00:11
Welcome back to The Gas, brought to you by AmericanCars and Racing.com.
00:23
I'm Gary Gastelew, and this is your service station for the latest American automotive and
00:30
Joining us later in the show, one of our favorite people from the motorsport scene, you know
00:36
He's going to be helping us dissect the very tumultuous end to the NASCAR season.
00:42
But look, this is the Gary and Alex show, and with me in the right seat, as always, despite
00:47
my best efforts, Alex Nunez.
00:50
How's it going today, sir?
00:52
We've made it now two weeks.
00:53
You have not thrown me out of the car yet, so I'm happy to be here, Gary.
00:58
You got to stop adjusting the temperature, though.
01:02
Well, I'd like to go a little lower, but we'll get that solved.
01:05
Always a problem when you're in the car.
01:08
I don't know if you noticed, we've updated the intro music, we got the old-timey guest
01:12
station bell there.
01:14
I was just thinking of this.
01:16
When do you think the last time you pulled into a guest station that had the bell was?
01:20
Did they make it into the 2000s?
01:24
I cannot remember the last time I pulled in and heard a bell.
01:29
So I would have to guess it was probably in the 90s.
01:32
It may be even earlier than that.
01:35
I mean, there's got to be one out on a dark desert highway somewhere that still has it.
01:43
I mean, they're definitely out there because somebody's going to walk out and ask if you
01:48
need help or whatever, somewhere that still exists, but not around here, man.
01:55
Obviously self-serve guest stations got rid of the need for that, especially once you
01:59
have the self-pay guest pumps.
02:02
I'm from New Jersey though, of course, where we have full-service guests and always will.
02:08
But I was thinking of something odd.
02:10
The new electric car chargers, they are self-service.
02:13
I'm surprised the guest station folks haven't gotten in on that action and said, wait a
02:18
minute, what are people doing charging their own cars?
02:23
Somebody will figure out a way to legislate some level of assistance, required assistance
02:28
into that, I'm sure.
02:30
Might be the worst job ever.
02:31
Plug it in, wait a half hour, unplug it, plug it in, stand there and do nothing for a half
02:40
But monitor plug-in, you could probably add to the cost per kilowatt hour for the
02:47
babysitting aspect.
02:49
A lot of those stations, of course, run by Tesla and the Tesla Supercharger Network,
02:55
a lot of people forget probably the key to that company's success.
02:59
Having those chargers, you couldn't have sold cars a decade ago without that charging
03:04
network and that was a brilliant move by Tesla.
03:07
Of course, the design of them, very good as well.
03:10
Every automaker is now adopting the Tesla style plug and is going to be compatible
03:16
with the Tesla Supercharging Network.
03:19
So no surprise, along with many other things, that Tesla shareholders just voted to give
03:24
Elon Musk a new pay package that could be worth up to $1 trillion if he hits a bunch
03:30
of hurdles, company value, sales and profits targets, but 75% of the shareholders voted
03:37
Now, I understand there are people out there and I understand why they would like
03:39
to see Elon Musk fail.
03:42
Let's move that aside.
03:43
There were also some people who are against this pay package, but it's entirely
03:48
The company needs to be worth $8.5 trillion by 2035.
03:52
It's $1.3 trillion now.
03:56
The people running the company think they can't do it without him.
04:01
Seems like this was kind of a no-brainer when it comes down to it.
04:04
As ridiculous as the number sounds.
04:06
Number's crazy, but also he gets nothing if he doesn't hit these different targets.
04:13
The motivation is there.
04:15
I know there are a ton of people that have issues with Tesla or electric cars
04:19
or whatever and more Elon.
04:20
But the reality is, the guy has done things that nobody else can do.
04:25
If anybody's going to pull this off, it's probably going to be him.
04:29
It's not surprising.
04:30
I mean, if you look at Tesla, not as a car company per se, but as like a type
04:35
of founder-led thing, I mean, this guy is the visionary that's been pushing a
04:39
lot of stuff for the last whatever, however many years we're with Tesla now.
04:44
I'm not surprised by it.
04:45
I'm not surprised that the shareholders voted for it.
04:47
Would I bet for it or against it?
04:50
I think it's going to be really interesting to see how this all plays out
04:53
now because this is a guy who's clearly motivated to do it.
