Hocevar Rides the Dente To Victory, New NASCAR CEO, Texas Picks, and MORE!!!
NASCAR Weekly Podcast · Apr 30, 2026
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Topic
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR has different racing levels. The Cup Series is the top level, so a “Cup Series victory” means winning one of NASCAR’s biggest races.
Topic
Talladega Super Speedway
Talladega is a well-known NASCAR race track. It’s famous for fast, tightly grouped racing where cars often run together closely.
Term
stage points
NASCAR races are split into sections called stages. Drivers can earn extra points during those sections, not just based on who crosses the finish line first.
Topic
Palladega
They’re talking about Talladega, a NASCAR track where races can get wild and unpredictable. The joke is that Talladega always seems to produce chaos.
Topic
Wheel
This word is unclear in the transcript. It sounds like the hosts are referencing something they usually talk about related to NASCAR strategy or odds.
Concept
tank for Watkins Glen
“Tanking” here means not trying as hard to win right now. They’re talking about whether something that happened earlier made it harder to plan for the next race at Watkins Glen.
Topic
Truck race
A “Truck race” means the NASCAR Truck Series. Instead of the usual race cars, teams race pickup-truck-style stock cars, and they compete for their own season title.
Topic
SVG
SVG here is shorthand for a driver name. The host is talking about whether to bet/choose that driver for the Watkins Glen race.
Brand
Carl Edwards
Carl Edwards is a famous NASCAR driver. People remember him for big, showy celebrations after winning, like doing a backflip.
Brand
Cobbless
“Cobbless” sounds like a nickname for another driver. The host is saying they won’t all celebrate in the same dramatic way.
Concept
start your engines
It’s a common race phrase that means the cars are about to get ready to go. The teams start up the engines so the race can begin.
Topic
Atlanta
Atlanta is another NASCAR track where races happen. The host is pointing out the driver has been near the front there too.
Topic
Daytona 500
The Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s biggest race of the year. If you’re leading near the end, it means you’re doing something really impressive.
Concept
car failures
Car failures are when something on the race car breaks or doesn’t work right. In NASCAR, that can quickly ruin a driver’s chances.
Topic
super speedways
Super speedways are the biggest, fastest NASCAR tracks. The idea here is that those tracks can make it easier for a driver to get their first win.
Brand
Dale junior
“Dale junior” is Dale Earnhardt Jr., a famous NASCAR driver. They’re talking about what he did during the race and why it mattered to fans.
Term
picker
“Picker” is slang for the other car/driver that ruins your race. In this context, it means someone got him out of contention by causing a crash or bad situation.
Term
Bristol
Bristol is a NASCAR track famous for close, aggressive racing. The track is short, so drivers often have to fight for position and manage restarts carefully.
Term
bleeding
“Bleeding” in racing talk usually means the car is losing performance due to a problem—most commonly a leak (like oil or fuel) or a system that’s not holding pressure. The phrase “bleeding or fighting for the lead” suggests the car had an issue that affected how long it could stay up front.
Term
Coke 600
The Coke 600 is a major NASCAR race at Charlotte. It’s a long, high-stakes event where strategy and timing near the end matter a lot.
Term
Nashville
Nashville is where NASCAR races on a specific track. Different tracks make cars behave differently, so results can depend on setup and driving style.
Term
strategy
Strategy is the game plan during the race—when to pit and how to manage tires and fuel. The right calls can help a driver stay up front when it matters most.
Term
leading at Michigan with 15 to go
“15 to go” means the race is almost over—about 15 laps left. Being in the lead that late usually means the car is working well and the driver is managing tires and fuel to the finish.
Topic
Spire
“Spire” is the name of a NASCAR racing team. The hosts are talking about how that team’s results are trending this season.
Topic
Ray Eberhand
Ray Eberhand is a person involved with the racing team. The speaker is saying Casey Kane helped the team improve and that included Eberhand.
Topic
Jeff Dickerson
Jeff Dickerson is a key person in the team’s day-to-day operations. The host is saying Casey Kane works well with him.
Topic
77
“77” is the race car number for that team’s entry. They’re saying the team has improved a lot since they used to struggle in the standings.
Topic
Ty Dillon
Ty Dillon is a NASCAR driver. The hosts are using his name to describe how the team performed a few years ago.
Concept
satellite teams
A satellite team is like a smaller NASCAR team that’s connected to a bigger team. They can get help—like information and setups—but they’re not always as well-funded as the top teams.
Concept
data sharing
Data sharing means teams trade performance information. That can help a smaller team make better decisions about how to set up the car and race it.
Concept
top fives
“Top fives” means you finish 5th or better. If a driver is regularly getting top-five finishes, it usually means the car and strategy are working well.
Concept
win points
Win points are the extra points you get for finishing first. In NASCAR, those points can move a driver up the standings pretty quickly.
Topic
super speedway top five
A super speedway is a huge NASCAR track where cars go really fast. Finishing in the top five means you placed among the best five cars, which is a big deal for a team trying to turn things around.
Topic
48 team
In NASCAR, teams are often identified by the car number they run. “The 48 team” just means the group that fields the car with number 48.
Concept
stages
In NASCAR, the race is divided into parts called stages. Drivers earn points at the end of each part, so teams often plan pit stops and driving intensity around those stage breaks.
Concept
pit stops
A pit stop is when the car pulls into the pits to get help, usually tires and sometimes fuel. Teams try to do it at the best time so they lose as little speed as possible.
Concept
three wide
“Three wide” means three cars are next to each other, all fighting for position. The host is saying the race didn’t have as much of that exciting, crowded racing as they expected.
Concept
single car packs
The host is describing the cars as breaking into small groups instead of staying together as one big pack. When that happens, it can be harder to pass and the race can feel less exciting.
Concept
pit timing
Pit timing means when a team decides to come in for service during the race. Choosing the right moment can help you keep better position and have better grip when racing resumes.
Concept
arrow deficiencies
This sounds like the car wasn’t handling as well as it should, likely because of how the air is flowing over it. When that happens, the car can feel worse as the race goes on, especially when drivers want to push.
Concept
Talladega race
Talladega is a famous NASCAR track where cars run very fast and often stay close together. The hosts are saying this race felt similar to other Talladega races.
Concept
stage finished
In NASCAR, the race is broken into sections called stages. When a stage ends, teams often change their plan for the rest of the race, like when to pit and how hard to push.
Concept
longer run
A “longer run” means the cars stay out for more laps before they pit. That can change how the tires feel and how fast the cars can go as the laps add up.
Concept
different strategies
NASCAR teams don’t just drive—they plan. “Strategy” here means things like when to pit and how hard to run, which can affect how the race plays out later on.
Term
track position
Track position just means where your car is relative to other cars on the track. Being ahead usually makes it easier to control the race and avoid getting trapped behind slower cars.
Term
side draft
Side draft is when one car stays next to another to “push” it forward using airflow. It helps them go faster together, which matters a lot in NASCAR races with lots of cars close together.
Term
stage two
NASCAR splits the race into parts called stages. “Stage two” is the middle section, and drivers earn points and make strategy decisions based on how they do there.
Term
pit road
Pit road is the lane where teams pull in to change tires, make adjustments, and refuel if needed. How long you stay there can make you gain or lose positions.
Term
restart
A restart is when the race starts again after a yellow flag. The way cars line up and accelerate can decide who gets the best position right away.
Term
pit box
A pit box is the team’s designated parking spot in the pit lane. “Three seconds in the pit box” means the team got in, did the work, and got back out very quickly.
Concept
drafting
Drafting is when one car “rides in the air” behind another car to waste less energy. It helps the trailing car keep speed and makes it easier to stay up front on big tracks.
Concept
traction
Traction is how much grip the tires have on the track. More traction means the car can stay planted and move faster without slipping.
Term
flaps
“Flaps” here are small aerodynamic pieces on the car that help control how air flows around it. Changing them can change how planted the car feels at speed.
Term
A-posts
The A-posts are the upright supports near the front of the roofline. NASCAR teams can change parts around that area to help the car handle better at speed.
Term
super speedway cars
NASCAR has different car setups depending on the track. “Super speedway cars” means the special configuration used for the biggest, fastest tracks where the cars run at very high speeds.
Topic
short tracks
Short tracks are smaller NASCAR tracks than the big high-speed ones. The host is saying NASCAR may have focused on short tracks first, and is only now turning more attention to the biggest races.
Concept
stage three
NASCAR races are split into sections called stages. “Stage three” is the last section, and drivers often change strategy because points and race flow matter most near the end.
Concept
lead changes every lap
They’re saying the lead switches from car to car almost constantly. That usually means the race is very close and exciting, not predictable.
Concept
Internet
They’re talking about how people watch and discuss races online. The point is that NASCAR shouldn’t make decisions just to fit what’s trending on the Internet.
Term
wicker bill
A “wicker bill” is a little spoiler-like piece NASCAR adds to the car. It changes the airflow over the hood to help the car behave better at very high speeds.
Term
arrow changes
“Arrow changes” sounds like they’re talking about changes to the car’s aerodynamic setup. NASCAR teams adjust aero pieces to help the car stick to the track and stay stable at high speed.
Concept
go green
“Go green” means the race is back to normal racing speed after a caution. If it stays green for a long time, it usually means there weren’t many wrecks or debris cautions.
Concept
super speedway racing
This is NASCAR racing on the biggest, fastest oval tracks. Because the track is so wide and fast, cars often run close together, which can lead to big packs and dramatic moments.
Concept
lap 116
A lap number is just how far into the race they are. Lap 116 is a specific moment, and in NASCAR those moments can be important because strategy and track position start to really matter.
Concept
the package
In NASCAR, “the package” is the set of rules and car settings NASCAR uses for a particular track. It changes how the cars drive and how fast they go, so it can make similar kinds of racing happen again and again.
Term
big wreck
A “big wreck” means a serious crash involving multiple cars. Because there are so many cars close together, it can happen fast and affect a lot of drivers at once.
Term
bumper to bumper
“Bumper to bumper” means cars are packed very tightly together. When cars are that close, even small mistakes can lead to contact.
Part
toe links
Toe links are parts in the suspension that help keep the wheels pointed the right way. If they get broken in a crash, the car can steer weirdly or become difficult to control.
Term
blow a tire
“Blow a tire” means the tire suddenly fails. That can make the car wobble or lose control, and the driver may have to slow down or pit.
Term
big one
In NASCAR, a “big one” means a big wreck involving several cars. It usually causes a caution period so cars can slow down and get through the incident safely.
Term
film room
“Film room” is when the team watches video to figure out what went right or wrong. Drivers use it to learn from previous laps and improve for the next race.
Term
in car
“In car” means the camera view from inside the race car. It helps you see where the driver is looking and how close they get to other cars during a crash.
Term
banking
“Banking” is how a race track turn is angled. The higher outside helps cars go faster through the corner, but if things change, cars can slide differently.
Term
wash down
“Wash down” means the car loses grip and drifts toward the bottom of the turn. It’s usually caused by changing traction as the race goes on.
Term
throw a block
“Throw a block” means trying to stop another car from passing by moving in front of it. If there’s not enough space, it can lead to contact and penalties.
Term
late block
A “late block” means one driver blocks another really late—so the other driver doesn’t have much time to avoid contact. People argue about whether it’s fair racing or just too risky.
Brand
Bubba Wallace
Bubba Wallace is a NASCAR driver. Here, the hosts are arguing about whether his driving move was intentional blocking or just a risky lane choice.
Term
picked a lane
“Picked a lane” just means the driver chose which lane to drive in. That choice can make it easier—or harder—for other cars to pass.
Concept
turn three
“Turn three” is just the name of a particular corner on the track. Pointing to it helps explain where the problem started and what the cars were doing there.
Concept
light part on the track
They’re describing a part of the track where the car doesn’t feel as “planted.” That can mean the tires don’t grip as well there or the car feels lighter and easier to upset.
Concept
Bubba was already loose
“Loose” means the car is sliding around more than it should, especially in the rear. If it’s already loose, it’s easier for someone else to make it spin or lose control.
Concept
turn someone
“Turn someone” means making another car spin or rotate so it can’t keep going straight through the corner. It usually happens when the car gets pushed or loses grip.
Concept
goes backwards
“Goes backwards” means the car spins around during the crash and ends up facing or moving the other way. It usually happens when the tires lose grip and the car rotates.
Concept
replay
They’re talking about reviewing the video replay of the crash. That lets them see exactly what the car was doing—like whether it got sideways or bounced after hitting something.
Company
Fox
Fox is the TV network that broadcasts NASCAR. They’re saying Fox didn’t explain the racing as analytically as they wanted.
Concept
green flag racing
Green flag racing is when the race is “on” and cars can drive fast and compete normally. During caution, they slow down and don’t race as hard.
Concept
side by side
“Side by side” is a TV camera layout that shows two views at once. It’s used to help you compare what two cars are doing at the same time.
Concept
caution
A caution is when something happened on the track, so everyone slows down. Cars usually follow a pace car until it’s safe to race again.
Concept
full screen breaks
A “full screen break” is when the broadcast stops showing the live race and switches to something else, like commercials. When it happens matters because it can cut away from the most exciting moments.
Concept
26 cars wreck
A “wreck” is a crash. When it involves a lot of cars, it can happen fast because the cars are close together, and it’s often hard to tell exactly what started it.
Concept
red flag
A “red flag” means the race is stopped completely. Officials pause everything to make the track safe and then decide when it can restart.
Topic
stage one
NASCAR races are divided into sections called stages. At the end of each stage, drivers earn points based on their position, which affects the overall race standings.
Term
battle for ninth
When they say “battle for ninth,” they mean drivers are racing hard to finish around 9th place. That position can still affect points and the rest of the race.
Term
DD12
“DD12” sounds like an app or streaming option the host uses to watch the race differently. They switched because the TV broadcast kept cutting away for commercials.
Topic
rapid fire post-race interviews
They like when the broadcast interviews multiple drivers right after the race, one after another, quickly.
Topic
pit reporters
Pit reporters are people at the track who give updates from the pit area while the race is going on.
Term
chase
The Chase is NASCAR’s playoff system. Drivers who qualify get a chance to fight for the championship in the final part of the season.
Topic
Kansas
They’re talking about a NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway. Different tracks make cars behave differently, especially with tire grip and how fast you can gain positions.
Term
put tires on
That means the team stopped to change the tires. Fresh tires can give the car better traction, which helps the driver catch up late in the race.
Brand
Hendrick
They mean Hendrick Motorsports, a major NASCAR racing team. They’re saying how many of their cars are doing well right now.
LIVE
Drivers! Start your engines!
That was an absolute bullsh**t.
Not clear. Awesome.
I'll tell you, I'm on my way.
What the f**k are you doing out here?
Before saying this great f**king idiot?
I don't care. Just let me your guy.
What the f**king idiot?
Did you ever think you would see that?
What the f**king idiot just happened?
Holy cow, where'd he have gone?
Let's go!
Let's go!
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to NWP this week
on Daily Talks, joined alongside Eric Eastep
and the iceberg.
Gentlemen, it is time for us to ride the dente
as we reflect on Carson Josebar's
very first NASCAR Cup Series victory
at Talladega Super Speedway.
Drinks on you, Danny, is that what I'm hearing?
Said we're riding the dente.
I don't got any dentes here. We're passing dentes out.
I don't have any dentes.
I then finished my Kool-Aid that was in here.
Was it the other night at least?
The other night, I wanted to get an intimidante diecast
and the website crashed.
I need to consider pre-order that one
because it's definitely been a popular one
that's for sure this week.
Jared, you called this one after two
back-to-back NWP pick wins for me.
You got it this time with Carson Josebar
and really a lot of our picks as where does they were.
I think some have the Eric Jones there at the end,
but a lot of our picks were kind of there towards the end of this one.
Yeah, I think they all were for the most part.
Except Brad.
He was still decent before.
He did. He got a lot of stage points.
He was good, but Palladega is going to Palladega.
Ever now and then we got to remind the world
that we still do know Wheel.
Yeah.
But you know and Wheel, I'm wondering,
we'll see later on the show how points look,
but I'm wondering, did it ruin your odds
to tank for Watkins Glen and what you've been saying?
It might have.
I know I performed or my pick performed like
capital A ass in the O'Reilly race.
So that might have even to score a little bit.
You can always just pick like Randy LaJoy
to sweep the weekend and then you can just get the clear tank.
I mean, you know, we are heading to Texas.
Truck pick right there.
Is he in the truck race?
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's full time in 91.
He's full time.
Oh, is he?
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Where's he at in points?
Now I actually see where he's at in the point.
We can forgive you for not knowing that because.
He has top 20 in points.
Right.
Sorry.
He is beating two full-time drivers,
Mini Tyrell and Frankie Minas.
Trucks have been off for a few weeks.
I've lost track.
I apologize.
Yeah.
I am genuinely considering tanking this week for SVG at
Watkins Glen.
But we'll see.
We'll see how things shake out.
We got a long show before then.
That way too.
So let's dive straight on into it.
Let me scroll up here.
Yeah.
Carson Hosevar gets the win.
Long time coming.
The most insane victory celebration I think we will ever see
for a first-time winner.
Just lots of, you know, fought behind that one,
probably been mulling over that one for a while.
I don't think gets us something to do with every single win.
We're not going to say to become the Carl Edwards doing a backflip
every time or Cobbless doing a bow.
But for the very first one, man, that was special.
That was badass.
I mean, like that had so many different ways it could have
went wrong.
And at first, at first I thought like, oh,
he's got his foot stuck when he was trying to actually get it
figured out.
I'm like, why is he parking over there?
And then I'm like, Oh my God,
he's going to run into the inside wall.
And then the fact that he almost caught that beer that
someone threw to him.
I was like, if he did that, like that would be put on every
compilation with Kevin James saying gentlemen,
start your engines at the start of it with like pro America,
rah, rah, that would be right there.
And it's still might, honestly.
Had he caught the beer, assuming he would have probably
took a drink.
I don't know how NASCAR would have felt about that.
But I mean, if the fans are going to throw it,
you better might as well make some use of it.
Don't want to let it go to waste.
