Ty Gibbs’ 1st Cup Win, Zilisch Holds off Larson, + Red Bull Racing Chaos Continues
SPEED with Harvick and Buxton
Ty Gibbs’ 1st Cup Win, Zilisch Holds off Larson, + Red Bull Racing Chaos Continues
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Concept
Bristol
Bristol is a NASCAR track. Because it’s a short track, grip and tire behavior matter a lot, so changes to tires or the track can strongly affect the race.
Concept
rubbered in
“Rubbered in” means the tires leave rubber on the track, making it grippier. As more rubber builds up, the track changes and can affect where you can drive fastest.
Brand
O'Reilly
O’Reilly is an auto parts company. They sponsor NASCAR series, so their name shows up in the championship branding.
Concept
race shop
A race shop is where the team works on the cars—fixing them, tuning them, and getting them ready to race. It’s basically the team’s headquarters.
Term
flat tire
A flat tire means the tire isn’t holding air anymore. That makes the car harder to control and usually costs the driver a lot of time.
Concept
Rodney Childers
Rodney Childers is identified as the crew chief who called the late-race tire strategy. In NASCAR, the crew chief’s decisions—especially around pit timing and tire choice—are often the difference between winning and falling short.
Concept
$350,000 bonus
They’re talking about a big cash bonus—$350,000. When that much money is at stake, drivers may take bigger chances to secure the result.
Brand
Red Bull
Red Bull is the company behind the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. When big people leave the team, it can affect how the cars are built and how they’re run at races.
Car
GMC Cyclone
The GMC Cyclone is a pickup truck that was built to be fast, not just for hauling. It’s a special version of a truck that uses a much stronger engine than you’d expect. People talk about it because it was designed to feel more like a performance vehicle.
Concept
World Rally Championship
WRC is the biggest global rally championship. Drivers race through timed stages, and one big mistake can ruin the whole event.
Concept
Penske
Penske is a major racing team run by Roger Penske. They compete in big series like IndyCar and NASCAR, and they’re known for strong cars, engineering, and team support.
Concept
NASCAR
NASCAR is a popular American racing league where drivers race purpose-built stock cars. The conversation is about choosing drivers and predicting who will perform best.
Concept
driver of the week
“Driver of the week” is a selection format that rewards overall performance rather than strictly being the race winner. The hosts explicitly contrast it with “winner of the week,” explaining why a driver who didn’t win could still be chosen.
Company
FIA
The FIA is the organization that oversees major auto racing rules and governance. In this clip, they’re linked to a report about volunteer work at F1 races.
Term
marshals
Marshals are the trained people stationed around the track during a race. They help with safety—like signaling and responding when something goes wrong.
Concept
formula one
Formula One is the highest level of race car competition in the world. It’s run by the FIA, and races require a lot of trained people on-site to keep things safe.
Term
EMT
EMT means Emergency Medical Technician. They’re trained to give quick first-aid and emergency care if someone gets hurt during a race.
Concept
race director
The race director is the main official calling the shots during a race. They decide how incidents are handled and communicate key instructions to teams and officials.
Concept
medical car
The medical car is the emergency vehicle that reaches an incident quickly with trained medical staff. In F1, it’s part of the structured response system that supports rapid assessment and coordination with other responders.
Concept
IndyCar
IndyCar is the top-level open-wheel racing series in the United States. The speaker uses it as a comparison point for how safety staffing and event consistency are handled versus Formula 1.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 (F1) is the premier global open-wheel racing series. In this segment, it’s the context for discussing how race control, medical response, and track marshals are organized and staffed.
Concept
Monaco
Monaco is a famous place for racing, especially because Formula One runs there on city streets. The ad uses that recognizable racing setting to make it feel special.
Brand
Colonel Sanders
Colonel Sanders is the famous KFC mascot. Here it’s just describing the theme of the driver’s suit—like a sponsor costume.
Term
catch fence
A catch fence is a safety barrier that helps protect people when a car crashes and goes off the track. It’s there to catch debris or stop the car from going further.
Term
curb
A curb is the raised edge at the side of the track. If you hit it wrong at speed, it can bounce the car and make it harder to control.
Term
big turtles
“Big turtles” sounds like a nickname for something on the track that can make the car bounce if you hit it. The speaker is saying it can contribute to crashes, especially right at the start.
Concept
gravel traps
Gravel traps are areas beside the track filled with loose gravel to slow a car down if it goes off. The downside is the gravel can get into the car and take a long time to remove.
Concept
street circuit
A street circuit is a race course made from normal city streets. It’s usually tighter and bumpier than a purpose-built track, so driving is harder and safer margins are smaller.
Concept
MotoGP
MotoGP is the top level of motorcycle racing. It’s where the fastest bikes and riders compete on road-racing tracks.
Concept
caution
A caution means there’s a problem on the track, so cars slow down. Drivers have to be extra careful, and it can affect when teams pit and how they line up for the restart.
LIVE
This win has been in the making for a while.
I think that this is just the beginning of the end for this whole situation.
I don't want that son. I want Zillich.
I want a six Zillich in Formula One.
You know how much I want to see Zillich in Indica.
What did your missus want down the aisle to you, mate?
Well, he just put me right on the spot and I'm never going to hear the end of it.
Welcome to Speed with Harvick and Buxton, fueled by Poet.
Let's talk racing, Will.
Let's do that, my friend.
Sorry not to be in the studio this week.
I will be next after Long Beach.
How was Flyback from Bristol?
Yeah, well, Bristol was unbelievable.
You know, there were a lot of questions going into Bristol of what the new tires were going to do.
We had new construction, new compound.
