Kyle Larson Wins, Brake Failures, Record Cautions & Bristol Preview

0:00So good, so good, so good. Nordstrom Rack is celebrating 125 years of Nordstrom with 125 of the best deals up to 65% off in stores and online. They're only here while supplies last. So shop today. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. You all figure out because if there's one person that's going to enforce the bet, you only make the bet with the wrong person. Yes, appreciate. He doesn't wear a cool suit. That's bad. Yeah, he don't wear a cool suit. So he went to get a ice pack. I thought I would not wear a cool suit because he's a bad-eye. He's just. That's not the thing. That's not a, that's just not a good decision. Josh and Tara went to high school together. Is he a swifty? I bet he's. All right. Those people are in some form or fashion. Yeah, I mean, you gotta respect the time. She put you in the shop. Yeah. Come on, you're scabbin' on the phone. Let's see. I'm gonna do a burn in. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. Welcome to Kevin Harvick, Caitlin Benzzy.

1:00Hey. What should we call you today? I am a taking out a mojo mojo. That's one that you could be like your band name. A mojo mojo. Oh, you want to always on your microphone? Yeah, yeah. Remember, she. Don't hurt your gait. Yeah, Heidi. No, no, no, no, no. That one, that one I always have on her wrist. But Heidi from Phoenix gave us a bunch of them. Oh, okay. So that one stays here. I hadn't noticed it on before. Yeah, yeah. It's the same chair you've been sitting in. I think so. It has not moved. I mean, I vote. Well, I don't know. They do move. So they could have been moved around. But hang on. Keep the same mic. Well, the mic stays the same. Yeah. But this stuff with my chair. It's fitted to my body. Okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's his body. Yeah. If it was his chair, it'd be all lumpy. You know what I mean? I know it's not. Yeah. Well, I don't have one leg today. I like that. Like I only have one leg. So Delay, it doesn't show. Why are you saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Delay, what do you get to tell Delay? You're like a bottom. She said you said like a bitch wants to. She did. She did. She did. Yeah.

2:00Sorry, Kevin. I would never say that. She said it. She didn't tell me that. So I have this. I have this like weird. I got to look at the monitor to make sure that my legs are appropriate. You know what I just realized about KV, Kevin is like she won't say anything direct. But if it's like a quote that she heard, she doesn't. She's not my word. Because not my word. So that's how we got a, you know, that's how we're going to lose some. Well, the other thing about Caitlin that you have to remember, she has a really good memory. Yes. Yeah. So if you tell her something like that happened what like a couple months ago, yeah, that was a while ago. I remember when Delay was saying, remember this. Yeah, I also pay attention to Delay now. I find her very interesting. So I like that she's back on she's back on Twitter this week. Oh, really? Yeah. The fans you could tell Miss hearing from her. Yeah. What was that all about? I don't know. She must have just felt some type of way and wanted to just just wait in on a few things. Yeah. What's your way in on? It was about. Should I just go check my Twitter? Yeah. Is it Twitter or a specific tweet? Well, technically it's acts, but I always were called Twitter. Yeah. I can't. You never know what you're going to see on X people making comments

3:01all kinds of comments this week. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to be like, I'm not going to read them. So. Welcome in everybody. Debra's 45 here of Kevin Harvick's happy hour. 45. Chase race number two is in the books. Before we go, I'm going to read the book. I'm going to read the book. I'm going to read the book. I'm going to read the book. 45 chase race number two is in the books. Before we get to that house, everybody's weekend. What you got going on? It was good. He mentioned 45. I thought you were talking about Trump. 4045 Dragon house. Yeah. Let's see. My week was basically spin at Tri county. Yeah. I was there on Tuesday, Wednesday for the a s a race and the super late model, and then Friday, Saturday and a rain out sunday. Oh, wow. Yeah. in a granite fall so sweet. Efficient. He was there, uh, overseen some of his things all. Well, that might be a decent amount. Oh, no, no, no. Promoter. Yeah. I mean, I was, like, there's two things, like, being part owner and a car's to a right. So, you know, we get down with the race. I like to go, I know most all those guys now.

4:04So typically I like to go down and congratulate the winner and second, third place cars or, and if there's something going on, I like to go down and see what's going on. So if somebody says, Hey, did you see it? Like if Dale's not there or Jeff or somebody, hey, did you see this? I want to be like, yeah, I saw it. Yeah, right there. Yeah, that's right. Well, they were, they were getting a little chippy after the perlite model race this week. So I'm like, well, damn, I got to go down here for all the wrong reasons, but I'm going to go down here and just kind of see what's going on and got a little chippy. Uh-huh. We got a little, little door banging, little words, words exchanged. And then I was right there, yeah, just to just to make sure to try to make sure things didn't get you got a hand, but the sheriffs had it under control. Yeah, they were there. This was the second, these are the two drivers right here. TJ and Connor Connor, Connor is getting all fired up. He's tall. He is tall. I like the passion. That's what short track.

