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Kyle Larson Wins Cup Championship, Denny Hamlin Heartbreak, Xfinity & Truck Champions Crowned, and the Future of the Playoff Format
Kyle Larson Wins Cup Championship, Denny Hamlin Heartbreak, Xfinity & Truck Champions Crowned, and the Future of the Playoff Format
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About this episode
Kevin Harvick and co-hosts dive deep into the dramatic NASCAR championship weekend at Phoenix, celebrating Kyle Larson's Cup title while sympathizing with Denny Hamlin's heartbreak after a critical tire failure. They analyze strategic calls, tire issues, and the playoff format's flaws, hinting at upcoming changes. Highlights include Corey Heim's dominant Truck Series win and Jesse Love's Xfinity championship amid tough competition from Connor Zillich. The hosts also discuss NASCAR's evolving rules, the return of cup drivers to lower series, and reflect on the sport's past and future. The episode wraps with fan interactions, awards previews, and lighthearted moments.
Topics:
cup championship
denny hamlin heartbreak
playoff format debate
tire failures
corey heim truck series win
jesse love xfinity championship
cup drivers in lower series
nascar evolution
race strategy
fan engagement
Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith recap an unforgettable NASCAR Championship Weekend in Phoenix. They react to Kyle Larson’s thrilling Championship victory, break down the critical caution that changed everything, and discuss the heartbreak for Denny Hamlin, who dominated most of the race yet still came up short of his first Cup title. They analyze how the rest of the Championship 4 — William Byron and Chase Briscoe — performed and explain how tire wear played a major role in shaping the race. The crew also discusses Jesse Love’s Xfinity Series Championship and Corey Heim’s Truck title run, before diving back into the heated debate around NASCAR’s playoff format and what the future should look like. Mamba delivers this week’s top social media moments in Social Sips, and in Last Call, they grade Larson’s burnout and crown Kaitlyn as the official postseason points champion of the show.
0:00 - Intro
2:15 - Championship Weekend Recap
1:00:25 - Mamba’s Social Sips
1:12:23 - Last Call!
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I'm happy for Kyle Larson.
He beat the system.
I feel absolutely gutted for Denny Hamlin.
I'm always so impressed with William Byron.
He seems so mature beyond his years.
I don't know why everyone else took two.
I said, brother, what?
This guy driving this late model claims he was going to get abducted by aliens.
That's the kind of weird that happens.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR on Fox.
I'm Kevin Harvick.
This is Caitlin Benzzi and he's still here.
Not going anywhere, baby.
We're still here.
Oh, boy, yeah.
Mama Smith.
The one and only, one and only Mama Smith.
Still here, buddy.
Still here.
Good for you.
You know, we're glad you're here.
Good for you that you're still here.
I mean, someone has to teach Kevin how to dress,
and obviously it's wearing off.
Geez, what a way to come out strong.
I don't know.
We are more coordinated than normal.
I'm just saying.
I'm not at all, I guess.
I didn't get the memo.
You brought the color to the set.
Yes, the fall vibes.
You have your own style.
I try my best.
Yeah, we really shouldn't match that much.
All right, guys.
This is wild.
We are done with the NASCAR season.
Crazy.
We got three champions.
We're going to talk about everything that transpired out in Phoenix.
Welcome into episode 78 of Happy Hour.
We got a big sipless because we're getting drunk this week.
We're hammered.
I promise you, I will be getting hammered this week.
Yeah, you're done working fine.
How was Phoenix for you?
No, I'm not done working.
How was Phoenix for you?
Oh, yeah.
He has to turn around and fly back to Phoenix for the award show.
Yeah, so by the time this show comes up.
What's your job out there?
Hosting the red carpet with Carla.
Carla Matz?
Yeah, because, you know, again.
Lucky you.
Get to work alongside Carla.
I get to work alongside some very beautiful people.
Yeah.
She's one of those.
I was going to ask you what you knew about style because I hadn't seen any of it all year.
You know exactly what I saw.
You know exactly all year.
Did you start this?
I will not get delated to start going through your closet and showing you what you need
and what you don't need again.
But yeah, no, everyone knows what the deal is.
I'm going to be coming in strong.
I got a nice fit.
How was Phoenix though?
Phoenix was great.
Yeah, it was fun.
I mean, it was sold out.
The crowd looked great.
Yeah.
Like, I don't know.
It was sold out.
Those people love that place.
They support it.
They support it in the springtime.
They support it in the fall time.
It was a vibe.
The campground was full.
The infield was full.
There's a lot of new fans out there.
A lot of fans from different states all over the place.
There was a lot of closers.
They wanted me to tell you guys that their social sips was their favorite part.
And I said, I keep trying to tell them.
We have heard this on every episode.
They keep telling me that.
You know the crazy part about Phoenix is you talk about the camping.
You talk about the fan support.
It's been that way as long as I can ever remember going there.
And I used to go there as a little kid.
And I think when you look at...
Now, I don't think it was as packed last year.
I don't know.
So they did a really good job this year of getting the fans there.
But I think some of that has to do with it's not there next year.
This is true.
And I think that anytime, no matter what we do,
we always seem to go down a path of going once too many times.
One too many.
And I just, I hope that when people see that we're going to homestead next year,
I hope we're not going to homestead the year after.
I hope we're going somewhere else.
And we start to have a rotation of where that championship race ends up.
Yeah.
Because I think that just having that mystique about where it's going to be
and that want to be there.
The intrigue, yes.
The intrigue of where it is and knowing that it might,
it's not going to be there next year and you're getting to see something special.
Yeah.
Brings a little bit of more to the plate than having it at the same place year after year.
Yeah.
We've seen that.
We've seen what it did for Pocono, right?
Yeah.
Pocono is one.
It did, I mean, I hate it for the New England area, the Northeast,
but obviously Pocono, New Hampshire, they both back down to one.
And those places are, it's a party vibe out there all over again.
I think the fact that I'm from so far East and you're from so far West,
that mindset is both very similar.
Well, it did the same thing at California Speedway.
When they went from two races to one, it was one great event
instead of having two mediocre events.
And, you know, you look at a place even like Kansas,
like Kansas really should be a one race event
because of the fact that you have two mediocre crowds.
I think it would be a great one race crowd.
Chicago land was the same way.
It was a great one race crowd.
I think that crowd will be good when we go to Chicago land
because we hadn't been there in a while.
And it's kind of like that nostalgic place
that has kind of been sitting idle since five out there.
And it's, I think these cars are going to put on a great race
at Chicago land because it's rough.
It's worn out when we left.
Yeah.
Not to mention it's been sitting
for how many years it's been sitting.
Yeah.
And so I think that, I mean, San Diego is going to be,
that's going to be cool.
It's going to be so cool.
One of a kind.
Those one of a kind events are really what the sport needs.
But having the championship race
at a different venue every year
compared to the previous two or three years
is the way that they should do it.
I hope that when we go to homestead,
I hope the next year we're going somewhere different.
Yeah.
I also think that there's a X amount of races.
I don't know which ones there are,
but there's probably three, four, maybe five race tracks
that have two races that need a one race rotation.
And then you do one race.
And then the next year maybe it goes back to two.
And then the next year it's back to one.
Some type of balance to get people re-energized about it
because they're used to it.
And when they know that you only get one chance
that you're to see it, you will see a spike.
And if there's a rotation of that,
I think it's good for everybody.
Makes it more of a commodity.
Yeah.
Because obviously the, this tracks need the races there.
So it needs to be a rotation of some kind.
I love that you guys just previewed tracks
when the season ends
because we don't get to preview anything today.
Yeah.
Thank you for that.
Appreciate that.
So we have a lot to talk about leaving Phoenix
and three different series
to break down their championship races.
So I guess we'll start with the cup series
and Kyle Larson winning the championship.
This is a very interesting
the way this whole race unfolded.
Would you agree?
I would agree.
And, you know, I think when, when you,
when you look at it
and you look at all the tire failures,
which I think good years will go down that road
in a little bit,
because I think they're still on the right path
as to what the industry is asking,
what the fans are asking,
what everybody is asking for out of the tires.
I think that when you look at Kyle Larson
winning the championship,
he was the only guy to advance on points,
you know, to, to the final four.
It's his second cup championship,
very different than the, than the first cup championship
and how that went for him.
But this was just one of those races
where you just didn't know where it was going to end.
I was sitting at home watching it with my family
and they said, well, it's over.
I mean, Denny Hamlin kicked their butt all day,
had the by far the fastest car.
And ultimately I told him, I said,
this race is not over.
Somebody has blown a tire
before we get to the end of this race,
because it's a little shorter run
and everybody is going to put everything right
on what they think is the ragged edge
of not blowing a tire.
