Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Ryan Blaney wins Inaugural Cup race at Iowa, Kevin’s retirement begins, Kyle Busch's uncertain future, Martin Truex Jr. announces retirement, and more!

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

On Episode 35 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick joins co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith for an insightful post-Iowa race analysis! In this episode, Kevin shares his thoughts on his first week of retirement after wrapping up his broadcasting duties for the year. Get ready as the trio dives deep into the thrilling world of NASCAR, starting with Ryan Blaney's impressive victory at Iowa Speedway. Witness history being made as Blaney becomes the first driver to conquer the Xfinity, Truck, and Cup races at Iowa. But that's not all! Discover the ups and downs of Kyle Busch's luck as he faces yet another setback during the Iowa race, hitting the wall and dealing with a flat tire. The trio also explores Martin Truex Jr.'s recent announcement of his retirement plans after the 2024 season. Don’t miss this action-packed episode, brimming with expert analysis and all the thrilling moments you crave from the world of NASCAR! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now the door's open. The door has been blown completely wide open as to what all this means for Kyle Bush and RCR. And, you know, is he peeking over his shoulder looking to go somewhere else? But I don't, I personally don't see a scenario where he goes back to Hendrick Orgibs. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vincy, and he's useless. Mama Smith.

But he set himself up for that, he set himself up for that pre-show. So we're just going to go right off the bat. I've been home all weekend. These two have been working. And I'm full of energy and ready to go. I love it. But I'm glad that he's full of energy. That's a good thing because we both like are pretty tired, right?

Yeah. This makeup is covering a lot of, a lot of useless face right now. Useless face. Yeah. It was a long. He did great. A driver intros by the way.

He did. See it first. I was on stage with him. Really? I got to introduce him. Yeah. We're just appearing everywhere together now. We even plug the pod.

I'm part time. We did plug the pod on stage for the fans. Wow. They're excited. I love it. Yeah. You are part time. Well, you guys, you guys do a great job.

I'm glad you guys are still at the track and in there digging. I spent 20 some years. Yeah. Grinding away every week. I think they said it was the, it was the first time that I hadn't been at the, at the racetrack in, gosh, I don't know, 20 some years. That's pretty hot. It was really hot actually out there in Iowa. So I was not ready for, I was not ready for that.

Yeah. The travel back was wild. travel back was wild travel back was wild my plane SHR they gave me a ride home thank you very much SHR and then the plane out of malfunctioned so we had to jump on to

the victory flight you'll have that that's always fun it's fun well at least you made it home I know me too I was like sprinting from baggage claimed I swear Charlotte is the worst airport I know people say that but it really is terrible like they take forever to get the bags it's all under

construction they have not made it any more functional since they updated it. And I guess I'm spoiled because we go all the time and just check our bags. And most the time we don't, but when we do have bags, but most of the time we don't check our bags. So we have just a carry on. So did you pack a lot of luggage? I did pack a lot of luggage. And they also busted a container of self-tanner. So as I'm pulling my bag to the airport, it was leaking. It almost looked red. I'm like, I swear there's not a dead body in that. Oh my God. That's awful. Yeah, I'm pretty annoyed.

Do you have self-tanner as well? No, I don't need. I've never needed self-tanner or sunscreen. I'll show you my legs. I'll prove to you that I've never had self-tanner. Well, I don't have any anymore either. My wife told me the other day, she's like, oh, my God. When was the last time your feet have actually been in the sun?

You have a pool? I did. I did. We sat outside by the pool yesterday. That's what we did yesterday. We drove home from Dominion, got home, and my kids were, they were so happy because I got to swim in the swimming pool with them. So they were pretty pumped up.

Not something that we normally do on a Sunday. So that was very interesting. We're going to talk about your first weekend, not at the racetrack. But we encourage everyone to keep following us, of course, and subscribing on YouTube and liking the podcast. We've been so happy to have so many closers support over how many months it's been. Yeah, closers. It's been great.

We don't have Word of the Week anymore. I know. That's sad. Which is a bummer. It is a bummer. But you guys keep engaging. I got an idea. Oh, you got an idea.

Oh, Kevin has an idea. I learned that this weekend. You know, we should come up with a new word. Oh. And we have to use it in a sentence on Twitter. Okay. Or social media. On the social?

And I can describe something at some point. It seemed like people, there's a lot of people on social media during the races. I had no idea. You didn't know. You had no idea. Apparently everybody's pretty interactive during the races. We got to come up with something. Maybe that's not the best thing to do.

But we can come up with some sort of. do a new variation. Social media interaction. I like that. Some way, shape, or form. So they also, they also made mention, uh, of maybe doing a little watch party. We might, we might get to figure something like that. Everyone go over to the Harvick, the Harvick household and, wait a minute.

I don't know if he wants us all there. I don't care. He has good food and good wine. So you're saying that you guys would come over to the house. Yeah. And we would do it. Oh, that would be fun. That would be fun, actually.

Why not? Did you just come up? Is there ever a weekend that you guys don't go to the racetrack? Yeah, I'm not at Pocino. Oh. you're not. Yeah. Me neither. You're not going to Pokemon either. How many weeks is that? When is that on the schedule? My schedule ended so I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's a few weeks from now. It's like three weeks away. Maybe four because we've got. Yeah, it's after Chicago. Well, we have to get creative, which I'm not very good at.

So you guys. We're here to hell. That's what we're here for. Yeah. We got a good show on tap guys, though. I will recap. We'll talk a little MTVJ retirement officially. He listened to you. He gave his announcement. Thank you. Mama's social sips. Uh, but first we want to do a little. tribute to NASCAR Race Hub just last week. We had our final show 15 years. The show had been on the air. I'd been on it for 13. It was a great show. I said in the final one that I was really proud of the storytelling that we did on there for a long time because it wasn't just in depth with drivers and crew chiefs. It was road crew and pick crew and industry personnel and any breaking news. We always had the story. And there was just a lot of different features and things we did on that show over the

years and the production team, I mean, doing a daily show is really hard. And they work sometimes around the clock, especially the marquee events like Daytona and stuff. They're here almost overnight working on pieces and making sure everything was ready for the studio shows. So really proud of the work we put in. It's sad to see it go. But it was awesome. I think for me, one of the things I appreciate looking back on it was the way the studio changed. Yeah, like, like Jimmy. Yeah, like where Jimmy was and like basically, That was as a kid, that was like one of my favorite parts because he was the first like brash guy. Like he did not care.

