Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - William Byron Advances to the Championship 4! Martinsville Recap & NASCAR Playoff Debate Heats Up

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith break down an unforgettable weekend at Martinsville Speedway, where William Byron’s thrilling victory clinched his spot in the Championship 4. The crew dissects Byron’s pass on Ryan Blaney, the engine issues for Joe Gibbs Racing, and what it all means heading into the title race in Phoenix. They preview the Championship 4 battle between Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Chase Briscoe, and Kyle Larson, discussing the pressure, momentum, and what’s truly at stake for each contender. Then, things get lively as the team debates whether NASCAR should overhaul its playoff format following another wild postseason. Mamba delivers the week’s best social moments in Social Sips, and the show wraps up with burnout grades for Byron and Championship predictions in Last Call. LINK TO SUBMIT PICKS FOR PHOENIX: https://forms.gle/VRyHMpj8cGTBsWCK8 0:00 - Intro 1:42 - Martinsville Recap 29:51 - Playoff Standings Debate 40:25 - Championship 4 Preview 49:30 - Mamba’s Social Sips 53:47 - Last Call! 57:07 - Submit Picks For Phoenix GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Terms: draftkings.com/sportsbook. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Sponsored by DK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All four of them can win the championship. They had nothing but Phoenix to focus on. And they were a bag of asses. I don't want to be a sport. I want to be a racing series. I believe in what I'm saying. We all kind of believe the same thing. There just needs to be a change.

I think the best thing for NASCAR is if Denny Hamlin wins the championship and Jim Franz has to hand in the trophy. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Bensie and the Chief Hype Officer. He's got it on his jacket today. Very nice. Gold. Gold. Yeah, this is my championship edition jacket.

So you're going to wear that this weekend at Driver & Chos? Yeah, it has a big championship program on the back. Really? Yeah. Mamba had that text fired off to me and Kevin, like, immediately. Oh, yeah. What text? Was that? The Shack one? Yeah.

Yeah. Got you. Well, it's good news, bad news, that I picked with you to be on defense. Bad news is my guy got eliminated. Your guy did get eliminated. Listen, man, that's not the Kevin. Harvey way. Kevin Harvick is an offensive race car driver in person. You play defense. That's not your style, bud.

That's not what you do. Take to what you do. I got off my game. You did. I got off my game. That's what happens when you get scared. Well, good job. Out of you. You got lucky. Yeah, maybe. Maybe the pole was luck. Maybe the 305 laps lead was luck. Maybe the fastest lap was luck. But winning the race wasn't lucky.

I didn't say they got lucky. I said you had the brains to get lucky enough to pick them. He's trying to differentiate. Yeah, as you can see. How was your weekend in Marnsville? It was cold. It was cold. It was freezing.

And I didn't, and like, so I did practice and qualifying. And so I didn't really think about it. Yeah. Hey, thanks. It was okay. Average. That's baby steps. Usually it's below average, so we're getting up there.

And I didn't really think about it. Usually I have like an undershirt because the shirts that we have, I sweat through that thing. Because it's hot, usually. And it was cold. I'm like, oh, be fine. And then it got too cold. Yeah. And I'm like, we're going to have to go about here up.

You guys don't mind above the chest? Just the, you know, shoulders up on this shot, please. Button, top button? Yeah, always, yeah. The top button, yeah. He had his shirt button, then his chain hanging out. Yeah, chain gang. Nice.

I wasn't in Martinsville. I went up to the mountains with my kids. I know, I saw that. You have fun? Yeah, it was good. Somebody asked me if I was, no, it wasn't actually. Really? It was very pleasant.

I took them to a Halloween fest and this woman stopped me she's like, are you Beth Dutton? I'm like, no, this is just what I look like. I'm not dressed up in costume. If you're going to be compared to somebody, I don't know who that is, but it sounds like it's a good couple.

You haven't watched Yellowstone? No, I don't watch that. Oh, my heavens. Oh, that, from that. Are you kidding? Actually, I understand. Now I know the reference and that's a good one.

Yeah. I've never watched a show, but I know who that is. But yeah, so it was interesting and it was fun. How was your weekend? My weekend was good. We went to Bakersfield, California. We went and raced the super late models out there this weekend at Kern. How'd they go?

It went good. Yeah, it was a badass race. The groove spread out three lanes. And I was running the top. And Keelan showed up out of nowhere. And then Jace Hansen from Colorado, he was racing for the Super Late Model Championship in the Carstere West. And we wound up with a hell of a race there at the end. And it came to the white.

Keelan was below him. I was in the third lane. They got together off the corner, and I ran down on a turn three on Jason's bumper. Keelan spun out. It was wild. He got loose and kind of bounced off his door. And as he tried to correct it, it kind of came back this way. And he said it was pointed to the wall, so he just locked it left.

And instead of coming back up the racetrack. So it was awesome. Eventually. Yeah. Jace Hansen. He won by that much. Yeah. So it was cool.

He was in full. defense, but he needed to lead the most laps. He came in like six points behind. Okay. But he's a good dude. And everybody, everybody raced hard. I'm just glad that you finally finished one, you know, with a good finish. Like, yeah, I had the best car at the end. You didn't? I just, those guys were so Keelan's super aggressive. And he made me uncomfortable a few times with just how he would come up off the corner. And I'm like, I'm not wrecking both cars right here. And Jace was in defense mode because of the fact that he obviously wanted to win the race, didn't know where everybody else was, needed to win the race.

So he was in defensive mode. So I'm the old guy back here like, ah. The old guy. I'm not sure that that's like, I'm not sure. Adding up the dollar amount for the two cars plus. The thing that a lot of those guys don't understand about that high groove, I'm going so much faster than they are. And I know that the spotters, some of them are like not going to say anything.

You can wreck quick in those instances. So I was pretty cautious around them. Is that place progressive banking? It is not, but nobody's ever run that high. And it is a solid three lanes up the racetrack right now. So it was, we got out afterwards. And everybody was like, oh, my God, we didn't even realize there was a lane up there. I'm like, that's because nobody's ever tried.

Yeah. Well, now, new story. That's right. Well, that's good. Yeah, it was fun. Good weekend out there in Bakersfield. Welcome in to episode 76, if you guys can believe that. We are down to the wire, final race of the year.

Did you get everything you desired out of that elimination race in Martinsville? I thought it was really good. All eight of those guys, for the most part, at some point, we're in contention to have a shot to run up front. I think that really, Bell, I guess I shouldn't say eight. I should say six. The six of those guys, because you could tell Hamlin was somewhat cautious around Bell and his teammates and championship guys.

