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It's time for Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle.
Welcome on in to another edition of Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle, and yes, before we
get your questions, if you notice, I'm recording in a different studio than I typically do.
It's my work studio, where I do my radio show and wear the Fastlane with Ed Lange,
not the front of the show, Ed Lange.
It's because we had some technical difficulties with the original recording of this podcast
for this week, so we had to re-record it on a Thursday, so it's coming out a little bit
later.
So, Brian Nolan set to join me in a matter of moments, but first we need to get to a great
conversation with Zane Smith, yes, the driver of the number 38 for front row.
Brian Nolan, your mic's on, as you can hear it here and there in the back for front
row motor sports.
So that conversation with Zane Smith, that he gives me marriage rights all the way to
his favorite Long John Silver Sorter.
So this was recorded a few weeks ago at Martinsville.
Let's bring Zane Smith in to the Inferno.
Bring me into the Inferno now, the driver of the number 38 Long John Silver Sorter.
So, Zane, I'm going to go with an easy question first, so I'm actually getting married in June.
And I'm going to ask you this, what's the best advice you could give me?
For a wedding?
No, just being married in general.
Shoot, I don't know, I feel like I've been married since I was 16, 17 years old.
My wife and I have been dating, or have been together for a long time, and so we
were already kind of married right before, but, man, I don't know.
Definitely make sure you're ready, because it's a big commitment and a big day, and just
the wedding day is super special, and so a day I'll never forget, it's awesome having
everyone you care so much about, all in one place on one day, and so, yeah, super
special, and yeah, it's awesome.
Let's talk about the racing now.
I appreciate that, by the way.
Thank you so much.
Obviously, last year, a lot was going on off the track at FRM.
What has kind of the shop been like since everything got settled?
Has the vibe been different compared to last year?
I mean, not really.
Everyone, honestly, seemed to just keep their head down and focused on what they could
control, right?
Like, we're all racers at the end of the day, and a lot of it was kind of out
of our control and out of our power.
Now with that said, I don't know how well everyone is sleeping at night, but with that said, I
feel everyone is probably more well rested and just have more certainty of their future,
so that all feels good, and then, yeah, just to start out our year with some positive
momentum at Daytona and Atlanta, I felt like that definitely sparked the company in general,
and that felt good.
Hopefully, we keep that going.
We've still got a lot of racing left and a huge grind remaining throughout this year,
but everyone's been doing a great job.
Everyone has their head down, focused, and trying to collect as many points as possible
every week.
Do you think last season the outside stuff, and you sort of just answered it, had any
effect on the team just because the future was so uncertain that you're humans at
the end of the day.
If you don't know your future, it could affect the current state of things.
Yeah, I mean, you would think so, but to be honest, I don't think so, and that's a good
thing.
But yeah, like I said, I feel like that goes back to just everyone seemed focused and confident.
Everything was going to work out in their own way, and yeah, fortunately it did, and
yeah, I remember everything when it did get resolved.
It felt great right after, and so yeah, just happy it did all work out, especially from
my side of things, because there's only so many seats in this sport, and so knowing what
my future looks like, it's just more clear that I will be in the 38, yeah, it was nice
going to the off-season because I'm obviously well uneducated with the lost stuff and
those type of things, and so I didn't know how my off-season was going to look if it just
would keep getting postponed or what not or appealed, and yeah, fortunately it didn't,
and both sides got it figured out, so I felt good.
Yeah, I even took a law class in college, and I just don't know it.
Speaking of, you know, on track, Toyota's dominant part of the season so far.
What do you think is needed from the Fords in order, obviously this is probably different
than any track we've been to so far this season.
Could the clash you can use as the example, as we're at Martinsville, what are the Fords
going to do to catch up to the Toyotas at this point?
Shoot, I feel like if we knew we would have already done it, but I just feel like, you
know, the 45 team is what I feel like we're speaking of here, they're just doing all
the little things, right, and just man, momentum is huge in this sport, and just
motor sports in general, and obviously they started out great, and I've just been
able to carry that momentum, and so, yeah, I think you're seeing a lot of that,
but our cars have been pretty good, and it's just about putting solid weekends
together, and building that momentum one week into the next, and I feel like that's
how you ultimately get good results.
