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Term
point system
The point system is NASCAR’s way of keeping score. You earn points for where you finish, and strong runs can help you climb the standings fast.
Term
stages
NASCAR races are broken into segments called stages. Drivers can earn extra points at each stage, so a good stage run helps your overall score.
Term
cast
A cast is a medical brace that keeps an injured body part from moving while it heals. In this context, it’s mentioned because it can change how comfortable and capable a driver is while racing.
Term
splint
A splint is a brace that supports an injured area. It helps keep it stable, but it’s often less restrictive than a cast—so it can matter for how someone can race.
Term
postseason
The postseason is NASCAR’s playoff time. If you make it there, you’re still eligible to fight for the championship.
Term
road courses
Road courses are the NASCAR races on tracks that feel more like regular road driving—lots of turns and braking. They can be tougher to manage when you’re hurt.
Place
Sonoma
Sonoma is a famous NASCAR track in California. It’s known for being a road-course layout with lots of turns, so it’s a good test of driving skill—especially after an injury.
Term
oval
An oval is the classic NASCAR track shape—mostly left turns and high-speed laps. It’s different from road courses, so it can affect how a driver feels when they’re injured.
Term
development program
A development program is the team’s plan for making the car better over time. It includes testing and upgrades so they can compete more effectively.
Term
NASCAR side
“NASCAR side” refers to the brand’s racing operations within NASCAR—team organization, coordination, and how the program is run across races. The speaker is contrasting that with broader day-to-day competitiveness.
Term
OEMs
OEMs are the big car companies that make the cars you buy. In racing, it means the automakers running their brand’s competition effort.
Company
SHR
SHR is short for Stewart-Haas Racing, a NASCAR team. The speaker is saying that things changed near the end of that period and it didn’t seem as organized or well run.
Concept
organized and structured and well run
The hosts are talking about how well a racing program is managed. If the operation is organized and run effectively, it’s easier to turn engineering effort into faster cars.
Company
Penske
Penske is a big NASCAR racing organization. Here, they’re being discussed as a key partner that helped run parts of the racing program and development work.
Term
underbody stuff
“Underbody stuff” means the parts and shape on the bottom of the race car. Those details affect how the air flows under the car, which can make it stick better in corners and feel more stable at speed.
Term
generation car
A “generation car” means the current NASCAR rulebook and tech setup for the race cars. When NASCAR updates the rules, teams have to redesign how they build and tune the car to match the new package.
Company
Ford
Ford is the car manufacturer running NASCAR programs. The speaker is arguing that the root issue is how Ford supported the program, not something the teams themselves could fully control.
Term
air program
An “air program” is the team’s plan for making the car’s aerodynamics work better. They test and adjust the car’s shape and aero parts so it’s faster and more stable.
Term
power steering issues
Power steering is what makes the steering wheel easier to turn. If it’s having issues, the car may feel heavier or harder to steer, which can slow you down and make the car less controllable in turns.
Term
hole in the radiator
The radiator helps keep the engine from overheating. If it has a hole, coolant can leak out, and the engine can run too hot, which can force the driver to slow down or even cause serious damage.
Topic
Kyle Larson dominated race
A “dominated race” is when one driver is clearly the fastest and leads most of the race. They’re saying Larson has been good at times, but not consistently enough to fully take over every week.
Topic
leading laps
In NASCAR, “leading laps” means being in front at different points of the race. It’s a sign you’re running well, even if you don’t end up winning.
Topic
winning streak
A winning streak is when someone wins race after race without a break. They’re surprised it’s lasted as long as it has.
Place
Atlanta
“Atlanta” refers to the NASCAR oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is known for high speeds and drafting. The hosts mention it as the next venue, implying the racing style and car setup demands will shift again.
Term
super speedway
A “super speedway” is a huge oval track where cars go very fast and often race in tight groups. Wind and car shape (aerodynamics) and drafting have a big impact there.
Term
lap 48 contact
That phrase means there was a crash or touch between cars on lap 48. It’s basically a timestamp for when the incident happened during the race.
Person
Austin Hill
Austin Hill is a professional NASCAR race car driver. In this segment, he’s mentioned because of what he said about another driver during the incident.
Person
Richard Childress
Richard Childress is a key NASCAR team owner. Here, he’s mentioned because he responded to the incident and explained it as payback.
Term
burnout
A burnout is when the driver makes the tires spin while the car is moving slowly or stopped. It creates smoke and is often done to heat the tires or just for show.
Term
green white checker
A “green white checker” is NASCAR’s way of setting up a late-race restart so the race can end with racing. It’s basically: restart (green), then one lap to the final-lap signal (white), then the checkered flag to finish.
Term
timing line
The “timing line” is a marked line on the track officials use to score the race. When the race ends under tricky conditions, that line can decide who gets credited with the finish.
Term
start finish line
The “start finish line” is the main line on the track where the race starts and where it’s officially considered to end. It matters for deciding the official winner.
Term
downforce
Downforce is the “squish” force that pushes the car down onto the track as it goes fast. More downforce usually means better grip in turns. But too much can slow the car down because it creates more air resistance.
Term
drag
Drag is the air resistance that fights the car’s motion. More drag usually means less top speed. Race teams balance drag with downforce so the car is fast without losing grip.
Term
grip
Grip is how much traction the tires have on the track. If grip is high, the car turns and accelerates without slipping. If grip is low, the car slides around and feels harder to drive fast.
Term
right rear tire
In NASCAR, you’re mostly turning left, so the tires on the right side do a lot of the work. The right rear tire often gets especially stressed and can wear or lose traction first. That’s why the track can “feel” like it depends on that tire.
Term
SVG one
“SVG one” sounds like a shorthand the hosts are using for a particular earlier burnout example. The exact meaning isn’t clear from this snippet alone.
Person
Chase Briscoe
Chase Briscoe is a NASCAR race driver. Here, the hosts are talking about how good his car looked during a burnout and they’re basically rating his showmanship.
Term
engine
Here, “engine” just means the car’s motor and how much power it’s making. They’re saying it didn’t seem like the engine was the big story in that moment.
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Well, let me tell you about that weekend.
Oh, this is the whole thing.
So they swapped my hands, rubbing my...everything.
There was a wedding this weekend, did you hear about that?
He doesn't know. No, he doesn't know. He has no idea.
Taylor Swift?
Oh, I didn't hear about that.
He didn't know.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick Zappiar, presented by NASCAR on FOX.
I'm Kevin Harvick, Caitlin Vincey, Mama Smith.
Yo!
All right, here we go. Welcome back.
We're back, baby.
We're glad you're here.
I did.
I left.
A little vacation.
Joey did great.
Joey did great.
It was a great show.
Listen, man, he was fun.
Yeah, we had a good time.
He liked the shirt.
I did.
Yeah.
Joey's got a great sense of humor.
This is true. He really does.
He leaned into it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm glad he...
I wish that his pick would have counted for that chair's points this week.
Oh, we're already going there?
He has some picks that he has to pick.
Yeah, he's got...
He has a pick that he has to pick to show confidence in his team.
Yeah, I get it.
I don't. I go with common sense and past results.
That's fair. What have you shown me lately?
Whatever he's got going on, he is definitely making us look bad.