04:57
And, you know, the body of work suggests that even if he doesn't
05:02
hit all the targets, probably going to hit some of them along the way.
05:05
And forget the vision part.
05:07
Forget his knowledge of technology.
05:10
I'm not saying he designs all of the Tesla products, but he obviously
05:14
is good at guiding the people who do.
05:16
He's also one of the few people on the planet who could call literally
05:21
anybody else on the planet, including presidents and kings, and have them
05:25
not let it go to voicemail.
05:26
That ability is probably more invaluable than anything else he does with the company.
05:34
Again, there's a lot of reasons why people voted for it so overwhelmingly.
05:40
I mean, you heard some of the arguments against if you listened
05:43
to the meeting or read the transcript.
05:46
People making their case.
05:47
But the majority of shareholders are like, yeah, we're all in on this.
05:52
Everybody involved has, you know, really made a lot of money.
05:55
Tesla is a wildly successful company.
05:57
And Elon's other companies are doing really impressive things.
06:01
So again, I'm not surprised.
06:05
I mean, these targets are crazy.
06:07
I mean, these are not, you know, garden variety numbers.
06:12
These are like all moonshot numbers.
06:14
Even some of the steps along the way are almost hard to comprehend.
06:19
I guess we'll find out.
06:20
But not surprised, not opposed to it either.
06:25
You know, if you could pull that off, I think you've demonstrated that you earned it.
06:31
Good news for American manufacturing, perhaps, based on the latest.
06:36
We love this report.
06:38
The Made in America auto index that comes out every year from American
06:43
University's Co-God School of Business.
06:45
Now, this is different, of course, than the American Cars and Racing
06:48
U.S. Built Car of the Year awards, Alex.
06:50
Not the same thing.
06:52
U.S. Built Car of the Year awards.
06:53
If it's Made in America qualifies.
06:56
And those are our favorite cars to drive the ones we think you should be buying.
07:00
Go check it out on American Cars and Racing.com.
07:02
But the Made in America auto index looks at car companies who build the cars
07:07
in America, looks at where the parts for those cars come from, looks at
07:11
where the companies are headquartered and calculates their impact on the U.S. economy.
07:17
And Tesla absolutely slam dunks this report.
07:21
On a scale of 100, the brand got 84.
07:28
And then Ford, who actually builds the most vehicles in America, 55.
07:32
But every Tesla sold in America is made in the United States.
07:36
So the cars have a huge impact when you do buy them.
07:40
And obviously, this is becoming much more important these days.
07:43
Yeah, it's interesting because you think of American automakers,
07:45
you think of General Motors, Ford, and what I still call a Chrysler,
07:49
but Stalantis, whatever.
07:52
And you sort of forget that Tesla is now this very impactful,
07:58
completely American player in U.S. automobile manufacturing.
08:02
And everything sort of is dotted lines back to how we open the show.
08:07
They sell a ton of cars here.
08:08
They build them all here.
08:10
And by all third party accounts, these cars have all gotten better over time.
08:20
GM 53 and American Motors 50.
08:25
That, of course, being the Stalantis American brands,
08:27
which I will continue to call American Motors until they actually change the name.
08:32
And you mentioned Honda.
08:34
It's important to note, I think, also,
08:36
Honda built a ton of cars here.
08:39
And you'd think back decades, right?
08:43
It was like, oh, you wanted a Japanese car.
08:45
Well, this is a Japanese automaker that builds exceptional cars
08:48
and builds a ton of them here.
08:49
And that's really noteworthy.
08:51
I mean, people forget also, it's not just your garden variety every day.
08:55
You know, daily driver stuff like a pilot or whatever.
08:59
It's these guys developed and built the NSX here.
09:03
So Honda is fully capable of building world class automobiles right here.
09:08
Part of the hit on the Stalantis American brands, Jeep, Bram, Chrysler,
09:12
and Dodge is the fact that Stalantis is headquartered in Europe, technically.
09:17
So they had to take off a couple of points there.
09:20
If it did constitute, though, the American Stalantis brands,
09:24
American Motors, it owns the rights to that.
09:27
It should use that name.
09:32
It should not be the umbrella.