I think that Briscoe probably never really, I mean, he was there. He was like 10th place speed maybe. And so, but the other six guys, I mean, they showed up and kind of threw it all out there as we saw at the end with the final pass. And then they had the final restart. And so it was a very entertaining race. I thought that the left side tire or change worked. I think that, you know, you've seen that at Loudon and it didn't really do what it did at Martinsville. but Martinsville's not Loudoun, and that's what we talk about on here all the time.

I mean, you know, it's almost like we need to have different tire combinations for more racetracks like we used to. It's not as efficient as it needs to be for good year, but I'm tired hearing about the word efficiency anyway. I want the racing to be as good as it can, and I'm here to critique it and throw costs out the window. They can figure out. They can figure out the costs. And so, you know, I think that the left side tire did a great job in creating the falloff that we needed, the tire wear and everything, everything that we saw. So I thought it was a good weekend. There you go.

You agree? Yeah, I mean, look, the 24 and Warren and Rudy Fugel and that whole group, they had had a horrendous round and not by their own doing, right? Like, it's just how it's just how it works. It's just how it works. You can do everything right sometimes and it's still not good enough. That's right. But what it did was it put their backs against the wall,

and they kind of knew that going into Vegas. I think Kim Kuhn had an interview with, or talk to Rudy and Rudy was like, we looked at after Vegas, what happened in Vegas, we were like, Martinsville's our championship. Because Talladega, whatever can happen is never happen.

But they went into leaving Vegas, like, we got to put all our ducks, all our eggs in that basket at Martinsville. And look, it was, they did. And so did everybody else. And that's what made it great. I agree. Because you absolutely had to do it.

Like, and they raced great. They raced respectful and hard. And it wasn't like, like a hail melon move, like even though that move at Martinsville is great, but the one at Roval, I don't love that. Like, it's an exciting highlight moment. You got to do it, though. You got to do it.

And so, I don't know, I just think that this, that is the best form of racing that we've had totality. We had two guys racing for one point. So there was strategy in what they were doing, but they had to push. Yeah. And then they got back in the pack and it was like, man, if someone wrecks in front of them, they're cooked. The key to take out of these moments for me for the competitors,

like when I look at William Byron, for instance, in his team, and you look at the level that they were able to perform at and how they did it, how they prepared in the shop, the emotion, all the things that come with that, how do you do it every week? That's really what will separate one of these guys when they figure out how to be able to compete like that, on a weekly basis and not just have to ramp it up when it's time, right? And that's when you see, you know, Denny Hamlin, Joey Legano,

those guys can do it all year. Now, you've got to have the car to perform with it, but it's also how do you solve the problems faster by carrying that intensity level on a weekly basis to get the lows to last less amount of time. Yeah. And so one of these guys is going to figure that out. You know, I think that you can have bad luck and you can have slow cars, but how do you,

that intensity level is what carries those slumps and is what pushes you out of those. It's exhausting, and you could see it on William Byron's face when he got out of the car. You could see the amount of emotion and just fatigue that goes along with that. And it happens on the same guy, to the team guys as well. But when you can figure out how to perform like that and not fatigue yourself and have to deal with that mentally, better on a weekly basis, that's when one of these guys is going to break out and do

the things that a Denny Hamlin has done. That's how you go from, Kaelan, that's how you go from a three-win season to six, seven. That's right. Like, that's how that happens. I think it's very hard with this generation of racing to have an eight-win season or nine-win season.

I thought that, but I don't think so. You don't think so? You think it won't be that difficult? Our sport has evolved back into what it was? A little bit? The dominant team. Yeah.

Right? And I think that it's easier to not have it happen because it is so hard. I think it's harder to make it happen and it's more work. I think a lot of people talk about the drivers and they talk about, you know, they don't do this or they don't do that. The workload that it takes to be good that is on the engineers and the crew chief and the driver is at an all-time high. In the amount of time that it takes during the week and on the weekend with the studying, the simulator, all the things that go with it, all-time high in preparation in what it takes to be able to perform and get the most out of it because the details are so small.

Yeah. And it takes so many of them to gain an advantage that the workload is way up. And, you know, that commitment, the younger guys are going to have, you know, an easier time in doing that because a lot of them don't have a wife. Some of them don't have a wife. Some of them don't have kids. And they don't have the total circle. of life to navigate.

I mean, there's always going to be certain things that you have to navigate in that circle of life. But the problem-solving piece of it is a massive piece of the puzzle to go along with the workload that it will increase when you're out in a lull. William talked a lot about just the resiliency, of course, of the team.

You know, watching them what they did on Sunday, winning both stages, going all out for the win. How do you think he has made a statement to the other guys in the championship for? Well, I was a little concerned. there when he was behind the 12 car and, you know, I felt like he needed to be more aggressive. During that at the end of the race. At the end of the race, while he was on his back bumper, I felt like he needed to be more

aggressive at that time. And I think he realized it because when he got the next opportunity, he took it. And I think that he, when he made that pass three wide on the bottom going around Ty Dillon there, I think he realized that if he waited around, in those moments you can't wait. You can't say, well, I'm just going to ride right here. and, you know, I want to wait until it's in to go. That's not how it works. And when the 12 started to drive away from him,

I know Rudy said, hey, you know, take care of your tires right here. But I felt like that he needed to do that. I think that he realized that when he got the next opportunity, he better make it happen like he did right here. Yeah, I think it's ironic that it was a 10 that cost, that was involved with costing him a lot of points at Vegas, and then it was a 10 here at Martin's Road. Kind of was, you just,

It's mind his own business, but was a part of it for this past. I thought that the pass was just hard racing. And obviously, Ryan said that same thing. I mean, two guys going after it. That's what we want to see. I would never, I would hope that no one would be, like, mad about how that pass was made. That short track racing and that there was Cuth and racecraft to it. And, you know, you got to give Ryan in that 12 group, Jonathan Hassler and Team Pansky

because the 22 had moments too. but they brought a piece that could win the race. And they were in position to win the race, and they did everything right too. I will say it wasn't as in dominant win the race form as it was last year. No, no, but that's where the other guys getting better, too. Yeah.

