Daytona 500 Fallout: Winners, Wrecks, and What It Means

Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, America's number one motorcycle insurer.

Did you know riders who switch and save with Progressive save nearly $180 per year?

That's a whole new pair of riding gloves.

And more.

Quote today, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, national average 12

month savings of $178 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between October

2022 and September 2023.

Potential savings will vary.

All right, guys, the core of the joy here, alongside Ryan Flores and like I mentioned

earlier, Ricky Stenhouse, first off, round of applause, runner up, finish.

Let's go.

Bumped and pumped at the same time.

Well, more pumped or more bummed?

You know, it's it's Monday, you know, so I would say more bummed a little bit

right now, because I'm not still in Daytona celebrating the win.

Because, you know, when in Daytona 500, there's so much more than, you know,

the celebration right after the race.

There's, you know, all this cool stuff you get to do for pretty much a whole week.

Remember when you facetimed us in, you were in New York, uh, it was

twenty twenty two, you won, right?

Three, twenty three, and you were you were on the show, literally on a bus

or something.

Yeah. Doing whatever you've been in front of the show a long time.

Yeah.

What's the coolest part?

What's like what happens after you win?

Where does that take?

Take us through your victory lane and then where do you go?

Yeah.

So victory lane, obviously a ton of media, you know, right after.

And then like you just want to get done with that so you can go

hang out with your guys, go to your guys are in tech, you know, for six

hours and, you know, you get over there in the car is like fully apart.

And then they got to put it back together to, you know, go in

the museum the next morning.

But, um, so, you know, getting to the guys, hanging out, you know,

for us, you know, it's kind of rain delayed and longer, whatever.

I mean, we, we called her a night at four, four thirty or something that

morning, um, but then you get back up and really then I would say the next

day is really cool because you get up, you go do like good morning America

and the, um, and victory lane at like six thirty a.m.

So you're just like, you know, you just look awful, um, you know, but

then, you know, you get your, your Rolexes and your rings and you do

the concrete, you know, stamp and, um, you know, roll the car into the, you

know, the museum and I don't know, just a lot of cool things that go along

with that.

That's, um, you know, really you're like, dude, this is, this is a, this is a big

deal.

Then you get on a plane and go straight to New York, right?

We went to Chicago, um, actually I went to Disney.

They let me go to Disney because we kind of already had it planned.

So we went to Disney, um, and they had, that year was the first

year that we were going to Chicago, I believe.

Yep.

Um, and so we had to do a bunch of media in Chicago, then came back home on

Wednesday, flew to New York on Thursday and back and then Fontana on Friday.

The grind.

It was a grind, but dude, I, I think we, I averaged three, three and a half

hours of sleep that whole time.

Score was low, low, low.

And then, but then it like snowed in Fontana that year.

And so I got, I got some extra sleep.

So you have now seen firsthand the difference between first and very

close second and how big of the gap that is.

Yeah.

Talk about how big that gap is.

In what sense?

Financially, emotionally.

Yeah, talk about financial.

I mean, necessarily, but yes, you know, your, your percentages are

different from a, from a win to a top five.

Um, you know, the, the car's money intake is, is a lot different bummed

for my team because our car is destroyed.

You know, so financially for the team's sake, you know, it was a bad day,

you know, bad and, and, you know, good day all at the same time.

It almost probably came out in a wash for finishing 20th, not Torah.

Yeah.

I mean, dude, our car, we hit hard at the start finish slide.

At what point did you lift?

Like into one?

No, yeah, never.

I mean the engine shut off.

The whole top five did the interview from their care center.

Yeah.

Top five interviews from the care center.

Yeah.

It was, um, you hit, you hit the, you hit a ton.

So, you know, we, I was pushing the 43 there, you know, coming for the last lap

and I saw the 77 jump up, but then also saw him kind of track back down.

So I was like, I'm pushing the 43 right past him.

Well, he, he kind of gave that half block.

And then so the 43, when I gave him that extra shove, you know, got

his right rear, um, you know, I kind of thought we had room there

and it was happening so fast, you know, and, um, dude, when it, when

you're white, not when you're, you're like, you're intense and you're

getting smashed off the back, you know, hitting you in the bumper.

And, um, you know, so, you know, they cleared out.

I'm like, whoa, you were literally leading a race.

Yeah, we're leading right here.

Throw the caution.

And, you know, in 23 going into one, the caution came out.

And I'm like, Oh no, this is going to happen again.

But, you know, Kudos to NASCAR.

They, we've asked them to let the races play out, you know, that

time I was like, man, throw the caution.

But, you know, we've asked them said, Hey, if, if we can make it

back to the start finish line without driving through a wreck, you know,

let us race it out.

So, and I think they did that all weekend.

They weren't quick on the trigger, you know, let the races play out.

And I just needed somebody to go with me.

They just kept splitting me and splitting me and splitting me.

And then all of a sudden, Lugano needed help.

It was the 22 and you were like dragging until our back.

Meanwhile, everybody was like, yeah.

And then finally the 22 needed some help.

And, you know, him and I were the only ones by ourselves.

So I start pushing him through three and four.

And we got a huge run down the front stretch.

And then C's parted.

I saw a gap wide open, you know, got clipped and I thought I won.

But the 45 was so far ahead at that point.

Um, yeah, just wild.

Uh, but, you know, great day for our old chef boy, R.D.

Chevrolet and Gano.

So he's like, my kids like chef by R.D.

I'll push this one.

Yeah, he didn't.

He should have.

Yeah, he should have.

He picked up, it's so crazy.

At the end of the day, I would have gave him a lifetime supply.

Monthly ship.

Yes.

Oh man.