FRM is kind of a unique team that has three guys at the same point in their
careers, in terms of their career arc and their development with yourself,
Todd and Noah, what is it like working with those three in terms of kind of
being at the same point of your careers in terms of development, and each week at
the track?
Yeah, I mean, definitely a younger team for sure, and it's been cool to work
alongside of two of my best friends, and yeah, you know, I feel like this
year is kind of like a contract year for a lot of people in this sport, and
yeah, I mean, we're all fighting to stay here, but with that said, we've all had
a lot of success in the past years, and the Craftsman Truck Series, and the O'Reilly
Series, and yeah, I feel we've all made it here for a reason, and yeah,
hopefully we're here to stay, and yeah, the only way you can stay is just
keep on giving results, and any top level of motorsports is incredibly
cutthroat, and we're all aware of that, but I think that just kind of goes
back to how it should be, and yeah, I mean, we're all all great friends,
though, and it could be open about communication of, you know, maybe how
we can all be better in different racing situations throughout the race and
whatnot, and I feel like we've done a great job of that so far.
Touch on your start, two top 10s to start the year.
That's feel really good considering Daytona and Atlanta.
What are the next steps? It feels like you're showing some speed each week.
It feels like you're improving each week, but ultimately, what is kind of the
next step to get into that next tier you want to get to?
Yeah, I mean, I think just keep being consistent. My pit crew's been great,
obviously, they're ranked very well this year, so it's been a lot of fun
to have them, and our speed has been pretty dang good, but just cleaning up,
I think some of the road courses. I know we got some of those coming up once we
get into the summer months here, and that's I feel like the main area where we
have struggled, but outside of that, I mean, I'm searching for my first win.
I feel like I've been able to kind of check these boxes slowly, but surely,
of getting my first poll and then getting a stage one at the 500,
contending for wins a little bit more often. I feel like racing inside the
top 15, definitely more often. So yeah, just, man, if you keep on putting
yourself in contention, eventually one will go your way.
Do you think having that top 10 pit crew, which shot to the 38 team for that,
gives you a little bit more, I don't want to say confidence or like stability
when you're in a race, because you can be maybe more aggressive knowing,
hey, if I make like a mistake here, my pit crew can, I don't want to say
bail you out, but like back you up and help you with track position.
Yeah, I mean, just maintaining on pit road is huge, but man, if you could get a spot
here and there, like they've been able to give me, it goes just such a long way,
where if you're a little off maybe one day, they could keep you in the fight.
And so, man, it's just been great to have them. And that kind of goes back to just
doing the small things right. And I feel like they're a lot bigger than a small thing,
because a lot of passing is done on restarts and pit road. But yeah, they've been awesome to have.
Let's talk about stability for you this season. You are in year two as a full-time
cut driver with FRM. Obviously, you won a truck championship with them, but this is the first
time you've had, you know, been in the same cup team for back-to-back years. What has that been
like for you kind of having that security of like, hey, I know who might, you know, I know
what meetings I have to attend, where I'm going and everything that goes along with
kind of the outside stuff outside of Sunday being with the same team for a second straight
year. Yeah, that feels great. And I touched on that some kind of going into this year of
what I was excited about, because, you know, I feel like when you're in
truck or the O'Reilly series, you kind of have your like core group that you'll work with along
the way. And some of those guys will get like drafted up to the cup series. But
and then you kind of like in your rookie year, you kind of look at
like the top teams. And man, their groups are the same, a lot of their career. And
it's hard to have that luxury in the cup series. And it's just hard to stay here. And so
to be able to work with the same group for a second year, I feel like it's been awesome
just from like a communication standpoint, unloading, making the right adjustments,
and just your week is a little bit smoother. So yeah, it's been great to have.
All right, I have to ask you, you're rocking the Long John Silver. Shout to my producer,
Caleb. He loves Long John Silver's. Your go to Long John Silver's order.
So we had out in Vegas, I think like when it came out, the like the fried chicken or however you
want to say it, it's like the same batter that they use, but it's their chicken, which I ran that
scheme the second morning's will last year. It was great. So which I heard it was a hit at one of
the casinos it was at maybe like the South Point or something. But yeah, so I'll go with that.
