Tyler Reddick Does It Again! Atlanta Chaos, Overtime Drama & JGR’s Lawsuit
Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX
Tyler Reddick Does It Again! Atlanta Chaos, Overtime Drama & JGR’s Lawsuit
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Car
Chrysler Daytona
The Chrysler Daytona is a small, sporty car made by Chrysler a long time ago. It was designed to be fun to drive but still affordable. Talking about doing 'everything under the sun' with it means the person used the car a lot and did many different things.
Concept
production truck
A production truck is a type of race truck used in NASCAR races, different from regular trucks you see on the street.
Car
Renault Wind
The Renault Wind is a small car with a roof that can fold back so you can drive with the top down. It was made to be a fun and stylish car for city driving. Talking about wind and rain is a fun way to mention the car because of its name and open roof.
Concept
fully funded rides
A fully funded ride means the racing team has all the money they need to pay for everything, so the driver doesn't have to worry about costs and can just race.
Brand
Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch is a famous race car driver who competes in NASCAR, which is a popular car racing sport in the U.S.
Brand
NASCAR
NASCAR is a big group that organizes car races in the U.S., especially races with cars that look like regular street cars but are built for racing.
Concept
sunset rule
The sunset rule means the race has to end by a certain time, usually so the drivers don't race when it's too dark outside. This rule helps keep everyone safe.
Concept
checkered flag
The checkered flag means the race is over. When drivers see it, they know the race has finished.
Concept
white flag
The white flag means there is just one lap left in the race. It's a signal to the drivers that the race is almost over.
Car
Oldsmobile Intrigue
The Oldsmobile Intrigue is a family car made about 20 years ago that was known for being comfortable and smooth to drive. It had a name that sounds like 'intrigue,' which means something interesting or mysterious. People might talk about it because it had some surprising features or stories.
Term
attrition
Attrition means that some racers drop out of the race because of problems like crashes or car trouble. So, the winner is often the one who can keep going without issues.
Concept
super speedway
A super speedway is a very big and fast race track where cars go really fast and race close together.
Concept
Daytona 500
The Daytona 500 is a big car race where drivers race really fast on a big oval track. It's one of the most famous races in the United States.
Term
road racing
Road racing means racing on a track with many turns going both left and right, not just circles. It needs different driving skills and car setups.
Term
qualifying
Qualifying is when drivers try to set the fastest lap before the race to decide who starts in front. If it rains, qualifying can be canceled and other rules decide the starting order.
Term
track position
Track position means where a driver is on the race track compared to others. Being in front usually helps them win the race.
Term
DNF
DNF means a racer didn't finish the race because something went wrong, like a crash or car trouble.
Term
spotter
A spotter is someone who talks to the driver during the race to give helpful advice about what's happening on the track.
Term
blips the throttle
Blipping the throttle means quickly pressing the gas pedal to make the engine spin faster for a short moment. Drivers do this to keep the car steady when slowing down or changing gears.
Concept
pit stop
In a race, drivers stop briefly to get new tires or fix their car so they can keep racing fast and safe.
Concept
Circuit of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas is a famous race track in Texas where cars race on a winding road instead of just going in circles.
Term
road course
A road course is a race track where cars turn left and right and go up and down hills, making it more challenging than just going around in circles.
Term
rain tires
Rain tires are special tires that help race cars stick to the track when it's wet and rainy so they don't slip.
Brand
Ram
Ram makes big trucks that people use for work and tough jobs. They are strong and built to carry heavy loads.
Car
Toyota A90
The Toyota Supra is a fast and popular sports car from Japan that many people love because it can go really fast and look cool. Saying it was 'completely bent' means it got badly damaged, like after a crash. People talk about it a lot because it's famous for being fun to drive.
Company
Toyota Racing Development
Toyota Racing Development, or TRD, is a part of Toyota that makes cars faster and better for racing and performance.
Term
burnout
A burnout is when a car's wheels spin really fast but the car doesn't move much, making smoke from the tires. People do this to look cool or get the tires ready for racing.
LIVE
They either need to stop talking about them
or do something about it.
The way I would approach it is,
you know, I'd probably reckon the first chance I got.
But any data you're actually copying or reproducing
or disseminating officially, big no-no.
Adam Andrade. Adam Andrade is a star.
Here we go, on to the ballpark.
What a race!
California's Kevin Harvick's happy hour.
Everybody's in a hurry.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour.
Presented by Nass from Fox, I'm Kevin Harvick.
She's Kate from Vinci.
And I think you're an honest man.
I'm really a toxic racer.
You are? Yeah.
What's about sound?
So Nass car racing.
Yeah, listen, let's do it.
Hey, he's got the beard again.
He looks more like himself.
Yeah, I think I'm going to have to agree with her on this one.
I think that the...
I'm going to get comfortable.
Yeah, you fit along there.
Get settled in.
I think it's better with the beard.
Yeah, it's as in like my face.
Yeah, it's more mamba.
I mean, look, man, I can't come into the new season with old energy.
So I like to switch it up.
So when you shave, it's new energy.
Yeah, because new hairs, it's new everything.
So we're three weeks in and now you're old energy.
No, now I'm back to normal energy.
Normal energy, yeah.
But you can call it OG energy if you want.
OK, yeah, there you go.
Well, we're just paying you a compliment.
That's all.
Just giving you a compliment at the top of the show.
But if you don't want to take the compliment,
you can give us why I can't.
No, I'll take it.
My mom will appreciate it.
OK, I don't get very many compliments
between the two people in this chair and then Tyler in the studio.
That's not true.
He's doing it to himself.
After you guys drove me into the bus last week for going pee.
First of all, that's not our fault.
You went and the cameras were rolling.
What do you want me to do?
Yeah, it's called content, Kevin.
Content, content.
It's for the socials.
Welcome in, everybody, to another edition of Kevin Harvick's happy hour.
Make sure you subscribe on YouTube, our new page,
wherever you get your podcasts and follow us where?
Harvick happy pod.
Let's go.
Yeah, deal.
Closes.
Love you.
He's got that wisdom in his beard.
Yeah, you see that?
It's memories back.
Yeah, all of it comes back.
We have plenty to talk about after a very eventful Atlanta race
at Echo Park Speedway.
We'll recap that.
There's a new lawsuit, guys.
It only took a few weeks and we already have another lawsuit to talk about.
We'll discuss all the Joe Gibbs racing news and preview Kota.
And you got some sips.
We got some big sips.
One of them is a little cringe.
I feel bad for my one guy because I feel his pain and he literally,
this person literally sent that to me like he tagged me in the video.
I was injured.
Yeah, so I had to add it.
Yeah, so we'll see it in a little bit.
Yeah, we got an injury on the show today.
Not great.
It's OK, you have that.
You'll have that.
All right, let's do Kevin's word.
Oh, oh, we're getting right into it.
Kevin, you need to lead this off correctly.
Yeah, I am not having confidence in me.
Yeah, I was, I was.
Nobody thought that you were going to get this word and land the plane correctly.
And when I say nobody, I mean, our entire team.
I never said that.
I said, I didn't know what it meant.
Well, I had to look it up.
We all had to look it up because our producer is the one who gave it to us.
And he's the youngest one on the team.
So you'll have that.
Oh, so he was against me, too.
Everybody was against you, Kev.
But you did a great job.
Let's run the tape.
