Kevin Harvick’s BIG Announcement! Plus, Ryan Preece Wins the Clash Amid Weather Madness

We can't just be one foot in.

This particular situation turned into a shit show.

For him to go through all the things

that he's gone through, that is not easy.

This was at my house, and my wife

was operating that excavator.

She'd be laughing her a** off.

We will be doing a live happy hour show.

I have been so excited.

Caitlin is so giddy about this.

Yes!

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour.

Presented by Nascar Unbox.

I'm Kevin Harvick.

She's Caitlin Benzzi, and we're still mama.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

He just said, New England.

OK, well listen, you might as well

walk in the pages, but because you're the New England guy

who went over the weekend, so it's just going to keep going.

I'm so confused on what day it is.

I don't know.

My schedule is in complete chaos.

Trying to move.

It is a disaster.

Kevin, so this is his moving attire.

Is that what you were doing earlier today?

Well, we were moving boxes today,

so I just figured I'd wear this today.

Did you guys wake up today and think, oh yeah,

Daytona's in two weeks, and then I

have to remember that it's actually like.

Yeah, we're leaving in less than a year.

I was driving home last night, and I was thinking to myself,

I'm like, oh, Sunday.

And then I realized that Piper had to go to school.

I had to go to the gym.

I mean, it's just you're in the middle of the week,

but when you go to the racetrack, your brain is trained.

It's Saturday, or it's Sunday.

And Wednesday just totally screwed me up.

At least Piper is in school.

My kids have been home for almost like two weeks,

because of the snow.

She's gone twice.

And I've had to be a teacher, which I realized,

I forgot to tell time on an old clock.

She was learning about clocks.

And I'm like, I don't remember even how to do this.

That's hilarious.

That's pretty funny.

Yeah, well, it's even better with Piper.

She's in the middle of learning all of her states.

You want to test your, am I smarter than a third grader?

Yeah, yeah.

How many did you get?

Well, I can get them all now.

I can get them all now.

Yeah, it's been interesting, but yeah.

You didn't go out to the class.

You said you were cozyed up in your house.

I was inside cheering you guys on.

I was texting Josh Sims when I saw him.

So Josh, obviously he had his hat on and his gloves.

I'm like, Josh, you're making us look bad.

He got Jamie's out here, raw dog in the weather

and the elements and he's like, bro, it is not.

It wasn't worth it.

It was too cold.

I knew we were in trouble when we walked up

in the wardrobe room and there were beanies,

down jackets, gloves, hand warmers.

And I learned something that there are actually lap warmers.

And there you go.

I had no idea.

And it's like a heated blanket.

I told you guys last week I came in and showed you

exactly what you needed for the race.

You did, you did say.

I needed nothing.

It was fine in the booth.

Yeah. Kevin was nice and cozy in there.

Never even left.

From the time we started practice

until the time when the race was over,

I didn't know it was going to be like six hours.

Yeah.

But it was, it might have been longer than that.

It was good to hear you guys back on the tube.

It was.

The good news there.

Yeah. It was good to kind of get back in rhythm.

You know, the short tracks are actually

the hardest things to do on those little tracks

because you can't get long-winded and tell stories

like you can at Daytona or a mile and a half

because so much stuff was happening

that you had to be pretty brief about your thoughts.

And it's hard to circle back

and finish those stories sometimes

because so much happens in between that you forget.

So those little tracks are actually

some of the hardest places to do.

I'm sure they are.

Well, you guys did a good job.

And welcome in to another edition of happy hour.

Make sure all you closers subscribe on YouTube

wherever you get your podcasts

and make sure you follow us on social media, right?

Harvick, happy pod, yo.

You guys know the deal.

Two for two.

Well locked in.

Well done.

Well locked in.

It's going to be all year.

I'm excited.

We are excited.

Today is our first edition of The Sips.

Is it?

Right?

How about it?

We didn't do them yet.

So yeah.

No, I know what it is.

I'll just check it on you guys.

Your first sippy sips of the year.

That's exciting.

We have an exciting announcement for everybody

because in Daytona,

we will be doing a live happy hour show.

I have been so excited.

Katelyn is so giddy about it.

She is so giddy.

I really am.

What's all this new again?

You get to have a live audience on stage.

So it's Thursday, February 12th

at the NASCAR Fan Experience at three o'clock.

It's free for all the fans.

That's when the doors are opening

so you guys can all come and hang out with us.

See Kevin Harvick in the flesh.

That's awesome.

Yes.

And mama's going to stay afterwards and sign autographs.

So he'll be right there.

I have to go to my next,

my next gig at that time,

but you're there as long as needed.

Listen, I'm there.

I'm there.

Kevin said he's dropping off beer.

So I come on with it.

Let's toss a few back.

He did mention there could be some beer.

The best wholesaler and one of the best wholesalers

in the country right down there.

There he is.

This is exciting though,

because we have talked about it for a while

that we wanted to do potentially a remote,

a live show on the road.

And for me.

Mostly you, but yes.

Well, the reason is back when I worked at Speed Channel,

those were such neat environments.

