The Lowdown from the LA Auto Show

Hello and welcome to the Truth About Cars podcast. I am Tim Healy and I'm at the 2025

Los Angeles Auto Show and we're talking cars with Brian Moody from Kelly Blue Book. I also

check NASCAR and Ram's free agent program with TTAC contributor Matthew Guy and Guy

and I also chat about dashcams. But first, buying a car should feel secure. Start to

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online at ttac.com. That's ttac.com or the Truth About Cars all spelled out dot com. We are your

home for car reviews, car news and so so much more. Here on the Truth About Cars podcast,

we are always talking about the stuff that we use in our homes and on our cars and in our cars.

So, you know, tools, accessories, things like that. And almost always have TTAC contributor

Matthew Guy with us. Matthew, how are you doing today?

Hey, I'm doing pretty good, Tim. How are you doing?

Doing well, doing well, hanging in there. So we're talking about dash cams today. I've tested

a couple, but you've got one in particular in mind you want to talk about. And let's go ahead

and get you started. Of course, yeah, there's all kinds of different options for dash cams these

days out there. And you can get a lot of them. This one just was sourced from eBay. And you can

get them, you know, from from from that site. And there's all kinds of different brands out

there. But this one is a Van True brand and a Vant RUE. And that's a brand that has, you know,

surfaced a lot recently. Because there's a lot of brand names for dash cams out there that are

almost like just two random words mashed together, you know, that you've never heard of before.

But this one seems to have, you know, bubbled up and surfaced and stuck around. So I tend to listen

to the reviews and things like that. And in in in our testing, it's done pretty well.

Specifically, it's this Van True Nexus 4 Pro. And it's designed to wake up when it senses motion.

So not only does it turn on when you start your car, when you start moving and things like that,

but if you're comfortable leaving the camera in place, you know, whilst the car is unattended,

it does wake up when it senses a bit of movement. So if someone bumps into your car, if you're,

you know, on street parker, that's a really, really helpful thing if someone bumps your car

or if someone crashes into you in a parking lot and chooses not to leave a note, you know,

you've got a bit of recording time there. And it tries to it tries to pick up

that motion at any time as long as you've got to plug in. And I found it really,

really easy to install this thing. The cool thing is this particular cam is able to constantly

like rewrite 10 seconds of footage in this mode. So it'll save that amount of video

prior to waking up as well. So I mean, that's just a huge advantage to trying to find out where,

you know, those new scratches came from on your car's front bumper. Yeah. And the quality is

really good as well, because some of these things, especially back in the day,

there used to be some suction cups and things of that nature that were, you know, the holding

power was great. But I really like the one with this one, it's a magnetic mount. And you just

use an adhesive to stick it onto the windshield. So it's a bit of a permanent solution. You would

have a bit of a square block just permanently on your windshield. And then you would magnetically

put your camera into and out of that one, then your electrical contacts are in there as well.

So it's super, super slick. If you're moving the thing between cars or taking it with you,

if you're, you know, gone for a long period of time or something like that and storing the car

is pretty easy. So I do like this one, Ventrue Nexus 4 Pro is pretty pretty slick.

Yeah. And you get these off eBay motors? That's one place you can get them absolutely off eBay

motors. And it's always cool to look for some company like this that has a storefront on eBay,

right? I mean, there's always, you know, buying one of these things secondhand might come

and not have a particular connector that you're looking for or might not have a charging cable

or something like that. But most things like when you're looking at statistics or when you're looking

at specifications, I should say, what you're looking for, I mean, look for something with,

with, you know, 4K HDR because there's nothing worse than trying to pop through a bit of footage

afterwards to see who ran into your car. And it's too grainy, or it's, you know, nighttime vision

was just absolutely sucked and you can't tell what type of car it was that cut you off in traffic.

So get something that's really, really good quality. Make sure that it has some of those

4K HDR guts and some dash cams have two lenses as well. One looking forwards into traffic out to

windshield and another one looking backwards into the cabin. And this one is possible to have that

and that's, that's awesome, you know, for someone who's got like side hustle with like a ride share

company or something like that, you know, be cognizant of laws if you might say that notices

needed to tell a passenger if they're being recorded and stuff like that. But these are super,

super slick for anyone who is, you know, working that on the side, if you're working for a ride

share company, you don't need to swap it out when you go to work, for example.

Yeah. And I've tested a few dash cams or t-tech as well. I would just throw a few words of

icing. This is general, not related to the particular cam that you're talking about. But

I would say if you're driving around the dash cam, you know, first of all, figure out what

it makes better, whether it makes better sense for you, excuse me, whether it's permanent installation

or a suction cup mount, which it's actually come out and makes it easier to remove,

to go from car to car, doesn't require any wiring or cutting up your dash or any or having to go to

a pro. So that's my personal preference, but to each their own and the suction cup mounts can

fall off if the, if the suction fails, so you can have a thoughtful driving that's never fun.