You talk about Hosevar and having the problems early in the race.
But man, he's had a great start to the season, whether it's been the qualifying
races or Bowman Gray, this race right here, he's run great.
And I think that puts a lot of lot of pressure on his teammates, Michael
McDowell and Daniel Suarez, because he's kind of mugged everybody as far as
the performance that he's had throughout the season so far.
You know how I know it was perfect because even NASCAR social grabbed it
and put it on midbrack.
Oh, yeah, I saw that you said it very early on, too.
That's nice.
I knew how I wanted to use it this week.
I had practiced.
I'm not messing these up this year.
Yeah, no, I believe that.
No, no, no, I don't think you can stump me.
What does the word mean for people who may not know?
Well, it's it's it's a it's a gym slang word for basically the coolest guy in the gym.
OK, oh, best looking guy in the gym chiseled.
Yeah, you know, it's like the best looking guy on this set.
Yeah, we have the best looking gal, but we have best, you know, there's only two
choices for the guys here.
I'm not answering.
So I already get people mad.
OK, yeah, yeah, he did good.
Yeah, yeah, no, he did do good.
And I was seriously, I was like, I don't know this word.
So I don't think Kevin's going to figure out how to use it correctly.
And it was pretty easy, actually.
The word was easy, but like, you know, how are you going to get it in there?
Yeah, I did study a little bit.
I used a little AI thing.
And the chat GBT.
Yeah, I had examples and I had two drivers that I was going to use it for.
Oh, you had to walk in.
Ross Chastain.
Oh, yeah, it works for both.
Yeah, yeah.
I see what you're doing there.
You're really like storytelling.
Ross doesn't want to be mugged.
No, by Connor Zillich.
No, no, because you already got it by SVG last year.
Yeah, so you can't let the kid do it.
Yeah, when the example of how to say the word was dog, I'm like, I got this.
That's just easy.
It was simple at least because some of the pronunciations are a little dicey.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and without our encyclopedia, Caitlin, to explain how to say words and what they mean.
And now they just happen now they just happen on the air.
And you notice Mike and cleaner totally clueless.
Literally, they don't even react.
They don't even react because it's just smooth.
It's just like the operator over there.
Like, well, good job.
OK, so Atlanta, as I referenced at the top of the show, great racing across all three series.
I felt like this weekend, all of us were there.
How was your weekend overall in Atlanta?
My weekend was pretty slow, but I'm coming off a Daytona where I did everything under the sun.
And it rained out qualifying for the cup cars.
So I sat in the production truck.
Oh, you did.
Yeah, I watched the truck race and everything in the production truck.
So pure chaos, pure chaos in the truck.
Have you sat in a truck before and watched a race?
It's pretty fascinating.
It's pretty fascinating.
We need a camera in there.
It's way harder to get it from the trailer to your TV than you think it is.
Yeah, people have no idea.
No idea.
Our people are very good at making it seamless.
They do a great job.
So you were there, too.
I showed up Sunday last minute, rode down as a long ride.
I rode, too.
Four hours is no joke.
Honestly, though, by the time you budget in going to the airport and messing with all that,
you might as well just drive.
No.
That's my feeling.
Yeah, and I'll fly at any time.
Really?
Yeah, different on that, I guess.
I like the solitude of a four-hour drive.
Yeah, it was cold outside.
No, the solitude.
Oh, my God, being in your own pre-race was an absolute.
The wind was freezing, whipping.
So, honestly, shout out to all the fans because, first of all, the crowd was packed.
It was a really full house.
And then you guys stayed all night, like into the night, and it did not get above,
like, what, 50 degrees?
It felt like it felt like it was 20.
It was bad with the way that the wind was blowing.
And I think I opened it for me before the race was how hard the wind was blowing.
Yeah.
But also, we had Joey Ligano on, how concerned the chatter was about the wind
with the way that it was blowing, a tailwind down the back straightaway.
And those cars always get tied into turn three right there.
So, you have to be aware of where you're at.
And so, the tailwind, along with the wind pushing against the left side of the car,
all the drivers were pretty concerned.
The Crucians were, too, because I talked to Gustafson.
Helen Guston of the nine and Mike Kelly of the 47.
I'm like, how are you guys going to adjust for that?
Because if it's not really the car, but your driver is complaining about XYZ,
they're like, you can't, and he's just going to have to deal with it.
Because if I adjust for it, then he's going to be really out to lunch.
And there's a lot that you just have to deal with there,
because the cars are just up on top of the racetrack.
They're never comfortable.
It's by far the most uncomfortable as a driver they'll be all year,
because of just the way that the car feels there.
And it's when you add that wind in there and we'll get to some of the clips
and you're going to see cars just spin out, which has happened without the wind.
And it's just part of what happens at Atlanta in today's new world.
And Echo Park Speedway, before the wind came, the rain came
because I was doing the truck race on Pit Road, torrential downpour.
But we were able to get that race in.
And the one thing I want to mention really quickly about that series,
I feel a different energy in that garage this year.
And I've covered trucks for the last 13 years.
And I even asked a lot of the competitors about this.
And they were like, this is one of the most stacked fields we've had in some time
with fully funded rides, really competitive guys.
Like they just feel like that series has been elevated a little bit this season.
I want to give them some credit, too, because the drop of the green,
they were out of control.
And when the checkered flag flew, they were still out of control.
And ready.
And ready.
Adam Andrade is a star.
I know.
I was like, who was taking up her dear life?
And he did.
Like we've had other people come through that have some experience
and start cars and stuff like that and couldn't do that.
Like, brother, even qualified.
And I was like, wow, all right.
He's getting after it.
He was hanging on.
Yeah.
And he wound up with a decent finish.
Yeah, like 12th, I think.
Yeah, good for Kyle Busch.
Got win number 64.
Yeah.
And Kudos to NASCAR, too, for getting that race in.
As I was, you know, they used the sunset rule, which is makes it a definitive
end to the race at a specific time if they clarify it before the race.
So 420 was the end of the race.
And basically what happened at 420 was they wound up running two laps and one
lap and then they got the white flag, then the checkered flag to end the race
at a specific time because we were out of time.
Yeah.
The O'Reilly race was going to start.
And so they had to end at a specific time.
So it actually only wound up losing 10 laps.
But everybody knew that this is when the race is going to end.
So it added a little different level of intrigue to it just because of the fact
that you didn't know when the costumes were kind of going to come out.
So it kept everybody wanting to keep themselves positioned towards the front,
which they were already doing anyway, but it just became that much more important.
Yeah.
I want to shout out to NASCAR from the that side, the comp director side.
Yeah.
Because they made that that comes from that situation, right?
The ops people, they did their job on that.
But then also in the race, there was a couple of spins that they didn't
throw a caution for because the driver collected it up in really quick time.
Yeah, they were on it.
Like I you can see it.
We talked about it a little bit last week, but you can kind of see the change
in philosophy and I think it's standard now.
Well, keep it.
The thing that we have always talked about on here and I've been pretty
critical of NASCAR been consistently inconsistent, right?
Just all over the place with their calls.
Now we're a couple of weeks into this and multiple races and we've been consistent.
Whether it's right or wrong, it's consistent and we're not adapting to
well, it's this car spun or that car spun or we need a caution.
We don't need a caution.
It's like, oh, that guy spun out.
He didn't hit anything.
Keep it going.
