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Darlington Drama: Briscoe Wins, Playoff Chaos Erupts & Gateway Round of 16 Preview
Darlington Drama: Briscoe Wins, Playoff Chaos Erupts & Gateway Round of 16 Preview
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About this episode
Kevin Harvick and Caitlin Vincey dive into the intense playoff opener at Darlington, highlighting Chase Briscoe's dominant win and the chaos among playoff contenders, especially on pit road. They discuss team dynamics, driver personalities, and the impact of leadership like Jimmy Johnson's return to Legacy Motor Club. The episode previews the upcoming Gateway race, focusing on its unique challenges and brake management. They also touch on the ongoing lawsuit involving 23XI Racing, the mental toll on drivers, and share humorous moments from the Mamba Social Sips segment. The show wraps with race picks and reflections on the evolving NASCAR playoff format.
Topics:
darlington playoff recap
chase briscoe win
pit road mistakes
team dynamics and leadership
legacy motor club progress
gateway race preview
23xi racing lawsuit
driver mental focus
nascar playoff format
mamba social sips
Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith recap the NASCAR weekend at Darlington, where Chase Briscoe delivered a dominant performance, leading 309 laps and holding off Tyler Reddick in the closing laps. The crew also breaks down the chaotic night for Playoff contenders like Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Denny Hamlin, who all ran into trouble at the track “Too Tough to Tame.” Next, they turn the page to the Round of 16 race at Gateway, previewing who could shine and which drivers are under pressure to keep their championship hopes alive. The group also reacts to the latest hearing between NASCAR, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports, analyzing where things currently stand in the ongoing charter case.
Mamba shares the week’s best fan moments in Social Sips, and the show wraps up in Last Call with burnout grades for Briscoe and the crew’s predictions for Gateway.
LINK TO SUBMIT PICKS FOR GATEWAY: https://forms.gle/G5YKrv6famwBuo7A9
0:00 - Intro
4:57 - Darlington Recap
32:29 - Gateway Preview
40:00 - 23XI Racing Hearing
45:38 - Mamba’s Social Sips
54:46 - Last Call!
59:22 - Submit Picks For Gateway
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- Intro
- Darlington Recap
- Gateway Preview
- 23XI Racing Hearing
- Mamba’s Social Sips
- Last Call!
- Submit Picks For Gateway
Select text to request an explanation
This episode is brought to you by Stoffers.
Here comes three-time juggling champion, Natalya Rogers.
She's juggling law school, her TA job.
Oh, narrowly catches the laundry.
What's that fourth ball?
Parents unexpectedly showed up at dinner time?
Is that too much for Natalya?
Not with Stoffers Chicken Alfredo
and its mouth-watering mix of Asiago, Romano, and Parmesan.
When you're juggling four things at once
and the clock strikes dinner, think Stoffers.
The team kind of carries some of the driver's personality.
Lazy teams usually have lazy drivers.
There's no way they're legal.
I think this is something that NASCAR needs to address.
Oh, they're sports. They've had blockouts. We can't do that.
The twists and the turns, they keep getting more and more interesting.
This big hand comes grabbing my shoulder
and he says, you just got to be proud of everything that you've done.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour
presented by NASCAR on Fox.
I'm Kevin Harvick, Caitlin Vincey, Momyscret.
Big pause there.
He's got the P1 up and we know why.
What happened, Caitlin?
Well, you picked the winner, Chase Briscoe.
Yeah, good for you.
Yeah, it's about time.
Look, I told you guys, I told you guys,
you know, when the playoffs came around,
I was going to be locked in. I was going to turn it up.
I'm like, Penske. You know what I mean?
Playoff time hits. I'm locked in.
They didn't turn it up too much yesterday.
No, you weren't like Penske. They were not there this weekend.
You're like Toyota right now.
Yeah, you're more like a Toyota.
Well, I picked a Toyota, so that makes sense.
That's right. Very nice.
Toyota's dominated.
They sure did.
They spanked them.
Spanked them out.
Yes, they did.
And then how about Legacy?
I mean, that was my best.
We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it all.
We'll spill it all, Mombo.
That's right.
I'm excited.
We are all excited.
Welcome into episode 60 here of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour.
Gosh, nine races to go.
Can you believe that?
I can't believe it.
The season has gone by so quick.
Man, have we had some twists and turns throughout the year.
The twists and the turns.
They keep getting more and more interesting.
We will recap everything that happened at the Playoff.
Opener and Darlington, look ahead to Gateway,
worldwide technology this weekend.
And you got your Sips.
We got the Sips.
The closers.
Listen, no, no, no, it's just great.
It's just, I'll never get sick of it.
I think it's so cool that they come up to me behind stage
like, hey, man, like love the podcast.
And you guys like love, you guys is dynamic love.
And I'm like, that's, it's just so great.
And they really love the Mamba social Sips.
So people do like the chemistry on the show.
I know, I know one person who doesn't like it.
Who's that?
Piper.
We went to Pet Smart yesterday.
And so we go to Pet Smart yesterday.
She's like, dad, I want, I need a couple more fish.
I said, okay.
So we go, we go to Pet Smart, we get to cash register.
And the kid was super nice.
And he's like, aren't you Kevin Harvick?
And we walk out of the store.
She's like, dad, I am so tired of people knowing who you are.
We can't go anywhere without somebody knowing your name.
I said, well, unfortunately,
I don't really know how to fix that.
We can't, we can't pull the plug on that one.
Yeah.
It's only, it's, we got an extension coming too
because Keelan, Keelan's locked in.
The Harvicks are not going anywhere.
The people are going to be recognizing them for a long time.
Keelan did a great job this weekend.
It's funny.
You'd think she'd be used to that by now.
Oh, she does not like it.
She is not, not very, she is not very people.
She likes people, but she doesn't like people.
Oh, who's like that?
Uh, Delana?
Yeah, I was like, I wasn't going to say that.
I knew what you were going to say.
I was like, I'm not saying this.
Yeah.
I, I, you know, I think it's, um, you know,
there's, there's some, there's some fortunate and
unfortunate parts about what we've done and what we do.
But Piper is not a fan.
Yeah.
How much Delana doesn't like people.
We, Keelan wins the pro race and the car store pro race at
Florence and we're all on victory lane.
I'm like, oh, this would be great.
Let's get a nice little picture.
We're there together.
Yeah.
She dives out like sprints out of the picture.
I said, where are you going?
I actually appreciate that about her.
She doesn't like the limelight and she's not one of
those people that inserts herself into it.
Yeah.
Well, and it's not really for us, right?
Like, I mean, it's not, let the team and the,
and the kids and whoever is in that moment,
let them have their moment with those, with those people.
I mean, we were happy and proud and excited,
but you got to let them have their space to,
to learn how to deal with things and what it's like and,
and not feel like all that.
You never want to overpower the situation to make it feel
like it's your moment where you're trying to make it
bigger than it naturally is.
I respect that.
We try to balance it to, you know,
when, when Keelan's having those moments,
it's not about me.
It's not about her.