Being right with the fans and they get to be a part of it.

There's just a totally different energy that comes with it.

So I'm very excited.

We're going to do this.

And if you follow the show and don't show up,

we're going to block you.

So, so simple as that.

You need to find out who you are.

We've got digital images of all your faces

and we're going to use them.

I am pretty excited because back when I was a kid

watching like Kenny Wallace and all that

and that whole group, the OGs and now John Roberts.

Yeah, man.

They all were just it just really brought the sport together

because there's something else to be excited about.

Obviously we're excited about the racing,

but excited about all the stories and your favorite characters

and cast up there at school.

Well, I mean, it's it's speed week.

So, you know, we're leading into the biggest race of the year

and thank goodness are we have a great partner in Fox

that is allowing us to do stuff like this

and leaning into being a part of the event.

So it'll be fun.

This is a man.

Y'all need to come out with those.

I want to see signs.

Signs.

I want to see signs.

Kevin Harvick standups.

Yeah, the whole thing.

Bring it all.

Bring the whole thing.

Bring it back.

You guys remember it.

Yeah, let's bring it back.

Let's get it back.

Hopefully Keelan's Keelan's first view of doesn't.

That legendary story.

The legendary story.

The people in Florida are not the same as the people in Watkins Glen.

It is really warm there, though.

It means shedding layers.

Yeah.

If I was in Watkins Glen right now, I'd want to be in Florida.

Yeah, but I don't think they'd be just dropping them out like that.

No, you never know.

You never know.

To be determined what we may see, but make sure you join us again.

It's at three o'clock on Thursday before Daytona in the fan zone.

NASCAR fan experience stage.

You're not going to want to miss it.

And it's free.

Free entertainment.

It's free.

Everybody likes free.

Of course.

We all do.

Free's for me.

All right.

So now we can talk about the clash and you get to take over from here.

Guys, you guys know we've been doing this for like two years now.

And now that Fox is back at the helm of the show, it's word of the week.

Let's go.

Let's get it going.

Kevin had a great one this time.

Let's see what Kevin's word of the week was at the clash.

All right.

So that was the 23.

Bubba Wallace and the 97.

We've got a list.

Yeah, as far as he can be a bit of a commudgion as he gets underneath and puts

that helmet on.

So you see Bubba, not happy with him right there.

Gives him a little bit of a break check, slams into the door.

Yep.

Tough in the back of the field tonight.

Mike, we have a bunch more to say about that.

Yeah.

The word went right by Mike this week.

So maybe he thinks my vocabulary is better than it actually is.

You said that you are not telling them anymore, right?

Look, I have to lean on my joy sometimes

if I get a word that I don't understand.

This week I used AI, so I have a new assistant.

And I think it's gonna be better to just have those words

pop up on the broadcast and them not know about it.

I can tell Clint, but he never pays attention to me anyway.

So if I tell him, he's probably not gonna remember,

but it'll be better for them to realize the words naturally.

That was the perfect place to put it in though.

It was, that was the easiest word yet.

You wouldn't have known that was gonna happen though.

The hard part about putting the word into the broadcast

is you never know when that moment is going to come.

And they ran each other over like 785 times this week.

So I knew at some moment there was gonna be

somebody that was pissed off like Suarez was

and we were gonna play it on the radio.

So that was a good one.

Yeah, it's a warm up, it's just getting going by now.

So you came up with that one

or is that one the driver submitted?

No, no, no.

That was yours truly.

Oh, we have a list from the drivers.

Yes, I believe so.

I haven't seen this list yet.

Well, I think Bob asked them.

Yeah, I'm excited to see this list.

Yeah, I think.

We needed to be track relevant again.

Yeah, yeah.

There you go.

I knew that that one specifically was gonna work

because they were gonna get pissed off at each other.

And at some point it was gonna be just really easy.

Did you have to study to find that word?

Well, actually, over the off season our closers...

Submitted?

Well, somebody submitted on X or Twitter, whatever,

like a bunch of cool words

and the closers started tagging me.

And they like...

That's funny.

Like probably like 25 people tagged me in the same post.

I'm like, I'll save this for you guys.

So I pulled it off for that one, cool.

Nice, fans weighing in, I like it.

I love them.

We have quite a bit to discuss here

with this exhibition race.

So I would like to start with the positives

because there will be some negatives as well.

The positive being Ryan Parise got the victory.

It's so refreshing to see the emotion,

the raw emotion out of him

and just the full of gratitude for Ryan.

Well, Ryan has been in a position

to where he thought he was gonna go home,

not gonna make it.

He's been in a position where he's taken a loan out

on his house and borrowed money to race at Joe Gibbs Racing

to prove that he could win.

And he's just one of those guys that just digs all the time

and hard core racer.

Race is race modified, race modified

at Bowman Gray Stadium.

He's already down at New Smyrna racing in a super late model

and race is modified down there.

So he just loves to race.

He's always worked on his cars.

And I think the coolest part about this is, you know,

hard ass Ryan Priest and you'll hear it.