And, you know, that's that's the most important thing is keep it consistent.
And they're doing a good job so far.
Yes, definitely has been a refreshing, refreshing change in that department.
So the cup race, let's move on to the big event there.
Once again, we kind of see how this racetrack is demonstrative of how the
attrition battle can face, you know, we were going to do that.
Attrition, basically this racetrack demonstrates that you got to overcome
attrition and nobody did that better than our eventual race winner, Tyler.
Did it take you longer to think of that word or do your hair?
I'm just curious.
Did you, did you search that word?
And as I was coming up with that word, yeah, instantly, it's right there.
Like as I was typing it out, I was like, this is what the word I want to use here.
My hair takes way longer and way better vocabulary for the show.
What was your question?
I was saying that a lot of teams had to overcome attrition through this race.
And no one did it better than our eventual race winner, Tyler.
No, he had no fender at the end and wound up winning the race.
And his car would look like it was actually faster than what it was early in the race.
But when you come to Atlanta, you know that the attrition level is going to be high.
You're going to have some moments that you're not comfortable.
You see the block here at the end from Bubba.
He just, I mean, he went to block and he got too high.
And when, when you're racing host of art, he's going to go where you're not.
We saw this throughout the night, but Bubba threw the big block right there
and ultimately gave up the middle lane and put him on the outside.
And then he wound up fending for, fending for his life.
And his pusher wound up becoming the leader, Tyler Reddick right here,
who in the end had a, he had a pretty solid partner behind him.
And we heard Chase Briscoe talk afterwards that he just didn't have a car
that he felt like had enough speed to really make that, that big pass
or make a run at the end.
And you see all those cars up the racetrack right there, tight SVG,
getting tight right there, going into turn three.
But what a start to the season for 2311 in general.
And Tyler Reddick went in the first two races with, with, you know, a historic moment.
Yeah, it was big.
First driver to win the first two races since Matt Kenseth did it in 2009,
six in history as well.
That's pretty awesome.
And it's a little different now because it's two speaker races.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like anything could happen at either one of them now.
I think what Tyler did and what that group is doing, their cars all have speed
and they're all doing what they need to do.
And as happy as I think it's a little weird right now over in the 2311 camp
because Bubba has been in the, in the position to be winning just like Tyler is
and hasn't finished off in this, this time at Atlanta and Echo Park Speedway.
It was even closer.
I understand what he was going for.
I think he was trying to control the front.
Like if, if he makes that block right there, then it's 2311 run in the front row
and like they're in control, but he just went a little too far outside.
But even if he stayed in that center lane, I think Carson, Carson
Hosevar is going to the top.
I think Carson is going, like he said, wherever Bubba wasn't going to be,
he's going to put them three wide.
So he was in the sucker hole, maybe looking back on it.
The only thing he could have done is stayed in front of the 45 and then tried
to drag grace the 77, but 2311, they got it locked in right now.
You mentioned Carson Hosevar lap 31.
He had a tire issue at one point.
He was two laps down.
He also missed pit road the first time around when he had to pit.
He was there at the end, though, and a side window blew out and a window came out.
They had a lot of things happen.
But I guess the question I have for you is, what do you like most
about what you see out of Carson?
Well, I feel like Carson is going to, he's going to take a run.
He's going to, he's going to plug a hole every chance that he gets.
He's going to put you three wide.
He's possibly going to put you four wide.
If you open the middle up, he's going to, you know, take a chance at like he did
right here with Christopher Bell to fill that hole, especially when he's racing
for a win and he's not going to worry about it when he gets out.
And I think that's the part where all the other drivers are, it kind of
misses them off just because, I mean, he, he wants to win and he's aggressive.
And he puts a, he's putting, you know, a lot of drivers in a lot of positions
that they don't want to be in.
And he doesn't care.
He does not.
He does not care.
And I think that's, I mean, it's fun to watch.
Look, Friday, Saturday and the truck race, he was a company man.
No, yes, he was.
He made sure that those two trucks finished one too.
Right.
Great photo moment at the end.
Great photo moment, the whole thing.
And he said he was this.
So we're watching the replays of this restart.
Like, I know, I understand why C bell and the 20 group are upset with that,
the aggression, but you know that he's behind you.
You know that you can't give him a lane and they gave, he gave him just enough.
Like, was it really there for most people?
Probably not.
They're like, no, but for Carson's like, Oh, I see you opening up.
He jumped the lane and then it closed real quick.
And that's just, I don't think I can really be all that mad at him.
Like as a, as a spectator watching it.
Oh, that's a spectator.
You're excited.
Yeah.
Like that's, I don't think you matter excited.
Right.
If that's my guy, that's exactly what I want you to do.
And it's two manufacturers in front of you that aren't your own.
Like there's a whole nother level.
So he's just trying to get the front.
If you're a competitor and you're racing against him, what, what do you do to
show him that you're not going to do that to me?
I think we got to the point now where if they either need to stop talking
about him or do something about it and like, don't let him bully you.
Like you're getting bullied by someone.
Their problem is they're getting bullied by someone who they don't think
should be bullying them.
Yeah.
Like if, like if this was Kevin Harvick doing this or Kevin Harvick tech
persona guy, man, you just got to watch like Kevin's aggressive and you got
to give him, you got to know that, but they're like, he shouldn't be here.
Like they don't have the respect for Carson Holsovar and he doesn't care anymore
because he doesn't care about getting their respect either.
So now it's like you see me in your bumper in the back bumper.
You got to know.
And, you know, I think the way I would approach it is, is, you know, I'd
probably wreck him the first chance I got.
It's kind of what I would.
That's what I would.
I would.
I mean, if it was, if it would, when you're trying to get in that position
to be able to send a message, you, you have to show that aggression to send
a message and that was, you know, kind of how I would approach it in the past.
I don't think he's doing anything wrong.
I think he's racing aggressively, but in this deal, when you put people in bad
positions over and over and over, eventually somebody's going to take that
method and, and try to, you know, make sure that they send that message to, to him
that, Hey, you can do that to everybody else, but don't do me.
So it'll be interesting to see who does that.
I was about to say, who do you, who would you see doing it first?
He's, it's really interesting because of the Kyle Bush and Carson
host of our situation.
I mean, Kyle has been critical of Carson and I think you could kind of tell
in the interview afterward that Carson was somewhat referencing that the Kyle
being critical of him and Kyle kind of, they didn't, neither one of them said
it directly, but in the end you knew what that, what that, those barbs back
and forth meant.
So I mean, Kyle has been critical, but I don't think, I mean, right now Kyle
can't, Kyle hasn't run with, with host of ours as far as, you know, the speed
and being, being competitive consistently in the first two races, he qualified
on the pole, but I mean, host far was in contention all the way up in the last
lap in both races.
So, I don't know.
I mean, there's a lot of guys that, that talk about it, but if you're going to
take the bull by the horn and send a message, you're going to have to be the
one that does it.
Someone's got to do it.
I don't think they will.
So Carson host of our finished fourth, two spots down from him on the leader
board was Mr. SVG coming into Atlanta.
This was actually pretty impressive.
Cause once again, he had to deal with multiple situations, kind of spun on his
own.
He got into it with Kyle Larson.
We talked about SVG, obviously a lot last year.
Like what would we see from him on these other style tracks now that he'd gotten
some races under his belt?
What did you think of his performance?