And if you insert yourself and make it about you,
then it's, you know, just, I don't know.
It just feels unnatural.
Big weekend for you though.
You had that.
You were in the truck booth, got to hear you.
I'm not sure who's planning my schedule,
but it's not, it's not based on efficiency.
I know that for sure.
We got home like two in the morning.
I'm planning the schedule by the way.
That's my point.
They're planning the race schedule, the TV schedule,
all that is, is I'm not blaming it on anybody.
Those are my choices, but, you know,
I think when, when, when I got,
got home at two o'clock in the morning and had to be
at the studio at 10, I was like, oh, this is,
this is a, this is a short morning.
Yeah.
You did a great job.
I was out there on pit road.
It was fun.
Any, any race at Darlington is,
is going to be interesting.
And the truck race was exactly that.
We saw a lot of the inexperience early in the
truck race with guys banging in the fence
and Chandler Smith taking himself out there early
in the race, you know, trying to get too much.
But those trucks were a freaking handful.
So were the cup cars, but everything,
everything at Darlington passed about lap 20 can be,
can be a full day's work.
Got to give Corey Heim a lot of credit in his win
interview.
He was like, you know, the risk versus reward to
running the top.
I just didn't, I didn't see it.
I felt like that was a really, he's a vet.
Like he's, he's, his mindset is different than
the people that he's racing with and where he's
at and what he's trying to do.
It definitely is.
Like Scott Zepidelli was saying that just about
how wise beyond his years he is.
He called him an old soul said one of the biggest
things that's different about Corey than other
drivers he's worked with is he just doesn't
make mistakes.
He's like, we've made mistakes as a group,
but very rarely does he make them.
And, and you know, I think fortunate,
unfortunate for Corey Heim.
I think that when you look at his position,
kind of being stuck in that Toyota system,
not being able to really know what to do
with him and has allowed him to become that
veteran of the truck series.
But there's also some, there can be some flaws
that get created with being stuck in the
trucks too long with the habits and things
that you do and work ethic.
And I don't think work ethic is going to be a
problem for him, but I mean that by just
developing and pushing towards the next skill,
whether it be Xfinity or Cup for him,
he can do either one.
But he's kind of stuck in this weird
spot that, that in the Toyota ecosystem
that he can't get out of and probably as good
if not better than some people in some of
those positions above him.
So, but they're taking full advantage of it.
I just put an absolute thumping on the
rest of the field.
I will say that Lane Riggs and Chandler
Smith were in contention to, you know,
to give Corey a run for his money at
the end of that race.
But at the end, 11 team didn't make any
mistakes.
And neither did Chase Briscoe's team.
So let's talk about the Cup series now.
This race, I was pretty surprised to see the
amount of playoff contenders who had issues.
We had talked the week before that we
thought Pit Road was going to be an
Achilles heel for teams because of how
many times they have to come down Pit Road.
But were you surprised by some of the
playoff contenders that had problems?
I was not.
I think that we see it every year.
You get to a racetrack where, you know,
there's a new element to the racetrack
and we have to race the racetrack.
Super easy to make mistakes.
A lot of amplified enthusiasm as you
start the playoffs and it can
bite you.
And, you know, I think Pit Road was
definitely a place where we saw a lot
of trouble.
But I think a lot of that trouble
started for some of our playoff
contenders in qualifying.
And, you know, we've covered the
Chase Elliott piece of the scenario
about him saying that he and his
team need to qualify better.
He didn't qualify good.
Alex Bowman didn't qualify good.
SVG, you know, kind of in the middle
of the pack.
But even the guys at the front of
the pack, we saw Christopher Bell
getting trouble on Pit Road.
We saw Denny Hamlin have trouble on
Pit Road.
Almost everybody had trouble on Pit
Road in some way, shape or form.
Yes.
Were you anticipating some of the
things that we saw there?
I mean, I think we talked about it
like the most pit stops happen
because every time you get a chance
to get four good years, you want them
and you need them.
And so it's more opportunities for
mistakes and trying just to make
sure that you're not making those
and that's not just the guys going
over the wall, but that's also
getting your driver into the pit
stall, out of the pit stall,
communicating with the teams that
are right next to you.
Hey, one of you guys kind of coming
down like, so we don't have a
crossover problem because you're
supposed to have a car,
you know, and then you come
to me and you have that
situation with Zane Smith, I think.
Yes.
I think Blaney got caught up,
who got spun out,
Christopher got spun out?
Yes, he got stuck behind him.
By C Bell, incident, but now
he's stuck behind him.
So all those little things, like
Pit Road is just a team deal.
I saw, I mean, Bell was really
He finished 9th. So, you know, I think when you look at these scenarios, the crew chief
on the top of the pit box or the spotter is responsible for helping the driver get out
of the pit box.
But I can't ever remember a time when I wasn't looking in my mirror and didn't know who was
pitted around me and what was going on and could see a car that was out of line.
So I think that, I don't know that, I don't think Josefard did anything wrong.
I think that the call out of the pit box was probably aggressive and I don't know that in
a couple of these, Bubba was obviously paying attention because he stayed in the pit stall
and drove through the pit stalls.
Bell just pulled right out of there like nobody was coming and with the way that the mirrors
and everything work, you can use them to be able to get out of your pit box and
pay attention.
I think that, I don't think that, I think that that is unfortunate for Bell, but I think
some of that responsibility ultimately lies on them.
And having the wherewithal to be checked in and doing that as well.
So Chase Brisco led 309 laps.
This was a very impressive performance by him.
I know you already spoke to him for the victory lap, which is available now.
What did he have to say about the big win?
Well, one of the things that I took out of the interview today was just the fact
that he's starting to feel like he belongs and he's a consistent contender to win
races, not just part of the field.
And, you know, that's a, that's a big change when you go from just being in
the race to being a guy that can win the race, because the way that things
happen up in front and the execution level that is expected to minimize your
mistakes and execute to win these races is, is different than running 15th.
You, you, you get a lot more attention.
You get a lot more, um, you have to take a lot more responsibility.
You take a lot more criticism when you do things wrong and to execute
under that pressure in the top five and running up front, you have to do it.
And they've been doing that.
And now we see it turn into another win.
We saw it turn into top fives.
Now we see it turn into another win, but man, does it come at the right time?
Yeah.
I mean, across the boards from where they qualify to the speed they
have, to the pit crew, to the driver, it seems like 19 team, all, all boxes
are getting checked right now.
They like the pressure.
Your winner.
Hey, my guy, they like their, listen, the lights were on and the
pressure was on it.
They felt like they had one of the best, best cars this weekend.
And you could tell through practice and tell through qualifying.
And it's different.
We talked about it with SVG and Steve, his crew chief, Steve
Doran and stuff like on road courses, they're expected to win.
Chase is now expected to elevate the team into winning situations.
They've been putting it on the pole at a lot of places.
He just came up this much shorter of having a pole at all four crown drill
events, which would have been cool.
But the team is now rising to the occasion too.