5:04Let's see a lot of that passion. I will say that if there's one guy, there's, oh, there he is. There's a little guy. I'm Kevin. He's overseeing the bar. There's one guy just listening that you should definitely be mindful of how you race and how you're racing with him. It's probably Connor Jones. He's not, he's not scared. So, you know, and he actually went on to win the late monostock race on Saturday or on Sunday right after that. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, bad news for Keelan. Hmm. Bad news for Keelan because he made a bet with Connor that if he won, he would shape Connor's head and if Connor, no, shape Keelan's head. So, oh, I can't wait to have a bald, bald headed child. Keelan. Old headed child. Look like an eraser. Oh, my. Keelan Keelan Keelan. Yeah. You'll, you'll figure out, because if there's one person that's going to enforce the bet, he made the bet with the wrong person. Yes, for sure. Yeah. That'll be interesting to see the new hairstyle. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be like Josh Thames or Fox.

6:04I know. Josh Thames shaved his head too. I heard about it, but I haven't seen it. It's all he looks great. I'm sure he does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a young Samuel Jackson. He got tired of people calling you him. Yeah, he that's a hundred percent true. Yeah. Yeah. You guys can separate your identity. Right. So, maybe I'll shave my head and that'll just screw everything up. Well, he doesn't do the top button, which I just is in full force over the weekend. I know. I know. Yeah. So, no, it was wildly hot. It was way too. So I stopped out of the trailer the other night trailer. And I'm like, no, this is going to have to come off today. So it's going to be a no top. Yeah. No, but it was cool. Gateway was cool. The fans were out in full effect as they always are. It was a way they deserve the race that they get. They deserve the spot that they get it in. And then I hung out with Sophie Cunningham and her family on Saturday night in our hotel. She's the basketball player, basketball player at W.A. for the fever. She's the one that yeah, yeah, that one. The point. The infamous me. I like her. Yeah, she's super cool. Really nice girl. And her family is great. And there have been race friends forever. Actually, shout out to Ms. Paula and Jim, they're neighbors to one car ledwards.

7:08Oh, how funny. Yeah. The little red down the street. Full circle moment right there. Yeah, it was cool to see her out at the race, experiencing it and like hearing her observations from what she was noticing. Yeah. Track. Very cool. I was in Salem for the arc race, which was also a good event. We had it on Fox. Max Reeves, of course, one lead start to finish. Good for him. It's a cool area that we think maybe you'll attend at some point in time. I'm sure that I will get to spend my time. How was the interview? Was this post race interview entertaining? Or have it usually been entertaining? Was it normal? I don't know, like entertaining, but it was just a typical winner interview. Okay. So for him, it was just normal. Yeah. Well, not for him. Well, that's abnormal. Yeah. More towards normal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here I am getting doused heavily with the water celebration. Great burnout. He did as well. It was fun. It was a good weekend for our crew. Everybody was out there together. So it was Matt Ross. As crew chief came from the MDM stables. We used to work together. MDM when we were dominating and he's continuing to dominate the arc.

8:09It's a great job with their program for sure. So okay. Now let's transition to everything that happened at St. Louis over the weekend. And it is a good Monday when we can come in here and say the Kyle Larson won. And that is what happened over the weekend ending a 51 race winless streak for this team. So what did you see out of the five and is he back? Well, they're back. And I think that when you look at the 51 races in between now and the beginning of the streak, there's a championship in there that you can hang your hat on there. I mean, they kept themselves up. Six, seventh and the points all year this year. And that's really where you see the depth of organizations and the strength of a team is when Blaney went through it too, right? He didn't go through the as big losing streak. But when you're off, being able to get those seven, eight, nine, ten place finishes and

9:09be able to keep the damage to a minimum. But it's the first time that it seemed like they've had the speed to be able to, if they got the lead, they could dominate. And I think the 22 being on two tires, it was a very good scenario for them. But anytime you get back to victory lane after you've been in a losing streak like that for your confidence, for your team, and for us, it's at the great time to be able to make the championship race very entertaining if they're back. And if they're actually back, we will know it Bristol because typically he goes to Bristol and is, if not the car to beat, one of the cars to beat. So, you know, that's, that would be, I know, and you heard him say this is, these are not my words, how unique of a racetrack St. Louis is. And, and Darlington, we know is, is very unique as well. Bristol is its own animal, but it is also a place where Kyle Larson is expected to go

10:10and dominate. But the thing that I like for Hendrick Motorsports is the fact that at one point it was the five, the 48 and the 24 out front, 24 had, had some break trouble and, and wound up crashing. But it's been, it's been a long time since we've seen all four of those cars even be close to running good together. Yeah. And I think that's, that's the most encouraging sign for me is they were all pretty close to running together. I think we all knew it was going to get back to this point at some point because we know Kyle Larson's a winner, we know Rick Hendrick, Cliff Daniels, we know they're all winners. And they're going to figure out, that's, they're going to figure out how to win because that's what they do. So, surprise that it took this long, not surprise that it happened. And Kyle Larson was candid in his post-race interview saying he had moments he did doubt himself, but he never doubted his team. He was very adamant to make that point. And I think this just shows the testament of them working through those highs and lows to now hopefully put those lows behind them.

