Daytona CHAOS: Blaney Wins a Thriller, Playoffs Locked & Is Connor Zilisch the Next Jeff Gordon?

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That was one of the best races I've watched.

Plainly wound up squashing all those dreams. The points conversation is not going away.

Connor Zillich could have went to F1 and been the American F1 racer.

The closing to Jeff Gordon that we've had in a very, very long time.

I think that this car has totally disrupted everything that's made Cowbush good.

He could drive it over the limit. Not gonna happen.

Pays it for him.

What a race! California's Kevin Harvick comes in!

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR & FOX.

I'm Kevin Harvick.

I'm Caitlin Vinci.

I'm Mama Smith.

And that guy.

Yeah, that guy.

He's making so many friends, you are.

I am.

Especially like, listen, more people know who I am now after the last two weeks.

I know.

It's always...

Okay. I mean...

Yeah.

I'm glad that you're sticking by your opinion.

No, I think it's wrong.

Ten toes down.

I think it's good.

Yeah.

It is.

And nothing rattles you.

I appreciate that about you.

Now, does it rattle you?

Or are you like a guy that's kind of a closet thinker that says, I don't like all this?

No.

I love it because it makes people talk about the sport and different opinions.

And I agree with that.

I like that.

Yeah.

And I like that.

Like for me, I like that.

I'm not gonna let someone bully me out of my opinion.

Now, you might bring some good thoughts and good opinions too.

And I might change my opinion, but you're not gonna just bully me out of it.

And I think that's important for people to see.

I do get a little worried sometimes because my parents, they didn't sign up for that.

You know what I mean?

Like they didn't sign up.

Like they have to sit there and see their son get drug or people talk a lot of shit.

Is that a thing towards your parents?

I mean, people say things about everything.

Right?

So like...

Other than that...

The keyboard worries.

Yeah, the keyboard worries.

Other than that, it's cool.

Honestly, most people, like they're really not that bad.

Yeah.

It's not that bad.

I like debates.

Debates are good, but especially on X, like you get some...

It's just...

There's a lot of hate.

I'm okay with debating something back and forth and I might not agree with you

and you might not agree with me.

But just like this instance, we don't agree with each other.

But it's good to, like you say, flush out something that could be better.

Yeah.

You brought up some valid points.

KV, how are you going to figure out what's going to move the needle

if we don't talk about it with the two sides?

Yeah.

If I'm over here and you're over here.

I think Stephanie has started the conversation, that is for sure,

which is the whole point.

That's the whole point.

That's what we do around here.

That's what we're doing here.

We're not afraid to start the pot, are we guys?

Nope.

It's back to school week

and I have a very cool addition for back to school week for Kevin.

Back to school week?

We're three weeks in.

Well, my kid started last week, I guess, technically.

Okay.

So you're going to send him...

Are you going to send him to school with him?

No, I'm keeping this for me on this show.

So you're going to keep your notes in there?

Yeah, you need to.

A fangirl.

Yeah, fangirl.

How was your school thing?

You went with Keelan, right?

Did you have to go do your orientation?

Yeah, we went to orientation day.

But yeah, I mean, they're starting their third week this week.

So everything's kind of in a routine.

I think everybody was nervous about how it was going to go.

My kids have been homeschooled for the last four years

since COVID started.

So they wanted to go back to school.

So they went back to school and off we go.

I'd be scared if I was a teacher

and I saw I had Kevin Harvick's kids.

Well, I mean, the amount of kids...

I'd be like, oh, geez.

The thing about our deal is like, how many kids

that their parents are in the industry,

whether it's Kevin's kids or, you know,

everyone's kids go to school together.

And so your classroom is half full.

Yeah.

I mean, our area, I mean, everything we do is like that, though.

Yeah.

You go to dinner, you see people in the industry.

I mean, everywhere that you go, I mean,

we're all involved in racing, which is why we all live here.

Part of it.

Yeah.

There you go.

Okay.

Well, welcome in everybody to episode 58 here

of Kevin Harvick's happy hour.

Plenty to break down, leaving Daytona.

The regular season is officially in the books.

Hard to believe we're here, guys.

10 races to go in the season.

We'll preview, of course, the first playoff race.

Darlington and I know Mamba has some special sippy zips.

Oh, boy.

Slappy zips.

I can't wait.

Slappy.

I still want that cartoon to come out.

I love you guys.

All right, Kevin, question for you.

Did you get everything you wanted out of the regular season finale?

That was one of the best races I've watched.

And I think that, you know, that finish,

I'm just waiting for him to wreck and they did a great job.

Really all the way through the end of the race.

Started a little, race started a little rough, you know,

with some, some accidents there at the beginning of the race.

But I think for me, I mean, that was just an edge of the seat finish to the race.

Didn't see Ryan Blaine.

Blaine went in that one with two to go.

I think he was 13th with two laps to go and wound up in a position to win the race.

So, you know, as much as we've talked about the super speedway racing,

not being able to form that third lane, team saving gas.

And I don't know if it's the length,

the 400, the length of the stages and the 400 mile race that put us in a position.

They got into one point where they were saving gas right there,

but you can see right here at the end,

we had a just a few guys that needed to win to get into the playoffs.

Cole Custer kind of letting it all hang out right there.

Not sure about the yellow line there on the back stretch,

but that's a different story.

But Blaine, he wound up, you know, squashing all those dreams.

Just dream killer.

Washed him. Oh, man.

And even the 43, Eric Jones, he got shocked out of line when he was leading,

and he made it back up.

I mean, he finished fifth.

Like he, like, so for him to be able to come from the back to the front was big too.

Kev, I think you kind of touched on it.

Look how tight this, like, what more do you want from a finish?

That was fantastic.

Like, that's what you want to see at these places.

I think you kind of just touched on it.

We got to look into why they race so aggressively,

because they raced aggressive from the drop of the green.

There was only a small portion where they were saving.

So is it the shorter race?

Is it where the stages are?

Is it just because they decided,

eight of them decided that we want to control the race?

So if there's eight guys trying to control the race,

it makes everybody else pretty tame all things considered.

Yeah. And I think just whatever, like you say,

the flow of this race and the aggression and the,

and just the moving, the movers and goers up to the front,

back to the front.

I think he had some guys that were trying to save gas,

but even when you look at the six cars situation where they got

themselves in a little bit of a hole there because they had

to put more fuel in their car and got off sequence a little bit,

trying to get that track position at one point.

