Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Shane van Gisbergen Wins Another Road Course & Is He The Greatest Road Course Driver Ever?

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Fans get the full Watkins Glen breakdown as Shane van Gisbergen captures his first Cup Series win of the season with another dominant road course performance, Michael McDowell shocks the field with a runner-up finish, a look at Trackhouse Racing moving forward, and the Richard Childress Racing drivers continue battling ahead of the NASCAR All-Star Weekend at Dover Motor Speedway. Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith recap all the biggest moments from Watkins Glen, analyze SVG’s growing road course dominance in the NASCAR Cup Series, discuss what the latest results mean for the Cup Series standings, preview All-Star Weekend, and react to the newest Mamba’s Social Sips featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s social media debate surrounding the NASCAR Most Popular Driver vote. 0:00 - Intro 2:07 - Watkins Glen Weekend Recap 33:43 - All-Star Weekend Preview 43:13 - Mamba’s Social Sips 50:14 - Last Call Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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He's so much more efficient with his asses. SVG doing SVG things. I think winning fixes almost everything. He's the greatest road course racer that's ever come through the Cup series. He's not a Kung Fu Ninja. No, he's not that. He's not a Kevin.

Welcome to Kevin Harvick Tapyard, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin. Hey. Yeah. Mamba thinks it's his show. Yeah, that's okay. You don't have it.

There's a, there's a soft. segment that is definitely everyone's favorite. Mama's happy hour. Mama's happy hour. There you go. I mean, you know. That's pretty much what you host every Sunday is. It's not happy hour.

Listen. It's not happy hour. It's like a full hour event. NASCAR Sunday's been, we were slapping. We had plus. We were slapping. We had plus 65 people there hopping this weekend on Mother's Day. We had moms out.

Really? The whole family's like, it was cool. What was it? Hoping. Hoping. Yeah. So it was hopping. It was jumping.

It was on and popping. On Mother's Day. What's Hopping? Hopping is a bar that is self-pouring taps and full bar. Self-pouring. Yeah, so you get a little wristband. Just buy a cup and drink all you want. No, you don't get a cup. You just get a wristband that's attached to you your card.

And you go, bloop. That's kind of nice. That's a simple bias. It's a little by the ounce. So, like, if you want a smaller pour, you know. You're probably glad we're doing this show on Tuesday, then, instead of the day after that. If you saw my phrase yesterday, now that's going to Sundays are a little tough. Yeah.

Because you can either stay out, right? Or you can go home and be an adult. I don't know about you. You haven't got the adult right now. My Sundays are spent taking notes for about five hours. I know. That's why you crush it. That's why you are keeping us on the rails at all time.

Speaking of all in the rails, welcome into episode 26. We have plenty to talk about leaving the road course of Watkins Glenn guys. We'll preview the all-star race coming up this weekend at Dover. And we have the Sips. Why are you going to be like that? No, nothing. I'm just excited to be there.

You had like a scowl for a second. Sorry. I was thinking about stuff. Okay, good. All right, guys. I guess I got to start by saying Kevin was right. Hey, look. I mean, if you want to win, you pick the winners. Winners win is the text we got. And I just tail between the legs. We'll address the picks later.

You can get further behind or you can just take a week off and make the same pick. Or you can take a week off and take the lead. I already took a week off and I'm going to take the lead. Eventually. Well, congratulations to you. Congratulations to SVG, seventh career win, put on a clinic, I would say, for roadcourse racing. But what stands out to you about this win he had on Sunday from other road course wins he's gotten? Well, it all started on Saturday.

And we went down to interview him because he was at the top of every chart on the consecutive lap charts. And we told him that. And he looked at us like, I think it was Regan doing the interview. He looked at whoever was doing the interview. And he said, really? my car is a piece of crap every time yeah and i looked at clinton i'm like oh man these guys are in such big trouble because the thing about SVG is is he is he's not telling anybody how much he's pushing he's not telling anybody how much he has he's not telling you he's always got a car that's you know not very

good and next thing you know with the way that the tire fall off was in the way that everything was going, he's better at that part too. And so everything just leaned towards him being in control. But when you watched him in qualifying going into the bus stop and it was two tents when he wanted to make it two tents, and that's what at the end just makes him, he's so much more efficient with his passes because he can control driving in deep and making the pass happen in just about any corner that he wants to. And nobody else can really do that. The only other guy that I've seen be able to do that is Marcus Ambrose. Kind of ironic that they're their buddies and, you know, they talk about the things that Shane

does in the race car. And it's, it's, he was just in a different league. He was, now I know he had new tires and the situation worked out well, but he was still 30 seconds behind. Isn't that wow. 30 seconds. Yeah. And the way that the caution fell, all the leaders got themselves in a position to where they

had to start saving gas. So they did have to back off the pace a little bit. but even if they were going full pace, it was going to be a second to a second and a half. It would just take it a little bit longer for him to get there. But he got there so fast and then won by almost eight seconds. So it was like just another day at the office. SVG doing SVG things.

Yeah. I mean, I think the coolest part about it. We talked about it, I think last year is like when you're supposed to win and there's a lot of more, I feel like there's more pressure almost when you're supposed to do it. It's supposed to be dominant. And then you rise to the occasion.

And, you know, not just Shane, but like the whole trackhouse crew. Like we said last week, you're like, man, if they don't, if one of those cars don't win, like, now their year is like, that's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of pressure.

So for them to deliver, uh, Shane and Connor both good race cars and, and Ross qualified well too. So like they, they did what they needed to on the road course. They put a lot of effort into it. And when that effort,

um, when you see results of that effort, and it's easier to go on the next week and be good. And I really think on the same strategy and all the same scenarios. I think Connor would have, have finished second. Yeah, I really do. I think that that he ran well enough. He got a flat tire at the end of the race and kind of took him out of even being in the conversation. You know, McDowell finished second. And he was another guy that needed to make something happen. And so a lot of

the guys that needed to make something happen, SVG, McDowell, Zillich, I think those guys had a, had a good weekend, Zillich, obviously, you know, had the issue at the end. So, There's a, there's a, I mean, it's a tough situation for, for guys like that. And I, I think when, when you look at trackhouse in general, they all qualified well. And I think Ross is a great example. You know, he, he was like, look, I just need to make my car like SVGs and figure it out. Yeah. The only way you're going to figure out how to be SVG is you take SVG out of his car and put him in your car. But it gives you a great judge to be able to, to say this is, I need to be better. But in these instances, you're racing for second. So, Kaylin, I have a question for you. Have you ever seen, because you watch how everyone acts on pit road and together as drivers, have you ever seen someone that's more unanimously respected so quickly at a craft that as we have seen as you because every single driver is like, we're just racing for second.

