Hamlin Ties Kyle Busch at Michigan, Hocevar's Controversies & Pocono Preview
Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX
Hamlin Ties Kyle Busch at Michigan, Hocevar's Controversies & Pocono Preview
Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX · Jun 9, 2026
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Person
Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin is a NASCAR driver. Here they’re talking about a big milestone: he got his 63rd career win, which puts him near the top of NASCAR’s all-time winners list.
Person
Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch is another NASCAR superstar driver. The hosts say Hamlin tied Busch’s career win total, meaning they were matched at the top of the all-time wins list.
Term
all-time wins
“All-time wins” just means how many races a driver has won in their whole career. It’s the big career total fans use to rank drivers.
Term
road course
A road course is a type of race track with lots of turns, not just going left around an oval. Saying there’s no road course means the championship won’t include that more technical, turn-heavy style of track.
Concept
detail his car
“Detail his car” means making lots of small setup tweaks so the car drives the way the driver wants. In NASCAR, those adjustments can be the difference between a car that’s quick and one that’s actually easy to drive all race long.
Term
Gen 7 cars
“Gen 7” is NASCAR’s name for the current generation of race cars used in the Cup Series. It means the cars are built to a specific set of rules, and teams have to tune them to work well on track.
Term
practice
In NASCAR, practice sessions are when teams test setups and driving adjustments before the race. The host highlights Hamlin’s approach: in practice, focus on getting the car’s handling right rather than chasing raw speed immediately.
Term
drivability
Drivability means how easy and smooth the car is to control while you’re driving it. The host is saying Hamlin focuses on making the car feel right to drive, not just being quickest for a moment.
Concept
run all the laps
In NASCAR, finishing the race (even in last place) is often crucial because it preserves points, avoids mechanical/incident-related DNFs, and keeps the team’s momentum. “Run all the laps” is a strategy focused on consistency and staying out of trouble early.
Term
cup card
They’re talking about NASCAR’s top-level race series. The point is that the top-tier stock cars are harder to drive and you can’t treat them like other race cars.
Term
right on the edge of disaster
They mean the car is being driven near its limit. If the tires lose grip or the driver pushes too hard, it can turn into a crash very quickly.
Term
clean air
Clean air means your car is not being “buffeted” by the airflow from other cars. That usually helps the car feel more stable and predictable.
Term
restarts
A restart is when the race starts again after a caution. Everyone is bunched up, so it’s easier to lose control or get shuffled around.
Term
bottomed out
Bottoming out is when the suspension gets compressed so far it hits its limit. That can make the car unstable and upset its handling.
Term
diffuser
The diffuser is an underbody part that helps push the car down for grip. If the car squats too much and the diffuser scrapes or hits, it can ruin that downforce and make the car misbehave.
Term
cloud of dust
A cloud of dust here likely means something under the car is hitting the track. That usually points to the car riding too low and losing stability.
Place
turn three
Turn three is just one of the track corners. They’re using a camera angle from that corner to show when the car starts scraping and getting into trouble.
Term
wall
The wall is the barrier around the track. If they’re talking about it being badly bent or having a hole, it means the car impact was pretty serious.
Term
cipher barriers
This sounds like a type of crash barrier system NASCAR uses to make crashes less dangerous. The goal is to absorb the hit so the driver is more protected.
Term
jaws of life
“Jaws of life” are heavy-duty rescue cutters used to pry open or cut a damaged car. They’re used when someone needs to be freed after a serious crash.
Term
port of power
A “port of power” is a hydraulic rescue tool that can push or spread parts of a wrecked car. It helps rescuers make space to reach and remove someone safely.
Person
Christopher Bell
Christopher Bell is a NASCAR race driver. The host is saying he was able to get out safely after the crash, which is a big deal because it means the safety equipment worked.
Person
coach Gibbs
“Coach Gibbs” is the team leader associated with Joe Gibbs Racing. The host is saying the team thinks the driver may need to have some things checked after the crash.
Person
Carson Hocebar
The host is talking about a driver named Carson Hocebar and how his driving has gotten better. They’re saying he’s learning how to race in a smarter way so he doesn’t wreck his own car or cause problems for others.
Company
Hendrick Motorsports
Hendrick Motorsports is a NASCAR racing team. They prepare the race cars and make calls during the race, which can strongly affect who runs up front.
Term
rule package
A rule package is NASCAR’s set of rules for how the cars are allowed to be set up for a given stretch of races. If the rules are the same, teams can compare results more directly.
Term
tires
Tires are what actually provide grip to the track. As tires wear out, the car can start to handle worse and fall back, even if it was fast at the start.
Term
track position
Track position means who is ahead on the track. In NASCAR, being in front can matter a lot because it’s harder to pass than it looks on TV.
Place
Pocono, Pennsylvania
Pocono Raceway is a race track in Pennsylvania with a weird shape and three main corners that feel very different from each other. Because of that, it’s harder to drive and harder to pass than many other tracks.
Term
the tricky triangle
“The tricky triangle” is a nickname for Pocono Raceway. It refers to the track’s three main corners, which are different enough that you have to drive and set up the car differently than at most tracks.
Term
turn four
On Pocono Raceway, the corner numbering/sequence is unusual because the track is built around three main corners rather than a more typical multi-corner oval. That’s why the host says there’s “no turn four,” reflecting the track’s layout.
Term
the bottom
On oval tracks, “the bottom” is the inside lane near the track wall. It can be tempting because it’s the shortest way around, but sometimes it makes the car slower or harder to pass from.
Term
long pond straight away
A “straight away” is the part of the track where you’re mostly going fast in a straight line. At Pocono, the “Long Pond” straight is a key stretch that affects how you set up the corners before and after it.
Term
turn two
“Turn two” is just the name drivers use for a particular corner on the track. Talking about it helps them describe exactly where the car feels good or where they need to adjust their driving line.
Term
Big bump in the middle of the tunnel
That’s a physical bump on the track. When the car hits it, the suspension can move and the car can feel different—sometimes harder to control through the next corner.
Term
throttle off
“Throttle off” means you’re easing off the gas. Doing that before a corner changes how the car grips the track and can make the car behave differently mid-corner.
Term
throttle down
“Throttle down” means pressing the gas more. Drivers do it when the car is lined up to accelerate out of the corner.
Term
break issues
That sounds like “brake issues,” meaning the car’s brakes aren’t working as they should. If brakes fade or fail, the driver has to slow down differently and it can ruin race pace.
Term
rotor breaks
A rotor is part of the brakes—think of it like a metal disc. If it breaks while you’re going really fast, the car can lose braking and become hard to control, which can lead to crashes.
Topic
turn one
Turn one is the first big corner drivers have to set up for right after the straight. If something goes wrong there—especially with braking—it’s hard to fix before you hit the wall.
Term
break failures
Brake failure means the brakes don’t work the way they should. If that happens when you’re trying to slow down for a turn, the car may not slow enough and can crash.
Person
Bubba
“Bubba” is Bubba Wallace, a NASCAR driver. They’re saying he had a similar kind of problem before, which shows how quickly things can go wrong.
Person
Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson is a famous NASCAR driver. Here, they’re referencing a past crash where something went wrong and the car ended up hitting the fence at Turn 1.
Topic
turn 32
Turn 32 is just a specific corner on the track. If you mess up that corner, it can be really hard to get back on track because of what comes right after it.
