This part is the hosts talking about the news that Josh Berry won’t be back with Wood Brothers for 2027. They then discuss who could take over the No. 21 spot.
Wood Brothers Racing is a NASCAR race team. They’re the organization behind the No. 21 car, and the hosts are discussing changes to who will drive it in 2027.
This is a special version of the Ford Mustang. NASCAR teams use a specific Mustang model/trim as the basis for their race car, and the show is saying Wood Brothers will run that Mustang Dark Horse in 2027 for the No. 21 entry.
The “Cup series” is NASCAR’s main, top-level racing series. When they say someone’s time in the Cup series, they mean they raced at NASCAR’s highest regular competition level.
Las Vegas is a recurring NASCAR venue where drivers compete on a track that’s known for high-speed sections and heavy braking zones. A win there is often treated as a meaningful momentum boost because the field is strong and race outcomes can hinge on strategy.
Toyota is a major NASCAR manufacturer. The “pipeline” idea means Toyota has a system for developing drivers and moving them up to bigger opportunities.
Chevrolet is a major NASCAR brand. They also have a development system for drivers, so when the host talks about Chevrolet’s pipeline, they mean how prospects get opportunities.
The O’Reilly series is a NASCAR racing series that feeds into the top Cup level. If a manufacturer isn’t active there, it can affect which drivers get developed for bigger rides.
Brand
Pinsky slash Wood Brothers
This sounds like a NASCAR team name that combines two identities. Team partnerships can change who gets rides and how stable the program is.
“Next gen cars” refers to NASCAR’s newer generation of stock cars designed with updated aerodynamics and chassis behavior compared with earlier models. These changes affect how the car responds to contact and how quickly it transitions between stable and unstable handling. In this segment, the host uses that idea to explain why the car would “tighten” rather than “loosen” in the described situation.
Side force is the sideways grip your tires make when you’re cornering. In a race car, that grip usually makes the car behave more predictably—often pushing the front tires to grip more (tightening) instead of snapping loose. The host is using this to explain why the blame argument doesn’t match how the car reacts.
Off throttle time is how long the driver is not applying power while slowing for a corner. Less off-throttle time usually means the car can stay more stable and carry more speed through the corner sequence. The host contrasts modern “next gen” cars—where cornering is so fast that there’s less time off the gas—with older generations that had more straight-line speed but required more braking and coasting into corners.
Corner speed is the speed a car carries through a turn (and often the average speed across the corner entry-to-exit). Higher corner speed reduces the time available to react to traffic and contact, and it changes how braking and throttle transitions affect stability. The host uses corner speed differences to argue why modern cars can produce harder impacts on certain oval types.
A restrictor plate is a NASCAR air-intake restriction used at some tracks to limit engine power and top speed. “Non restrictor plate” races are run without that power-limiting device, so cars can generate more speed—especially on straights—while still needing to manage very high cornering speeds. The host ties this to why impacts can be severe on fast oval configurations.
Term
non super speedway ovals
“Super speedway ovals” are the very high-speed NASCAR tracks (typically the biggest, fastest ovals) where cars run at extreme speeds. “Non super speedway ovals” refers to other oval tracks that aren’t in that top-speed category, but can still be fast enough to create dangerous cornering and impact scenarios. The host is arguing that to reduce hard hits, teams would need changes aimed at cornering behavior rather than just straight-line speed.
In NASCAR, some races are divided into segments called stages. “Stage two” is the second segment, and drivers may change their strategy because points are awarded when that segment ends.
Term
restarters
A restart is when the race pauses (often for an incident) and then the cars get going again. Those restarts are chaotic, and drivers have to decide whether to push hard immediately or wait for a better chance to pass.
The start/finish line is the official line on the track where the race starts and where the winner is determined. When they say “all the way back to the start/finish line,” they mean the cars are racing hard until the very end.
Pocono (Pocono Raceway) is a NASCAR track known for its unique layout and high-speed character. The hosts are discussing Denny Hamlin’s chances at Pocono this weekend to reach a milestone win total.
LIVE
It's time for Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle.
What is up, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome on into another edition of Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle.