We had a new diffuser on the bottom of the car, smaller spoilers.
So a lot to take in from the teams.
But the racing was spectacular.
They put the traction compound on the bottom of the racetrack to try to really get the
track on the bottom of the racetrack rubbered in as much as they could.
And it spread out probably 100 laps, 75 to 100 laps into the race.
And it was top, bottom, couldn't really run the middle, but you could run the top and the bottom.
And in the end, it was Ryan Blaney and Ty Gibbs door to door
for the win after a late restart and caution with a little bit of strategy
from Ty Gibbs staying out on the racetrack.
Ryan Blaney coming into the pits.
Kyle Larson taking two tires.
So we had a lot of exciting things happening at the racetrack this week.
And in the end, Ty Gibbs winning the Gibbs family.
All the things that 54 car has been through over the last year and a half
seeing the enthusiasm from Ty and his mom, his grandfather, Joe Gibbs was something pretty
special. So what a moment for the Gibbs family.
Yeah, man. It felt like a really emotional one and a really meaningful one.
What was it like in the moment?
Well, you know, for those of you that don't know that Ty Gibbs won his O'Reilly series
championship and the next day is his father passed away.
And so, you know, the bond that those two had was pretty tight.
And I think that as you look at the emotion that came from his mom and, you know, Ty,
I felt like he showed, you know, a fair amount of emotion behind those Oakley sunglasses at the
end of that race. But, you know, for a family that's put their, you know, their life into
motor racing after Joe's original career, but had to deal with, you know, so much loss.
And, you know, I think for Ty to win his first race and his mom to be there and know how happy
his dad would have been, you know, with that win and how proud he would have been.
I think, you know, Joe and Heather, Ty's mom and Joe is his grandfather, who obviously is Joe Gibbs,
owning the team, know how much that meant to not only them, but how much that meant to Ty.
Yeah, I'm really learning about NASCAR and the Carp Series and O'Reilly and everything this year.
I've always had an interest, but I've never known as much as I think I'm getting to this year,
particularly through this show and us getting to know each other as well, mate.
And I know racing is a family business, right? Nobody gets started without the support of their
family. And so often there's, you know, there's legacies and there's lineages in racing.
But in other forms of racing, that's kind of a rarity, but it seems that in NASCAR,
it's such a huge part of the championship. There are so many of these great dynasties
and incredible stories of fathers and sons and racing legacies and racing names. And I,
you know, watch in Taiwan that we can. It's another one of those great stories of racing
legacy and family honor. Yeah, and, you know, look at Ryan Blaney, who finished right next to him
door to door. You know, his father was a cup racer. So Ryan being a, you know, second, third
generation racer from the Blaney family. And so, you know, you talk about, you know, Tai in general,
he grew up in that race shop. That's where he sat on the simulator upstairs. That's where
he rode his motorcycle around the shop. He rode his go-kart around the shop. He went to race with
all the guys in the shop. And so, you know, he has grown up around that racing facility and
business. And, you know, you look at Richard Childress and his family with Austin and Tai
and Mike Dillon and all the involvement that they have and, you know, the Hendrick family
and everything that they've done, you know, it's so different. And I know for, even for me,
you know, Keeland, the week he was born, he was at the racetrack in the motor home and followed
the circuit. We took him on the airplane. We took him to driver intros. And that's how all of these
kids that are now stars in our sport and Tai Gibbs included, they've been around it, you know,
every single day of their life. They've been a part of it. So it's great to see. And our sport is
on the NASCAR side and in our world is such a family-oriented business. And it's great to
see those families succeed. How bright do you think his future is? Well, this win has been
in the making for a while. Obviously, last year, they struggled tremendously getting that car on
the racetrack to perform like it needed to. Had a young crew chief with Tyler Allen. You know,
we got about halfway through the year, they started making changes to the team to put things
in place. And really the last 10 weeks of last year saw a great speed out of the 54 car. Could
have actually won this race in the fall, made a mistake coming to Pit Road, had a flat tire,
locked in the breakup, coming to Pit Road leading the race. So he's been in position,
consistently running in the top five, qualifying well. And, you know, the Gibbs cars in general
and the Toyotas in general have been, you know, really, really good this year to start the season.
So it was just a matter of getting that first one out of the way. I think this is going to,
you know, knock that wall down for him and he's going to be a consistent winner as he goes forward
in his career. It sounds like he has a bright future ahead of him, mate. Time to look at O'Reilly
now because in a thrilling race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Connor Zillich snapped out of a recent
slump in Cup by holding off a dominant Kyle Larson to secure his first career short track victory,
a bold strategy called by crew chief Rodney Childers to stay out on older tires late in the
race. Propelled Zillich to the win in a brilliant night for JR Motorsports, who claimed four of
the top five finishing spots. Kevin, you were there. You saw it. How much of a confidence boost
will this be for Connor, given how, how tricky it starts being in Cup? Well, look, when, when I
used to struggle in the Cup series early in my career, the first thing I wanted to do, I wanted
to find a late model race. I wanted to find a truck series race. I wanted to find an O'Reilly,
whatever I could find that was outside of the Cup car to go and remind myself that I could drive.
That's what I did. And that's exactly what, you know, this does for Connor Zillich. It's just that
reminder. Hey, Connor, you can do this. And the Cup series is just not easy. You've got a lot to
learn with the car. Your team is struggling to put the speed on the racetrack with your race cars
right now. But when you go back to that O'Reilly series and you can put yourself in victory lane
and run up in the front of the pack, you start to gain that confidence and trust back in yourself.