So do you feel like anything you could have done different to win or pretty much

nailed it a little bit?

Yes and no.

I think when the, you know, when the 77, you know, ends up getting sideways

and 43, if I'd have stayed closer to the wall and not let Chase get to my

outside, you'd have some more momentum.

I'd have had more momentum.

I think he would have had to stick with me at that point.

I don't think he would have had room to really drop to the bottom, you know,

because it all happened and then like I, I eased down just enough that he was

able to get to my outside and.

You know, I think maybe if he would have stayed with me, he would have

had a better shot to, you know, for our momentum to keep going.

Cause I think we could have got, you know, pretty good head of steam there.

You know, all the way back to the start finish line.

But I'm sure he was thinking what I was saying is like, man, they're

going to throw the caution here.

I'm going to try and get the lead, which I had the lead, then he had the lead.

So yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I've been replaying it and watching it, you know, um, so I think

if I had to stay closer to the wall, I think that keeps me in the top, you

know, two or three positions, um, down the back and then, you know, maybe

have a little bit better shot at it.

Watch the back, you know, rewind, play rewind play.

You didn't see me until the very end to, I mean, I saw you were on

like kind of the, the relaxed first couple of stages.

Did you see me at the start of the race?

Yeah.

You were getting great TV time.

Yeah.

I, uh, I dropped, I told everybody around me, uh, Josh Berry now, you know,

taking our, you know, our last bathroom break right before going out

and he's standing next to me.

He goes, what's your plan?

I was like, you're going to see me pull to the right.

I'm not passing you.

I'm going backwards.

He goes, I'd have lost that bet.

He thought I was going to the front, but I mean, I've, the

last two speedway races, Talladega and Daytona last year, I think

I've completed 38 laps total and I was wrecked inside the top six or seven.

I'm like, ain't worth it.

Well, the Daytona 500 is not worth it, you know, but like going to Atlanta

this weekend, I'm going to run hard, stay up front and do the thing.

Exceptional Atlanta.

So fun.

And my guys got my car.

They got a good setup.

And, you know, I can hold the throttle down, enter in three, there's not

very many guys that can rip the top, rip the top.

You and Eric Jones, Eric Jones rips it.

He'll sneak out there on your, you got to watch your right rear

quarter panel.

Um, you know, so that was kind of our plan, you know, our, our ownership

group, Mike Kelly, we were all on board and said, Hey, this is going

to be a boring race for us until it's not, you know, and, and yeah.

So interesting race.

There was a lot of stuff to talk about with, well, there was Josh

Barry, the only guy who didn't get in a wreck between the duals and the 500.

I saw that this morning.

Yeah.

To your point, right?

You probably have been thought about as one of the most aggressive

pushers.

That's why Josh said that.

And the other guy that's one of the most aggressive is Brad Kizlowski.

And then he just throws a ton of shade at Riley Herbst.

Did you think that that was warranted?

That was not warranted.

I texted, you know, Riley texted me, you know, afterwards he

said, Hey, congrats on P two, you know, Riley and I are buddies.

He said, sorry, I had to go with my teammate.

Understandable.

Don't worry about it.

And I responded as like, Hey, don't worry about Brad.

Like Brad's wrecked plenty of people.

You know, we all have.

And I mean, 2022 I was leading within, you know, five or six to go.

And he just, you know, basically right hooks me off a turn four, um, you know,

at the win.

And then he, I think the next year he wrecks Harrison Burton or later that

year, like he's aggressive, you know, and the difference.

I mean, a little bit, a little bit.

If Riley makes that block a little sooner and it all works out, he wins

the Daytona 500, you know, like, but also the difference of a good

push and a bad push is about that much.

Small, it's small.

I mean, I know what Brad's frustrated because he felt like he had a big run

and, you know, Riley, he can't push the nine past the, the 45, you know,

he already picked him, pushed him 90, 45 makes his run.

And Riley's like, dude, I got a shot to win this thing.

Tries to jump up in front of him and just didn't work out too late.

Yeah.

I mean, we're not talking, we're not talking much.

Yeah.

So, no, I don't think it's more.

We talked to Toleretic a little bit earlier in the show.

It'll be after this, but I watched it and it's, it's unique in it, right?

But when you're watching it, it's like the combination of Daytona 500,

especially when he gets down to the end is like trying to figure

out a Rubik's cube that all 43 of us are called the last 15.

There's 15 guys that have a shot at the Rubik's cube and there's no colors on it.

Everybody just spins it.

Yeah.

Pass it, spin it, pass it, because you can make a move that might be the right

one if I go with you.

Yep.

But if you don't go or there's like an infinite amount of possibilities

that boil down to being in the right spot or not.

So, like, all of a sudden, right, the spire cars pop up like, oh my goodness,

where did these guys come from, right?

And the host of ours was married to the back of the 71.

Yeah.

And they got split up or had a big run and he had to take it.

Then it's like all these things have to play out to put yourself in the right position.

It's tough.

You need the teammate.

You know, I think him and the 77 work really well together.

They're both good at drafting tracks and speedways and Carson's really good

at making those moves to make the blocks.

Um, you saw it in the truck race.

You saw it in the cup race.

You know, once he got to the front, especially with a teammate, it, you know,

you see it with, you know, Brad and, um, or I mean, Joey and Blaney, like, you know,

once those two get out front, it's, it's tough to beat them.

And something about the confidence that they're not thrown half out.

They're going 100% committed blocks.

Committed.

Dude Ross, like in the second stage, I was like, Oh, he's willing to die.

To do this.

Yeah.

But that's a little early to do it.

I feel it is early and it can turn out bad.

You saw the 40, you know, he was committed to making that block.