At first I thought were people mad that he won,
but it seemed like he was kind of like calling for that.
That's kind of what it looked like.
I don't know.
I mean, it was the full Carson host of our experience,
you know, a little impromptu, but very creative.
A few moments where you're like, Oh, what is he?
Oh, I see the vision.
That's kind of cool.
That's fun.
Like it was, it's that was Carson host of art in a nutshell.
That embodies his actual racing career up to this point.
Flawlessly, but it was really cool.
I'm glad to see a popular win because Talladega is such a big
stage.
It's arguably the second third biggest race of the year outside
of Daytona from a pure like hype and viewership and buzz
perspective.
So yeah, I had to see him.
I mean, he's been so close in these races.
I mean, he was second at Atlanta last year.
He was leading the last lap of the Daytona 500 this year.
He was second or first on the last lap at Atlanta again.
He's been so close to winning one of these top 10 and points
legitimately.
I know.
And he's been good everywhere.
Like last year, there were some races in the middle of the
summer.
He could have won if not for some car failures and situational
mishaps.
So he's been knocking on that door for over a year now.
The super speedways always seem to be the most likely place
for his first win to happen.
And now that it's here, it does certainly feel like, Hey, maybe
the floodgates are open and he could get another one sooner
rather than later.
Because yeah, if NASCAR can have a young stock who's this
engaged, this passionate about the sport, they can get one of
these guys winning regularly, winning consistently.
That's obviously huge, not only for the driver in this case, but
for the entire sport.
Well, and like, you know, I have this car just sitting on my
desk and him talking about his celebration.
He actually had a video of it.
He posted on his Instagram.
He was at the 2014 Daytona 500.
Dale junior in that race is like out the window and waving at
the fans and stuff.
And like his rationale that he was saying is that he, you know, he
doesn't know like whether or not the fans could see that you
see them.
And that's like, that is not something I think the average
driver is thinking.
That's something a diehard fan who, you know, like I kind of
said, I think in my video about him and on live stream bleeds
red, yellow and blue NASCAR colors is, is thinking of.
And yeah, I mean, he could win at any point I would say during
the season, I think he's a better driver at this time this
year than he was last year.
Not even counting the super speedways, but I mean, you look
last year, he ran up there with Denny and Kyle Larson at
Bristol before his picker took him out of it.
He blew an engine either bleeding or fighting for the lead of
the Coke 600 last year.
He was second at Nashville racing Denny Hamlin and chasing
down Ryan Blaney.
And he, due to partially strategy, but also speed was
running up front, leading at Michigan with 15 to go last
year.
So I could totally see him getting another win by the end
of the year.
I don't know if it's, yeah, I don't know if it's super
realistic or not, but I could see it pretty easily.
You know, I've seen some people make the comparisons.
Oh, it reminds me of a young Dale Earnhardt and I can see
that to an extent, but who we really are more around to
have right now is like Casey Kane.
Casey Kane come onto the scene and was making a lot of, a
lot of, you know, moves, a lot of big, big moments for
himself.
Grant, he started winning faster, but I would argue the
equipment that Casey Kane had was, you know, not, it was, it
was solid.
It wasn't the greatest of time, which is kind of how I see
Spire right now.
We're seeing Carson kind of, you know, outperforming where we
might see Spire at this point.
Maybe he can, you know, help elevate Spire in the same way
I think Casey Kane helped elevate Ray Eberhand there for a
little bit.
The hope is they keep getting better because, I mean, he
just signed a long-term extension right before the season
started.
He gets along so well with Jeff Dickerson who largely runs
the show over there.
Yeah.
And this team, like they've gotten better year after year
after year.
He said something on a show recently, I forget where he
said it, that maybe it was in his post-race press conference
even.
Carson said that, like, most of the guys on that team, on
that 77 were there three or four years ago when they were
damn near last in points with Ty Dillon.
Like the team is just getting better.
They're bringing in new people.
They're bringing in guys like Chris Gabe Hart, guys like
Carson Hose, or they're bringing in smart people, but
they also just have the funding and the resources now to
actually contend.
Like the era of it just being all Gibbs, Hendrick and
Penske is still true to a degree because the 23-11s and
the Spires have relationships with those teams.
They share data with those teams, but we are seeing the
satellite teams sort of surge this year, 23-11 most notably
with Tyler Reddick.
But I could see Carson Hose of R and Spire being where 23-11
is today in a year or two.
And I hope that's the case because Carson, if he's there
for four or five years, I want them to get to the point where
they're regularly battling for top fives with the top guys in
the sport.
Let's not ignore that Daniel Suarez is 14th for it now as
his teammate.
He's beating Joey Logano, Austin Cendrick, Chase Briscoe,
Ross Chastain, SVG, beating a lot of what we consider to be
better cars, you know?
Well, and even compared to his team though, I think he's
overachieving so far.
And granted, the win points will add a little bit to that
this week, but he's 67 points over Daniel Suarez currently
and 113 over Michael McDowell.
Like that's a pretty sizable.
That's a near full race gap over Suarez and that's a race and
a half over Michael McDowell so far, which I think we would
think that probably be a little closer especially with McDowell
before the season.
It's just night and day different.
So he's been doing great.
So just in the first 10 races, which is pretty good sample
size, he's been doing really great.
Before we move on to the next topic of this race, I will just
say I got a shout out to Alex Bowman because I was really
pulling for him to hopefully get a win there at the end with
the weird season that he's had.
But, you know, I can definitely ride up to the Carson house of
our first win.
It was a good feeling no matter what this week.
I'm just happy that Bowman finished.
Well, like the guy deserves it.
He's been through just terrible season so far.
So even just a super speedway top five a pick me up.
That's probably something the 48 team needs in general with it.
But now there was a rest of a race to talk about.
Yeah.
And let's start with this.
The stages were set up differently than the past few
super speedway races we've had.
Gentlemen, what do we, what do we think of this, Eric?
What's your thoughts on going longer in the front?
So we have shorter in the second half of this race basically.
It's like eating your vegetables first, you know, getting them
out of the way so you can enjoy the rich buttery steak at the
end.
I don't know.
It was, I don't think it made it better.
I'll be honest.
I thought this was a worse race objectively than the Daytona
500 by a pretty wide margin.
And Daytona was the more traditional save for 30 or 40 laps
than go hard for 20 laps.
And I frankly enjoyed that as a viewing experience far more than
I enjoyed the majority of this race.
I appreciated that the Toyotas and the RCR guys and a couple
stragglers tried to push the pace in stage one.
They tried something different to force everyone to make two
stops.
I appreciate them trying, but it failed miserably.
Ultimately it was the forwards who pitted once and saved the
most fuel the whole time that made it to the end of the stage
and won the stage.
So like the guys who pushed hard were actively punished at the
end of the stage for pushing hard.
So it just, it just, yeah, and they wouldn't even have the,
it wasn't even three wide good eye candy like previous super
speedways have been.
It was two or three single car packs on separate ends of the
racetrack.
It was just, it wasn't fun.
And it was so long.
It was 98 laps.
That was almost two thirds of the race were sort of just
strategy, I guess.
It was bad.
It was really, really bad.
I'm glad they were able to run hard the final two stages for the
most part, but then just the arrow deficiencies of this car
rear their ugly head.
And I didn't really enjoy that either.
It was fun that Carson host of our one that masked a lot of my
disappointment that we had an exciting new winner, but the
racing sucked.
I'll just say it was, it was one of my least favorite super
speedway races ever, probably second only to that 2018
Talladega race that Stuart Haas dominated.
I'm just reenacting the finish right now.
Yeah.
And when I say finish, I mean 38 laps.
Yeah.
The final like 45 minutes of the race.
It looked like every other Talladega race for the last five
years, like you black out the cars and take out the scoring
ticker.
Could you tell me that race looked different than any other in
the last five years outside of maybe there are less cars in the
pack.
I don't know if maybe the team brought something a little bit
better than they usually would have.
But I mean, I took it as more of the field was so off the pace
to start that no offense to the boy from Knoxville with Chad
Fincham usually doesn't do well.
He was up there leading the laps and I seem to have more to do
with the field kind of holding their stuff back a little bit.
Yeah.
I would admit I saw the, I saw at least the vision in the way
that the stage finished that NASCAR might have had like, hey,
maybe if we have a longer run and they take different strategies
will spread them out.
And then a lot of the guys will have to like go harder or
something, you know, but to quote the great lyricist
Thugnificent that was booty, but booty, but booty, but cheeks.
That was a terrible race.
That was awful.
What a line.
It was awful.
I have been, I think more positive than people have expected
from the season.
I think I defended Darlington.
I thought that Martinsville and Bristol are a little bit better
even if they weren't perfect.
I am so sick though in general of the racing with this car.
I'm just, I'm at my wit's end with it.
And yeah, same.
I mean, like they have all this hype up for Talladega, man.
And like, oh, it's going to be the biggest party and the biggest
this and the biggest.
I mean, we got a big ass rack.
That was nice.
I guess in the marketing sense.
But it's, like I said, it's the same thing every time you could
just, you could just edit that scene in Groundhog day where
this, the alarm goes off over and over and over again and you
just watch the same finishes.
Talladega has gotten boringly predictable.
And that is an achievement that this car has had.
It's the fact that like, you know, Carson winning this race is
awesome and he did make some nice moves, you know, in those
final 40 laps to hold on to that front row and keep that track
position.
Like there was moments where Eric Jones got next to him and it
was like, oh, but he's able to side draft, get to us and still
make some moves.
But ultimately there was no like, wow, what a move by Carson to
split the middle three wide.
What a pass for the win.
There really was no pass for the win that was memorable.
He got the lead.
He got that track position by lagging back in stage two and
spending less time on pit road before stage three.
Like that's how he got, I think he was 14th or 15th across the
line in stage two.
Comes out second or third on the restart or for the restart.
Like the pass for the win was spending three seconds in his
pit box at the start of stage three.
That was the pass for the win.
And it just sucks that that's how these races are.
I think like the Daytona 500 in some ways, those two or a couple
of wrecks on the last lap allowed them to actually race the
final lap.
Like we did get Tyler Reddick with herbs pushing like made a
couple of like, whoa, passes for the win.
So that looked great.
But Daytona is the same problem.
It's just, I'm with you, Jared.
I'm kind of at my wit's end because I want to celebrate these.
Again, Daytona, Talladega, maybe the two biggest weekends of the
year from a buzz and a publicity standpoint.
And they feel like the two, I hate to say that like this, but
they feel like the two least legitimate races where I don't
really feel like driver talent is making any real difference
here.
It's just, I don't know that drivers are in such a box.
They're so limited as to what they can do.
And it didn't used to be, it's always a little bit been like
that at super speedways, but it didn't used to be this bad.
So I just, I want to be able to celebrate these races and celebrate
the winners as like true heroes.
And it's hard for me to do that when I know that, you know,
you could put just about any NASCAR driver out front with
traction at Daytona or Talladega and they'd hold it, you know,
you could take one, you could take Chris Wright from the 81
truck, put him in the 45 cup car, put him in the out front at
Daytona or Talladega.
He could probably hold them off for 40 laps.
And the frustrating part too is that we've seen this since the
2022 Daytona 500.
We've seen this.
There's been if changes outside of flaps to the A-posts, minimal
changes for the most part to the super speedway cars.
And that was more done everywhere.
The fact that it's taken five years for NASCAR to start making
some kind of change with this.
I get the short tracks were much more pressing issue, but still
like these are the biggest races and they've been treated like
an afterthought of, but I feel like NASCAR's looked at it by
their actions and just said, well, people tune in at Daytona
and Talladega.
And it's like, well, look in the ratings a little bit.
Maybe it's not like that anymore.
It just frustrates me.
And I just want to add, I was encouraged to hear Mike Ford
on the Hall or talk this week say that, Hey, like NASCAR's
competition department is already looking to making changes
to the super speedway cars, maybe even for later this season.
Like I appreciate that.
Now finally, there's a sense of urgency, a little too late in my
opinion, but I'm glad that they're finally like, okay, we do need
to change that's good.
The reason I'm, I think I feel like I sound very negative.
You like very extremely negative about this race and to start
the show, maybe more so than usual is I think in the back of
my mind, I heard Steve O'Donnell and I have a lot of respect for
Steve O'Donnell.
I think there's a lot about his vision for the sport that
aligns with mine.
That's great.
But on the tear down after the race, he was sort of like, yeah,
we, we, that's what we want to see in those final stages.
And I'm like, maybe he's just kind of saying that.
He didn't want to get into the details, but, but no, I don't
want to see the stage three at Talladega repeat itself.
That's not what I want to see.
And I think most fans don't want to see it like that.
Not that, not the host of our part, the actual racing itself.
We don't want to see races decided on pit road 40.
What are we talking about?
We got lead changes every lap all the way to the finish.
Look how competitive it is.
So that's the stuff.
That's why I'm aggressive right now is I want to push back
against that in case that's the why NASCAR is trying to go
with Internet.
We're smarter.
Everyone watching is smarter than that.
And we've seen NASCAR make changes before.
Granite long time ago, but 2000 Daytona 500 is widely known as
one of the worst races NASCAR ever had.
And the 2000 package before that, if you go back and watch those
races was not very good.
The last super speedway of the year at Talladega, they put on
the wicker bill.
They had all these different arrow changes and the race ended up
being a banger and everyone remembers it.
Both as an awesome race that did go green for a long time.
So it wasn't just wreck filled.
It's also Dale Earnhardt's last win.
We've seen them do changes even smaller in 2013.
And the Talladega race at the end of that year might not have had
the best finish, but the race was pretty good.
There's a history of doing this when the super speedway racing is
not up to the standard, which I think is a very high standard
and should be held there that NASCAR has because when at its best
super speedway racing is, it might have been in the most
exhilarating, fun sporting event you can ever watch.
I don't know about you guys, but I got into NASCAR watching a
Daytona 500 watching a super speedway race.
And I'm sure a lot of people did as well because these are the
biggest races and it should be treated that way.
It's the easiest to want to take a stranger and say, this is
NASCAR and they actually seem to want to sit down and enjoy what
they're watching.
It's the one that if you play a NASCAR video game, it can be
some of the most fun that you're going to have playing the
game of any skill level.
It's quintessential NASCAR is super speedway racing.
As many times as we can say, oh, I don't know if I want to keep
doing this when a big wreck happens, you see other things
like, yeah, this is it.
This is NASCAR right here.
And it's it's unique.
It's such a such a chaotic evil that NASCAR has has themselves
in here.
It's like chaotic evil on the on the chart.
Yeah.
It's uniquely NASCAR.
They don't do any car doesn't do this.
F1 doesn't do anything like this.
Super cars.
Nobody else races Daytona and how they got the way NASCAR do.
But yeah, it leads to like you're getting into there, Danny.
It leads into moments like what happened on lap 116.
Well, then that's that the package is exactly why we've seen
this pretty damn often.
It's like they can't get away from each other.
They're all packed in, whether they're saving or trying to
actually go.
One car gets turned and it's on and like it's, you know, it
sucks in the moment.
I guess that's like the only unpredictable part of the race
is who is involved.
Not that it's going to happen.
It's who is it going to happen to like that's about it.
In the case of this one, we had guys involved in the, in this
year's big one that were there contending for the win at the
end of this race because it was just that many cars that it
couldn't eliminate them all, but they were still there.
Well, the important thing is if you're going to get contact in
that big wreck, you want it to be like, you know, first you want
to be minimal contact and then you want it to be bumper to
bumper.
You know, if you get in the door, start breaking toe links,
breaking, you know, that becomes the issue.
But when it's bumper to bumper, these cars are pretty durable.
And so you did see like a lot of guys just kind of pushed their
way through that wreck and you're like, Oh, they're in it.
They're out.
And then you, they come out and you're like, Tyler Redick's
car looked completely caved in on the front.
He still finished 14th.
He blew a tire again.
He had two racks at the end of this race.
Let's not forget Atlanta, you know, he had a big chunk out of
his car from from something to happen.
And he still won the race.
That's true.
Maybe that's just a Tyler Redick thing.
But like, I mean, we're connect set car thing.
Carson Hosevar was in the middle of the big one and somehow
didn't hit anything.
I went back when I was preparing for film room this week.
I'm like, you know, where was Hosevar in that big wreck?
He had to be close to it.
I'm watching his in car.
And I'm like, I'm like, no way he didn't hit anything.
So then I looked, I like went to like some of the guys behind like
Bowman was right behind him.
Gilliland was right behind him.
I went to their in cars and they didn't hit it.
Like I'm just watching Hosevar just like, like skid through the
smoke would not hitting anything.
I'm like, that's luck.
Some of it's luck.
Some of it was thoughtful.
Hey, stay high.
They're more likely to wash down the banking as things change.
You know, but it was like, I can't believe he wasn't dinged in that
crash to some extent.
And but obviously many others were.
Did bubble Wallace throw a block?
What do you guys think?
Would you define that move as a late block?
It was a bunch of momentum and he got hit.
Exactly.
Where's he supposed to go?
All three, I think even four lanes were covered.
He's got to go somewhere.
Have you been looking on Facebook lately or something?
That's why.
Well, it's not even Facebook.
I'm seeing him in my replies and I know it's just trolls and
haters and, you know, but I, but it is like, it's enough of them to avoid
for anything.
Bubba period.
It's enough of them where I feel, I do feel the need to speak out definitively
and say that is not a late block.
Bubble Wallace did nothing there too.
That would, that you would watch and say, oh, he, that was a risky move.
He got out.
He, you know, got a push, got out in front of a little too much.
All the other lines had a run.
He picked a lane.
He committed to it.
And then just, you know, turn three, we see it at Daytona.
We see it at Talladega.
That's a light part on the track.
Easy to turn someone, get them squarely and Bubba was already loose.
So it's just, it's just happened.
That's racing.
That's how they go with this package, but it wasn't, I don't think anyone did
anything blatantly wrong.
If you watch the replay too, though, when he goes backwards, that car wants to go
up like the back wheels did get off the ground a bit and then went right back
down.
I did notice that in the crash that like, cause I guess we can kind of mold into
this topic a little bit.
Fox didn't talk really anything analytical at all.