And I think for his crew chief, Rodney Childers, same thing, right? It came from the Cup series,
had a, you know, bad situation, inspired over to junior motorsports, who is a consistent winner
for the top five this week at, you know, for Dale Jr. and his, his cars. Rodney needed to have that
confidence put back in his brain as well, that he's a winning crew chief. And to get Connor and
Rodney into victory lane this week was huge for both of them from the confidence side. And I think
that when you look at Connor in particular, the Cup, the Cup season has been a struggle. It's a
struggle again this weekend on Sunday. And, you know, I watched him in practice. He got out of
his car early after Cup practice and said, my car is really good. Stop practicing. And I'm thinking
to myself, I'm like, man, I hope this goes good for him tomorrow because there was probably, you
know, some time left on the racetrack that you could have, could have kept practicing, but he's
got a lot to learn. And, you know, I think from, from the Cup side, there's just no way that you
can explain to people how big of a step that it is until you actually get in there and do it and,
and you're seeing that with, with Connor and the struggles that, that he's having on Sundays,
but great first confidence on Saturday to remind himself, I can still kick ass here. I'm a good
driver. And you know, you need to remind him also, like Carl Larson, two amazing races,
you know, Riley and then Cup, nothing to show for it. Does he take confidence out of the weekend
that he ran well in both? Or is it a punch in the gut that he ran brilliantly in both led,
I think the most laps in both races, but came away without the trophy?
Well, I think there's a, there's a, I think he's mad that he didn't win Saturday. I think that
as mad as Kyle Larson can get, he doesn't ever really get really mad. He just moves to the next
one because that's, that's what makes Kyle Larson great. But on Saturday, I mean, he's there to
only win the race. And that's why he's, he's running the O'Reilly series races. I think on
Sunday there, it's hard to put those Sunday races together to get yourself to victory lane,
but it is the first weekend that we have seen a Hendrick motorsports car. And in particularly,
Kyle Larson go out and take control of a race lead laps without something else happening to
other people. He was the fastest car for a good portion of that race and was able to lead laps.
So I think that's a big step for the five car and Hendrick motorsports. The next thing that we
did at Bristol was, was race trucks. What a race. Christopher Bell ultimately wound up being the
winner at the, at the end of this race, but we had some, some interesting things happen throughout
the race. Corey Heim was actually racing for $350,000 triple truck challenge bonus. And that
ultimately wound up in an accident for, for Heim as, as he and Christian Eckes got together
with what I, I, I view as probably a mistake by, by Eckes, but in the end Christopher Bell
wound up winning the race. And, and I think he was there to play and ultimately nobody wound,
wound up winning the money on Friday night with the bonus money. So cool to see Christopher Bell
come back and park that Stuart Friesen truck in, in Victory Lane, a great accomplishment for that
team. How much did that cost Heim total? Cause I know he missed out on the 350, but did the bonus
is like, I'm hearing like somewhere around half a million bucks he missed out on by like everything
totaled up. Yeah. So it was, well, he won 150 grand. So he won, um, you know, the, the, he won the,
the previous two races. And, and if he had won this one, it'd been a total of, of $500,000.
So ultimately it cost him 300, it cost him, it cost him 350 grand, but he still made 150.
And, and Corey Heim wasn't even supposed to, he wasn't even supposed to run all the races. And
ultimately he, he wound up running all three races and, and having a chance to win for, for Tricon
garage. So, um, wound up being a great battle between he and Eckes. And, and I think that
Eckes probably had a better truck and, and, um, you know, Heim was, was pretty aggressive and
they were moving each other out of the way, but, uh, in the end, it didn't work out for Corey.
Man. 150 grand still a nice payday. Still a nice payday. It is a nice payday.
It's great. Uh, potentially a very nice payday coming up for Max Verstappen's long time race
engineer, Jampiero Lambiesi, who is set to leave Red Bull in 20, 28 to join rivals McLaren
as their new chief racing officer, the move marks the end of a highly successful partnership
that has secured he and Max Verstappen for world championships. And once again,
cements McLaren's ongoing efforts to recruit top line talent from the grid. Here we are,
Will. And I think that the, as you, as you see all these things start to unravel, you see the
other side of, of, of the, of what could happen, uh, when things start to get questionable. Uh,
you know, I think that good people have options and when good people have options that they wind
up thinking about them a lot more when it doesn't seem stable within your own walls.
And I think that, you know, we've seen some people, um, you know, move out from underneath
the Red Bull banner, obviously some, some very high end people. And this is just the next step.
And, and so I don't know what you think, but I, you know, I think that this is just the beginning
of the end for this whole situation. Well, for Max at Red Bull, it's a, it's a really big question.
Christian Horner, gone. Helmut Marco, gone. Adrian Newey, gone. Jonathan Wheatley, gone.
Will Courtney, gone. Rob Marshall, gone. Uh, Jean-Pierre Lambiesi, gone. You know, Max is the
only one left out of that group, that one, everything. It's, um, yeah, it's really quite
something, really quite something. Uh, moving on to News of Formula Two, which has come into America.
Um, North America for the first time, officials announced that Miami and Montreal will host
rounds two and three of the 2026 championship. The move replaces the canceled races in the Middle
East, bringing the F1 feeder series to the US and Canadian fans for the first time this May.