And we said it last week, I felt like the 23 and the 19 were the most
dangerous drivers in the field.
Oh, he nailed that.
Yeah.
Didn't he?
Good job.
We're going to finish.
I know he was sixth.
Well, and I think that the interest, another interesting nugget that came out
of that interview for me, I feel like the team kind of carries some of the
driver's personality all the time and how they execute the things like
lazy teams usually have lazy drivers.
I think when, and that is developed through the driver and the crew chief.
And I think that when you look at the 19 team, we know James Small
is absolute cannon, right?
Like he is, he is 10, 10s all the time up on the chip.
Push, push, push, push, push.
Chase Briscoe, eh, not so much, very calm.
But he said that he said, look, you know, I think that I've actually
brought something to this 19 team to make James better because I'm so calm.
He's so high strung that we almost are starting to, now that we have
some trust balance each other out with, with carrying, not carrying
too much enthusiasm, but not being so, so laid back.
And I think that balance of driver crew chief is really what sets
the tone of what your team's personality is.
See, it's interesting.
We had this conversation off camera before we came in here about the
fact that James was obviously paired with Martin Truex, Jr. in the past.
And you really get to see a fair shakedown, maybe of what James was
capable of, same with Chase on his former team.
Now that these two are paired together, it just seems like
it's a dynamic that really works.
I think Martin got away with a lot.
You know, I don't think that he put as much effort in that Chase Brisco does.
I think Chase Brisco from the driver's seat is putting more
effort in off the racetrack, whether that be in the simulator
with the team, in the meetings, whatever that may be, listening
to what, what the team has, has said publicly about the
difference between Chase and Martin.
And I think that that effort that Chase is putting in by doing
everything that the team is asking him to do shows the team
that he wants it as much as they do.
And when you do that, those people also start to even work
harder, and once you earn that respect of the team that you're
going to put in the effort and you can drive it behind the
wheel, all of a sudden they start listening to the things
that you have to say about the car, about the setup.
And then that relationship starts to blossom into, you know,
what it's going to be once the honeymoon is over.
But, you know, I think that the effort that Chase puts
in compared to Martin off the racetrack is the reason that
they're winning races and the reason that they're consistent
contenders.
And you don't really hear the blowups on the radio between
driver and crew chief because there's a respect level because
of the effort level.
And I think that Martin got away with not doing a lot of the
things because of his position in the sport.
He's been there for a long time, veteran, and, you know,
didn't really get controlled.
I think that with Chase, it's like, okay, if you don't do
what we say, you're going to get fired.
They're not going to do that with Martin Truex.
Really, that's how all teams should be handled, whether your
driver is a veteran or a rookie, and having the right crew
chief makes a big difference in that.
But Martin got away with that for a long time, made it work
to decent results, but probably never achieved the results
that he could with this team because of the effort that it
takes with this car.
It's not like the old car.
You can't just show up and race.
You have to be a part of the process on a weekly basis,
daily basis for the evolution of the vehicle because you're
looking for crumbs.
And when those things start to happen on the racetrack, the
team being around you more and more and more in the simulator
and having more and more conversations at dinner, lunch,
whatever that is in the shop, those conversations lead to
more details.
And I think that's what you're seeing out of the 19 team.
That's pro sports.
That is pro sports at its purest when everyone is pulling
in the same direction.
And you got to have almost a good cop, bad cop.
Like it's very hard to have two people that are all,
Oh yeah, we're just going to go through or two kind of
hardasses.
Like you look at, you know, Kevin has talked about it
with Rodney.
They balance each other.
I think the conversation you had with Jimmy Johnson, him
and Chad, they balance each other out.
I even think Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, when they
talk about, when other players talk about what those
dynamics were, everyone loved Tom.
Everyone thought Bill was a hard ass, but they balanced
each other out and they made each other great.
And that's what you got to do.
I think when you, when you look back at that, how did
Bill Belichick do without Tom Brady?
Didn't work very well.
Yeah.
And, and it was different.
So you're saying the quarterback had a lot to do
with the team.
Well, that was the best quarterback in the world.
I'm just checking, I'm just relating the quarterback to
the driver and just thinking about, you know, listen,
you can't win a championship without a good quarterback.
I don't just say, but you also can't do without
a good coach.
Now, I do remember when Tom Brady went to the Bucks, he had
a lot of that Patriot way in them that came from a lot of
Bill Belichick, new team though, new team, some of the
same players.
Yeah.
You knew that that would probably come back around at
some point.
I was going to, is there a new intro this week?
I did.
How was it?
It was great.
Okay.
Yeah.
We didn't have any more moments.
Driver 11.
No, someone tweeted it.
They, people asked me backstage though.
They're like, did Denny respond to you?
Did he?
I'm like, no, he don't want the smoke.
So, did you guys speak about this?
No, we haven't spoke.
You have not.
Did you shake hands on stage?
No.
Fist bump.
Nothing.
No, he came out and he stood right in front of me.
Oh, he ignored you.
I don't know if he ignored me, but he knows I'm there.
I'm not going to say he ignored me, but he knows I'm
standing there.
Everybody else saw me there.
You realize that we're going to fuel this, please.
Okay.
With crude oil.
Yeah.
The most flammable.
Just remember Tom Brady went from teammate to team B
and still won a Super Bowl.
Yeah, but Kevin Harvick didn't go from teammate to
team B and won the championship though.
Yeah.
True.
Okay.
But team, team A, team B, we still, we still did good.
Let's talk about team B, Barry.
Well, I'm really trying here guys to make these segues.
So lap one, um, he gets loose.
It looked like contact with the 45.
What did you see here from Josh?
Well, I saw the car drag the ground for a long
way and you know, the, the, the thing is, um, they
probably didn't go over is there's a patch off, off a
turn two and that car started bottoming out before
that patch, before he even got to the patch and see
it right there before it gets to the patch.
So if it's dragging right there, it's going to be
super low by the time you get to the exit of, of, of
turn two.
So, you know, I think that obviously the, the heights
were set really low and I don't know that obviously
Josh wasn't expecting it to, to drag the ground right
there because that's really early in the corner.
So looks to me like they just missed their heights
right there and too aggressive on the back of the
car and it got on the, uh, rub blocks and, and bottomed
out.
And when it hits those rub blocks like that, it
spins out.
That is the, almost the exact same spot where, um, I
think that happened to Blaney with Martin Trek
saying Martin bottomed out and then ran and then
wrecked in that same area.
So it's for you to, it makes sense and it was on a
restart similar to that to where that part of the
racetrack, you know, it's really rough.
And if you, if you miss it a little bit and maybe
he was a little lower than he has been there.
I don't know what his line has been like.
So the thing that, that really was impressive
about, it wasn't impressive for, for the 21 car,
but it was impressive for the 45 car, Tyler
Redick.
He hit Tyler Redick square in the door and
that saved that Tyler Redick made right there
to not have that car snap back to the right and
hit the fence to just slide that car perfectly and
come up off the corner straight was
that's a championship saving, changing,
championship changing moment for the 45 car and
came back to finish second.
