Denny Hamlin Wins at Las Vegas After WILD Comeback Through the Field!
Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX
Denny Hamlin Wins at Las Vegas After WILD Comeback Through the Field!
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
59:26
Company
Joe Gibbs Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing is a team that races cars in NASCAR, and they use Toyota cars.
Term
speeding penalty
In NASCAR races, drivers have to slow down in the pit area. If they go too fast, they get a penalty that makes them lose time or positions.
Term
Pit Road
Pit Road is the special lane where race cars stop to get new tires or fuel during the race. Drivers have to go slow there to keep everyone safe.
Brand
Chevrolet
Chevrolet is a big car company from America that makes many types of cars, including race cars used in NASCAR. Here, it means the race cars that use Chevrolet parts and designs.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota is a car company from Japan that also makes race cars for NASCAR. Here, it means the Toyota race cars were the best in the race.
Term
downforce
Downforce is like a force that pushes the car down so it sticks better to the road when it turns.
Term
bump stops
Bump stops are parts that stop the car's suspension from moving too far to protect it and help it handle better.
Term
limiters
Limiters are things that stop parts of the car from moving too much to keep it safe and fair.
Concept
racetrack setup
Racetrack setup means changing the car to make it drive best on a certain race track.
Term
points
Points are like scores drivers earn in each race. The more points they get, the better their chance to win the season championship.
Term
qualifying
Qualifying is like a time trial before the race to see who starts in front. The faster you are, the better your starting spot.
Term
DNF
DNF means a driver couldn't finish the race because something went wrong, like a crash or car problem. It usually means they get no points for that race.
Term
pole
The pole is the very first spot at the start of a race. The driver who is fastest in qualifying gets to start there, which can help them do better in the race.
Term
pit crew
The pit crew is a group of people who quickly fix and refuel the car during the race. They help the driver get back on the track as fast as possible.
Term
pit stops
Pit stops are quick breaks during a race where the car gets new tires or fuel. Doing them fast helps drivers stay ahead.
Term
track position
Track position means where you are on the race track compared to other cars. Being in front helps you win.
Term
consistency
Consistency means doing well in lots of races, not just one. It helps drivers win the overall championship.
Car
Toyota NASCAR race car
Toyota makes special race cars that compete in NASCAR, which is a popular car racing series.
Concept
short run speed
Short run speed means how fast a car can go for just a few laps before things like tires or fuel make it slower.
Concept
long run speed
Long run speed is how well a car can keep going fast over many laps during a race.
Term
crew chief
The crew chief is like the team boss who helps decide how the car should be set up and talks to the driver during the race.
Concept
mile and a half racetrack
A mile and a half racetrack is a race track that is one and a half miles long. It is a common size for NASCAR races and needs cars to be fast but also handle well.
Brand
RFK
RFK is a big NASCAR racing team that has several cars in races. People talk about how well their cars and drivers are doing.
Term
top 10
Being in the 'top 10' means finishing or starting the race in one of the first ten spots, which is good.
Concept
victory lane
Victory lane is where the winner goes after a race to celebrate. Saying someone wants to get back to victory lane means they want to win again.
Term
pit box
The pit box is the spot where a race car stops during a race so the team can fix or change things on the car quickly.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram is a big truck made by Dodge that can carry heavy loads and is used for tough jobs. It's strong and built to handle rough work, like helping out in emergencies or on race tracks.
LIVE
How many wins can you get to? Can he get to 70?
I think 70 is a lot to ask.
Still seems very much in his prime.
I think that Chase Elliott has been sneaky.
Sneaky?
We've seen Ross to our fist before.
We've also seen Dana Swares to our fist before.
I've been quite a fight.
This weekend's Cup Race could be the gnarliest race
that we have seen there in a long time.
You're on to the ball.
You're on the race! California's Kevin Harvick comes in.
Let's see who makes it a birdie.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Art,
presented by NASCAR & FOX.
I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlyn Vinci.
And the Galloping Ghosts, Water Boy.
No, no.
Former point guard and captain of the Water Boy.
Randolph Union High School Galloping Ghosts.
No, no.
You put that on your ex bio?
Captain of the Water Boy.
You couldn't have been anything more than the Water Boy.
Listen, I was a sharp shooter.
I led the team and assist too.
Is that your high school jersey?
This is my high school jersey.
Yeah, so shout out to them.
They went to the...
Must have been big.
They went to the...
Well, we only got...
The jersey only came in one size,
and I was very small at the time.
They went to the championship, state championship.
Shout out to my old coach, Jeremy Reilly.
So they didn't win, but I want to represent.
You know, it's March Madness anyway.
So yeah, we're all...
This is true.
I didn't know there was anything on TV other than racing.
Barely. Barely anything.
Okay, that can justify then wearing this
for March Madness. Very good.
Yeah, shout out Randolph.
Welcome in to another edition of Happy Hour.
We got plenty to talk about leaving Las Vegas.
We'll preview Darlington, of course, coming up.
And you got a big list of Sips today.
The Sips are...
We have changed the Sips closers,
and you're going to be excited about it.
I can't wait to get there.
Yes, that'll be exciting.
I always look forward to the Sips.
Everyone's favorite segment, as he says.
Hey, welcome back.
We're glad you're here, Kevin, our fearless leader.
Let's get right into Las Vegas,
and what Denny Hamlin was able to do,
especially given everything he's been through.
Was there ever any doubt, though,
that he would be able to do that?
It sure didn't look like it.
After practice and qualifying,
you could see the confidence in Denny Hamlin,
and all of those Toyotas were really fast,
especially the Joe Gibbs Toyotas.
And when you go back to last October,
this was really the first race that we've gone to
that didn't have a lot of question marks behind it.
And when we left there in October,
with Denny Hamlin winning the race,
and his confidence on Saturday after he'd practiced,
and you could see it in the speed charts,
and then in qualifying, qualified well,
but drove from the back, had a speeding penalty early.
A lot of people having a lot of problems
in that first section on Pit Road.
That's a short section on Pit Road.
Not something that we don't...
We always see that at Las Vegas,
with people having speeding penalties.
But Denny Hamlin put it all together,
got back through traffic,
they had good pit stops,
and put themselves in a position to win with the dominant car.
And at one point, I thought,
man, the Chevy's have kind of figured it out
and gotten better, but really all that was
was just the Toyota's putting themselves
at the back of the pack to give everybody else a chance.
So it was neat to see that all come full circle for Denny,
to see his mom there, his kids, wife,
his other half Jordan with him.
And I think it's fun to see people be successful
when they have so many things happening
in their lives that are just so bad,
and having to deal with those things
and to see them overcome that
and be able to achieve what you're out there to do.
And that's to be successful and win a race.
And I think that there were a lot of questions
at the beginning of the year
as to where would Denny Hamlin show up?
How would he react to all the things that happened?
And he's just shown back up to be the same Denny Hamlin.
Work hard, drive his car fast,
don't make as many mistakes as everybody else.
And even on a day when he did make a mistake on Pit Road,
was able to dig in and overcome that.
Yeah, able to compartmentalize all the things
that have happened in his personal life
to go out there and get this win.
What impressed you the most about that?