And ultimately it was William Byron that blew a tire,
which same scenario, right?
Rudy's just going to put it right on where he thinks the edge is
and it was, you know, not meant to be, you know,
for the 24 bunch, but I'm happy for Kyle Larson.
He beat the system that is in place
and the championship format that is in place
and won the championship.
Just as our other two champions did,
I feel absolutely gutted.
Yes.
For Denny Hamlin.
I think everybody does.
I just, you know, I think that with everything
that they put together this year,
the dominant car that they had in the final event
and so many other events
and knowing the scenario with his dad
and everything that is happening for him.
Two totally different emotions after the race
and talking to people that were there.
It was like this side of pit road was super happy
and with excitement.
This side was somber and just devastated.
He seemed totally bewildered.
Like, how did that just happen?
Almost in his face, you know?
Well, it was a, I mean, that's got to be one of the toughest
calls that you could possibly ever make as a crew chief
and, you know, you heard him say it after the race.
It just doesn't seem like it's meant to be
and if I can't win the championship in this car
then maybe I'm not going to win one.
And then you saw the comments after the race
of just him saying, I don't even know
if I want to drive a car again.
Now, I will tell you, that's normal.
Everyone's done.
When you're in this situation
and I felt like that in 2020,
you know, you go out and win nine races
and don't win the championship
and what you feel like is the dominant car
all year long except for that one event.
You're mad.
You're frustrated because all of your,
your whole season comes down to, to this race
and that one circumstance is, is what costs him
the championship for him a day that he dominated.
So hopefully he will continue racing.
Maybe this will subside for Denny.
I thought this was very interesting though
because the whole season we've been talking
about how it comes down to the one race.
But you, when you look at what the five team did,
you know, they didn't lead any laps.
He said they had an average car at best.
They didn't get the pole.
Blue two tires or blue eight.
They overcame a lot and I am happy for them.
I picked them.
I'm happy for any team who can do it
because I know what it, what it entails
to put together a whole season
and how much hard work it is.
But like, I didn't really feel like this race
even backed up the, the whole story
of like coming down to a final race.
Like he didn't win the race.
It wasn't the best car in the race.
It came down to a call at the very end.
Yeah. I mean, that's sports.
I am going to smack you.
We race, mama.
It's not sports.
It is.
I'm going to smack you if you just to keep using
that word on the show.
But it is motor sports.
We are a sport.
This is like.
We're motor sports.
Right. We're motor sports.
We're not sports.
I think they've, I think they fall
into the same category.
I think they fall into the same category.
No.
So, so this, this deal.
You can do every single thing.
Right.
When I was growing up, every racer,
my dad, everyone would tell you sometimes
the best car and the best team doesn't win.
That happens a lot lately.
That happened a lot back in the day.
It happens all the time.
For a championship.
Just win.
Period.
Like what if a championship or,
or the one race, like this happens.
It sucks that it happened.
I feel bad for the whole 11 group.
I feel bad for Denny.
They did every single thing and checked every single.
They really did.
Except for a four versus two.
But on the other side.
Or no putting.
On the other side.
The five.
They overcame a lot.
They did.
Not only, not only all year long,
but in this race.
I agree with that.
And the fact that they had all of the
adversity throughout the year is why
they're able to overcome the adversity
in the championship race.
Because they had the confidence.
They're great at doing that.
They have confidence that they could do it.
Yeah.
Showing that time.
Showing that they've done it over and over again.
And if you look at,
if you listen to how Cliff talked about it,
he said that we never thought we were out of it.
And so we can talk about how it sucks
and how whatever, whatever.
I'm not saying it sucks.
I can actually,
I mean,
I could actually stomach Kyle Larson
winning the championship because he scored the most
points all year.
And, you know,
I think when,
when you look at that,
I can stomach it.
I just,
when you look at just a straight up point system,
getting to the last race,
you'd have had a hell of a points battle.
I'm just fed up with the one race.
If you'd had a hell of a points battle,
all the way to the end,
and it puts people in the exact same position
of having to go out and win.
And then you have, you know,
so just to go back on all this,
really people,
this is a tough situation because of the fact that
people were tired of the old system because
people were winning by too much.
People were,
now we're tired of the point system
because of the fact that it comes down to one race.
I truly believe there's a,
there's a balance in the middle.
And, and in the end,
I mean, Steve O'Donnell all but said the format is,
is changing.
He said it was changing.
He said it was changing.
He just didn't elaborate on it because he didn't
want to take away from the system that the guys
are already in.
It's super hard to compare
the guys that went in this system
to a Dale Earnhardt
because of the fact that you're just racing
two different types of systems.
And the old system was built over the season.
It was built on consistency.
It was built on winning.
It was built on mistakes.
It was built on lack of DNFs
because in that type of system,
no way Denny Hamlin ever decides to miss Mexico.
Well, that, right.
Like if you have a system where all the races matter,
guys aren't just going to say,
well, I might have a baby.
I might not have a baby.
I'm just going to stay home this week.
In my generation, that never happens.
And there's a lot to everybody's personal
scenarios.
We don't know all those scenarios.
And there's a lot of things that Denny
having to consider.
But so I'm not saying that he didn't
need to stay home.
I'm just saying that those thoughts
and conversations become a lot different
when those weeks are on the line.
And you go back and you look at a
2015 season.
I thought my 2015 season was better
than my 2014 season.
Ultimately lost the championship to a guy
that missed 11 races.
That's just,
you can't compare what we're doing
in this particular format with the way that it is
compared to what happened before that.
No.
And I also don't think you can really compare
the king to Dale
because Richard was racing,
they were racing more races at that time.
Like it's eras.
And everything, it changes.
Like there's Richard's era.
There's Dale's era.
And then there's Jimmy's era.
Right?
And we're kind of like on the tail end of Jimmy's era
because we're about to change over into something different.
So I think that's how the evolution
of this thing goes.
Not only here, but in other places.
And I feel that we're just part of it.
We're in that evolution.
We're about to move into something else.
And that's okay.
New era.
Well, here's the one thing that I will say.
You know, we're in the,
let's try to make it fair for everybody evolution.
And I think when you're in the middle of that,
of what we've done,
and Steve O'Donnell alluded to this as well,
when in his comments where he said,
you know, I think that we wanted to try to have,
make it so that we had more winners.
And in that process, we made less stars
because of the fact that less people weren't winning
all the time and you didn't have that,
that dominant star.
But we're headed back to that anyway.
The next gen car and all the things that have come with it,
trying to make it fair for everybody.
Those days are over.
And, you know, you've got the Gibbs versus Hendrick racing
for the championship this weekend.
Just like it pretty much was, you know,
in the previous chunk of time before we had next gen,
the good teams are rising back to the top.
And you can, you can see it in the stats.
And when you look at, we had 14 drivers who won a race,
who won races this year.
That's the fewest since 2020.
And my point there is the good teams are starting to get
the good people and the details.
And all of a sudden it's migrating back to how it was anyway.
Let the stars be the stars.
Let the guys that are going to dominate, let them dominate.
This isn't, you can't make this so that it's fair
for Rick Ware racing compared to Rick Hendrick.
Right?
Like it's never going to be fair.
It's not going to be the same.
And the more you try to water that down,
I think that's how we got to where we are trying to,
trying to make it so that it was more even for everybody.
It's never going to be even.
The good teams are always going to be the good teams.
Well, I think that's kind of the point, right?
The good teams are always going to be the good teams.
If you make it a little harder for them,
they're still going to be, they're going to catch up.
It just takes, it's just a matter of time.
It's just a matter of time.
So I think where I see that, I'm like,
yeah, okay, so when we keep changing it,
like when in this time in this car,
you're not working in the areas like we were the old car.
Like I remember there was a time where,
yeah, I remember there was a time like the Dodgers,
you knew they had big smoke under the hood.
Their struggle was getting it to get through the corner
a lot of times.
And like, so I think that with this car,
you can't work on a specific corner of the sandbox.
You got to have the whole thing.
And so I don't know when you change up the rules
and you keep them guessing.
I think it makes it fun.
It's fun to watch.
Like when you guys didn't get to practice,
you had to unload and then you got it better
throughout the race.
I thought those were some of the best races
that we ever saw.
Just cause now guys that we think aren't very good.
It's not that they aren't very good.
It's just their equipment isn't very good.
So like, I don't know.
I think there's a little bit of both.
Equipment's the same though.
Not how you put it together though.
Not how you put it.
It's all about the people.
So it's about the team deal.
It's about the people.
It's about the people and the simulation
and the direction that the driver leads them together.
You need everybody.
This is the biggest team sport, I think,
in the whole deal.
Because everybody, their job,
everyone's job is connected to someone else's job.