11:11Yeah, I talked to that group before, practice and qualifying. Actually, I got to talk to Jesse Saunders, Cliff Daniels and Kyle Larson in kind of different three different conversations. And I think they've enjoyed, weirdly enjoyed the journey of getting back to where they feel like they belong because, great, greatness wants to be, they enjoy the challenge of being great and they like being on top. So Jesse kind of referenced how they been through a similar slump in like around 2018-ish, 2019 and how it felt a little bit similar but a little bit different at the same time. And that they never lost confidence in what they were capable of. They just had to get it back. Figure out the solution. Yeah, figure out the right combination. I asked Kyle in practice. I said, hey man, after last week at Darlington, do you feel like you got your swagger back? And he's like, I hope so. And then he goes off and wins the race. So I would say that they're back. Just like we said about the 22, right? The 20, do not give them, do not give them hope. The field gave the 22 hope and now he's within 51 points.

12:14The field is given Team Hendrick as a whole hope. And like if the 24, even though he's, you know, low in the points of the 48 can run fast, they can impact the chase and how hard you have to race certain guys immensely. So be, be good. It also seems to me like the field is closer. Yes. I just feel like the competition is, the gap is narrower between the Toyota's, the Fords and the Chevy's than what it was, especially the Fords. But now you see a Chevy get into victory lane with, with Larson and it's not like they just fluped into it. I mean, they were in the front of the pack leading laps. And it'll be fun to watch. Nine out. I think we're going to find out that, you know that, uh, that change in the nose with the bars behind the nose that happen. I think we're going to find out that that change leveled so much of the playing field, not because that one thing changes so much. But if you were able to manipulate that piece, uh, all season like, I think it seems like the Toyota's were able to use that as an advantage.

13:15And maybe the Fords and Chevrolet didn't have that same thing. And now that comes into effect. You got to refine the balance of your race car with that adjustment. And I think we're going to find out that that may have really not the Toyota's off their axis of where they're dominating and now closing the gap to everybody else. You mentioned closing the gap. Let's take a look at the standings where we are right now after St. Louis, you talked about a Kyler and just nine points behind at the leader, Denny Hamlin. So when you look at this overall picture, what kind of stands out to you from any of the movement we saw after Sunday's race? Well, I think the right side of the screen is done, uh, from being, uh, capable of, of winning the championship. I don't see anything out of anybody over there that says, man, these guys can make a run. I think that they can turn it on and go on a run. Uh, 22, obviously they've done that. 54s, you know, done that. Everybody on the left side of the screen can, can go on a run and put something together. Haven't seen that from anybody on the right side of the screen. And you look at the amount of points and I just don't think the capability is over.

14:17So we're eliminating the right side of the screen in my mind and you look at those, those eight cars on, on the left. It's really where you're at. Those are the guys that are, that are chasing the championship. And we knew that first week or two would, would kind of separate the pack. Yeah. And I think that's where we stand right now. Do you agree? Right side is mostly eliminated from possibility of a title. Yeah, I, I think so. Um, no, you got to go one way or the other. I, I'm going to say yes, but this is what I'm going to say too is if, if that's how they feel internally, you know, so we have 300 cars in the chase. And if we're looking at it like, hmm, we probably need to put all of our ducks over here with the five, that's only going to benefit the five. They kind of saw that adjustment with the 12 getting the two's pit crew. They're like, we need to put some more resources over here because we think for the company, this is the best. So whereas the Toyota side, you know, you have the 11 is still leading the 20s up there, the 40 or the 54 is up there in the 19s.

15:19So all four of their cars are still on the, we think they can win side. And so the resources are different, just like how you operate is different. So how the organizations reallocate resources as we get into the chase will definitely depend on where you're at. Yeah. And I think with the bigger organizations, I mean, there's enough resources to, to go around. I think that, you know, but I still think that, I mean, William Byron's, like he's got no chance of winning the championship, and he's got a lot to race for. Correct. And if they get themselves into victory lane and they get the momentum that they need before the end of the year, that puts them in a great spot for next year. And there's still a lot to race for like, you don't want to finish 15th in a points. You know, if you can get our, get her over on the end of the left side of the column, a 7th or 8th, that'd be a, that'd be a big win from a financial side. And, you know, they all want to win more money. That's what we do. Joe, that's why you're here.

16:20And, you know, but I think that the, you know, the, the, the momentum to be able to, to have over the winner is super important to be able to, to get that, that train back on the tracks and, and do the things that you need to do over eight weeks. So all those guys on the right side of the screen still have a lot to race for, just all different goals. Different agendas. Yeah. They're also going to be stealing stage points, right? Like, they're still, they're going to be fat. Like, seems like Hendrix getting faster. So they're going to be in the mix of the stage points. The stage points, the girl, I think the overwhelming thing that I saw talking to people in the garage is how important they are. Mm-hmm. Like, you talked about Larsen earlier at Larsen going into Gateway, I think was second and total stage points. Yeah. Going into Gateway and that's a lot of fun. He scored 72 total points this weekend. Yeah. So it's pretty good points, Dave. Pretty important to get this. Yeah. So you mentioned the train going off the tracks, which leads me to this race as a whole. Yeah. Because it was 18 cautions, a season high. There were four and just 45 laps of this race.