Yeah, listen, well, I'm going to save my...
It's not hard.
I'm going to save.
Wow.
I'm going to save my commentary for that section of the show.
Yeah. There you go.
Good idea.
Save it. Yeah.
Welcome in, everybody, to episode 36.
We have plenty to talk about leaving Chicago land after a hiatus
from being at that racetrack will preview Atlanta coming up.
And you have a very long list I noticed on your segment.
Yeah, we got some...
Your social sips.
We got some sips in here.
Hey, it's a busy week.
You got a lot going on.
It's a busy week.
Hey, when you have clips, you got to play them.
When things are happening, we got to get them out.
That's right.
The people want to see the news.
Closers?
That's their favorite segment of the show is Mama Social.
You don't have any people I hear tell me that.
Mama's my favorite.
Oh.
So do they mean it or they just say it?
Oh, no, they mean it.
They know he's an idiot.
But they love it.
But they love it.
They love it.
I appreciate y'all.
Where's my camera over there?
I don't love y'all.
There you go.
Thank you.
Yeah, we had to start the show with that.
So what's the TSA story that happened to you?
TSA, well, let me tell you about my weekend.
So lap two of practice, I decided to drive it off the racetrack,
knock the whole nose off my car.
That's all I heard about all weekend at the racetrack.
Then we got our ass kicked.
Ethan Ebert kicked our butt in the race this weekend.
So but it was fun.
You know, we had a good fireworks show and great crowd.
Who was who was reminding you about the nose?
Was it Delaney or the pipe?
About the nose.
No, nobody.
But anyway, on my way home, so we go through.
We were flying home and we get to we're in Pasco, Washington.
OK, that is.
No, no.
OK, good.
Nice little town.
And so we go to TSA.
It's a little bitty airport.
And we go through and and alarm goes off on Keelan as the random.
With his mom, he's with his mom.
Yeah, mom goes through and they're like, OK, he's the random.
And then they're like, OK, well, can we check your hand?
So they take the little swab on her hand and make sure she's she's OK.
And then the lady's like, well, you you both are the random.
So can you just take your shoes off and we'll count that as two.
And she's like, I'm not taking my shoes off.
And they're like, oh, well, are you with them?
Yeah. OK, well, we'll do you.
So they swap my hands.
Alarm goes off like I've got a bomb or something in my hand
because like I've had a bomb or something in my hand.
I don't know because why. Right.
And then they then they so they swab my hand and then they take my bag.
They take everything out of this is the whole thing and open everything up,
swab everything in my bag.
And then because the alarm went off, now they have to do a full pat down.
So it's me and the worst me and this dude.
And he's giving me the debrief of how this pat down is going to go.
And he's like, and, you know, when I go over your genitals,
I will turn my hands backwards.
He's like, would you like to go into the private area to have
have the have the screening so that we don't have to do it in front of everybody?
I said, no, what I'd like you to do is pat me down so I can make my flight.
Yeah, just get it over with.
We cut it tight. So I stood right there and it wasn't like the
the quick pat down. It was every freaking inch of my body, like every crevice.
Rubbing my rubbing my everything.
I'm like, this is the weirdest thing. I've never had that done before.
I mean, I've had the quick pat down, but this was weird.
Yeah, we fly commercial almost every week.
I've never had that thorough of a situation.
I mean, they call me Mr. Smith and let me go right through.
I mean, the last week I was with Kevin Bacon, so that might have been why.
So the actor. Yeah. Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, we were hanging out in the lounge together.
That's awesome. Yeah, me, Kevin is his nephew.
No, it's not like long lost friends.
Oh, yeah. I mean, we're we're got each other's contact.
Might come to a race. You know, very cool.
He's a great actor.
Well, Kevin, I'm sorry that that was your experience.
I'm not. I'm not sorry.
I think that's great.
It was weird.
And then on the way out there, somehow I had to fly Alaska Airlines
and they forgot they didn't put my TSA thing on.
And I got to TSA and I had and I was like, no, that'll piss you off.
That has happened to me. That'll piss you off. That's frustrating.
I was hot. My fault. Didn't pay attention.
But anyway, the woes of my flights were all on time.
That's great. Well, we're glad everyone's flights
arrived here in Charlotte for us to do this show here today.
And we're good to go. All right, let's go to Chicago.
Lang guys, 123 finish for Joe Gibbs, racing and Toyota.
Kevin, first question I have for you. Any surprise with that?
Not at all.
I think that, you know, based upon my pick, I was pretty spot on.
Wouldn't you say? Correct. Yeah, you got it right.
We're very happy for you. Right.
Yeah, I think with the with the way that the Toyotas have run
and then you look at past history, because they do print those results
and you go online and look at the results of where people run good at certain
tracks, you know, and you can pay attention to all that.
Mm hmm.
I was just spicy today.
And so, you know, I just thought with with the way that the
with the way that the Toyotas have run this year, I mean, they all
ran good again this weekend.
Corey Heim was up there.
Ty Gibbs was up there.
You saw Eric Jones on the backside of the top 10.
And then obviously the, you know, the Gibbs cars up in the front with
with a finish of 123 there.
So I thought Bell had the best car.
And, you know, he had the contact on Pit road.
But, you know, I think that you picked him so he wasn't going to win anyway.
Fair. Well, Chase Briscoe ended up winning
six career win for Briscoe and company.
I liked what he said about his crew chief to James Small saying how
polar opposite personalities, right?
But that he really motivates him, pushes him.
You heard him saying that to him on the radio, too, when he was getting
to those lap cars or just like, keep charging here, make this happen
because Christopher Bell was coming.
Would you see out of Chase?
I think it's massive for Chase.
I think when it comes to his confidence, as far as what he can do
in the Joe Gibbs camp, they expected a lot.
That's the key word.
We expect it now.
We had expectations after last year, right?
You come from SHR and it's kind of happy, go lucky, right?
You're kind of like in the end and can't go worse.
Can't go. Yeah.
You want to race and like got him into the playoffs and all this stuff.
Cool, cool, cool.
But then this last year, it was like a weird start.
And then you guys started clicking it off and ended super strong.
This year, it was a weirder start and we haven't really seen the
clicking off, but they're starting to turn the corner.
And so with the expectations, you got to kind of show up.
And I think James probably understands those expectations because he's been living
it, whether it was with Martin Tricks, Jr., other things in his life.
But Chase hasn't had the same thing since probably racing like Arco almost to
where like he had to prove something.
I think he was always kind of probably a good spot.
Oh, Riley, yeah.
When he got the first in the 98 at first.
So he's been in a good spot for a while, but this is the first time in a minute.
And so if he loses that race in that fashion, right, where someone walks you
back down and then passes you with one to go or whatever, that's, that's a tough
pill to swallow.
That's a, that's a harder L than I think most people would understand because
as a driver, you're thinking that you should be able to hold onto that
position for those last five laps.
And not to mention just last week, the race prior with SVG, he was the only one
really giving him a run for his money.
What did you see out of Briscoe?
Well, what we expect.
And I think as you look at the beginning of the year, they just made a ton of
mistakes.
They had some bad luck.
They made a ton of mistakes, didn't run as good at some of the places as, as we
thought they were going to, or their teammates were running.