It was just late, you know, um, you know, and so, yeah, I mean, it's tough.

I, you know, we started 13th on that restart, you know, my spotter's counting.

I'm like, you know, I was 14th.

I wanted to take the top, but I didn't want to give up a row.

So I was like, all right, I'm going to take the bottom here.

I said, Hey, down the back, I'm going to try and work my way.

If there's a gap, I'm going up.

I didn't get a good restart.

The eight started 14th.

I think he took the spot I wanted.

Well, he drops down in front of me.

I'm like, sweet.

I'm going to the middle.

Yeah.

And then I worked my way the outside with the 43 because I know, you know,

once the 43 gets to the top, he likes to rip up there too.

And then all of a sudden we're, you know, top five.

And, um, did y'all watch, uh, the replay of call bushes in Kirk Henry yet?

Somebody posted it.

He drops down in front of me, you know, um, on the restart.

And then like a lap and a half later, he just bells his spotter

asked him, are you out of gas?

He goes, I'm not going to race to the wreck.

The bottom was supposed to be the advantage.

And like, you know, he fell straight back.

So yeah, he literally was 30 car links off the field running 29th.

Then the wreck happens.

He ends up top 15.

So like, you know, that probably was a good move to get out of there.

But, you know, it's just, again, you make the moves that you think may

work out and sometimes they do.

Sometimes they don't.

It's just, uh, you're, it's just wild.

There's like Tyler said something earlier and then you said something

when you got here about like people saying that I should have done

something different on Thursday night.

And I was like, I haven't, well, I haven't been on Twitter, but like, I

don't know what, like you're, when you're, you only make the decisions

of what you feel is best then and somebody else has the authority

to turn you if the run comes too much.

People that aren't driving the cars think that you see stuff

from the good year blimp like they do.

Yeah.

And like, you know where the, oh, they know where everything is.

You can't see a whole lot.

You literally can't see and you can't see the car in front of the guy.

Yeah.

I mean, you're like my spotter, you know, I had a new spotter, uh,

McGrennalds will spot for me in the truck and he's like, Hey, what do

you need from me as a spotter?

I'm like, really the only thing I need you to do, obviously, if I'm

clear, tell me I'm clear.

Top or bottom six, six.

Okay.

So I'm like, tell me clear.

But really all I need to know is how far I can push the guy

in front of me.

Like what's, what's that gap?

Yes.

And you know, the problem is, is at the end of the race, when

things are ramped up, stuff like that gets, yeah, if things are

happening so fast from your perspective, and then, you know,

your spotter might tell you, but like there's so much going on.

It's like, I can't keep up with it.

You know, and I feel like in your spot on Thursday, I mean,

there's nothing else.

I mean, you could have bailed out, I guess, but like, you're

not going to do that.

And, you know, where were you running?

Second, second on the inside, second on the inside.

And it's, you know, that push came from like three or four

back, you know, and it's, and it's not the seventh's fault.

It's the guy, SPG's fault for not lifting when he got to me.

Right.

Yeah, he don't know.

He don't see you.

Yeah.

And if his spotter is not, you know, it's hard to know

how much room everybody has, you know, like you were

out of room, the seven was out of room.

Well, and then Brad looked up and didn't see those guys

coming to me to get them back.

And that's so.

And somebody asked me and I was like, well, I think the

biggest problem was Brad basically stopping getting in turn

three when just stay on the throttle and, you know, then

everybody kind of picks momentum up together.

And then you've never been a big fan of, you know, dropping

back to somebody.

I think that that only kills your momentum.

They're going to get to you eventually.

What I like, you guys talked about pushing and Corey

mentioned this, the back bumpers on these cars are

very round.

Yeah.

It's super pronounced now.

And I was paying attention to the race because Corey

had mentioned like if you get somebody, he said, if you

swipe somebody from the right to the left and it gets on

the left, the left rear bump stop, you're wrecking.

So you would see the good guys like Danny, I was watching

the 40 and like when we were fifth or sixth in line and

just watching the guys get the runs and they would get

a run and then pull the left and make sure they

hooked to the right.

Like you would almost like you would spin them out of

a short track.

You would that all the good guys would do that and it

seems like you guys have gotten smarter about that.

Is that like the most important things?

Yeah.

I mean, I think, you know, I tell people, you know, the

biggest thing is just, just at least be center, you

know, or, or cheated a little bit left.

And a lot of times, I think, you know, obviously we

sit in the left side of the car and a lot of people

are like, I think they center themselves up and

don't realize it, you know what I mean?

It's like you're supposed to be on the left side

of that car, but they're like, man, I was

center, but you were center.

Your bumper is not, you know,

and it's, again, it's happening so fast.

It's like trying to push two marbles together.

Yeah.

I mean, it's, it's not easy.

A couple of times.

How was the truck?

Oh, truck was wild, you know, handling and I will

say in the Cup race, little hotter on Sunday, you

know, running a little earlier, that middle

lane and a little bit on the bottom off of four

with slick, you know, you'd get, and I feel

like in the cup cars, you, there was a long

period of time where you didn't really have any

handling issues.

It's coming back and it's great.

The tracks, the tracks getting rougher.

The asphalt's wearing out.

It's wearing the tires out more and you're

getting some will in it, you know, off of four

on the cup, take that to the trucks and it's

like times 10 or at least my truck was, you

know, especially when I got, I didn't feel

great and I thought there was going to be

a massive wreck.

I mean, it's the truck race.

There's always a massive wreck, but the

truck race was phenomenal.

I felt like, you know, everybody did a great

job pushing each other.

Corey and I got to the front a little bit

and I was like, all right, I know how it

drives.

I'm going to back up.

And so I was in a good spot.

