New Hampshire Recap: Ryan Blaney Shines, JGR Teammates Clash & 23XI Under Pressure, Plus Kansas Preview

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Denny Hamlin is the Dallas Cowboys of NASCAR.

There's no hiding that that wasn't intentional.

Is that the moment that derails Denny Hamlin's 2025 championship?

There's just a lot of things that scream, I'm pissed.

I don't like where we are.

I don't like anything that's happening.

We all want to see Kyle Busch win.

I've hated Kyle Busch with a passion.

I can't imagine Kyle Busch going out like this.

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on Fox.

I'm Kevin Harvick.

She's Kate Vincie and that guy.

Yeah.

That guy.

I'm glad you didn't say favorite Cheetah.

I thought for sure you were about to do it.

Katelyn's part of it.

I feel like there's a group called the Cheetah Girls or something like that.

That was like a Nickelodeon thing.

Oh yeah.

Maybe back in the day.

I don't know something like that.

Yeah.

It looks great though.

Kevin, this is a relaxed, cool Kev.

Oh yeah.

This is cool.

This is cool Kev.

Look, Kevin never wears hats.

He never wears hoodies in these shoes that he has on.

Very skater-esque.

You like them?

Yeah.

I do like the colors.

Yeah.

So all of green.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Who put this together for you today, Kevin?

I did.

Oh.

Yeah.

And he's got the color.

I got dressed today and I was like, you know what?

I'm going to dump this all the way down to mama today.

And I'm going to find my oldest hoodie, my stinkiest hat in my most comfortable

shoes.

So here I am.

And he looked great.

This was a conscious effort then.

Yeah.

He's trying to be like me.

And you came close.

But if you notice, I got my Kevin Harvick white J's on.

So yeah.

There you go.

Hey, how was the weekend back in your homeland?

Oh my God.

I love, there's nothing, I love more than going back home and seeing all the things

that I used to see.

It really reminds you of why you loved this thing being at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

And then the fans.

Fans are awesome.

They're awesome.

And they were just so excited.

We had this happy hour show that we did after Miho's day.

It was called a happy hour.

Yeah.

It was cool.

Honestly.

Honestly?

I was thinking the same thing.

Maybe next year take the show on the road a little bit because it was packed

out.

They had so much fun.

Ricky Craven was up there.

Kurt Busch.

They talked about that whole thing.

Ricky Craven's like the goat for New England.

And it was just really cool.

And there was a lot of closes up there.

A lot.

I've told you guys that's a heck of a region up there for my fan base.

It was always one of the better fan bases that we had.

And they're very passionate.

And I think some of that passion comes from the fact that they know in about two months

they won't be able to come out of their house.

Seriously though.

It could be, it could have been snow.

I mean it was beautiful.

It was like 69.

Perfect.

I think there was like 21,000 people in the stands for the truck race.

Then 1,000 stayed for cup practice and qualifying.

There was like over 3,000 campers.

Like they deserve.

I love the fact that it's a one race.

Yes.

I think that this is another great example of making one great race instead of having

two mediocre races.

Like when you look at Kansas it'll be sub par in the grandstands this weekend.

The first one sub par.

And I think a one race town is loud in Kansas.

Those types of places.

Pocono.

I mean, look what I did for Pocono, right?

But I love the race fans up in the Northeast.

They're just so passionate.

Yes they are.

They showed up.

Showed up big time.

I did notice that for the truck race.

I was like, we have a great crowd here today.

I love that.

I just kept looking up and it was like.

Is there any fall there?

The leaves have all changed.

Leaves are changing.

Well technically it's not already fall.

But it looks like it.

It looks like it.

Yeah.

When does fall start then?

Technically.

Yeah.

Well I had to have my daughter tell me this the other day.

Okay.

Sure.

Yeah.

It's in a couple weeks.

Okay.

So you don't know exactly?

I don't remember the exact date.

But it's not yet.

Because I said, you know it looks like fall outside Piper.

She's like, no.

It's not fall yet.

Tyler just told me the research department says it actually starts today.

Oh.

So you corrected me.

Yeah.

And you're wrong.

So you'll be wrong tomorrow.

Oh my God.

I can't.

This is already going well.

Welcome in to episode 66 here on Harvicks Happy Hour.

We have a lot to discuss leaving Loudon.

Some storylines we weren't necessarily anticipating.

And you have your Sips.

We got Sips.

We got a little cross, yellow cross sports.

Cross sports.

Yeah.

I like that.

Cross sport.

Cross country.

No.

Crossing sports.

Oh.

Cross over.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

The old crossover.

I love how Gay Park categorized them as yellow cars.

And I think it's very specific to the 12 and the 22.

Yeah.

Look, here's the deal.

You haven't seen the Pinsky cars.

Let's think back to last year.

Pinsky cars awful, right?

To start the season.

Joey Logano goes to North Wilkesboro does the test.

Veteran pro leader goes to the test.

They figure something out.

Off they go.

Joey Logano goes to Loudon.

All you heard when he comes back from Loudon,

how fast that the 22 car was.

They show back up.

All the Pinsky cars are fast on the pole on the front road.

Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano leading laps.