Concept
consistency
Consistency means you don’t just have one good race—you keep doing well again and again. In NASCAR, that helps you stay in contention when the season gets close to the playoffs.
Concept
the chase
In NASCAR, “the Chase” is the part of the season where the best drivers compete for the championship. If you wait too long to get good results, you may not have enough races left to make it in.
Concept
momentum
Momentum means the team is building confidence and getting better results lately. When you’re on a roll, it’s easier to keep making the right calls and avoid costly mistakes.
Concept
bouncing up and down
They mean the car’s results keep changing a lot from race to race. If you can’t tell whether the improvement is real, it’s harder to plan and keep moving toward the front.
Brand
Toyotas
They’re talking about the Toyota race cars in the field. Different manufacturers can have different strengths, and teams tune their cars to match what works best.
Person
Ross Chastain
Ross Chastain is a NASCAR driver. They’re saying his chances look very slim right now.
Person
Logano
Logano is Joey Logano, a NASCAR driver. They’re saying his situation is getting worse based on how the race went and how the standings are shaping up.
Topic
Michigan
They’re talking about the NASCAR race at Michigan. Different tracks favor different cars and setups, so results there can really change who’s doing well in the season.
Company
Penske group
The “Penske group” means Team Penske, one of NASCAR’s big racing teams. They’re saying Penske might only have one car in the playoffs if things don’t improve.
Person
Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney is a NASCAR driver. They’re saying he might be the only one from his group who makes the playoffs, but his results aren’t great right now.
Topic
Pocono Preview
They’re talking about what to expect at Pocono next. It’s basically a heads-up on who might do well and what could affect the race.
Term
tire testing
Tire testing is practice where teams try different tire setups to see how they work. They use the results to help the tires perform better for actual races.
Brand
Good year
That’s Goodyear, a tire company. Here they’re testing and improving the tires that NASCAR teams run.
Term
lay some rubber down
It means the tires leave rubber on the track. More rubber usually makes the track grip differently, which changes how the cars handle.
Concept
rubber car
A “rubber car” is basically a car used to put tire rubber onto the track. That helps the track get the grip level the test needs.
LIVE
It is such a different animal to drive compared to anything else.
You can say all that stuff you want, but at some point it will turn around and bite you.
Kevin's always stirring the pot.
It's tricky.
Come on, give me more than that.
Hey baby, a lot of chocolate over here.
A lot of chocolate.
He's good everywhere where you can turn left.
Right?
Right.
Right.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR on Fox.
I'm Kevin Harvick.
She's Caitlin Vinci and he's still here.
Listen.
He made it though.
Barely here.
Ah, my arms.
Coming in hot.
My arms hurt.
Yeah.
I'm flying in.
I'm flying in this morning.
Is your head burnt?
Nose burnt?
No, no, no, no.
I just got a little darker.
That's all.
Okay.
You stood in the sun for hours, right?
Hours.
Hours in Michigan.
But I'll tell you what, there was a lot of fans out.
That place was packed.
Packed out.
Looked right in Michigan.
It was awesome.
So many fans from Canada came.
Like, I love that.
They do the Canadian National Anthem and ours.
And I think that's cool because that's how many of them.
I think because the Watkins Glen is no longer there that the Canadian fans come to Michigan.
Because it's not in the summer anymore.
That's right.
Yeah, because I guess Watkins Glen where it is, they're not running from the cold, right?
It's cold to cold.
And the weather, it was really nice there.
It was really nice.
Just the one day, that Saturday morning or whatever, it rained a little bit.
Other than that, it was really nice.
Yeah, it was good to see those packed stands.
I know you were busy doing interviews all weekend.
All weekend.
You know, we were jumping the RHO Rams in the back parking lot again.
We had the Ramthrow ride.
Do you ever drive it?
Yeah, but I don't do the jump.
Why?
Because you kind of got to know what you're doing when you do it the first time.
And I haven't really jumped a vehicle before.
Yeah, but what a great opportunity to jump somebody else's vehicle to learn how to do it.
I mean, you're right.
They let me drift their cars before.
I've done that.
We had this little Volkswagen hatchback.
And we used to have this hump in the road in front of my house when we were like 17,
15, 16, I don't remember, somewhere right in there.
And during the day, when we thought everybody was at work, we'd take this thing and drive
it as fast as we could and see how far we could jump.
And that thing would always land on the nose.
Not smart.
Kevin, I'm giving you some good advice here.
That's exactly why I don't want to do it.
Yeah, but if you can learn with somebody else's truck.
That's true.
Then you can jump your own truck.
Maybe they'll let me do that.
It makes sense.
The math is math and all that.
I like that idea.
Well, welcome in everybody to episode 33.
We're off to a great start here with some fresh ideas.
We have plenty to talk about leaving Michigan.
Again, and of course we'll preview Pocono, which is coming up next, the tricky triangle.
And you've got some sips on board, right?
We got some good sips.
But you didn't get to do NASCAR Sunday, did you?
No, no, no.
They threw the party, though.
Oh, good.
Yeah, they threw it even if I'm not there.
Where was this one at?
It was at Hoppen in Charlotte.
In Charlotte.
We have one in New York every week, too.
Yeah, so we have two locations.
Nobody showed up.
They all went to the race.
No, they went.
They went.
Oh, good.
Yeah, they were there.
Calm down.
Easy.
Calm down.
We got a winner in the clubhouse this week.
Again.
I can't help that you guys can't see what's going on.
Sometimes things are very predictable.
And this one was easy.
How many weeks have you picked him?
And he's come through?
I'm going to pick him again.
Just in case you're wondering.
Just in case you're wondering.
Well, I might pick him, too, because he is.
Well, we'll talk about the picks there.
But pretty unbelievable drive for Denny Hamlin getting
career win number 63.
He tied Kyle Busch for the all-time wins there.
What impressed you the most about what he was able to do?
Everything.
Everything.
Well, and I think right now they've just, here's the thing.
When you're in this mode of knowing that you've got great cars,
you've got more experience, it motivates you.
And I think when you get to this point in your career,
you have to find something to motivate you all the time.
And right now, Denny Hamlin understands that he could have
the best year of his career, best opportunity that he's had
to win a championship.
He was so close last year.
There's no road course in the championship this year.
I mean, he could absolutely throttle them the last 10 weeks
if they can keep this momentum going.
But, you know, right now the cars are on point.
And Denny Hamlin, he's got the experience to detail his car,
which is what it takes in the Cup Series with these Gen 7 cars
to be able to get the car and have all the details to it.
And he said something really interesting that they were talking
about on the air this week, just the fact that, you know,
he feels like in practice, and this is the right way to do this,
he goes out and doesn't race the scoreboard.
He goes out and gets his car handling good.
If it's not good enough, and you see it with so many guys,
they worry about the speed in their race car
instead of the drivability of their race car.
And he's got the experience to know how the car should feel,
how the car should drive, where it should drive,
what he needs it to do, what he wants it to do,
and he can relate that to the team.
And you go to somebody, I mean, you look at Connor Zillich, right?
I mean, the thing is obviously out of control,
and not where it needed to be in practice.
And a lot of that comes from the driver to the team
to be able to say, OK, this feels like this.
And they'll be like, well, the speed looks good.
And you'll be like, eh, I don't really care about the speed.
You've got to have the car underneath you
to be able to be aggressive and drive it, even if it's slower.
Because this really turned into a strategy race
as we thought it would be.