I would also say to anyone buying a dash cam, again, this is general advice,

doesn't matter what camera buying check for the parking settings you were talking about

are super helpful. I would also check to make sure that your interior mic is off if you don't

want your conversations recorded by accident. Yes. Yeah. Or music being picked up, you know,

that's been an issue we've tested dash cams or t-tech. I can't play the music that I've been

listening to because it might be copyrighted. We might get in trouble. So I have to strip out the

audio before I before I show any videos on the site. So that's obviously a problem that only

we would face. But in general, you know, you might want to turn your internal mic off if you

are having private conversations and don't want someone else to hear them. So there's that.

And I would also look for, you know, cameras that face both forward and back. And like you said,

once they have good night vision as well, because at night, a camera that can't tell car to car hit

you is no good. No. And excuse me, also take a peek at the recording width as well, like the

angle of vision. Something that's about 160 degrees in both directions is the minimum,

is the minimum. I mean, that is as good or as better as what's, you know, the field of vision

for for most humans. But if you can get something that's 160 degrees in both directions or better,

you're going to have a ton of coverage and a ton of protection when you're out there on the road.

Yeah. Yeah. And you also don't want a fisheye. Well, some people don't mind it, but I don't like it.

No, you're right. I mean, something that actually is not kind of curved, is not distorted at the

at the at the edges of the off the field of vision. You're right. That's a much better one to have.

So there are also some other ones out there that have the forward facing and reverse facing in

the same unit that you'd have tucked up behind your rear view mirror. That's that's very nice. Yes.

Those are really, really good. And then you've got some other ones. I haven't tried a wireless

version of this yet, but they'll have another camera poking out the back window as well or

peeking out the back window, I should say. And sometimes that's a pain in the butt to try to

install as a wired solution, because you've got to have the wire going however many feet to the

back window 12, 13 feet, however big your car is to the back window. So I know there are some

wireless options out there. And I'm looking forward to trying one of those as well down the road.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Anything else you want to add on dash cams before we close the segment?

Nothing I can think of. Just stay, you know, pick a budget, stick within it.

Some bare minimum specs, you know, 4k, especially looking forward and 160 degrees of field of

vision. But if you've got those two stick within your budget, and I think you'd be pretty happy

with how you've got. Yeah, for sure. All right. So this has been the stuff we use segment here

on the Truth About Cars podcast with ttech contributor Matthew Guy. Thank you for your

time, Matthew. Thank you, Tim.

On today's Truth About Cars podcast, we are at the Los Angeles Auto Show with Brian Moody,

the executive editor at Kelly Bluebook. Brian, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. You

can see lots of cool cars. So how could that be bad? Well, yeah, so that's exactly what we're

chatting. I wanted to pick your brain about the big highlights of the show, the Jeep Recon,

can you tell your I lose some gravity churning and anything else on your mind?

Yeah. Although the show, you know, is not as big as maybe in many years past, I think

there was some impressive stuff. So for example, if you look at how many new cars there were,

like all new cars, there's Nissan's plug in hybrid rogue, right? So that's new. There's a new

Pathfinder. There's the Volvo EX 30 cross country. That's new. There's also the Jeep Recon. That's

new. The Kia Telluride. That's new. The what was the I didn't see the magma. The I didn't I didn't

need it. Okay, the Honda has the creator concept. So they had something, right? They had stuff.

But that's better than in years past. And also I mentioned Volvo. Well, Volvo hasn't been at

this show for many years. So for an automaker like Volvo to come back, and do you notice there

was a big bus in their booth? I did. Yeah. Do you know that Volvo group, the overall company owns

prevo buses? I believe I knew that. I think that's what that was was a prevo bus. I don't think it

was a Volvo, but so there's lots of cool stuff, right? Like it's not nothing. But I think people

who remember back in the good old days, kind of, they suffer because they think, well, shouldn't it

always be like that? And the truth is, it's probably not going to be like that, maybe ever or maybe

for a long time. Let me pick your brain in a couple specific cars. Let's tell you like that's been

probably the biggest news. Yeah. Cool. I have been a big fan of the Telluride. I don't know

how they could mess it up. It doesn't look like they've messed it up. I mean, it's been a great

car for a very long time. The way it looks, the way it drives, the interior space, I think it would

have been a mistake to make it all electric, because, well, they have the EV9. So that's kind

of like an all electric Telluride. But the engine in the Telluride has always been one of the more

rewarding parts of it. Like the way that it drives is really excellent. I'm hard pressed to point to

the exact reasons why I love the way it drives. But it's just, it seems to be a just right kind of SUV.