My fuel injector cable was not in a good spot.

Not a good spot.

Just quit working.

Stop working.

I was on six cylinders at the end.

Oh, dang.

Yeah.

So in practice, my fuel pressure would go

out down the back stretch.

They changed everything before the race.

So anyway, I ended up, Phil Gold said, hey,

we're going to take two tires, save fuel, keep fuel on it,

keep tires on it, and then we're going to take two

tires, ratchet to the front.

And we did.

We started third when we needed to.

And then, you know, the 34 was fast and just hammering

my rear bumper.

And I'm like, I really, I felt like I was keeping

up with Majeski enough, but the 34 would get a

huge run through the center of three and four.

I started getting tied off a four, and then he would get

to my back bumper, and then all of a sudden, I would get

loose and, you know, it was in a, I was in a bad spot.

Not, not quite as loose as O'Cleeter, though.

No, but like, dude, just no experience, right?

I mean, like it's, that, that situation is tough.

I mean, it can happen so fast.

And so for me, I, I bell, we got some tires on it,

got some fuel, restarted 13th or 14th.

And yeah, drove it up to six, though.

Logano mentioned that on the broadcast when

he was on the cleatest wreck, he goes, that looked a lot

like my first time here.

And I was paying attention to that.

Like even Zillich, Zillich got like tight, he wrecked

for the whole, like before he finally wrecked,

it was going on for like a half a mile.

Yeah.

But he got like tight, whoa, whoa, whoa, and just never

got it back together and finally wrecked in the trial.

You don't get, you don't get that feeling in

Arkacars, you know, and especially the Arkacars

these days, cause, you know, I feel like

everything's kind of a little bit slower.

I haven't driven them, but they just look like

they handle pretty good and you just kind of,

just run around.

The air's not as turbulent cause there's only

eight cars in the pack.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's hard to get that experience,

especially with no practice.

I mean, you used to go down there for preseason thunder

and you would test and you see everybody drafting

and you would get those experiences,

but you don't get that now.

It's, it's a tough ask.

I almost forgot that's such a fun conversation

with Ricky that we talked to Tyler Reddick,

Daytona 500 champ on his media tour early in the day.

So let's see what he had to say.

Daytona 500 champ, Tyler Reddick.

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, we are joined by none other

than the winner of the 68th great American race,

Mr. Tyler Reddick joins us on this.

Hey.

Thank you very much.

Have you slept?

My wife made sure that I slept a little bit.

You know, we, we went and celebrated together a little bit

at oyster pub.

Some of the, some of the team went back to the hotel.

The bar stayed open there and so yeah,

I think it was like two o'clock or something.

We, we shut it down.

Obviously, you know, the kids are, are back at the bus

with, with my mom and dad and some friends.

And so I wanted to relieve them so they can have some sleep too.

So yeah, as much as upfront, you want to stay up

and just never go to sleep.

It's like, man, you know, there's things I need to be

sharp for a lot of great things have taken place today.

You know, getting, getting the Rolex, getting the, the

jacket.

Let me see it.

We got the ring right here.

Let me flip it over here.

Hold up to the camera.

I can't see it.

We got the, oh, there's the camera.

Yeah, there we go.

Okay.

I, I, yeah, it's, it's insane.

And then for me, one of my favorite parts,

I mean, the ring's amazing by Jostin's, but I'd always

told myself I had to earn my Rolex, my Daytona Rolex.

And I've always wanted one, but it's like, nope,

I'm not going to shortcut this.

I could buy one, but I want to earn the first one.

So it's, it's, yeah.

It's a real dream come true type, type deal for me.

Buddy, you earned it right down to the freaking bitter end.

I mean, I watched it from my couch, unfortunately,

but I was watching it back like the last three laps,

just rewind, fast forward, rewind.

And just to see like, I feel like the end of the race

is like a Rubik's cube that everybody gets their own

turn of like messing it up.

And when you cross the finish line, you only,

that's when you get to tell who got the right

combination or not.

So at what point in time did you feel like,

oh, I'm in position to win this thing?

And then how many times did you feel like

then you were shuffled out without position?

Yeah, when we cycled off Pit Road,

I felt pretty good about it.

You know, we had a little bit more feel

than a lot of my Toyota teammates.

They peeled off in Pit before I did.

We ended up tagging on the back of Kizlowski,

Busher, and I think was,

Graxon was up there too.

So maybe it was Aint Smith,

maybe it was a combination,

but we ended up just having more fuel.

So it made more sense for us to pit later.

We were able to jump on the back of that group,

get to pit road cleanly.

And we cycled out in front of the larger pack.

And I thought at some point, you know,

it was gonna kind of bite us.

But the other packs that pit, you know,

the Chevy groups and some of the other four groups

that pit after we did kind of shuffled out

and slowed that pack down,

gave us time to get really up to the speed

that we were gonna have as four cars.

So all that played out really well

for me to be in position to take advantage of that

and jump ahead of the cars that I pit with

to get to the lead.

And then we had the caution obviously.

And in that caution, that's, you know,

I as a driver have just,

when you're leading the Daytona 500

as the camera goes blurry, there we go.

As you're leading the Daytona 500

and you get that caution with like eight laps to go, right?

I mean, when you're sitting there leading the field,

obviously I wasn't.

I thought I was.

It was me last year.

Yeah.

You're saying you've got multiple infinite combinations

of how this can go wrong.

Well, not quite like that.

But for me, I was more coming from the place of

I've been, you know, dying for this opportunity.

This is the opportunity you may only get once

in a career at a place like Daytona.

And I was just, I felt the emotions of everything

kind of hit me at once.

And yeah, I mean, we're able to take the lead

shortly after the restart.

