Shane van Gisbergen Wins Another Road Course & Is He The Greatest Road Course Driver Ever?
Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX
Shane van Gisbergen Wins Another Road Course & Is He The Greatest Road Course Driver Ever?
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Term
bus stop
The “bus stop” is a tricky slow section on a road course. Drivers have to brake hard, turn carefully, and get back to speed without losing traction.
Term
qualifying
Qualifying is when drivers try to set the fastest lap before the race. Your qualifying result decides where you start on the grid.
Term
passes
A “pass” is when one driver overtakes another. On a road course, it usually happens by braking later or exiting a corner faster than the car ahead.
Term
caution
A caution is when the race slows down because of something happening on the track. Drivers have to adjust their strategy because the race pace and timing change.
Term
saving gas
“Saving gas” means driving more gently so you don’t run out of fuel before the finish. After a caution, teams often have to manage fuel more carefully.
Concept
road course racing
A road course is a track with lots of turns, more like a typical race track than an oval. It forces drivers and teams to focus on braking and cornering balance, not just going fast in a circle.
Concept
cup series
The Cup Series is NASCAR’s main top-level racing series. So when they talk about “road course” in the Cup Series, they’re talking about the highest competition level.
Term
pit lane
Pit lane is the area next to the track where the team works on the race car. Drivers pull in there for things like pit stops while the race is going on.
Term
strategy in the first stage
In NASCAR, races are split into stages, and teams choose strategies for each stage (like tire use, track position, and when to pit). A strategy that places a car “in the middle of the pack” can limit opportunities later if the car gets stuck in traffic.
Term
restarts
A restart is when the race comes back after a caution. The cars bunch up again, and drivers can make big position changes right away.
Term
brake zone
The brake zone is the part of the track where you start slowing down for a turn. Braking at the right spot helps the car turn better and carry speed through the corner.
Term
pull away
“Pull away” means he started getting farther ahead. That usually happens when one driver can accelerate out of turns better and keep the car stable lap after lap.
Term
gassed up
“Gassed up” basically means he hit the gas harder. On a road course, when you do that (and how smoothly) can make the car pull away or start to lose grip.
Term
car would slide and jerk around
This describes the car not sticking to the track—like the tires are losing grip. When it “jerks around,” the car feels unstable, which usually slows you down and makes it harder to drive consistently.
Term
brakes
“Going into the brakes on a little bit further” refers to later braking—waiting longer before slowing down for a corner. Later braking can help maintain speed through the turn, but it demands precise control to avoid overshooting the entry.
Concept
road course strategy
Strategy is how you plan your race, not just how fast you go. On a road course it can include when to push hard and how to manage tires and stops.
Term
green light
The “green light” is the signal that it’s time to race at full speed again. It’s when the driver can start pushing hard without restrictions.
Term
hammer down
It means pressing the gas hard. The driver is going all-in on speed and acceleration.
Term
points position
Points position means where a driver ranks in the season championship race. A better finish usually means more points and a higher spot.
Term
standings
Standings are the season rankings based on points. Your finish in each race can move you up or down in that list.
Term
pit crews
Pit crews are the team that works on the car during pit stops. If they’re fast and accurate, the driver can get back on track in a better position.
Term
wheels fall off
“Wheels fall off” is a motorsports slang phrase for catastrophic mechanical failure—typically a wheel detaching or a major loss of control due to a serious issue. The hosts use it to contrast normal race problems with a worst-case failure that ruins a day.
Concept
points lead
The points lead is who’s currently winning the season based on where they finish in races. Extending it means they’re staying ahead in the championship race.
Topic
Chase
In NASCAR, the “Chase” is the playoff part of the season. It’s where the championship is decided, so changing which tracks are included can affect who has the edge.
Concept
mud season
“Mud season” means the track is more likely to be wet and dirty, so it can get slippery. That makes it harder to grip the road and can change how drivers brake and accelerate.
Topic
O'Reilly's race
O’Reilly’s is the sponsor name for a NASCAR series race. The hosts are talking about it as a place where a driver can prove they’re still competitive.
Term
cup stuff
“Cup stuff” is shorthand for NASCAR Cup Series equipment and performance—meaning the car setup, speed, and competitiveness at the Cup level. The idea here is that when the Cup car isn’t working, drivers can drop to other series to keep winning and stay sharp.
Term
splitter
A splitter is a piece on the front of the car that helps the car stick to the road by pushing air under it. If it gets damaged, the car can feel less stable and slower through corners.
Term
hit the apex
In a turn, drivers try to pass closest to the inside at a specific point called the apex. Doing it well usually helps the car exit the corner faster.
Topic
track surface prep with resin and rubber buildup
They’re talking about how they set up the track before racing so the tires get the right grip. The idea is to control how the racing line forms and how the track changes during the weekend.
Term
rubbered the racetrack up
“Rubbered the racetrack up” describes how tires lay down rubber onto the racing surface. That rubber builds a higher-grip racing line, which can make the track faster and more stable as the event progresses.
Term
simulation
“Simulation” means practicing in a computer/driver simulator. If a driver doesn’t have it, they may have less chance to learn the track and car behavior before the race.
Term
banking
Banking means the track corner is tilted. The tilt helps the car stay planted and go faster through the turn without sliding as much.
Term
throttle
Throttle is how much you press the gas pedal. Changing it during a turn changes how much power the car puts down, which affects grip and how the car behaves.
Term
lift
Lift means taking your foot off the gas (or easing off it). In a turn, that can change how the car grips and how stable it feels.
Term
limiters
Limiters are built-in caps that prevent the car from exceeding certain limits. If you hit them at the wrong moment in a corner, the car can behave unpredictably and lose control.
Term
cup car
A “Cup car” is the main NASCAR race car used in the top NASCAR series. It’s the specific type of car these drivers are talking about when they discuss setup and handling.
Concept
overcorrect
Overcorrecting is when you try to fix a skid but you fix it too strongly. Instead of straightening out, the car swings the other way and can get you closer to the wall.
Concept
self cleaning racetrack
A “self cleaning racetrack” is the idea that debris and loose material get cleared away as cars run the surface and, in some cases, as cars impact and scatter material. The track can become more consistent over time, reducing how often drivers get surprised by changing grip.
Topic
all star race format (segments and inversion)
They’re describing how the All-Star race is set up in parts. After the first part, they shuffle the front-runners, then run a long final stretch to decide the winner.
Concept
top 26 inversion
An inversion means the best finishers get shuffled around for the next part of the race. A “top 26 inversion” specifically flips the order for the top 26 cars to create more passing and strategy.
Term
burnout
A burnout is when the driver makes the tires spin to heat them up and put on a show. It’s something you’ll often see after a big moment in racing.
Term
rev limiter
A rev limiter is an engine control feature that prevents the engine from exceeding a set maximum RPM. If a burnout stays “on the rev limiter,” the engine is being held at that RPM limit, which can be rough on components and is a reason some teams/drivers may dislike the behavior.
Term
tires popped
When tires “pop” during a burnout, it usually means the tire has been overheated and damaged enough that it fails catastrophically. That’s a dramatic visual cue of how aggressive the burnout was, but it also highlights how quickly tire wear can escalate under high wheelspin.
Term
left rear
“Left rear” refers to the rear wheel on the driver’s left side of the car. In burnout descriptions, calling out a specific corner (like left rear) helps explain where the tire contact and vehicle rotation were most intense—especially when the car is close to barriers.
Term
smoke
When they say “smoke,” they mean the tires are spinning and getting hot. That heat makes the tire rubber break down and you can see it as smoke.