When, when hopefully you guys have listened to the,

to the interview, victory lane interview with, with Ryan

and listened to our interview that I did with Ryan, you know,

after the, after the race, but it's, it's fun to hear

the hard asses when it hits them.

And, you know, I've, I've been hit by those emotions

when you just can't control them and you can't talk

and, and it just overwhelms you because you don't really

realize how much pressure is on you and how much pressure

you put on yourself and, and, you know, those do or die

moments where, you know, you might have to go work

a construction job or, you know, fabrication or whatever

that job may be to, to make a living and, and realize

that your dream's dead.

And, you know, when, when you actually reach the pinnacle

of what you thought you should and get to victory lane

in a cup car and when you've been working your whole life

to get there, you saw exactly what, what that means to him.

And, you know, that emotion coming out was, was pretty

awesome to see.

Yeah. I mean, he's one of, he's, he's one of my New England

brothers. We, it's like the guy, the people that come

from the New England area, they are, we are hard

nose racers up there and we don't get to do it as much

because of the weather. And we made those people up there

probably don't get the amount of respect nationally that

they deserve for being great, not only drivers, but mechanics

on the cars. You know what I mean? Everyone has a second job.

So it's like, it's like a, it's a lifestyle, but it's not

the same as it is down here. And for, for him to go through

all the things that he's gone through, you know, he started

racing at like JD motorsports. Like I worked on his car, on

his, um, K&N car when he came to MDM motorsports, he drove

for us before, like even before that. So he was just

grinding and grinding and grinding. And then he saw

flashes. And then we were in an era where like he bet on

himself and won at JGR. And then it was like nothing. It was

like, well, what he did everything he's supposed to do.

And that's really like a kick in the, in the chest because

you're like, well, what else more could I have done? And, uh, he

just never quit and working out obviously with the KHI group,

getting the partners together and all the things. Um, it's, it's

really, I'm really, really happy for him. Happy for Heather.

Happy for everyone back home. Cause I know they're going nuts.

And now it's just one more reason when we go to New Hampshire

motor speedway for them to be excited.

I asked him, I asked him on, on our, uh, interview this week,

I said, well, did, did, uh, miss Heather wash your mouth out

with soap?

There was a couple of

words in, in, yeah, that was funny, but it's, you kind of

noted this on the broadcast. He's kind of been carrying the

flag for RFK. Can you look at last year, he had 14 top 10

performances. It was the best season he's ever had in cup.

And now he has a lot to build on just coming out of the gate

with this.

You never know when it's just going to gel with a team or the

crew chief and engineers or company in general. And it, it,

it has just gelled for those guys. And you know, it's just that

they've assembled the right group of people with the right

personalities and figured out how to talk to each other and

make their cars fast. And consistently last year, he ran

in the top 10 and that, and that's hard to do in the cup

series. He spent a long time at JTG, uh, trying to do exactly

that. And, and you know, it's, it's not something that you can

just fall into. It takes a lot of work, but it takes the right

people. It takes the right system to be able to put that group

of people together and make it happen. So I'm, I'm super happy

for Ryan and really everybody at RFK because, you know, that

they put a lot of effort into, into trying to make their cars

better and get themselves into victory lane. I think Chris

busher, um, you know, we, we thought that he was going to be

the dominant car last year with all the momentum that he had

from the year before and even Brad himself, uh, Brad being

hurt, not being in the race and, you know, kind of some

questions on, you know, where his health is. I think that that

was a, the timing of Ryan's win was big. Ryan, um, sorry,

KV, but Ryan just, I just want to note, like last year, you

saw his road course stuff get better. Like he has become a

well-rounded race car driver and what we, what he had to do

to win at Bowman Gray with the weather. Like that is not easy.

I feel like his reaction just exemplified what it means to

win. I know it's an exhibition race, but like Carson host of

our was talking about it, we still do all the DIL, the prep

work is the same, even though it's not a points race. Like a

win is a win and you're going to lose a lot more than you're

ever going to win and you could just sense how much that

moment meant to him. Well, it's, it's a race and whether it's

a race for, it's still got money on the line. It's got a

trophy on the line and it, and it really gets your season

started. Those guys hadn't, most of them hadn't been in a car

Ryan had, um, but most of those guys hadn't sat in, you know,

behind the wheel since they, they left Phoenix. So, you know,

to kind of get the rust knocked off, there was a lot of pressure

on these guys leading into those practice sessions to get

their cars right, um, you know, to, to just make the race.

And that was Ryan's goal. He said it. Our goal, our only goal

was to, was to make the race. And that was kind of the first

race within the race was to get into that top 20, uh, or into

the top 23 of the, of the field. So it's, um, you know, I

think there's, there's definitely wins that are popular.

And this, this is definitely one of those wins that's popular

in the garage for sure.

It does seem like that for sure. So you kind of referenced, uh,

the things leading up to it. One of them was the LCQ, the

last chance qualifier. This was very exciting and some good

respectable racing in there. Right.

I don't know about respectable, respectable for Bowman Gray.

Yeah. There we go.