I'm sure this one will be the same. It just has a little bit more of an updated look. And of course,

the Hyundai Palisade is definitely raised the bar on those types of SUVs as well.

How about the grille on the Telluride? That was the one pushback that I saw from our commenters this

morning when we pushed our new story live that some people didn't like the grille so much.

I think when you try to do something a little bit more bold, you end up

polarizing people. But I don't think it's bad. I think it gives it a more rugged or sturdy look.

But all those things are just looks like that doesn't, you know, like these days,

having chrome trim up front or whatever doesn't make it stronger. It's all just for aesthetics.

They could change it if they wanted to. I don't mind the way it looks. I think that it fits in

with the overall vibe of the Telluride. Let's talk Jeep Recon, which is probably the other

biggest story out of the LA Auto Show this year. Yeah, I think what Jeep did was they said, boy,

people like the Wrangler. What's one thing they love about the Wrangler? It goes off road. Okay,

let's do that. What else do they love about the Wrangler? They like that it can have the top come

off and the doors come off. So they did that too. An all electric off road, doors come off,

top opens fully. I don't know. You know, is there a market for that? I don't know. We could probably

even write a book about all the things I was wrong about. So I didn't think the Dodge Grand

Caravan was ever going to be anything. Look how wrong I was. My only concerns with the Recon

are the range is a bit low for off-roading. It's hard to get a jerry can of. Was it $2.27? $2.50,

I think was the max. Okay, so $2.50. How to get a jerry can of electric juice off road and the

price is a little high. $35 grand to start. Yes, but that's electric cars. One of the

things that people never talk about is that electric cars are many things, but cost-effective

is not one of them. I think like most of the adventure vehicles that you see like right here,

we're standing in this little adventure row like Sprinter Vans and Cargo Carriers and Ineos and

the teardrop trailer, all that kind of stuff. I don't know that people ever use them fully for

what they're intended. I think that the Jeep Recon could do good at your favorite fishing home,

fire roads. They say it's trail rated, so for whatever that's worth. Yeah, I would imagine

you're probably right that it'd get you to the trail heaven back just maybe not down the Rubik

sign without when you're too far from any power. But that's fair. Yeah. And then I want to switch

gears a little bit to talk about the Lucid gravity turn because the play there is obviously to get

to a new audience, a little bit lower price point, and maybe people who have not been able

to get in the Lucid before. So I want to hear your thoughts on that. Well, I think what Lucid has

is what electric cars should be. To me, I'm not that impressed when there's a car that looks and

feels like your normal passenger car, but just happens to be electric. What I like about Lucid

is that when I first saw it, I thought the air and the gravity. When I first saw them, I thought,

okay, finally, an electric car that looks like it came from the future. That's what I was looking

for with an electric car. The Ionic 5, they kind of did the opposite where they made a little bit

retro-ish, right? Like it's maybe like an 80s hatchback kind of thing. I like Lucid. Whether or

not they're going to find enough customers, I don't know. I mean, listen, we sold plenty of

Teslas before there was a taxpayer-funded incentive. My guess is we'll sell plenty of Teslas after.

Does that apply to Lucid? I don't know. I just, I just, I love the car. Can't put my finger on

the pulse of what the public thinks. While we're on the topic of electric cars in the

upper five-figure range, did you have a chance to check out the Sony E-fila at all this trip?

No, I did not see that. That's, okay, so that's one of those like, what do you call it, like a co-op?

Yes, a joint venture. Partner. Yeah, I've seen pictures. I did not see it in person. I'm sorry.

Yeah, so I had a chance to see it in person. It's a bit of a Lucid competitor, $89,000

about the same size as a Model 3. That's Model 3. So it's a very interesting vehicle.

Do you think people would be interested in a Sony branded electric car?

I don't know. That's gonna be the hard part for that. That's gonna be the hard

sell for them, even though they have Honda guts. It's gonna be the hard part for them.

Right, but the branding is Sony, right? Yeah. I mean, I could see people thinking that's cool,

but I could also see it being a big miss for car shoppers. I can see it be one of those things at

first adopters, influencers. Yeah. Two, but then the average show doesn't care about.

Well, you just summed up every electric car.

Didn't mean to. Are there any other vehicles in the LA? I'll show they've kind of stuck out.