Term
second gear
The gear you’re in changes how the engine’s power reaches the wheels. Second gear can make it easier to keep the tires spinning and smoking compared with first gear.
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But he was still 30 seconds behind.
He's so much more efficient with his passes.
SVG doing SVG things.
I think winning fixes almost everything.
He's the greatest road course racer that's ever come through the Cup Series.
He's not a Kung Fu Ninja.
No, he's not that.
He's not a Kevin.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by Nascar Fox.
I'm Kevin Harvick.
She's Caitlin Vinci and Mama Smith.
Hey!
Mama thinks it's his show.
Yeah, that's okay.
You know, have it.
There's a segment that is definitely everyone's favorite.
Mama's happy hour.
Mama's happy hour.
There you go.
I mean, you know.
That's pretty much what you host every Sunday is.
It's Mama's happy hour.
Listen, it's not happy hour.
It's happy evening.
It's like a four-hour event.
Nascar Sunday's been, we were slapping.
Yeah, we had plus.
We were slapping.
Slapping.
We had plus 65 people there hopping this weekend on Mother's Day.
We had moms out.
Really?
Their families?
Like, it was cool.
Was it?
Hoppin.
Hoppin.
Yeah, it was hoppin.
It was jumping.
It was on and poppin.
On Mother's Day.
What's hoppin?
Hoppin is a bar that has self-pouring taps and a full bar.
Self-pouring.
Yeah, so you get a little wristband.
You just buy a cup and drink all you want.
No, you don't get a buy a cup.
You just get a wristband that's attached to your card.
And you go, bloop.
That was kind of nice.
Oh, charges you every time?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
By the ounce.
So, like, if you want a smaller pour, you know, yeah.
You're probably glad we're doing this show on Tuesday, then,
instead of the day after that.
If you saw my face yesterday.
Nascar Sunday's are real tough.
Yeah.
Because you can either stay out, right,
or you can go home and be an adult.
I don't know about you.
You haven't got the adult program.
My Sundays are spent taking notes for about five hours.
I know.
That's why you crush it.
That's why you are keeping us on the rails at all times.
Speaking of on the rails, welcome into episode 26.
We have plenty to talk about leaving the road course of Walkins.
Glenn, guys, will preview the All-Star Race coming up this
weekend at Dover.
And we have the Sips.
Why are you looking at me like that?
No, nothing.
I'm just excited to be there.
You had, like, a scowl for a second.
No, I'm sorry.
I was just thinking about stuff.
Okay, good.
All right, guys.
I guess I got to start by saying Kevin was right.
Hey, look.
I mean, if you want to win, you pick the winners.
Winners win is the text that we got.
And I just tail between the legs.
We'll address the picks there.
You could have got behind.
You can get further behind or you can just take a week off
and make the same pick.
Or you can take a week off and take the lead.
I already took a week off.
And I'm going to take the lead, eventually.
Well, congratulations to you.
Congratulations to SVG, seventh career win.
Put on a clinic, I would say, for road course racing.
But what stands out to you about this win he had on Sunday from other
road course wins he's gotten?
Well, it all started on Saturday and we went down to interview him
because he was at the top of every chart on the consecutive lap charts.
And we told him that and he looked at us like, I think it was Regan doing the
interview.
He looked at whoever was doing the interview and he said, really,
my car is a piece of crap.
Every time.
Yeah.
And I looked at Clint and I'm like, oh man, these guys are in such big trouble.
That's wild.
The thing about SVG is he's not telling anybody how much he's pushing.
He's not telling anybody how much he has.
He's not telling you.
He's always got a car that's not very good.
And next thing you know, with the way that the tire fall off was and the way
that everything was going, he's better at that part too.
And so everything just leaned towards him being in control.
But when you watched him and qualifying going into the bus stop and it was
two tents when he wanted to make it two tents.
And that's what at the end just makes him, he's so much more efficient with his
passes because he can control driving in deep and making the pass happen in just
about any corner that he wants to.
And nobody else can really do that.
The only other guy that I've seen be able to do that is Marcus Ambrose.
Kind of ironic that they're buddies and, you know, they talk about the things
that Shane does in the race car.
And it's, it's, um, he was just in a, in a different league.
He was, and I know he had new tires and the situation worked out well,
but he was still 30 seconds behind 30 seconds.
And the way that the caution fell, all the leaders got themselves in a position
to where they had to start saving gas.
So they did have to back off the pace a little bit, but even if they were going
full pace, it was going to be a second to a second and a half.
It would just taken a little bit longer for him to get there, but he got there.
So fast and then one by almost eight seconds.
So it was like just another day at the office.
SVG doing SVG things.
Yeah.
I mean, I think the coolest part about it, we, we talked about it.
I think last year is like when you're supposed to win and there's a lot more,
I feel like there's more pressure almost when you're supposed to do it.
It's supposed to be dominant.
And then you rise to the occasion and, you know, not just Shane,
but like the whole trackhouse crew, like we say it last week is like, man,
if they don't, if one of those cars don't win, like now the year is like,
that's a lot of pressure.
That's a lot of pressure.
So for them to deliver Shane and Connor, both good race cars
and Ross qualified well too.
So like they, they did what they needed to on the road course.
They put a lot of effort into it.
And when the effort, when you see results of that effort,
and it's easier to go on the next week and be good.
And I really think on the same strategy and all the same scenarios,
I think Connor would have, could have finished second.
Yeah.
I really do.
I think that, that he ran well enough.
He got a flat tire at the end of the race and kind of took him out of
even being in the conversation, you know, McDowell finished second.
And he was another guy that, that needed to make something happen.
And so a lot of the guys that, that needed to make something happen,
SVG, McDowell, Zillich, I think those guys had a, had a good weekend Zillich.
Obviously, you know, had the issue at the end.
And so there's a, there's a, I mean, it's a tough situation for,
for guys like that.
And I think when, when you look at track house in general,
they all qualified well.
And I think Ross is a great example.
You know, he was like, look, I just need to make my car like SVGs and figure it out.
Yeah.
The only way you're going to figure out how to be SVG is you take SVG out of
his car and put him in your car.
But it gives you a great judge to be able to, to say this is, I need to be better.
But in these instances, you're racing for second.
Kaylin, Kaylin, I have a question for you.
Have you ever seen, cause you, you watch how everyone acts on pit road and
together as drivers, have you ever seen someone that's more unanimously respected
so quickly at a craft that as we have seen, because every single driver is like,
we're just racing for a second.
Like I've never, that's so demoralizing cause, cause Michael McDowell was like,
we brought a good piece, but not compared to him.
Well, it's interesting you bring that up.
Cause I actually asked SVG about this earlier today when I interviewed him for
Victory lap, like has this totally changed how cup teams approach road course
racing, knowing you have somebody like this in the field every time.
Yeah.
Well, he's the greatest road course racer that's ever come through the cup series.
I mean, it's not even close.
He's a couple of wins away from, from tying the most road course wins ever,
but he's the best road course racer that's ever come through the cup series period.
And, you know, I think that the thing that makes Shane good in,
in my opinion that he gets to race every week.
It's not like a ringer coming in, you know, I think that Jeff Gordon,
those guys were, were good road racers in a time where there were no good road racers
and they figured it out better than everybody else,
but a true world class road racer like Shane and, you know,
the, the, the fact that he gets to race every week.
So he knows how the restarts work.
He knows how to go down pit road and get in the pit box.
And that's where you saw a lot of these road racers fall short.
And then they, they have a part time team and the part time pit crew.
This is a team that's racing every week.
And they're able to capitalize on these moments a lot better because they're full time racers.
And, but his racing IQ super high,
which is why we've seen him get better on the, on the ovals.