Like when I was in Teardown,
if I didn't know what I was looking at,
if I didn't tell the engineers,
hey, this is going on in this part of the car,
you might want to look at that.
That might be a failed part later.
And we might not win.
Yeah.
But I'm going to go right back to you.
And I'm going to tell you that there are three or four guys
that are just better than the rest of them.
The drivers.
And Denny Hamlin is one of the best
that you'll ever seen at guiding his team
to getting to where he needs to be.
With the car, with the commitment,
with the time, with the effort.
He's just better at that.
And, you know, I think that's why the great teams
wind up great.
You look at Joey Logano,
leading Penske and the test sessions
and all the things that have happened
to get them back on track.
It usually comes from Joey Logano.
Joe Gibbs racing wins the most races.
Most of that falls on Denny Hamlin's shoulders
in the simulator
and the time spent in there and the direction.
So, you know, Jeff Gordon,
I still believe that,
that one of the biggest things,
one of the biggest downfalls of Jimmy Johnson's
at the end of Jimmy Johnson's career
was the fact that Jeff Gordon wasn't in the building
guiding the ship with the cars and the parts
and the pieces to keep the engines
and the cars and the parts
going in the right directions
to help make good decisions.
So, you know, you look at a,
you know, you even look at Larson, right?
Like, he doesn't seem like the guy
that's going to be the Jeff Gordon type
to guide the ship of, you know,
are the engines lacking horsepower?
Are they lacking torque?
Are the cars not turning here?
Was this change good?
He's not going to be that guy.
And every organization that is great has that guy.
Denny Hamlin is that guy.
Joey Logano is that guy.
They got, I mean,
the Gibbs cars had him beat on speed
for the whole second half of the year,
for the most part.
It was the opposite at the beginning of the year.
But, you know, there's just a,
there's just a certain amount of guys
that are going to figure out how to,
how to do that.
And, you know, Denny Hamlin's one of them.
Speaking of Denny Hamlin,
let's break down his race a little bit more.
Because as we've talked about a standout car
in terms of speed,
did everything they needed to do,
it came down to the final pit stop.
Your opinion on the decision to take four tires?
Well, it's a, I mean,
it's the most difficult call that you can make
as a crew chief as you get towards the,
you know, the end of the race right here.
That I didn't think there would be as many cars
in between them as what wound up in between them.
And I think the big difference here
that we saw from Friday night with Corey Heim,
these cup cars on that flat down on the apron
can't do what the trucks do for whatever reason.
They don't, you can't go all the way down
to that inside wall and make those passes.
And, you know, Denny got to a couple of instances
where he just couldn't clear the car
that he was passing and ultimately
didn't make up any track position
when I interviewed Larson, his took off better
than he thought it would, had more grip
than he thought it actually would.
So that's the tough part about these two tire calls
and four tire calls.
I think that, you know, when you're in that position,
they're going to go back and second-guess themselves
a hundred times, I'm sure about,
but it's easy to do now.
It's difficult to do in the moment.
Denny Hamlin and his team did everything
that they needed to do.
They brought the fastest car.
They led the most laps.
They won, you know, they won a stage
and were great on pit road all day.
Actually overcame a flat left for your tire.
And I actually learned something this week
while watching that if you're going to use that second jack,
you got to take a pump with the first one
in order to be eligible to not get a penalty
to use the second jack.
So they went in, made the first pump,
pulled the second jack out and got that thing up
and only lost a handful of spots.
Had a great plan in place.
So they checked all the boxes.
Denny did all he could do.
I just, you know, I don't think it,
it just didn't work out at the end of the day for him.
And, you know, they, but they had the dominant car.
I would never, I would,
anyone that questions the decision
of Chris Gayle on that pit box
has no idea what this,
what this thing is, how difficult that call is.
Like he gave his guy an advantage,
an attired advantage.
Denny had the best car.
Just one enough laps to take advantage of.
He just needed a little bit more.
And honestly, it was this much,
because if he caught the 22,
he caught Lugano, he caught Lugano
in turns one and two in a weird spot.
Like, like he kind of, he rolled Lugano
and Lugano wasn't moving yet.
And it kind of broke his momentum.
And then when they got off the corner,
like he was.
In those scenarios, you just,
you have to have all those moments go right.
Yeah.
When you lose that much track position,
I think that, you know,
green white checker coming down to that on a,
on a mile racetrack stuff.
That's a tough one.
To, you know, to, to overcome as many guys
that put on two tires.
On the flip side, the five,
he was even with the five through one and two.
It's just the C's kind of parted a little bit
for Larsen on the top,
which honestly, I thought that he was cooked
because I thought he was going to get boxed in
on top because I felt like
Denny had more options.
Well, here's the,
well, here's the thing that,
think about this though.
When that shoes happen,
leader chose the top teammate on the top
behind the leader and then Larson.
So that was a great shoes
because that lane should fire
and should, should roll better than,
than the bottom lane
and knowing what all these guys know about the cup car,
there's really only one lane below the yellow line.
In order to go somewhere,
it's probably going to be on the top,
unless you can find an opening through the middle,
which Denny found earlier, he,
it worked out for him.
When he got behind,
he got through the middle in traffic instead of this,
that last time he got pinned on the bottom.
Unfortunate circumstances for Denny Hamlin.
So too for Chase Brisco,
right out of the gate with practice,
eventful for this team.
But they overcame a lot.
They did.
It was very impressive what they were able to overcome.
I would say what they maybe could have done.
If they hadn't had, you know,
the right rear go down at the end.
For the second time.
For the second time.
What did you think of their day?
It was gritty.
It was.
And, and when you look at practice day,
tire problem,
and then you hear his crew chief, James Small,
talk about them being too aggressive and,
and over the, over the line,
it tells you how aggressive that these guys were,
were being.
And I think that they probably went there with that.
They definitely went there with that mentality of we're going to
be aggressive.
And if it doesn't go our way,
it doesn't go our way.
We don't really know that we feel like we're swinging for the
fence here anyway.
I think, you know,
they were in an aggressive mindset when they got there.
And, you know,
on a weekend like this where the tires are on edge and,
you know,
from a camber standpoint,
they could fix that from practice.
I think from an air pressure standpoint,
there's a lot of juice there,
you know,
the back of the car in the racetrack and down with that
lower air.
So camber and low air were pretty finicky this weekend.
But these guys were definitely being aggressive and,
and just didn't all stay,
stay together for them.
But they had a great year.
And I,
and I feel like they have the most potential to grow of any
team going forward with everything that they did this
year.
A very respectable campaign.
First year,
James Small paired with Chase Briscoe.
First time chase was at Gibbs.
I think they have a lot to be proud of on what they
did on the, on the year.
Oh my God.
Drew Herring.
I saw Drew in the airport this morning and spotter.
And I said,
brother, you guys,
I think you guys outperformed what everyone's expectation
was.
He goes, I'm sure he's like,
I bet no one had us in the lead eight.
I said,
I think almost no one had you in the playoffs just
because it was such an unknown like no one coming from
SHR and how much of a debacle that was.
Like,
I think people didn't know what chase had in him,
but chase knew what he had in him.
Yeah.
And he knew what he was going to.
And he believed in the processes that James Small had in
that whole group.
And they went to work and it started slow.
But then all of a sudden they were from about halfway on,
they were like,
And one of the most dangerous race teams at the track
every freaking week.
It was amazing.
And I think the biggest thing for a team like this is
trying to figure out exactly how to be able to carry
that workload.
Yeah.
Week after week, year after year next year.
How do you go into the off season now?
And I don't think,
Well, I just, in general,
how do you go into the off season now,
whether you're in any position on the race team and come back
with that same work ethic and enthusiasm that got you to the
point of, you know,
in chase briscoe's case,
making sure that you had a job next year,
making sure that you had a sponsor next year,
making sure that you were supposed to be here.
Because like you said,
the Stuart Haas cars obviously sucked really bad at the end.
And you look at,
you look at chase briscoe and Ryan priest.
Those guys went and Josh Berry,
those guys all went to places as yeah,
two out of the three one,
but priest was in the fix.
He was capable of winning as well.
So those are all new.
Nobody knew that that was actually the case until they all went
other places.
And now, you know,
you just got to figure out how to carry that same enthusiasm.
And I think even when you look at the 60, right?
Yeah.
Once they were out of contention,
they didn't,
but they weren't able to carry that,
that same enthusiasm and competitiveness that they carried
while they were still trying to race to get in.
And so that's the biggest thing for me is,
how does the night,
can the 19 team carry that same enthusiasm through the winner
and the work ethic and everything to start the season?
Because if they can carry that week after week after week,
like they did this year,
but sometimes it's,
it's hard when you come back to have everybody as motivated
as they are when you're chasing that carrot
and fighting for your job.