So could have been over and demolished on lap
zero. Can we, can we, since we're talking
about the 21, so he got the fastest lap.
Yes. So he got this extra point.
He rejoined the race at stage two, I
believe right with a hundred.
Here's down a hundred and whatever elapsed.
Now, if it was me, I'm not saying that this is
what's happening, but if it was me, I'm already
wrecked, we're already out of the race.
There's only a, I can work on like we can
try stuff. No one's taking my car.
Yeah. At the end of this race.
Right. We kind of talked about it.
Is it fair that when you come back?
No. That you can get the extra point for
the fastest lap because now your car might
be what isn't legal.
There's no way they're legal.
And I think if you go to the garage, I think
this is something that NASCAR needs to
address at the end of the year.
If you go to the garage and you, you get
put on that clock, you are not eligible
for the fastest lap because there's
obviously some, we've seen Kyle
Larson do it a few times.
Some nonsense going on.
We've seen Josh Berry do it now at a
high grip ratio.
That car was wrecked.
That car was wrecked on, on three of the
four corners.
Right. And, you know, I think if you go
back to the garage, you should not be
eligible for the fastest lap.
And I know we're talking about one
point or what's the incentive.
Don't care.
I think if you go to the garage, you
shouldn't be eligible to get that point.
We're talking about one point, but
they're doing it. So it's happened
multiple times. Right.
So if they're doing it, then it's
important to the teams.
Right. Right.
Yes. They figured out a loophole here.
They're going to find every single
one that they can.
Always.
So that was Josh Berry's day.
That was very early in the race,
obviously lap one.
A little bit further in the race was
Alex Bowman having a very horrendous
pit stop. Forty seconds we saw for
the 48.
Initially, it looked like the team
thought the gun was malfunctioning or
something. It looked like just total
chaos as they're trying to diagnose it.
It ends up being the hose unplugged
from the box, but just a series
of errors here.
What did you see from this, Kevin?
A series of errors that are
unacceptable.
And, you know, I think that when
you look at this chaos right here,
this is just, you know,
this is just structure,
organization and everything
that goes with the moments.
And, you know, I think
I mean, it's just nobody knows what
anybody's doing. Nobody knows what's
happening. The air hoses
is unplugged.
Just a complete disaster.
And, you know, I think that
that when we go back to talking
about the team and, you know,
kind of the demeanor and the
structure of everything that goes
with a particular team, this one
looks very unorganized based upon
everything that happened right here.
So I don't know.
I don't know a nice way to say that,
but it's this was a complete
cluster.
This one, this one's tough.
That's a really tough one because
they're in the middle of a bunch
of things. I think if they would
have just decided the front
changer there, if he would have
just decided I'm going to change
this, it would have kind of
it would have helped the problem,
but there was so back and forth
on what to do.
And then they get stuck.
The hose gets stuck in the front.
And it just it was a disaster.
And they went down to go down three
laps or was it just two?
It ended up being, I thought, three.
Yeah, I think it was two laps.
He was two.
I don't know. He made it.
He made it back up by the end of
the way. It's unacceptable.
They had pitted twice before that
and didn't have that issue.
So some of they just didn't notice,
obviously, I guess that it came
unplugged.
Right. Or I'm not sure what's
going on behind the pit box.
But that, you know, I would say
that somebody's ass is on the line
today and, you know,
who was ever in charge of keeping
all that organized and the way
that the the conversations
and directions came from the top
of the pit box.
There's a massive conversation
that unfortunately unfolded in
front of the in front of
everybody. Well, we talk, we
talk about driver team relations
a lot. Well,
if the end result is Alex
only made it to the round of 12
last year when he really made
it to the round of eight. But
then the DQ came at
Roval. And then this year,
if he doesn't advance through
this round and you look at those
situations, well, is it the driver
not getting it? You can't blame
that on the driver. You can't blame
that on the driver. So it's not
right. You know what I'm saying?
It's that's unfair.
The structure and details of this
team is it looks to be off
based upon last year's
situation at the Roval.
And you're looking at this pit
crew. It's definitely
doesn't look completely organized.
The structure and details also
seemingly off by the crew
chief's words, not mine for
William Myron, who had a loose
wheel and Rudy Fugel said,
we are embarrassed.
We've got to execute a lot better
all around. We didn't do shit today.
He said, we have to improve and get
better, race our ass off every week
or it's going to be a long off
season. Yeah. And I don't I don't
know.
You know, when you when you look at
the I don't know where to
look at the at the Hendrick cars
from from Darlington, because
we know the nine qualify bad
and they continue talking about
needing to qualify better and
didn't qualify good.
Forty eight was in the trunk.
They finished 16th, 19th, 20th and 27th.
Now nine went went forward.
Five was mid.
I mean, he was just kind of there.
He was kind of there, but not
what we would expect out of Kyle
Larson at Darlington.
And we've seen William Byron dominate.
Yes. Yeah.
He's dominated races at Darlington.
And we've talked about the speed
of those of those cars going
into the playoffs and where they
were.
Well, I think we kind of got our
answer. And when you see the way
that the Toyotas fired off,
obviously they had a little
something in the bank to
to put on the racetrack for Darlington.
I mean, you look at the Toyotas
ran up front all night.
The legacy cars, the Gibbs cars,
all of those cars were twenty three
eleven cars were all in the front
of the pack all night.
Yeah, you look at it.
I'm concerned.
I mean, look, so
William Byron is plus twenty five
Larson's plus thirty eight.
So he's in a good spot.
But then, you know, Chase is only
plus nine and Bowman is down.
It's a small margin, actually, kind
of the really from ninth back.
Ninth back, everybody should be
in not panic.
You're not panicking because if you panic,
you'll make mistakes.
But you should.
Your sense of urgency
should be very hard.
Well, and the problem
the problem is as I look at St. Louis,
the problem is that's not a track
that we say, oh, those those cars
have been in the Hendrick cars
have been fasted at St. Louis.
That's not been a track.
They we think Penske when we
when we go to St. Louis, we think
concern for the twenty three eleven
cars with all their break issues
that that they've had.
So, you know, I think this is,
you know, this is definitely a concern
right in the first round because,
you know, I think the nine has
the potential to struggle there.
Well, the the Hendrick cars
in general have a potential
to struggle at St. Louis.
And if you have a bad round at St.
Louis, like you did at Darlington,
you're going to be in big trouble
headed to Bristol.
If they don't, like I think the nine
and the forty eight, I mean,
obviously, depending this week,
we had six guys
that are outside the playoffs
finishing the top ten, right?
So it varies on what the competition
is doing to.
But I think the nine and the forty
eight need a top ten,
like a solid top ten with good
points days to make sure that
they're in good position
going into Bristol, which is a
better track for them.
But Gateway is Gateway
could really make or break their
playoff runs for a couple of the
Hendrick cars.
So those are the teams we're
talking about that struggled out
at Darlington.
But you mentioned Legacy Motor
Club, pretty impressive.
What Eric Jones, John Hunter,
Neimancheck did.