But the flip side of that is the fact that Colton Herter, who is making his Formula Two
debut this year, was highly tipped to be taking part in the Indy 500. He now cannot do that
because the Canadian Grand Prix is on the same day that the Indianapolis 500. Andretti have said
they now will not be fielding a fourth car. They will not be searching for a replacement for Colton
Herter. Rumors that AJ Foyt might be entering a third car. Um, but also reports over the week that
Prema, who took an astonishing poll on debut at the Indy 500 last year, will not be entering
the Indy 500 this year. So a lot of news both with Formula Two and with Indy car around the Indy
500 this week. Yeah, the cause and effect for the, for the Colton Herter situation. Really, uh,
I hate that, you know, for, for him. But I think I on the prize, right? Like understand what the,
the long term in, in game is. And I think that, you know, it stinks this year that that he's not
going to be able to run, but ultimately we all want to see him get to F1, right? So you just
got to, you got to stay with the, stay with the plan. Yeah, totally. Totally. I still would
love to have seen Andretti field a fourth car, uh, for the 500, uh, maybe give one of the
Prema boys a ride for it. There's a, there is a pole sitter. There was an Indy 500 pole sitter
out there without a ride for the 500. Interestingly, if they put Schwarzenegger in the car, he would
have been the only driver at Andretti with an Indy 500 pole.
So imagine that you've got, when you've got will, when you've got will power on the team who's got
more pole positions in Indy car history than anyone that doesn't have one of the Indy 500.
Well, it's racing world is cruel. Will it is a cruel world that we live in.
It certainly is. It certainly is. It was a historic double for Tony Stewart racing at the
NHRA Winter National. Stewart captured the top fuel trophy in an impressive manner,
while Matt Hagen etched his name into the record books, winning the 1000th funny car race
in NHRA history. Two nitro wins, one legendary weekend for TSR. In Supercross, Hunter Lawrence
sees sold possession of the 450 SMX championship lead with a dominant victory in Nashville,
opening up a 10 point advantage over Ken Roxton as former co-leader Eli Tomag fell to third
in the standings. In the world of outlaws, Buddy Kofoid completed a weekend sweep at I-55 with
his third consecutive world of outlaws victory, narrowing his gap to second place Donnie Schatz,
while David Gravel maintained his championship lead with a run up finish. In a weekend of
action, connect down to one day with an impending cyclone headed towards Taupo, Brody Kostecchi,
maintained his championship lead in supercars with a race win, while Ryan Wood won the final race
of the Taupo Super 440, marking the first ever victory for Toyota in supercars. The cancelled
race will actually roll forward to become an additional race at the next round in Christchurch.
And the World Rally Championship was in one of my favorite countries on earth, Croatia. For rally
Croatia this weekend, a lot of crashes, big crashes for the championship leader, Thoreaule
Solberg, and also for the race leader, Thierry Neville, who crashed out on the very last stage
of the entire event, paving the way for rally Toyota's Takamoto Katsuta to snatch the dramatic
victory. Also his second win in a row, which takes him to the top of the standings. And Kevin,
the latest chapter of the IndyCar On Fox original docu-series all in is out now. And it is, um,
honestly, another brilliant episode. Not just saying that, it's grand. Um, they were always
going to do episode three about Penske, and they ended up filming at Barba, where Scott McLaughlin
had that huge crash into the fence. Um, and to go behind the scenes and actually be with him over
the course of that weekend is a wonderful insight into him, into the team, the controversies that
they've been through over the last few years. They really don't shy away from any of it. And, um,
I'm liking this series more and more as each episode kind of comes to air because you can see
that they've got an idea, a concept for an episode in their mind, but they will move and adapt it
depending on what actually happens on the weekend. And very few documentaries have the
willingness or the freedom to do that. And I've been really impressed by the way they've gone about
it. Yeah. And I think you have to be willing to do that because in our world, the story sometimes
tends to change in the blink of an eye. And when you see the McLaughlin wreck and everything that
that happened on that weekend, definitely can see why it probably changed a little bit. But
I've got to catch up on all this will. I'm a little bit out of the loop on, on, um, keeping,
keeping up with this all in series. So well, Kevin, you and the folks at home can watch episodes three
and two and one, uh, right now on the Indy car on Fox YouTube channel. And don't worry, each one
of them's only about 10, 15 minutes long. So you can get, you can get all three episodes done within
an hour. Easy. And that's the latest from across the racing from across the racing world. But
there's plenty more to come here on speed. Hey, speed fans, this show is fueled by Poet. Poet's
zero carbon bio ethanol gives NASCAR drivers the octane they need with zero carbon intensity.
When it comes to performance, you can't beat zero. Learn more at Poet.com.
Now it's time for Kevin and I to pick the driver or rider who stood out the most across the racing
world this week. Kevin, who's your pick, mate? You know, I'm biased, Will. I like to pick the,
I like to pick the cup winner. And this week we have a first time winner with, with Ty Gibbs.
How can you go against him? Wonderful story, right? Really beautiful story. We touched on it
at the top. Gorgeous stuff. So meaningful. So emotional. And of course, drove a,
drove a beautiful race. But I feel like you're just going for the easy play here, right? You
know, we've got a majority NASCAR audience and you're going for the easy play every week with the,
with the cup winner. Well, I mean, I did go, I did go supercross one week and, and I think that it's
going to take something, it's going to take something pretty spectacular like that. And you
know, winning that many races at Daytona with Eli Tomak, I thought that was a spectacular moment.
So, um, yeah, I just, I just did you pick Kimmy Antonelli one week?
Is that yours? I think you did. I think you picked Kimmy Antonelli.
I know the fans picked Kimmy Antonelli and he won one week. So we've, we've definitely,
we've definitely gone outside of the NASCAR world.
Well, I went, I went NASCAR this week thinking if I pick a NASCAR driver, guaranteed win,
right? Um, and I thought, I actually picked Kyle because I thought Kyle had a great weekend.
As I said at the top, you know, he dominated O'Reilly. He dominated Cup. He looked phenomenal
in both. I think led the most laps in both races. And for me, it's so funny because when this went
up online, there's so many fans replied to it and they're like, why is Larsen on the list?