Like the entire day was basically Mike joy, making some kind of gap on somebody's
name or some kind of fact.
Kevin Harvick saying whoever's fast at the finish is going to win.
And then Clint wanting to look on a Wendy's menu and then go into commercial
every five laps.
And there were a lot of commercials.
Yeah.
Well, I didn't think Fox was, I didn't think Fox was great.
I don't think Fox is ever very good at this point.
It's just, we talked on the show.
Yeah.
They're going to be in mid, mid season form for Fox.
Truly they really are in the middle of their part to shoot.
Hey, this was supposed to be their big climax.
This is they only have two races left.
No, but if you've heard Indy car is on Fox, the Indy 500, you should watch that
in a few weeks.
Big.
These guys and we no longer have them and just watch Indy car.
I have nothing against Indy car.
I'm just Fox.
It's the same thing every week.
And it's so formulaic at this point.
It's just like we have to hit this box, then this box and this box, then this,
then this.
Oh crap.
We didn't have a crash in the first stage.
I guess we got to go to commercial now.
Let's have it full screen over green flag racing.
But you know what they want to see side by side?
Them riding around for five laps under caution at Talladega.
That's what they want to see.
I don't know what in their contract it, if it's a contractual thing that
determines when those full screen breaks have to be, but they certainly
chose poorly on this one.
I saw they address it later, but they didn't, they didn't offer any
clarification other than, oh, we had a green, we have to, had to show this.
But like to your point, shortly thereafter, they were doing side by
sides under caution.
Like why could we not have done full screen then anyway.
But I think the biggest offense arguably was the big one happens.
26 cars wreck.
They show one replay.
And as the replay is winding down, they go to commercial.
No further discussion yet.
You have to wait three to four minutes, a few more Wendy's and
Peroni's disease ads to actually know.
Hey, who started the wreck?
Who got through it?
What's the damage?
I mean, I was sitting there on the, you know, I'm typing up notes trying to
note like who has the worst damage who got like a piece of it.
Cause I was watching like, I know there's still like 10 or 12 cars that
were in it that are going to be fine.
But I'm trying to like make a note of how bad was their contact.
And I'm sitting there like, Fox doesn't show me anything here, man.
Like I'd wait and like the restart was finally happening.
It was after the red flag.
And I still felt like I had an incomplete list of information of what
happened to everyone in that wreck.
And that just, to me, the rush to commercial, it's all bad.
Dude, Fox is just so bad, dude.
And I don't want to get off on a rant because we do this every week,
but Boyer and Harvick have no business in a major league sports booth.
Mike Joyce passed his prime.
Like we can just say it.
We can be honest about it now.
Yeah.
Like they're not, they're just not good at all compared to the CW on
Saturdays.
It's a joke.
Clean slate.
We need a clean slate with all.
I mean, the part that honestly pissed me off the most was at the
end of stage one, the top eight cross the line.
And I'm trying to take notes of like who's finishing where in the
stage, they show the battle for ninth or ninth and 10th in there.
Yeah.
They cut away to show a car.
And before those cars even hit the damn line immediately.
It's a commercial.
That was the point that I muted the broadcast on my TV and I booted up
DD12 because I'm like, I'm done.
I'm done.
I'm done.
I want to actually see what the hell is going on and God just prime
can't get here soon enough.
We're going to go on a rant if we go any further.
Prime can't get here soon enough is all I'm going to say.
I just hope to God that Fox does not win that best live audio sports
Emmy because they don't deserve it.
And if they win another sports Emmy, they're going to hold it over
everyone for the rest of time and I will be very upset.
They deserve absolutely zero accolades for their production.
Their cup series production this year, not a single.
I'm trying to think.
I'm trying to think of one nice thing I could say about Fox, other
than for the vast majority of races, they have done the side by side commercials.
You know, something that NBC and CW have already been doing, but it was not
going to do it too.
Okay.
I got one.
I like because they're able to catch stuff quick and just go down
the line.
I do like the rapid fire post-race interviews where they interview like
four or five drivers back to back to back to back.
I like that.
They've done better with their post-race interviews.
That's a good point.
I like their pit reporters.
I think Jamie Little's great on pit road.
I think Josh Sims when they cut, I think they have a good pit road team.
I think they're, they're well spoken, well researched.
I even think Josh Sims doing sort of the Chris Myers role in the
pre-race from time to time has been okay.
I think he's going to get more and more comfortable as he goes.
I think some of that talent, that's some of that young talent that maybe
we're looking at for the future, but that's about it.
That's about where the compliments end.
I like that they got rid of the cartoons finally.
That was a much appreciated thing.
Okay.
There we go.
Seriously.
And they did do that.
All right.
There we go.
I'm glad we all found something nice to say about Fox.
Point's time.
Tyler.
Your points later right now.
Denny Hamlin.
Second.
And everyone else is, uh, well, well, they might have more of a
chance to reset in the chase.
I gotta say, I, I'm Chris for Bell and William Byron.
It does surprise me.
They're that low in the standings.
Byron's been on a slump for a few weeks now.
I know he masked some of the issues with the top.
It happened quietly in seven, but now he's here.
Well, he finished like seventh or eighth at Kansas, I think, or yeah,
Kansas a couple of weeks ago, but that was because they put tires on
at the end and drove from like 17th to whatever it was in the
final few laps.
Before that, he was running and outside the top 10.
So that's, you know, Bristol, they were bad, Talladega.
I don't, that car was ugly as hell.
I don't know what that pain scheme was.
I was the worst pain schemes I've ever seen.
Uh, luckily I didn't see that car near the front because I did not
want to see that thing on my TV.
It was that bad.
Uh, but he was bad at Talladega.
So yeah, I mean, they've fallen outside the top 10.
Hendrick only has two cars in the top 10 and points right now.
So that's somewhat noteworthy.
I'd say that is.
Um, we talked about host for an eight.
That's yeah.
Exceeding.
Consider he was second with his teammate for a while.
Yeah.
Bubba's another one.
Yeah, for sure.
But yeah, but like you said, butcher up there, I will say you're starting
to see obviously first to second, but you're starting to see more
separation a little bit, especially when to get lower in the top 16,
but like Hamlin is starting to separate a bit from Blaney and Elliott
and them around there.
And there's a little bits of gaps.
Like I think we're going to start seeing kind of fragmented point
standings where it's like you had a kind of a cluster close together
here and then a few down here.
And that might be the battles that they end up watching.
I hope they do watch these battles points wise.
Once they get to like the USA races heading into Daytona,
because I think the seating for the chase is more important than
who makes it at this point.
Ty Gibbs once again, he didn't do good at Tallega.
He's done good on every race.
It's not a super speedway, but that there he is in fifth.
And at this point, I say the top six are championship contenders,
the top six drivers right now.
Yeah, I think there's always, you know, the opportunity for Bell and Byron
to become part of that conversation as well.
But obviously they're not there now.
So, I mean, seventh on back is 60 or more points, I believe,
off the lead on the reset.
So, you know, I think Tyler Reddick's got the number one seat almost locked up.
Yeah, I think that's, I mean, Danny Hammond could obviously go on a run.
Reddick could slump, but neither really showing signs of, I mean,
Hamlin's led a lot of laps, but Reddick, Reddick's worst race here at Tallega.
He still finished 14th.
So, I think, I think the battle is to get into that top two or three.
Like, you know, William Byron, what's a better example?
Christopher Bell's 70, 80 points out of second.
He's only 50 points out of third.
Again, with the reset, you just need to be in that top five.
And I still think Bell, Byron, Bubba.
I feel like Bubba is sort of teetering with disaster.
I feel like he could, he's on the verge of a downward spiral
that will be difficult to pull out of.
I just, every time, and even if it's a super speedway run,
every time Bubba starts running along, you're thinking like,
man, maybe he is a driver, is sort of turning to corner
or the team has either bad luck or bad decisions,
just terrible setup car, whatever it might be.
Something always happens and he always ends up in that
ninth to 14th range every time.
Yeah.
And he's like, had a different outlook over the last year or two.
But I mean, you're seeing bits of frustration from Martinsville
to I feel like his interview at Talladega was very dejected.
And I get it, but it's just tough.
You know, I'm sure he can't help but compare himself
to his five race win teammate.
And that's, that's not good for anyone's mental health.
It's certainly not a professional athlete who has all that pressure
on them every single week.
So I hope he pulls out of it and can string together some good runs.
Yeah.
Um, yeah, that's, uh, I guess it's Sondrick with the points.
Sondrick is 16th, but his name is spelled differently this week, Jared.
Yeah.
And I know I misspelled his name.
I'll have it as Condrick next week or Sondrick.
But yeah, I mean, other than priests plus 47, like it's really a battle
from like 14th to I will give SVG the minus 31 SVG has to perform well this
week. He's 31 out 19th and points.
Two team has looked better this year.
Uh, Briscoe and that team generally are starting to look a bit better.
He has to be within striking distance with Watkins gun coming up.
Like he, he's got, I feel like he has to gain points this week.
And it's a wild card with Texas.
I think he can.
Uh, I got to say the one that's, that's just been out to lunch or good and
no one between is Joey Logano.
Yeah.
That's what jumps out to me.
The fact that he's 15th.
He is now officially in the danger zone of missing the chase in an even year,
which we didn't think was possible.
Uh, yeah, to your point, they are all or nothing.
And unfortunately lately they've been nothing more than, more than you'd like
to say defending Texas winner.
Texas is a weird track.
I think there's been nine different winners in the last nine Texas races.
So it's going to be tough to go back to back,
but he's another guy that needs a solid day this weekend just to write the
ship.
So it is still close.
Like eighth to 27th and points hosts of art, a Kyle Bush are still
technically within a race of the cut line.
So I want to ask this kind of hypothetical now that we're 10 races
in, we got an idea who's where, what two drivers do you think fall out and
what two would jump in of the ones on the screen or anyone higher or lower?
Chastain could get in.
Syndra could fall out.
Suarez could fall out.
SVG get in.
No chase.
Briscoe.
I think Briscoe is definitely getting in that, that there's no chance Briscoe
misses. I don't think.
Yeah.
I want to say that, but I mean, this does not seem like, like it seems like he is
the JGR card.
It's off this year.
Yeah.
I mean, I think they've just made mistakes.
Like he blew through his pit box this weekend because when they don't make
mistakes, he still runs top five, top 10 most weeks.
So I don't know.
I think Briscoe will get in.
I mean, I had syndric missing at the start of the year.
He's run better lately than I expected.
So I feel like syndric, I almost wonder if syndric has a better shot of getting
in than Joey Logano.
I don't know.
I think I like, I love the story for Suarez, the redemption arc, but I think
he's probably in the most precarious spot of those guys on this graphic.
So he probably is most likely to fall out, but we'll see.
For me, the most unsure for me still as much as I do like how well he's done is
Suarez and Logano, just cause that team can hit top five or hit 35.
Hey, there's just no in between.
For me, it's Briscoe and SVG.
If he can stay points wise within, he just, he has to win all three road courses.
Yeah, I agree.
We could, we could not be counting up Joe Logano right now though.
Cause guys, it isn't even year.
Yeah.
But there's is, you know, there's some precedent for this.
It was a slightly different format, we know, but he did miss the chase in 2017.
Like, he, you know, he, he got a win.
It was encumbered and then he didn't point enough.
He didn't have enough points to point his way in.
So Joey's had, you're right.
You're right.
You're right.
I'm sorry.
You're right.
But Joey is just weird.
Joey is such an odd team to predict.
This system, I think the best Joey gets up to with his start and the way the rest of
the competition is, like the best I think he can get to is like 10th at the start of
it, which I, at that point, I think is too far back.
I do think he was, he's going to win a championship in his format.
It's just not going to be this year.
I think Penske needs to adjust on strategy and just quite frankly speed outside of Blaney's
team.
Yeah.
What, what does the 12 have that the others, I know, I mean, Blaney's had a couple of ref races
recently too.
Like he wasn't very good at Kansas either, but generally speaking, when the others are
off, the 12 never is like the 12's always still on it.
So I don't know, I don't know how that, I don't know how it keeps happening, how there's
such a disparity there.
Well, let's, let's talk about something that was not a disparity and that's TV ratings.
So we actually have data that supports that.
Go for it.
Cup series.
We finished this race with a 2.11 rating and 3.967 million viewers, which is overall
not bad.
It's actually decent numbers, but it's actually down 3% and 2% and 2% respectively.
The O'Reilly race had 1.339 million, which is actually up 6% year over year.
If that one picked at 1.83 million viewers and was the fourth best race viewership in
general on the CW ever.
It was also the most watched 11th race of the O'Reilly auto parts theory season since
2016 had to be very specific.
That's a specific stat.
They put that PR spin out there, man.
But we care more about what you guys think and that comes from the poll, the famous iceberg
poll.
11,000 people voted for this week's poll.
30% people said it was a great race.
40% people said it was good, meaning 70% gave us a net positivity rating.
19% people said it was an average Talladega race and 11% said it was negative.
It was the worst race I've ever seen in my entire life, which feels kind of strong for
a super speed way to have double digit negative.
I'm surprised it was this high.
The negative was this high or the positivity was this high?
The positive.
Now I feel even worse for being so negative out the gates of tonight's show.
I didn't realize how many people really like this race apparently.
I do think a host of our winning skews it.
I think that's one of the biggest bumps we've seen in quite some time.
A good winner can save a bad race every time.
Yeah.
I think more people, I mean, there's a reason more people are talking about the celebration
than how did you win on the last lap?
Tell us about that move.
Like nobody's asking that question because that didn't happen.
The question is, how did you come up with that celebration?
That's all anyone remembers.
And the celebration gets a 10 out of 10.
No doubt.
The racing is like a three out of 10.
In my opinion.
So this race was the 13th most positive out of 15 Talladega races polled.
I believe last year's Daga race was a lot lower.
I don't have the other one on hand, but I believe it was Bubba's first win, which.
Range Shorten also.
Range Shorten.
It also, the time was a year after what had happened a day before.
Like that one was always going to be voted low just because of the winner.
Well, that seems more accurate.
If you told me it was 13th of the last 15 Talladega races, I might agree with you there.
That sounds about right.
It is 6th of 11 for this year, for 2026.
Oh, that's, see, that's way too high.
There have not been five worse races this year.
No, no.
And which is insane of super speedway races.
It ranks 32nd of 39 polled super speedways that does include Atlanta as well as Daytona
Talladega like normal.
So, you know, compared to super speedway races and comparable races low this year, though,
like I don't get that one.
Top comment.
First comment I should say was from Spencer, positive, negative or meme.
Meme.
Meme.
And I'm going to let it should be.
This comment will be sent after this commercial break.
Meme, I got one right.
Spencer, you and me, we're in sync.
Spencer, I don't know if you're watching this.
Heck, yeah.
Top one BKN who said, shout out to Chad Fincham, passing 35 plus cars and leading at the start
of the race.
Pretty awesome to see that from garage 66 Bailey Kyle Bush got a top 10.
The banner.
He did.
Does that, is it top eight for free chicken tendies?
What's the, what's the chat?
He's got to win to get free chicken tender.
Really?
I thought they'd change that.
No.
It was lowered.
It was top 10 and you get like free chips in case though.
Okay.
That's good too.
That, that works.
Kyle says host of ours win in celebration, definitely saved this race.
So kind of what we were talking about before.
Hamlin fanatic 11 said, don't let the winner trick you into thinking this race wasn't atrocious.
Yep.
Thomas says, maybe it's because I've only really been in an ask car for about five years, but
this race didn't bother me.
And a lot of races that seem to bother everyone else just don't bother me.
Them, them honestly might be like perception of what you know versus like maybe what you
don't know.
I would say maybe that's it.
I respect not letting, you know, buddy duties like us rain on your parade.
Like if you're unbothered by a race, just enjoy it.
You know, we're still going to moan and groan over here and ask for it to be better.
And so that's going to still happen, but like, don't, don't let us hate your view of races
are meant for you to enjoy.
We just talked about it.
Yeah.
So I respect that.
The gutter comments.
So I look at, I look at the gutter comments usually like Monday morning, just when it's
fresh before a bunch of people start getting their biases in like when in heat of the moment.
Yeah.
Buddy of ours in the chat before.
And someone I constantly text back and forth with elite precision 29 was one of the gutter
comments this week, which surprised me.
He said, the hell are y'all smoking?
This was far from a good race outside of host of ours dope ass celebration.
This race was garbage as hell.
See, that's the most reasonable take I've heard in years.
Put us all in the gutter then.
All right.
I was just to make even the guck pole, which definitely skews more pessimistic than my
poll does.
Yeah.
Like even that one was like 55% were like, this was a good race.
And all I'm thinking is like, are we just, are we just like voting off vibes rather than
what we watched?
I think you're right.
But hey, vibes are important at the end of the day.
When you're walking out of the racetrack, when you turn off your TV, are you smiling?
And I think almost everyone was smiling after host of our one.
I think a lot of people are.
So I think it is a little bit of just vibes.
How are you feeling?
I was smiling after that burnout celebration.
So exactly.
Exactly.
So.
Well, that was a cup race.
Yeah.
We, um, we had first time winners in every race this weekend.
We had Carson.
We had Corey day.
We also had Andy, Jen, Koeck made to make sure I say that correctly.
A lot of people were really hoping for Cletus first win.
And it almost came too.
Well, and this is the first time that all three races in a weekend had a first time winner
since 2021.
Let me see if I can remember.
So Bubba was the cup one.
Brandon Brown was the O'Reilly one.
Do you remember the truck one?
Cause I didn't remember it when I brought it up on Sunday and the chat had to remind
me.
No, Spencer Boyd was a couple of years before that.
Yeah.
One Spencer Boyd.
Yeah.
So who was 2021 truck?
Oh, was it trucker?
Yeah.
It was truck.
Truck, truck.
Yeah.
That's the race.
Was it the Benedetto?
Nope.
I think that was the next year.
Oh, wait, I do.
It was a weird finish.
Oh, it was a weird wreck.
There's like a wrecking across the line.
Oh, it was some guy who's like not even around anymore.
Oh, it's tight.
Fogelman.
Fogelman.