And I think it's just taking them a little more time.
But I think that the, the, the great thing about where we're at this year with
the point system and, and all that we have, when you start winning and you get
those first, second place finishes and running good in the stages, you're
seeing that you can make up points fast.
You see it with Denny Hamlin and, and Tyler Reddick.
And now you see it with Chase Briscoe climbing from outside of the, the chase
up into eighth place in, in the standings.
So putting himself back on the map to be a championship contender with the way
that he has climbed up the standings.
His teammate, Christopher Bell, you guys mentioned him.
He had a really solid showing as well now racing without a cast, but a
splint instead, still battling with that injury.
We had some questions, obviously, when he first got injured, can he make a strong
push to the postseason?
What do you think now?
Well, his push to the postseason in his injury came at the wrong time with the
road courses and, and the timing of it was bad.
And I, and I think that getting to the oval, uh, he did okay at, at Sonoma last
week with, with, with the injury and everything that he had.
But you know, this is the, this is what we expect out of belt too.
We expect him to be racing for wins.
And, and we've seen him, you think back to Kansas.
I mean, he was in position to, to win that race and crashed.
And, and, you know, when you come to Chicago or Kansas and Chicago, or in my
opinion, very similar as, as to, you know, the results that you see, you saw
Bowman run good, you saw Briscoe, you saw the Toyota's all the same, a lot of
the same cars up in the, in the front of the racetrack.
So, um, I can't believe we're this far along and the car, those cars have at
Joe Gibbs racing and have run as good as they have.
And bell hasn't been to victory lane and, and all three of his other teammates have
been, but it's not like he hasn't been in contention.
It's just all the, the injury and all the weird things crashing on the last
lap and crashing it at, um, I don't even remember where that crashed, Texas.
Yep.
Um, when, when he, you know, coming down to the wire at Nashville, coming
down to the wire at Nashville.
So he's, he's been in contention and sometimes it just goes that way.
And I, you know, I think that the, the biggest thing is you just have to be
mentally strong enough to be able to reset yourself every week.
Whether you win or lose, or it's devastating, or it is what it is, you
have to be able to prep and redo the things on a week to week basis.
So they keep bouncing back.
They had the problems on pit road with, um, you know, the, the 34 car was
going, yeah, yeah.
So the 34 car, uh, contact on pit road and finally had to just come fix the car
and take their lumps and go to the back of the pack and battle his way back
through, through the field.
So it was fun.
Um, you know, it's great to see everybody back at Chicago land Speedway.
I think the fans voted, uh, full house, uh, with the grandstands full at
Chicago land Speedway, uh, note to self, they'd rather be at the oval
than in the middle of the city.
Just saying street race is awesome.
Take it somewhere else.
Yes.
Well, you were out there front row seat.
We saw you all over the place.
Mombo's like, where's Waldo situation?
Um, you are kind of like, where's Waldo?
I mean, you know, it just kind of, uh, what were your observations though,
from going back there?
Anyway, we can get it to name it.
Where's slappy?
No, ain't no slacking way.
You have a better chance at seeing Jesus than seeing that.
Oh, well, it's a challenge.
Hmm.
Sounds like it.
Actually, yeah, yes, it is.
All right.
I'm not scared.
Okay.
I'm not scared.
I know I was the guy before, but this is a different situation.
Um, it was awesome to be honest with you guys, uh, even though it monsooned
for two days, we like, it, though, that part was not fun.
I mean, the winds were just insane, like 60 mile an hour winds.
It was crazy.
It looked like a scene from twister.
It did.
Storm is coming towards the racetrack.
You're like, this is not going to end of the world.
Tough.
Um, but the grandstands, I was talking to Steve O'Donnell and the grandstands
there are the old school way of how we used to have, you know what I mean?
It's just like very large, very like steep, steep and prominent.
And like you were sitting in there in the infield looking at him.
You're just like, these are fricking cool.
Like it is a look, I don't know.
There's something about it that looked really cool.
And then when the fans all came in, it was like, I know this is a shit.
Like there was just so many people.
The vibes were high.
I went to the back stretch, talked to some people back there, got on their big
bus that they had, they've been bringing it to the racetracks in 2001.
The Miss Louise, she actually lived on the other side of the racetrack.
So the racetrack's like in her backyard.
Like she's like two minutes away.
So the fans were great.
And then, you know, the C bell situation, he was fast.
And, uh, mama's pick, I was my pick.
I had talked to him at San Diego.
And I'm like, how, like, how's it going?
Like, how he's like, dude, it sucks.
Like he's, he's, but I think the injury.
And then when he got out, getting out of the car, I think watching someone else.
Watching someone else do his job.
I think has really ratcheted up like his intention.
He's like, no, this ain't, this ain't going to happen.
And he didn't even have to watch it long.
No. Yeah. No, he didn't.
True. Yeah, there was an early exit.
So it wasn't too much.
I'm in heavy smart ass mode today.
I see that you need to take a vacation more often.
That's why it comes right off.
What did you do on that trip?
We went fly fishing.
We went racing.
We hung out in the mountains.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Good for you.
So we're talking about Christopher Bell and the Toyotas as well.
Brackers, Lasky had a lot to say about Toyota over the weekend at Chicago land.
Take a listen.
They've done a lot of things to push
elite collaboration amongst their top organizations
so that they have, you know, for reference,
two kind of a organizations rather than a A, B and C.
As I've seen to date, the other OEMs have not done that.
So I'm sure you have plenty to say about this.
What do you think?
And I'm sure you agree. Correct.
Well, I think it's, well, yeah, let me think what I should think and what I should say.
We can agree they are obviously collaborating well at Toyota.
Yeah. And I think that when you look at Ford, it's a little bit dysfunctional
based upon my experience at Stuart Haas racing.
It was it just never really worked.
Nobody ever worked together.
And they're still in that point of nobody really works together.
But there's a very different dynamic here.
And, you know, I think from a Ford standpoint, who's going to pay who?
Because 2311 pays Joe Gibbs racing to build their cars
and share the technology and all the things that they do.
You look at Spire, that's how Spire does it with Hendrick.
So I think what Brad's asking for is everybody to work together at elite level for free.
And I don't know that it's going to be free.
But, you know, I think that that when when you look at Ford
and I mean, you look at their development program, it's not very good.
Not a lot of attention.
The trucks are running pretty good, almost extinct in the in the O'Reilly series.
Tough. So it just it doesn't seem like they're very well.
It didn't seem at that time, it didn't seem like they were very well organized.
They were not very well organized when we were at Stuart Haas.
As far as how they work together, it was always very dysfunctional
and didn't work very well.
And I think in the in the details of today's world, if you're going to compete
with a Toyota, you're going to have to be way more organized on a daily basis,
not just every once in a while.
And I think the thing that saved him was Pinsky was winning races
and Stuart Haas would win races and they got away with it. Right.
And now it's caught up with them and all the unorganization
of the racing program on the NASCAR side has basically put them in no man's land
except for Ryan Blaney.
The rest of the time, they're just, you know, they're just a part of the race.
And, you know, I think that's that's what it shows up in the results.
It's not surprising to see some of the competitors, obviously,
kind of coming forward and hinting that maybe the other OEMs should take note.