Well, I, that, and we had a question about where track house was going to be.
Well, we've pretty much answered that question.
SVG and, and Ross Chastain, both in the front.
See right here, Shane just lost the car kind of in the middle three wide, not
abnormal there.
If you get in, in unique spots at Atlanta, it'll, it'll do that.
I've done it and the wind coming across and there's just, yeah.
I mean, it's just part of what happens here, but he battled back.
He raced in the front.
Connor drove to the front at one point.
Ross was consistently in the front and in contention all the way to the, all
the way to the checkered flag as well.
So, um, he did a great job.
And, and I think that I've said this a number of time.
His racing IQ is extremely high and he's very mature.
So he's methodical about how he learns and, and what he watches and, and the
things that he does to get better.
And, and I think that you see the improvement, uh, right here in the
first two races.
So I think that track house and SVG, um, you know, Connor has run good.
He hasn't had two good finishes, but he's ran decent.
He looks like he's doing too much for him.
No.
And I think that, you know, when, when you look at, um, Ross, I'll think of it in
a minute, uh, you know, we, we had some questions about where they qualified at
Daytona and he didn't run like he did at Atlanta, but at Atlanta, they looked
like they had their stuff together.
The hard thing about this, the way the schedule is, is now that it's back to
back, like super, like super speedway style racing, but Atlanta, Atlanta is
so different.
Like it's, it is, but you need handling.
So like we're kind of in an in between, like I'm really excited to get to
Phoenix because we still don't know where, where everyone's at.
Well, think about this too.
I mean, a guy like William Byron, he crashed in the qualifying race.
He crashed in the Daytona 500.
He crashed Atlanta.
You only get seven cars.
That's three speedways.
Yeah.
So that's three cars.
And we got, we're going to Kota.
So that's four.
So we got, you know, you, you put yourself in, you can put yourself in a
hole really quickly from just where you are with car count in the shop, workload
on the team, where you're at in the points.
There's a lot of different things that are, that are building up for, for a
number of teams.
And oh, by the way, if you had two crappy super speedway races and you suck at
road racing, not good weight, not a good start, not a good start.
Also qualifying was rained out for the cup series.
So some teams were already starting behind the eight ball because of the metric,
but it didn't seem to impact Jayce briscoe too much because he was still able to
be there at the end, finished as the runner up.
That's a solid showing out of them.
Well, you know, 19 car was good.
20 car was leading all the way and, you know, until the end of the first green
white checker when they had the accident with host var.
So, you know, I think that, um, we expect briscoe to, to do exactly what Tyler
retica is doing.
And we expect briscoe to be as good or better than, than they were last year
because of them being together.
But I think you're seeing that maturity out of the 19 group already.
They know they have the expectation to be winners.
The expec, the expec, expectation is higher than it was last year because they
expect to be a championship contender.
So it's, um, it's, it's going to be a fun year because I think that 19 car is
strong and, and has been, has been strong at the first two races.
He had the accident at, at Daytona, but finished it off at Atlanta.
So keep it on 12 to like Ryan Blaney and the 12 group, they made their way
through the, through the field twice because they had to start out back.
Um, and then got caught up in someone had to make it back or he had a pit road
incident and I honestly felt like the, the best Ford was the, was Austin
Cendrick. Oh yeah.
You know, I felt like Blaney wasn't as strong as Cendrick.
I felt like he wasn't as strong as Legano.
They put themselves in a good spot track position wise and they're at the end
to give themselves a chance, but, um, he wasn't, he wasn't quite as strong
as, as those two Fords.
And, and I think at the beginning of the race, I'm like, man, Austin Cendrick,
he went from 30th all the way up to the, to the win of the first stage.
So it was, um, that was, that was, they need to do that.
That two car needs to perform more than just a couple of times a year.
Yeah.
He advanced 23 spots by lap 35.
He was Holland.
Uh, let's talk about the Kyle's from, and I want to start with Kyle Larson,
who had a decent car, strong car.
Um, but I referenced that he came down on SVG.
He said in his post race interview, he, I mean, he made a mistake.
Obviously he took ownership for it.
He said, I need to listen more, I guess, and not react off what I feel.
And Kevin, you've discussed that this format could be, you know, detrimental
to them if they have DNFs and situations like this happening regularly.
Yeah.
These are the types of moments that, that we have talked about with, with Larson
and even, even he himself, I mean, he talked about it afterwards.
He's just got to do better.
And there was really no reason to go all the way down the racetrack like that.
There was nothing to really be gained in front of him.
Um, and I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish right there.
I mean, obviously he was trying to block a line, but we, we went back
and listened on the broadcast to the, to the spotter and the spotter
the whole time was inside, inside, inside.
Yeah.
And then it was hang on to it.
Yeah.
You guys kind of compared it to like a carving in your blind spot.
Essentially.
I mean, that's what he said in his interview afterwards, was he didn't,
he didn't really, he didn't really know he was three wide.
And he never got a visual in his mirrors of the 97, but it's in your ear.
You know, just you got to take those moments and not try to make them.
You can't make every moment spectacular because sometimes it works out like that.
Yeah.
And that'll bite you in this chase format.
And you're coming to the, we're coming to this stage, like right there.
If you just take the one lane, your door to door, if the 97 beats you, okay,
it's one point.
Like obviously we know one point one can matter later, but I don't think it
in retrospect gave up 30 some.
Yeah.
It gave up a lot and maybe a win because they were up front all day.
They were, uh, Kyle Busch wasn't up front, but he was having a decent run
running 13th when he got tight.
You kind of had to check up Noah Gregson was there.
He kind of seemed to place the blame on Noah in his post-race interview.
What did you see out of the eights?
Well, I saw a frustrated interview out of Kyle Larson.
I think that in that moment where he went up the racetrack and got tight,
you'll see at the back of the frame right here, you see him tight right there.
Like he's not even trying to go into that lane.
So he's off the gas with wheel into it.
Um, you know, and Noah blips the throttle and then gets into the back bumper.
But at that point, I mean, you can't really place the blame on Noah.
They weren't lined up.
I mean, you just jammed up into the, into the outside lane and had a few inches
in front of the bumper of the four.
I don't, I don't know how you place any, you know, all the blame on Noah right there.
I mean, obviously the eight car spun off of the front bumper of the four, but
the eight car also wound up in, in the, in the lane that the four was coming
at in full speed off the throttle.
So, um, you know, I think Kyle was just frustrated.
I think it's on him.
Yeah.
No, same thing.
I mean, I think Kyle, they had some decent speed.
He probably felt like they had something they could compete with, at least
being the mix.
And this is again, one of those tracks that they probably have circled as a place
that they can win because they've come closer before and then the day got shortened
and then it's somebody again, when it's somebody that you, when it's somebody
you're racing with that you don't necessarily have the utmost respect for.
It's a little, it's like insult to injury that that person is the one that got you.
That turned you around or whatever.
So even though Noah didn't do anything wrong, the fact that Kyle's already
frustrated, he's probably been frustrated with Noah's other things before.
It's like easy, it makes you an easy target.
Noah, Riley, Carson, Hulsavar, like people go after these guys like that.
But if you're in Noah's shoes, I mean, if you lift and get tagged from behind
and get spun out, you have to protect yourself a little bit too.
I mean, you're the guy that's lit up in front of him.