And that's why you got to take your guy to the tests because

you don't get many of them.

And as much as you want to send all the other guys to the

tests, there are not, not everybody is capable of taking

your car and making it better.

A guy like Joey Logano is there's not very many of them that

can go do stuff like that to do the development and dig you

out of a hole, but he's dug them out of a hole and they're

back and they're going into they got to victory lane.

Logano had a great weekend and got a lot of points.

Blaney's in there.

And so when you look at, when you look at the way that

that went for them, that was what they needed.

And I think that it's a little later than it was over

the last couple of years, but they're, they're back on the

back on the tracks.

It just seems like you can never count them out when it comes to

this time of the year.

And we've seen it multiple years in a row now.

I saw you tweeted, you regret it, not picking Ryan Blaney.

Yeah.

Which is a rare occasion.

Well, well, yeah, it's because, you know, you guys

understand anyone who watches the show understands my picks

usually turn into a little bit of a soup sandwich.

You know what I mean?

So, but he's been fast here.

They've had good car.

He's haven't had a great finishes, but they've been fast over

the last couple of years.

And this year, the 12, I think again was toting the flag

for the team, for the group all year, like in the mix

about seven.

I think you average somewhere between like seventh and ninth

every week.

And then all of a sudden they turn the, they got to the

second half of the year and it's like, okay, they started

chipping away and chipping away.

But it was lights out this weekend from the time that

those cars rolled off a pit road for the 12.

I mean, when you look at practice and the speed that

that 12 car had, and you listen to the commentators talk

and you look at the lap times and everything, that thing

was a bullet.

And then you look at Lugano.

I mean, he outqualified him by a 10th and a half for

the polls.

So I just, I can't emphasize enough how important

those tests are to take the right guy.

I think in, you look at Hendrick switching gears

a little bit, Hendrick was a part of a test at

Stateway and they felt like talking to a lot of their

crew this week.

They felt like they found some stuff for the flat tracks.

Absolutely.

It made it better.

So you look at William Byron, he ran pretty well.

Kyle Larson had some, had some spurts of old Kyle Larson.

So like having to Kevin's point, you got to take

whoever maybe can take in information the best

and give you back what you need.

That's your driving to take to help your whole.

Yeah.

And I think when you look at it from a manufacturer

standpoint, when you take a, when you, when, when

a Ford sends a subpar team and I would say anybody

but Pinsky, you know, I, if it were me having to

pick who got to go to all the tests and even

when I was driving still and they would say, well,

it's not our turn to go test.

You don't get very many of those tests.

You got to take your guy and sometimes your guy

doesn't want to go.

Sometimes it's, it's, you know, it's not fair

to the other teams, but if you really want to keep

getting ahead, you got to have the guy at those tests

to be able to do it.

What's fair doesn't matter.

You want to be faster.

You want to be, you want it to be fair.

Josh Berry went fourth out in qualifying

and sat on the pole until one of his

Pinsky until a Pinsky teammate came up.

Yeah.

I have him written down next because Ryan said

it was the hardest 20 laps he's driven

to keep Josh Berry behind him.

This was great to see because we've obviously

documented how hard the playoffs were for him.

What did you see out of Josh?

Well, I think when you look back at

Josh Berry's, you know, playoff performance

and really the second half of the year,

it hasn't been, hasn't been great.

They've had some, some crazy things happen,

but I still think that when you look

at this type of performance, it shows the

capability of the race team, you know,

Josh Berry himself, his crew chief

and that whole 21 car to be able to

put the speed together when they can put

all the pieces in the right place.

And they were right on par with the rest

of the Pinsky organization this weekend

as far as speed.

And you got to remember, he got spun out

in the second stage to battle back.

And on older tires there at the end

still had a great shot to race with

Ryan Blaney and be able to compete for the win.

So exactly what the 21 team needed to

be able to put themselves in a position.

And let's, let's not forget how,

how all this works, right?

You got the top four that go to the championship

race. That's one, two, three, four and a point.

So fifth through 16th, they're still racing for

their spot once they get shuffled back into

the playoffs. So still a lot to race for

for these guys that aren't in the playoffs

and out already because at some point

the next four guys are going to get eliminated

and they're going to be, what they've done

will be tallied up to see how you see

the points from six to 16.

I'm glad you brought that up because a lot

we, we don't talk about that, right?

We don't talk about whoever is running for the

championship. You want to hear how this rule

was made? Was this the Kevin Harvard?

Was this the beginning of the DUNN committee?

This was, this was one of the first

DUNN committee decisions. Yeah.

I walked in when we changed the,

when we changed to this format,

Brian France was sitting in the meeting

and he was explaining,

super mad by the way. I couldn't have been

more mad. Oh, you were. Okay.

Oh, to say that we were going to a

one race playoff format and they were

in the playoffs in general.

At that point I was, I was livid

and we got done with the meeting.

I was already mad before I got there,

but we got done with the meeting and they

said, well, anybody got any suggestions?

I said, yeah, when you get knocked out

of the playoffs, everybody who's not in

that championship needs to be seated

by how their whole playoffs went.

So the, the points are actually

matter. They matter a lot

in this format. They just isn't

advertised, but, and, and I got

that Brian France ever said, I had a good idea.