Of the 2025 LA show to be precise. They've kind of stuck out to you. You mentioned a Volvo during

a pre-show, perhaps. Oh, yeah. Volvo EX30 cross country. Volvo's first all-electric cross country

vehicle. So, you know, they had the XC70 cross country. They had, you know, the wagon cross

countries back in the day. So this is a, again, with the adventure theme, this is an all-electric

Volvo EX30. That's relatively low price to start, like around 40. This one's 49, which is all-wheel

drive. It sits a little higher, has those black plastic guards around the wheel well. So cool

looking wheels. Again, Adventure E, I don't know how far of an adventure you're going to take. I

think they just want, they're trying to appeal to people that want a cool, tough looking car.

And occasionally, if it gets to go off road, that's okay too. And finally, did you have a chance to

check out the Megma GT Genesis concept? I did. I think it's genius that they're coming up with

their own performance brand. I like that idea. Every Genesis I drive, I think, this is just a

great car. I can't... I've had similar experiences. I just can't find any bad things to say about

Genesis cars. Like they just, inside, outside, the way they drive, the technology, I just,

I think it's going to be successful because I think Genesis has done a great job.

Excellent. Excellent. Anything else you want to add, Brian, before we wrap our segment?

I would say that it has been an impressive show for the most part. You know, living in the past,

we might never get back to the 90s version of the Detroit Auto Show. Probably not.

Before the internet and all that kind of stuff. But this one's pretty good. I think there was,

there's enough stuff to talk about. Listen, we just talked about several cars and took up all that

much time and we weren't scraping for like, I don't know, what else? Talk about a Bronco with

Steelys again. You know, like... Exactly, yeah. I think there's enough content here that, you know,

it's worthwhile and I hope that it continues to grow. Yeah, it's been a busy day since I got here

this morning. I agree. For same for me, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right, we've been with Brian Moody,

the executive editor at Kelley Blue Book here on the Truth About Cars podcast from the 2025

Los Angeles Auto Show. Thank you for your time, Brian. Yeah, thank you.

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Dealer Services LLC in eBay subsidiary. Here on the Faith Park Cars podcast, we're always talking

NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR with TTAC contributor Matthew Guy, even though it is the off season,

also known as the so-called silly season, there are always topics and racing to cover the off

season. So we'll get into one of those in just a few minutes. Matthew, first of all, how are

you doing today? Doing good, man. And there's always stuff to talk about NASCAR. It doesn't

matter if it's off the track or on the track, there's really some rumors going on, right?

Rumors, news, and what we're going to get into today is newsy, newsworthy, I think. And then

there'll be more coming down the pike. And as I look at my window right now, and you know,

this is recorded, so I don't want to give away too many inside secrets, but as I look at my

window right now, it's definitely not racing, whether it's rainy and cold, and I'm very glad

to be inside in a warm building. But I'm still always thinking about racing, because racing's

just fun. And I'm thinking about what I saw in my inbox just a day or two ago from Ram. We all

know that Ram is coming back to NASCAR. It's been announced, I think at least truck series. I don't

recall off the top of my head. I don't have it in front of me. I should know this, but I don't

recall if they've officially confirmed a Cup Series or Xfinity Racing, probably would be the

charger if they were going to. But we do know they're coming back to truck series, and they have

put out a press release suggesting that for when they come back to the Craftsman Truck Series next

year, they're going to go into an interesting direction with the colleague racing team. So

the number 25 truck, or Ram 1500. So what they're going to do instead of having one driver the higher

for the whole season with maybe a backup in case that guy gets hurt or sick, which is what most

teams do, right? Most teams have one, one to three drivers, and they have a couple guys maybe on

call for specific races, like Catherine Leggy did a few races this past year, she raced Chicago and

a couple others. I'm not quite sure if she was a backup or if she was just on one of those fringe

teams that just does only handful of races. So I could be a little bit off there. But in general,

most race teams, you know, like Hendrix Motorsports will have Kyle Larson and whoever else they have

in their stable, and then they may have a couple people they call if, if Kyle Larson's doing the

double and can't make it to the second race, or if he's sick or whatever the Daytona 500 and 500

double. So that's how we all know that's how it works in racing, right? One driver gets hired by

a team, the team has anywhere from one to three drivers, and there may be a couple backups just

in case a villainous, but then that's the one drivers with that team all year long until his

contract runs out. And that contract might go two or three seasons. Not with NASCAR,

Craspin Truck and Ram this year, they're going to have what they call a free agent program.