And because he's a, he's a student of whatever he's driving.
And so when you have that and you have him racing every week
and the world class talent that he has on the road courses,
it's also really good with his car and communicating with his team.
He's got the maturity to go along with it to know how to play the game off the racetrack.
What to say, what not to say, holding his cards fairly close to his vest.
He's got a great poker face.
He's a showman.
So the maturity that he has in being able to experience all these things in the past,
he's also, he's really good at making sure he'll help you.
But I don't think he's going to show you everything that he has because,
and nobody else can do it.
Yeah.
I saw that on pit lane.
You asked what I observed a lot of the drivers in the truck race.
Obviously we're going up and digesting with him and kind of trying to get his feedback,
obviously on what he was experiencing to be better.
So yes, he does have a ton of respect.
Everyone wants to learn from him and what he is doing.
You talked about track house struggles.
This gives them a shot in the arm,
but is it enough to really turn the corner for this organization right now?
Well, they did what they were supposed to do and, you know, they have had some runs.
I mean, Ross was solidly in the top 10 at Texas, made a mistake.
And one of the biggest differences in, you know, Ross situation in an SVG situation at Watkins Glen
was that efficiency to make passes and that ability to make passes.
When they made the decision to have the strategy that they did in the first stage,
they put them in the middle of the pack and you never saw them again.
And that's just the difference between what Shane can do in the car
and what Ross can do in the car as far as making things happen on the restarts.
Even that last restart, you know, when Connor and Shane were kind of buried in the field right there.
I mean, Shane immediately got through the field
and he was 567 spots better than Connor was getting through the field
because he just, he knows and has the awareness to just boom, I need to be here.
He knows where to put his car, goes into a brake zone, he's going to make it happen.
There's not going to be a question of whether he finishes the pass.
Like, you know, guys like us that don't know how to do it at the level that he does.
And, you know, that's that efficiency of making those passes is priceless.
How do you think this helps Trackhouse as a whole?
Just, SVG said it's a little brighter in the shop today of obviously having some momentum on their side
and just it had been a pretty dismal stretch of races for them prior to this.
Yeah, I mean, I think winning fixes almost everything, if not everything, right?
And when you win, it's just like, especially for them, because again, they are built to win these races.
Right.
And they lost the first one. That's a gut check.
Because you also have Connor in there who's like, we think if we're not winning with the 97, we're winning with the 88.
So they think they have the two best bullets in the garage when it comes to road course racing.
And I think we thought that Connor was going to be the one pushing SVG.
I think he is the closest.
McDowell is really close to, but like SVG is still yards.
It's not close.
It's not close when he doesn't want it to be.
Yeah, he's the closest, but like it's not close to him.
Connor said something super interesting.
I felt like he's like, yeah, there was a run where I was with Shane and I was running with him and like I had to step it up.
And then, then when it came to the last little bit of that stage, he just gassed up and pulled away from me.
He's like, I think he was just seeing how much more I had left in the tank versus vice versa.
That's my point.
Like he just, he knows and he can, he can tell how hard you're pushing and he can push as hard as he wants to push.
And the difference between Connor and Shane, Connor's car would slide and jerk around and you could tell that he was, Shane's car is always straight.
Like it never slides.
It, when he needs to get a little bit more gap, he just goes into the brakes on a little bit further and it wasn't, it wasn't close.
Pretty remarkable to watch.
It's cool to witness.
It's absolutely amazing.
And I hope that we all celebrate it because, you know, he is going to go down as, as the Cup Series greatest road course driver that's ever come through this series.
And it's not even going to be close by the time, by the time he's done.
And, and I think that everybody's like, oh, SVG is going to win.
Oh, it's going to be boring.
That wasn't boring.
That wasn't boring at all.
It made it exciting.
But I mean, that's what everybody else has to do, right?
Like they have to throw caution to the wind and put themselves in a position where they try to make it on gas and strategy.
And you have to do something that, that he doesn't do or knock him off the track.
Force his hand somewhere.
You got to force his hand to do something other than whatever he wants.
You can't race him head to head.
Yeah.
I think not going to win.
The coolest thing was when you, not often do we see a guy get the green light just to hammer down.
Yeah.
That was like, I think that was the best part about watching.
It's like, oh man, it's all on you now.
Like you got the car, tires, go do what you can do.
And he went off and he had extra, 10 laps extra to do it.
It was insane.
Very impressive win by SVG.
He makes up some ground in the standings as well in the points position.
Only two drivers in the top 10 and points scored top 10 performances.
And that would be Redick and Gibbs.
What did you see out of the two of them?
Ty Gibbs, Tyler Redick.
Um, you know, I, I, I mean, I expected Ty to run well.
He's run, run well on all the road courses, kept himself in the, you know, the top five pretty much all day.
Once he made up from, from his qualifying effort, I think that same, same expectations for Redick to, to be able to put him in contention.
He actually didn't run as good as I thought he would.
But they got themselves in a position, both of them to be able to put those cars in the top five and, and you know, they, they improve.
But 54 got there a little quicker than, than the 45, but the 45 and their pit crews did a great job.
And they had good restarts and, and we're able to, to have solid days, which is on a road course.
That's what you want.
You want to just not have the wheels fall off like some of them do and did in, in this particular race.
So it's, um, they're hard when you have all that strategy and stuff.
Even sometimes when you have a good car, you can get buried in the middle of the pack.
One car, Ross Chastain, great example.
Had a, had a great car, but got buried.
Yep.
That was your pick, wasn't it?
Redick.
Redick.
Yeah, it was my pick.
Good job.
You know, so he, I mean, look, I think for them, it was like, all right, we, you know, we feel like we're pretty good with our road course stuff.
And you keep working on it.
They knew they weren't going to be as good once they unloaded.
And that's not been his best road course.
And that, and it hasn't been, right?
Kota actually literally has been without a doubt and that they race very, very differently.
And so for them to, to come out with another top five and to, you know, extend their points lead because the guys that were right there, right?
Cause it was Denny.
So they just can, they just do the same where they can just turn it on when it's their tracks and just be right where they need to be when it's not there.
Poor Denny.
He's just so, he's so mad that they put that race into chase next year.
Oh yeah.
Did you hear him?
No.
He's just like, it's going to be terrible.
It's going to be a terrible, terrible race.
It's so politic and to try to measure that there aren't, aren't more road courses in there because look, I've been there, right?
Like, you, you know, you're at a deficit.
You want to win the championship and you play all the politics that you can to be able to, to try to present a case to, to keep from any more road courses getting there.
So, you know, having, having Watkins Glen in May, probably not ideal, definitely mud season up there.
Fans turned out great though.
They always do up there.
I'm glad they, they put it back in the chase in September.
That was always a great, it was always in a great spot in August.
I don't know why we moved it, but because it was always sold out, rowdy infield, great environment.
Weather was usually, usually pretty good, but it was, it was not ideal this weekend, but the fans still supported it.
And I think everybody appreciates that.
And it was a good show.
And that's why they deserve a race at the, in the high pressure points of the year.
You got to have a playoff.
You got to have a road course in the playoffs.
There's, there's no doubt about that.
And you talk about road courses, that's for, for next year.
This year we don't have a road course in the playoffs with the way that the Roval went.
And that, I think that you, you need one in the playoffs to be able to make it so that the balance of, of having the best driver and, and being able to decide who the champ is.
You got to have all the samples of, of the race tracks and styles of tracks.
So, you know, I think it, it definitely lends its hand better to most people aside from, from Denny, but everyone else.
And I know he's not thrilled about it, but that's what's going to keep it close.
NASCAR didn't waste a whole lot of time letting us know that date was moving.