Like I've never, that's so demoralizing because Michael McDowell was like, we brought a good piece but not compared to him. Well, it's interesting you bring that up because I actually asked SVG about this. earlier today when I interviewed him for Victory Lap. Like has this totally changed how Cup teams approach road course racing knowing you have somebody like this in the field every time?

Yeah, well, he's the greatest road course racer that's ever come through the Cup series. I mean, it's not even close. He's a couple of wins away from tying the most road course wins ever. But he's the best road course racer that's ever come through the Cup series, period.

And, you know, I think that the thing that makes Shane good in my opinion that he gets to race every week. It's not like a ringer coming in. I think that Jeff Gordon, those guys were good road racers in a time where there were no good road racers. And they figured it out better than everybody else. But a true world-class road racer like Shane and the fact that he gets to race every week. So he knows how the restarts work.

He knows how to go down pit road and get in the pit box. And that's where you saw a lot of these road racers fall short. And then they have a part-time team and a part-time pit crew. This is a team that's racing every week. And they're able to capitalize on these moments a lot better because they're full-time racers. But his racing IQ super high, which is why we've seen him get better on the ovals, because he's a student of whatever he's driving. And so when you have that and you have him racing every week and the world-class talent that he has on the road courses,

He's also really good with his car and communicating with his team. He's got the maturity to go along with it to know how to play the game off the racetrack, what to say, what not to say, holding his card is fairly close to his vest. Good poker face. He's got a great poker face. He's a showman. So the maturity that he has in being able to experience all these things in the past, he's really good at making sure he'll help you.

But I don't think he's going to show you everything that he has. because nobody else can do it. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that on Pit Lane. You asked what I observed. A lot of the drivers in the truck race. Obviously,

we're going up and digesting with him and kind of trying to get his feedback, obviously, on what he was experiencing to be better. So yes, he does have a ton of respect. Everyone wants to learn from him and what he is doing. You talked about trackhouse struggles. This gives them a shot in the arm, but is it enough to really turn the corner for this organization right now,

you think? Well, they did what they were supposed to do. And, you know, they have had some runs. I mean, Ross was solidly in the top 10 at Texas, made a mistake. And one of the biggest differences in, you know, Ross situation and an SVG situation at Watkins-Glen was that efficiency to make passes and that ability to make passes. When they made the decision to have the strategy that they did in the first stage, they put them in the middle of the pack. And you never saw them again. And that's just the difference between what Shane can do in the car and what we're.

Ross can do in the car as far as making things happen on the restarts. Even that last restart, you know, when Connor and Shane were kind of buried in the field right there, I mean, Shane immediately got through the field and he was five, six, seven spots better than Connor was getting through the field because he just, he knows and has the awareness to just, boom, I need to be here. He knows where to put his car, goes into a break zone, he's going to make it happen. There's not going to be a question of whether he finishes. the past like, you know, guys like us that don't know how to do it at the level that he does. And, you know, that's that efficiency of making those passes is, is priceless.

How do you think this helps track house as a whole? SVG said it's a little brighter in the shop today. Yeah. Of obviously having some momentum on their side and just it had been a pretty dismal stretch of races for them prior to this. Yeah. I mean, I think winning fixes almost everything. if not everything, right?

And when you win, it's just like, and especially for them, because, again, they are built to win these races. Right. And they lost the first one. That's a gut check. Because you also have Connor in there, who's like, we think if we're not winning with the 97,

we're winning with the 88. So they think they have the two best bullets in the garage when it comes to road course racing. And I think we thought that Connor was going to be the one pushing SVG. I think he is the closest. McDowell is really close to. but like SVG is still Yards like he's not close

it's not close when he doesn't want it to be yeah he's the closest but like it's not close to him Connor said something super interesting I felt like he's like yeah there was a run where I was with Shane and I was running with him and like I had to step it up and then then when it came to the last little bit of that

stage he just gassed up and pulled away from me he's like I think he was just seeing how much more I had left in the tank versus vice versa that's my point like he just he knows and he can he can tell how hard you're pushing and he can push as hard as he wants to push and the difference between Connor and Shane Connor's car would slide and jerk around and and you could tell that he was having Shane's car is always straight like it never slides it when he needs

to get a little bit more gap he just goes into the break zone a little bit further and um it wasn't it wasn't close pretty remarkable to watch it's cool to witness it's absolutely amazing and I hope that we all celebrate it because you know he is going to go as the Cup Series greatest road course driver that's ever come through this series. And it's not even going to be close by the time, by the time he's done. And I think that everybody's like, oh, SVG is going to win. Oh, it's going to be boring. That wasn't boring.

That wasn't boring at all. It made it exciting. But, I mean, that's what everybody else has to do, right? Like, they have to throw caution to the win and put themselves in a position where they try to make it on gas and strategy. And you have to do something that he doesn't do or knock him off the track. Force his hand somewhere. You've got to force his hand.

to do something other than whatever he wants. You can't race him head to head. Yeah. I think you're not going to win. The coolest thing was when you, not often do we see a guy get the green light just to hammer

down. Yeah. That was like I think that was the best part about watching. It's like, oh man, it's all on you now. Like you got the car, you got the tires. Go do what you can do. And he went off and he had extra. 10 laps extra to do it. It was insane. Very impressive win by SVG. He makes up some ground in the

standings as well in the points position. Only two drivers in the top 10 points scored top 10 performances. And that would be Reddick and Gibbs. What did you see out of the two of them? Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick. You know, I mean, I expected Ty to run well. He's run well on all the road courses, kept himself in the, you know, the top five pretty much all day. Once he made up from his qualifying effort, I think that same same expectations for Reddick to be able to put him in contention. He actually didn't run as good as I thought he would. But they got themselves in a position both of them to be able to put those cars in the top five and you know they they improve but uh 54 got there a little quicker than than the 45 but the 45 and

and their pick crews did a great job and and they had good restarts and and were able to to have solid days which is on a road course that's what you want you want you want to just not have the wheels fall off like some of them do um and did uh in in this particular race so it's um they're hard When you have all that strategy and stuff, even sometimes when you have a good car, you can get buried in the middle of the pack. One car, Ross Chastain, great example, had a great car, but got buried. Yep. That was your pick, wouldn't it?

