00:00
Hello, and welcome to this week's Truth About Cars podcast. I am Tim Healy, the managing editor,
00:14
and this week we are talking about the state of the automotive industry with Kyle Choromka
00:18
from the drive. We also discussed NASCAR in New Hampshire and eBay's guaranteed fit
00:22
program with T-Tech contributor Matthew Guy. But first, buying a car should feel secure,
00:28
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please go ahead and give us a review and also check us out online at t-tech.com that is
01:01
ttac.com or the Truth About Cars, allspulledout.com. We are your home for car reviews, opinions, car
01:07
news, and so, so much more. Here on the Truth About Cars podcast, we're always talking about
01:12
the stuff that we use in our homes, on our cars, in our homes. Just as an example, I had to use
01:18
some WD-40 repair or may have to use some WD-40 on our pair that's coming up in my house. So,
01:24
that's something we always talk about. We usually have T-Tech contributor,
01:26
Matthew Gaye with us to do that. And Matthew, we're talking about eBay's Will It Fit program today,
01:31
right? That's right, yeah. And eBay's are a really good spot to go for new parts and
01:37
things of that nature. And you can also find some things that might be hard to find. But
01:42
eBay's guaranteed fit program is pretty cool because once you go to their website and you
01:47
search by vehicle, it kicks back a whole bunch of different parts that they have. If they've
01:54
got a little green check mark next to them, they're guaranteed to fit your car. And that's,
02:00
I know that might seem very basic, but in the age where we're buying a lot of parts online and
02:08
not buying them in the store, not opening the box before we get them,
02:12
you know, you can get the wrong thing sent to you. And it's good that, you know,
02:16
that this guaranteed fit program exists over on eBay because all these different eligible parts
02:21
and accessories, they just, they're supposed to fit when they arrive. And I've had really good
02:26
luck with this program. So just over the weekend, it was the most recent time that I've used this
02:32
program that was just, I was doing a set of front brakes on a little Mitsubishi Mirage, you know?
02:38
And real quick, you know, you just, I just searched for the parts. Pretty affordable,
02:43
you know, I know that eBay doesn't set the prices, the individual retailers do, but
02:48
far less than a hundred bucks American, those options popped up and you had your two discs,
02:56
you had your four brake pads, all the clips that were needed that came with it. And
03:02
it's just, I find the guaranteed fit program is a really good way to make sure that you got
03:06
the parts you need because nothing worse than when you get something half taken apart
03:10
to the point where you're replacing something and the thing that you're replacing doesn't fit.
03:14
So you can't... Of course, yeah. Well, going back and forth to the parts store is the worst, man.
03:20
Yeah. And I think it's parts stores. They paid my bills as a child, but,
03:23
but yeah, it's cool. It's, it's, you only want to make one trip if you can. Absolutely. And,
03:28
and you know, especially if you're wrenching on your, on your daily, right? I mean,
03:32
you can't jump into it then and go somewhere to, to back to the parts store,
03:36
you know, because then your daily is in pieces because you just took it apart to replace the brakes.
03:43
So that's why I really like these guaranteed fit programs. Like the one...
03:46
Yeah, it's called guaranteed fit. I spoke, I misspoke earlier. I called it Willow fit.
03:50
It's guaranteed fit. Yeah, guaranteed.
03:51
Sure. It's correct.
03:52
And if it doesn't, if by some chance it doesn't fit, I mean, return it for free and get a full
03:59
refund. I know that's part and parcel of some other parts of buying things online as well,
04:04
but at least that hassle is out of there, is out of, out of your mind. And you know, the program
04:10
covers most parts. I've been having a hard time finding something that's not covered by it actually.
04:16
You know, and they're going to add more to the future. And it's not just cars,
04:19
I mean, it's trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, even. I don't wrench on bikes,
04:23
but I know a few people who do when they've used this program,
04:25
they've had good success with it as well in the past.
04:29
Yeah, yeah. So have you, outside of this repair, you were just working this week,
04:34
have you run into this problem before or the solution from eBay Guarantee Fifth?
04:39
Yeah, and absolutely. Sometimes, let's see, so Ford is working on a challenger and
04:44
depending on what a break option you have on that challenger, the pads are quite different
04:51
actually on the front at least in terms of how they're mounted and how they are,
04:56
and in terms of how you install them. And there's no way to make one or the other fit.
05:02
So I did, you know, buy from an online source one time and when the pads showed up,
05:08
no, not even close right there for a 2018 challenger, but not with the break option.
05:13
And I went back and looked through the email to make sure I had specified that particular
05:18
break option, because the option was there in the drop down menu for the site that I was on.
05:23
But I guess the wrong ones got shipped. So I have run into it in the past, you know, you run into it
05:29
sometimes buying parts, you know, from from a local place here, I was trying to replace the
05:35
two front knuckles on a Hyundai Elantra. And I ended up getting two driver side ones instead
05:41
of a driver and passenger, you know, and when you go to try to install them and kind of
05:48
I was looking at it and I thought, but this doesn't quite look right. But you know,
05:52
maybe there's some efficiencies here during initial assembly that they're using the same one
05:57
on the left and right. And of course it wasn't like, you know, they're going to be different
06:01
on both sides. So having, you know, no guests, no stress, you know, those types of things.
06:07
That's why I think it's pretty cool. Sometimes we might avoid, you know,
06:11
quote unquote, signing up for something or logging into a site.
06:15
But it does help, you know, for this eBay perfect, I'm sorry, guaranteed fit program.
06:20
If you keep the car that you're working on to keep your daily, whatever it is,
06:24
just in this quote unquote garage that they have, save your model. And then pretty quick,
06:30
when you're browsing for parts, that little green check mark will show up if the part
06:35
will fit your car or not. There you go. Anything else you want to add on this
06:40
and your base guaranteed fit? Not that I can think of off the top of my head,
06:44
other than it does seem, I mean, the stuff that I've ordered so far has mostly been brakes.
06:48
I haven't ordered any suspension parts. I've got all that stuff locally, but it says it covers
06:54
suspension parts. That's probably some of the biggest headaches that you could come across
06:58
for stuff not fitting. Starters, alternators, that type of stuff is also in there,
07:04
depending on your make and model, same thing with engine cooling components too. So
07:07
I think I'd definitely recommend it for sure. If you're just getting started wrenching on your
07:12
own vehicle, whether it's your daily or your project, this type of stuff makes the work go a lot easier.
07:17
Yeah, absolutely. So with that, we will go ahead and wrap our
07:21
usual stuff we use segment here and through to our first podcast. Thank you, Matthew.
07:25
Hey, thank you, Tim.
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09:27
Here on this week's Truth About Cars podcast, we have Kyle Cheramka with us from The Drive. Kyle,
09:32
you're the editor-in-chief of The Drive. That's correct. Yeah, so Kyle, thank you for joining us.
09:37
You are here to talk to us about the overall automotive market and the shifting,
09:44
the ever-shifting sands as it were in terms of whether it's the EV tax credit going away,
09:50
which will happen in a few weeks or actually sooner than that, or the rise in average transaction
09:57
prices, tariffs, a whole bunch of other things. So let's kind of start with the big picture.