We hadn't even done the cup race yet.
And you'd already frustrated the fan base with putting the, putting the race in May, making sure that they knew that you screwed up by putting that race where it is, giving them a chase race.
There's a right thing to do to, to, to put it back because it was an absolute, I mean, there were more cars stuck in the mud than you could possibly even imagine.
Competitors were getting their cars.
They were showing me photos of their cars stuck in the mud in the parking lot.
I put a post out there like, Hey, if you don't get your car out by X amount of time, the tow trucks are going away.
They'll be back in the morning.
So like, it will be stuck.
It will be way more favorable later in the year next year.
I want to return to the top 10 for a moment to say Austin Dillon finished six.
Kyle Busch finished eighth second week with his new crew chief, Andy Street.
Did you expect that out of Richard Childress racing to their two cars in the top 10?
I don't really know what to expect at this point, but I can tell you that they ran better at Texas and they ran better at Watkins Glen.
They had a great strategy call with the three car at the beginning of the race, but they had the pace to keep themselves up there.
Kyle was, was right behind Austin and actually racing, you know, to, to go by Austin and ran out of gas right at, right at the end.
So he lost one or 21 or two spots right, right there at the end.
But it was a, Kyle didn't feel well.
I don't know what was going on.
Might be the best, maybe he doesn't need to feel well every week because it kept him really quiet on, on the radio.
And that's what he needs at this point.
He's got to control the message of what's happening with that race team to keep the, the, the focus on the positives, which they had this week.
There's no negatives to go along with a solid performance by both RCR cars.
You don't have to, the crew chiefs and owners and everybody doesn't, Kyle doesn't have to Austin.
He gets the questions too, because he, I mean, he's representing the family and has to answer questions about Kyle from, from Texas and all the things that go with all the, all the nonsense.
So, and I've been there, right?
Like I was full of nonsense when, when I was, was on the radio and, and, you know, it's just chaos.
And when you clean all that up, life is just so much easier.
I know it's frustrating when you run bad, but man, when you have a positive, you got to take the momentum because it just does so many good things for the shop.
But they had a great weekend.
Yeah.
Great weekend for us here.
When Reddick was over there, they worked really hard on their real course program.
They were doing a lot of like other races, like some Trans Am type, type of stuff.
And I think that that helped Austin then.
I feel like some of that stuff, I'm sure they still do a little bit, maybe not as much, but I'm for them to run well back to back weeks to completely different type of race.
It's definitely a shot in the arm in that place and it's going to hopefully they can keep the momentum going because it's, we want, like I said, we want Cowboys to run well and to win races.
Everybody wants Cowboys to win.
I want to see Austin win too, but I want RCR.
I want Richard Childress to win because when he's in victory lane, it's great for everybody.
And you got to talk to RC.
Did he seem pleased with his weekend?
It seemed, yeah, it seemed pleased.
You know, it's, it's, it's always fun to talk to Richard because we have just such a long history.
And, you know, it's like he said, welcome home when I, you know, when I got there.
So, you know, that's pretty cool when you go back and I got to spend some time in the museum and see all those cars, but a lot of history there, a lot of, a lot of great moments that were, that were had together so we can still enjoy that.
So that's, that's great.
Nice.
So I want to touch on Connor Zillich again very briefly.
He had a good weekend overall winning in the O'Reilly's race, which you've talked about this before that just proving to him he can still do this because it has been hard.
But I feel like he still has things to be proud of leaving Watkins Glen.
Yeah.
I mean, when your cup stuff is not right, the best thing you can do is go down to the O'Reilly series, truck series, late models, anything just to keep winning.
But he absolutely drove the crap out of this race.
Amazing to watch.
He made a mistake, got the splitter off in the mud.
I think it ripped it off actually on the right side.
And, and he made some adjustments to be able to adapt to the car and, and wasn't probably wasn't going to win the race.
And Jesse Love just missed the last corner.
He was hard on himself.
Yeah.
Well, he probably should be hard on himself because that was a, that was a win that, that Jesse Love was, was going to probably most likely have.
If he just, all he has to do is hit the apex to the corner.
So sucks.
Sucks.
And he did exit the car through the roof.
If you remember, this was the site of where he had a terrible, awful injury.
So he kept that in mind.
I saw Justin Marks come in with a pillow.
Put in a pillow.
Just in case.
Yeah.
I mean, it was, it was a fantastic race.
I mean, the, what the, the folks do on the O'Reilly series, everybody does a great job.
I feel like the racing has been amazing.
It's been awesome to watch every Saturday.
And then for Jesse, he put a lot of pressure on himself to beat, like to beat Connor because he knows that Jesse's a champ, but Connor, Connor's the guy.
And Jesse's like, no, I'm right there with him.
And he had him, he had him dead to rights.
And after you can tell how much he puts on himself.
And I appreciate that raw emotion and that honesty from Jesse right after it.
It should hurt.
Like when you don't win, that's how hard it is to win.
Cause when you're that close, it feels like the world is over and hopefully he learns from it and kind of moves on, but doesn't forget what that feeling is so he can keep pushing through.
That was Connor Zillich's third straight win at Watkins Glen.
Good for him.
So those were the positives.
Now we will move on to the negatives.
Yes.
So William Byron will start with this.
He finishes 36 lap 44.
He gets turned by Chris Busher.
Also, Ryan Blaney ends up hitting him really damages his car too.
Um, well, all those, all those names that you just mentioned didn't run well.
Yeah.
Um, you know, I was blown away how off the, the Hendrick cars were this weekend.
They, they obviously ran well there last year and typically, you know, that typically they're in somebody's in the mix.
They weren't in the mix from the time that they threw the green flag for practice.
And they were, they were not even close to where they needed to be this weekend for whatever reason.
It's going to happen when, when, sometimes when you think you've hit on something better and you can't blame it on the body.
Your body looked pretty good out front.
Um, so they obviously just, just missed it as, as a group from a, from a setting setup standpoint.
And, um, but that's as bad as I've seen Kyle Larson run.
Yeah.
23rd for Kyle Larson.
He was actually the highest, uh, finisher of the four car stable.
Yeah.
I mean, they, I mean, obviously they're probably relatively close on setup and that was not it.
So that was close.
That was going to get thrown out and probably never see the light of day again because it was a, it was a bad,
I can't say a bad effort is a really bad result.
Cause I'm sure everyone, a lot of times when you make a bad effort, it's probably,
it's probably put more time and effort into it than you would on, on some of the good efforts.
So that's the sucky part.
You know, they, they probably put themselves, uh, uh, had themselves in a position to where they, they thought that they had,
they had something, something better.
Yeah.
And, you know, I think that now you got to go back and look, okay, where did we go wrong thinking this was better?
Most likely it comes from simulation and the things that, that you thought there.
So, um, yeah, didn't work out.
I think it also depends.
You got to think about what you're chasing too.
Like if you're chasing SVG, but you're not very close in the, in the first place,
maybe that's not what you should be chasing.
Cause like if you're trying to track what he does, you're not going to, you're just not going to be able to do that.
And, you know, Cedric, Austin Cedric had speed and, and ran well fastest in practice.
Blaney was on the pole there last year.
And not never showed that speed again this year.
Even before the, before the damage, it wasn't really that fast.
Well, you're talking about team Penske, which brings me to Joey Logano finishing 38th.
Had a left front tire that brings out the caution lap 61.
It's been a tough go for that 22.
Yeah.
And they actually qualified.
Okay.
A qualified good actually.
And, you know, it just, it never really, it never really got to a point after that first pit stop to where they were back in contention to, to really do anything.
