Bracket Breakdown Summer's Getting HOT

Bracket Breakdown Summer's Getting HOT Bracket Breakdown · Jun 30, 2026

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Brand

Strange Engineering

A company that makes heavy-duty parts for race cars, especially parts that help the car stop and put power to the ground safely at extremely high speeds.

Place

Beech Bend Raceway Park

A famous, historic drag racing track in Kentucky that is unique because it has an amusement park right next to it and covered grandstands where fans can sit very close to the action.

Part

A small electronic timer box inside a drag racer's car. It lets the driver press a button when they see the first light flash, and then the box automatically releases the brakes at the perfect millisecond so the driver doesn't have to rely on human reaction time.

Car

McLaren 720S

The McLaren 720S is an extremely fast, two-seat sports car made by a British company named McLaren. It features doors that open upwards and is built using lightweight materials to achieve very high speeds.

Car

Dodge Durango

A large family SUV made by Dodge. While most people use them to haul kids and groceries, the hosts are joking about taking a rental version down a professional drag strip.

Term

Comp Eliminator

A highly competitive class of drag racing where almost any type of car can race. Because the cars are so different, the starting lights are timed differently for each lane to make the race fair, and the first car to cross the finish line wins.

Concept

spot drop

A racing trick where a driver lets off the gas pedal right before the finish line. In this type of racing, going too fast makes you lose automatically, so drivers slow down on purpose to win the race without breaking their speed limit.

Car

1966 Chevrolet Chevelle wagon

A classic 1960s station wagon made by Chevrolet. While it looks like an old-school family car, drag racers love them because the extra metal at the back puts more weight over the rear tires, helping the car grip the track and launch incredibly fast.

Person

Joe Sorensen

A champion drag racer who is famous for building and driving incredibly fast cars in the 'Stock' class, where racers have to use factory-style parts but find clever ways to make them go as fast as possible.

Term

heads-up racing

A straightforward drag race where both cars start at the exact same time. There are no head starts given to slower cars—it is simply a race to see who can cross the finish line first.

Car

Chevrolet Camaro

The Camaro is a sporty two-door car made by Chevrolet. It is designed to look aggressive and go fast, making it popular for people who enjoy performance driving.

Car

Dodge Charger

The Dodge Charger is a large car made by Dodge. It is famous for having powerful engines and a roomy interior, offering the speed of a sports car with the space of a family vehicle.

Car

Toyota Tacoma

The Toyota Tacoma is a medium-sized pickup truck made by Toyota. It is built to carry cargo in its open back bed and is highly trusted for driving on rough, unpaved roads.

Car

Pontiac GTO

An iconic American muscle car from the 1960s and 70s. It is famous for putting a massive, powerful engine into a mid-sized car, making it a favorite for drag racers who want to go fast with classic style.

Car

BMW 530S

The BMW 5 Series is a mid-sized luxury four-door car made by the German company BMW. It is designed to provide a quiet, comfortable ride with high-quality materials and modern technology.

Car

McLaren 570S

The McLaren 570S is a fast, two-seat sports car made by McLaren. It was designed to be slightly more practical for everyday roads while still offering exotic styling and high speeds.

Concept

split talk

When the last few racers in a tournament pause to make a deal to share the prize money. Instead of one person winning everything and the runner-up getting nothing, they agree to split the cash so everyone goes home with a guaranteed payday.

LIVE

The

most handsome podcast in all the land is back again, Monday nights, had a week off last

week, doing some celebrating of the fathers, what do you have extended back, we're back

like we never left though, you know, here we are. And I swear you got like the Elsa

filter on it. Look at those almond shaped beauties. She's just really good lighting

something in the water down there in Utah and St. George. I think it's this hard more

dragway blue just reflect in. It is that Carolina blue brings out the

eyes. Well, we had a had a lot going on this last week. Man, you did some work on your

on your car. What did you work on? Yeah, I've been messing around with these brakes for

a long time, you know, I swapped swapped out the factory brakes on all four corners with

some really nice strange stuff. But once I got everything mounted, I had to re plumb

this whole thing and I put it off for a long time. What's up, Walt? Walt in the house got

to join a wall in Bobby this past week, just kind of an impromptu deal. That was a lot

of fun. But yeah, just been running new hard lines and you know, this fitting doesn't work

on that fitting. You know, oh, I need one break fitting and it's 30 minutes away. You

know, I have to order it stupid stuff like that. So finally, got that finished up this

weekend and ready to drop the motor in. So we got a little bit to go on that. It should

be ready before I get back from Bowling Green. And we're gonna try to make night of fire.

So we'll see how it goes. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, we we're starting to get ready

to have a have a baby here soon. So I've just been doing some stuff around the house. I'm

cruising up to the shop when I get a couple minutes and tinker and on Kinsey's new dragster

but a shout out to my brother Tanner. He just him and his wife just brought a baby home

today. So their first full day being parents now and super excited to see Tanner and Lex

be parents. It's it's quite the uncle park super proud of them. Yeah, uncle park for

like the 10th time. How many how many nieces and nephews you got? I think I got 10. I can't

keep track anymore. Oh man. It's like the first three is just yeah. But we'll get to my nieces

and nephews here in a bit. We gotta get to talk about them for a minute. Moving on. You got a TV

race coming up this weekend. Is that right? Yeah, they never stop man. One of the reasons we

delayed last week. Obviously, you know, you had some work things going. I was just getting back.