10:02
How are you seeing it over at The Drive? Every automotive journalist, every automotive analyst
10:08
sees it a little bit different. How are you seeing it?
10:12
Just when you think things are settling down or getting into some sort of rhythm again,
10:18
it feels like five other things pop up in this industry to add chaos to the mix.
10:25
It's a big transitional time, I would say. That's the best way to describe it.
10:29
We've got a lot of stuff converging this fall. The EV tax credit ending at the end of September,
10:35
that's going to make a huge difference not only the way people shop, but the way
10:38
automakers price their cars. You've got the tariff impact, which has really yet to be felt
10:45
by consumers because of the stock that dealers keep and the way that companies have tried to
10:50
initially at least absorb those costs, maybe hoping that a deal would be struck to lower them and
10:55
some have, but they're still fixed at higher rates or far higher rates than they were before.
10:59
So that is also coinciding with the 2026 model year cars coming onto lots later this fall
11:06
at the same time that dealers are trying to clear out the 2025 and older stock that they have.
11:11
And then, of course, you have the federal interest rate cut that was just announced earlier this month
11:18
that we should see an impact on lending rates at least for financing new cars.
11:24
So all of that stuff is converging at a point where people are still feeling squeezed by inflation,
11:29
buying power is still down. New car sales are still down broadly speaking. Some automakers
11:37
have had a good quarter, but there was such a rush to buy new cars when the tariffs were first
11:42
announced this spring that there are fewer buyers looking for their next car right now than there
11:47
would be at a normal time in a normal year. So all these factors are feeding into this mess
11:53
where it is really hard to separate the signal from the noise and understand what exactly
11:58
the impact is going to be on prices. But broadly speaking, you can expect prices will
12:04
continue to go up. They did inch up again in August. I think it was right around $49,000
12:11
for the average new car or price out the door at least. And yeah, at the same time that
12:19
it just feels like the products that automakers are coming out with,
12:23
they're really trying to figure out what people want. They're not used to
12:27
having to read the tea leaves like this. They're used to a reliable mass of buyers just
12:33
wanting a new car every two to three years and being there to make that cycle happen.
12:38
And I think more and more people are weighing that against their own financial realities and
12:42
saying, hey, do I really need to go in on a new car? Or I hear all these issues with
12:47
build quality. I mean, that's a huge, huge concern for a lot of folks who I talk to
12:50
who are in the market. And it's making buyers skittish. And automakers aren't used to that.
12:56
They're still trying to adapt from three years ago when you could charge $10,000 over
13:02
for a RAV4 because people were just that desperate for it. And now that is not the case.
13:08
Yeah, the world definitely changed a lot. And I mean, I haven't been car shopping
13:11
by myself in quite some time. I've never actually bought a new car. But
13:16
Yeah, I had used cars before doing this for a living and now I'm impressed cars enough
13:20
that I don't need to get a new car. But I have noticed with everything else I buy
13:27
just about there's been a few exceptions. But the like going to get the grocery store
13:33
is just insane range. Oh, it's like my bill is $50 to $100 more for the basically the same stuff.
13:39
Tell me about it. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm out here in Los Angeles where it is
13:44
incredibly expensive to live regardless. But if you look at what we were paying for basic
13:48
staples two years ago versus now, it is significantly higher. And it's not like
13:54
gone up across the board. So something's got to give.
13:57
Right. It's the same year in Chicago, for sure. I mean,
14:00
almost everything I buy, like I said, has gone up. But there's been a few exceptions.
14:04
I just had to buy a new TV and pricing on that has gone down because the TV I got
14:10
was a newer model for less money than the one I had previous. So there are some
14:14
exceptions. But generally speaking, you know, it's inflation is tough. So
14:20
obviously that really affects the average buyer, especially when you're coming to talking about
14:24
car buying, which is obviously the second biggest purchase most people make. Let's talk a little
14:28
bit. What's that? I always say when people ask, you know what? I guess when I'm trying to justify
14:35
what I do for a living and give give it stakes to people, it is that you know,
14:38
what we do is when we review cars, we are advising people on the second biggest or honestly
14:44
the biggest purchase that they'll ever make in their lifetime. Yeah, if you're a lifelong
14:48
renter car might be. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the EV credit, which
14:55
this podcast will barring some crazy breaking news go live just before the credit expires. So
15:02
how is that going to change the market? So at this point, we've talked to some analysts
15:06
about this too. It's not a new topic on this podcast. But we've seen on our end of TTAC and
15:12
what I've seen in and heard in conversations with folks is it's kind of a weird time because
15:17
the EV market is actually growing a little bit. It's not, you know, rocket ship growth,
15:21
but it's growing a bit and it's the market's getting better and automakers are getting better with
15:26
range and charging times and getting just some better quality products in general and starting
15:32
to kind of starting to see a few more affordable EVs as well, the lower end of the price
15:37
point and Nissan just just relaunched the leaf or launched the second generation,
15:42
sorry, third generation of the leaf. So that's an affordable EV as well. So you're starting to see
15:48
EV growth at the same time that the credit may go away. Now that being said, we've also noticed
15:53
as we've had these conversations that some analysts have suggested that the credit is really
15:59
more just for people who are pretty well off anyway. And it's not really incentivizing buyers
16:04
who are in the fence. So I want to see if you've seen that and what you might expect
16:09
for the EV buyer and the EV shopper as that credit disappears.
16:13
Well, it really depends on if we're talking about leasing or buying because for buying, obviously,
16:18
it is still a bigger upfront commitment, bigger upfront cost. And people by definition who are in
16:23
the market for a new car to take on a big car payment and that kind of debt ostensibly have
16:30
the ability to do so. Whereas leasing, the way that credit has played out, it really just
16:36
makes it a lot more accessible for a lot more people who might not have even considered it.
16:42
I mean, I'm actually a perfect example of that because I earlier this year, I used to have an
16:48
old E46 three series wagon that was completely falling apart. And I got sick of maintaining
16:54
it and just it was kind of past the point of no return. And so I got rid of it and got
17:00
in Hyundai Ionic 5 on a really cheap lease. And this was admittedly before the tariff
17:05
announcement, this was March. But those deals are still active this month, even Hyundai is still
17:11
really trying to keep the price down. And it shows in their sales. I mean, August, I don't
17:17
have the percentage in front of me, but they were up double digits. And EV sales were a big
17:22
part of that on the end Kia. And so the lease, it really, I mean, for my payment is $240 a month
17:31
with not much money down at all. That's something that a lot more people can swing
17:36
than even a $500 car payment with, you know, some down payment up front.
17:42
So the the tax credit has really given people a reason to try an EV who might not want one
17:49
otherwise or who might not have even considered it as an option. But there are, as you said,
17:55
automakers, the thing to keep in mind here is that the way product cycles work, these bets
18:01
that are coming to the market this year next year were placed between three and five years ago.
18:06
And there's a certain amount of adjustments that automakers can do. But there was not,
18:12
you know, it wasn't until like the last year or two that there was a huge, huge concern
18:17
and realization that automakers had really abandoned the lower end of the pricing
18:22
spectrum and that those buyers instead of just sprinting and saving and trying to put down more
18:27
on a more expensive car, they're just going to keep their car or they're going to buy a used car.