Yeah.
There was,
you talk about motivation.
There was two drivers that came across the stage this week
that weren't in the final four.
And they were simultaneously,
obviously they didn't hear what each other said.
And they both told me walking across the stage,
this sucks.
As in not being in the final four sucks.
And I'm like,
I just,
it just made me think I'm like,
if you think this sucks,
if you were out of it 10 weeks ago,
how bad do you think that would suck?
And that's kind of what you're talking about
with the 60 a little bit.
It's like,
how are you going to get up every day and every week
to still go run for wins?
And are you going to bring that same enthusiasm
and same grit and fire every week?
And I think for those two guys specifically,
I think they're pretty motivated.
They're from two different teams.
So I think it'll be interesting.
And you talk about the 60,
let's give a shout out to his boss,
Brad Kosolowski finished second.
Yes.
Through the Hail Mary there at the end as well.
Finish him second.
So I never saw him all day,
but he finished second.
And I think that tells you how much of a crapshoot it was
there at the end,
you know,
to be able to just kind of throw some strategy at it.
And he stayed out.
He didn't even have two tires.
So, you know,
that tells you how important that the track position was
and just what a deficit Denny was at,
pinned back in the middle.
I'm also a shout out to the Penske cars.
They did show up.
Oh yeah. By the way, Ryan Blaney won the race.
Joey Logano finished like third, I think.
So the strategy for the rest of the field to keep them out
of Phoenix,
obviously was a very smart strategy to have because they
brought it even without having a chance at the championship
and they were fast.
And Ryan was right in the middle.
He raced everyone very respectfully,
but he was right there.
But that's my point.
That's what I'm talking about.
When you get eliminated from the playoffs,
the good teams can still elevate themselves to be
competitive for a win.
Right.
And when you look at Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney,
I mean,
even Cedric, he was up in the top five.
He qualified.
Yeah.
But you know,
I think for true championship contenders,
I think for a guy like Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano
to be able to show up at that last race and be
competitive says a lot about not only them as drivers,
but the whole team and being able to prep and prepare
and have those things situated for the last race
and be competitive and go out with a win.
I think that's a message sender.
I think they wanted,
I feel like looking at it,
I'm like, you're trying to send a message like we,
we we're still here,
even though we are in it.
Don't worry, we'll be back next year.
And you guys better try to keep us out like you.
But the script flips.
Yeah.
It flips big time going to homestead.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It's flips big time going to homestead.
And Larson mentioned that today.
He's like, look, I suck at Phoenix.
And I said, well, you don't suck at homestead.
Or Tyler Reddick.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So when you look at, I mean,
that's really the reason that Tyler Reddick won those
XFINITY championships is because of the fact that it
was at homestead.
So, you know,
it goes from Pinsky strength to, you know,
open and there's a couple of guys that,
that stand out.
We did, Blaney had a shot to win there.
But you have to throw it to Tyler Reddick and,
and Kyle Larson for being able to run the wall like they do.
Yeah.
I bet Christopher Bell will be there too.
Yeah.
That's what I was about to say.
I would, I would look at early, really early betting.
Oh, we want to do that already?
I don't know.
Really early.
Way too early.
Way, way too early.
C-bell.
Way too early.
I haven't even mentioned that I'm, I won that deal.
That I picked Larson.
Oh, you did?
When did you pick him?
We'll talk about it later.
All right.
Let's talk about the final driver in the championship battle,
which was William Byron had a very respectable run,
very strong car.
He too had a right front go down with three laps to go.
You know, again, hard to say what,
what the story would have been if that hadn't happened
for him.
They were very strong.
Well, I mean the story would have been he would have
finished fourth and lost the championship to Denny Hamlin.
Denny Hamlin.
Because, but I think that it falls right into that same
category that we were talking about with the 19, you know,
Rudy put it on the edge.
Let's, let's see if we can make it.
And I think William pushed as hard as,
as he could there at the end of the race,
probably harder than he had all day and leaning on the
tires more than, more than he had,
but ultimately it wound up with a,
a right front failure.
And, and his day was over and he was the,
the caution that,
that brought out the chance for his teammate,
Kyle Larson to,
to win the championship.
But those guys did a great job at the end of the year,
bringing the speed back in the cars,
getting themselves looking more like they did at the
beginning of the year.
And I, and I think that when you talk about those guys that,
that have the work ethic and have the ability to be in
the middle of their team from the driver standpoint and
that crew chief relationship that,
that is so important to evolve things and keep things on
track when it's, you're having trouble, you know,
Rudy and, and, and William are in that category.
And I think they're just going to grow.
But, you know,
William has such a great work ethic of,
of being able to be involved and,
and his growth as a competitor and a person and,
and dealing with all the championship drama,
the format drama, the media,
the, the, the time and things that it takes to
sacrifice in your life to be able to be competitive,
ordered at all time high for,
for these drivers and crew chiefs.
The time and commitment that it takes to be great and
win these races is, is as high as it's ever been.
Yeah.
I'm always so impressed with William Byron and just like
how he handles so many different situations with
such like grace and dexterity.
And he seemed like visibly distraught to a bit when
he spoke to Denny Hamlin after the race, you know,
apologetic, you know, of course you never want to
be the cause of something like that, but he just,
he seems so mature beyond his years and,
and especially in these high pressure situations.
Yeah.
I mean, he comes from a great family.
He does.
His family is so great.
His parents are A1 and he,
I talked to him right after on pit road and he
obviously pain, dejected, you know what I mean?
They, they brought a good race car,
but again, for whatever reason,
they haven't had the best race car.
Like is the race evolved?
Yeah.
Like it just,
every time he's been to the final race,
he's always been right there like top three,
top five, but they never had that dominating speed.
There was a moment in the race where it's like,
okay, long run speed 24 might be the best car.
And at the very beginning.
Yeah.
At the very beginning and the 11 made some really good
adjustments or whatever they had planned to kind of
flip that.
And then they never got back.
The 24 never really got back in front of them.
And that was really it.
And I think, you know, we saw it on the broadcast,
the tire specialist doing the last air adjustments.
And it was like, this is like, I need,
I need qualifying laps.
And that was it.
And I think just pushing,
I think he was pushing as hard as he should,
which is as hard as he had to try and get back to the 11,
get in front of the 11 and just wore that,
wore that right front tire out.
And you know, it, it sucks.
And I feel for William because I feel like he feels like he
probably cost that for Denny in a way that he really didn't
want to, or it didn't, it didn't want to go down like that.
He would have much rather finished the race and end up second.
Denny win.
You know, it's great for Hendrick,
but like for him personally, it's like, man,
I feel like I took something away and he didn't like,
that's great.
I was really surprised that he wasn't a little more aggressive
when he had the opportunity to blow the 11.
Yes.
At the end there on the, on the next to last restart.
I mean, they bang doors a little bit down the straightaway,
but I was a little surprised.
And I think if he goes back and looks at it,
he probably should have been a little more aggressive
and kind of shoving the 11 up the race track a little bit
in the corners,
not just banging on him down the straightaway,
but I was a little surprised he wasn't more aggressive
with any when he had the shot because I felt like
if he didn't do it right there in those first couple laps,
and even when you go back to Martinsville,
with Blaney, with Blaney, well, yeah,
but he was pretty easy on Blaney before that.
He took the opportunity when he had it because he waited
too long the first time.
And the next time he had it,
he realized that that was his last opportunity.
I felt like he should have approached those moments
on that restart as his last opportunity because
they weren't keeping up with the 11.
And I felt like William Byron should have been more aggressive
with Denny Hamlin at that point for what they were racing for.
That's the one thing.
Again, we talked about all season with Denny.
He puts people in compromising situations.
Yeah.
And that is a superpower that he uses.
And it's a little bit of a, I have to believe
it's a little bit of a head game a little bit,
but that wasn't, that's what William probably needed
to do to Denny is not that it would have rattled him,
but just put him in a compromising situation to your point.
He should have made sure he got the lead at that point,
even if it was rough.
Yeah.
Right?
I mean, it's just, it was too late in the race,
could be the last restart.
I felt like in that position,
he should have been a little rougher with the 11
than what he was.
He was very respectful in that situation.
Yeah.
And he could have been more aggressive for sure.
So guys, this race was punctuated with tire issues
as we have documented,
but you were satisfied with what you saw
go to your brain, correct?
I just, you know, I think after listening to all the guys
talk about it after the race and,
and knowing what the industry has been asking,
I think that these are, and Denny Hamlin said this,
these are team problems, not, not tire problems.
Yeah.
That's the front tire issue.
Yeah.
And I think when,
when you look at the tire issues,
it comes from camber and it comes from air pressure.