But it also turned into some fall off where the cars would fall off.
And at the end, I mean, he drove out to 11 seconds in 38 laps.
Now, I know a lot of people wrecked,
but I just think it's a really dangerous combination right now
because the more he can go from the back to the front,
the more confidence that he gets.
And he wrecked right here,
and lucky he had a little bit of luck, didn't get hit by anybody
and just kind of spun around in the wreck
that they had on the front straightaway.
But it's just the sequence of confidence
that nobody else wants to see.
And he's good at Michigan. He's good at Pocono.
But he's good everywhere where you can turn left.
The road courses are going to be a struggle for him,
but there's only two left, right?
So you don't have to worry about that.
He just needs to go and put himself in a position to be good.
He doesn't have to be great because he's going to be great everywhere else.
But when you get that confidence and you have that experience,
and as you're getting to the end,
you have to find those things that motivate you to keep going
at a high level to prepare and do the things that he does.
But right now, I mean, he knows that this is the time,
that he's got to get it done, and he's going to keep going in.
Another notable thing from the weekend is he's cutting that point lead
to Tyler Reddick. He's chipping away at that,
and he's cut it in half in two weeks, which is pretty notable.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you guys know what flow state is
when you're just in a zone where everything is going right,
and even when it's wrong, it's right.
And that's kind of what we're seeing right now at a Denny, I think.
He's probably racing at some of the highest that he's ever raced
in his career, which is wild because he's now in his 40s,
and now it seems like the peak for Denny has moved.
Like his level has changed, and maybe it's one of those things
where he's looking at it differently to Kevin's point, right?
He's like, I'm not worried about the speed.
I'm not chasing the pylon.
Well, so that means you're looking at your situation differently,
and obviously it's working better for him than it was before.
And I think the most interesting part about that is
when you're doing that, you're trying to predict the future
of how your car is going to be later, right?
You want the drivability.
You want it to drive a certain way in practice,
so then when you get into the race, it's going to be a certain way later.
And for him to be able to do that and to have the knowledge
of what he needs the car to be in practice,
because what Kevin just said about Connor,
like Connor doesn't know what he needs in the race, right?
He's barely ever even raced at Michigan.
He's only raced there.
He's still not racing.
That's the problem with Connor is he's still not racing.
He's not making laps.
He's not learning anything.
Right.
So when you know what you need at the end,
it makes your whole weekend a whole lot better.
And everyone's like, oh, you're only six on the pylon.
It's like, yeah, don't worry about it.
There's Connor right here.
I mean, early on in the race, just twice by himself.
Yeah, just up.
Three weeks in a row now, he's had early issues in his events.
What do they need to do?
I mean, to start turning that corner, you think, for that team?
Well, they got to finish races, even if you finish last.
He just needs to run all the laps.
And I think that when you get into the cup card,
it is so hard to drive.
You can't drive it like anything else.
It just doesn't drive like anything else.
You have to be able to understand
that you can't drive over the limit.
The limit's the limit, right?
When it moves a little bit, you better know
that you're right on the edge of disaster
as we saw a couple times this weekend.
So it is such a different animal to drive
compared to anything else.
Now, it didn't look like the Trackhouse cars were that good.
This weekend, they all qualified 30th or worse.
And I think that Connor, he doesn't have the experience
to be able to hang on.
Now, I thought he would do a lot better than what he's done.
But I think there's multiple layers to the issues
that he has going on.
But the first thing they got to do is finish races.
And that's really...
Like, when you look at the field,
and you look at Denny Hammond, he's, what, 45?
And you look at...
Martin Truex was on the pre-race show this weekend.
Which was perfect, having Martin there and Denny.
Total opposite of Denny, right?
Like, Martin, you know, he didn't work like Denny does.
And he didn't have that motivation to keep going
like Denny does.
And that's where you come to the Crossroads
because it doesn't come about money anymore.
It doesn't become about statistics.
It just becomes about purely wanting to keep winning
and keep being competitive.
And there's a few guys that have done that in the past.
And I was fortunate to be able to do that.
And 40, after 40, was better for me than before 40.
Mainly because of the team.
And I think that the 11 team is better than they were
when Gabe Hart was there.
They're better now than they were three years ago.
Two years ago.
Which is saying something.
Which is saying something.
And a lot of times when you get into that,
that chemistry and all the things that happen
and it's just like everything works,
you don't want to lose that
because you don't get that very often in your career.
Denny's been through a few crew chiefs.
And I think with Chris Gale and everything
that they're doing right now, it's clicking.
And it's so enjoyable because as a driver,
you want to win more for them than you do yourself
because you've won so much.
And I think that that motivation.
But the other thing is people talk about,
well, when you get in your 40s, this and that.
And that is, if you get a motivated,
that's the difference between Hamlin and Truex.
He's motivated.
Truex was not to keep going.
But when you get a motivated
and you can get yourself motivated,
you have so much more experience.
And I used to tell Danica Patrick this all the time,
well, how can I close that gap?
You're not.
Yeah, you can't.
You can't close the gap
because you just get more and more experience
as you go through every single race.
And then it's all of a sudden,
if you can have all those things line up
and have more experience with fast cars,
you're just almost unbeatable.
And that's where he is
because he's going to make less mistakes,
which I know he had the restart issue last week.
And some of those things.
Doing that for fun.
Some of those things happen.
But when you look at all the other guys,
they still make a lot more mistakes than he does.
I wonder how many wins he can get this year.
What do you think?
Crazy part, that's only three.
Yeah, that's three.
It seems like he's won like six times.
The way that it feels right now.
It does.
I would say we had this question a while ago.
We had this conversation earlier.
And I think I said five this year.
And it looks like it could be more.
It definitely feels like it could be more.
Five is still strong.
Five is a very strong season.
If you have five wins,
you did a really good job.
That's a great year.
Yeah, that's a great year.
Because some guys get five in a career, right?
Like maybe.
So five, but it feels like seven maybe is on the table.
Yeah, but see,
that's the difference between some guys and the guys.
Some guys get to ten, you know.
That's still part of the some guy crowd.
Those Toyotas overall,
I feel like they really demonstrated so much strength
when you looked at Gibbs 2311 and Eric Jones.
I mean, what did you see out of them?
Eric Jones was impressive.
Very much so.
The long run with that car was really good.
He did a great job this weekend.
And I think that the legacy team,
they're still inconsistent as to where they run good
and where they don't run good.
Right.
But their run good is a lot better than it used to be.
But now it's in the top ten.
Yeah, so he finished second.
A lot of games.
Yeah, so I think that Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell,
you know, those cars were able to compete with Denny,
but I still think Denny had the best car.
I don't.
But there was there was definitely some attrition
that took place during this race to be able to.
Yeah, a little bit.
I mean, who was he?
Who was he?
He wasn't the guys that were the guys with Reddick
and Gibbs and Bell at the beginning of the race.
They were all gone.
Yeah.
All knocked out.
They were all gone.
And I think those were his, you know,
his cars that were the most competitive to race against.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, that wreck with C Bell, I mean, was just massive.
That was one of the biggest.
Very funny hits I've ever, I've ever seen,
which comes off of Tyler Reddick,
taking one of the huge hit as well.
Right.
So here we got it right here.
Just chase down, just get to lose.
So in Chase's interview, he was like, I'm committed right here.
He was like, I was committed to spinning out.
So I was ready for it to spin out.