You just have to know at certain places you're going to get

run into. You're going to have to run into people and, um, you

know, the, the LCQ race between Corey LaJoy and Austin

Cinderick and what wound up being AJ Almond Dinger, but it

got technical, uh, and, and these guys passed each other a

couple of times and figured out that they needed to, to stay

wheel to wheel to get Almond Dinger back into the race so

that the retaliation couldn't, couldn't come. And, and really

in the end staying door to door like that, when Almond Dinger

gave Cinderick that shot, having that car up on the outside of

him right there of Corey LaJoy, uh, saved the two from

going up the race track and Almond Dinger driving by him. So

just a, a great finish to the LCQ and, and Bowman Gray has,

has produced some, some good finishes, uh, and good racing

with, with the things that we've had happen up there when the

track's dry. Yeah. When the, when the, when, yeah, it's

really fun to watch when the track is dry. It's really

interesting to watch when it's not, but I thought the racing,

when they got to race and use racecraft that they typically

do, I thought it was really good. And yeah, they were beating

on each other and people were mad, but like that's literally

why we go, why we're doing like that's the matter. That's

part of it and what we, uh, expected to see. So I think if

we didn't see that, we'd think something was wrong. You know

what I mean? So I thought that the racing all in all was

good when they got to do it. It has that nickname for a

reason. The unique part and, and I was, I mean, it was

super cold and sleeting and raining in the second half of

the race. I was surprised how many people actually showed

up for the race. But the people that showed up never left.

They stayed. That's amazing. I think, I mean, how many times

have they got to watch a race in the rain at Bowman Gray?

Shout out to them. Seriously. Cause it must have been freezing.

Those are the MVPs. They are the MVPs.

That's a dedicated race fans. I thought there was a lot more

people there than there was going to be. There was more

people than I thought was going to be there. And then to

Kevin's point, everyone that was there stayed. And that was

this. Yeah. If you're watching along on YouTube, this is

what that racetrack looked like a few days prior. Obviously

the track personnel diligently working to clear that

thing off. We had record setting snow here in North

Carolina. The most snow we've seen in 20 some years. So

this was a pretty large undertaking for everybody

and that community, obviously in Winston Salem, but they

got it. They got it ready. There's not too many times

that I've seen the jet dryers used on the, on the

infield. That's a new, that's new. That is definitely,

definitely a new one for me, but you had to keep up with

it because there was so much snow that was coming

down. And ultimately it kind of bit us in practice a

little bit. The snow was packed up on top of the walls

and it got warm enough during the day. It started

melting underneath the safer barriers and they had to

go out and keep addressing that and actually dug the

wall between the safer barrier and the wall out after

the, you know, after the practice sessions and

things happened before the LCQ to keep the water from

running after track, but they had shovels out there in

between. But yeah, I, I think that we deserve these,

these folks from NASCAR, Winston Salem, Bowman Gray,

Fox, all the people that were on the grounds in

order to just get this event to happen was a massive

undertaking. Took way, way more time than everybody

thought it was going to take as far as being there on

Wednesday. You know, you got to realize our crew was

there a week before the race, getting the trailers

and everything cameras and everything set up around

the racetrack. And so it was a massive undertaking

just to get this event to actually happen with all

the weather and things that happened. So lots to deal

with and the hits just kept, kept on coming on, on

race night. Yeah. Kevin is referencing more weather

made its way in around the halfway point. And I

want to bring up something that James Small said

after the race. Obviously Chase Briscoe and company

had a very strong car throughout the course of

that. He was very frustrated with the officiating

side and NASCAR are bringing cars to fuel, obviously

on pit road. And then just, he said there was a lot

of miscommunication. He felt like on tires, minimal

information on what was going on, your perspective

on the officiating for this race. Well, you know, I

think there were definitely some moments that

could have been officiated, you know, definitely

smoother. I think that this, this event is so unique

because we don't count caution laps. We had rain and

sleet in the second half. And, and so when the, when

the things started happening and the event started

to become a wet weather event, I just wish we weren't

so tentative and just especially at the clash,

like the, the, I've driven the car with the rain

tires on there before and, you know, I know we

didn't have the windshield wiper on. I've never

turned my windshield wiper on one time when we

were in a wet weather race because it just, to me,

it just doesn't work. I'd rather have the window

wiped and rain X, rain X put on the window.

But, you know, I just, it feels like a tough

decision, but I feel like we just either we're in

the rain business or we're out of it, right? Like

if we're going to have rain tires and it starts

raining and there's not standing water, which there

was not on the racetrack, we're going, we're not

going very fast. And, you know, if you've got the

wet weather tires in the pits, give them five

minutes, put the tires on, send them out on the

racetrack and let's go. And we heard it from

several of the, we heard it from Kyle Larson, we

heard it from Chase Elliott, we heard it from

several of those guys that were on the radio

saying, let's go. And, you know, ultimately it

took so much extra time, 15, 20, 30 minutes,

whatever it was that it pushed us off the air

out of our broadcast window on Fox and ultimately

pushed us to FS too. So, you know, I know that

they're nervous about the safety of the

competitors, but there's really not that much to

be nervous about as, you know, I think that the

other conversation was the spray, which was never

an issue because of the fact that we're going so

slow there. So, it was, you know, I feel like, I

feel like on the old ones, if we're going to be

in the rain business, we got to put the rain

tires on, send them back on on the racetrack.