09:33
If they ever reconstitute the American brands under one umbrella,
09:38
I'm going with American Motors.
09:40
But that would really help out their score on this list
09:43
if they can bring that corporate money back to the United States.
09:47
All of it. Yeah, I mean, a lot of this, you know, too,
09:49
when you just look across the board, I think is and you're seeing it happen now.
09:54
It's not going to happen.
09:55
None of this can happen quickly.
09:56
But when you you talk about manufacturing, you know,
10:01
previously it was like North American manufacturing.
10:03
And now the focus there's a huge focus and incentive to build more things
10:08
in the United States proper.
10:10
And so we're already seeing things, you know, shift and move around.
10:15
And I think we'll continue to see that the bottom line is
10:18
there's a ton of really good cars and trucks that you can buy
10:23
that are made entirely here and supporting American workers and all of that stuff.
10:28
Well, regardless of what Stilettas does with their headquarters, Alex,
10:32
they are getting back into America's motorsport next year.
10:37
Ram trucks heading into NASCAR.
10:38
We were talking to Brendan Queen last week.
10:41
He was a great guest.
10:42
But let's talk about NASCAR a little bit here.
10:44
We have to. The season just ended.
10:47
It was quite controversial, to say the least,
10:51
the way things wrapped up.
10:53
Denny Hamlin not winning the championship due to a late tire blowout
10:59
on William Byron's car.
11:00
Hamlin dominated the race, started from Paul, led the most laps,
11:04
three laps from the finish.
11:06
And as happens in NASCAR, a yellow flag came out late.
11:10
We got thrown into overtime.
11:11
And with the winner take all championship format,
11:14
Denny was denied yet another title.
11:17
Alex, was there anything good to take away
11:20
from the end of the NASCAR season this year?
11:23
This is what I'll say. It was a weird weekend.
11:25
You have what everybody, I think the consensus is,
11:28
on Friday night in trucks, you had the rightful champion
11:31
come away with the with the title, right?
11:34
Saturday, wild stuff.
11:36
You know, a ton of people talking about, you know,
11:38
Conor Zillish coming up short after what was a dominant season.
11:43
Jesse Love in the two car is the Xfinity series champion
11:47
and the swan song for Xfinity.
11:50
And obviously, we had Kyle Larson coming out on top on Sunday.
11:54
And what I would say is this,
11:57
I understand a lot of the disappointment.
12:00
And I think that Denny is really interesting
12:02
because Denny, who's not to use like a wrestling term
12:05
because I hate to like attach that to NASCAR,
12:08
but like Denny always like is has this persona
12:12
of like the heel for a lot of fans.
12:14
But I think a lot of people were really rooting for him to win.
12:16
And he did dominate.
12:17
He had three second.
12:18
I mean, he was cruising to the finish.
12:22
It sucks that it ended the way it did.
12:24
But all of the champions are legit champions
12:27
because they are champions in the format.
12:30
The drivers don't have a say here in the format.
12:33
So you cannot denigrate any of the three titles
12:37
that were won over the weekend.
12:38
So I mean, and Kyle Larson,
12:39
I mean, absolutely a deserving champion.
12:42
The guy is unbelievable.
12:43
NASCAR is in actually a good spot.
12:45
They have a ton of fantastic drivers.
12:47
And maybe down the line,
12:49
we'll see some changes that, you know, alter the circumstances
12:53
that determine the championship.
12:55
It's sucked to see Denny lose.
12:57
You felt for the guy, all legit champions.
13:00
My final thing that I'll say is the winner.
13:03
Take all format does take away, in a sense,
13:06
from the actual race itself on Sunday.
13:09
I'm watching the race and it's like,
13:11
I didn't realize for a couple of minutes that, you know,
13:13
Blaney won the race.
13:14
So no one remembers this.
13:16
No. And you had you had a race winner
13:18
and you had a race to the finish.
13:19
You don't get Brad Kosolowski was, you know, in there too.
13:22
And you had what was a thrilling finish,
13:25
but the focus was entirely on, you know,
13:27
the jousting to see whether Larson or Denny
13:32
would come out ahead of each other.
13:33
So I think it sort of takes away from that,
13:35
which I think sucks because any automobile race,
13:38
these guys are really all like busting their ass to win.