18:31
That's also why you see used car prices continue to inch up. And so the idea that the tax credit
18:38
was going to be this thing that goes away and then the market completely changes is true to
18:45
some degree. At the same time, automakers having seen this are trying to pivot as quickly
18:51
as they can to make the pricing make more sense in today's market. The leaf is a great example
18:56
because not only are they launching it, but Nissan just announced they're going to discontinue production
19:01
of the Aria, their first electric SUV that had a higher price points, because it just
19:07
doesn't make sense now to push that as their main electrification, you know,
19:12
halo vehicle, if you will, and realize that the market for a $50,000 crossover,
19:18
especially post tax credit is not there the way it used to be. And it's not going to sustain
19:24
and deliver the money that they need to continue these kinds of investments.
19:30
And I think another great example here is I talked, this was going back four years. So in 2021,
19:35
I had the chance to interview Jim Farley at Ford during Pebble Beach car week. And at that point,
19:41
it was just on like the eve of the F-150 Lightning launch. They had already launched
19:46
the Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning was next. They were all in on both of those vehicles.
19:51
This is what's going to define the next five to 10 years of Ford. It's the most important launch
19:57
since the Model T, blah, blah, blah. And if you recall, or if anyone recalls, when they announced
20:04
their new low priced EV initiative earlier, I think it was last year, and then this summer
20:09
added a lot more details to that, they use the same comparison that it's the most important
20:14
thing since the Model T. Yeah, they did. I remember that.
20:17
Yes, exactly. And so that is what you see there. And four years ago, when I was talking to Jim,
20:23
that was not anywhere. I'm sure it may have been talked about internally by that point in some
20:29
very, very general way, but they were not even close to having that as something of a priority
20:37
or something that would really be important in four years time. Four years later, here we
20:42
are, and all of a sudden, it's, oh, we need an EV that costs less than $30,000. That feels like a
20:47
non-negotiable. And Ford is the first one to really say that out loud. Nissan is trying to bring
20:54
the leaf down. And even though it will be a little harder without the tax credit helping it
20:58
out, they really intend to get sticker prices as close to $30,000 as possible.
21:04
The reaction is slow. It takes time for these companies to adjust when the economic
21:11
conditions shift quicker than they can anticipate. But the, yeah, the tax credit is a significant
21:18
thing that is going away. And I don't think anyone can say for certain what it's going to do because
21:24
different companies, every automaker is a global business, right? And so there are so many
21:28
factors that go into the pressures that they face in this country and how they're going to
21:33
respond to them. And so some will, you know, try to spin up a new effort like Ford Skunkworks
21:40
Division. Some will just narrow down their model lineup so they can save costs elsewhere. Some will
21:45
just try to raise prices on everything else and hope that they have one or two models that can
21:51
bring people in the door. And with electrification, I think we're at a point now where the average
21:58
consumer isn't distrustful of it. They have concerns about range, about battery degradation,
22:06
about charging abilities, but I don't know many people at all who have gotten an electric vehicle
22:13
and regretted it. Apart from ones that are just like, you know, full of bugs and quality issues,
22:18
the actual EV versus ICE powertrain conversation, like most people are totally fine with that.
22:25
And most people who buy cars, they don't really care what is powering it. They just
22:29
want it to work, right? And so, you know, now we're at a point where there are more EVs
22:34
on the road. There are more used EVs on the road. People are starting to get acclimated to the idea
22:39
that, hey, electric cars are a thing. Like, this is something I should consider. And so,
22:44
automakers are going to have to mess with prices somehow to keep, you know, to prevent
22:50
that just across the board, $7500 increase on these sticker prices for EVs. But you're
22:56
going to see a range of responses and approaches to dealing with that. And, you know,
23:01
really just have to see in the next three to six months as these next model year cars hit,
23:06
who's doing what with them? Yeah, I think we've already seen a few automakers pull back or delay
23:11
some plans. And I'm glad you mentioned the three to five year planning period. I forgot to mention
23:17
that during my question because most of our listeners probably already know that automakers
23:21
do need three to five years, generally speaking, to plan a new model or the next major
23:27
generation of an existing model. So I'm glad you reminded us of that point. But I also think
23:32
Nissan's like you said, decent is a great example with the new leaf. And then the Aria just probably
23:38
wasn't a strong seller. And the leaf comes in. I just drove it on the launch a week or two ago.
23:44
And the top trim, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the top trim is a little under
23:47
$40,000, I think. But you can get a base, the base model. I don't remember up top in my
23:53
head now if the base model that's coming is a little under because they've got a smaller battery
23:57
version that's going to be a late availability. I think it was the base of the current larger battery,
24:02
that's just a little under $30,000, just a few bucks under that magic number. So
24:10
and of course, if I have that correct, then the smaller battery will be even a little bit
24:14
less money. So Nissan has the the leaf coming in as an affordable vehicle. I think that is
24:21
going to be huge to have a mainstream brand offering an affordable EV because there's just
24:26
not that many in the market right now. And I also think too, your point about the
24:32
challenges of charging I think is still a thing, at least for where I live. I know it's difficult
24:36
for me to charge the EV test cars that I get. My building, I'm in a condo, they don't allow EV
24:42
charging. Our board has disallowed it for reasons I've never been able to quite figure out.
24:47
I've asked and not gotten a good answer. For me, the charging EV requires me to drive about five
24:53
blocks, which is not not a very long walk at all. But I have to park the vehicle at a retail
24:58
establishment that has a couple of charge point stations, plug it in lock it and walk away and
25:03
come back later when it's charged. Now it's not so bad and the the the fee for the charging
25:07
is pretty reasonable. And it's only a couple blocks walk. So it's not unless it's freezing
25:12
cold outside, it's not terribly inconvenient, but it is still a pain. So I think that is
25:16
one issue too with EVs. But can I just go on a rant about that real quick? Because that's
25:23
one of my personal favorites. So I really believe that the biggest blocker to electric vehicle
25:32
adoption in the US is the charging situation. I agree with you. Price has a lot to do with it,
25:37
but automakers have ways to mess with that and to adapt and and incentivize. They can't
25:43
incentivize new charging stations being built. And, you know, I live in, like I said, Los Angeles,
25:49
supposed to be the best place to own an EV, right? The incentives are great, state and federal
25:54
for now. And we, you know, there was a we had a head start on building out public charging
26:00
compared to a lot of the rest of the country. But that's really slowed down. And I've noticed
26:06
it's especially slowed down since automakers have decided to switch over to Tesla's
26:11
NACS standard. Which, exactly, yes. And that was that. And when I went to the leaf preview event
26:18
in June, they Nissan said that that was actually a late decision in the process to switch over to
26:24
that because they had already started development of the car, like these cycles. And it was only in
26:29
the last like year and a half prior to launching it that they were like, oh, wrap, we need to,
26:35
we need to have this kind of charging because otherwise people aren't going to be able to
26:39
use it like we want them to. And, you know, if you draw a five mile radius circle around my house,
26:46
there's over a million people who live in that circle because it's a very densely populated city.
26:50
Yeah, I think, yeah, there and there are, I think, three different Tesla supercharger
26:57
stations depots in that circle. And because one of the reasons why I got the Ionic five was
27:01
that it could use the NACS port. It had an export from the factory was the first
27:06
non Tesla to have that from the factory. And so I can just go to those, which is great.
