This means the local NASCAR fan area around Bristol. The speaker is using it as an example that some places can have multiple races even if they don’t always sell out early.
“Sell out” means the race tickets were completely bought up. The speaker is saying the Chicago event only sold out very late, so they’re wondering if local fans will keep showing up next year.
This is about the NASCAR race market in Las Vegas. The host is saying NASCAR schedules it multiple times even when crowds aren’t great, so ticket demand isn’t the only factor.
They’re talking about the NASCAR event in the Kansas City area. The point is that even if crowds aren’t massive, NASCAR can still schedule more than one race there.
Concept
NASCAR wants it to fit a narrative
They’re saying NASCAR might choose where to race based on what makes a good story or marketing angle. The host thinks crowd numbers only matter when NASCAR needs them to support a decision.
A street race is when cars race on regular city streets that are temporarily turned into a track. It’s usually tighter and bumpier than a normal race track, with walls very close to the cars.
They’re talking about whether the event happens in the Chicago area versus specifically in the city. The point is that location affects planning and how the race experience works.
A street course race is when they turn city streets into a temporary race track for the weekend. Because it’s not built as a permanent track, it’s usually tighter and less forgiving if you make a mistake.
IndyCar is a big U.S. racing series with open-wheel cars. The host is basically saying, “this sounds like something IndyCar would do,” especially for city-style racing.
A road course is a track with lots of turns, not just a simple oval. It’s the kind of track where you can switch tires for wet weather, which is a big deal when it rains.
Place
naval base
They’re talking about a naval base as a possible (but weird) place to hold a race. The idea is that the holiday weekend might not fit well with that kind of venue.
Banking is how much a race track turn is tilted. More banking helps cars go faster through the corner because the track shape helps them stay on the racing line.
Atlanta is being mentioned as a possible place to hold the race. The host thinks it already draws people and could work well with fireworks after the race.
Term
TNT schedule
They’re talking about the TV network (TNT) and when the race is scheduled to air. That timing can affect the whole event, including when it starts and what happens after.
Watkins Glen is a famous race track in New York, known for its road-course layout. The host thinks it’s a better fit for a holiday race than some other venues.
Richmond is a NASCAR short track in Virginia. The host likes the idea because it’s been working well recently and it’s only a couple hours from Washington, D.C.
A “crown jewel event” means the biggest, most important show on the schedule. They’re saying the July 4 NASCAR race is a big deal, but maybe not the very top.
The Bristol Night Race is a NASCAR race at Bristol that’s run at night. The hosts are saying the night-time spectacle is a big reason it feels like a special event.
Road America is a famous race track in Wisconsin. The hosts are talking about which racing series should get the best Fourth of July weekend spot there.
Mid-Ohio is a well-known race track in Ohio. They’re using it as an example of how these racing series are already sharing (or competing for) dates in the Midwest.
“Multi-class” means different types of race cars share the track in the same race. The host is using it as an idea for how two series could run together.
Daytona is a famous NASCAR track in Florida. It’s known for fast racing and close pack racing where drivers work together by drafting.
Place
North Wolfsboro
North Wilkesboro is an older, historic NASCAR short track. The hosts are saying it might not work as well for a big event because the venue may not have the modern infrastructure to handle a large crowd.
They’re saying the main issue isn’t the track itself or the weather—it’s the area around it. If roads and access can’t handle the crowds, parking and traffic get backed up.
Iowa Speedway is a race track in Iowa. The hosts are saying it’s kind of out in the open and not right by a big city, so getting in and out can be a hassle.
“Gateway” is the name of a race track near St. Louis. The hosts are talking about whether it would be a fun place to hold a big holiday race because more people might show up.
Topic
NASCAR playoffs vs college football scheduling
They’re talking about TV competition: NASCAR’s playoff schedule lines up against college football. The point is that the overlap can hurt how “big” the race feels to fans.
Term
TV deals
“TV deals” means the agreements with TV networks about who gets to show the races. The hosts are saying those agreements affect what tracks can be moved around on the schedule.
North Wilkesboro is an old, famous NASCAR track. The hosts are suggesting swapping it with Bristol in the schedule so Bristol gets the playoff spotlight instead.
In NASCAR, the “chase” is the playoff part of the season where the best drivers fight for the championship. The hosts are talking about which tracks should be in that playoff stretch.
SMI is a company that owns NASCAR race tracks. They’re talking about who controls race dates and what concessions might be needed to move events around.
Place
Marksville
Marksville is being brought up as a possible race-track location. The hosts are discussing how NASCAR might move dates around to other tracks it controls.
Darlington is a famous NASCAR race track. They’re talking about whether it’s a good idea to put a holiday date there and how that changes what fans plan to do.
“Date equity” means a race date becomes valuable over time because people plan their calendars around it. If you move it, you can lose fans who already made plans for that time of year.
The “All-Star race” is a big NASCAR event with top drivers. The hosts are saying that changing when it happens can make things worse because fans plan around it.
Shane van Gisbergen is a professional race driver. In this part of the show, they’re talking about a situation where he got into it with another driver and the question was whether NASCAR would penalize him.
Austin Hill is a professional NASCAR driver. The hosts are discussing an on-track incident involving him and Shane van Gisbergen and whether it should have led to a penalty.
A penalty report is the official NASCAR decision document that says what penalties were handed out after an incident. It explains who got penalized and for what reason.
Jeremy Clemens is a NASCAR driver. In this clip, they mention his No. 51 car because a wheel came off, and that resulted in suspensions for two pit crew members.
Here they’re arguing about how NASCAR chooses penalties. They think the rules are applied in a way that depends on admitting intent, and they use an earlier example to make their point.
Ryan Priest is a NASCAR driver discussed here in connection with a points penalty. The hosts argue that the penalty affected his playoff positioning—specifically how close he was to the cut line.
NASCAR uses points to rank drivers over the season. If NASCAR decides someone broke a rule, they can take points away—like a 25-point penalty—which can hurt how close that driver is to making the playoffs.
The “cut line” is the points threshold in NASCAR’s playoff format that determines which drivers advance and which are eliminated. If you’re above it, you’re safe; if you fall below it, you miss the next round.
Richard Childress is a NASCAR team owner figure referenced as someone who believes NASCAR is biased against him. The hosts use his perspective to argue why penalties (or lack of penalties) in this situation might be controversial.
“Under caution” means the race is slowed because of an incident, and drivers must follow restricted rules (like reduced speed and no aggressive passing). Hitting another car under caution is treated as especially dangerous because drivers expect everyone to be controlled and predictable.
The “rules panel” is the group within NASCAR that reviews incidents and decides whether penalties apply. In this segment, the hosts complain that the panel’s decisions vary from week to week.