I heard them say that Jimmy
moving back to the States
because he was living in Europe,
I believe, and now being back
and involved at the shop more
regularly has been very
advantageous to the group.
Yeah. Well,
that guidance and leadership
from a seven time champion,
but also the owner
and having a presence there on a
weekly basis is
is you can't replace it
and being able to
have him have been in the car
and understand what they're
talking about and the things
that they're fighting.
And that results directly
into being able to watch,
listen and learn just
by doing that.
And when you're there week
after week after week,
this is a this is a problem
solving mission on a daily basis.
What's what's today's problem
or problems?
And how do we solve them
before they become detrimental
to the performance of the race
cars or an employee quitting
or whatever that is?
How do we stay in front of these
problems on a daily basis?
And that's what happens
when Jimmy Johnson is in the
shop and able to in the right
country to be able to deal
with those problems on a weekly
basis. And and you're seeing
their direct results of
everything that they've been
working on.
That is one of Eric Jones's
best track.
But you look at John Hunter
Nemechek.
I mean, right there with him
all day and those guys raced
in the top 10 top five all day
long, all night long.
And we've seen steady
improvement out of that
organization.
And I think obviously it's
going to continue to get
better because they put
themselves in contention to
race for a win.
I was when we were flying
to Daytona, I'm going
through the E terminal,
which if you've ever been
through Charlotte, the E
terminal is the furthest
term from everything.
And I'm about to go down
the escalator and someone
rolls up next to me and
hits my it's my bag.
And I'm like, oh, OK, maybe
they just and they hit it
again.
I look up, I said, who in the
world had the nerve to hit?
It was Jimmy Johnson.
So Jimmy and I walk to their
gate and talk for an hour.
And he said that exact thing
like being back in the states
full time and put it being
able to put his fingerprints
back on the team and get
their culture right.
And you know, understand
that what the drivers are
saying when they say this is
that true?
Yes, because I just drove the
car and I know what they're
feeling like.
Yeah, that what they're saying
is locked in.
And I think that Jimmy being
in the shop, just like when
Tony was at SHR walking
through or Kevin walked through,
it changes the air when
your leader is in the building.
And I think Jimmy is just
from talking to him is
really excited to be back
and get this thing really
headed in the right direction.
And obviously they had this
one circle he was tweeting
during the race.
I saw.
Which I think is super cool.
I don't know.
It is Jimmy Johnson.
It's one of our seven time
champions.
You you you talked about it
with him on the on the show
like his impact on the sport.
And I think he doesn't know
how impactful he is.
And I think he's.
Oh, he knows.
And he talked about it
in that interview, just how,
you know, important it is
for him to refire up his brand
and and, you know,
the mistakes that he made
from the driving standpoint
to where his brand was
and what it was to
trying to continue that forward
and push his brand
while he had the opportunity
while he was still in the car.
Now he's almost rebuilding
his brand and as weird
as that is to say
about a seven time champion.
But he he said it.
He's like, I walk outside, Kevin,
and I'm the only I'm
I'm I'm the third guy,
but only two of the three champs,
seven time champs have merchandise
and a recognizable brand
to be able to to continue
that tradition in the sport.
And he's like, I just haven't
done a good job with that.
And I think him noticing
that and realizing that.
And I think that that motivation
with everything that he's doing
off the racetrack,
whether it's tweeting or his podcast
or being in the shop every week,
moving back home,
all those things are him.
It's really exciting for us
because that means he's super
engaged and interested in what's
happening not only with his team,
but the sport and his brand
is a big part of the sport.
Yeah, I think if he if he
you look like Mark Martin,
Mark and Matt Martin
do a really good job with Mark's
brand with all the old school
sponsors like the Wind Dixie stuff,
all those that reminding him
that Mark was that dude.
Yeah, I think Jimmy could really do that.
And I think it would blow up.
Yeah, way good to have Jimmy's
presence being amplified once again
in the sport.
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All right, let's move on guys
to Gateway this weekend.
Worldwide technology.
I love Gateway.
Raceway, yeah.
This is one of my favorite
racetracks.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's like it was always like
a before as a standalone
when I was a kid growing up
in the Xperia cars and trucks
would go there.
And it was just a big weekend
and the track was different.
There was a short track
and back in the day,
a lot of young guys would get
opportunities because you guys
would be in the Cup Series
somewhere else.
So someone coming up
will get opportunities.
It's always, I don't know.
That's where I got my first win.
I'm sure we can find the video footage.
Oh, we have to go through the VHS.
Yeah, back in 2000.
That's where I got
my first win in the Bush series
was at St. Louis.
So St. Louis has always been a place
that's kind of held a special spot
in my career.
So very unique racetrack.
I think that Curtis and his whole group
do a great job promoting this event.
It's become a marquee event
in that area, which is super important.
It was for me personally
just because of Anheuser-Busch
and the Bush brand
and the Budweiser brand
that we represented being in that town.
But to see the amount of people,
to see the engagement
that they've created,
not only at the Speedway,
but everywhere else in the community.
Major goal of the Speedway
is to be engaged with the short tracks,
whether it's asphalt, dirt,
every charity event,
you're going to see, you know,
the gateway involved,
worldwide technology involved
in those community events,
trying to make sure that the community knows,
hey, we're here
and we want to be a part of what you do as well.
And I think that gets people
to come out to the racetrack and support what they do.
They do a really good job,
to your point, promoting Dave Stewart and his family,
their own worldwide technology, the company.
They were the sponsor that kind of helped Bubba
get the ride in the 43
and hang around for a long time.
And now they,
instead of leaving that sponsorship and being done,
they kind of dove into really promoting the sport.
And I think that's super cool.
And they always have good acts,
the backstretch when they fire up
all those fireballs.
Oh my God, the drivers say
they can feel the fire.
Oh, you can feel the heat.
You can feel the explosion.
There's firework paper everywhere, ashes.
I mean, it takes as long to clean it up
as it does to explode.
But it is a massive explosion
and a really cool picture.
Very energetic event for sure out there in Gateway Cup Series,
though, hasn't been there very many times.
So not a lot to go off of there.
Three times, yeah.
You mentioned that it's very unique.
What makes its distinctive shape and characteristics?
Well, we talked about 2311
and the brake issues that they've had.
I had that same brake issue.
It is a balance between the brakes that you bring.
How much do you tape the front of the car?
How much tape do you run on the front of the car?
Or is the temperature, you can't really run tape,
but the temperature that you run the brakes at.
So it is a balancing act
as far as what you do with the brakes
because of the fact that the straightaways are so long,
you use them so hard going into the corners.
So usually typical is a double downshift
getting into turn one.
So there's a lot going on from the driver's seat,
but a very difficult racetrack
to make your car drive really good.
But you've got options from a driver's standpoint.
You can run that middle, higher line through one and two.
You can dive down and pass.
So you've got a lot of options.
You've got a bump to deal with over there
in three and four.
So challenging track from a driver's standpoint
because it's very unique,
but the brakes are definitely a question mark
as far as what's right.
