Happy Hour: Jordan Bianchi Talks NASCAR Hall of Fame, Dover Future & Silly Season

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previously on happy hour what's going on Michael Massey here I usually do an intro song for happy

hour I thought I'd mix things up this week and do it live from the block with one campground for

my tent here while the race is going on unfortunately I dropped my guitar a couple miles back and it

sank so deep into the mud I feared I may never see it again but I'll sing this song acapella for

well somebody's canopy or part of like a tent around the sun went awry in a way it went

that we're not kansas anymore todo but you see a lot of things like this in kansas

oh all right no

you're finally awake oh oh Dalton I'm so happy to see you I just had the craziest dream I had

this dream that I hosted a show on Sirius XM but it wasn't on the NASCAR channel it was on the red

hot chili peppers channel that's crazy right I had this dream that I started playing guitar and

singing for for Joe Gibbs they would that would never happen like uh but then it got awful it got

awful Clint Boyer Clint Boyer was driving a truck and the the fox broadcast talked about nothing

but him and that's not even the worst part they had an all star race at Dover and some of the

all stars weren't even in it Dalton but I'm awake now so no that was real right

oh uh no um no actually all those things that you just said all those things actually happened

like all of them and and then some a lot a lot more terrible things also

you might need some of this

what what did I just witness welcome into happy hour I'm Trey Lyle filling in for Brian Nolan

I guess we're working on the egot uh you got puke homes for the uh I I am I am lost for words as we

welcome in I just award I don't even know what to say Michael mask adult Hopkins uh I'm just

gonna go to the best man best dressed man in Charlotte uh you've seen a lot of things in your

day uh covering NASCAR you've seen your counterpart on your podcast you raps and amongst some other

things uh what what did you think of that intro I admire the uh creativity I will say that that

is far more creative than anything I could ever do so I tip my proverbial hat to them

by the way I was so thrown off I didn't even say that's Jordan Bianchi of the athletic I should

mention uh the you can call him the Adam Schefter you can call him the shams of NASCAR drops news

uh thanks so much for joining us I am so thrown off uh Massey are you okay did you did did you uh

you know you flew for a little bit are you okay yeah yeah you know the wind of walking's blend

just whipped you around like crazy and uh luckily survived and it did did in fact make it to the

the lone all-star race at Dover I'm calling it that the lone all-star race at Dover um

and yeah we're good happy to be back with you guys uh great a lot of stuff to talk about

and his caretaker Dalton uh how was it taking care of uh Massey on his bedside did you

did you just treat him well

and oh no oh no he's undefeated we had such a good show go until he he he took such good care of

Massey he did not care take care of the mute button he lost his voice and he's we we are

temper Dalton are you back yeah yeah no you can't hear all right okay we're gonna pivot

we're gonna pivot while you figure that out all right so let's just dive right in Jordan uh the

hall of fame was today and it was announced that uh the class would be made up of two modern uh

modern members Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton Larry Phillips being the pioneer and Lisa France

Kennedy winning the landmark award uh you are there you are physically there in Charlotte with

the announcement uh it seemed let's go with the obvious person it it felt like one spot was locked

in with Kevin Harvick who is probably when you talk about you know people talk about the hall of

fame there's like an extra wing of elite tier Kevin Harvick belongs in that kind of elite tier

of all-time greats yeah I mean you look at his career right I mean the cup series champion Daytona

500 champion coke 600 winner southern 500 winner brickyard hundred brickyard 400 winner he's won

every single major crown jewel race there is in the NASCAR plus he's tenth in all times

winless there is a guy when he retires you just open the door and say welcome sir here's your jacket

you are now a member of the NASCAR hall of fame it's Kevin Harvick like I mean this is as no

brainer as you get and when you look at the ballot everything you know when you have 46 out of 50 and

it's like and I know the how you vote can be kind of sometimes misleading because you're trying to

do different things and if someone's a lock you may be voted for somebody else trying to make sure

they get in or get enough votes to keep them into the next year but Harvick's case it's just this

is slam dunk I mean if they don't already have you know the bust crafted I'd be shocked

yeah I would add only like you could wipe out all of his cup accomplishments and just his

O'Reilly series accomplishments alone would like make him one of the top contenders for this class

like it's it's truly a guy I mean there was no debate there I can't imagine I wasn't in the room

but I'm sure that that conversation was very brief on I would love to know how brief that

well it had to be like five seconds like you just say his name Kevin Harvick okay we're cool moving

on but to your point about his accomplishments in the other series like let's not let's ignore the

fact too that he's also a championship winning team owner in those series like he's won truck

series championships he's won a multitude of races in the you know second tier was now the

O'Reilly series as a team owner so he has done these things and then you take into account where

he's done off the racetrack and the legacy has there I mean there's there's a case you made I mean

he's he has a career where you look at it's like it could have probably been even greater than it was

because there were some years there at RCR that were me you know they were going through a lot

obviously in the first part of his career or in the early years his career and then

they even he says like you know some years we were great other years were down it's just this

roller coaster um if he could have been with a quote-unquote superpower for the entirety of his

career like you saw the Gordon or Johnston or somebody like that man it would the numbers he'd

have oh crazy I wasn't really bad okay great all right man I had some really good things to say

after Tray asked me those questions so darn it uh but anyway so I no I'm regarding uh regarding

Kevin Harvick I just want to say like that there's I agree with everything that's been said so far

I don't think that I feel like that was kind of one of those no-brainer situations where it was

first bout Hall of Fame um there's also been a pattern where there's not a single driver

who has won a cup championship that isn't in the Hall of Fame aside from Bill Rexford and

and Massey we we got a little bit of the scoop on that talent they get super speedway so um

we we uh we heard some interesting opinions from our good friend Herb Branham but

um regardless uh I feel like that if you win a cup championship at this point especially in

this era when everything is so equal uh there's always talk about parody and you are so dominant

as Kevin Harvick was especially in the 2020 2022 timeline uh excuse me uh 2021 timeline

as dominant as he was that guy he should absolutely be in that conversation at least and