I was gone for for Father's Day. So getting back and to come do a makeup day, you know. And so

that was a lot of fun. And and yeah, had a quick week off. But here we are again. I head out at

like 530 in the morning to head back to Bowling Green. So really, really stoked for Fourth of

July out there at Beach Bend. This is kind of the the signature race for TV promotions. So

just looking forward to to going back to kind of the beginning of where all these guys started.

I mean, the first one was at Ohio Valley, not at Bowling Green. But but the 100k format is kind

of the the OG format of TV promotion. So should be a lot of fun. Yeah, have you ever been to Bowling

Green? I have not. No, I haven't. So I've been to Bowling Green one time. So a long time ago when

I was just a I think I had my permit. A young warthog. 15 years old. When he was a young warthog.

Yeah, precisely, just like the movie. But I went there with my brother and we were out there doing

some work stuff for his business. And there happened to be a race. And we're like, shoot,

dude, we got to go like check this out. And he was like, I'm just we're just going to go watch.

Like, we're not going to do anything. We had a rental car. I mean, you knew about Bowling

Green at the time. That wasn't just like just some random stumble. Oh, no, I've watched the

motormania feeds at this time, like just admiring. Yeah, yeah. Well, we get there. And he looks at

me like, you want to race, don't you? And I'm like, yeah, I want to raise, dude. Like, I don't

like to just go spectate at the racetrack. So we double I entered every single class.

In the rental? Oh, yeah. Oh, you got captured it, dog. The old Kepner special.

Power break. This thing. Okay. I am undefeated at Bowling Green. What?

We got rained out before first round, but I've never lost the agency. That's that's

those are my kind of stories never lost around, brother. But Bowling Green is a pretty sick place.

If you're sitting in the grandstands, you could pretty much read the delay boxes

in the dragsters. If you're paying attention, you might catch what delays in their cars.

Well, and like the the roller coaster like kind of towers off in the distance, right? You can see it

from the track. Yeah, dude, it's kind of I heard the grass is perfect and the fence,

you know, what are they called the Blackwood fence on the way in. So I'm dude, I'm pumped.

I'm pumped. And and not that you're going to do much spectating in the grandstands,

but they are covered. Oh, no, I'm going to go sit in there for like a whole round.

Yeah, I'm Steve's going to have to I'm going to take a break. Steve's going to have to get on

the mic and I'm going to get me a big Dr. Pepper in some popcorn or something.

And I'm going to go right up in the back where it's like the loudest, you know, at the pinch

and just say that I want. Does it feel like you're going faster too? Because you're like

driving down a tunnel. Does it make like 720s feel fast? Well, I think I was going like

nine seconds in a Dodgeringos or hauling the mail hauling the mail. I like it. But

I'm jealous that you're going to Bowling Green without me. So

you're going to have to make another video singing with somebody else. That's not me.

I know it's a thing now, but you we started it and now it has just, you know,

it has blossomed into this thing. So yeah, I've been thinking about what song we're going to do

in the pits, you know, you got to get Dylan Mudd. You got to get Dylan Mudd. I know he's going to

be there. I don't think you'd be able to understand him if he sings sound like an old hit dog.

Well, you better get him in the morning before he relaxes for the evening or else you definitely

won't be able to understand. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's been down south. He just moved to Virginia full

time. He's deep. He's deep now. There's no getting him back. Shout out to Dylan Mudd.

Speaking of Mudd, there was a race in Yellowstone Dragstrip in Montana.

I see what you did there. Unfortunately for those guys, the second race did get rained out and

they're going to have to finish it up in Woodburn, but we did get the first race in and we better

give those winners the flowers that they deserve. Man, tough sled and like this weekend out, the

weather across the country, like it didn't matter who was on my feet or where, like what part of

the country they were in. Like the weather was just wild and out all weekend long. I saw pictures

in Idaho, like this crazy like hail sleet, like sleet storm. It was like three inches. It looked

like snow, but it was just like from a gnarly thunderstorm, a bunch of hail, like three inches

of it though. And the rain and the rain in, you know, in Montana rained in Woodburn. I saw it

raining back east just and then like heat domes and it's crazy out there, man.

Yeah, we wouldn't be lucky enough to have a drop of rain here in town, but it's actually

pretty crazy in Utah right now. We got one of the biggest fires that the state has ever had

and it's like burnt up half the state. So yeah, thoughts and prayers to all the firefighters out

there. Please keep us safe and we're praying for you. Yeah, tough. It's tough out there.

Yeah, but uh, yeah, up in Yellowstone, I, I seen a video the downer was posted and

I didn't want, that was, that was Noah's Ark was gonna be wet. It looked wet, buddy, like not good.

Yeah. But uh, like I said, they, uh, they did get the first race in. So, uh,

let's start with Comple laminator. What do you say?

Let's do it.

You can just rewind the results from like every divisional that we've talked about from division

six, Cody Lane. I don't know if you've heard of him. He won over Kayla Mozaris. I believe she

was driving another Hancock and Lane car. If I'm not mistaken, I think that's what she's been

driving this year. So, um, pretty cool to see it all Hancock and Lane team final.

I think they're just running rough shot over the whole Comple laminator gang up there in D six.

It's, it's incredible is what it is.

Yeah, man. It's interesting. Like, uh, I mean, Com, Com's just a funny field like that.

And, and the lanes have been good for a long time and just flexing muscle.

You know, would have even had probably more rounds at the sports nationals, except one of

the times they didn't make weight. And so they, you know, missed the weight by a couple of pounds.