Oh, yeah. He talked so much shit about everybody and then he'd have to deal with it on the race. It was so great. I missed Jimmy Spencer. Yeah. And I walked into the studio and there were so many people here for the last show. And we did a, did a few segments. But I got to see Jimmy Spencer and Hermie Sadler and so many of the people that had been around.

And I guess for for myself, I didn't really realize. that Adam had been there since the beginning. Yeah, he was there for the original show. And then, yeah, there was a number of people who were on it almost the whole 15 years. I didn't realize that he had hair. I didn't realize that he had hair. I didn't realize I was the same guy because he had hair. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yes. We've all physically changed over the years. Yeah. So my hair's gotten a lot thinner too. So I'm not going to say that I'm not totally ripping on Adam. But, you know, I think I think that the biggest thing was just seeing everybody together for that one final time.

because everybody put so much time and effort into Hub and the fans depended on Hub to get their news and the things that that happened. So interesting landscape. Things change. Things progress and move on and we'll see how it all moves forward. So we better make sure we do a good job. That's right. Here on Happy Hour, you mean? That's right.

Yeah, we've got it covered. It's us and Bob. We're doing things. We know if we have to dig up information, Bob Hawkers is digging up the information. I saw him at the track this weekend. He was in the trenches doing his normal deal. Good. So he is still very much on it, Mr. Bob Pockris.

But you, however, were at home, deservedly so. First official weekend of retirement, if you will. How was it? It was strange. It was strange. I sat in a chair and watched the race. And that for me was very, I don't even know how to describe it. It was eye-opening.

I guess would be the best way to put it because we spent the morning driving back from Dominion. So we had to drive five hours home from the racetrack. So we got home about 1.30 in the afternoon. And when kids were like, let's go swimming. Let's do this. But I'm like, hold on. I had to write my Brad Keselowski questions for the week. We have Brad in chair this week doing the interview with him, you know, as part of the Thursday show.

So that'll be, that'll be great. So I wrote, I said, new routine this week, guys. Got to write my questions, get ready for the show on Sunday. Sunday and then we can do what you guys want to do. So we spent the latter part of the afternoon and evening in the swimming pool, which was always entertaining and fun. And then I sat and watched the race and learned that it was awkward at first, but I figured I could get used to it and understand that there is a new routine and

new way to go about it. But I'm a race fan too. So I like watching the races. I realize that I don't want to watch races with my wife. Why is that? Well, my wife is brutal. Like she is just brutal, whether it's the competitors or the broadcasters.

And she's like just totally opinionated on pretty much everything that happens. And I was kind of set back because she was, it wasn't like we were saying, oh, you know, I think this was good. Maybe not so good. It was like, oh, that sucked. That was stupid. What an idiot.

And I'm like, man, you are just really on. She's like, I don't have time to think about what I'm going to say. It just is what it is. So if you don't want to watch it with me, go somewhere else. And she finally left and went and watched some Netflix show. So I think I wore her down by the time we got to the second half of the race. A lot of strong opinion. Yeah.

She's been watching racing. Her whole life. Yeah, the whole time. She's been watching from that lens for so long. So I think it's interesting now that. So imagine what was being said when you were in the car. And whether you were doing well or not, I guarantee. Every time I got home, it was going to go two ways.

The first question was going to be, why did you do this at this point? Why didn't you pit? Why didn't you go on this restart? Whatever the scenario was. It would either be that question or it would be, where'd you finish? What do you mean? Where did I finish? Well, I didn't have time to watch the race today.

We were doing this, this and this. Or they were traveling with Keelan. She'd be like, I didn't watch the race today. How did you do? how did it go? And I'd have to explain to her what happened. So those were usually two different conversations because usually I wasn't over the day yet when she would ask, why'd you do this? Why did you do that? And it always ended in a unique conversation. Or it would be, I can't believe you didn't watch. She's like, I don't have time to watch. And that was a much easier

conversation to actually have. So. I could see where that would be the case. But it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, a lot of work leading into the, to the Fox half of the season to get everything situated and get back. So it was like I'd never really had any time off. Because even though I wasn't driving, it was still a lot of work to go to the booth and do all the things that we had to do to be into it every week. And so now it's a much more relaxed atmosphere. So I think I can get used to it. It looked relaxed. We saw the tweets you guys are posting with the red wine.

Was that your wine? That was the first. Okay. I was wondering. I was like, I wonder if that's his. You can tell by the poor. It was a very healthy poor. Yeah.

I want to have wine with her. Yeah. We had dinner a few weeks ago. And we all had. Some wine. She has a good, good taste of wine. And my parents made you guys a nice cheesecake. Oh, they promised from dinner. Remember that my dad's right? I'm a drink. So it's in the, it's really sweet.

Well, I appreciate that. That'll, that'll be, that'll be, do I get to critique it? Yeah, yeah. Because I don't eat cheesecake. No, he'll make it, he'll adjust it for you. I got you. I got sure. I get the feeling that he can pretty much adjust it to whatever I'd like. Yeah, he's a chef. He's a chef. He's good at that. He's chef. Please tell me you saw NASCAR chasm's tweet of you. I did not. Oh, no. Did you? No, I didn't see it.

When he said, made some remark like, hey, you can pee in that seat too if you want. He is the king of NASCAR satire. I have, I have never been able to pee in the seat. Oh, there you can. Ever. I don't think I could relax enough to do that. I could never, ever once peed on myself. I know all of them, for the most part, I mean, there's a lot of guys that just let it go.

I love the hard hitting question here. We just learned that about you because that's, oh, always people wonder about that. Listen, when I was the, when I did it most commonly asked question. When I did interior, like, if you don't tell your interior guy that you did that before you, before he pulls on. Wait a second. Have you pulled an interior out that had been peed in? No.