And I just, you know, I think that some of that Penske magic, you know, from the speed and kind of fizzled out compared to the competition this year as far as where Gibbs and Hendrick had been, And Hendrick has made a great evolution through the playoffs to get themselves back in contention with whatever they started at St. Louis and the things that have progressed since then. Since then, the speed has gotten better. So they got to Martinsville, which is historically a great racetrack for them. But compared to the 12, I felt like they've kind of leveled that playing field as far as the

progression through the playoffs compared from last year to this year. But the 12 still brought a car capable of winning just not as dominant as it was last year. I think Jesse Saunders, the car chief for Kyle Larson, told me, I think it was maybe at New Hampshire because we were talking about, they felt like they, after Gateway, they did that test. They felt like they really found some things

that were going to help them. It didn't show, you saw it a little bit at Gateway. I think you saw it more, I like a Martinsville. Like after I had more time to work on it and keep going down the direction. And obviously they worked because the nine was fast. So fast at the beginning of that race.

The 24 obviously won the race. They brought cars that were one of those guys were going to win one way or another. All the must win guys were super competitive in the beginning. All the teams that were in must win situation right up there in the front. Yeah.

And when I was watching the race at the beginning, I was like, man, this nine car is really good. And to me, I was worried. Yeah. Because when you have a car that's that good at Martinsville at the beginning of the race, usually it's not as good at the end. It's so cold.

It just changes so much. And, you know, the progression of the racetrack and whose car is really good at the end of the race is typically not the same. Byron was good from start to finish. The 12 was good from start to finish. But that's hard to do at that track. And 22 kind of he wasn't as good at the end as he was at the beginning of the race. So I think the five, when he realized how much he was better than the 20, 20 didn't really. ever show up at the front of the pack.

He kind of... You got to like seventh? Yeah, six-sevenths. Six-seven. Yeah. Six-seven. Yeah. But he kind of stayed in that fifth to seventh part of the, part of the, part of the pack.

And I think that the five knew that if they didn't do anything wrong, they were going to stay in front of him. So he didn't really need to be aggressive at any point because of the amount of stage points and things that he was gathered. exactly what he needed to do. Yeah. Did you hear Larson say 6-7 on the radio last week? A couple of weeks.

Yeah, it was hilarious because then like there was a pause and then Cliff comes on and says, what was that? You said we didn't really catch what you were saying. Tide gives to the same thing because the six and the seven were in line, I guess a couple of times with each other. So the spot was like, all right, six, six in line with seven.

Yeah, six seven. Like it's like so dumb. It's a stupidest thing ever. It's so dumb, but it's like now it's like stuck in your head. What does it mean? No one knows what it means. I just Googled it over the weekend because my,

My daughter was saying... Were you more confused? No, it just kind of means like right on. Like, cool. Like, I think that's all it means. It's like, yeah. Yeah. Now it's just annoying.

Now it's just annoying. I get so tired of hearing it at my house. I am very tired of hearing it. Mine as well. I don't hear it that much. Yeah. Yeah. So Kyle Larson advances by seven points.

I heard him say that he doesn't think the fact that he's won a championship in the past and gone through this experience before really will be an advantage to him. Do you think that's true? That's interesting. I don't think so. I think that there's a lot to navigate as far as the week and the weekend and things that are going to be annoying. You're going to have more people around you. And I think that it really is all in how you, you got to have a plan if you're going to do it well.

I think if you just go in there and wing it, I don't think you're going to get the most out of it. I think you got to have a structured plan. I think when you look at the Hendrick organization, I think that they're going to keep Byron in line. help him manage his time because that's what they do as a company anyway. I think that, you know, the pressure of the weekend is high. But I think that the biggest thing in navigating the weekend is all the things that are not in your normal routine. I think that's the hardest part. Because it's really, it is what it is, right? Like you're not trying to get there anymore. You're already there. I feel like there's only one way out and you got to probably have to focus on

winning the race if you're going to win the championship. So I think it's that part, the racing part, is actually easier to navigate than the rest of it. But I think that the whole week and everything that comes with it is harder. I don't, yeah, I mean, he says that and maybe I don't, I don't know how it wouldn't help you. You know what I mean? I just don't, it's not going to hurt him. He's not going to hurt you. Like I don't, maybe in the, his mindset is just like, well, it's just another race. And that's a very Kyle Larson way to feel

and approach it. So, but like, I, and you will approach the race that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Byron, though, like I even, I texted him and I texted Ben Proctor on and saying, like, hey, boys, where's the, where's the party at? And Ben was like,

brother, we got to build another rocket ship. Like, they're locked in today. I mean, we're recording on Monday. There was no, they were happy,

but they're laser-focused. think they've been here before and felt like they should have won a championship already. And they, I feel like they have a lot of confidence afterwards. And you can't, you don't have a lot of time, right? Like you've been preparing the Phoenix car already. But it has to leave. On Tuesday, yeah. It's got to leave on Tuesday.

So you have a short week because you have to go out west. So from a team standpoint, it's one of those weeks where you don't have time to mess around with the party or anything like that because you've got to be back at the shop and get the thing put in the trailers. So it's an interesting dynamic when you go to that championship race with everything that they make you do and all the people that show up that typically aren't at the race track that wants your time as far as appearances and things like that. Partners that aren't normally like your one-off, your one-off associate partners that maybe aren't ever a primary but are part of the team and getting it all going. Now they're there to support you and you might never, this might be one of like two times you see.

And for me, I had a family. So we would always just rent a house so that you could get away from everything, but you had everybody in one spot because being able to sit down at night and have dinner at the table at the counter, not have to go to a restaurant, not have to go see a bunch of race fans, even though we love you. But, you know, you just, you want to get away from all that to get your mind off of it. And for me, I always enjoyed that part of being able to have certain people. You had your core group people. I always had, you know, my good friends and family at the house and being able to just do something that got your mind off of it was important.

Yeah, you talk about the pressure part. And I know I'm kind of so going back. But like when they were on, when that last restart, when that last pitch stop, the money stop, I was on the edge of I see. Because my head was too. I'm like, who's going to screw up? I'm like, this is high level sports. Like this is if you are a competitor, there is nothing more that you want. than to see the whole,

every piece of the team had to work. Because also, I needed my crew chief to give me a qualifying, like, air pressure or whatever, slight adjustment so I can have that much more. And Rudy did something because the launch that he got off of two, Ryan was like, it was over after that.

But I think it goes back to even qualifying, right? When you look at getting the pole, that's really what put them in position to take advantage of that first pit stall, the whole race. lose a spot all race, I don't think. But you know, you're 3,000ths of a second, 2,000s of a second, whatever that was from losing the pole to tie Gibbs.