If you're Noah and dump the throttle and spin out or get hit from behind,
that's the risk that you take in these cars.
So you got to protect yourself.
I mean, you can't just cast any, I wouldn't cast any of the blame on Noah.
It was a racing deal.
Yeah, you got tight.
So Cowbush running 13th when that happened, a driver who ended up finishing
11th on the day was Chase Elliott, actually the highest, highest finishing
Hendrick Motorsports car, but he did have a bad pit stop.
Basically overshoots his pit stall.
It has to back up.
Then he kind of runs over the hose, ended up in a 23 seconds for the nine team,
which is something we don't typically obviously see out of this group.
And he was in the, he was in the game at this point, right?
Upfront and, you know, after, after he slipped through the big pit box,
it took him a long time to get back to the front.
He wound up somewhat in contention, but never where he was at this point.
So it really, it took them out of the conversation for the rest of the day.
I, one thing that probably no one will talk about is so when he did that, he
backs up, he kind of backs up deep, but he was still in the box.
And then he pulls back forward again.
I don't know if he was doing it on purpose or not, but to do that, didn't
mess up the 12, like Ryan was right behind him.
And Ryan was kind of deep in his box.
If he stays there, Ryan's hung up there too.
You know what I mean?
So instead of Chase being like, ah, I'm just going to sit here.
He's like, let me make sure I get myself in a position.
It doesn't ruin anyone else's stop.
Not a normal mistake that we see out of Chase LA.
Usually he, those guys don't make many mistakes.
I was saying, yeah.
Usually they over achieve as far as the day on stuff like that.
And that's usually their strong point, but it definitely, it definitely hurt
their chances of being in contention like they were at that particular point in
the race. Another team that typically we don't see make a lot of mistakes is
Joey Logano, but with 22 to go, he kind of, kind of across the nose of Carson
Hosevar, we're trying to figure out what all was transpiring there.
The aggression level, just hyping up, of course, at the end of the race.
What did you see from this incident?
You got to take chances.
I mean, you got to be aggressive and you got to get in those, those scenarios
that, that you can try to control things and block.
And, and I think those guys in the Fords, uh, Logano, Blaney, I think
they had to be a little bit defensive and a little bit over aggressive to
try to keep themselves in the game.
And I think it just, I think it bit him.
I think it was very similar to the Larson deal where he came down the
racetrack and he just, he wasn't, it wasn't clear.
Yeah.
Shortly after that was William Byron's big chain reaction pileup.
Yeah.
Did we get confirmation that it was a tire?
Like he got loose.
He got loose.
Okay.
He said that he got loose.
Uh, it snapped.
He got into the wall in the middle of, of one and two.
And then this is the aftermath of it coming down the back straight.
It looks like it won't steer.
And it's just veering down the racetrack.
And ultimately, that'd be scary.
You're approaching that.
Well, and they're full speed and he's, you know, just trying to hang on
for, for dear life to, to get to pit road and ultimately caught the door
of the, of the two car going down the back straight away and, and cause
this, this wreck right here.
So, um, he had a, he had a pretty good day too.
Uh, as far as the speed and everything.
And it just, just came on rabble.
Come together.
A lot of incidents at the tail end of this race.
Well, it was caution written.
I mean, you, you have to be aggressive.
You have to be willing to crash.
Uh, you have to be willing to do things that you typically don't.
And, and you know, we, we saw, we usually the aggressor comes out on the top
and these styles of races might cause a few crashes, uh, like we, like we saw
with, with Hosevar, but those are the guys that you want driving your car.
And in, in these situations that are willing to, to throw it all out there.
It kept getting colder and colder.
The cars got faster and faster.
And the wind never stopped the handling.
Some of them were on, I think Blaney was on like, what did Larry say?
It was almost like a hundred laps.
A lot of laps on one on two tires.
Like, but tires mattered.
It mattered.
Tires didn't matter.
It was huge.
I was, I was a bit surprised that more of those guys didn't put tires on to try
to get themselves in a better position.
We saw, uh, 45.
Yep.
Prease couple of those cars put tires on one car, had fresher tires and get
themselves back in a position.
And, and so, um, sometimes I think that the, some of the crew chiefs and things
play the track position game too much.
And, and then it puts the drivers on defense and your only option is to try
to keep them behind you with blocks and, and, and do things that are just outside
of the capability of the car.
I think that's one thing about the, this car too, is like before we knew the tire
situation, like the, how the tire fall off was was pretty like we knew.
We've been working with this forever.
And now we're in a situation with, still with this generation of car, the
evolution of the tire that Goodyear has been giving us and getting better all
the time, but it's hard to know how much new tires is going to be worth.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
We're still learning that as the years click off.
So, you know, you'll see more of that.
I'm sure.
So it was an eventful race in Atlanta.
It was an eventful news cycle leading up to the race as well.
Here you go, guys.
Joe Gibbs racing has filed a federal lawsuit against former competition
director Christopher Gaibhart, accusing him of stealing confidential team
information before departing the organization and accepting a leadership
role with Spire Motorsports.
So Gaibhart has denied these allegations as well, saying they're frivolous
and retaliatory claims.
So I did speak with some competition directors on the cup side this weekend in
the garage area and they were explaining to me, there's obviously a racers
etiquette when you leave a team and go somewhere else.
Anything you retain in your mind, because of course you're going to remember
plenty of things that teams do, but any data you're actually copying or
reproducing or disseminating officially, big no, no.
Is that the understanding?
Well, yeah, I would agree with that.
But I think it's this whole cat and mouse game here is, is pretty interesting
because it's, it's been pretty quiet on the Gaibhart front as to what was
happening at Spire, then the lawsuit comes out.
Then you see the Spire announcement come out, the, what they call in the
chief Motorsports officer, it's kind of confusing as CMO, but that's a different
conversation.
So, and then you see, so we had the Spire announcement and then the
Gaibhart tweet or X statement statement.
So I just thought all that was interesting.
I would have, I would have thought that you didn't want to say anything, but I
guess in that type of situation, I can, I guess I can see the Gaibhart
response, but it was interesting to see the Spire group kind of double down
with, with their announcement as, yeah, he's coming to work here and here's
his position and all that.
So this is, this is more drama.
They are not scared.
Like, you know what I mean?
They double that, like they double down with their drivers when they're aggressive
and they're going to double down with their people.
And it's a very interesting situation.
Uh, I feel like once Gaibhart made, said what he said, right?
His statement, it's like, Oh no, he, he's going to fight this thing for sure.
Right.
So that's the interesting piece.
Cause the allegations are pretty heavy.
They're pretty like, those are serious things to say.
It's an eight million dollar price tag.
It's eight million dollars, it's real, it's real, real money.
Like you can go cup racing for some people.
And now we know what Gaibhart makes as well, by the way.
Yeah.
Now we know, yeah.
Now it's going to change.
That's the other thing, Kaylin is like, it's going to change.
Everyone knows what, what some people are making now at a high level.
So now they're looking at their, their contracts.
It's like, Hey, uh, wait a minute, I'm not him, but we're getting up there.
So like, this is, this is an interesting thing.
So now we're on a second lawsuit and not quite the magnitude of the NASCAR Jordan
lawsuit, but different still, it's different.
Yeah, it's different, but it, I feel like it's going to set the tone for the
expectations of when people leave teams and, and just the, the amount of, um, uh,
how this plays out and, and how much pressure that it puts on crew chiefs,
competition directors of wanting to make a change or how teams operate with how
they protect their information.