17:21Were you surprised by that? Were you expecting that amount of chaos for this one race? You never know how this is going to go. Sure. I mean, you just really don't. Yeah. And I think that, I think that you saw the aggression out of everybody. And I think the other thing to go with that is how hard the cars are to drive. And with the more power, we saw it with the brakes, right? With more power that was using the brakes up more. But it's just a, it's a beast of a car to handle and drive. And all these guys are, are being super aggressive. And you know, you slip like those guys did like, where is it right there up off the corner? And next thing you know, it slips up into two cars and two cars are in the fence and everybody's cutting each other off on pit road because pit road is narrow because you don't want to give up the spots and three wide on the restart. Four wide into one. So I mean, there's just, there's so many scenarios where everybody's being aggressive. But I think the thing that we forget a lot of times is just how edgy and how on the edge these cars are to drive. And then you add in these new elements this year at this track and it just made it a little

18:25bit of a train wreck. Yeah, pure cast. I, I felt like I was watching an old school like Bristol, Martin'sville, short track race. Like the things that everybody has been asking that we wish we saw more. We used to get 20, 23 college 100%. And I'm like, that's what we, and I'm watching social and a lot of people like, this is embarrassing. I'm like, this is what you ask for it. Like here, when the drivers get aggressive, they're going to be more accents. I want aggressive drivers. If that means we're going to have more cautions, so be it. But I want to see guys going after it and trying to get everything they can because they know that for their championship aspirations or for like the hair or just for their season or for that day, it's so important to get everything you can get. And I think the other thing to have is them having to shift. So having to shift that many times is an added thing. You're talking about the horsepower and then having to use the brakes to hold, you know, control your race car and then you got to add in the down shifting and the up shifting. You're doing on both ends and it's, this is a lot of gateway to manage.

19:28It is a lot and it's hot. It's a long day for those guys and inside the cars. And I think at the end when NASCAR started red flagging it, I heard him and he's like, this is just making it work. So how he was talking about his brakes, but I'm thinking to myself, yeah, you're talking about the brakes, but it's your hottest hell and that thing because he couldn't get his ice pack. He doesn't wear a cool suit. That's still. Yeah, he don't wear a cool suit. So he went to get an ice pack and the first one was too big. He couldn't do it out the window. He's not wearing a cool suit because he's a bad. He's just. Oh, he's on. That's not bad. That's not bad. That's not a, that's just not a good decision. I agree. I've only had it once and I thought that was night and day difference. Yeah. Oh, my God. We talked about just trying to get everything you can out of your race, right? And one of the things we saw is Joey Lagono's team and a very honest moment from his crew chief Paul Wolf saying, these are the moments that keep me up at night in terms of making the decision on two versus four. 22 team elected to take two tires. You think Monday, crew chiefing, they're like, maybe this would be difficult.

20:30It's easy. It's easy to do that on Monday morning because it didn't work out for them and it worked out for five car on four tires. But you know, it's a lot of times you're thinking track position and you're thinking that a lot of people are thinking track position. But I also believe when the cars are this big of a handful, a lot of drivers like, hmm, you know, no, I need four tires. I mean, but we saw a lot of two tires during the race. We did. Yeah. And we had more ground in the middle of that pack that pitted if you put two tires on, but at the front, if you gave up three or four spots and you had new tires, it seemed like you were able to make up a little more ground on the leaders. And so I'm sure that they'll be questioning it, but it's really hard to say I'd go back and change it based upon the information that you have at that time. But he's right. It's that is a difficult call. And I was the worst at it because if they asked me, I'm going to tell him four. Yeah. I never wanted to.

21:31Yeah. I always wanted to be on offense instead of defense. A big ball, Paul. We know he's not afraid of big, big box. It's funny to hear. I love that. Joey gave him the. I know, but it's your favorite nickname in the old. It is. My favorite creature, too. He's just a smart guy. But I thought it was cool to actually hear him be honest like that about, you know, having to make these decisions in clutch moments. Well, we saw, we saw it last week, right? Last week Clif Deidre was had to make the same type of call and the result between the two end up being the same, right? Either way, they didn't win. But then Clif doubled down and made another call against the field this week and it did work. And like you never know because this week there was a ton of cautions. That would have helped them last week. I still always like my guy. My guy was Kyle Larson. I'd always wanted my offense. Yeah. You want to try being able to make way on his own, right? That's where you want. And he's also willing to put himself in some pretty bad spots on defense if he has to. Right. And that might, yeah, he's brave.

22:31He is. And his offensive back spots are better than his defensive. And his offensive spots are exciting to sell to watch. This is what I knew. This is what I either way, they're exciting. This is what I felt like in the race. I'm like, oh, no, I think Larson's back. I think it was like lap like 50, maybe he dove off in and went three wide and split Blaney like while they're in the top there in the top six or seven and like rolled the top. I'm like, he only does that move when he's confident in his race car. And I confident Kyle Larson in his race car. Who tough, dangerous time of year for him to be confident. Yeah. Not kidding. You talked about Ryan Blaney for a moment. One of several drivers who was plagued with the break issues with some vicious hits. Both for Ryan Blaney and Zane Smith were of course thinking about him, hoping he is doing okay after this race. But Kevin, how did drivers manage this situation? Because it's got to be very unsettling when you're starting to see so many people in the field having this problem. Yeah, it's it's really unique. And you know, we talked about more power. We talked about more mile power at the end of the straightaway using more breaks.