Well, they I mean, they don't want to get their ass kicked, right?
Right. They feel like they're doing what they need to do to be better.
And they it sounds like they feel like there's a wall that they're up against
that they need some more help to get either through or around that the obstacle.
And I think it's a little it's interesting because I mean,
the Chevrolet's had a good weekend like Larson, Byron, you know,
even Chase Elliott had to end up a moment.
All the Hendrick cars, they ran pretty well.
And honestly, Frost just showed a little bit of promise to in some spots.
So, but it's interesting that Ford just had this announcement
with Red Bull over on the F1 side, right?
So they're doing stuff over there.
And then Chevrolet has their GM, rather, they got the Cadillac thing at F1
and both their NASCAR programs on both sides have not been
what not been what we've always expected them to be.
Now, does that you does that have a direct correlation?
Like, I don't know. I'm not in the building.
But I got to believe that there's some smart people
that have to be pulled in different directions now.
Maybe they're not being able to focus in the same areas that you had before.
And so when you look back to the Stuart Haas thing,
when we first switched to Ford, you know, it was it was awesome.
Yeah. For the first two years, it was it was awesome.
And then they had a management change at the at the top of the racing program.
And it and from for the last two or three years, every year,
they kept asking for money back, back.
And they were pulling funding out of out of Stuart Haas racing
every year that they got towards the end of that deal.
Well, the first two years with all the money and all the things,
it was lights out and had everything that you want.
And now you you see the F1 programs, maybe that maybe not.
They pulled some money out of the NASCAR programs.
But to me, it was sure they pulled money out at the end of the SHR days.
But it was never organized and structured and well run.
Yeah. And when you when you look at the Penske deal,
like to what Kevin was saying, like they really were able to tote that flag
with all the things with the with the this generation car, like they understood
how to make like the underbody stuff work really well faster than other people.
And now it's kind of leveled off.
And I think that just goes to show that having a fourth OEM in the space
would really do benefits for a lot of different places.
And I think that, you know, Ford had always favored Penske. Yeah.
You know, they at the at the end, Penske had basically taken over everything
that Ford was doing with the program that the teams were allowed to do.
And they had manipulated it to the point where they were in charge
of the air program and all the things that the teams were doing.
It started as Stuart Haas and Penske.
And, you know, now that it's all been, you know, put into into one house,
it hasn't run as good. Yeah.
But in the end, I, you know, I think that from a Ford standpoint, it's a Ford problem.
Yeah, it's not a team problem.
They need more help from from their manufacturing.
You got good people in their shops.
And Brad, Brad pulled RFK or sorry, pulled Roush Fenway.
It feels like out of kind of the mud.
Yeah, they're right.
And so obviously he's like, no, we're here on the on the doorstep
of being able to be good. I need some more.
Yeah. And, you know, they won the championships with the Ghana and Blaney,
you know, but it was that it wasn't, you didn't have to be good every week.
It was a different situation at the rights.
And now you're in a new situation.
And Ford is definitely the weakest of the three manufacturers currently in the sport.
It's a conversation will continue to follow.
And of course, there are two Toyotas leading the charge right now in the points.
Denny Hamlin now 44 up on Tyler Reddick.
And I want to take a look at this briefly.
His finishes, Reddix as of late, Michigan 35th in a crash.
Poconovi was second to Hamlin, San Diego 25th cut a tire with two to go.
Sonoma 36 power steering issues.
Now Chicago 36 hole in the radiator.
So I'm curious from you, do you think it's better to have these issues now
and you're battle tested or what?
Or you want to go into the postseason with momentum?
You want to go into the postseason with momentum and it's it's hard to just flip it.
When you get from race 26 to race 27, it's hard to just flip that switch,
switch, because it naturally just happens, right?
Like these problems, stuff going through your radiator.
And that's the that's the thing that always worries you when you have
an awesome start to the season.
All right, when's the bad because it's going to happen.
Yeah, right?
You're going to have the pit stop mistakes.
You're going to have the, you know, the mechanical failures.
And very rarely do you go through a year that you don't have flat tires
or stuff happen, getting a crash.
And Reddick didn't have any of that happen at the beginning there.
Now it's all starting to balance out, right?
Like you had Denny had, you know, not as hot of a start.
And Reddick had a hot start.
And now everything's starting to even out as far as the the Mulligans
and, you know, the bad luck that goes along with the season.
Yeah.
And it's not like he hadn't had a great season.
But, you know, the problem is you can tell that they're frustrated
with the things that are happening that are, you know, that's not any more
controller and and, you know, it's it's also, you know, he ran good yesterday.
But I don't think he was going to be the other three cars.
Yeah. The other three Gibbs cars.
I think the 23 car is honestly a little better than he was.
And he made one mistake and got loose.
And that was it. Never saw him again.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I talked to Tyler after the race, like I interviewed him after the race.
And, you know, he's frustrated, but he wasn't like down because they're fast.
Like they're doing.
There's a picture of what went through the radiator right there.
They have speed.
So speed, speed cures and keeps a lot.
A lot of things moving is a lot of things good.
So, but they, but you want to finish well, you don't want to,
you feel like you're as good as the 11.
Like they feel like they're as good as the 11 and like looking at the stats.
Like, yeah, but they have had way more things go awry for them.
And even when they had things go bad, like at Echo Park in the spring,
they're at a bounce back in the same race.
Yeah. That wouldn't have you feel like he's as good as the 11.
No, I don't either. think he's as good as 11.
I think they think how about you missing.
That is a good point. No, I don't.
But to your point, even when he was winning, he was,
there were still things going wrong.
He was just over the execution.
OK, so those are some of the people who had some misfortune
and the list continues on.
And I want to move to Kyle Larson, who qualified on the front row.
You referenced the fact that Henry Motorsports obviously had speed,
but spins on his own and pretty much ends up two laps down the rest of the day.
Kevin, what did you think of that with Kyle Larson?
Well, you know, it's just
we still haven't seen a Kyle Larson dominated race this year.
I mean, we've seen those moments where he's been leading laps
when all the other guys are having problems on the day when he's running decent.
But we've not seen all 400 cars show up and be good, right?
And it just seems like every week it's one or the other that that has
is is off and, you know, it's not like they were way off,
but it just hasn't all lined up for Larson.
And the fact that the winning streak is as long as it is is pretty wild.
Talking about our past champion and just, you know, I thought by this point,
they would they would have figured out now.
I think that they were better.
It's the best I've seen William Byron run all year.
Definitely better. They were definitely better.
And, you know, Byron led a lot of laps and did all the things
that that he needed to do this weekend to start getting back in the real
conversation of winning races.
Yeah. Chase Elliott, you know, was was in the mix this weekend.
48 Alex Bowen was what ran good.
But forty eight's been the most inconsistent.
Yeah. But 24 isn't far behind.
Yeah. You know, as far as the inconsistency of where they've been all year,
but is this where they're going to wind up?
And, you know, now we're going to, you know, a super speedway again at Atlanta.
We'll see. We'll see. Yeah.
Well, what did you think of Henrik Motorsports over the weekend?
I think that they are probably pretty pissed off
that it's been called the Toyota Cup at this point.