Tate Fogelman.
We're playing the game.
I could pick through the incident, but I could not remember who was driving that
truck.
That was the one where I came back and I told you guys after the race that the
Talladega president came out in the, in front of the grandstand and said,
Oh, yeah.
That's what we want to see every race.
And you guys looked at me dumbfounded.
Like, did he, he did not say that.
And I'm like, look it up.
He did.
That's right.
That was not race.
Yeah.
It was a while.
That was wild.
But shout out to you.
What is tight Fogelman doing these days?
I haven't seen him in a while.
I know last I heard you like Quinn half.
He's, he's driving a truck or something like that.
I don't know what Fogelman's doing these days.
Well, I gotta say this coming back to this year, that O'Reilly race was fricking
awesome.
It was a great race.
It was, it was, you know, people love to say O'Reilly's the best show every week.
And that's often true, but I think people honestly oversell the O'Reilly series a little.
There've been some, I thought stage three at Kansas was kind of a snoozer.
But this was the best race of the weekend by far.
The Talladega man was awesome start to finish.
They single filed and rode around here and there.
But by and large, man, they were throwing shots at each other, three wide, not much fuel saving.
I mean, it was so much fun.
And Corey Day, raise your hand if you thought Corey Day would get his first win at a super
speedway.
You know, all the Kyle Larson comparisons, that's not something, that's not Kyle Larson
ask.
That is the antithesis of Kyle Larson's NASCAR career.
But cool.
It was really cool to see him get the win.
He did a, he did a great job at the end there.
And again, another guy, I think we can safely say it's going to be the first of at least
several, I would argue, at least even before the end of this season.
Jared, you had how many for him this year?
Two or more.
I had made the prediction though that he'd have multiple wins.
I want to say like right around the time he was having a gaffe a week and always like
the center of attention for bad issues, which don't get me wrong, he deserved the criticism
for, but has gotten better since then.
I get Talladega is not going to be a litmus test on how good somebody is for a full season.
But I mean, so far this year, he is fourth in the point standings.
He has four points behind Jesse Love, within striking distance of Creed, tied with Creed
and Allgaier for nine top tens on the year so far.
He has like an eighth place average finish.
Like he's going to win another race this year.
And he's going to get better.
Like the Corey Day, we're seeing the first two months of the season versus the Corey
Day, we're going to see probably in late September to early November.
I feel like he's going to be a completely different driver.
I mean, look at Connor Zillich last year.
I'm not saying that day is going to hit that high, but Zillich did not set the world on
fire the first two months of the year, even compared to day.
Yeah.
Now he turned it on after Talladega, really, or after Texas after he got back from injury.
So maybe this is the first of a stretch here for Corey Day.
I do want to give credit though as well to Sheldon Creed, that bright yellow car.
He was upfront most of the race, made a couple nice moves.
He was the guy to sort of shuffle Jesse Love out with a few laps to go.
That was a big moment because Love, you know, probably had the best car and was in control
of that race.
Sheldon Creed this year.
He's second in points, a distant second to Justin Allgaier.
But he's just every week, I feel like he's in the mix.
His teammate was also in the mix at Talladega.
He got spun, really spun himself on the final lap Sam Mayer did when Sawalic made that move
and then Mayer kind of made a late block.
I know he was really frustrated with the end result there.
But I just wanted to give, you know, mention the Haas cars, but especially Sheldon Creed,
because, you know, I think for a while there, we started to kind of wonder if he has it.
We kind of forgot about him a little.
It felt like he was maybe underachieving a little bounce from big team to big team to big team.
But this season he's been dynamite, I would say.
So now that was cool.
It was fun to watch.
Those final few laps were fun to watch.
That was an interesting fun fact to just put up there on screen there about Jason Kelsey.
I'm assuming we'll see whatever this was in a week or so, whatever it's edited and put out there, I'm sure.
And to his credit, he actually participated.
Like he actually was passing the gas.
He was holding the sign, grabbing the tires over the pit wall, which is not easy.
I can just say.
If you didn't know who he is, he'd about blend in because he's built like a gaspan for NASCAR.
Yeah.
I thought that was funny.
But it's like of all the celebrity appearances, like one that actually integrates themselves into it.
And you can tell was having the time of his life doing it.
I think that's honestly really cool.
What did you guys think of the whole blend line?
Kind of, I don't want to say controversy, but you know, just the penalties with it.
I didn't know that was going to be a point of emphasis coming in.
It sounds like they had sent like a memo to all the teams and drivers during the week to say, hey, like don't change lanes, you know, to block.
Getting up to speed and anything like that.
But I know that's been a concern the past few years because it's been getting worse and worse, especially in Cup where track position we know is so important after these pit cycles.
So I get the call, you know, knowing that context, I think it's probably the right call.
You know, someone has to be kind of made an example of, I thought Jesse love like just the way he picked this way through there was insane.
But it also just highlight how badly it could have gone because Quaple all guy.
And I think there was, there was a couple other cars in there too that I felt like also kind of shaded up more than they should have.
But I don't know, maybe in NASCAR viewed it differently.
I don't know.
They could have penalized like three guys instead of just the two, but it sucked because I thought Quaple had one of the best cars and maybe would have won this race or had a shot at it.
If you was still up front at the end.
Yeah, I do agree.
I think it was the right call.
I've been pissy about that since like AJ Almaninger did that getting lapped in the 500 one year where it's just, I just, I don't like the idea of guys going 15, 20 miles an hour slower, going in front of the pack at those speeds when any other time you look back at this kind of racing and those guys rightfully get out of the way, get on the apron or just let the pack draft past them.
So I hope that's kind of the way that they go from this point forward with that.
Yeah, I put it in here.
We're one third of the way through the season now for O'Reilly.
Wow.
Time flies fast.
Points wise.
I had the points on the bottom.
I want him to make it because I really like him and he's been on the show a few times, but the split between J.R.M. and Jordan Anderson for Raja.
I feel like he's going to drop out next week or two.
Like if he's not in that 88 car more.
He's one of the front Ryan Seig or Sam Mayer here.
Brent Cruz.
I'm going Brent.
Yeah, I think Cruz is going to make it.
Yeah, we'll see. I know Sam Mayer, man.
He may be a threat.
Sam Mayer may be a threat to Texas this week and he's got a really good average finish here last few years.
He should be a threat almost everywhere.
I just don't know what's...
I need to watch them more closely to know what...
I know he's been in a lot of incidents.
I think he's got two or three DNFs this year, which is pretty high for being...
He's on pace for like eight or nine over the season, which would be a lot.
So he's just got to finish these races.
I always forget how young he is. He's still only like 22 or 23.
You know, Cory Day is 20 and we're always like, Cory Day is so young.
It's like Sam Mayer is only two years older than him, but he's been around so long.
I guess we just expect more from Mayer.
But yeah, I don't know.
Trivia, what do you...
Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlap, William Sawalich, Raja Karuth, Ryan Seig and Sam Mayer have in common this year?
I don't know. They're all in the playoff bubble area.
That is true too.
They have it all one. I don't know.
One top five. All of them have one top five on the year and outside of Retzlap with five top tens,
they all have four top tens on the year.
I mean, it's a statistical wash in a lot of ways.
And see, I guess, you know, you just got to remind yourself, you're going to see more of that in a series like this.
It does get a lot of cup competitors that come into it and kind of take over the field a little bit.
It's just so much harder to get good stats and be in the, you know, the top part of the field
because of how many guys that come in and the points don't matter for them.
Yeah.
Matt, you get all-guyer, love, creed.
Yeah, you're going to have a great day.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I feel like those guys take every week they're in the top five and then throwing a Larson one week,
maybe, you know, whoever, any Hamlin and other like those guys will show up and do on top five too.
But it's like the same.
You can always rely on Justin Allgaier to be top five.
It doesn't matter where you're racing.
Top five is 11 races is here.
I mean, there we go.
It's all there.
You mentioned Arka.
Do we want to touch on Arka real quick?
Kledis second behind Andy Jay.
The Kledis effect.
Damn.
So I had his in-car up on my end and I had taken a screenshot that went all over Twitter of like 100K watching.
It peaked at, I thought 112.
It turned out like 113,000 watching his in-car and he almost won the damn race, which I personally think kind of validates what we were saying on this show about a month or so ago.
We have been, we can pat us.
We have been 100% right about Kledis basically every single step of the way.
I mean, we all said he could win this race and he almost did.
We all said he was going to struggle at Rockingham in the Riley car and he did.
Like we know what we're talking about and Kledis is doing this.
I mean, the way he's doing this is the right way and it was fun to watch him almost win this thing.
Be in convention the whole way.
I mean, if he just wasn't as aggressive coming to the tri oval on like getting into, was it robusto he got into?
I don't know who it was.
Gus Dean.
Yeah, there are a lot of white Toyotas.
Yeah, but I feel like if he just didn't really focus that much on Gus Dean as much as just getting there and using the side draft, he was great with the side draft.
I noticed like he has that down.
I think he wins that race.
I think that was the only mistake he made all day and it was just because he has an experience.
It's not because he can't make it.
I think you put him in that position 10 more times.
He'll win 10 times because he'll know exactly what to do now.
But yeah, I mean, Arca was trending number one in America with Kledis McFarke.
Arca, I miss it.
Arca was trending number one in America.
Who in the hell do we ever talk about Arca?
Like even on this show.
Not often.
No, and that's that's been our point.
Again, I think we've all been right all along is it's more fun to watch Kledis grow and develop in Arca.
Go from running your 15th at first to running top 10 for a while ran fourth at Rockingham in the East race to now having a shot at the win at Talladega on a big stage.
Like, you know, trying to rush this kind of the O'Reilly series doesn't move the needle, but having him in Arca out front at Talladega with a real shot to earn this win.
Like you said, number one trending in the United States of America.
I saw the Arca ratings were over 100,000 more than previous years.
That doesn't even include the 100,000 people watching his live stream.
Like this is what we want to see his him continue to develop, get better and be in positions to actually win clutch moments where you got to make the right move at the right time.
And to your point, he's going to make the right move next time.
And that's because he learned in the Arca car Saturday.
So it was fun.
It was a blast.
I saw blue Jimmy in the chat here bringing up like about him going full time.
And so I admit I have not watched his bald eagle podcast.
He does.
I'm not, you know, but I don't know what Cleo's fans we call or are called, but I'm probably not in that group.
But you can say that you can't find time to want to watch everything motorsports there in a week.
There are a lot of podcasts in the motor world right now.
But blue Jimmy brings up that apparently he did say on it that he's considering full time Arca.
I would love to see him give it a shot.
I think like him for a full season, like we're talking about like the Corey day progression.
Now look at a guy who is not been in like even professional motorsports pipelines in that same way.
And the progression from Daytona 2027 to I don't know if like Toledo or Kansas is going to be their finale next year, what it's going to be.
But I feel like that would be another really fun one to watch.
And he would have content for like 20 races that he could put out.
And he could win the championship in Arca.
Yeah.
Like I think if he ran full time next year, keep in mind folks, there's only like four or five competitive drivers that run all the races most years.
He could not say he will be in contention.
He could win the championship if he ran full Arca next year in like a Rhett Jones car or something like he's in now.
I'd love to see it.
It is interesting though.
And this is like his plans have changed a lot over the last couple of years.
And I don't know the guy personally.
I don't watch every single one of his videos, but it went from his friends with Greg Biffle.
They're doing these great things in Tennessee, in North Carolina, hurricane relief.
I want to run the Daytona 500.
Oh, that's you can't just do that.
Okay, let's start in Arca.
I'll just run the super speedways.
I love Arca.
Oh, how about O'Reilly?
Oh, no, just kidding.
Basically, let's focus on Arca, but we still really just want to run the super speedway.
Oh, maybe a full year of Arca.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, like the plans are changing a lot.
I think the more cletus we get in NASCAR, the better, obviously the numbers show it.
And if he's going to take things, you know, there's a reason the traditional pipeline
is the traditional pipelines because it usually works, you know, do some more Arca, do a few
truck starts, the occasional O'Reilly start here and there, he's going to get better.
The learning curve is going to flatten out at some point.
And he's going to really start to figure things out.
Like, I'm excited.
If he does a full year of Arca, that's only what like 20 something races, 22, 21 races.
Yeah.
Like it's a lot, but to your point, that could become his like 20, 27 content calendar is
follow my stock car journey.
I'm going to take it seriously.
Go as far as I can.
That would be fun to watch.
I'll tune in every week.
No doubt.
When I feel like the more he understands like how difficult it is and like the mountain
that this really is to conquer, the Everest to conquer.
And the more that he succeeds fails, like I feel like you can just see it in his face.
Like the more he's falling in love with actually like doing more of this, which again, you don't
get to see that because it's such a unique situation.
And I think also, and let's be my last point on all of this.
I think that this weekend also proved who was talking seriously about the appeal or not
the appeal, the approval process and working your way up through the ranks and who was
just being a contrarian to be a contrarian.
And you could kind of see because they're, to me, there was really nothing.
He did this weekend outside of, you know, a little over aggressive at the run to the
finish, which plenty of drivers do.
There was nothing he really did wrong.
He hit every mark he was supposed to hit all the way along that pipe.
All the, he just, he missed it by that much and plenty of drivers do that to Aladega.
So he had a boy.
He looked like he belonged.
If people are out there still saying he doesn't belong in race, it's like, no, he absolutely
belongs in ARCA always has and will continue to, he's, he's proving that time and time again.
If you want to question moving him up the ranks too quick, that's still fair.
I think I think Rockingham and Daytona and the trucks prove that it is fair to question
moving him up too quick, but as long as he's in ARCA, he's going to keep getting better
and he is going to win one of these drafting races at some point.
It's only a matter of time.
Now, listen, I know we're, we're dominating a lot of the ARCA talk, talking about
Kledis, practically so, but it's like a second to acknowledge who actually won the ARCA race.
So Andy J gets his first win.
Dude's 38 years old.
He is, I don't think it's, I don't think there's any clear like, oh, I've got to get to the top of an
NASCAR.
It seems like he's just in it for the love of the game too.
If you, if you look up his racing reference, there's actually a photo of him.
He almost seems like he embodies a little bit of the same spirit that Kledis has a little bit.
He's, he's popped collar, zipped down, almost chest hairs, yellow sunglasses on.
He's sitting there like this.
That is just like, this, this is what ARCA is.
This is a, this is a journeyman, ARCA guy.
He's, he doesn't run, he doesn't run a full season every year.
Yes.
He does work in pizza delivery.
I've heard that before too.
You know, he's just purely in it for, for the love of the game.
Well, he's the guy they always edit into those memes of like, I'm going to hit the throttle
until I see the finish line or I see God.
And they always attribute it to Ross Chastain with the hail melon.
Like this is the guy.
This is the guy, the guy with the cool ass bandana who looked at the stands like,
why are you booing me?
All I did was win.
Why are you booing me?
I won.
Take your, your Kledis emotions out on Andy Jay.
He is a, he is also a, a gift to ARCA that needs to be appreciated.
That, that ARCA race from the middle of the race on, that was, that was vintage,
classic art.
That was the ARCA I watched 20 years ago with my grandpa in the garage where you had
your crazy storylines with like the Kledis side of it.
You're underdog winner.
You had ARCA breaks that one crash where the dude is just sliding there or the driver
sliding there.
And then I was like, three banana, four banana, five banana skirt skirt.
Like I had a blast Saturday with a mix of modern ARCA and there too.
There's so many women racing in ARCA now.
And yeah, Isabella Robusto, like this close to getting her first win, like that would
have been a big story.
I think she came across line maybe third or fourth, probably like, no, yeah, there was,
there was veterans, young drivers, men, women, influencers.
It was peak ARCA.
Yeah.
Like that's ARCA at its best.
It was a good time.
Yeah.
But I think, I think on that note though, we can, we can finally move on a little bit.
And I guess get into the first super jet stage break.
Sounds good.
And y'all have been very generous tonight.
We greatly appreciate that you never have to donate to this show, but we always do appreciate
everyone for what you give back to us for just enjoying us talking about NASCAR.
So that being said, let's get straight into it.
Joshua Boston starting us off with a $20.
Appreciate that.
I'm honestly a bit surprised that Jimmy Johnson decided to use a 13 instead of the 84 for
his final cup start in a 2027 Daytona 500.
But it makes sense if he is using it as a nod to his 13th cup start and first cup win.
And we really haven't seen the number 13 using a while, have we?
I think Chandler Smith used it in order to get into the 500.
But last time it was like supposedly full time was with Jermaine.
Yeah, I guess Tydoam.
Hunter Nixon, so incredibly gracious right here, man, dropping a 200 on us tonight.
200 Hunter.
You don't have to do that, but I do appreciate it, brother, as always.
Hashtag Respect the Dente, what Hunter says.
And for 200, I will respect the Dente all season long.
Spencer Purcell, appreciate you being a member of D&B Superfans for 58 months.
Can't believe it's already almost May.
I know it's the best year for racing, the best year for my fishing.
May is always a great, great month.
Joshua Boston also bringing in a good two month member chat here.
So who went to 2026 Indianapolis 500 next month?
I have not paid any attention to testing and I know it's too early.
I'll go.
Oh, I don't know.
I think you got to go Polo or Pato, at least for now, but it's funny.
The local boy from here, I'm blanking on his name.
New Garden.
New Garden.
He's from here.
Castro Nevis.
Is he running it again this year?
I think I saw it.
I saw Leo's running it again.
I don't know if I'm winning again, honestly, but he probably not,
but he's won it four times.
Joshua Boston again of a $10. Appreciate that.
And I think NASCAR should try to short track package on super speedway.
It's a lower to drag, the higher to reduction of fuel saving.
And the more horsepower and speed we have, the better racing should be.
I don't know about trying to short track package.
I kind of get what you're saying.
You can't do 750 horsepower.
I don't think that would work.
I don't know if that would work for you.
I mean, you can.
But I appreciate another $5 from you, Joshua.
For Jarrett, I gave the race at like a 7.7 out of 10.
Is that my lowest rating in the post race streams?
Super chat cool down lap segment this season.
It might be.
Someone's got to track this.