23:33They had more practice. So you put those those breaks through the whole the whole practice time and everything that they had going on. So look, it's a, you know, from a driver's standpoint, it's a very difficult thing to manage. You're going to go fast. You got to drive it in the corner at St. Louis to be able to make speed and very rarely do you have an opportunity to back the corner up and save the breaks. And really it's it's kind of not from going full speed anyway. It's really from when you slow down and then they cool off and the red flags and in practice coming down pit road and then they cool all the way back off. And so there's, you know, there's just a from a driver's standpoint, there's nothing worse than having to to know that you're dealing with that. But a lot of forts and, you know, I know that we saw chase Elliott have the have the break issue. Maybe almonding or at the end or he just, he just, no, he just right handed up to 16, too, which is crazy.

24:34Yeah. So, you know, and the one thing, the reason I bring up for it is I know they run a lot of split from right to left in the break pads, which is, you know, a little, a little harder on that right front corner and in the heat wise. Can you explain one thing that Ryan said to me that I just I don't really understand. He said initially he thought he was having a break issue early in the race and then it stabilized. And so once that happens, is that like you're feeling confident again or is cars have never had like they've always had issues with the pedal fading all of a sudden you'll push on the pedal and the pedal just go down. And then you'll just ride around and next thing you know the pedals fine. So these cars have always had some weird break tenancies to go along with pedal firmness and at St. Louis, we've always had this trouble, right? Like it's every year we go back, we always have these rotor problems that seem to occur on the cars and I had it one year. I mean, when in turn three and the rotor exploded and boom into the wall and so this is

25:36a, it's not a great way to crash because it winds up being a super hard hit. Zane Smith probably had the hardest hit from this weekend. Yeah. And that was the worst way that you could hit the fence driver side like that. For sure. I actually texted Zane right before we got on the show. I was like, hey man, like how you doing? He's like, he's good. He said he heard his foot is a thing. It's not. He said he's going to be fine. He's preparing for Bristol this weekend. But the biggest thing in a hit like that you're worried about his head, right? Like that's the biggest thing. Those hits to the driver's side are aggressive. So typically the side to side hits are better than the front to back hits. So because it doesn't whip. Yeah. That's usually where the concussions come from. But either way, you're worried about any injury when you hit the wall that hard. He smoked it. So I'm glad Zane's doing is okay. And then you know, I talked to Charles the night, Bubba's crew chief and he felt like some there were going to be people with issues. There were going to be people with break issues. And he was like, I feel like we're going to be on the good side of it.

26:38It would be okay. But the minute that you start abusing him, you can't really get him back. Like once they're kind of gone, now you're just trying to manage him without, without incident. And you know, with Ryan, it seemed like he felt like he was fine. He was still making good speed. I think it was about fifth at that point when it, when it blew out on him, which changes the points a lot. It gave, it didn't really give breathing room to Denny because, because Larsen is a nine down. Yeah. That's a great point too. And I think for me, one of the things that's really stuck out in these first couple of weeks is how important it is to win. When it's huge and how fast you can make up points. You know, we talked about you got to be in that top six, maybe seven. I don't think that that wouldn't have been the case. If, I mean, Lugano, right? Like he was inside of 30 before he popped right in there when he was leading the race. And I'm like, man, I can't believe how much of a difference that it makes. But, you know, let's just say that Denny doesn't get himself back into form to win a race

27:40or two or three in the chase here. Like, there's going to be, if the guy, a couple of those guys rip off two or three wins, like they're going to put themselves really quickly in position to either be right there with him or overtake him because Lugano right now is capable of winning. Larsen is capable of winning and he's already there. I mean, he's nine points out. So he's there and arguably going to one of his best tracks this weekend at Bristol. So it's going to be interesting. You can kind of sense that too from the drivers when you have ones that don't have a good race and their interviews afterwards, like Chase Brisco said, we kind of use nine lives today. Like it's almost like they're viewing it. You can have maybe one bad race, but that's about it. Yeah. Well, look, the other thing is too. I mean, when you look at the 11, they had another bad pit stop that put it back there. They weren't dominating, but they weren't mid-packed like they were after the bad pit stop. So that's two weeks in a row that they've got put back there.

28:42Blaney had one too. So I mean, you've got to keep track of all these mistakes that happen and then what happens after that. And for Danny last week at Darlington, what happened after that was a crash. Now they managed it. I finished 18th, but it didn't go that way for everybody. One team we don't see a lot of mistakes out of it. Apparently had a miscommunication with tie gips. They elected to stay out, but then when they interviewed Tyler Allen, he said, yeah, we would have liked to have tires here. So what did you think of that situation? And just again, we don't typically see that with this group. Yeah. Well, and that just when you get into that situation of having to make those tough calls at those particular points. And then you look in the mirror and you look ahead of you and everybody else is on pit road and you're not. And then he fired off on the next restart and just immediately went backwards compared to all the cars around him. So he can't have many of those miscommunications. So that's as bad as a bad pit stop or an accident, which ultimately resulted into an accident

29:46for him because they had to come in at the next caution and put four tires on. And that resulted in the beginning of the trouble that he had towards the end of the race. Now he finished 18th or 19th and it didn't, it wasn't a catastrophic moment with a 30 something finish, but still at that point, you know, I think they were running fourth or fifth and, and you know, you get that communication right and you get the pit road and you put four tires on the thing, you're going to have a chance to race for the win. Yeah. I think at least the top five, you know what I look talking about that, the point still in that flip, I think as long as, as long as the points leader isn't dominating, you can have a off or something happen, right? Because Blaney has something happen. He went from like, I think he was going to be like six down from where he was running to now he's 33. I don't feel like that's really that big of it. Like I don't feel like 33 is insurmountable by no means for them. No, you get 20 points for winning. Right. I mean, more than second.