They’re talking about whether NASCAR is being fair and consistent with penalties. The argument is that if one driver gets punished for hitting someone during caution, another driver should too.
“Penalized” means NASCAR officials punish a driver for breaking the rules. The hosts are arguing that if one driver gets punished for a similar incident, another driver should be punished the same way.
Carson Hosevart is another NASCAR/stock-car driver. They bring him up because he was penalized for a comparable situation, which they use to argue for consistent penalties.
Term
docket points
“Docket points” are points penalties that come from the officials’ review process. If you do something they consider unacceptable, you can lose points.
“Bang doors” is slang for hitting another car’s side during close racing. The speaker is saying NASCAR has historically tolerated that kind of contact more than some other series.
Fenders are the panels around the wheels. In racing, they can get hit during close racing, and the debate here is whether that should be penalized.
Person
Steven Taranto
Steven Taranto is mentioned as the person who posted a tweet that the hosts are reacting to. It’s being used as a reference for what was said about the incident.
“Under yellow” means there’s a caution period on track. Drivers are expected to slow down and be careful, so actions during that time are judged more strictly.
Elton Sawyer is quoted in the episode. The hosts use his comments to discuss whether the situation was retaliation and whether that kind of move is always emotional.
Race control is the group of officials watching the race and deciding things like penalties and safety actions. Their decisions can change how the race plays out.
They’re arguing about how NASCAR should hand out penalties after crashes. The big question is whether NASCAR should decide right away instead of later.
Term
send them to the rear
“Send them to the rear” means the penalty makes the driver start behind everyone else. In this segment, they want that to be applied quickly when contact happens.
The hosts are comparing NASCAR to go-kart racing, where rules are often simpler: if you make contact, you get sent to the back. They’re suggesting NASCAR should use a similarly clear approach.
A “catch all” rule is a general rule officials can use when something doesn’t match a specific rule. The hosts are saying NASCAR could still punish a bad incident later if it’s judged to be too excessive.
“Radio silence” means the driver doesn’t say anything on the team radio after something happens. The hosts are reading that lack of communication as suspicious.
Sonoma is a famous race track in California. It’s the kind of place where NASCAR and other racing series hold events, and where interviews often happen during race week.
In racing, officials can review incidents and decide whether someone gets penalized. “No penalty” means they looked at it but decided not to punish the driver.
PRP here sounds like a process officials use after a race to review whether something should have been penalized. The host is asking if their comments caused any negative reaction related to that review.
Place
Echo Park, Speedway
“Echo Park” is the current naming sponsor associated with the Atlanta-area speedway, reflecting how modern tracks often change names with sponsorship deals. The speaker is correcting the location/name mix-up in real time.
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Joliet, Joliet, Joliet, Joliet. I'm begging of you, please don't take this track. Joliet, Joliet, Joliet, Joliet. Please don't take it
when it just came back. Chicago lands beyond compare with one hour's asphalt
everywhere and racing as good as it can get. I know you like Chicago streets, the
diverse crowds that it brings, but it cannot compete with Joliet. Talks about it
coming back, why can't we just make a pack to race the streets and race Joliet.
And I can easily understand how parking sure was bad for fans, so an ass car can
improve those things at Joliet. Joliet, Joliet, Joliet, Joliet. I'm begging of you,
please don't take this track. Joliet, Joliet, Joliet, Joliet. Please don't take it
when it just came back. Joliet.
Due to technical difficulties, we joined Happy Hour already in progress.
The racing was pretty good this weekend, so obviously it's a very close second, I
would like to see it back, especially since we just got it back. I think it'd be
kind of cruel to bring it back for one year and not do it again, so I don't know.
I'm really curious on what Massey's thoughts are. I think Massey's proven to be my foil
the last few episodes.
No, Chicago line is a permanent structure. It's a permanent structure, so that should
be a good one every year. And Chicago streets, I feel like should be once in a blue moon
type of thing. Like you do it for a two or three year stretch, maybe just two because
you're three stuff kind of fizzles out. And then you go to a different city. And so I
don't see why you couldn't have both on the schedule for next year. I mean, Chicago's
what the third largest city in the United States. It's got, if we could have two dates
in the Martinsville market or the Bristol market, why couldn't we have two dates in
the Chicago market? I think it's big enough and it's a diverse, two different crowds
going. Now, the thing that concerns me about Chicago land is that it didn't sell out until
a few days prior, meaning that, you know, it's the first event back. So there's a lot of
NASCAR fans that were from across the country. They're like, this is our chance to see it.
We're going. They probably won't make that trip again next year.
So the, my concern is, is there the local crowd there enough to sustain it? But I counter
that with Kansas and Las Vegas don't have good crowds and they have two dates every year.
So the crowds, crowds really only matter when NASCAR wants it to fit a narrative.
Like if they want to race somewhere and the crowd doesn't matter, if they don't want to
race somewhere, they're like, oh, it doesn't sell enough tickets. That's what it seems like to me.
But I think we should keep going there. I don't think it should be July 4th weekend,
as we've seen it tends to rain in Chicago on July 4th, time after time. Trust me, we don't.
Everywhere we go, July 4th, no matter what. But I wonder though, like Chicago is a big,
I feel like people would go in the city and see the fireworks
instead of going to Chicago land if you're in that area. So I would like to see it a different
weekend. That would be my idea. I'll tell you what my July 4th plan is, but we can get to that later,
I guess. Is that, that's what we call a little, a little tease in the business.
I think for me, I got a side, I hate this because it may enhance his ego, but I gotta
agree it's Dalton here. Being there all three years, I know, okay, okay, thumbs up. And we'll
bring in our producer, Chris Graham. I want to get his thoughts on this right after me. But
I was there for all three years in Chicago. And even the third year, even though it wasn't
as special, hold on, quote, just because it wasn't the fresh new thing, it still was awesome.
And it still was unique and different and still provided some great racing.
Weather aside and the weather challenges, I do feel like that if they had it this year,
it would have been trickier because Tommy Baldwin on DBC said NASCAR was looking at all
the different lightning strikes and everything. And there was lightning strikes to like two,
three in the morning on Saturday morning, Friday night, Saturday morning,
and they couldn't put all the signage up if they're at the street core. So I mean,
it could have been like a blessing in disguise. So NASCAR has a pulse on the Chicago street race.
I do think it's going to come back for 2027. Whether Chicago land comes back for 2027 is
up in the air to be determined. But I mean, if I had to pick one, I'm going to pick the Chicago
street race. Chris, from your point of view, is one better than the other? Is there room for
two? Is there room for both of these in one year? I think the short answer to that is yes,
there is room for both. I think we should be doing at least one street course race every year.
But I also think it's not 4th of July weekend in Chicago. I'm just going to say I'm old.