I mean, I would admit, I have not been tracking, but you,
you tend to get negative early in the race.
I've noticed.
And then you're like, well, actually this is getting better.
And it's really good.
So it's definitely one of the lower ones.
$10 Santa Claus says that Eric is technically now eligible for the nice
list since a TV contract changed.
However, Santa determines the term Eric, who is Santa, his hero.
You have three guesses.
Otherwise back on Naughty List.
Santa's hero.
Rudolph.
He saved Christmas that one night.
It's got to be Rudolph, right?
I nailed it.
First try.
When in doubt, guess the wife.
Oh yeah.
I'm sorry.
Barncat.
Barncat Mazzac.
Appreciate a $4.99.
Hey guys, had a nice weekend.
Went to the draft and watched host of our win.
All is good.
That is awesome.
Hope you had a good time.
I went to the Titans draft party actually.
That's a good time.
And likewise he says also Danny, the Titans now have a 141 and 2 third chance
win the Super Bowl as a signed undrafted rookie Brock.
Rex Steiner, son of Scott Steiner, cousin of Bron Breaker.
Absolutely.
Yep.
Bron Breaker's cousin.
And if you don't know this Steiner math, it's a whole wrestling thing.
You need to understand, but I get what he's saying.
The Fat Controller.
$1.99.
This kind of rides we're using.
He stands with the playoffs.
Hey, Mrs. Jar Jar Binks.
Good to see you.
There's Herbert.
What you doing?
The whole gang.
Hi guys.
They keep cut there.
Palm tree.
Appreciate the $2.
Has anyone coined second place Sheldon Creed yet?
Can't know more.
He's won a race.
So.
And he was third this weekend.
Nick Foley.
Appreciate the $4.99.
Yeah.
Definitely overdid at host of our win.
Let's go back to back so I can do it again.
I did not.
I did celebrate with Chili's for dinner that night.
I did celebrate in that way.
I got Chili's too.
Oh man.
I thought I should have.
I didn't get a dentate.
Clip.
So say hello to your new CEO.
I'll be sure to bring back 550 horsepower.
We're going to say the 2014 to 16 playoffs and rig it to where
the only winners are Legano and Cody Ware.
We're going to do three more here for you.
I'm pretty sure we're past time.
Napa racing fan.
Appreciate the $5.
Steven A. Smith.
There are athletes who can drive, but a driver's not an athlete.
Speed podcast said it best.
This guy has no clue about racing and that's very much true.
He even admitted he does not watch it.
So for that, you know, you throw out his opinion.
That's why we really didn't debate it.
We talked about bigger issues around it.
It's just that he claims to be a top sports person and it makes
it seem like he has any leg to stand on.
He doesn't in this case.
And I fell in NBA.
That's what I've gathered.
He's good with.
He's playing solid.
He's probably playing solid.
He was on general hospital.
I've seen the clips.
It's pretty.
It's actually, it's not too bad.
Pack Mac.
Appreciate the $5.
Welcome to the Chris Wright town Memorial tour.
Jarrett showed a picture.
There it is.
I'm your official guide, Kyle Bush.
I'm here looking for the talent.
I seem to have lost a bit ago.
And Shavey.
One last one for you.
499.
Appreciate that.
Honestly, I didn't realize I was a host of our fan till the
win.
Being a Hamlin fan, I guess I root for polarizing drivers good
or bad.
Yeah, that's a, that's a good way to put it, you know, like,
like, like a lot of people said, there are, there are some
similarities to a young Dale Earnhardt and I can see why
people say that.
And we'll pick back up.
Logan King later on the show, but that being said, Jarrett,
2 30 a.m.
yesterday, we got a tornado warning.
Do you remember that going off on our phone?
I was, I was, uh, I didn't have my phone on me.
So I missed the entire text thread.
I was just like, Oh, there's tornadoes going on.
So I had, um, I had my phone blaring music.
I was listening to Pantera watching the storm coming.
I felt like a badass.
I fell asleep and I woke up to my phone and I walked outside
because it wasn't, it wasn't even raining.
I was looking around and, uh, I could hear, I could hear
tornado sirens off in Davidson County because we don't have
them here in our County actually, but I could hear them
in the next County over.
And, uh, then all of a sudden I saw big bolt of lightning
come in and we're in the lightning round.
Yes.
I needed to share this one.
I'm sorry.
This is how we're opening up the lightning round.
That, that, uh, Ricky Bobby granny at Talladega stole the
show for me.
She is a very famous social media person.
Her and her grandson.
I don't remember exactly their name.
I've seen tons of videos from them before.
Um, so I can't wait to see whenever this eventually comes out.
I loved it.
That was, that was a blast to watch.
It made, it made the, uh, Michael Walchrup grid walk fun for
me.
You know, I'm not the biggest grid walk.
I agree.
Kind of sore, I will say, uh, when it comes to the lightning
round here, uh, we do have, of course, the NWP channel.
We are 49 subscribers away from one K. We share every episode
and collab with that channel as well as all of ours.
So if you want to catch that plus clips, uh, as well that we
put up there, be sure to sub to that one when get across the
finish line on it.
Uh, also we're not going to probably review it by any means,
but check out the Ark of Night in America broadcast at the
national fairground speedway.
It's on the to be NASCAR channel at 9 p.m.
Eastern time, part of a doubleheader of the East and West
series.
Uh, a friend of ours, friend of the show, John Ramos is going
to be pit reporting for NASCAR during that broadcast.
So I want to give him a bit of a shout out on that one.
Uh, a little more Kledis talk to Kledis McFarlane and squirrel
McNutt, which never gets old to say, uh, are seeking
sponsorship to run Talladega night schemes in 2027, which I
guarantee you they're going to try and shake and bake at some
point.
Uh, Young's motor sports also is being sued by JLB and
associate dink.
NASCAR never end.
It's never going to end.
It's just going to keep going billable hours will be inducted
into the hall of fame in 2028.
Uh, and then next week we're live on Eric's channel, May 6th
at eight PM Eastern time.
We're, we're already at May.
Uh, but think that will do it for the lightning round.
That will do it.
And, uh, we can get straight on into some headlines and we had
a, a big one this week.
Guys, Jim France stepped down as NASCAR CEO.
There is no longer a France.
There's a member to France.
Kennedy family still involved, but there is no longer a
France actively involved in NASCAR.
Well, not in the CEO every day decision making role.
I mean, he's still chairman of the board, the board is made up
of Jim Lisa and I don't know who else.
I forget a lot of the names from the lawsuit, but yeah, I know
big news.
I mean, I think Jim France, we can say a lot of the same things
about Jim.
We said about Steve Phelps, you know, he kind of took on this
role at a time when, you know, Brian France just kind of
arrested.
I don't think he had the best reputation with many of the,
you know, much of the garage.
And so Jim coming in and being this sort of stabilizing more
calm, collected force, I think it was very good.
You know, and he was in charge when COVID hit and helped kind
of guide the sport through the pandemic.
You know, they did some good things, but I think the lawsuit
last year, the, uh, the failed charter negotiations and
everything that stemmed from that.
I think demonstrated just how unfit he was to still be in a
everyday decision-making role.
If I can be just blunt about it, I mean, I was in the courtroom
when he was on the stand for, uh, you know, one evening and then
he took back, he was back on the stand the next morning, probably
a couple hours total.
And he just came off as, you know, like he didn't have answers
to basic questions.
Um, you know, he, I think it was pretty clear through all the
evidence that he was very stubborn during those charter
negotiations.
Uh, ultimately had to give the teams basically what they'd
been asking for all along, but you know, it took a two year
long, tenuous lawsuit back and forth, hundreds of millions.
Like he had to go like his, the end of his tenure was an objective
failure.
Like he failed as the CEO, those for that final year or two.
And so they had to make a change.
Like Steve Phelps got the boot.
He was sort of scapegoated, but I think it was pretty clear from
anyone who paid attention to the lawsuit that it was Jim France
making most of the decisions and it was his decisions and his
stubbornness that led to the 2311 front row thing going as far as
it did and getting as ugly as it did.
So, you know, he did some good things.
He's a racer at heart, a lot of respect, but I think NASCAR is
in better hands with other folks, some younger folks, some of the
other, you know, the Ben Kennedys, the, the Steve O'Donnells
of the world.
I think they're in better hands with those guys being enabled
to make more everyday decisions.
I'm not saying they're going to make all the right decisions,
but I think they're going to be more open and adaptable than Jim
was at the end of his tenure.
So, I mean, not saying it's a great move.
I'm saying it's probably a good move.
All things considered, it probably had to happen.
Well, I feel like they've been setting at least Steve O'Donnell
up to be sort of that front man.
Because again, with the France family still running things,
Jim is still on, you know, as chairman and Ben Kennedy second
command, Lisa France, Kennedy, plenty of power.
The ownership is still purely within the France family.
But I feel like they've been putting him out there a bit more.
Like remember last year when the, the playoff talk was getting
really negative, there's a lot of Barb's being thrown towards
the France family, especially Jim with the lawsuit coming up
especially towards October.
And then Steve O'Donnell just starts popping on to like Dale
Jr., download and talking about, you know, being more kind of
democratic towards the, the fan base of like, we hear you,
you have a voice and there's a vote in it.
And they start talking on in front of more press conferences
like that.
And then they put him as the guy that's announcing the chase
coming back.
And he was really the guy that, that Adam Alexander was passing
it to every time they had to ask something about it.
So, I don't know if it was the plan to do it right now.
I feel like it's kind of the last six months or so kind of
disgraced Jim France a little bit.
At least, you know, his, his perception, but I do feel like
for the time being, this was set up.
I just feel like he's being put there one tough, of course,
do this job and because he loves to sport a lot.
I also think in a lot of ways, this is sort of a one to punch
slash mentoring of, of Ben Kennedy to get him ready because
I think that's the end goal is that Ben Kennedy to be running
the sport and five to 10 years, however long it is.
Yeah, I can agree with you there.
I think Ben Kennedy is certainly like next in line and he is
part of the France family tree.
Yeah, no, I agree.
Well, I do think one of Jim France's biggest shortcomings
was the lack of transparency.
He did virtually no media his entire tenure as CEO as, as,
you know, the head of the sport.
And I think having someone like O'Donnell out there who can be
a voice, a face that the fans recognize and the fans do feel
heard, I think is good.
I think they do need to be careful.
I think what O'Donnell maybe needs to be careful with is making
promises he can't keep because, you know, the dirty little
secret that's not really a secret is that the fans don't
drive every decision the sport makes.
Like the sport is sort of beholden to the networks who
spend billions of dollars.
They're beholden to the OEMs who spend hundreds of millions
of dollars.
Like there's so many other, as they would say, stakeholders
that keep this sport afloat that, you know, the fans can
scream, we want this, we want this, but if those other
stakeholders don't want that, like, I mean, I'm just saying
don't make promises you're not sure you can keep because it's
going to be hard to keep everyone happy.
I think what O'Donnell is saying about going out listening
to everyone, I think it's a great way to start.
But we'll just see when it comes down to make, you know,
executive decisions here in the coming months and years.
Like, we'll just see, can he, how can he keep everyone
happy?
The odds are probably not, but hopefully, hopefully
everything's headed the right direction.
I do think while he's not really popular with a lot of fans,
maybe he's more than he used to be.
I do think he genuinely actually cares about the sport
unlike what a lot of people will say.
Like I think he cares about it.
And I think the part two is he will have more power at this
point and to remember that a lot of those moves that we put
on Steve O'Donnell or Steve Phelps, like some of them are
definitely them.
But at the same time, it's under the leadership or orders
of Jim France, Brian France, whoever else.
You know, I mean, I think Steve O'Donnell has been around
since like 96.
So he was around under Bill France Jr.
There is that part of two.
I will at least want to be cautiously optimistic to give
him a chance, see what he would want to do, what the vision
is with a now much younger brain trust that's at least
publicly facing for NASCAR.
I mean, Ben Kennedy, 34 years old and Steve O'Donnell is what,
56, 57.
These aren't old guys.
Like if you look at the CEOs, commissioners, those that run
most major sporting leagues, this is actually on the younger
side now for NASCAR, which is a huge shift.
Goodell is starting to look kind of old at the draft.
I felt like I don't know how old Roger Goodell is.
He's got to be 60 something at this point.
Right.
Yeah.
He siphons life force from every ACL tear on a turf stadium.
Roger Goodell is 67 years old.
Oh, the chest going to go off on that one.
Just what the kids are.
67 years old.
Sorry.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
I think O'Donnell cares.
You know, can he get the ship steered?
I mean NASCAR has been, I mean, ultimately they've been on a
downturn now for 20 years.
Like they've had moments where they briefly peak up or flat line,
but by and large for 20 years now they've been on the downturn.
So it's not going to be easy to turn that around no matter who you are.
The real test to me is going to be, do we have sort of a come to
Jesus moment when it comes to the next broadcast rights deal?
Are we going to just keep chasing money or are we going to do
whatever?
And again, it could change in five years, but are we going to
do whatever is going to work to get more people seeing the sport?
Take your medicine on that side of it and go like maybe you get less
money, but like the O'Reilly series, you're up 20, 25% in your overall
audience in two years.
Because every other sporting league you're looking at from stick
and ball sports to racing, majority of them are up.
I mean, look at NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, all of them are up.
All of them are easily accessible.
The only one that's a little wavering at times per team is MLB.
And that's a lot of times because of per team deals.
IndyCar on big Fox.
It's up a ton.
O'Reilly series is up a ton on CW.
The Cup series isn't.
And it feels like between just on track and the obvious of getting
in front of more eyes for less money, like that's pretty much it.
I think that's going to be a real test of if they're really serious about
giving it back to the fans more and getting it in front of fans more
rather than chasing the bag and trying to make a media deal out of it.
Yeah, it's a tough balance.
I want to jump ahead and the itinerary real quick.
Can we briefly go out of order and talk about the CW ESPN unlimited deal?
Because it's kind of relates to this.
Because we talked about like.
Get that one out of the way, honestly.
Yeah, we can talk about real quick.
Just like the Cup series is already so fragmented from Fox to NBC to Prime
to TNT to practice qualifying on different stations.
It's tough to find the O'Reilly series is great because every race is on the CW
free TV, but one complaint people have had is there's no way to stream races
live on the go.
They don't offer it on the CW app.
Well, now they do offer it as part of the ESPN unlimited package, which
unless it's part of maybe whatever your cable deal is, you would have to pay
an additional $30 a month to get all the content on ESPN unlimited.
The other bad news is they put O'Reilly practice in qualifying now on ESPN
unlimited.
They did have a free on there.
That was free on the CW app.
So it's if you have ESPN unlimited already through like a Disney Plus
or Hulu bundle or something, this is great news.
Yeah, I've already got Disney Plus.
So I mean, I don't want nothing to worry about in my case, but I hate
the fact that you're then telling people who were appreciating a free offer
that hey, that free thing you like.
Yeah, push you down and give me more money.
Come here.
I'm not giving 30 bucks essentially to the mouse.
Like I'm not a Disney guy.
Really don't like that company in general.
I'm not doing it for practice and qualifying for O'Reilly when I'm already
paying nearly $100 for my TV already, which I still think is too much and
I'm wanting to downgrade somehow on.
Like I'm I don't think a lot of people that are making a lot of these
decisions and suits understand that people are age.
We're not going to pay all this money for it.
We'll find other ways to watch it or we'll just not watch it.
I'm not going to pay 30 bucks for practice and qualifying for O'Reilly
when it's diminished from what it was 10 years ago.
Like I'm getting less bang for my buck.
And I got that with my basic cable package back in the day.
Maybe if you're a fan of, is it like ACC for AAC football?
What college league has CW?
Exactly.
Exactly.
So no, it's not at the end.
That's the CW.
The ACC.
I mean, at the end of the day, it's O'Reilly practice and qualifying.
Raise your hand if you watch every O'Reilly or even any O'Reilly practice
qualifying session.
I put it on because I have the CW app right on my TV when I turn it on.
It's on the home and there's nothing going on. Sure.
But I'm here lately.
I've been fishing on the weekend.
Exactly.
That's weather.
So at best it's background noise and I cover the sport for a living.
If I'm not at the track in person, it's background noise.
I'll catch up on Twitter with all the details.
But so it's not the biggest deal in the world.
It's just frustrating that here's, you know, you know,
something that was free, that was accessible, that was consistent.
Now being moved to again, we have Fox NBC CW.
TNT Prime video.
And now we also can throw ESPN fricking unlimited into the mix.
Like when you talk about how easy it is for other sports,
easy, you know, NFL's can be on Fox or CBS on Sundays.
It's so much harder in the NASCAR world.
If you're not a diehard, it's hard to keep up month to month with
where every race is at.
And that does hurt viewership.
I never expected this would be a weird way to ESPN comes back to NASCAR.
Like what CW was owned by CBS.
Aren't they like, wouldn't that be like Paramount Plus?
I don't know.
I don't even know who they're.
They might be their own.
No, they're owned by like Next Star or some like random
telecommunications company, I think.
Yeah.
And this is the worry I have long term for CW to is they don't
have a ton of money to be throwing around.
Like I, like I mentioned at last a big risk by adding this much
sports, it feels like the amount of money they're spending on a
full season of O'Reilly doesn't even make up for four cup races.
So like there want to be a serious player, but they don't have
serious money.
And then basically selling this stuff off screams to me desperation
for more money, not we're secure.
Like if they were secure on this, they'd be adding properties to
it and not selling it off to ESPN.
They'd be taking probably properties from ESPN.
They didn't want.
So that's a good way to look at it.
We'll see.
We'll see where it goes.
And I want to reiterate this because I don't want people to miss
the point.
The race, the O'Reilly series race is still for free on the CW per
usual.
It's just if you're wanting to stream it on the go that you
don't have to go to ESPN unlimited.
You have cable and antenna, YouTube TV, whatever you have that's
going to get you CW, you can still watch the races on there.
That being said, let's move on.
We got three quick topics to talk about silly season news before
we can move on to a little bit of our fun segments.
All right.
What we got Tyler retic.
The extension finally happened.
It was after one one race.
It was probably you said, oh, probably need to think about that.