You know, so, you know,
you let too much air out of the tire,
it's going to blow up and,
and Goodyear gives you a chart that tells you
at this air pressure,
this tire is going to live this many minutes.
So, you know, it's,
it's pretty well documented as to,
as to how that tire is going to live
from Goodyear standpoint.
And I think honestly,
I think all the competitors like where the tires are going
with the fall off and some of it was extreme.
Some of it wasn't extreme,
but I think from an industry standpoint,
I think Goodyear has done a really good job
of putting tires that are more questionable on the racetrack
from a wear and durability standpoint
because that's what the industry has been asking them.
I think in these championship race scenarios,
there's not another race next week.
There's a lot of guys throwing caution to the wind
with air pressure settings and camber.
So, you know, I hate that.
I hate that the point system comes down to one race
where there's so many tire failures
and it's not multiple races to decide who the champion is.
I think we're headed there.
But I think in this scenario,
it sucks because of the fact that it is just one race,
but I think it's also a punctuation,
an exclamation point on why the format doesn't need to be this way.
Because of these tires.
Like at this tire situation,
just push the ball down the road.
If it were me, I'd put the,
whatever the new point system is,
I'd put the release out on Wednesday
when the banquet is over.
After the banquet.
Well, let's let the champ.
Let the champs have their moment.
It's not the teams and the drivers
and everybody's fault that they're,
that they won under this format.
Let them have their time,
but Wednesday morning,
let's just go ahead and put that release out
to what the new format is
and be done with it because,
but the tires to me were the exclamation point
on why the system's wrong.
It's just reinforced.
It reinforced why it shouldn't be the format.
Why it shouldn't be what it is.
Yeah, I mean the teams,
the teams that had the most issue
other than the 16
and I think the 44 blue and two
is the 19 and the five
and they were going to be aggressive
and then the 24 was going to be aggressive.
So the 11 had one too.
He's just having to come under caution.
Right.
So all four of the champ competitors
had issues.
Why?
Because the moment was so big
that they had to push it.
I would rather,
I know this probably sounds weird,
but if the tire didn't have...
Yeah, but you are weird.
I am weird.
Yeah.
If you're going to be number one,
you got to be odd.
So I understand.
I'm technically number one.
You're definitely odd.
We know that.
If you're going to have,
if they're going to push it,
I don't want them to push it
and there'd be no limits.
Like I like to your point,
I like that where we're at.
I hope that next year
we keep going down this path.
I hope we don't fall behind
because it's always a evolution
as the setups change
and then good.
You have to change something.
It's a back and forth.
So I hope we just keep going forward
down this path.
So that was everything
that transpired in the cup series.
Congratulations to Kyle Arson and company,
very deserving champion,
world-class driver,
very strong team head to toe.
So good for them.
Let's go to the truck series.
Craftsman truck series.
Corey Heim,
who had just an unbelievable year,
was able to get the win.
And again,
it came down to tire strategy.
When Scott Zippadelli put four tires on
and everyone else in the hunt did too.
And everyone's kind of watching like,
oh, how is this going to play out?
But he made an incredible move.
It was unbelievable.
To the front.
Yeah.
And when you look at the restart
that Corey Heim was able to have
seven wide on the bottom.
Unreal.
And able to make that pass
and come back to win the championship.
And we talked about it last week.
We said if Corey Heim or Connor Zillich
lost the championship,
it was going to be a nuclear meltdown
from the fans.
And Corey Heim
saved them
on night one with a spectacular move,
great pick call,
fastest truck,
whatever, best driver,
whatever you want to call it.
The whole thing.
It worked out.
And I think that
thank God these guys won the championship.
They had just the best year
in the history of the truck series ever.
Records setting in every category.
Never a freaking doubt.
They are head and shoulders above
the field that combination with Zippy
and Corey.
Corey is a complete dog.
He's ready for the top level right now.
The interview that Zippy had
when he's like,
I don't know why everyone else took two.
Yeah.
I said,
brother, what?
I said.
I was like, oh my God.
And Corey proved him.
Zippy had the ultimate confidence
that no matter where Corey was going to come out
on that racetrack,
he was going to go get it done.
And he did.
And I think that winning when you're
supposed to win
is some of the most impressive
things that you can do.
And he did it in a way.
I've seen that exact move at Phoenix
probably six years ago
and what happened was all eight of those trucks
were in the turn one fence.
And one was almost flipped over
because one was ours at MTM.
We were in the middle of it.
And so that move
and everyone making it through
absolutely elite, elite by job.
I'm so glad for him
because we, you know,
we were all kind of talking before the race.
Like just we all had interviewed
Corey multiple times throughout the weekend
and he just seemed very tense.
And even people on his team were like,
he is feeling the weight of this
because like you talked about,
it's like you've achieved all these things.
But he told me straight up, he's like,
I'm not going to view this season as a success
if I don't get this chance.
Yeah, I mean, well,
that's that's one of the biggest flaws
of the whole system.
Right.
Like you can have the greatest year
of anybody in the field and still lose,
you know, just off of one moment
or one situation or one scenario.
And that's the part that sucks
when you've kicked their ass all year.
And then so that's a lot of pressure
and having to deal with that pressure
is difficult.
And, you know,
I think it'll go a long ways
for him to, you know, having to deal with
with all that pressure.
But there was one guy
that didn't feel a lot of pressure.
Timon Jeske.
No.
Tyler Ankram.
Oh my.
There's interviews that Bob did
with all four of those truck series drivers
off of our whatever my quote was
off the show last week.
It did elicit some funny responses.
And Tyler Ankram's response was classic.
It should be,
I'd like to see you execute his
victory celebration.
Listen, I have a performance-based contract.
I'm going to Phoenix for a trophy and a check.
I want to drive a yellow Corvette
grow my hair out and listen to Heavens on Fire by Kiss.
So that's what I'm going for.
Everyone else, they can have their opinion.
I don't really care.
So maybe AI can come up with some sort of video
for you and your victory celebration.
Good for Corey Heim though.
That guy is an unbelievable talent.
I can't wait to see what else he does
in his career.
Next season for him is going to be really weird.
Yeah.
It's already really weird.
It's going to be really weird.
And I'm shocked that he's with the situation
that they're in in the Toyota camp
that he's kind of in no man's life.
I have a hard time understanding that.
If Denny vacates the 11,
they can take the 11 truck driver.
I mean, he's the best prospect that they've had
in years.
Since William or Byron.
They had Larson at one point,
Bell and Byron,
but they never really had Byron.
That was kind of like a loan.
I mean, he was a Toyota driver at KBM, Byron.
Yeah, but that was still kind of a loan.
I don't know.
He was a Chevrolet guy the entire time.
The KBM thing was like, that was the best team to go.
KBM was like the best team.
So you put him with the best team.
But I'm saying he was in their fold
and Hendrick very much was like, we're taking him.
Never mind.
He's ours.
I think he was taken beforehand.
Okay.
Well, whatever.
I don't know.
Okay.
Let's transition to the XFINI series
where Jesse Love was able to get his first championship.
Obviously won the race.
Very, very solid showing out of the team.
But Connor Zillich was denied the title.
And Connor, we've documented on this show
what an unbelievable year he had.
And you could see the disappointment
on that young driver's face.
It was painful for me to see.
And their friends, like the whole thing.
Did you shed a tear?
I did.
She almost did right there.
I literally did.
I thought you were going to cry again.
Because that's how much I care.
I just, I feel it with them.
I'm like, damn it.
It sucks.
Well, first off, congratulations to RCR
and Jesse Love.
They won the system that they're in.
And you know, I feel bad for Jesse.
Because of the fact that he's winning the championship
in the scenario that he's winning the championship.
And I think it's, I felt bad for him after the race.
Because that's immediately what the questions
that they started asking him.
It wasn't a celebration.
But they did a great job in this particular race
of putting themselves in a position to have the best car.
You heard Danny Stockman and his crew chief talk about
how long they've been working on this particular car.
He said they've been working on it for a month and a half
trying to get it ready.
Same type of pain that I had for Denny Hamlin.
I had times 10 for Connor Zillich.
I mean, he had one of the best Xfinity seasons
that you could possibly ever have.
Overcame an injury.
Like the things he did.
Two injuries.
He fell out of the car one time.
He broke the car bone one time.
He broke the bag one time.
I'm just saying, like, God, he went through it.
He did.
And what do we talk about?
Your win is your waiver.
And he just kept winning.
To make himself still have the most points
and still be the regular season champ
and still get all the way to the championship four race.
But yeah, it's, this is a by far the toughest scenario
of the system and the best car from the year.
And we talked about the nuclear meltdown.
I couldn't find a nuclear meltdown.
So I found a dumpster fire.
And I just, I knew that the fans were going to just absolutely go
crazy over, over this scenario with, with Zillich.