Yeah, I mean, I think the way we ended last season
at a situation where some adversity came on
and he wasn't able to rise to that occasion
and get that done in that situation.
And the next time he was in a situation like that,
that's Hall of Famer Denny Hamlin, right?
That's a 61 now time winner.
He just passed Kev,
he just passed you for 10th all-time on the win list.
Like, this is what you expect out of him.
And my favorite thing is when you can see
in the car's attitude where a driver's at mentally,
like the car looked like,
he just had it in a situation where he was digging.
Like it just looked like mean, it looked fast.
The way he was driving was aggressive
and getting back through there, he was very motivated.
Even after, especially after the pit road penalty,
coming off pit road and he knew he still had a fast car,
he's like, no, we're not going to let this one go.
So let me ask you guys this.
So he's got 61 right now.
He says he's going to drive this year and one more.
He said one more?
Well, I mean, that's where the contract is right now, right?
So, I mean, how many wins can he get to?
I mean, how many wins do you think he can win this year?
I think he can win a handful of races again this year.
I think conservatively it's five.
That was just going to say five.
Can he get to 70?
Yeah, I think so.
Can he?
In two years?
Yeah, can he for sure, will he?
I don't, I think he'll probably get maybe like four,
one year and three another year.
Like he'll still have multiple wins.
I think 70 is a lot to ask,
especially with the landscape of the Cup Series
and kind of the comers and the goers.
And you got, he's got to beat his own teammates too.
You know what I mean?
Still seems very much in his prime, you know?
Yeah, and that's the big question, right?
Like when he gets to the end of this contract,
does he say, well, I'm still winning, should I keep going?
Or do you let it get to the point where you slide?
I always like when people go out on top and are winning
and competitive and you look at the Kyle Busch situation
and everything that's happening there and that legacy
and you look back at Jimmy Johnson's legacy.
Daryl Waltrip.
Daryl Waltrip, so many of these legacies end losing
and it just, in my opinion, it takes away from it.
So I'd like to see him, if he's going to go out,
go out while you're winning.
You don't get that opportunity very often to go out
on top of your game.
Yeah, he can't really do it.
You were one of the few in recent years.
Yeah, I mean, at least Jeff Gordon did it.
Yeah, there's a couple guys that are able to do that.
I mean, I think even Tony won in one of his last,
towards the end of his deal and it just validates
and puts a nice little bow on your career.
It ends the right way.
You know, you look at Jimmy Johnson
and the way that that ended.
I mean, it's just not, it just took away from everything
that he did, unfortunately, in the general perception
of the public and the race fans.
So I hope he goes out on top.
He deserves it.
Yeah, I agree.
So we're talking about Denny Hamlin.
I want to reference Hendrick Motorsports, though,
for a minute, because you had talked about how this weekend
was going to be a big litmus test
to kind of see where they were at with that.
Big word.
That wasn't fun.
With that, that's a word.
The Chevy knows.
So what did you think?
Are you encouraged by what you saw?
Yeah, well, there's so much hype around, you know,
internally around what Chevrolet did with their body, right?
They didn't make their body worse.
They felt it internally.
But that's just not how this works.
And with all the different arrow rules
and things that you have going on,
the balance of these cars is so hard to get right.
There's no way that you're going to get it right everywhere.
And we haven't really seen them get it right anywhere.
Yeah, especially at the beginning.
Yeah, and I think that there were moments
in the race this weekend, and this was a great test
because Kyle Arson has been so good at Las Vegas.
Now, we did see him lead laps,
and we did see him run up in the front, but they didn't win.
And ultimately, the Gibbs Toyotas were the dominant cars,
in my opinion.
So I still think they have work to do
to get the balance right on their cars
and know exactly how they need to get everything situated.
So they definitely still have some work to do.
I think that if you look at the Hendrick Chevrolets,
they were good.
The rest of the Chevrolets, not so good.
Terrible, not so great.
Not so good.
So I still think they're searching.
And what did William Byron tell you guys
on pre-race about the cars?
Yeah, and that was the first time that
you've heard them really come out and say,
William Byron said, look, we're struggling with the balance
to get the balance of our cars right.
And I think they know that it probably makes more downforce.
It's probably more efficient in all the areas
that they wanted it to be more efficient.
But with the way that the bump stops are
and the limiters and everything that you have going on,
you can't get it right until you get it on the racetrack.
And it was very evident that the Gibbs cars
went through the bumps better than everybody else
in the way that they had everything timed out.
And they've still got some work to do
to get all that science out.
Because I mean, we're talking thousands of an inch
that it takes to get everything set right.
So still searching a little bit.
The Hendrick cars aren't far off.
The other ones were far off.
Chase Elliott was the runner-up yesterday.
And he was obviously coming pretty close to Denny Hamlin.
If maybe he had more time.
And he was like, I had to remind myself
to not be too disappointed.
Because we were a lot better today
than we have been in the past.
Would you see out of him?
I mean, I'm pretty sure someone on this show
said a breakout year might be coming for a Chase Elliott
and company.
They haven't won yet, but.
Sitting fifth in point, by the way.
Yeah, the speed is there at the beginning here,
which we haven't seen that at the nine group in a while.
So if I'm them, I'm really excited
about what we're starting out with.
And also, if you're the Toyotas or everybody else
in the field, you can't expect to keep the Chevrolets at bay.
Because they're going to learn so much more
about what they're doing.
Because to your point, they're new with the nose.
So they're trying to figure out exactly what they need.
What they had last year was great for last year's situation.
It's a little off for this year's situation.
So they're going to test this out
and keep getting better and better.
And we only have so much time on track.
So they're going to be there by the middle of the year.
And I would disagree with you a little bit on this.
I think that Chase Elliott has been sneaky.
Sneaky.
And exactly what we've talked about on this show
and why this Chase format is going to make Chase Elliott
better is because of the fact that they can grind.
And he and Allen and the way that Chase races,
he has a day like he did yesterday, right?
Has a good solid performance.
But it's the days that you don't see them
or you don't hear about them that all of a sudden
they show up and finish ninth when they ran 20th.
And those are the things that Chase Elliott does better.
And if you didn't tell everybody that he was fourth
in the points to start that race yesterday,
nobody would have believed you.
Because they've just been quietly getting the finishes
that they need and capitalizing on the day.
When everybody else, you look back at Larson at Atlanta,
making a mistake, driving over the front of that car
at the end of that stage, those are the types of things
that Chase Elliott isn't going to do.
And that's why he'll keep himself up in the points.
And you've got to be in the top six or seven
to have a chance at this championship.
It's not how far you are behind in the points.
It's when that reset happens with the points that go with it.
Chase Elliott currently the highest
100-meter sports car in the points right now.
Another person who's making gains is Ty Gibbs.
He had a top five performance yesterday,
his third consecutive one.
I spoke to his crew chief about how much he's a quick study
and very much a student of the sport.
And I think you're seeing that come together
for Ty Gibbs and his team.
Well, when you have the speed in the race car,
you can learn everything else.
Different people learn it at different paces.
But the thing that the 54 car has had since last year,
the second half of last year, is speed.
And when you have the speed to go with your race car,
you're going to continuously put yourself up in the front
and qualifying up in front during the race.
You saw them go to the back yesterday.