Reddick? Yeah, it was my pick. Good job. You know, so he, I mean, look, I think for them, it was like, all right, we, you know, we feel like we're pretty good with our Rock Course stuff. And you keep working on it. They knew they weren't going to be as good once they unloaded. And that's not been his best road cause.

No, and it hasn't been, right? Coda actually literally has been. Oh, for sure. without a doubt. And they race very, very differently. And so for them to come out with another top five and to, you know, extend their points lead because the guys that were right there, right? Because it was Denny.

So they just can, they just do this thing where they can just turn it on when it's their tracks and just be right where they need to be when it's not there. Poor Denny. He's just so, he's so mad that they put that race in the chase next year. Oh, yeah. Did you hear him? No, I didn't. He's just like, it's going to be terrible.

It's going to be a terrible, terrible race. It's so politic and to try to make sure that there aren't more road courses in there. Because, look, I've been there, right? Like, you know you're at a deficit. You want to win the championship and you play all the politics that you can to be able to try to present a case to keep from any more road courses getting there. So, you know, having Watkins Glen in May, probably not ideal. Definitely mud season up there.

Fans turned out great, though. They always do up there. I'm glad they put it back in the chain. and in September, that was always a great, it was always in a great spot in August. I don't know why we moved it, but because it was always sold out, rowdy infield, great environment, weather was usually, usually pretty good, but it was not ideal this weekend, but the fans still supported it, and I think everybody appreciates that. And it was a good show.

And that's why they deserve a race in the high pressure points of the year. Yeah, you got to have a playoff. You got to have a road course in the playoffs. There's no doubt about that. And you talk about road courses. That's for next year. This year we don't have a road course in the playoffs with the way that the roval went. And I think that you need one in the playoffs to be able to make it so that the balance of having the best driver and being able to decide who the champ is,

you got to have all the samples of the race tracks, the styles of tracks. So, you know, I think it definitely lends its hand better. to most people aside from from Denny. But probably everyone else is out. And I know he's not thrilled about it, but that's what's going to keep it close. NASCAR didn't waste a whole lot of time

letting us know that date was moving. We hadn't even done the cup race yet. And you'd already frustrated the fan base with putting the race in May, making sure that they knew that you knew that you screwed up by putting that race where it is, giving them a chase race. There's a right thing to do to put it back.

Because it was an absolute. I mean, there were more cars stuck in the month. than you could possibly even imagine. Competitors were getting their cars. They were showing me photos of their cars stuck in the mud in the parking. I put a post out like, hey, if you don't get your car out by X amount of time, the tow trucks are going away. They'll be back in the morning.

It will be way more favorable later in the year next year. For sure. I want to return to the top ten for a moment to say Austin Dillon finished six. Kyle Bush finished eighth second week with his new crew chief, Andy Street. Did you expect that out of Richard Childers Racing, two of their two cars? in the top ten. I don't really know what to expect at this point, but I can tell you that they ran better at Texas

and they ran better at Watkins Glen. They had a great strategy call with the three car at the beginning of the race, but they had the pace to keep themselves up there. Kyle was right behind Austin and actually racing, you know, to go by Austin and ran out of gas right at the end. So he lost one or two spots right there at the end.

But it was a Kyle didn't feel well. I don't know what was going on. Might be the best, maybe he doesn't need to feel well every week because it kept him really quiet on the radio. And that's what he needs at this point. He's got to control the message of what's happening with that race team to keep the focus on the positives, which they had this week.

There's no negatives to go along with a solid performance by both RCR cars. You don't have to, the crew chiefs and owners and everybody doesn't, Kyle doesn't have to, Austin, he gets to questions. too because he mean he's representing the family and has to answer questions about Kyle from from Texas and all the things that go with all the all the nonsense so um and i've been there right like i was full of nonsense when when i was was on the radio and and you know it's just chaos and when you clean all that up life is just so much easier i know it's frustrating when you run bad but man when you have a positive you got to take the momentum because it just does so many good things

for the shop but they had a great weekend yeah Great weekend for us here. When Reddick was over there, they worked really hard on their road course program. They were doing a lot of like other races, like some Trans Am type type of stuff. And I think that that helped Austin then. I feel like some of that stuff, I'm sure they still do a little bit, maybe not as much. But for them to run well, back-to-back weeks, two completely different type of racetracks. It's definitely a shot in their arm in that place.

And it's going to hopefully they can keep the momentum going because we want, like I said, We want Cowbush to run while on to win. Everybody wants Kyle Busch to win. I want to see Austin win too, but I want RCR. I want Richard Childress to win because when he's in Victory Lane, it's great for everybody. And you got to talk to RC. Did he seem pleased with his weekend? Yeah, it seemed pleased.

You know, it's always fun to talk to Richard because we have just such a long history. And, you know, it's like he said, welcome home when I got there. So, you know, that's pretty cool when you go back and I got to spend some time in the museum and see all those cars. but a lot of history there, a lot of great moments that were that were had together. So we can still enjoy that. Yeah. That's great.

Nice. So I want to touch on Connor Zillich again very briefly. He had a good weekend overall, winning in the O'Reilly's race, which you've talked about this before, that just proving to him he can still do this because it has been hard. But I feel like he still has things to be proud of leaving Watkins Club. Yeah. I mean, when your cup stuff is not right, the best thing you can do is go down to the O'Reilly series, truck series, late models, anything.

just to keep winning, but he absolutely drove the crap out of this race car. He made a mistake, got the splitter off in the mud. I think it ripped it off, actually, on the right side. And he made some adjustments to be able to adapt to the car and probably wasn't going to win the race and Jesse Love just missed the last corner. He was hard on himself. Yeah, well, he probably should be hard on himself

because that was a win that Jesse Love was going to probably most likely have. if he just, all he has to do is hit the apex to the corner. So sucks. Sucks. And he did exit the car through the roof. If you remember, this was the site of where he had a terrible, awful injury. So he kept that in mind. I saw Justin Marks come in with a pillow.