27:11
In comparison, there are three electrify America stations with the 350 kilowatt charging speed.
27:18
Those only have three plugs each. And they there is a line for those plugs from morning to
27:24
midnight every single day. Oh, it's in large, it's in large part because of all the rideshare
27:30
drivers who are using or driving, you know, I sevens, EQSs, EQEs, and they don't live in a place
27:37
where they can charge at home. So of course, they're going to use that. And I think that
27:41
as automakers have struggled to figure out how to sell EVs to people and convince people
27:45
they're worth trying, they're used to using specs. Like that's how we all have been trained
27:49
to judge cars numbers. Of course, power torque. Yeah. Yes. And charging speed is a very
27:55
easy number to point to and say, look, you can go, you know, when I was I
27:59
test drove the new Porsche Cayenne electric prototype in June, and Porsche is very proud
28:05
of the fact that it's going to have 400 kilowatt charging speed. It is and they're
28:12
and because they're developing in Europe, you know, they have those chargers over there.
28:15
There are literally only a handful of chargers in the entire US right now that can hit that
28:20
charging speed. But as long as automakers point to this and say, look, you can go from 10 to 85%
28:28
in 12 minutes. Isn't that great? That's what people are going to want. They're not going to,
28:33
you know, read past that look at the fine print and say, oh, well, fast charging should only
28:36
be used when I'm on the road and I can't charge at home because it stresses the battery
28:40
and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like we have convinced a lot of people that the
28:46
thing that will make EV adoption work for them is being able to use a charger like
28:50
a gas station. And we're at now we're coming up against the reality that we don't have the
28:55
infrastructure to do that. And building it is a huge, huge process. And so again, I started
29:02
to sidetrack the conversation, but no, I think it's actually a big part of it. We've had the
29:06
conversation before, but it's I think it's worth reiterating. Yeah, absolutely. It's just it
29:11
again, price price has a lot to do with it. But people see that it's not going to be easy
29:17
to fit into their lives. They're not going to bother again, like used cars are a thing,
29:21
you know, people in this business, the people who make these cars sell these cars,
29:26
like they are used to taking for granted the fact that they're always going to be people
29:31
who don't want a used car and just want a new car every two to three years. And more and more,
29:37
they're going to realize that people are making that choice because they don't want to deal
29:41
with the headaches and the hassles of new technology and changing their lifestyle and
29:46
all that stuff. Like it is just a different game now.
29:51
Yeah, you're a little rant there, I think is perfectly said. We we've had that conversation
29:56
before with other guests on this podcast, and I've definitely experienced it in my own
30:00
life as someone who tests cars or living. And then also, I've been working on a story that
30:04
been kind of working in it for the background for like a couple of years. It's been sort of
30:08
sitting in the back burner simmering a story about why there's a bunch of reasons why
30:13
gas stations don't just have a bunch of fast chargers costs cost. I love it. I love it.
30:18
The infrastructure are the are the main, eventually I'll get it written.
30:22
It's one of those things that's kind of been sitting in the in the old to do list. But
30:27
costing the spoiler alert there is that cost and infrastructure play a part a big part. It's
30:32
you know, a lot of gas stations don't have the land they sit on doesn't really necessarily
30:36
have the capacity to develop a lot of fast chargers necessarily. They'd have to either buy
30:42
more land, expand their station, maybe have things re renovated redone. So there's that's
30:49
a big problem. It's one reason why you don't see fast chargers like gas stations for the most part.
30:55
And I think to like you said, when the average driver and most drivers even even young folks
31:02
have been conditioned to get gas in their car, and it takes less than five minutes,
31:06
there's gas stations everywhere, except for maybe places like New York City,
31:10
and even in Manhattan, there's a few gas stations, not a ton, but they're they are there.
31:14
So people are conditioned to do it that way. And it's a little bit trickier to get your
31:19
mind set around. Okay, it's gonna take 30 minutes to go from 10% to 80%. And I have to search for
31:25
a charger that's going to be in probably a strip mall parking lot somewhere. I mean,
31:30
or a Walgreens lot, you know, you are starting to see here in Chicago, a lot of new
31:33
construction, a lot of new new condos. I'm not sure if they're required by law
31:37
or not, but they a lot of them have chargers, usually four or five chargers for for a large
31:43
high rise. A lot of Walgreens parking lots have chargers near me, there's a whole foods with two
31:48
electrified America chargers. There's a charge point that I mentioned that a few blocks away
31:53
that has I think, I was just there charging EV last week, I want to say it's four, it's at
31:58
least three, if not four charging stations. I know O'Hare Airport has a few. And obviously
32:04
Tesla's Nax is all over the super charging network is all over the place in the country.
32:09
So we are seeing more chargers, but we're not quite seeing enough to make it as convenient as
32:12
getting gas. So I'm totally with you on the idea that until until EVs, even with EVs getting lower
32:20
prices, lower sticker prices in higher range now, 300 mile range is not unheard of anymore.
32:24
But until we have the infrastructure, obviously people can charge at home if they have a
32:28
single family home, that's great for them. Those who have the money to do that. But
32:33
until we see charging become as easy as getting gas for those people who can't charge at home for
32:38
whatever reason, maybe they park on the street, maybe the apartment building doesn't offer charging
32:42
because it's too old of a building or whatever. I think that will really be what speeds up EV
32:48
adoption. I hammered that point home in this podcast more than a few times. And before we
32:53
ran out of time, I wanted to switch over to tariffs. That'd be kind of the other big
32:58
topic that we were talking about in our pre-show setup. So as you said at the outset,
33:03
we're not really feeling the effects of tariffs just yet. So with the administration changing
33:09
the plans, it seems like every few weeks, so it's kind of hard to predict. But where do you
33:13
see it sort of going with tariffs, assuming the administration sort of locks something down?
33:19
I think the most likely outcome is that automakers, I think most will have to raise
33:26
prices to some degree, whether or not that's on specific trims where they can do that and make
33:32
a higher margin on the features and the options that are built into that car, the different parts
33:37
that are used perhaps. And that's another thing is that it's not just vehicles, it's the car
33:42
parts themselves that have tariffs applied to them now. And so I do see prices continuing to go up,
33:50
especially once we see the 2026 model year cars come. And possibly even in the middle of
33:55
that, I think some automakers will likely try to launch these cars with the same sorts of price
34:02
increases we're used to seeing. Others will try to slip in an extra $1,000 that people might not
34:08
pick up on as being directly because of the tariffs, but just gives them that much more pad.
34:13
I mean, a similar thing happened during the height of the pandemic disruptions where
34:18
automakers saw dealers charging markups for their cars based on the limited supply and they thought,
34:26
well, let's just get a piece of that too. And they started to raise prices by a much higher
34:32
factor than they were on a year-to-year basis prior to that, even though the cars themselves
34:36
were not that much different or not a revolutionary new generation. So you're going to see
34:42
automakers try to take advantage of that and raise prices sort of under the cover of the
34:47
new model year changeover. But I also think that you're going to see used car prices continue to go
34:54
up and not just in an annualized normal year over your basis, but as the prices go up on the new
35:00
side, so do they go up on the new side? And we've kind of had a bit of a reprieve from that this
35:05
year because the increases have slowed. But the second that they tick back up in any significant
35:11
way, that will flow down into the used car market. And you will see, especially cars that
35:16
are between, say, three and seven years old, which will have a lot of the features that people want
35:22
still. Apple CarPlay to name an obvious one, ventilated seats, automatic cruise control,
35:28
things like that. Those cars will go up in a noticeable way. I really do believe that.