30:47Right. I mean, really that big of a deal, but it makes it less of a big deal when you don't when the car that you're trying to run down isn't striking fear into you, right? If it's a five, if it's a five right now or say the 20, because I think the 20 is the best out of the Gibbs stable right now, I would be concerned if they were leading. I'm less concerned right now because the 11 is kind of not where they've been all year. They're just in a different space. It's not 15th. It's tied battle. Certainly not top three. Not dominating. We want to close battle. The whole rest of the way. That's what we want. That's right. So that was the Cup Series race. I want to transition over to the O'Reilly's race that also of course took place at St. Louis and start with a situation that happened coming to pit lane for pit stops that was just pretty unbelievable to witness and see this transpire. It was at the end of stage one when Nick Sanchez clipped Raja Karuth coming in and it completely caused a chain reaction of cars.

31:47Fortunately, nobody was hurt. But Kevin, now that you've watched this quite a few times, how did this happen? Have you ever seen anything like it? I have never seen anything like this at the at the head of pit road. I'm just really happy as you see all those cars crashing around the 17 car and the 19 car there that those pit crew members didn't get really hurt. But we talk about this pit road all the time. But at that point that they wrecked to the other thing you got to think about is a lot of those guys are not looking forward. They're looking at their tack. I mean, it's right. You see the yellow line on the ground right there. That's the speed line and every time you get to that line, you give it one last glance down. And then the next thing you know, they're checking up in front of you and you're like boom, boom, boom, boom. I mean, what it crashed eight or ten of them? Yeah. And they're all in the there are a lot of them are chase guys and looking at it, it looked like swallow it's like pulls like they kind of pulled in, pulled up and they,

32:52but it should have just been a little check a little check. But I think what happened is by the time it got back because it was like two or three cars behind him that started getting in the wreck. By the time that chain reaction check up him, we just had the onboard of Brandon Jones. He looks like he was going 40 miles an hour faster than the car had stopped. He went to check up. It was way too late. And the guy behind him was hitting him. Oh, I know. And they shoved him into the into the car in front of him. Yeah. But my point is it was at the worst possible. Oh, yeah. Spot ever for sure. You're coming to the yellow line and you always glance down to check the tack to make sure your pit road speed is right and your lights are right. Yeah, definitely a scary incident. I'm glad that all the pit crew members and everyone was okay. One of the other incident that happened is a brewing feud between Corey Day and William Swalloch. Yeah, brewing. Yeah, we're cooking right. It's at the brim of the pot. What do you think about this whole thing? Well, I mean, look, here's the thing. Like, it's a tough scenario to analyze right here because of the fact that there's been

33:55so many things that have happened in the past. The only part that I don't like about this scenario is obviously William was running in the top five and Justin Algargit involved. Yeah. Who had nothing to do with it? That's the bad part. The feud between the other two guys, they got to figure out. You know, William and Corey have been into it. I feel like, you know, Corey has run into William a few times and they've had their little beef going, going back and forth. But now, now at this point, it affected Algargit or that's the part, like, I'm here for the excitement, right? I'm here for the, here for the, here for the feuds and the guys beefing with each other. But I hate that Algargit got tore up in the middle of this one. Let's hear what Corey had to say after the race. Do you have a message for William Soalich knowing the history you guys have? I don't know. I think he made himself look stupid enough for me to need to say anything.

34:55So there will be no conversation this week. I don't plan to. It's like talking to a wall. I mean, if I was him, I'd be mad. If I was where Swalich last week, I'd be mad. And, you know, so when you look at that, I've had so many conversations about this since then on social. The reason the 17 hits the wall is not because the 18 hit him. It's because the seven was below him. Right. Like, there was no card on it. And he only caught the bumper cover. Like, it wasn't like left rear tire to right front tire. It was the bumper covering and shipped him. And so, you know, that's what makes it look so bad. And I feel bad for sure that all guy was there. I think a couple of things won because we didn't have it there. But the 17 washes up and doors the 18 right. That's that's what set it off. Now, do we know if William would have done the same move if he was passing him without getting touched? We don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Don't know. But there was something that contact that happened before that.

35:56And then William said, effort. Right. And then at that point, if I'm all guy are probably watching because he's behind it, watching it, I probably in hindsight, and like, I probably should have given them just a little bit more space, even though you were trying to sneak by because he probably felt they were going to roll it down into three, right. And he could sneak by and get away. But I probably would have given them a little bit more space because knowing what was probably about to happen. This is why you don't pick battles with guys that are outside of the playoffs or the chase. Right. Like last week at Darlington running all over him into the into William's door and everything that happened last week, right? Like, this is what we talked about with Hose of R. Mm-hmm. Like you and Kaisalowski, it's tough when you get into a situation with a guy who's not in the chase. And then you have to deal with that because if you go back to the Hose of R thing last week, it's the most distracting thing. Not only for him, I mean, did you hear Swaris's comments? Swaris is not stoked about it. Swaris is not happy about it.