I'm not sure, you know, what cut the tire down right there, but that, that definitely put a, put a damper in, in Joey's, the rest of Joey's day.
But yeah, it's going to be a, it's going to be an uphill battle for him.
You know, I think that the 22 is probably in, in, in the worst spot of the, of the bunch, just with the expectations to race for a championship.
And they're on the outside of the chase looking in and it's the expectations are to, are to race for a championship.
And if you're not in the top six, you're not racing for a championship.
And, you know, I think that those, those hopes are probably becoming reality.
The reality of the situation is they're probably not going to contend for the championship.
They might make the chase and they, they might turn their season around, but I don't, I don't see them contending for the championship.
30th or worse in the last four races for team 22.
Yeah. I mean, I think this is a year that we've never really seen out of, out of Penske in a long time, let alone Joey Logano,
maybe almost ever, maybe back to when he was a rookie.
So then their expectation is to win races, run up front, lead laps, sit on poles, do all the things.
And they're not, they're not doing any of that right now.
They haven't done it all year.
The 12 has had the most speed.
Obviously we've talked about it countless times out of the whole group.
Not the last three weeks.
The last couple of weeks, it hasn't been the same as it was at the beginning of the year.
So they really got to kind of buckle down.
And like this is the time of year.
It's usually Coke 600 time where they really start to turn up the wick.
So hope they have that magic because if they don't, it's going to be.
And that's usually where you see the engine upgrades.
That's usually where you see everybody put the effort in all star races this weekend.
But all the effort is actually to get better is going to go into the Coke 600.
Yeah. Well, I was about to ask Kevin, at what point?
Cause we haven't seen this system in a while, this type of system in a while.
At what point do you think the team start really focusing on the horses that they got in the race?
As far as the best upgrades, the best cars and all those type of stuff.
Like at what point do you kind of, all right guys, like tough question now.
Yeah, it's a tough question now because when are you actually out of it?
Right?
Like, you know, that's never out of it before.
That's the great part of racing this way.
Yeah.
You can't pick a horse.
Yeah.
You got to, you got to put everything you've got into every horse because of the fact that
you want to, first you want to make chase, which, you know, you look at the 19 chase briscoe
and the 22 and the one of Ross Jastain, like those, those are cars that are expected to make the chase.
And they're expected in the 22 case.
And I think even in chase briscoe's case, those cars are expected to race for a championship.
And right now they're racing to make the chase.
Racing.
That is not the accomplishment that you want to have.
You know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, definitely a balancing act as, as to, you know, who you
can put all that effort in because chase needs to make up a lot of ground.
You want your other guys to race for a championship and that's what I love.
I love the fact that they can't choose a car.
They have to work every single week.
There are no weeks off and no matter if you're in the top six or your 17th or 18th in the
point.
So you have to equally allocate the resources.
Oh, it's harder on the teams.
Yeah.
You can't just pick a car and say, we need to get this guy win.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
And that's really what, what the Penske cars have kind of done the last few years.
They get them, you know, we've seen them off to a slow start with the 22, but now they're,
now, you know, you can't pick and choose and, and try to say, okay, we got to get a win.
Now we got to win.
So we can just get to the playoffs and have our stuff together.
You're going to be so far behind by you get, by the time you get to the, get to the chase
with this format that you, you're, you're not winning.
You're not, you're not contending for the championship.
Speaking of having your stuff together, someone in the infield did not because Akasha came out
for a flying tent.
This is kind of entertaining.
One of the first times we've seen this, um, our camera crew did a great job capturing
this by the way.
Oh, we had the, we had the whole thing.
We had liftoff.
We had the flight.
We had the landing.
We didn't land on the moon, but we landed in, in turn four.
You said the person claimed it.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
You see it take off right here.
And the drivers were actually talking about the wind gusting and just a crazy gust, uh,
came through there for a couple of minutes and you saw this, uh, what looks like a single
looks like a UFO car.
Single, single person's tent, uh, actually landed and then took back off.
Maybe the guys in the safety truck had, or asleep should have reached out and grabbed
that thing.
But it, it, it caused a caution, which was fine.
Help the show.
Help the show.
I saw NASCAR chasms said it was a dementor from Harry Potter.
Oh, from Harry Potter.
That was cute.
Kevin, that's, that's one of the bad animal beasts.
I've not watched, I've watched one second of it.
Please fill me in.
Yeah.
It's just one of the, one of the villains in Harry Potter.
Yeah.
It did look like that though.
That was good writing out a day variable.
Uh, this was an odd exchange after the race.
Bubba Wallace frustrated with Christopher Bell, um, which was over pit road, I guess
coming to pit lane.
Do we believe that's what this is one of those scenarios like last week where we couldn't
really figure out what sent priests over the edge.
Now I, I watched the sequence that they, that they showed of Bubba knowing that he was going
to pit and getting passed by three or four cars because Bell passed him.
But man, I don't, not really sure.
It looked like he was, he was pretty mad, but it was definitely a situation that he was
not happy with.
So probably a lot more details to go with it, but we don't know.
Christopher Bell just kind of took it.
Christopher, Christopher, he did that.
That was the same thing that when him and Kyle Bush got into at Kota, it was kind of
like, he doesn't strike me as a confrontation.
He's not really a grab you, caller guys.
He's not a kung fu ninja.
No, he's not.
He's not that.
He's not going to.
He's not a Kevin.
He's not jumping over.
No, he's not jumping over any hoods and grab him by the collar.
You know, that's another car that just didn't.
I really thought would, would be in, you know, have a little more speed than, than what it's
had.
They've had some bad luck 20, 20 of Bell.
Um, I thought that they would be better than they were, but they were, they were not, they
were not great.
I haven't seen great from them yet.
Oh, well, we've seen great.
We were great at Kansas.
We were great for the win off in turn two.
We were great at Texas leading the race crashed.
Okay.
So not we, but they, yeah, they, they were, were great at those races and every, it seems
like every time they're great, they wind up crashed or something happening.
So they've had a lot of bad luck and sometimes that bad luck, I mean, it's, this is a confidence
game when, when you don't have that confidence to go out and get through a weekend like Watkins
Glen, where you've got to be confident in what you're doing.
You know, sometimes it shows up in the, in the speed of the car.
Someone who probably has a lot of confidence right now, seemingly so anyway, is Caden Honeycutt
after winning four races for the course of the weekend, won the ARCA race on Friday.
A few hours later earned his first career victory in the craftsman truck series.
He has been very vocal about the fact he needed to learn how to win these races.
Well, he made a pretty big statement over the course of the weekend because then he
went on to win as well in cars.
When both cars tour races, after he won the ARCA and truck race and what great feet with,
with everything, everything that, that he did this weekend and he got out after the
cars tour race and told everybody he screamed that he was the greatest and nobody was ever
going to beat him.
So maybe we've learned how to win.
Now we've got to, now we've got to learn how to manage the PR side of it.
Yeah.
A lot of confidence there.
Hey, you know, it's tough when you got to live up to it.
Yeah, you know, but, you know, he, he did something that no one's, we haven't seen
anyone do in Hawaii.
It was so great.
Shout out to, to Caden because he really, he's one of those guys that kind of bet on
himself and started working in shops and sweeping floors and looking for any opportunity.
And he's got it.
He's won.
I think he won a snowball derby not too long ago.
Like he's the town.
You don't even have to tell anybody you're the greatest.
You're showing it.
Yeah.
And you're, and you are, you got into the truck that Corey Heim.
That's a lot of pressure on that.
And that's pressure by itself.
And you've been living up to it.
You might not have won a race, but you've been racing against people like Corey a lot
and other people.
So the coolest thing about the road course win was Conor Zilch was in it, SVG was in it
and AJ Almending was in it.