I want July 4th to be the firecracker 400. Start that race at 9, 10 a.m. I don't care
what day of the week it is. You'll run at 9 a.m. 4th of July. Let's go.
Is that a later topic? We want to talk about that right now.
We can just ramble on from the first topic and the second topic. I mean, it's almost
about the second topic. Anyway, let's just dive on in to our second topic of the evening. Once
again, this is a from church happy hour program. Brian Nolan, Nolan Hopkins, Michael Massey,
our producer is back. By the way, Chris Graham is back. We miss you buddy. You are hanging out
with those goofballs that they call banana ball in Eugene, Oregon. So we're happy that you're back,
buddy, and he's filling in right now. Let Chris talk about that for a second. What do you do
for a banana ball? I was working the production stage for the pregame and postgame concert
festivities extravaganza. The University of Oregon, we were inside the football practice facility,
which was really cool, laid flooring down across that whole thing and had about 12,
14,000 people inside that building, which was nuts. Then we drove to Iowa City, Iowa,
where we were right off the backside of Kinnock Stadium and we had a full 50,000 people there,
pregame and postgame. It was just insane. So much fun. But thank you guys for filling in.
I know Caleb took a show, Trey was here, so I appreciate you guys. And good interviews,
by the way. You guys did a couple of really good interviews. I was listening in the truck,
so that was fun. But yeah, I think in terms of the schedule and where should we do Chicago land
and the streets of Chicago, I think there really is room for both. Now, I do agree that maybe by
the second or third year, it loses the luster. But man, let's go back to San Diego. That race
was fantastic. Let's see what a street race in D.C. or Philly or one of these Northeast
urban markets that we just don't get enough to. Man, that could be fun. I mean, it kills Dover
in Pocono if you run a street race in Philly, but... Maybe Boston. Maybe hit the...
Indy, paging IndyCar.
They could also see. Yes. Oh, God, yes. But put on the rain tires right away. Just don't even bring
dry tires. Honestly, in July and August in Seattle, it's really sunny. There's like two months out
of the year where it's sunny, and those are the two months. I mean, if you want a sunny race,
go to Seattle in July and August. Yes. Oh, my God, was Eugene Oregon beautiful this time of year.
It was 75, 80 degrees and sunny the entire time we were there.
I wish there was a road course in Oregon. Too bad there's none that exists and NASCAR has never
been to, ever. Maybe like Portland. Portland or something. Man, if only Poland had a road course.
Oh, well, too bad they don't. It's just cutting a little too close to my skin, gentlemen. I have
stuff. It hurts me more than you probably know.
So where did you want the July 4th race? Not Daytona. Let me rephrase that.
that. Let me rephrase that before I get pitchforks and torches. So I wouldn't mind the 4th of July
race Daytona. However, I don't believe the whole 10 a.m. thing like they used to. Y'all, it is so
f-ing hot down here right now. It is miserable. But it's not raining. Yes, it is. Chris, you're not here.
But wait, how is it hot if it's raining? Because rain is cool. Because when it's hot,
it also works. That means rain. Yeah. You got him so jacked up his internet, Fubard.
Wait, so it's a warm rain? I need it. I'm not following here. It rains. The rain makes
it more humid. Every day. Every single day. It rains. Every day. You should tell it to stop.
I wish I could, buddy. To be honest, I actually don't mind it because it's the only thing that
cools the place down. That's my problem. It's like you want to do it at 10 a.m. It's 100 degrees
outside. And if you want to wait until later, it's just going to rain. There's a reason why
NASCAR moved it away from August, or excuse me, away from July. So it can be hotter and rainier.
But it's not. July is the hottest it is. The city of Daytona doesn't want that date back,
because now they have three, they have a third date of tourism. To be honest, the Fourth of July
is not a huge weekend of tourism. It doesn't bring as much as other dates, such as bike week,
or Daytona 500 weekend, or even bike tober fest. What's that concert one?
Oh, Rockville. That's it, man. Yeah, that's awesome. But no. I think, yeah, you got a point.
They put something in August that wasn't there before. So yes, you're going to get some additional
tourism there. But I don't think Daytona is maybe the right place to put it. If you're going to do
it, you can't do it in the middle of the day like they used to. I don't really know where you put it.
I think if you want to put it somewhere, I think you got to put it a road course,
which is what I feel like NASCAR has been trying to do the last few years. Because that way,
if you have it on a road course, you can put on rain tires. So I do not want a road course
for the Fourth of July. Get that crap. What is wrong with you? Although road America was perfect,
because it's literally got America in the name. So you wouldn't want a race at the naval base
on Fourth of July weekend? You wouldn't want that? Yeah, so why doesn't everyone just shut the hell up?
Huh? Well, damn, that's not so stupid, huh? No, he still are, but that's okay. I'm thinking.
Well, just slightly less than you. It's going to rain no matter where we go. It really doesn't
matter. I think we should have a race in front of Brian Nolan's front yard in Idaho and be awesome.
I mean, I live on a road, so it's kind of like going to be like a drag strip,
because one way, but we can find something. So they all just slam on the brakes at the
make it like Avis, where it's just one long, one long skinny road. And then at the very end,
you put like a giant banking. I love that. 50 degree banking. I actually love it.
Oh, what about what about Atlanta?
But Atlanta is already a pretty popular thing on its own.
Have great racing and fireworks after. I think you want it in a popular way.
Well, and it's a TNT schedule. That's what I was about to say. It's a TNT and where is TNT located,
Atlanta? Yeah, but I think you want about you don't want the Fourth of July weekend out of track
that nobody likes. Let's go to Watkins Glen. No, I think that they want to be Saturday night
or Sunday night, right? And then right in the race. And there's fireworks afterwards.
Let's go to a short track. Let's bump Richmond into there because the last couple of years.
Here we go. It's been good the couple of years. It's two hours from the nation's capital. So if
you wanted to travel to it, you could go see fireworks in DC and then come down and watch the
race. And it would be the city's biggest fireworks display. Right now, the biggest fireworks thing
is the flying squirrels, a double A baseball team is what people go to. People. I'm texting out of
bigger is Richmond. I will say big enough to handle that type of weekend because something to me
that NASCAR on the Fourth of July was always spectacular. It wasn't just another race. It was
big. It wasn't quite a crown jewel event, but the party was there. I more think of something
like the Bristol night race on the Fourth of July. Now you're talking about we're going to have the
mountains. We're going to have the giant ass fireworks show. We're going to have a whole,
yeah, we're going to have Bristol under the lights. That's the type of thing that I go,
oh, event. That's big. The thing is really like that. This bruises Americana. Oh my.
Richmond was that from 2004 to, you know, whenever it started declining, when it hosted the finale
before the chase and it was the Chevy rock and roll weekend, you had some of the biggest music
acts of the time. So it has the ability then this was at the peak of NASCAR. It has the ability.