And so they, they got knocked out, but Cody and Jeff both have it tuned up this year. And,

um, I mean, if anyone's going to make a run at it, you know, Cody, Cody has kicked things off in

pretty strong fashion. Um, so it'll be interesting coming down the stretch. Like what, what him and

Jeff decide, uh, to do who's going to be helping who? Well, yeah, man. It's a, yeah, but I don't

know. It's interesting. It's a, that's a tough one. They both been having a heck of a season.

And, um, Troy, Allison, Aske and Superstock take down Sheldon, Sheldon,

Urful. I don't, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. I'm, I'm sorry,

Sheldon. I shouldn't even, he shouldn't have even tried, but, uh,

He just reads what's on the prompter. I, uh, great job on making it to the finals.

Uh, Troy getting the better of him there. Um, Troy, I don't know if he's continued his, um,

thousand foot spot drop, but, uh, if he, if he's been doing that, that's still one of the coolest

things that I've ever seen. So, uh, are you familiar with Troy? Also now he's spot drop.

I am familiar with that game. Yes. So, uh, he was trying to hurt his combo.

And so he would spot drop a thousand foot to, to make sure that he was above the index, but

just manipulating the finish line in the, I think it's a 66 Chevelle wagon.

It's a beauty too, man. I'm a big fan of, uh, I'm a big fan of his.

Yeah. It's, it's a two tons of fun. So good job Troy. Um, way to kick button, Superstock out there.

Stock Eliminator, former world champ, Joe Sorensen, um, heads up final F stock automatic.

Sure. Heads ups are fun. even more fun when they're in the final round.

James Uthel made it all the way to the final. Didn't have quite the howl and Joe Sorensen

horsepower to get the win, but it was, uh, it was actually pretty tight. I mean, Joe lifted, but, uh,

uh, James hitting them with a pretty good reaction time to make things interesting at the top end.

Sorensen's a beast, man. Like the, the, the speed that they can find kind of like at a moment's notice

and the kind of runs that they can lay down with that combination they got in that camera right

now. It's just, it's pretty wild, man. Yeah. So, uh, one of the things that I like, I mean,

I've noticed about Joe and Hal is they don't have to go number one qualifier

to be where they want to be on the ladder. And I was paying attention this week to them

and I'm like, why in the heck are they qualified in the middle of the field right here? Well,

come to find out if they're in the middle, they would have the very last qualifier who was broke.

And so you're going to get a first round. Yeah, man. And that's the thing is like,

they're not really afraid of a heads up. And if you're not afraid of a heads up,

then it don't matter where you go on the, you know what I mean? It doesn't matter.

Because eventually you're going to have to, you're going to have to make a run at your index

anyway at some point in the race, whether it's in the finals or in the third round. And if you're

not scared of a heads up, then you can just put it wherever you want on the, on the ladder and,

and, um, you know, have a plan and have a path through. So it's pretty impressive. I know they

were out testing a while back at Woodburn, you know, and I was getting text messages that these

guys were a second under in the eighth home, you know, and like, so it's just, uh, it's crazy what

those guys are able to do. And the bag of tricks that they have is deep, you know, and like whatever

they're doing on a given weekend is intentional. You know what I mean? Like whatever they're doing,

they had, that's what they plan to do because they can do whatever they want to do. And so

they just, um, they go out there with the plan, execute it, and that's pretty impressive. Absolutely.

Speaking of impressive, um, Doug Johnson boosted himself way up on the national points,

chased this weekend all the way up to number seven. Um, Doug has been crushing it this year.

If he doesn't win, he loses first round. That's the only bad thing, but

all or nothing, baby. He's got two wins this year, one on the national side,

one on division side. And, uh, I don't, I don't like to get in Doug's way. He's, uh,

he's a very good racer, um, very underrated in my opinion. And, uh, now that he's retired,

he gets to travel a little bit more. So that's kind of scary. Dude, Doug's been going rounds

and really the last couple of years, like really just been coming on and coming on stronger and

like, uh, you know, that dude's, that dude's in it now, no matter what, as soon as the gates

open, if he's on property, like he might take that thing home. So, um, like you say, there's a,

there's a, it seems like an all or nothing kind of thing right now. So if we can clean up some of

those and, and in the ones you're not winning, go deep, uh, you know, Doug's going to be someone

to watch coming down the stretch for sure. Well, the one nice thing about the first round or final

round type of deal is when you get later into the season, obviously you don't want to have those

first, first rounds, but coming down at the end, it's easier to improve a first round loss than

it is to improve a third or fourth round. So not a bad talk, Doug. No, it really, yeah. If you can,

if you can have some early success and then chip away at it down the stretch, I mean, that's the

kind of position he's put himself in. And, uh, you know, a couple of other people, the lanes and,

and, um, you know, there's a few, if you look at the boards right now that have put themselves,

Tanner's another one in a really good spot early on, uh, with a lot of racing left to do to kind

of pick and choose and plan it out. So yeah, Doug getting the win over Zach Mazir, who's also been

a person that we've talked about on the podcast. So lots of people go in deep, making all the

rounds and, and Zach's another one of those guys that you don't want, you don't want to line up with.

Super gas, Michael Dalymple, uh, taken down Bill Cosy, uh, Mikey D lays down a trip zip

in the semifinals to make his way into the final round. Um, one of the cool things about Michael

and the Dalymple family is his brother Josh was the runner up in super street. So nearly a family

double up in Yellowstone for the Dalymple family. So pretty cool for Mikey D.

Um, super street. The aforementioned Josh Dalymple was in the final, but Will Carnell,

he's got a, um, orange Chevelle. It's a Chevelle, right? Yeah, it's like a 64, 65, uh, somewhere

in that, somewhere in that ballpark. Uh, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty slick. Yeah. He got the win.