Sure. That done so well with a couple of people.
I don't know Mr. H.
Very at all very well.
I've talked to JG and other guys and girls in that group.
They do not like to lose and they are not used to losing.
And this has been a long losing streak for them.
Yeah. Well, you know, I think the other thing you got to remember, too,
is Rick does not like to lose.
Rick is a Rick's a winner.
And he is. He is.
I guarantee you pushing the buttons, but his wife doesn't like to lose.
That's worse than he does. She really does.
Yeah. She wants all four at you.
There is a lot of pressure on those people in that race shop
to get this thing fixed and be able to put themselves in victory lane.
And I mean, there were there were definitely signs of things
that that were very good signs of life, very good from the weekend.
Don't don't count. Listen, don't count them out because it can't start.
If they start getting this is the time they this is a good first step.
If it looks like this over the next few weeks
and that gap gets closer, just wait till postseason time
because they'll turn it up a lot of weird tracks, though.
You know, that was that was really the last
oddball, the complexion. It's like a new race track.
It's not really that's how they talked about it.
No, I don't think so.
I mean, by the tire test, I mean, I mean, they hadn't been there
so they don't have a lot of notes. Yeah.
But it's not a racetrack where they hadn't had some idea of what it's
not like they were going to San Diego, but I mean, you're going to go to Atlanta.
You got Talladega, North Wilkesboro, Daytona.
I mean, Daytona, you got so you got Atlanta, Daytona, you got Indy.
Yeah, weird. Yeah.
So you got some some weird racetracks that that in this whole thing
and in a couple super speed ways to go along with that, they could get random.
Speaking of weird, the weirdness just continues for Conor Zillich's
or key campaign gets taken out lap one, not of his own doing.
But if you're somebody in Conor Zillich's unit with within his team,
what are you saying to him to keep him motivated right now?
Where was that? Right off the turn two. No.
What? Chicago. Oh, in the back.
Yeah, middle of the pack.
Yeah, my advice would be to qualify better.
And that's, you know, I know that that's one big question that that everybody
has is where are those track house cars on on the ovals?
You know, we've seen we've seen SVG run good.
He ran great at Charlotte.
Sure. You know, Conor ran good at Dover at the All Star Race.
Real good. That's really the only place we've seen him run good
aside from the Sonoma in San Diego.
So and he's just he's been in the middle of it all.
But the only way that you take those chances and lower them is to qualify better.
It's painful to watch.
And I know you tweeted something about that to that effect of just the
frustration mounting for this young racer.
It just it sucks.
Like he's not getting any laps.
Yeah, he's not getting any opportunities to learn.
You're not going to see anything about it, anything like.
So for him, I think
he I think this situation also, though, too,
I think it's easier to stay optimistic because there's so many things
that have been out of his control.
Now, there have been things in his control that he has also messed up on.
But I just feel like it's going to create, you know,
kind of a little bit of a dog in him.
Like he's got like, you got to get this thing straight and you're the leader of the ship.
Like Kevin's talked about it before, like your team operates off of the driver.
Like you are the North Star.
So, you know, you know, you're down or make sure you grab those bootstraps up
and keep digging the good thing about Connor is he's always going to be
somewhat up, but what what that looks like while he's functioning,
isn't what's always functioning in your head.
And no matter how much of the leader that you want to be in that scenario,
you're not driving at an elite level from a confidence standpoint
when it's when it's all just going wrong.
That's the hard part.
I hate it for Connor.
I think he can get the job done, but it definitely has been a disaster
on Saturday and Sunday this year.
We all hate seeing that.
Yeah, on Saturday.
My man, it's just just it's tough.
Yeah, we hope things turn around while we're in the Trackhouse families.
Let's talk about this little incident for a moment.
SVG versus big country.
We had lap 48 contact between the two of them.
Austin Hill calling him Van Gogh and Heimer,
which could be a very fun new nickname for him.
Richard Childress responded, said it's payback for San Diego.
What did you think about this whole thing?
Yeah, well, it's a tough situation.
We've seen these guys go at it for a couple of years now.
Still one of the best burnouts that I've ever seen with SVG.
The Noma.
Hanging his finger out the window doing a burnout around Austin,
Austin Hills car.
That was epic.
Still probably one of the best burnouts that I've ever seen
because of the whole scenario.
But, you know, I think when you when you watch and listen right here,
I mean, there was definitely definitely something to be settled.
And you don't know whether it was something in this race.
If it was something in the last race, because I look back at San Diego
and I'm like, man, that was just I thought that was just hard racing.
His drove on his head.
Yeah, he just it wasn't like he wrecked SVG.
I find it hard to believe that he wrecked him back for that.
But, you know, the unfortunate part for for Shane is
he's right on the cusp of making the making the chase.
And a guy like that will in a position like Austin is in,
not having anything to lose.
I mean, I don't know.
It just every week with you.
And it seems odd that you would want to create that enemy
and take yourself out of another week, possibly where he wipes you out
to get even to be able to, you know, have to have the chance
of what that does with your chase contention.
That's two big boys.
Do you think wins in a regular fight between them?
I don't know, but I want to watch it.
I am here for all this is the other one, though, too.
This is oh, no, this is the same one.
He comes up and retaliates right here and kind of gives SVG a shot in the left front.
Yeah, I mean, obviously could have lifted and chose not to for whatever reason.
Who the 97 could have lifted and he kind of drove it off in there.
By the same time, like he kind of was committed to where he was going.
I like I just don't think he cut him a break, nor does he have to.
But like, he just decided not to.
Now the 38 and the 77 situation of Zane Smith and Carson Holsevar.
There was nowhere else for you to go.
Yeah, so there's two different ways to do it.
One did it. Don't ever do it like Zane Smith.
That's embarrassing. Don't do it like that.
If you're going to do it, you're going to wreck somebody.
Don't wreck yourself with him.
Yeah, you can't do that because now Carson's in the car.
Like, yeah, he's mad because it's self store, but you're taught.
He's like, idiot, like you can't even do it right.
You know what I mean? So that was those are interesting situations.
I know the 38 77. I don't know where that came from.
It's just that time of year. It's summertime.
Everybody's hot.
Some guys are frustrated and mad.
And you've got guys that have run into you at at at several different spots.
And it sounded like on the radio when host Var talked about this one
that he had tried to wipe him out at some point before and didn't make it happen.
But you definitely don't want to embarrass yourself
and wipe the guy out and your own self.
I think they did have a run in at a different race earlier on.
Well, he's had run ins with quite a few.
Well, I mean, he's about to run in with almost everybody.
But Zane, you're going to race hard.
You're going to have you're run ins and you just keep on rolling.
You know what's coming up to what short track raisins is not too far away.
So that's a good time to that's right.
Mess some things up.
Well, it was a busy, fiery weekend out there in Chicago.
It was hot, too. Going on.
What's going on?
All right, going on.
There was a wedding this weekend.
Did you hear about that?
No, he got married. No.
Are you serious?
If you don't know the answer to this, no, he doesn't know.
He has no idea. You've got to be kidding.
Football player got married.
You didn't hear about the football player and a really famous singer.
He has no idea.
Sir Taylor Swift.
Oh, I didn't hear about that.