I can't help but think that obviously it's kind of along those lines of like Kyle Bush like Kyle's

going to be a first ballot Martin Truex Jr I would argue might even be a first ballot

these guys who are who were had such dominant years there's no question um and I can't help

but feel like that it's almost it almost takes away from the Hall of Fame voting process because

it's like Jordan even said that that conversation was probably about five seconds they said Kevin

Harvick everyone raised their hands and they were like all right cool what was the second one

like the second guy so that that's that's probably what that looked like and I think that's when the

real debate occurs and I know there's been some I've seen some strong opinions online uh regarding

the uh regarding uh Jeff Burton yeah before we hit on the second one I just want to say before

we hit on the second one that I do wonder if Harvick never went to and Jordan kind of hit on

this if he never went to Stewart Haas Racing I wonder where he would stand on things I feel

like he would be more in that Jeff Burton kind of category but just just an interesting kind of

what if if he was with Stewart Haas the whole time maybe he's in that Jimmy Johnson

kind of territory so it is wild he had those years he still got 60 wins

yeah he had those I'm looking let me look at the stats right now 2008 2009 uh I think

I already done wasn't a great year yet three years where he wasn't really getting the best

equipment I don't think and he still got 60 wins that's that's the guy was fantastic

even his later years he never he never got any worse he was just talented all throughout his

career so pivoting off that I I think before we get to Jeff Burton who we need to praise on

getting in is the Hall of Fame because it's a big day for Jeff Burton who I think is probably done

more behind the scenes than actually that like casual fans would know the Greg Biffle of all

this it was going to be kind of the emotional pinpoint of that conversation Jordan I know you

were talking with a lot of people were in that room leading up what what do you think the Greg

Biffle kind of just because of obviously everything that happened to Greg Biffle since

with him being on the ballot and the type of person that Greg Biffle was and the career he had

but ultimately you know it feels like you a lot of emotion had to be taken out of the discussion

which was but with Greg Biffle it seemed to be a very emotional conversation around his Hall of

Fame game to see yeah I mean how do you parse it out and it becomes hard because you look at Biffle

and he he had fewer wins than Jeff Burton but he had fewer years racing at the top level of NASCAR

than Jeff Burton there's that we also had two championships one each in the O'Reilly series

and then the truck series so you put that into accounting to say okay there's also only a second

year in the ballot so you know it's because you're looking at this and let's throw Neil Bonnet in

that mix too it's like you're parsing now you have to really parse out what this is and how do

you build a consensus and then you throw in you know like a Randy Dorton is in this and he's a

longtime engine builder who was kind of one of the pillars if you will of Hendrick Motorsports

who a lot of people don't know about but like was a literally a foundational part of building

Hendrick Motorsports and to me it's not so much a question of should it be Jeff Burton or should

it be Greg Biffle or should it be Randy Dorton or Neil Bonnet or whoever you vote for to me it

speaks your bigger issue and the bigger issue is the voting process in whole and if you look at it

if you look at the modern air ballot there's 10 views and that's you know you can debate the merits

of that but why are we limiting it to just two um you know look at let's use Major League Baseball

and I say this all the time Major League Baseball has a threshold I think it's 75% and so somebody

who has to earn induction to the baseball hall of fame has to be 75% of ballots and you have to be

really in between you really have to be elite you know to get in you're not going to get somebody

most part it was just above you know above average or just slightly below great and it really makes

it difficult to get in but in some years you're going to have 67 guys get in some years

you're going to only have one or two but you have to earn it and I look at this and in NASCAR right

now there's such a backlog that's being created why do we have the system we're only letting two

guys in and then we're going to add more guys next year so it's going to continue this backlog at

some point you're going to have to figure out a way to kind of undo this log jam and it's becoming

a point where I don't understand why it is these guys who are on this ballot in a lot of cases

including the legends ballot which I really get frustrated with um are sitting there and they only

take one of those guys of the five all those five guys all single one of those guys should all be in

the hall fame already period I'm only like that's not even an argument to me and we're just going

to sit there and say well one is just getting in this year and Larry Phillips certainly deserves it

so does Harry Hyde so does all the other guys and it's it's to me it's just frustrating and to me

I think this is a good point for the whole thing to look at this situation and say okay well how can

we do this maybe there's a better way to do this fair and they did better and the part I was just

going to say the NASCAR hall of fame is only 16 years old its first class was 2010 and we're comparing

it to you know the football hall of fame that's been around forever the baseball hall of fame

which has been around forever the basketball hall of fame has been around forever and it's already

creating this issue I completely agree with you Jordan like while I am very critical of the baseball

hall of fame itself I I do believe the 75 percent especially in NASCAR because it it basically limits

you to voting for what two people you can only vote for two people and that truly will be a

complicated question because we're about to get you know Truex of the world Denny Hamlin of the

world the so on and so Kyle Busch of the world like they're going to retire and they're going to be

balanced for the foreseeable future their first ballot hall of famers especially Denny and Kyle

like that that's one spot that can't go to another person of a Greg Biffle of a Neil Bonnet that are

very much deserving well you look at it Burton only got 32 percent of the vote so that means that

even in that room a third of the people couldn't agree and I think anyone you know that's not happy

about Burton getting it it's not that they hate Jeff Burton I think you know he belongs in at some

point but the problem is he's getting in at the expense of someone else at the expense of a Randy

Dorton or Greg Biffle or Tim Brewer or you know it's just yeah I definitely think it's it's the

second time this week I've said there's a problem with the format but this time you know I think it

is more easily fixable yeah I go with the baseball thing or at least make a spot reserved for a crew

member like a crew chief engine builder type thing the very least because the drivers are always going

to win the popular vote and that's how we get Herb Nab who should have already been in Harry

Hyde Tim Brewer these guys they're just waiting and waiting and who knows what they'll get in