13:42
And I feel like the the actual race winner
13:46
Sunday didn't get quite the the props that was that was deserved.
13:51
Yes, it got coverage, but the focus was on the championship.
13:54
So the the actual race results got lost.
13:56
Corey Heim also had a poll, an amazing move
13:59
in overtime in the trucks race to save his championship
14:04
almost lost because of a late yellow as well.
14:06
I mean, that's seven wide was was wild.
14:09
I mean, that's what you want.
14:11
That's what you want actually in racing.
14:13
I mean, that that was reminiscent of IndyCar, that Fontana.
14:18
You know, you would see these like four or five wide type things.
14:20
That's what it felt like, you know, the end of that trucks race.
14:23
But NASCAR really is the only sport
14:25
where something that happens to someone behind you
14:29
could ruin your race.
14:30
There's no yellow flags in the Olympics, you know,
14:34
somebody trips behind you, you get to win the race.
14:37
And that's really, I think, what hurt the most
14:40
in this instance with Denny Hamlin.
14:43
And then, of course, you have the situation
14:45
where Kyle Larson during his press conference says
14:47
he felt awkward about it and is almost apologetic for winning.
14:52
William Byron, who caused the yellow flag
14:54
and it wasn't his fault, the tire blew out.
14:56
You know, he had to apologize as well.
14:58
I mean, the only championship I can remember
15:01
that seemed that strange was when Naomi Osaka
15:05
beat Serena Williams at the US Open
15:07
and had to apologize at the end
15:09
because there were some bad calls during the game.
15:12
But you don't see champions feel like they have to justify
15:16
the fact that they just won something.
15:18
Yeah, that was weird.
15:19
And I think that also like created this weird atmosphere
15:23
in all of the celebrations.
15:25
You know, you mentioned Larson, I would also add,
15:28
I think that William Byron came off as a really class act.
15:32
That guy felt awful about it.
15:34
And it's not it's not his fault.
15:37
You know, the mechanical failure, you know, a tire going down.
15:43
Exactly. But it doesn't always happen in racing.
15:46
It only happens sometimes and in this car only at some tracks.
15:50
But as we saw in Phoenix, when it happens, it happens badly.
15:56
There were a bunch of cars blowing out tires left and right
15:59
or should I say right, because they were mostly the right side tires
16:02
during the race, which begs the question, why did that happen?
16:06
And to help us answer that, we're now joined by race mechanic,
16:10
journalist, you know him as Bosie.
16:13
He is Bosie to Taravich, also one of Charlotte, North Carolina's
16:18
great pie enthusiasts.
16:21
Welcome to show him Bosie.
16:23
Thank you. I appreciate the intro.
16:25
That's very, very encompassing.
16:29
We see you there in pit lane, but you eat pie every day somehow.
16:34
I don't know how you do it.
16:35
It's it's it's it's all about all about a moderation
16:39
and enjoying the fun things in life.
16:41
I think that's something that I've learned kind of in my older age now
16:47
of like it's good to train, it's good to be on top of things,
16:49
but you need to take a moment to enjoy, you know, everything every day,
16:53
whether there's just a walk outside or a piece of pie.
16:56
If you love racing, follow him on his social media.
16:58
If you love pie, do that as well.
17:00
So the Michelin man, he's actually made of tires,
17:03
Bibendham, the old fashioned white tires,
17:07
but I'm fairly certain you know more about tires than anybody.
17:11
So I need you to explain to us why every once in a while
17:15
there's an S car race where tires just start blowing out.
17:19
So I'll say that there are a lot of other people that know a lot more.
17:23
I'm just really good at asking them questions
17:25
and getting them to tell me what's happening with the tires.
17:28
But the general idea actually goes back to the design of the NASCAR Cup car.
17:34
So the NASCAR Cup car is different than previous generations
17:37
that are raced in the series because it relies on underbody arrow
17:41
to generate downforce.
17:42
So previous versions of the car, they would rely on the spoiler
17:46
on the sides of the car, so stuff that goes over the body.
17:49
So as air hits the rear spoiler, it pushes the rear of the car down,
17:54
The Gen 7 or next gen Cup car uses a flat underbody
17:58
with the diffuser on the rear.
