Tyler Reddick Wins the Daytona 500! Full Race Recap and Atlanta Preview
Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX
Tyler Reddick Wins the Daytona 500! Full Race Recap and Atlanta Preview
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Concept
Daytona 500
The Daytona 500 is a famous car race that happens every year in Daytona, Florida. It's a big deal in the world of NASCAR racing and marks the start of the racing season.
Concept
NASCAR
NASCAR is a type of car racing where specially built cars race on circular tracks. It's very popular in the U.S. and has a lot of fans who enjoy the excitement of the races.
Concept
pit road
Pit road is where race cars go during a race to get fuel, change tires, or fix problems. Teams try to do this as fast as possible to help their drivers win.
Concept
Brickyard 400
The Brickyard 400 is an important NASCAR race that takes place at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's known for being a tough race and is one of the highlights of the NASCAR season.
Term
backup car
A backup car is like a spare car that racers can use if their main car gets damaged or isn't working right. It helps them stay in the race even if something goes wrong with their first car.
Car
Chrysler Daytona
The Chrysler Daytona is a car that was made in the 1980s and was designed to be fast and sporty. It looks cool and was popular for people who wanted a fun car to drive.
Car
Cupra Born
The Cupra Born is a new electric car that is designed to be fun to drive while being good for the environment. It has a modern look and runs on electricity instead of gas.
Term
downforce
Downforce helps cars stick to the road better by pushing them down. This is important in racing because it helps the car turn faster without losing control.
Term
grip
Grip is how well the tires hold onto the road. More grip means the car can go faster around corners without slipping.
Term
drag
Drag is the force that slows a car down when it's moving fast. In racing, cars try to reduce drag to go faster, but they also need to balance it with grip to turn well.
Term
draft
Drafting helps cars go faster by following closely behind another car, which cuts down on wind resistance. It's a common strategy in racing to gain speed.
Term
crew chief
The crew chief is the main person in charge of a racing team. They help decide how to make the car better and talk to the driver during the race.
Term
Cup cars
Cup cars are the race cars used in NASCAR. They are built to be very fast and handle well on the track.
Term
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Atlanta Motor Speedway is a racetrack in Georgia where car races, especially NASCAR events, take place. It's known for its unique shape and exciting races.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a well-known car company in the United States that makes many types of vehicles, including trucks and sports cars. They are also involved in racing.
Brand
Chevrolet
Chevrolet, or Chevy, is another popular car company in the U.S. that makes many different kinds of cars and trucks. They are known for their involvement in racing as well.
Brand
Chevy
Chevy is a popular car brand in the United States known for making many types of vehicles, from everyday cars to powerful sports cars.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram is a big truck that people use for work or to carry things. It's known for being tough and having a lot of space inside, which makes it great for driving around or hauling stuff.
Concept
truck series
The truck series is a racing event where pickup trucks compete against each other. It's popular because it combines fast racing with a fun atmosphere, making it enjoyable for everyone.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota is a car company that makes many types of vehicles, including trucks. They are known for making reliable cars that last a long time.
Term
burnout box
A burnout box is a special area where drivers can spin their tires to make smoke before a race. It helps to prepare the tires for better performance on the track.
Term
2000 horsepower
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. If a truck has 2000 horsepower, it means it can go really fast and do amazing things.
Concept
Joey Logano
Joey Logano is a famous race car driver in NASCAR, which is a popular racing series in the United States. He has won many races and championships, making him a well-known figure in the sport.
Car
Oldsmobile Intrigue
The Oldsmobile Intrigue is a car that was made in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It's a comfortable sedan that has a lot of space inside, making it good for families.
LIVE
Great week, great finishes.
That is really good for our sport.
If anyone had any question on if Michael Jordan loved NASCAR
and what his intentions are here, that should be completely gone.
And it's been so cool seeing the NASCAR community really embracing
Cletus and what he's brought over to our community.
Ultimately, we had one of the guys
that we had pinned as a guy who needed to make something happen
in Tyler Redick as our Daytona 500 champion.
California's Kevin Harvick.
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's sapphire presented by NASCAR and Fox.
I'm Kevin Harvick.
She's Caitlin Vinci and Mamba's here.
Yep, he is here.
Hey, you nailed the open.
Got it. Got it down.
You know, look, it's been a whirlwind.
We got stuck in Daytona last night.
When we drove out from the booth, it started raining.
And by the time I got dressed and was driving to the airport,
they said, don't get in a hurry.
Airport shut.
So we sat there for like three and a half hours
waiting for the airport to reopen.
There were some, some pretty nasty storms that rolled through there.
So kudos to everybody on our team from, from Fox and NASCAR
pushing that race up to get the whole race.
It'd been a long time since we had a Daytona 500 go off on time.
And we had a good one.
Yeah, it was a busy speed weeks for everybody, right?
Yeah. Speed week, I guess.
And I had to move Kevin's talking about the, you know,
almost getting caught up in the rain.
My flight got delayed and then I moved.
I had to get permission from Ram to like jump early
so I could make sure I made it to the show today.
And they're like, yeah, no problem. We appreciate it.
I'm like, thank you guys so much.
So I jumped on the standby at one 30.
I get there, I sit down, Keelan and Delaney are in there.
They're delayed from a 12 o'clock flight for the Thunderbirds.
For the Thunderbirds.
Yeah. Thunderbirds had closed all the airspace.
Everything was late because we moved up an hour.
So they probably were, you know, they're probably ready to go.
And then they're, Oh, well, I guess we're just going to see what flights get in
and which ones don't. It was awesome though.
But the good news is that Daytona 500 got in.
Yes. That's all that we care about.
I guess that is a big thing.
All right. Welcome in happy hour, everybody.
Daytona 500 edition will recap everything that happened out at Speed Week in Florida.
We'll preview Atlanta, which is coming up next.
And you have a big list of social sips today, Mamba.
We are locked in on social sips.
Ready to rip.
Perfect. Happy pod.
Make sure you hit us up.
You got it.
All week long.
Hey, thanks. We're locked in now.
You know, one race in, we got it all.
The, you know, the live show, y'all, the live show, you guys showed up and we
appreciate it because that was so much fun.
Bushlight brought us some beers after and we were able to share that with some folks.
I had a great time with you guys.
300 people showed up.
It was, it was great to have that vibe back.
You know, we talked so much about the live shows and things that used to happen
at the racetrack.
And so it's, it's, it was good to experience that again.
I haven't gone and done any of the, the trackside live shows that they do at the
SMI tracks or, you know, I hadn't really seen anything happening like that.
But on a Thursday, I was like, I don't really know.
I think we're all cut in a little like, I don't know, it's just a good idea.
And then I got there, I got there early because I'm like, I want to go see what
the setup is and what the crowd is.
I got there.
Not one person.
It was funny.
Yeah.
Because gates weren't open yet.
He was like, there's nobody here.
I go, oh, they're waiting at the gate.
They will be opening it 15 minutes prior.
And then they showed up scared to death.
If the footprint had been bigger in there, there would have been even more
people because the whole thing was full.
I liked the fact that it was a little more intimate than just a big, massive
setting and for our first one anyway.