35:35
It's going to be a challenging market for the buyer, especially given that right now it feels
35:42
kind of the opposite. It feels like there are deals out there to be had. There are especially
35:48
automakers trying to clear out or dealers trying to clear out the stock ahead of the 2026 model year
35:53
and trying to incentivize people to buy all these EVs before the tax credit runs out.
35:58
That's going to change and the prices will go up. And it's just a matter of,
36:06
can they do it in a way that the market can bear and people's pocketbooks can bear?
36:10
Or are they going to outpace it again? And we're going to have this whiplash thing where prices go
36:14
up, sales drop precipitously, prices come back down, but they're not quite offering the same
36:19
things that they used to because of the tariffs. It's going to be this vacillation where I really
36:25
don't see, even with trade deals being locked in, I don't think we're going to have predictability
36:30
or consistency on pricing. It's going to be really tough.
36:34
Yeah. And I think too, one thing we have to keep in mind is that when it comes to automotive,
36:40
even if the car is built in the States, the tariffs on parts that come in from overseas will
36:46
play a part. And I read somewhere and I forget the exact, I forget why I read it and I forget
36:50
exactly which car it was in which part, but there was one part that's used across just about
36:56
every automaker that is only sourced overseas. And I forget what it was. I can't
37:02
remember what it was, but it was something that was basically a small part, but it will still
37:06
drive the cost of a car up a little bit. And that kind of can add up over time,
37:10
even if a car is built, you know, 95% of it, or if a car is built in the States,
37:14
95% of the parts come from the States, even 5% can add up. So we'll have to see how tariffs
37:20
can really affect things. I think my personal approach right now is both someone who has to
37:25
cover the issue as an editor and writer, and also someone who just follows the market
37:30
as a car person, just wait and see and just kind of see what happens. But
37:34
with that, we only have about 10 minutes left and not quite 10 minutes. I wanted to
37:38
see if you had anything else. Obviously, the big three topics today were inflation,
37:42
tariffs, and what's going to change as the EV tax credit goes away just in just a short time
37:48
here. But is there anything else that you kind of have seen in your work that you wanted
37:53
to talk about today, something that maybe we have broached or that hasn't really been
37:58
covered a lot by other outlets? Obviously, you're sort of our friendly competitor. So
38:04
maybe it's something that you've seen at the drive that ourselves and Jalopnik and the
38:07
Utopian haven't covered as much or something like that.
38:11
You know, I wouldn't say it's something we've covered extensively ourselves, but I think
38:16
something that is going under discussed right now is the growing market of used EVs especially,
38:25
which is where I think there's going to be a lot of deals to be had in the coming months.
38:30
And whether or not you're in the market for an EV and this is just a great way to get in there,
38:36
or if it's something you need to be sort of convinced of or talked into,
38:41
the fact is that automakers, I mean, battery degradation and absolutely a concern,
38:46
but they've gotten better at it. These batteries are warrantied generally,
38:51
for the normal powertrain warranty that you get on an ICE car. And something that isn't really
38:58
talked about that much is that California and therefore a lot of Carb states have an additional
39:04
warranty protection in place for the battery and the traction power system on hybrids, plug-in
39:12
hybrids specifically, but they're about to expand that to EV starting next year in the 2026 model
39:17
year. So in 2026, starting in 2026, vehicles, electric vehicles will need to maintain at least
39:26
80% of their batteries range and capacity for 10 years or 150,000 miles. That is,
39:37
sorry, wait, hold on, I got that wrong. It is going to be, by 2030, it's going to need to
39:44
maintain 80%, but that will be 70% from 2026 through 2029. So starting next year,
39:52
a used EV that you buy maybe after six months, someone trades it in or maybe the following year,
40:00
that's going to be cheap because so many of these are coming off lease. Automakers have pushed leases
40:06
because and dealers have pushed leases because they know that people are skeptical about owning
40:09
a new piece of technology like this. And so the market for a used EV is really friendly to buyers
40:16
right now because there doesn't seem to be that much demand. And what demand there is isn't
40:23
being really met by the supply yet because the trickle down effect hasn't quite happened yet,
40:31
given that a lot of these cars just hit the road two, three years ago. It will start to happen
40:35
in the next year. And so if you look at the protections California and other car states are
40:39
putting in place, the issue of battery degradation is kind of taken care by that. And then you're just
40:44
left with, can this work with my lifestyle? As we just discussed, that's a bigger problem,
40:48
if not the biggest problem. But still, you're going to, it's going to be very possible to get
40:53
a functional, perfectly normal EV that does what you need it to at a pretty significant
41:00
discounts. If you are willing to go used and just understand that it's like any used car,
41:05
things can go wrong, things probably will go wrong at some point. But you are not going to be stuck
41:11
with the cost of a brand new battery, $10,000 or whatever it is, just because you happen to buy
41:18
a used EV. It's not the ticking time bomb that people think it is. Some build quality issues
41:25
accepted. But I think that's something that a lot of people don't realize because it's not
41:29
publicized. Like you have to just know the car rules. If you go to their website, you can read
41:33
about it. But it's not something that dealers are telling you to sell these cars. It's not
41:37
something automakers talk about, but it's there. It's the law. Yeah, yeah. So that that's a great
41:41
way to wrap this segment here on this week's podcast. So again, we've been with Kyle.
41:46
Let me make sure I get this right. Kyle Karamcha.
41:48
Taramka. Taramka. Sorry, I was close. I apologize.
41:52
It's closer than most. Yeah, from the drive editor in chief of the drive,
41:56
which is the drive.com. So once again, Kyle, thank you for your time. And we've been talking
42:00
inflation, EV tax credit tariffs, and a little bit more. So with that, we'll go ahead and end
42:05
this segment here on the People with Cars podcast. Thanks, Kyle. Thank you.
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42:59
Here on the People with Cars podcast, we always are talking NASCAR just about every week and
43:03
we're getting deeper into the playoffs now. We always have T-Tech contributor Matthew Guy with
43:07
us to discuss NASCAR, what's going on in the Cup Series playoffs and on and off the track.
43:12
Matthew, how are you doing today? Hey, pretty good. How about you?
43:15
I'm doing well. So we just had a race in New Hampshire, the northernmost
43:20
track on the NASCAR Cup circuit and Ryan Blaney punched his ticket to the next round of the
43:25
playoffs by winning. So holding off Josh Berry after Berry had a spin. So let's kind of delve
43:30
into what happened in Loudoun and also if we have time preview a little bit of next week's race.
43:36
Sure, absolutely. And it is neat to see the 21 car with wood brothers up there so high
43:44
on the finishing order. And just after being punted out of the playoffs,
43:50
that team has certainly had a really good rebound. And like you said, there was a spin earlier
43:55
in the race by that car. They were battling with the 88 for position and both of them were
44:05
inside the top five when the 88 made a bit of contact with the 21 and that sent them spinning.