I don't think so. You don't think so? Are you protecting someone? A lot of the guy, a lot, like, most of our drivers are like ARCA drivers and so, so they're younger. So they probably wouldn't tell me if they did. I got you. You know what I mean? Because I would roast them if they did.

There's a kid that races legend cars. His brother's an open wheel racer. and just lets it rip. Let's it rip. Just let it go. That's fun for the team. He's just like, I thought I was supposed to do that. And back in the day, Robbie Gordon used to wear a catheter.

Yeah. And it had a hose that would go out of the, out of the suit into the, into a hole, into the floorboard, now at the bottom of the car. See you. Yeah. That's impressive. You need a caution. You just take a leak.

Yeah. There might have been, there might have been a story. I was not there, but there is a story that there might have been. might have been a time when it fell out into the NASCAR hauler floor while he was in a meeting up there. No way. That's that's that a hearsay. That's a hearsay story. That's a good story if it isn't.

Yeah. I feel like Robbie Gordon has some good stories. Oh, man. I guarantee you Robbie Gordon has some good stories for sure. Well, we're going to move on from the urinating. You never know where this show is going to go. Yeah. Yeah, we're good smooth coverage.

Look out. I'm sorry. I can't get a straight face. All right. Let's talk about the race weekend. I want to just first start tree tops with Iowa because there was a lot of, you know, excitement and anticipation leading up to this because it was the first cup race there ever. And we were out there and we experienced it.

But I feel like they did a heck of a job putting on this event. Yeah. Well, I mean, it would be more like corn crops, top of the corn crops. There were no trees in sight. That's for sure. Oh, yes, true. I'm just giving me grief. But from a visual and just listening and watching on social media, I was pretty sure that Iowa was going to be a great event just because of the fan participation, first event there for the cup cars and everything that they have done there in the past.

I'd never been to a race at Iowa Speedway that wasn't sold out, whether it was an Xfinity race or a west to east race or whatever that was. it was the place was always packed. I don't know how it's been, you know, in between the times that I went to now, but always good to see a racetrack pack like that. Getting into the Midwest into a different region always opens up the, you know, the enthusiasm for new fans or existing NASCAR fans to be able to get to the racetrack. And when you do that, that also allows, um, that allows the sponsors to have enthusiasm. I saw the Bush light car, you know, it had a corn scheme on the car, but you see heavy activating around the racetrack as they've done with with indy cars so brings new sponsors new people and that is always good because it makes a race that is easy to sell from the marketing

department for sure yeah it was it was awesome shout out to everyone in iowa you guys came out and drones appreciate that uh you earn that race they deserve it to kevin's point like people been going out there for a long time to watch racing and so to have a cup race after 20 years of that place being, you know, basically being functioning. They deserved it. A couple of things about it that I really loved. The high V thing, high V activating and putting up the suites in a way that they do for the IndyCar.

I think that was huge. It looked great. The backstretch, when there's no grandstands and you can park your camper and sit around from the backstretch in the turn three and four. That's like old school. They got to watch our rehearsal. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we were rehearsed on the backstress. Bursing in the morning. Good morning. everybody. How's that everybody doing? Just yelling at him. Chief of hype over here. Chief of hype.

He was doing good. Even at, yeah. It was early. But I think that's true, like, that's us, that's NASCAR,

pointing your camper up, being in every camp out, watched the race right there. And then, you know, hats off to everybody at NASCAR because it's the same group that puts on the show

week to week that had to go out and get that track prepared. So all in all around the whole thing, it was great. Loved it. Here's my one B from sitting at home. Here we go.

Race started too late. I'll give you that. Didn't really know where the USA network was. Is that your fault, though? I mean, my TV didn't pick it up for me. So I have YouTube TV. And I was like, USA.

Are you going to recognize that the race is on USA? And then I saw I had to go find the channel. Usually just pops up everything that you watch. Apparently, we don't watch much USA network in our house. So maybe next week, it'll pick it up for me unless it disappears the peacock. You know, USA, you can, you know, on YouTube TV, you can kind of set it and it'll remind you. I know.

Okay. And so maybe I watched it this week. So it'll, it'll pop up. Yeah. Maybe. Whatever you need pops. I don't know. But I don't understand why.

I don't understand why we started so late. I don't know either. The Sunday night thing was a little weird. Yeah. To me, I think. It was 10.30 at night. I was, it was past my bedtime. I was going to say, he doesn't want to stay up late.

So that was probably not a favorable choice. Think about how you guys all got home. I know. It's definitely not. It's definitely not. The start time is definitely not taking into consideration anything about the teams because they all got home at two or three o'clock in the morning. I do miss the Saturday night races.

Saturday just never does good on TV. The TV ratings are just not as good on Saturday. It has to be on Sunday. And maybe they put it later for the first one to try to dip into the prime time pieces of it. But I mean, they had the U.S. Open on NBC and it ended. It ended well before the start of the race. So interesting.

But it was need to be earlier. Can we get that handled? Maybe some earlier and earlier start times please. Kevin knows exactly where the USA is. I found USA. If we go to the peacock, if these practices go to the peacock app, I'm just not sure that I'll have to. I just might have to skip practice. That's too far.

Too much. Too much. So Ryan Blaney, though, was the guy who got it done, which is really cool and you referenced it. Why you give me that look? I just, I just, but I already knew, but you said it publicly on the stage. Now he's the first driver to win a truck spinning cup race there. Oh, that's not what he's referring to. No, that's not what he's not.

That's not when he's referring to it. Oh, you're right. He's talking about how he said he would be this. Last week. Hey, who said Ricky Sennhouse was the one. She did say. I can't believe that. What a great run by those guys.

You both nailed it. I don't even remember who I picked. Exactly. You picked Deny Hamlin. Oh, I did. Yeah. He got lap two times. He, one week away from the racetrack.

and I'm just totally out of touch. I guess. You need to get back to the track. That was surprising. It was from the drop of the green. Yeah, it was terrible. He had a minus eight like halfway through the first stage of the positions. And then by the end of it, yeah, by the end of it,

Larsson was on his bumper. Yeah. They had a few situations there together. Yeah. Those two. Yeah. I was, you know, I think going back to Blaney, though, I, you know, I think those guys have been on the cusp. I mean, you look at St. Louis and some of the races that they've done.

been a part of. It's it's definitely been good performance for the for the 12 car lately from a speed standpoint. And they just hadn't capitalized on any of the days that they've been in position to to win those races. And into the race, I mean, he just dominated the end of that race. And I think really when the five car fell out, that was pretty much going to be the closest competition that he had in my opinion. You know, the situation with the five and the 99, It was, that was kind of a weird deal. And, you know, you could definitely see that the 99 come up the racetrack and kind of get into the left or quarter panel of the five and, and wrecked him.