And I'm with them on this, you know, I think that the,
obviously it's, you know, this is,
this is one of those examples of when you just make the star
because he's the guy that wins the most.
And in this situation, he did not, did not.
I'm curious because I know you're close with him.
Did, did you speak to him after the race?
I have not spoke to, I, in these scenarios,
I never liked to speak to anybody on Monday.
Cup championship guys, I just know that they're slammed with,
with stuff and I don't want to be just another,
I don't want to need to be another blue dot of texts
that they need to check.
So thanks.
I think with, I think with Connor, I was,
he was pretty devastated after the race.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That, but that, that emotion and those scenarios and that
devastation, those are something that you better get
used to.
Is that what you would say to him?
Well, I mean, on the cup side, it's going to be,
it's going to be in an all-time high from a performance
standpoint, from just a, you know, from,
from responsibility and nerves and all those things and
commitment and circle of balance in that circle of life
and the money that you're making and all those things
that you think are high level of what she's experienced
so far.
That's the closest that he's been to experiencing the
pressure and the emotion that will come with what
comes on Sunday because it'll be times 10 in every
category and some, some category, some categories
times a hundred with the amount of pressure that
difference from Saturday to Sunday.
Your takeaways from the Xfinity Championship?
Connor Zillich, Marty Lindley, the whole 88 group
at JRM, absolutely phenomenal season.
They brought it every week.
They brought it with different drivers.
They did driver switches at Daytona.
They, they, they crushed this year.
But the champion is Jesse Love, Danny Stockman and
RCR.
And I think that they deserve to be celebrated as
champions and not questioned about any, how they
did it.
They went out and took it.
They, they weren't even the best car when they
unloaded.
They wanted the best car in qualifying and they
wanted the best car at the beginning of the race.
And not only did they beat the 88, they also beat
the 19 who won the owner's championship.
And the 88 also didn't beat the 19.
The 88 for whatever reason just wasn't as good this
week.
This is the first time that they weren't that good.
And that's, that sucks.
I hate that, I hate that for them, but I'm not
going to sit here and take that away from what
the two did, bringing the best car and they
made the best adjustments.
And usually I feel like RCR gets kicked in the
pants when it's a tight situation.
They've been, whether it's Austin winning,
Richman, whether it's Ty Dillon, you know, being
in the end season challenge and everyone's
being like, oh, he doesn't belong that way.
Like they're always getting dogged on.
And they went out and took something with
grit and performance.
Great performance at this race.
Yeah.
I think that that's the epitome of
sports and you could see it on Jesse's face as
much as it was painful on for Connor and on
Connor's face, it was, you could see the relief
on Jesse's face.
He said that too.
Connor is a world-class race car driver.
He was one before he got to NASCAR.
He's only going to be one more as he goes
through NASCAR.
But now Jesse put himself on the map as a
guy that may be also a rising star.
And I think that's something that should be
celebrated.
Very compelling moment seeing Jesse
celebrating with his dad too, with
everything his dad.
Oh yeah.
You could see the pressure on his dad sitting
there.
The whole family.
It was like.
Everybody was just on pins and needles.
Big shout out, big shout out to
Wieland because they've been in the
sport for so long.
They're a big Northeast brand.
They've been in the sport so long, supported
so many different drivers.
Yeah.
They've never really had this type of
team before and for them to be
champions as brand sponsors for all this
stuff.
And I was super pumped to see the two
car back.
Of course.
In Victory Lane.
And I think for me personally seeing
Richard and all that.
Danny Lawrence and all that group that
is there in Victory Lane.
Obviously I was fortunate to win a
championship in that number two AC
Delco car.
And so I think that it's just when
you're at the end of the line on
something like we are with our
point system.
And I think that we talked about the
tires and we talked about the Conor
Zillich and just the way that the
Xfinity championship was won.
It's just time.
It is definitely time.
Conor quoted you by the way.
Bright lights.
Bright lights, man.
Did you see him?
You know what I think is funny about
that because it's been quoted a lot.
Everyone's like, well I guess this
person didn't show up when the
lights were bright.
It's not that they didn't show up.
It's that somebody showed up more.
That's what the point is.
I'm not saying that someone didn't
show up.
They did.
But this person showed up more on
the bigger stage.
And that happens.
Happens all the time.
That's life, man.
It's racing.
That's racing.
That is racing.
That is racing.
It's not sports.
It's racing.
It's life.
But we are a sport.
So one other note to address.
NASCAR allowing cup drivers to
run more in the lower series.
They made this announcement which
is exciting.
Cup drivers with three seasons of
full-time experience can do ten
in the truck series.
I like this.
Well, we're just unwinding all these
things to make it fair for everybody
again.
You don't like this.
No.
They should have never put a limit on
it in the first place because of
the fact that it brings sponsors in.
It brings fans in.
It brings everybody in.
It's kind of in line with this
whole thing that we're unwinding.
Right?
Like we're unwinding trying to make
it fair for everybody.
It's not fair for everybody.
There are people that are better
than we are.
I agree.
Every team the same.
And in this particular situation,
now I agree that they shouldn't be
in there while you're racing for a
championship.
Right.
So if we do have a playoff,
those guys don't need to be in
there.
But the fact that we ever took
cup drivers out of the Xfinity
series and truck series and only
let them run a few races is one
of the dumbest ideas that we
have ever come up with.
I think that's a lot.
I'm like part of the reason why I
think when guys go move up and
they're not as good and then they
run out of money because the
money is short is because they're
not racing against enough
competition.
They're not prepared.
They're not prepared.
And also the other thing when
we talk about star power, when
you're a 15th, 10th to
20th place driver in the cup
series, even 25th, you can go
down one rank, one level and
go compete in win races, right?
And you have a fan base.
When people see you win, then
you're dubbed as winning.
It might not win on Sunday, but
it helps your star power.
It helps all the things of
sponsorship because you're
still a winner and you're
still winning.
It just means that when you go
up a level, you need to get
better and elevate.
But it all matters.
Look, when I was at RCR and
we were going through our
years where we were
struggling, one of the biggest
things that I did was go down
to the Bush series and
race and win.
And that's how you kept
yourself relevant.
Exactly.
And that shows that your
cars aren't where they need to
be on Sunday because you're
beating the same guys.
You're beating Mark Martin.
You're beating Jeff Burton.
You're beating whoever else is
in that race.
And as a young driver, you
have to have something to
show where you are, what
that measuring stick is.
And if Kyle Larson shows up
five times a year and
thumps your ass, you're
probably not ready.
How many of you get some
more good in the lab?
And for example, when you go
to an Xfinity race and a
cup driver is in it, if
there's no cup driver in that
race, the line's not moving
to where the cup driver thinks
it needs to be.
So those young guys never
explore the outside lane.
They never explore the apron.
They don't do things to the
extreme that the cup
experience would bring
towards it.
So it's like I say, we're
unwinding so many things
right now.
We're undoing the wrongs.
We're undoing so many of the
decisions that were made by
fan councils and trying to
make it fair for everybody.
Let's just get back to the
basics.
And undoing another piece of
that, I'm super happy.
Good job.
Every truck driver I would
talk to love when Kyle
Bush would come down.
Because it's somebody of a
high level that they get to
learn from.
So they always seem to
feel like it was hugely
beneficial when he was
there.
But even the trucks though,
the trucks made him so slow
that a lot of the places that
they go there are just wide
open.
Just wide open.
And I think that some of
that stuff that we've backed
out of trying to make it so
that it was right for more
people was wrong.
And making them fast and
hard to drive and having the
best competition there with
the drivers and having a
championship that's decided
in a way bigger pile of
races than what we have
with what we have now.
All these things were
undone for the wrong reason.
And I'm so happy that we're
starting to undo them one at
a time.
I can't wait for this one.
I'm being told to move on.
But before we do, I know you
want to hit your grand
national.
Correct.
Well, when I look at, let
me see here.
Whose idea was this?
It was mine.
Oh, it was yours?
Yeah.
But, you know, I think we
had this conversation several
years ago about the cup
series.
You know, we had the
Monster Energy Cup.
Then we had the Sprint Cup.
And we had the Winston Cup.
And it's like, all right, who
are we?
Can we just make this the
Bill France Cup so that the
trophy doesn't ever change?
Those conversations happened
a long time ago.
And I feel like we're at
that point with what's it
called?
Oh, Riley.
The O'Reilly Auto Parts
series.
I feel like the O'Reilly
Auto Parts series or the
Xfinity series as it is now,
it needs a consistent
identity.
And I think that calling it
the Grand National series so
that everybody knows what the
hell it is, instead of just,
I mean, it could still have the
sponsor name and everything on
it, but it needs to be
identified as something that
is consistent.