But he's like, you know, that's a great

idea. We're going to, we're going to implement

that. So that's, that's how the, the point

seating got implemented. There you go. All the

drivers can thank Kevin Harvick for sticking

up for them. Half of them probably don't even know that that's how it worked.

They, I'm honestly, probably

not the fan. We don't talk

about it. So how would anyone know that?

But we, we talk about points so much

and it's such a hot topic right now.

And I don't understand why we don't advertise

the fact that that's the points actually

matter for your points position at the end

of the year. Yeah. I thought you

brought it up then. It seems very old-school

traditional, mixed with new, I don't know. Somewhat

yes. So you, you

referenced Hendrick Bonersports earlier. We talked on

the last show about how we felt like this round

prior didn't go well for them.

Do you think they've turned to corner? Well, I think

St. Louis and, and you talk about

the tests and some of the things that they,

that they did with their short track program

found them some speed. It didn't find

as much speed as, as the, as the

Pinsky Cards found. They started ahead.

But, you know, the 24

has been consistently better.

The five has been better. He

had some glimpses this weekend of,

of, of, of speed.

You know, I just,

I still don't see

the same speed and,

and dominant car out of that five

car that we saw at the beginning of the year that we've seen

last year. I think Kansas should tell

a good story if it, if it is

there, they talk about the short track.

So we haven't heard much about the,

the mile and a half. So now we've got Kansas in the mix here

to, to be able to

see where that five car is.

I'm more impressed with the 24 car

to be honest, you know,

as far as their consistency of speed. And I

think they've been better than the five.

So still don't

see it out of the five, but the 24

tends to, I tend to

lean towards thinking that they have a little

bit of life with, with how close they

are now. Yeah, I, I interviewed

him during practice and qualifying.

I was surprised that you could interview him though. I mean

that collar was tight.

It looked good. I literally said that to him

because we were at BSI making the exchange

on packs. I go, you got that top button

up there. Make it look

nice and pristine for Kevin because I knew he was

watching. Wayum is very

confidence. Yeah. Is that all?

It's like at an all time high,

but he is so calm.

Yeah. Like the group seems

like they're laser focused

even in his post-race interview.

He's like, he's not too high. He's not too

low. He's like very matter

of fact, like this is where we're at. This is where we're doing.

We gain some. That works. We got to

keep gaining. Yeah. And

you don't want to go into, you

don't want to go into the roval in two weeks

having to get it done

at that point. That's not what you want.

Yeah. That is looming. Yeah. And I

just, you know, I think that

you know, even, you know, we'll get into

the chaos in a little

bit, but, you know, I think that when you

look at the roval, there's just so many unknowns

and, you know, you've got,

I mean, Hamlin is, has been

awful on the, on the road courses and

you look at the Fords haven't been great

on the, on the road courses.

Now the roval is not,

it's not the same. It's different this year.

It's very different. But I mean, just the

course in general is different than

a traditional road course, but

you know, I just, I

look at some of those guys that

need to have a buffer if they haven't won

and I think that, you know,

there are a few of them that, that need

to be in that position before they get there.

So we've been talking about

the teams that had speed. Let's talk about some

who did not. And I want to start

with Tyler Redick and let's hear from him

first before we talk about him.

He did a post race interview with

a bunch of media members. Take a listen.

Yeah, I didn't, I didn't expect that.

That's for sure. The way the race

started, I thought we were going to

be able to run the top 10 all day, but

yeah, between the break issues

we had and

yeah, I mean, it just, it just got away quick

bouncing away and then, you know,

like saying, I know we were trying to battle for 20 years.

So hopefully like whatever

you guys fought today, that doesn't carry

you over to a mile and a half on a road

course, does it? We've been

hopefully not. I mean,

I don't know.

It seems like we've

struggling all year. I don't know.

Weaver for that sound bite, by the way.

So when you read between the lines, what are you hearing

there from Tyler? Big trouble.

That's what I read between those lines.

I think that we've talked about

the 45 all year and how they

haven't had that speed. You can

just tell by his demeanor and the way

that he's answering those questions,

but the way he's swaying back and forth,

you know, I mean, there's just a lot of things

that scream, I'm pissed.

I don't like where we are. I don't like

anything that's happening.

You know, I think you can, you can point to

the lack of speed. You can point to

a lot of rumors, you know,

from around the race team as to

what might happen as far as,

you know, if things go down

the path with the lawsuit. So I think

there's just a, there's a number of

things to me that that

interview and the things that he says

speed is one of them. It's everything.

And I don't think that you can get away

from that and seeing how those cars

were awful this weekend. You know, the 23

and the 45 were awful compared

to what we expect

out of them. And the 45 hasn't had any

speed all year. And that

is an unhappy driver. Very, very

unhappy. I interviewed him last week

actually and I referenced this, you know,

working through the ebbs and flows

of racing and we saw last year three

wins regular season champion. I said, you know

what's going on? And he said, last

year was one of those years where it felt like everything went

right. This year it feels like anything that

can go wrong is literally going wrong.

And he was even a little defeated and

that was in Bristol. So what

have you gleaned from your conversations with him?