Put in a pillow. Yeah. But good for Connor. Yeah, no. I mean, it was a fantastic race. I mean, what the folks do on the O'Reilly series, everybody does a great job. I feel like the racing has been amazing. It's been awesome to watch every Saturday.

And then for Jesse, he put a lot of pressure on himself to beat, like, to beat Connor because he knows that Jesse's a champ, but Connor, Connor's the guy. And Jesse's like, no, I'm right there with him. And he had him dead to rights. And after you can tell how much he puts on himself. And I appreciate that raw emotion and that honesty from Jesse right after it. Yeah. It should hurt.

Like when you don't win, that's how hard it is to win. Because when you're that close, it feels like the world is over. and hopefully he learns from it and kind of moves on, but doesn't forget what that feeling is so he can keep pushing through. That was Connor Zillich's third straight win at Watkins Glen. Good for him. So those were the positives.

Now we will move on to the negatives. Yes. So William Byron, we'll start with this. He finishes 36, lap 44. He gets turned by Chris Busher. Also, Ryan Blaney ends up hitting him really damages his car too. Well, Hendrick Motorsports.

All those names that you just mentioned didn't run well. Yeah. You know, I was blown away how off the Hendrick cars were this weekend. They obviously ran well there last year and typically, you know, typically there in somebody's in the mix. They weren't in the mix from the time that they threw the green flag for practice. And they were not even close to where they needed to be this weekend for whatever reason. It's going to happen when you sometimes when you think you've hit on something better and you can't blame them.

on the body. Your body looked pretty good out front. So they obviously just missed it as a group from a setting setup standpoint. But that's as bad as I've seen Kyle Larson run. Yeah, 23rd for Kyle Arson. He was actually the highest finisher of the four-car stable. Yeah, I mean, obviously they're probably relatively close on setup and that was not it. They look close.

That one was going to get thrown out and probably never see the light of day again. because it was a bad, I'm not going to say a bad effort, just a really bad result. A lot of times when you make a bad effort, it's probably put more time and effort into it than you would on some of the good efforts. So that's the sucky part. You know, they probably put themselves,

had themselves in a position to where they thought that they had something, something better. And, you know, I think that now you've got to go back and look, okay, where did we go wrong thinking this was better? Most likely it comes from simulation and the things that you thought there. So, yeah, didn't work out. I think it also depends.

You got to think about what you're chasing to. Like, if you're chasing SVG, but you're not very close in the first place, maybe that's not what you should be chasing because if you're trying to track what he does, you're just not going to be able to do that. And, you know, Stenrick, Austin Cendrick had speed and ran well fastest in practice.

Blaney was on the pole there last year and never showed that speed again this year. Before the damage, it wasn't really that fast. Well, you're talking about Team Penske, which brings me to Joey Logano, finishing 38th. It had a left front tire that brings out the caution lap 61. It's been a tough go for that 22. Yeah, and they actually qualified okay. Qualified good, actually.

And, you know, it just, it never really got to a point after that first pit stop to where they were back in contention to really do anything. I'm not sure, you know, what cut the tire down right there. But that definitely put a damper in just. Joey's, the rest of Joey's day. But yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be an uphill battle for him. You know, I think that the 22 is probably in the worst spot of the bunch, just with the expectations to race for a championship.

And they're on the outside of the chase looking in. And it's, the expectations are to race for a championship. And if you're not in the top six, you're not racing for a championship. And, you know, I think that those, those hopes, are probably becoming a reality. The reality of the situation is they're probably not going to contend for the championship. They might make the chase and they might turn their season around, but I don't see them contending for the championship.

30th or worse in the last four races for Team 22. Yeah, I mean, I think this is a year that we've never really seen out of Penske in a long time, let alone Joy Lagano, maybe almost ever, maybe back to when he was a rookie. So then their expectation is to win races, run up front, lead lap, sit on poles, do all the things. And they're not doing any of that right now. No. They haven't done it all year. The 12 has had the most speed.

Obviously, we've talked about it countless times out of the whole group. Not the last three weeks. But the last couple weeks, it hasn't been the same as it was at the beginning of the year. So they really got to kind of buckle down. Like this is the time of year. It's usually Coke 600 time where they really start to turn up the wick. So I hope they have that magic because if they don't, it's. going to be. And that's usually where you see the engine upgrades. That's usually where you see

everybody put the effort in all-star races this weekend. But all the effort is actually to get better is going to go into the Coke 600. Yeah. Well, I was about to ask, Kevin, at what point, because we haven't seen this system in a while, this type of system in a while, at what point do you think the team start really focusing on the horses that they got in the race as far as the best upgrades, the best cars and all those type of stuff? Like at what point do you kind of All right, guys. Tough question now. Yeah.

It's a tough question now because when are you actually out of it? Right? Like, you know, that's the great part of racing this way. Yeah. You can't pick a horse. Yeah. You got to put everything you've got into every horse because of the fact that you want to, first you want them to make Chase, which, you know, you look at the 19, Chase Briscoe and the 22

and the one of Ross Justine. Like those, those are cars that are expected. to make the chase. And they're expected in the 22's case. And I think even in Chase Briscoe's case, those cars are expected to race for a championship. And right now they're racing to make the chase. That is not the accomplishment that you want to have.

You know, it's definitely a balancing act as to, you know, who you can put all that effort in because Chase needs to make up a lot of ground. You want your other guys to race for a championship. And that's what I love. I love the fact that they can't choose a car. They have to work every single week. There are no weeks off. And no matter if you're in the top six or your 17th or 18th in the points.

So you have to equally allocate the resources. Oh, it's harder on the teams. Yeah. You can't just pick a car and say, we need to get this guy win. Yeah, right, right. And that's really what the Penske cars have kind of done the last few years. They get them. You know, we've seen them off to a slow start with the 22.