He didn't win anything this weekend. And I'm like, it's driver of the week. It's not winner
of the week. It's driver of the week. And for me, Kyle's the driver of the week because he,
he was scintillating in both of those races. So for me, Kyle Larsen, driver of the week,
fans have disagreed wholeheartedly. Shock. Uh, my, my pick hasn't won. Uh, never does.
Next, actually next week, can you let me pick the Cup race winner? I guarantee it's the only
way that the Cup race winner won't win because if I pick them, they'll never win because none
of my picks win. We'll find the weak point. We'll find the weak point. We'll let you pick the Cup
winner and see if we can, we can, we can dissect exactly where this goes wrong. That's, I'll put
the curse on the Cup winner. Uh, if I pick them next week, uh, the fans have spoken and it is an
unequivocal victory once again for Tigers. Um, so huge congratulations to him. 58% of the vote.
That is what we call a landslide. All right. Well, Will, the FIA recently did a report about the
extent of the unpaid volunteers at the F1 events. And this story really stood out to you. How
surprised were you with what you read? Um, it did stand out to me, mate, for a number of reasons.
I don't think I was overly surprised, um, uh, at the extent to which Formula one motorsport as a
whole, mate, we know it, you know, it relies on the brilliant volunteers who turn up at race tracks
around the world to provide their expertise and allow racing drivers to race, you know,
week in, week out. It doesn't matter the track. It doesn't matter the championship.
The flaggers, the safety marshals around the majority of circuits in the world are unpaid
professionals who do it for the love of the sport. They pay their own way. They're usually on,
you know, unpaid leave from work in order to be able to come to races and do what they do.
I've been fortunate over the years to spend a lot of time with marshals in Canada every year.
There was an international marshals charity evening, which I went to every single year and
got to know a bunch of the marshals, just, you know, great, great girls and boys who travel the
world to follow the sport they love and help it to run. Um, I think the fascinating thing from the
FIA report are the numbers. Okay. So the FIA came out, um, and have reported 20,000 volunteers in F1
alone per season. That's 838 per race weekend. Um, the contribution that they give, and bear
in mind this, just a formula one, 965,000 hours a year. Um, it's just, it's, it's astronomical
numbers. Um, workloads have gone up by 20% over the last few years. 65% of the, uh, volunteer marshals
have to take annual leave or unpaid leave to go and do their jobs around the circuit and they
work on average 48 hours. That's a continuous stretch. So four days, 12 hours a day, look at that,
48 hours over the course of the, of the weekend. But it's their economic value that I think is,
is incredible. It's estimated that the value of their labor is $13.2 million to formula one.
Right. That's the value of their labor and they're providing it for free. The FIA says that,
you know, what they're doing on the one side is they're providing just over 10 million, 11 million
euros in, in, in training and development of, of marshals and of scruits and ears.
And I believe that the figure was that if they wanted to perhaps turn the volunteering of marshals
into a professional volunteer, a professional marshals, sorry, and actually pay them for their
work, it would cost them around $15 million a year in order to, to make that happen. But what I,
what I question and, and I don't have an answer for this. Okay. And it's, it's a genuine discussion
that I want to have and that I'd love to know the feelings of folks at home and also marshals,
you know, if you guys are watching and you will have an opinion on this is formula one is one
of the richest sports on earth. Motor racing as a whole is a very rich sport. Can we not afford to
pay the folks who turn up and give their time and their knowledge and their experience and put
themselves in harm's way to allow us to go racing? You know, if they're providing $13 million worth
of, of genuine work over the course of a season, and it would cost $15 million to pay them,
well, that's a shortfall of $2 million. So, so why isn't the FIA paying the marshals for the work
that they do? Have we got to a point where marshalling actually should be a paid profession? Or at the
very least, pay their expenses, pay for their hotels, pay for their flights, you know, I remember
going to places like Singapore and India when we used to go there, Abu Dhabi, China, and, and
marshals flew themselves from the UK and Europe, Canada, America, they'd fly themselves out to the
other side of the world for the love of racing. You know, 100 years ago, I get it, right? It was a,
it was a pastime, it was a hobby, motorsport. Now it's not, it's a profession and a very,
very rich profession. Why shouldn't these brilliant marshals who are so wonderful at their jobs,
why shouldn't they be paid for the work that they do? But obviously, then there's a wider,
there's a wider conversation around that, because not every championship is going to be able to
afford to pay for marshals. Yeah. So I don't know what the answer is. Yeah. Well, I think it's
really interesting. And I think that F1 having volunteers to me just blows my mind, owning,
being, you know, owners of the cars tour and thinking about how we, you know, we pay the
rest directors and you have to have the local ambulance and the local EMTs and the local
flag person. But it is very complicated, even just on a local level to be able to
find somebody that can, you know, for sure that can flag the race appropriately or can for sure
do the things that you need with your fire marshals and people that you have there.
But I just believe at the F1 level, I would think that you would want that to be a constant no matter
where you went by flying in there and having those people full time so that you have the
consistency of hearing the race director and people on the radio from a week to week basis.
So that's, this is a pretty surprising report to me on the level of F1.
It's, it's, if you remember the Rotman Grosjean crash in Bahrain, obviously the medical car turns
up with, it was Alan van der Merbe and Dr Ian Roberts in it. And they were having to direct
the local marshals, local fire team to the crash and where to put the extinguisher.