Tyler, I mean, he's

honestly both of their drivers at 2311,

Tyler and Bubba. They kind of

ride that emotional roller coaster

a little bit. Bubba's done a really good job

at kind of staying even more

especially since the birth of his son

Bex. But Tyler looks

he looks frustrated

and unknowing

about what to do because confused.

Yeah, like there was a time

not too long ago where it's like, oh

Kansas that's a 2311 track.

Yeah, because both of them have won there.

They won like three in a row, I think between the two of them

or something like that.

And Tyler

looks like they ask him about Kansas

run in the top and he's like

I don't know. Like this supposed to be

the fact that you feel like you got it. Well they don't win there.

No, I think if

whichever one

if one of them wins, the other one's out.

I just don't see him win in the

I don't see anything that says

that the 45 is going to

be dominant at either of those

places. But it wouldn't surprise me

if they showed up and he did

because of his

past history.

I think with his recent history

I don't think that they win Kansas.

I don't think that they go there and

win the race. I think that

the 23 has a better shot to do that.

But if one of them doesn't win, they're not

if they don't win, they're not going forward.

I think that they put themselves in a pretty big hole.

This was a pretty rough weekend

and you got it. If you're going to have a bad weekend

it needs to be like a contained

bad weekend.

And it was kind of outside. If you're outside that

top 20

points wise, it's usually if you don't get any

state points, it really hurts you in this

state.

I think that

he looks miserable.

He just looks miserable.

I'm not sure if you've probably never been in that

situation, but I'm sure it's got to be very

debilitating for a driver when it's all going on.

This is the time of year when you

would just have to send the message that

you want to send. And you got to figure out

how to send it.

And come across

as whatever you wanted to come across

as. Because now

the way that he looked in that interview

the things that he said, the way that he acted

and just the total

defeated

front that he put on there

now everybody's going to start asking questions

or at least I am. You're going to start

asking questions. In the playoffs

you have to be able to control

the message. You've got to be able to control

the message because now

people are going to start not only are they going to ask

him again next week, but they're going to ask his crew

chief and then they're going to ask his owner and then they're going to

ask Denny Hamlin and then they're going to ask

Bubba Wallace and that's the type

that's the type of interview

that leads to the rest of the

questions and you have

to be able to if you're going to be

the guy you've got to be able to

control those types of situations in the

media so that it doesn't get to your

competitors and your team and all those things

to to drag it down and

and I don't think he intentionally did

that but that's the mental warfare

that you have to have to be the guy

if they don't

if one doesn't transfer

if one doesn't transfer for the rest

of the year until this lawsuit

thing is either in December

or figured out beforehand that's the only questions

that they're going to get. It will not

be about racing anymore. It will only

be about the lawsuit. So

Kevin you mentioned Denny Hamlin.

There's a few items to cover with

him today right guys? I don't know what

he does. What do you do?

Interactions

between him and his teammate

Ty Gibbs on the track

a very spicy

radio from both parties

very interesting

post-race interviews that didn't really share

a whole lot. You had an interview

with Coach Gibbs saying he believes the drivers should

handle it amongst themselves. Denny

sort of indicated he feels leadership should

have a role in this. So

Kevin question for you

is how do you think it should be handled?

Yeah this is

this is a tough one.

You know I think

when I look at this scenario obviously

the 11 as you can see him go up from

the hash mark right there straight into the back of the

54 that was intentional.

There's no hiding that that

wasn't intentional.

I think that they raced hard

like this. They raced hard like this with the

roles reversed earlier in the race with the

54 trying to

pass the 11. You could have wiped out

all three of them right there.

And I just don't understand

here's the question that I have

is that the moment that derails

Denny Hamlin's 2025 championship

because of the fact

that decision

now is a decision that you have to talk

about next week. It's a decision

that will divide the shop. It's a decision

that shows a lot of

a lot of people that you just

you don't really

have a lot of

respect.

And I think that

when you make those

when he made that decision it could

be the moment that derails

Denny Hamlin's championship chase for

2025.

We go back and we look at a lot of those moments

through the years. What are those moments that have

derailed those championships before?

But that move right there

for

11th or 12th

was in a position to possibly lose another championship.

And the first part of the race too

wasn't even like it was like towards the end.

Like how do you walk into the shop

with all the

employees of JGR?

Like what do you say to them?

You just dumpstered one of the cars that we all

work for and

granted they were racing hard

but as someone said I had a back and

forth with someone on X and I was like

well the whole subar has done way more

to deserve something like that

than what just happened

with how they were racing.

Look man Denny

there's a documentary

about the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones

and I think

Denny Hamlin is the Dallas Cowboys

of NASCAR.

He is the show. He is the lights

and he gives you all the quotes

and when he wins it's

fireworks and when he loses

sometimes it's also fireworks

but the one thing that they talk about

especially on our Fox other Fox shows

the Cowboys

don't win championships

they win a lot of games throughout the season

Denny Hamlin wins a lot of races

throughout the season. He's on his way to

a clip 60. He's a

walk-in Hall of Famer

but there's always a collapse when it comes to the championship

and it's hard to

when it's all said and done it could be there

it could be somewhere else but

do you think there's more to this

story behind the scenes?