I always aired to having too much brake, but.
We'll see.
Okay, so let me ask you.
I think about Phoenix and Gateway
and how important brakes are and how you use them.
Would you say can you learn a lot for Phoenix
on your brake package or not so much?
Not so much.
No, because the straightaways are so long
and the turns are so sharp.
So it's a heavier breakage usage than it is at Phoenix,
but you also have such a long straightaway
to cool the brakes back off.
That's where the issue comes in
with the cracking of the rotors and everything
is when the brakes heat up and then cool way back down.
So it's finding that balance
to keep the rotors from cracking.
So drivers and teams will have their hands full
as it pertains to getting the setup right at this place.
When we look at this playoff picture,
Logano, Dylan, Bowman, Barry,
are the drivers currently below the line?
Who of that group do you think could potentially get above it?
Well, I think SVGs, I mean, he's gonna have a tough time
with all the ovals left on the schedule
getting through to the next round.
We've seen the potential to have a lot of trouble
on pit road and all those places.
Those problems aren't going to continue not going on.
They're gonna keep happening.
I think that, I don't know, I don't know how SVGs,
this might be a place where with the braking
and downshifting and everything happening
that he can be a little bit further towards the front.
I think that the Penske cars have shown
that they're the best cars here in the past.
Not that that means anything.
The Toyota showed up this week and just spanked them.
So they might show up and do that.
But I would lean towards the past history
with the Penske cars.
So I look for Lugano to go forward.
I look for Josh Berry to go forward.
I'm worried about Chase Elliott and SVG
going the wrong way this week
because of things that are happening.
So I think from, you know, you look from Austin,
Cynric Down, I think Cynric will run good this week.
Ross Chastain, I have a question mark around with this weekend.
So we'll see, but it could go a hundred different ways.
But based off of past history, those are some of the things.
Yeah, Ross is one of the few people
who didn't have a problem yesterday, surprisingly,
but Austin Cynric defending winner of this race.
Yeah, which he won that one off of fuel mileage, right?
So the guy that won the one is in the 12
because he ran out of gas.
And he needs a good run after all the chaos that happened.
Well, yeah, I mean, he's 22 up.
I mean, they had a weird,
like he got caught up in that thing with Cowbush.
And then what really happened to him
was that they ran so long on the track
that it grounded the bottom of the car.
And then the splitter was all messed up
and that took all the downforce away from him.
So the car didn't drive the same.
But if I'm Josh Berry, I'm like, I got to make it happen.
Like we got to make it happen here
because he's 19 away, which isn't that far,
but with one race, it's a ton, right?
Like if it's Bristol, if you're 19 away
or going into Bristol, that's a lot to make up.
So he needs to be about even, you know what I mean?
I think if you're below the line,
you want to be about even
to give yourself a good shot at Bristol.
So him, and then we'll see what Austin Dillon can do.
I don't know, like we haven't really seen,
we look at Richmond and it's like,
that's their spot to shine,
but maybe they can, him and Boswell can make some magic
and give themselves a good run.
Top 15 for them being eight down.
And Cowbush, you know, a couple of years ago, one here.
So, I mean, there's the possibility
that they could do something decent this weekend.
Cowbush was good again last week,
this past weekend too, it wasn't bad.
Well, we'll have to see how it's all going to unfold
out there in Gateway.
So one thing that continues to circle around
is the lawsuit between 2311 racing
in front of motorsports against NASCAR.
There was another hearing that occurred.
What a lucky.
Sorry.
Boy's phone?
Yeah.
I was just going to ignore it.
I can't do that.
So teams would have chartered status
for the rest of the year and for NASCAR
to not have the ability to issue the charters
they had to someone else.
That's one of the biggest pieces of information
from the hearings.
But it was very interesting seeing all of the text messages
and things that were exposed to help bolster
the arguments for both sides.
What did you think about what transpired
from this recent hearing?
Well, when I look at all the text messages,
I think to myself, there's a lot of hate
in this particular instance and animosity
between the two sides.
And I think at this point, it seems personal.
It definitely seems personal.
And I think that at this point,
when you look at all the things
that the judge has told both sides,
it's like, hey, this is going to not end well
for all of you.
So I would encourage you guys to work it out.
I hope that we can get this worked out
before December 1st because I think
it's going to drag everybody through the mud.
I think regardless of how it ends,
when it ends, because it will end eventually,
I hope that we are in a better spot
as far as working together as a group
and this doesn't happen again.
I know that there's always things that happen.
And a lot of times it's behind closed doors
and you get it figured out,
but you don't want this happening here again.
Other sports, they've had lockouts
and we're not in, we can't do that.
Like that's not how we operate.
So I hope everyone cooler heads,
hopefully prevail.
Provell, yeah.
And we can get a little bit off of our petty pedestal.
Petty pedestals.
A little bit off of our petty pedestals.
Little slappy coming up with some good sayings over there.
That is a good thing.
And we can all go back to just worry about cars on track
and making that what it needs to be for everyone.
I thought the drop the mic moment was Michael Jordan
saying he'd lost that money at the casino
before and keep going.
I was like, well, there you go.
Well, that's the interesting part about it.
It's finally, there's two sides
that aren't worried about money.
Exactly.
They're worried about fighting for what they believe
is right and what is right and what is wrong,
unfortunately is in the court system.
So I hope that they can figure it out amongst themselves
before it goes all the way
to drag everybody's face through the mud.
It's interesting, I gotta believe
it gotta be interesting for the judge
and like, cause of the matter that it is with sports
and it's like, you guys are all together,
but like you're not, you know what I mean?
It's gotta be a very interesting-
Well, and it's racing, right?
So it's not like, it's not like other sports.
Like everybody's playing against,
racing against each other every week.
It's not, I don't know.
It's just that the whole dynamic is different
than a baseball, football, basketball type sport.
So the dynamic of it has to be interesting
for the judge too, because based off of those other cases,
it's just a way different dynamic than any other sport.
The other one's the lead, the teams own the lead,
basically like the other ones, we're here, it's not.
So that's where I think the biggest thing,
if you're the judge, you're like trying to navigate that.
The judge told both sides,
if you feel certain you're going to win, you're wrong.
So that decision is supposed to be made this week,
I believe, is it supposed to have more?
Yeah, no decision till this week supposedly.
But I was going to say one more thing about this.
We've talked on the show throughout the course of the year,
the distraction this causes for say, you know,
Tyler Redick, Bubba Wallace, what type of mental acuity
do you think it's taken for them?
Cause if we're basing it off last week's performance,
it doesn't seem to be impacting them.
Yeah.
I think that the two drivers are probably annoyed
more than anything because they just want to race.
They signed up to race to go out there and do their job.
And they're having to answer questions about stuff
that they don't really want to answer questions about,
that it is a distraction.
I mean, there's no way.
I mean, it's not the same distraction for Denny Hamlin
and you know, as it is for Tyler Redick and Bubba Wallace
because they're not vested in the ownership of the team
and restructuring the league.