004 in the final, just nasty, um, making the finish line a little bit easier for him,

but he still takes seven thou. Um, pretty dang good driving B double O take double O shout out.

PJ, um, top sportsman, um, Roy cheat, Roy trees, excuse me, taking the win over Judy Radford.

Um, just bad, bad luck for Judy. Uh, she was 13 on the tree and one hunt under. Um,

unfortunately Roy trees had a little bit of problems on the starting line, but

still got the win in top sportsman. You know what, you know, what's kind of cool about Roy trees car?

I mean, other than like, it's a pretty bad machine, but like pro stock is about to look like that again.

Good space. Yeah, buddy. Like, you know, pro Camaro, there's something to it without

something on the hood and they're awesome hot rods and they look slick. Uh, but for a naturally

aspirated car, they look like a pro charger car, but, but there isn't one, you know, and so having

the hood scoop, uh, man, I cannot wait for that to come back. And when I see Roy trees car, it's like,

that's what it makes me think of. It's like, Oh, pro stock is about to be back. Yeah. Let's be honest,

pro stock cars don't even look like factory hot rods anyway. So why are we trying to take the

scoops away? But they look less like factory hot rods with that long stretched out nose. Like,

you got to have something breaking that up, you know, like because it's long, uh, and they're

still going to be long, but, but with that scoop on it'll proportionalize it a little bit and they'll

look, they'll look better for sure. One of my favorite trophies is, uh, back when they did the

Canaan horsepower challenge in Vegas. Obviously I know this cause that's, uh, my home track. And

I always was the fan at the stand at the fence watching the pros go down the track and pick up

their trophies, but that old scoop looking trophy. Do you remember that? Yeah. That was one of my

favorite trophies. And I always wanted to be, um, so they used to have the, the fans paired up with

the drivers and the winner would get like a Toyota Tacoma or something. I always want to be one of

those fans. Yeah, buddy. But I was also like 12. So yeah, it'd be cool to get the, I never, man,

you know, there's those things online, like you buy a t-shirt and you get entered for the Lambo.

Like I got a bunch of t-shirts that I don't want because they're trying to get that Lambo.

Or the truck and the bow and oh yeah. Cleeter was, Cleeter had a truck and trailer a while

back and I bought a bunch of stupid stuff that I didn't need. I just wondered if you've won the

precision turbo yet. No, but I'm not a turbinator guy. Um, I don't like that turbo lag, you know,

all that popping and banging. Oh yeah. I'm all about them, them blower cars skeeting and yeeting.

Well, uh, Aaron Stanky Stanky was not in his nitrous car. What is, what is Kendra Larson

doing in Montana? She going to the finals. That's what she's doing. No, I know, but like I, when I,

you know, I wasn't watching that race super close. And as I'm watching the ticker go by, I'm like,

what? Uh, didn't have that on my radar. I'll be honest. I don't know exactly where the Larson's

are from. All I know is is they're farmers in the middle of nowhere. And so I'll tell you, they

ain't from Montana. Well, nothing sounds close to where they're at. Well, nothing's close to act in

Montana either. But also where Aaron's from is not very close to Montana either. No. Um,

yeah, no, putting on some miles. But, uh, Aaron lays down 003 in the final. Kendra wasn't far behind

with an 010 light. Um, but Aaron picking up the win just by a small margin of victory.

But, uh, do you follow Kendra on social media? Uh, no, not closely enough. I mean, I think I do

follow her, but, um, but as we're talking about this, like not closely enough because the way

she documents stuff, I'm sure she said right on her thing somewhere, why she's going to Montana

and what the whole deal is, but I don't follow it that closely. So I'm sure if we looked at Kendra's,

you know, Instagram feed, there's probably a post like headed to Montana. And here's what we're

doing, but, um, yeah, not close enough. We might need to go back and check it out, why they do some

research. She was, uh, she was picking up some valuable points there in her top dragster. Yeah.

No, definitely got some good points. Absolutely. You make some good points.

Well, uh, that pretty much wraps it up unless, oh, sportsman motorcycle. How could I forget?

Our guy Jeremy Bates, former division seven champ, uh, came up just a little bit short to

hofer in the final round, uh, double or excuse me, 19 on a bike to a 66. Um, just a good race for

some motorcycles. Dude, running low nines at a buck 50 on a motorcycle. It's just,

that stuff's crazy to me, man. Watching those guys, when they, when they leave the line,

like I still, I'm like, I'm not sure how you hold on. Uh, it's pretty impressive.

What I think that all motorcycles are sketchy, but especially the no bar bikes.

Yeah, dude, a lot of trust that she ain't going to stand up, you know, like,

and I know there's math equations for that and you can pretty much just figure it out and know

if you're going to be good or not. But like, I don't know, man, I've seen a couple of people

stand them up and when your no bar bike stands up your way up there because it's stretched,

the wheelie is a lot, a lot bigger, you know, taller, longer. Uh, so yeah, I don't know. I think

I'd be a, I don't know, but like being on a bar bike, like to know that you're planted on the

bar and you're not really, I mean, the tire ain't even on the ground probably, you know,

you're just leaning on that back tire. That's all you got. Uh, I don't know, man.

If you're a bike guy and you've raised no bars and bars, slide into the comments here.

We need to know. know which one is more difficult. Yeah. Which one has a more

pucker factor to it. And maybe we'll have you on for a segment on the pod. I think no bar bikes

must be like easier or better or people would just have, I mean, maybe up to a certain speed,

right? Then you, then you can't be like a pro stock bike can't be a no bar bike because like

to be that fast, I think you have to have that type of bike.