Well I think there has to be

and I think that

I just

as mature

as Denny Hamlin has become

and as much of a leader

as he has become I'm really surprised

that he chose that action

in that moment

during the playoffs for a championship.

Now

should the 54 move over?

I think you could argue that all day long

should he move over or should he not?

I think that you could sit on both sides of the fence

and a lot of times

those moments

when you're outside of the playoffs

and I've been in these moments with my teammates

a lot of those moments

are earned during the year

as to how it was treated to you

so when you don't feel like

that you got those moments

treated towards you in the proper way

throughout the year

you're not cutting your teammate any slack

in those moments

so I think a lot of that

can be determined

throughout the year

as to how it's going to work in the playoffs.

You can look at the team Penske

group

Ryan and Joey have racing at Phoenix

at the last race of the year

one time Ryan was in

racing Joey for a championship

and one time he was out

and the time he was out

captain said be a good wingman

understood

made sure he stood there

so no one else could really just get to the 22

and then this last year

he could have put the bumper to Joey

he didn't he tried to

go around the outside he did everything he did

but put the bumper to him and that was for the championship

that spot

wasn't going to change your championship but it was

Rector Racecar that we have to now

forget what to do. Well Rector Racecar puts you in the middle

of a shitstorm that

you didn't need to be in the middle of

and now it's

the owner, the competition director

you with 54

you're going to put the 20 in the middle of it

the 19 in the middle of it and now it's the whole company

you know now it's the shop chatter

I just

it really really really really surprised me that

that he made

the decision that he made because it's

very evident when you watch the car go straight up the

racetrack that it was intentional.

I imagine at Joe Gibbs racing they would like to handle this

right now so this is not a lingering

issue moving forward right

I mean in the meetings this week

but the damage is already done

and I mean you know I think that

the drivers and the

management team are going to have to

they're going to have to sit down and I mean you have to

have a conversation about it I've been in them

you don't have a choice

but to be in the middle of them so

you know I think it's always

it's always interesting to hear

the sound bites afterwards and

Gabe Hart stood there for a long

time and talked

very graciously to the media

Joe Gibbs spoke to the media the drivers did exactly

what they had to do

from not saying

more than they needed to say

because when you get in those moments

you better be really careful how you choose

your words because it could absolutely

blow the organization up.