And that weekend, and that's what we talk about, it's every lap, every lap that you're on the racetrack matters, whether it's the first lap of practice or the last lap of the race. And that one lap, getting that pole, put them in a position to take advantage of, they didn't make any mistakes on it. But you just never know pulling out of your pit stop. whatever can happen. And so qualifying really set the tone of control in the weekend for the 24.

You guys were just talking about Pit Road. Not actually many mistakes from the pit crews yesterday. There was only one little thing with Chase Elliott, which wasn't hugely detrimental to their day either. But I was kind of surprised that we didn't see more miscues and missteps on pit road a little bit. Yeah. And even with the, you know, the Chase Elliott pit stop with the tire rolling away like it did, it was, it only cost him three or four spot.

It wasn't, and this is what we talk about all the time, is just don't have something catastrophic happen. And that's just unlucky. Like, the way when he said it, it kind of did a wobble and it went around that way. I mean, he didn't set it right, obviously, but like it could have rolled a different way. And also, he's down in the corner, right? Is he down, like, closer to turn one? So the pit road, you can kind of see it. Well, he's closer to turn four.

Turn four. Turn three. Turn three. You can see there's a little bit of, like, banking. on pit road. And from watching on TV, you wouldn't know that. But when you guys know, when you walk on there, oh, there's actually a lot more banking here than you think.

And so it kind of took the tire. But he saved it and it kept them from having a catastrophic situation. Yeah. And, you know, I think when you look at the pit stops and the high level that those pit crew guys are at, those are the moments that the guys that hadn't done it before will realize and say, okay, and their coaches, their crew chiefs, all their competition directors, those are the moments that they need to recognize

and understand from those individuals of how do we get this out of them all year? Because that's the mental preparation and the focus that you need on a weekly basis. Tough to do, though. I promise you that everybody saw that and they'll talk about it in their crew meetings or whatever they have

and practice. Hey, in these situations, that saved us. If we have that at Phoenix, you lost three or four spots. Versus not the whole. Not the whole field. I know we touched on him a little bit, but I want to go back to Christopher Bell

because he said after the race, the consistent theme was just going backwards. It was surprising to see that out of that group, given their past history at the racetrack. I'm just surprised that they missed it the way they did. Yeah, I think, you know, Ty Gibbs qualified outside the front row. But for the most part, they all kind of ran.

Race pace wasn't great. Yeah, I mean, Denny was up there. tie was up there. The race pace was, you know, at best fifth to tenth, you know, for those two cars. I felt like, you know, that they were going to, Denny was probably going to finish someone there. Ty could run right in there. That's where Christopher Bell was. Chase, I mean, they were all kind of in that same area as far as performance and didn't have that top five speed that were typically used to seeing out of them at Martinsville. So definitely, definitely a little bit surprising, You know, from that standpoint, I think that the more surprising part was all the engine problems.

I was just going to get there. You know, and we've been talking about this with the 11 car, just with the mechanical problems that they've had. And, you know, I think that that was probably the worst way that you could go into the championship race. Back to back. Yeah, with back-to-back mechanical issues. And I think when you look at the momentum from the 24 compared to the 11, just on total opposite ends of the special. spectrum. Now, will Denny refocus and be ready himself? But I don't think we've ever questioned that. And you heard Denny mentioned it after the race. They asked him directly. They said, are you worried about

the mechanical issues? And he didn't say, no. He said, there's nothing I can do about it. And, you know, he definitely didn't back him. You know, from what he thought about it being ready. They're going to, they're going to, he, his quote was, I believe, we're going to be fast. We know we're going to have the speed. And I think that definitely to me says we might have some questions about the reliability of everything that's been happening because it's been, there's been a lot of it. Been quite a few as of late. What is that like for a driver when you have that kind of thought lingering in your mind going into a championship race? Well, it never happens in a year where you're running slow. Of course. I can tell you that. If it does, you don't really care because you're

like, but it never happens. No, all those grimlins and problems and questions about mechanical stuff, Never happen when you're running like shit. When you're running 25th, you never get a happen. You can't blow the damn thing up. There are many days when you're back there running 30th, and you're like, I'm trying like how I wish this thing would blow up. Yeah, but it'll only blow up when you're running in the top five or, you know, top 10 or whatever, whatever it is.

And you have a day that you can be competitive. But, yeah, and all those engines blew up at the same time. Very strange. Or whatever the problem was happened at the, at the, at, a very similar time. But, yeah, I mean, back to Bell, you know, I think that Bell never really, you know, he never really showed any signs of making a lot of progress

with his car to be able to run in that top five. So, and ultimately, you know, it cost them an opportunity to win championship. They just needed to get points and they didn't score any in the first stage. Yeah. They weren't, they just weren't fast enough to know. No, that was really what it was. I was very surprised to see that personally. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone,

But that's the thing is like everybody, everybody's better. So if everyone's better and maybe you miss it by a little bit, like that little bit is a lot when you have eight competitors that are bringing the good stuff. And then you have a couple outside of the, you know, outside of the playoffs that are still coming in and coming to compete. Like Ross Chastain was up on that mix. He was competing hard.

So with Danny, I was interested to see how he was going to run the race. And he was in the mix. He was, I think he was right where he was. wanted to be. Yeah. Like he was in a position to where like, if I need a push, I can fend off one of the Penske guys that I think ultimately he doesn't want in Phoenix. But it was setting up to be very, very interesting from that standpoint.

Yeah. And then he blew up and now it's like... Yeah, he didn't get to see that. Yeah, his only goal, I mean, obviously they didn't want the engine failure and the, you know, the kind of the downer to go into Phoenix. but his only goal was to have no enemies when he left Martinsville. Yeah, he did that. Yeah, I mean, that's really, you just want to be able to get to Phoenix

and just race the other three guys for the championship. At least he didn't make any, he didn't make anymore. It was really interesting at the end of the race too when they were getting to the lap traffic. Like the first eight of them were Chevroletes. So it was like, I was watching this. And they definitely raced Byron a lot different than that race Blaineing. And there's a couple of fords in there.

Yeah. There's a couple of fords in there. And I'm like, it was interesting. They sure got out of the way. They were careful with what they were doing. And that was interesting. Yeah. I think Ryan even made a comment on the radio about it.

Did he? Well, I mean, it was pretty obvious that they... Yeah. And they didn't do anything wrong. They just did what was right, right? You know, for their manufacturer. He made a comment earlier about not having any patience for guys because he caught up with like Swares or something. Like, see it.

Like, he was like, at that point of the race, he was like on a mission. So, but yeah, it was... Everyone knows. They were like six or eight Chevroles. Six or seven. Six or seven. Whatever. Okay.