And, you know, they did, they did the best job that they possibly could and they are trained,
you know, highly, but they're not a professional fire crew in the way that, for example, the AMR
safety team that we have in IndyCar goes to every single race, every single event. They are the same
team on the ground. They know the teams, they know the drivers, they know the cars inside and
out. And I think that's, I think that is an immense positive. You know, the marshals in Formula
1 are trained and they're trained brilliantly and they are, they are brilliant at what they do.
But at that same time, if they ask, if they are brilliant at what they do and they are brilliant
at what they do, then should they not be paid for the work that they do? You know, there's, there's,
there's a kind of a romance to it almost that, you know, it's, it's a noble cause to be an unpaid
volunteer. But I don't, I don't know if as the richest sport in the world, you can't dip in your
pocket and say, well, here's, here's something for the amazing work that you do. It is such an
amazing world and it is such an amazing group of people and there's a real camaraderie that exists
between flaggers and marshals from around the world. And if you're watching this, we'd love to
know genuinely what you think of it. If it would change the nature of what marshalling is or if it
would actually be a positive step, please let us know in the comments because we would like to learn
what you think about it. Because I, I genuinely don't know what the answer is.
Yeah, that's a tough one. Well, we'll see how it all works out. That's a, that's a great topic
that I hadn't, I hadn't seen being talked about. And so thanks for bringing that to our attention,
Will. No, no worries. Now it's your turn to be part of the show. You can reach us
at speed on Fox across social media or leave us a voicemail at 213-53-47107. And when you do,
as always, let us know your name and where you're tuning in from. Okay, voicemail number one.
My name is Nick from Boise, Idaho. Kevin, you made a commercial early in the 2000s, mid-2000s,
where you spun early in a race. The guy watching was about to change the channel,
and you came on and said, don't you dare change that channel? I'm going to come back and win this
thing. You did. My question for you both is if you had to recreate a commercial promoting your
sport, NASCAR or IndyCar for Will, what would it look like? Oh, yeah, that's a tough question.
What it boils down to in my opinion is having the right creative people to come up with
something that pushes people's buttons to say, I remember this. I'm going to remember that because
this spot is so good. And there are so many spots that you look at, not just NASCAR or,
I mean, really any sport, you look at it and you say, man, the first thing I would do is fire the
agency who made that commercial because that was horrible. So it's not easy to find something that
will move the needle and make people say that was a bad ass commercial right there. I don't know
who did that, but I want to watch NASCAR and remember that commercial. That commercial is
probably what he's talking about. I think we did that commercial in like 2003, maybe 2002.
So obviously that one made an impact on our caller right there, but I'm not very creative, Nick.
So I'm probably the wrong person to ask. Maybe Will has a better idea.
I, first up, I think the job that Fox have done with the IndyCar commercials over the last two
seasons has been absolutely stellar, just outstanding work to really sell the personalities
in the sport and get people excited and interested in, you know, our superstars in IndyCar.
When I look back at my time in Formula One, there was one commercial that I really,
really loved and it was for Shell Fuel and they got a Ferrari. It started with a Ferrari in the
1950s and it's driving through the streets of Monaco and then it comes out of the tunnel
and it's on the streets of Long Beach and suddenly it's a Ferrari from the 1970s and then it's like,
and then suddenly it turns a corner and it's driving through the streets of Rio and it's a car
from the 80s and it was all the different eras of Shell's association with Ferrari and it, you know,
this is years before AI. It was all done legit and for real. I think they had Jackie X's Ferrari
driving through the streets of New York City. It was just, it was so super cool and it was like an
idea of Formula One races all over the world and here are these cool venues and the history of
Ferrari as a team. I'd love to see IndyCar, you know, all the different cities that IndyCar
races in. I think it would be, I should probably bring this up with our creative department at
Fox really. It would be cool to have an IndyCar racing around, you know, you're going around
Long Beach and then you turn a corner and suddenly you're in Portland and then you turn around another
corner and you're in St. Louis and then, you know, whatever it is and you do the entire calendar
through and past some of the, you know, the great spots in those, those cities. Of course,
Washington will be, the entire race will be past landmarks within the city for the freedom 250
later this year. So that's going to be, that's going to be, that will be an advertisement by itself.
We actually did an IndyCar NASCAR commercial myself and Tony Kanan. We did a Rises ad together
that we shot. I mean, I'm just showing my age, but Tony Kanan and I actually shot a Rises commercial
together back in the day. So that was, uh, I'm, yeah, I'm showing my age now. So Tony and I,
I'm going straight to YouTube, mate. I'm going straight to YouTube. You're going to laugh.
I'm not going to tell you what it's about. You're going to laugh when you see it.
I love it. I love it. Brilliant. Um, uh, Boise Idaho, by the way, home of Stingray Rob. So, uh,
big thanks for the voice mail. Right. Voice mail. Number two,
it's Xander Parsons from Bend, Oregon. And my question is, if you had to rotate three
drivers between IndyCar NASCAR and Formula one, which drivers would they be? And the catch to
this question is the driver that moved to the other series automatically gets the best car
when they arrive there. Oh, I like that. I like that. Yeah. I mean, um, you know,
I think F one and NASCAR are easy for me. I'm taking, I'm taking Kyle Larson and Verstappen.
I think from IndyCar, who, who would you take? Um, I mean, pillow, because I think he's a,
he's an absolute magician. I mean, you could go on the other side of it and you could take like
host of our, um, who's going to, who's going to be wild, uh, out of IndyCar. You could take
Pato and then I don't know, Ocon, somebody like, who's going to create, who's going to create mayhem?
Yeah. So I like that version of events. If we take, if we take Larson out of NASCAR,
where are we putting him? IndyCar or Formula one? Oh, well, we've already had Larson in,
I mean, you're rotating between the three. So they're going to race in everything.