And after one, two or three, like, yeah, that needs to happen.
And now after five, it's, it's finally happened.
He has signed an extension of multiple years of 2311 racing
worth eight to nine million dollars per year.
We don't know exactly how many years.
This is right.
Where did they just, Harvick said it on the broadcast at one point.
Oh, he said it.
He said it in the program show after when they were talking about
it.
I think he might have had it wrong on per year.
Honestly, that sounds like it'd be for full deal.
If that's that much, like I feel like pull per year.
That's a lot.
This is why some of the stuff was more known for NASCAR,
like it is better sports.
Cause it really, I want to know what's, what's the value of a
race car driver?
Well, Denny Hamlin's contract is 14 million per year,
or at least his earnings are, but he's also old guard driver too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I'm just saying, you know, you got, I mean, I could believe,
I don't, I think that number, let's put a big asterisk by it.
Cause I don't think anyone knows for sure.
Not even Harvick, but say it is eight million a year.
I think that's very, I think that's reasonable for Reddit.
Cause he got to think he had other options.
There was a tweet.
I want to say it was from Bob, Bob Hockress,
who's the most in, in the know of anyone in NASCAR.
And he made, the way he phrased it was along the lines of like
Reddit has like, like Reddit had a decision to make.
He had options and he ultimately went with the 2311 option.
Something about how he phrased it made it sound like, oh,
like he had other options on the table.
He picked the 2311 one.
You have multiple bidders.
The price goes up, especially if those bidders you,
we don't know this for sure.
Could have been a Hendrick motor sports,
could have been a spire possibly.
They like to throw money around like that's going to drive the
cost up.
So I, I think like eight million dollars a year is actually
probably reasonable.
Maybe.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
But either way, yeah.
The most important thing is he gets this deal done.
I think it's good that, you know, he's gotten 2311 over the hump
into that true championship contention, race winning form.
And they're disrupting the conventional super teams.
I think that's great to have a new player at the front.
And, you know, it's Tyler Redick, you know,
no pun intended driving that.
Is it safe to say he's the franchise now?
Like, I know that he wasn't the rock they built it around to
begin with, but he's the franchise.
I mean, yeah.
Similar thing to how, you know,
Trackhouse might have started Daniel Suarez and it seemed like
Chastain became the franchise there.
Same thing here, you know, started with Bubba,
but he's not going to be the French as long term.
Real cool.
Completely like doesn't have to do necessarily with any of the details,
but so my dad's a big, uh,
Redick fan now.
So he ordered this, right?
He ordered this Bulls jersey.
And this is, and this is what he got on the back.
Did he get ready on the back?
Oh my God.
He's going to wear it to Chicago land this year.
And he's hoping that like Michael Jordan will see it or Redick will see it
and sign it.
And I'm like, that would be awesome.
It's going to be unique.
I'm betting Redick would find that really cool.
I had to give my dad a shout out on that one because he,
he was so excited when he told me about it.
And that looks like it was stitched.
That's pretty awesome.
I found the tweet from Bob.
This was how he phrased.
He says, uh, his quote was Tyler Redick has opted to stay at 2311.
Doesn't that imply he had other options?
Yeah.
Oh yeah, that does.
Yeah.
Anyway, yeah.
I love that jersey.
That's awesome.
Name, name team.
I'm betting one of them was, was sending some kind of offer,
at least, at least a touch base with him.
Yeah.
So, but good for him.
I'm glad he's staying again.
I think it's good for the sport that Jordan has his guy that can win races
and maybe championships down the line.
Yeah.
What else we got?
We also have Kyle Busch getting a new crew chief,
which a lot of people kind of seem to have the same, you know,
reaction to this, like, crew chief ain't necessarily the issue.
There's a lot more to this whole situation that's holding them all back.
To be fair, granted, small, small sample size, I think five races.
He did get an eighth at Vegas and a fifth at Phoenix last year with Andy
Street.
So, yeah, like in very recent side of it, like, at least there's some kind of
positive to look towards.
But I, I feel like after the sugar high dies down, like this is still
Richard Childress racing.
I agree.
I think there's only so much the crew chief can do.
I do think the crew chief, I think Pullman probably was a key issue as to
why the eight is worse than the three right now.
Did y'all hear Kevin Harvick on his podcast today?
I don't think Harvick's a great broadcaster.
I actually kind of enjoy his bluntness on his podcast.
He'd be a good studio personality.
Yeah, I think so.
But did y'all hear what he said?
He said, you know, remember, I think it was, was it Bristol or what was the
race a few weeks ago where Pullman and the spotter were blowing up on
Channel 2 about Bristol?
He's like, what's the issue now?
Why can't it get into the core?
And they're, you know, Harvick said on his show today that if he had heard
that, if he was the driver, he would have fired his crew chief right there.
That's what I was.
Yeah.
And I'm like, wow, okay.
So, you know, I think we all heard that radio and thought, ooh, don't love
that, but hey, Kyle Busch is fiery, maybe Pullman being fiery, maybe fire
and fire creates like a nuclear reaction that makes good things happen.
Maybe that, but in hindsight, no, it sounds like, sounds like fire and fire
combined and just burn the whole place down.
So I just think they realized 10 weeks in, hey, this car is very different
than anything Pullman's worked on.
The time is now to get the eight car closer to chase contention to keep
Kyle Busch happy.
So he might resign.
And I just think they couldn't sit on their hands and keep, you know, Kyle
Busch is not in a position to be rebuilding, so to speak.
Like he has a few years left.
He wants to win now.
And it was clear Jim Pullman, maybe in a, maybe a few months down the line,
maybe a year or two down the line could be a winning cup, crew chief,
but it seemed like right now it just was not a right, a very good fit.
So yeah, we'll see.
I think you're right.
Andy Street, they had some good finishes last year.
Let's see if those were flukes, I guess we'll find out.
And speaking of being good fit, Kyle Busch is a good fit in the memory
for this guy, Ricky Stenhouse, after what happened in North Wilkesboro.
You'll have to tell me about this, Jer.
Cause I'm not as familiar with this one.
Stenhouse might be on the move.
What's going on with that one?
I saw Breakhearted talked about it a little bit.
That's a possibility.
And then there's been some like simmering rumors, nothing like concrete,
but that is something that needs to be put on at least out there.
Is that how the game goes away?
Well, no, I mean, his contract would be up this year.
There's like, I have the list actually here of all of the teams and drivers
that are free agents this year or possible free agents.
And it's, it's everyone.
I like it.
I don't think it's going to be like Ryan Blaney leaving or anything
or like Austin Dillon, even though technically his deal would end this year.
I know, I know he's good friends of Denny Hamlin.
Imagine the wild card.
He just takes Corey Heim's car.
Well, there was a gun.
I think we might, I don't know if we talked about it last week,
or if I brought it up this weekend on a stream.
I can't remember.
But I know there was the rumor of like possibly Michael McDowell retiring.
So the 71 would even, you know, if performance wasn't the issue.
I could see that.
I feel like Stenhouse has, when the, when that team is not 30th has overperformed in it.
Like, remember that year where he was running like top 13, 14 on points,
like just off rip, right?
I think that was like 2023.
I think he won the Daytona 500 and then stayed top 15 in points pretty much
the entire regular season.
Yeah.
This team just, I don't think this team is anywhere near where it was even then.
At this point, it's been kind of gutted.
And I think he's a better driver than where's he at in points right now 25th.
I think he could be better than 25th in points.
Yeah.
I think so too.
It'd be interesting.
Yeah.
I don't know where he would go, but yeah, to your point, there's, I think,
I think there's now with Reddick locked up.
Maybe there's seven drivers who we know have contracts for next year.
So that leaves 29 up in the air.
So yeah, I'd, it'd be interesting to see Stenhouse in like a top ride,
like a spire or better seat to just see, you know, hey, can he win a couple of races?
Can he like make a chase run?
Like he did win back to back O'Reilly championships back and they like the dude can
drive.
He makes some mistakes, but he can drive.
It'd be interesting.
But I also, I don't know how many people are, you know, hyped up to see a Stenhouse
generational run in 2027, but it might happen.
I guess.
I can also just see him taking the, taking the 10 at college and then Ty Dillon
going to RCR.
I mean, especially if Dodge is there.
I don't know how much of a connection Dylan would have with colleague that isn't RCR
affiliated.
You also got to think it, if Heim gets to cup in the 35, let's say, and then like Jesse
love, I feel like he seems to be a pretty, you know, like he's on the tip of everyone's
tone could be going to cup.
There's two new rookies next year.
That means two drivers are getting replaced.
There are two drivers currently in cup that would not be back next year, at least not
full time.
And so it's like, who are those guys going to be?
Is it Herbst?
Is it McDowell retiring?
Like you said, is it?
Like, I don't know.
Like that.
So it's just interesting.
There's only, I mean, there's really only Josh Berry.
Josh Berry.
I mean, Josh Berry's been kind of nothing in the last year and a half.
I hate to say it.
Like, yeah, Josh Berry, even a bowman's one of those I kind of worry about if he, if
he loses the 48, I don't know where he gets in and health reasons.
Yeah.
I mean, just don't know.
You don't know.
Health permitting, I think Bowman, I think they give him one more year.
I think Hendrick likes him.
The sponsor likes him.
And honestly, like, it's hard to judge him off this year.
Health is just that big question for me.
That is, I don't have questions of his ability as a driver.
I just have questions of his health at this point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think with Hendrick real quick, I was thinking about this the other day with that 48 car.
I think they only have like, I've seen some rumors.
Oh, what if, you know, I don't think they're putting, well, here, let me just say what
I'm going to say.
I think with the 48 car, it, I like a stenhouse to me doesn't make sense for the 48, for example,
that I feel like if you're a Hendrick motorsports, you either re-sign Bowman short term and then
see if Corey Day develops over the next couple of years, you go get a Kyle Bush for a one
or two year deal, like a prove it deal.
But you, what you don't do is you don't go get like, for example, who would it, who would
be a good example?
Like you don't go get Chris busher, Chris busher.
Yeah.
Who like, you know, like, cause then it's like, okay, maybe he's really good and that's great.
But like also then, okay, when Corey day's ready in two years, where do you put him?
You're not replacing Byron Elliott or Larson.
So don't have enough options that makes sense right now.
Would you like, would you go get Jesse love and put him in the 48?
Like, I don't know.
I feel like I'd rather just wait and see how Corey Day develops.
I mean, I would maybe if they want to snipe him that bad, but.
Rarely puts this much into a driver and doesn't get them to cup though.
That's what I mean.
So it's, it just feels like, it feels like you're either resign Bowman or you go get
like a veteran for a one or two year deal and just kind of, it's just understood.
This is like a two year deal.
Like you, this is it.
I mean, if they want to throw a bone to Kyle Bush, we'll find out what's really left,
especially if they can kind of get that 48 team a little more in order.
I mean, I feel like Kyle Bush at this point is going to be a journeyman driver.
There is no option for him to me that is longer than three years.
I feel like he's just plug and play whatever works until he works his way
back down to trucks or whenever that is, but I just, I'm sorry.
I don't see it though.
I don't see him being in the 48.
I think that I think Bowman coming back is probably the most likely option as long
as his health allows.
I agree.
Well, if that being said, I think that's enough of that.
You guys ready to have some fun?
Yeah, I can have some fun.
Yeah, why not?
If you insist.
We're a little bit lighter enough.
I would be getting this point, but it is what it is.
We're going to make it predictions.
Each host will make two NASCAR motorsports or show related predictions.
Predictions are kick track each season.
So each week in our accountability session.
And we try to keep predictions relatively concise and within a few years time.
We don't want things hanging on for 10 years and be 40 years old trying to
figure out what this is.
Eric, you had three good ones.
All three RFK for to remain in a chase through spring.
And you also said that RCR will get a top 10 at Talladega.
And they did with Kyle Busch, right?
Yeah.
Oh, and I was so close to my third prediction.
Oh, I think if Chris Buscher wins, I would have gotten that right.
Yeah, you would have.
Oh, man.
Jarrett had Carson host Barbara get his first win before Connor Zillish.
There you go.
Talladega will average less than 4 million viewers.
We were getting close to it, but you were correct.
And you also had that Daniel Dye would be featured on the Michael Ultra gridwalk.
He was not, but instead you had the lap dance granny.
That's what we're going to call her.
And I have nothing.
So overall, Eric, you're dominating the season with a prediction percentage
of 63.13 percent.
Jarrett, you're an even 50.
And I'm at 31.82 percent.
And for overall, we're a lot closer here.
Jarrett, you're at 37.62 percent.
Eric, 34.40.
And I'm 32.27.
All right.
Eric, kick it off.
Do I go?
Okay.
How do I do this?
I don't want to do...
I'll do a Texas prediction to start with.
I'll do one for this weekend.
I've had good luck with these for the most part.
These guys were fast here last season.
Carson host Fards got his first win.
So he's feeling good.
Daniel Suarez new to Spire this year, but his career average finish at Texas.
I think his average finish at Texas over the last five years is ninth.
Put him in a Spire car.
I think Spire will get at least two cars in the top 10 this Sunday.
I'll make a Texas prediction too.
Texas will outscore the Kansas race.
61 percent net positivity on the pole.
I'm not going to be going anything this weekend.
I'm going to say,
Talleritic will win at least one more of the crown jewel races this season.
So that could mean the Coke 600, the Brickyard 400 or the Southern 500.
Talleritic will win at least one of those and get at least half of them this season.
I'll go and make both mine, Texas related.
Why not?
I think this race finishes in overtime cup race.
Honestly, that feels like...
That feels like how Texas has been in recent years.
So, Danny, last week you said Retic, I believe you said, would be on the cover of NASCAR 26, right?
I did have him, yes.
I am going to say in some way Carson Hosevar will be on the cover of NASCAR 26.
They'll probably have one for each manufacturer and almost seems like he would be the best option for Chevy.
I hope they go with just one driver.
We don't need every manufacturer on every single thing we do.
We don't need participation trophy covers.
Let's just have a badass cover with Carson Hosevar riding the Dente car all the way down the Tri-Oval at Talladega.
That's what I would want.
You know it was a solid NASCAR video game cover.
It was NASCAR 09 when you had Jeff Gordon looking off for stages.
But you had his car and you had Dale Jr. National Guard right beside of it.
It was like, hey, there's Junior right there.
There's two cars on the cover.
Yeah, I mean Thunder 04 had Jimmy Johnson, Tony.
You have all the cars you want.
I want one cover star driver that you can sell.
I agree. One driver, multiple cars.
That's the secret to a great video game cover.
Then you had NASCAR 2003 and they had to have Dale Jr.
Turn your hat around and we can't show the Budweiser logo.
I think we got one more.
Draft just completed and overall I'm pretty happy with Titans did.
And I'm going to say Titans will win seven or more games in 2026,
which is saying a lot considering they've won less than that in the last two years combined.
Might score as much as variable.
That man has two more kids, doesn't he?
Well, I don't know.
We can guess all we want just like they can.
How about we guess on random drivers this week?
I do like guessing on random driver by chance.
See you later.
Random driver of the week.
All right.
So random driver of the week.
Danny leads Eric 40 to 39.
So dead heat.
I swear we don't like plan these before either.
It just ends up this way.
So in the last five from furthest back on up, Eric got Tony Stewart,
then Danny got Nelson PK Jr.
Eric gets David Star and then Danny gets Dave Marcus and David Ruderman
on the triple threat of Dave's and David's.
Right.
I will say I purposely made sure that we could just have a three stretch of Dave's
in some way just to see if you guys are like, all right, Dave's something on there.
Is there any more Dave's he could do?
Oh, there are plenty of Dave's Dave.
David, like there was a point where the cup series had like five versions of Dave
or David in the in the cup series.
It's a very common name.
Very much so.
All right.
Let's get it going.
This random driver is from Martinsville, Virginia.
Yeah.
This random driver did pass away four years ago in Martinsville as well.
It's whole life in Martinsville.
So it's a check and to get it already.
Yeah, I'm just not.
I'm not thinking of big deaths from four years ago right up top of my head.
So none of us have tweeted about this random driver.
We'll say that except for me.
I did once.
This random driver was known for being extremely loyal to Mopar.
This random driver was actually still driving cars for Mopar five years
after they first left the sport.
So, okay, but that would be the be early on because they came back in.
Oh, one.
We know.
Yes.
And this random driver played a big part actually in Mopar.
Being in NASCAR and in racing in general, pretty much till the day he died.
Would you guys like the numbers for this random driver?
I feel like that's going to be our only chance.
I was about to say there doesn't seem to be very many clues if we're already at the numbers.
I think we got 17 clues.
Okay.
One, three, five, six, thirty-five, sixty-two, sixty-five, sixty-seven, seventy-three, seventy-eight,
eighty-one, eighty-four, and eighty-seven.
Give me a little fast.
Can you say it one more time?
One, three, six, five.
Sorry, I don't know why I did those out of order.
Thirty-five, sixty-two, sixty-five, sixty-seven, seventy-three,
seventy-eight, eighty-one, eighty-four, eighty-seven.
That's some random numbers.
That fits the segment.
Yeah, that's the random number generator activity right there.
Okay.
OEMs, Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, and Plymouth in NASCAR.
With emphasis on Dodge.
Yes.
Was Plymouth also on Mopar?
I don't remember.
I'd have.
I'll be honest.
I didn't look that far and do any of it, but I'm pretty sure.
This random driver was known most for running the 67 car.
This random driver was very intensely an independent owner driver.
Did not like.
Kind of figured that.
Yeah.
Chats probably figured it out a while ago at this point.
They got it.
This random driver was actually the last to score a top ten in the 67 car
until Corey Heim did in the 2025 Crystal Night Race.
Oh my gosh.
That's crazy.
I can't really remember ever a good 67 cars.
This is really tough.
I'm lost.
I'll be honest.
This random driver made 560 starts in the cup series.
Okay.
567.
He is lost now.
He's a legit driver.
Have you said he?
I said he.
Yeah.
I don't need to hide it.
This round.
We've never had a woman hit that many starts in cup, have we?
Oh yeah.
You are probably right.
Maybe way back in the day.
I don't know.