I think a big, massive setting with a lot of people would be even more fun.
But I think it was a good learning experience for all of us.
See what he said there for our first one.
Like, I like the way we're going to wait.
We hope there will be more and Cleetus McFarlane and Travis Pastrana were our
guests and it's been so cool seeing the NASCAR community really embracing
Cleetus and what he's brought over to our community.
Cause he was pretty new on the scene a year ago, you know?
Well, the thing that I like about Travis and Cleetus is they're having fun.
Yes.
And sometimes we get caught up in ourselves, some professional auto racing
and NASCAR and all the things that we do and we're here to work and all this.
And those guys, those types of guys remind you how much fun racing is because
that's what they're here for.
Yeah, they want to compete and they want to, but they're, they're really
here more to have a good time and have fun and be a part of the event.
And the truck race and the, the, the crowd and the enthusiasm and the, the
everything with Ram coming back, the environment of that truck race felt old
school and you look down on pit road and Tony Stewart's truck was just mobbed
with people like, like we were at a cup race.
And so, you know, those are the, those are the types of things that, that we need.
And, you know, I think that the whole vibe at Daytona this week from start to
finish was drastically different than the vibe that I've, since I've been in a
TV booth as a competitor, I don't really, I don't, I don't really pay attention
to it. I'm there to work and try to, try to, you know, do the things that I
need to do for my sponsors and perform.
And, but over the last two years, it hasn't felt like it did on Sunday.
And I love that, you know, from for our sport and everybody around it.
Yeah.
It was definitely a good vibe this year and big numbers because there was 150,000
on property for Daytona, 450,000 total for Speed Week.
And this is the first time NASCAR has actually given those attendance figures
in some time. So a lot of people were physically on site.
Yeah. That's a big numbers.
I believe it because when you talk about Tony, he came through the Ram display.
I interviewed him. We had a great time and it was mobbed there too.
We ran out of Tony Stewart merch on Thursday.
Really shipped it in for Friday.
Oh, wow.
We ran out of merch for a lot of other stuff Friday, shipped more stuff in.
So like the vibes that I think when you blend what happened to start the end of
last year, right? And then we're flipping the page and with Ram coming in,
really helpful at the page.
And then the new moniker of what we are the hell.
Yeah. And it's like back to that and you could see that.
And then you talk about the live show, the fans in there.
I'm going to give a shout out to Colton because we're to the week.
I got to get, I got to get, I got to get it in word of the week.
This kid had two words that he thought we should do.
It was, uh, I'm not going to tell you cause we're just going to play.
Matter of fact, let's just play the word of the week right now.
I think as we talk about the strategy here at the beginning of the,
of this race and this fuel window being so close to the end of the stage,
I think if you were at the end, you might see some different strategy,
but it's listening to Alan right there.
It sounds like it would take a lot of bullocks to,
to be able to convince yourself to, to run to the end of this stage.
Look, I put a lot of trust in you guys.
I've, I've received a little feedback, not very much because most people don't
know the word, but I think the people who do know the word were like,
I can't believe you said that on, on national television. I'm like,
cause of what it means.
I have no idea what I said, but I know the meaning of it.
But I don't know, you know, what, what the impact of it is in different
countries. So I don't know. I put a lot of faith in you guys.
So if we get in trouble, it's, it's not my fault.
We're worldwide and you know, we, we can talk to Will about it on, you know,
we can talk to Will Bucks and we'll probably help you out,
make sure we're in the same vein. And then we,
that was the word that he suggested, but he also suggested Colton.
Okay. Colton suggested that during the live show.
But he also suggested a second one, really? And you pulled it out.
I didn't think you were going to do that. We got a bonus word of the week.
Let's run the second one.
Yeah. And those smaller groups, Clint, they're really not doing that bad.
It's not losing as much time as I actually thought they were going to do is
now you're seeing that serpentine of the cars that,
that split out to try to make those big groups weave their way through them.
And they've done that. Now they're all attached together.
I got to be honest. I lost it. I lost it too.
Because he said it twice and he said it on the live show too.
That's just a, that's just a, when they go to block like that,
that's just what we're going to call it. I mean,
we got to create that serpentine.
We want the teams to start using the exact same terminology.
So we'll just start a trend. Yeah. The dark committee is hitting hard.
We got three words in on the Daytona 500 broadcast or three times.
Yeah. Three times, three times, two words, three times. Well done.
Mike and Padres didn't even notice. No, that's the beauty of it.
Yeah. They just think I'm weird.
I've gone to not telling them at all.
So how about when Quinn was getting in Kevin,
he was, you're trying to explain something about rubbing your head and
drum patting at the same time. And Kevin, and Quinn's like,
I just wish you guys could have seen Kevin trying to explain it,
what his face was at one point. I don't, I think it started on Thursday.
Clint was in, sometimes you get up in the booth and you get stuck on your thought
and you can't get it out of your mouth. And you're like, what the hell am I
trying to say? I think it's funny when you go, I'll get it out eventually.
And so you got to make fun of yourself, right? Because it's just, it's going to
happen. You can't take it, you can't take it too seriously or, or you'll dwell on it.
Well, let's talk about this race because there's plenty to unpack for the Daytona
500. You and I were joking off camera about the poetic justice of 2311
capitalizing with the biggest win of the year. But this race overall,
just was a little different, would you say, than Daytona 500s we've seen in the
past, in terms of some of the, the way the stories were unfolding and pitting.
And yeah, I think a lot of that unfolded differently because of the accidents.
Right. You know, some of those accidents probably shouldn't have happened,
but they always do. And it always seems like at the Daytona 500, you get those,
those early things that happened. We had BJ have their right rear wheel,
suspension, tire, whatever, whatever that, that situation was to spin out early.
And then you had, you know, the different accidents at, at strange times in the,
in the first two stages. And then the strategy really started to set in,
in the third, third stage to position themselves. But at that time,
we'd wiped a bunch of the Chevrolets out a bunch of the guys that,
that we thought might be contenders. And we wound up with a mixed up field,
which you can do there. And, and we've seen that happen over the now 68 races
that we, that we've had at the Daytona 500. So it was a very intriguing race.
And, and you know, I, I don't, I don't know how they come up with their
strategy or anything, but I do,
but I don't know why they played strategy that they played because it was very
odd. The way that everybody pitted in those small groups this time.
And Ford kind of went away from,
from their strategy of the, the two bigger groups to pit. So it was, um,
it's some guys that, that made it in the first stage, a Zane Smith,
one that won the first stage and, and was able to stay out the whole time on,
on his fuel and the, and the fuel that he had saved and took the chance.
I was, I was not sure that they were going to make it. And for me, I'm not,
I think for guys that think that they can win, um,
probably didn't want to take that chance.
And I think some of those guys that thought that they could win by putting
themselves in the right position and taking a chance earlier in the race,
they were like, I'm just, we're just going to do it. But, um,
but it worked out for them and they were able to, to get some stage points.
Yeah. I thought it was interesting how they pit, um,
in the smaller groups. And then it was mixed too. Like, I think Tyler,
yeah, teammates breaking off from each other. Tyler,
right. It came down with the Fords, like Denny didn't come down with the Toyotas.