But like, I wonder what the threshold is. Like when, when does it go from like,

you have to be a bar bike now? Yeah. You know, I don't know. I think there's some crazy stuff

down in Florida, these guys with really long swing arms and like nitrous bikes.

Like I think some of these things are stupid fast. Maybe we need to have an episode of the

bracket bike down or something. You're for having a week off, but you are on one tonight.

Tuned in. You're tuned up. So what's next on? I do have the Vision Champs or oh,

we didn't finish Montana. That's my bad. I think you did. You did sportsman motorcycle.

That was it. Shout out to D6 and D7 though. They let pro super pro sportsman race at Divisional.

So local folks who don't have a car that fits into a class, like you can still participate.

And I think that's pretty cool. Tim Parton in super pro, Chance Reese in pro and Aiden Blevins

in sportsman grab all grabbing diamond wallies too. Yes, sir. Congratulations. Always fun to see

people getting those diamond wallies. Dude, I think the Latin pro and the summit

classes run at the divisional is like the coolest thing. And I know in some parts of the country

couldn't do it. There'd be too many people probably. Yeah, but you know, the fields out here for those

are usually like 12 to 20 cars and local folks who are trying to dip their toe, you know, into

the Lucas racing like super cool. Yeah, a topic that we don't typically talk about a lot is junior

dragsters. But we did wrap up our division seven champions here this last weekend in Reading.

We're just going to buzz through the champions really quick. Give the give them a shout out.

I told you I'd talk about my nieces and nephews later and now is later. You could say that.

And so my nephew Knox picking up the championship in the six to nine year old age group and my

niece Alba Theobald run it up. So we got a 12 finish in the division in the six to nine

year old category pretty stoked for them. They they worked their butts off and their parents

worked their butts off. But it's it's pretty cool to see the next generation stepping it up too.

In the 10 to 12 year old category we had Abram Grotto picking up the championship. Dylan Nelson

in the 13 to 14 year old Allison bull 15 to 17 year old and Carly Ball wrapping up junior comp.

What's your thoughts on junior comp Troy? I think the cars are cool. Like I would like to

race one. I think it'd be super fun. I don't know much about it. Like it's not a very prevalent

class. It's not something I see very often. So I don't really know much about it other than I

think it's cool. I'm all for outlets of drag racing. So whatever you can get a kid in whatever

you could get in. I'm all for it. Does that mean we can have junior top comp top junior comp?

Are you going to put those like junior ruggsters in it or what? Top junior comp. Yeah.

Let's do it. I mean

and also in Redding it wasn't just junior dragsters. We had had some more events going on.

I think they had the 75th anniversary wallies and rings to hand out for the

what do they call that the NHRA TV challenge? This is like the 75th anniversary challenge.

So a little different I think in that instead of just like a speed for all wally or whatever,

which are cool or an NHRA TV wally. It's another shot at a diamond wally. And

and a ring. You get the championship ring too for these at these challenge events. So that's a

pretty cool deal. It adds a little extra element to it. It's funny. I was thinking last night like

there's a lot of people that are going to wind up with these diamond wallies,

but still like there's not very many of them. It'll be interesting to see these people that have

30 or 40 regular wallies. There's going to be that one with the diamond. And it'll always stand

out. So I thought it's like I was just thinking about a little more like trophies mean something

and it's one of those one that's going to stand out. And so yeah, folks got a race down there.

I saw a guy, Henry Robertson was able to get one a week. I think it was like a week or

week and a half ago when they ran this race. I don't have detailed results on all the folks

who want them, but they did some, they did a little bit of coverage on their Facebook page.

And so yeah, well, and like, and that just to me is like

redding things are popping at redding. And it wasn't that long ago when we were talking about

preseason what's going to go on. If there was anything going to happen at the track because

we're still working on it. Yeah, like we had pavement tore up. We had insurance that wasn't

in place. You know, we had, we had basically Facebook town hall meetings with Tony happening

on, on Facebook. And so it was like, you know, and he, he was always really optimistic and

confident to his credit. I don't know, you know, one way or the other. So it was like,

man, I don't know, hope things go good at redding this year. And then now here we are, right?

We had the, the Axford big money event a while back.

We had a heritage race, dude, the, the national dragster spread for the hot rod heritage race

that happened at redding. Like if you look at that and just like, don't read the headline of

when it happened, it looks just like the national dragster spread from like 30 years ago. And like,

it was, it's a super cool spread to look at into like, man, I wish that the hot rod heritage series

would take off a little more. I don't think it got quite as big as, as what they had hoped,

certainly not what a lot of people who are into that kind of race and had hoped. And,

and I hope it keeps going and I hope it can get more traction because that photo spread, it was

like a time capsule, you know, they all looked like the old school stuff. It's new stuff and it's

nice. And you know what I mean? It's not, these aren't like old junk or hot rods. These are just

like the old school style. And, and so that happened at redding. They have an ET finals this

year. You know, I don't remember if there's just the first one or the second one. And then Axford

is supposed to come back in Halloween for another big money race. So what you're telling me is

redding went from questionable season to possible best one they've ever had. I mean, a banger, right?

As far as the calendar goes, like a banger of a season on deck at redding. I'm still pretty

committed to trying to make it down there for, for Axford race, if that's going to happen.

So yeah, pretty cool. It's good to see, you know, a track thriving out in our neck of the woods.

Yeah. The Pacific Northwest in particular is a honey hole right now for some bracket racing.