This random driver scored 103 top tens in the cup series.
Nice.
Nothing.
This random driver has the second most starts in cup history without a win.
Who has the most?
We know that.
That for a random driver.
Chat.
Give it.
I need to know.
I can Google that after the segment.
I never won.
But I sure kept trying.
This random driver earned it to about $2 million in his NASCAR career.
So I'll take that with what the times were and kind of see where he was.
For that many races completed.
Yeah.
This random driver raced in cup from 1964 to 1988.
I got one more clue.
Make it a hundred.
I feel like you're going to win this one.
Yeah.
This random driver son actually made the news recently.
He designed a Gen 4 car that was modified and attempted to drive 250 miles per hour
or more for America's 250th birthday hitting 253 on March 23rd this year.
I didn't see that.
It was on Reddit.
Oh, that's sick.
Now I want to know who this is.
Wish I knew the son's name.
But I feel like if it's like a senior junior, it gives it away.
Yeah.
Does the son, can we get that hint?
Is the son's name the same as the father's?
I'm not giving any hints on the names.
My brother in Christ.
I'm not giving us enough here.
I'm so far off base.
You could give me their initials.
I probably wouldn't get it.
Should I?
No, don't because I'll be really embarrassing.
Let's do it.
BA.
Bachelor of Arts.
Honestly, why not?
I'm just messing with you guys at this point.
Do you say B or VA?
B as in B.
B as in what's his first name?
I don't know if I should go that far with it.
Oh, man.
It's very clearly not Bobby Allison.
Bobby Allison.
I said very clearly not.
I don't know.
I know.
I'm just messing with you guys now.
BA.
Bo Armstrong.
I don't know.
I can treat.
Probably not real.
Speedy Thompson treatment.
Do you think is this a really outside that like,
are we going to know the name when you say it?
You might.
It depends on how much you watched back in the day when it was on
back in the day.
Well, I was not around.
I was definitely alive and I watched back in the day.
I was not alive in the 60s or 70s.
The show with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
that aired on the speed channel.
That would show old races and stats and different things about
drivers.
We didn't have speed until I was like in high school.
Maybe.
That was like a high school era.
It was fs one.
Well, no, it switched in like 2014 or whatever that was,
maybe middle school.
Then I had at the very end of its life cycle,
but I remember always being frustrated because I think like
the bud shoot out for a few years was on speed and I couldn't
watch it because we didn't have like the premium cable,
whatever package that came with.
I don't know, man.
I'm lost.
I feel like we look pretty bad.
Just, just take your victory lap.
Let us know who is it.
I think I call it.
Buddy Errington.
Oh, okay.
That's one of the names that, yeah, I'm like, yeah,
but I'm not too familiar with him.
When I tweeted about him, I think it was,
it might have been Brock who had put a tweet out like a long
time ago, but he was like, name a random NASCAR driver that
you'd think no one else would think of.
And I immediately buddy Errington and he immediately responded
before we met.
He's like great choice.
Yeah.
All right.
I got one.
I don't even know what's his son's name.
Nothing blanky on that.
I think it was like Joey Errington.
I don't know that one.
Wow.
That one.
I knew I've heard of Buddy Errington, but I didn't.
I can't say I had many.
Jared, I'm moving up to eight.
You're ahead of the guests.
Woo.
Yeah, I'll make sure reflect that better.
Let's do it.
Well done.
Those in the chat who picked it up so quickly.
Well done.
To be fair, like I think some of them definitely got it.
I do think some also got Google.
I mean, yeah, they can know what Google has stuff.
Not all, but I feel like once like somebody mentions it,
like says the name, it's like, oh yeah.
Like, cause when a lot of times when you say these that we don't
get, or Danny says one, I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh yeah,
that's it.
That makes sense.
Like that was a hard one right there.
Yeah.
But I like need to like, it's one of those.
If it was multiple choice, I would get it right away,
but it's not multiple choice.
Filling the blank is a lot harder when your brain dead like I am.
All right.
What do we, what we got?
What else do we got?
That's a pack show.
Yeah.
We have a lot of weekend notes right here ahead of Texas Motor
Speedway this weekend.
We will have a new tire for a cup this weekend that has been
used at Darlington, Kansas and Las Vegas.
Chad Fincham is back in a number 66 for garage 66 this weekend.
Corey Heim is in the 67 for 2311.
There are no Fords in the O'Reilly series race this weekend.
RIP Ford and the O'Reilly series.
Connor Zilich is in the number one for JRM this weekend.
Austin Dillon is in the number three for RCR this weekend in the
O'Reilly Auto Part Series.
Roger Krupp is back in the 32.
Carson Kwaubels in the nine.
Kyle Larson's in the 88.
And Brandon Jones is in the one truck.
William Swalich is in the five truck.
Kyle Bush is in the seven spire truck.
Parker Kligerman is racing the number 25 college truck.
Ross Chastain is in the 45.
Corey Roper is in the 62 for Hallmar Friesen.
And Carson Hosebar is in the 77 spire truck.
Same scheme as this past week, too.
It looks really good on a truck.
And meanwhile,
kind of serious race this weekend is the Worf 400.
Sorry, once I've read a note, I realized I didn't write someone down for my picks
and I wanted to at least get them in there.
It's all good.
Worf 400 is a 267 lap race.
It's broke up 80 laps in stage one, 85 laps in stage two,
102 laps in stage number three.
Scheduled to start at 3.30 p.m. eastern time.
You can catch it on Epis one and Fox one.
You can also listen to it on PRN and the Sirius XM radio.
You can try listening to it on NASCAR app.
I tried doing that last weekend with MRN and it was a skippy
wait, just like that.
That was perfect.
I don't know what's happened there.
Oh, he's back.
That's so funny.
Danny, you glitched out right when you started saying that
and then do like stop for a second.
It was a glitchy mess.
That was ironing.
That was ironing.
That was ironing.
Okay.
Sino put that down on your top 15 list this year.
Anyway, that was just trying to say,
I was not sticking around to see if it ever got fixed because
that was just a horrible mess right there.
I don't mean to make it to the rally race is the Andes frozen
custard 340.
It's a 200 lap race broke up 45 laps in stage one and two and
110 laps in stage number three.
It's scheduled to start at 3.30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday.
You can watch it on to the CW and listen to it on PRN and
series XM radio to defend winter.
This race is Kyle Larson.
The truck series race is the speedy cash.com 250.
It's 167 lap race broke up 40 laps in stage one and two 87
laps in stage number three.
And this one's scheduled to start at eight o'clock p.m.
Eastern time.
You can check it out on FS one and Fox one.
You can also listen to it on a NASCAR racing network and
serious XM radio defending winter.
This race will not be racing this year.
It's Corey Heim.
He will not be in this truck series race.
So we will get a different winner this year as for this
weekend's weather.
We're going to shout out our boy Jeff Bork.
You can follow him on Twitter at forecast WX.
He just changed his Twitter handle to update things a
little bit.
But for this weekend, his Texas forecast says that this
weekend is oddly looking like last year at the same time.
Funny how that works in the weather business Friday will
be most Friday will be most busy day.
The farthest reach of the shorter term higher resolution
guidance wants to push ways of showers and a few embedded
thunderstorms through Fort Worth through much of the day.
The rain chances are over 70% for Friday.
There remains a lot to be seen with exactly how fast the
cold front and its supporting jet stream trough helps clear
out the area.
But there is certainly a delay in play for the start of the
Craftsman truck series.
If not outright pushing it to Saturday.
Keep tabs on his thoughts on that on his ex profile.
He says any fans camping or staying in the area need to be
mindful of flooding and the typical dangers with thunderstorms
and majority of the severe thunderstorm potential will stay
south for what it's worth though.
And he said the actual weekend days look like almost like
last year with lots of sunshine.
Saturday morning will be cool temperatures around 50 degrees
afternoon will be 75 degrees Sunday will start the same
then give way to highs in the 80s.
So for Texas standards, pretty good.
I think that sounds a little more pleasant than even how it
was for me a couple of weeks ago when I went to visit Eric.
Yeah, Saturday and Sunday sound nice.
So let's just try to survive Friday.
Yeah, definitely.
Talk about the pickpoints.
I'm leaving still.
I can't believe it.
Well done.
Well played.
You're minus nine.
Eric, you're 12 back.
Jared, you're still baseman, but you're not 20 points baseman.
You're 17 points baseman, even with the Cup Series win.
Still, still trying to work your way back up.
Going into Sunday was 28 out.
So, you know, it could be worse.
It could be much worse.
Very, very true.
Yeah.
So, Jared, who do you think is going to win the Truck Series race?
Cowbush.
I still like him in the Truck Series.
Okay.
This is an interesting situation because I was only half kidding about tanking
for the road course picks next week.
Like, I'm not even joking.
I'm tempted to throw this weekend.
Oh, come on.
If I didn't with the first pick, let's have a little.
I thought you were for a second when you said Cowbush.
I'm like, ooh, I had him on my list.
Not first.
He's still.
All right.
I'll play less or starts here and I'll play straight up because honestly,
I feel like I'm okay having the number two pick next week too.
Cause Zillich, I think it's going to be in all three races.
Yep.
And yes, I like, I'm okay with having.
So I'm going to, I'll play for real.
I'll go.
Kate and honey.
Kate and honey.
Yeah.
Oh, who's the check at?
Um, I think they're going Ross.
Just saying I've seen the 45 more than any, any other number.
I've seen the 77 some, but I feel like the 45 is standing out to me.
Yeah.
That's a 45.
If I've ever seen it, they're going to rock just saying.
Oh, I, well, maybe I don't, he might call it too early.
Cause I saw six hosts of ours in a row.
I mean, we can do a poll.
Yeah.
It was looking a lot stronger.
Now it's 77s waving through.
There.
Here goes the wave of 77.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Those are both good picks either way.
Yeah.
I think both are very good.
We will pull and I will stay quiet because one of those was actually
both of those were options for me.
I can get a 77% for the 77.
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.
Come on.
Hit it.
It hits 77.
Dang it.
I had her going lower now.
Oh, well, it's over.
They want 77.
So does that take you?
You got the 45.
Yeah.
I'll take chesting.
All right.
All right.
Oh, Riley picks.
What do you got?
Kyle Arson.
Wow.
A monkey.
A monkey.
I got options here.
I'm going to shock some folks and I'm going to say Sheldon Creed.
That's not too surprising.
There's some cup guys in this race.
I got you.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Let's see.
What do you got, Chad?
That's a lot of sevens.
Yeah, that's a lot of sevens.
Yeah.
Give them all, guy.
And I actually get my number one pick.
I want Austin Dylan.
I thought about that.
He only shows up in Maine's business.
He's won the cup series race here before.
Isn't Silic racing?
He is.
Yep.
I'm surprised nobody took Zillich.
What's I'm saying?
The momentum's down from him.
I know he did win a race, but still overall down.
He won the last time he was in this car?
All right.
Well.
I got this one right last week, but I feel like that was sort of
more of a layup to get right just because of every Talladega race.
This one, I'm going to go against the numbers because this person's
won against the numbers all year.
Ross Chastain.
I don't, I don't trust track house anymore.
Even though track that Chastain has historically been really good at.
Yeah.
I would agree.
I, Penske finished really good in this race last year, but I've not
liked their mile and a half.
Speed at all thus far.
So I'm actually going to go crazy mode and say Ryan Blaney continues to
kind of dip.
Jared, if you think Cobb Bush is going to win the truck series race,
and I say it's going to, he's obviously going to suck even more so than
usual because it seems like anytime he steps into a truck, he gets like
way worse when he's in a cup car now.
So you're on Bush.
Yeah, that's not so quick.
By the way, you can't just pick Fox every week.
That's like picking Cody Ware.
Ironically enough, I think host of our has the most like numbers
numbers besides the 35, I think.
Really?
So just for that, I'll give him host of our just so they can't pick him to win
somehow.
Oh, brutal.
That's surprising.
All right.
They put him for my dark horse.
I know I talked kind of negatively about him earlier, but I will go Michael
McDowell almost won this race before Spires been decent.
I think he needs a chance to shine at some point.
So I'm going to go 71 on this one.
I'll go, I'll go Suarez.
I mentioned it earlier.
He's been really good at Texas and now I think the car he's in is maybe
better than the car he was in last year.
So yeah, I'll go Suarez.
I think they're going McDowell.
Is there underdog?
Smart move.
And then I'm going Chris Busher as my underdog.
You're just inverting the numbers at this point.
Pretty much.
I'm glad there are a few Eric Jones mentions because he's been good here too.
He has.
Alrighty, winner.
We're going to win the cup race, Jared.
Winner, winner.
I'm going to go Denny Hamlin on this one.
Honestly, for me, it was tossing up any Toyotas.
I can't, I can't ignore the fact that this guy's led like 80 or 90 laps
every race here over the last few years.
I think he's going to win it for the first time in the next gen era.
Kyle Larson snaps the streak.
That's fair.
Who do we got?
I mean, 45 is a pretty good bet this year.
I've seen a lot of those in there.
Yeah.
I'm already gone.
Yeah.
Give him Toleritic.
So will that be win number six?
I mean, we're going to know for sure if he wins the poll at this rate, right?
Well, he won it last race though.
So you get.
I'll go tie gifts.
At least I think he's consistent.
Wow.
Top five.
So I mean, that's your proof.
He's been pretty, pretty consistent.
You had good luck with Ty picking him this year.
So I get it.
I'm not as confident.
He's winning this one as it was Bristol.
But hey, I'll go with him because I need, I need some consistency.
And if it's not a super speedway, he's been consistent.
So trucks.
I have Bush, Eric, honey, cut host of our for the chat.
Danny with Chastain O'Reilly.
I got Larson.
Eric has Creed.
All guy for chat.
Danny has Austin Dillon and cup.
I have Hamlin.
Eric has Larson chat.
Reddick and Danny has tie gives.
All right.
The guy on Twitter who's always happy we pick whenever we pick Toyota.
There's going to be thrilled this week.
That's one of my favorite bits honestly on Twitter right now.
Like every time it's like, like I've got that 2013 Hamlin profile picture.
Yeah.
And it's like the, uh, it never fails if one of us picks a Toyota and everyone else
picks like Hendrick or Penske or just anyone else.
He's like, you know, Danny knows wheel.
The rest of these guys are clueless.
The worst picks I've seen.
I remember the one where we all picked Hendrick cars and he just, he's like,
I'm about done at this point.
These guys don't know a damn thing about wheel.
And then like the next week we picked all Toyotas.
He goes, you guys have redeemed yourself.
You know what you're talking about.
You know, wheel.
It's always, he always puts in, you know, wheel or you don't know.
Oh man.
That's all right.
Yeah.
We can get back to some super chats.
Um, we will be back next week.
By the way, as it says right there, we back on Eric's channel.
Uh, Wednesday, May 6th and eight PM Eastern time.
But yeah, let's get back to some super chats cause y'all have been very active,
very generous tonight.
Um, I go back up Logan and King with a dollar and a nine and when's the last
time Lionel site crashed?
Probably the, probably 2017 with the Dell junior homestead car when it
first got released.
I believe that they had, they had like one of those old school, um,
like call in shows on like a local TV.
Yeah.
And I remember watching that in an RV out in Wisconsin and being like,
should I call him like, I feel like it's going to be cheaper a few months
from now to just get it then.
I've got my kenseth 2017 homestead car on the shelf behind me.
I don't remember crashing the site for that one.
Uh, Steven Gibson, appreciate about dollars.
Host of our celebration was the best I've seen since I was a kid of Tony
Stewart climbing the fence.
Can't wait to see this more often.
Yeah.
I don't think you'll see that quite as often, but you'll see some,
some good ones from him.
I think I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
Uh, Ryan P, appreciate the $20 from you.
Question for you all.
Would you include drivers like Newman or McMurray and Hall of Fame?
It's always a tough question.
They don't have a lot of wins.
They don't have a lot.
They don't have a championship, but they both won a day to a hundred
brick or 400 McMurray is a little harder for me to justify than Newman.
Cause Newman at least had it.
Newman at least had good periods of consistency.
He was great when it came to qualifying.
He has so many pole awards to his name.
Newman is an easier one to justify to McMurray because McMurray,
we saw, we saw speed at the start of his career.
We saw a good burst there in the middle and just kind of fizzle away.
Um, but eventually we're probably going to run out of drivers.
So maybe one day there's a spot for him both, but, um, Newman is an
easier one in my opinion.
McMurray, no Newman depends on how many drivers we roll through.
Yeah.
That's mine.
I don't think either are, but I do think, I do think there should be like
a display for Newman and all his polls though.
Like it's something to be like this dude won a lot of polls.
Like I mentioned somewhere.
Call him rocket man for a reason.
Like thing was a dollar 99 better paints game.
43 Doritos are black 77 chilies.
We're going to see the black 77 chilies a lot more.
So, you know, probably go up that one and plus it one, but,
and that 43 Doritos did look really good last week.
I think it's the Chili's car.
It's not close.
Intimidante.
Yeah.
Hunter Nixon with $10. Appreciate that again from you.
Uh, wish the car race as good as it looked personally.
I like the look of next gen better than gen six, but mile and a half already
only tracks this car works at.
Can't wait for Charlotte.
Yep.
Coke 600 is going to be a fantastic race.
I feel hopefully yeah.
Uh, 98 do appreciate $20 NASCAR either needs to shrink down the cars
or absolutely increase the horsepower because those cars are way
too big to go that slow anywhere bigger than a quarter mile.
I agree.
Well, that just means you have getting rid of all the fuel saving.
Is that what they're talking about?
I think so.
Yeah.
Uh, Fred dog.
Appreciate $10.
The mighty only one who thinks host of our celebration was pretty
much the same one.
Kyle Busch did before he felt it was too dangerous.
It's not that original.
And I'm the resonant cub bush hater.
Uh, I think I know what you're referring to, um, where he was kind
of coming out of the car or.
Yeah.
He was outside of it.
I think he had like the steering wheel off kind of doing a burnout.
Yeah.
Um, I mean, it's similar, but I don't think we've ever seen somebody
drive while sitting on the door the way host of our did.
Yeah.