They just have not put any money or effort into that track lately. So I'm saying that would be
the thing to make it a hot ticket again. Right now, it's like the only traditional track that
doesn't have like a weekend, like a, you know, a special weekend. I'll give you a free segue here,
Mr. Nolan, because if we shuffle topics a little bit, the Fourth of July weekend at Road America
is already occupied by the NTT IndyCar series. Oh, does NASCAR have enough muscle left to push
IndyCar out of that primo date? Weren't they in Mid Ohio this past weekend? Oh yeah,
Mid Ohio, whatever. Same thing. Well, well, it's the Midwest and they all just.
They're all the same. Mid Ohio, Road America, Toronto. Your argument, it would be way too close
to have an IndyCar race right after, right before NASCAR race for Road America. It wouldn't make any
sense for them out there. Why not both? Let's do it at the same time. Same race. NASCAR off.
Sure. Even better. Multi-class. All-star race. I like the short track idea because, and I really
like the Bristol idea, Bristol Night Race idea, because Bristol just like, when people from outside
of the country think of NASCAR, they think of that scene from cars, the opening scene from cars,
which is just Bristol, which is the Bristol Night Race, or they think of Daytona or something.
They don't think of anywhere else that we've really discussed so far. I kind of like that
piece of Americana that the Bristol Night Race has. It also satisfies what I'm saying, which is
it's going to rain no matter where we go. Well, NASCAR has been a lot more open to just using
rain tires at a short track the last few years. I think that satisfies that. I was going to say
North Wolfsboro because that's part of the tool here. I was going to say that, but to what
Chris was saying, that doesn't really satisfy that market. They don't have the infrastructure
to handle the crowd that that might bring. You know what would be maybe actually be a good
racetrack and that'd be hot. The fans are going to pack it out. What about Iowa?
Iowa doesn't have kind of the infrastructure either, to be honest with you.
I see what you're saying. I do see what you're saying, like go for a field of dreams kind of
thing. You would absolutely blow up Iowa Speedway if you were to do it on the 4th of July.
Yeah. Like literally with fireworks or?
Potentially. I mean, when you're driving past several hundred miles of knee-high by the 4th
of July, then that's really, there isn't all that much out there in terms of activity. You're
drawing a massive crowd from a wide radius. You're pulling from the Chicago market for the
race at Iowa Speedway. It actually, I think almost hurts those other tracks if you don't
space them out, because if NASCAR tries to do an upper Midwest tour of Chicago land, Chicago
streets, Kansas, Iowa, you're going to run all these tracks, people run out of disposable income.
I think that might be an issue for hosting that event at Iowa, maybe to the detriment of other
places. And I do think that there's going to be a lot of blowback, because I mean, like we saw the
clips of the parking. I mean, Danny Hamlin said it best on his podcast, when you have parking A,
B, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, and K all closed because of the roads. I think it's an infrastructure
problem, not track, not rain problem. And I don't know if they need to put gravel on it, if they
need to put concrete, do something, because yeah, there's going to be a lot of people that are
going to be like, for that, why the hell would I want to come back after that? F that. I mean,
if I was stuck in that for like two and a half hours and missed the first 40 laps, I would eat
piss. So I mean, I think that's a topic for a different time, maybe not on tonight's program,
but I mean, I do feel like Chris does have a point where it's in the middle of nowhere,
that it could get all backed up and jumbled up and then it just can be chaos, you know?
Yeah, I mean, Iowa Speedway, I don't know if you guys have been out there, but it's literally
off of I-80, you exit onto Rusty Wallace Drive, you run up the hill and there's the racetrack,
and the parking is fields around it. Like it's the same issue Chicago has, but worse,
like the hotel's having a gateway terrible. They got explosives already.
I was just going to say that whole team, that whole promotions team at Gateway
would lose their minds to have that race on the Fourth of July, right in Middle America,
St. Louis, man, that would be, that Gateway could be fun. Hey, that's Michael Maskey's favorite
racetrack. Oh, I hate that track. I feel like people would go to the Cardinals game instead,
though, like the Cardinals would be a bigger pool track. So it's a big thing there. The other,
the other point for Bristol, I'll give you, is that NASCAR kind of killed the Bristol
Knight race, putting in playoffs, because now it's always head to head with college football,
where if you pulled it back, you would give it more prestige, more eyeballs.
So yeah, it just felt like it's big of a deal ever since they moved it to September. That's just
my thought on it. The Cardinals don't suck as much as I thought. They're 47 and 42. My apologies,
in case anyone was wondering. But Dalton, did you have anything before we dive on into our next
topic? I was just going to say, I think the majority of us agree. I think Bristol would
probably be a really great fit. I think to satisfy the TV deals between TNT and NBC,
you just swap North Wilkesboro with Bristol on the schedule. You put North Wilkesboro on the chase.
I don't think people would be too upset with that. You put Bristol on for the July weekend,
and you get all that, that goodness that comes out of it. You get the fireworks,
you get the grand spectacular event that fans really want before the July weekend,
and you get that piece of Americana that I've been talking about that fans really want to see.
I like that plan. I do wonder real quick, with Chicagoland being a NASCAR date,
I wonder if that complicates things. If NASCAR has the 4th of July date right now,
and they're not going to give that up to SMI. That would be another, maybe that would
go towards Richmond or another track that NASCAR owns. We're going to have to wheel and deal.
Yeah, exactly. Well, we'd have to look at the short tracks that NASCAR owns.
Yeah, Marksville.
Their date's great right now, though. Yeah, I don't mind that.
You're going to take that off Mother's Day, though?
I mean, do people really go to Darlington to celebrate Mother's Day?
Yeah. That's pretty close together. Something to keep in mind also is date equity is really
important. You know, when you have, as much as you go, okay, Darlington Mother's Day, sure,
we can flip that, that people have started to build their schedules around that. In the Southeast,
we can go to Darlington for Mother's Day. Maybe that's not the right date for that track,
but once you have date equity, it's really important to keep it, because we saw what
happened to Dover with the All-Star race. Moving that up into May, where Dover used to have two
summer dates, it hurts. People do make their plans around when they're going to go to these
races, and I think that's something to really, really watch. And to the SMI versus NASCAR point,
that, I think, is ugliness that comes out of that. I don't see any way that works. Well,
it kind of has to go to a NASCAR track, or a huge concession from SMI.
I hear your argument about date equity, and I raise you, Watkins Glenn.
I think NASCAR is taking the idea of date equity, and they have thrown it out the window
in the last few years. Oh, I mean, they're returning it back next year.
Yeah. Do you know that for sure? Yeah, because they said it was in the house last year.
Yeah. Oh, they did say that in the day. Well, okay. Yeah, so that's even worse,
but that takes your date equity and throws it out the window.