Yeah, man. It's pretty cool, right? That's a good segue into just like, you know,

the West Coast in general, but right now the Pacific Northwest is having a bit of a,

a bit of a moment. You know, we obviously we've had the showdown going for a couple years. We

just got done with, with that third annual this year. And then that was immediately followed by

the super quick series that's going on out here now. This is the second season for the super quick

series. Spokane had a five grander this weekend, JD Kolecki getting busy once again.

So like lots of stuff happening, man. And then Forsyth drops his flyer

for the Northwest classic that's going to be up in Spokane as well. So pretty, you know, when we've

got night of fire coming up, right? The triple crown at Woodburn, those are 35 granders

for pro, I think 7,500 for super pro or something like that. Yeah. The cascade 15 grander that'll

happen at the double divisional. So lots of opportunity, the Bremerton big bucks series

is happening. So like tons of opportunities, man, to make some money up in the PNW.

It's a, maybe it's just because of where I'm from, but as I've gotten a little bit closer with,

with Cooper Chun, I've realized and you, but I've realized there's a lot more racing

up in the Pacific Northwest than I, than I thought. But now it's just getting more

popular or the word's just getting out that it is a great spot to live if you unraise a lot.

Yeah, man. It's, um, yeah, it just seems to be how it gets a momentum right now,

having a little bit of a moment, right? And, um, it's for, for what we say about the West being

big and tracks being far and they're not being as much stuff. Like if you take a step back right

now and just, just look at what we've got in this moment. Um, yeah, it's pretty good, man.

Things are pretty good up here right now. So it's pretty cool. Better hurry and get your car back

together, dude. I know, brother. Like, um, I gotta go. But the nice thing is, right? Like, uh,

we kicked things off out on the West coast in Tucson in April, um, whenever that was first

weekend in April or whatever that was, right? And we'll go all the way through Halloween classic

and the Halloween race at Redding in the end of October. You know, that's it. That's an eight-month

race and season on the West coast. Like that's pretty solid. And you got to drive a little bit

to get it all in. But, um, yeah, man, it's pretty good. But when you're, uh, when you're sitting up

north in the cold, Tucson doesn't seem like that far, does it? Well, I'm going to make it one of

these days, buddy, but I got to, I got to save up vacation because it is far. But, but yeah,

overall, man, uh, super cool. I guess I wasn't meaning you and you specifically, but

it could be me. A long winter up there wouldn't sure make me want to travel. Yeah, man. Well,

and like my car is usually just tore down. So like, it'll be interesting going in the next year

because my car will not be tore down, right? So like, if something happens early season,

you know, February or April down in the Southwest, like it's not out of the question.

So, um, so you did say super quick. Yeah. You know what, what, what super quick is because

down here in division seven, we don't have super quick. But I know that's pretty popular up there.

Yeah, it's like, uh, I don't know, like

super comp and top dragster top. It's like the top, you know, the top of the middle,

the middle of the top or whatever. So it used to be this like sub series, the quick 16 qualifiers

or quick eight, whatever it would be, would, would get to race in these shootouts and things

like that. And the division quit doing it. So last year, uh, Paul Nero and Sandy and, um,

you know, the grosses and forest fincher and a bunch of people got together and launched a new

super quick series. Um, and it's a three weekend deal. Um, you know, they race Saturday, Sunday

at three different places. There's like even points. They do a little point series. Um,

so this year was, uh, the second season, it's the Ron Tonkin auto parts, uh, super quick series,

and they kicked things off. I believe in Walla Walla was the first one. Um, Allison Farms and

S and T trucking were the, the big sponsors on Saturday. Paul Nero got the win over Benji Martin.

Benji was last year's series champion. He was just a wrecking ball all year last year. So the,

the bounty carried over from last year to take out Benji. So Nero got the, the bounty for taking

him out. Uh, Jeremy Waterman, I think was in the semis. Um, and then brief Fincher was the last woman

standing. So, uh, that was how, that was how Saturday wound up. Uh, Sunday quality concrete,

La Troia automotive, who's retired Sunday. Uh, Jake Swagger, uh, we know Jake, he races at the

flaying race at the showdown. He's got that beautiful GTO. Oh yes. Low, slung. I mean, that

thing's gorgeous. Slam to the ground. Uh, him and Dave Secondi in the final Dave from, uh,

up in Ellensburg. Yes, sir. You'll see him in top dragster with his blown hot rod. Uh, Dave's a

fun guy to pit next to. Uh, Kurt Gross was in the semi Swagger got the bounty that day because he

beat Paul earlier in the day. Uh, brief Fincher was again the last woman standing. Um, so yeah,

sounds like, you know, anybody who's going to that thing, 530 or quicker to qualified field. Um,

and 530 or quicker is the rules. Uh, I don't remember the entry fees, but they race for like

three grand a race. Um, and then after the third race, there's an extra points fund with a bonus,

kicker. Um, I know Dan and Tammy at rad torque have contributed quite a bit to this Nelson family

racing. Um, so it's a people that are doing it or having a lot of fun and it's just another

opportunity, you know, to race and race for a little bit of money up here in the Northwest.

Heck yeah, that sounds like a blast. I that's something I'd definitely be interested if there

was something around here. So I have to park a car up there, Troy. I have to have to make the

Camaro go 530s. Buddy, I love the Camaro go 530s. I had to look up the rules because I couldn't

remember what the, what the break was. It feels like 570s or whatever. And cause like that's still

a lot faster than what I run, right? But 570 is one of those numbers that's like, that's attainable.