Bottom line is they spend millions and millions and millions of dollars on,
on all the, all the information that, that they gather as a team.
And, and so it'll be interesting to, to see how this plays out.
We're making really quick leaps from like mid 2000s stuff to like 20, 25 stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like how you have conversations with people in the garage and people share
information and what you're doing over here.
Like all those things happen, but now at this day and age, they really can't
happen anymore because the I peace.
Well, there's an ethics part of it, I think as well of, of how you approach it.
And this isn't the first time Joe Gibbs racing has dealt with this
cause they just went through it with Jeff Curtis,
one of the engineers who was looking to leave the team and had been sharing
information with us.
Where did he go?
Our, well.
Right.
Yeah.
We thought it was RCR.
Yeah.
So it's interesting that it's them that it's happened to twice.
Yeah.
It's also interesting.
And so what do you think it means for gay part?
I mean, how do you think the garage views that?
Well, I think the interesting part is what it looks like for Spire, right?
Like, is he, can he start?
Has he started?
Is he going to start?
What do we do?
You know, so you make this big hire and now it puts you in a position of trying
to understand exactly what he can and can't do or is he doing not doing.
So, I mean, with a, with a legal dispute like this of, of the magnitude
that it has become, it's interesting to see, you know, what, what he can,
what he can do and how public he can be with, with Spire motor,
Spire Motorsports, because they've announced it.
Yeah.
They went ahead and announced it.
Is he going to, is he going to show up on pit road and on pit boxes
and things with the team now?
Or does he have to stay away until this is over?
Is he like allowed to do stuff until the lawsuit goes through?
Yeah, your name and like, well, once again, here's the distraction piece too,
that it presents to both organizations, which we talked about last year.
It's hurt Spire so far.
They're proud of this.
Well, yeah, it'll be interesting to follow this.
I'm sure we'll have to bring Bob in at some point for all his legal mumbo jumbo.
He's so good at those things to break it all down.
So much for me in this seat.
That's for sure.
So again, a lot happened in Atlanta to super speedway races, essentially first
of the schedule. Now we're doing something totally different.
We're headed to the road course circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Obviously, Kevin, you have experience racing there.
The first one was a bit dicey with the weather.
Yeah, yeah, we learned a lot about rain tires.
That's crazy.
Running a buck, 60 down the back straightaway.
You can't see in the spray and hitting a car.
It's totally fine.
Fun memories.
Anything up there?
Not sure.
Can't see through the monstand.
I'm going to count you into the corner.
Five, four, three, turn right.
That was scary.
I can only imagine.
It was pretty scary when you go down the back straightaway and you can't see
and you're looking at the guardrail, trying to make sure you're going
the right direction down the straightaway.
That was your reference.
You had to use the guardrail because you couldn't see in front of you.
I don't know what the forecast looks like this weekend, but let's hope
that it is not something similar to that.
Yeah, I hadn't looked either.
When it's dry in normal conditions, what are the keys of that place?
It's a tough track.
It's a beautiful facility.
We changed the track last year to shorten the lap time.
So we took a big section of, you know, over there off of 10, 11, 9, 10, 11,
somewhere in that section of the racetrack.
And we take the little cut through now, but I, you know, the curiosity
for me is, can SVG win at Kota?
He hasn't won at Kota.
Is there, is that a trend because of the style of racing that the racetrack is
in his style that goes with the car?
Can Connor Zillich keep up with this teammate?
Are we going to see that, that first battle?
We've seen Connor drive there and, and do the things that he's done there.
Or is he just going to, is he still trying to figure out the cup car?
And can anybody else, has anybody else made any ground to keep up with SVG?
I mean, that's really the story of the road race.
I interrupt this program to say that Tyler, our producer, just informed me
it'll be 80 and sunny this weekend.
Oh, 80 and sunny. Beautiful.
There we can temper all those fears.
I'm going to bring my shorts and tank tops.
There you go. Cut off.
Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to bring my vest because it's, you know,
we're cowboy country. So yeah, yeah.
He's going for Ram.
I'll be out there on the display for Ram.
I will not though.
So you guys have to hold down the fort for me.
Brother, we'd be burning it down.
So if you can't do an interview, just come over and tell me.
Is there any way I can get a schedule of those things because we've been outside
doing some interviews and then they start those burnouts.
And then next thing you know, they just go and go and go and go and go.
Is it on the little platform?
No, it's ratchet strap down to the, to the ground.
Then we just sit there and burn the tire, burn it right off, burn those
Goodyear Eagles, right to the charge of driving.
Driving it is my guy named Chase Crawford,
who's in charge of getting going is, you know, this guy.
What do you mean, getting it going?
I mean, I'm like, you know, I got the people, you know, you're the guy.
Yeah. So you're, we know he's a hype.
You're Ram Hype. I'm Ram Hype.
Hit a Ram Hype.
Chief Ram Hype.
Chief Ram Hype.
Yeah, that's me.
You're the CRH.
R.A.M. Baby.
Ram Hype.
C. Don't hurt yourself.
Catch.
Kevin's had a lot of thoughts in his brain today.
He brings up a good point, though.
This will be really fun to watch the battle with SVG and Connor Zillich.
Now into the same roof, the first road course of the year.
I'm excited to watch those two of who can get the bragging rights.
Yeah, you guys are talking about those two, but I'm thinking about someone who
really needs it, Ty Gibbs.
Oh yeah. But he's good there.
He's so he's been really good at the road courses.
And let me, I know there's a lot of fans
did not want to talk about points.
We have one or two, but I'm sorry.
They're almost kind of more important than his winning rate.
Like it's what you wanted.
So you guys looked at all pretty interesting right now.
So sixteenth right now is SVG.
SVG is 80 points out of the lead.
Denny Hamlin is twenty seventh, ninety three points out.
Seabelle and the 20 group is a hundred points out.
31st Bowman is a hundred and seven points out.
Two bad racers in a row for them.
Gibbs is a hundred and eight points out.
So the question I have, and I was asking some guys on Pit Road,
how many Mulligans do you think you're going to be able to get?
Because it's different when you get them at the beginning of the year
versus middle of the year.
Like how many?
OK, so hold on.
So the Mulligans are one thing.
I think that like Briscoe went from the trunk to 15th, right?
Fifteenth or sixteenth.
OK, that's great, but you're not winning the championship
unless you're in the top six, maybe five.
So you can make you can get some Mulligans
and get yourself back into the playoffs.
Yeah, but you know, if you get too far
behind and just make the chase, you're not winning the championship.
So think about that.
Like being 11th in the points and in being in the chase.
That's great, but you're not winning a championship.
So those top five or six guys get too far away.
It's over.
Like you're not contending to win the championship
if you're past six points.
You can only make these massive leaps
at the beginning of the year when the points are still close.
Yes, once we get to the middle of the year around, say,
the end season challenge time.
I believe that if you're outside of 20,
you're not even thinking about going into the chase
because I don't think you're going to be able to make it.
And I think it's the landscape is going to be very interesting
and how hard people are racing and what they're racing for.
Because now you can't just get in by winning.
Well, you can't just hail Mary and get in.
Now, if you have Mary and ruin someone else's day,
there's no real reward for you for doing that.
Not at all. So now what are we going to do?