I'm the aforementioned Trey Lyle, and due to some unique circumstances this week,
we will have no into the Inferno section. No interview for you this week, but we still have a great show.
A lot of headlines have come through since the last time we talked.
So let's just dive right in with Caleb Barnes and what's still hot.
It's time to upgrade you on the latest news in NASCAR.
Joining me now helps me produce the show. Caleb Barnes at Caleb Barnes underscore Caleb.
Let's dive right into the latest headlines. Maybe some shocking news came out today.
Josh Berry not expected to return to the Wood Brothers 21 car in 2027.
Both Josh Berry issued a statement earlier today during a press conference,
like an open media session with Ford, and then followed by the Wood Brothers team issuing a statement.
We thank Josh Berry for all he's done for Wood Brothers Racing and our partners the last two seasons.
Josh has been a great teammate and we look forward to a strong finish this season.
We wish Josh all the best moving forward.
We will announce who will be driving the 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in 2027 soon.
And we're excited for what lies ahead for Wood Brothers Racing.
What was your initial reaction to the announcement and any guesses on who could fill in that 21 for 2027?
Well, my initial reaction, it was surprising, but it was because like Josh Berry was announcing that he would not return.
Usually you kind of see that, I feel like normally you see that coming from a team or if it's a driver announcing,
it's because they're announcing that they have another thing lined up.
But it was kind of surprising to see Josh just kind of announcing that he's not returning and maybe he has plans for next year, maybe not.
At the same time, just the way that his season has gone, it doesn't surprise me as much.
Really not just a season, the way his entire time and the Cup series and with Wood Brothers has gone.
I keep going back to the stat.
I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was just talking about his DNF percentage and how high that's been since he's gotten to the Cup series.
And yeah, he had that win at Las Vegas last year and yeah, it was due to a little bit of strategy.
But that kind of got you thinking like, oh man, Wood Brothers, like they finally found their guy because that car has been in a bit of a turmoil for a while now.
But unfortunately just, I mean, it would be a different scenario too.
I think if he was like still just kind of running, like just a non-factor running in the late teens or high 20s or mid 20s.
But like, it's not even that.
It's, I mean, it feels like he's bringing out a caution just about every week.
And so, I mean, walking down the pit lane at Michigan, I remember hearing tire squealing and I didn't know who was out at the time.
And I looked up and saw the 21 sliding off turn four and I was like, oh, not again, Josh.
And so, like, I'm not on that side.
I'm not surprised that they are making a change.
On the other hand, I'm not not too sure at who they go after and get.
Like I mentioned, that 21 has been kind of a tough, tough ride the last few years, just with a lot of rotating pieces and drivers going in and out.
And so, at this point, like, I mean, Toyota has had some, a lot of drivers in and out and you have the Toyota pipeline.
You also have the Chevrolet pipeline that, I mean, you see some of their biggest prospects.
But I mean, that's been another storyline is for their absence from the O'Reilly series and like looking down the line.
It's kind of like, I don't know who you go to get if you're a Ford guy.
So that will be an interesting storyline to watch at the moment.
I don't have any predictions.
I was even just thinking through some of the other the current cup roster of guys that might be out of a ride next year.
And like, at the same time, thinking through some of the guys in like the front row seats, would they want to move over to Pinsky slash Wood Brothers at this point?
I mean, I feel like, like, maybe those front row guys like Zane or Todd Gill and like, I feel like they're in just good of a spot being with front row.
And there'd really be no reason to move over to the Wood Brothers car.
I don't know if any of their, if you give Chandler Smith, give him a year.
If you try to see if Lady Riggs is ready.
That's about the only things I can think of right now, but I'm sure, I'm sure it's silly season pieces continue to move.
I'm sure we'll see, we'll see somebody take up that spot.
Yeah, it was weird.
You could argue it was just Ford's lack of performance overall compared to, you know, it's not like Josh was an odd man out when it came to Ford performance.
Ford was just down and he had obviously the win last year in Vegas.
It definitely felt weird.
I thought Josh, maybe if his crash rate was a little lower that you might not see this move does feel like that means they have a younger person.