He said it caught and it was gone.
And Kevin was talking about being on edge earlier
and like how you're pushing and all those things.
And that was the perfect scenario of that.
Like he thought it was.
Yeah.
So this camera view right here,
there's another camera view from turn three.
And I never heard him mention it on the broadcast
because I don't think they noticed.
But when you see that back view
and you listen to Chase's in-car camera,
he was on the wood.
He was flat out.
It sounded like trying to get that track position
because I think he had a car that was capable.
He thought they could compete.
Yeah, that they could compete for probably second.
But at that time, if you can get in front of the 11.
Yeah, clean air.
You just never know on the restarts.
But if you go back and watch that video,
it bottomed out twice.
It hit the diffuser twice.
And it had a cloud of dust, cloud of dust.
And that's in my opinion,
what got the car out from underneath him,
which these things are right on edge.
But when you go back and analyze that a little bit further
and you see that view from turn three behind the car,
you can see the dust come out of the car twice.
I think it bottomed out just enough
to get the back of that car out from underneath him.
Because you don't pull that car down there like that,
not being fairly confident knowing that you've done that before.
But when you see this wall,
not only does it have a hole,
I don't know that I've seen one bent that bad
because when they've slowed it down
and you see those camera views,
it looked like the soft wall was against the concrete.
It almost, if it didn't touch the concrete behind it,
it was all but right there.
And then like honestly, you think about that,
the safety that we have in the cipher barriers,
this car and just like some of those safer things.
You're like, thank God that we have all these things
and great mechanics that build this stuff
and the engineers that do the safer barrier.
And then they were able to fix it.
Like I was like, are they,
they like patch it enough.
It was like, they got it together.
Yeah, we got to finish the race.
They had the jaws of life out there and the port of power.
I don't think they've ever had to fix one that extensively.
I've never seen the jaws of life and the port of power out.
That's a lot.
Yeah, thankfully Christopher Bell,
you know, walked away from that race car.
We do know that coach Gibbs said he may have to have some things
looked at this week.
Sounds like his wrist and his ankles from what coach Gibbs said
in his interview might be banged up a little bit.
So he took the, he took the brunt of that blow
for the 20 and the nine when they hit the fence right there.
But Chase Elliott, I mean, he knew it was a massive hit
came over and checked on right away, right afterwards.
And because that was a massive wreck.
He must have been going like 185, 188 miles an hour
and hit the wall.
Like, cause there are almost 200 going into that corner,
like 190 something.
So he didn't check up.
That's for sure.
Yeah, Chase Elliott taking ownership for that incident.
Fortunately, both drivers seemingly okay.
Carson Hosevar, we always get to talk about him
cause there's always something going on with him.
Well, he started a pretty big chain reaction at one point.
A push gone bad, essentially with John Hunter,
Neiman check, what did you see from this incident?
And what do you think Carson, how does he learn from this moment?
Well, here's the great thing about Carson is it doesn't bother him.
It does not.
It does not seem to phase him whatsoever.
He's gotten a lot better this year from having these moments.
I think when he goes back and watches this moment,
he's going to realize that he caused the wreck.
It was, it was, you know, they got to pushing and shoving
and he had a little bit of gap in front of him.
And there was no checkups or anything like that.
They, I mean, the cars were bumper to bumper
and he just got into the back of the 42 and was offset too much
and then tried to kind of pull left.
And when he pulled left, it shot him right
and tore up a lot of the cars at the front of the pack right here.
So yeah, I mean, he's just, he's aggressive.
And, you know, he's not going to, going to apologize for that.
No, but Bubba Wallace shared some words with him after the race
that involved you.
Oh, really?
He's,
What I do,
I'm not even there.
I'm not even there.
I'm not even there.
I'm going to take part in this.
Bubba was saying that you had given some advice to him in the past
about, you know, in a similar situation, essentially,
and was just passing that along to him.
Well, this happens in every generation of NASCAR, right?
Like it happened to me.
It's going to, it's going to continue to happen.
And at some point you, you kind of cross over that,
that hump of, of not being the guy that causes all the wrecks.
To being in them.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I think that the hardest part for the young guys,
especially when you're fast, right?
And you're running towards the front of the pack,
because it just, it gets a lot of coverage.
And it pisses a lot of guys off that are running fast
and think that they have a chance to win.
I mean, you saw how mad Redick was after the race.
I mean, he was cussing and screaming and helmet
before he, when he got out of his car, which, you know,
that, that he should be mad.
I mean, he had a chance to, to run up in the front
and contend for the win.
So, you know, Bubba had taken, taken the, the time to spend
with Hosevar.
Sometimes guys take that as whatever and don't want to hear it,
but they remember it.
And I think that that's the, that's how the generations
of NASCAR teach each other.
And Hosevar is just, you know, he's hammered down all the time.
And, and unfortunately sometimes it winds up causing some
crashes and things like that.
But I think that as he, he's already gotten better at managing
the aggressiveness and, and at the right times.
This one got out from underneath him a little bit.
And, and, you know, he just, he screwed up.
It just looks like he was a little lackadaisical in the,
in the, in the way that he was positioned behind that car.
And, and it kind of snuck up on him with those, with those cars
being bumper to bumper.
And, and so, you know, I think it's, it's great when you have
somebody that'll just tell you like it is, and you can hear it.
And you don't listen to it until you get down the road and you
get tired of crashing and you're not finishing those races
because we saw, I mean, Hosevar drove into the fence at the
Just trying too hard.
And, and I think that he put, I mean, there was obviously,
he almost cried in qualifying when he got done, not getting
the pole because it meant so much to him to, to get that
pole in Michigan or get that win in Michigan in front of his
home state.
And, and so, you know, look, when he, when he took the lead,
that place went nuts erupted.
Yeah.
He came out with the Michigan flag.
I mean, like, and to that point, like, I think this specific
situation is all that pressure he probably put on himself to
perform at a high level in front of his hometown at his home
race because he has gotten a lot better.
And, you know, when you, when you're up there early on and
before you're really there, like solidified and people aren't
usually seeing you there, you mess up more because it's like,
oh, you're up there and it's like, oh, shit, like I'm racing
with the Denny Hamlins and all these guys, right?
But now he's up there on a regular basis.
So he's learning how to race up front.
Like there's, there's different, you raise different at the back
of the pack that he do at the front of the pack.
There's a different, I don't know, there's just a different set
of rules almost when you're racing towards the front.
I think that my advice to Carson Hosebar from the beginning
of the year to now would be much different.
Yeah.
I think that he's learned enough about how to manage the situations
and not tear up his own car and put, you know, he's going to
continue to put people in a bad spot.
But I think that's how you got to race the Gen 7 car.
I would tell him to keep doing what he's doing because that's
what makes him good.
And he's got this ability.
Like he's not going to drive that car into the wall again at
Michigan, just on his own, trying to gain a spot.
He's going to, he's going to teach himself all those things.
And I think that when he goes back and looks at this video,
he's going to realize I could have prevented that just with a
couple feet to the left and hitting them square.
That's really what caused the wreck.
He probably could have hit him with the same speed.
But I think what makes him great is what he is.
He's going to teach himself those things.
I would, I would encourage him to keep going because mentally
it doesn't, it doesn't bother him.
And, and I think he's very similar to Ross Chastain.
But when that conversation with Ross Chastain and whatever
happened with Rick Hendrick, that guy has not been the same
since that point.