I never saw him for the rest of the race,

but you look at Blaney.

I mean, he had no problem making up ground.

Cole Custer, same way there at the end.

So the way that the end of that race played out and

really the whole race was pretty intense.

There was one little section there that was,

like you say, a little bit dull,

but you're going to have that in every race with the strategy

and things that goes on,

but can't ask for much more out of a finish.

No doubt.

And you've got the Ryan Blaney repping the t-shirt today

as our eventual winner, of course.

You spoke with him earlier.

I did. I spoke with Ryan earlier,

but think about those last two laps for Blaney.

Huge implications in playoff points.

When Blaney goes from fourth or fifth to second in the

race,

wins the race.

I mean, that was nine, 10-point swing for playoff points

for Blaney at the end of that race,

bumped Larson back,

bumped Chase Elliott back,

taken some points away from those guys.

And any points matter at this point.

Blaney's plus 20 over the cutoff to start the playoff.

So you think about those nine or 10 points.

That could be huge as they go forward.

And here we go again.

Here we go again.

Pinsky.

Went in the race before the playoffs.

I look at those playoffs

and the way that they line out,

they're just good for Pinsky.

Yeah.

I popped into victory lane

and, you know, told all the boys congratulations.

And there's a couple of the Pinsky execs.

And I was like, how do you guys feel about your,

how do you feel about how this one lays out?

They're like, we have figured it out

the last three years.

I think we'll be just fine figuring out again.

They like the races for that.

But they've run better the last month.

All four cars.

Blaney's been solid all years.

And he brought it up today on the interview.

They had a miserable start to the season.

So the fact that they got back to second in the standings

and were able to win their second race at Daytona

shows you the speed.

And when you look at the way the first four are ranked

right now, we have our little NASCAR Insights

rankings right here.

But the first four that are in the seeds

for the playoffs are the first four in the speed ranking.

That's very interesting.

For the average for the 26 races.

So those first four guys right there

have had a great regular season,

but also had the fastest cars.

Who do you guys think is the, when you look at that,

obviously Lars and Byron, they're both on top.

Denny's three points back and then Ryan's

six points back of them.

Out of those four, who's had the best year?

Like who, like William won the champion,

the regular season championship.

But would you look at him be like, that is the guy

that is the favorite right now?

Like who's your favorite?

I still look at the playoffs standings

and I look at Larsen and Byron concerned

because they started the year off so well.

More for Larsen.

He's been, he's had some decent finishes lately,

but not that ground pounding speed

that he had at the beginning of the year.

Byron's been hit or miss.

They've continued to have speed,

made some mistakes.

And this is going to come down to mistakes.

Right?

It's just going to, it's going to come down to mistakes

on pit road.

It's going to come down to wrecks.

It's going to come down to who makes less mistakes.

And, you know, when I look at a Christopher Bell,

for instance, right there, can they just show up

and put together 10 weeks?

I hope so.

That was my championship at the beginning of the year.

I think they can do it, but it's so hard

to just show back up, you know,

and put yourself in a position for 10 weeks

and start to try to have a different mindset.

And I know that they don't intentionally do that,

but you can see the flaws in what they do

from the inconsistency of things happening.

So I don't know, it'll be interesting.

And, you know, you look at Denny in third right there.

Is this the year that he can break the playoff curse

and put together 10 weeks.

But it's always so interesting.

You look at everything that they have going on,

knowing that you still have to answer all those questions.

And so I don't know, it's very intriguing.

You asked me about those top four.

And I was going to say Denny Hamlin,

when I look at the body of work over the whole season,

I think that he has shown probably the most consistency.

Now last weekend was not a representation of that.

Everything that could go wrong kind of went wrong for the 11.

But yeah, I think this could be the year finally for the 11.

What do you think?

What do I think about one of those top four you were talking about?

Is it his year?

I don't think so.

Tell her besties. Come on.

No, I don't think so.

But I didn't pick him to win the championship either.

So, I mean, I think the most dangerous cars that are,

groups that are left is Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe.

They have had raw speed and they've shown in spurts

that they can put it together for multiple races.

If they can put it together right now when it matters most

and the lights are the brightest.

Yeah.

Those damn bright lights.

The hole that I see, you know, is from a stats standpoint

and the stats, you have to pay attention to them, right?

Because they show the body of work.

You know, when I look at the pit crew column,

I see a 20th ranking for the Briscoe pit crew.

I see a 25th place ranking for the SVG pit crew.

20th for Briscoes?

Yeah.

20th, you know, Josh Berry's 22nd ranking.

So, Austin Dillon, 26th from a pit crew ranking standpoint.

So, I think that those things matter.

You see the body of work and it'll be interesting to see

if we have any of those teams that move their pit crews around

to try to adjust to put their best foot forward.

You look at RCR, do they have the best pit crew on the three?

Can they make something better with eight not being

in the playoffs?

SVG, you know, same way.

So, it's really interesting to look at all these stats

and say, okay, what is actually going to happen

when we get to the playoffs with the pit crew stuff?

The speed part is even somewhat deceiving at this point

because now you take all those crumbs

and all those pieces that you found throughout the year

and you've put them into your first car at Darlington,

right?

Because it's hard to implement everything all at once,

but these playoff cars that show up to Darlington

will have all those pieces put together.

You'll have more focused drivers.

You'll have as much focus out of every team member

that you've had all year.

All that effort is going into these Darlington cars

and that's why you show up at a lot of these races

and you'll get to the round of eight

and it'll be the first eight guys on the racetrack

because it's just that ultra-high level of focus

that's really tough to put together.

When we talk about it on here all the time

with the 24 and the 20,

it's hard to put together those 38 weeks of a season

to be able to focus and put that many details into it

every single week,

but when we get to the playoffs, that's what happens.

Yeah, laser focused in for all these teams

and we'll be interested to see, like with the three, right?

They're the only team,

they're the only car in for that group,

the RCR group, so they get a lot of focus,

which really helps, whereas the Penske group,

it's all four of their cars,

Hendrick, until you get into the next round

and even really the round of eight,

you're not getting all the focus at your organization.

All the resources, yeah, that's right.

And when the teams come together

and it's like, all right, we only have one bullet,

we're making sure it's our best one.

That's when it really starts showing up.

One team with momentum on their side, of course,

Ryan Blaney, the Victory Lap interview with Kevin

is available now.

I want to talk about the guy who's the last man in five below,

Alex Bowman, who I believe deserves to be there.