So this free agent will be, they're going to have different drivers. And it looks like they're

going to have some full time drivers. So we'll get into the details in just a second. I'm still

working through it myself. But they're going to have a free agent driver who will be chosen and

revealed. And that's the first one in February 2026. So ahead of the whatever race, I don't have a

truck calendar in front of me, whatever the first truck race is, which I'm not sure if it's part of

Daytona, Speed Weeks or not. I should know this on time ahead, but I don't. So we're going to have

what they're going to have a free agent driver plus we're going to have three full time drivers.

Justin Haley, who we talked about last week, I was being replaced by Daniel Suarez and then

Daniel Dye and Brendan, nickname Butterbean Queen, not just fun nickname there. They're going to be

in three of the five Rams, those three drivers, but they're going to have a free agent situation

for it looks like at least a number 25 truck. And maybe the other truck as well. I'm trying to

make sense of the press release here. It's a little bit confusing. But yeah, so they're going to have,

they're going to reveal these drivers shortly before each race, like the Monday before. So you

will know leading up to a truck series race the Monday before police for agent drivers were going

to be, I would imagine it'd be kind of veteran drivers. Or maybe you have young up and comers,

who knows? But it's something they're going to do to try and get attention. Looks like just going

to have a different driver each week. So I'm sorry, Matthew, go ahead. You can go ahead. Just one

second. I do want to add one detail. So there were three out of five drivers. There's going to be a

free agent in number 25 truck. The fifth Ram driver will be full time just to not be announced yet.

Go ahead, Matthew. I want to hear your thoughts. Absolutely. I think, I mean, it's super unique

and leave it to Ram to come up with something that is a little bit off the wall, you know, to try

and a little bit out there to try and get people, you know, new eyeballs on this sport.

They're in the craftsman truck, right? Because Ram is usually just a little bit to

a little bit to the side when it comes to their marketing and things like that. Just a little

bit different, a little bit more aggressive, right? Than some of the other brands that are

there for their trucks. And this fits that pretty well, right? They've got their three

anchor drivers plus another one who's TBA and then this free agent driver. And I'm thinking the way,

because we're reading the same press release here. And the way that I read it is, like you said,

it's going to be, it's not going to be fans, like they're not going to put a random fan into a truck

and toss it onto the track. No, no, no, let's make sure we make that clear right now. Right?

It's going to be, yeah, right? It's going to be drivers who have had experience racing in some

way, shape or form. They'll be selected through some sort of process, but it'll be definitely a

leg up for some driver. I mean, if it's someone coming out of carts, or if it's someone stepping

in from another series, the level of NASCAR, because we always talk about the three main series cup

and Xfinity and trucks. But there's also, maybe you've got the ARCA series, right? You've got the

what I called K&E series, you know, and all of these other different ones that are out there.

You've got, you know, drivers, racers who are from the Sprint type vehicles, people who are doing dirt

tracks. So that's the type of drivers that they're going to get for this number 25, number 25 truck

for this free Asian driver. And I'm going to wager that in a however many races it is for trucks 32,

I think, race season, they're probably going to have the same person back more than once. I think

it will be tough for them to get 30 plus different drivers, right? Or this, or at least the picks

about it wouldn't be hard to get 30 different drivers, but 30 different drivers who are worthy

of a shot and not going to wreck on lap two, right? Or something that's, that would be difficult to

do. So we'll probably see the same person back more than once. And I think this is just a really,

really cool way, you know, because Dodgers coming back to NASCAR, I think you're right, they haven't

formally announced coming back to cup. If we don't see them in 2027, I will be massively surprised

with the charger. Yeah, with the charger. So this is a great way to do that. And colleague racing

this is their anchor, this is Ram's anchor team, man, right? Like you said, you got Queen and Dine,

Haley, they're going to be really good, they're going to be really good anchor drivers for the

Ram. And they're going to have tons of marketing behind them. They're going to have, if we'll see

how much success they have, but I think we're going to have a hell of a lot of fun because Ram

tech typically blows doors off marketing, right? For lack of a better term. So I think it's cool.

I think it's cool. I think there's these free agent drivers, you know, they're not going to be

competing to win the series championship. They're going to be out there. They're not going to be

collecting points because of, you know, the different rules that are there that are in place for

collecting points. So they won't be eligible. But they're Ram is talking about creating some

sort of prize program, right? Based on the best like individual track performance of these free

agent drivers. So there is going to be a element of competition there, not to mention pride and

bragging rights. So don't, I don't expect these, you know, free agent drivers to be, you know,

back of the pack every week. I think they're going to be in there in the mix in some way, shape or form.

Yeah, I have to mention the price thing that because with these drivers swapping and out,

they're not really going to be in competition for the, for the truck series championship. I'm not

sure if it's a rule saying, you know, if they won't be driving enough individual races, because

I'm not quite sure how that works. I'm not quite sure if, you know, if you're driving a different

driver every week in the 25, does the team get championship points within that the driver?