It didn't quite work out shortly thereafter.

Like you said, I was like, oh, I'm in control.

We're good.

Oh, I lost it.

Oh, I'm kind of back in it.

Oh, I'm back out of it.

And yeah, we crossed the start finish line

to take the white.

I felt like it was kind of unraveling on me.

Honestly, you know, the top was kind of rolling.

The middle didn't really have the momentum.

The bottom was kind of surging a bit.

And then, you know, the pushes just get so extreme.

They really do.

I mean, you're not going to give a breath.

You're not going to lift off the throttle any bit

at the end of this race, as you see it,

a lot of the speedways.

And yeah, I was far in McDowell, just got crossed up.

And somehow I only barely clipped.

I think it was the 43 coming across my nose too.

So in that moment, it's like, all right,

I got to try and get by Ricky, side draft him hard

and be the leader, because I thought the caution was

going to come.

And then it was like the longest five seconds ever.

It's like one, like, I mean, you know what I mean?

It just took forever.

I realized the caution wasn't coming.

And it's like, oh, shoot, now what?

I'm bottom of three.

I don't have help.

And the top surging, and me and Ricky are kind of just

pulling each other back.

And it's like, oh, man, that's a shame.

Here comes Riley Herbs to the rescue.

Yes, exactly.

Riley with the huge push, not only to help me,

but advance himself up to the front

and have a shot at winning the race too.

I was just glad he helped me.

I'm proud of him, obviously.

And I don't know if it made sense to him in the moment,

but I told him, I was even more proud of him

that after he got me there, that he

did what was best for him and tried

to win the race for himself too.

Now, obviously, I would have appreciated his push,

but I think he did everything right in my book

to help me and obviously give himself a shot

to win the race too, potentially.

Yeah, I mean, he's been in the mix here

the last couple of years too.

But talk to me about like cool down lap, right?

Mention the emotions with eight to go, let alone,

you know, they had the in-car camera on you

when you cross our finish line.

I can't imagine, you know, the emotion that's going through.

Then you see both, right?

Then you do the whole song and dance

on the front stretch pit road.

Talk to me about how that, just maybe even the cool down

lap from the time you take the checker

to the time you get out the window.

I mean, I instantly lost it.

And then in just, it's, you know,

just the way these races go, I was so excited.

I felt like I had won and I stopped myself

from like, wait, was it costing out?

Cause I don't know.

I was racing the nine.

I was racing everyone behind me and around me.

Yeah.

Did the car come out?

I mean, I know I was the only car that crossed

our finish line for a minute that wasn't wrecked.

But again, just seeing so many races go different ways

or the caution coming out at a weird time.

Like I just immediately I go to guys, did we win?

Did we win?

Like I'm sitting there just on the brink of absolutely

losing it for about a minute it felt like.

And then they finally come over the radio

and said, yes, you want to race.

I'm like, oh thank goodness.

That was like a weird moment.

Just again, these races end so chaotically.

I was trying not to get ahead of myself just in case,

but yeah, just, that's the stuff.

Your dream of hopefully having one day of just

having a shot at winning a race like the Daytona 500.

And yeah, it's just unreal.

It happened to me in just my eighth try.

Man, congratulations.

Again, what's it mean?

You know, when you're, luckily for you

you were on a two foot pedestal when MJ walked up.

So you looked, you were able to see him eye to eye.

What was that, what was that interaction like?

Oh, the timing was perfect.

I mean, it's incredible.

We were just getting ready to lift up

the Harley Jerald trophy and Michael gets to victory lane.

I said, hey man, you know, we, we embraced each other.

Obviously he was very proud of, of what,

what our entire group had accomplished.

You know, he's made so much of this possible with,

you know, what he's done for this team as an owner

in every way imaginable, you know,

what the, the kind of powerful things that he delivers

in his speeches, his presence just,

it does so much for, for 2311.

So for him to get there when it was time to lift the trophy up

and, and pick up the trophy with him was, was just perfect.

I know that last year was, you know, a lot to be,

especially with the 45 team and what your expectations are

and what you showed everybody in the past.

Last year wasn't tremendous.

So to start literally the year with a bang

coming out of the gate with a win at the Daytona 500,

you've got to be feeling pretty good.

Does this, does the season start this week now?

Like that you got this one behind you.

Kayla's lock in for the next 35 weeks.

Yeah. In the past, I feel like I do my best again, you know,

because of the Daytona 500 is, is everything that it is.

I try to make it, you know, its own race.

Again, when you win this race, you become a champion.

Right. So I try to, we do race for points, you know,

we have the duels, we race for points in those as well

and a dual win, but in years past, yes,

it's kind of been its own thing.

And then we go tackle the whole year.

And you know, you, you don't want to be thinking crazy

about points right out of the gate,

but this year was a little different, you know, like,

you know, I was trying to do everything I could in the duels.

Knowing points are going to matter all year

to try and get the best finish possible.

That didn't work out in the duels for us.

So again, in the stages and everything, you know,

this year was a bit different for me in thinking

and treating it like, you know, a points race.

Like almost like when we come back here in the summer.

So that part was a little bit different for me,

just mentally getting ready for it,

but how I guess I raced the race itself

and approached the end of it.

I treated it like, you know, like any race,

I'm in it, I have a chance to potentially win at the end.

I just, I do everything I can

and I trust my gut and my instincts.

Well, those are pretty good

because now you're a multiple speedway racer

and those things are might as well just roll the dice

and hopefully come up on snake eyes

for your numbers to be pulled.

But I said earlier in the week

that somebody is going to drive through this tunnel

on Tuesday, just a mere mortal human being

and somebody's going to drive out of here

on Monday morning, immortal, a Daytona 500 champion.