The only thing that I would like to look at, our

guys don't, the only time they learn what's

happening with wet weather tires is in the race.

Right. You know, I think having those double

file restarts right off the bat the first time,

you know, if we, if we could just get the car

strung out, we would have been in better shape.

And because they, they got it, they don't know

how far to drive in the corner. They don't know

where to run on the racetrack. The middle lane

was like ice with the rubber and you saw that

with tie Gibbs immediately on the restart right

there, slid up the racetrack, couldn't go

anywhere, slide and spin in the tires. But if

we're going to be in the wet weather business,

we got to be, we got to be more aggressive and

putting the tires on the car and we got to

figure out how to get good year to build a

right side tire, left side tire, whatever

they want to build that has stagger in it for,

for these ovals. We got to just do it

appropriately. If we're going to, we can't

just be one foot in.

We got to be committed.

If we got to be committed to it and having

driven the, the rain tires before that, you

know, they, they drive fine.

Yeah.

Um, now this particular situation turned

into a shit show because, and I've been

here before at the Coliseum when we went

to LA, I'd finally been tired of getting

run over and you just start bulldozing

people. And that's what this turned into.

The drivers lost their minds and started

bulldozing people. Um, because you're just

constantly getting run into and, and the

way to pass was to slam into the guy's

door besides you. And, you know, when it's

wet like that, it becomes finesse or a

Bowman Gray. Yeah. In the wet.

Yeah.

There was not much finesse. So, um, you know,

I think that we, when we had this scenario

a couple of years ago, it was the same way

at the Coliseum. And this time it just so

happened to be, there was nothing wrong

with the tires. There was nothing wrong

with the track conditions. It was just

the fact that they were all tired of

getting run into and turned into bulldozers.

I, I think too, we need to decide what

we want this event to be. Like from the

standpoint of like what we're doing with

the clash itself, like, um, I think it

being at LA, I loved it at LA. I also

loved it at Bowman Gray Stadium. Um, I

also remember loving it at Daytona. Like

now I don't think we're gonna, I don't

think we'll see it at Daytona because

the amount of work the Speedway cars take

and then risking wrecking, you know, on a

high level and then you're losing cars

and like the money aspect, the business

part of that part is really tough. Even

turning the lights on at Daytona versus

turning the lights on at Bowman Gray is

a lot different, right? Um, I don't know

what exactly the answer is. Maybe it's

the short track situation. Maybe it, we

move it up earlier and do an international

situation like some type of exhibition

in a warm weather climate. Um, I don't

know what it is exactly, but we need to

think about what we want this to be

because we've now you, we've kind of

exhausted a lot of the options and well

what we're gonna do. It's, I think we

should use our resources here. Um, you

know, the international thing is

probably a big check, but I think it's

it's great that we go to a place like

Bowman Gray. You look at the soft walls,

you look at the lights, you look at all

the improvements that went into that

racetrack. Ryan Priest mentioned New

Smyrna in his post race interview.

That place needs some work.

Need some help. And my point in this is

using that race to go to different

places to, um, help rebuild the

infrastructure of the short track system

is, is needed. And if you want to go, I

mean, New Smyrna has the same weather

Daytona is going to have. Bakersfield,

California has great weather this time

of year. There are places that we could

go to be able to put a little money, a

little enthusiasm into that particular

market to cater to, you know, some of

those short tracks. So we could, we could

get, we could get three, four, five years

down the road and then worry about what

we want to do next. But I love the fact

that, and the racing has been good at

Bowman Gray when the racetrack was dry.

And, and racing was good at the Coliseum

the first year, second year it turned

into a exactly what we just saw last

night. So, you know, it's, um, you can get

some good ones, you can get some bad

ones, but I like it at the short track.

So you wanted to stay at Bowman Gray?

I don't, I don't think it's good to stay

at Bowman Gray because of the weather.

I like the short track in general.

Bowman Gray is a great place to have it.

I think our, I think we've put on good

shows. I think the fans are, we have

hardcore rabid fans that, that are at

Bowman Gray and we have a great fan base

there. But unfortunately when that, when

that race falls, it's just, it's so

questionable with the weather and we

got bit by it this year. We got lucky

last year. It's a high risk, high reward.

I think we all, as all, we all are fans.

As we want things to happen and all

other things like that, you got to

remember, be careful, we talked about

last week, be careful what you wish for

because there is the other side of the

coin. So we just can't remember that.

There you go. All right. So let's talk

about some of the things that happened

throughout the course of this race. And

maybe we'll start with William Byron,

who was the runner up. What kind of

flex did you see him demonstrate in

race one? Well, he was in, he was in

contention all night. And, and I think

that, you know, we, we saw a certain

point where he and Larson started to

fade. He didn't fade as, as bad as Larson.