And those are three of the best that we've ever seen on road course.
Yeah.
And you were able to go toe to toe with that and won.
So congrats on that.
Good job for Caden Hunnicutt, banner weekend for him.
Now we are moving on to the monster mile for the all star race.
This is going to be interesting.
The concrete oval obviously is Dover, you think the right place for the all star race,
Kevin?
Yeah.
You look, I think that we've seen a number of places that we go that we're like, I don't
know.
And then it turns into this wacky, crazy, wild, entertaining event.
The thing that I like about the all star races is there's a lot of money on the line.
You can win a million dollars.
Right.
But the teams and the drivers know that there's no, you can take a lot of risk and gain a
lot of reward, but you can also not lose anything.
You can't lose anything.
So you can go for it.
And, you know, this is, this is not a race that the racetrack that is going away.
This is a racetrack that's, you know, that's, that's going to be on the schedule, whether
it's a points race or in this year's instance, an all star race, you know, they're going
to put resin all over the racetrack.
We did that at Nashville a few years ago and it really rubbered the racetrack up well,
which is the intention of, of trying to put the resin down.
And I think that you could see it be very different than, than what it has been in the
past because of that kind of that, that unique twist to things that we're going to do this
weekend.
So that was very interesting when we went to Nashville and they did that to the racetrack
because you went out and they ran and next thing you know, you're like five lines up
the racetrack and it really rubbered the racetrack in until you, you can sweep it all you want
until you have the race cars pulling everything out of that, that surface and, and really
getting it cleaned up and getting a rubber on there.
That's the only way that you're going to get it to that point.
So my favorite part of this is with that fresh resin and everything is Clint Boyer is running
the truck.
That's right.
I was like, I knew, I knew.
My guy is, is not prepared.
There's nothing to prepare for with the team.
They don't have simulation.
Has it been working out?
No.
Oh, no.
I don't, I think he's just realized the reality of what's getting ready to happen this weekend.
It's a 200 lap race.
The truck race?
Yeah.
I think it's, I think it's something like that.
Yeah, something like that.
I mean, I know that it's the first time ever that everybody from Fox will be together watching
a truck race.
Usually everybody kind of goes in their different direction after, after we get done, we watch
on TV.
There is no way that we're not watching this in person because all we want to do is be
able to give Clint Boyer a whole truckload full of shit when he's done.
So he better hope that he over achieves or he is never going to hear the end of it.
Are there some bets being placed on this?
Possibly.
Yeah.
Well, there possibly could be some bets on whether he stays on the lead lap.
Yeah.
When he's, yeah.
Yeah, we're not, we're not betting on the finish or anything.
We're betting on Clint or a guy.
Oh yeah, we're just, we're just having friendly bets amongst each other.
Friendly bets.
And it will be interesting.
You'll be out there, I'm assuming for.
Nope.
Oh, I thought you were ramen.
Nope.
Nope.
Not this weekend.
We're not taking, we don't have the display out there.
So I will be in Charlotte.
Cool.
A little off weekend.
You can come take notes with me then.
Oh yeah.
So are we having a, like a party this weekend?
Uh, I think we're taking the weekend off where we got, we're taking the weekend off.
There are no weekends.
I hate that word.
There is nothing that I hated.
We're so-and-so.
Ah, they're on vacation.
I'm like, what?
Listen, if you're going to be on a race team or in racing, there are no vacations.
We got, we got a big, lot.
Our no week's off.
We got a dual situation at 600.
So just trying to, trying to gear up.
What does that mean?
Dual situation.
It means we got a little tailgate going on outside of the racetrack, the 600.
And then we got our party at Hoppin for there.
We got to cook out.
Where do you tailgate at the 600?
I think we're going to tailgate this year over in turn, outside of turn four.
On the backside of turn four.
I can't remember the last time I tailgated.
What is on the backside of turn four?
People.
Just people.
Just people.
Is that where they have the, like the college section over there in turn four?
It used to be over there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The sun deck area.
You can find Mamba with the college girls.
Yeah.
We'll be waiting to hear the update on that story.
What?
The only guy over there with a gray beard.
No, I won't be.
That's not true.
But yeah.
There's a lot of gray in that beard.
So you might, you might want to color that up.
No, no, no.
Get you a Sharpie or something.
If I color it up.
I'd put more grays in it if I could.
That's how Hornaday used to do it.
He would take the gray hairs and he'd take his Sharpie.
No, he would not.
That is hilarious.
100%.
It's kind of genius.
Yeah.
Only if your hair is jet black.
If your hair is jet black.
Well, yours is jet black.
You can do touch ups while you're signing autographs.
I don't know.
That's as jet black as you can jet it.
My hair is dark.
So Sharpie would work fine.
Yeah.
Sharpie would do the trick.
It would be fine.
I want to go back to something though, Kevin, quickly.
Extreme banking, high G forces.
How is this one of the most physically demanding race track?
It's a great track.
And typically the harder you drive it into the corner, the faster you go.
If you, if your car will take it, you know, a lot of unique scenarios,
because as you go into turn one, you actually fall down like eight,
10 stories as you go from the rise in the straightaway down into the corner.
And that is a, that is a cool feeling.
And then it just loads up into that banking.
Very unique.
And actually I'll give boy or some credit here.
He's, he's really, really good at Dover.
But because it's a, it's a very unique way of going back to throttle.
You'll actually land and go back to either part, a little bit of partial throttle.
And then you'll put the throttle down to get to like the three quarter mark
of the corner to take all that speed through that middle section of the corner
and then lift again so that the nose doesn't take off up off the corner.
Because when you come off a two, it does the same thing.
It rises back up and that car has a tendency to, to jump up and you'll get loose
or, but you just don't want the car to take off because if it gets tight
and then it goes over that rise, you're going to smack the fence.
And turn three is a little bit different and really rough on the entry to the corner.
So you got to, especially in the cup car,
you got to pay attention to how those limiters are set so that the car,
we've seen a lot of cars get on those limiters and back and back it into the fence.
But resin is going to change it.
It's going to, it's going to create some things that we're, that we're not expecting.
And that is yet to be seen.
Definitely going to see some, some cars jump out of turn two, get real light
and either hit the wall, get close to the wall, over correct.
And then it's a self, what we call self cleaning racetrack.
Usually if you hit the outside wall, you're going to hit the inside wall
and then you might blow back up in the middle of straightaway and get hit by a couple cars.
So it's usually a two or three impact.
Drivers will have their hands full.
This is the format for the all star race this year.
It's nearly almost a 400 lap race, 350 total, 275 lap segments.
The top 26 inversion will take place after segment one.
And then there will be a final 200 lap segment to the finish.
What do you make of this format?
Well, you know, I think that we're always trying to get creative with the,
with the all star format.
So I think that you just never know how it's going to work out.
Right.
And I think that you want to give the fans a, you know, race that is,
that is long enough to be able to sit there and watch it.
And so I like having all the, all the cars to start and being able to do that part of it.
So it'll be interesting to see what that last segment looks like with,
with everything being that long.
So that's a long way to dover.
That is a long ways at Dover.
People talk about, you know, it's, it's only a mile,
but 200 laps at Dover is a long ways.
I hope we keep doing this change up with the all star race and with the class,
the venue change.
Where do you think it should be next year?
Oh man.
I honestly would love if, I don't care which one of them,
but somehow we get to some of these short tracks.
Like we did, like obviously North to Wilkesboro type thing.
So whether it's like a Hickory or South Boston or something like that.
I think that would be really cool.
I think it'd be great back at Bowman Gray.
Bowman, you, all the all star race.