44:11
But you know, damage to the car, you know, it was minimal at the time, but the loss of track
44:15
position was almost no damage. Yeah. Yeah, right. But the loss of track position,
44:19
that's really tough to overcome. And they did, you know, between, you know, some good work on
44:25
pit road. But he did take the entire second stage and most of the final stage to get track
44:29
position back that was lost from the spin. So, you know, but as you know, the final
44:35
green flag pit stop cycle went around, that 21 was back up in the mix sitting in the top five.
44:40
So it's, you know, the performance showed up too late to make it to the next round of the playoffs. But
44:46
you know, this is a good example of how being out of the playoffs, I guess doesn't mean that teams
44:52
just give up, you know, for the for the other remaining seven, whatever it is races that are
44:58
coming up on the NASCAR schedule. Yeah, yeah. And also, of course, with the conversation we
45:05
had last week about the cut line, it did change, of course, like we said, it would last week.
45:11
So with Blaney winning, he punches his ticket, we have one more race
45:14
in this round. And then if that is correct, I believe that we have just the one more race.
45:19
And a Kansas before we move into I take that back, we have two more races in this round. So
45:26
we've got Kansas and the Charlotte Roval, which I should have known we've been talking about
45:30
that for a few weeks now. So the cut line does change big time. Now, instead of being
45:37
drivers who were one, one or two points back, we have drivers Chastain is 12,
45:43
Cintrick 19, Tyler Redick 23 points back and bubble Wallace 27 points back. And like I said
45:49
last week, I think the cut line terminology is confusing. Just say the first four out
45:53
how many points back they are the first, the first four drivers who
45:58
who are not going to make the not going to make the top in this case top eight.
46:02
But yeah. So with that in mind, you also as we did our pre show prep,
46:07
I before we get into the next topic on what happened in New Hampshire, I definitely want to
46:12
agree with you that Josh Perry coming back from a spin or he didn't lose anything but
46:17
track position, he was pretty much barely touched, but he did lose track position
46:20
badly. So that's that's impressive for him to come back even though
46:24
he ended up not winning. And he is not in the top 12 or definitely not in top eight. So win
46:30
is what he would need to move on to the next round. But yeah, very impressive there. But
46:36
you and I Matthew had talked about kind of Denny Hamlin as well in our pre show prep,
46:41
Denny Hamlin. Now I actually happened to miss this. I think I either changed the channel
46:46
or got a piece of the restroom or something or both or not both, but I did something
46:51
where I couldn't rewind my DVR. Hamlin was I came, I came back in and Hamlin was,
46:56
I think I surfed away because I thought it was commercial break and then I just came back
46:59
a little too late, but I'm not quite sure. But anyway, Hamlin was was complaining to the radio
47:06
about Ty Gibbs. And I guess he had sort of dumped him in a way, hit him to use your words
47:14
Matthew. So kind of walk us through what happened there. All I know is that Hamlin
47:17
was very upset and his crew chief had to kind of refocus him on the race.
47:21
Definitely. And and leading up just to for anyone who didn't didn't see the race, this was
47:26
the the cars, the the 54 was ahead of the 11 and they were battling for 11th and 12th. So it
47:33
wasn't, you know, for a top five or podium or anything like that. But the point that was
47:39
being made by Denny Hamlin was that Ty Gibbs, who is the grandson of Joe Gibbs and we've had
47:45
that legendary NFL coach and that's exactly right.
47:51
That Ty was giving him a hard time to let him pass basically, right? I don't know if
47:58
Denny felt he had a better car and he might have been. But if you listen to the radio,
48:01
there were certainly a lot of chatter by Denny Hamlin saying, you know, I can't get
48:06
around this guy. Like, why is he racing me so hard? I'm fighting for a championship
48:10
and he's not. Okay. That's, you know, that was that was the that was the
48:17
those were the words that were coming out of the 11 car. And then, you know, just within
48:22
not too long after that, I mean, they were they were they were clashing for a few laps.
48:27
And then all of a sudden the 54 goes for a ride gets gets tapped by the 11th and goes
48:34
for a ride into the wall. So that's, you know, you can always see, okay, so this is a
48:38
more experienced driver with Denny Hamlin school and the young guy, hey, you know,
48:42
if I want you to get out of my way, you better get out of my way, especially if I'm running for a
48:46
championship. And what I thought was rather hilarious was that you had them just after
48:54
that, right, between we had that clash between those drivers, but JGR's competition director,
48:59
Chris Gabehart, right, is the competition director there. And he said that, you know,
49:04
there's no, that wasn't intentional, etc, etc. Right. I mean, the conversation was happening,
49:09
right. And Gabehart, you know, said that it was just a misjudgment on Denny Hamlin's part,
49:17
thought he was going to have more space than he had and ruled out deliberate contact. Now,
49:21
I call all kinds of nonsense on that. I do think there was deliberate contact there. I'm
49:27
on the part of Denny Hamlin, and I can see his point as well. I can see Denny Hamlin's
49:32
point of wanting to move up in the running order because he is running for a championship. And
49:37
it just makes one, it's another aspect of NASCAR in which you have non-playoff teams
49:46
competing with playoff teams for the championship. And that's just its own unique kettle of fish
49:51
we've talked about it a million times. And we talked about it during the Winston Cup era,
49:56
back, you know, back in those days as well, you might have someone who's
50:00
500 points out and then someone who needs those couple of extra points for the championship
50:06
and they're in the way. So they're still out there, right? So that argument could be moot,
50:13
could be a moot point. But, you know, I do think that there is a bit of
50:20
etiquette out there, you know, there is racing etiquette. Absolutely. Right. And that, you
50:25
know, if I see that shit, you know, I'm a shooter, I'm just a slower car. And someone
50:31
is coming up behind me and they're either Jonesing for the win or they're only a few points out
50:35
of the championship. I can and have moved over. Does it feel good? No. I want every position I can,
50:44
you know, in the final running order. But sometimes that's just the order of the day.
50:49
Yeah. And I also was getting a good laugh at it. So like I said, I missed the initial
50:54
incident. I think I just channel surfed away for a minute, maybe, maybe because I was curious
51:00
what was going on in a football game or just thought it was commercial. I'm not sure why I
51:04
would have switched away, but it doesn't really matter. But I came back in time to see the race
51:09
was under caution. And as they're, I believe it was under caution, as they're doing the
51:14
caution laps, Hamlin comes on the radio and says, and this is what made me laugh. I don't
51:18
think he swore if he did, I forgot it, but he said something like, do they not talk to
51:23
him? Do they not tell him anything? And I thought that was absolutely hilarious.
51:29
I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember the words he said verbatim, but it was a couple sentences,
51:33
like along the lines of, do they not tell him? Do they not teach him? It gets very young,
51:38
of course. I think he's like 22, 23, something like that. So, you know, it was just,
51:45
it had me kind of cracking up a little bit. I always, I almost always laugh when,
51:50
unless there's a really serious reason not to laugh, I almost always laugh when these drivers
51:58
are on the radio during a broadcast, particularly during the caution. They're complaining about
52:03
something else, someone else's behavior. I really laugh when they're doing 200 miles an hour and
52:07
they're ranting about it. It's like, man, I wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to talk
52:11
to the radio 200 miles an hour. I just so focused on my driving. And these guys are
52:15
out here doing soliloquies. And they're speaking in whole sentences with whole words.