36:57And then Jeff's on podcast talking about all the things that he talked about this week and the things he said were probably not what everybody expected him to say. Those are where the repercussions of all the things. You look at Corey and William, right? Like Corey's in the chase and William's not. He ran into him at the wrong time. And next thing you know, William's reaction was like, well, yep, that's the end of you. And those are the types of things that you don't want to have to deal with week after week because now Corey's going to have to go back to the racetrack next week and he's going to answer the same questions. And all week, all the Hose of R's teammates had to answer all the questions. Carson had to answer the questions and you get in the middle of those feuds. And that was like I've told you guys before. That was one of the biggest things that Rodney Childers told me when we started, I don't want to have to deal with all that all week. And you know, it's like we said on your last week, you got to get the Hose of R thing under control because of it's going to be a distraction.

37:58And what's on the line and everything that's on the line and you don't want to deal with all the implications of all the things that come with what could happen with the guys that are outside of the chase. And when you're dealing with creating all this drama, listen during and after the race, you saw what Gateway did with the poster. We had to the last thing Coliseum. And now we have a rally feud and a couple of them still going on. Right. Now is not the time of year for feuds though is not if you're in the chase. It's certainly not. You don't want to. That's the last thing that you need. Yeah. Okay. Well, St. Louis certainly delivered. I can't wait to see what's exciting. Those are all of us because that's where we're ahead of us got cold though on the couch. I had to get one of the socks. I had to get blanket. Yeah. Turned in on marathon. I got tied. It did. By the end of it, I was like, wow, this is this is the race that never ends. So good, so good, so good. Nordstrom Rack is celebrating 125 years of Nordstrom with 125 with the best deals up

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40:06or throat. Dr. Newer worsening joint aches in pain or a parasitic infection or asthma. Don't change your stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. Feeling stuck with EOE? Start treating with dupexant. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about dupexant. Learn more at dupexant.com or call 1-844-Dupexant. So going to Bristol, we know what that place could present. What challenges are going to lay ahead for the teams once we arrived at Thunder Valley? Well, I mean, basically what we've had there in the past, a lot of green flag runs. And I think when you look back at Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Danny Hamlin, those are going to be the guys that have typically been the cars to beat there. I think there's obviously other people that could put it together. Bell's been in a mix pretty much everywhere. So look, right now it's so mixed up as to who's where because of the types of racetracks that we've gone to and the bad luck and the things that have happened seems like the rule changes have kind of affected things like you said earlier.

41:08So it seems like things are tightened up. You don't know the 22 and Blaney and that bunch, it seems like they've made performance gains. Seems like Chevy's have made performance gains and then you've got the Toyota still right in there with them. So it's, I mean, it's open for the taking at this point from somebody. Nobody's come out of these first two races and been a real askicker on both events. No, I mean, how bad I mean, the six was fine this weekend. You know, I mean, like the field is really entertaining because everyone has something different they're racing for. But Bristol is, if you're mad or ready about some stuff, I don't care if it's old Bristol, new Bristol, whatever Bristol, it's going to, yeah, it's going to, whatever version, whatever version because it's so hard to pass. It was hard to pass in the old days here. So that's why we used to bumper right now. It turned into like a two lane situation with the progressive banking kind of, it's still hard to pass. Yeah. Like now you got to kind of throw a slider. And if you throw a slider and door somebody and they get in the fence,

42:10now they're going to be pissed off and you got 500 laps and pissed off. And then on top of that pit road is still like, you talk about the last pit road. This one, you got to make sure you're putting on the, what side you're putting on to where you're at. And the thing you got to do is you got to remember, you got to remember where all the timing lines are. Up. Because you go around the corner. If you're coming in and pit under caution, you've got to get the timing lines right. And it's so easy to speed at this race track. And if coming in on a green, you got to make sure you pit on the right because you only have to go down one side. So there's a lot to navigate from the driver side. You need to qualify good. Keep yourself up in the front of this one. To get a lap quick. Yeah. There's just not a lot of time to fix it. But it's also, it can take some time to work yourself towards the front because it can be challenging to pass it at some points. But you just never know where the racetrack is going to migrate. And we'll just have to see if you don't start at the right place on your balance as,

43:13I mean, the night, we know how it goes from day to night, it changes so much, but it'll just be miserable all night. Yeah. And then you get a new balance Saturday short track racing lights at Bristol, third installment for the Cup Series first for the Craspin trucks. They're starting their chase this weekend, which is exciting. I feel like just listening to you guys talk though, only two races we've done now with this chase format, if you will, you seem to like it. I do because winning is still really magnified compared to what we had in our old point system when we had this chase. And you've got stage points. Like if you're going to, if you're going to have trouble in the first part of these races or not qualify good, not get stage points, you're going to give up something to, well, probably almost all chase drivers. When you look at qualifying and you look at the running order at the beginning of a lot of these races, it's all chase guys. And those are the things that you got to do. You got to, you got to be able to score stage points. You got to be able to qualify well and you got to put yourself at the beginning or at