It seemed, it was just a interesting thing.
But then as it was unfolding and their pack was starting to get back together,
it was like, Oh, this is about to be big because there's a head of steam with
about 15 cars that were strolling. And then at the end,
and then at the end you had, um, you had like Logano and Blaney,
they didn't have a great execution down pit road and off.
They were spread out. They were spread out.
So then Blaney goes to the top to kind of give room,
but like also to try and slow them down. And then Logano goes,
there's only one thing I got to do.
And he just puts it right in the middle and like really slows down the pack.
And it all came back. And that's what you want to do. Yeah.
You just don't want that pack to be able to just stay single file.
And you just want to break their momentum.
Yep.
So you start staggering those cars so that they can surf and team through,
throughout the straightaway,
because when those cars start zigging and zagging like that,
then they, it breaks the draft for a second and it just,
it, it slows the momentum of those cars down because once you get up on the pipe
like that, I mean, it really, those cars are making good speed,
but it just, it takes some pushing and shoving to get them up to that point of,
of RPM. So if you can get, get that broken up like they did,
it slows it down enough to where you can join that pack.
We've seen exceptional driving though out of Tyler Redick at the end.
And we've talked about it, just the struggles they had in 2025,
both on track and his personal life, obviously with his son.
But he was able to get the Daytona 500 win.
I know you already spoke to him.
That victory lap interview is available now.
What did you take away from that?
Well, just that, just how different it is this year going into the season with
everything that's not going on. You know,
we talk about who is, who his biggest critics are with,
I told him my wife was always my biggest critic when I did something wrong or
made a bad move and sounds like it's very similar, but I don't know.
I just, I think that going through a year like Tyler and his family went through
last year personally, just it puts things in perspective in a different way.
And we all go through those times of reality checks that mature you as a
person, hopefully you get more mature as, as you go through time.
And typically half the drivers are late to their interviews.
And today Tyler, I was sitting in the makeup room and,
and getting ready for the show and Tyler was 10 minutes early.
What do you mean? He's already on. And, and, but so I asked him, I said,
man, you're on dad time, huh? He said, yeah,
I needed to change some things that I,
that I do to really get my life in check and try to grow up and be more
responsible and, and, and do things in a different way.
And when I start hearing those conversations about people,
that's when I'm like, okay,
this guy is ready to really take control and be the leader.
And when the drivers, the leader,
we always talk about the driver's personality is exactly how your team acts.
And when the drivers early and the drivers on time to meetings and the drivers
asking questions about how things are going, the driver set an example,
the team takes on that personality. And I, and I think that Tyler Reddick has a
different vibe to him in that interview than, than what he has had in the past.
And, and I think it's just, it's a relief, you know, for, for him to have his
family personal stuff situated, the 2311 stuff, not,
not being in a lawsuit this year. They've, and he mentioned this,
that they've had some hard conversations about things that they need to get better
at. He also mentioned the road core stuff with, with, with SVG. Uh,
he just threw out there,
the whole short track problem that they've had with the breaks and,
and what they need to fix as, as a company,
they've had some tough conversations. It sounds like to me,
within that organization with this 45 team and, you know,
Reddick being the one that is like, Hey,
I need to be a little better myself.
And when we, when you can start analyzing yourself by everybody else's
critiquing you, uh, it makes a,
makes a big difference in who you are. Yeah. He talked about, you know,
when you're racing in 2311, you're expected to win a lot.
So last year was tough for them, but this is such an iconic moment.
I think to see Michael Jordan in victory lane at the Daytona 500 winning,
you know, he came into the sport, obviously a number of years ago,
but just having his presence there and what he's been able to bring to that
organization is pretty neat to see that moment culminate together on the NASCAR
stage.
If anyone had any question on if Michael Jordan loved NASCAR and what his
intentions are here, that should be completely gone now.
He is here to stay. He loves this sport. He's always loved the sport.
And now he's a Daytona 500 champion,
which is insane and watching him and Tyler lift that
trophy at the same time was like, this is like a big,
big moment. And for Tyler,
he's always been one of those guys that kind of his highs are high and his
lows sometimes I think are too low on, on himself. Like he mentioned that.
Yeah. Like he, he is very critical of himself and expects himself to do
really well because of the people that support him and put the effort and the
funding and the time. And he talked about it.
And then he started thinking about, well, who else does it sound like?
It sounds like his teammate, Bubba. Yeah.
And now you start looking at them both building their families and their
personal lives and getting what Kevin always likes to talk about that circle
life, your circle of life locked in. And I think last year Bubba really was
able to do that. And it showed up on the racetrack because now that his home
circle of life is exactly how he wants it.
The at track stuff was starting to come along because the pressures of that
track weren't as mounting because stuff at home was right. You know what I
mean? And, and I love that hearing that Tyler sounds like he's going down that
same path. And I think those two guys can really, um, they're in the same time
frame of life. They both have, uh, working on two kids, you know, and married
and the whole thing. And now trying to be big, say, working on it. What do you
mean? Well, I mean, Tyler has two, but one's in the, in the works.
I didn't know what you meant by working on it. I know. I just wanted to,
well, when there's a body where your head was out, we're not, you know,
we're still cooking. We're still cooking.
So when we sat here before the season started, we did identify 2311 as one
of the teams that we were curious how the off season would have fared for them.
And if we saw the improvement, what kind of statement do you think this makes?
Well, I, I want to go back a little bit to my favorite moment of victory lane
and just how ironic this whole scenario is with, with NASCAR in 2311,
because, um, Jim France and Michael Jordan shaking hands and, and Jim
France and, and Denny Hamlin shaking hands. That is really good for our sport.
It absolutely is for the fact that Jim France went to victory lane and the
effort that they are putting into just move forward and be happy for each
other and work together. And as Michael Jordan said in his interview,
communicate, it's all about communication. He mentioned it a couple of times in
his interview, says a lot about us moving on, you know, and I find interesting
front row on the truck race, RCR, who was not involved in the lawsuit,
but there was a piece that came out that involved him, won the XFINI race in
2311. Well, it's just funny how that, that all worked.
I also, you guys talk about that. And then also like them being together,
they're probably, they work more together like around each other from the business
end. I think more than NASCAR and other teams, because NASCAR is an official
partnership with Mac, the semi and so does 2311. They announced their official
partnership with Hardee's sort of 2311. It's just like they're, you guys are
all working together unity here. However, regardless if you want to or not,
you're in the same in the same building, the same house together.
So you might as well figure it out. Anyway,
well, I want to go back to that 2311 piece of just what kind of statement you
think this kind of makes about the improvements they potentially made in the
off season. Cause Bubba had a good race. Obviously Tyler won. I mean,
do you think that you've seen a positive change there?
Well, I mean, we put a lot of pressure on, on Tyler Redick and,
and we talked about it a lot throughout the week, how he, he needs to win.
You know, he went to 2311, the effort and everything that they put into
2311's cars and Toyota, all the things that happen over there are built to
win. Michael Jordan expects to win. Denny Hamlin expects to win. Tyler,
Redick expects to win. And, you know, if they don't go to victory lane,
it, it, it becomes messy pretty quick in, in my opinion.