I'm going to counter that just for the sake of countering it drivers get the popular vote get the

vote all time because driving is the hardest job on the team I think crew chiefing is yes

don't get me wrong crew chiefing is very glamorous and it's very hard because you are a leader and

you are having to lead a small squadron of people to make this team work to make sure that you are

better than all the other teams squads that are within the NASCAR Cup series but

I digress I still think that drivers have the hardest job because they're the ones who are

having to perform and the athletic level who are having to go out in 150 degree cars and are having to

continuously perform for 38 weeks in a row and that's the reason why they get into the

hall of fame because their jobs I feel like are much harder that said I will agree I do feel like

there is a flaw in the slight in the process just because look when they first started doing the

five people per year I didn't mind it as much but I understood why they changed it I understood why

they said okay we need to start making it a little bit more exclusive because at this rate

we're going to let just about anybody in or really just anybody that is anybody that comes to mind

we're going to let all of them in because we just let too many guys in at the same time

and so but I don't agree with the three people

per year I still think at least when it comes to the modern era ballot I still feel like that

or excuse me two people per year when it was the modern era ballot I still feel like that

that's still too few even with the the pioneer ballot there's too many people in the pioneer

ballot and I think kind of what was Massey was saying was a lot of people in the pioneer ballot

are being forgotten Jordan you said five guys all five guys on that ballot all the five guys that

were voted upon all of them should be in and I have to agree these are the guys that built the

sport they should all be in the hall of fame there's no doubt about that so I think it should be

tweaked a little bit the voting process should be tweaked but I don't think we should go back to

what we were doing before it shouldn't be five guys flat out across all across modern era pioneer

era landmark what have you it should just be it should be maybe four guys modern era and then

you got two guys in the pioneer ballot and then if you want to talk about the landmark award then

sure why not but there's just too many guys that are on that list and we have a debate every single

year like why didn't this guy get get in this guy should be in and that create that that's what

this log end that we're all talking about like personally I just personally believe Greg Biffle

should be in I'm sorry he should be in two time two time when it comes to the O'Reilly series one

the O'Reilly championship on the truck series championship one of the few drivers that have

won in both and not to mention uh do I hear right now I do 19 time winner in the cup series on top

of all of that and finished runner-up in 2005 in the series standings Greg Biffle should

absolutely be in the hall of fame not including all the stuff he did off the track and the fact

that he was fifth in the what was it fifth in the amount of votes that he got that's I don't know

that's crazy to me it does not make any sense I think I know he shouldn't be first ballot

but maybe second or third and I think that's the quick interjectory quick though that's the

thing is he's only on the ballot second year and I think that's where I can't I'm not I really

care for those I want to speak for the people that were in that room but if you look at it

Burton's been on this ballot for a little bit now Bonnet has been on it for a while now

you know Jordan has been and so like you know it's hard to get in when you're in that

tier if you will where you're not a Harvard but you're that next tier it's really hard to separate

yourself and if you're it's you're only in your second year on the ballot it's going to be hard

to kind of jump ahead that that's the difficulty up and that just goes back to what we're saying

is like don't put a number on don't have it be five or three or however that is just put a percentage

on it and if guys are deserving they're deserving and in some cases like this you can have them

build up like you see it happened all the time in baseball guy does again the first year second

year third year but their candidacy you know it's more fleshed out it's more discussed there's there's

less people ahead of them and it just kind of kind of rises up and that there's nothing wrong with

and it's just in this system it's just it's where you're getting a system where like you said

guys are getting in without a majority of the votes into Jordan's point and why I agree with him

is like with the percentage and if you want to throw in what baseball also does is you have to

get a minimum percentage of 15 it doesn't put the pressure on you to vote you can vote for as many

people as you want or not as many people as you want so like for example like if someone I think

Jeff you can already Jeff Burton and Greg before are very close well if you have the percentage

you can just vote for both of them okay and you can vote for it gives you more freedom to vote for

like a Randy LaJoy for example who is on the ballot which people think you know with his modified

career and the fact that like everyone uses his seat and he's a big big part of the safety

innovation of NASCAR a lot what a big part of you know Jeff Burton's candidacy you throw in

you know the impact that Neil Bond and Harry Hyde and and even Ernie Elliott to some degree you

know who with the engine builder for you know Bill Elliott is part of a one of the pioneer families

of NASCAR like it gives you so much more freedom to vote for in your voting process that you hit

you know that you can vote for everyone you want because I know there had to be a real struggle

in there when it came to Greg Biffle and I bet you there were people in there that were like

if I vote for him this year is that just too too much of an emotional pick and

you could argue it could be because of everything that led to this past year for Greg Biffle

where I believe like if I had to think about it like I probably would vote for Kevin Harvick

and I'd lean towards Greg Biffle but I you know I'm not in the room I'm not hearing the arguments

I'm not the great NASCAR historian like old man Massey is but you know

well you knew going in as well that like Ray Elder was on the ballot he had zero chance today

like Ernie Elliott, Jack Sprague, Randy LeJoy I just feel like those guys going into today because

of the names they're against they had no chance of getting nominated just because like you said

you only have two votes so yeah that's we shouldn't be going into a Hall of Fame voting knowing that

some guys won't get in but uh yeah should we talk some some Larry Phillips or or

Landmark award? Go ahead. Oh Larry I'm happy to see Larry get in as you said all five deserve

to get in I probably would have gone Herb Nab or Harry Hyde just because trying to get trying to

get some crew chiefs in there but it's cool to see the the regional racing represented and now

that he's in it's going to open the door for Philip Morris another five-time champion to

eventually get in as well but yeah at least give us a second spot at least for that that

pioneer ballot it's just too hard to choose between them there's too many guys it's too many

guys to choose from I think I think what it really comes down to is how exclusive do you want the

Hall of Fame to be what is what is the line benchmark what what line do you have to

cross when it comes to your statistics to make into the Hall of Fame or is a little bit more

great than that I I just I look at some guys I mean a lot of people talk about there's been a

recent debate about lower series if you're really good in the lower series you're really good in

O'Reilly if you're really good in trucks and you won so many championships do you truly deserve

being a Hall of Fame I would argue yes but at the same time some people don't necessarily agree with

that and it really should involve more about what you did on the Cup Series side because that is

the pinnacle of NASCAR racing I just but I digress I think there is there's too many people on the

pioneer side to just make it into a list of five and then you can only vote one in too many people

especially when it comes to building the sport was probably one of the hardest

things that NASCAR had to go through I think nowadays you have to

why I just could say that's why like the the landmark award this year how are we 16 years

in and Wayne T. Robertson hasn't gotten the landmark award yet like to me that's the most

important person in NASCAR history because he set up that RJ Reynolds sponsorship of the really

helpful NASCAR shout out to Lisa Kennedy I'm not dismissing her but I think Wayne T. Robertson

should have gotten that landmark award a long time ago yeah any more thoughts on the Hall of Fame

we can uh we'll we'll be revisiting it again next year

Jordan who did you have voted?