17:59
And the way that works is air flows from under the front of the car
18:03
down that smooth slippery floor and then hits the straights to the rear diffuser,
18:08
which are basically these blades that stick out from the back of the car.
18:13
As more air attaches to those blades, it creates more downforce
18:18
as it pulls the car down.
18:19
So the goal of the teams is to get the car as low as possible to the ground.
18:24
Now NASCAR, in their kind of all encompassing idea for the next gen car,
18:30
doesn't want the teams dragging those diffusers on the ground
18:33
because that whole underbody is tens of thousands of dollars.
18:37
So what they did is they put rub blocks, which are these metal blocks
18:40
at the center of the car to prevent the car from bottoming out.
18:43
But they also put stoppers in the rear shocks.
18:47
So the rear shocks can only compress to a certain point.
18:50
And then they'll hit these hard stops.
18:52
And those hard stops basically prevent the teams from setting the cars up
18:56
so they can hit the ground or get as close to the ground as possible
19:00
in order to prevent some of these issues like destroying the diffuser
19:03
and some of these other things.
19:05
So what teams have figured out is, hey, if the shock can't go any lower,
19:10
we'll just make the tire go lower.
19:11
So what they do is, you know, Goodyear might say, hey,
19:15
we want you guys to start these at a minimum of 15 psi or 20 psi or 25 psi,
19:20
depending on the track and the side of the car.
19:23
And the teams go, well, we'll do half of that just because we want
19:26
the car basically slammed to the ground as much as possible
19:30
because that allows them to generate maximum downforce and over a long run
19:35
as the tire generates heat and builds pressure on the car rises.
19:38
It won't rise as tall as it would if they ran the minimum pressure.
19:43
But that creates an issue at certain tracks where they're doing these
19:47
types of things, when they go out on those fairly, fairly low pressures,
19:52
you have a tire that's basically pressed down on the sides.
19:55
So if you've ever seen an HRA drag racing, when you see the tires kind of ripple,
20:00
it's not that bad, but it's leans in that direction.
20:03
And what happens here is they'll go out on track and especially at a track
20:06
like Phoenix, if you have low tire pressures and you say transition
20:10
into the dog leg where you can see the cars bottoming out,
20:13
sometimes creating sparks, what you're doing is you have this
20:16
very floppy piece of rubber that hits the hard, hits the track hard.
20:21
And the edge of the wheel will actually hit the sidewall of the
20:25
tire. So all those supporting metal braids and things in the sidewall of the
20:30
tire, they'll get pummeled by an aluminum wheel that's very stiff, a forged
20:33
aluminum wheel. And if it gets pummeled enough times, it'll start to break
20:38
some of those reinforced belts in there and it'll weaken the sidewall of the tire.
20:42
So now as these cars keep racing, the temperature and pressure inside
20:47
will continue to build and eventually it'll build to such a point
20:51
where it'll escape out of those cracks that were created when
20:54
the sidewall got damaged early on in the run.
20:57
So that's why we typically don't see tires blowing out immediately after a pit cycle,
21:02
but after a few laps, those degraded sidewalls will will break open and then
21:07
eventually it'll completely bust and you'll have a flat tire.
21:10
Now, if you get lucky, like Hamlin did at one point, it started going down
21:14
as he was coming to Pit Road anyway for a pit side as well.
21:18
You'll be you'll have teams because his team was probably I would say
21:22
his pit crew had the best contingency plan with the double jacks and everything.
21:26
They only lost maybe a second and a half on the pit stop, even though they had
21:29
to use two jacks because the car was on the ground because of a flat.
21:32
So that's the optimal scenario if that happens to you.
21:35
But occasionally, especially attracts like Phoenix, which has reduced
21:40
downforce anyway, because it uses smaller diffuser, that's the short track diffuser.
21:45
You'll occasionally have blowouts that'll happen at inopportune times
21:49
or inopportune areas of the track or corner, like we saw with A.
21:53
Jammondigger and they'll hit the wall.
21:54
So there's big, big reward, but also a big, big risk.
21:57
And the only way to really mitigate that is to crank up the pressure.
22:01
So we'll see teams occasionally they'll get into trouble like that
22:04
and they'll crank up the pressure on the next set of tires.