Like, I hate the concept of that. And they did that to the Bristol Night Race. Like,
they already ruined the date equity by moving it into the playoffs, because it was always like
the last weekend before school started. They did that for the Southern 500 for a long time, too.
Yeah, they did. Well, they went to Fontana. Yeah. And that was that.
Man, both of you just loved it. Just like, one just stabbed me right in the chest,
and one stabbed me right where the sun doesn't shine. So, man, I'm having a great show today.
You know what? We do love those. You know what? Let's take a quick break. When we come back,
we're going to be diving into SVG versus big country, Austin Hill. That's coming up
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Welcome back to the Front Stretch. Happy hour program. Once again, it is presented by My Place
Hotels. We stayed there this past weekend in the Indy Car Land. So big thanks to My Place Hotels.
Once again, My Place. They are phenomenal. Huge thanks to My Place. We're going to be
staying there in Nashville, in Indy, North Wilkesboro, in Atlanta. I mean, for the next
month that we're going to be using them every single week. So big thanks to My Place.
Boys, let's dive on in. We're going to bring in my boy Chris Graham. Once again, our producer for
being our fourth. Big country and the Aussie got into it. And this is not the first time that
we've had people get mad at you. We're a bunch of Mexicans here as one of our commenters.
Hey, I mean, yeah, the Kiwi that commented, Brock called me a Mexican or a Canadian,
which one am I? And I'm neither. But thanks, Brock, for trying to name and support the program,
brother. But SVG and Austin Hill, they got into it once again. And boys, I'm not going to lie. At
first, I thought it was intentional. And then I looked into it more and I think it's more intentional.
However, the penalty report came out and Chris, you can pop that up if you want. There's no penalty
for SVG. The only penalty was for the number 51 of Jeremy Clemens. Having the wheel come off and
two of his pit crew members have been suspended for the next two races. There's no penalty. So
boys have at it. Massey, I'll start with you. Is this game on now?
It's just the stupidest thing that we see. Like this was way more blatant than the Ryan Priest
thing that actually got a penalty earlier in the year. When all priests did was hold his line and
not left. SVG went into that corner saying, I'm going to wreck you, Austin Hill. And it's just
the way NASCAR does things. It's all about if you admit it. That's the only way they're going
to penalize you. It'd be like if I went and robbed a bank, but I didn't tell anyone I was going to
rob the bank. Okay, you're good to go. But if I announce everybody, I'm going to rob this bank,
then I went and did it. Oh, well, he admitted to it. He And then they put me in
jail. It's just, it's the stupidest system. The thing is too, like maybe there's the factor
if they didn't want to impact the chase standing. So it's Shane being in the chase right now,
but they already impacted it because they already impacted the penalized Ryan Priest,
who would be much closer to the cut line if he hadn't gotten that 25 point penalty earlier
in the season. So it's just, I don't even know what's the penalty anymore. And if I'm, you know,
Richard Childress is already a guy that like thinks NASCAR is out to get him all the time.
In this situation, I feel like he's got, he's got a leg to stand on. Because why do they not penalize
the guy? They also should have penalized Austin Hill for hitting SVG under caution. That's dangerous.
But I don't know. It's just, it just depends on however the, you know, the rules panel is
feeling that week, whether they want to penalize. There's no consistency whatsoever. It's ridiculous.
Don, it feels like, I mean, you kind of have a close
not relationship with this because you're the one that got Ryan Priest, the interview that he
admitted it, and he ended up getting fined for that. But it does feel like-
Yeah, Ryan Priest fans.
Yeah.
So, so, go ahead.
Go ahead, Dalton. Go ahead, buddy.
Well, so I just want to say, first off, it was not my interview that got Ryan Priest in trouble.
It's what he said on the radio after he hit, got into that, that
altercation. Yeah, I was tied to you. I'm sorry, there's been some-
You can talk with me.
Yeah. Well, I did talk with him afterward, but that wasn't what NASCAR cited when it came to
their, their penalization. They cited what he said on the radio afterward. That's what they said
on holler talk. So, it was what he said on the radio where he basically admitted to it. And then
with me, he just said, I did what I did because of this. I hate that he wrecked. And
so, before Ryan Priest fans started going after me in the comment section,
secondly, I concur with Massey. I think very few people will disagree with what he said.
It seems to be the general consensus of like,
I am pretty sick of the inconsistency when it comes to these calls because, yes,
Priest admitted to it, but just because SVG didn't get in front of a camera or say anything on the
radio does not mean he is completely absolved of all guilt. As a media member, that actually pisses
me off because that's like NASCAR saying, you can do whatever the hell you want as long as you
don't say anything to media. Like almost like encouraging to not say anything in front of a
microphone, to not show any kind of character whatsoever. Like just be stoic, don't talk to
media, push them away, don't ever admit to anything and we won't find you. So, that really
upsets me a lot because we don't get that character side of those drivers if that's the case.
Secondly, I don't understand. I agree. I think Austin Hill should have also been penalized because
he said he did that under caution, which drivers have been penalized before recently for hitting
somebody else under caution. Carson Hosevart did. Actually, was it Nashville last year that happened?
Or was it Iowa? I think it was Iowa actually. Was it two years ago? Yeah, it might have been.
Yeah, it was at Nashville. Yeah, it was That's
right. I think that happened two years ago and this happens then Austin Hill drives up to SVG
under caution and then hits them and nothing. We get nothing. So, that's the inconsistency I'm
talking about. That's what I just don't understand. We need to get out of this gray area because it's
pretty cut and dry to me. If you deliberately hit somebody under caution, at least as egregiously and
obviously as Austin Hill did, that's a penalty. I'm like, sorry, that's how it should be. If SVG
is going to stay in the throttle for an extra two seconds while entering the corner and use the same
line as Austin Hill, but I'm sorry, that's a penalty. I'm not saying it's a suspension,
maybe a fine. That way, we can kind of encourage NASCAR drivers to be a little aggressive because
that's what we want in this sport. We want these guys to be aggressive. We want these guys to kind
of rub fenders a little bit and show us some character for F's sake. So, either all of it is
okay or none of it is okay. I wish somebody would stand up and say, we're going to say,
hands off, you guys can do what you need to and if you guys can do what you need to and if it's
so egregious and so bad that it gets to the point, we'll just fine you a little bit. We're just going
to fine you. Or they say, absolutely, we're going to be F1 and you're not going to be able, you can't
do anything under caution, you can't do anything on the racetrack, don't wreck anybody. If we think
it's direct somebody, we're going to find you in docket points. I hope it's the former and not
the latter, but there needs to be some kind of consistency between the two. I think part of
the thing that we really have to consider is that we don't have the avoidable contact rule
that they have in other open-wheel series and even the sports car series and whatnot,
because ultimately, that rule is the way to solve it. You make contact with somebody and it's
avoidable, you will be penalized for it. It's just a matter of what the extent of the penalty is.