You know, that's, you know, you've seen a lot of 570 cars, you know, there's a lot of them,

but I pulled up the rules and it was 530s and I was like, oh, there's a huge difference between

570s and 530s. Like it's just that little bit, like makes, you know, 570s, like,

I mean, I've seen Michael Plisca's Vega, that thing runs 570s, you know, I could,

I could make something to run that, but then, but 530s, it's like,

seems so far away, so far away. Might have to talk to Stanky about,

let's put her on the juice. We have to put her on the spray.

And his kids, he might have an extra. We need some kids.

He doesn't have extra kids. He uses all of them.

Yeah, we will need something though, because yeah, now 530s a little too quick, but,

but it's cool. Gives people with faster cars a chance to play, do some fast bracket racing.

So really cool. And, you know, like, I love this kind of stuff. That's not my,

you know, I can't even qualify, right? But, but super stoked that people are doing it.

Appreciate what Paul and Sandy and Curt and everybody's putting into that thing

to just, you know, keep the momentum going up here, keep building the culture.

Oh yeah. Spokane. Let's talk about Spokane.

Hey, mostly the casino, because that's where I'd like to be.

It's right next to the track. So it's, you know, that's good for you.

Forsythe, right? The long awaited, heavily rumored forecast flyer came out,

finally, for the Northwest Classic, a bit calispa. And a very familiar flyer, right?

Looks a whole lot like the summer showdown or the Southwest showdown down at Tucson.

Obviously, that's been a proven formula for him. It's the weekend after ET finals at Spokane.

So you've got at least a built-in core that you, that you are betting is going to stay,

right? A whole bunch of people who the end of their season, that's the end of their season,

is ET finals. So one more thing to do. And it's just central enough to pull from Washington,

Oregon, Idaho and across the border in Canada. I think it's a great format and really,

really stoked that, that Chris is bringing the brand up here. This is something that

he's talked about for a long time and he's looked into here and there, floating ideas.

I'd love to get him on here. I know he wants to come on as we get a little closer and talk to him

about like, why here? Why now? Why was this the right time? And I think maybe part of that,

as we've answered, is part of that question, right? We're talking about all the different

momentum up here. We're talking about this is going on. This market's kind of hot right now

in this region. And so I think it's perfect, man. And I think you saw the response online,

people are stoked, should be a banger. I love horse types races. Don't get me wrong. I love

big money bracket races. And when I say that, I mean like really big money, like all the 100Ks and

50Ks and million dollar races, they're awesome. But to go spend $1,500 a weekend is not what I like

to do. These races right here are the B's knees in my opinion. You still get a big check and you

still get a race for quite a bit of money, but they're also not breaking your bank using your

mortgage or not putting your kids through college to go racing. So pretty cool to see that this same

format is up in the Northwest. What I'm excited to see is the border battle. I know that they've

had a lot of success with the border battle, Mexico versus the USA. It doesn't get too rowdy,

and we're all friends at the end of the day. But it's fun to be on a team environment once

in a while. And if we get to race some Canadians, that's even more fun because we whip them in

hockey, we can whip them in drag racing. My money's on the sheriff, baby. I put all my money on the

sheriff. Yeah, no, man, it's super cool. The border battle adds a little bit extra, makes it cool.

I just think that it's the right time. And I'd love to hear from Chris on that too.

But it's been a really successful format down there. So I think he knows what to expect.

The racers know what to expect. And yeah, it's time, man. Gonna do the Spokane. And at a facility,

man, I have pictures in my photo album downstairs from the early 80s, from the AHA World Finals.

If you saw any of the clips from this weekend, or if you ever saw some of the clips from like

when No Prep Kings went there, it's an amazing facility. We're talking about you, Chris.

It's an amazing facility, man. And it has a big facility feel the way the bleachers are.

The tower's really cool. This old concrete tower. And it can hold some people. And they've

put a lot of people in the stands there. So it'll be a fun place to race.

If the racing isn't a big enough draw, the casino sure as heck will be.

Well, it's right there. And the thing about that facility, I think it's poised if the tribe wants

to continue investing in it. If the local racing community and the spectator community continues

to support that place. The casino and the circle track, there's a road course there,

and the drag strip. It's a whole thing. And it's not all perfectly connected yet. It's all next

to each other, but it's not all perfectly laid out and connected yet. I think they need to do some

work still for integration into the casino and that whole thing. But it's prime for an absolutely

top tier motorsports experience in this part of the country. So yeah, Chris out there saying,

looking forward to bringing this to a huge part of our success base with the racers from the

Northwest. That's very true. There's a big part of the clientele that comes from the Northwest.

And I'm not saying this as a knock, but it's about time we give the racers up there like Troy

and Chris are doing something good to race for. Well, people are stoked, right? There's a lot

of folks that make that journey all the way to Tucson every year. And now we'll put one up here,

and it's a little closer to home, bring some people. Yeah, see, he's going to leave me working

in the tower. He'll be over at the casino. There'll be Ronnie and Chad and me trying to run,

trying to keep things on the rails. And where are the bills at? I can see it now. It's going to be

down to the split talk. Everybody's huddled up and Chris goes, why don't we just take this whole

stack of cash, run over to the casino, put it on black. We could all have double what we're going

to get now. Or we might have nothing, but split talk is a split talk. I don't know, man, inaugural

race. I'd love for someone to just call flyer. You know, I'd love to just have someone call flyer

and race for the flyer, but we'll see. It always depends right on who's in the final and how

they've done our last day at VMP, boy. They were chopping it up way back because there was no more

opportunities and there was a whole lot of tabs that needed to be paid. And so it's funny on the

final day how much further back some people will split when it's time to go pay the tab on Sunday.