No, he had no idea about that.
And you know what I was thinking about?
We should have our own version of what happened between those.
I vote Chase Elliott and Ella Langley as the next duo.
Oh, Ella Langley. Oh, Kevin, you know who that is.
I guarantee you have some.
What do you say to that?
What are you suggesting that?
I'm saying we need our own version of how that all transpires.
Of a high level.
Yeah, wait.
Who is Ella Langley?
She's a dammit.
She's a country singer.
She's a country singer.
Oh, we'll show you after the show.
But that's my pick.
Chase.
I think, you know what?
I think my version of that would be like
Florence, Florence Pugh and me, I think would be a perfect.
I knew that was coming.
Me and Florence.
See, I can't go right.
I can't even participate in this conversation
because I don't watch many movies or.
Yeah, I guarantee you have her music, though.
So we'll we'll reconvene after the show and see.
No, you have a daughter.
She definitely definitely.
Your wife listens to her.
I listen to like old nineties, grunge rock.
OK.
Yeah, I like it.
Like the Google dolls, like Nirvana.
Link 182, maybe some country every once in a while.
But I like old country.
Yeah, like Garth Brooks.
I'm a mute music.
You are. You're a moody.
You're a moody.
I feel like am moody.
Yeah. Yeah.
I am too.
I mean, you're the only one who is always happy.
I am always happy.
Yeah, that's OK.
All right, sure. Yeah.
No, I can get mad.
But I'm always happy.
I had your broadcast go this week.
Oh, good.
I saw you spurn at social media with some fans.
No, but that's the fun.
That's the fun.
But you screw up.
No, they didn't.
Someone was like, I didn't know that the button all the way
to the top is back in style.
And I'm like, oh, oh, we're back to the fashion.
Yeah, I like I love all the critics on social media.
Aren't they fun?
They are.
We want people to have personality.
And then you get it and they're like, not like that.
Like, what the hell?
I love it.
It's a good time there on the social spheres.
All right, before we get back to it,
I've got to give a shout out to a sponsor of this podcast,
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Okay, headed on to Atlanta next, guys.
Obviously it's an exciting track,
returning in a different point in the season.
So what do you think this is gonna present?
It's the most exciting race of the year.
Why do you say that?
I mean, it's just, everything happens so fast.
It's a mile and a half race track
that they turned into a super speedway.
And I mean, it just happens so freaking fast.
And it's rough.
It's gonna be hot, hot, hot.
It's just gonna make the cars not handle as good.
So I mean, at some point this place is gonna swing
and we're gonna get a race where
all of a sudden handling really matters.
And I think that's always the guests with the teams
as to what to do with the setup.
So okay, I think it's gonna be super hot.
Do I wanna knock some speed out of my car
and make the car handle a little bit better?
I think you're gonna have to do a little bit of that
this week just because of the temperature,
but you just never know where the track is going to be.
So I'm definitely looking forward to the race this weekend.
It is going to be fun to watch.
And every race that we have had
at the reconfigured Atlanta has been very enjoyable.
So I think it's the most exciting race of the year.
Kevin's obviously raced both arrows of Atlanta.
What are you expecting to see this weekend?
It's one of the best tickets in our sport is this one.
The night race is awesome.
The fans are rabid and excited all the time.
Looking forward to seeing them down there.
I would suspect, because it's happened almost every time,
over time or a green white checker
and just mayhem coming to us,
sitting there trying to figure out who won the race,
whether it's at the timing line
or at the start finish line,
because it's just been like that every single time.
Who do you think has adapted best
to the new Atlanta of the teams?
Well, I think that the Fords went through a phase
where they were really good.
I think they'll probably be okay again this weekend.
I think that they...
Especially Brad.
Yeah, I think, I don't know about that,
but I think that they could be back in the mix.
And I think that, you know,
obviously Tyler Reddick won at the beginning
without a fender.
Yeah, I don't know what that means.
His car was really fast with a fender.
And then even without the fender, it was really fast.
So, you know, I think that the, I think it's,
I think it's open.
We saw at the beginning that Hendrick Carrs
had put themselves in a position to be pretty good there.
I think it's as open as any weekend as we've gone to lately.
Okay.
As to who can win.
Okay, who are you going to be watching primarily?
I got my eye on the 77.
Oh.
This is, he has almost won this race,
I feel like four times.
So I'm keeping an eye on him.
And last time we were there,
he wasn't afraid to play a little bully ball
to try and get up there.
Why is he not?
The, yeah, no kidding.
The Kevin, the downforce and how downforce versus drag,
do you think the Toyota's,
cause it doesn't seem like they struggle regardless
if it's in a place like this or not.
They're up front.
They had a shot to win.
They did win, right?
Yeah.
So they were, they were up front, I think with Bubba
and C Bell at the end of the race in the spring.
So do you think they're going to be any different?
Do you think the Chevrolet is anyone that's caught up?
Or do you think it's, you know, you know what I mean?
Well, I think this race is different than the first one,
just from what you need in the race car
just because of the temperature.
Just from a grip standpoint.
So I think that's just going to be finding that balance.
And the unique part about Atlanta is it always feels
like it's on the right rear tire.
Even if you have downforce in your car
and your car is slow,
it just always feels like you're on that right rear tire,
which you are.
Yeah.
And it's just a,
it's the edgiest place that a driver will drive all year
are these two Atlanta races
because it's just, it's uncomfortable.
It happens quick.
You, you know, and a lot of times your cars,
it's not going to handle.
It's not going to feel good.
And you got to ride that thing all day.
It's a full day's work.
Full day work.
It's going to be very interesting out there
in Hotland this weekend.
Okay. So we've got a mail bag question.
You want, you want me to read it?
Okay.
This one came from Megan in Dallas, Texas,
says when fans finally meet their heroes,
a lot of us get tongue tied and say something awkward
or completely blank out.
That's how I felt the first time I interviewed Kevin.
I blanked out.
Other than the famous boob lady incident.
What is the funniest fan interaction you've ever had
and what goes through your mind in those moments?
Yeah. Well, I mean, it, it, it definitely varies.
That, that's for sure.
I had one this weekend during the autograph session
that had me call her grandma.
She was a huge fan to tell her happy fourth of July.
So those are always, that's always awkward to me
when you asked me to call somebody
and do those types of things.
Like on the phone, they asked you to call somebody.
Yeah. Facetime.
Oh.
Yeah. So I get to meet grandma
for the first time on, on FaceTime.
Yeah.
I see.
Yeah. And you just never know
what's going to pop on the screen.
Yeah. Really?
That would be a little.
Have you had one?
Cause you got a lot of fans.
Have you had one?
I think the, one of the,
this isn't actually an in-person interaction,
but I used to have a guy write me letters.
Creepy.
And he would always send pictures for me to sign.
But here's the thing.
Only when I was wearing leather.
So that is very odd and awkward.
So did you sign them?
Yeah.
Yeah.
No wonder they keep coming back.
I had one not too long ago at the Ram stage.
There was like these two people that were in, you know,
a man and a woman that were in the stage
were doing whatever we were doing.
And I thought, I was like talking to them on the mic.
And I thought they were together.
So I was like, we were kind of cutting up,
making some jokes.