We don't want that in NASCAR. We want them to be able to use their fenders and bang doors and do
that whole thing. I mean, I'm seeing the tweet from Steven Taranto where Elton Sawyer said the
thing with Hill hitting SVG under yellow in retaliation, it was viewed as an emotion thing.
And to quote Elton Sawyer here, I would have done the same thing 30 years ago when I was a driver.
Okay.
Not good enough, sorry.
Yeah.
Is it a retaliation, always an emotional thing?
Yeah, that's it. You're talking about, I think we've talked about inconsistency.
I think there we have to consider is that line incompetence in race control, because one of
the big things that we have now that they didn't have 30 years ago is we have all of the data.
We have cameras on every damn car. There are communications listened to from every car to
every driver to every crew. There is so much data that NASCAR has at their disposal instantly.
There's no way this call should not be made in real time. We shouldn't be waiting for Tuesday.
If it's the eyeball test, did SVG wreck Austin Hill? Yay, nay, okay. Here's the penalty.
If everybody else already knew that right as soon as they said it, right as soon as it happened, NASCAR should know that.
Yeah. We have less technology at short tracks and short tracks are like, oh, you were involved in
this caution to the rear. Get your penalty right there than in there. So here's the thing though.
They do one bad call, Massey, and then everybody's going to lose their godforsaken mind and they're
going to be like, well, this is why we used to wait till Tuesday because we can't get the damn thing right.
That's why I think the short track thing is a good medium because you're not over penalizing people.
You're just sending them to the rear, but they're still getting a penalty, whether they're, you
know, if they're involved at all, even if they just got a little piece of it.
Use the go-kart tracks rule. If you make any kind of contact at all, you go to the back.
If you're involved, you go to the back. If it brings out yellow.
Yeah. If it brings it, if the contact brings out a yellow, everybody that's involved goes to the back.
It's easy. It's cut and dry, and it is an immediately enforceable penalty. It's not
something that we're going to look at afterwards. And obviously there's stuff like Austin Hill wrecking
Eric Almarola with a right rear. That's different. It's excessive and you can,
that's actions detrimental. You know, let's use the catch all crap clause, but you can enforce an
additional penalty later. I think it's really important. NASCAR has to officiate this stuff in
real time. I hate that we have to wait for a Tuesday penalty report to go, oh, this effectively
changes the outcome of the race. Yeah. Another point that Jeff Gluck brought up on the chairdown
that I hadn't thought about was that in neither of the wrecks on Sunday, Zane Smith's wrecking
host of our Austin Hill, or SVG wrecking Austin Hill, neither driver got on the radio was like,
oh man, I didn't mean to do that. Tell him I didn't mean to do that. So like it was just radio
silence, which I feel like is more saying you're guilty than anything. Because like,
if you really, if it was really a mistake, you would be sorry.
To be fair, he did say that once he got out of the car, SVG did. But that's like, yeah,
are we really going to believe that? You know, like, come on.
In a world where we train drivers to speak like PR people, and we have PR people handling them
before they come out of the care center or out of the hauler to talk to the media,
you think that's not the conversation that's happening? Correct. Yeah.
So we're back to more PR crap and spin. Just let these guys wreck each other and say, hey,
we're going to send you to the back. You want to be stupid in the back?
Preaching to the choir. Not wrong. Good call. Not wrong.
Let's dive on into our last topic of the evening. Once again, it's presented by My Place Hotels.
Big shout out to everybody at My Place. They do a fantastic job. So thank you, My Place. Gentlemen,
there was some ratings that came out that wrote America the IndyCar series average 1.8 million
views. It's how much the rating for Sonoma did 1.8 million views. That is the first time that
NASCAR and IndyCar basically have gone toe to toe in the same weekend. So is there cause for
concern from one side or another? Or is this basically just what one was on TNT and one was
on local TV that had a great thing with the World Cup exiting and they entering? Is there cause
for concern though? Adult and I'll start with you. I don't think there's cause for concern.
I think it's, look, I think the World Cup thing, people are discounting a little bit too much
just because, look, the World Cup, I mean, but Brian, I think all of us, we were all in a text
chat or something. Oh, buddy, we were, our text chat was open. Well, well, Trey brought up the
the views for the last US match. We're not this one that just happened where we decided to not
play the game yesterday, but I'm talking about last week was like, that was you. I'm sorry,
my bad. That was like 29 million. Wasn't it something insane? Yeah. I know that was a US game.
I understand that. But at the same time, I mean, crazy. It's still the World Cup. I mean, you still
have, you still have Europeans here watching that game. Watch, I think it was, I can't remember what
teams it was. I think Egypt was one of them. Forgive me, forgive my ignorance for not knowing,
but I saw somewhere, I read somewhere an article on this that it was, it was 2.9 million
when the IndyCar broadcast started. That 2.9 million is included in that, in that final
tally for the views and that average. So you take 2.9 million at the opening and then you
take 1.8 million and then you take the exact opposite end of that.
We're talking about, I'm doing the math in my head. We're talking about 900,000
at the lowest point. Now, I don't think, I don't, I know IndyCar has done great. The Fox has done a
fantastic job improving IndyCar and I agree. And not to mention, to be honest with you,
TNT is not exactly the best channel to have a NASCAR Cup Series race on when it comes to
this question when it comes to Sonoma. There was a dip. dip over last year. So
there's that included too. 1.8 million is not a good number. That's a bad number.
So I think it's a little bit of both. You got to include the World Cup number,
but you also got to include the fact that, yes, having a Sonoma race on TNT is probably not going
to go too well, especially when it's also competing with other World Cup matches. That's the other
thing. So everything, it really sucks for NASCAR to not have races on Fox while Fox is broadcasting
the World Cup and IndyCar is also broadcasted by Fox. Here's the thing, Dalton. Algeria and
Switzerland, 3.4 million viewers. It was on FS1. So if people want to watch it, if people want to
watch it, they will find it. I mean, Portreville, Croatia on Fox, 11.1 million. Spain, Austria
on Fox, 6.52 million. And it just came out yesterday's match was the most watched soccer
telecast in U.S. history with 30 million viewers. So if they... What's the one before IndyCar have?
I was just curious. It was 2.9 when IndyCar broadcast started.
What? Do you know what it was? That's what I was asking. I don't know what it was.
But anyway, my point is that if it was on Fox, I'm guessing it was more than
the 3 million you said for an FS1 broadcast. It was closer to that 30 million figure probably.