It's hard to say I mean I would have gone in there with the mindset I mean Harvard's Harvard

that's fine um it would have come down to Burton Biffle Bonnet and I wouldn't want to hear

from people in that room who I think that's the important mindset to have is like listening to

what they have to say um and it's okay to have your opinion going in but I really want to be

open minded I want to hear what they have to say I want to be sold on why this person's impact

who I might not know about behind the scenes or whatnot and so yeah going in one of those three guys

I don't know but I would be very open to the arguments and what people at the conviction

that people have surrounding um any of these three guys and I think in the case of Neil Bonnet

I just want to say this really quick like for a generation of fans too he wasn't just a driver

he was the voice on the Daytona 500 he was you know along in the CBS broadcast booth calling

the Daytona 500 he was and you know he was he was on TNN these races back in the day

and he like he was synonymous with NASCAR's boom a lot of respects what it became a national phenomenon

I do want to give NASCAR credit is uh because there has been some uh criticism of Hall of Fame

panels in terms of certain voting looking at you the NFL for not allowing maybe the greatest

football coach of all time in because of the people you had voting on it I do think they do a

really good job and they just need to add you know maybe one of us in Jordan uh in terms of the voting

booth of getting like specifically Jordan really good specifically Jordan yeah but getting a good

panel of like from people who cover the sport now in the modern era like Jeff got Jeff Block that

Kelly Crandall was in there uh Nate Ryan was in there to like your true historians from all sides

like a you know that Doug Rice was in there uh uh Mike Joy was in there like you know that they

have the wide range and then they have you know obviously Hall of Famers um and important people

in NASCAR Mike Helton like they do a really good job of building this panel up I want to give NASCAR

credit for because I I do think like having you there are people in there that do not know Neil

Bonnet but they need to learn about Neil Bonnet and they have the right people in there able to

tell Neil Bonnet's story and in the same goes it's just it's truly important when you look at the

pioneer cases like these are people that they're prime of their careers like half those people

might have not been alive or very young when they were before making their Hall of Fame case and it's

important to have that wide range of history speaking of wide range of history Dover Motor Speedway

has had a wide range of history I feel like that was a good pivot uh and has also raised this

thank you I good enough you know we got an elite journalist in here I'm trying to use my

elite journalism skills uh anyways um Dover Motor Speedway and Jordan I know you have sources

with this let before we attack the all-star race itself the future of Dover Motor Speedway

it was announced on the broadcast that Dover is here to stay um asking you what did you think of the

racing at Dover this weekend and what did you what do you think of the future of Dover Motor

Speedway in the NASCAR cups here so I think you have to parse out two different things you have to

let's just focus on Dover and not the all-star race at Dover when we talk about racing itself

the racing at Dover was fantastic I think it was one of the better Dover races we've seen

some time the cars were out of control a lot of respects they were drivers were on edge they

could make moves they could run multiple grooves the guys were coming up who were fast in the back

where it would come forward that's all of the elements you want to see on tracks like Dover

and you had that there problem is then the format and you know it did really represent what an all

star race is supposed to be and that's a whole that's a lot of conversation to have about Dover's

future though let me say it's it's it's optimistic it's very optimistic like you're gonna have a

points race next year they have a good fan base they do a good job of bringing up fans

the racetrack and that is encouraging um I just you want to make sure that this place has continued

to put in the best spot possible to have success and and I will say that like having this track

you move around and say we're gonna do a race here in June and we're gonna do a race in July

and then May and over like I don't think that's good I think having a date a specific date

that they've long had which is kind of late May seems to be working for them we saw this weekend

a really good crowd there you have to continue to put tracks in the best position to be successful

and I think that's the key thing and Dover's had some issues over the years but if you put them

in a good spot they're gonna produce and I think that's the key and if they can continue to be in

that spot and produce their future's fine because it does serve a great market it's a conduit to

Philadelphia Baltimore Washington DC and really up and down that that kind of Mid-Atlantic or

Northeast Coro yeah that that was so the best for Dover racing I feel like we've seen in in years

and uh like the fans show out it's got good support um I I liked what you said on the tear

down about let's do a little trade you know the NASS you know that's my give NASCAR the all-star

race have bum and gray there and then in return you gift over a points race and maybe like Kansas

loses the date uh on the NASCAR side or something yeah I did not say Kansas is gonna lose the day

because I threw in that part I threw in that part I think Kansas is going to lose the day

clear on that yeah obviously one would be a track that nasty and I do not want to

get rid of on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule uh it's it resides in an area very close to us

Virginia Georgia so they not just Virginia rich in Virginia yeah yeah I don't think I think

if this is spitball here now if NASCAR in this era we're getting back to our roots we're gonna

do what's historically people towards you're doing that and then you were to hypothetically

take away a race away from martinsville but that is the antithesis of getting back to roots and

fans would probably take pitchforks to NASCAR's headquarters in Daytona rightfully so and so

there are other if you're looking at the schedule and where maybe you have some access or you have

a little bit of a thing you know kind of wouldn't kind of be flexible taking a race from martinsville

he's not it at the moment there's there's other venues that I would look at before martinsville

or Richmond don't take away Richmond yeah Richmond ain't going anywhere Richmond get one date now

that's working for and I gave last year was a success good racing good crowd I think it was

sold out for the first time in a few many years like that works and that is the method that a lot

of tracks are working Michigan's done it now um Poconos done it um we're seeing it now where you

just have one race at some of these places and it feels like a bigger deal and you kind of push

people there the other part real quick I mean I'm going to change it here and I apologize

is we don't have a lot of great we don't have a lot of like short tracks that are capable of hosting

the NASCAR Cup series at the level martinsville is one of those and so we'd be very careful about

taking that away because if that you go down a slippery slope and that that's just a road I don't

you don't think you should go down and I think martinsville is an institution in NASCAR and

having two dates there is just part of that foundation the crowd the thing is it was better

too um yeah this year even even though it was just the all-star race I mean I'm here everything

that's been said about dover um crowds fantastic I think people there are very passionate I actually

spoke to somebody I was at drill this past weekend and I spoke to somebody that was actually from the

area um and he even said he he very much enjoys uh going to dover uh because we were talking about

the the race that weekend um Jordan let me ask you this uh I I could sit here and spout my wish list

about what I want to see the all-star race do as a matter of fact I did last week because