And after like a couple of minutes,
he goes, that's my sister.
And I'm like,
Oh.
Cause some of the jokes were definitely like.
Borderline.
No, they were borderline.
They were just like a couple of jokes.
And they're like laughing.
And then they didn't let me know earlier.
I got a good one for you.
So we used to, we have a lot of military people that,
that, you know, send letters and, and, you know,
they'll take pictures in front of planes and helicopters
of when they would fly or flag around up in the air.
And back in the, you know, during the Afghan war,
I got a package in the mail from whoever.
And it had an Afghani soldiers belongings
that they had taken from the soldier.
So I got an Afghani knife.
I have the money that was in his pocket
and everything else that was in his pocket.
That is wild.
Yeah.
Oh my.
Yeah, that one.
Interesting.
That one can stay on the shelf.
Yeah.
That is pretty cool stuff though.
That is dope, but that's crazy.
Oh, okay.
Well, thank you, Megan from Dallas, Texas
for submitting your questions.
Everybody keeps sending them our way.
Just blew his mind.
The more unique questions, the better.
Okay.
Speaking of unique.
Yeah, what is it?
Mamba is a unique man.
Yeah, he is.
It's time for him to take over the mic.
Oh yeah.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Look, he's got his own cup.
Is that a sticker or an actual cup?
No, no, no.
Do you have a Kevin cup or a Fox cup?
No, he is a Kevin.
See, I'm the only one that just has a Fox.
No, 10 years around.
10 years around real quick.
Oh.
Hey, you have the NASCAR Sundays, NASCAR Sundays.
Is that still a thing?
Oh my God, is it still a thing?
We were at Tiber Creek this weekend.
We were rocking still.
Who's that at?
Southend.
Yeah, listen to Charlotte.
Yeah, it's in Charlotte.
So this week we're going to Hoppin.
But he doesn't get to attend, obviously,
because of the race.
But I always give him a shout out from the broadcast.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so anyway, anyway, welcome closers
to your favorite part of the show.
I'm excited.
It's been a minute.
I feel like I've missed you guys.
Tom Brady, one of our Fox.
Football player.
Football player.
The goat.
He knows who that is.
We should.
They should.
One of our Fox compadres ranked some of the,
like he started ranking the top 10 moments
in U.S. sports history.
Or maybe, yeah, in sports history.
And then he actually ranked just a bunch of them.
But you know which one he started with?
You know which one?
No.
Let's roll the tapes.
Let's show him which one he started with.
All right.
What's more American than Dale at Daytona in 98?
That's Americano 101 right there.
One of my favorites, Tiger running away
from the field at Augusta.
Yeah, we're going to end right there.
Look at that.
I mean, after that, it just doesn't,
I mean, this whole video was really cool.
The video is really neat.
But I did not have it on my bingo card
that they were going to start with.
I thought that was really cool when I saw that.
I mean, he's right.
It belongs in the top 10 list.
It was a moment.
Yeah.
What a moment.
That's really cool.
Super Americana.
So that was awesome.
We're going to stay in the Earnhardt,
in the Earnhardt family here.
Kaylin found this one and thought it was hilarious.
So I just felt like we had to put it in.
Ryan Blaney, about 4th of July.
Let's run it.
I was shooting fireworks all of one time.
I lived at this other house on Dale Jr.'s property
and his mom got pretty mad at me one time.
And I could hear her yelling through the woods.
And so we stopped it immediately.
And I had to saw her later that week and apologize.
And then I just texted Dale, I said,
tell your mother I'm sorry that evening.
You could hear her through the woods.
She'd shoot off another firework
and I'd call in the cops and I knew who it was.
So we stopped.
It's the moms that are, it's the moms you gotta watch out for.
I'm sure that caught his attention
when he heard her say I'm calling the cops
and he'd shoot another firework.
Did you, have you spent much time with,
did you spend much time with Dale's mom?
Not a lot of time.
I thought you were going to ask me
if I spent any time at Dale's house.
Oh, no, I know you did that.
Yeah.
Delaney and I went on our first date.
Oh, really?
At his home?
Well, we wound up there.
We wound up in a limousine with Freddy Query,
Hornaday and us and we wound up at Dale Jr's small home
for his, he used to have a lot of parties
and so we went to his house and that's where,
that was one of the adventures of that evening.
Yeah.
Very good.
I like that.
I thought you were going to ask him
if he sets off fireworks himself.
I don't know.
I've seen him carry the torch at his pool once.
So, I mean, I have set off, we usually set off fireworks.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Does someone else do that for you?
No.
Okay.
Let's check in.
I mean, Keelan's got to the point where he likes to light them.
Well, yeah.
Like Keelan, do it.
Yeah.
All right.
I know we talked about Zillich earlier
and it was kind of a downer.
So, we're going to go on the upper
because Jim Zillich, his dad is hilarious on social.
He's so great.
He's a great follower.
If you guys want to just like, I don't know,
see some awesome dad stuff.
This is what.
So, the Downford posted that Jackson Zillich
was going to be making a start.
Connor's brother, younger brother.
Okay.
Everyone's reading this.
I'm like, I don't really remember this kid ever.
And then Jim says, apparently I'm going to have to go talk
with my wife about this other kid.
That's a nice, nice child.
I did see that initially and I stopped for a moment.
I'm like, does he have a brother?
Then I started questioning everything I knew about.
I'm like, wait a minute.
Does he have a younger?
Yo, shout out to the Downford
because Downford will get some people.
They will, who runs that?
It's just like a satire account
and they say stuff that's like close and not,
like very close to that could be true.
And that was just another picture of Connor.
Yeah, I was a young guy, younger guy.
And like, if you don't know, you're like,
oh, of course he has a brother,
which he does have siblings, but not younger.
That's funny.
You gotta check in with the wife on that one.
And then of course it was fourth of July
and I saw one of the coolest things in iRacing.
iRacing community is amazing.
They have really random stuff.
And to start off one of the street stock races,
this is what they had going on.
My dad is serving me.
I want to go.
Wearing luster's right eye.
But he flew a flyer and I got a 0 dollars.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me.
To grow a billion.
I don't know, man.
I just love it.
That is awesome.
Like they just have a good time.
I love iRacing, but here's the thing.
It's the fourth of July.
Yeah.
Show some respect.
Go outside.
Oh, go outside.
Yes, I mean, that might have been before the fourth.
That could have been on the fourth all day.
Yeah, but it might have been on the third.
I don't know when it was posted.
You know, that's fun, though.
It was that was dying.
That is good.
Classic song choice.
Classic, classic iRacing.
You know that song?
Of course, courtesy of the Red, White and Blue
by Toby Keith.
I can sing that song for them backwards.
There you go.
Go ahead.
No, not right now.
My voice, the way my band count is set up.
I can't sing until Wednesday.
That is Kevin's kind of music.
Well, so that's your that's your excuse.
Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, that's the sips for this week.
Appreciate y'all.
Keep keep having some fun out there.
And I'll see you in Atlanta.
Yeah, keep telling Mom about how great he is,
because that's really what we're all here for.
Good job, buddy.
OK, time now, guys, for the last call here on the show.
And we got a fresh burnout we need to grade.