But this was just a tough situation for them

getting taken out early on in the race

and having to sit for agonizing hours,

wondering if they would advance.

All the way to the end.

I mean, one of those,

there were so many of those guys

up in the front of the pack there at the end

as you see the trouble that they had.

And this wreck was, you know,

really think it was on the 23,

just squeezing down on the 22.

And, you know, unfortunately,

that got the eight, that got the 48,

got several of those cars that were in there.

But I agree with you.

I think Alex Bowman deserves to be in there.

That's the part that I don't like about the current point system

is there's nothing that guarantees

rewarding all 26 weeks in there currently.

Could have had a guy that's,

well, I'll just tell you,

Cole Custer was in the mix.

33rd in the points.

And to me, that's tough to knock a guy out

by winning one super speedway race

over a guy like Alex Bowman,

who's put together 26 weeks.

What if you guys think if there was a caveat

to the system where if you get the win,

but you have to be top 20 or something in points?

I think that there's probably something to,

you know, if you want to just leave it like it is,

okay.

That's, you know, that's not the way I would do it,

but I think there needs to be

two or three guaranteed spots for the points.

And if you have too many winners,

then just start the first round with too many cars.

You know, if you could still earn your way in with wins,

but start the first round with too many cars

and, you know, just eliminate more cars

in the first round.

And because a guy like Alex Bowman

has put together a decent 26 weeks,

a guy like Cole Custer hasn't.

They've been almost, I mean, they're almost dead last

in the cars that have run full time.

And having a car,

knock out a car that's put together a season

like Alex Bowman has had,

just because he hasn't won a race,

but put together a great, you know,

decent body of work over 26 weeks

doesn't make sense to me

in what you put together for 26 weeks.

Yeah, I like that idea.

I think when it comes to the points

and like people have said 20,

that should be less.

Points have to matter more.

Yeah, points have to matter more.

But when they only want 20 cars to be eligible,

I'm like, okay,

so you're taking the cars,

the teams that are further back, right?

You're devaluing them

as far as what they can sell

for sponsorship and the business side.

Like the business side takes a massive hit

when you're a 25th place team,

but you're like, all right,

we have six super speedways

like SVG type guy,

and you're telling your sponsors

and you're trying to sell more sponsors

on the fact that we can get in

and be a part of the show,

we're putting all our eggs in these baskets.

Well, now it's like,

how are you going to get a sponsor

to spend $30 million on a program

when they don't think

that they can really win

to get into the playoffs anyway?

You know what I mean?

$30 million, I want you to be my sponsor rep.

18.

Okay, 18 mil, whatever it is.

I think the incentive to win

needs to stay there,

but I think there needs to be

something more for the points.

Yeah, I agree.

The full body of work.

Now, I think that being able to eliminate those,

you'd eliminate those guys

in the first round anyway.

They're going to be gone

in the first round of the playoffs anyway.

So if you have more cars than 16

and you're guaranteeing the points guy

a reward for their body of work,

I think that there's a number

of different ways you can do this

if we're going to change the points system.

Sorry to bring it up again.

It's not going to go away.

The points conversation is not going away.

It's going to change

in some form or fashion.

What makes the most sense

for the competition?

Let me be honest about how I feel about it.

From the competition side,

a team member,

I want to go in,

kick everyone's ass,

and be done with the championship

five races early and I just get to sit back

and I've had it done.

But for the business

and the longevity of the sport

and the fans and everything

that goes into it,

that doesn't really make the most sense

for the money.

From the competition side,

I'm all about it.

I don't think the best

car has won the championship.

Best car or best driver?

I'm just calling it a car

because in order to have a car,

you've got to have the best driver.

To win the championship, you've got to have the best driver

and the best team put together

to win a championship.

But I don't know that the best car

for a full year

has won the championship

in this format all the time.

When Kenseth won his,

would you say that he was the best car

and was that the best car that year?

That was a long time ago.

I think so.

When you go back to

2020, we won nine races.

We had the best car. We just didn't have

the best car at the last race.

Go back to 2015

and I'm still not sold

that you look at Kyle Bush

winning the championship. I'm still not sold

that you should be able to miss

four, five, six races,

whatever it was and be eligible

to win a championship. I think you're hurt

and you shouldn't win the championship.

I think if you can't make all the races

there's something to be said

about maybe one week.

That's where the owner driver

thing comes into it

because the car made it through

the driver.

The car still wasn't going to win the championship

and so you

go back to Jimmy Johnson's championship.

All the other three guys wrecked.

He brought this up the other day.

The other three guys wrecked in the championship

race and he won by default.

I think the last time

it's a really tough conversation.

The last time with this format where it

seemed like the rightful team and driver one

was Kyle Larson.

Would you agree with that? That was

2021.

There are some

make the argument

there are some flaws

if you're looking to reward

the best car

and the best team for a whole years

worth of work.

I just think that that first 26 weeks

needs to have more

there needs to be more emphasis on the first

26 weeks and that reward

and winning and all that.

I don't know how you tie it all together.

I'm glad I don't have to do that because

it's a no-win situation.

A lot of people want a lot of things

for different reasons and trying to make

everybody happy is

impossible.

One of the teams

I think that's a bit of a head

scratcher this year is Tyler Redick

and company. Now they did advance on

but he was saying this is not how we want

to advance to the playoffs

with very minimal momentum on

their side. It just seems like

there's something not quite

coming together. It's really confusing

when you look at the speed chart average

for the first 26 weeks he ranks fifth

so they've had

speed but they don't execute.

They don't turn it into anything

but to me it doesn't feel like

he's had that top five speed

when I watch the races

and I know that he got tore up again

this weekend but

I really thought that they would

progress into, especially the way that

the 23 car has run

they went through the 23 of Bubba

went through a lull there of

time but they got it back

and got themselves the victory lane

off like gangbusters and it's just not

it's not been that type

of year like we saw last year

out of Tyler Redick and so

not hard to do. You don't have to miss

by much to not

be in that category anymore but they just

to me don't feel like

contenders at this point. They just

haven't, yeah they haven't had the spark

they haven't had their moment

this year. They haven't had

the, yep there's a definite

championship contender

which is weird

just you know what I mean

this team at Bubba and the 23 group

they've done a really good job and had

good speed and executed and when it mattered

and they just haven't been

able to do it and you can't really

sometimes it's just that year

and you look at the five, those two guys

Tyler Redick and Kyle Larson

those two groups were the ones fighting

and we were like one of these two guys

is going to win the championship last year

and they're both kind of

just a little bit of low for their

standards that they've set for themselves.