Like we're sitting there at the round of 34, like having a conversation here.

I'm trying to go up second round and see if everybody wants to talk.

No, so it's going to be cool, man. And yeah, like I hope that the event has a ton of success.

I think it has all the recipes for that, you know, with the timing, the location,

and the momentum up here in this region right now. And you know, yeah, I just think it's super cool,

man. Oh, yeah. This is what we talked about when, and I'm not going to take any credit for what Chris

is doing up there. But when we first started the showdown, it was like, it was because people

like, I wish we had that kind of stuff up here. And it was just, I don't want to oversimplify it

because it's a ton of work, but it was as simple as being like, well, let's just have it here then,

right? And it's had its growing pains and its evolution already just in three events.

But what it's proven is that there's a market here, and there's support for this kind of thing.

And I think this year, although we had anticipated this kind of record breaking

car count at the showdown, we didn't get that because of the weather. But even in light of that,

we had like this super hardcore core group that was still like, yo, we're coming, you know,

and made it a success. And so when you have a core like that that can

help you establish that kind of initial car count in that base,

add a little excitement around it, get a good weather forecast, and, you know,

I think it's going to be good. Yes, sir. Excited to see how that thing comes together.

Obviously having babies and stuff kind of throws a wrench in my plans, but hopefully,

just hopefully we can squeeze it into the schedule. I'd love to come race up there,

especially with one of my cars, and see what we could do up there.

Well, even if you can't get your car up here, my car will be ready.

And so if you can find a way to get my car up here for the showdown,

it'll be ready for this one. I promise. I promise.

I'm just teasing you. One thing that I did want to talk about,

it's not a West Coast race. It was the National and Norwalk, but pretty cool to see Gordon,

Gordon and Caps with the triple up. Pretty cool to see Sadie Glenn

get her first win in Top Dragster, and very, very impressive from Bill Enroute,

double and up Supercomp and Supercat. Well, you had to bring it up because my

MVP, greatest of all time of the week, is going to the man from Division Five, Phil Unreal.

It's just ridiculous. Winning in a Superclass is hard enough,

doubling up at a place that I heard was difficult to dial this weekend from testing to

eliminations because of ships in the weather. Shout out to Phil. That's strong work, Matt.

Yeah, one of the things that I did notice about Mr. Enroute is he wasn't laying down

phenomenal packages, but he was laying down the most consistent, great packages. Like,

there were 20 total, and 20 total is going to turn on a lot of win lights in the Superclasses.

So pretty cool to see Phil with the double up, two diamond walleyes, and the coveted two ice cream scoops.

Buddy, it was interesting that I like not to get too wrapped up in pro stuff or national stuff.

I pull it up and I see a Top Dragster field well over 16 in qualifying, yet we're short

on the pro side at Norwalk. That's something I wouldn't have expected, and I didn't look back

at last year, the year before, to see if we're actually always short one or two at Norwalk.

It always seems like the track and the event that a lot of people talk about, we're not going to

miss Bader World. This is the gold standard of national event facilities and experiences.

If you're not going to make any of them, you're going to make that one. It seems like, right,

especially given the location and in proximity to all the teams on the east coast, to see not full

fields on the pro side. That's tough. Well, I'm hoping, just hoping that we get some full fields

out here on the west coast. The western swing is up next. Sonoma coming up in here in a couple

weeks. Seattle just after that, and your boy Troy in Oregon is going to be announcing that.

Yeah, they switched the order this year. Instead of Seattle, Sonoma, we're going Sonoma, Seattle.

I believe Seattle is the first race of the second half. I think it's like race 11,

or maybe it'll even be 12 now because of the way they flipped it. At that point,

there's still a lot of racing left, but you've started to paint a pretty good picture.

You'll have a bunch of west coast guys probably way up at the top in top sportsmen,

and that'll equalize itself out through the rest of the season.

But it's a good spot to take stock of where people are at. We'll do that in a few weeks.

The very next weekend is the double division at Woodburn. You'll have a two week stretch,

where at least on this side of the country, you'll have a pretty good idea of where folks are going

to be coming down the stretch and if they've got a shot at it. So it's going to be pretty good.

And then they'll try to finish up. I don't know who all is going to be there. I don't know how

many people were in. They'll try to finish up that second day of the Montana divisional at Woodburn.

So huge implications for that. I mean, that's a triple header all of a sudden

on the heels of a national, right? So you've got four in two weeks. You've got four scores

potentially five. So that's crazy. That's a lot of racing in three weeks.

Well, I'm out of stuff to talk about, Troy. Hey, man, we're 625. This was perfect, right?

Just a little regional roundup, a little recap of some things that have happened.

You know, introducing that super quick series, really excited about that,

seeing how that falls this year. And then, you know, and then four sides, of course,

bringing it up here to Spokane. Shout out to Spokane for throwing on five grand or this past weekend,

like just random five granders. That's pretty cool. And JD guys on a heater. Ava Glenn can't come

within 200 feet of that guy from for the rest of the season. Because if she leaves that one,

he's racing. If she keeps your distance, my man's going to take it home all year long, man.

So shout out to him. So yeah, man, it's good to be back with you. I leave.

Let's see. When do I leave for the airport in eight hours and 15 minutes? I leave for the airport

to catch my flight to Nashville. So well, safe travels. Tune in to the motormania feed.

If you want to hear more of Troy the rest of the week. Other than that, we'll see y'all next

Monday. Have a good week, guys. Later.