But, you know, the five definitely shot in a hole that was, that was pretty tight. But once the five car was out, I felt like it was Blaney's race to lose at that particular point. And they just had a, they had a great weekend all around and, and were able to, to finally put themselves in Victory Lane, had his whole family there. I think they had 80 people, they kept showing them in the grandstands. And I think he was trying to figure out. out how to get them down on the racetrack.

He did a burnout. We saw Ryan Blaney burnout. It wasn't very good, but he did a burnout. And to me, him just doing a burnout, that was, I mean, other than the championship, I don't remember ever seeing him do a burnout. But if we're going to do him, buddy, we're going to have to put the pedal down a little bit harder and put on a little bit more of a show than that. He wants to take care of his equipment.

He wants to take care of his equipment. His reasoning behind that. Whatever it takes to get 12 in Victory Lane. We'll take it. Rumba was very excited. Yeah, I was pretty stoked watching the end of that. Last week we talked about it. I didn't want, my picks have been horrocious, as everyone knows.

Horrocious. Horrocious. That's a new word. Horrocious. If I pick you, you get horrendous. That's horrendous mixed with atrocious and you get a herrocious. I can make up any word I want. I know.

I've lived it all year. Yeah. I've lived it all year. But those were actual real words. Yeah. Well, it's just words that we didn't know. Exactly. Exactly.

Back to what I was about to say. Let me write this down. Yeah, Horrocious. Horrocious. I don't have a friend of the day. I said that the 12 and the 24 both needed really good days last week. You did. And they finished one, two, and they're going to turn this thing around.

Sometimes. I wonder how you would spell Horrocious. Definitely not W.H.O. Yeah. I hope when they clip this that they put like the math from the hangover, like, I don't know. That's a weird looking word. It is because it's not a word.

All right. So Brian Blaney, though, guys, yeah, that was a huge moment for him. I interviewed him for the race. And he seemed really confident because even in qualifying,

like he knew he had a good piece. And obviously he had a lot of extra added motivation with his family there. So I was parents in the airport this morning. They still seemed jacked up about the wind. Speed fixes all problems. There you go. When you have speed, it's just like Christopher Bell.

you can get over your situations that are week after week causing problems, causing issues, bad pit crews. If your car is fast as a driver, you're way more relaxed. Well, you led me right there to Bell because I wanted to give that team some credit because they were in a backup car and what a performance that was. That's the kind of team you want. If you're going to be primed for a championship, people who can get through the adversities. That was impressive.

You just never know when that adversity is going to strike. and you have to be able to do exactly what Christopher Bell and his team did. They have to be able to rebound, mentally let that go. They put in a lot of hours getting that car prepped. So I don't know if that was a lack of prep from the shop. These cars do take a long time to prep correctly, but they put the time in to make sure that that car was ready to go. So I think when you have the speed that Bell did, his car would not fire off at all.

But he had the long run speed. And they were able to work on their car because I think when everybody went back for the race, the lap times were so much faster than they were at the test. The tire test was only seven hours because it rained and they were limited on time. So I don't think they really got to run the track in like they needed to to get a real indication of where they were. But we saw a lot of right front tires have issues. And that's going to come from the camber not being right or the air pressure being too low. because we saw a lot of cars just run no problem.

And so I think there was a lot to be learned. That's the great part about these inaugural events is you just, you have so many unknowns that you don't have the answer to those questions. And it makes for an interesting race because you got the tires going down. You got guys spinning out. Only thing I wish they would have done is, is pave the whole corner evenly. It was the racing was,

the racing was better than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. To be dead honest with you. It was, it was better. they were able to race, you know, too wide. I wish we would have had the corners end evenly. That one lane that stuck out off of, you know, 30 feet, 20 feet farther than off of both corners.

Oh, both corners. Yeah. I just, it looked weird. And, you know, so hopefully they, I would repave the corner. Yeah, I was going to say. No, no, I think, I think there, I think the plan is to do so. I think that there is a lot of, let's see how this goes. Yeah.

And it's like, okay, went really well. So let's finish off this. From what I was told at track, it was a timing thing that there wasn't enough time from when they could pave to when the race was. Like, yeah. Because in Iowa, I guess there's a weather situation with when you can start that type of paving. So well, just in case you're wondering, you're going to have a race next year. So feel free to start your paving process now. Are you breaking news?

No. No. I mean, I'm just assuming that the way that it all wins, they should. If we don't go back to Iowa, it's because it flooded. I don't know. Yeah. No, maybe. You can tell them serious when my eyebrows go out?

Double eyebrow raise. I do have a question for you. Yes. So when you're, so first track, right, and you're talking about Christopher Bell having a long run speed, but we also are a little bit worried about the tire situation. When you're a driver like that and you're like, man, I know once we get going, we'll be really good. Are you a little bit nervous trying to get into your window of, you know, your speed, your maximum speed window versus the competition?

Are you just like, no, we're just going to go after? You know what I mean? I think you just have to, I think you have to understand where your car is. I think all of them are nervous because they, as a driver, you see all those tires scenarios. And you know that at any moment those tires can pop. Yeah. And that's just part of a repave.

And I think, I think in Christopher Bell's case, I think they went listening to his crew chief talk during the race. I think they went conservative on the right front cambers and pressures and the car just didn't go very good at the beginning. the run because it wasn't that aggressive. They wanted to make sure that they, that they finished the race. So I, you have to be prepared to, you know, to crash in, in, in, in those moments. And that's just part of the game. But you also have to be able to make smart decisions along the way like the 20 card did in order to put themselves in a position to, to win the race. And in order to win the race,

you have to finish the race. So that was, I think that was a decision that, that they made from a team standpoint going into the, into the Sunday. So one team that did not finish the race would be Kyle Bush. And I have a couple things I want to talk about here with him. But first, just his race, because it seemed like he was poised to have a solid day. But then he was plagued with a whole bunch of different issues from tires, power steering. He said one of the next gen parts failed. Would you make a his day?