That's weird, I don't know why.

Well I think some of that too

I think when you look at

2311 obviously they have a lot going on

off the racetrack but on the racetrack

they added another car

and anytime that you expand that's going to

take some time to get those resources

spread back out to be able to

understand the flow of your company

and know where the holes are

of where to get those details

and so I always look at expansion

as somewhat of a

disruption to a team

to be able to maintain

at a high level of winning

is tough because of

of the things that change

so if I were going to point

my finger at one thing

I would point towards expanding

to three teams, that would be

that would be my guess.

So some growing pains maybe came

to 2311 with that expansion

I know the teams that have advanced on

what about the groups that did not bake it

and what they need to do in their agendas

for the next couple of weeks

thinking specifically about Kyle Busch

and RFK Racing, we've talked about it guys

Brad Kizlowski is the flagship team

I mean he's the leader of the group

but it's just been lagging for some time

Yeah and Brad is

in my eyes

is supposed to be

the star of the team

that's the team that's supposed to be the leader

now over the last

six weeks they've definitely run better

climbed up the point standings

but haven't won

you know always seems to be

something that happens throughout the day

that keeps them from

being in position to win

so I think it's a

you know it's a tough conversation

I think it's that time of the year

where you have to start deciding

are you going to make changes on your team

to be able to put yourself in a position to win

can they maintain

what they've done the last six weeks

for the end of the year to get themselves back to Victory Lane

to know that they're okay

or do they need to go hunt for

engineers, crew chief, whatever they

think that is, this is the time of year

that you have to do that because

all the good people their contracts are up

if they're up

they're up starting in September

usually and I think

that's the time of the year that you have to start

making changes and

I think that Ryan Priest did a great job

this year I don't think anybody expected

the improvement that they

saw but their real contenders

are going to be better next year

having a year under their belt

determined, hungry

but when you look at that six car

it's supposed to be the anchor on the performance side

and they just they have not been

and you know I think that

you got to have somebody be

the anchor of the team to carry it along

and it just hasn't been that way for the six

yeah I mean he's the

obviously he's supposed to be the guy, his name's on the

freaking building stuff

and switching cars

we're going to go right into this conversation

about from Brad

right to Kyle Busch right

when you look at the next gen car

it's different than what it used to be

several years ago and

can you adjust to that style to be

can Brad adjust to that style

of being a consistent winner

like he was at Penske in this car

and in this organization

being the team owner and having to do everything

outside of the car that's the question

and they haven't they got to answer it

right he's got to answer it and the only way to

answer is to either do it or you don't do it

and they're putting in the work to do it

obviously because the cars are faster

their team is better

but you have to

execute and finish it off and they

when they're in position just like KB

when Kyle Busch and that group is in position

it seems like the wheels fall off

every time this year

and honestly the 60 could

develop into that anchor car

he was the best car this year

Ryan Priest was the best car

consistently for the first 26 weeks

week in and week out

I mean Busch didn't

I mean he had some moments but

he didn't run as well as he did last year

as far as being in contention

to win races they haven't run as well

the 60 car has been the best RFK car

we have several drivers

dual roles of driver team owner

with Denny Hamlin and Brad Kosowski

but what kind of task is that when you're trying to balance

both sides both entities

because you've done it too

well it's tough and I think

Denny's situation to me is easier than Brad's

because Denny's they're getting their cars

from Joe Gibbs racing

and then they put the final details on it

it's a much different process

I mean Brad's team

is developing doing all those things

on their

not on their own but I mean basically

leading the charge

they're not buying their cars from somebody

it's not like they're coming from Penske

their cars aren't coming from Penske

they're doing that all within their walls

so I think it's more difficult

because I always found when I drove for RCR

and KHI at the same time it was almost better

for both companies

because I wanted my RCR stuff to be as good

as it could so I could take it to KHI

and I think Denny's in that same boat

he wants to put as much

as he can and put in at JGR

because he knows that's going directly to his team

so it's

I mean and Denny works his ass off

and puts the time in to be

a leader, a winner

and do everything he can to win races

and I think that

motivation for your own company

when you're driving for somebody else

especially in Denny's case when they have the business

relationship is super

super motivating to be able to

to be productive

and the whole thing is

that situation is very different

and very interesting with Denny

obviously with the lawsuit stuff

with him being at JGR

and knowing exactly what's going on

with his driving career

but the owner part

I don't know how you can really

split those two things

on a day to day that's a lot

and I think when there's some other moves

I think the McDowell move

I think he's worse off

than he did at front row

I agree that he hasn't done as well

but I think he's in a better position

like a better place

I mean depends what you consider a better position

do you think that the

what do you mean?

I think that the organization of Spire

is faster on average

and they've had more opportunities

to win but he did

better over there but also

my perception of it is different because

I expect less out of the front row group

when he was there then I do out of

him at Spire

so you got the expectation is kind of

and on the flip side of that I think his crew chief

Travis Peterson

I think him leaving front row

has hurt front row

and I don't think that they've run

since McDowell and Peterson have left

they haven't run as well without them

there

but I don't think

they've done any better at Spire

I guess is the best way to put it

and I think it's really hurt

the performance of front row

you look at Noah

he's 34th in the standings

Riley Herps right behind him

and Cody Ware in 36

so that's as bad as you can

almost as bad as you can do

and I think a lot of that is

the leadership of McDowell but

I think the Travis Peterson

piece of it not being in

those walls at front row

has really affected that team

he's got a wealth of knowledge

an engineer at Hendrick Metersports for many years

I think he's a super sharp crew chief

super sharp and he comes

from that lineage of really

smart crew chiefs

that he could lean on and learn from

when you have that it's like

you talk about the coaching trees right of like

Belichick and Andy Reed and like where do these guys go

after and then you're like oh he was

under Chad's wing for a little bit oh that makes sense

you can see that lineage

we talked about

34, 35th

and 36th

but when you look at 33rd

you know with Cole Custer

I mean the Haas

the only time we've seen him show up is the

two-day toner races this year

and they've just been non-existent the rest of the year

so you know that

that divorce between

Stewart and Haas

has basically taken them out of contention

as far as being a competitive team

I interviewed Cole

for our experience this past weekend

I asked him about that and he was like

well we really went from

we didn't go from four to one

we really went really from like four to zero

and then back up like

they broke down the whole thing

and then rebuilt with what was left

and it's a whole new

and maybe more changes on the way

on the manufacturer side it sounds like

some rumblings of that

I want to go back to Count Bush

for just a second

this year they only have two top five performances

curious from you

at one point

do you think maybe it becomes a mental

block for Kyle

like he's starting to think like can I not do this anymore

like what is

what do you think is in his mental space?