But now you know, you can't pick and choose and try to say, okay, we got to get a win. Now we got to win so we can just get to the playoffs and have our stuff together. You're going to be so far behind by the time you get to the chase with this format, that you're not winning. You're not contending for the championship. Speaking of having your stuff together, someone in the infield did not because Akasha came out for a flying tent. This is kind of entertaining one of the first times we've seen this.

Our camera crew did a great job capturing this, by the way. Oh, we had the whole thing. We had liftoff. We had the flight. We had the landing. We didn't land on the moon, but we landed in turn four. You said the person claimed it. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You see it take off right here. And the drivers were actually talking about the wind gusting. Just a crazy gust came through there for a couple minutes. And you saw this what looks like a single. Looks like a UFO called me there. Single person's tent actually landed and then took back off. maybe the guys in a safety truck

were asleep should have reached out and grabbed that thing but it caused the caution which was fine helped the show I saw NASCAR KazKazim said it was a demented from Harry Potter I thought that was cute

Kevin that's one of the bad animal beasts I've not watched one second I know that's why I was out of please fill me in yeah it's just one of the villains in Harry Potter don't yeah it did look like that though

that was good writing out of Dave Aribal this was an odd exchange after the race. Bubba Wallace frustrated with Christopher Bell, which was over pit road, I guess, coming to pit lane. Did we believe that's what? This is one of those scenarios like last week where we couldn't really figure out what sent priests over the edge. Now I watched the sequence that they showed of Bubba,

knowing that he was going to pit and getting passed by three or four cars because Bell passed him. But man, I don't, not really sure. it looked like he was pretty mad but it was definitely a situation that he was not happy with so probably a lot more details to go with it but yeah we don't know

Christopher Bell just kind of took it Christopher he did that that was the same thing that when him and Kyle Bush got into it at Cota it was kind of like he doesn't strike me as a confrontation he's not really a grab you collar guy he's not a Kung Fu Ninja no he's not that he's not gonna

he's not a Kevin he's not jumping over no he's not jumping over any over any hoods and grab them about a call it that's you know that's another car that just didn't I really thought would would be and you know have a little more speed than what it's had they've had some bad luck 20 20 of bell

I thought that they would be better than they were but they were not they were not great I've seen great from them yet oh well we've seen great we were great at Kansas racing for the win off of turn two we were great at Texas leading the race crashed okay so not we

but they yeah We got that thing out over there? Yeah. Yeah, they were great at those races. And it seems like every time they're great, they wind up crashed or something happening. So they've had a lot of bad luck. And sometimes that bad luck, I mean,

this is a confidence game. When you don't have that confidence to go out and get through a weekend like Watkins Glen where you've got to be confident in what you're doing, you know, sometimes it shows up in the speed of the car. Someone who probably has a lot of confidence right now, seemingly so anyway, is Caden Honeycutt after winning four races for the course of the weekend, won the ARCA race on Friday.

A few hours later earned his first career victory in the Craftsman Truck Series. He has been very vocal about the fact he needed to learn how to win these races. Well, he made a pretty big statement over the course of the weekend because then he went on to win as well and cars. Yeah, he won both cars tours races after he won the ARCA and truck race. And what great feat with everything that he did. this weekend. And he got out after the cars to a race and told everybody he screamed that he was the greatest and nobody was ever going to beat him. So maybe we've learned how to win. Now we got to, now we got to learn how to manage the PR side of it.

Yeah, a lot of confidence there. Hey, you know, it's tough when you got to live up to it. Yeah, you know, but, you know, he did something that no one's, we haven't seen anyone doing to why. It was so great. Um, shout out to Caden because he really, he's one of those guys that kind of bet on himself and started working in shops and sweeping floors and looking for any opportunity. And he's got it.

I think he won a snowball derby not too long ago. He did. You don't even have to tell anybody you're the greatest. You're showing it. Yeah. And you got into the truck that Corey Heim exited. And that's a lot of pressure on that. And that's pressure by itself.

And you've been living up to it. You might not want to race, but you've been racing against people like Corey a lot and other people. So the coolest thing about the road course win was Conner Zilch was in it. SVG was in it and AJ Almondinger was in it. And those are three of the best that we've ever seen on road course. And you were able to go toe to toe with that and won. So congrats on that.

Good job for Caden Honeycutt. Banner Weekend for him. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, Peace contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Now we are moving on to the Monster Mile for the All-Star Race. This is going to be interesting, the Concrete Oval, obviously. Is Dover, you think, the right place for the All-Star race, Kevin? Yeah, look, I think that we've seen a number of places that we go that we're like, I don't know.

And then it turns into this wacky, crazy, wild entertaining event. The thing that I like about the All-Star races is there's a lot of money on the line. You can win a million dollars. That's right. But the teams and the drivers know that there's no, you can take a lot of risk and gain a lot of reward, but you can also not lose anything. You can lose it. Yeah.

So you can go for it. And, you know, this is not a race that, the racetrack that is going away. This is a racetrack that's, you know, that's going to be on this. schedule, whether it's a points race or in this year's instance, an all-star race. You know, they're going to put resin all over the racetrack. We did that at Nashville a few years ago, and it really rubbered the racetrack up well, which is the intention of trying to put the resin down. And I think that you could see it be very different than what it has been in the past because of that kind of that unique twist to things that we're going to do this weekend.

And so that was very interesting when we went to Nashville and they did that to the racetrack because you went out and they ran and the next thing you know, you're like five lanes up the racetrack and it really rubbered the racetrack in until you can sweep it all you want, until you have the race cars pulling everything out of that surface and really getting it cleaned up and getting the rubber on there. That's the only way that you're going to get it to that point. So my favorite part of this is with that fresh resin and everything. everything is Clint Boyer is running the truck race.

And my guy is not prepared. There's nothing to prepare for with the team. They don't have simulation. Has he been working out? No. Oh. No. I don't.