I think you mentioned Zane Smith in there.
That's someone I would keep an eye on with his recent surges in performance.
Obviously he wrecked at Michigan, but he's had really good speed of late in that 38.
That's a name to keep an eye on.
I think Jesse Love is a name to keep an eye on considering his future in cup.
Obviously the unfortunate timing.
There is an opening at RCR, but does Jesse Love get the opportunity with the 21?
I could see maybe a Noah Gregson get it as well.
More of a fun personality kind of, you know, maybe of that ilk.
Does he get the opportunity?
Those are probably like three names that I would say are contenders for that ride.
Other news and notes.
Just more interesting.
We don't talk about much about this, but the time 100 most influential people in sports came out and Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin together were one and the other was Carson Hosevar.
I don't think we need to go too in depth on why Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin weren't considering their lawsuit, but of the drivers to choose, do you think Hosevar was the most interesting one that they picked?
I mean, it makes sense just trying to think through the other guys and just kind of their influence.
I think you could argue maybe Kyle Larson with his influence across like a number of different motor sports from his dirt racing to what he's tried to do kind of on the IndyCar side.
I mean, at the same time, like Carson Hosevar, for better or for worse, he's being talked about every single week and he's in that position that we've seen out of guys like Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski from whenever they first entered and they were really young and were rubbing a lot of people the wrong way.
And Carson's now in that same position there where he's rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, but he's got the personality and just kind of the social, I don't want to say the social skills, but like he's doing all these twitch dreams.
He's going out and doing all these fan interactions that just you just don't see other people doing.
And not that it's a bad thing that other people aren't doing that either.
I'm just saying like that is a reason why Carson is very influential.
He's involved with the fans.
He's involved in these online things.
He's going to the Met Gala even, I mean, I don't follow Cletus's channel a ton or well not really before he got into NASCAR, but like Carson's doing a lot with Cletus now.
And that's also, I mean, Cletus already has a huge following, but I feel like some of that's also now transferring over to Carson.
So it's like, it is kind of like on one hand, it does feel kind of strange just because he's so young and so fresh and only has that one win.
But at the same time, just the waves that he's moving with everything that he's doing.
I mean, I don't know if you saw a trade that headline about the Lionel diecast sales from his Talladega win.
It's like the most sought after diecast since they've been keeping track.
I think the date was since like 2010.
And you think through some of the other big racers like Dale Jr. that I've won races and there's been some popular diecast from those.
And yet Carson's Talladega race win is like even surpassed that.
So he he is moving the needle for a lot of people.
And it is it's such it's such like at war thing for like the drivers who are like he's constantly rubbing people the wrong way.
And then the fans and the media, they're like, oh, we love this because he's causing all these headlines and he's stirring the pod.
And so, I mean, that guy, whether you love him or hate him, I'm not saying you have to defend him every week.
I'm not saying you have to attack him every week, but he is moving the needle and could be really influential in the coming years and NASCAR in the Cup series.
Yes, it is indeed Caleb.
And I get why Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan made the list obviously because of the lawsuit and everything that went along with it.
And you know, if you want to pick the biggest young guy, obviously he's going to be part of our sound bite of the week with a bubble Wallace in a matter of moments.
So we'll save more thoughts for Carson, but I could see it.
I could see why, you know, if you want to look at the younger guys, he's definitely the one of the most influential it appears at this point.
But it was interesting to see kind of this kind of summer of Coombs of R. It feels like Hurricane who's far if you want to call it.
Well, other news hardest crash the weekend belonged to obviously Christopher Vell.
You were there Caleb at Michigan during that red flag.
I think Mike Ford on Hall or talk I mentioned this was the hardest crash of the next gen era.
However, he he it was announced by Joe Geist racing the other day he's been cleared to compete.
However, he did suffer a fracture in his wrist in his left wrist.
One, what how, how do you feel about the fact that about the crash itself and to Bell's ability to deal with this injury going forward?
Yeah, the crash itself was I mean, it just I feel like all these crashes are super circumstantial.