I was bringing up late models and street stocks and I know that's not realistic

but Jordan let me ask you this is it is it realistic to ask that NASCAR could be going to a

another new short track for the all-star race in the future I don't I think you have to

accept that everything is on the table we have seen that in the last few years and nobody in the

right mind ever thought North Wilkesboro was going to ever host a race again let alone a NASCAR

cup series points race and here we are 30 years after the fact it's going to get one again and it

hosted the all-star race um no one ever thought the clash of all things would be at the Bowman Gray

you know you know Mexico City the Coliseum like there's all of these things that have happened

over the last 567 years that you're like someone that you told someone 20 years ago

they would have thought you're on drugs you know what are you drinking like exactly and so I don't

think you can record that passing there are definitely short tracks out there that are very

capable of hosting an exhibition race for NASCAR's top series whether it's the clash or whether it's

the all-star race yes it's going to need some TLC you're going to have to spend some money to make

some money um but there are certainly a lot of venues out there um that are more than capable

of doing this and it should because as you said Dalton you're right like putting it on a classic

short track is what it should be about and you know yes it's great at most speedway you know

maybe an odd year or somewhere like that but there's something to be said for Saturday night under

the lights crazy environment short track big you know cash prize on the line that's what you want

you want craziness you want intensity you got you want to see guys going all out to to win a

million dollar prize you're going to get that on the short track I think another part of the all-star

race it doesn't feel like the all-star race is the fact the million dollar prize has stayed the same

like I get the idea behind it back in inflation is crazy it feels like to me I mean I yeah something

like to me I would love to win a million dollars like feel free to give it to me right now if I

would take it in a heartbeat and that's a big prize for me but like in this sport it does feel like

the all-star race needs to have like the fact there was a million in what 2004 that seemed big

like it feels like it needs to like you need to times it by 10 it needs to I don't want to say

be your biggest purse of all year the whole season that's like 800 or 500 but do something of that

extent do 5000000 like do it what are you did 10 million dollars like a 10 million dollar

all-star race that would be insane trades putting up 10 million dollars for next year I think

like a small loan of 10 million dollars and I fix the

yeah which groceries still cost uh what they cost in 2004 you know that was that inflation

applied every day life as well I I agree I agree the stakes need to be higher I feel like this year

all-star race didn't feel like the all-star race I remember when I was a wee lad back in 2005

watching Mark Martin win at Charlotte um 2009 I watched uh Nature Boy um Rick Flair come out

introduce Joey Logano yes he did that too um introduce Joey Logano as the fan vote winner

and that felt like an all-star race back then that felt like it was a spectacle this one did not

feel like as much of a spectacle and I think that's where look taking Dover out of the equation

look we all agree Dover's cool like we should have Dover on the schedule the all-star race itself

doesn't feel as special as it used to um feel like a crown jewel even though it wasn't

a crown jewel event 1000000 dollars it's not enough anymore I feel like these guys make

a million dollars in a week um Jordan probably knows more about that than I do but uh that that's not

much well okay um that is enough nowadays to win one actually when it's a race where you're

competing with the rest of the charter field um at least for the first 150 laps so it doesn't uh

I I like the fact that it's probably gonna be a points race next year but uh man I sure do hope

like I was alluding to earlier I really do hope that it's at a short track next year

that makes it feel a little bit more special the north worksboro made it feel special but

now it's a points race so we gotta move on fairgrounds so let's let's move on

is that even a possibility George I mean is it possible yes but the city and you know the community

have got to figure this out and there are so many steps to get there and it's probably an 18

month process to kind of get everything to the finish line and then you obviously have to get

the track you know built up and then do all the renovations there so could it be possible for 2027

I mean if you get to work maybe but I mean long term it's on the table but the things

have got to be settled there and it just never seems like that's gonna actually get to the finish

line within the community right now which is too bad because we're sitting here like national is

amazing not only should national have a you can figure this out national would be a great venue

for the all-star race hell make it a points race let's not let's not kid ourselves here that that

would be the points race um follow the plan of like north worksboro put some money in there build it

up put an exhibition race there see what this crowd support is and then go from there is bring

it to a points race but that's probably 2028 at the earliest and that's again that's so much

needing to be done before you could even get there so it's just I never say never like I said earlier

but it just seems right now it's just I'm skeptical oh if they do end up have oh go ahead

if they do end up having one of the fairgrounds I hope that they just have fireworks big loud bands

just so the neighborhood can just appreciate the loudness of that 21 guns the loot yeah I was gonna

say they're next to each other's players that you see at european soccer games like just they should

get they should get a fort Knox artillery unit come battery to come out and just shoot howitzers

self bomber uh flyover like you know well it's stealth bomber it wouldn't be loud enough

oh that's true my face is still cool

and Jordan has collapsed on the show ladies and gentlemen

don't let the math any hamlet makes a 1.16 million a month

after all we learned

that was far off yeah this this month he made 2.6 million so

well he probably gave some of that to his crew um anyways Massey and Jordan you were both there

talking to the driver's post race this format it ironically had one big flaw in it which was

there was no all-star open do you think the fact that the flaw got exposed what two laps into the

race when your 33 of your big guys got taken out essentially for the race

showed uh why we might not see this format again

Massey you can go first I let Jordan fix it

yeah bill tumbles yeah yeah you can just send the send the receipt to uh front stretch and