And I think that that you can't take a guy that,
that drives like that and try to make him somebody different.
They have to learn on their own in trying to put themselves in
the right spot and manage those little situations.
But you've got to turn them loose or you're just going to,
they're going to be somebody who they're not in there.
It won't be good.
Yeah, you don't want to slow them down.
Let's take a listen to what Bubba had to say about Carson
Hosevar.
You were very animated chatting with him.
What was the message you wanted to deliver?
Said I'm jealous of how fast you are, kid.
No doubt.
He's one of the fastest in the field and,
and that's, that's just natural ability.
And so when, when you see that and you recognize that,
I got to give respect to it.
But at the same time, when you're Kevin Harvick told me,
I don't know, whenever I was hitting four or five years ago,
he said, stop hitting and your finishes will result.
Your finishes will show.
He's just like, and I think a lot of the fan,
like people from the outside that don't know Bubba, right?
Oh, that took that probably interpreted wrong.
Yeah, interpreted wrong.
Like, oh, there he is.
Just like complaining about all over again.
It's like, no, he took the time to sit with Carson
and, and hash it out right then.
And to Kevin said earlier, that means something.
There's a respect there.
He's not doing it because he hates him.
He's doing it because he respects how fast he is.
And that they're going to be racing.
He wants to help.
Yeah.
But in that situation would have been better to the third,
finished third or then wherever he finished, right?
I don't even know where he finished, but I don't remember.
Come back up.
But my point is, whether it be fifth, 20th,
if you're going to run, if you're going to run 10th,
you better finish 10th and not try so hard that,
that you've finished 20th.
Right.
Especially in this point system,
you have to maximize the points on that particular day.
And those are the things that he has to learn to manage with
his aggression to try to get everything out of it.
You can get everything out of it.
I mean, look at Chase Elliott, right?
He got it.
He was getting everything out of it.
And then they tried to pump him up to get more out of it.
There was no more to get.
More is sometimes not better.
Yes.
That was not better.
No.
We don't want to see that.
Speaking of that, Hendrick Motorsports.
At points, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Chase Elliott were all
running in the top five, but ultimately everybody kind of
started to fade.
Obviously, Chase was involved in an incident.
William Byron faded pretty significantly.
What do you think is going on at HMS?
Yeah.
I mean, I think that when you go back and you look at Las Vegas
at the beginning of the year, same rule package that we had
last year, same tires, a lot of the same stuff that we've had
going on.
I felt like that's where Larson ran this week.
That kind of fourth, fifth place.
He kind of got the lead there when all the guys were not there.
Yeah.
And so he managed to get what he could out of the race car.
I thought William Byron was better than he was.
He was up there at 1.8 for most of it.
But with the strategy and their tire strategy and the things that
happened, he never really wound up being a dominant car.
He got the track position, but man, they faded terribly.
So I think that the Spire cars have been, I mean, Suarez and
Hosebar were the guys that were up there.
The 48 was nowhere to be found.
The 24 faded bad at the end.
I think the nine was consistently up there.
Him and Larson were both consistently up there.
So 24 has been off, to say the least.
Yeah.
It seems like a lot of the time the team with the most speed out of
the Chevrolet has been the 77.
And now the seven is starting to get some of that speed as well.
And it's just watching the point standings and watching who's in
the top 16.
It has been a fascinating year.
There are some people that you wouldn't expect up there and they're
taking spots away from people that you would expect in there.
And it's making the season really, really fun to watch for sure.
And when you don't see Ford's leading laps at Michigan.
They're in big trouble.
They're in big trouble.
That's their house.
I mean, now that being said, the Penske's, the Penske cars, they
all ran better.
They all were running better.
Nutrition helped too, but they were all running better than they
have been for most of the year, honestly.
And then Zane Smith, dude, this kid is on it right now.
I literally tweeted it and then he got a flat tire and wrecked.
And I'm like, I feel like that was my fault.
It was.
Yeah, every time it's over.
I mean, I picked Bell, he wrecked like, um, unreal.
But Zane is doing such a good job.
And that team is doing a good job.
They're stacking days and finding the speed week in and week out.
And I'm so happy for him because it wasn't too long ago that we
watched a press conference where he was, you know, signed with
Trackhouse and it was going to be great.
And then he was, didn't even make it there for the whole year.
He didn't even make it there on the outside, looking at it.
Now it's found a home in front row.
Good to see that for Zane Smith, for sure.
One other story from the weekend came from the craftsman truck
series race where Corey Heim once again doing Corey Heim things.
Caden Honeycutt of not so happy with him, though, feeling like
they should have worked together better.
Corey's advice was pretty simple to him.
He said, get thicker skin and deal with it.
What are you making that situation?
Well, Corey Heim just beat Caden Honeycutt this weekend just with
experience on putting his truck in the right spots and through
some aggressive blocks at the end.
But he's there to win the race.
And I think that when you see what Heim can do in this one
truck compared to a lot of the situations that other people are
in with the one, when they drive it, he just gets more out of it.
And he knows the placement and where to put his truck and when
to be aggressive and when to block.
And he just went out and manhandled it and won the race.
And so he just flat out beat Honeycutt.
Yeah.
I would, because I think Caden was, he was mad.
The question was, would you throwing a block like that on a teammate
basically, like, how does that make you feel like he's like,
if it wasn't a teammate, I wouldn't have lifted.
And, you know, he was pretty, he was pretty mad about it.
And he was, the difference was he was mad off of the air.
He had a, it was like a, yeah, like it was like a, in a second interview.
It wasn't the TV interview that he kind of did that.
He wasn't on the air, but he was still on the record.
On the record for sure.
He's on the record now.
Yeah.
And so like, if I was to tell him something, I'd be like, bro,
you're doing a great job.
You're upfront all the time.
You have speed.
The people that are beating you are in the cup series.
Like, you're fine.
But you shouldn't be mad that these guys are coming.
Be mad that you're losing, right?
Like you said it's fire.
Yeah.
But you shouldn't be like, they're coming down here and taking
something away from you.
I mean, they're here to race.
When you step down and go runs car store race, do you feel bad
that you're taking wins away from the local car store guys?
No, you do not.
Right.
So it's part of the deal.
Like get a little bit better and you're right there.
But stop complaining about it.
Well, there's the keyword.
You don't want to complain about it to look like a complainer,
which, you know, I think that that's the,
that's the biggest thing that you don't want because then it
pisses your team off and makes everybody mad.
And then the fans don't like you.
And so you can, you can do a lot of damage really quick.
And I think that the, you're right.
The positives are he's racing against Corey Heim and,
you know, Kyle Bush and all the people that he got has been able
to go against this, this year.
And in the end, he doesn't have that high level experience.
And I think that the, the expectations that,
that he has compared to the reality of the situation are probably
off a little bit because Corey Heim,
you can learn a lot from Corey Heim.
And when he goes back and looks at, looks at that situation,
he's going to realize that he just, he just out, he just doubted him.
And I think that there, there are a lot of instances like that,
that he's been through this year, that he's lost races that are
going to, in the long run, if he doesn't crumble the ship,
you know, with, with everything after the races,
he will be in a position to be a winner in those scenarios going forward.
But it just takes time, right?
Like you have to get that experience.
So that's the, that's the route that I would take in,
in the approach that I would take is, you know,
I hadn't been in these positions a lot racing for these wins
and they're just getting the best of me right now.