And that's you, buddy.

That's you, like, and just hearing you,

just hearing you in this last 10 minutes

is like, you know how much it means

and you know what it does for somebody's career.

Do you let that, has it sunk in yet?

It has today, you know.

In the moment, standing in front of the crowd,

you know, in the Tri-Vul, it just didn't seem real

even then, you know.

I did my best to botch the burnout.

Just just, it's hard to do a burnout

on the front stretch here, but you know,

it slowly sunk in.

I made sure to do what I could to back up

and wave at all the fans that stuck around

to see the finish.

Yeah, once I started to get to everybody

that helps make it possible,

that's a part of the team,

sharing those moments with them,

that's when it really started to sink in.

I got to share a little bit of that

with them on the front stretch

by the start and finish line,

but when we were all as a team,

one group in Victory Lane,

that's when it really started to sink in.

But certainly when I woke up this morning,

it was, yep, it had happened.

The ring was in my possession.

I have the hat, it was not a dream.

The watch was on your wrist.

Well, I got the watch this morning,

the jacket this morning,

put my feet and hands in the cement,

so yeah, it's crazy, honestly.

That's pretty syrup, and you cap it all off

with a night at the Oyster Pub,

off a sea breeze boulevard, buddy.

That's what dreams are made of.

Yep, yeah.

Well, I know you got a long day ahead of you.

What's like a media trip?

I know they have like the next two days for you.

Are you going to New York?

Like what's it look like?

I'm going to New York.

I don't, I think they've got it loaded on my calendar.

I haven't really been looking at my phone yet.

They're just pulling you wherever you need to go.

Yeah, I know we're going to New York.

I think we have some media stuff tomorrow.

We fly all day tomorrow.

All day tomorrow.

Bro, that points are racking up.

Come on with it.

They're not going to count, I don't think.

For Atlanta they will, not New York.

Oh, come on now.

We're bringing a champion.

Part for Atlanta?

We'll see what we can do.

We'll sit down.

Oh, Friday, I am.

The Friday, OK, so the stuff I'm going to New York for

doesn't count, I guess.

It's part of the champion.

It's the experience.

You earned the media, buddy.

You are the X1 500 champion.

So proud of you.

And you're one of the good guys, buddy.

You're one of the good guys.

I'm happy you were able to get that done last night.

So, Tyler Reddick, congratulations, and thanks

for joining the stack of pennies.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Corey.

See you, buddy.

Congrats.

I'm happy for you.

We have a lot of last-slap reactions here for the 500.

Oh, man, you worry.

OK, so we're in the lead for a little bit.

And then do we know what shirt is on this blue one?

I'm sure he's pulling for me.

Yeah, he's not.

I'm sure he's pulling for me.

Right here, see Joey thought about going with me,

and then he didn't.

Yeah, OK.

And then here's where I get behind him and locked on.

You know, we get rolling.

Brad.

Who was that on the bottom?

Brad.

OK.

Yeah.

Man, it's crazy.

Yeah, it's like two teammates, and then you got four Fords,

and then Chase.

If he had stuck with me earlier, I would have been up there

to help him.

Dude, it's just dicey come to the line.

Yeah.

Oh, big Rick.

Oh, that's a Tyler Reddick shirt.

Oh, was it a Reddick shirt?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I was super pumped after the race, then.

Yeah, he should have been.

How about, did you see Priest?

I did.

Did you see the meme that was like when your girl tells you,

hey, there's a parking spot over there,

and then you pass the parking spot,

and then you throw it in reverse?

There he is.

Well, like Denny is debating on it, but he's like, no.

Like, Tyler Reddick is in the middle of crowd surfing.

He's crowd surfing right now, and here comes the 60

putting backwards.

I am glad that he, I mean, he pulled it all the way

to the top of the track.

Yeah.

This is a great topic right here.

Hot take number two, because this is a perfect question

for you, because you have one of the all-time quotes

in NASCAR history.

America, 1776, we are the champs.

The old Firecracker 400 win.

It just felt right.

It did feel right.

What made that come out?

I don't know.

I mean, July 4th weekend, fireworks.

America?

Yeah, and in my spotter, Mike Herman, at the time,

he was really big on the history of NASCAR, right?

He's been in it forever, and he's mad that they've changed

the names of these races.

And he's like.

To sponsors?

Yeah, to sponsors.

He's like, no, this is the Firecracker 400, you know?

And guys like Herman really put their stake in the ground.

And then, yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, just rolled with it.

I mean, you just felt.

Just felt right.

Red blooded America.

Kyron's number one of the most American moments in sports

to that.

I love to see him, John Groot,

and post in a pic fired up about being there at Richard Petty.

Did you see any of those guys just now?

Groot in?

Groot in was there?

Yeah, Groot in was there.

I passed him as I was running to the bathroom.

So I didn't stop.

I ran into beast mode.

What was he like?

I thought about tackling him, but I didn't.

It would be like hitting.

It'd be like running to literally a center block wall.

Yeah.

I saw Noah in his trailer with Groot and Sander going,

Red 40!

He was doing like the call, calling him off.

It's like, only Noah.

Mike All-Star was hanging out with us.

Noah's looking more like a left tackle right now

than a quarterback.

I was standing there in four trucks,

Stapled and just walked in hanging out.

There's so many people you don't even realize.

I got a little bit of a bone to pick.

I don't know with who.

We've got all these dignitaries there.

We've got John Groot.

We've got John Daly, golfer John Daly.

Was this kid there too?

He was across the street.

He probably was just passing.

I don't know if he ever made it to the track.

Okay, so John Daly.

The list goes on.

Kurt Russell.

Oh, oh, shout out.