Well, I'm not sure, but I thought at one moment I heard them say that he had touched the, touch the fence. Maybe not. Yeah. But if he did, you know, that that might open. open the debate as to whether it was just a failure. But they did have a failure in the right rear. It looked like one of those next-gen parts that he was referring to definitely broke. But I don't know how hard the wall contact was or if there was contact with another car like I thought I heard. But it's a, you know, I felt like he was going to run in the top 10 easily.

It seemed like that they were definitely poised to do that. But that thing just right now, it just seems like that eight car is plagued with problems and everything that keeps happening to them week after week. Anything that could go wrong seemingly has gone wrong over the last couple of weeks. But we were listening to his interviews too, and I felt like he handled it well. Yeah. I mean, he was with Chris, Chris Wilner on MRN. And he was like, yeah, you know, we felt like we were going to have a good run.

You know, he didn't, he wasn't like taking shots at anything necessarily other than, you know, the part. But he took it in stride. It seemed like he sounded optimistic about having speed. I mean, I think there are 31 points below the cut now. So they can still point their way in. And maybe this is a step in the right direction. Because Sonoma, they're also going to finish about fifth or six. And he was about to back to back that.

So this is a tough, this is a tough stretch. But Kyle Busch taking on water pretty quickly. It's been a rough couple of weeks for him for sure. And with the announcement of Martin Trex Jr., obviously leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, now people are kind of talking about that. seat in the future and what have you and bob pocras asked kyle over the weekend if he'd be open to hendrick motorsports joe gibbs racing to his response was anything's possible always oh no what do you think that message he is sending there yeah well to me a a message like that just opens pandora's box

to letting all of us critique criticize what that speculate what that means but i don't i don't i I can see thinking that, but I don't know why you would say that unless you were not happy with the deal that you had. And opening the door to a Joe Gibbs conversation or a Hendrick conversation and knowing, I think he said at the end of that, you know, that he has another year on his deal at RCR, man, that's just like a kicking a teeth to the guys and gals that are that are working on your car, right? to not be committed 100% in your answer to the team that you're driving for unless you were looking for a way out. That's how I took it because I don't know why you would say that if you were happy and wanting to work through the scenario that you had. So that comment to me totally blows the door open for speculation and all of us speculating on what happens with Kyle Bush, where he's at with RCR, what the scenario is with RCR. It's been a tough stretch for for the eight car and everybody on that team with everything that

they've had go wrong. And now you've got those comments. And sure, you know, he, you know, he might have just been, I don't know. I mean, it seems to me like he's just throwing it out there to see what the options are on the table. Probably. That's what it seems. Just presenting it publicly so that people are aware that he might be looking, right?

Yeah. I mean, the last time that we had an accomplished quote like this was towards the end of the JGR tenure that he had. He was talking about his contract and what have you. And so, but that was towards the end. This is like right in the middle. Like he has another whole year. And he even told Bob in that interview that or in that, you know, back and forth that he has a no talk clause. Like no one can talk to them.

No one can talk to them about coming or buying, buying him out of his contract. Like that. But in case you didn't know. I'm interested. Yeah, in case you know, if you want to talk to me, I'm your boy. I'm your guy. Yeah, give me a call. Like, what are you doing?

But, like, again, Kyle knows how to work this. Like, he knows how to work. But does he? Yeah. Is that right? I don't know if it's, I wouldn't say it's right. I wouldn't have done it that way. But is Joe Gibbs racing going to hire him to drive the 19 car?

Probably not. But maybe. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I mean, how were those terms that he left with Toyota and Joe Gibbs? Gibbs? Is it Joe Gibbs out of mad? Or, I mean, the whole trial.

team is gone is there has to be some sort of frustration because you got he got you know they moved on from from what he was doing at at Toyota racing with his truck teams and everything he had going and Joe Gibbs racing so there was obviously something not right there because otherwise they would they would have worked it out so it's a it did not just becomes more complicated because you've thrown all this out there and is he happy at SHR but I I I don't see any scenario that Joe Gibbs racing hires Kyle Busback. I don't know. I think you want to start looking to the future, right?

And you want to look at someone like a Corey Heim, a Chase Britschers, get younger. I mean, everything I hear is Chase Briscoe. Yes. Everything that everybody keeps talking about is Chase Briscoe is going to go in the 19 car. And I think Christopher Bell was a big proponent of him as a fellow dirt racer. That was kind of the guy he labeled he thought would be a good teammate for him. Yes. And so he threw out the Hendrick piece.

of it too. Returning to Hendrick. I mean, who Hendrick is? Who at Hendrick would be vacating a seat? Yeah. I mean, he basically got thrown out of Hendrick, right? Yeah. You know, when he was driving the,

driving the Xfinity car and everything that he had going on there. So I'm very confused. I'm so confused about making those comments about driving at, at Gibbs and Hendrick because I just, I don't know what that does for you in making your situation better at RCR. It's a kick in the pants. One of your, it seems like one of your bigger issues with this is just like for the team and the people who are working for him now and what that is saying to them.

Yeah, that's my concern. My concern is RCR and his team and the position that it puts in them in just not being 100% sure that in your answer in what you say. Because perception is the perception is going to be nine-tenths of what you think. And so now the door is open. the door has been blown completely wide open as to what all this means for for Kyle Bush and RCR and you know is he peeking over his shoulder looking looking to go somewhere else but I don't I personally don't see a scenario where he goes back to Hendrick or Gibbs let's flip that though right so Kyle says this stuff and then maybe RC's like okay I

RC's not afraid to play this game too we saw it happen with Tyler Redd I'm saying so maybe RC's like who are the options who's out here? Oh, Grafton's out here. Josh Barry's out here. There's some people that are out here. Y'all stirring the freaking pot today. Hey, listen, he started. We're just looking at it.