That'd be cool.
Put it, put it in a, a time of year that the weather's actually going to be.
The weather's right.
Yeah.
You have a better chance of having the weather right.
Get the clash back to Daytona.
Let's get speed weeks back together.
Oh, okay.
And doing all the things.
That's, that's what I'd like to see.
Have you ever noticed that Kevin will ask you something because he is ready to say his.
No, I know why he's asking.
Well, I want to agree with him, but very, very rarely.
That's cool.
I think it should be here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He didn't say it and he started rambling and I'm like, look, here's what I think.
He wants, he wants speed.
He wants preseason thunder.
He wants the whole clash.
He wants everything back at Daytona.
Hey, quickly for you though, cause I know you just had a conversation with a pit crew
member.
There's still a factor, obviously for the all star race and playing a role.
Yeah.
So they, yeah, called shout out Paul Swan.
So I called Paul cause we were curious about some, some stuff.
He's on the three car.
So basically it's what we had last year.
You know, the, the drivers are going to be involved with the pit crew challenge, getting
down pit road, getting off pit road, making their complete lap.
Um, and then, you know, for qualified for qualifying and pit crews are going to pit crews are
going to be fast and stop going to the cash.
That's right.
Go get it.
Added incentive for the picker.
It'll be cool.
It's always a neat event, cool marquee weekend as well.
No pressure.
The pit crew challenge is one of my, it was always one of my favorite parts of the kid
watching.
It was so unique.
I'm still lobbying for it to return to what it used to be in speed channel days.
You mean when it was in the inspector center event, it was pretty cool.
When it was in the spectrum center, that was awesome.
They would push the car.
Oh man.
I thought it was awesome.
It was just something different to showcase their abilities.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Cool.
Well, that's going to be the all star race.
We look forward to seeing how it all goes down in Delaware.
And now it is your turn to do the slappy sips.
Oh, slapy sips.
I like it.
Slapping.
Pinky up.
No.
I'm sick.
No.
We don't have time to go.
We don't have time to go through nicknames.
Slappy dingo.
Slappy and dingo.
It is.
It is your favorite time of the show where Caitlyn and Kevin have to shut up and it's
all about me, baby.
Let's go.
Mama's social sips.
We're going to start with the word of the week.
Run it.
Here comes Bush, the inside of Wallace.
Yeah.
And Kyle Bush has quietly had a pretty good day to start this race trying to millerate
a situation from last week to put himself in a better spot to get a good finish.
Woof.
Add a little hydro.
Add a little hiccup in there.
Oh, joss slapping.
What does that even mean?
What does it mean?
It means you have to correct a bad situation.
Get the best out of a bad situation.
But you said Mike Joy gave you a little tap to it.
You know you got it.
He was like, yeah, good job.
And Clint's like, oh.
I don't know what happened.
English is hard.
English is hard.
We're getting to the end of it.
So I had to make sure I got it in one more real good.
Yeah.
So are we doing one this week?
Yeah.
We have to.
You're on TV, right?
I mean, as far as I know.
Yeah.
You should still make him do one when he does the truck races too.
Yeah.
Because you'll be doing San Diego.
I'm going to do the San Diego truck race.
Oh, you are?
It's exciting.
They will make Katelyn throw it to you.
Oh, hell no.
Don't.
You can't do it.
That's even better.
You messed up.
That would be really hard.
We don't like have a lot of time.
No, that would be great though.
If like your pre-race interview, you had to just slip a word in there that and whoever
your interview and looked at you like, what does that mean?
Yeah.
Oh boy.
A lot of boyers.
To be determined on if that's a good plan.
No, we're going to know.
You shouldn't have said anything.
Now you're locked in.
Yep.
This week.
There's a lot of talk.
A lot of talk about the most popular driver.
Yeah.
Who has been the same person for almost the entire time I've been in NASCAR.
But someone had on NASCAR Reddit, they were like, whoa, what about Carson Hosevar?
What?
And so, can Carson Hosevar win most popular driver?
If Cletus is backing him.
Cletus has a huge following.
We all know that.
Mains of people.
And then Dale Jr. said, Cletus would have to have a campaign on social daily to make
it competitive, which basically saying like, no way, no shot.
And then somebody, Michael Carrington says, comes at Dale, says, you don't know that.
You're just dismissing him and it's clear disrespect to have based on the way you spell
it.
Cletus is, Cletus wrong on purpose.
Cletus is the same.
I'll reiterate that you don't know because the numbers aren't released publicly unless
they're released to you, is that what you're saying?
And here's the thing, the guy has won it a bunch of times.
So I'm pretty sure he knows.
And that's exactly what he's saying.
That's a mic drop right there.
Yeah.
He goes, I won it 15 times and I have a solid understanding of how it works, but I think
it'd be so hard.
Like Cletus has a lot of following and, and, um, you know, Carson has a lot of emotion
right now.
You know what I mean?
But I don't know, beating a Chase Elliott situation is tough.
Yeah.
I mean, I would say Kyle Larson has a better chance of beating Chase Elliott, but on a
year that he's winning and got everything rolling, he's, he might have a chance.
I mean, based upon the souvenir sales and things that happen out front, he's actually
beat Chase Elliott a few times in souvenir sales out front.
But now Chase Elliott is winning.
So I don't know, I'd say that's a tough hill to climb and, and look, Carson's doing a
great job.
I mean, he is clearly engaging with the fans and the fans are reacting to the things that
he's doing, but he's not winning the most popular driver.
He's won, he's won one race and he's got a, he's a great young man that is building a
brand.
And, and people are intrigued.
And I think that is great to have that interaction.
To this guy, free roll to top was his handle, by the way.
Why are you going to pick a fight with, you got this axe to grind with Dale Jr.
About the most popular driver, 15 times, seems like a, maybe don't, don't go there.
I would probably just leave that one out there.
Yeah.
You know, but never know.
You never know.
Uh, Caden, honey, we talked about him early on in the show, one, and, but he's been saying
for a few races, whenever he does win, he was going to have a shotgun with the fans.
Now, this is not exactly a shotgun, but he had a nice bush latte nonetheless and, and,
and chugged that beer with the group.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The best.
I wouldn't say that was chugged.
I was he should call, missed a little bit, Mrs. Larson.
That's what I was just going to say to that shot.
Yeah.
I mean, if you're going to, to chug a beer, you're going to have to do
it better than that.
That was awful.
He basically just poured it on his face.
He pulled a stone.
It was better.
I mean, he did it a little bit.
I mean, that, that was bad.
He did it a little bit better at the cars tour race and he actually went into the grandstands.
Like he said, he was going to, but you're going to have to, you're going to have to,
if that's going to be your thing, you're going to have to do it way better than that.
I remember when Caitlin did it at the banquet after that girl is a freaking rock star when
it comes to chugging.
Caitlin Larson is a G straight up bank.
So she goes to the racetrack does so much with the high limit stuff mother and the kid
like all supporting the Kyle, like the whole thing.
Yeah.
Shocking.
Sorry, hijacked your steps.
No, you didn't hijack.
You just added two.
You added two.
And just like you did with this sips because this is one of Caitlin that she saw.
I thought it was cute going, needing some fan votes for the all-star race.
And I think, you know, he's doing all the things.
He's kissing babies, shaking hands, doing all the stuff.
The backstory on this, I saw it was, it was just obviously at the autograph merch or someone
just put the baby over the side and the baby was asleep.
I mean, like never even really reacted.
Yeah.
If they would have saw the video of him trying to change a diaper on Bleacher reports racing
account, then they would not have had a baby.
Yeah.
Well, he's, he's, you know, even as bad as they've run, he's got a great personality
and following me.