They gathered themselves back up.
Got another third straight top five.
So those are the types of things.
When you can consistently get top fives,
you're going to start winning races.
And so you just have to keep grinding away
to take advantage of the speed in your race car
and be able to put yourself in that top five
on a consistent basis will eventually result in a win.
You look at him.
You got to give credit because last year,
you could see it coming.
But there was still some of that immaturity
and a little bit of putting himself maybe
not the greatest situations or positions on track
and getting into some folks this year.
I think he's settled in.
He knows he's got speed.
He has a confidence.
And the circle of life is getting all the pictures
getting a little bit more clear for Ty
is coming into his own as a person off the racetrack.
And I think that just helps you on the racetrack.
And now he has the confidence
and believes in the car.
He's had interviews where he talks about
he has the right people around him
and they believe in him.
And that's all going in the right direction.
So now it's resulting on track.
And there it is.
And if you want to know where everybody's at,
just watch their interviews.
Yeah, you know, Danny Hamlin this weekend.
Just pay attention to what they say
and how they what their demeanor is like.
Ty Gibbs is very much like exactly what you're saying.
He has that confidence.
He's speaking to the media.
Well, Danny Hamlin this weekend,
when he has that confidence
in the way that he speaks to the media,
you go to somebody like, well,
Hosevar this weekend,
when they interviewed him after practice,
it was like, oh, this is the worst piece of shit
I've ever driven in my life.
Basically, he didn't say it that way.
But that's basically what he insinuated.
That's exactly what he implied.
It was, I mean, everything that he said was,
it was terrible.
And ultimately, that's where they ran.
And so just listen and pay attention
to when the drivers talk
and you can tell where they're at mentally.
And you got it.
Like some of those guys, like when you know
what you kind of got going into the race, right?
And some of them, like a Chase Elliott or like a Blaney,
the guys that can grind out a good finish,
they have the confidence
because they know their team is going to,
we're going to keep working on it, chipping away at it.
And some guys, they don't have that
because they haven't been able to do that as much.
So when they unload bad, it's in their head.
I almost said a word I shouldn't say.
I would say you do it.
It's in their head and they can't,
like it's hard to get over that
because I haven't seen us do that before.
We're going to suck all day.
And that's the difference between a host of our interview
and a Blaney interview, right?
He gave us the keys to the whole puzzle.
We knew that he wasn't going to be a contender
right off the bat with the way that he spoke.
When you talk to Blaney, it's like, well, we're not very good.
But you know, I know the guys
are going to make a good change in the car.
And you can just, you can tell the guys
that have been there for a while
and understand the process.
And some weeks you're going to struggle.
But when you struggle in this format,
you better figure out how to finish 10th or 12th
or maximize your day and not make it worse.
SVG got one point.
He was fifth going into the weekend and now he is 16th.
Can you believe that?
That's how much of a swing this point is.
If you get a DNF, we talked about at the beginning of the year,
like now you're starting to see how quick
your season can kind of get turned upside down.
All right, so let's talk about Christopher Bell now.
Got the pole, had one of the best pit crews all day, by the way.
Very impressive performance from them,
but still didn't get the win from the pole.
Yeah, those pit stops, unbelievable.
Had multiple pit stops below nine seconds,
which was pretty awesome to see.
Those guys are doing a good job.
Look, Bell, he qualified on a pole,
but he's never won from the pole.
And so I think you have to look at what's happening there.
And we talk about Christopher Bell all the time.
I mean, he's fast and had a fast car all day,
but just couldn't quite figure out how to overcome the 11 speed
or the Chevrolet's got around him at one point.
And just didn't capitalize on having that first pit stall
and qualified on a pole in the track position
and everything that went with it.
But I mean, they've got speed.
And I think that, like we talked with Ty Gibbs,
I mean, when those cars have speed, that makes things,
you got to make that result a top five.
And they did, but I think that those top five
still result in wins.
And there again, we talk about it with Kyle Larson,
you've got to have the consistency throughout the whole year.
And I think that's going to be where we see
what the 20 team is made of,
if they can have that consistency
without having those big failures.
You thought you picked him the whole day?
I thought the whole day.
I guess last week I must have leaned in.
You kind of went between, you know,
I started with Bell and then I went with Briscoe,
which was a fine pick too.
But Bell, I mean, he's just one of those guys that he has so fast.
And especially at Vegas, he's so fast.
And they kind of ganged up on him a little bit.
They had to.
They had like the, when he was in the dog fight
with the Hendrick cars.
Oh my God, that was some of the best racing I've seen.
That move that Larson made.
And Larson is notorious for this.
He'll make these big sweeping moves and then stop like with one lane.
And he did that to Bell.
And it actually checked Bell up just a little bit.
But he's notorious and he doesn't end the sprint car
and racing around him for a long time.
He'll put you in these awkward positions that were like,
is he going to come up the racetrack right here?
I'm not sure.
So I'm just going to protect myself.
And then all of a sudden he's got the, he got the track position,
but that's exactly where he did.
They ganged up on him, man.
They put on a hell of a show.
Like nowhere.
Just the whole, yeah.
Yeah.
There's all of a sudden, because, you know,
how the air moves with these cars,
like once two cars get side by side,
it sucked in the third chase Elliott was there.
Now they're three wide for two laps.
Then all of a sudden I know where William Byron comes through.
And then the other Toyota started coming through.
And even with the, when the 2311,
Toyotas were up in there and he was racing with Gibbs and Denny.
It just seemed like everyone was attacking the 20
and he would get sucked back.
He had good short run speed, but not enough to get in front of them.
And then it was better in the long run.
And that fell off at the end.
It just seemed like the balance of when he was in the front
didn't really match up.
And at that time, that's when the, the 54 and 11
had their penalty in those toys.
There was more of them right there.
And in my opinion, you want to try to take those guys down
that, that you think if they get the track position
and have that clean air, they can be dominant.
And they did a good job of keeping them at bay right there.
So we're talking about Christopher Bell.
What about his Joe Gibbs racing teammate of chase briscoe,
who we continue to talk about week in and week out
with a series of different issues that keeps plaguing this team.
This time they also had a speeding penalty.
Then they had a pit and tie Gibbs pit for a loose wheel.
You got a top 10 though.
Do you think they're going to ever cross this threshold?
I think James is going to go through a lot of radios.
I mean, there's going to be stuff broken everywhere.
And I love the intensity out of James.
And I think they're a perfect match for each other.
I've said this before because that's what, that's what briscoe needs.
But I, I can promise you, and you'll hear this in my picks this week,
but I can promise you that the intensity level of that team
from the top at James in the crew chief role
will push that team forward because they have what they need
from the speed standpoint.
But when he got trapped, he had the, had the loose wheel,
had to stop and get it done.
Then he had the speeding penalty.
All those things happening kept him trapped a lap down,
but they had the speed to get back where they needed to be
and just, it took them all day to get back on the lead lap
and never, never really got to adjust their car racing in the front.
They were always battling, trying to fight for their life
to get themselves back in a position to be on that lead lap
and never really saw the full potential out of that car
because of the mistakes that they made.
But whether it's a crash or mistakes, you know,
I think that that has really put them in a hole
that is going to be a tough hole to dig out of
unless you're winning races.