So instead of chicken fried steak, it's like what fish fried chicken? Is that what you're
sure? Yeah. Yeah, I'll go with that. Well, Zane, I appreciate your time this morning.
Good luck at Martinsville and good luck the rest of the season. And thanks so much.
That was Zane Smith in the Aferno. Thanks so much to the folks at FRM and
to Zane for that great conversation. Fish fried chicken. Fish, I don't know how to, you know,
like you have country, country fried steak or and so like, you know, chicken fried steak.
So I guess this is fish fried chicken. I don't know the exact thing how you pronounce it. So
but anyways, there's a lot of the latest news. Let's get to it with what's still hot?
A man who likes to jump the gun is Brian Nolan. He speaks too early.
Listen, I didn't know my mic was on. A shout out to our awesome producer,
employee of the month for Front Stretch, Chris Graham. We have a new program that we record on.
So I'm still trying to figure it out and I kind of didn't know how to mute myself. So
my bad. That was my bad. I apologize. Try.
It's all good. It's all good. Well, the only good news is that, you know,
not like you, the only good news is, you know, you've recorded this podcast.
Now many times when you've done this podcast, when you were hosting,
you would have some like late, great, great breaking news that break after you record.
You're like, of course. Happen. Happen.
Probably once a month, maybe, maybe about one month.
Well, good news. Maybe the technology gods were looking out for us because Alex moment
clear to return happened this morning, Thursday morning. So April 9th as we record,
he's set to return after spending the week as I'm going to read this is according to
he was able to run laps in a street car at the 10th month's motor club,
which is the new sports car track picks and Charlotte did pit stop practice,
a SIM session in a medical evaluation on Wednesday.
Alex Bowman expected to return in Bristol, which is earlier than expected.
It feels really good to see Alex Bowman going to be back in the race car this weekend.
Yeah. I mean, if there's one place that is going to test to see if you're really
fully healthy, it's going to be Bristol when you're going when you basically don't have a
chance to even breathe. I mean, Vertigo is it's it is rough. I mean,
it's kind of like a concussion. You just have to wait it out really. So I'm glad to see that
he's back. I mean, he's had absolutely awful luck with the back injury. And then I mean,
he wins at Chicago. But I mean, still he's always had really like a target on his back.
So and then he's had this. So really interesting to see. I think a little
people were disappointed in just the 48 car past couple of weeks. I mean,
Justin Allgar had a great chance, but really just couldn't capitalize. I mean,
there are some things that road speeding penalties and then you just was out to lunch
sometime. So maybe maybe Bowman has a chip on his shoulder saying he needs to
compete at the highest level in order to keep his job. This is just all speculation.
I don't I'm not I'm not Jordan Bianchi or Adam Stern or anybody. So
maybe he's got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder.
Yeah, I'm excited to see Bowman back if it does feel good. I'm glad to see first of all,
he's healthy. Vertigo is kind of a crazy thing to deal with. And so I'm glad to see he's
healthy. Speaking of becoming healthy, maybe, you know, there's like TV shows called The
Club. It was on Netflix. There's a famous book called The Club, which is a big thing
you hear in college football, mainly right now. If you're a college football fan,
you would understand the book The Club. Well, another place calling themselves
The Club is Legacy Motor Club. As they have now a new president, Michael Gieta. I
believe is how you pronounce it. I'm not going to even try. Nolan, you're not going to
try either. I would guess. But most importantly, he brings 20 years of global
engineering experience, including becoming the chief operating officer at Joe Gibbs.
And you plucked talent from Joe Gibbs recently. It has been maybe rocky,
but this appears to be a very smooth one. So Brian, could it indicate we're getting a better
relationship between Legacy Motor Club and Joe Gibbs Racing, considering they have none
as of right now from a technical side of things? You know, Legacy Motor Club trying
to go to Toyota on their own, do their own thing. And it's been a slow bill
that maybe has not been as well as they thought. Have they changed their philosophy
a little bit, getting more Joe Gibbs influence into that team?