I think this car has totally disrupted everything

that's made Kyle Bush good

everything that made Kyle Bush good up until this

this gen 7 car

was the fact that he could drive it over the limit

save the car

everything that you needed to put in a car

to make it go fast

he knew the springs, he knew the shocks

he knew everything that was going on

not going to happen in gen 7 racing

you're not going to know

the springs and the shocks

it's a way different dynamic

of what it takes to make this car go fast

you're not building cars

that are specifically built to your driving

style from an aero balance

standpoint you've got what you've got

and every time that this

car is in position

it's a spin out

a wreck or something on pit road

or something happens

that's going on

and just can't finish the deal

and I think that for Kyle

he's in a position to where

he knows he wants to win

and he knows everybody wants to win

he knows he needs to win

he knows in those positions where he can win

and then he pushes it over the edge

and that's always what made Kyle Bush great

he pulled too far and saved the car

and now it's just that he just can't

find that feel of putting himself

in that position so everybody

wants to see Kyle Bush win

we're going on three years

and the best he's

finishing the points is 14th

and not going to finish

that was the worst he ever did

at Joe Gibbs racing so it just

it hasn't been great

for the 8th

I don't think there's anyone that I want to see win

we all want to see

we know how important Kyle Bush is

to NASCAR racing

it's true

it's going to be tough

there was this kid

I was doing practice and qualifying

he had a

8 Kyle Bush hat

he had an 18 M&M shirt

that was down to his knees

and it looked like maybe his mom

and his big brother maybe his dad or whatever

and he stopped and saw Kyle

and I mean

elated

and you just see that and then I look at him

and I'm like damn I want that guy back

I want to be able to see that

do you think he ever wins again?