Yeah.
Let's quickly hear what Corey Heim had to say.
What is the proper etiquette of throwing a block on anyone,
but including a teammate?
Um, just get thicker skin and deal with it.
That's honestly my advice to him.
There you go.
Sounds like there's, it sounds like there's no love loss there,
to be honest with you.
That's very unlike Corey Heim to even say something like that.
I mean, he's pretty, he's pretty well put together and,
and, and has a good sense.
It makes me think that there might be a little tension between those two.
I would go off, off and say,
Kevin Doi sir in the pot.
I would not.
I don't even think that's,
I just listen to him.
Yeah.
I think the pot is on the, on the stove.
I'm just looking at it because it sounds like in, on the back end,
back home, these guys maybe do not work very closely together.
Like, and they don't need to, right?
They're racing against each other.
They don't have to like each other, but like for the,
for what you're trying to do for Toyota, for the Tri-Con,
like maybe not throw, you know, daggers at the guy that is deemed the next guy.
Like you should probably learn from him and get it.
And it doesn't help when you get out of the car,
like you did at the car sewer race and say,
I am the greatest.
No better than me.
I mean, other drivers take offense to that, right?
Sometimes you can say all that stuff you want,
but at some point it'll turn around and bite you.
You said that afterwards.
I remember you made that comment.
Okay.
Well, I'm here for it.
I want to watch.
Yeah.
Well, there was plenty going on in Michigan.
Yeah.
And now we're heading on to Pocono, Pennsylvania,
the tricky triangle.
And why does it live up to its nickname?
Kevin, what's tough about that place?
It's tricky.
Come on, give me more than that.
There's no turn four.
I get lost after the third turn.
So Pocono is, you know, the three corners are drastically different.
And in what you do, you have the, the long front straight away where it's a lot like Michigan.
And you have to make good decisions, not get hung on the bottom,
trying to make a pass that you don't complete,
because then you just get completely swarmed down the long pond straight away,
which is going to turn two.
So you got to make some compromises.
Big bump in the middle of the tunnel, you know,
in the middle of the tunnel turn and in turn two.
And then you have a long sweeping corner.
And that was the corner that I always concentrated on was,
was turn three to be able to try to get my car to drive right,
because it seems like every time you get it driving right and turn one and turn two,
it's, yeah, it's, it's either, it's either too tight or too loose.
Most of the time too loose when you're trying to get to the throttle off a turn three.
So I want to be able to roll into turn three,
get through the center good and put the throttle down and get down that,
that long front straight away because that you got to be good in all three corners.
But if you're going to compromise a little bit, I would compromise that way.
What are you looking forward to about that?
Are you going?
No, no, no, no, we're going to be here in Charlotte.
But this track, I, it's always very interesting on who runs well.
There's usually, it's kind of like Michigan.
It's funny that there are always, I feel like they've always been paired back to back somehow.
Like they're always next to each other because it's like back to back,
feel strategy races.
I feel like it always comes down to that, like who's saving, who's on what tire when also this place,
sometimes we have break issues.
We do see some rotor situations that happen every once in a while.
And I mean, when you're going into turn one at 200 miles an hour when a rotor breaks, it's not,
not fun, not good.
And there have been break failures multiple times.
I remember Bubba having one before Jimmy Johnson,
everyone and they go down and turn one and clobber the fence.
So definitely be looking out for that, especially after what we saw.
That's a long ways from turn three to two.
It's a long way.
You look down and you're like, Holy shit, that's a long way.
And you mess up turn three.
If you mess up turn one and two, that's a long way.
If you mess up turn 32 that's a really bad laugh.
Like there's no getting that back when you mess up those corners there.
So last season, Chase Briscoe, this is where he kind of kicked off his hot streak.
Yeah, I picked the winner.
He needs that down.
Did you?
Yeah, I picked Chase last year.
Whatever.
So do you think maybe this is a place where he can kind of get things moving along?
Well, they didn't run that good this weekend, which I was a little bit surprised.
I thought they would run better at one point.
I was like, is he in this race?
I was, I hadn't heard his name all day because they hadn't said it.
But yeah, I mean, they got to get something rolling.
You know, I think that the 20 cars had speed.
The 19 has had speed.
Didn't have it at Michigan, but they've had speed and they're going to have speed.
And I think that just got to get them, get, get themselves to be able to have that consistency
in order to put themselves in a position to contend because we're running out of races to get to the chase.
And, and I think that, you know, you got to get yourself in there,
but you need to be, be closer to the top.
Need momentum.
I mean, it matters.
You got to have the consistency.
Yeah, when you're, when you're bouncing up and down and you don't really,
it's like, is what we're doing working or is it not?
And it's hard to know because they have so many other issues that happen.
But when you're in one of the best cars in the field with the Toyotas, especially in this past weekend,
what was really good for 2311 kind of switching gears a little bit is that they did show that speed again.
Because it seemed like they were kind of, of tapering off not like a ton,
but they weren't being as dominant, but all three cars were kind of back towards where they were in the top 15
and the top 10, top five.
So if you're Chase Briscoe, it's like, all right, like there's no more, we got to get it to go in.
It's like, no, it's time.
They're going to have the speed.
They just can't, they just can't make the mistakes.
You mentioned the time is running out.
We are starting to click through these races.
Who else do you think is kind of in a panic mode at this point?
The 22.
I mean, the 22.
Yeah.
Ross Chastain, I think he's pretty much done.
You know, you got Bubba who had a good weekend this weekend kind of put himself up.
I think that Christopher Bell, I mean, they've got speed.
I think it'll be interesting to see how he progresses this week.
And when we hear if he does actually have injuries to deal with.
So, you know, I think that there are some guys down in the bottom of that that need to get themselves a little bit of momentum to get themselves in a position to have a chance to win this championship.
But Logano, that's, I mean, they had an okay run this weekend.
But when you go to, when the, when the Fords go to Michigan and they run like they did, just, yeah, just, yeah, like that, that, that's big trouble.
Right.
Who you are.
And I see you looking at those.
Yeah, I'm pulling up the standings right now.
I mean, the, it is the, the Penske group like there's Eric's down there.
Cinderick is 16th and Logano 17th.
And so they're on the verge of only having one car in the chase with Ryan Blaney.
And that one's not running good anymore either.
That one is like, it's like, he's there, but they haven't let, they haven't been leading.
They haven't been up front.
So they really, they got a, a hole to dig out of just to make the chase, let alone win the championship.
Just being there.
A lot of things to keep an eye on as we go to Pocono.
I'm actually going out there for the race.
Oh, you are.
Yeah, I'm out there doing pit road.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Well, the, the, honestly, the fans are always asking me where you guys are at.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
They always want to.
Kevin was there for 14 weeks.
I'll be in Idaho.
I don't know.
He's racing.
Yeah.
What are you, what are you doing?
I'll be at state line speedway in Idaho.
There you go.
Get your ass kicked or are you going to actually put the pedal down?
I don't know.
I don't know.
It just depends.
I have no idea.
I've never been there.
Hey, to anyone.
Another bowl ring.
It was my camera here.
To anyone racing Kevin this weekend, keep your fingers inside your race cars.
Don't, don't put one.
Cause he's got, he's already fired up from the last one.
You don't need, you know, don't, don't ruffle the old man's feathers.
That's right.
Do we want to see some footage from your last race with your son?