And I think that getting this win early, we saw Bubba running up front and in
the, in the, in all of our laps, leading laps in the race. So, uh,
Riley Herps finished eighth, had a chance to, to be in contention,
get Tyler in position to win Corey Heim led laps.
And those are the expectations that they have at, at that organization.
So for Tyler Redick, not to go to victory lane last year, we, we talk about this.
We got to give them a mulligan with everything that they had personally in the
lawsuit. And I mean, how, how can you ever get everything organized in a
situation like that? But the mulligans are over.
And first thing that they did was, was go to go to victory lane and win the
sport's biggest race of the year. And that's already, already behind them.
So I think that that definitely takes some pressure off of them.
Hearing Tyler talk about the things that they needed to work on and are working
on, we'll have to wait and see if those results are there.
But, you know, they've won the, they've won the break yard 400.
They've won the Daytona 500, uh, as an organization.
And I think that they got off on the right foot, which is,
which is what they needed to do.
Add in a crown jewel. Yep.
Yeah. I think the, the way that they operate as a team, uh, unit,
they really look at that as we have won two crown jewels,
not Bubba won the brickyard and Tyler won the Daytona 500.
We as a whole company have put this together to do that.
And, uh, you know, they're, they're, they're locked in, but here's the thing.
The point system is now the chase.
So they got to stay locked in.
Like there's no, there's no lifting out of the throttle. Like you can't like,
yeah, you won the race. Great. But you got to, you got to continue this.
Running up front throughout the entire season, because if you go,
if you revert, they will not make the chase.
And it's interesting to see which drivers or numbers, guys,
and pay attention to the stats and all the, all the things are,
Redick mentioned it in our victory lap interview. He mentioned, you know,
we, we scored the most points on the super speedways last year.
They're already thinking about what they're good at and know that they need to
get better at certain things, but he was very well aware of how many points
and the, and the way that this is all going. So, um, he feels like it's his
style. He's like, you know, I get, I get the, the reputation of being the dare
devil, taking chances, DNF. So he's like, that's not,
that's not how we've raced the last few years.
We've been piling up points. And, and so it was interesting to hear him think
that he was in a good position for the new chase format.
We've talked about 2311 needing to get a win.
We've also talked about it with RFK racing, which obviously Ryan,
police priests had a very good performance at the clash,
but I was impressed with Brad Kizlowski who had a top five yesterday.
We know he's going into the race, sustaining an injury, walking with a cane
even, but he's good on these style tracks. But I mean,
I thought that that showed a lot of strength there.
And, and you know, priests was, was in a position,
I thought to be a contender on Sunday up until he wrecked that car.
When he got out of that car on, on Saturday and talked about how slow it was
and how it wasn't where it was before the accident.
I thought that they were in trouble. Brad was always,
I felt like he was in a good spot all week with, with his speed and his car
and everything in the 17 car, Chris Busher, you know,
I backup their backup car.
He felt like it was better than his primary wild to figure out.
And so you just, you never know exactly where the details of those cars are
going to come out as far as, as far as how they perform on the racetrack.
When you unload them or fix them at the track.
So, you know, I felt like, I felt like Brad,
I feel like he knows that there's limited opportunities for him to win the
Daytona 500 again.
I think going and getting back in the car was very motivating for him physically
and personally to, to try to work hard enough to, to be in that position.
So that's a tough scenario with an injury like that, you know,
where he broke his leg.
So it's, it's always interesting in our sport.
I feel like injuries can be very motivating to,
to get yourself in a better spot with, with things,
but you also want to prove everybody wrong that you can be in that car.
I think we'll know where Brad is when he gets Dakota as far as where his leg is.
I think Daytona Atlanta, our best case scenario for his injury and,
and everything that, that he has going on,
but Kota is going to be extremely difficult.
I believe for, for Brad and not their strength anyway.
Yeah. As far as performance and in the past,
but we'll know exactly where Brad Keselowski is when we get to Kota.
Yeah. Shout out to RFK, because they also added that fourth car
that brought a lot of speed.
What a heartbreaker for Corey.
I mean, Corey, you know, in the qualifying,
Yeah. And the calls and the duals don't know in the duals.
Did everything he needed to do to make the duals.
Brad kind of shuffled, I think Chandler Smith that way,
because we need to get our guy in here.
And they were, they were right there.
They were doing it and just caught up in something.
And it sucks because Corey has limited opportunities too.
And I think he was really going into this race with,
how can I help RFK win?
And I think that fourth car was really going to pay off for them.
And they had all the speed.
So if you made it to the 500,
I think it was going to be in the mix and being able to help the team,
you know, win that thing.
So I felt bad for them, but for them to bring a fourth car
and all the cars have speed, I think that means a lot.
That means their processes are right and they're headed in the right direction
because before when they brought fourth cars, it was kind of a non-factor.
I always looked at super speedway racing as a good judge of where
our organization was at KHI, because speedway racing is all about processes.
And if those cars didn't qualify
wherever in the field, one, two, three, four, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
then then you knew if one was first and one was 30th,
something's wrong in the shop because the details of your organization
show up at speedway racing, unless you had a choice in the shop.
And even if you did make a choice in the shop,
now you can go back and analyze those situations of your processes
and the decisions that your team made or the teams made and understand.
But super speedway racing to me shows you how much
an organization is put together by how close their cars qualify to each other.
You mentioned qualifying.
One neat story from qualifying was Justin Allgaier racing his way
into the great American race, showing a lot of promise at one point,
but ultimately causes a very big accident on lap 124 involving 17 cars.
How did this change the complexion of the race at that point?
And what did you see from Justin?
Well, it massively changed everything that was happening right here.
And I think that Justin was kind of just in no man's land
and then tried to fix it with a late block, which he took full
responsibility for after the race.
But this was just an error by Justin.
He left the door open too much and then tried to close it
when Denny Hamlin was already there, but took a lot of contenders
out of the race at this particular moment and changed the complexion
of the whole event right there with that mistake.
Do you think some of that is an experience in a cup car in these situations?
Or just absolutely. Yeah.
You know, I think that the cadence of how the draft works
and everything that that goes with cup racing is just different than
than the O'Reilly series and the things that that they do there.
So it's it's, you know, I don't want to.
It's it's one of those scenarios when you don't do it every week.
It's it's hard to do and understand exactly how everybody does it.
Especially when you're at the front.
Yeah. And you're trying to get in those controlling the race type scenarios,
how you control an O'Reilly race is way different than how you control a cup race.
Yeah. And and, you know, he's racing with the best in the world at this.
And, you know, obviously in the O'Reilly series, that's not the case.
And like the moves that these guys make are a little bit more aggressive
in their tighter windows, tighter windows and because they're used to racing
with people that understand that, OK, I left you too much here.
I got to concede this position.
Whereas in the others, in the other series, both of them trucks and O'Reilly's
guys aren't going to take those as tight windows because, you know, they're unsure.
They're less experienced.
We saw the same thing at a Conor Zillich.