Notice I went right around that. Friscoe. Sorry, I went right back to it. William Byron, Denny Hamlin. Kyle Larson are your competitors in the Cup series, Exfini series. We've got Justin Algear, Carson Quappell, Jesse Love, Connor Zillich, and Trucks.

It's Corey Hime, Tymer, and Kaden Honeycutt. So what I think is interesting in all three series, you have one former champion, and everyone else could potentially be a first. time. Here's what I think is interesting. When you look at Corey Himes' stats compared to everybody else, if he doesn't win this championship, it's going to be a nuclear meltdown if they don't change the points the correct way at the end of the year. Because it shouldn't even be a question who the champion is in trucks. Right. It shouldn't be a question of who the champion is in Xfinity.

So if Connor Zillich and Corey Hime don't win these championships, it's exactly why we don't need the system we have. As it is right now. It's a embarrassing. So do you, so... Let me ask you this. What were the four again? So if Tyler Ancrum wins the truck series championship, what a slap in the face that is. So do you, do you, do you, the change, the right change, do you have an opinion on what that right change is? The right change is to make as many points matter as possible for as long as possible. So what does that mean? I don't know what's right. Okay.

I don't know what's right. And, you know, I think that my opinion doesn't really matter. That's not true. That's not true at all. Listen, American people in the world. You didn't let me finish. My opinion doesn't really matter to the committee because it's been not really, it doesn't really. Well, I mean, I've been on one meeting and maybe two.

And it's just, it's not going to be made by the masses. as far as how the point system is going to be laid out. Okay. So I think that my biggest thing is, if we're going to have a playoffs, you better make the points matter as much as possible or these people are going to eat you up. And having the biggest sample size that you can in those playoffs

for the points, you better have that. Because if those two guys don't win the championship, it's an embarrassment. Mm-hmm. He's just saying nothing. What do you think? What do I think? Yeah.

Coyeim has a hundred more points than the next guy. He is gangstered it. Mm-hmm. He's at a phenomenal freaking season and- So Tommy White should lose? Because that's how it is. Like we're like, should he lose or should he not lose? But that's what it is right now.

You know what I mean? Like that's the point system. So like if he loses, I'll be devastated for him. But I'd be devastated. for him if he had eight wins and lost a full season championship too. You know what I mean? Because he's still the best, but he still didn't win. And someone with one win, maybe one, like, that sucks. But, like, that's sports.

Yeah. Like, I know why everyone's mad. I get it. I don't know. But I can tell you, if Tyler Ankhram wins the championship and Corey Haim doesn't, it's embarrassing to the series. Okay. Unhappy folks.

I know, I'm going to ask this, and I know that everyone's going to hate it, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Oh, boy. When a low seed team beats a high seed team in any other sport, is it embarrassing? We shouldn't even call it playoffs because we're not playing anything. Okay, that's semantics. If we called it the chase, no one would care. Like, if it was still the chase, no one would care. But do you, so like in every other form of sports, it's a form of sport, when an underdog beats a titan, everyone is so freaking excited.

Like, that's what this country was built on. to remember in sports, they don't play each other every week. Yeah. Okay. And when you don't, I mean, you're racing against, you're all, you all have an even chance against each other every week to gain as many points as possible. I think that the sample size of what we have is much different than other sports. And I think that you have good teams and you have bad teams, but I just don't understand how you crown a champion that isn't even, may not even win a race.

Did he win? I don't know. He may have won one race, but... He did one of them. Okay. One of them hadn't won. Well, Kwa Pua hasn't won. Tymajeski has not won yet. Tymajeski has not won. Yes. So...

But you shouldn't lose to him anyway. You shouldn't, but something stupid can take you out of it. That's why there has to be a much bigger sample size. Okay, fair. You don't like the one race determining it, right? No. No, I'm fine with the one race going away. Like, honestly, I'm fine with it changing.

I'm just saying, I think the conversation is interesting because when you, let's take a game, a sport that is seven game series in finals. If my best player blows their ACL, that's like blowing a tire. I'm cooked. But you know what? That sucked. And it is what it is. I think we need to get over this thing of like, well, it's, uh, but to determine their champion, they have seven games. Okay. Okay. So let's just take your playoff argument about other sports and comparing it to other sports. Well, that's just that. That's just that. That's just that. one. There's sports.

Super Bowl is one game. Yeah, true. But I mean, baseball, basketball has multiple games. NCAA is one game for all of them. Yeah. And think about how much garbage that the NCAA goes with every time that they put people into the playoffs. But they keep adding playoff spots because it's generating revenue and people love it.

We added playoff spots too when certain drivers didn't get in the playoffs. We made the playoff feel bigger. So that we... What I'm saying? is it's not going to be even for everybody. And if we've tried to make everything as fair as possible for everybody and the same teams have risen

back to the top, it's never going to be fair for everybody. I don't want to see everybody win and I don't want to see Tyler Anckram beat Coreyheim for the championship. I think we can all agree. The playoffs format is intriguing and interesting, but there needs to be a change made to put a higher

premium on points and not have one race determine the whole thing. I'm fine with it not be in one race, An amendment they can make. If it's the last four, last three, I don't care what it is. I'm just saying the postseason mentality and what that does for competitive nature. What is it done though? You do it.

What is it? I mean, it's changed the way that you do as a competitor. But has it increased the ratings at the end of the year? They talked about how big this ratings increase was going to buzz because we're going to have this game seven moment. It hasn't done anything for the TV ratings or popularity of the sport. Okay, fair. Nothing. Okay, fair.

We've had some of our lowest TV ratings ever, ever because of the, in the playoffs. At the same time, though, you got to look at what's going on in the sports world and at a whole. You know what's up is football, NCAA is up, NFL football is up, and Major League Baseball is all up. And right now in the playoffs, we end up going against four major sports because hockey is back too. So our casual fans that watch multiple sports. But they all show up when you put them on NBC instead of USA or USA. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. There's multiple, there's multiple, there's more TVs on that channel. So it like, that number gets kind of, we've made multiple mistakes with. I'm not saying we have it. The TV deal is bad when it's not on the proper networks. And it being able, I mean, when you put, when you put Talladega back on NBC, the TV ratings are great. It should, it should be on the main, every, our racing should be on everyone's main channel. Yeah.

Like, whatever your biggest, that's what we deserve. That's what we should be out. But I will tell you that the playoffs have not done anything. The one race, game seven championship moment has done absolutely zero to make it more exciting. There you have it. All you're going to do is look at the viewership numbers. Yeah, people don't like it. More people don't watch that last race because they're racing for a championship than they did when they had normal points.