He had his issues during the race and, and

we saw that all night from a lot of

people that were able to rebound from,

from their issues to get back up towards

the front of the field. So a lot of, a

lot of moving and shaking from the, from

the front of the pack to the back of the

pack as, as we went through the whole

night. So it was, you know, look, William

Byron is, you know, he's, he's got the

experience now. He's got the stability in

his team. He's got an organization that

is, you know, proven winners with

Hendrik Motorsports. And they're in a

position to, to contend for a

championship. And, and, you know, I think

the maturity of the team and, and starting

to fill those holes of, of things that

happen, you know, have slowly been

filled to, to put them in a, in a

position to, to be contenders. So

Hendrik swept the front row. We saw four

Gibbs cars lined up right behind them

after qualifying. And I really think

that's going to be the story of the

year. It's Hendrik, Hendrik versus Gibbs.

And, and, and that's, that's just the way

that it is. The, you know, with the small

changes in the rules this year with the

cars and everything that's happening,

it's going to be hard to make up ground

on those guys. I think the only

question mark is that new body and what

tracks does it benefit or hurt the

Chevrolet's on. Hendrik versus Gibbs.

What's old is new again. Yeah. Here we go

again. One driver who had a solid

showing that is with a new team this

year is Daniel Suarez. Had a top five

performance. Seemed pretty happy with

what his group brought to the table.

There were some unknowns obviously with

him going over to Spire on how that

would go. He's paired with Ryan Sparks.

I would say he's probably feeling

encouraged based on what they saw.

Yeah. They, I mean these, it's a race

that like Kevin said, there's still money

involved. There's still a trophy. It's

still a race. You want to show up. You

want to make sure your process is

right to getting the cars right, right?

So that is a good step. You want to

step, have your first step, be a good

one. No matter what, it is throwing me

off him in the seven car. It is a little

bit. It's so like the seven car is

being for Spire. It's like their, their

home car. Like that was their first

number. I'm pretty sure other than the

77, seven in general, right? And so I

look at that. I'm like, I think Spire

is so heavy and Suarez over there. I've

been thinking about trackouts for so

long. So it's going to take me a little

bit to get used to that. I mean during

during practice or qualifying or I

don't remember exactly what it was on

the air, but I called Connor Zillich. I

called him Shane Van Gisburg for

multiple laps and my compadres in the

booth weren't saying that it was the wrong

car. It's like, I don't worry about it.

I'm like, no, I sound like an idiot.

Yeah. I could just called the wrong

car, but it's, but it's, it's the same

for us. We're learning the new cars on

the racetrack and the people who are

driving and when they move around, but

for those drivers and teams, they're

doing the exact same thing. Yeah. They're

trying to figure out the brake pedals

feel different. The way that everything

is done. The process is all different

for those new drivers. So good, good

first outing for, for Suarez and that

team. Let me ask you this. When, when a

driver switched, right? That maybe you

switched from a car that you knew the

driver of and you probably didn't have

any run-ins with, right? With somebody

that maybe you have or haven't, whatever.

And then they do something that you're

not used to out of that car. Does it

catch you off guard? You know what I

mean? Like his Bubba and Suarez, like I

think they've had a couple like little

dust-up, nothing crazy.

Suarez and SVG is of interest. Right. I

mean, like, so when he switches, you're

like, wait, who's in that car again? Like

it's Justin Hayley and Bubba probably

never really run together much. Yeah.

Well, it's, it definitely doesn't take

long. Maybe a race or two and sometimes

you forget who you're racing with. But

when a new guy pops up in there and or

even a young guy that pops up in there

that you're not used to racing with, it

definitely changes the way that you

think about the situation. So you

definitely have to understand who you're

around and what you're dealing with.

You mentioned the trackhouse cars. What

did you think about what we saw at SVG

and Connor Zillich in this event?

Yeah. I thought in the wet, it was good.

In the dry, it wasn't great. You know, Ross

was kind of just middle of the pack all

night. And I think, but that's been our

question. Where would these trackhouse

cars be as the performance of the cars?

Where would they be for these drivers?

And what's that going to be like as we

start the season? So, I mean, there's a

lot of hype around Zillich. And we know

that he has the skill set to drive the

car fast and has won in everything that

he's raced in. SVG, obviously, we know

that he is going to be a contender to

win all the road course races. And we

expect Ross Chastain to win. And really,

from a trackhouse standpoint, Ross

Chastain is expected to be the leader of

that organization to guide the process

of making the cars fast. So a lot of

pressure on all of those guys. Different

scenario for SVG with the points. Connor

coming into the series and the

expectations that are set on Ross to

be that leader and winner of the

organization. I'll be interested to see

how SVG with the point system being

different. Depending on how well he's

doing on the ovals, I expect him to be

better on the ovals. But again, a lot of

it to your point, how's the team

overall doing? Because he could get

better and it might look worse, but like

the cars didn't get better, right? So

it's going to be, we're going to have to

play that by ear. But when he's in the

situation on the road courses, but we

need points, but he's going, you know,

throwing haymakers with like a Chris

Busher. Like how does he now operate?