So let's say it's 25 million. That also feels like not a good thing for IndyCar if there were 25
million people watching, and then all but 23 million of them turned their TVs off right after
the broadcast started. 25 million. Yeah, I was just going to say because if you want to have this
ratings discussion, let's wait two weeks and see what that number looks like when the IndyCar
broadcast from Nashville, they are doing gentlemen start your engines, the instant coverage flips
from the World Cup final to IndyCar. You are talking about having a 100000000 viewers
potentially at the start of an IndyCar race. But we'll see how they turn their TV off.
Now, all of them are going to turn their TV off. It doesn't matter. Not all of them. I do think
there will be quite a bit of them. The people watching at home turn their TV off. The people
that are watching in bars and whatnot, the TV channel doesn't get changed. And that's what
you're hoping for. You're looking for that carryover audience that way. It should in
NASCAR be worried about the TV numbers. Yes, they should. IndyCar is not trumpeting
their TV numbers following the World Cup games because they know that's a World Cup game bump,
and it's going to be over in a couple of weeks. They trumpeted the hell out of the Road America
numbers. Yeah, because Road America was huge. Road America, that was a big number. I don't know
is becoming a property. People are starting to see it for what it was back in the 80s,
which was a direct competitor to NASCAR. It was faster cars on faster race tracks,
and it was that kind of, oh my God, kind of spectacle that NASCAR was good old boys
pounding around short tracks. Yeah, I think NASCAR should be worried about the trajectory
that IndyCar is on right now. I don't think they're all tied up yet, but I think the gap is
definitely closed between the two. It does hurt that I wonder how many people have TNT
these days with less and less people having cable, whereas everyone has Fox, it's easy to watch.
I'm curious to see when we get to a couple of these NBC races, what the numbers are going to
look like, and IndyCar wants the World Cups over to see if they're gaining new fans
from that experience. But yeah, I think I also don't really think that it's a competition either.
I mean, internally, I'm sure it is like we got to meet these guys. But I think the more IndyCar
fans you have, you could create NASCAR fans out of and vice versa, like I watch both and love them
both. So why can't other people as well? So I just I've been doing the research.
It was a 1pm start for South Africa and Canada after that NHRA was on. And then after that,
it was Road America. With that being said, the NHRA Nationals had the sixth largest audience on
record for an NHRA event with 1.47 million. So I mean, even NHRA is bumping up. So I mean,
shout out World Cup. Yeah, you're going to say something about this next year when let's
revisit this next year when IndyCar goes back and let's compare the numbers. I promise you,
you're going to see a drop. I promise. Yeah, well, sure. And then and then people are going to sell
us because we had the World Cup last year. Like this. Now, look, listen, listen, listen, this is
not me crapping on IndyCar. Okay, because I try to watch every IndyCar race. I really honest to
God do. And I will say if there was any race to have as a as a World Cup lead in, Road America
was a good one, because that was a solid race. That was a great finish. And Road America is a
great track. So I am I am interested to see with this Nashville race, I think Nashville is going
to put on a good show too. So this is not me crapping on that. I'm just being realistic. And
I'm also saying NASCAR is not exactly the best shape, especially with to be and I hate saying
this about TNT because I like the guys at TNT. I think they do a good job. But TNT is probably
the lowest rated channel that you're going to have, have. It also helps
every race on Fox. Well, okay, I meant by that, I meant broadcast partner,
because they're all on TNT, whereas at least NBC, you're going to have some races on NBC.
So the gap is narrowing. I think that is true. It really speaks to we have to take less money
to guarantee every race on network television. Is that the majority on prime?
Yeah, or or you're going to go that route where you're just going to put it on a streaming partner
and say it's going to go on prime, it's going to go on flow. If you think NASCAR is not looking
into buying flow, I think that's that there was a time where flow was looking at buying ESPN away
from ABC. So that speaks to where the market is going. We're going the route of streaming.
And that's a I think F1 was a little bit too far ahead of the curve going to Apple TV,
especially burying themselves on Apple TV. But man, I moved to prime for a full season.
Now you're it's basically the functional equivalent of a NASCAR channel on a linear cable system,
because everybody's got it. Yeah, more people have prime than they have cable now.
And this the steal we have now what is it? It's like 25 races are on cable. That's entirely too many.
I agree. I think I saw I just read somewhere that prime had a 6% increase in overall viewership
for the five races year over year. So and I think the average was 2.2 million 2.29. So rounded up 2.3.
Those are decent numbers. They're not they're not wonderful, but they're decent and not to mention
the overall quality of the broadcast is just better. So I don't know. It's better than TT.
Yeah, I do like Marty spin. The Marty party is popping.
All right. That being said, boys, what are you giggling about?
The Marty party, Smith.
Marty is popping. We're dropping it like it's hot, brother. Speaking of dropping it like it's hot,
let's dive on into our bracket. Mr. Chris Graham, do you have our bracket all set up where we can
share it? Well, I have I have the official NASCAR graphics of this. So it's not our bracket.
It's this is the official NASCAR bracket. But based on what I heard the last couple of weeks
while I was on the road, you the only people worse than picking for than you guys was Michael
Bella Feminine on through the gears. And I will be busting his stones about that this weekend as
well. Love it. So yes, yes, he has already clinched the last place. But it sounds like you
guys didn't do a whole lot better. Hey, as long as I didn't finish it last. Whoa. How about who's
got it up? Who's We're gonna bring it up right now. Boss. I don't know. But I think
yeah, if you guys get me a link, I can pull it up.
I think, Massey, Massey, get it to this man right now. Massey, get it to him.
Hurry up. I hate. Where's the Japanese? We apologize. But I believe the only people we have left
are Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, which is our championship matchup, which is great. That's
and in the media league and as our media members leak, I am second to last. So I'm not last.
I am second to last. It is I good. Wait, who is last? God, man.
I didn't know them second to second. Jackson Kenny. I do not know who that is. Is that admittedly
Massey is doing okay. He's 18th. He's tied with Jeff Gluck, as a matter of fact, and Bob
Pocras. Hey, I love it. Massey is just as smart as Jeff Gluck and Bob Pocras. Bobby.
Yep. I say I'm trying to get this pulled up here, but it seems to disappear as soon as I
open it up. So let me see. I can confirm all we have left is Elliott and Blaney.
Oh, hell. That's our championship matchup. Ryan Blaney is our champion,
but we could go through them all. It's like Bowman Gilliland.
Okay. Yep. So here you go. So I'll give you that back for now while I pull up our bracket.
You don't want to see our hideous wrong bracket, but all right. Bowman Gilliland,
who do we think is going to do it? I feel good. I'm all in to Gilliland.
Let's go Gilliland. I don't hate that. Ford is really good at Gilliland. I know
they've been struggling this year, but I like you've got a chance of a real underdog story with
Gilliland going around getting around Bowman for the win. I think we should get Gilliland.