Yeah, so it's going to be very interesting in the bell on the 48.
Like all three of his teammates have been
in contention at some point in those other two races.
And he has been non-existent him.
And honestly, Denny not having been great on road courses.
I mean, I believe he'll win like three or four races this year.
But you just don't want to start to your point.
If he's beyond six or seven championships, it's over.
Not going to happen.
But and, you know, and we have the other question, too,
with Brad Kosolowski, is he even going to race this week?
And Joe, he's going to be on hand to drive the car.
But we already know Brad is not good on the road courses.
So why? Why not just get out and let your leg heal
and just put Joey Hand in there?
You're probably going to finish better anyway. Probably.
Yeah. So those are some of the teams you're concerned about.
Besides the obvious of the SVGs of the world,
who else do you think has a legitimate shot at a victory?
Well, I mean, you have to look at, I think Ty Gibbs is great
to bring into this conversation with his where he's been on the road course stuff.
Christopher Bell won there last year.
Tyler Redick has won there.
So I think you have to take. I mean, Chastain has won there.
I think Kyle Bush will be OK here.
He's this has been a pretty good track for him.
So I think you have to bring some of those guys into the conversation
based off of past history.
Yeah, William Byron is another one that's he's been going to.
Yes. So. OK, we'll have to see how it all unfolds.
You two have fun out there in Austin, Texas.
Don't cause too much trouble.
We'll get you some boots.
Line, dance and bars.
Listen, the lady around.
I do. I do be loving some Austin, Austin nightlife.
Oh, you know, at the at the Ram display, Kevin,
there is a ram that you would call it conquer the Hemi is a ram.
And you can ride it and we'll give you a free t-shirt.
I think you should come on out.
Wow, what an incentive like a bull.
Like a bull. Yeah.
So it's like a mechanical bull. Yeah.
I would love to come out there and run the bull with you riding it.
I mean, that's a good idea.
I mean, send the cameras.
Perfect. I mean, that happens. OK, whatever day your schedule
opens up, figure it out. I knew you will.
That's why I said it like this.
Yes, I'm not scared.
I'll start off slow.
I'm not volunteering for the bull riding.
So that's all you, my friend.
I got it. And so is this next segment.
The sips are up.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I hope these are better than last week.
As they as the closers tell me every week,
welcome to your favorite part of the show.
Mamba's social sips.
And we're going to start.
We're actually going to start it off kind of where we started the show.
Yes, we got a little video that I'm going to run for you.
Tyler, run the run the clip.
What's up?
Let's just get out of it.
Anyone and that would be a wreck.
You know what I mean?
Well, he said unanimous.
That's it. Just get out of the way.
And I just love the fact that he just owns it.
Right. Don't apologize for it.
I mean, yes, sure.
I mean, I did the same thing.
You get wrecked.
You're going to get wrecked every once in a while by by people
and you just you just kind of brush that off, but he doesn't care.
And I think that's what makes it great is the fact that he doesn't care.
And he just owns it and he's aggressive and he's going to win.
He is definitely going to win this year.
He's going to win because of it.
And he's going to have some DNS because of it.
I can appreciate that gumption that he has.
So, you know, I appreciate the fact that he just owns it and doesn't care.
Look, man, there's not there to make friends.
No, and he tells you that.
There's a lot of people that are starting to become
more and more Carson Hulse of our fans, a lot of fans.
I noticed that he did that video that he posed that one.
I think it went for like 32,000 views.
Like, like he is crushing it on the racetrack, off the racetrack.
And he's pretty smart with his branding and things like that.
I've noticed. Yeah. Pay attention to that, boy.
He's going to be moving, making moves.
Guys, this one's tough.
This is what we talked about at the top.
Yeah, this is what we talked about at the top.
I feel for this guy.
So last week, Daytona, 500 day, Justin, Drake, Carol.
Actin' a fool.
Actin' a fool.
Actin' a fool.
Look, he's excited.
Look at that.
Tyler Reddick, there we go, plus $4,000.
$2,000.
Oh, my gosh.
That is a brutal injury.
This up, the dog's like, no, dad.
No.
It might have been the dog's fault.
I mean, do you think that the profit covered the hospital bill?
Better have insurance.
Kevin, his ankle touched earth.
Oh, my gosh.
It was completely bent.
40 is a 90 degree angle.
And here he is with a makeshift walker.
His Amazon stool.
Yeah, so actually, Tyler has one like this.
Tyler has, and he has tested it is worthless, basically.
So he never would do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's all he does all day is sit on that stool.
I mean, he can't handle the weight.
And here this guy's having a back it up backwards.
Back it up, son.
Back it up, Jake.
Here's his X-ray.
Wow.
I mean, it just doesn't end.
This poor man.
No, I feel bad for him, but he tagged me in this.
And I was like, oh, absolutely.
I love the fact that he hurt himself and then sent you the video.
It's almost like America's funniest videos.
People know to just send them to you.
Hey, put this on there.
Look at me.
Oh, my goodness.
So I feel bad for him.
We're thinking about you, though, buddy.
Hope you have a quick heal.
If you've got any more videos, send them to me.
Yeah, if you have any other things.
You seem accident-prone, so send some more.
Y'all, mailbag.
The mailbag is in the house.
This one is from Darren Kent.
After the 500, Denny Hamlin talked about getting NASCAR back
to its identity.
With the new Hell Yeah! promos and old school branding.
Do you think the sport is heading back in the right direction?
And I'm going to even double up on this and be like,
with Fox, what we're doing here at Fox,
bringing back the speed logo with what you guys got going on.
I feel like that's 1,000 percent what we're doing.
What's old is new again.
Speed is back.
We've got the Hell Yeah! branding back.
We're going to just be ourselves and promote the hell out of that.
And I think that is great.
And I think when you see the, I think it's caught a lot of us off guard,
the enthusiasm for our sport when we went to the Daytona 500
and the TV ratings and just the feel in the garage.
And everybody just like, all right, we just get to be who we are.
We're just going to go out, put on a good show, promote ourselves.
Like we're NASCAR racing.
And I like that.
I think that that's, you know, I think the only thing that could be better.
So if we had a thousand horsepower, there you go.
There's always still work to be done.
But I think the fans feel like they've been heard.
You know, we're going back to the same point style format.
We're embracing kind of the race fan blue collar America a little bit again as well.
And I think it's paying dividends.
That was a huge number for the 500 for the viewership.
We talked last week about how the stands and the whole venue was packed the whole week.
So positive things.
Yes, Darren Kent, we agree.
We think it's going back.
Okay. Yeah.
All right, guys, I got breaking news right now from Bob Prokres.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Toyota racing development.
Keelan Harvick.
It's a long-term development deal.
What is going on?
Let's go.
This is funny.
I thought some bad was that.
You got to tell us when you're going to do that stuff.
No, I don't.
That's the whole point of it.
You're welcome.
I'm a good actor.
I'm a good actor.
That was Oscar worthy performance.
No, at the, yeah.
No, we had to add this in.
Super stoked for Keelan.
Yes.
Going over to the Toyota development program, as we've talked about on the show,
a gazillion times, if you're going to develop your kid, they do it the best.
Any driver, really.
So they do it the best.
So congratulations, Keelan.
Well, he's done a good job.
He's got a lot of work ahead of him.