I just totally don't understand. I do not understand the comments why you would make those comments if you were, unless you were just not happy with the current situation. It just doesn't make any sense to me. A little strange. Because I don't see any scenario where he goes back to either one. I think he's where he's at. I think.

Yeah. Well, we will continue to follow. that story and see what else may develop from it. We always kind of give some out of boys, too, from the race. And there were some good names, new names, I guess you could say. Go ahead. What? Go ahead.

What do you want? You know exactly what you want to say. I was going to say Carson, host of our Todd Gillen and Justin Haley, they were up there in the top 15. Oh, I thought you were going to just. Well, yeah, we kind of touched on Ricky already. Yeah, I know. But those guys, I would have double down.

I thought you were going to double down right there. I can never double down to him. Stenhouse did have a great run. did have a great run. So good job, Caitlin. Thanks. Pull that one out of your hat. But I think it was, it was interesting to start that race.

You talk about Hosevar and he got loose under Zane Smith and wiped out. Hit Zane. And then Zane got hit and wiped out Corey. So all three Spire cars were not on, not on a good footing right off the bat. But Hosevar is, he's good. And, you know, he's been very fast. He's been very fast in everything that he's driven. The thing I like about Carson Hosevar this year is he's learning and finishing.

He is not spinning out and driving over his head, which I think a lot of people thought he was going to do, me being one of them, on much more of an occasion than he has. And he's done a great job in kind of tempering his speed with making sure that the car is going in the right direction and finishing races. So he's consistently positioning himself inside the top 15 now. He works really hard. And his team really loves their driver. And he loves the team. So like that continuity is really like that. Where is the big one?

Continuity. That's really good. He's looking at his notes. Perrocious. It's really good for all things and results. Someone I want to give some love to is Justin Haley. I think if Justin Haley and Tick-Tac, if they can figure out a way to steal one, at like Chicago.

They could like sneak through. They can sneak through around or two. They run consistently, you know, like in the top 15. And people might be like, well, you know, this, you only get, you know, what, 12 to the next round. Yeah. But if you hang around and people have bad days, you can kind of slide through around. So I would, I would watch out. They have consistently, Justin Haley has consistently run well now.

It's not, now it's not a surprise. No. No, yeah. He's consistently put himself in contention to, to have good weekends and do things. in that in that 51 car that I think a lot of it has caught a lot of people off guard but I don't think for for us it has caught us off guard from a Justin Haley standpoint right I just think that Rick Ware has made that 51 car a lot better with his alliance with RFK they bought in yeah good to see that for sure so that was the Iowa race there were some news items that came out of the race weekend

martin trex junior officially announcing his retirement from full-time cup competition this is we kind of knew This was obviously coming. We talked about on the last episode, and you were pretty vocal that you're like, I think he just needs to make a decision. And now it's been made, and we can celebrate him the rest of the year. I'm so happy about that because Martin Truex Jr.

has been a lot of a fixture in the Cup series for a number of years now. He's been around this sport for a long time, has a tremendous amount of respect from the competitors in the garage. And I just, I know Martin probably would have rather just said, I'm done after the last race and not have to, not have to deal with it. But I'm really happy that we get to celebrate what Martin has done.

He's a champion. He's a great person. And he's going to, he's going to probably do better with retirement than I do with it because he's got a great fishing habit that, that's right, you know, he's,

he's definitely put some time in over the last couple of years and in making that better. But I'm, I'm really happy that we have half the year to, to celebrate Martin and what he's accomplished in our sport. That's big for the fans, because they'll have one more opportunity to come out. that you forget, right?

Yeah, like they deserve to see that. It's the part that you forget. And Marcus Smith was the one that reminded me about that. He's like, it's not just about you. There's a lot of people that have rooted for you for a long time. And given the fans the opportunity to go one last time and watch their guy race is important. And the tracks, I remember, would do a lot of tributes for you, too, like on the wall, you know, whether it was something on the wall or whatever, there would be different things

to commemorate your career, which is always cool. I'm sure they'll start doing that for him. Yeah, I'm sure I would be highly disappointed. if it didn't start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Me too. One of his home tracks. Listen, if y'all don't start off the rip, I'm going, yeah, I'm going up there to do driver intro, so I'm going to make sure I bring, do a little something special for that

because he's one of, he's one of our guys. He's a New England guy. That's right. We take him in. We take him in. Even though he's from Jersey. But, you know, two-time, two-time exfinee champ back to back. One time NASCAR Cup champ, he's a walking Hall of Famer.

He will be. 34 cup wins. Yeah, he'll be in there in the Hall of Fame at some. point very shortly. I'm sure close to first ballot, you know. Yeah, for sure. When it gets to that point. So I'm glad that he listened to the Kevin Harwick happy about podcast and said, we're taking all the credit. Said, man, those guys have, they have a good idea. We're taking all the credit. We should really do that. And it was interested to hear him talk about that feeling of, you know, it's the right time. I was in that same boat every year. It was like, all right,

should we do it? What's the right timing? And I think for, for Martin, I think there was just, something he said it has nothing to do with performance but it's been a pain in the butt for him for him this year as far as things that have happened losing races having to deal with all the drama at some point you just get tired of dealing with all that stuff and you just want to go be normal and do normal things and fish and he wants to go fish so let him go fish and drink beer and enjoy all the things that he's accomplished in the sport and have fun for the next 19 weeks our fox sports teammate tom brady sub teammate he was back and forth on his retirement because he could still play at a high level.

It's hard. Martin can still play. And Martin can still race at a high level. Martin, it can still win races. So like, you're like, okay, I can still beat most of these guys on mostly any day. But do I want to keep putting all this high level of work to stay there? Yeah. Yeah.

And I think for the team, it's just like we talked last week. It's now it puts them in a better spot to say, okay, we have a definite plan. We're going to do this with Martin until the end of the year. And we're going to, I'm sure in the next few weeks, I would assume that they'll decide. who they're going to put in the 19 car and they can move on with that and start working towards, you know, new, new priorities and new goals with, with solid,

solid plans. So good for Martin Trex Jr. taking that next step in life. We look forward to watching him, though, for the remainder of the year. So I think it's time for your, your segment.