My understanding is in cop with Kyle Larson, there's always been the waivers, right? When he

does the double, if he misses the second race heat. So there is, you know, driver points and

team stuff. I think they are separate. So I'm not quite sure. But obviously, if there's, if there

is a separate driver, you know, point system, you can't win the championship if you're only racing

a few races a year, even if you were eligible for it. And I'm not saying they're not eligible,

but you wouldn't have enough points. You just wouldn't because you wouldn't be driving enough.

So unless unless the points were only given to the team, regardless of driver, which I don't think

is the case in truck and fairly certain is not the case in cup, you know, so in order to get

these drivers, like you said, some sort of competition element, because they can't win the

championship, having the prize is kind of a nice thing too. And of course, it gives Ram

options because Ram will still have free full time drivers who could win the championship and

it looks like a fourth. So I want to circle back to the types of drivers who are going to be in

this. I think you made a really good point saying it'll be up and coming drivers from the

feeder series. We all know NASCAR basically has the three main series cup, Xfinity and truck,

and then there, I never remembered the name, but I think it is the ARCA. There's like kind of a

fourth series. It's sort of doesn't really do the same like Xfinity is almost always the same

track as cup with a few exceptions. And truck is like two thirds of the time at the same

same track as cup during the weekend. And again, there's a few exceptions,

like for example, truck didn't do Chicago the street race. But you know, I, I think you see a

lot like you said, the feeder, the drivers who are up and coming up or commerce from the feeder

series, you may see drivers who are a little older and are still kind of hanging on to their

career, not quite done, but not quite. You might see someone in their late 30s, early 40s, who's

semi retired. You see this in the cup all the time. You see, you see drivers who are semi-retired

to get back in for a race or two. I think Jimmy Johnson has done this. Catherine Legge is around

40 years old. She might be late 30s still, but she's closer to the end of career, probably age

wise in beginning. And again, she hops in and out. We've seen drivers like Shane Vankees,

who are getting their feet wet. He's obviously not retirement age. He's only 35, but

you know, his first year, he was kind of getting his feet wet in cup and Xfinity on road courses

before he realized he had the talent and the resources to go full time, which he did this

past year. So we've seen that. We've seen, I mean, you see, especially drivers who come from other

series, whether it's IndyCar or IMSA or they're foreign born like Vankees Bergen coming out of

New Zealand. So you might, I think you're going to see a lot of that. You're going to see, I don't

want to use the word celebrities, but we all know Frankie Muniz, the former child star from Muck in

the middle, had had a decent run in trucks this past couple of years. He's not, I'm not saying

he's going to be a free agent driver because I'm not sure if he signed the team. I don't have his

information in front of me, but someone like that, maybe someone who was a celebrity, gotten

into racing, has some talent, has had some success, and not just a dilatant, not just someone who's

doing it for publicity. Or maybe that can be the case too. Maybe you got someone who is an actor

and that's how I think they're living when they race on the side, like Patrick Dempsey.

And maybe this driver gets a racer too because their schedule allows it and they're good enough to

not be, we all know that NASCAR drivers have to maintain minimum speed and competency to be out

there. If they're not safe, they're not going to be able, not going to be allowed to drive, but maybe

you get an actor who's got enough talent and enough money and training on the side to do that. So

that could be a possibility too, which is what really has me intrigued about this. And we all had

the controversy last year at Daytona with Elio Castroneva's hopping in. Well, this could be a

good place for an indie car driver to hop into an NASCAR truck, right Matthew? Yeah, for real. And

you think about, oh, what was the, what did the track house call their effort? Remember when they

had one of their, one of the, one of their, they had a cycle of drivers going through one of their,

oh, in cop there, through one of their cars, they had a bunch of drivers going through.

And it was a similar sort of thing, right? Similar sort of thing. But, you know, and I,

there's been some chatter online that was always a rental ride and things like that.

But I don't agree. I mean, it's people who can, you know, bring a bit of hype.

Will it be someone like, you know, maybe some internet personalities, because you look at

quote unquote, Cletus McFarland, right? Who is an internet personality on YouTube,

but he does have some chops behind the wheel of a race car, right? Might it be,

right? Might it be someone like that? It's not someone who's just

plucked from the, from the, from the ether of the, of the internet. And I think

colleague racing is, is a really good one to do this, right? It's a, it's a, but I arguably,

it's a new idea, but it's a fresh idea. And the kind of energy that colleague is going to bring,

because if you've ever heard Matt colleague talk and, you know, talk about some of his goals and

stuff like that, there's for, for that crowd, there's no such thing as an aggressive goal,

right? I mean, that it seems like that guy just wakes up at turned up to 11 every single day,

right? He's just going and going and going and, you know, there's not much slowing that guy down.