And I think that they know that they're going to have to start
winning races.
And the biggest thing that happened this weekend,
they didn't score any stage points.
Right. Yes.
After two consecutive 37th place finishes,
they're probably just happy to have a top 10 right now.
Well, I mean, the way the weekend started for Chase
in the O'Reilly series race,
he knocked down the fence in that race twice,
had to come down pit road,
fought all the way back, finished second in that one.
So he kind of, it kind of was the same thing on Sunday,
like adversity, you know, self-inflicted wounds
and then trying to lick out your wounds back to health
so you can be okay again.
But it started from the last week.
Yeah.
When they went out and qualifying,
and Vegas is one of those racetracks where it cleans off
as guys go and he went out super early,
he had the car that could have qualified up there
with his teammates.
But as early as he went out, no chance.
No chance.
Speaking of qualifying,
Brad Kozlowski has struggled in that department as of late.
Now they did get a top 10
and definitely some glimmers of hope for RFK
as a whole based on what you saw on Sunday.
What do you think about where that organization is?
RFK had the best Fords.
They had the best Fords at the racetrack
and we knew the Fords were going to struggle
on the mile and a half racetrack
with what they have going on with arrow-wise.
So, and I think they all know that.
They all know that the mile and a halfs
are their weak point to be able to compete on.
But RFK cars, I mean, they ran, they ran respectable
as the day went.
You saw Priess and Buscher and Kozlowski up there.
But the biggest deficit that Brad has,
I think if he could qualify in the top 10 like Buscher did,
I think he's going to race a little further forward
just with his experience
and the things that he can do on the racetrack.
And but if Brad's going to get back to victory lane,
they're going to have to qualify better.
What did you see out of RFK?
They should feel good about where they're starting the year.
I think being up in the mix and not only with one car,
like when it's one car, you know, you're like,
okay, but is this really hitting for everybody?
It's just this group and this driver or whatever.
But when all three cars are in the mix,
and I mean, which they have been, you know, a little bit,
but more so on a mile and a half, which is really important.
And I think with Brad's leg and still recovering,
I mean, I don't think you could ask for much more
out of that driver to get you a top 10 in that situation.
You know what I like about that team
is the camaraderie between the three drivers.
Yeah.
It just feels good.
And I feel like they're working towards the same goal.
It feels like a working man's team.
With Priess and Kizlowski and Busher,
it just feels like a working man's team.
Did you guys see their commercial?
Yes, I love that commercial.
What was it?
The Trimble?
Yes.
Their commercial with Karlin Metz is like asking a question
and they're like ignoring their question.
And then they're just like sitting there
like the night of the Roxbury.
It was so funny.
Like to your point, like they do a lot of stuff like that.
And they do a lot of stuff together.
And I wouldn't say that they're the same type of race car
drivers, but I think they understand the common goal
and work to your point, Kevin, to that together.
And I think people underestimate that chemistry that it takes.
If you can get three drivers that'll work together,
the progression of how things happens happens faster.
Yeah.
And when you have that in a team,
and that's what always was better about the four team
at Stuart Haas compared to how it was at RCR for me,
you just had that, everybody had that belief in each other
and they believed that they were going to get better
and they were working towards it in a manner that was productive.
And I think that's, that chemistry is super important.
Chemistry among teammates important.
Speaking of that.
Kind of like here.
Two four.
That's right.
We got a nervous Nelly and a water boy.
And some old goat.
Nervous Nelly.
That is not even true.
He's talking about teammates.
I can't see you.
He's still blind from the sun out in Phoenix.
Now I got a spray tan.
And you got a spray tan.
You needed that base layer.
Yeah.
I needed that base layer.
I don't need a base layer.
My base, my spray tan was the shiny sun in Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Oh, and Bakersfield when you ran there.
Bakersfield when you were racing yourself.
Yeah.
That's probably why, that's probably why I didn't.
And my ears are red.
My helmet's too tight.
Scratch my face.
So what happens when you get old?
You say do you have a big head?
No, I'm just saying that I like to wear my helmet tight.
Oh.
Yeah.
Why?
Well, that way when you hit something, you don't get hurt.
That makes sense.
Did you see, did you see Zillich at Phoenix when he went to qualify
and he went down on the apron for the first time and knocked his helmet down?
He came up off the apron and he had to pull his helmet back up after qualifying.
It was, it was funny.
Yeah.
Before this, we were talking about teammates.
And I think an interesting development has happened between former teammates
of Ross Justine and Daniel Suarez.
Having some incidents on track came together after the race on Pit Road.
What do you make of that whole situation when you're that mad
about 17th or whatever they were fighting for?
Yeah, well, you're already mad that you're racing for 17th.
And I don't know exactly what happened on the racetrack to create that.
But I mean, what do you read into that just from, I mean, is that from what they,
what they, what was going on at Trackhouse before?
Seems deeper.
Yeah.
It seems a lot deeper because
you know, that was, that was pretty heated off of something that was way back in the pack.
Yeah.
I would say without talking to either one of these guys that there is some, they're very
motivated.
They said, Daniel Suarez is very motivated because I think he always feels like he's
getting the short end of the stick and like is a part of something and maybe feels like he's
told like, yeah, you're going to be a nucleus and then kind of gets knocked down a couple rungs.
And I think that happened a little bit at Gibbs.
It kind of happened at SHR.
It kind of happened again at Trackhouse.
And now he's at Spire and now they're running better.
Like he's running really fast.
He's run better than most of those.
Most of the Trackhouse cars, his old cars.
And so, you know, there's that.
And then you take Ross Ross is trying to, you know, captain this young Trackhouse as far as
experience young Trackhouse group and they're struggling a little bit.
And, you know, those two things are kind of crossing and they're too fiery guys.
We've seen Ross throw fists before and we've also seen Daniel Suarez.
That'd be a war.
That'd be quite a fight.
That's one that I would love to witness and I don't know who you're putting on.
I don't either.
I mean, those are two tough ass guys and heavy.
They've got heavy hands and not scared to use them.
And I think that there is, there's definitely some tension.
So that'll be interesting to follow.
It will be.
We'll be curious to see if that continues.
You know who they were all scared of though is Lauren who was standing there.
I was trying to say that props to her.
Yes.
Yeah.
The PR girl.
She was having none of it.
She's like boys.
She looked like a security guard.
This is not happening today.
And if you're going to go to him, you're going to have to go through me.
That's definitely the message that she was sending.
That was awesome.
With a straw hat and everything.
It was awesome.
And never even, never broke a smile.
No.
Never flinched nothing.
It's just like, look, I'm not having this today.
I'm in charge here.
You two can do whatever you think you need to do, but you're not going to hit each other.
It's like, it's like the aunt is holding the two kids up by this.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Just keeping them out of stretch.
So funny.
Good for her.
It's part of the job as PR up.
Apparently you got to step in and prevent the fights.
Sometimes.
What do you think about track house right now?
Obviously SVG had that incredible save on lap two in the race.
Holy shit.
That was wild.
And I mentioned the drop he made in points, unfortunately.
But where do you think that team is right now?
Well, I think he's done it up until this race.
He had done a really good job of keeping himself in position.
Just made a mistake right there and got loose off the corner.