Because when he got here, it was the

other system. So he only knew one way. So

this is for everyone else. It's back to

the old, but for him, it's completely

different. Well, it's, you know, I think

when you, I want to go back to one more

thing, you know, from the race, we saw

Kyle Bush, we saw, you know, Denny

Hamlin, a lot of these guys go into the

pits, work on their cars, fix their cars

for, for to go back out on a racetrack

in the wet. You're going to get in this

position again. And all these guys were,

not all of them, but a lot of them were

craving the time on the racetrack to

be able to understand what they needed

to do to get better, understand their

race cars and collect that data to be

able to know what they needed to do to

their car to make it work right in these

rain conditions. Because in the end, in

the results, it doesn't say anything

about whether it's wet, whether it's dry,

whether have field crashed, whatever it

is, you've got to be able to navigate

these, these different scenarios and,

and our guys do a great job behind,

behind the wheel of, of being able to

adapt and adjust to all these different

conditions. And so it was, it was

definitely something that was really,

really useful for a lot of the notebooks

for all these teams.

If you don't think that it could be cold

like this at Martinsville, because we've

been cold and it's snowed at Martinsville

before, like we could be in this

situation literally at Martinsville to

track that if there's anyone to compare

to Bowman Gray, it would be that. So

that this could really pay off.

So there is another positive that came

from all this. There are a lot of

positives. You know, I just, if we're

going to be in the wet weather business,

let's just own it. Like let's not,

let's not overthink it. Like the tires

are good, the cars are capable, the

drivers are capable. Let them go out

there and just get after it.

Especially this situation, because

there's no points. So everyone's

trying stuff anyway. So like just let

them, just let them, they all drove into

turn one and the whole field didn't go

straight in the wall. It's not going to

happen. I mean, it's just not going to

happen. We've done it at Richmond. We've

done it at Loudoun. We've done it at,

you know, Bristol. We've done it at a lot

of the places that, that, that we've,

I just, it has to just be second nature.

And we just got to quit worrying about it

so much. I know that we're always

worried about safety and we should be,

but there's not that, as much to worry

about with the wet weather tires is

what we're worrying about.

Okay. Well, there you have it. That was

the clash. And now we are moving on to

the Daytona 500. We can't wait for that.

That's a big race. That's a huge race.

We will talk more about the Daytona 500

on our live show that you can't miss.

Katelyn's live show.

No, it is Kevin's show.

KV special edition, happy hour.

Look at it. It's a show's name.

It's just Kevin Harvick's happy hour.

Presented by Fox, presented by KV.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. You're next.

Mamba social sips.

Look, look, speaking of who's show it is

now.

There you go.

It's your favorite time for the first

time of the year. Mambas, social sips.

Okay. You got to do this.

I can't wait to do this live with y'all.

That's going to be, that's, you guys,

you better come up with something

better than normal.

No, when we do social sips live, you're

going to see that how much of these

clothes is really loved this part.

You're going to see.

But let's get into it.

All right. So when I was looking at

through social, you know, I was like,

do I do stuff throughout the off season?

And I was going to find moments throughout

the off season, but then the snow storm

came.

Perfect.

Well, this ought to be good.

So we have a snowy sips for you.

Let's start with Chris Busher or Texan.

You know, he's a little bit of a cowboy.

They do some cowboy stuff.

They do some cowboy stuff, all right.

Is that him?

He's riding.

Yeah, he's holding on.

Is that a sled?

No, it looks like an air mattress.

Oh, it's an air mattress.

That's a sled.

Yeah.

It's hard to explain what he's doing

because I don't know the proper red

neck words for this, but he's holding

on to a rope that is tied to an

excavator and the excavator is being

slung around in a circle.

And he is, I mean, he's stroking.

He's going pretty fast.

He's lucky.

He's not in bed next to Brad Koslowski.

With an injury.

I want to know who was operating the excavator.

I know one thing.

If this was at my house and my wife

was operating that excavator,

it would be as fast as it could go.

And she'd be laughing her ass off to see

how far she could throw me.

Yeah, yeah.

He'd be gone.

That's the first.

I've never, I've not, I've not seen

that activity before.

I like it.

This seems like a brand new activity.

I would love to run the excavator

and take you.

Yeah, shocker.

There's still some snow out there.

We could still do this.

No, no, no, no, no.

We're good.

We're going to stay right here at Jerry Logano.

He's been running around with his son,

Hudson, around his, around the shop and property.

And they, they took the, the UTVs out,

the side by sides, and they were having a ball.

There's some awesome video.

They're drifting around.

Obviously that's a, that's a really good donut.

What do you rate that, Kevin?

That's pretty good.

Those are some ripping donuts right there.

I was waiting for him to shoot through the front door.

Yes.

Great control.

That was a good one.

He's good at them.

That's, Keanu does that in the cup car too, to be honest.

And then this probably is my favorite so far of the things

that I've seen on social.

Obviously we have the race for the seat show here on Fox

with Rams trying to find a driver to fill in their extra truck.

Well, it got one driver, Stephen Malazi.