So it's really, really fits both the persona of Ram and the persona of colleague racing.

So if anyone could pull it off, it's these, it's, it's this, it's this team, right? It's this team

of Ram and colleague racing that can do it. And I don't even know if Ram is going to know the

name of the person, right? Until NASCAR has said yes. And then colleague racing has said yes,

right? Cause they're, they're the first two, right? They got to go through NASCAR's criteria first,

and then they got to go through colleagues racing management team. So they say they want to make,

NASCAR wants to make sure this guy, like you said, can, or, or, or this driver can, whoever

it's going to be, can keep up with traffic and then colleague wants to make sure they're not

going to wreck the truck. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be cool. I think so.

And like you said, it'll be announced every Monday before the race. So if you race on Friday,

which truck races typically are on Friday, the race will, the driver will be announced, excuse me,

on, um, what do you call it, uh, Monday? I don't know why I was trying to talk to it for a second,

but anyway, um, yeah, so I can see, I can see this going a bunch of different ways. The name,

as you were talking, the name that popped in my mind was Danica Patrick. She's only a few years

removed from racing, still in her early 40s, still plenty young enough to hop behind the wheel. She

was talented enough to, to do really well during her time racing. Could you see her popping up for

a couple of drives just to get the attention? Maybe she, and I know she has some broadcasting

work. Maybe she drives on Friday and then does cup, cup broadcasting or a pre-race or something

like that on a Sunday. Who knows during when, because she usually was with NBC. So maybe she

does something with an NBC, um, that sort of thing. Going back to Frankie Munis for a second,

I just wanted to take a break to look at the guy's life. I looked at his life where you were,

where you were chatting there and he, um, he has energy to be on belief. He's, he's

married with at least one child. He races. He was playing in a band and he had been acting

for however long. And of course there is, I believe it's officially confirmed. I'm out

coming the middle, uh, re, this is not a reboot, but a sequel, I guess, because I think all the

kids are going to be grown with the kids in their own and in the new show, but it is coming. I've

seen some articles. So this man is busy, busy, busy. So, so he, it looks like he was a full-time

driver in 25. So I don't know if he'll, um, you know, be, be in 26, but someone like him, you know,

someone who, um, maybe isn't your typical driver, but well, his case is a little unique though,

because he came in the driving and he's actually been full-time and done relatively well, well

enough to stay in it. So maybe he, maybe I'm just downplaying his career without meaning to, but

I keep thinking of a Patrick Dempsey, someone who races a lot of sports cars when they get time,

but still has their main job being acting, right? Uh, someone, or like I said, a Danica Patrick,

who's now a commentator, but still young enough to happen to a race car. I'm thinking of a lot of

the guys, a lot of the S car, excuse me, a lot of the ex NASCAR drivers who are in their 40s,

who are now doing commentating, Jimmy Johnson, who's, um, who's, you know, a little bit older,

but still young enough and he still races a few times a year. Uh, you know, um, what's, what

are the two guys who do most of the NBC color? Or is it Jeff Burton? Greg, sometimes forget the

other one, our Clint Boyer, maybe, but, but guys like that. And, uh, uh, who, who do we see recently

who kind of came out of the little work? He'd been kind of quiet since he retired. I was Carl

Edwards. So guys like that, can you see Martin Truis Jr. getting the itch after, you know, he

retired, uh, after 24. Do you think he gets the itch after a year or two away and wants to hop in?

You know, I can see the free agent program going that way. Or like you said, young drivers

who are up and coming and maybe want to get, and I think, I think from a team perspective,

from if you're a colleague, you want to get the young guys because you can get a young guy in

their three or four races and say, Hey, you know what, this guy can be full time for us next year

in truck or one of our other, one of the other series that we compete in. Um, but the publicity

stunt side would be to get a big name who's retired or like I said, a Patrick Dempsey type who

has another day job and then races on the side and has enough experience that you don't let

you trust they won't, that they won't be incompetent. Um, you know, Patrick Dempsey races, Danica Patrick

races, Jimmy Johnson races, people are going to tune in that might not otherwise watch truck. So

you might see a balance of that too. You said there's like 32 races, maybe 16 times you have

up and commerce who are in their twenties and early thirties and try to make their way into

XFINITY and cup. And then maybe the other half the time you see a retired cup driver who's in

their forties or early fifties, an Indy car driver who's got a weekend off from Indy car,

an IMSA driver, uh, like I said, an actor who's got racing chops, that sort of thing. So maybe

maybe that's how it plays out. I think it might be. I think it might be. And over those 25 races,

I think that's, I think there's 25 in the, uh, I should 30, but I think there's 25 in the, um,

truck series. I think you're exactly right. I think you're exactly right. That's a little,

there'll be some superstars. How cool will it be? Cause I mean, everyone loves Carl Edwards and

everyone, you know, Carl Edwards stepped away so suddenly, right? So yeah, he was really quiet.