Yeah, it was just sloppy, right?
You know, and that that sloppiness comes from an experience in those scenarios
and just understanding that, you know, the things that happen.
So you see Conor's accident right there.
You see him getting the door.
But the first thing that does is it starts making the cars behind you,
move around and check up.
And those are the types of things that that cause accidents.
When you make a late move or a bad move, they have repercussions
that are different than than what you've been racing.
So both of them, you know, will obviously learn from those scenarios
and, you know, get better as they as they move forward.
We'll say the turbulent air off of four and just how it flattens out.
Like a lot of things happen.
Well, the wind was blowing a million miles an hour.
A million miles an hour.
I didn't know that.
I don't know if we ever officially recognize that it was the windiest
Daytona 500 in history, but it was three and four.
The center of three and four to the exit are the trouble spots on the racetrack.
And, and, you know, I think that this, this scenario kind of started right off
of turn four with, with Zillich and, and wound up wrecking and going into the
triable, but it all started back there.
And with the direction that the wind was blowing at the start of the race
right towards turn four, it just amplified that.
Everyone at track out should be, by the way, I want to give them a quick shout.
They should be happy about what they put on track because they have, you know,
SVG as a limited amount of speedway race racing experience.
Connor has virtually none in the cup series and their cars were fast
and they ran up front and they did up until that part exactly what they want to do.
Once those big incidents took place, then with 20 to go, the pit cycles began,
we kind of touched on it briefly of these much smaller groups coming to pit road.
I know we have some footage of that.
What do you think was the rationale behind these groups?
I think that they should, they would probably go back and try to do it differently,
but it seemed the whole strategy thing seemed very scattered throughout the day
as to how they pitted, when they pitted, who they pitted with and totally unorthodox
from, from the things that we've seen in the past.
So I never really got a good reason as to why it went the way that it did,
but it was very disorganized.
And then towards the end of the race, there were actually two incidents
on the final lap chase Elliott looking like he was in position at one point
to get a 500 win. What did you see from all of that?
Well, I want to give, I do want to give a shout out to NASCAR before we start
because I didn't really know how this was, was going to go.
And they were consistent in how they called all three races, all the races
this weekend by not throwing the caution.
If the car wasn't heavy impact and giving those cars a chance to get going,
letting cars with flat tires drive around the racetrack.
I don't care how you call it, as long as it's consistent and they were consistent
all weekend and I appreciate that.
And I think it comes across a lot better.
But on this, on this last lap here, at one point, I thought,
host of our, when they took the white flag, I'm like,
host far is going to win this race.
And then they wiped out.
And then I'm like, Oh, is the caution, the caution surely going to come out
because of all the cars that wrecked and I didn't see the impact
and everything that happened.
And then I'm like, Oh, Stenhouse, he's going to win the race
because the caution is going to come out and he's leading.
And then I realized the caution is not coming out.
Chase Elliott's going to win the race because he's got, he's got,
he's got all the car links.
And then all of a sudden here comes Tyler Reddick with a massive run
off of, off of, off of turn four and winds up winds up winning the race.
So it was, it was just a, and we had a great video of Jeff Gordon
on top of the, of his, his up and down emotions of everything
that happened there at the finish of the race.
So great week, great finishes.
Our Daytona 500 started on time and ended on time, made some great decisions
by starting to race early with the weather.
And ultimately we had one of the guys that we had pinned as a guy
who needed to make something happen in Tyler Reddick as our Daytona 500
champion. Yeah. A lot of positives here. I'm hearing guys.
Yeah. No, I mean, it was, it was just great.
I almost tweeted while they were coming to the, to the white, no,
to come into the white.
So let me ask you this. Is it a tweet or is it, I mean, how do you,
how do you call a post on X? Is it still a tweet?
It's just a post, but I, I,
Yeah. Those are about, that's how my brain's working today.
It's just randomness stuff that really doesn't matter.
That can just screw the show up and make it better though.
It just always felt full of no information about anything that has anything
to do with racing over here, grandpa, over here with his face on it.
I thought that for sure, Spire had it because I'm like, Oh, well,
they'll control two lines and then they'll probably be able to manipulate
the rest of this. And then that just didn't happen.
And getting down into one, it lasted for about half the track.
They got down to the one and all hell broke loose.
And the move that William Byron and Bubba did to not wreck,
cause William is on, under the apron, getting into turn one,
has to get back on the racetrack, find his way to the middle.
And Bubba sees him and is able to lift enough to not wreck the rest of the
field cause they were already wrecking behind him. And then Chase Elliott.
So you're sitting story line, you're like, Oh, well,
this is going to be the biggest story line. Like how could it be much bigger?
And then at the end of it being Michael Jordan and Tyler Redick. Again,
huge plug to Riley Herbs for pushing Redick and getting him that run and
making sure that they were able to secure the 500. It was, what a finish.
Unreal. It was a great finish.
Should we still have a little more time to talk about the 500?
So we want to hand out, I would like to say something about Corey Hime,
obviously. I know you touched on him briefly,
but we knew what he could do in the truck series. That was very obvious.
But to come to Daytona and lead laps like that,
I think like he's just solidifying that he belongs in that series.
Right now he's got 12 cup races. I wish they'd find 36.
I don't know what I just, you know, he dominated the truck series last year.
I mean, he fits right in. I mean, he made a mistake, you know, pushing,
pushing on the back of Denny's car, but you got to be in it to learn it in three
and four or two, where we talked about the truck and you got to be in these
things to learn it, but his racing IQ is high.
He's a cup driver in the, in the making, just in an odd scenario that he's not
getting a full-time opportunity to go out and do that on a weekly basis.
But, you know, I think he did a, I think he did a good job.
All of our, all of our rookies, I would put Allgaier in that category as well.
You know, he hasn't been in a cup car, you know,
but once last year and once this year. And, and so they just,
they all three made mistakes and, and ultimately that's what's going to happen
in order to learn the things that you need to learn.
But when you're doing it at the front of the pack, it's high criticism,
but it's all high. It should be some high praise as well, because you're there.
You are at the front of the front of the pack, take some heat for it,
but that's the only way to, only way to learn.
When, when I interviewed Tony, he was like, you know, he's like,
I know about as little as any other rookie in this field, in the truck field,
because I haven't driven these things and I haven't been on the super speedway.
And he was like, but, and so I might be the caution and he was explaining,
but like he was back and he was, and he ended up being the caution,
not by his doing, but he was. And like the thing about that,
that he said that I think I wish more people would say.
And so our fans could understand it. Like people are going to wreck.
Like the young guys are going to wreck. That doesn't mean they're not good.
Race guys are going to wreck too. Old guys are going to wreck too.
It doesn't mean they're not good.
It just means they need more time to figure it out.
And Tony was like, I had destroyed so much shit in 2019, 1999.
Yeah.
On my way to becoming three-time champion and one of the best that we ever
seemed to like it's part of the process.
Did you hear the, the pre-race interview? No, you haven't heard it?
No, no, cause we got it. We got to find it on the middle of his, his daycare line.
Oh no. Oh yeah. Clint, Joey and I interviewed Clint. Jesus.
