Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Pit Stop: Kevin Harvick reacts to Kyle Larson beating Chris Buescher in closest finish in NASCAR history!

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Join NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick alongside friends and analysts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith on the latest episode of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” presented by NASCAR on FOX as Kevin reacts to Kyle Larson making history at Kansas by beating Chris Buescher in the closest finish NASCAR has ever seen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, let's talk about the race because this was one of the best races and finishes we've ever seen. It's pretty cool that we were able to witness history and the closest finish ever. What was going through your mind and what did you think when you saw it? Well, it was originally we called it as Chris Buescher winning race because that's what the timing and scoring showed. But it showed 0.000 as the increment. And so we were just talking about an exciting finish. and then we started to show the emotion of the 17 pit box, and then we showed Cliff Daniels reaction,

and all of a sudden his reaction changed, and he was the winner of the race, and everything just, you know, kind of got crazy there at the end of the race. But what a finish to the end of this race. And, you know, you see Kyle Arson just get up on the outside of Chris Busher there and just never even thought about doing something different. You see him banging fenders right here, and at that point I'm like, oh, my gosh, they're going to wreck,

and Chase Elliott or Martin Shrewx is going to win this race, but four cars 0.008 apart, winners, 0.001 apart. And, you know, obviously we see the picture there of the start finish line. But for those of you wondering, that's not actually how the race is officiated.

There's actually a camera with an actually perfectly straight line through it that shows the noses of the car. And those pictures are, that's like a thousand pictures. Yeah, it's like 1. It's like 1,000 frames a second. It's 6,000 to 8,000.

Yeah, so that one frame is, is, there's a lot happening right there. But the start finish line has absolutely nothing to do with it in those circumstances. There's actually a camera that's set up with a line drawn on it to show who the winner is. Thank you for clarifying that. There's been a lot of back and forth about that. What did you think, though, just seeing this finish unfolding? Yeah, it was great, right? We got to enjoy some real hard racing, different lines, different strategy,

like watching the racetrack. A lot of passing was going on. There you go. And especially at the end when we saw Kyle Larson around the top. Yeah, and I think that, and we spoke about this on here, we spoke about it on the broadcast, that racetrack, for whatever reason, has aged into being a very racy racetrack. And I saw Rodney Childers posted a picture of the front of their car being all sandblasted today. And he's like, maybe this asphalt and all these rocks hit in front of these race cars has something to do with it.

I'd say you're right, sir. It does have something to do with it. But this racetrack with the progressive banking and the way that the surface is worn out, I thought Goodyear's tire this weekend was pretty spot on. They changed the right side tire to what they had at Texas and somewhere else. But it wore out at the end of those runs. And you see the right front tires cording, the right rear tires cording. the right rear tires courting.

So we saw Kyle Busch been out at the end of the race. We saw Kyle Arson's car just shut off at one point. So really made the handling and a lot of things that were going on with the tire wear come into play. And the racetrack itself was awesome. And for whatever reason, this racetrack has just aged differently than everywhere else. I think I wish people would understand that, that like winning the race itself, it takes all the pieces to make a really good race. for your one team.

It also takes all the pieces to put on a good race, right? Like, the racetrack needs to be in the right situation. The tire needs to be right. The car... Like, all the pieces to give us a great product. It takes a lot of things.

It's just not a switch. So there's a lot of effort going in to make these races good. I think when you look back at that whole scenario, though, I kind of feel bad for Martin Truex because I really felt like Martin Truex was going to win that race

with, you know, a handful of life. laps to go with the way that Denny was having to save fuel and Busher was, he was already by Chris Busher. So the way that Denny, he had run him down like a second in one lap, a little over a second, the lap before the caution came out. I thought Martin Truex was probably going to win the race. And then the caution came out when Kyle Bush spun out. So we saw Denny take two tires. Apparently, that's vegetables. Vegetable. And their code world world, world. You don't like the code words, right? Or you did it?

world. I think I heard you say that. You never liked using them. The one time we used code words, you got confused. You got to tell me to uncover the code words. So they were yelling vegetable with me on the radio. I'm like, what in the hell are they talking? Vegetable. They're like, oh, you got uncover your words, uncover your words. And then they got frustrated and the pit crew didn't know. So they were calling for two tires and the pick crew's changing four tires. Oh, gee. That was the last time that was the first and only time that we used code words. Okay. There's a lot of teams. the use them though. It's kind of entertaining how they come up with it.

I think it's kind of like air blocking, right? Hey, air blocking. No, no, seriously. They learn. Okay. And I think that the strategy of the code words and making sure that nobody knows your strategy and having your own scenario only known by your team, they just evolved. The teams get smarter. They get more efficient. They do things differently. But when you go back to the race and you look at that caution and the two-tire strategy, Martin Truex was the first guy on four tires. He fired off 10th.

finished fourth right there. So two tires was definitely the strategy to win the race with no caution or anything there. But it got mixed up right off the back. Kyle Larson knew he had to mix things up right off the bat and he put, put Deney three wide. And that kind of started the cycle of all the passing and putting themselves in position. I felt like, and this is easy to do on Tuesday morning. Yeah. It's easy to go back and say, hey, he did something wrong. But I felt like leaving the top open for Larson and Busser going into the corner in the middle of the straightaway into turn three, I just feel like that if you're going to give up the right rear, you're going to put yourself in a position to where you can't really defend yourself. So I felt like he needed to be

against, at least take away that top lane and let Larson try to slide him in there and then drive back underneath him. But that's a lot going into that last cycle of what's right and what's wrong. but Kyle Larson was going wherever Chris Bisher was not. Right. And then the difference between whether that was right or wrong is an increment that I can't even show. Yeah. Well, it's kind of a guessing game. We talk about Kansas and we talk about that whole scenario of the guessing game,

the cat and mouse game going into the corner to try to put yourself in position to Airblock and keep the guy behind you behind you. But in that last lap scenario, Larson's going wherever you're not. If he had went one lane higher, Larson's either going to slide him into the door he's going to slide in front of him and try to check him up. So it's just a, it's going to be the same game. It's just going to be a different, different strategy for Kyle as to what he does. We got to give it to our guy because he called the winner.

You said Kyle Larson. Do you remember that? That was your pick. Yeah, well done by Kevin. And I want to talk about, of course you did. Do you remember who he picked? I had it written down. Who did you pick?

I picked, uh, chest name. Nobody else. Of William Byron and I went to Rudy and I said, hey, I'm really sorry about qualifying. He's like, what do you mean? And I said, I picked you guys on the podcast and you didn't even make it big ball. Maybe you did change people. I think that's a great transition into mistakes, right? We get done with practice in 24's, you know, he's one of the, he's either first or second best car.

And, you know, that mistake is just, he just drove it in the fence trying to get too much. And I think that's where some of these guys get themselves in trouble by thinking that they have to get that pole. You know, today I got to be aggressive. Kansas puts them in a position to where they have to be super aggressive up top to, you know, hold the throttle down and not touch the brake. And you got to run that top lane. But, man, you can't crash the car. You cannot crash the car because they went from, seventh or eighth would have been better than sitting in a garage having to repair your car. 36.

Coming from the back of the field. So those are the, you can't make a mistake like that in qualifying when you've got a car like that. And William Byron just, he never recovered. I think he got to 10th one time. maybe just, maybe just inside the top 10, but he never, he never recovered from the qualifying mistake. Hey, race fans, thanks for watching our video for all NASCAR on Fox News, content, and the best clips from Fox Sports.

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