22:06
But sometimes teams will get behind and that's really the only tool
22:10
they might have in the moment to try to gain some track position back
22:13
is, hey, we need to make the car as fast as possible.
22:17
So here's what we can do and here's the risk involved.
22:20
So people who don't know what you just told us, they see this and they think,
22:24
oh, man, good, you made some junky tires and they're all blowing out.
22:28
But it's really a choice that the teams are making by running the low pressures.
22:32
Now, my question is, why can't NASCAR or why doesn't NASCAR
22:37
institute a minimum tire pressure role that might mitigate this
22:42
and, you know, level the playing field for everybody?
22:46
I think that's partly partly team slash NASCAR politics and partly
22:51
technology of what the the temperatures and loads are in NASCAR.
22:57
So in in a lot of other race series, the wheels will have tire pressure
23:02
monitoring sensors and that data is transmitted back to the teams,
23:05
helps them with tuning the car, figuring things out.
23:07
And then series like IMSA will actually black flag you if you go
23:11
below a certain pressure.
23:12
And that's similar situations there, whether it's for downforce
23:16
or just for overall handling, you know, just for the way the pressures build.
23:20
Because even if you're not chasing any of this stuff with the aero perspective,
23:23
you want to start really as low as possible if you're going on a long run
23:27
because the more the tires will pressure, the worse the handling is.
23:31
So outside of all the aero benefits, teams will want to have pressures
23:35
as low as possible.
23:35
So you'll have series like IMSA where they'll monitor this.
23:38
And if you run with too low a pressure for too long, they'll black flag you
23:42
and you'll have to come in and do a pit stop to put tires on that can reach
23:45
the proper pressure in NASCAR.
23:47
I think part of it's just the hands off environment to a lot of the stuff
23:51
where they say, hey, we'll give you these recommendations.
23:54
We'll check you before the race and after the race,
23:56
but we're really not going to police a lot of this stuff here.
23:58
So that's kind of been part of it.
24:00
But NASCAR has looked at opportunities to monitor that.
24:04
And they actually do monitor tire pressures during testing.
24:07
So when they do these wheel force tests that are, you know,
24:09
non-competition environments, they'll have wheels and tires
24:12
with tire pressure monitoring sensors.
24:13
But what's happened in a lot of tracks when they've tested,
24:17
at least the early generation of the TPMS sensors is the loads
24:20
and temperatures are so high that the sensors fail.
24:24
So they have good year has had to really develop some advanced stuff
24:28
in order to be able to monitor this.
24:30
And they're getting better at it.
24:31
I think during like the third or fourth generation of the sensors
24:33
they use for testing now.
24:35
And the really fascinating thing is that the piece
24:40
that helped push the technology forward wasn't on an oval,
24:43
but it was a Le Mans.
24:44
So when they took the Garage 56 car to Le Mans,
24:47
they had a lot of development prototype stuff that they tried.
24:50
And that was an opportunity for Goodyear
24:52
to really put some of the tech through its basis.
24:55
So this is where they tried some of that TPMS technology.
24:58
And now they've been using that over here for testing.
25:00
So that's really the only way that they could prevent the teams
25:04
from doing what they're doing is to implement TPMS
25:07
and then implement a rule set.
25:08
But I think that's a tricky subject
25:11
that it also wouldn't nip all of it in the bud
25:14
because it's not just solely tire pressure.
25:16
It's also set up of the car.
25:17
So things like camber, which is the angle of the wheels,
25:21
also have a significant impact on how those tires get loaded.
25:24
And teams will want to get aggressive with camber
25:26
because it improves handling, but it impacts of, again,
25:30
how the tire gets loaded and how easily gets damaged.
25:33
So it's a combination of multiple factors.
25:35
And some of it's just really impossible to check in a race environment.
25:39
You could check it in pre-race tech or whatever else.
25:42
But teams are pretty crafty when it comes to this stuff.
25:46
So it's hard to do it.
25:47
But I don't put any of the fault on Goodyear.
25:50
Goodyear has been doing exactly what the industry and the teams have asked for.
25:54
And from my understanding, like the Phoenix tire now,
25:57
they've gone so soft that it's something like 50% softer
26:01
than any tire they ran with the previous generation cup car,
26:03
which is like significant.