Harry Hyde from Days of Thunder passed away.

Robert Duvall passed away, literally today.

No, he didn't.

Dang.

Yeah, RIP.

But my bone to pick.

We got all these people here.

And we got Homer Simpson dropping a green flag.

I thought my spotter in a big Homer Simpson fire suit.

My spotter says, hey, we had that's so much hell.

Yeah.

And then that's like a hell nah, bro.

My spotter goes, hey, I think Homer's dropping the rag.

Homer's dropping the rag.

Be careful, man.

Make sure it don't fall.

Yeah.

There's bars, bars, bars, skateboard up there.

That's a hell no.

We had so much Thunderbirds buzzing the tower

at 8 o'clock in the morning.

That's America.

Have you got to do that?

Yeah, last year.

Dude, it was the coolest thing I've ever done.

So I talked to Conner.

Conner pulled 9.2.

How many did you pull?

9.42.

So Conner and John Hunter did it this year.

And I kept talking Thursday night.

We're sitting there on the stage

and we're talking because Joey was there.

Joey's done it.

He passed out or puked both.

Trevor and I did it the same year.

Joey's got a longer neck.

Like a lot of the blood flow comes from here,

travels down.

But Conner, I was like, did you pass out?

And he goes, no, but I blacked out.

And I was like, I think that's the definition.

That's the same thing.

I don't know, but I think it is.

He said that like two or three times

we were talking about it.

I'm like, Alex Bumlos here.

He goes, yeah, I don't know.

That sounds like the definition of passing out.

But he was convinced.

9.2.

My vision got tight.

But no, it never went out.

So oh, yeah, you have to.

You can't explain the force on your body.

What'd you pull?

9.2.

OK.

You did 9.4?

9.4.

I knew you're a crossfitter.

And here's what I said.

I told him, give me a little extra.

The difference in 9.

It ain't much of a difference.

I don't know what a big like, if you were like, say,

rock climbing and a big boulder like fell on you,

I don't know like, for force.

And you trying to get up.

It's nothing of a 45G hit for you guys.

Well, my hit was.

What was your G hit on the end of the race?

45.

You just kept on going.

My was 42 on Thursday night.

Yeah.

But that's instant.

Instant.

Like this is like a can.

Four seconds.

Yeah.

What about the Blue Angels, though?

Like they don't wear G suits.

Real man.

Dale Jr. said he rode with the Blue Angels,

and he didn't have a G suit.

Real man.

I wonder if it's.

Steve Kinzer did, too, back in the day.

He's probably smoking a cigarette, just.

That's an unbelievable.

So that, every time I do it, though,

every time I do anything with any arm of the armed forces,

it's like, we're good.

Yeah.

We're good.

Dude, I met somebody this weekend,

speaking of the armed forces.

Joey and I did a USO tour.

It was 2012 to 2013 season, and we went to Kuwait and Germany.

And dude, I met a guy that he was there back when we went there.

So that was cool.

He was at the Daytona 500 from 2012-13.

I'll tell you what, my all-time, I love all the pictures

of all the celebrities, but my all-time picture from Speed Weeks

is Scott Bloomquist just in that Mustang convertible.

Oh, yeah, drawing his suit.

Just trying to, like, that is peak speed weeks to me.

When I, you can see all these people, right?

But then when you see Scott Bloomquist come walking up

on the grid, I'm like, hell yeah, Speed Weeks, baby.

It's a special place in February.

But now it's not get back here to Charlotte.

Now it's like, OK, now the season is upon us.

But before we get talking about Atlanta or anything else,

Ricky, we're starting to do these little things,

a little bit of a video segment called That's Racing.

And I don't really know what That's Racing is.

We all know what it is, but it's hard to articulate it.

So what is racing to you as open-ended?

Well, I mean, I think if I'm using, like,

that's just racing.

Like if I'm talking about a single thing that

happened on the racetrack, it's just to take from last weekend,

like from Daytona to Riley pulling up to try and block Brad.

Like, he didn't wreck him on purpose.

He didn't want to wreck himself.

But it didn't have time to think like,

didn't have time to think about it.

That's just racing.

Or two guys meeting the middle.

Like in the truck race the other night,

host of art at the time, I think he's a lap down up trying

to win the race.

Either the old-fashioned way.

Yeah, he tried to block a guy off a four

and they kind of met in the middle.

It's like, that's just part of it.

Things like that.

Thursday night, that's racing.

Yeah.

Did you hear the quote that Kalita said

that Carson told him before the race?

If you cause the wreck, you're usually not in it.

That's what comes like,

that is the Carson host of our quote to the court.

And it's pretty accurate.

Yeah.

I mean, it's accurate.

60% of the time.

Oh, maybe eight.

60% of the time, it works every time.

I think we're still beating this up.

I don't know.

You're the first person I asked.

I think that the better question is like, why racing?

Why is it the highest highs and the lowest lows

and why do we keep coming back?

And why do we do it?

Yeah.

I mean, in racing, like, you know, and I,

and I tell people in other sports, like you lose more

than you win.

Kyle Larson loses more races than he wins.

Like he's the most winning driver.

I would say, you know, across all motor sports,

you know, jumping to different cars and doing this,

but he still technically loses more than he wins.

Max Verstappen might win more, you know,

just in Formula One, right?

Like, but I don't know.

I don't know why we do it.

Speaking of guys like that, man,

seeing Tony walk through the garage and spending years with him

and being part of that number one garage stall

and then seeing him and Nelson, it was.

His dad ain't, his never age.

Nelson and Tony's store's dad's a stud.

But talking to him, it was just weird.