And I think that the Grand
National series, and maybe
it's the same hard cup that
they raised for.
I don't know.
I love that idea.
The Grand National series
sounds very prestigious.
Well, that way, when you
change the sponsor, you
don't have to change the
sponsor.
It just stays locked in.
NOAPS.
It's going to take us a minute
to get used to that one.
Yeah.
I still call it the Bush
series on it.
But my point is it would just
be the Grand National series.
It used to always be the
Bush Grand National series.
The branding that you can do,
the lineage that you can tie
together, I think that would
be ideal for everybody
involved.
Great marketing.
Yes.
Agreed.
Maybe we'll keep pushing for
that change to happen.
We'll only have one more
chance.
We're not talking about any of
this controversial crap.
We're not?
We're just going to talk
about, haven't you had enough
controversy this week with
just the points championship
and everything that's
happened?
We just want to have fun
next week.
Mamba, we want to have fun.
We just want to have fun
next year.
Speaking of having fun.
This week's show, we just
got all this drama that we
got to talk about.
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Your turn, Sips.
Hey!
Little sloppy boy.
Oh, wait.
Oh, wait, gotta take a drink.
Listen, it's been a fantastic year
of Mamba's social sips.
This guy.
The fans, you guys have really shown a lot of love
and I appreciate that.
You're what makes this segment so great.
That and telling me to tell Kevin and Caitlin
that it's your favorite segment everywhere.
It's not like a politician.
You gotta know how to speak well.
You gotta vote.
You gotta know how to speak well.
So, welcome to our championship edition
of Mamba's Social Sips.
There you go.
And we should start at the championship race.
So as you guys know,
Sidney Sweeney is in the media a lot.
And earlier this year,
a young William Byron may or may not have-
We still don't know.
Sent a-
If that was real or not.
A hello, comment, or DM, unsure.
But Austin Dillon went and chased down
William before he left the driver's meeting
so he could have a little hello with Sidney Sweeney.
And his hat is red.
But I know my boy.
His face is redder.
His hat is redder.
His hat is redder.
His hat is redder.
That is fantastic.
And Austin Dillon, you are a homie for that.
That is a wingman like none other.
Well, we've been championing for our own version
of Taylor and Travis.
And this could be the answer, right?
Could be.
Could be.
Sidney and William.
You know who I met this weekend?
Did you get to meet Sidney?
I didn't.
I met-
And no, no, not boo,
because I met who I was-
You guys had to explain to me who she was.
I did have to give him a-
Sophie Cunningham.
Oh, yes.
That plays for the Indiana Fever
is the enforcer on that team, the WNBA,
for Ravenclaw.
She is so cool and was so nice.
And I don't usually fair and girl out,
but I did have to grab a picture.
And-
Good for you.
So hopefully she comes to the Indie Race next year.
Okay.
That's tip number one.
And I agree.
We need, we do need-
So let me ask you this.
So if this, what's her name again?
Sidney Sweeney.
Sidney Sweeney.
Oh, Sidney Sweeney.
If she was sitting up there cheering on her man,
William Byron every week in the suite
or on the pit box,
would they show her every week
like they do Taylor Swift?
Probably.
Well, I think yes.
Yes, yes they would.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's really the only reason
that Piper watches football.
I think it's unfortunate because I get tired of seeing
Taylor Swift anytime.
So I tried not to watch the-
It's like, it's like 10 seconds.
No, if they score a lot of touchdowns,
it's more than 10 seconds.
It's like 25 seconds.
What's the point though?
But the game's like three hours.
Show me the drunk fan that's really happy.
All right, all right.
Moving along, this three phase of life,
Kevin always talks about,
you gotta have your circle of life.
This guy has his circle of life locked in.
Okay, this is his game room.
This is wild.
So there's the, I think that's like a drifting type.
A drifting type setup.
This is a more standard one,
more something like I might have at my house.
So he has two.
And I didn't know what this box was.
I'm like, there's absolutely no way.
It opens this.
Kevin, what in the hell?
Oh my gosh.
That is awesome though.
I guess that brings locked into a new level.
It looks fun.
Look at all the buttons on that thing.
You know what he's not worried about?
He's not worried about the electric bill, Tyler.
I wonder how much all that's worth.
A lot.
It's gotta be a pretty penny.
What's the lot?
I guess the point of the whole cover
is to feel like you're actually inside the car.
Yeah, you're in it.
Okay.
I'm sure it moved.
I don't know, it's hard to tell,
but I would imagine it probably moved.
Hey, I forgot to tell you guys.
So when we went to California last week,
have you been seeing all this comet stuff
with the comet that's coming?
And so this guy.
No, I watch sports.
Huh?
I don't know about comments.
Well, I watch racing, but anyway.
So anyway, this guy was at the racetrack
and his name is Avi Loeb, okay?
Look it up when you get done.
So Avi was at the late model race,
the cars tour race at Mason Rinn.
And this guy driving this late model
claims he was going to get abducted by aliens
during the race.
So he showed up during this race.
I don't know.
You'll have to go look it all up when you get done.
But yeah, that's the kind of weird shit that happens.
That is so random.
You thought your sips were good.
So random.
I mean, you added it in the sips.
So that's a bonus.
They actually talked about it on Joe Rogan's show this week.
Really?
About driving the car and going to the racetrack
and everything.
This guy genuinely believed he was going to get abducted.
You got to look it up.
Okay, we will make a note of that.
I think it's, his name is Avi Loeb.
And but I think the project is the 31 Atlas
or I think that's what it is.
OK.
Yeah.
If I look it up, do I have to wear a tinfoil hat too or no?
Just look it up.
OK.
Moving along.
Thanks, Kevin.
Yeah.
Brennan Pool.
Brennan Pool.
Really, really quick.
Brennan Pool got into the money for Alpha Prime
at the last corner he passed the 11 team.
So he got top 20.
So they got to pay out, which is really good for them.
Really big for Alpha Prime in that group.
So I just want to give a short shout out to them.
We are in a mailbag situation, ladies and gentlemen.
From Lee McMillian.
I think this is a real name.
That's a great name.
That is a good name.
How did you mentally prepare for high pressure moments
like a championship race or a final restart?
And then there's a second question to this
that you want me to ask you now
or do you want me to ask you after?
Let's ask the first one.
OK.
So how did you mentally prepare for high pressure moments
like a championship?
Well, I think that a lot of those moments are just,
I think they're kind of trial and error as you screw up
along the way and the moments that you live.
But I think after you've been through so many of them
and I always tell people that my cup career started backwards.
My biggest press conference was my first one.
The most pressure that I was ever going to have
and everything else was kind of downhill
from all the Earnhardt stuff as you went through that.
So you almost become numb to it.
You can answer all the questions.
You can not get annoyed.
You can schedule all the appearances and do all those things.
So when you get into those moments
and you're locked in like you are with these guys
that are driving the cars currently,
you can take a deep breath and put yourself right
in the middle of what you want to do.
And you just become numb to it all
and are able to just, especially in the car,
out of the car can be a little bit different,
depending on the scenarios,
but the in the car piece is just second nature.
So in the follow-up question to that
was you've raced through multiple areas of NASCAR.
How do you think the sport has evolved for the better?
And what do you miss from the old days?
I think, Kailin, I'd like to get your opinion on that.
From the old days, I would just say,
and not saying we don't have any,
but I miss the really big personalities.
You know, the Dale Earnhardts, the Kevin's,
the Tony Stewart's.
I don't know, that to me,
I feel like we're lacking a bit of that right now.
There are some with star power
who bring a lot to the table.
We had a lot more in the old days, to me.
Kevin?
I think for me, the biggest thing that has changed
is how much safer the sport is.
Yeah, evolve for it.
I've hit the evolution of safety
has been something that NASCAR has not stopped on
since Dale died in 2001,
whether it's safer barriers, seats, cars.
I mean, you can go down the list
and they have done everything that they can possibly do
to keep the drivers and the people safe in the sport.
The things I miss the most are testing.
I love the...
Yeah, I was not expecting you to say that.
You said that, he was going to catch us.
I love just the trying to make something better
than the guy next to you
and that creativity that came with that.
We would go to Milwaukee, we would go to VIR,
we would go to Kentucky,
spend hours and hours and hours
just trying to come up with the next best suspension package,
the next best spring.
And so I miss those days of watching Todd Barry
or cut the front clip off at the racetrack
and weld it back on
because you could make a difference.
And I think that one of the other things I miss,
I love seeing the flash bulbs
coming to the green flag at night.
That's cool.
There is nothing cooler than the end of a race
with like I go back and watch the Daytona 500 win
that I had and just the flash bulbs that are going off
or when you're coming to the green at the all-star race
at the old Charlotte all-star races,
just all the flash bulbs that would go off.