I mean, I do think it's going to help. But I mean, there's just been so much,
churn oil, churn oil the past three to four years. It feels like someone's going in. Someone's
coming out. I mean, it has been, it has been a lot. I mean, so I do think I do feel
like they're running better than they have in the past. J.H.N. is definitely getting the
results. And then Eric Jones has always been steady. But I do want to see them take that
next step tray. Maybe this will do it. But I mean, the churn oil that is just, there's
so many people going in, so many people going out. It's just, I would like to see some
steadiness there once a while and maybe bringing in this guy. He will just tell everybody
is to chill and we'll be good to go. Having phones fallen. This is a great little setup
we got here. But speaking of great little setup, could be a new little setup at Talladega in April.
They are changing their stage links. They're going from 100 lap stage or closer to 100 laps
in the opening stage. And then the two will be under 50 of these to combat the fuel saving part.
This is from Jeff Prost of NASCAR, Brian. Do you think this will work?
I mean, it couldn't be any worse than what we're seeing right now, right, Tranny?
I mean, everybody's, I mean, it looks cool on TV, but like it's not fun for the drivers. And then
we just wreck them all up with about 20 to go. And then it's just all hell breaks loose
after that. So I mean, they have to do something, right?
Yeah, we'll see. I, you know, at least they're trying stuff. And speaking of trying stuff,
another part of the announcement was they also announced the return of
pre-season thunder, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. I feel like that belongs in that category.
It's going to be a test session at Daytona, which assess potential technical changes to
the cars that could lessen the impact of the conservative strategies at Super Seedways.
Brian, two-part question of this. One, do you like this idea? And two, do you think this is a
sneaky way of kind of reestablishing, building back up kind of the lore that was Speed Weeks?
The first part, I love it because we're going to get racing in late January,
right before the Rolex. So I don't know if they're going to do it on a weekend because,
and then that's going to mix with the NFL playoffs. I don't know how this is all
going to work. Are they going to do it on a weekday? I just love pre-season thunder going to
be back. Hopefully our adult in Hopkins is going to be on the ground covering that.
So that will be awesome to see his thoughts and feelings of everything. But I mean,
just looking at what we're going to see, I don't think we'll ever have Speed Weeks come
back Trey just because I don't think the clash will ever, the clash will ever be back there.
I know Jordan Bianchi has always been one in it. Dell Jr. has been one in it. But I mean,
you're just going to wreck cars. And I mean, I would love to see them go to a short track.
I mean, I was thinking like Kevin Harvick's Kern County. I mean, I know it's all the
way in California, but I mean, still it's going to be a short track. And I feel like
with Harvick and Fox and everything, I feel like that would be a good option. But
I think it's a little, I think it's putting a bandaid like on a stab wound. You're healing some
of it, but you're not going to heal all of it. Brian, how about you stick right there?
And we're going to talk about another, it's sort of a news bit, but it also belongs in the sound
by the week. So we're going to get the first thoughts of the one, the only,
Cleetus McFarland and him not being cleared and his statement on that. That's our focus for the sound
bite 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 one that drives like a little s**t. I'm
going to bust his a**. Thanks, Tony. Thank you. Short track race. It's time for the sound
bites of the week. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to hear it for me first that I have been denied
by NASCAR to run Talladega in my O'Reilly's car, made my O'Reilly's debut last Saturday
with hopes of getting approval for Talladega, but they did not see enough.
Granted, it was a pretty hectic race. I tried to pass someone three wide on the third lap,
spun out, spun out a few more times, didn't crash or crash anybody, but still it was pretty hectic.
Nonetheless, NASCAR has said we're going to need to see you run more Arca and more trucks. I'm fully
approved for trucks, which I have some of those on my schedule coming up, but in O'Reilly's,
I am still limited to short tracks. So, you know, all in all, this opportunity landed
about two months ago and we came up with the idea of running a super speedway.
It's not like we've been planning this for a year and I've only been racing NASCAR for one year.
So it was never my mission to go out and climb into O'Reilly's car and get to the top as
fast as I can, but we figured we'd try and we didn't get approved. So it is what it is. I need
more windshield time regardless of whether it's in an O'Reilly's car, an Arca car, or a truck.
More windshield time is going to help me. I got a lot to learn guys. So this isn't as much of a
step back or a push down as it seems. A little bit of a kick in the nuts, but
I just got to get out there and the other cars do as much learning as possible.