Look, again, I'm fine with that part going out. I don't want to see the postseason go out. The cup piece of it, they're all pretty equal. They've all had pretty good years. But the other two are pretty lopsided. And if one of those, if, if, if Cory Heim or Conner Zillich don't win the championship, it's an embarrassment to the whole season. It's going to suck. But get it done.

Yeah. That's what, listen, that's what this is. You got to get it done. Like, I don't, I don't feel bad if you don't. I feel bad. Because they raced all year. They raced all year to put themselves in that position and have. have dominated their series and could not be the champion.

I don't like that some dumb variable could prevent you from winning a championship in the final race. That's a tough pill to swallow. But that is sports. We race. Huh? We're racing. It's not a sport? No.

It says motor sports in the, it says motorsport. Motor racing. All right, we got to move on to Phoenix. I don't want to be a sport. I want to be a racing series. You knew better than to. this up today? You knew what he was going to say. I knew what he was going to say, but like, I understand

it and I get yelled at about it all the time, but like, you do, man. I ain't backing down from it because... I got handed to you. You don't. Because I believe in what I'm saying, so if you don't believe in what you're saying, you shouldn't back down. You shouldn't back down. There just needs to be a change. Something needs to change. To make it

more... What's old as new again, sure seems to me. That's the new slogan, isn't it? Well, it's not the... It's not the slogan, but they said they want to return to their traditional roots. That's the new marketing campaign. You can't make it fair for everybody. It's not going to be fair for everybody.

Life is unfair, people. Trying to be, trying to appease everybody will never work. But if we didn't change anything, you don't get 2311 in trackhouse and legacy and front row probably is gone. Those owners have legitimately said that they're here because of the changes that have been made. I'm not saying you don't need to progress and evolve, but you don't need to, you don't need to, we didn't need to evolve the way that we have. I hear you, but the problem is a lot of our fan base gets so mad because we don't admit that there are good things that are going on. Like there are a lot of positive good.

We only talk about so much of the negative that it just keeps this cycle of this whole thing sucks. Well, there is a lot of positives, but most of them are cleaning up messes. Oh. Sometimes you got to break some eggs, man, and make an album. You know what I mean? Well, I don't know how to transition off the omelet, but we are going to Phoenix and we will crown a champion in all three series. Kevin, you kind of started talking about it a little bit, just what this week is like for the driver, some of the mind games they play with each other, the way the interactions are with the other teams in the garage and stanching off your area. Like, what is it like?

It's very intense. It is intense. And I think that, I think that's one reason Kyle Larson said what he said just because of the fact that he's the only one. that's been there and won that championship. And just to make the other guys think that, oh, maybe it is different. Right? But the biggest thing is,

don't read Twitter or whatever it's called, X. Don't read the comments. Don't buy into all the garbage that goes with everybody's opinion. Just do your own thing. And, you know, I think that if you can, if you can, for win, Byron, it's easy. Just do exactly what you did at Martinsville. So whatever you did at Martinsville and got your,

decisions and performance and all those things to be at that level and the things that went with that, that goes first. And then you manage everything else. And you've got to understand it. It's going to be a little bit different. But I always felt like once you finally got to the race, it was almost a relief because of all the work that you put in with everything during the week and the appearances and dinners and all the things that you have to do. I mean, it's just, you've got to be prepared for an abnormal week. Would you ever say to your team and your group, like, no, I'm not going to commit to all these different things. Like, I need this a little more simplified.

It's not an option. You had to do it all. Yeah. And it's just, it's not an option. And I think that you have to, you also have to realize that it's a special moment. By end of the moment, do the extra work. You know, shake the extra hands, do the extra appearances and all those things. It just has to be planned appropriately so that you can still eat lunch and you can still

eat breakfast and you can still, you know, have the right amount of sleep and do all those things. You can do everything that you need to do. just it's a different schedule. It's a different, it's a different routine than normal. I was going to say, I just remember covering your career and it would start that media day in Phoenix. And like the four of you would be sitting up there. And he always looks so like calm and normal. And some of the others, you could tell, we're a little out of their element. But I always thought it was interesting to watch how the four presented themselves at that

very first media function. Yeah, you can tell who's nervous pretty quick. Yeah, you weren't. Who's comfortable being up, who's uncomfortable being up there and being a part of all that? And a lot of it, you know, a lot of them get frustrated with, you know, having to do more than they normally do because they've never done it before, right? That's the biggest thing for the Chase Briscoes and, you know, Byron and Hamlin and Larson have been at some pretty high-level stuff. But it's going to be interesting. I mean, I'm kind of interested to see how Briscoe's going to handle it because he's always so like, in practice, we'll be like, hey, man, your car looks pretty good. He's like, yeah, I don't know how qualified is going to go. I'll probably qualify six.

pole. You know what I mean? He's very nonchalant. So I'll be interested to see him in that situation, in that environment. William's been there. You know, Denny and Kyle have been there. He's been there and lost. Yeah, he's been there and lost. Yeah, yeah. The other two of them have been

there and lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only one has been there and one. So they've been there, I mean, Briscoe would be there the first time. But they've been there and lost, so they need to learn why they lost last time, right? Like, it's not just we didn't get the car right. There's more that goes into it than now. there's just this the mental preparation of having everything organized and making the right

decisions during the week. There's just a lot of things. But you're not going to have more pressure than you had at Martinsville for the 24. No. Right? Like you're just, you're not going to have more pressure than that do-or-die moment. So that's why that momentum and that experience for those guys is so important leading in the next week because they don't have a week in between to have a motor failure or something to detour that momentum that they have. They're going right into the championship race. And I've done it both ways. And there was nothing better than winning the next to last race leading in.

There's not more momentum. Yeah, there's something about it that you look across the garage and like these, we have the momentum. Like, they're all looking at us because we just won. Because like, you know, it flips in a week. Yeah. Like you feel like you got it. Like, and if you win, you feel like you got it.

If, you know, the 11 blew up, the 19 blew up, I don't think it's going to hinder their race car, but you just have a little extra peppering yourself when you're like, we feel like we have something over them. But you have that question. I have that question. If you're 11 and 19, you have that question, is my car going to make it? Is my engine going to blow up? And you can't not drive any different.

You got to go get it. And it just, it will take away from the conversation during this week of what the 24 conversation is. We made all the right decisions. We had all good pit stop. Our car didn't fall apart. Our engine didn't blow up. We won the race. And that is just much different than,

there are two different things. Now, can Denny Hamelin and Chase Briscoe refocus and it motivate them and they win a championship? All four of them can win the championship. They all have the power to go out and kick everybody's ass on that particular week. Who do you think is the guy then? Who do you give the advantage?