Got in the door of Eric Jones right there and got loose.
And you know, I think that that one moment,
I don't know what the damage was on the car or what took place right there.
But just never really gathered it up through the day to be able to rebound like he has
in all the other races where they've had trouble.
So I think at the end of Kota, I think Connor Zillich had the fastest car
to be perfectly honest with you.
I think he was the fastest car on the racetrack and got in two unfortunate positions.
I think at Phoenix and Vegas, I think we saw the reality of the Cup Series for Connor and
how hard it's going to be.
But my gauge is just like what you said.
Where's the one car running?
And Ross Chastain is the heart and soul of that team as far as the performance goes with his
experience and leadership of the organization.
And I just, you know, I don't think they've quite got their cars where they need to be right now,
especially when you get to a traditional oval like we saw last weekend.
Yeah, I think it's just really super hard.
They're just in a really difficult situation.
I was hanging out with, you know, Randall Burnett and who is, yeah, it was Connor's crew chief
and their group and Connor as well.
And we're kind of talking about like the difficulty of the Cup Series and Connor's like,
it's hard.
Like nothing he's ever seen.
Nothing like it's like, you know, these guys are shitting and getting and it's hard to keep up with
them and I and he just doesn't have the track time.
Right.
He was only in the O'Reilly's Our Apart series for one year.
So he's seen like so in that situation, you see these tracks, but these cars are way different
to drive and the drivers are next level.
And Randall's like, yeah, we just don't have enough practice.
So I'm asking him to do things at a very high level that he's never seen before.
And he just has to believe that this car is going to stick.
And when I say, all right, I'm putting tires on it, hold it wide open.
And he's done 10 laps around the place.
Like that's a lot to ask us somebody.
So which is also why I think the Cup Series drivers are some of the best in the world because
they have the shortest amount of track time and then are just doing remarkable things.
So I think you're just going to see the evolution, right?
Of Connor and with SVG.
And we even heard Bubba had an interview this weekend.
Someone asked him what they thought about SVG.
He's like, he's going to win an oval race this year.
And if when SVG starts winning on ovals, and I think it'll be like a mile and a half, probably
watch out, man.
And I don't, I don't, I don't think that's going to happen this year.
I think that I don't think he'll win a race.
But I think we've already seen that he's going to be more competitive.
And I think that he has the potential down the road to win an oval race.
But I don't, I don't see that happening this year.
Not what the hell the cars are right now.
No, they might early on, but no.
One of the things we've talked about a little bit was pit road.
And I want you to explain a little more detail why that pit road at Las Vegas is so tough.
Well, it's difficult because it's not straight.
And so you have these little curves in, in the corners of pit road.
And what that creates is, is two different speeds that you have to run down pit road
the way that they, they measure pit road.
And, and so you saw a lot of failures on, on pit road because of the fact that they
would speed in section one or speed out and getting too much out of the car.
You set the limiter right where it needs to be within half a mile an hour of the, of the maximum.
So it's real easy to, as you go from fast in the corner to slow it back down,
going straight to go too far.
And then you wind up bumping that RPM really easily.
So it's a really tricky pit road.
You saw Blaney slide through the pit box right there.
Those pit boxes are really slick with all the rubber and the way that that concrete is.
So it's a very, very difficult pit road to navigate for stopping the car and keeping
your pit road speeds maximized, but also not taking it too far.
I think even pit in is super hard because it's kind of late in the, it's really late in the corner.
We saw it was illich.
He hit the back of a sitting house and then Ty Dillon destroyed that car last year.
And then I didn't get on the pit road.
Denny and actually Denny and see Belle almost got in a situation like that early.
Belle had to check up really hard.
So like you're kind of, you're all loaded up and you're trying to keep pace because you
don't want to give up all this time into the corner just to get down pit road.
It's all the way around the corner.
It's all the way.
It's so late in the corner.
And then you just got to kind of stop and turn it all at once.
And like you can't let someone know like these guys aren't one hand out the window
like trying to do that.
Like you got both hands on the wheel still trying to get on pit road.
It's just a really like difficult situation.
And I don't know if we saw it before with the other cars.
I just see like now it seems like it's really showing up every time we go to Vegas.
Pit road definitely in Achilles heel for a number of teams this past weekend.
What about Kyle Larson?
He's the final driver.
I want to touch on one.
The O'Reilly's race has always been very strong at Vegas.
What would you make of his day?
I thought it was a good day.
I think that this was a real, I mean, he had a great week in it.
He won the O'Reilly race and won a sprint car race, ran three sprint car races,
the O'Reilly race and the cup race.
So typical Kyle Larson racing, racing everything that he can race and being successful at it.
But I think that the cup race on Sunday is the best judge that everybody has had,
including them as to where they are and what they need to work on.
I think from here you see a progression as we go forward because of what they were able to
see what their deficits were throughout the day and what they needed to have different.
So they're working through the process right now of getting their cars balanced correctly
and knowing what they need with that new Chevrolet body.
So I think that it wasn't a disaster, both he and Byron and Chase Elliott, you know,
ran in the top five, but just not quite, they're just a little bit off of where they need to be
to have the raw speed and winning speed and just outright beat everybody right now.
Kyle Larson currently seventh in the standings, by the way.
Yeah, they have enough speed to be in the conversation.
And if you mess up a little bit, they will be able to capitalize.
I think the Hendrick, I mean, would take Alex Bowman out of it because he's,
you know, sidelined right now. The three of them, Byron Larson and Elliott,
you got Larson who's super aggressive. Then you got Chase, who's, to your point,
we've talked about a bunch, a grinder and just kind of, kind of meticulously makes his way
through the day. And then you got Byron, who has a little bit of both of that in him.
And I think it's a very interesting trio. And I think that they are able to work together
in a different way than RFK, but because you have the styles of how they drive,
it makes it interesting. So I think you're finding a lot of information out.
And Byron, Byron's a sleeper. He's a sleeper from the aggression side.
He's super aggressive, but he's just real quiet about it. And I don't know that he gets enough
credit for how aggressive he has become. You know what it is? His aggression doesn't usually turn
into wrecks or DNFs or spin outs, right? And a lot of times we see Kyle's does,
but Kyle's aggression is, is a little bit more like putting it, putting the car in a weird spot.
And I think Williams is more like putting his car like next to the ads. It's more calculated.
Yeah, that's great. She's very elegant about it. He gives you a compliment, then he gives you a dig.
That's the way it goes on this show.
Max $100 cash back for a month. All right, guys, let's move on to Darlington,
a race track that you had success at one there three times, Kevin. So I know you work with a
lot of young drivers. What advice do you give when you're working with them about this track?
It sounds repetitive, but race the racetrack. Only go as fast as your car will go and just
keep yourself in the game because so many people are going to make mistakes. This weekend's cup race
could be the gnarliest race that we have seen there in a long time listening to all the drivers.