send the invoice yeah send it to Brian Nolan you can send it to Brian Nolan not us yeah yeah

he'll pay out of his personal account uh yeah it was bad to like because even the ones that got

their cars repaired like a Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney uh they weren't competitive because they

you know they had damaged race cars um I'm just thinking like you know there's a lot of chase

to dover I want to refund because I didn't get to see my favorite driver go go for the million

dollars so yeah it's definitely flaws to bring back the open the open was so fun and that's what

if we had if we go to a true short track like bull ring where you can't fit 40 cars out there

then yeah I think you'd have to have the open back so that would be another plus uh and just imagine

yeah whether it's the fairgrounds or hickory your south boston or whatever bum and gray you could

bump a guy out the way to to make the all-star race uh via the open uh so yeah it was just a bad

format a confusing format too much math if you're sitting in the grandstands you probably had no

idea what was going on first off you can't fit 40 cars in the ball ring hashtag team chaos

I just I just want to say that uh yeah I I do agree like I when I saw that chasel it was not in

the final stage I thought of when I was I want to say like let's say like 2008 or 2009 um imagine

if like Dale Earnhardt jr wasn't in the final because he got wrecked out in the first um let's

say 10 laps or if he wasn't in the the final uh wasn't in the actual main show wasn't in the all-star

race when he was still uh racing I think people would have tuned away immediately there's just

there's just no reason to watch now it's the same thing that chase same thing with chase elliott um

it's it's it is unfortunate and not to mention I think the all-star open just produced better

racing uh in the past I mean look at all the highlights of the all-star openness had the all-star

races had its fair share of highlights but more often than not the all-star open produced better

racing just because those guys were so desperate to get into the actual main event and we took

that away this year I mean no actually let me rephrase we didn't take that away we actually

left that in we left that desperation in but we also included the actual all-stars

in that race and we saw the end result so that was that's what we got out of that um now the

all-star open like made it also highlighted those those open drivers and highlighted the guys

don't get a whole lot and that's what made it a little bit more fun was that you could root for

guys or watch guys do things that you're not used to watching them do um whereas instead of

watching denny hamlin and chase briscoe battle for the lead you could watch connor zillich um

and uh some other drivers race so that we brightly herpes some other guys race for spot in the in

the all-star in the all-star race and uh we didn't really get that as much this year we just got a

now do you have a format he's holding it i see his arm extended you guys broke my

you broke my computer so i can say uh i agree it's tough because you want i

wish i feel bad because dover isn't a bad spot because they're trying to cater to both ways

they're trying to give their audience who is so used to having you know a full field of points

race and they're seeing all of their favorite drivers on the racetrack at once but it's not

a points race so you don't want to kind of put your ticket holders in a bad spot and not give them

what they're paying for so you come up with this convoluted thing of everybody's on the racetrack

at once but it's supposed to be three different races and then it ends up being what it did it's

just this is why it was never going to work and this is why when it was announced last year that

it was going to be a dover and then we learned the format you're like okay so you're putting the race

at dover which no one thought was a good idea and then you're coming up with this format and it's

like now you're compounding your mistake with a second mistake and unfortunately we saw what we

did which is too bad because again if you just look at the the racing and the quality of it it

was really high on sunday but that's becoming a third you know a secondary or third talking point

beyond behind what we saw with the format well a topic that's always been discussed is silly

season and jordan you're the i would say the point man of silly season you had a great you

knew this was coming jordan which by the way will be because of our subscriptions that we all three

have will help pay for i guess to fix your laptop hopefully um so uh but let's pivot to this and it

was interesting the kyle bush and that's my question is the kyle bush of this all staying

with richard filters racing which i guess if you asked me before the season started i would have

said was probably unlikely unless they uh started rattling off wins what why is it turned so quickly

for kyle bush in terms of what like the performance isn't there with rcr i mean he won this past

weekend at dover so he still is a winning race car driver i know was in the truck series but why

is it kind of sort of result uh kyle bush has kind of ended up with the only option being staying in

rcr well i mean take a look around the landscape and what is realistic and where he could go you

know hindered motorsports may or may not have an opening but is that something they want to go

road they want to go down they've been there done that before and the same people who are running

the company then are still in charge now or have a voice now and so that doesn't work plus they take

into account that there's you know cori days in the hindered pipeline and you know so the cowboys

going over there doesn't seem to make sense you look at you know penske may or may not have an

opening depending on how a couple things shake out over there but it looks like you know austin

synder is probably going to be okay josh berry is probably going to be okay as well um so that

doesn't seem to fit and then that's not forget that they've they've been down that road before the

bush and it didn't turn out it didn't end well and so that was a long time ago and things change and

that kind of thing but it's just it's about fit and opportunity and then you look at 2311 racing

you know bubble walls and how they're right like are set for next year you know bubbles got an

option in this contract but let's be honest everybody knows he's coming back next year

and then so look at the third car well you know weeks the expectation is that ronnie harps

is likely to move on to legacy and that opens up that spot but okay so but why would 2311 sign

kyle bush when they've got cory heim sitting there and i think we all agree that cory heim is

very challenged very smart driver who's going to do some very big things in the cup series

and he's ready for a seat keep putting published in that car does nothing like that doesn't serve a

purpose it's you know cory heim deserves an opportunity and all you're doing that is pushing

cory heim's development further down the road which makes zero sense okay so gives racing okay

that's not happening they're they're full right now and they're not you know we know what happened

never they're regardless they're four drivers right now or they're four drivers next year

okay so you start looking around and everything like there isn't any opportunities anywhere

really that are better clearly better than where cow bush is at right now

inspires the one that comes up a lot okay that makes sense but they're they want stability

they really really do want stability they've had a lot of turnover and their driver lineup

on the crew chief side on the personnel side like they just kind of want to go for with the

same group of guys that they believe in for a while now and they want to have go down that road

and so swerve Daniel swerves is running really well he's in a chase spot obviously car snow swerve

car snow swerve who's you're not gonna let him go and then michael mcdowell is running well not great