I do

I'd love for him to win this year

so they can feel like they have

something to look forward to in the next year

and I think that

I think it will be

interesting too as you go forward

there's going to be some mixups

and changes I don't know whose contracts

where, who's up

but

there's got to be a crew chief

that's placed

at Connor Zillich's car

I was just getting ready to get there

and

there isn't a crew chief in the garage

that doesn't want to sit

on the pit box for that kid

no kidding

when you know you have something special

it just

does a crew guy

we just got to do our job

take your pick

it's a take your pick

type scenario

there's only a couple of guys

in situations that

there's more than a couple

there's a handful of guys that are going to say no

but you got to, in my opinion

if you're doing what you should be doing

from the race team standpoint

you should have a pick of the crop for that kid

from a crew chief standpoint

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slash teen accounts

I was just going to say

there's some very talented young racers coming through the pipeline

from Cory Hyme

to Connor Zillich

to Brent Cruz

and so you mentioned Connor

and I want to hear his take on

the announcement that he will be going full-time cup series racing

he made it over the weekend

it was a very emotional moment for him take a listen

I never knew what was ahead of me

and there were times five years ago

where I thought I was just going to college

and live the life of a normal kid

and then when I asked my dad

what's your plan with this kid

and my dad was like

well he's going to race for another year too

and then he's going to go to college

and Kevin told my dad

he's like you can't do that

so first of all thank you to Kevin

there's a lot of people that

have been a part of this journey

with me

your reaction hearing that

well I mean Connor's a

I mean he's a great kid

like he is

I mean he's just

type of person that everybody wants to root for

and he's personable

he's got a great

he's got a great demeanor in a way

that he carries himself

and people are going to love him

and I think as you go through time

and more people know his name

they're going to love him for who he is

let alone the fact that he can

drive the snot out of that car

but he's

Connor

I don't know he's

when we started racing go-karts he started helping Keelan

and we got to know Connor pretty well

he helped Keelan with some of his

go-kart data and training

and different things when we first started

but always been a part of

he was always a part of that side

and you know he is

really good

at what he does

but he's a great person so

you know I think that conversations

about with his dad I mean it happened outside the airport

and I'm like man

you got to figure out you can't send this kid to college

you at least got to give him a shot

to go do

he's looking at all this talent

and all this aura and he's like

you're going to do what with this

he's going to be a financial

and thank God Keelan was racing go-karts

at the time because we plucked

what I felt were the

two best kids that were older than Keelan

at that time out of go-kart racing

I mean Connor Zillich could have went to F1

and been the American F1 racer

he was the

most recent miss by

Formula 1 and just the fact that

we were racing go-karts and we kind of steered

these kids, these kids had no interest

they didn't even know what NASCAR was

they wanted to go down

that F1 road and so

luckily we steered

them into NASCAR but

Connor Zillich not only could he make it here

but he could have been the F1

American F1 driver

to go over and be

competitive in an F1 car

I want to get your taken a second but I'm curious

when did you start to recognize his talent

when was that turning point you were like huh

there was just

Connor was just one of those kids that stuck out

I mean he could start in the back

he could go to the front

he'd make spectacular moves

and since I've known him

that's how he carried himself

and his parents would send him to Europe

with the driver coach

and they would go by themselves

and you hear him talk about Gary Willis

and the time that he spent

racing go-karts with him that was the guy

that helped him race karts

I mean he'd show up at the airport by himself

14-15 years old

just walking around get on the airplane

get off the plane hey man can't run a car

can I get a ride

you can come with us to the track

but he would just get in there

and just

spectacular things but

he's very intelligent

and you can tell by the way that he speaks

he's very intelligent

he understands the data he can coach himself

he can look at the data

he can compare it to somebody else and say I need to do that

and then he can go execute it

that's what racing is in today's world

are you coachable

you're going to be under criticism

from the time that you get

into racing

if it's done appropriately you're going to be criticized

and you're going to be compared

to other people

he can criticize himself and he can go out and

execute those changes on the racetrack

to make himself faster and better

and know how to do that

I was in the media center and I looked at some people

I'm like he is

the most finished product

that we have had in a

very very long time

and they're like what do you mean finished product

he's only 19 I'm like he's already a

world-class driver

in every stage

that you could possibly win at

and not to mention he's not just jumping over

from sports cars into stock cars

he's also running one in cars tour races

he's won

won what was he and win six

or something dumb in the X-Frinity series

well technically seven

Parker got him another one this weekend

so like he is

he's going to keep learning and keep getting better

because you never stop

but he is

I think Parker said it like the closest thing to Jeff Gordon

that we've had in a very very long time

that someone coming in and being able to

have an impact like that immediately

and it's going to be

I think that the

going cup racing is a whole different animal

it is a whole different animal

and you've got more pressure

more media more money

more distractions

and the competition is

by far the most that you will ever have

so you're going to have a new team

around him

you're going to have a lot of challenges

but he is the most polished

that's the most well-rounded

young driver that's come

to the cup series

in a long time

since Jeff Gordon

that's a good word to describe him polished

a very high praise here for Connor Zillich

we look forward to seeing what the future will hold

for him you mentioned Parker

I know you wanted to give him a shout out for that

hell yeah I want to give Parker a shout out

I mean like

it's cinematic

he got the wind taken away from him in the truck race

at the beginning of the season after he

won in like whatever

with a little bit of height

in whatever happened

and for him to get the opportunity

the irony in that and it was just a beautiful moment

and like that was

the group that

Parker and Connor

is crew chief on the 88, Marty Lindley

I've worked with Marty a few times

with Pat Martin who's like his right hand man

was doing the driver change

like if Pat doesn't if Pat messes up

putting that window net back up

everyone's the whole entire thing

like one little thing like people like

think it's so amazing it is

but every detail is what makes it so amazing

and for them for Chevrolet

to let him do it

for WeatherTech like

it's not like it's just like Dale's like oh we're going to put Parker in

there's a lot of checks and balances

that go into getting him into that car

and for it all to work out

that's after y'all

good job Parker Kligerman

yeah and good job junior motorsports too

I don't think we've probably

given them enough credit for how good those cars

have been this year

I mean they're on fire this year

they are indeed

so now the playoffs begin guys

we're headed to the very first race of that

which would be Darlington

three tracks in this round

Darlington, Gateway and Bristol

three different places I might add

so what are people up against this weekend

you obviously won there three times

don't beat yourself

that's the saying that you don't want to do at Darlington

you don't want to run into the fence

you don't want to knock a tow link off

you don't want to miss Pit Road

and you're going to see it, it'll happen

there's just no way around it

there's going to be guys that get desperate

don't qualify good

and make those mistakes

and so Darlington is

race the racetrack first

put yourself in a position to not make

any mistakes

stay on the lead lap and do what you have to do

from there so it's

it's a tough place

500 miles at Darlington

is a tough, tough ask from a driver

standpoint to be able to put that

and pit crews you're going to make a lot of pit stops this week

and we know there's a lot

of areas to make mistakes

and you've got everybody amped up

and the guys who've been

able to manage this there'll be some of them

that are able to pick it up

there's going to be a surprise

I think that pops up

that is a contender that hasn't been

it could be a Tyler Reddick that

uses that speed that shows up

and goes to a place like Darlington

that just could pop up and win the race

Kyle Larson could put himself

we know that he'll be good here

in this scenario put himself in a position

to run up against the fence and so

when I think of Darlington I know two guys

are the same two guys that could pound it against

a fence and knock the total

link off on lap 5 so you never

know how it's going to work out

so right now

everybody can make it in on points

there's no this big gap

to where you're in a must win situation

it is tight

it is very tight really

from Chase Elliott down

to Alex Bowman

so do not

do not

ruin if you're having a bad day

find a way to

just get the best out of it

do not put yourself in a situation

where you're almost in must win

next week because the minute you're in

must win now it's

especially in this round

if you can just average a 15th place

finish through the first few races

you're going to probably get yourself through

so it's not

in this first round you don't want to

go into that do or die got to win

you got to do this and get yourself

so amped up that you start making mistakes

and hitting stuff and you can take yourself

out of it way faster than you can keep yourself

this is where the crew chief is going to be

super important to locking in

his crew

the pit crew and the driver reminding everyone

what our plan is what our goal is

week one let's handle the goal this

week if it's to finish 15th

it's to finish 15th if it's to get

some stage points it's to do that but do not

get behind and feel like you're behind

now you got to try too hard

and then you're picking your stuff out of the fence

do you like the complexion of tracks in this round

yeah I do

and I think that

St. Louis getting put in there