52:22
The amount of nonchalance they have to that is crazy. They can talk on the radio. Most of us
52:28
can't talk on a cell phone and drive. And they can, even with Bluetooth, and they can talk on
52:32
the radio 200 miles an hour. So that always cracks me up. But yeah, when these guys get
52:37
on each other's nerves, and I'm not trying to do like, wrestle me, you know, heels and
52:43
faces and personalities clashing, I don't want, I don't like that. I don't want to see guys
52:49
throwing a fist of cuffs in the pits after the race or anything. But there is,
52:54
there is some entertainment value in being led in behind the scenes a little bit
52:58
to hear drivers complaining about the other guys' actions on the track. And,
53:05
and, you know, a lot of it's a lot of it's watered out of the bridge when the race is
53:08
over. So these guys are friends and they go back to being friends. Some of these guys
53:11
might not be friends, it doesn't necessarily mean they don't like each other. You know,
53:15
it's all over the place. But it is always to me entertaining. It's one reason why I enjoy
53:20
watching NASCAR is more so than the stick and ball sports. You can get in a sense in real
53:26
time during the race, what's happening or why one driver might be upset because you can listen
53:31
to the radio. We can't do that when you watch a football game. Unless it's XFL, they let you
53:37
hear some play calls in real time or whatever that minor league. Now it's the USFL or I don't know
53:42
the league is called. But for the most part, we don't get to hear what's happening in a football
53:46
game on the headsets. We don't get to hear players and coaches talking. The only time we
53:51
ever do is if they by accident get too close to a live mic, a field mic, which once in a while
53:57
you do, you do have, you do have happen, excuse me. And then,
54:02
you know, sometimes players are miced up and you'll get that later in the game,
54:06
but it's usually edited to avoid breaking broadcast rules with cuss words, that sort of thing.
54:12
Whereas NASCAR, I assume there's a bit of a delay because they do manage to bleep
54:15
swear words, but so there's probably a few seconds to lay. But I think they have to
54:21
on an FCC, a FoxMBC just to keep the FCC up their back. Although now they're racing,
54:27
I believe, on TNT. I think yesterday's race was on, I know I watched it on my cable.
54:32
So the rules might be a little different. I think it's on TNT now. But
54:36
it's NBC productions and Lee Diffie. So I get confused. I just find it in my guide and watch it.
54:41
But anyway, the entertainment value of Denny Hamlin yelling at Ty Gibbs was pretty funny.
54:48
And then his crew chief basically saying, without saying it, his verbatim response was sort of
54:54
like, Oh, I don't know about that. Let's just focus on getting a win today or whatever.
55:00
And he basically was subtly telling Hamlin, knock it off. Don't worry about it.
55:05
You can complain about it after the race is over. Just focus on finishing this race and
55:09
winning. And I thought it was really well done. And, you know, those people, like you said, just the
55:14
amount of focus and the amount of brain bandwidth you could have, right, to carry on like that,
55:20
whilst doing 200 miles an hour on some of the super speedways, you're right.
55:24
You're right. That's not something I possess either. And I just, I wonder if there's any
55:30
internal beef, any internal friction there between the 11 and 11.
55:34
Yeah, we've become a glossing over the fact they're teammates.
55:36
They're teammates, right? And also the fact that, you know, Ty is the grandson of Joe Gibbs.
55:41
And he in the, in the, in the, in the Bush, in the Xfinity series, excuse me,
55:48
you know, he definitely had a personality that rubbed some people the wrong way.
55:54
And I wonder how long it's going to take for that to come out in cop, right?
55:58
If it comes out at all. And I wonder, because at the end, when he was spun out and hit the wall,
56:03
they broke a toe link had to go behind the garage verbatim, the words were game on from,
56:09
you know, from, from, from Ty Gibbs directed towards Denny Hamlin. So he came out and Joe
56:14
Gibbs came out afterwards, you know, and he said, this is a quote here. It's always the
56:19
drivers have to handle that. They were the ones that got the wheel. And so I think that's
56:22
always the case. So that's what we'll do. Doesn't sound like there's going to be any
56:26
reparations or any punishments or anything inside the team. They're going to let them,
56:31
let them do what they do. Is that because Gibbs is Gibbs's grandson? And that's where I think the,
56:37
are they afraid to talk to him, what Denny Hamlin said? I think that's where that came from,
56:42
right? You, you're all afraid you're going to anger coach Gibbs here by talking to his
56:47
grandson, telling them to tell them to get out of the way. So that sort of dynamic is
56:51
fascinating for me to watch because you have that sort of, you know, an ineptism or whatever
56:58
you want to call it, right? Um, fortunate son, whatever, uh, you want to call it there, you
57:03
know, for one driver on the team. And then, you know, you've got the other drivers, uh,
57:09
on that team as well. We see that over at, um, Richard Childress as well, right? You know,
57:14
with, with, with someone who was very, very closely related to the team owner.
57:18
But so this is nothing new in NASCAR. And this is stuff that we'll be talking about for a very long
57:23
time. Oh yeah. Especially as more and more, um, drivers, children become drivers themselves.
57:30
Obviously Chase Elliott being the prime, not that he has any nepotism. I'm just, he's obviously
57:36
down to Amazon. He's just probably the most well known son of a driver from a previous era
57:42
racing right now. Uh, he's not the only one, but he's probably the, the first one that
57:47
comes to mind. And, you know, it's, it's, I also wanted to say, um, the topic too of that incident.
57:54
It was also just humorous. Uh, just kind of take some of the seriousness out of racing for a second,
58:00
just watching, um, Gibbs trying to tell the tow truck driver, he didn't want to be towed.
58:06
I think there's a reason for that. I think if you're towed to the garage,
58:09
um, that's different than if you can get there under your own power. So I think there's,
58:15
it's more than, it's not just a convenience thing. There's actual, actual rules and, um,
58:22
I forget the rule top of my head, but I believe there's more of an advantage to
58:25
being able to get to the garage under your own power. So yeah, I think you can
58:30
with the DVP, with the damage vehicle policy, something in there, you're exactly right, Tim.
58:35
Yeah. I think you, I think it's, I think it has something to do with that. I think the
58:39
DVP is more forgiving if you can get back to your, and I should look this up, I just blanked on it, but
58:46
I think the DVP, excuse me, is more forgiving if you get to the garage under your own power,
58:51
as opposed to being towed. So just watching his hand gestures was the in-car camera was, was
58:58
more entertaining than it had any right to be. Um, but that's also partly his personal
59:04
preference. I always love it, whether it's NASCAR or football or baseball, I'm always entertained
59:09
by something that's not normally part of the sport, or that we, or that maybe is part of the sport,
59:13
but we don't normally see it on camera. Maybe it's something that usually the cameras don't catch
59:18
some of these minor, minor nuances and, and little language of the sport type things,
59:23
behind the scenes type things that don't mean a ton in the long run in terms of winning
59:27
or losing, but just really humanize the sport a little bit. And, uh, maybe,
59:34
maybe you're different from what we see every time you watch, so that you get a little bit
59:38
extra entertainment. And I was, little things like that tend to crack me up.