at times but he's running well enough you know a little bit of luck a little bit of better execution

they would be much higher than points is cow bush significantly better than michael mcdowell

when you factor in that cow bush is probably going to command a higher salary and then other

factors like you know you know i don't know and so it's just you look around the landscape and

there's just not a lot of great spots for cob bush so it makes sense of why you would look at it and say

hey rcr seems like a good fit for right now and i you know there's no other options i'm gonna stay

here and that's why the expectation is ultimately at some point they're gonna agree to an extension

and cow bush will return to rcr that that is my expectation and he's getting better

the results are a little bit better um at least at least for the last couple of weeks i should say

ever since they had andy street um it's not it's not doom or gloom and not to mention i mean how

soon we forget that it back in 2023 he won three races in one year i know one of those was talladega

but at the same time uh you had gateway and you had auto club um his very second race with rcr so

the success can happen it can occur there's just a missing piece and i'm wondering if um i i think

we'll probably start seeing the maybe the results this upcoming week at charlotte but a truck that

kyle bush has had success at a lot of success that in the past but i'm wondering if we'll see

we'll start seeing a little bit more success out of that eight car and maybe we can stop talking

about uh where's kyle bush going to go in 2027 massio what would you want to say what so i feel

like my biggest question mark now if if kyle does freestyle with rcr i feel like the biggest

question mark is alex bowman and uh you know if he and hendrick do part ways i mean jordan you just

hit on all these places that are full so like where where could you see him like a potential

landing spot being for him if that did happen if if they did part ways for alex bowman i mean it

depends i mean it depends on if him parting ways with hendrick motorsforth is his decision or

hendrick motorsforth's decision i mean this isn't just a one-way street this is a both parties have

to be um open to this and i don't want to speak for alex here but there's indications that he's

kind of considering where he wants to do right now and that this is you know and so it's not just

his it's not just a hendrick decision it's an alex bowman decision and so they're you know who's to

say that he just decided that i don't want to race cup full time right i don't

want to do this so i we don't know there's a lot that's been played out and alex hasn't

spoken publicly about this situation but this is a driver who's gone through a lot health wise in

the last few years yeah and so that has to be taken into consideration here as well so we'll see

but i mean alex bowman is a very good driver he has shown that he's a winning cup series driver who

can win all sorts of tracks you know maybe it doesn't have to be a situation where he finds a home

necessarily even for 27 you know maybe it's time to go get healthy come back in 28 there's all sorts

of options on the table so they sit here and say hey this is a good fit for alex bowman who knows

they're all going to be teams that we know they're going to have surprise openings along the way and

maybe they look at it say hey this is an alex bowman's a really good fit here we'll see but again

it's just not a hendrick thing it's also an alex bowman thing i i think it colors i mean oh good

go ahead go ahead no go ahead try i was going to ask him another question so you're you're good

go ahead i was just going to say i mean jordan you were there we know that alex bowman

considers every single race uh he's thinking about his health um i mean look at talladega

he came out and he told us after talladega race he said hey i can't i can't take much more hits

than than he's had already and and he is considering his health so i think that that is a very valid

opinion of um whether or not he really wants to continue doing this full time at least until next

year um i mean if i'm sitting in the 48 car sure i want to you know try to win as many races as

possible but at the same time alex has also done a lot in his in his time in the cup series and he

has made his he's made his impact and i'm sure he is considering his health very carefully the thing

that i am really looking at when it comes to this equation when it comes to the 48 car question is

who is going to get in that 48 car and jordan i read your article too connor zillich surprised me

i know that everyone talks about there's been a lot of talk about kori day um who just got his

second o'reilly series went personally i think it's too soon but connor zillich is also part of

that equation and i'm really curious as to who is leading that race trey is that

what you were going to ask yeah i was going to ask not exactly about zillich like to the 48 because

you mentioned the buyout part but like could we have a situation where we had a few years ago

because the last time this young and this big of a talent kind of moved teams was tyler retic

from rcr to 2311 which was a year ahead announced like he announced that he was and then eventually

led to the buyout could that happen again with connor zillich just because of how big of a

talent he is would hms be willing because you know denny was so new to being an owner he did not

care about the optics of signing a guy two years ahead of things you know this is different this

is rekindrick like could could that type move happen that results in ultimate chaos when it

comes to silly season well the thing to keep in mind in situations this is when there's a really

talented race car driver out there who you know with a lot of teams the big teams are going to

covet and want and in denny handlin's case he recognized this and said tyler retic is somebody

that a lot of big teams are going to go after i need to be aggressive and i need to jump ahead of

that line to get the guy i want and that is why they signed him when they did because they needed

to do that otherwise they didn't feel like they may be able to get him if everyone else was in the

fight and that thinking could apply to zillich here in the sense that hey if we want to get zillich

in one of our cars and we have an opening now we may need to be aggressive here and do that because

if we don't do that now we may not have that opportunity down the road chase alia

kyle arson and william byard are young are still all relatively young all very successful all

championship caliber drivers two of those three of one jim jibs byron's come close they give you

certain high level production year after year and you know you're going to get that though what so

looking at this landscape i'm saying is like hendrick is not going to have an opening with

those three cars anytime probably in the new future lately right so if you have an opening now in

the 48 maybe you look at this situation and say okay this is something that we need to be if we

have a driver out there who is obviously incredibly talented who is fits everything we're looking for

in the driver on a multitude of levels is also very high on the general motors totem pole because

never let don't forget he drove a prototype in a rolex 24 which tells you how high they think of him

because they put him on their flagship cars so if there's an opening we've least got to inquire

and there's there that's where this is at like we at least have to make an interest you know see

if this is an option and what that would cost you would be doing a disservice to yourself and your

company if you don't at least make an inquiry to see what it would take now i i'm really good at

spending other people's money so it's easy for me to say the guy zillard seems like a guy that you

would engage in buyout talks for because he's that talented now what that number is is who you know

we don't know but it's certainly something to look at because if you can get him in your race car

any team is going to is doing a disservice if they don't at least make that that you know