The one thing that Denny said that

I caught he was like

we're trying to you know

he's like me the 2019

we're trying to win a championship

for his family

and I'm like

I don't know like but he's

a competitor like yes the

but like so what do you want

him to do you want him to always and Gabe

are kind of alluded to this a little bit

where there's a sticky situation to where

why what

Ty's trying to build his own career is he always

supposed to roll over

I think that's a I think that's an unfair

comment towards

Ty personally yeah that's what I think to

to have that

to have that expectation

so it's a

there's not a good solution

you know from from the 11th standpoint

I mean there there is not a good solution

as to as to how it

how it should go because the damage is already done

yeah don't envy anybody

involved with this whole situation

super difficult we'll have to see

what happens with all of that so one thing

I wanted to address briefly before we move on

to Kansas is Kyle Bush's

performance and also some of the

rumors that are starting to circulate about

Randall Burnett do you want

to elaborate on this well I you know I think

it's I think we've all heard that the

you know Randall Burnett could possibly be

leaving

and going to another team

rumored to you know to possibly

be Conor Zillich's crew chief

so I don't know if those rumors

are aren't true but I think we've we've

all heard them

and I think that when you look at the performance of the 8th

the last couple weeks it probably

reflects that there's that there's something

going on usually usually when those

things happen

you know they're they're handled one of two ways

either bad or good

and you know I think

I think back to my time

at RCR the best thing I ever did was

walk into Richard Childress's office

and tell him that I was leaving

it wasn't great in that

moment but it gave

the respect to him

that I'm gonna get way in front

of this this isn't easy

it's not gonna be fun while we're sitting here

but how do we build something around it to

keep the performance where where it

needs to be and we won races you know

the last year in

that position as late

as this one has come up think about

the position that that puts RCR in

if that's the truth

as to what they need to do to go find

a crew chief and change the

8 car and the way that the performance

is gone so

it doesn't feel to me like it was handled

well if that's the

way that it was gonna go because we haven't

heard much about it but it is definitely

there's too many there's too

much chatter about it for it to

not have some sort of conversation

being had I

I feel bad for

the RCR campus for

like just they seem to be

a group that

develops some talent

and then they get poached

whether it's the

Tyler retic situation or now maybe

now maybe this one with rando and I

feel bad because you like

you see there's there's steps being

taken to be good and then those people leave

and they're really good somewhere else it's like

dang like you couldn't have been good

with us and it's the combination of

a lot of things that make any organization

run well and run up front

and if that is the case I mean I think

you look at when rando was with Tyler retic

a young driver a young Tyler retic

they made speed and they won races

so if that's the case I think rando's

a very capable crew chief

I it's interesting how

that flows with Kyle Busch and

who would want to step up to that

mantle for him so

I mean do you think that they can

put it back in a position that

I mean I've asked I asked you this couple

weeks ago that can they put it back in a position

where Kyle Busch can win a race there

I'd like to say yes

because it's Kyle Busch

and Austin Dillon's one

I like Austin but Kyle Busch

is better than Austin Dillon do you think still

yeah

but the numbers don't say that but I mean

yeah

so I'd like to think if he gets the right

stuff together the right person and they're

they're get it done but

I like to think that

I'd like to think that but I mean we all want to see

Kyle Busch win I mean it's good for the sport

it's Kyle freakin Busch right

like we

there's nothing worse as much as I've

gone through moments where I hate Kyle Busch

right I've hated Kyle Busch

with a passion at moments

I've that's all come full circle

right and we're very much

able to communicate and have a

good relationship but

I just I

can imagine Kyle Busch going out

like this

right like I just it's

bad for everything it's bad for

the sport it's bad for him

it's bad for everything that

says Kyle Busch and I just

I hate to I hate to see

where it's at it's so hard because I think

a DW a lot when I was

a kid when I was a kid and it was towards

the end of his career I didn't realize

how much of a badass that Walter

was until really working

this one and seeing the stories and all the things

that guy was a yeah because I

only saw the end of it but that guy was a freaking dog

I want everyone to end

like Mark Martin ended yeah and I know

that's not realistic but Mark ended

at like 50 years old

digging for a championship

and like walked away

with his chest held high and like

almost beat knocked off Jimmy Johnson

you know what I mean that's how I like

great that's what I was that's what I always

tell people like are you happy that you got out of the car

I always tell them yep I let

a lap I let laps in the last race

that I ran I never wanted

to go out non competitive

non competitive yeah and it's just

now you got all the questions

what is it right

because Austin Dillon won

you know it just it creates more

questions that that's that you ask

I don't believe that Kyle

Bush is that bad I

have a hard time believing that so

it's it's definitely kind of

a mess when he won three races this first

time there his first season there I'm like

with Randall yeah this is

going to work and going to RCR kind of

changed what people thought of Kyle

right because Richard Childress

is a legend in the sport

has done so much for Dale Earnhardt

of myself and been a winner and

and kind of that blue collar

good old boy you know type

situation that that made Kyle look

more presentable to be cool

you know it's just you know

it faded quickly yeah

we will continue to follow that story with Randall Burnett

and where he may be going so

we are going to Kansas next weekend

two more races to go in this

round of the playoffs

what are teams up against

when it comes to Kansas Speedway

I don't know

you're not supposed to say that

I've never been there

well you know I think it's all

going to start on Saturday and it's

going to be the cars are going to

be it's going to be like super

speedway qualifying they're going to be wide open

around the top of the racetrack

and you're going to see who

has the trimmed out

to make a mistake but the hardest part

about Kansas when you're running that top

is there's a little bit of a bump that when

it hits it makes the car want to go to the right

how do you get through for qualifying

especially and in a race but how do you

get through that that first part

of the corner without having the

moment to get through there smooth

and comfortable because it's an uncomfortable

it's an uncomfortable situation

when you're going fast around

Kansas around the top so

you've got options you can run the bottom

I would never practice a lap down there

I would never run a lap on the bottom

unless you were forced to through traffic

I think everything needs to be done

middle up just to keep the momentum

up because the cars are slower

than they used to be

they were only two seconds off the track record

this last weekend so

so you said he didn't know isn't that funny

what? I don't know

we have a very eloquent

no no I was talking about Loudon

they were two seconds off the track record

so you know still any more

power?

we're going to find out

what do you think will be the teams?