He basically did a whole ad for them as to why it should be.

Yeah. Let's see it.

Let's see a little bit of it.

Hard to race.

This was my last time in old Jimbo.

With racing being insanely expensive,

I don't get to do it as much as I should,

but that's where Ram comes in.

To celebrate the return of the Hemian.

So I know this kid and he, he is a diehard.

Like he wants it really bad.

And I just felt like if they're,

you're going to have a program like this

that you're looking for someone who's a diehard and for the brand.

You need to, you need to give something like this.

Can you drive?

He hasn't been able to drive much.

So I don't know.

Well, where do you come from?

He just came from cars.

Like you just go from law school to trucks?

Kind of.

If you did carting and then he got into a truck

and now he does like starting parks a lot for Reum.

And when they have the funding, they run the whole thing.

He got out back to sponsor him, which I think is pretty,

we had outback at Stuart Hoss.

Yeah. We used to, we used to have Blumen,

Blumen Mondays every time we got a top 10.

I think one year we got 32 of them.

A lot of top 10s back in the days.

Yeah. And no, I don't think it was 32, but it was a lot.

Maybe it was 28, 29.

Still it's a high number.

Something like that.

Yeah.

And they loved it because every time that somebody

would go in to buy a Blumen onion,

they would have an average ticket price of $32 at the outback

with their free Blumen onion.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

That's awesome.

That's pretty good return.

That's not bad.

Yeah. We were driving some traffic.

We were getting a full circle moment.

Good for Stephen though, having his,

putting his story out there.

He sold his own car to race.

I know. That's wild.

That's extreme.

That's pretty extreme.

It's pretty extreme.

And it was, I was some type of dodge, I think too,

that he sold to do that.

So he's really locked into the brand.

Don't forget the mail bag.

We got it back this year.

So, harvickhappyhour4 at gmail.com.

Send us your thoughts.

Yes.

You could also leave a voicemail.

Good or bad.

Thoughts and questions.

That's right.

Yeah. We love, we love hearing from you any way we can.

And obviously leave a voicemail.

805-317-4175.

That is your first Mamba Sips of the year.

It's going to be a long year.

And I love you guys for it.

You know what my favorite part is other than the Sips?

I know what it is.

And this one was tough.

This one was tough.

But so we got a great amount of curve.

We got to get a little grayish here.

Yeah. We got to get a gray and a little curve.

So let's see Prizes.

The only other ones that I really remember is C-bells at New Hampshire.

And that one, this is better than C-bells at New Hampshire.

Wait. You mean just in general?

Yeah.

Elliott, SPG.

Elliott's last year here at Bowman Gray was really good.

But not on rain tires.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying in the rain tires.

I mean specifically rain tires.

Rain tires are, they look pretty grippy.

He got some smoke out of it though.

He did the best he could with what he had in the situation.

I feel like.

It was loud.

Yeah.

This part kind of.

I don't think it was very good.

He probably should just nose it up and just burn it melted now.

I mean, I look, you guys know I'm honest.

So I'm happy for Ryan Priest, but his burnout sucked.

There you go.

So do you get a grade at it?

Yeah. I, it's not an F, but it's probably more like a C minus.

Cermudgen.

You know the visit.

Is that, is that how we're grading them this year?

Do you want to do numbers scale?

Do you want to?

Yeah. We got to decide.

You got to decide.

Change. So we'll just do it however we want.

So give me a number.

Yeah. I mean, it's not very good.

So he said it wasn't an F, but then he gave it a C and not a D.

So like that's why I like need a number.

He gave it a C.

I mean, he's still one.

So yeah, let's just go five out of 10.

Only because Tyler told me he just got told everybody.

He just got told.

We just got told that in her ear.

So I was like, get her move on.

Kevin pick a number.

Pick a number.

I barely made it.

My GPA was like 2.0.

All right.

So we got five out of 10 for the first burnout of the year.

Not your fault, priest.

The problem, the problem at Bowman Gray is you have only down to go

after Chase Elliott's last year.

So compared to Chase Elliott's last year,

I mean, we should just drove straight to victory lane.

There you go, man.

We will probably see something spectacular at the 500 though.

Whoever wins that.

Well, that's a hard one because of the banking.

Okay. Well, it's hard.

I'm trying to sell the hope here.

Hope is not a strategy.

Hope is a bad strategy.

Okay. Wow.

That was, you just blew through those steps buddy.

I'm pretty good.

Good job.

Yeah, you're a three.

There you go.

I'm glad you showed up today.

You're welcome.

That's right.

Ready to rip.

All right, closers.

Make sure you subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts.

We will see you Tuesday for a very fun edition with Bob Pocras,

who is doing a season preview with us.

He will be there.

So thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next time.

Go pants.

Kevin Harvick’s BIG Announcement! Plus, Ryan Preece Wins the Clash Amid Weather Madness

About this episode

Chrysler Daytona

JD Motorsports

K&N car

MDM Motorsports

bet on himself

Speedway cars

Lucid Air

Daytona 500

Ram

Hemi

Dodge

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX