchange rate's pretty decent. Yeah. Is it?

It wasn't as much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. I'm going to take some de Niro's with me, so real. Is it Pesor or De Nero? Oh, wait, money is De Nero.

Peso is the currency, correct? Wait a minute. What? My goodness. De Nero is our dollar. What is happening? Pesos is their currency. Oh, dollar is denaro.

Yeah. Yeah. But she could run fast in high school. She ran fast in high school. I did. Listen. Okay. We're moving on.

I will say, though, I will say, though, I'm excited that we're doing this because I want to see us do more internet. I want an international piece to everything we do is... I mean, it needs an international flair to it. We need to go to Canada. You've got to get that worked out. If we could get the Canadians to figure out how to make it simpler to get across their border

with the trucks and the trailers, you think it's hard to go to Mexico? Why is it harder to go to Canada? But it is. They're cousins. Okay. Yeah, so he has a vote of favor for a Canadian race. Where else would you like to see?

If we took one of the exhibition races... Are you going to say Australia? You know I'm saying Australia. Because it's our wintertime. It's their summertime. It would be a great reason to go. Brazil? That would actually be pretty cool.

Brazil makes a lot of sense because we got the NASCAR Brazil series. I was amazed how many NASCAR people I saw in Brazil. I'm thinking that we should just go to Hickory. We're going to do that anyway. You said, let's do it. Well, the Dun Committee had it on the list. A done committee.

A done committee. There we go. First Dunn Committee. I think we need. need to be cautious about getting too far away before taking care of our own. That's fair. Stuff. Let's just stay in North America for now.

Okay. North America. Yeah. Okay. North America. I know what that is. Yes. Okay.

Just because I didn't know De Niro. You know Alaska is not its own country, right? I do know that as well. Just checking. So final questions for you guys as it pertains to this Mexico conversation. Is there more pressure on Daniel Suarez? Absolutely. All right. Well.

It has to be. When I went there and Adrian Fernandez was there, I mean, it was a whole country, whistling, screaming, and he was this just rock star that was there racing. I would assume that that's maybe not to that level for Suarez, but probably pretty high level of popularity in the city this week. So I would assume that there's a lot of pressure to be able to go down there and perform. And I would think that he's going to put that pressure on himself. I'm sure. And I hope he doesn't put it.

Pressure is a privilege, as Jerry Ligano likes to say. But I hope it's in the right places. And I hope the car that they bring runs well so he can put it all on the racetrack. You know, you never want anyone to struggle. But especially here, it just means a whole lot to a whole lot of people. And I'd love to see him be able to put a really good run together. Whether he wins or not, that's neither here nor there. But just be in contention.

And run up front, I think it's a big deal. Yeah, having a fair shot. Yeah. We'll have to see how everything unfolds out in Mexico for this big international race. So safe travels to you going out there with your De Niro. Stay in the hotel. Stay in the hotel. One of the other big stories that happened last week was the fact that NASCAR won the key appeal in the antitrust lawsuit filed by 2311.

Of course, we need to bring in our NASCAR insider Bob Pockras, of course, for some insight into this story. What is all this mean, Bob? Well, it means that 2311 in front row motorsports could be racing as open teams as early as Atlanta. Not sure that it will come that early. But remember back in December, the teams were like, hey, there's a clause in the charter agreement that says we won't sue NASCAR. So they asked the judge to force NASCAR to let them sign the charter agreement, but waive that clause that they won't sue because they wanted to obviously continue with the lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals last week said there's no basis in I trust law to say that this clause is illegal. And so they kind of tossed out the injunction.

So, Bob, if these teams do run as open teams next year, how much does that hurt them both on the track and financially? Well, Dane Hamelin told us for a three-car team, you're talking tens of millions of dollars. And from what I can tell, depending on your sponsorship, it impacts. back to your overall revenues as a race team by 30 to 50%. But the big thing is, is that you have to race your way in every week. And that might not be a big deal every week, but it's a pretty big deal when it comes to the Daytona 500 and you're trying to race your way in. Bob, how likely is this thing to actually go to trial in December?

And what is that going to look like for us? You're asking me to try to predict a super speedway winner here, Mamba. You're pretty good at it. Come on now. Well, so most of these types of cases settle. But, you know, both sides in this case, you know, Michael Jordan and 2311 in front row and NASCAR and Jim France, they're pretty, they've got their heels dug in a little bit. And the courts have advised them to mediate, which they have to do, but they've been urge to try to settle, but NASCAR has said they are not going to redo this charter agreement

because a couple of teams of the 15 organizations are suing them. So we'll see how some more decisions occur before December, but you could be looking at a two-week jury trial in December. So when you hear the chatter in the garage, we've heard Denny Hamlin talk and it's not affecting. They've talked to their employees. But I mean, it has to affect. them in a certain way with with the uncertainty of everything that they have going on. I mean, they haven't, I don't think they've run like they, like we expect them to run from a 2311 standpoint. I know Denny Hamlin is winning at Joe Gibbs Racing, but do you feel like it's affecting them off the racetrack? I think it's certainly in the back of their minds.

As many times as you can tell employees that, hey, you're going to be taking care of, you're going be taken care of. If they know that your revenues are going to be less than what you would expect them to be, it's going to make them wonder. You know, Bubba Wallace isn't signed yet for next year. And, you know, while you would think he wants to stay at 2311, if they don't have charters, you know, what should he look somewhere else? So I think it just adds an unnecessary distraction and it certainly I think can impact a driver. It can impact an organization as a whole. Now, as far as their sponsors, they seem to feel confident that they can keep their sponsors. But again, if there's a chance you can miss the Daytona 500, I wouldn't want to be the one

making that call to the sponsor trying to explain that one. Bob, this has been such a deeply layered case. Obviously, we've been covering this for months now. How do you think this could change the charter system going forward or do you think that it will? I mean, it could. Look, NASCAR has said they'd be willing to just get rid of the charter system. You know, they felt like they did the teams, you know, I don't say a favor, but they felt like they worked with the teams to put the charter system in place to give them more guaranteed revenue so that they could go out and get more sponsors so they could get more investors. and they view this challenge as a challenge to their entire system, as a challenge to maybe some of their goodwill efforts to work with the teams, and they be willing to walk away from the charter system.

Now, do I think that'll happen? No, but that's something that they've put on the table. And certainly that is something that could impact all the teams, not just 2311 in front row. So it's all about, this thing is all about money, right, Bob? It's always, it's always about money. So what happened, if the teams have to go non-chartered racing, right? We know that the money is different for that.

And then they win the case later. Do they then get the money back later? Is it going like escrow? Like does it go in the ether? Well, that's, you know, depending on whichever side wins the case, you would expect there to be some monetary damages. You know, if 23-11 in front row win and they've raced as open teams, you would think NASCAR would owe them some funds.

If NASCAR wins, could they ask for some funds back from 2311 in front row? That's certainly possible. But right now, you know, when you get to either later this month or next month, when those teams are expected to have to be open teams, we haven't heard yet from NASCAR what they're going to do with the money, where they will put in escrow, whether they'll start distributing some of it to the other teams or not. When we talk about all this, it's really intriguing to me because, Bob, you keep referring to front row.

Everybody else just talks about 2311. How do you feel like this, the front row piece of it? I feel like they're almost tagging along and aren't even really a part of the decisions. How do you see that working with this whole process? Because everybody just refers to 2311 unless they're really ingrained to it. it into it like you are. Right, because I look, 2311, Michael Jordan, you feel like that they're the ones kind of leading the charge here. And I think for all intents and purposes, they are. But front row owner, Bob Jenkins, you know, he's a, he's a restaurant owner. He has lots of

businesses. And I think he just feels like that he has invested so much money in the sport, right? I would estimate that he has put in, you know, it has put an eight figure, mid eight figure investment in the sport since he started into his teams. His teams typically are in the, they're not making money, right, during many of their seasons. So I think he just felt like he wanted maybe a little bit better deal. I think maybe just the way the negotiations went kind of potentially rub them the wrong way. they feel like that, you know, for somebody who has invested in the sport as much and for as long as they have to kind of just get to where they are now, that they felt like they wanted something

a little better than what they saw in the charter agreement. So where are the rest of the teams in this? You know, I felt like Brad Kesselowskys. Yeah, but they are, they are Switzerland, but I thought that Brad's comments in the media center this week, this weekend were somewhat intriguing when he answered that question? I get the feeling that, yeah, some of the other teams are involved but want to be Switzerland. Well, exactly, because in the district court judge,

the judge who preside over the trial, has asked both 2311 front row and NASCAR to explain to him why the other team shouldn't be parties in this case, because all the decisions in this case could heavily impact the race teams. Now, the race team alliance has filed has put in the court filings that the teams do not want to be part of this. They don't feel they should be part of it,

partly because the charter agreement requires that if there's a dispute that go to arbitration and not be in the legal system. But the other big thing, Kevin, is that NASCAR is asking, is subpoenaing the teams for some financial information so that they can have that info at trial. And the teams certainly don't want to open up their finances. to NASCAR. And I would think that if NASCAR goes to court to compel the teams to give them that information, that could push them a little bit more over to the 2311 and front row side.

Okay, so what is the next step? What happens here? Because you obviously have been following this for quite some time. What can we expect now? I think you can expect by the end of next week for the teams to ask for the entire appeals court to hear it. It was initially, It's initially heard by a three-judge panel. It could be heard by all the judges, typically. When you lose a decision three to zero, you don't get all the judges really wanting to hear it, but sometimes in a high-profile case, they will. And then the vacating of the injunction, that goes into effect seven days after that decision

of whether the appeals court to hear it or if they do hear it. than after they make their ruling, it goes into effect. So you're talking at least another couple of weeks before we know if they're open teams. And there's also another hearing on June 17th, where the teams and NASCAR will be back in district court talking about whether the other team should be involved and some other issues in the case. Okay, we'll continue to follow this story and see what June 17th will bring. Bob, thank you so much for your insight and expertise. We appreciate you. us here on Happy Hour today. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Bob. Always good to have Bobby P. on the show. It's nice to have him be a part of it. Brother Bob. Love Bob. Appreciate all his efforts. Okay, speaking to efforts and someone who doesn't put in much, it's time. Oh, wow. I love it today.

I'm not going to be the referee here in a minute. I love you, but, yes. It's time for the social steps, which Mamba has already clarified as the fan's actual favorite, according to the Michigan crew. Yeah, the folks in Michigan said it was their favorite. Yeah. The HD5 group, they said that's who it is. And shout out to them because they really got me going on breakfast.

Breakfast. Breakfast? Yeah, race morning, I was struggling because I traveled from Daytona. Okay. And I didn't land until 2 a.m. They provided breakfast? Yeah, my people, Timmy Horvath. You've got people.

My people. The mayor of Berlin. There's only one place to eat breakfast in Michigan. Where? Pappas. Where's that? It's right in town. Okay.

Well, I didn't make it that far. Well, if you haven't been to Pappas, you haven't been experiencing Michigan. Well, then next time we go. Next time you go, then you got to take me. Then when am I going to go to Michigan? Stop it. This is my segment. The people want to hear from me, not from you.

This is mom and social tips. Let's get this thing going, okay? Listen, last week, so the way our show works, we're out early. And then everyone else's show kind of comes out later. And you see clips and it's, oh, dang, I wish we could have talked about that in our show. Well, that happened with Denny. Denny stumbled over an interesting word. He was trying to describe another driver.

That's from the tip. I didn't see that he Ricked Recky It was at this moment that he knew He fucked up I said that wrong Ricked Recky Rick's Recky

I don't know how you I mean Recky's Pennhouse Yeah You can't really come There's no coming back from that right That's clear that that is The way they refer to him

Well I think he just misspoke right there Oh you're a nice guy I do Yeah I think he misspoke Aren't they friends, though? It was funny, though.

It was hilarious. They were friends, I thought. And also, I don't know how people can call Ricky anything like that. He's a two-time experience champion, a Daytona 500 champion. We need to be done with that moniker. Anyway. Easy, Denny. You get those words slippage in there.

Denny fell out of a seed after that. Filled out. Filled out after that. Is that what we were calling? Word salad. Word salad. Yeah. There you go.

This week, Red Bull and Connor Zillich, they had a big shoot. I think it was over. I don't know, it was overseas somewhere, and it was on this massive airfield. They were doing donuts with all the different cars they had. Connor and Max Verstappen had a little chat on the tape. What's up, man? How are you? Good to see you.

I think so. You want to get in? Good to see you, man. Love to do it. There's a hot rumor that he's going to quit at the end of the year. What? Really? Really?

Yeah. For what reasoning? Yeah, probably because he can't decide what to do with all his money. Yeah, when you're making about $70 million a year, it's kind of tough. Do you think that he would ever come over with us rednecks over here in race? I don't know. I mean, it's so strange because of, you know, listening to some of the comments and things that he would react to and all the best driver in the world comments would get thrown at him.

and things like that. I mean, he's gotten pretty polished at the whole political side of how to answer things. So I don't know. I mean, we've seen him run some of the other little races that he's done in the past.

Yeah. So I think that if he's not doing F1, I think it becomes a lot easier to open those doors. And with Red Bull involved, I would say that that door for that to happen is probably way more open with Project 91 than it ever has.

It's definitely propped open. Yeah, he said that he wants to race till 2028, which is in F1 for sure. So that's not that far from now. Yeah. And he's young. And if he, I mean, I'd love to see it. I would do. Because we could put all their conversations to rest.

And the collision between NASCAR and F1 would be very cool. Would be must-see TV. We're going to stay over across the pond. NASCAR Euro Series was racing this weekend. Yeah. I love that group. They're just a bunch of a hard. nose racers. Canada and Brazil

and Mexico, they're all like that. They're all like grassroots and they're trying to grind their way up like car store people. I love that. And so Thomas Dumbrowski. Dumbrowski. Dumbrowski. I think I got it right. He wrecks hard and he flips. This car yard sales. There's a video

of his in-car and more pictures of it. And they work, guys, 11 hours straight through the night to get this car back on track. And I just think that's really cool in a testament to, you know, how much people, yeah. Look at this.

That thing is, that thing is going for a ride. No, a ride. 11 hours, you said. And they race that car. And they race the same car. How did it do? I'm not sure, but the fact that it ran at all is good enough. They were in the race.

Look at it. They made it back. Yeah, so that's really cool. A for effort. Definitely A for effort. And you didn't make a word sale out of his name. A word what? Word salad.

Oh, yeah. No, I didn't. It didn't do that. It's okay. If you had made another one, I would have suggested you run for vice president.

Golly. Moving on, if you want to leave a voicemail, do it at 805, 3174-1-175, and obviously Harvard Happy Hour 4

for the mailbag at gmail.com. Don't forget. There's America's favorite segment in the books. Well, let's not go that far. Listen, if you're hearing it, that means people are saying it.

That's true. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well done, Mamba. Thanks. Great job. 33rd birthday. You nailed it.

It's your birthday, so it can't be too mean. Yeah, exactly. Oh, well, don't worry. It'll come around. Yeah. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. In New York, call 8778-8, Hope N-Y or text Hope N-Y, 467-367-3-6-9. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.

Call 8-88-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort, Kansas, 21-plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gambling resources, c dkng. dot CO slash audio. NASCAR is not responsible for this promotion and used under license. Okay, Kevin, before we get into our picks for this week on in Mexico City,

let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend, courtesy of Draft King. Yeah, Denny Hamlin, plus 550 last week. So. Not bad. Middle of the road. Not like a super big upset, I guess you could say. Yeah. You know what I want to see Draft Kings do? I think it would be really cool if they could, if you could pick a crew chief, a driver,

and then pick crew members and do like a fantasy draft, that'd be fire. Hmm. What would the, how would you rank the crew chief? Off a strategy. How good is this strategy? I don't know that you could do that. We could figure it out. I know that. I'd like to see this show have Draft Kings come up with a fantasy league where the fans could play against us. There you go. That'd be cool. Everybody just in one big league. I like that idea. What do you think? I'm sure we can do that happen. I'm here for it. You'd still suck. That's what I think.

Yeah. But anyway, you can take the checkered flag with Draft King's Sportsbook. Download the Draft King's Sportsbook. Download the draft king's sports book. app and use code harvick. That's code harvick for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins, when you bet just five bucks, only on draft kings, the crown is yours. There you have it. Crown was Denny Hamlins over the weekend in Michigan. So he did a burnout. I think he ran out of gas. But what do we think of this one here for the 11? You know, a little below average. Below average. Yeah, honestly. And not. Not a lot of smoke.

Just straight. But they can't all be good. And sometimes it just depends on how the tires burn. Now his banter with the crowd is always good. This is true. Yeah. Burn out. He does a little extra theatrical.

It didn't make me want to say Yahoo. I want to throw my glasses at you so bad. Why? Because you're a dad joke. That's such a dad joke. I love it. My dad would say something like that. This week was interesting because he did get a lot of cheers.

Yeah, he did. So he got booed at driver intros. He got cheers when he got out. And then he did the OHIO thing. And that just really sent everyone through the roof. Then they booed him. Yeah, so he had them again and then ran them off. Yeah.

The fans can't decide where they stand on Denny Hamelin. That's okay. They love to hate them. And that's a good thing. We need that guy. Yeah. We have a couple of them. Yes.

Yes, we do. For sure. All right. The point stands. Mannings continue to not have much movement. Kevin is still the lead dog in the house. But what happened? You've made up a little ground to me, which totally blows.

Because I had William Byron, which I thought I was poised to actually pick up some decent points. Yeah, you thought you were going to win. I thought I was going to win, but didn't. You had Lugano and you had priest. So who got points this week? Well, you did. Oh, I got points this week. Because you're now at 36.

You must not got many. Nope, but I got some. Listen, America, this is the thing about this points deal, okay? I told him when we bet on the same guy about a month or two back, it was going to change some of my luck. We've been on it. Chipping away.

We're chipping away. As they say, okay. I just need a couple wins here. Well, this is going to be interesting because we don't really know who could win this weekend, but we're going to give an attempt at a guess. I guess I'll go first on this one.

Oh, yeah. Go ahead. I'm going to go with AJ Allmendinger. Oh, my God. That could be a issue. What? That is a big surprise. What do you mean?

mean? I thought you'd take the favorite. Who's the favorite? SvG. Is that who you're taking? Yeah. Okay. Who are you going to take? Well, I was going to take AJ. That's fine. Wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, go ahead. No, that's not. No, no, no. I'd prefer you staying last anyway. Nope. You know what?

Because I just feel like there's some magic in the air. Oh. And he needs it anyway. Magic can. I'm going with a hometown boy. Just give me Daniel's swore. Okay. Why not? Home cooking. Home cooking. He goes for the good story. I don't think that's a bad choice. I mean, if it's If his car is up to snuff this week, I mean, he's capable of putting up a good show,

a good fight for it on a road course. Listen, Ross, Ross is a turning to a good little road raceer. SVG is there. Connor is there like they have... You guys think mine's a bad choice? No. He's the winningest driver in NASCAR history on roadcourses. Who's the, if we had to pick a fourth, who's the upset?

Who's the upset this week? I... Kyle Larson. Well, that's not a good. I want to say Chase Elliott, but I also... He used to be on them. I think it's... I think it's...

Um, upset would be a... Chase Briscoe. Chase Briscoll. Oh, yeah? Sleeper. Yeah. Sleeper. Yeah.

I'll write that down as well, just in case we can get a bonus point or something. Yeah. Oh, wow, thanks. You're gonna need them. Bonus. Just wait till I start winning. You...

The only reason why you're in front is because you had a stretch where you won like four or five weeks. The only reason you're in front is because you won. Well, that is what I said. Yeah. I'm being asked to confirm. Great argument. That's the whole point. Are you, are you, huh?

I'm being asked to confirm you are picking SVG. Yeah. That is his selection. That's my confirmation. Shane van Gisbergen is the guy. Shane Van Gisbogan. It's hard to say that on stage. All right.

Well, guys, this has been really fun. And I know you have more fun in store on Thursday. Who's your guest? My guest is Ron Hornaday Jr. I thought it would be fun to bring Hornaday on and tell some of those old stories and should be a fun time to listen. Yeah. That'll be really cool. Yeah.

I'm upset that I wasn't here for that to bring my Ron Hornaday Jr. DiCast. Which one do you have? The 16 Napa truck. Oh, you got the OG one. That's cool. That's cool.

So I need to get him to sign that for me. Don't miss that on Thursday. Kevin and Ron Hornaday Jr. Thanks so much for joining us here on this episode of Happy Hour. We encourage all the closers to keep subscribing on YouTube. Wherever you get your podcast,

leave us a review, leave five stars as well. We always appreciate it. Safe travels to Mexico. Good luck. Don't forget the pesos. We'll see you all after Mexico City.