Yeah, if you're ready for it and a sips. Mom to social sips. Gosh, I would tell my kids to not drink like that, but go ahead. Well, I'm not your kid,

you know? I'm your nephew. It's different. I don't know. My face is on your mug. It's pretty entertaining. All right. Welcome to Mamba's social sips, your favorite segment of this show.

Listen, we're going to start. We're going back to Jolly Old England. I was just there, but we're going back. Listen, so there's a motor fest at Coventry event in England. Coventry. Gosh, you're on it today. You need to get some sleep. Listen, you're ready to do.

That was rocious. You should see. You should see the word. I don't know. It's old English. I think it's Coventry. But there is a crash on track. And this guy and whatever type of open wheel car, it was like a, it's like a S.

And he hits one barrier. Oh, I saw that. So then it seems like the throttle might have stuck. And he hits the second barrier. And right next to the second barrier is a track marshal. And he wasn't standing behind it. You're standing right in front of it. So when that barrier, it fell.

He would have been. He was so lucky. Oh, my God. And it fell right behind him. He just looks like, oh. Unreal. I'm living right. I'm living right.

Someone's looking out. Yeah. So you guys saw that, though, right? Yes. That was crazy. It was pretty fantastic. Need to make sure you keep car on a track. Yeah.

Was that a high pucker factor moment? That was that happened so fast you had it. That was a no pucker factor. Happened so fast you never had time to pucker. Oh, my God. Oh, man. That could have been a lot worse. So we're glad everybody's okay.

Glad everyone's okay. Someone on Twitter was like, that was really dangerous of that driver. Yeah, terrible. I'm like, yeah, because the driver meant to completely destroy. He wanted to drive through those barriers. It felt great. Cost him a couple hundred thousand dollars. Other than that, it was fine.

I'm sure he was totally on purpose. What are we talking about? So coming back to Iowa, I don't know if you saw this, but over the weekend, sometime in between days, John Hunter, Neimancheck and Austin Dillon gave their kids squirt guns and they went around the deal lot and they found everybody and you see like this is a part where rc is getting just host trying these two kids man it was great and i bring that up because i feel like that's the part of the deal a lot that we don't get the fans don't get to see so i was really glad that they were able to show that yeah i i remember and it was covered pretty good but i came out a

couple i guess it was more than a couple several years ago into the parking lot at polka no while we're waiting on a rain delay and keelan is in a puddle where with Brad Kozlowski and Tony Stewart basically acting like a fish swimming in the puddle in the parking lot. So there are quite a few things that go on in the motorhome lot that are very entertaining. Yes. Keeps it entertaining. Yes. You never know what might have.

Especially as many kids that go around the motorhome lot now. There's a lot now. There are kids everywhere. Then talking, speaking of kids and Keelan, Keelan went back to Dominion. The first time earlier this year when we were there. Not pretty, was it? You were with me. Probably one of his worst races that he kind of put together just from what he could have done and what he did.

And then I feel like we go back there. And he does the exact opposite. And he's on a terror and he wins up there on a green white checker. A green white checker. He started third. Yeah. Pushed the leader out and then do what he had to do. Yeah.

And he didn't slam him. He attached bumpers like you were supposed to do in legend car racing and just moved him up one lane and got underneath him and did a great job. So it was also the first retirement weekend where I was able to go and be a part of the Cars Tour event. And Keelan's racing, our late model teams, all in one facility. So we had a great event at Dominion this weekend with the Car Store series. And they ran the legend cars with them. We had a mini Tyrell's charity event this weekend that he does for all the kids with cancer and brought a bunch of the kids to the racetrack. Keelan gave his little Mateo.

he gave him he was the cancer patient that that we had with us and keeling gave him his trophy and you don't realize how lucky are when you have kids and they're healthy and then you see a room full of kids who are not healthy and what the families are dealing with but many tyrell has put on this event the last couple years great charity event that's become a part of the dominion raceway cars tour event for the second year in a row now they walked all the kids out on on stage and got to meets and ride with their drivers and their cars before practice. So just a fantastic weekend. But Keelan did a did a great job and proud of of his progress. We got to drive a got to drive a Mazda MX5 car this week for the first time at Carolina Motorsports Park. So that was that was,

it went really well. It was I was, I was impressed. You had a really good weekend, it seems like. At a great weekend. Yeah, I love that for you. Ready to go. What's next? Well, speaking of what's next. So Bubba was racing out of there's summer shootout. Having the time of his life, by the way. And the legend car. I'm a high proponent of you should go race more things, right? They don't really let the guys do it.

If you can go run the shootout, guys, go run the shootout and just be a part of that. And remember why you're doing it. Because when you're around the kids, you remember that. Kevin, maybe you should go run the shootout. I don't think so. I have not a legend car guy. Bubba's a legend car guy. And he raced on Monday.

Wasn't so hot. Tuesday got a lot better. And I would expect this week when we go back that he'll be. pretty close to being in the game. And he was having the time of his life last week, running out there in the second half of the field, trying to figure out the car, trying to figure out the driving style,

because the tires are different. The engine is different. But just to see, and I remember this as a cup guy, when you were able to go to those events and just not really have anything to worry about and just having a good time and hanging out with the people,

he had a smile from ear to year. And that makes me happy when you see guys out doing that. Yeah. Those support local short track racing. We've said that before. So I'm a shootout. We're going to keep saying it. Yeah.

It can't say it enough because that's the lifeblood of this whole thing. Good sips this week. Is that it? Good sips. Yeah. Yeah, we're on to the, under grading the burnouts. So I'll go back to it. Oh, okay.

Your burnout grade. Yeah. Well, we kind of already know where Kevin stands on it. So here's the thing, if you don't know, Ryan Blaney, your reigning Cup Series champion does not do burnouts. He does not. He was told a long time ago. By Dale Inman?

Yeah. Yeah. He told him, have you ever seen a jockey, win the Kentucky Derby and then beat his horse after? No, you don't. It's a good analogy, but like very, yeah. You appreciate the machine that went, the thing that got you the win.