Okay. I was, no, I just, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't want Larson. I want Zillich.
Zillich. I want to stick Zillich in Formula one. I want to stick Zillich in Formula one and I want
to stick, you know how much I want to see Zillich in IndyCar. So, so for me, Zillich is like a
non-negotiable. I want to see him in car IndyCar and Formula one, like every single, every single
race weekend. And I, I think that kid's magic. Well, I would, I would agree. He has a, has a
lot of potential, but that's a great question. That would be interesting to see. That's a great
question. Yeah. What about all the time? We can go all the time. We can be here for, we'll be here
for hours. Let's not even get into that, mate. We can go down a rabbit hole on this one. Dude,
seriously, forever. Okay. We got a question in from Steve Kowalski. Kevin, who was harder to pass
on a drafting track? Tony Stewart or Dale Jr.? Well, that's easy because Dale Jr.'s cars were
always, always really fast. So he was always the hardest one to pass because you couldn't hardly
catch him. I love that. Well, keep those questions coming at speed on Fox on social media or give
us a call on the voicemail at 213-534-7107. That's 213-534-7107. And when you do, let us know your
name and where you're tuning in from. Kevin, I think I can guess, but which one are we going for
this week? Because for me, it's like the three of them. Yeah. I think the three drivers is far and
away the best one this week. So I'd say we send them to Oregon, send the bobblehead to Oregon.
That's where it's going. Send them to Xander. Have you got yours yet? I don't have mine yet. I'm
got yours yet. I've seen a picture. Do they exist? They exist. No, I haven't seen a picture yet.
Are they, are they going to put a picture up? Yeah. Do you want to see it? Is that, oh yeah,
I want to see them. That's, okay. That's intriguing. Which one's which? Yeah. Well, wait,
am I taller than you? How am I taller than you? You're way taller than me. I, that's my Indy 500
suit from last, they've, they've got me in my Colonel Sanders suit from last year.
Colonel Sanders suit. Oh man. Well, I'm glad we have something. It looks good.
Hey, you know what? It looks like, I mean, they, they've botoxed me to within an inch of myself,
but I'll take it. Hey, take it any way you can get because it's not going to get it. It's not
getting any better for us. Will, I've got some bad news for you. We're only going downhill from here.
Well, now it's time for replay review where Kevin and I take a look at some of the best and maybe
the wildest moments from the racing world this weekend that you and we might have missed. First
up Nashville qualifier. Oh boy. Whoa. I saw that the first time and I had to rewatch it. I didn't,
I didn't think it was real, uh, but obviously this was a real crash. And, and as you see,
Lane Shaw flying through the air right there. Thank God that catch fence is there.
And it didn't hit the ground all the way. Absolutely crazy. Wow. Wow. Um, what else have we got?
Four wide and one car goes airborne here with GT three. Oh, this is a record.
Oh my gosh. Oh man. He hits one of those curves.
Yeah. Cause there's a chicane in the middle of the straight.
Watch this curve right here. All the place. Oh my gosh. I did that one time. We were at,
uh, uh, the Indianapolis road course. And you remember those for the NASCAR race,
those big turtles that they put, I think it was coming out of turn five on the start,
they all fanned out. They had them perpendicular to the racing service and everybody crashed.
And I went wide and I hit that thing on the very first lap. Will it hit that thing jumped up in
the air. My Han strap lock straight forward. So I know on TV right here, hitting that curb just
looks like, Oh, what the hell? Why would they put that up there? I guarantee you that was a
Hans lock right there for him when he hit that, when he hit that curb.
Yeah. That's horrible. And that's, I mean, that's a really fast part of the track. You get onto
that straight and you're just flat chat all the way up the hill into senior corner, which
like, if you, if, if, if you're Billy big bollocks, you'll try and take that right hand
of flat out as well. Like it's, it's a monstrously flat. What's, what's the name of that track?
The circuit. That's Paul Rickard in the South of France. Wow.
Looked like a beautiful place. Great track. It's amazing. So all those colored stripes,
they're high abrasion runoff. So it's, it was set up as a test track. So if you spun off track,
the, the blue and the pink stripes are like, um, gravelly paint. So if you look at the brakes on
it, it'll just tear the rubber off the tires and slow you down. So they do without gravel
traps so that if you spun, you could just come back to the pits and you wouldn't have to spend
hours taking the gravel out of the car. You could just carry on and that's why the tires
and off you go. And you go back again. That's why I love this show. I learned something every time
I get on here. Did not know that. Yeah. And that's why it's called circuit pool, Rickard,
HTT, high tech test track. There you go. There you go. Well, I feel like,
I feel like this next one would be, um, something that you would come up with,
because I had no idea what I was watching, but this is pretty awesome.
She's great. Oh yeah.
She's absolutely nailing this. Also very delicate accompaniment on the piano. That's really lovely.
Yeah, whatever floats your boat, whatever floats your boat. What did your Mrs. Walk Down the
Isle to me? Um, well, that's a great question. Well,
Oh no, if I just landed you in it, you just put me, you just put me right on the spot and I'm
never going to hear the end of it because I can't remember. It's been 25 years.
Oh, you? Oh, no. Um, at last I get to James. Okay. Yeah. Well, it's obviously been a long time.