I miss one thing that I didn't realize
because people told me when it happened
but I didn't think it was going to matter that much
but when the teams had one brand,
I didn't realize how important that was.
Yeah.
I watch racing because I love racing, right?
It doesn't, I just, I'm gonna watch it.
But when the teams had one sponsor
that was on the car most of the time,
it was identifiable by fans and casual fans.
You might not know who Kevin Harvick was
but you knew he drove the good, that's a good wrench guy.
And with the business being in a different place
and the way that sponsors come,
I miss that and I also miss the commercials
which I think they kind of go hand in hand.
They do.
You know what I mean?
And I think that's one place when people talk about,
oh, NASCAR did this or NASCAR did that.
A lot of the companies have done this too.
And a lot of companies, and I see the,
I think it's consumer cellular,
they do a great job of activating their brand.
And even if you have multiple brands,
you're sure it's easier to identify if they only had one.
But I actually had that written down, activation.
Activation.
And you know, actually have a,
we did so many commercials back in the day.
I actually have a screen actor guilds card.
Oh, do you really?
Is it a SAG card?
I did a SAG card, yeah.
You should have one anyway, working at Fox.
Oh, I know, but I had one before I got here.
So it was, but my point is we shot so many commercials
even when we had the associate sponsors
used to do all the commercials
because they weren't on the car.
A good wrench was the primary on the car.
So you had, we owned the grocery store.
You had all the activation in the grocery store.
You had Hershey on the B-posts.
They would do commercials every year
with whatever brand we had on the car.
So that activation from the brands
with the commercials and things that go with it,
Ross has been in the Bushlight commercial this year.
And that's a big step, not only for the sport,
but for his brand in general.
Because Ross is not as recognizable to people
as he should be.
And Bushlight has the power to go out
and brand something like that.
And just him popping out of that tent
and seeing him without his helmet on,
it's massive for his personal brand though.
Those consumer cellular ads are funny.
They kind of mimic the old school, shut up Chris.
Yeah, yeah.
They're kind of like the old mobile one commercials
with all those silly skits that we used to do.
One thing that I do love and that I've always loved
that always says same as our fans are great.
And there's this little girl named Heidi
that goes to Phoenix every year and makes bracelets.
And she made me a personal one with my name on it,
but she did make you guys a couple
that have happy hour on it.
That's so cool.
So I appreciate you girls.
Thank you.
Very nice.
And that is the championship edition of Mamba's social service.
So she's one of those fans that actually likes you this week.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Honestly, at the racetrack they all like me.
Yeah, it's just the sleepers.
It's the twitters.
It's the ones that are questionable on online.
No one cares about them.
All right, guys, time now for our last call.
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So, Kevin, let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend,
courtesy of DraftKings.
Well, the best bet of the weekend was Kyle Arsid at plus 330.
I'd say that that probably wasn't as high
as I thought it would be.
I would have thought that he was a little bit more
of an underdog than that.
I mean, we talked about on the show that we all,
he was the one that we didn't talk about.
Yeah.
Well, take the checkered flag with DraftKings Sportsbook,
download the DraftKings Sportsbook app
and use code Harvick.
That's code Harvick for new customers
to get $300 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks
and win your first bet.
Only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.
I should be wearing that.
You should be.
I don't want to mess your hair up.
Why should you wear it?
Yeah, why should you wear it?
We'll get to that.
Okay.
Shout out to Charlotte FC, by the way.
They are in, they have their game three.
That's good.
Yeah, they're trying to move.
What are they playing for?
I don't care.
I hope they beat them.
Anyway, moving on.
Moving on to grading the burnouts.
This was a really good one.
I like this one.
Worthy of the championship.
Yeah, Kyle Larson right here.
He's definitely put himself in the mix
to have the best burnout of the year
as we go into our show next week.
Yes.
But the thing I love about this
is he's burning this thing down
and the next thing you know,
he pops out of the window.
He's going to pop out of the window.
They're going to hand him the championship flag.
He's going to wave it while he's still on the gas
with his guys right there.
So that is awesome.
This to me is what we're talking about.
This is what we've been looking for
to match that they have a chance
to beat that chase Elliott Burnout
from Bowman Gray and SPG stuff.
Drifting with high fiving.
We've got a few pretty solid burnouts
that are going to go head to head
in our vote at the end of the year.
So congrats again to Kyle Larson.
And he definitely,
he definitely did a good one to end the season.
He burned down that Goodyear rubber for sure.
Cup title burnout right there.
Very nice. Okay.
So point standings, guys.
What a crock of shit.
I find this fucking hilarious.
You wound up winning the-
Because I have been last for months.
The whole year.
You were last the whole year.
And not the whole year.
Almost the whole year.
Almost.
Were you in last for a little bit?
You just wanted to-
But look at that.
But now I end up-
P1 because I chose Kyle Larson
at the very beginning of the year
to win the championship and I was correct.
So I got 80 points in the end.
I feel like Connor Zillich right now.
Just feel like I got robbed.
No, you're not Connor Zillich
because he made it to the finals
and you did not
because your driver did not make it
to the final four.
So you're nothing like that.
Kevin's at 61 mama 53.
27% of fans did pick Larson.
So a lot of people thought-
Really?
That, well, a decent amount
thought he could get it done.
That's a lot, that's a lot.
Yeah, so-
That's over a quarter.
Yeah.
And if you went to math at a four.
Yeah, that's, you know.
But I'm not one to brag with.
That's kind of cool.
But the best thing is he finished last
and I didn't.
There you go.
See, you still got your wish.
So you are the loser of the show.
You are so officially the loser.
You were so lucky in the last two weeks
to not have me pass you.
Like what really got you was Martinsville.
The fact that you picked Byron just because
that's what saved me.
Hey, you say it all the time.
Just play in the system, bud.
No, you say it all the time.
Just play in the system.
No, those are the rules.
You can pick whoever you want.
You pick whoever you want.
The difference between-
What do I get for winning?
I out-strategized you.
Yeah, you did.
You know what you did?
You pulled the cliff Daniels on me.
That's right.
You know what?
And I got to own that.
I think I pulled the cliff Daniels on you guys,
actually.
If you want to be, you want to get into it.
That's a whole nother thing.
We have our own argument
and she's actually the winner sitting over here.
Byron, you're like Danny and she's over here
like we won, so I don't care.
Okay, so speaking of Larson though,
you interviewed him and that interview is available now.
Yes, the interview is up.
We had our champ on the air
and congratulations to those guys.
Again, Henrik Motorsports, Kyle Larson, crazy year.
You know, I guess this is the second year
that we've done this show.
I had no idea that I was actually going to enjoy it,
but it's been a lot of fun.
Being on the other side of the fence here,
critiquing everything.
We love to critique.
There's a lot to change as we go forward.
As we go forward to 2026, don't forget
the Daytona 500.
It's not that far away.
It is Sunday, February 15th on Fox.
Make sure you visit DaytonaInternationalSpeedway.com
to secure your tickets for the Great American Race.
We can't wait.
We're in the booth next.
You're in the booth.
Back to the words.
Back to finding the words for Kevin.
Oh, yeah.
Word of the week.
We're still gonna do it.
I feel like I'm cooked.
You're not cooked.
You'll be fine.
Yeah, so don't miss that.
Daytona 500, get your tickets.
You don't wanna miss it.
And we actually aren't done, guys,
because we're gonna do an awards show this year,
like we did last year.
Nobody told me about this.
No, no one told you that we're wearing suits
and dresses and gowns.
Yeah, I'll bring mine.
So we have some very cool categories.
Once again this year, best word of the week,
viral moment, burnout, craziest finish,
biggest story of the year, and driver of the year.
I'm excited about that last one.
I'll be interesting to see.
I wish that we had more superlative awards.
Whoa, is that like that?
Superlative.
That's, I used that right, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, I wish we had more of those at the awards,
like best crew chief.
Like the real awards you're saying?
Yeah, like, yeah.
I wish that was something that we did in the sport
because I think it's important.
I suggested Feud of the Year to Tyler, our producer.
I said Carson Hosevara versus The Field.
Yeah, yeah.
He would have just won.
He would win.
But you guys, the fans can get in on this.
The voting opens tomorrow, of course,
Wednesday on the NASCAR & FOX YouTube channel,
and on social media, all our platforms,
Instagram, X, Facebook, everywhere.
You can start voting and cast your vote alongside us.
So it'll be cool.
Yep.
All right.
That does it for the regular season.
I mean, well, the whole season.
Just the awards now.
Just the awards left to go.
I'll be drinking some Bush Latte's.
There you go.
You all have some champagne for the awards show.
Blah, blah.
Pinky up.
All right, guys.
We'll see you next week.
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