And that one was just unfortunate time and place for Bell to be in with being on the outside of Elliott.
I don't it wasn't Chase's fault.
He just got loose.
I saw some chase fans trying to say that it was Bell's fault because he got down on kind of the side at like was near the rear quarter panel of chase.
But number one, that's not how these cars work with the side force side force makes them get tight, not loose with these next gen cars.
And then number two, like Christopher wasn't close enough to cause chase to get tight or loose there.
But I saw some I think the maybe the biggest thing that I saw that like if we want to try to make a change again, it's just the corner speed in these cars is so high.
Like there's not a lot of off throttle time.
Whereas you look at back in previous generations of cars when you had a lot of horsepower.
Yeah, they were still going fast, but probably even faster down the straightaways, but then they're having to slow down more into the corners.
So rather than moving at 170 180 through the corners, they used to be going 150 to 160.
So like if you want to try to take out some of these hard hits at these fast non restrictor plate or non super speedway ovals, like you got to do something to fix the corner.
Speed and that's a whole different rabbit hole to go down.
But yeah, just the angle of that impact.
Number one, he broke down the wall literally like destroyed the wall.
They had to fix it.
But then number two, after he came off the wall, then you have chase that came up and hit him extra and it happened so fast.
Like I don't think Christopher had a chance to get his hands off the wheel.
That's why you see that injury.
And like, again, I just think this crash was circumstantial.
I don't know that something to be super alarmed about at the moment.
It was, I will say it was kind of like odd.
I was staying outside the media center waiting for Christopher and just the longer we were waiting the more I just had a feeling that like he wasn't going to be coming out to talk to us now.
I was, I was glad to hear that, like, whenever they came out, told us he was okay and wouldn't just wouldn't be doing any media.
But I just remember seeing all the faces, I think, like his Bell's wife showed up and went in there and there's a lot of people from the team that kind of were showing up and sitting around the care center there.
And so, like, I mean, I saw like I watched him get out of the car and walk over and everything.
So, and I'm glad it's not a head injury. That's the other one that like, we've seen a lot of those with this next gen car.
So props to him for, for, for saying that he's going to try to tough it out and try to go racing. It's going to be a tough couple of weeks to do that with the shifting at Pocono.
And then the extra shifting and turning and back and forth at these road courses.
And then on top of that, it's just summer months. It's the dog days of summer. It gets hot.
So, I think, I mean, those Gibbs cars have been so fast.
And I think there's also an element here that like, if Bell didn't feel like he could go out and compete, then he might think more about taking the few weeks off the heel.
But I mean, Bell's pretty good at road courses.
Whenever we went to a new course last year at Mexico City and SVG dominated Bell was right behind him in seconds.
So, hey, we'll see what he can do. We'll see if he can go out and make some noise and finally get that win that he's been chasing after all season.
But he's going to have to grind it out.
And we'll see, like, talk about the old generation of racers, the blue collar guys, like just how tough they are.
This is a chance to show that even our modern racers, even though they have all this technology and people may not see them as tough, like, hey, Bell's going to have to get this out the next couple of weeks.
He will indeed. I think he's able to do it. I mean, I wouldn't put it past him.
He's got a teammate and Denny Hamlin that's been able to, you know, he's basically racing with one shoulder.
This season has done pretty well for himself.
So, I would expect Bell, who's had the speed to get a win here in these next couple of weeks.
Like I said, I would, I would not bet on San Diego or Sonoma, but at Pocono, Chicago, and those are two places that I think Bell is amongst the group of favorites.
Speaking of San Diego, Truckfield keeps getting more interesting and interesting as it was announced this week that driving for Mackinale Higerman, Hill German, excuse me.
Brennan Gott, returning to NASCAR. This is pretty cool. The former Las Vegas, obviously the Las Vegas native driving in the truck series race at Coronado in San Diego.
This is adding to a loaded field. Obviously, Jimmy Johnson going to be a part of it amongst others.
Jamie McMurray going to be in the Ram Truck if I'm not mistaken.
This is a pretty interesting group or isn't it Caleb?
Oh yeah, it's a super fun group. I mean, like, it's really tough that we go from Michigan to Pocono before San Diego because with all the talk and the noise that I've heard from San Diego, it feels like that's where we should be going this next weekend.
It feels like everybody's just not even thinking about Pocono for the most part, unless you're a Denny Hamlin or one of his fans.
But yeah, that whole weekend is going to be really fun and it's cool to see the truck series getting some of these one-off drivers to go in.
I'm curious to see how competitive they'll be.
I feel like, I mean, whatever series, from even the Cup to O'Reilly and then down on the trucks, no matter the series, we have all these guys that come in and we'll try these one-off races, but the tops of the field and all three divisions are just so stacked with so much talent.
But yeah, like, it'll be good to see Brendan back on the racetrack and see what he can do.
Jamie McMurray and that Ram stuff. I know Ram's kind of, I think they're starting to maybe find themselves a little bit.
But they were having some pretty good runs at Michigan until some, like Corey LaJoy I think was top 10 and then had a tire go down and so they've been, they're growing, but they still are missing out on some of the resources and everything.
But like, I'll be curious to see how Jamie McMurray can do and then, yeah, Jamie Johnson in the field, like, that'll be fun to see.
And yeah, it's an exciting truck field for sure.
Trey, do you think any of those guys finish top 10 when it comes to the checker flag there in San Diego?
No.
No, that was quick.
No, I don't think so.
Is, I mean, is SPG going to be in it? That's what I want to know.
Oh, have they not? I don't think so.
If SPG or Zilliter in it, I will pick them.
I don't think they can because there's that rule.
Oh, yeah, they can't because you're right. That's a good rule. Yep, you're right.
So they're going to, because obviously in the 88 is Rajah Karuth who's running the Navy throwback scheme, like from when Brad was there as a HinduCars.com.
So, yeah, never mind.
Well, a man who I also, you know what? Actually, considering he's improved at road courses, he might get a top five at San Diego.
He's Bo Wallace, and obviously he became the spotlight of the post-race.
And he is our focus for the soundbite of the week.
Well, Tony, what angered you at the end of the race? What did you take issue with?
What the hell do you think I was mad about?
Dumb little s**t runs us clear down to the infield. He wants to s**t about everybody else.
And he's the one that drives like a little s**t. I'm going to bust his a**.
Thanks, Tony.
Thank you.
Sure track races.
It's time for the soundbites of the week.
This comes back because the position you were in was near the front, so there's really not a bad way to look at that, right?
I mean, it's five weeks of Bo Wallace making an excuse, his fall or not.
So I look at it as I needed to be better.
I needed to be leading the restart.
I think the five and the nine didn't get into the damage.
I don't know.
But yeah, just need to be better and we were able to execute today.
What do you say to Carson there?
He's fast. He's fast and he deserves to be in victory lane multiple times out of here, but making mistakes is going to cost him.
And he hasn't realized that yet.
So you were trying to, like, both encourage him and set him on the right course?
He's playing the game. The point by letting me and Larson by in the 40s.
You have to, I don't know if you're doing that on purpose, but you're having to do that.
It's like, oh man, I wrecked that guy earlier. I wrecked him last week.
I got to just stop hitting shit. You can race to your potential.
So Bo Wallace, the next driver on the list for Carson is a bar.
Obviously, he caused a big wreck in this race. Caleb, you were there giving the, I believe this was you, right?
Yeah.
Okay. I just want to be sure.
Thoughts on this situation.
Do you think this will finally break through for Carson Hosevar?
I don't know what it's going to take to break through for Hosevar because we've seen all these drivers and all the talk about it, but I've been thinking about it in a couple of days, like,
unless guys are racing him harder, like when he's trying to lap them or throughout the field and we're just not seeing it.
Like, I feel like no one, there's been all this talk, but no one's gotten him back yet.
Not saying that people need to get him back. There's also probably some hesitancy around that given recent penalties with Ryan Priest and everything.
But it, I mean, Bob is right.
Like everybody notices just how fast Hosevar is.
I mean, I remember whenever you first hopped into that 42, after Noah Gregson got kicked out in, what was that, 23?
Like that 42, Gregson had struggled in that car all year.
And then Carson gets in and is running top 15, top 10. I mean, he was like top five at points in that fall Bristol race.
And so like, he's a very talented driver.
Like even whenever you look at guys coming through the ranks and Connor Zillich, Corey Day and people are like, oh, this is the next so and so.
And they're talking about how fast they are. Like Carson didn't necessarily get that treatment, that hype whenever he was coming up through the truck series.
It took him a few years to get that first win.
But man, I mean, he, he is very fast. And this was a very different race weekend from the perspective of like a lot of these other weekends, even at Nashville.
Being set by the metric and some of these other things he's had to start deeper in the field, or they've had an issue on a pit stop that put some deeper in the field.
And then he has the race back through and you see some of that speed there. But this weekend he was up front pretty much that he started up front and he was up front pretty much the whole race.
And like, it was an opportunity to maybe not have to race so hard because as opposed to starting deep in the field and you're having to make up all that ground.
Like he was already up there and restarts like the one where he turned John Hunter, like that was middle of stage two, you still got plenty of time to make moves and those sorts of things.
And you have to be so impatient and like it's just such a similar thing to like Ross Chastain, maybe the guys like Joey Logano.
So like, when you see their personality outside of the car and that's what people love for some, maybe in the case of Logano, like people love or hate them for that.
But then it's like they get in the car and put on that helmet and their brain, I don't know where it goes, but it just disappears.
And like, I love the meme like if gap car, I don't know if you've seen that one tray with Carson host of R and if gap like that's literally that I mean it's funny because that's exactly how Carson drives and so like bubble talked about
I'm pointing him by at the end. I think part of that too was also host of our felt like he was courting attire. And so he didn't have as much to race with. But that was the whole that Bubba's talking about is like, if you don't continuously run into guys in previous weeks, you
don't feel like you owe them one. And then at the same time for them, like, I think bubble was still frustrated because one of those restarts I think bubble was one of the ones that was on the outside when host of our got tight and kind of ran up the track and they all lost
together and he's just trying to make the point of again like if you use your brain a little bit and you don't fight for everything likes the last lap then like these are long races it's something that Kyle arson had to figure out when he first got to the cup series is
something that Tyler retic like some of those dirt guys took them a while to win. These are long races and you have time to get things back as opposed to making mistakes and having to try to pay it back later so
man, Carson such a fast and entertaining driver. I do wish that some of his fans would like maybe lay off a little bit and just realize that like hey, it's okay our driver made mistakes. I know people aren't happy. You can still support him anyways, but you don't have to go after the driver that's frustrated because these drivers have a right to be frustrated.
I just don't know like when it's going to start when these drivers going to start cashing in their checks on that 77 car.
We'll see indeed. Well, we only got one more thing, Caleb Barnes and that's to wrap this podcast up with the checkered flag.
It's going to be a drag race all the way back to the start finish line.
No caution. They're side by side. Right to the line.
Here they come. Checkered flag.
The checkered flag is out and it's time for the final thoughts.
Final thoughts. Anything you want to ranch rave or review?
I had something Trey and I forgot what it was, but the other thing that just popped into my mind is I think, I think Denny Hamlin has a good shot at getting this to 70 wins. I know he's at 63 now.
I know that's seven away, but I mean, I think, I think he's the heads on favorite.
I think it's Denny versus the field at Pocono this weekend that gets him to 64.
I think it's pretty easy for him to pick up one or two more by the end of this year.
And I mean, that's the question that's been starting to swirl around is if Denny's still performing next year, is he still going to retire?
He's going to leave at the top of his game and I think it's really hard to walk away if you're staring 70 wins down the barrel.
I don't know if he's going to be able to hire in heart. That's 76, but and then he's been very open about like, at some point you kind of do start to hit that decline, but he's not hitting it right now.
That's very obvious. So I think he gets the 70. I don't know when, but I think it happens.
Oh, well, I always love breaking news during while we're recording.
What happened now, Trey?
We're add another name to the list of San Diego truck drivers. Justin Marks is going to drive a truck for Spire Motorsports.