He's very, he's a very likable kid and, you know, they're good.
They're getting it together.
I wonder what the age gap is on the baby and him.
It's probably almost closer than him and Danny.
Yeah.
Honestly.
You're right.
Yeah.
What's what's 44?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is closer because he's closer to the same age as that baby.
That's the point.
I was just trying to, that's awesome.
Well, they have it.
Mom and social sips.
That's all we got for today.
Remember if you want to do a mail bag, Harvard cap, or four at gmail.com voicemail 805-317-4175.
I love you closers.
Nice touch.
Okay.
Time now for the last call.
And Carson Hosevar had one of the best burnouts of the year.
But where does this one rank, you think, for Mr. SVG?
Well, I think the burnout was really good.
And we always talk about SVG's showmanship.
He gets the fact that, you know, you got to put on a show when you win.
Everybody wants to see, they want to be entertained and they want to see how happy you are.
And he did some great burnout.
The only person who didn't like his burnouts was Richard Childress because it was on the
rev limiter the whole time.
And those are his engines in that car.
But he burned it to the ground until the tires popped right here.
Got the left rear against the wall.
Gave some high fives.
But how is he able to get, he does something different that allows so much smoke.
He always has it just.
Yeah.
Well, you got to run it in second gear.
Okay.
Yeah.
If you want a lot of smoke, you got to put it in a gear that's not first.
Okay.
That was a big part.
I can't remember who was doing it the other day and they tried, they were definitely in
first gear.
Oh, I think it was Chase maybe.
Was it Chase?
Yeah.
He's done him enough.
He should know better than that.
I don't, I don't think it was him.
I think it was a truck racer.
Oh, you meant, yeah.
O'Reilly, whatever they call it.
But yeah, good burnout, solid.
I had a little showmanship to it.
Kick the football.
Kick the rugby ball.
I got bashed a little bit for calling it a football.
Hell, I don't even know that I've ever watched a rugby game.
I know I have not.
Yeah.
I mean, I've seen some highlights of them smashing into each other, but I don't know.
Rugby.
I don't know anything about you.
I don't have any disrespect towards you.
I thought it was a football.
It's rugby ball.
It looks the same to me.
Kind of.
Not really.
We call it, we call it soccer.
They call it football.
So I don't know what the hell to call it.
Well, yeah.
So where did we land this plane on the grade?
I'd say it's top three.
Top three for SPG.
Very nice.
What would that be?
Yeah.
It's probably like a B plus.
Okay.
You're not getting a host of our grade.
No.
No.
Oh, I guess Tyler Reddick was in front of a wholesome bar with the reverse burnout.
Yeah.
That was that was.
Okay.
So this is below the Tyler Reddick.
Yeah.
Okay.
We're definitely below that.
Okay.
I've lost track.
I can't remember.
No, I just know the top three.
And that's all that matters.
Great.
Keep track of that.
I got you.
Yeah.
Speaking of the top three.
I am currently at the bottom of the group in the standings on the points because I
got zero for picking at Chris Busher.
Who's winning?
And right now that's mumbo on the screen.
You see that?
They put mumbo in there.
Mumbo.
Did they?
I love it.
No, that's the right one.
That's not the AI version.
That's me.
That is him.
That's mumbo leader.
Yeah, we do need mumbo.
Mumbo.
I like the mumbo picture.
He's old.
Give me a couple.
Give me about 12 more years.
I'll catch up to that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
44 points right now for mumbo.
Picked up six for Tyler Redick.
Of course, Kevin.
I'm making up ground.
After you guys took a race away from me.
It's a close race though because you're only one point ahead of me mumbo.
You took a week off.
Yeah, you guys gave me a week off to make it close.
No, we didn't give you.
You took it.
No.
Yeah.
I'm 100% willing to participate.
I wasn't invited to participate because both of you know that you're going to lose.
I don't think that's how it works.
Oh, no.
You were 100% a part of this.
Listen, the fans of the racetrack are very supportive in the fact that you need to stop crying about
this.
They've been telling me that it's not my fault that you didn't show up.
Don't you have another vacation plan that we need to make sure we get your selection?
I do, but I'll be in the studio in LA.
Oh, okay.
He says that so smugly.
You fuckers can't miss this time.
Okay guys, let's make some picks for the All-Star race.
Who wants to go first?
Well, you take the top honors.
You're P1.
Yeah.
That's how that works.
That's how it works.
I don't even think you thought about it until just now.
Honestly, I didn't usually.
I just wait for you guys to go.
Well, I have mine written down, so can I go?
Of course you do.
Ryan Blaney.
That's my choice for the All-Star win.
I did some research on this and there's a reason behind it.
He's been decent.
He's been pretty good.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
What do you say?
I'm going to take Denny Hamlin.
I had that name also written down.
That's funny.
I was trying to debate between the two.
There you go.
Hamlin.
I'm going to go Bubba Wallace.
Bubba Wallace.
Bubba Wallace.
This is one of his favorite tracks.
One of his better tracks.
Toyotas.
I mean, I just feel like.
Tell him to call you back.
It's hard.
Yeah, he doesn't even call me back.
We have some things to talk about.
I'm going to Bubba.
And they really, it'd be a real good shot in the arm for them.
Yes, it would.
Good luck.
We'll see how it all goes down up in Dover.
And we look forward to Thursday because you had a conversation with Daniel Suarez.
I did.
Yeah.
I just, I thought it, I thought it would be a good time to sit down and talk to Daniel
because of the, you know, they've run well, switching teams and all the things that he's
gone through and all the comments that he and Ross kind of threw back and forth.
He gave us some great insight on, on, on things.
And we got, we got kind of off the rails a little bit on Mexico and Brazil on, on their
NASCAR series and the things that, that need to be better to get more opportunities to
come to America and showcase who the, who the great drivers are.
So I thought it was pretty intriguing just to hear him talk about maybe wanting to manage
drivers or to help consult in a series.
And because he's got a great perspective on all that.
So we went, we went down some of the normal stuff and then we got off the rails and had
some fun on, on a great conversation.
That'll be interesting.
He's been a cool story so far this year.
He's such a great guy.
He is.
He's awesome.
We look forward to that.
All right.
Closers, make sure you subscribe on our new YouTube channel.
Follow us at Harvick Happy Pod.
We will see everyone after the All Star weekend.
About this episode
Shane van Gisbergen’s road-course dominance takes center stage as the hosts debate whether he’s “the greatest road course racer” to come through the Cup Series. They break down what sets him apart: efficient passing, controlling driving deep into corners, managing tire falloff, and creating gaps with late braking and stability. Strategy swings also matter—cautions forcing fuel saving and stage decisions trapping teams in traffic. The conversation widens to road-course scheduling, Watkins Glen conditions, and the All-Star Race at Dover.
Original notes
Fans get the full Watkins Glen breakdown as Shane van Gisbergen captures his first Cup Series win of the season with another dominant road course performance, Michael McDowell shocks the field with a runner-up finish, a look at Trackhouse Racing moving forward, and the Richard Childress Racing drivers continue battling ahead of the NASCAR All-Star Weekend at Dover Motor Speedway. Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith recap all the biggest moments from Watkins Glen, analyze SVG’s growing road course dominance in the NASCAR Cup Series, discuss what the latest results mean for the Cup Series standings, preview All-Star Weekend, and react to the newest Mamba’s Social Sips featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s social media debate surrounding the NASCAR Most Popular Driver vote.
0:00 - Intro
2:07 - Watkins Glen Weekend Recap
33:43 - All-Star Weekend Preview
43:13 - Mamba’s Social Sips
50:14 - Last Call
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