I would have to agree, although I don't think we can't, we're past picking now, but I would,
I would imagine Gilliland. Chase Elliott. The loser has to get a new name.
I have to go by the what? The chaser.
Or Carl. They're getting chased. Oh, the battle of the chases.
Yeah. It took you a little bit there, brother. Well, yeah, I didn't know what you were trying to
say. That you're talking about our podcast, our podcast bracket that we have going on.
Chas. We're doing that podcast right now. Well, who's, I mean, what's the punishment?
Have we agreed on that yet? On last place? I thought it was a ball to the balls.
That's just what you want. You can't do that to yourself. That's, yeah.
But anyways, Frisco Elliott. Oh, no, I thought it was the, I thought we were going to make
someone do like play by play of like the 2019. Yeah. That's the front runner right now.
That is the front runner. The worst race I've ever attended. Oh, Daytona. Yep.
Brian, do you like Elliott over Brisco, Atlanta? I do. think
Elliott, I mean, he's a defending winner of that race from July. And we need him.
We need him. We do, brother.
Back to him now.
Hamlin Bell. I like Bell Atlanta, Atlanta, because Denny's really never done much there.
Bell's the one at Atlanta. Let's go, Christopher Bell.
I agree. And then we've got to go with Blaney. We have to pick Blaney.
Yeah, our champion. We've got to have him. Yep. We've got to have our champion.
I like that. I like him anyway. I think Blaney, I mean, again, he's a Ford. I think the Pinsky
cars are going to look pretty good this weekend. Finally. Awesome. That's awesome.
No, we just all agreed with each other the whole way around. Wow. That's riveting.
That's not really good. But you know, whatever floats our boats and helps us sleep at night,
you know, whatever fits the ball to your balls. No, no, that is being a bad dog.
Bad dog. You know what else? else does not make you a bad dog? When you go to my
place hotels, they have amazing, comfortable beds. They're dog friendly. It is just fantastic.
You can even get breakfast in bed if you want. Once again, my place hotels, we're going to be
staying there in Nashville next week, Atlanta this week, North Wilkesboro next week,
India in a couple of weeks, Atlanta this week. Like I said, I mean,
my place is the place to go for all of your racing needs once you're in my place hotel. So big
chat to my place. Gentlemen. Okay. Oh, wait. I thought I had it. Let's see. There it is. Now I
got our bracket up. Thank you, Chris. Yep. Hey, if you guys tell me this stuff in advance, I'll
I can make it out faster. We have two out of lines. We still got two. both of our
I still like our chances with Elliott and Blaney. I think I think we'll be okay. Where's our ranking
right now? Your current rank is 62,184. No, no, no. I'm talking about the podcast.
Let's go back to the league.
We're four out of five, but us and Neff have the most points remaining.
And that's good. This is the this is the front stretch league. Yes, the overall front
stretch league. That's correct. So I did my best here for you, boys. We appreciate you, brother.
It's not. I will say this, Neff's car, we really need to up your your game on this thing for like
analytics purposes. Good. Once again, big thanks to Chris Graham for always doing everything
in terms of keeping this Godforsaken program on the up and up. So we thank Chris for that coming
up this week on the frontage podcast network of bringing the heat. We're going to be bringing
some love to the podcast with Jesse Love. He is going to be now that was a good tease. Don't
give me credit there. Jesse loves interview that Danny Peters conducted in Sonoma. Yes,
it was Sonoma. You will play that on Thursday. I'm bringing the heat. So check that out through
the gears with Michael Bellison memory. I said that I got I got practice that and then you got
and then you got to stop car scoop with Eric that love to announce the a greatly shout out Eric.
He's going to be on recap and the race on Sunday night. Dalton, are you writing anything?
I am. I got this week's fire on Friday. So you're going to hear some hot takes from me. I'm going
to be honest with you. It might be a reaction to the penalty and or the not penalty, the no penalty
that was that was called. So probably read a lot about the stuff that I already wrote said
on this podcast. Did you get any blowback from your PRP? Did anybody did anybody message you?
Not personally, but then again, I haven't been to the track since I wrote that. So, you know,
we'll see what happens. Okay. Yeah, I haven't heard anything. I've gotten some text messages from
some other media members saying they agree with what I was saying. So that's good. There you go.
That was probably one of mine. That was probably a text from me because I agreed with it. So
I appreciate you writing that piece. Thank you, buddy. It means a lot. Michael Massey,
Jr., the third, are you going to be writing anything? Well, I'm going to be at it. Not
Atlanta Motor Speedway. Echo Park, Speedway. No, no, no, no, no. You're, you're going to be in
Atlanta. Echo Park, Georgia. I'm going to be in Echo Park, Georgia. Check it with me. No, it's Atlanta.
Yeah, the track? I will ship you off to Echo Park, Speedway. I will just be passing by Atlanta.
Say hi to Atlanta as I go to Echo Park in Hampton, Georgia. So I'll write lots of stuff there.
Myself and Landon Quisenberry. Landon Quisenberry. We do love, we do love Landon. We got a big, big
weekend on tap from Lyme Rock, Bill Allaway, and Michael Bella Benemene. I'm getting better.
I feel a bit butchering the hell out of my fingers. She worked nowhere close. It's okay.
We need it. Chris, can you, can you create a nickname for him? It's like, it's like, uh,
Timmy Cachow from the Indie Necks, when it's like, but they just call him Timmy Cachow. We need
that for Michael B. Oh, Bell Fam. Okay, Michael Bell Fam. He's the biggest loser.
Why? Because he lost. Because his brackets at last place.
Well, I thought you're just making fun of him because you don't like him or something. I was
like, geez, Chris, you could have sent that off the air, but damn. But yeah, maybe.
Then Landon Quisenberry and Michael Massey are going to be at Atlanta. No Indie Card this week.
They'll be back next week. So, stay tuned for all the latest. It's sad. Once again,
this program was presented by My Place 10% off your next day when you use the code
Front Tritch. Once again, F-R-O-N-T-S-E-R-E-E-B-H. Once again, make My Place your place for all
of the latest in the race weekend for Dalton Hopkins. Michael Massey, our fantastic producer,
Chris Graham. I'm Brian Ohm. Thank you so much for joining us and we'll talk with you
next week here on the Front Tritch Happy Hour program.
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About this episode
The hosts debate whether NASCAR should keep the Chicago Street Race or bring back Chicagoland (the oval) for 2027, with plenty of crowd/venue logic and weather talk. One side argues the street event is unique and should return; another worries about ticket demand and whether the local audience can sustain Chicagoland after a late sellout. They also riff on ideal July 4th scheduling—especially avoiding Chicago’s rain—while joking about road-course possibilities and even rethinking where a Firecracker-style race should land. Producer Chris Graham adds schedule and urban-market ideas.