So add that to the list. Pretty interesting. So OK, Justin Marks.
So add that to the list. The obviously owner of Trackhouse is now going to ride for Spire Motorsports.
I feel like he did a truck. Was it a truck race last year for Spire as well? He did one last year, right?
I'm trying to remember the ones that he's done. He did one in the college team at Chicago.
And I'm trying to remember maybe as the owner of track, like for the owner. Yeah.
So anyways, that that's happening. Yeah.
Two notes. I want to mention Samantha Bush posted on Instagram about why Brexton is going to keep racing and how what was it like being back at the racetrack with Brexton.
And check out a couple of tributes they've done at the summer shootout there on Twitter with Kyle's dad and Brexton and so on and so forth.
Kurt also put out a statement this week and do want to mention that as well.
But my in a lighter news on this date.
So we're recording June 10th in the year of our Lord and 2008 an underrated NASCAR video game came out.
And it was NASCAR 09. Obviously, it was the final of the series.
NASCAR total team control 06 shot to that NASCAR Thunder 2003 NASCAR Thunder 2004 all bangers of a game NASCAR chase for the cup like all bangers of the video games.
But NASCAR 09 was an underrated. It was the final game. It was an underrated. I think NASCAR game over the years.
Why is it underrated and not in the upper echelon because it had the all time back fumble of not having split screen.
You could only race online. You couldn't have split screen, which to me is like one of the most enjoyable parts of the NASCAR game is like playing with your buddies in split screen.
And when I was a kid, one of us would drive backwards one of us drive forwards and try to wreck the other person or wreck the rescue field so that one person could win.
So my brother did. So you have like I racing you had splits like any like you have to have split screen.
Just plain and simple in every NASCAR video in any racing video game whatsoever.
Plain and simple, even though split screen is not as what it used to be, you know, online is such a bigger thing now.
But still, I will always believe in split screen. But that. Yeah.
I do remember. I do remember, Trey, I was going to ask, have you seen the San Diego mini movie since we were talking about that?
I actually have not. So I need to check that out. So is it is it good?
Yeah, if you have not seen the San Diego mini movie, it's it's really fun.
It's something that I wanted to get the chance. I didn't get the chance to ask all the drivers. It was a weird schedule at Michigan.
Again, we had the truck race and then cup stuff afterwards.
So some of the drivers weren't necessarily in the mood as much as they would be normally because they just ran the truck race.
But it was a fun little mini movie, solid piece of content.
So whether you whether you're going to watch it now or wait and get through this Pocono race and get yourself hyped next week, the Pocono mini movie.
That's that's a fun, fun little watch.
San Diego mini movie, not Pocono mini movie.
San Diego mini movie, a Pocono, that the anyways, the mountains of love that could be the next mini movie if they want to continue a series.
I don't know what they do with that. But yeah, that and I also just saw I wanted to give a shout out to cars 20 years.
Watch that movie last night.
Yeah, another, another nostalgia play. Yeah.
Shout the cars as well. All right. Four at Caleb Barnes underscore. I'm Trey Lyle VT.
You can follow us. Check out our content. Hopefully we'll have an interview next week. Knock on wood. Hopefully no, no hurdles. We're going to work on that for you folks.
So but signing off for now. Shout. By the way, I didn't mention it. Yes, I did end up getting married. So it's done.
Shout to my bride storm. It did happen. So we'll end with that for Caleb Barnes at Caleb Barnes underscore. I'm Trey Lyle at Trey Lyle VT.
Shout to Chris Graham as well for helping us behind the scenes. That will do it all now for this episode of bringing the heat.
About this episode
Hosts react to Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry split, teasing the upcoming 2027 driver announcement for the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The conversation then bounces through silly-season speculation, manufacturer “pipelines,” and how team stability could shape next-year rides. Carson Hocevar’s influence takes center stage—his Talladega win’s commercial ripple, his fan/media presence, and why his speed still needs a “breakthrough.” The hosts also unpack next-gen crash dynamics and quick hits on other drivers’ recovery and race-weekend expectations.