We have the simple diffuser, a short track diffuser back on the car this week with the
increased horsepower and based upon what happened at Phoenix with the drivers talking about just
how the power affected the car, you know, I think that getting to a bigger racetrack like Darlington,
hopefully it sticks out like a sore thumb this week that we need more power. I'm going to start
beating that drum again because with 60 or 70 horsepower and I know it's a tall task,
let's get in front of it because I think that Darlington is going to produce something that
everybody is going to go, oh, wow, that was unbelievably hard, which what we do is hard
every week with what these drivers and teams do, but it is going to be 85 degrees and we're going
to have not enough tires and these cars are going to be out of control this week and it should be
fun to watch. That's what Denny was saying when we were listening to him, just all the unknowns
going into this weekend. Yeah, when everyone's hearing the drivers complain about their race
cars. They're not complaining. No, no, no, when in the race, like in this weekend, when they're
complaining about their car, it's because of all the things that we want them to complain about is
going to be being shown right now. And I think that's kudos to the teams for figuring out what
they need, rely that to NASCAR, NASCAR making adjustments in that direction to what they
feel like they need. And then good year as well, like we saw the tire fall off at Vegas.
Oh my God, the tire fall off, that's going to be a Darlington. These boys are going to be
tongue out, exhausted from hanging on to these race cars. But think about it, at Phoenix, we're
talking 60, 70 horsepower. Imagine if it was 200, right? Like that, if it moves the needle with that
small of an improvement, it's got to be something that we work towards. And I know we're, we've taken
a good step and and it's produced what everybody thought it was going to produce, which is a better
product. We just got to keep pushing them. But we got to do it soon enough to where we put the
engine shops in a good spot, so that when you start 2027, everybody could be prepared. So
we're going to do it. Let's get in front of it. Let's make that decision on the power because
I just, I think I think Darlington is going to be like we haven't seen it in a long time.
We think about gritty race car drivers. This is going to be a gritty kind of race.
Who do you, who do you kind of think that that this change kind of helps the most?
Well, I'm going to, I'm going to give myself a little wiggle room here to get out of what I say.
Because I just, I truly believe that somebody could hit it and dominate.
That's what Denny said, too. I truly believe that somebody could hit it and dominate
just because it's a new package and new scenarios. And so
that'll tighten up as we go forward after people figured out. But I just, I love the unknown piece
of what is going to happen. But I think that when you look at how much, when we went to Vegas,
how much the Gibbs cars had hit on it, I think that you could see that potential for a group
to hit on it because we have short practice and you can't work yourself out of that window. So
if I was, if I was to say, have to say something right now, I'd probably pick those Toyotas again
just because of what they did this weekend at Vegas. What does this race present from pit road
perspective? Because there's a lot of stuff. I mean, it's a 400 mile race. So it is a little bit
shorter than what we'll do at the end of the year. But I'm really curious as to just, I think managing
when you put tires on and when you don't put tires on, because if the cars are that hard
to drive and they start banging up against the fence and spinning out and all those things that
could happen at Darlington already before we went to this package, I think it could put the
crews in a really curious spot as to when you put tires on when you don't with the tire allotment
that they have. So managing your tires and when you put them on the car could become an issue if
you see a lot of cautions early, but race the racetrack, you have to race the race, just go as
fast as you can go, keep yourself rolling, stay on the lead lap because you're never out of this
one if you're on the lead lap. So Kevin has identified the Toyotas are one to watch. Would
you agree or who do you have your eye on? Yeah, I know. I think the Toyotas are definitely,
they've been so fast here and always seem to show up, whether it's Tyler Reddick or Danny Hamlin,
even Bubba's had some really good runs there. So I think those guys are always going to be there.
Briscoe's obviously won at Darlington before, but someone who's twice, twice. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, two, two, two fall races, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, but if I'm outside of that, I'm
hanging my hat on a Ryan Blaney and like a William Byron, they both have been faster. Obviously,
Larson has been faster, but he just has not like his wiggle rooms. It's narrow against the wall.
Yeah, he's pushing it. So, and I think that's going to be whoever can manage that the best.
Like if I'm, if you're, no, you have a good car and to Kevin was talking about tires,
not putting your crew chief in a situation where like, we just rub the, we just rub the wall again,
we got to get him some new tires. If you can manage that the best and save your stuff to the
final stage, I think that's going to pay off. I went there the first time and Donnie Allison was
standing down in the corner and I went down there to watch because I'd never been there.
And he said, kid, here's, here's your only goal through this corner. Once you get past the first
two laps and this was on the old surface, he said, all you got to do is you got to roll into the
corner, roll out of the gas. When that thing gets to the wall, your only goal is to touch the floor
board one time in the middle of the corner and then come right back off of it. If you got to the
floorboard, you did pretty good. And that's really the, the, as you go through turns one and two at
Darlington is the tires where if you can keep the car from sliding or pushing or and off the
wall and you can just, just touch the floorboard and come right back off of it. And then there are
some laps you'll go through turns one and two and never get to full throttle as the tires wear out.
That's a great story. That advice stayed with you forever. It is very true. Turn two is treacherous
too. Like how the cars come off the corner and the wall kind of jets at you. It just seems like
that's where we'll see situations on restarts, especially that new asphalt is not new anymore,
but it's, it's rough going onto the patch. It's rough coming off of the patch and in a, and it's
super hard to navigate the car from, from bouncing out of control and trusting the race track right
there. When you've just gone through this old asphalt that is just like you're driving on ice
and all of a sudden it grips a little bit and you're like, Oh, that feels no, doesn't feel good.
So it's a, it's a, I mean, it is, it is like going back in time from the time you drive in the
tunnel and it's, it's really the only race track that we go to that you can compare to what they
used to do. It's, it's no wider. It's not been changed. The dynamics of the race track are exactly
like they used to be, but it is narrow. It is so narrow. I can't explain how narrow it is.
I tell a lot of people when they ask, what's your favorite race track to go to? I'm like,
to watch it's Darlington because you're above, you're above the rate. There's not a bad seat
right at Darlington. And when they go through the corner, if you're in the race track, it looks like
they're on a roller coaster. Just ripping through the top way. And from a driver standpoint, it
changes every lap. And so every lap that the tires have degraded a little bit and worn out,
you know, from the lap before. So you got to constantly adjust your driving style. It's a
really hard racetrack and in practice, just to get in a rhythm, to know what that pace is going
to be on the fast lap, what it's going to fall off to. And then every time you get to the end of
the run, then you got to start over, got to go back to that new tire pace. And then you got to
remember, okay, this is the lap time where I want to move up or do move down. So challenging from
a driver's perspective. Really hard race track makes it all the more rewarding if you can win
there. So we have a lot to look forward to as it pertains to Darlington coming up this weekend.
And we have a lot to look forward to on our favorite segment of the show, right?
Don't say that. Way to go. It's the water boy segment. It's the water boy. Sip time.
Closers shout out to all of you guys that came to beer park in Vegas. Now a lot of them showed up.
We gave out a hundred tickets over the weekend and what's your part? It's in the Paris Hotel.
Huh? It's in the Paris Hotel. Oh, so they gave they had me come out. Is the Paris Hotel in Vegas
or Paris? It's in Vegas. This one's in Vegas, but I think they're the Paris Hotel in Paris.
Okay. Yeah, I've never been to Paris. I got you. I'm assuming there is. It was just a curious
question. I didn't know. No, they came out. It was great. We gave away a lot of tickets. A lot of
first timers went to the racetrack. Super cool. That's cool. Welcome to your favorite segment.