And so at this point it's annoying, I'm sure,
that they have to deal with it.
You know, I don't know the conversations
behind closed doors that they're having,
but they don't have the same motivation
that Denny Hamlin does to fight this fight
in the middle of everything with everything that's going on.
They just, they want to go out and do their job
because they signed up and they're taking another year
out of their career to go out and drive the car
and try to perform and try to win a championship.
So I have to imagine it's somewhat annoying,
but when your cars run like they did this weekend,
that's all you care about.
It's not a big deal.
Yeah, I think I saw a moment between Bubba and Charles
Denike, his crew chief, that I'm like,
oh, they're really locked in together.
Like they believe in each other
and that resonates again through your team.
And you can block stuff out
when the team is on the same page.
You can, our job is to win this championship.
Let Michael and Denny and Curtis and them handle that.
But our job is right here.
And I think they're just locked into that.
Well, we will continue to follow this story
as it keeps going and going.
Keep giving.
It does keep giving.
And speaking of giving,
I think it's giving on your first sip of the day, correct?
It's time for Mamba Social Sips.
We've reached that point in the show.
I thought we canceled this.
No, I guess here we go.
It's everybody in the world.
It's everybody on the planet's favorite segment
of the show, Kevin.
Mamba's Social Sips.
Let's get it going.
Let me get through my notes here.
But my notes, I mean the notes
that Caitlin makes me every week.
They can't figure out how to connect your printer
to the Wi-Fi.
I don't know why I need Caitlin to print these for me.
All right, so Caitlin kind of,
we kind of talked about it a second ago, the humorous texts.
And the one that got me the most was the one from MJ.
And he says, he basically says,
like, I want to be locked in.
Like, let's do this.
And Curtis is like,
we're going to lose out on X amount of millions.
And MJ is like, I've lost that much.
I've lost more than that.
Oh, I didn't realize this was the one you were talking about.
I'm sorry.
I blew that for you.
It's okay.
All that hype and build up and it's already been said.
I just took the wind out of the, I'm sorry.
But now we can actually see it verbatim
if you're watching obviously on YouTube.
You can see the text yourself.
Yeah, thanks, KB.
But he also says that Curtis is like,
yeah, this is a hobby.
And then Michael's like,
well, I only can play so much golf.
So I'm in it for the long.
Hey, Michael's in.
Oh yeah.
Like even reading those texts, you're like,
he's not going anywhere.
Not backing down at all.
No, he's in on the sport.
So I thought that was pretty funny.
I've never seen them.
It makes me think about my text messages that
And hope that they never get subpoenaed.
And I'll just think that I need to be,
make sure I'm smart about what I'm doing.
It's true.
Everything has a trace.
Everything has a trace.
Yeah.
Especially in these type of situations.
Well, in this situation,
we're all getting to see your text messages.
So just think about that the next time
you're texting something, do you want me to see it?
Yeah, no, that's fair.
If you see it, never mind.
Yeah.
So this weekend, you know, Dave Portnoy.
New Fox colleague.
New Fox colleague is on their college,
college platform, which is super cool.
But he made his way over to the Indy car
and he got to ride in the two-seater.
Yeah, you got to hear this.
Let's run the tape.
Dave, you were in a hostile environment yesterday
at Ohio State.
Not a lot of love there for you, but what's it like
in the cockpit?
What are you feeling?
Too fast for me.
I go slow.
I don't go anywhere this fast.
Come on, this is nothing.
A buck I wouldn't be able to do this
if his life depended on it.
I like the fact that his helmet's too big
and his face is all squished over there.
He can't pull his head off the headrest.
His seat belts are flopping.
Like, he didn't have any idea what he was getting into.
That's awesome.
Clearly not, based on that reaction.
I think at one point he said his guts are in his feet.
Like, that was a little later in the tape.
He took a good shot at Ohio State.
He's like, no one in Columbus can ever do this.
Like, he's a big Michigan guy.
So, I mean, I like when Portnoy is around motorsports.
I like what he brings to the table.
It's a hamster from Carr.
Like Bristol years ago, or Barstool did.
Barstool did.
Barstool sponsored a car at Talladega, too.
So it's good when we have those guys.
We need to get him on to an Ascari.
Yeah, well, he's been to plenty.
He needs to come back, though.
So we talked about A.J. Almonddinger,
which I think A.J. is one of the best talents
in the Cup series, and he does more with less.
And it just is how his career is at, right?
But a colleague knows what they got,
and they want to keep him around for a long time.
But when you get respect from someone like Michael Jordan,
like, I don't know, I just feel like that's really cool.
And that's kind of what happened here.
Wendy Venorini with MRN is interviewing.
Bubba came over and then interviewing A.J.
Next thing you know, there's a little bus lap from the goat.
I don't know, it's got to raise your spirits on everything.
I would think so.
And I think I've told this story on here,
but when I walked out of Bristol the last year
and we had a miserable day, missed the playoffs
and everything that went down.
And that was it.
And I was walking out of the tunnel
and this big hand comes grabbing my shoulder
and he says, you just got to be proud
of everything that you've done.
Don't worry about what happened today.
And Michael talked to me all the way out of that tunnel.
Just, he was kind of like the counselor
between the exit of the garage, back to the motor home lot.
But he knows what's happening in the garage.
He knows, he may not know you personally,
but he knows about you.
He knows about the drivers.
He knows about the sport.
And that's the thing that he's not here just to play.
He's here to play and win.
And he knows, he's very knowledgeable
about everything that's happening in that garage.
I don't think we had heard that story yet, actually.
That's interesting.
No, I don't think you told that yet, Hattie.
I don't know.
Not maybe not on the show, but I've heard it before,
but yeah, we have a voicemail.
Oh, you never know.
You never know how the voicemail is going to go.
That's what the voicemail.
Hey, Kevin.
So I've been thinking about the days of old
versus the days of today.
And I was just wondering if you could weigh in
on really the difference between what it takes
to win a cup series championship today with the playoffs
and even the chase when we had that versus
before there was a postseason at all,
where we just count up the points at the end of the year
and whoever has the most wins.
Which one do you think is harder to win?
That's a great question because I've been involved
in close point battles when there were no playoffs
and that same type of anxiety
and things that go with the playoffs
on a week to week basis for 10 weeks
were still there for 10 weeks because it was always,
hey, I need to beat this guy.
He's only 10 points behind me or 20 points ahead of me
or whatever the case is.
It was that same sort of intensity.
Now you have that automatic intensity
that flips because of the playoffs.
And you know that your championship's hopes
are on the line every single week
as you go through that.
So, you know, I've lived through that with a net.
I've lived through it both ways
but now it's just every year you have that intensity
that goes with it.
Whether you're first and second,
you have 16 guys that are experiencing it right now
instead of just one or two.
Yeah.
I mean, to add to that, I think that when you look
at getting into the playoffs for some teams
that is a championship, it means as much to them
to get in for some depending on where you're at
as it does to go on.
So you're added pressure.
Yeah.
And pressure makes for great racing.