We have footage.
We do.
Right here.
Oh, oh, no.
Oh.
Oh, unearth this.
Oh, what happened there, Kevin?
Well, I hit the left of your tire and it jerked the steering wheel out of my hand.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Who are you racing there?
That's Keelan.
Okay.
So you almost, you almost wreck Keelan and did wreck yourself.
Okay.
It jerked the steering wheel out of my hand so fast.
I didn't even know what happened.
Wow.
Just the way that the wheels hit, like it just ripped it out of my hand.
That's frightening.
Yeah.
No, that's frightening right there.
You go back up the race track.
Going straight up the race track through the infield and it turned 12
Lucky I didn't get hit very hard.
Yeah.
Very hard.
We hope it goes well for you.
Hopefully it goes better than that.
We're always rooting for you.
There wasn't a straight panel on the car when it got done.
Oh, it's another quarter mile bull ring too.
Oh, it'll be perfect.
Yeah.
This one's supposed to have a high lane, but I haven't been there.
So, okay.
It'll be a learning experience.
Yeah.
It'll be fun.
It's good.
All right, guys.
Well, we'll have to see what transpires out in Pocono.
And it's time now to hand the reins over to Mamba for the old social sips.
The old social sips.
Hang on one second.
I'm not even taking a drink.
I'm not even going to acknowledge that you're here.
Ah, that's nice.
Hey, friends.
Friends.
Welcome to your favorite part of the show.
Mamba's social sips and the fans this week from Canada and from the great white north
up there.
They wanted me to let you guys know that, well, that's a good stones.
That's a great way to know.
Great way to know.
They wanted me to let you know that this is their favorite part of the show.
So let's give it, let's give some, let's give some credence to that.
This week, AJ nominated.
So they, they get to test apparently now.
That's, that's tire test.
Yeah.
We needed to do more testing.
So AJ was testing this weekend and he had an interview during his test session or this
past week during his session.
Let's hear what he had to say.
It's pretty funny.
It's a combo of kind of two different tests really.
A few of the cars are good year tire testing, working on, you know, always trying to improve
the tire to try to make for better racing.
And, you know, I think for us, we're kind of, I guess you call it the rubber car that
out there trying to lay some rubber down.
Yeah.
That's always been that way, by the way.
Has it?
Yeah.
Can you explain that because I thought that was hilarious.
They actually said it.
They got to have enough cars there when you get to a racetrack that, that doesn't have
a lot of cars at it.
It won't put enough rubber down.
So they bring extra cars, which the tire test have kind of turned into the test.
So when you get to go to the racetrack and have your data and all the stuff that you
have on the car, it allows you to, you know, do some things that you typically wouldn't
do, but that they always bring extra cars.
And then they pick a couple, two or three cars that are doing the actual tire test to
make the decisions.
There you go.
Now it's explained for you.
Yeah.
I think AJ was like, I'm just happy to be on the racetrack that we can work our stuff
a little bit.
I thought that was, that was pretty funny.
Also funny moment.
Todd Gilllin, they call him the Todd father.
Todd father.
Todd father.
Yeah.
They call him the Todd father on socials.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love Todd.
I think Todd is one of the underrated characters in the garage.
And he, he's inside his race car and it looks like a truck from a couple of years ago or
maybe it was earlier this year and he just takes a water bottle and what are we doing?
What are we doing?
What are we doing here?
Why so high?
Why, why?
Like, why any of it?
Kevin, I know he's putting, putting a KHI like, what do you think the,
the strategy here was?
I think the strategy is that he knew there was a camera there and he's showing off.
It's like he's slinging drinks behind bar.
Yeah.
I mean maybe.
I swear these kids, the young kids, they do the dumbest, weirdest stuff.
Like they're always, it's always a game.
Wait till you see the next step.
It's always a game.
No, you're right.
It is always a game.
Yeah.
And Carson holds a bar to get to the next level.
This was funny though.
Let's, let's, let's show this.
This, he came on with his interview and Carson was playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with somebody.
That guy standing right there.
And Carson wins.
So is that, is that a thing?
I had noticed that.
This is the first time he's done it.
Okay.
So me and, when, when I did driver intros, me and Blaney would do during the, during the
playoffs, we would do Rock, Paper, Scissors.
We've done Rock, Paper, Scissors on the show.
I like playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.
That's fun.
It's fun.
I play with the fans.
That's why the fans like him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Doing something abnormal.
Something totally different.
And when he did it, it was so random.
Everyone's like, what the, what the hell is he doing?
And then the video came out.
No, that was, that was awesome.
He's good at creating those viral moments.
Yeah.
The hurricane, you know, I just got to create some viral victories.
Viral victories.
Got one.
We got one in the bag.
We got one.
We need a couple more.
We need him to keep winning.
We do.
We do.
The thing to keep going.
Yeah.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is it for the social sips.
Short and sweet, but always fun.
If you want to leave a voicemail, 805-317-4175.
Just describe yourself.
Short and sweet, but always fun.
Hey, baby.
A lot of chocolate over here.
A lot of chocolate over here.
A lot of grain over here, too.
Mailbag, HarvickHappyR4 at gmail.com.
Love you so much.
What are you going to do?
You know, you present yourself as this young and smooth.
Hip.
Hip.
Yeah.
You can't be young, smooth, and hip with gray in your beard.
Nah.
You become smooth.
At what point does it become weird when you're, like, at the bar with, like, oh, 21, 22, 43?
No.
42?
Almost there.
Almost there.
We're getting closer.
Well, what you do is you don't go to where all the teeny boppers go to.
You stay away.
You try to stay away from those.
So you're, like, in this tweener stage.
Like, do you hang with the tweeny boppers?
Or do you hang with, like, the midlife crisis older folks?
What?
Which one?
You try to hang around kind of more on that side.
You try to hang with the divorced moms of two.
Listen, you take yourself to the nice cocktail bars, and you have some good conversations.
I have not seen any pictures on your Instagram of you nice cocktail bars.
That was almost a mistake.
We all got in trouble.
You won't see any pictures of either two of those things on my Instagram.
We'll be on the lookout for those.
No.
Kaylin, we need to wrap this thing up.
Coming out for our last call, speaking of drinks, last call coming up, time to grade
the burnout.
This is probably going to get some pretty high marks for a lot of reasons for Denny Hamlin's
celebration and tribute to Kyle Busch as well.
Yeah, you know, the burnout was just a burnout, but I think that's the first time I've seen
that 18-8 flag.
They just created it.
Yeah, so that's great.
And I think that with Denny winning and tying Kyle and all the things that are connected
right here, just a really powerful moment, especially for Denny and Kyle being teammates
and tying him on the all-time win list.
And so, you know, I think that, you know, to be able to see that flag flying right there
is great respect towards Kyle Busch.
And just, I know that those types of moments mean a lot.
And I know that had to mean a lot to Denny to be able to do that.
That reminds me of when Jeff did it for Dale, Phoenix.
And immediately when I saw the flag, that was immediately what I thought of.
And I think it's just a very powerful moment.
And we're not ever going to get over not having Kyle this year.
It's going to feel really, really weird because we're supposed to be racing right now.
Like, it's not like he was retired in a way.
Like, he's literally supposed to be with us every week.
And so for them to do, for Denny and that whole group to have the wherewithal to do that,
I think it's volumes for everybody.
Special moment, a healing moment in some ways as well for the sport.