I think Hendrick

it's been Hendrick and Giz

Blaney finished third

there in the spring

so he had a good run there

he's good everywhere

but do not

this is from the driver's

standpoint and practice

because you got to get up by the fence

and you got to figure out how your car

is going to be up there and the line and all the stuff

do not let that thing

get into the fence, break a toe link

we do not have enough time

to fix this car

correctly and I don't know how much

effort that they're putting into the back

this is not enough time to do all the things

to make sure we have a good weekend

if we wreck and practice or qualify

do not

do you think the 2311 cars

have the same speed they have in the past

or that wheels off the bus there

I don't think they have a choice

they need to be

top five

they need to be their best race of the year

this is why I love

this is one thing about the system that we have

right now

I'm sitting here and I can feel the pressure

it is so intense

and the fact that you can put it all

together in one race

and it changed the whole trajectory

I love that but yeah

it needs to be the best

right now, Austin, Cedric, Tyler, Wallace

are the ones below the cut

do you think they stay below after this race

I think

when you look at this race

and

you look at Bob Wallace and Tyler

they have to have the race

of the year

in order to get themselves back in position

to get to the next round

I think that

Denny Hamlin has to have

one of his best races

of the year because if he puts himself

in a position to be

close to the bubble

at the roval, he can find himself

in big trouble really quickly

he needs to be 10 up from the bubble

when he leaves Kansas to the roval

because then they can do some things

and maybe get stage points

but they are not going there expecting to win

I think that

Chase Elliott is qualifying

puts him in a position

they've got to figure out

they haven't figured it out but they've got to

figure out how to qualify better

and I know that they know that that's a problem

but it keeps them from scoring points

I think that he could put himself

in a position because he doesn't qualify well

especially if those guys

from 2311 show up this weekend

and score stage points

and all those things that go with that

Ross Chastain

typically really good at Kansas

if those guys show up and run like they typically do

at Kansas, they're going to put themselves

in a position to score stage points

and a lot of times if you don't qualify good

you ain't scoring stage points in the first stage

and the nine always shows up by the end of the race

but you've got to score stage points

if I'm the one

I want to just put a lot of pressure

points wise

on the guys in front of me

just keep that bubble gap really close

because I think it's 12 to

to Elliott and then the next person

I think 14 I think

and so

because I would go into it thinking well 2311

is going to have a shot

so one of them might win

just keep your points close

from the 11 we need to make sure we

I mean he's got a massive

I think it was

27 points but

the only reason I point that out is

you never know

he could go there and dominate the race

you never know how this week is going to go

it's going to go itself and out here

because it is Denny Hamlin

but don't forget his pit crew

this week and next week

is not the number one pit crew

that he had this past week

which they even messed up as well

a little bit

so I mean there's just

there's some

there's some problems that could be

on the 11 as you go

to pit road is what you're saying

and there's also some problems

it could also go the opposite

don't underestimate

the whole Denny Hamlin scenario

he could go there and dominate and win the race

based upon how this week goes

there's just a lot of questions

that happen in the week right now

we don't know what the meetings haven't even been had yet

a lot of question marks that have to

that have to be answered at the shop this week

only we had a camera

I would pay big money

hidden cam

I would pay big money

that's the real reality show there

I pay review that thing

that thing has got to be awesome

yeah okay so that's Kansas

that's coming up in a few days

coming up right now is Mamba's social sips

hey let's go

cool kev in the house

yeah cool kev's here

cheetah katlin's in the house

oh my god

and the closers around the world

I thought you were going to refer to yourself as slappy

slappy

welcome to slapstick

to mamba's social sips

listen

if you

scour the internet and I talked to brad

in the happy hour show at loud

this weekend I said brad

there was a video

that everyone knows about of you playing basketball

I said I'm sorry

about that however

you totally redeemed yourself when you got

on the diamond this week

he threw a pitch out at Fenway

look at what this is

he gets everyone hyped up

he's excited and I was really worried

I was nervous

I thought it was going to go into the dirt at the front of the pitchers mound

and that's the worst thing of bouncing in

listen that's a strike

it might have been crushed over the green monster

into the next county

I like the jog

the brief jog there after

I bet you do

did you ever throw a first pitch Kevin?

yeah I threw in a bunch of them

did you ever throw it?

I have I got it to the plate

it's on camera

I'll show you later

I threw a bunch of them

I threw a couple of them at Yankee stadium

I've been to Fenway

just for one game

did the Yankees lose that game?