So to his point, do you think it's harder
to win one over 36 weeks
or do you think it's harder to win one over 10?
I depends on the system.
Like if you're talking about the old,
like it depends on the system and how it's structured
but the old way is hard
because the car you've said it before here
to finish first, you first must finish.
So before the struggle was, is the engine blown up?
Like how many times were we blown up?
Like how many parts of malfunctions are we having?
Like now that part's gone.
So like if you took the old, it's just different.
I'm not really sure.
I feel like the system that we currently live in
allows you to screw up more.
I think that you can crash more.
I think that you can have more DNFs.
I think that, and I don't think you get penalized
for that where the old system,
if you had a DNF or you had to get back out on a racetrack,
you worked as hard to get back out on a racetrack
as you're seeing some of the guys do now
to get those one or two points.
But I think that the penalty for wrecking your car
and doing some of the things that you can get away with
now because you have a win, aren't really there.
So it's more of the kind of blend it all together
and make it okay for more people.
So I think you could argue it both ways, which one's harder.
I think that the old way,
it eliminates a lot of guys throughout the season.
And so bringing all those guys back in late in the season
and giving them another chance,
it's basically giving everybody a second chance
to try to win the championship
with the format that we're in.
And I think we don't have enough time for this
on this show, but I think when you're talking
about the business side
and when you're talking about selling sponsorship
and what that does and allows,
I think that's important.
And again, we've talked about a bunch,
like there is a balance.
We haven't found maybe the exact balance yet,
but I think it's somewhere in the middle of the two.
So ladies and gentlemen, that is Mamba's social sips.
If you want to leave a voicemail 805-317-4175
or if you want to leave a mail bag question,
HarvardCapriar4 at gmail.com.
And hopefully next week,
Caitlin won't spoil it for me.
I am so sorry.
I don't know how I screwed that up.
It's okay.
I haven't messed it up all years.
You haven't messed anything up all year.
That's a one free pass.
Everyone gets another chance.
Everybody gets another chance.
We're 60.
We're 67.
We get to reset for the playoffs.
That's right.
All right, time now, guys, for our last call.
So Kevin, before we get into our picks for this week,
let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend,
courtesy of DraftKids.
You could have won some money this week, plus $750 on Briscoe.
Nice.
And you picked him as the winner.
So obviously somebody, somebody should have known.
Did you put money on it?
No.
Somebody should have known.
Somebody should have known.
Listen, I told everyone for the playoffs,
I'm going to be nice.
I'm coming in strong.
Coming in.
Well, you started off pretty good.
And so did Chase Briscoe being a plus 750.
So if you bet on Chase Briscoe, you were able to win some money.
So take the checkered flag with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code Harvick.
That's code Harvick for new customers
to get $300 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks.
Only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Crown is yours.
By the way, Caitlin, I talked to Piper this weekend.
She is really working on this crown.
Oh, she is?
I'm homemade crown.
That's way cooler.
Yeah, no, it's way cooler.
I like that.
Might be a little out of proportion, but I'm not worried about that.
It'll be hand-built.
Yeah, it'll have meaning and soul to it.
Exactly.
We like a unique crown.
It'll be nice.
All right.
We have enough unique in that chair.
We do have that.
We love him for it.
OK, time now to grade the burnout from Chase Briscoe.
Pretty big display of celebration
with the Polish victory lap and then the burnout
and the family and the kid.
Yeah, he had a lot of the elements.
I will admit that.
But it was a good burnout.
Nothing spectacular.
He did blow the back tires off.
Yeah, I thought he would get bigger marks for that.
I enjoy that.
Well, we've got so many samples of good burnouts at this point
that it's hard to impress us.
But he did a good job.
It was a good burnout.
And he blew the back tires off the car.
No fires or anything, though.
Right here.
That.
Shout out to Jake.
Shout out to Jake for getting that shot.
He probably got some rubber in his face.
Definitely.
Yeah, Jake did.
Yeah, with the camera.
Yeah, with the camera.
But yeah.
OK, so.
It was OK.
A bee?
Yeah, we'll give it a bee.
A bee for Briscoe?
It's probably about as good as what Blaney's was at Daytona.
Yeah, like they're listening.
So now everything is a little bit better.
So now you've got to really.
They are listening.
We didn't have high fives or any birds hanging out
at the windows or drifting against the fins.
You know, you're going to like the Reddick win.
His next win, you'll like that.
Because we haven't seen it in a while because he's in the gas
and then he's usually hung out.
Yeah, yeah, that's always a good one.
Well, hopefully it'll be this weekend.
Need to do it quickly.
He's my pick for Gateway.
Oh, we're in the picks.
We're going right into it.
Point standing.
So let's take a look at him right now.
Kevin is at 24.
A reminder, he got 10 points for the regular season win.
Plus two points for each of his wins.
You selected William Byron over the weekend.
Mamba is at 12.
How'd I get there?
Because I was at two last week.
What happened?
Plus two for picking the win during the regular season.
Plus 10 points for picking Chase.
Oh, that's right.
I forgot about the win that I just said.
And I'm sorry.
I don't need to say it.
We're moving on.
You're participating.
It's our second chance.
We had to create a second chance system just like the NASCAR
point system, second chance system.
I'm going to stick by my selection of Tyler Reddick.
He was top five at Gateway last year.
I think we've been ramping him up on this show today.
He goes to Victory Lane.
They definitely need to get to Victory Lane.
And that's the first time we've seen this speed out of Reddick
like that.
It's been a while.
So I'm going to go with Old Faithful, Ryan Blaney.
You know what's crazy?
Old Faithful?
I was going to go with Ryan Blaney,
and I'm going to go with Ryan Blaney.
OK, so you two.
See, because now it's like we used to say
we didn't want to pick the same, but all gloves are off.
Because this is the playoff time.
Well, he knows he'll only be 12 behind next week.
Well, it's playoff time.
And like I honestly really thought that it's a strategy.
It's yeah, like now we're just trying to keep it tight
and just take a little chunks out of his lead.
OK, that's fair.
Well, hopefully more of these people sign up to vote
so that we can keep beating them as well.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
And we encourage the fans and the closers
to keep getting in on the action.
Submit your picks by scanning that QR code on the screen
or you can go to the link in the description
of the podcast to play along with us.
That's right. Please submit your selections.
So I can make fun of you when you lose.
I would say. He does it to me every week.
Oh, that's right.
Join the club.
Take a look at that number two car.
Take the two and the 21 this week.
So Tyler's telling me only 25 people.
Is that what you said, Tyler?
25.
Two five people picked Briscoe this week.
So good job out of those 25 folks.
26. Yeah, did that.
I don't know if that number reflected on your selection.
Yeah, you don't count.
He doesn't count.
It did in the point stated by golly.
There you go.
All right.
All right, guys.
Well, this has been fun for episode 60.
Make sure you subscribe on YouTube
wherever you get your podcast.
Leave a review.
Lay five stars.
And we'll see all of you after worldwide technology.
Raceway got the right to start.
See you then.
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