So what are we giving that?
We're going to give it a star.
Let's just give it a star.
Let's give it a star because it doesn't need, you know what I mean?
It's its own thing.
It's its own thing.
Yes.
I agree with that.
Okay.
We're giving that a star.
Alrighty.
Oh, gosh.
I'm getting really tired of this part of the show.
Look, I don't have good pics though.
It can't be obvious.
But I'm saying like, my pics aren't bad.
It's just something to always, because Ty gives.
Ty gives.
Oh.
And I mean, like, I'm just, maybe I shouldn't make a pic anymore.
You're drivers both right.
I'm selecting.
I'm, I'm jinxing them.
Mine, mine got wrecked from second and he was, he beat the winner to the front.
Like he was going to win this race.
Yeah.
It would have been a good race.
See that was going to win.
So Kevin, here's the deal.
Here's the deal.
Closers.
Kevin, yes, he has been picking the winner.
But in the last couple of weeks, he hasn't picked the best car.
He just happened to pick the winner.
Even better.
He just happened to pick the winner.
So I'm giving him credit.
I'm picking the smartest guy.
Give him credit.
We're credited.
The smartest guy.
Picking the smartest guy.
Hmm.
Well, here are the standings.
Kevin.
Oh, it's almost a blower.
Yeah.
77 to Mamba's 50 to my 46.
Um, unfortunate.
That is to say the least.
I'm, you know, you're not that far behind him.
No, I'm not.
You have to, you have to beat him.
I gotta get make up some ground here.
It's even with one less race.
Might as well.
You might as well just pick wherever, whoever he picks.
Well, I think we might have the same pick this week, actually.
Probably.
Cause he's going to go with 11.
And that's who I was going to go with.
But you're picking 11.
I am.
Hmm.
Watch him switch it up.
Watch him switch it up.
He ain't going to do it.
But why?
I gotta do it.
I gotta think of, of a new strategy.
Go ahead.
Okay.
You're still going to beat me.
Listen, uh, this, this guy is usually really good here.
You got his first win here.
Um, give me, uh, the former champ, Ryan Blaney.
Give me the 12.
See, anytime I've gotten him, he hasn't come through.
I know.
Hopefully your picks will be better.
Give me the 12.
I feel good about it.
Really?
Yeah.
He ran fourth there last year.
I know this year and last year is very different, but, um, I feel good about it.
So when you go to this dodge stage, do you actually get to watch the races?
I'm just wondering.
No, I won't.
Do you watch them?
You haven't been surfing.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
So you've actually been watching the races and you're going to make that pick.
Listen, one time I picked Burt Meyers at Bowman Gray.
So, you know, I was just wondering, I didn't know if you'd been watching.
You know what's more fun for me?
What?
I could pick the odds on favorite.
I could pick Reddick every week.
I could pick Denny and SVG, but what's more fun for me is coming in here and dunking on
you, because you can't tell me my pick is dumb and it wins.
That's my favorite thing to do.
Well, you still haven't told us who you're going with.
Yeah.
I'm still thinking.
Still thinking.
Well, he's going to change.
He's going to change it come Friday anyway.
Yeah.
Because I want you to pass him.
So I think your pick is strong and that would be my first pick, but.
Are you going to go on a limb?
Yeah.
Okay.
What do we think?
Oh, he's trying to make it more entertaining folks.
Yeah.
There you go.
A little intriguing twist here.
Yeah.
I think I'm going to pick Bubba Wallace.
Whoa.
I was not expecting that.
All right.
Okay.
I just think he had a lot better attitude this week.
Yeah.
Had a good finish.
Got a little momentum.
He's run well there.
Reference that he still remembered what Kevin said to him all those years ago.
Yeah.
Hey, when he's got, when, when he's a happy Bubba Wallace, he's way better.
He's a fast Bubba Wallace.
That's right.
Happens every time.
Happy Bubba results in speed.
Yeah.
And, you know, it just seemed like he had, he had a little bit more joy in his person,
persona this week.
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
We'll have to see how those three picks fair and poking of this weekend.
One thing I want to discuss briefly before we finish and close out the show is the passing
of Ned Jarrett, a two time cup series champion, uh, passes away at the age of 93.
He was also a second year inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame and one of the best to
go from the seat to the broadcast booth.
So we will greatly missed.
Yes.
What a great man and, and, uh, has done so much for this sport.
The Jarrett family, uh, in, in general, but gosh, just thinking back to all that commentary
and I never got to watch him race much, but you, I think of him as in the commentary booth
and, and doing all the things that he did behind the microphone.
What a great man.
There was, uh, there was a, uh, video, uh, tape that I had when I was a kid and it was
like the thrills and spills of the, um, of the year from NASCAR.
And they used that call from when Dale Jarrett won the Daytona 500 and I, that call is ingrained
into my memory and I'll never forget that.
I think that was one of the best calls of all time.
We're thinking of his family and loved ones and he will be greatly missed.
Okay.
Um, well guys, we've covered a lot of ground here on this show today.
It was great.
I'm glad you got to see me today.
What do you mean?
I don't know.
Yeah.
We're glad you were here.
Stumped her.
Exactly.
What does that mean?
You guys have some inside joke that I'm not wearing right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh geez.
I, I hate when they do this.
Um, well, this has been fun for Mamba, Kevin, myself.
Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow along at Harvard Capipod.
We will see everyone after Pocono.
About this episode
Driving is described as “such a different animal,” with the hosts joking about getting “burnt” and how habits can “bite you.” Michigan’s crowd and Canadian fan pull come up, then the show pivots to Denny Hamlin’s milestone—he “tied Kyle Busch for the all-time wins there.” They break down why practice is about drivability and confidence, discuss strategy and attrition, and dig into wreck dynamics. Pocono gets the “tricky triangle” preview, plus setup, tires, and safety warnings.
Original notes
Age is just a number for Denny Hamlin! Join Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith on this week’s Happy Hour as they break down a historic, caution-filled weekend at Michigan International Speedway.
For the second consecutive week, Denny Hamlin went from last to first. In an emotional tribute to his former teammate and late friend, Hamlin tied Kyle Busch on the all-time wins list and drove a KB flag during his post-race burnout. The crew analyzes how Hamlin continues to perform at an elite level at age 45, securing the biggest margin of victory on a NASCAR oval since 2018.
We break down the massive on-track impact between Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar's highly controversial restart incident that triggered Tyler Reddick’s DNF, and Hocevar's post-race confrontation with Bubba Wallace. Plus, we look at Toyota's ongoing dominance, Spire Motorsports’ stellar top-six finishes, and Connor Zilisch’s persistent rookie struggles.
Also in this episode:
NASCAR Trucks & ARCA: Corey Heim secures his 26th career Truck Series Victory
Remembering a Legend: A heartfelt tribute to NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and broadcasting pioneer Ned Jarrett, who passed away at the age of 93.
Pocono Preview: Can Hamlin make it three in a row? We preview the unique challenges of the Tricky Triangle and look at who is on the chopping block as the countdown to The Chase intensifies.
Social Sips: AJ Allmendinger's tire test at Indy, Todd Gilliland's viral moment, and Carson Hocevar's rock-paper-scissors battle.
We close out the show with our updated Happy Hour point standings, look at our Pocono predictions, and grade Denny's emotional burnout.
Have a question for the crew? 📞 Leave a voicemail at (805)-317-4175
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