59:43
Agreed. And, you know, I don't think they should, you know, tires should be fighting
59:47
for that position, especially, you know, whether it's for the, for 11th, for the win,
59:51
top five, you know, that's a completely different story. And I get it, racers are
59:55
racers. They don't want to let anyone pass them. And it's often in a different
00:00
way. They sure are. They sure are, man. So, but, you know, this, this type of conversation
00:06
we'll be having these, we'll be having these forever, but I am, you know, interested to see
00:10
it's Kansas next week, right? Yeah. So, yeah. So I'm looking forward to Kansas. Another
00:15
intermediate, uh, I'd say with a slight sigh, because I think we get a little tired of
00:20
the intermediates once in a while, but they are the bread and butter tracks. So
00:24
another intermediate mile and a half. Um, yeah, it was mile and a half. Uh, yes it is
00:30
mile and a half. So that's speedway I've never been to. I've seen it from the public roads. It
00:36
very much reminds me of Chicago land in terms of the way it looks. Um, yeah,
00:40
mile and a half paved oval. So kind of NASCAR's sort of main track in a sense.
00:47
We have, for some reason, we're going half a mile over 400 this week. I don't,
00:51
I don't know why it's not just an even 400, but it's half an extra, an extra half mile.
00:55
So this will be on Sunday at two o'clock central time, three o'clock Eastern.
01:01
You know, and in this race is the second of this round of these three races in this round
01:07
of the playoffs. So, uh, setting up for the oval the week after, and that would be, you know,
01:13
that's going to be the big one, the kind of the road course deal. And then, um,
01:18
uh, then we kind of really get down to the big gritty with, we're back in kind of all speedway
01:25
from here on out with Vegas intermediate, Talladega, super speedway, Martinsville,
01:31
short track. So get a variety of old school NASCAR action in the round of eight and then
01:35
playoffs at the championship just down to one track on November 2nd. So, um, we're getting,
01:42
it's crunch time. It's still a month away, over a month away before the championship race.
01:47
But we, we are starting to release kind of, we're at that point in the playoffs where the,
01:53
the first found contenders are starting to fall off and we'll have obviously
01:59
a much better indication of who's going to go on to the round of eight
02:02
after Kansas, even with Charlotte keeping some things up in the air. So just looking at the
02:07
cut line, again, Chastain, Cintrick, Redick and Wallace, obviously anyone else can get a win and
02:15
secure, um, secure a spot in the, uh, the next round. So this will be a really interesting race
02:22
in Kansas because it's going to, you know, really sort of set things up for the Roval. If, um,
02:28
obviously it depends on who wins, but if it's one of the, one of the top eight drivers now,
02:32
that's going to be really interesting because it'll be a lot of guys fighting on points.
02:37
Absolutely. Because, um, the Roval is going to throw a dark horse in there, you know,
02:41
as the winner. So let's say, yeah, watch, watch, watch SVG win, even though he can't move on.
02:46
Exactly. Right. And so that will make the points that are, uh, people are fighting for,
02:51
like you said, those playoff points. Yeah. Just to correct something or just to make
02:56
sure we're on the same page. If you're eliminated from the playoffs, you can still
02:59
win a race, but you can't, you can't get back in with a win, right?
03:02
That's right. Yeah. So once you're out, you're out.
03:04
So the only, so the drivers who, who can, so the only drivers who can win. So if, um,
03:10
if Barry had won yesterday, he wouldn't have advanced anyway. I think I'm,
03:13
I think I was incorrect about that.
03:16
Bingo. So yeah. So even if he had won yesterday, he would have gotten the win and been,
03:20
you know, celebrated.
03:21
See this is a way more confusing format than it needs to be.
03:25
You're right. But yeah. So if a non-playoff driver wins, um, you know, they get the win,
03:30
they get the trophy, they get, the trophy, by the way, is a lobster at New Hampshire.
03:36
Actual lobster. Um, they get it from wherever this is off the topic, but I just want to say this,
03:42
because this is so good. They get a lobster from wherever from some sort of supplier.
03:46
They have it in Victory Lane. They send it back to a restaurant to be cooked
03:49
and, and then sent to the winning team. And then they taxidermy the lobster as the trophy
03:56
and send it to you. So that, I love that. I think that's so New England.
04:03
Very, very much is.
04:04
So New England. But, you know, coming back to, um, Kansas next week,
04:09
you know, statistically speaking, Christopher Bell was really good there.
04:13
So was Ryan Blaney. I know he just won. So he is also on a hot streak right now.
04:17
So, you know, either of those two cars, the 12 or the 20 and maybe a bit of a,
04:21
you know, a bit of an outside pick here, maybe the 23 Bubba Wallace, right?
04:25
He also has historically done, um, well here and Denny Hamlin was good, but not great.
04:31
So I don't know if, if he'll have a win and get in type of situation there,
04:35
but if the 54 and 11 are anywhere close to each other, um, at Kansas, I'll be watching very closely.
04:41
Yeah. And then back to the Robo thing, which I just, which I did by not understanding how the
04:46
format works. So having a dark horse winner like SVG could really mess things up. So let's just say
04:53
that one of our top eight wins, uh, Kansas. So that we just for the listeners who don't
04:59
have it in front of them to be Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell,
05:03
Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott or Chase Briscoe. So one of those guys wins. So we don't
05:08
have one of the cut line winners. Um, or already when else who's still active, uh, which I believe
05:14
would just be just, if I understand this correctly, only Chastain, Cedric, Redick and Wallace
05:18
are still active. So it's the top 12. And then there's the eight who are in prime position
05:23
to move on and they're the four, the first four out. So if Chastain, Cedric, Redick,
05:28
or Wallace, they can also win in advance. No one else can win in advance. So imagine one of their top
05:33
eight wins, uh, Kansas keeps the, keeps the playoff cut line where it is. And then all of a sudden
05:42
Shane Van Gisburg wins the Roval. That's really going to mess up some people on points. So that
05:46
will be very, very interesting to see what happens. Uh, and keeping, keeping an eye on that
05:51
going forward. And I will keep working on getting this playoff format right. We've
05:56
messed it up more than a few times in the year and a half we've been doing this
05:59
and you would think we'd have it down, but it's, excuse me, it's more confused,
06:04
more confusing than, than you would think. It seems simple, but somehow maybe my brain just
06:09
doesn't do math, but it just doesn't, um, doesn't compute as well as it should. So
06:14
with that, Matthew, we're running just about out of time. So if you have anything else you
06:16
want to add, uh, on playoffs, make it quick. Otherwise we'll go ahead and wrap this segment
06:21
for today. No other. Thank you for having me here again this week. Absolutely. Thank you,
06:25
Matthew, for being with us. It's T tech contributor Matthew guy here on today's
06:30
NASCAR segment for the truth about cars podcast. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you.
06:34
That's all for this week's T tech podcast. I'm Tim Healy, the managing editor,
06:38
and you can find us wherever your podcasts. You can also find us online at ttac.com
06:42
or the truth about cars all spelled out.com. We thank Kyle Karamcha and Matthew guy for
06:47
their time and Matt Poskey for editing. Most of all, we thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.