It's been a long, it has, it was a long week. It's okay. You get it out eventually.
Friday, myself and Joey did the in car, in truck interview with Tony Stewart.
And it was hilarious. And so he said, he felt like the, the,
I think he said something along the lines of being the, the daycare owner,
head of the daycare for all the kids at the school. So it is weird for him.
Cause like everyone in cup, like he raced with their dads for the most part,
except a lot of a couple of them. And so he saw them grow up.
And now the guys that he was racing with a truck potentially weren't even born
yet. And I'm sure, I'm sure we could go back and find it, but
his dash, the numbers were that big on the RPM. He said he can't see it.
Well, if he couldn't see that, he has, he has bigger issues because the first
thing that we saw on TV from way back in the cab was the,
how many RPMs that the truck had going on. So I'm sure he wanted it that way to
get down Pit road for his pit road speed, but it was, it was fun.
Just having him in the race and giving him grief about everything is even more
fun.
He was racing with glasses, but they had the, I mean,
I guess you look at the bottom and it changes versus the top.
And so that's what he was struggling with. He wore his progressives. No.
Well, he, he just got his new ones in for the race.
So he had his progressives before that.
So he was using his progressives down. Maybe he couldn't see him because the
font was too big.
Giant font, Tony Stewart, very star studded truck race though.
That was neat to have those guys a part of the event.
We have a truck race obviously coming up in a few days.
Once again at Atlanta as we head out there for the next race of the year.
So let's preview this kind of which teams will be building off the momentum.
And who's already a little bit behind the eight ball.
Gosh, the tough part about having Daytona Atlanta back to back with how we
race at Atlanta now is you can wind up with two really crappy weeks
and be buried in the points by the time you get Dakota.
And oh, by the way, if you're not a good road racer and you've had two crappy
weeks, you can have more buried. You can have three before you even get
somewhere where you, where you feel comfortable.
So doesn't take much and it's not abnormal this time of year to see a
contender buried in the back of the garage. And so, you know,
I think Atlanta is going to be more of the same as far as carnage,
but totally different style race. Yeah.
What's, they're going to put more downforce in the car. Same,
same package as far as the rules go,
but they'll run the cars way different to make more downforce because you need
more grip to get through the corners.
You can't run the cars with as much drag out of the race cars as, as you,
as you can there. But as a competitor, I was like,
this is the dumbest thing that we've ever done in the world of racing,
but it's turned into the coolest race on the schedule.
It's one of the best. It has turned into the coolest race ride almost every
time coming to the line and the way that you drive Atlanta in the way that you
go up the kind of skateboard ramp up and in three and four,
and you can run middle or the bottom. And as the,
as the weekend goes on,
the groove just goes all the way to the wall on both ends as far as what you
can utilize. But the way that you drive Atlanta and you have to lift going into
the corners so that you don't run over them and give yourself a little bit of
air on the nose in order to keep the front end turning and the way that the
car is draft and how you have to push is very different than the things that
you do with Daytona. It makes me excited. I see that because I'm lighting up.
It is just super intriguing to watch how the,
the things that they have to do and the,
and the way that the car has to handle,
there'll be some guys that qualify up front that can't drive their cars because
they're, they're out of control and the crew chiefs all want to make their car
run really fast and drivers are on edge the whole time.
There's just no way that you can make the car comfortable and,
and it's just right on the edge of the cup cars are right on the edge of spinning
out at any moment because they just get light with the way that things are
there. So fun to watch. Are you heading out there this weekend?
No, I mean, who know, I could get a call at any point and go out there.
So who knows? Um,
I think it was Steve LaTar that said a speedway racing on steroids because you
just, it's like packed and the moves are so quick and things happen so fast.
And when someone gets out of the gas, you're in it,
like the closing rate is different. Um, I was talking to, uh,
I was talking to Cliff Daniels in the garage about this because,
you know, we have back to back speedways now. And then you think about it,
like you have Talladega is only what in April. So like at the front end of the
season, you have three speedway races.
So the way that you build the cars or is not the same for that as like a Phoenix.
So now if you wanted one up and Daytona, that's a speedway car.
You're pretty much basically running a speedway car wanted to up, right?
Or if you wanted to up, so now you're down to,
and then you're basically running another speedway car in Atlanta.
If you want that one up, what do you have left for Talladega?
Because we only get, what is the allotment seven? Yeah. Yeah.
You had allotment of seven cars, not like back in the day when we were at
Stewart Haas with Kevin, we had H four teams and 16 cars in their allotment of
stuff. And like you had like six speedway cars.
So like we knew we were going to wreck them and it was, it sucked.
But like it's just go get the next one. You just go pull it off the shelf.
Now you go get the next one.
But oh, you're going to have to do a lot of work. A lot of work.
And I think I, I was talking to him about that.
And like that's why I hope we don't do the clash at Daytona because now you're
adding another speedway and that'd be really tough.
So just interesting how the schedule and how you don't like the clash at Daytona.
I think it's hard for the team. I like it, but I think it's hard for the
team. I think, I think we got to do it.
I just think that with the way that all of these, these things have switched
back to traditional, the fans love it. And I, and I know at this point,
you got to do something that the owners don't want to do because it just,
it adds an element to speed week that we don't have right now.
We had a great Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Thursday.
I mean, the races were, were, were good.
But I'm just saying from the vibe in the town.
And if you had that race on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
whenever you want to have it,
I just think it adds another element to the week that people will show back up
earlier to, to attend the race. I know the owners hate it, but we got to,
you had some balance. It's been a weird needle through there. Cause it is Atlanta.
Again, Atlanta never was like this. So you didn't,
you never really thought about another speedway until now at Edgar,
but now it's like, ooh, so we got to figure that out though.
Well, you're talking about cars getting wadded up.
Kyle Larson's was one that sustained pretty significant damage from that race.
Who else kind of concerns you when you look at the outcome from the 500
translating over to Atlanta?
Yeah. Well, you know, I think that it was much more even this year than,
than it's been in the past as far as the manufacturers.
And I think that when you look at that breakdown of, of, of where everybody is,
you know, we've seen the Ford's so dependent on where they are on the
speedways and they were upfront and battling,
but there were a lot of Chevrolet's. And I think that the Chevrolet body,
I still have some questions on as far as where they're at.
How do you like how they pushed? I think it was better. Yeah, it was definitely better.
But I think that my question is like at Atlanta, are they,
do they have less drag and more downforce because that's, you know, the,
or where are they? And I think some of that's going to show this weekend,
really not going to get a great idea of,
of where they are until we get to Phoenix and Vegas as far as the downforce stuff.
So, you know, I think that the Chevy's,
I felt like they were in good contention to,
to win the Daytona 500 until they all got wrecked and it just wiped so many of the,
of the good cars out and really William Byron was, was back up front.
I mean,
Hosevar was took the white leading. So I mean,
it very easily could have worked out, but still have,
I still just want to see what's happening. They performed well at Daytona.
But yeah, I think when you look at the points list, I mean,
you, it's too long to name as to who you're concerned with,
if, if they have another bad week at Atlanta.