26:05
So they're maxing out their equipment to try to give fall off
26:09
and do all of this other stuff.
26:10
But the structure of the tire, like the sidewall,
26:13
that's still very strong and based on any of the other stuff.
26:16
So the compound of the tire may not necessarily,
26:19
even though it's a lot softer,
26:20
now may not necessarily make a huge difference
26:23
of how these tires are failing
26:24
because the teams are damaging the structure of the tire,
26:27
the sidewall from these huge impacts.
26:29
And it's just really the shock loads.
26:31
There's thousands of pounds of pressure
26:34
that hits in that one point on the rubber.
26:36
Whenever that stopper and the shock bottoms out,
26:38
because if you can imagine,
26:40
it's basically like riding on a solid piece of suspension
26:42
because the shock bottoms out.
26:44
So everything between the driver's seat
26:46
and the edge of the wheel is solid now.
26:48
The only thing suspending the car from the track
26:50
is that little bit of rubber
26:51
between the edge of the wheel and the track.
26:54
Alex, you were involved with the Garage 56 project
26:58
You're a communications guru, as I've always called you.
27:02
As far as Goodyear is concerned,
27:04
how do they communicate what Bozy just told us
27:07
so they don't look bad when this happens again?
27:11
I don't think there's a whole lot for Goodyear to say.
27:14
I don't think Goodyear,
27:15
I think that Goodyear is not really being blamed by this.
27:19
NASCAR fans understand what the teams are doing
27:22
for the reasons Bozy just articulated.
27:24
It's one of the few things
27:26
that a team can adjust to try and take advantage
27:29
of the circumstances.
27:31
I'm glad that Bozy mentioned the Garage 56 program.
27:34
That was one of the big stories that came out of.
27:36
Garage 56 was Goodyear announcing
27:39
that they were gonna run this TPMS system
27:41
on that car at Le Mans.
27:43
This is not a Goodyear problem.
27:47
Just that's my position on it.
27:50
I don't think there's anything for Goodyear
27:51
to go out and defend themselves on.
27:53
Well, the good news is that next year
27:55
this probably won't be quite the same issue.
27:58
NASCAR certainly is gonna be updating the playoff
28:02
or the post-season format.
28:03
We don't know what it's gonna be yet.
28:05
The winner-take-all finale,
28:07
more likely than not, is gonna be going away.
28:10
So at least we'll have more races to pick from.
28:12
Makes it easier to win a championship
28:14
if you have one bad race.
28:15
And as far as the TV ratings,
28:17
hopefully they'll help there as well.
28:19
2.7 million for this year's finale, 2.9 last year.
28:22
I think maybe the best thing about this finale was that
28:26
it was really just the hardest core NASCAR fans watching it
28:29
and casual fans maybe didn't catch
28:31
what became something of a fiasco.
28:35
And hopefully they could start growing again
28:37
starting next year.
28:38
Next year's, it's around the corner.
28:40
I mean, that's the funny thing.
28:42
For as long as these seasons are for NASCAR,
28:45
this off-season is gonna feel like
28:46
it's about 25 minutes long
28:48
and we're gonna be talking about Daytona again.
28:49
And then, yeah, the playoffs will still be a conversation.
28:53
Obviously, there's gonna be a playoff in NASCAR.
28:56
They already announced that the championship ends
28:59
at Homestead Miami next year.
29:02
It'll be interesting to see what changes are in store.
29:07
I have no information on that, but let's see what happens.
29:10
Well, NASCAR season starts in Daytona.
29:12
Bozy's season in IMSA starts in Daytona
29:15
but of the 24 hours.
29:18
And thanks for joining us today.
29:21
Thanks for having me.
29:22
And Alex, as always, again,
29:24
keep your hand off the thermometer, please.
29:27
The car is perfect temperature right now, all right?
29:30
I don't want to leave anymore.
29:32
I will trade you the HVAC control for the radio control.
29:36
That's not a bad sweet.
29:37
It depends on how long the trip is, not a bad swap.
29:40
Anyway, anybody listening on the radio right now,
29:42
thanks for listening.
29:43
And check back next week for the next edition of The Guest.
29:46
Thanks again, Bozy.