And we've talked about this a lot,

but now that I'm, you know, we're getting older

and we see people come and go in the garage like,

all the people in the 14 car and everything Tony had

that was the champion 10 years ago is gone.

And it was just weird to see that.

And like for them, for Nelson to be like,

I got to run out to the car and get my stuff out of the car

because he didn't have a, like a place to go.

Yeah.

And I just had this weird feeling.

And I was like, man, this shit is so fleeting.

Like we really need to enjoy it while we're here.

Yeah. I mean, I've been very fortunate

to be here as long as I have.

And, you know, and, but like you speak into Tony.

I mean, like there was a time that, you know,

I felt like the legends were just always in the sport.

You know, and now we're getting to a time where

they're not there anymore, you know,

and then the guys that, you know, in the 90s,

you know, early 2000s, they're out.

It'll be, it'll be interesting in the next 10 years

to see what, what it looks like.

Those guys, you know, the list,

Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr.

Like those guys were lowercase G gods to NASCAR.

Yeah.

And there's just, there's own,

there's not even somebody,

I'm sure the guys that are consistently winning,

but those guys haven't really elevated themselves

to like folklore.

Yeah.

Like, like the previous generation has.

Yeah.

I wonder what.

Like, that's what I'm saying.

Like in 10 years.

Because the competition's tighter.

There's more disparity.

You know, a lot of people have blamed it

on the format of points, right?

And they did not, the points format,

I've heard this a lot through everybody talking about

the playoffs and how the system works is

you're not talking about the guys and the points

every week, you're talking about different people

and no one has a chance to build themselves.

I don't know what the right answer is,

but I do know that.

I don't think that's true.

And you've been here a long time.

Yeah.

What I do know is that it seems refreshing.

Like the lawsuits are over, the bullshit's over,

and it seems like there's a little bit

of breath of fresh air.

Have you felt that in the garage this year?

Yeah, I feel like we're in a really good spot.

I think there's a, you look at all the things

that NASCAR has going for them

and what our sport has going for them.

I think now it's like, all right,

maybe we can kind of get back to kind of taking off.

Right?

The cloud that was hovering is gone.

Yeah, and I don't think it was just a lawsuit.

I mean, there was plenty of other things going on

that just kind of felt like we stayed just semi, right?

Just a little still.

Yeah, but I think right now, man,

it's like, yeah, we're doing a lot of things that are cool,

you know, more horsepower.

Again, I think that's going to keep going.

You know, I don't think we're done.

Yeah, I can't speak for NASCAR,

but I don't think we're done there.

Good year, I feel like is doing more than ever

than they have of everybody working together.

You don't have drivers getting out

and bashing the tires, right?

Like, so they're willing to work on them.

And they've incentivized you guys, right?

Like we talk, we joke about the DAP program,

but they've incentivized the drivers

and you guys are out in the media doing more stuff.

The numbers are fascinating, you know,

of how many more, you know, interviews, impressions,

you know, whatever you want to call it

that we had last year versus any previous years.

I mean, it's a lot.

So, yeah, there's a lot of good things going.

Going back to Chicago land, you know,

again, like NASCAR is listening to everybody

and they're listening to the fans.

Yeah, with the going back to the Charlotte Oval,

I mean, these race cars put on great shows

at mile and a half.

And Charlotte is sick.

Charlotte is, you know, the roval was actually fun.

Like I didn't dislike it.

It just wasn't as good as the oval, you know?

And if you still wanted to go there a third time

and run the roval, I don't care,

but the oval needs two races.

Kind of like the Bristol dirt race.

Like, Bristol dirt race was fun,

but so is regular Bristol.

Yeah.

And more of something good doesn't necessarily make it great.

Yeah.

And then, you know, now we're going to the base, San Diego.

And I think, you know, what Chicago taught NASCAR is,

hey, we can move this thing right.

Like we can go to some one-off markets every now and then.

Which is big too.

San Diego's gonna be sick.

Have you been out there yet?

No.

I mean, I've been to San Diego.

I just haven't been to the track or to the base.

Buddy, I don't know if there's any more

at that point so we can get you,

but I damn sure appreciate the time it's been fun.

Congratulations again.

It's always good to hang out in the old stack

and pennies garage.

Is that what you call this thing?

Nonsense garage.

It's not an official name.

Just like any week, man, I think the first week

we're gonna be back on Serious XM Channel 90s

to those who've been listening to this.

They appreciate it.

YouTube, NASCAR channel.

Where you find Ricky on all your social channels?

Oh, just at Stenhouse, Junior.

We keep it simple.

That's it.

And Slide Job Ranch is gone, right?

Are you gonna make it?

I don't know.

I mean, the store's still up.

We still got some merch to sell.

But you're in the process of building a new one?

Yeah, we're kind of building a new one.

Is it gonna be Slide Job Ranch?

I don't know yet.

It's up in the air.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, hey, good luck to you.

Thanks, ladies and gentlemen,

for stacking pennies with us this week.

Tough week for me.

Good week for Ricky.

Better week for Tyler Reddick, 500 Champ.

Appreciate you guys.

Have a fantastic day.

Goodbye.

Daytona 500 Fallout: Winners, Wrecks, and What It Means

About this episode

caution

NASCAR

Daytona International Speedway

Talladega Superspeedway

Daytona 500

throttle

right hook

spotter

momentum

left rear bump stop

NASCAR Truck

Cup race

slick

fuel injector cable

six cylinders

taking two tires

Arkacars

restart

victory lane

burnout

Firecracker 400

Ssangyong Kyron

Richard Petty

green flag

G-force

Speed Weeks

Ford Mustang

blocking

causing a wreck

racing

Formula One

points format

horsepower

Charlotte Oval

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from Stacking Pennies with Corey LaJoie