I think he just realized the reality of what's getting ready to happen this weekend. It's a 200 lap race? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's something like that. Yeah, something like that. I know that it's the first time ever that everybody from Fox will be together watching a truck race.

usually everybody kind of goes in their different direction after we get done we watch it on TV there is no way that we're not watching this in person because all we want to do is be able to give Clint Boyer a whole truckload full of shit when he's done so he better hope that he overachieves or he is never going to hear the end of it are there some bets being placed on this possibly yeah there possibly could be some bets on whether he stays on the lead lap yeah yeah when he's yeah we're not when We're not betting on the finish or anything. We're betting on Clint or a guy.

Oh, yeah. We're just having friendly bets amongst each other. Friendly bets, yeah. Yeah. So. And it will be interesting. You'll be out there, I'm assuming, for. Nope.

Oh, I thought you're a rammon. Nope, nope, not this weekend. We're not taking, we don't have the display out there. So I will be in Charlotte. Cool. You can come take notes with me then. Oh, yeah. So are we having a, are we having like a party this weekend?

I think we're taking the weekend off. We're taking the weekend off. What? There are no weekend. I hate that word. Listen, there is nothing that I hated. We're so and so. They're on vacation.

I'm like, what? If you're going to be on a race team or in racing, there are no vacations. We got a big, we got a lot. We got a lot. We got a dual situation at 600. So just trying to, trying to gear up. It means we got a little tailgate going on outside of the racetrack, the 600. And then we got our party at hopping for there.

Where do you tailgate at the 600? I think we're going to tailgate this year outside of turn four. On the backside of turn four. I can't remember the last time I tailgated that or is. What is on the backside of turn four? People. Just people. Just people.

Is that where they have the like the college section over there in turn four? It used to be over there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can find Mamba with the college girls. Yeah. We'll be waiting to hear the update on that story.

What is? I mean, only guy over there with a gray beard. No, I won't be. That's not true. But yeah. There's a lot of gray in that beard. So you might want to color that up. No, no, no.

Get you a Sharpie or something. If I color it, I put more grays in it if I could. That's how Hornaday used to do it. Are you serious? You would take the gray hairs and he'd take his Sharpie. No, he would not. That is hilarious. 100%.

It's kind of genius. Only if your hair is jet black. If your hair is jet black. You can do touchups while you're signing autographs. I don't know. That's as jet black as you can jet it. My hair is dark. So Sharpie would work fine.

Yeah, Sharpie would do the trick. It would be fine. I want to go back to something, though, Kevin, quickly. Extreme banking. High G forces. How is this one of the most physically demanding racetracks? It's a great track. And typically the harder you drive it into the corner, the faster you go. If your car will take it. A lot of unique scenarios because as you go into turn one, you actually fall down like eight, ten stories as you go from the rise and the straightaway down into the corner. And that is a cool feeling. And then it just loads up into that banking. Very unique. And actually, I'll give Boyer some credit here.

He's really, really good at Dover, but because it's a very unique way of going back to the throttle. You'll actually land and go back to either a little bit of partial throttle, and then you'll put the throttle down until you get to like the three-quarter mark of the corner to take all that speed through that middle section of the corner and then lift again so that the nose doesn't take off up off the corner. Because when you come off a two, it does the same thing. It rises back up and that car has a tendency to jump up and get loose. or but you just don't want the car to take off because if it gets tight and then it goes over

that rise you're going to smack the fence and turn three is a little bit different really rough on the entry to the corners so you got to you got to especially in the cup car you got to pay attention to how those limiters are set so that the car we've seen a lot of cars get on those liminers and back it back it into the fence but um resin it's going to change it's going to it's going to create some things that we're that we're not expecting and that is yet to be seen. Definitely going to see some some cars jump out of turn to get real light and either hit the wall get close to the wall over correct and then it's a self what we call it self cleaning race track. Usually if you hit the outside wall you're going to hit the inside wall and then you might

blow back up in the middle of straight away and get hit by a couple cars. So it's usually a two or three impact. Yeah. Drivers will have their hands full. This is the format for the All Star Race this year. It's nearly almost a 400 lap race. 350 total, 275 lap segments. The top 26 inversion will take place after segment one. And then there will be a final 200 lap segment to the finish. What do you make of this format? Well, you know, I think that we're always trying to get creative with the all-star format.

So I think that you just never know how it's going to work out. Right. And I think that you want to give the fans a race that is long enough to be able to sit there and watch it. So I like having all the cars to start and being able to do that part of it. So it'll be interesting to see what that last segment looks like with everything being that long. So that's a long way that Dover. That is a long ways at Dover.

People talk about, you know, it's only a mile, but 200 laps of Dover is a long ways. I hope we keep doing this change up with the All-Star Race and the venue, the venue change. Where do you think it should be next year? Oh, man. I honestly would love if, I don't care which one of them, but somehow we get to some of these short tracks. Like we did, like, obviously, North Wilkesboro type thing. So whether it's like a hickory or South Boston or something like that,

I think that would be really cool. I think it'd be great back at Bowman Gray. Bowman, you, oh, the All-Star Race? That'd be cool. Put it in a time of year that the weather's actually going to be. You have a better chance of having the weather right. Get the clash back to Daytona. Let's get speed weeks back.

together and doing all the things. That's what I'd like to see. Have you ever noticed that Kevin will ask you something because he is ready to say. No, I know why he's asking. Well, I want to agree with him, but very rarely. That's cool. I think it should be here. He didn't say it and he started rambling and I'm like, look, here's what I think.

Yeah, he wants speed. He wants preseason thunder. He wants the whole class. He wants everything back in day. Hey, quickly for you, though, because I know you just had a conversation with a pit crew member, there's still a factor, obviously, for the All-Star Race. playing a role. Yeah, so they, yeah, called shout out Paul Swan. So I called Paul

because we were curious about some stuff. He's on the three car. So basically it's what we had last year. You know, the drivers are going to be involved with the pit crew challenge, getting down pit road, getting off pit road, making their complete lap. And then, you know, for qualifying. And pit crews are going to be

fast. Stop. Go get it. The cash. That's right. Go get it. And the trophy. And the trophy. It'll be cool. It's always a neat event, cool, marquee weekend as well. It's fun. pressure. The Pickrow Challenge is one of my was always one of my favorite parts of the kid watching. It's just so unique. I'm still lobbying for it

to return to what it used to be in Speed Channel days. You mean when it was in the spectrum center? It was its own event. It was pretty cool. When it was in Spectrum Center, that was awesome. They would push the car. Oh, man, that was sick. It was just something different to showcase their abilities. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, that's going to be the All-Star Race. We look

look forward to seeing how it all goes down in Delaware. And now it is your turn to do the slapy Sips. A-O! Slappy Sips. I like it. Wait, what was the other nickname? Pinky up. No. No.