no I don't remember

but here's what happened

you can tell there was something going on

so Gene Monaghan

Joe Girardi

good friends

and

got to develop a relationship because they're race fans

they always came to Daytona

always involved

so I go up there to throw the first pitch

I don't remember what year it was

probably 15-14

somewhere in that time frame

and I didn't really realize it

at the time that I was being set up

but I was getting set up pretty good

so they had me down

in the below

throwing the pitches

so I'm down there

and they're like just get it over the plate

there's no reason to throw it hard

just get it over the plate

that's not the problem

they're like you don't need to throw it hard

so I go out there

and I get on the mound and I'm like I'm just going to do what they told me to do

so I get up there and I just

throw it over there

big rainbow

gets it over the plate

and I come back to the dugout

hysterically

they have turned the radar gun on

and they've turned it up on the board

and it said 32 miles

and they thought that was hilarious

I thought that was pretty cold

I had a ready to throw it against the backstop

the first one that I did was

like 2001

I think it was 2001

Andy Pettit was pitching

that night and I got up there

he hands me the ball

he says whatever you do

throw it short

at bare minimum hit the backstop

but do not throw it short or they will boo you out of this place

and he hands me the ball

I remember that and they're telling me the opposite

he's telling me to throw it hard

and they're telling me to lob it over the plate

so yeah they set me up

a lot of pressure throwing out that first one

there's some pressure

mounting in the craftsman truck series

that you can catch on FS1

throughout the rest of this year

and every year because we love the truck series

Biffle is one of the

he's a dog too

but like when it comes to

when it comes to truck series racing

he is a legend

and Corey Heim over the weekend

tied the nine win club

Greg was on a beach somewhere

with a lobster of some kind

maybe this is in the Bahamas

I know Greg spends a lot of time in the Bahamas

I actually talked to him over the weekend a little bit

he's a great guy

but I thought that was pretty cool

he's just putting together

an amazing season

and another one

and it needs to finish out

how it should

now Lane Riggs though

on the short tracks

he's been starting to apply some pressure

you realize that if Corey Heim

doesn't win the championship this year

it's gonna be holy hell

it's gonna be bad

you and all your

points, arguments

are gonna be

just completely demolished

it will be but at the end of the day

it is what it is

I can't even imagine

it's Connor Zillich

and Corey Heim don't win the championship

the only

if

I won't have to hear about it

no you will

if it was like a

wholesome ordeal they get dumpstered by somebody else

but if it's like a flat tire

either way

if Corey Heim and Connor Zillich

don't win the championship

you are gonna get a complete

shit storm

it's okay

they know the system when they signed up

so it is what it is

throw up

I might be right next to you

throw it up

everyone gives SVG

a lot of crap

for the ovals

this week even the drivers

and Bubba Wallace and him

are good buddies

there was a little tech exchange

and basically

the exchange was

if you ever from Bubba to SVG

if you ever beat me in qualifying

I'm gonna retire

and SVG is like

I don't see no retirement post

and Bubba was like what are you talking about

and he brought it back up

and Bubba was like oh damn

who qualified in the top

10

did a great job

but I love that guys have that type of relationship

SVG got

he got spun out there at the end

when Keselowski hit the bottom wall

that was wild

not sure where he was going

I need to get in my glasses

Brad hit the wall down there too

that's what I'm saying

hit the bottom wall

how long can you go

closeers

805-317-4175

if you want to leave a voicemail

and harvickhappyr4 at gmail.com

for the mail bag

there you go all right time now for our last call

before we get into our picks for this week, let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend courtesy of DraftKings

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I don't know where my crown is

I feel like

oh there it is it's back there

you know what I feel like happened

I feel like Tony sat over here and he

I thought he stole it because that's something he would do

last week he would definitely take it

or at least leave a note on it

well there you go that is

the crown is yours we'll bring it back for next week

okay so time to look at the burnout

for Ryan Blaney out there

in Lawn, New Hampshire

this gets a big fat zero

right well his post race celebration

that's not good

that is not good

you can't

in his defense it probably has a motor

that he has to race again

well I was wondering about that because Heim did the same thing

and so they probably

you don't bring your worst motors to the playoffs

so when you bring

when you bring all you got

you got to take care of it but

you still get a big fat zero

yeah there's nothing we can do about that

there's nothing to judge

no we judged it

it's a zero

it's not NA it's not complete

you get a

let's see what should we

participation trophy

hand out participation trophies

I have a funny story about that

so

Keelan's baseball team

when he was playing T-ball

they gave him all trophies the whole league got

participation trophies and we walked out of the park

and his mother

took the trophy and threw it straight in the trash can

before we left

the park and we got in the car and he's like mom

why'd you throw him a trophy we don't either win

or you lose son I love that

that's the problem with this country everybody

it's a trophy for everything

yeah when that comes from your mom

you know that

that didn't even come from dad that came from mom

so like I understood

right now Kevin's got the trophy

and the standings 33 up

everybody scored points this week though

3 points for Briscoe

congratulations guys I am still in last

good job

but yeah you get 10 points for picking the winner

6 for P2 through 5

so what was the finishing order this week

so let's see

we had Briscoe so who finished higher

Briscoe or Belle? Belle did

you guys only got points because

so that means you got to pick first

that means I got to pick first? yeah you got that

you were the highest finisher

um

my brain is

really like Larson but I haven't

really I thought you were gonna say

your brain is really small

I was just gonna agree

the only time he agrees

I'm gonna go William Byron

can't believe we're gonna have the same pick

I was going to

see Belle

yeah he's done well there he hasn't won

but he's had good finishes there in the past

hmm

oh Kevin might switch it up

how confident

I don't know

I think that

you took my pig

that's no problem

I'm gonna decide if I'm gonna

points race

should I let you pass me

or should I points race

it's up to you

and you pick too? Belle

you pick Belle

yep I'm out

I'm not picking either of those

I'm not sure yet

you have to make a choice

we're on a time crunch

I like to see Tyler sweat

I think that

I think that I'm going

to probably pick

the five

I knew that was coming

I think it's a make or break race for him

you know what's interesting is no one picked 2311

even though we all feel like this is a pick got to

32 out of 263

which is 12.2%

fans picked Blaney make sure you submit

your picks again you can get in on this

by scanning the QR code on the screen

to submit your picks and play along with us

we'll have to have everybody do that

alright what you got on your Thursday

show a special friend

that I happen to really like on our Fox

yeah you guys have enjoyed

having all the old timers on here

so we had Regan Smith come on this

weekend and he's to me

Regan's story is really intriguing he went

through the end of DEI

he went through the beginning of Furniture Row

and then kind of went back

to the Xfinity series at junior

motorsports and so

we kind of touched on

all those topics and then

why he decided to go do the TV thing

that he does a great job at so

it's always fun to hear

different people's stories and

I thought Regan would be fun this week

I love that pick great person

look forward to that conversation I like watching Regan run

when he has to go from the end of the pit road

all the way to the other

there's a lot of videos of Regan running

you should see all the cameras and things that we have in the booth

and they'll put them on Regan

for you running down pit road when you're in a hurry

but mostly Regan

he takes a lot of grief in the ISO

that's funny

alright guys we've covered a lot here

on episode 66 make sure you

subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts

leave five stars leave a review

send a mail bag question from Mamba here

alright we'll see everybody after Kansas

music

New Hampshire Recap: Ryan Blaney Shines, JGR Teammates Clash & 23XI Under Pressure, Plus Kansas Preview

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