And then he came back to do some broadcasting this year. Yeah. And then someone like Patrick

Dempsey, I always think of Patrick Dempsey as a person who is a race car driver that just happens

to be an actor, you know, kind of like Paul Newman was, right? I mean, you know, they were

genuinely talented people behind the wheel and acting, right? But they, you know, I always felt

those two people in particular were, um, race car drivers first and actor second. They just happened

to be, they just happened to be an actor. Um, but it's, I think those types of people will be,

it'd be great for the sport and NASCAR in general, not just for trucks. I mean,

it's always good to get more eyes on. Um, yeah, I don't think a lot of people watch trucks,

unless they're really diehard racing fans or have a favorite driver who's happens to be a truck.

Exactly. So being able to get some more eyes on it would never a bad thing. It was never a bad

thing. And then whether it's like you said, half of them are, you know, superstars that are coming

in from another series or a former NASCAR driver or something like that, or someone from the booth

who has wheel man experience behind the wheel. Um, or it's someone who is an up and comer from one

of the other series. I think it's going to work and it's going to, um, it's going to be pretty cool

to watch. Yeah. And in one final thought, we only have a couple minutes left, one final thought

too, just popping up ahead is, um, it wouldn't, it probably wouldn't work in too many situations

just because as you age, you do lose some reflex in eyesight, but wouldn't it be really cool to

get a nineties driver who is in their sixties now or, or even early seventies, get him a shot,

get a bill Elliott or a, uh, he was the guy that's a good walk. Um, one of the wall trips,

that's Michael Walter, but believe, um, get him all mixed up. So DW is a little bit,

probably he's kind of stepped away from everything, but, uh, we're getting a Dale

Hart Jr. Well, he's, he's back in that cohort of being younger, but maybe a Jeff Gordon or a,

or a Mark Martin or someone like that. Yep. Yeah. Maybe at a slower track too, or, um,

an event where, you know, maybe not at a super speedway, whether speeds are super high, but maybe

maybe a road course or a, or short track race, something like that. So you get someone that

get a rusty, a rusty Wallace or someone like that. Just, um, you know, one final, one final ride

where it's actually at speed as opposed to being symbolic. Um, you know, I think you just be careful

there to avoid stun and obviously people have, I don't have, I'm speaking generally here because

I don't know anything specific, but you know, it's people at age, they have health issues and

there is a certain point where the physical demands of race car driving, you can drive a race car

longer than you can play most stick and ball sports, but there is a, there is a point where

the physical demands do kind of force you out of it at a younger age than retiring from an office

job. Right. So, um, it would be a little tricky, but it would be kind of fun to see if, if a 60

something Bill Elliott or, or Mark Martin can hop into a car and, and a truck, excuse me, and get,

you know, a racer to him. So with that, do you have anything else you want to add on this topic,

Matthew? No, I think it's interesting. I'm looking forward to it when they pick it off in February.

Yeah, we'll, we'll visit it on the podcast too. I mean, we don't have to spend a lot of time on it,

but we can definitely hop in and say, you know, the first race or, or every so, we don't, I don't

know if we have to do it every race. We can hop in and, and I don't want to produce on the air, but

we can hop in and say, oh, this is the free agent this week, or maybe if it's, um,

you know, somebody who's famous and noticed, we could probably mention it thing at the first time,

then, and also if it's someone really famous or really notable or, or a future cup driver,

maybe keep an eye on it. So we'll check back in and out with that as, as next year goes along,

but that's way down the line. We are some time away from Daytona. We're still, we're still closer

to the championship race from 2025 than we are to the first race of 2026. So we'll, we'll deal with

that as we get to it. But, um, with that, we'll go ahead and close the NASCAR segment here in

this week's Truth About Cars podcast. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you for having me. It's always great.

That's all for this week's Truth About Cars podcast. I am Tim Healy, the managing editor,

and you can find us for every of your podcasts online at tthc.com or the truth about cars,

allspulledout.com. We thank Brian Moody and Matthew Guy for their time and Matt Poskey for editing.

Most of all, we thank you for listening. I bid you farewell from Los Angeles. We'll see you next time.

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