So I'm losing my wedding anniversary tomorrow. So, so I needed to get that one right. Happy
anniversary. Thanks buddy. Yeah. Um, here's what you need to have on your radar in the final
lap. The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the heart of the Midwest for the Advent Health 400 at Kansas
Speedway. Catch the action Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern on Fox. Following the NASCAR coverage,
IndyCar hits the streets of Southern California for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The race
starts Sunday at 5 30 p.m. Eastern also on Fox. The IMSA WeatherTech Championship races that
same Long Beach circuit a day earlier, featuring, as always, intense bumper to bumper sports car
action through the fountain turn. Across the Atlantic, the FIA World Endurance Championship
kicks off its season at the legendary Ottodromo Enzo Edino Ferrari, which we lovingly refer to
as Imola, for the six hours of Imola, serving as the 2026 season opener after the postponement
of Qatar. And Supercross makes its long-awaited return to Cleveland after a three decade absence.
Kevin, what are you most looking forward to? Well, I grew up in Bakersfield, California,
so it's hard not to look forward to the Long Beach Grand Prix and everything that that happens
during that weekend. As a kid, I grew up, you know, watching every everything that happened. I think
that my my highlight moment is probably Jamie Little winning the little Toyota race that the
celebrity race. Yes. Yeah. Look, you remember out in LA this year, when we had the little
golf cart race, like there isn't anybody that's more than Jamie Little. Oh my gosh.
The most competitive person I've ever met. I think.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like she was up against some serious competition as well. I don't mess
with Jamie. She'll take you out. No, she's willing to go. She's willing to take it a little bit
further than I was in the golf cart cart, cart race that week. So I think she was willing to
knock the whole side off. Kev, you've got, you've gotten in with Toyota, obviously, naturally.
So is T-bell. How are we going to get that pro am back like the celebrity race at Long Beach?
It was always the Toyota celebrity race, wasn't it? How do we get that back? I don't know, but
that was it. That was a neat event. Just to see the celebrities that would show up and the things
that they would put them through to get them prepared for the race. It always wound up being
an actually a pretty respectable race to watch even with the inexperience of a lot of the drivers,
but it just, it brings, it brought worlds together that you, you normally couldn't bring
together, but that would be awesome to bring that back. You know who the best was around there?
Four time winner on the streets of Long Beach. This was great. This was how I introduced, I had
him on one of my F1 shows at Monaco one year and we got him on to talk about the rigors and the
challenges of driving a street circuit alongside F1 drivers. Alfonso Ribeiro, a four time winner
on the streets of Long Beach. Like, oh dude. He was a staple in this, he was a staple in the celebrity
race. Mate, he's proper behind the wheel. There's not a lot that man can't do. Sing, dance, act,
race. And he's a, he's a bloody good racer as Alfonso. I think that's all we've got time for.
Dude, these are going to end up being like two hours every week. You've got so much to talk about.
There is still though plenty to come this week because coming up on Wednesday, we hear from
MotoGP superstar, championship leader and Kevin's favorite MotoGP rider, Marco Bezeki. And if you
are enjoying the show and we hope that you are, do us a favor and subscribe to the channel,
follow us on social media and jump into the comments to let us know what you thought of the show
and what you want to see next. Thank you as always to our friends at Poet. Poet produces
high-octane bioethanol delivery maximum performance with zero carbon intensity. You can't be zero.
Kevin Harvick, I'm Will Buxton. Thank you all for watching Speed With Harvick and Buxton,
fueled by Poet. Now, let's send you out with the best wrecks of the week.
It looks like he's broken in every corner there. All four wheels that have had contact.
Track narrows up quickly when one car gets completely sideways, doesn't it?
Oh, and Nina's tries to get down in a hole that just wasn't quite there.
Frankie Malcolm in the middle is crushed. Caution in turn one Riley Herbst. I've seen these two cars
at it before. That was a payback.
About this episode
Bristol’s new tire and aero package set up a top/bottom racing groove and a dramatic finish: Ty Gibbs held off Ryan Blaney after a late restart to score his first Cup win, with heavy emotion tied to his family—his father passed the day after his series title. The show also spotlights Connor Zillich’s first short-track Cup win at Bristol, beating a dominant Kyle Larson via Rodney Childers’ older-tire late-race strategy. Beyond NASCAR, they discuss Red Bull’s escalating personnel chaos, F2 coming to Miami/Montreal in 2026, Indy 500 entry ripple effects, and a big FIA debate about unpaid F1 volunteers.
Original notes
Kevin Harvick and Will Buxton breakdown Ty Gibbs’ breakthrough performance in Bristol, with Kevin explaining exactly why the young driver’s technical feedback and poise point toward a promising future in the sport. They also dive into the thrilling finish at the O'Reilly race, where Connor Zilisch gambled on pit strategy to hold off a charging Kyle Larson for a statement win, and Christopher Bell’s late-race pass on Christian Eckes to secure his first Truck Series victory since 2017.Across the pond, Max Verstappen’s long-time lead engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, shocked the paddock with a move to McLaren. Will provides the inside track on what this means for both Verstappen's future and Red Bull’s stability. The guys then select their Drivers of the Week, plus reveal who the fans voted as theirs.Next Will goes deep into a new FIA report regarding the extent of unpaid volunteers keeping F1 moving. Finally, Kevin and Will pick up "The Racing Line" to answer your burning motorsports questions and preview a massive week of racing action coming up across the globe.
Chapters:0:00 Intro0:40 Hot Topics1:25 Ty Gibbs Wins7:00 Connor Zilisch 1st Win of The Season10:40 Christopher Bell Truck Win12:20 Gianpiero Lambiase To Leave Red Bull14:00 Formula 2 Coming to North America16:00 Rest of Hot Topics18:00 "All In" Real-Time INDYCAR Docuseries19:55 Driver of the Week22:33 Buxton's Breakdown30:50 Fan Questions38:24 Bobblehead Preview39:15 Best of Social Media43:20 Weekend Race Schedule47:20 Wrecks of the Week
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SPEED with Harvick and Buxton
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