And then hopefully I'll get to run Daytona and Talladega next year. All right. Thanks. See you later.
So, Cleetus McFarland not approved to run Talladega this year in the NASCAR O'Reilly
Auto Parts series, still able to do all the trucks in all of Arca as his statement is there.
Ultimately, Brian, it feels like NASCAR made the right call on this. What do you think?
Yeah. I mean, it was a challenging day for Cleetus. First off, kudos to him for trying it.
But it was, I do feel like this was the right move by NASCAR. I mean, he wrecked on lap three or four
in the truck race at Daytona, spun a few times in Rockingham. He did finish all the laps. I
was impressed by that. Obviously, he had some wicked saves. But I do feel like he
needs some more experience. And with as good of equipment as RCR brings to Talladega, he would
be running up at the front. And with that, there would be more and more opportunities for him
to get in particular earliest troubling situations. And who knows? Lap two, he could be
going into three and four, get loose and cause a 30 car pile up. And we'd have 10 cars running
for the last 90 laps of the race. I think nobody wants to see that trace. So overall,
I think it was a good move by NASCAR. And it is cool to see him bringing in younger fans.
I know there are some people in Frontritch Adam Cheek that doesn't like him, but that's okay.
He's not for everybody, but I like and what I'm seeing. And I'm also liking the approval
process in NASCAR. Yeah. Ultimately, he is, I think, mainly a benefit to NASCAR in terms of
getting new eyeballs. But speaking of cleanest, I thought it was a great idea for him. And we're
going to use that. We're going to do a unique part of our final segment, which is our final
thought segment. So Chris, can you play that sounder and wave the checkered flag? And
Brian, I'm going to pose my idea to you. Okay.
All right. Final thought of the podcast, Brian Nolan. So Cletus McFarlane, or, you know, has done
stuff at the Freedom Factory. Does the Crown Vic races? Shout to Chris, by the way,
he's helped produce those before our producer for this. So I proposed to you.
So the all-star race feels like the most, I would say, lackluster hype it's ever had going in,
considering it's at Dover. If you were in NASCAR and you still want Cletus, and obviously,
you're not going to put him in a cup car. But if you gave Cletus the opportunity
to basically be in charge of the all-star race, what would you think? Because I think
you could even do Crown Vic races as the all-star race. It's the all-star race.
I feel like you could do whatever the F you want. I think it could be, one, get unique eyeballs, and
two, be pretty interesting. What do you think about my idea? I mean, it's definitely an idea.
I don't know if it's a good one, Trey. No, I just found he's given you a hard time. I mean,
it's better than what we have now. I'll say that because, I mean, what we have now is
basically just a race. So I don't know what he would sign up with or how he would do it,
but I mean, I'll be down. Exactly. I mean, make it dumb. I'd rather it be dumb and
wild and try something. You know, so we'll try it. All right. Nolan, thanks so much for joining.
Do you have the guest for happy hour next week already lined up?
We are still in the process. We also have a substitute. Nolan Hopkins will not be with us.
He is busy with some work obligations. So I will have a substitute there. So it might be Trey Lyle.
So we may be learning. I'm doing another podcast next week. Live on the air. I said it may. I said
it may. We never know. There's stuff going. There's stuff all around the pipeline. You never
know. But we may also just have Chris. So stay tuned for frontritch.com's happy hour. And I'll
also be on the watch party at Mike and Neff. Trey, you will not be there. You're going on vacation.
So it'll be myself, Michael Massey and Mike and Neff. Maybe a fourth, if not just the three
buffoons going to be recapping Bristol and maybe keeping a close eye on the Masters.
There you have it. So for at the Brian Nolan, I'm at Trey Lyle VT. This, thanks so much to Chris.
Appreciate him dealing with technical issues. They're never fun as someone who has to deal
with them in his daily work. I understand it. So appreciate we had to rerecord this.
Appreciate Brian adjusting our side. We'll also shout out Caleb Barnes because he helped
one with the original podcast recording with us, the original recording and he
helped with the stuff on the back end. So shout out to Caleb Barnes as well.
Thanks so much to Zane Smith as well for joining us. So that will do it for this edition of
Breaking the Heat with Trey Lyle. Done.
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