No. We don't have time to go through nicknames. Slappy dingo. Slappy and dingo. It is your favorite time of the show where Caitlin and Kevin have to shut up and it's all about me, baby. Let's go. Mama's Social Sips. We're going to start with the word of the week.

Run it. Here comes Bush to the inside of Wallace. Yeah, and Kyle Bush has quietly had a pretty good day to start this race trying to ameliorate his situation from last week to put himself in a better spot to get a good finish. Had a little hiccup in there. A little jaw slapping. What does that even mean? It means you have to correct a bad situation.

Yeah. Get the best out of a bad situation. But you said Mike Joy, like, gave you a little tap to let you know you got it. Yeah, good job. And Clint's like, ooh. I don't know what would happen. English is hard. English is hard.

We're getting to the end of it. So I had to make sure I got in like one more real good. Yeah. So are we doing one this week? Yeah, we have to. You're on TV, right? I mean, as far as I know. Yeah.

You should still make him do one when he does the truck races too. Oh. Yeah. Because you'll be doing San Diego. I'm going to do the San Diego. Oh, okay. Maybe we'll do San Diego. Oh, you are?

That's exciting. Maybe we'll throw it to you. Oh, hell no. You can't do it. That's even better. You messed up. That would be really hard. We don't like have a lot of time.

No, that would be great though. of like your pre-race interview, you had to just slip a word in there. And whoever you interview and looked at you, like, what does that mean? Yeah. Oh, boy. A lot of boyers.

To be determined on if that's a good plan. No, we're going to know. You shouldn't have said anything. Now you're locked in. This week, there's a lot of talk. A lot of talk about the most popular driver. Yeah. Who has been the same person for almost the entire time I've been in NASCAR.

But someone had on NASCAR read it, they were like, oh, what about cars and Holsovar? And so can Carson Holtzvur win most popular driver if Cletus is backing him? Cletus has a huge following. We all know that. Millions of people. And then Dale Jr. said Cletus would have to have a campaign on social daily to make it competitive, which basically saying like no way, no shot. And then somebody, Michael Carrington says, comes at Dale, says, you don't know that.

You're just dismissing him and it's clear disrespect to have, based on the way you spell Clemson. This is Cletus wrong on purpose. I'll reiterate that you don't know because the numbers aren't released publicly unless they're released to you. Is that what you're saying? And here's the thing. The guy has won it a bunch of times. So I'm pretty sure he knows. And that's exactly what he said.

That's a mic drop right now. He goes, I won it 15 times. And I have a solid understanding of how it works, but like. Yeah. Shut up basically. And like I think I think it would be so hard. Like Cletus has a lot of following. Absolutely.

And, you know, Carson has a lot of motion right now. You know what I mean? But I don't know. Beating a Chase Elliott situation is tough. Yeah. I mean, I would say Kyle Larson has a better chance of beating Chase Elliott. But on a year that he's winning and got everything rolling, he might have a chance. I mean, based upon the souvenir sales and things that happen out front, he's actually beat Chase Elliott a few times in souvenir sales out front.

But now Chase Elliott is winning. So, I don't know. Tough hill. I'd say that's a tough hill to climb. And look, Carson's doing a great job. I mean, he is clearly engaging with the fans and the fans are reacting to the things that he's doing, but he's not winning the most popular driver.

He's won one race, and he's got a, he's a great young man that is building a brand, and people are intrigued. And I think that is great to have that interaction. To this guy, free roll the top. was his handle, by the way. Oh, okay. Why are you going to pick a fight?

You got this ax to grind with Dale Jr. About that. It's one of the most popular driver. It's one the most popular driver 15 times. That seems like maybe don't go there. Yeah, I would probably just leave that word out there. Yeah. You know.

You never know. Kate and Honeycutt. We talked about him early on in the show, one. But he's been saying for a few races, whenever he does win, he was going to have a shotgun with the fans. Now, this is not exactly a shotgun. No.

But he had a nice bush latte nonetheless. And chugged that beer at the group. Yeah. The best shot hunter. I wouldn't say that was chugged. I was. He should call... You missed a little bit.

Mrs. Larson. That's what I was just going to say. Oh, okay. Shotgun, sweetie. If you're going to chug a beer, you're going to have to do it better than that. That was awful. He basically just poured it on his face. He pulled a stone cold customer.

A lot of adrenaline. I mean, he did it a little bit. I mean, that was bad. He did it a little bit better at the cars tour race, and he actually went into the grandstands, like he said, he was going to, but you're going to have to, you're going to have, if that's going to be your thing, you're going to have to do it

way better than that. Remember when Caitlin did it at the banquet after? Oh, yeah. That girl is a freaking rock star when it comes to chugging him here. Caitlin Lawson is a G. Straight up gangster. She goes to the racetrack, does so much with the high limit stuff. Mother and the kid, like, supporting Kyle, like,

the whole thing. Yeah. Shock and sweet. Sorry, hijacked your sips. No, you didn't hijack. You just added two. You added two. And just like you did with this sips,

because this is one of Caitlin that she saw. I thought it was cute. Going, needing some fan votes for the All Star Race. And I think, you know, he's doing all the things. He's kissing babies. Shaking hands. He's, you know, shaking hands, doing all the stuff. The backstory on this, I saw it was, it was just obviously at the autographed merch

hauler. Someone just put the baby over the side. And the baby. was asleep. I mean, like, never even really reacted. Yeah. If they were to saw the, if they would have saw the video of him trying to change a diaper on Bleacher Report's racing account, then they would not have handed him their baby. Yeah. Well, he's, you know, even as bad as they've run, he's got a great personality in following. He's very, he's a very likable kid. And, you know, they're getting it together.