Am I picking? He big bell, I mean, obviously, that's... Well, now that we know who's... officially has made it. I'm just curious if you believe any of them has an advantage of the other three. Well, you know, the first three, when you look at the stats, the first three on speed are in there. Brisco's the outlier. He was seventh or eighth on speed for the whole year. So you have three of the four that have been the fastest cars on the speed ranking all year. And Bistco has been the fastest over the last like, second half. Yeah, I just I just looked at the whole year. You know, for the sample size. And I think that, you know, when you look at,

The speed in the playoffs has leaned towards the Gibbs cars. I think that, you know, it just, Denny Hamlin has been the guy that's consistently been, had a chance to be the dominant car. 24 was the dominant car this weekend and has the momentum, you know, leading into the championship race. And I just don't think you can undervalue that from a momentum standpoint.

So, you know, I think that, I think it's, any of the four could win, but I think 24-11 is where I'm kind of leaning at this point. 24-11. There you go. You agree? I've picked the 24 at the beginning. I know I... I mean, I think the last time William was here kind of backed, they kind of backed their way into it. It's different when you go and take it. And I think he finished third or four. He was right behind the Penske car. Not right behind on track, but he was like the next... car behind on track.

So he's got to feel good going into it, that they're going to have speed, and that they're going to know what they have to do. I just feel like he's got it. But Briscoe is, I'm worried about Brisco. Wow, card. I'm worried about Briscoe. He's won here before with Stuart Haas.

He's been fast as hell throughout the playoffs. Up until this week, a blown engine, they had a fifth place average finish. Like, that one. That whole team has won a championship with Martin, Pretty much the whole group was part of Martin's championship years. Yeah. Yeah, watch Briscoe just come in there and put it on the dash.

All four of them can do it. And freaking Larson and Cliff are like one of the best duos that we've seen since Rodney and Kevin. Like it's just like they all have something special to them. That's true. That's a good way to put it. Like each one has, you can make a case for everybody. 100%. It's going to be interesting.

You know, it's just like going to Martin'sville. Right? Like you just kind of circle the Gibbs cars and say they're going to be good at Martinsville. You kind of circle the Hendrick cars and say they're going to be good at Martinsville. But they didn't, the Gibbs cars didn't really have the capability of winning Martinsville. And the Hendrit cars dominated Martinsville. So, you know, you just, there's so many elements and pieces of the puzzle that could just be off that much. Or a change that you make to say, all right, this has been better at St. Louis. We're going to go to Phoenix and it not work.

Yeah. And you're stuck with it. That's what you got. Yeah. Sometimes, too, you know, like when you look at it, when people are looking at like a math problem or word problem, you're staring at it. Overanalyze it. You're staring at it for too long. That kind of happened with AJ and colleague.

Like, they won a couple years ago. They won Vegas. Early. Early. Locked. They had nothing but Phoenix to focus on. And they were a bag of ass. Yeah.

Like, they missed it. And they had all the time. So sometimes too much time can be a detriment because you're like, oh, no, we should just just do this because that'll, and it doesn't. And you're like, shit. Yeah, it's going to be very intriguing. We hope everyone will watch on ASA live. It'll be there this weekend.

Is it a championship race on USA? No, it's not a way. Sorry. It's like, oh, God. Oh, God. All right, guys, guess what? It's your turn. Oh.

Yeah. It's already there. This show's been, I'm sorry. I've been so locked in to yelling at Kevin. You didn't yell at me. It was a very good debate. It was a friendly debate. Hey, y'all.

Welcome to your favorite segment on the show. And that is not for me. That is from the people at Martinsville. The clothes is from Martinsville wanted me to make sure that you knew. Okay. This is their favorite segment. Mamba's social sips. All right.

We haven't done much carting. Ever since Keelan has left the carting. We haven't talked about carting much. But Joey Lugano has a little go-car track right around his shop. Apparently his sister can wheel too. Let's check out this clip right here. So this is the beginning of it.

I'm like, because I've seen Joey run this car a bunch. But I was like, why are they filming this? Then bam! It's like, oh, wait a minute. Long hair, blonde. Danielle, his sister, who is like a world-renowned figure skater and teaches hockey players out of power skates.

down in like South Florida Charlotte. She's ripping. She was. Are you sure that's her? I was very impressed. Kevin, I'm told that that was her. The video says it's her. I don't know.

You think that's too good? It's your segment. It's your segment. I just saw, I'm just bringing social media to the people, you know? I hope it was her. Yeah. Could Delana rip up like that?

No. No. No. Delana, she had a late model race and she spun out three times. And every time she couldn't reach the switches, so I had to go on the track and start the car. And then she had, we drove her legend car one time,

and that was pretty much the extent of her racing career. That's okay. You'll have that sometimes. Yeah, that's where it goes. You know what there's no doubt about talent behind race cars is the guys that run V8 supercar? Yeah. They are wild.

It is so cool. And over, I think it was last week, I couldn't tell you, don't ask me where it was. But watch the Ss that these guys. So the first car, second car, cool. Third car? Oh! Fourth car!

It's a full-on send moment. I know that that must have hurt when he hit that turtle or whatever they call it over there. That's impressive. Full send mode. That was a unique section of corners. There was another one that they came out of the asses and then there was like a one. That's one where they get all the cool pictures where there's just two of them and they're up on their side like that. Those cars, it's interesting because they're obviously very much like a sports car.

They're more sports car than our cars. But I do like a lot of the features that they have in them. Our cars have become more sports car. Yeah, no. Yeah, but not like that. They're not quite like that. They can't jump like that. By the way, Tyler, our producer said he thinks you're losing your voice from that debate.

I am. I was hot. I was on it. We need your voice to hang on for a few minutes here. Because we don't play anything. Huh? We don't play anything. So we can't call it playoffs.

This is a way of life. Play? No, this is a way of life. This is a way of life. Yeah. I got it. This is a way of life. If we call it the chase, though, no one would care.

It's a chase, yeah. No one would care. We don't want to be, like, football. We don't want to be, like, baseball. We don't want to be hockey. You don't want to make money like they do? We're our own thing. No.

I want to be NASCAR, badass racing. Just like they're going to promote again. Hell yeah. I want us to make as much money as they do. play. Huh? We're not here to play. We're here to work.