Joey gave high marks, by the way, last week to.
Said it was the best burnout he's ever seen.
Yeah, well, yeah, because it was awesome, the SVG one.
SVG one.
So he got a high mark, which you weren't here for that.
But now you get to grade Chase Briscoe.
So what are your thoughts?
Let's take a look here.
Well, there's nothing better than the guy
winning for the first time of the year,
because usually the burnouts are a little more enthusiastic.
And, you know, I think that in the give a shit level,
it's pretty low as far as the engine and all the things.
But I thought he did.
OK, that's right.
Look, I'm kind of a burnout snob, though, like you're really
going to have to do something spectacular to impress me,
because I've melted him to the ground before.
Yeah, it was cool.
I mean, like the thing about it, like he got it up on the bank
and it kind of, you know, did one of these numbers.
And yeah, it was fine.
I give a C. A C.
That's why I thought he was going with a C for Chase.
I think it because his deal is like he gets out and stands
on the on the roof. Yeah.
So he needs to like get out of the car after the smoke is like
to still bellowing out and be like in the smoke.
Like that's the.
Yeah, we're definitely going to have to do better, Chase.
That was we expect more.
Yeah, it's to just do better.
Yeah, do better now.
We've we've we've been on your ass all year about, you know,
not winning the race.
Now we're on your ass about burnout.
So it could be worse.
We're always going to be on your ass.
That's right. That's our job.
Give me a word.
OK, gosh, this part.
Unfortunately, I hate to see it.
The point standing.
This is getting out of hand.
This is it really actually kind of is because Kevin is running
away with this 97 for picking Chase, which I usually give Kevin
compliments, but I really had to give him one for this because
that's when I do this.
I honestly not saying I didn't think Chase could win, but it's like
even when he tries to maybe seem a little obscure in his picks,
he's still fucking wins.
He wasn't he wasn't obscure.
The 19's been on a heater for a month.
It's just time.
Yeah, but like we hadn't been to Chicago in a long time.
Like I had a hard to pick.
I picked the best again.
Last time you picked him.
Last time you picked him, he crashed at a second.
I picked the fastest car on the race track.
It's always crashed.
But that's starting to be the theme for me, too.
But now I think like I'm not.
You're not you.
I'm not picking Redick.
No, your car in the near future, because I want him to do well.
So weird.
She tries to pick like the low hanging fruit.
It doesn't quite work out.
Yeah, the fruits already bloomed.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I'm still ahead of mama, though, by the way, I met 66.
That's amazing.
I love that.
So well, we all have a chance to redeem ourselves.
So we get to make choices now for Atlanta this weekend.
I just want to say that it doesn't, you know, we have a once we get to the
postseason, like there's a whole reset.
So I don't care, but it's fine.
Let's go.
We're still going to be behind.
Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
Do I get bonus points for just totally demolishing?
We've gone over this a couple of times.
Now, what did we land on on how this is going to go?
I think it's 30 for first.
No, five per second.
No, no, it's something like that.
No, it's not.
No, it's not.
Not at all.
We took out the champion thing though, didn't we?
Like, no, that was it.
Well, that was before that.
I get an award because that was the only way that I get a regular season award.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, regular season, whatever.
Okay.
We recover points.
Anyway, what are you going to say?
I'm saying we've got to make our choices.
Oh, go ahead.
We're going to have to pick somebody.
You finished last.
I'm going with Christopher Bell this weekend.
I think he crosses the threshold and gets that victory.
He's been getting close.
Okay.
What do you think?
Go ahead, mamba.
You don't want to go?
No, mamba.
I finished first.
That's fair.
Mamba.
That's mumbo.
Remember mumbo?
Hey, you can call me whatever you want.
Just don't call me late for dinner, you know?
Yeah, I think it's time for old Darrell Wallace Jr.
Oh, I like that.
To get one.
He's been close here.
They've been really good here, honestly.
And he's got a speedway, so I think it's time.
He had a little pep in his step, I thought.
A little pep step.
Yeah, we had a space jam.
He had a space jam.
That's cool.
Space jam on the car, that was cool.
We got to get him a haircut.
No, no, the haircut is what I told him.
The haircut would have made him better on the road courses.
He couldn't see.
Yeah.
He just crosses the threshold.
He just made him better.
So, voter conference for the Michael Jordan team.
What do you think, Kevin?
I'm going to take Ryan Blaney.
That was another one.
That's the other one that every time I pick him,
it doesn't work out.
Yeah, I just, you know, they got a little momentum,
been quiet momentum.
I mean, he hasn't been lightning fast to lead races,
but they've been fast enough and they're just grinders.
And I think that they know that this is an opportunity
to get to Victory Lane.
And I don't, you know, I don't know that they've got a,
they've got a couple more of those opportunities.
I think Blaney could sneak one out here and there.
If they, you know, some people have some problems
or maybe get a little bit better.
But I think this weekend is an opportunity for that.
I really wanted to pick Brad, but I just can't like,
I can't do it.
Like he runs good here.
I just can't.
Just can't hold my bets.
I just think he's got other things.
I mean, there's just, there's a lot going on.
There's just a lot going on trying to just,
it doesn't, it's kind of just lost its momentum at 16.
Blaney, he's a good actor.
I posted this on XD of the day when they did that bear segment
for Chicago of him.
He's, he's damn good.
It's funny.
He's entertaining.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did you see that video of him all doing the cooking scene?
It was from last year actually.
Yeah.
Cause he didn't have a mustache.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, yeah.
Well, now he's a dad.
Now once he's a dad, he can, you know,
RP lets him have the mustache.
There you go.
Yeah.
He's, he's hilarious.
Okay, cool.
All right.
We'll have to see how all of those picks fair.
And we've got a lot to talk about, I'm sure,
when we leave Atlanta.
So thanks for tuning in.
Make sure you follow us at Harvick Happy Pod.
We'll see all of you after Atlanta.
About this episode
Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour kicks off with travel chaos and TSA stories, including a surprisingly thorough pat-down after an alarm at a small airport, plus a separate mix-up involving a missing TSA PreCheck item. Once they settle in, the crew breaks down the Chicago weekend: Joe Gibbs Racing’s 1-2-3 finish for Toyota, why it wasn’t a shock given Toyota form and past track results, and what Chase Briscoe’s win says about confidence and meeting rising expectations. They also discuss Christopher Bell’s injury recovery and continued contention, plus previews for Atlanta.
Original notes
NASCAR finally returned to Chicagoland Speedway, and Joe Gibbs Racing absolutely put on a clinic! Chase Briscoe out-dueled his teammate Christopher Bell to secure a massive 1-2-3 sweep for JGR and Toyota.
We’re breaking down the entire weekend, including Tyler Reddick’s brutal radiator disaster that handed Denny Hamlin a points cushion, and the boiling-over drama between Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen. Plus, Kevin reacts to Brad Keselowski's media center comments, we preview the high-banked chaos coming up at Atlanta, and look at Tom Brady ranking Dale Earnhardt's iconic Daytona 500 win!
Join Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vince, and Mamba Smith for a jam-packed episode of Happy Hour!
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SUBSCRIBE for more from Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour: https://www.youtube.com/@HarvickHappyPod?sub_confirmation=1
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