I think that they do a great job

it's a great market it's a unique race track

so I like the fact that we're mixing

the styles of

race tracks up so

Darlington is its own beast

and I just like the fact that

they're just

the styles of tracks

and this first go around

here at Darlington though it's full day's work

for everybody

listen man you can

mess up a little bit and it'll just ruin

this whole thing for you

so what is the mindset

shift like for the competitors

once this time of the year rolls around

I just want to stand on your throat

you do

everybody's not yours

I think it's just that killer

you always had it

I think it's just

there's nothing better than

knowing that it's just

it's time to go to war kill mode

just get into kill mode and just

know that every

single lap

means something whether it's

the first lap of practice or the last lap of the race

everything in between there

matters and it could affect

what you do and

capitalizing on a day

on a bad day

all those things it's just all these different goals

that just are out there to try to

achieve and they're always changing and moving

because there's just something that's going to happen

and how can you react to those bad moments

to make them into decent days

and so and capitalizing

on the good moments and not spinning

out and trying to be a hero

and whatever that case may be

but there's just nothing better

than locking in with a group

of people for those 10 weeks

to try to accomplish winning a championship

when we were at SHR it was

FEA man

it was f**k them all

it was

FEA

like that

time of the year

was so much fun

and it's really when you're locked in with a group

everything that you've learned throughout the year

if there was a

new process that you thought was going to be quicker

for the guys or if you found

Grace that was breaking every week

and you're like is this something that

all of it goes into right now

and everyone is pulling in one direction

no matter what

whether you have four cars in it or one car in it

you're just trying to go win this championship

and kick everybody in the teeth

and you got to be willing to do things

that are outside of your comfort zone

whether it's take chances

here and there

you got to be willing

and able to push yourself

outside of your comfort zone to achieve things

that you may not have done before

and push through those hard moments

so it's fun

the shop air is different

it is different

the minute they got back on Monday

the air in the everyone

shop is different

you're either locking in or you're like

we're going to be the spoiler

everyone has something to rate

and the ones that are willing to make the most sacrifices

the next ten weeks are going to achieve the most results

and that's

telling your family that I might not be home as much

it's putting in the extra time

it's a big commitment

to go out and win this championship

this is the point of the year

where the big transition takes place

as teams go after a title

so let's revisit our champion picks

that we made quite some time ago

Kevin's was

Christopher Bell

I went with Larson

William Byron was yours

that's what it says here on this sheet

thanks Tyler

are you still confident I am in mine

you can't change them

you're confident in yours Kevin

I am

I think if anybody can do it

it's that team, that crew chief, that driver

you just can't count them out

how about your guy

my guy is a regular season champ

so I mean

I'm good with it

I mean, like I said in the beginning of the year though

we go back to episode one

in February

you're going to have to go through 12

well you're not the regular season champ out of these chairs

so

at least you pick somebody who's the regular season champ

I pick champions, I don't pick winners

you're not a champion you just pick them

no I am a champion, I'm a cup series champion

god dang it

you pick on Bell you still

I mean my biggest worry with Bell is the inconsistency

in the moments right

I think they're going to be able to go out

and do those things it's just

are the misses too big

and when the moments I look back

at a place like Dover

you can't spin out running second

so I worry about

the moments that could happen

with Christopher Bell I think that the performance

will be there

you guys have a dark horse

is that a dark horse?

oh that's a dark horse

that's who I would say

I think it's Reddick

I just

think that they could wake up

yeah probably

they have the potential to do it

so you know it's there it just hasn't been

what we expected but

is that 10 week stretch

and that motivation and that

is it something to do with the preparation

is it something to do with whatever

I don't know

could be anything but they have the ability

to just flip the switch

who's yours I'm writing these down

I don't I mean I think

for me it's more who's the most dangerous

and I said Bubba earlier and

Briscoe I think those two are the most

dangerous when it comes to

what could happen well and here's

the here's the here's the other scenario

in order to be the champ

you gotta beat the champ

and he's still in the playoffs

he's still in it and last year he's still in it

he yelled at me and said don't you ever

count Joey Logano out

and he said yes ma'am

and that's a good point we know

Joey knows how to do this

and has done it a time two or three

okay time now

for the Sips we got a pretty decent

list this week what you say

that's good because I'm thirsty

that's the only good part about this

my water's out so I'm over here

Kevin some

some fans from Phoenix wanted me to

let you know that this is their favorite part of the show

so uh shout out to

my Kiwis out in New Zealand I know you guys

have been checking in on this show

Kiwis? Yeah they're Kiwis yeah

they're homies they watch

the show they've been engaging on social it's been great

welcome to Mamba's social

Sips and we're gonna

start

we're gonna start from this weekend

you guys know I do driver intros

correct you know I do the handshakes

with some of these chief hype

officer in case you didn't know

he's officially chief hype

officer for

NASCAR yeah which means for

the drivers because I'm there to make them look cool

yeah you didn't do that this weekend

I don't know roll the tape we'll see what happens

and that's all you posted was that

little smiley face well I was

so Jeff Gluck tweeted it

and then Bleacher Report

posted the video I just

quote tweeted it the smiley face

so what's going on here are you guys

actual legitimate unhappy with each other

or I don't know we haven't

we haven't spoke but then he said this

you're so cool bro don't let the ratios

get to you this was after the race

so he's flying on his jet home

and he tweeted me this and I said what does that mean

ratio it's like

ratio is like you said

this and more people

hated it then liked it

he's saying more people disagreed

with me I feel like I'm so

uncool well that's why

we're here for you

I don't know

because you didn't know what that meant

yeah so here's the thing

this all started

because last week

I said that

don't you dare in this

you're not about it

it was about the tweet

that I said crowning the champion

it's about crowning the best team

not the best driver

Denny disagreed and then on

actions detrimental

shout out to you guys

he brought it up

and kind of drug me a little bit

what does that mean

please explain to the first older

but the people that don't know he was kind of talking some shit

and acting like he didn't know who I was

I heard you bro

so let's do this

you can come right here

on Kevin Harvick's happy hour podcast

if you have any debate

or I can come to you

what do you want to do

I've seen some people in twitter

they want to see it

I'm down

if you want to talk about whether it's a

is this a one on one thing

we'll loan you the set

we'll put it as two chairs

I kind of think you should be in the middle of it

I don't want to be on it

I want to watch

I'm down

wherever he wants to be we can talk about it

because

I'm down

I'm not going to back down

DH where you at my guy

I thought you were going to end it I'm like oh man

no apologies here please do that

no I'm not apologizing for being right

you're not right

it's a team sport

well that's not how you put it

you might have to check the tape

alright next

next move it on

so AI is this thing

that I really don't love

is this thing I really don't love

I don't love however

Andrew Curlin

asked the AI to predict the next 20

cup series champions

this is pretty cool considering

it agrees with me in this years

which is William Byron

the other ones that I think stood out to me

feeling perfect 2042 champion

that definitely stood out

they look like he and Ty Gibbs look like brothers

they look about

yeah we got Jesse Love

championship Cory Hyme gets one

I would love to know

where the AI thinks they're going to be driving

Hosevar is on there

I know they're picking drivers

but you don't know the context exactly

so this is very intriguing where is Hosevar

he's 2032

2037

SVG 2028

how old will Josh Berry be in 2038

what is that 13 years from now

he's got to be 46

47

47 year old champion

I mean he's

running into his Mark Martinare

trying to get that one done

that is interesting though

some people make sense and some don't

it just depends on where the AI thinks

that they'll be racing at I think really matters

because you gotta be on the right team

this AI scares me

that's a long time

especially with that 2042

KHI might have a cup team by that point

good luck with that

sorry Delayda

one of the coolest things

that has been happening a lot lately

is the crossover between

our sport and other sports

and we all know that the pit crews

have a lot of D1 athletes and former

pros on it

Joey Logano showed up on campus

at Clemson

last week and these guys

on the football team

were hyped

they were jacked up

Joey must have felt like the man

watch him get out of the car

reaction

I liked the cross promotion with college students

I went to my first race as a college student

as a tailgating party experience

that's what it's supposed to be

it was fun

I love the fact that

we're in this space because

we use so many of their athletes

on pit road

this is true

I think that the recruiting

and things that have happened over the last several years

when you talk about

professional athletes, college athletes

people have no idea

we tell them about it all the time

but a lot of people don't put all this together

and it's a great way for

a lot of these kids that don't make it

to go make a living

and still be competitive and do something that's

pretty freaking awesome

there's probably 70 kids on that team

how many of them are going to go pro

it's a very small selection

if you can expose them kids now

to this might be

when you're done here, that's cool, enjoy it

this is also an avenue

but when you're done, if you don't make it here

come on over

you ever jumped in front of a 3500 pound car?