I wonder what the age gap is on the baby and him. Correct. Is it? 17 years. It's probably almost closer than him and Denny. Yeah. Honestly. Oh, you're right.

Yeah, what's, Denny's what? 40. Yeah, that is closer. He's closer to the same age as that baby than he just diddy him. That's the point I was just trying to. That's awesome. Well, there you have it. Mom is social tips.

That's all we got for today. Remember if you want to do a mailbag, Harvick Happy Hour 4 at gmail.com, voicemail 805-317-4-175. I love you closers. Nice touch. Okay, time now for the last call. And Carson Hosevar had one of the best burnouts of the year, but where does this one rank you think for Mr. SVG?

Well, I think the burnout was really good. And we always talk about SVG's showmanship. He gets the fact that, you know, you've got to put on a show. When you win, everybody wants to see, they want to be entertained, and they want to see how happy you are. And he did some great burnouts. The only person who didn't like his burnouts was Richard Childress, because it was on the rev limiter the whole time

and those are his engines in that car but he burn it to the ground until the tires popped right here. Got the left rear against the wall, gave some high fives, but... How is he able to get... It seems like he does something different that allows so much smoke.

He always has it just... Yeah. Well, you got to run it in second gear. Oh, okay. Yeah, if you want a lot of smoke, you got to put it in a gear that's not first. Yeah, okay. That was a big part of it.

I can't remember who was doing it the other day and they tried, they were definitely in first gear. Oh, I think it was Chase maybe. Was it Chase? Yeah, Texas. Yeah, well, he's done him enough. He should know better than that. I don't think it was him.

I think it was a truck race or a fitting race. Oh, oh, you meant, yeah. O'Reilly, whatever they call it. But yeah, good burnout, solid. I had a little showmanship to it. Kick the football. The rugby ball. I got, I got bashed a little bit for calling it a football.

It's not a football. Hell, I don't even know that I've ever watched a rugby game. I know I have not. Yeah. I mean, I've seen some highlights. of them smashing into each other, but I don't know. Rugby, I don't know anything about you. I don't have any disrespect towards you. I thought it was a football. It's rugby ball. Looks the same to me, kind of, not really. We call it soccer. They call it football. So I don't know

what the hell to call it. Yeah. Well, well, yeah. Where did we land this plane on the grade? I'd say it's top three. Top three for SBG. Very nice. What would that be? Yeah, it's probably like a B plus. Okay. You're not getting a host of our grade. No. No. Who was in front of... Oh, I guess Tyler Reddick was in front of Holtovar with the reverse burnout. Yeah.

That was... Okay, so this is below the Tyler Redick's right. Okay. Yeah, we're definitely below that. Okay. I've lost track. I can't remember. No, I just know the top three and that's all that matters.

Okay, great. Keep track of that. I got you. Yeah. Speaking of the top three, I am currently at the bottom of the group in the standings on the points because I got zero for picking Chris Busher. Who's winning? And right now, that's Mumbo on the screen.

You see that? They put Mumbo in there. Mumbo. Did they? I love it. No, that's the right. No, that's the right one. No, that's not, that's not the AI version. That's me.

That's me. That's me. Yeah, we do need Mumbo. I like the Mumbo picture. Yeah, he's an old. Give me a couple, give me about 12 more years. He's an elder statesman. Yeah.

44 points right now for Mamba. Picked up six for Tyler Reddick. Of course, Kevin got 10. After you guys took a race away from me. It's a close race, though, because you're only one point ahead of me, Momba's at a three. You took a week off. Yeah, you guys gave me a week off to make it close. No, we didn't give you.

You took it. No. Yeah. I am 100% willing to participate. I wasn't invited to participate because both of you know that you're going to lose. I don't think that's how it works. Oh, no, you are 100% a part of this. The fans, listen, the fans at the racetrack are very supportive in the fact that you need to stop crying about this.

They've been telling me that it's not my fault that you didn't show up. Don't you have another vacation plan that we need to make sure we get your selection? I do, but I'll be in the studio in L.A., so. Oh, okay. Yeah. So he says that so smugly, like, you fuckers can't miss it. That's right. Okay, guys, let's make some picks for the All-Star race. Who wants to go first? Well, you take the top honors. You're P-1. Yeah. Is that how that works? That's how it works. I don't even think you thought about it until just now. Honestly, I didn't usually. I just wait for you guys to go. Okay, well, I have mine written down. Okay. I have question you. Ryan Blaney. That's my choice for the All-Star win.

I did some research on this, and there's a reason behind it. He's been decent. He's been pretty good. Okay. Okay. What do you say? I'm going to take Danny Hamlin. I had that name also written down.

That's funny. I was trying to debate between the two. There you go. Hamlin. I'm going to go Bubba Wallace. Bubble Wallace. This is one of his favorite tracks, one of his better tracks. Toyota's a, I mean, I just feel like it.

Tell him to call you back. It's hard. Yeah, he doesn't need to call me back. We have some things to talk about. But no, I'm going to Baba. And they really, it'd be a real good shot in the arm for them. Yeah. Yes, it would.

Good luck. We'll see how it all goes down up in Dover. And we look forward to Thursday because you had a conversation with Daniel Suarez. I did. Yeah. I just, I thought it would be a good time to sit down and talk to Daniel because of the, you know, they've run well, switching teams and all the things that he's gone through. all the comments that he and Ross kind of threw back and forth. He gave us some great insight

on things. And we got we got kind of off the rails a little bit on Mexico and Brazil on their NASCAR series and the things that that need to be better to get more opportunities to come to America and showcase who the great drivers are. So I thought it was pretty intriguing just to hear him talk about maybe wanting to manage drivers or to help consult in a series because he's got a great perspective on all that. So we went down some of the normal stuff and then we got off the rails and had some fun on a great conversation.

That'll be interesting. He's been a cool story so far this year. He's such a great guy. He is. He's awesome. We look forward to that. All right, closers, make sure you subscribe on our new YouTube channel.

Follow us at Harvick HappyPod. We will see everyone after the All-Star weekend. The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming live on Fox One, the official English streaming platform to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox One brings the action straight to your screen so you never miss a goal. Download Fox One and experience the FIFA World Cup live.