Race. We're here to work and race. We're here to race. All right. That'll be the, we should make that the slogan of the done committee. There you go. We're not here to play. We're here to race.

Okay. Lock it in. There you go. Put it on a t-shirt. I better trademark that before somebody steals it. Put it on a t-shirt. Hang in a Louvre and maybe it'll get stolen. You'll get stolen.

Thank you guys. That was my mom of social social tips for this week. Leave a voicemail if you want. 805 3174175. And as always the mailbag, Harvick Happy Hour 4 at gmail.com. All right, very good. Okay, guys, time now for our last call here on episode 70. What did I say? Six. Yep, 76. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler. In New York. Call 8778-8-8-Hopener. Or text Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y. 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 8889-777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort, Kansas,

21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gambling resources, see dkng.c.org slash audio. NASCAR is not responsible for this promotion and used under license. Okay, so before... Are we betting?

Betting? Yeah. We're getting ready to. Before we get into our picks for this week, let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend, courtesy of draft kings. Yes. So this week, we had William Byron at plus 285.

She could have made a little money off William. That was probably... That's probably a pretty good bet this week as far as guys that could actually win the race. So plus 285 for William Byron could have made some money for you to bet like Mamba. Take the checker flag with Draft King's Sportsbook. Download the Draft King's Sportsbook app and use code Harvick. That's code Harvick for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks and win your first bet. Only on draft kings, the crown is yours.

You know Hugh? Hugh, damn, right? This is the last time he gets wear the crown for the year. That's right. No, it's not because I'm going to win the championship and walk into the studio. With it on all Joe log. All right, guys. Burnout for Byron.

I hear you were impressed. I was impressed. I honestly, I felt like just from a pure smoking the tires burnout standpoint, that this might be the best burnout of the year as far as smoke and the longevity of it. But there's nothing to go with it. Like we didn't high five anybody. We didn't drag the tail against the wall. wall. So I think I put that right behind Chase Elliott, SVG, then Byron.

Okay, third. It's the top three. I think that just because his burnout was so good, we have to put it in the top three. It's also at Martin'sville. Tight, tight quarters. Absolutely. He never stopped. When he came out of the donut, he started having a, you know, a burnout down the high marks for the longevity. High marks. And look at all the smoke right there. Yeah. That was cool.

And it is a patriotic scheme. That's kind of cool. And I think that when he got out of that car, man, you could see that just the relief, the fatigue, the stress, everything that just piled up all into that last race. Yeah, you only get that with playoff moments. Good for him. Good for that whole group. If you had a great year and you could get to the last race and celebrate your championship, you'd have it to. These two, I cannot keep them on the tracks here today. Okay, point standings.

Oh, God. Let's take a look. Kevin's at 58. Mamba 53. Obviously, both of you picked Byron, so you collected some. I collected a few for Christopher Bell. Yeah, 14% of the fans picked William Byron this week. But I still can win, is my understanding, if Larson wins the whole thing, because I'll get 50 points.

I can't imagine. I think I'd feel like if I lose at this point, I guess our points are close enough. Are you like Corey Hyman and I'm Tyler Angram? Is that what you're seeing? Yeah. Yeah, it's like, yeah, yeah. And you're just kind of, you were way behind too. At this point, I feel like my body of work sucks because I could lose. Yeah.

I know how these guys that should win the championship lose. You know what's crazy? You know what's crazy is you would have lost, you would already be over if you weren't so scared and went with my pick. Oh, I had a strategy. Yeah, it didn't work. It worked right. How? Because now you've gained nothing on me.

Yeah, but your pick is out. Yeah, but now I still get a pick for the last race. And as long as you don't win the championship, I'm in good shape. Wait, what do you mean you get a pick for the last race? I get to pick a winner. You get to pick a winner? Yes, go ahead. Hang on. Hang on.

Tyler, roll the tape. Roll the tape. I got something for you guys. Hang on one second. I think America will agree with me when I say we need a race winning pick for Phoenix and you have your champ pick. What do you mean? What do you mean? Because you don't have to win the race to win the championship.

Yeah, but that's not going to happen. We're just making champ picks, I bet. That's not going to happen. I'm just saying. I hate win this. Well, I guess you and I sort of indicated we didn't want to do that. You indicated that this exact situation is what you did want. So I'm taking Bell.

There you go. Is that who I'm taking? No, no. Is that what you're saying? No, I'm saying you don't get a pick. You got nothing. What do you mean? I don't get a pick.

That's what you guys said. We would never say that. We just watched it. I think there's confusion here. I think there is some confusion. You can make a pick. Yes. Bomba, get what you're saying.

Go ahead, Kevin. No, we need a referee. What's the rules? referee. You're making a race pick because your championship pick is out, so that doesn't work anymore.

But you're making the who you believe will win the race. Okay. Okay. So I have to go first because my champs, my picks out.

Yeah, well, like I'm sticking with Lorison, you're sticking with Byron. You're the only one that has a different pick because you don't have a championship. Okay, well, I'm going to take Hamelin.

Okay, there you go. I like this. All right. We'll have to see how it all goes down on Sunday. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen. And I'm still excited.

Let's think about this. I want everybody to think about this. Everything that we have going on, regardless of our picks. At this point, if Denny Hamlin wins the championship, who's going to hand him the trophy from NASCAR? Jim France. You think? Bro, you have to.

You know why? Because at some point, somebody has to be the bigger person. Yeah. At some point, somebody, they have admitted that it's gotten personal. And if Jim does that, I think that's like... So if Denny has... Hamelin wins the championship and Jim France hands him the trophy. Does that

mean that does that soften the stance and everybody needs to get along and settle this thing before it goes to court? Because I sure hope that's what happened. I think the best thing for NASCAR that could happen right now is Denny Hamlin wins the championship and Jim France has to hand in the

trophy. We're going to have to see. I think the thing is you're respecting the driver and the athlete of what they've done on track and separate the two things, and that's why I think that that should happen if he did it. That'd be the right way to do it. That's what I would do, because you can still dislike him and everything and what's going on over here.

But the driver of the 11 and the 11 team deserve to have the top of the top of this sport give you the trophy. Yep. Okay. Well, Kevin, Thursday episode, you got Burt Myers. We got Burt Myers. Yeah, we've been trying to mix it up. And, you know, I think that Bert is just such an, he's been such a integral part of Bowman Gray, the short track system. and just a good dude.

So it was a fun conversation. I listened in. You don't want to miss it. Okay, guys, this has been fun. One more race to go. And we will see everybody here on Harvacapiar after Phoenix. Go, Byron.