We've seen, we've seen drivers park it up against the wall and like
kind of like lean out of the car while burning it down.
Like if host far just done that out of said, Oh, that's cool,
but we've seen that for you.
It was still in cool.
We, I've never seen anyone ride, you know, 400 yards facing the fans.
Basically did like a little drive by parade waving like face.
The fact that he's face to face with the crowd and he looks like
someone else is driving him around.
Yeah.
He covered like half the grandsons.
He looked like the Pope out there, you know, waving at all his
constituents, constituents, you know, the pope.
You know what he looked like when he looked like Mickey mouse
dancing on the back of that parade float down, going down the street.
You know what he looked like when he came up to the wall and kind of
just hit it.
You see him bump like that.
Yeah.
It reminded me of like, like a, let's just say like a 12 year old
kid in what it was a little like power wheels, lightning McQueen
that look like they're way too big for, and they're clearly way too
big for it.
Just like sticking out of it.
Yeah.
So that part wasn't as original, but they're like, they'll drive
by that.
I've never seen that was cool.
I believe below the apron pressure to power dollars is very
refreshing.
Not hearing the victory interview start with the words, welcome to
the boy.
I agree.
Even though in this case, hey, he's still in it for now.
So Stephen Gibson, appreciate the $5.
I do not understand why Fox never put Jamie Mack in the cut
booth.
He would have been great.
I think we're seeing that here in the CW for sure.
Probably didn't want to play character.
You're not wrong.
You had creative differences with already back in the day.
They couldn't work together.
I don't know.
What a name.
Hank dies.
Appreciate the 499.
The two by two gridlock we see makes the idiots who say NASCAR is
just skillously driving in circles.
Actually be right for once.
It's an embarrassing product.
Can't argue against you.
So you got a point.
Optics 82.
Appreciate it.
Alan Besswick doing Indy 500 open testing on TV.
Question mark.
Hey guys.
I mean, doesn't he do the commentary at the track?
I'm assuming.
He does.
Yeah.
He's on the loud speaker.
Yeah.
Ible 07.
Appreciate it.
$2.
Sheldon Creed.
Best average finish in the O'Reilly Auto Part Series is 6.5.
I'm telling y'all, he's been really good this year.
My pick to win Texas.
Van Boney Sports.
Our favorite Zamboni driver.
Appreciate $10 driving to Zamboni tonight.
Then boys trip to Texas for the race.
Eric, if I see you there, could I pick your brain for a minute?
I'm a sports media student and would love some of your insights.
Sure.
If you see me there now, I'd be happy to chat for a minute.
I don't have plans to like be anywhere scheduled at this time,
but I'll be out and about, especially Sunday before the cup race.
I'll be walking around the fan area outside the track for a bit.
He's very easy to spot.
Yeah.
If anyone sees me out there, feel free to come say hi.
We can chat for a minute unless I'm like running somewhere,
but I'm usually not in a rush.
I don't know about everything you're running anywhere.
It's rare.
But yeah, sometimes you just never know what's going on.
Things happen fast and these race tracks are big.
You got to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.
So I got to put these long legs to the test.
We need to do that trendy video.
We're like, I realized I've never seen you run full speed.
We need to do that where we all run full speed for each other.
Jarrett, Jarrett's the distance runner.
I don't know who the fastest of the three of us is though.
Probably still Jarrett.
I don't know.
I'm not very fast.
I don't think I'm as probably good as I used to be,
but I used to be, I used to be pretty quick when I was playing football.
I used to be a speedster before it broke my leg.
Then it just didn't heal perfectly.
So I never got that speed back.
It's all about the endurance.
So it sounds like it's going to be a really ugly sprint.
If we, if we.
Oh, it's going to be three tortoises for zero hairs.
Jarrett's going to be, Jarrett's going to be limping.
Danny's going to be trying to relive his football days and I'm going to be like
fucking Gumby, like, you know, Victor Wimbanyama galloping across the,
the grass.
Yeah.
There's a reason my competitive mission in fishing today's.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Fred Delegate one, appreciate the $5.
So did anything come out of that legacy announcement or did they just say 15%
under car insurance can't even find anything consistent on Google?
Yeah.
It was not much.
It was, it was kind of a big nothing burger.
It was like a sponsor slash product announcement.
That's what it was.
They were getting, they were getting a line of like car care products in
Dollar Tree or something like that.
Yeah.
Which is like sure, but that did not need to be that hyped up.
Jeffery King, appreciate $999.
Jose Bar is a threat and I want Chili's now.
I had Chili's NASCAR marketing works.
Like a national security threat.
What are we talking about here?
I mean, I mean, the memes call him a terrorist all the time.
So I guess that's what I mean.
He's a weather advisory.
He's got a hurricane, you know, National Weather Service.
Yeah.
There's a hurricane threat making landfall Tuesday, but batten down the hatches.
Jeffery also said reduce spoilers on all tracks.
Alex loves appreciate the thought.
That was a random question.
Who's the most famous non-motor sports person you guys met?
For me, it's Jake the Snake Roberts.
I mean, there's been a few people outside of motor sports, but probably the most
perfect timing, perfect place ones last year on our, our trip to Jamaica.
We just haven't been eating at the same place that Usain Bolt and his wife were
at on his wife's birthday, which was just insane that that happened.
Yeah.
That's probably number one.
I don't think I've met anyone as famous as Usain Bolt in passing that Derek Henry
at Nashville.
And then I had a conversation at Kansas Speedway with Jensen Ackles, which was
pretty fun.
I met supernatural fans.
I talked to Dennis Quaid.
Yeah.
The race a couple of years ago that I would made it, I made an effort to go up there
and say hi, say hi to them and tell them how much I loved the rookie as a kid.
That's for baseball movie.
I didn't know who Jensen Ackles was when I met him.
So like, he was just like, we're standing behind Blaney's pit and he was just asking
me questions about NASCAR because he had, he had been out of it for a while.
And so he's like, well, I happened to like Gordon and Dale Jr.
I'm like, well, junior retired two years ago, Gordon about four.
I'm like, Gordon's actually right there.
And I pointed to the top of Chase Elliott's pit box.
And then I'm like explaining all this stuff.
And again, I didn't know who he was until like two years ago.
I'm watching the boys.
I'm like, you know, he's familiar.
And then I looked up Jensen Ackles NASCAR.
I go, that's who it was.
Damn it.
Like I, I met soldier boy.
Oh yeah.
Dean from supernat.
I didn't watch supernatural.
I did.
That was one of my blind spots in media growing up.
Alex with the $2.
Gonna say big boy 40 14 on the tour.
Danny.
I mean, I would like to, but I just don't know.
There's dirt.
Yes, we're doing a West Coast, East Coast tour,
but nothing really convenient for Tennessee.
So, you know, just have to wait and see on that one.
Santa Claus father of Christmas appreciate the $1.99.
No, two more guesses, Eric.
That's for someone is a hero.
Yeah.
Who's Santa Claus is here?
I don't know.
Jesus.
That's my second guest.
Uh, Indy Carson going on a run of a couple here.
Hey, end of V NASCAR.
Talladega, Arca, Kledis leads his first lap and almost one too
many wrecks a rally.
What a day for Corey.
Not many wrecks.
Is that a pun cup?
I didn't watch till lap 52 due to birthday.
I guess people at a NASCAR party.
Yeah.
Carson showed them why having that name is big as your first
or last name.
That was a big wreck in that event.
Carson.
Yeah.
Um, Alex with $5.
I just remembered I'm going to miss the FIFA World Cup final
this year because I'm going to North Wilkesboro.
If I miss Germany winning it, that's going to suck.
Well, North Wilkesboro will be fun.
Can't think of anything more different than the FIFA World Cup.
Yeah.
Jeffery King, CW is a trap.
I fear watch next year be exclusive.
I wanted a streaming app.
I don't think it will.
It'll stay on the whole CW.
Ratings are too good.
Yeah.
I don't say that happening.
Dustin Drake, appreciate of 1999.
Imagine if Carson had Odell Beckham Jr.
One handed that beer during a celebration.
Oh, the catch.
That would have been the coolest.
If he shot gun a beer while sitting on the edge and burning it out
against the wall.
It would have been cool.
It would have been cool.
It would have been insane.
That's going to be a tough catch though.
Jensen, appreciate of $20.
My wife and I went to Chili's here in Honolulu and we were the
only ones who understood the signs slash balloons that said,
that said number 77's first win.
I had to explain what that meant that people around us
congrats to the hurricane Aloha.
See, I only got my Chili's to go.
So I don't know if mine would have had anything inside that had said
that.
Did they have decorations in your Chili's?
Because if so, that's awesome.
Yeah.
I hope that's true.
Yeah, wow.
I only went into like, see at Chili's we get to go.
It's like just to go area off to the side.
You're not even going in the restaurant for that.
So I don't even know if mine had that actually.
If they did, that's really awesome.
He says, yeah, in the chat.
That's super cool then.
That's awesome.
Wow.
That's, that's incredible.
BGWX chasing pressure to point out and hanging the banner.
I beat the scalpers and managed to get a dual autograph race when
diecast heard it sold out within a couple of minutes.
So excited.
Yeah.
A lot of people wanted it in every, every single one.
I can't decide if I do order it.
I can't decide if I want to want to get the, you know, just the
regular one, but the thing is they've gone so much up in price
now, even a regular one's like 90 bucks these days.
And I've always loved the finish of a liquid color car.
And I've, I've feeling that liquid color black would look really cool.
So I don't, I don't know.
I probably won't be able to make up my mind when we buy it.
So that's probably how it's, I was going to go for me.
David Bell, appreciate being a member for 13 months.
How you doing, sir?
Hope you men are doing great.
Texas may be wild.
Maybe he's thinking Christopher Bell's got something up his sleeves.
It's going to be crazy folks.
How you doing, man?
Good to see you.
Uh, pretty soon.
99 my first tall, big experience was a success despite the bad racing
product.
Also going to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for the first time,
Eric, any tips on attending TMS?
I'll give you a shout if we cross paths.
Uh, Eric's definitely been there more than I have.
I also had a, I had an experience there a couple of years ago,
put out a blog.
So if you get a chance to check that one out, see what I did too.
Yeah.
No doubt.
Definitely go check that out.
I mean, it's changed a lot over the last few years.
I mean, and my advice is like any, it's like the most at normal track,
like get there early, you know, parking is free.
Check out what's out in the midway.
Um, I don't know if you have like an infield or garage pass, but, you
know, I guess if you find yourself in the garage or in the infield,
I think it's still there.
It used to be a torti's tacos, but they've changed it to a Roy
Hutchins barbecue.
Get yourself a Texas Twinkie.
It's a, it's delicious.
It's a North Texas.
Hutchins is good.
I had that when I was out there.
So if you're in the infield, stop by the Hutchins barbecue attached to
the garage.
If it's still, again, it's changed a couple of times.
It was a torti's.
So I don't know what it is now.
Uh, Jeffery King, Ford and O'Reilly is definitely a Hawaiian bird.
I don't get that reference.
It's like, it's, it's cause I guess it's going extinct.
Uh, Andrew, appreciate $2.
Jim France dying was not in fact the answer.
Jeffery King going on a run to being very generous.
Appreciate that.
Jeffrey could Jordan have secretly bought part NASCAR.
No.
I guess he could have secretly.
It's not a public company, but.
Talk to the older fan today.
He dislikes this car.
Yeah.
Well, a lot of younger fans still dislike this car.
So, uh, Phillip, appreciate about that.
I was looking like a big rain shield over DFW Friday and Friday evening.
Most likely a double header Saturday unless things change,
cannot white go 12.
Yep.
Very possible.
And Jeffery King says Disney at restoring Star Wars NASCAR.
Yeah.
I'm just an aesthetic towards Star Wars anymore.
I don't know what's going on and I don't care to even find out again.
At least in this case, like ESPN Disney has no,
no creative efforts with this is just the platform.
That's, that's all it really is.
Yeah.
Uh, Elijah appreciate about those fun fact,
the Owl House creator Dana Terrace told her fans to pirate a show after
Disney disc, after Disney announced the stuff of AI.
I love that.
Uh, David Bell, appreciate you just giving a dollar.
Thanks, David.
Andy Carson, appreciate another $10 from you.
Fox proved again why I'm not watching NASCAR until Pocono in June.
Since currently I'm not home to watch a race all summer except only four,
which are Pocono, Norfolk's Borough, New Hampshire and Daytona.
Uh, Eric Andrade, appreciate the $5 from you.
Eric, don't you think if Hendrick is sorry,
if Reddick is satisfied with his sponsorships in 2311 and paid him well,
rather than going to other teams like Spire and Hendrick?
Sure.
What? Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't think your question quite flowed the way you were trying to.
No, obviously he's making good money at 2311 and he's winning races.
So it's win-win.
Makes sense for him to stay.
Gary Bukie with very appropriate 10.77.
So glad host of R1.
We desperately needed talented drivers with awesome personality,
big success in our sport.
Fun fact is film room episode is already the most watched so far.
Oh, that's good to hear.
I did see it was doing pretty well yesterday.
Host of R is a draw man, especially on the internet.
The young, the young generation loves him.
He is definitely one that can draw in some people who need someone to root for.
Napa Racing fan, appreciate the $2 CW streaming deal for ESPN Unlimited is a big L.
Yep, L's in the chat for that one.
Yep.
Jonah Stuff, appreciate the $10.
I took my older cousin to the Saturday races for the first time and he loved it so much,
did he watch a couple next day for the first time since 2023?
And picked host of R and swore as his favorites.
All right, well, there you go.
We've got Spire fan now.
Love it.
And what a time to pick host of R as your favorite.
Yeah.
Hunter Nixon, appreciate the $4.99.
Harvick was my all-time favorite.
But man, I got to say he bores the heck out of me in that boot.
I can understand, man.
He offered.
Yeah.
He offers some good insight here and there, but he just, he speaks at the same.
Yeah, he just doesn't have the showman in him that like Daryl Waltrip or Larry Mack
or the CW guys have.
Yeah.
It's just, it's disappointing because it feels like, I feel like he was better early on
and like when he was doing part-time stuff with like O'Reilly and trucks.
And it's just like, he just stays at the same flat effect the entire time.
And then unless he's, you know, poking a hole into Clint Boyer's resume.
Which he's cut back on.
And maybe, maybe that's, they've lost the spice.
I don't know.
Maybe they need to bring back the tension.
Blue Jimmy.
At this rate, Matt may win less games than my soon to be age on Saturday.
Thanks.
Thanks for making every Wednesday the best gift of all.
Good to see you, man.
Thanks for tuning in.
Santa Claus said wrong.
One more guess or naughty list for Eric.
So I guess Rudolph, Jesus.
All right, I'll go Mrs. Claus then.
I think Jared, maybe he was right.
Find out hopefully.
EW appreciate that.
But yes, we have seen stuff on the Greg Biffle robbery story.
You know, it's, it's, it's just, it's just sad all around what's been going on with that stuff.
You know, the man did not deserve everything that happened after his tragic passing.
But right now I don't think there's enough information on that for us to truly dive into that one too too much.
Yeah, I read the one story, but we don't want to speculate, but definitely sounds like just.
Yeah.
Sadie, ugly, opportunistic people.
Eric Andrade, what happened to the local series in Bowman Gray?
I said, I know Peter strata is kind of that area.
He might know a little bit of something about that.
I'm not as familiar.
I'm unaware.
Alex appreciate $10 quick clarification.
I talked my dad into going to North Carolina.
I didn't realize it until after I bought those tickets.
My dad's more a Germany fan and NASCAR.
Well, I still hope he has fun.
Yeah, that's awkward.
Hopefully this is going to sound messed up.
Hopefully they get eliminated before then.
Yeah.
And the last one we have unless Santa Claus comes racing back in here.
And I think he probably might after Eric's gifts.
But for now, the last one up there is a clip.
So with the daughter and I watch out Santa winter bolts coming for your job.
And finally to end the show.
Santa Claus says you're on the naughty list, Eric.
It's Bernie.
Bernie who?
Who's Bernie?
Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Hill.
I am once again asking to be on the nice list.
I don't know any other Bernie.
I don't know.
Do you mean Barney in the dinosaur?
Barney Visser.
Well, good deal.
He was a dinosaur.
He was on the nice list.
He said, I wouldn't have guessed that.
I'm once again asking to have a redistribution of all of the presents.
No coal in my stocking.
Oh my goodness.
Y'all are on something.
I'm getting tired.
We need to be done up just for that.
But I do appreciate everyone stopping by NWP tonight.
It's been a fun one.
We got a beat on random driver by Jared tonight.
No one knew who the heck he was talking about.
He's made up cars characters.
He always brings to us.
But no, it's been a fun one.
Catch us next week or be on Eric's channel.
We're going to break down what happened at his home track of Texas Motor Speedway this weekend.
And we'll get you all squared up for Watkins Glen coming up after that weird saying Watkins Glen in a month of May.
Yeah, that's where we're at, folks.
We'll see you next time.
Appreciate y'all stopping by.
Don't over drive.
Just let me do my job.
I don't care if I wreck the whole f**king field.
I'm over him.
He beat some more on us.
That was absolutely cool.
Not clear.
Awesome.
I'll show you.
I'm on my way.
Oh f**k.
What the f**k are you doing out here?
Before you say you're just a great f**king idiot.
I don't care.
Let me drive.
What the f**king idiot?
It's true.
Did you ever think you would see that?
What the f**king thing just happened?
Holy cow, baby, let's go!
Let's go, baby!
Let's go!
Let's go!
About this episode
Carson Hocevar’s first Cup win at Talladega drives the conversation, especially his wild celebration and what it says about his personality and future. The hosts also dig into why the superspeedway race itself left them frustrated, arguing the current package makes Daytona and Talladega feel too strategy-driven and predictable. From there, they hit points implications, playoff seeding, TV coverage complaints, and a broader look at how first-time winners swept the weekend across NASCAR’s national series.
Original notes
Carson Hocevar has finally broken through and won! We break it down and all of the major news of the week!
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NASCAR Weekly Podcast
Eric Estepp, Danny B, Jaret Lundberg, Black Flags Matter
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