And you might have thought that we forgot about the word of the week. We did not. We just moved
it so your favorite segment can be longer. Mama's social sips got an addition. Word of the week is
now a part of it. Let's go back because we missed Kevin last week. Let's go back to Phoenix. Roll
the tape. Well, the one that's cowboyed up right here is Carson Hosebar and every restart we see
him get a little bit further and further towards the front. Here he is trying to put himself in
the middle of these Toyotas at the front of the field. Well, you have to. It takes aggression
on these restarts two, three, four, five, eight wide. It doesn't know what it's going to be. I
need an aggressive race car driver. Carson Hosebar is your guy. Well, you got two of them right there
because Reddick's not giving him an inch. You got a cowboy up sometimes, Kevin. Yeah. Yeah, you
kind of gave me a mulligan on that one. Well, easy. Yeah, it's pretty easy. Yeah. Well, here's the
thing. I'm here for the culture too. So sometimes I want it to be funny. Sometimes I want to try
to stump you. And this early on this year, Kevin was like, you guys are never going to get me.
And I said, challenge accepted. Roll this week's tape.
Get to hear a lot of that engine noise. And it's such a manipulous sound around this race track
to be able to hear the sound of that car. That is a four syllable word. Yeah. That's one big
a word for a race car driver. Clint. Clint can't say. Well, you struggled with it.
It's wrote down right in front of you with the syllables.
Flip the syllable. When I said, when I said the word, Mike looked at me, he turned so fast. He's
like, what in the hell did you just say? That's funny. And you didn't, you didn't, you never heard
the word of that word. I gotta be honest. How'd you find that? I can't give away my secrets. Well,
that was a good one. That was good. It was easy. It was easy to find a place to put it in. I like
where you put it. But when I, when you sent me the word, I always pull it up so that the little
AI lady will tell me how to say it. And she said it so eloquently and so smooth. And I said, okay,
well, no problem. And I went to say it. I couldn't say it. It took me like 15 times to figure out
how I was going to stumble through that four syllable word. You wouldn't know you delivered
it. I was so nervous standing up in the booth this week because I'm like, I am going to mess
this up so bad. Oh, yeah, I was nervous. That way I had to get it out of the way early. That was
really early in the race. That was a good spot. Yes, very good. More of the week. Look for a
mama's social sips. So let's get into that. Let's get into the sips here. My boy, my boy,
Joel, he does a lot of stuff with stats on social. And now he's added some music to it. Listen to
this little number. Welcome back to the chase again. Welcome back. Welcome back to the chase here,
the engines cry 16 drivers in the state sky every mile with the whole world watching
the night with that. That's just showing the points moving. I thought it was going to the
beat of the music because that's what the points do right now, right? No, they've moved so much.
And so when he shows that that active, that's why I'm like, bro, when you show that, it's so cool
to see how important the points are points are moving all the time. So crazy. I love it. Now
you got, now you got Bubba's back in P two. So 23. That's like a song. Bubba's back. Bubba's back.
Yeah. If he gets it when he wins again, Bubba's back. Can we get that in there next week? Maybe
I'll talk to Joel. Maybe you can come up with a song called Bubba's back called Bubba's back. Oh my
God. Going open wheel racing. Max Verstappen, he's been talking a lot about this season, this car,
what he doesn't like, but apparently what he does like is some Mario Kart and that's his new
training tool. Listen to this. I found a cheaper solution. I swapped the simulator for my Nintendo
Switch and yeah, practicing a bit of Mario Kart actually. Yeah, finding the mushrooms is going
quite well. The blue shell is a bit more difficult, but I'm working on it.
Interesting. Yeah, he had a couple other singers. He had a couple other zingers. He's,
they're in an interesting place. Our friends across the pond and motorsports and how
their drivers are feeling about their current situation. Yeah, I'm intrigued. I mean, you know,
it's, it's very similar to how we started with the gen seven car with I hated it. Didn't want to
drive it. A lot of us didn't want to drive it. Some people were like screw it. I'm new here. I want
to drive it and that's exactly what they're going through. So you're either embrace it
or you're going to keep racing. Yeah. That's right. It's going to be interesting. I'm looking for
those blue shells. Yeah. Well, the blue shells are the only ones you get when you're really far
behind. So you shouldn't be looking for that. Oh, yeah. The blue shells. I haven't played Mario
Kart since I was like 15. Yeah, that was probably what the super Nintendo. That wasn't even Nintendo
64. You were was that below before that? Whatever the first Nintendo was is what I played it on
because we used to skip school. We'd act like we were going to school and then we just go over
to my friend's house and play Mario Kart all day. Oh, yeah. Did your mom know that?
Eventually. We had kind of scammed the system to figure out how we were there. But anyway,
that's a different story. Yeah. Kaley, don't listen to that part. Yeah. So chase briscoe
got a speeding penalty. Correct. But he also got one in real life in real life before the race.
And he said hopefully it's the only time he's going to get this penalty turns out. He jinxed
himself and it wasn't chase. What are you doing? Hold that until after the race next time, buddy,
because you you put yourself in a spot where it it affected your whole day. Yeah. Not once,
but twice. Both areas of life, the career and regular life. So and one more thing,
even though the Craftsman Truck series on Fox was off this weekend,
uh, somebody thought they needed to run the quarter mile. Listen, this safety truck,
this is a this is some Dodge Ram. And this guy is getting it off of the quarter mile man
right before I think practice or qualifying for the Riley series.
You have to do that on purpose. Like there's no reason for you to come out of the quarter
miles. Looks like he dipped a wheel in the dirt right there. Oh, he might have. It looked like
he dipped a wheel, but forgot to let off the gas. Didn't need to. Yeah. He's a wheel man from way
back. No, he was behind. He's just lucky it didn't wind up in the wrong direction. Listen,
if he would have wrecked right there, the amount of stuff that would have been everywhere because
that was one of the, was that you drive? Are you sure you weren't there? That was not me.
It would have gone too fast for you. Yeah. Are you a slow driver? No, I'm just a bad driver.
Okay. Well, at least you admit it. Yeah. Yeah. Does that make you want to get back
behind the wheel again, Kev? That guy getting after it like that? I think he wants to anyway.
I think that'd be fun for you. I feel like I should race more. Yeah. We support this.
After this, after this last weekend, I figured out that when I went and raced a super late model
again, I just kicked their ass the whole race and was seven laps to go. Got a flat tire.
And I left mad again. I was, I haven't left a race mad in a long time. That would piss me off.
Okay. Yeah. We don't like when Kevin was mad. Well, it was, it was a competitive mad. I didn't
think I, I didn't, I didn't really, well, yeah, I don't know. It just, it's having internal
conversations. There's this battle going in my head of like, man, you should really be mad about
that. And I'm like, well, I'm here to have fun, but it still sucks when you lose. Yeah. Especially
to that. You know what? I have some friends over at Ram and they have a free agent truck.
So maybe, maybe you should, this weekend, this is what we should do. This weekend at Darlington,
we're jumping the Ram trucks in the back parking lot. So you should come by, get yourself in one
of those new rams and then hop over in the race car. I just want to see it be fast enough to be
able to race in the front. Yeah. Okay. That's, you know, just got to wait until it's that fast.