pretty sick, you want to play Frogger for real?

so I love that

kudos to whoever put that together

guys we got a mail bag this week

we got a mail bag

from our friend in New York

this is uh

man I always mess up his name

no, go ahead and say Irfan

don't help him

thank you everybody that helped me with that

Irfan from New York

he said, Kevin

throughout your hall of fame career

you've had a lot of fast cars

but which specific car

would you say was your best

I'm going to take a guess and say it was the 2015

Dover playoff car

what would you say

I would say that one's pretty good

but I would say that's not it

I can't remember the exact year

but I lapped the whole field

at Atlanta all the way

in the Xfinity race

Brad Koslowski

threw a water bottle out with two laps to go

as I was lapping him, I think he was third

and they threw the freaking caution

and we lost the race

and I was so mad

I think I slapped him in the face

in the media center

as I was walking off

I slapped him in the cheek

and said I hope you sleep good tonight

would you slap him with your hand

a little love tap

I always think about

the Phoenix car

I can't remember

it was 14 or 15

I think it was 15

when everyone was talking about the window brace

remember they were talking about the window brace

and you get out in one

and you slap the back window

it's all good everybody

those were fast

we're talking about lapping the whole freaking field

that's pretty wild

you're not supposed to do that

the only guy in front of me was going to be second

and I could see him

thanks to a water bottle

trying to put on the show

mambas, social sips, that's a wrap

we'll be eagerly waiting

for any response to the challenge

we are you

I'm excited to watch it

I would love to see it happen

I don't like arguments

I don't want this to happen

if you want to leave a voicemail

805-317-4175

if you want a mail bag

question

harvickhappyhour4 at gmail.com

well done mamba smith

alright guys time now

for our last call here on happy hour

the new york call

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NASCAR is not responsible for this promotion and used under license so before we get into our picks for this week

Let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend courtesy of draft Kings. Yeah. Well, it was Ryan Blaney

Plus 800 not bad. I mean it for his for as good as as he's been at that track. No one that he's in a forward. I

I'd say there were some people that made some money off of that King's definitely knew I wasn't picking him really

Well, yeah, because you know my picks usually end up like how Bush did this week, which is up in flames

Yeah, not great. So you're a curse

sometimes

Well, it didn't know how I didn't heard the championship run so far. So, you know, yeah, yeah, okay

Well, I think it was a good pick

It was I think could have made some money off right Ryan Blaney

But take the checkered flag with draft King sportsbook

Download the draft King 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 draft Kings crown is yours

There you go. And the crown was Ryan Blaney's it's time now to grade the Blaney burnout. What say you Kevin?

I thought it was I thought it was a little bit above average not gonna put it into our best

Category but it was very unique because when he when he gets this going right here

You're gonna see him slide down the banking

But the fact that we've got Ryan Blaney doing burnouts

I think he's finally outgrown that that would brothers phase of not tearing up the cars

But this was pretty interesting right here

He just burned the tires down as he was creeping down the banking right here

Hard to do burnouts at Daytona because of the the banking

I'm glad that he didn't get stuck right here with it with the car high-centered, but

Still still kind of cool and Blaney's always gonna give the flag to a to a young fan

So yeah, he's kind of settled into his thing being comfortable doing the burnouts, but

Little above average. Yeah, and also when he gets out it's reminds me

It's not as much as AJ Elmendanger, but when he gets out he's like hyping the crowd up

He's at him like the showmanship like that's what

When you win it's too hard to win

So when you win show me you love that you just did and that's one thing we've talked about this with

SVG on this show and just being able to to feed into that show and that showmanship that goes with it

Nobody wants you to be boring and Blaney has definitely that Blaney has definitely figured the showmanship part of it out

So that's cool. Good for him. Good for Blaney good for Kevin as well

Because the regular season point standings are reflecting that Kevin won. That's good at 124

Caitlyn 70 that's an ass-kicking

I just enjoy it so much

We get fully lapped. Yeah, it was pretty close. Yeah, it was pretty now. You're gonna throw your water bottle out

We're gonna reset the point. I had to do something to the advantage. Yep. So now you're gonna throw the water bottle out

We're gonna reset the point. Yeah, okay

And we appreciate the 500 plus people who submitted their picks over the weekend because we are encouraging all of the closers to get in on

The action submit your picks by scanning the QR code

You see on the screen or go to the link in the description of the podcast to go ahead and submit your vote on

Who you believe can win out at Darlington this weekend? Oh?

58 58 people actually picked Ryan Blaney

And I think all those people that followed along with my pick you learn that you could lose sometimes

You see it

There's the QR code to go ahead and scan that to join us on making our selection

So Kevin, do you want to go first? Well first off? That's a great first week of followers for a little game here

Yeah, so the closers show up whenever they know what's up on well

We got our asses kicked by the fans this week picking Ryan Blaney

So let's not do that again. I'm gonna take William Byron Byron. There you go coming out of the gate strong. What do you say, Mamba?

I wasn't ready for you to come to me so quick. I'm gonna go chase briscoe. Okay chase briscoe. Yep. Yeah, well

He did good there last year one here last year

I'm going with the driver that won there in 2023 Kyle arson the person

I think he's gonna win the championship. How many times do you think she's gonna pick Kyle arson?

I've only picked him I think like oh

She wants to win it all Kevin's picking William Byron and I understand he will be your Thursday

Conversation he is. Yeah, we've got William Byron on the show this year regular season champ

We figure we needed to at least

Get the regular season champ on here to have a one-on-one

Conversation about his season the way things have been going

A little more in depth new girlfriend because everyone's talking about this his new girlfriend. He had a woman on pit road

You should yeah, he's I think he's in a different space, and I think I don't know how much you've been around him

This year to this year, and I just think that you'll be interested to yeah

Well, I think a lot of that is just maturity. Yeah, it's growing up. It's not just maturity as a race car driver

It's just life and these kids are young

Yeah, in the cup series for a very long time, but they're young and he's only the way

What it what is my wife always says well your frontal lobe doesn't really develop until you're 25 in your brain

So I hear that most of us and I see how I see how dumb boys can be young boys

So I think it just takes a while William Byron all groans up. Yeah, we look forward to it

All right

Everybody make sure you subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcast leave five star leave a review send a mailbag

We'll see everybody after Darlington

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About this episode

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