So kind of have to just put this one aside and say, okay,
the Daytona 500 is over. The guys that had a good week are happy.
The guys that had a bad week are like, it's the Daytona 500.
But if they have another bad week at Atlanta, then you're like, God dang,
now I got a park in the back and in the garage at some point and, you know,
walks attack. If it rains, if it rains out,
then you got to start and your, your whole metric of,
of the way that things work is, is off. And then it starts compounding and
snowballing as you go through these weeks. So you can get yourself in trouble
pretty quick, but I think it's too early to just say they're in trouble yet.
The OG, I mean, this is like, we're back to OG racing, obviously.
So I think with the system, the old way that we used to have it,
you look at Daytona and you'd be like, race, the season doesn't start until we
too, right? And that's, we're kind of back to that mentality,
but we also got to lock, you got to lock in because we have two speedways in a
road course that also wasn't the way we had it before.
So I'm, I'm a little, if I, I'm not panicking for anybody, but, you know,
the 48 Alex Bowman, they need, they need to make sure that they get it,
that they hit this one, right? Get, start collecting points.
He didn't collect many down there.
He didn't collect many down there. Chase Briscoe, obviously we expect him to
have a lot of speed again this year, but, you know, they're behind the eight ball
for just started, which they were last year for the most part last year,
but, and got it going. So those, those two, and then tie Gibbs, like ties,
like a fringe chase guy, like, I think we, a lot of people expect him to make the
chase, but he got caught up in that wreck too. So, and then syndrax down there
towards the bottom. So syndrax for this race, Penske runs really good at Atlanta.
So this could be a big one for them.
Still a little too early to tell where everybody is at,
since we only have the 500 in the book. So I feel like I would be remiss if I
didn't mention that Kevin has won three times at Atlanta.
How is there one that stands out to you with more Fonda memory?
Oh, the first one. Yeah. I mean, it's just so, I mean, that's the biggest moment of my whole
career still. And, and we won a championship. It just tells you the magnitude of, of
everything that was happening with Dale's death and getting to victory lane and, and just the,
the magnitude of that victory and, and the, you know, the impact that it had on my career
and the sport at that moment and just the healing process for the team and, and everybody at,
at RCR, they're just, you can't even, you can't even put a ceiling on, on where it was at, at
that time getting to victory lane with that car. So that was just, that was a, that was a all-time
win right there just because of, of the circumstances.
You know what I really like seeing? I love seeing Richard Childress in victory lane.
I think whenever I have, I don't know, he's just like, cause he's always on the top of the
trail. Like he's so locked in as he's been for so long. So like this week, when he's in victory
lane again at Daytona, again with Austin Hill, I'm like, I don't know, just, I like seeing him and
he's intense. He is an intense, intense man.
And has been locked in for a lot of years.
Well, you've seen that very strong presence at the racetrack every single week. Well,
I'm done for now. It's your turn to take over.
Hey guys.
Mom of social sips. Kevin's trying to think of something fun that I could tell.
I don't know if you want to make fun of you for something.
I don't know if you know, but it is time for your favorite segment of the show. And I got to tell
you, Kev, the amount of people that came by and wanted me to tell you that this is their favorite
part of the show. It was a lot. Okay. There's a hundred thousand people at Daytona. I didn't see
all hundred and twenty thousand, but everyone that came by told me they liked it. So anyway,
let's get it going. There was a really cool drop that Hendrick did to promote the beginning of
the season. And Kevin had a little, had a little piece of it. Let's see this first one from Hendrick.
It's been too quiet around here, but that's good. Let's start at the top. When you look at
Rick Hendrick and you look at everything that he's got structured, they have a great leadership
group. They've just done a great job. The work starts when no one is watching.
I don't know. The beginning of this video, y'all need to go check it out at the beginning of this
video. Some of them, they just, you're like, oh, well produced. That was very good. I watched the
whole spot and they did a great job. I love when the teams lean in to do their own content like
that. It's cool. It just, it makes everything better, especially when it's cool. Elevate in
their game there on the social videos. I like it. I give it my boy, Jafar a little love, you know,
he's a tire changer, right? Yeah. He was on Larson's switch. Yeah. He was part of the switch.
He's got that cool factor. He does. He does. You notice that, you know, better be careful. I
don't think so. I don't think so. I don't know. We had another, another cool moment. So Chase
Briscoe, huge Tony Stewart fan, right? Got to drive for him, all the things. And Tony's back,
but now it's Chase's world, not Tony's. Chase walks up to him and Tony doesn't notice. It takes him
in a hot minute. And then he sees it. It's all funny. Chase was trying to pretend he was a fan
getting an autograph. That's not pretending. Yeah. Well, number one, you know, as a driver of Tony
Stewart's caliber is you don't stop. Yeah. If you stop and then it becomes a problem. That's
wondering how you guys, you kind of block everybody out because everybody's yelling at you. And
obviously Briscoe had to basically get right in his face, but yeah. And Tony was cute though.
And Tony at the racetrack, he was very locked in like spring cars and HR. Like if he's, once
he's in the driver's suit, like I really, I wouldn't really go talk to him. He's trying to go drive
this race car. Fans were all over the place. And there's a lot of Harvard fans. As always,
we have a friend of the show that found some out in the, out in the infield. And these guys
were gay. They were rowdy. They have to have a massive hangover today based on what we're
seeing here. When I left last night, I'd looked over the racetrack. I'm like, nobody's left.
Yeah. Everybody's still partying. Look at the, look at the, this is awesome. Look at the handles
in front. All the boys like, cause I know it's bush light because I can see the blue and the
silver. Like I know exactly what they know the paint scheme. I mean, if you're gonna root for
the bush car, you might as well just use the product. I guess there was a giant poster of you
as well. Oh really? Yeah. Oh, that's good. Who doesn't want to be a giant? Yeah. It's right on
the back of the style. We call it vintage. Yeah. Vintage, vintage, vintage is in. So Kev, you're
back in. It's oldest new again. What's oldest new again? So we're just going to keep right that
to the end of the year. And then in the truck series race,
we might have had the most amount of a celebrity status in a race with Travis
Resturana and Cleetus McFarland. This fan made a really interesting point that this might have,
what's he say, says, so here's a weird stat for y'all. The truck series grid tonight almost
certainly has a higher sum of total followers than the cup series grid on Sunday for the date
total of 500. And when you look at Travis Resturana by himself is 5.1 and then Cleetus McFarland.
I don't know what it is, but I know his is ridiculous. Yeah. Well, it was, and like we talked
earlier, I love the fact those guys are really exploiting the fact that racing is fun. Yeah.
You don't have to be here all the time and be somebody who takes it all seriously all the time.
We can come in here and have fun and they made the event just spectacular,
but I just, I think that's the way the truck series is going to be all year because of the
money that Ram is pumping into it. And I think Toyota is going to do some of the same thing to
try to protect their turf as far as the marketing and things go with it. So it's, I just think that
the truck series is probably in a position to be as strong as it has been in a long time.
It's kind of a genius business strategy there playing out by having those guys come in
and elevating the series even more smart moods. I'm going to tell you what, also genius is
what the display, we had a burnout box. Is that what? Oh, you heard it?