So Ryan's always appreciated his car after he wins the race, especially in the Cup Series. He's only done like two burnouts. One was the championship. Which is fair. That's burner down. Yeah, burn it down. You just want a title.

And two was this one in Iowa. And I think because the family, was there. Yeah. He had 80 family members there. He got, he did a little one. He'll give the flag.

I think, I think, um, a Brian Blaney that's just letting loose. I think the fans will just love. I think some of that is just, you know, he's trying to be respectful to Dale Edmund and Roger Pinsky and Ryan

Blaney is a fun guy. Ryan Blaney, you know, he has a very fun side to him, has a great personality. And I think if he just let it rip, let a rip. the fans would just really,

embrace it. Yeah. Yeah. Gravitate and embrace him. And not that they haven't, but he's a champ. He's got, you know, he's got that personality and swagger to go along with it. Just let it rip, Lane. Let it rip.

My guy. That's right. My guy. We know he listens. He does. I would say, I would say the burnout was weak. But the fact that he did one, we broke the ice. That's right.

I'm not going to grade it because it would be low. But I think the next burnout that he does, I think he's just going to burn it to the ground. Just burn it to the freaking ground, Blaney. There was a lot of smoke. There was a lot of smoke. And he kind of got caught on the, on the, on the banking of this front stretch. And then he kind of came out of it. And it was kind of a nice little, I would have liked to see.

Because we were watching. We were like, is he going to do it? It was kind of weird, though, right? Because he turned around and he's waving to the crowd. And then he drove around. I think he was probably thinking about, should I do it? Should I not do it? Yeah. And then he came back and he started doing it donuts, had a lot of smoke.

But it was very, it's a tame one. Mild. Yeah. Because you could hear the throttle control. It was like, you know, it wasn't over the top. So we'll take it. We'll take it. Good job, Ryan Blaney.

Just starting out with your burnouts. We'll see if they progress. All right. Time now for our last call and who we think can win in New Hampshire. So let's start with Kevin, like usual. I think that I think that there are those. tracks where people know that they want to put on a show and you get prepared for him. And with his recent retirement, do you really take my God?

I mean, we can all go with Truex. No, we can. We can. We can. It's a sentimental pick. He's a sentimental pick. How could we go against Martin Truex Jr. for New Hampshire, right? If you're going to win, what a better storybook way to win for Martin Truex in his final year

to go to New Hampshire and win the dang race. and he is going to be highly motivated. Pressure is going to be off of him because he finally made the decision, announced it, it's over. Yeah, he's going to have to answer some questions in the media center, but it's all going to be happy, go lucky from here on out for Truex, because he doesn't have to worry about it anymore. So what a better way to do it.

He's got the cars to do it. He's got the team to do it. He's got the talent to do it. I think he goes up there and makes it happen. That was also my pick, my pick. So I'm just going to piggyback off of that. Yeah, okay. I was going to pick him, but because we know how bad my picks I've been this year, I don't want to put that on him at all.

And I do think Josh Barry and the four at places that there's a lot of off throttle time, the short tracks. I think coming off of Iowa where it was really strong, I think they have some momentum for places like this. I think Josh Barry might be. I like that pick. I like that pick too. And those guys are highly motivated. They are. I have some good communication with Rodney Steele

and seeing everything that they've gone through and are going through and going to have to go through for the rest of the year. Both of them looking to figure out where they're going to go. I think they're both highly motivated. And I think he has a chance to win at Iowa if he doesn't crash under caution. Yeah.

Sometimes he get a little bit. He hit the car in front of him so hard that it knocked the hook up, separated the splitter, and the performance of the car was done. So, you know, I'm hearing that the pad on the driver's side doorbars came loose and he was trying to put it back on. So I think that, you know, it wasn't like he just ran into the car in front of him. He was trying to put the pad back on and the guy in front of him checked up. But it wound up damage in his car bad enough to where it hurt the performance of the car for the rest of the day.

But they were in contention to win that race. But he was running hard. It only takes one moment. That's it. It reminds me of Josh Williams last year. He did the same thing. Since KV didn't, since she's just piggybacking off you, I'm going to throw an extra one in there. Because it is a home race for him as well.

Ryan Priest. If there's one place that, that he can get it done, it'll be here in front of that New England crowd. He'll be highly motivated. He'll be highly motivated there. Every time he goes to New Hampshire, he wants to put on a show. And very good at that race track. Yeah. But, okay.

So votes of confidence for Ryan Priest, M.T.J. Josh Barry. So what about Brad Kozowski? Because he is your next guest, as you referenced. Yes. He'll be interviewing him for the Thursday episode. I am excited. I've wanted to interview Brad because I have so many questions about him going from

Penske to RFK and just what that was like, what his thought process was when he left Penske, what he thought he was getting into, what he actually got into, and whether it affected the things that he did from the driving side having to work so much on the ownership side. So lots of interesting things to ask Brad. He's always a great interview. He is. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, always a critical thinker.

And like, I love hearing his insight that. I'm going to ask him if he's heard of this word. Horrocious. Can you, can you do? Everybody has. He's a smart guy. I mean, I'm sure. He's hanging on the same.

But that's a dumb word. But that's not a real word. Wow. Man, she went right to you. Can you, can you? Was that like a, is that like a talk to the hand? I don't have. I don't have.

I don't have. I don't have. know what to say to that right now. Okay. Can you, I do want to know one thing from Brad. He, he had two major rivalries, one with Cara Edwards and one with Kyle Bush. If you can get him to touch on that, just especially the Edwards one, because that one was really, Edward one, Edwards written down. Because that it's so weird that those two guys, but Brad was different then than he is now. He's kind of, you know, but it's a different guy. We know Kevin likes a rivalry. He'll happily ask. Robberies are great. They push you. They make you better. No, you push, you push people into

rivalries. You literally, I'm not the only person that's had a rivalry. You're talking about Brad Kislauski and Carl Edwards having a rivalry. And he's got, you name two right off the top. Kyle Bush. Okay. All right. We'll talk rivalries next week. Maybe. Thanks so much for joining us on this edition of Kevin Harvick's happy hour. Make sure you continue to subscribe and like us on YouTube. You can leave a five-star review as well on the podcast format. And we will see you after Loudon.