pick up the phone and make a call and that's kind of where things are at right now

it so what one other name is a friend of zillage uh jessie love i i just feel like i from what i've

heard is that like he wants to go cup racing next year with if kyle bush returns that can't be i mean

unless they started a 13 uh but where would that charter come from where would the sponsorship come

from all that uh it just feels like jessie love has to go somewhere else if he's gonna move to cup if

kyle bush comes back to rcr um it like it seemed like you you got the vibe that jessie's going cup

racing next year uh this where do you think he fits in all this well jessie wants to go cup racing

and he probably deserves to go cup racing but you know deserve and want are much different than

here's a good fit for all the reasons we've already laid out where is there an opening right now that

makes sense legacy is we know what's as i reported we riley harps is the leading candidate at legacy

i would expect to see that reach the finish line at some point kohan is likely going to be full

is very expected to be full time and you know at 2311 so those are off the board so you start

looking again around landscape there's not a lot of open seats guys and so that's the problem and

really interesting to see where jessie love falls in on this i know teams are interested in him i know

some big teams that are interested in him um but it has to be the right fit and right now i just

don't know where that's going to be and it's going to be fascinating to see how that part of the equation unfolds

well jordan jordan you want to thank you for your time we went two minutes over the hour so we're

sorry we we kept you along we're sorry we broke your computer uh make sure that's if you want more

information there's there's always a toll you have to pay when you come with the front stretch

podcast this is normal this is part of the course well make sure you follow him uh at

jordan underscore bianchi on twitter or x whatever let's be honest everyone watching this already is

following him subscribe to the athletic uh please uh you know you get great articles from front

stretch dot com you get great articles from jordan and jeff at the athletic make sure you

subscribe to athletic jordan uh thank you so much for for joining us on this uh tuesday night it was

a busy day for you uh good news is uh hopefully this was not the worst thing you had to do today

i enjoyed the time guys it was fun i really enjoyed your guys's work i respect you guys's

work ethic and everything you guys do so we'll definitely do this again here soon awesome that

was uh jordan jockey jordan thank you so much man that's good we'll come to break and come right

back for the poor one out segment to wrap up the show

my place hotels is your perfect racing pit stop you're up for comfort and take the checkered flag

on savings book today and enter promo code front stretch for 10 off your stay

i'm already squared out all right welcome back it is time for a poor one out segment

fellas massy i'll let you go first who you pour in one out for uh let's pour one out for

let's go with uh kathryn leg because i feel like it's not going to get a ton of coverage this week

i think front stretch dot com will have great coverage on it um but kathryn leg is the first

female and the first not american to do the double this weekend and i think that you know

it doesn't matter even if she gets last place in both races i think we should celebrate her

and i think there's a chance she could use she's in a fast indy car we saw the the foot cars be

fast although there's a little controversy there but uh and then we saw her get a top 20 at the

brick art 400 last year um and i think with the coke 600 being like a survival race there

probably some carnage um she could get a top 25 top 20 again if a lot of people fall out that

happens so um yeah that's kathryn leg here's to you good choice good choice dalton i look at that

product i hope i yeah i i i was ready i hope she does um finish all the laps i don't i think it's

not wonderful uh for both indianapolis and charlotte so who knows i think she's got a real

shot to be kyle larson like how many larson did last year i yeah we'll see um i i hope she

i really hope she she goes a long way with that i really hope she does finish both races but

i digress um i think my poem went out it's gonna be pretty simple this weekend uh just because

we saw conras illich finally perform on an oval it's about damn time uh and especially one week

after uh a race where a lot of people were kind of considering whether or not um that was like

his best chance to win a cup series races first cup series race and uh he has another great finish

i know that our guys have fallen out at that point but regardless he went to the back because of

a speeding penalty and still made his way back into the top five i feel like if he had like 50

more laps he would have been in the conversation for a win so pour one out for conras illich uh

the track house car that ad a car finally looked fast this past weekend and i expect a little bit

more uh in weekends to come good choice i'm pouring 11 out just for this the city of indian

apolis for the fact that there's they sold out the indianapolis but it's going to be an awesome

awesome atmosphere this weekend so to the city of indianapolis also i guess i can throw katelyn

clark in there the fact that katelyn clark's gonna be the green marshal that will help our

algorithm up there so uh to katelyn clark in the city of indianapolis cheers to you

all right boys we did it we survived the podcast no uh and we did and you know what he should be

happy let's see if he's listening we didn't take one shot at brian nolan the whole time so if you're

up tonight i know right i could have started a fake beef between him and bianci and talk about how

you know brian's photo for our our slack channel is him and jeff gluck and maybe he how he prefers

gluck over bianci i could have started that but i didn't uh you know i i didn't uh but speaking of

podcast there's this great podcast that comes out on wednesday night's thursday morning's called

bringing the heat with tre lile whoever hosts that that's one sexy dude right there uh alex gents

is gonna join me uh for an indianapolis 500 preview and chris graham will join me to talk

some more nascar he's of course that produces this uh who are y'all both writing this week

he's got it this week he's got fire on fridays

all right fire on fridays this week yeah and then we're both gonna be at charlotte b jay

and you'll both be covering the coca cola 600 all right so uh at pit lane cpt at in

underscore massy 22 you can follow me at tre la vt for our guest jordan yaki thank you so much for

joining us that was a fun episode guys uh for chris graham our producer who uh you know makes

make us look good uh which is a very difficult thing to do and he even had he even has a harder

job the weeks brian nolan is on uh but that will do it for us today for chris graham for michael

massie for dolton hopkins i'm tre lios signing off on this edition of happy hour fire buddy

Happy Hour: Jordan Bianchi Talks NASCAR Hall of Fame, Dover Future & Silly Season

About this episode

Stewart Haas Racing

popular vote

crew chiefing

NASCAR Cup series

Dover Motor Speedway future

drivers were on edge

multiple grooves

all-star race

Dover future and race dates

points race

NASCAR date swap idea (Dover vs Kansas)

Martinsville

Richmond

late models and street stocks

all-star open

short track

bull ring

final stage

chase spot

buyout

silly season

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