Because it went up during our show. I was interviewing Dana White and I don't know
how many times you do a burnout, but every, we were doing the interview outside. I don't know.
Every time we'd get in the middle of something, we'd do, do another burnout.
And it wasn't like we were doing a burnout. We were burning it to the ground.
We listen, man. They brought the raminator from monster jam. So we were firing up that
2000 horsepower mark, hauling his guys. They were fine. We're having that thing up. The fans
would start coming in. We're shooting T shirts to them. Yeah. And then I'd bring it all in and we
would fire that truck up and burn the good years right off the dang thing. And it was so cool.
They've never seen anything like that in the midway. Are they bringing that display every week?
It's coming to 16 right now. And I feel like if the fans ask for more, then they'll probably get
more. So we're having a lot of fun out there. I'll be out there, I think for the most part
of all season. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Also a lot of fun. Voice mails and the mail bags
are back open next week. So if you want to leave a voice mail, it's 805-317-4175.
And if you want to really email a question, harvickhappyour4 at gmail.com. Thank you for
returning to your favorite segment of the Kevin Harvick happy hour podcast. Well, whatever.
Whatever. Yeah. Good job, Mamba. Well done. Okay. Time now guys to grade the Daytona 500
burnout and hand out some grades. All right. Time out. Time out. Time out. We got to give him,
we got to cut him a little slack right here. Okay. Because the super speedway is not easy to do
burnouts on. And we've not seen anybody do a great one. But the reverse piece of it right here,
pretty cool. This is the coolest part of the burnout. So pay attention because the rest of
it's no good. No good. Is that really a burnout? It doesn't matter. Okay. It's just a, the cool
factor of just spinning around, slamming that thing in reverse and backing out onto the racetrack.
Awesome. The rest of it, not so much. It's the Daytona 500. So you don't have to apologize,
but it's impossible to do the burnouts up on the banking like that. Like you got to get on the
apron and their gear ratio isn't really great for yeah, just the power and everything that goes
with it. Isn't conducive to doing great burnouts. You know what? So, so the way that 2311 does their
sponsors and like they put them on the different primaries for almost all their drivers, that's
one, I think it's what Chumba casino. I think that's what it is. They've won. They won with Bubba
at the brickyard. And now I heard Bubba say that afterwards. It's like, it's like, man,
as a sponsor, how lucky, you know how many people, what else could you ask for? Yeah.
And you get two crown jewels. Pretty awesome. It's pretty great. Okay. So what is the grade?
I think it's a N a not available. Yeah. I mean, what are we grade the last one? I mean,
this is the burnout itself was probably a D is pretty bad. Yeah. But the cool factor was,
was with the reverse part, you know, that'll, that'll get it up a little bit, but when you add
the showmanship part, cause that does matter. It does matter. Let's give it a solid C plus
C plus. So we, are we determining at this point in time that we are sticking with a grade
school grade school, old school grade school. We never made it out of grade school.
So we're going with grades. You know why that works too is cause at the end of the year,
without so much years, the fans, the closures are voting on it. And so like, like, you know,
we're going to put on a top five. It's easier to explain. All right guys. So that's the burnout.
Now it's time to look at the points, which I know you don't want to look at them because you hate
when I do good, but I am currently leading because I got six points. As long as he's not
winning. I'm fine. Okay. Okay. Okay. You guys pick the Ryan's Blaney and priest. And obviously
we know what happened there. You know what? I'm a little pissed about this situation.
What's the situation? I just, I'm just, you know, I don't like losing. I don't like taking more time
to win or get things done. You know, I'm a little pissed. The good news is you're getting used to
losing. That's not true. She's our champ. So there's a, so now that you're the reigning champ
and you're leading the club house, do you get to, are you going to go first?
I can go first for our picks at Atlanta. I'm going with Joey Logano, two-time winner at Atlanta.
Starting on the poll last year, he got involved in a crash, but he's won recently in 2024 there.
I think Joey, I think it's a, I think that there's a lot of questions about the Chevy,
but I like how fast they were. And I gotta believe that they designed that car to be more efficient
from both aspects. So I, I'm thinking of Chevy. I'm going to go with Kyle Larson.
I like it. Kyle Larson. Okay. Mamba. Last man. I just talked about how I love
St. Richard Childress in victory lane. I think there's a little magic in the air 25 years after
Dale passes the three paint scheme. I don't know if it'll be the same this week, but it kind of
reminiscent of one of Kevin's old skin. It is. Yeah. Let's give it to, let's give it to Austin
Dillon somewhere outside of Richmond. Let's go. Let's get it. I like that. That would be fun.
Any of these would be fun if they got it done. Make sure you don't miss Kevin's interview with
Connor Zillich that we did. You did tape that before the clash, but still like great stories
in there. Right? Yeah. Well, he's, you know, he's had a lot of intrigue. Obviously you got a reality
check at the, at the Daytona 500 and he's going to get a few of those this year, but kids got a
lot of potential to be great. And I think as, as we go through the year, he's going to just get
better and better, but it's fun for me because I know him pretty well. Yeah. And, but to hear his
story and, and you know, his, his, his parents are not, it wasn't a racing family. His dad's a banker.
So I mean, he did not come from a racing family and, and to see his talent is, is pretty cool.
Yeah. Don't miss that on Thursday and make sure you subscribe to our new YouTube page
for the Harvick happy hour. And we'll see all of you after Atlanta.
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About this episode
Tyler Reddick's thrilling victory at the Daytona 500 takes center stage as Kevin Harvick and his guests recap the race and share insights from Speed Week. The episode highlights the vibrant atmosphere at Daytona, the impressive attendance numbers, and the fun brought by guests Cleetus McFarlane and Travis Pastrana. The hosts discuss the unique strategies employed during the race and reflect on the positive vibes surrounding NASCAR this season, emphasizing the importance of enjoying the sport amidst its competitive nature.
Original notes
Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith recap a record-breaking and chaotic Daytona 500 on this episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, beginning with a look back at their live show from Daytona where Cleetus McFarland and Travis Pastrana joined and hundreds of fans packed the NASCAR Fan Experience. The crew then breaks down Tyler Reddick’s dramatic Daytona 500 victory, examining how he survived multiple late-race incidents, what the win means for 23XI Racing and Michael Jordan, and why the moment felt like a defining breakthrough after a turbulent year on and off the track. They analyze standout performances from Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, and Brad Keselowski, discuss Kyle Busch’s pole run, Corey Heim’s impressive debut, and evaluate Trackhouse and Shane van Gisbergen on superspeedways. The conversation also dives into pit strategy decisions, the 17-car wreck, record number of leaders, and the key moments that shaped the race weekend before shifting to an Atlanta Motor Speedway preview, predictions, and fan engagement in Mamba’s Social Sips as the 2026 NASCAR season is officially underway.
0:00 - Intro
2:28 - Live Show Recap
4:23 - Daytona Weekend Recap
15:26 - Michael Jordan Celebrates First Daytona 500 Championship
38:14 - Atlanta Preview
48:04 - Mamba’s Social Sips
54:44 - Last Call
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