Happy Hour: Jordan Bianchi Talks NASCAR Hall of Fame, Dover Future & Silly Season
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Happy Hour: Jordan Bianchi Talks NASCAR Hall of Fame, Dover Future & Silly Season
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Brand
Stewart Haas Racing
Stewart Haas Racing is a NASCAR racing team. In NASCAR, the team helps build and tune the car, so where a driver races can affect how well they do.
Term
popular vote
Here, “popular vote” means fans vote for who they want to see inducted. The hosts are saying that fan voting might not always reflect everyone’s view of who deserves it most.
Term
crew chiefing
Crew chiefing is the job of leading the race team. They help decide strategy and work with the driver and mechanics so the car is set up to compete well.
Concept
NASCAR Cup series
The NASCAR Cup Series is NASCAR’s main, top-level racing league. It’s the biggest stage in NASCAR where the top teams and drivers compete all season.
Topic
Dover Motor Speedway future
They’re talking about what’s next for Dover Motor Speedway. The question is how the track’s future looks for NASCAR racing.
Term
drivers were on edge
“On edge” means the drivers were driving very aggressively and close to the limit. If they make a small mistake, it can cause trouble quickly.
Term
multiple grooves
“Multiple grooves” means drivers can race on more than one “lane” or line through the turns. That helps cars pass each other because it’s not just one perfect path.
Concept
all-star race
An all-star race is a special NASCAR event that’s different from the regular races. It’s usually designed to feel like a “best of” show rather than just another points race.
Topic
Dover future and race dates
They’re talking about whether Dover should keep certain race dates and how that impacts crowds. They also mention how the location helps reach a big regional fan base.
Concept
points race
A points race is a regular-season NASCAR race where the finishing order counts toward the championship standings. So it matters for who’s leading the season.
Topic
NASCAR date swap idea (Dover vs Kansas)
They’re brainstorming a hypothetical swap of race dates between two tracks. The idea is that one track might give up a date while the other gets a different kind of race.
Topic
Martinsville
Martinsville is one of NASCAR’s classic short-track stops. The discussion here is basically about why taking a race away from it would hurt NASCAR’s “roots” and tradition.
Topic
Richmond
Richmond is another NASCAR track the hosts say should keep its race date. They’re talking about which tracks are stable versus at risk of losing events.
Topic
late models and street stocks
Late models and street stocks are types of smaller stock-car races. The host is saying they’d like to see those included in the all-star event, but it probably won’t happen.
Concept
all-star open
The “All-Star Open” is like a preliminary race. Drivers race hard because they’re trying to earn a spot in the main All-Star event.
Concept
short track
A short track is a smaller NASCAR track. Because it’s tighter, it affects how many cars can race closely and how the event format should be set up.
Concept
bull ring
“Bull ring” is slang for a very small race track. Cars are closer together, so racing gets more intense and the event format matters more.
Concept
final stage
NASCAR races are split into stages. The “final stage” is the last part, and the hosts are saying that if a fan-favorite driver isn’t there late, people may lose interest.
Term
chase spot
A “chase spot” means the driver is in a position where they’re close to qualifying for the championship playoff stretch. It’s about the standings—who’s still in the title hunt.
Concept
buyout
A “buyout” in NASCAR driver moves is typically a contractual payment that releases a driver from an existing agreement. Teams may use buyouts to secure a driver earlier than others, which can trigger a chain reaction of transfers during silly season.
Concept
silly season
“Silly season” is the nickname for the time when NASCAR teams are signing drivers and making announcements. It can feel chaotic because deals and rumors move fast.
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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
About this episode
Jordan Bianchi takes center stage as the hosts break down the NASCAR Hall of Fame class announcement—especially Kevin Harvick’s “slam dunk” case—and debate how voting should balance dominant Cup eras, lower-series success, and the ballot’s “only letting two guys in” backlog. The conversation then pivots to Dover: why its late-May date works, how the All-Star format has lost some “special” feel, and what schedule swaps could look like. Later, the hosts dive into silly season seat speculation and quick race-weekend shoutouts.
Original notes
The Athletic's Jordan Bianchi joins the podcast just hours after the NASCAR Hall of Fame 2027 class was announced.
Frontstretch Podcast Network
Frontstretch.com
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