Okay. Well, we got some people. I'm not saying no. No, he's not. No, I'm just saying make him a
little faster. Yeah, we got to make him faster. But Kevin's interested. All right, fam. That is
mama's social sips. Well done. 805-317-4175 is the voicemail. And as always, Harvard,
Kappie hour four at gmail.com. If you want to leave a mail bag, I appreciate you.
All right. Very good, mom. That was the excellent sip segment today. Time now for our last call
and also time to grade the burnout for Mr. Denny Hamlin win number 61. I'm excited about this.
Yeah. A lot of smoke. My man right here did an epic burnout all the way from turn one. We
were watching in the booth and I'm like, where's he going? He's just going to wave at the crowd.
And I thought there was no way that these tires are going to survive
all the way to turn one. Yeah. And they did. Well, he didn't go all the way to turn one.
He went to the start finish line, but I thought for sure that the tires were going to blow out
and they just kept going. And it goes over the orange paint. It gets a little different color
in the smoke. Yeah. Yeah. I like the, I like the paint. But this is a, this is an epic burnout.
And if you're going to, you know, put yourself 10th by yourself all time on the wind list,
you might as well have a burnout to go with it. Exactly. That was, that was a really good one.
He kept the smoke rolling off of the car the whole time. I like that. Yeah. I mean,
he never stopped spinning the tires and, and I mean, the, the, the Goodyear tires were obviously
very durable to be able to, uh, to do that burnout the whole time. So I like the slow,
that was a good one. That was a very good one. The whole celebration was neat. This family there,
everything they've been through. So what grade are we giving this then for Mr. Hamlin?
What's the high, what do we give reddit? Do you remember?
Yeah. He was an A. Yeah. His, I think we're the second one. We're only handing out A pluss
if they're just extraordinary. That was a good one. That was great, but not extraordinary. So
what, what, well, I think it's B plus. I think it's a B plus because, you know,
reddit got those style points, flipping it into reverse. Yeah. That's, it's going to be tough
to beat. It's kind of like the, the Chase Elliott one from last year, where he drifted right around
the fence like that. The year before we had flipped off Austin, Austin Hill, right beside him and
toned him the whole lap. That was an all timer. That was an all timer. That was, that was a very,
very good burnout. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, still good by you, Denny. You got to be plus. All right.
Time now to look at our standings for the picks. Uh, right now I'm still leading at 18. I got
zero for Lagooner. The Lagooner gave me zero. Yeah. I can't believe that my pre-race picked
and work. You know why it doesn't work? No, you get credit for the win, but it's just like back
in there. I like how you guys just don't, don't even call and ask. Hey, what's your pick this week,
Kev? I mean, just send me a text, something, Tyler. Somebody send me a text. You're on vacation.
I didn't want to bother you and Jackson. I'm trying to hold it. You should pick this week. Oh,
yeah. I'm going to pick Hamlin. That would have been easy. No, see, you get credit for the win,
but no points. And the win is the waiver. Remember? Okay. So I thought we got rid of all that crap.
Yeah. Well, you never know. I didn't think the win was the waiver anymore. Yeah, we don't have
that anymore. But you know, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to make you feel good. As long
as you're not in first, I'm happy. Don't worry. He's very close to me. Mom was at 12. He got three
points for picking Chase Briscoe. And I thought I picked belt. You went from last to last. Good
job. Yeah, but I got points. Okay. It's a point this year. You're still in last. You are the loser
of the group. No, you lost this weekend. You got a DNS. You didn't even start. Okay, so we have
another chance to make our picks and that's happening right now. So who wants to go first?
No, I got points. So I'm not going first. Okay, I'll go first. I'll pick Briscoe.
You can agree with me. It's fine. Same. Yeah. Chase Briscoe. I'm ready for them to turn this
around, get back to their winning ways and they have won there in the past. Who are you going to
pick last place? Man, you know, I, we talked about it, the Toyotas. I want to go that route,
but someone who has been on the cusp of winning here a lot and really hasn't got it done is Ryan
Blaney and I'm going to put my first 12th pick in for the year. I knew that was coming sooner
than the first 12 pick of the year is going to the Y or be now old Ryan Blaney. What do you think
the odds are that we could get you to be like, um, like to hand him a water bottle during the pit
stop during the race? Is that possible? Awesome. I just, I have these random thoughts and the whole
water boy thing as much as you're on the, the Blaney bandwagon. Is there any way that we could
just, I'm driving the band that would be such great footage of you just handing him a water
bottle on the pit stop. You'd have to be part of the team for the weekend on the roster somehow.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like I feel like our bosses at Fox had probably get something like that worked
out. Yeah. I do it. I'm not scared. I was an interior mechanic. I know how to do it. I'd like
to see that. And if we can't do it during the race, maybe you could just hand it to him like
in his interviews or anything. Maybe you could be like his, you could be like his, uh, his PR
handler for the weekend. I used to do that too. All right, listen, I'm a, I'm a jack of all trades
and I want to see you handing him a water bottle. I got it. I'm locked in the new task at hand,
hand a water bottle to Ryan Blaney. All right. So those are our picks. Two votes of confidence
for Brisco one for Blaney and you have Kyle Busch with you on Thursday, right? I do. Yeah,
it was a great interview. Kyle was very open as to where he thought they were talking about his
mistakes, the team's mistakes, his, um, you know, his ability and things that, that make him tick
with this new car. So it was a great, great conversation and, and just talking about his
passion of racing and, and everything that, that has kind of been reintroduced to him through
Brexton and the things that, that they get to experience from legend cars and light models
and all the things that they race. Okay. We look forward to that. Make sure you don't miss it on
Thursday. Make sure you subscribe on our new YouTube page as well. And we will see everybody
after Darlington
About this episode
Denny Hamlin's impressive comeback win at Las Vegas is celebrated, highlighting his resilience and skill despite early setbacks. The discussion covers the performance of Toyota and Chevrolet teams, with insights into challenges like pit road difficulties and car balance issues. Chase Elliott's steady rise and Ty Gibbs' growth are noted, alongside struggles and potential within teams like Trackhouse and RFK. The hosts preview the upcoming Darlington race, emphasizing its difficulty and the importance of tire management. The episode also features lighthearted segments, including the new Sips closers and memorable burnout celebrations.
Original notes
Denny Hamlin’s emotional NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports showing renewed speed, and a race filled with pit road mistakes and strategy battles headline a dramatic weekend in NASCAR as the season begins to take shape ahead of Darlington Raceway. On this episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith break down Hamlin’s impressive drive from deep in the field to capture win number 61, Chase Elliott’s strong runner-up finish, Hendrick Motorsports’ encouraging performance with William Byron and Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs continuing his recent run of top-five finishes, and several costly pit road penalties before looking ahead to Darlington with insight into what makes the Track Too Tough to Tame so difficult for drivers. The show also features Mamba’s Social Sips with trending motorsports stories and fan moments from the weekend before the crew makes their picks for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race.
0:00 - Intro
1:44 - Las Vegas Weekend Recap
34:20 - Darlington Preview
42:28 - Mamba’s Social Sips
51:54 - Last Call
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
0:00
59:26