And I think that for where he is and what's going on with the Toyota group
and the things that they do, I think it's a great place to, like you say, develop your kid.
And we're excited for Keelan and Toyota to watch their growth.
We're excited to have another Harvick to cheer for in the sport.
Listen, ma'am, I've been cheering for Piper for a long time.
No, I guess I can cheer for Keelan, too.
Apparently, Piper's got an injury.
I got a call before we got on the show that they had to help Piper get in the car
because she's had a, had a pulled a muscle at PE today.
Okay.
As long as it wasn't like that guy in the video.
Yeah, we got a pulled calf muscle or something.
Well, take care of that.
We don't want to turn into a killie.
Don't take a salt bath or something.
Salt bath or something.
Hey, y'all, that is the social cinch for this week.
If you want to leave a voicemail 805-317-4175 email HarvickHappier4 at gmail.com.
Who loves you, baby?
Me, that's who.
We all love you, Mama.
Good job there on your sips.
Okay, guys, it's time now for our last call.
And we have to grade the burnout.
And I believe this one will have some high marks.
I love it.
What do we say?
I don't love it.
I love it.
This is just average.
It's exciting.
This is just average, Jim.
Let's just keep watching.
There's a crescendo.
Yes, he's building up to it.
And he knows that we're paying attention.
And we're looking for style points.
And we got them.
Keep going.
Hang on.
Lot of smoke.
Lot of smoke.
Yeah, but this isn't the best part.
Yeah, this was creative, though, the idea behind it.
Yeah, well, I mean, as of right now, we're just an average burnout.
That's kind of a Harvard burnout.
That's kind of like your burnout from Atlanta, actually, a little bit
across the start and finish line, down into there.
There we go.
I didn't see all this.
Yeah, well, just here we go.
OK.
Finally, somebody does it in reverse.
For back to back wins, I think was the thought process.
He backed it up.
Look at this.
Locked up the front.
Clear winner.
And then shifts back to first gear at some point here.
But that's pretty good smoke for reverse, so.
Heck yeah.
I got to believe that after last week when we were kind of like,
man, I mean, it's tough.
We kind of gave him like a pass.
We gave him a pass, but he made up for it this week.
He definitely made up for it.
Creativity, smoke in reverse, we're definitely an A.
An A, we got our first.
We got an A.
All right, remember that.
Only because of the end and the creativity from reverse,
because I don't know that we've seen it in reverse,
but never with like real smoke and a good burnout in reverse.
Yeah, and then shifting it to first.
So that was in the iconic words of Chris Bouchard.
I don't love it.
I don't like it.
I love it.
That's what he says every time.
You know what the best part about this is?
I feel like we're running long.
We are.
And I feel like she's a little antsy over here,
trying to get us to shut up when she starts sitting up.
That's how you know.
And so we're actually making great time
because I just checked my phone slyly when you weren't looking.
Well, I felt like you were getting antsy over there.
No, I'm not.
But I am moving on to the next thing, which is the standings.
And unfortunately, guys, nobody scored any points this past week,
because I picked Joey Logano, who looked like he was going
to do me a solid until the tail end.
And I'm still in second.
At Austin Dillon and you picked Kyle Larson.
So we all kind of worked out.
Wasn't great.
But I still lead the clubhouse with six to y'all.
I'm OK with you, Winnie.
And I'm still in second.
Listen, you're not in second.
You're tied for last.
I'm second.
The way it's typed right here.
The way it's typed.
The way it's typed right here.
It's because of alphabetical order.
Well, we all have a chance to redeem ourselves in a few days.
So who would like to go first on their Kota selections?
I'll go first.
I'll take SVG.
That's who I was going to take.
Oh, go ahead.
You can take SVG.
I can.
You sure?
It was between him and.
As long as he's in last, that's all that matters.
I'm happy if you win and he doesn't.
What do you want?
Listen, I really want to go Conner.
But I've thought about it.
But I've seen that.
You can change your pick.
So far when he's run the cup races, it just hasn't like hasn't
been just this yet.
Right.
Yeah.
I also want to go RFK car because they have been putting up one of the best
fights, but I haven't seen it at Kota.
So I'm going to go with a known commodity.
Oh, what I know.
What I got known.
Commodities.
Okay.
Chris Busher, Ryan Priest, road courses.
Did you not remember what they did last year?
They didn't speak about that one.
All right.
Trust me.
Okay.
What's a I'm just going to go with the 20 of Christopher Bell.
Oh, that's good.
I think it's a I think it's kind of low hanging fruit.
But I think that is either him or Gibbs.
Honestly, the low hanging fruit argument doesn't you want to win, right?
It's like, you know, well, you guys just pick SVG.
So I guess I'm just like, it's it's still smart to pick the low hanging
fruit because it's obviously because that's where you guys do.
Well, I mean, we'll just have a little bigger lead next week.
Road courses.
Do we have this season for right?
Yeah.
You're going to pick SVG four times.
I am.
Yeah.
Okay.
I think that's what he did last year.
Okay.
I'm going to pick him until he loses.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Until he doesn't last year, he's undefeated since Cota.
Yeah, solid bet.
Yeah.
Thursday, you got a fun little interview coming out with the Hendrick group.
Kyle Larson, Mr. H. Jeff Gordon.
Yeah, that was fun to sit those guys down and just the extended interview from
what we did on the on the pre-race show.
We give Mr. Hendrick a little crap about his TikTok usage and have fun
with Larson's obsession to helmets.
So cool interview.
Nice.
We look forward to seeing that.
Always enjoy hearing from Mr. H.
Okay, guys, this has been fun.
We're right on time.
I'm not rushing us off.
Make sure you subscribe on our new YouTube page, wherever you get your
podcast and follow us on Harvard CappyPod and we'll see all of you after Cota.
About this episode
Kevin Harvick and Kate discuss the intense Atlanta race weekend, highlighting the challenging windy conditions at Echo Park Speedway and the excitement across all NASCAR series. They praise the competitive energy in the truck series, spotlighting rising star Adam Andrade. The hosts also touch on NASCAR's evolving race management, including the use of the sunset rule and consistent caution calls. Additionally, they mention recent Joe Gibbs Racing news and a new lawsuit, while sharing lighthearted moments and personal anecdotes that add a unique, conversational vibe to the show.
Original notes
Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith break down a chaotic Atlanta Motor Speedway weekend on this episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, starting with Tyler Reddick’s incredible comeback victory that makes him the first driver since 2009 to win the season’s first two NASCAR Cup Series races. The crew analyzes how Reddick and 23XI Racing backed up their Daytona 500 statement, Michael Jordan’s presence and pride at the track, Bubba Wallace’s strong points day, and Carson Hocevar’s aggressive overtime drive, while also diving into major incidents involving Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, and others in a caution-filled final stage. They examine Trackhouse Racing’s impressive pace, pit strategy decisions, and what Atlanta revealed about the new points format before shifting to the breaking news of Joe Gibbs Racing filing a federal lawsuit against former competition director Chris Gabehart and what that could mean competitively across the garage. The episode closes with a COTA preview, Mamba’s Social Sips, and fan mailbag questions as the 2026 NASCAR season continues to heat up.
0:00 - Intro
2:47 - Atlanta Weekend Recap
31:49 - JGR Files Lawsuit Against Chris Gabehart
37:04 - COTA Preview
44:30 - Mamba’s Social Sips
51:05 - Last Call
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