44:13a place to where you're going to have a chance to win. If you're going to win the championship, that's the big, if you're going to win the championship, if you're not, you're going to finish seventh or eighth and you're just looking to points race, then you've got different things happening. But with this points format, it's presented itself as you're going to have to win. Otherwise, you're not going to be able to keep the points lead. You headed out there this weekend at Bristol? Yes. Kind of. It's like a hesitation. Well, I'm going with Red Bull and they have, yeah, they have a, like a world rally across like demonstration out there. So I'm going up for that. And I think we're staying like in Knoxville. So it's not, you know what I mean? Like I would not exactly wild close. Right in the vicinity. We're not in Bristol. So, um, but to finish off what Kevin was, you know, talking about with the, with the points and I love this system because the biggest thing I liked about the old system was winning meant so much. Yeah. And we somehow they figured out a way to keep winning, meaning so much. And I like the stage points.

45:14I know people don't like it or whatever, but the stage points means that if you had a great day and you did everything right and then something catastrophic happened that wasn't your fault. It doesn't completely ruin your day because a 30th place finish with no stage points that that might take you out of the championship. Like that, that might do it. And so I like the best of both worlds. I think it has been. Yeah. So far. It's been fantastic. I think what all happens this weekend in Bristol time now, pass it over to everyone's favorite segment. You said it. The guy who runs the segment. I'm going to stop sipping by the way. Yeah. Well, it's just, it's a thing. My mouth gets strider and it's, well, that's what's got social sense. That's right. Need to get a little bit. You know, makes me not want to talk this weekend. Makes me know. It's weekend. I was told by a few people to make sure I let you know specifically that it's their favorite. He says this every weekend. I don't say it every weekend, but it does happen every weekend. Yeah.

46:14And so I just want to make sure that I said that for them. Ladies and gentlemen, you know what time it is. Let's get into it. I'm going to start here. It's not even on our sheet of paper. Thai Gibbs. Yeah, off the cuff a little bit. I'm a little sauceed up already. Thai Gibbs is running a throwback scheme this weekend that I love so much. It's for college. It's the M&M's M&M's throwback scheme. It looks so cool. And Kevin, you know how hard it is to get all the people aligned to put these isn't like a Joe Gibbs just said, hey, we're going to do it. They actually have M&M's like on it, I think as well. It takes a lot for everyone to do put that together. Well, and yeah, I mean, it looks fantastic. Oh, my God. It was so good. I miss the M&M's scheme on the side of one of these race cars. It was part of our sport for so long. And I'm happy that Thai Gibbs and the Gibbs Joe Gibbs racing get to do this tribute for Kyle. So many tributes that are starting to take place and have taken place throughout the whole

47:17year and deserves everyone and more for everything that he's done in the sport. So just another great tribute to Kyle Bush and it would be, it'll be really neat to see that car back on the racetrack. Yes, I completely agree. I mean, I may give a precursor to my selection just for nostalgic reasons. Love to see it in victory lane. Love to see it throwback in victory lane. It's different. Also, big news. Really, I think we've already talked about it. Josh Barry moving on to legacy. We legacy and him did a little bit of social media. They're signing this here whiteboard. So Josh was letting everyone know where he's headed. But the funny part about this is Eric Jones, his new future teammate, quote, tweeted it and says, this is great because he's one step closer to finally meeting Taylor Swift. He basically welcomes them both to the club. It's pretty funny. Well, that's pretty creative. Yeah. I mean, we'll explain the backstory to it for people who may not know.

48:18Oh, yeah. Josh and Josh and Taylor went to high school together. Yeah. And Tennessee was just super random. Two's just super famous people coming out of that. Well, is he a swifty? I bet he's. I don't know. I should have this weekend. Oh, I see. Those people are in some form or fashion. Yeah. I mean, you gotta respect the talent. She puts it in the show. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. I'm hoping we all get to meet her then just bring her over to a race. It'd be cool to see how to race. Yeah. Oh, she's a good meter. But I have an eight year old little girl that sings a lot of Taylor Swift songs. You know, you know, I'm probably nice thing a lot of them too. Really? Short track racing. We were at tri county with a car store and the ASA, but also legend cars were there. Brexon Bush was there. Brexon's been on a little heater this summer. He's won some races, but he ain't won one like this three wide around the top. Just like the old man, but got one spot better. I think that's actually his first legend car win. That is an elite way to wait in just like not a.

49:20Yeah. I'm going to begin it at the whatever they call the beginner division. Yeah, young lions. No. Yeah. No, what's the what's the one below it? Chargers, charges. Oh, I didn't even know I had another one. Yeah, not a. Not a chargers, but just that's against everybody. Yeah. Right. All divisions and just a fantastic finish. I was actually standing on pit road for that one. And nobody knew who won. I think they actually called the 15 cars the winner, but I think his transponder was in the spot mounted in the wrong spot. So they had to go to the photos. So that was a that was a tight finish. There's everybody. Every racers dream is to win a race three wide around the top on the last. From the finish. Like that is I don't care who you are. You're like, it's like a buzzer, be the shot. Like it's just what. Yeah. So shout out to Brexon on that. Um, there's no no a Jackson is always a driver. He's a high entertainment guy. Yeah, he's a driver. He's a entertainer. Some would say like on the people's champ. I knew driver intros. Well, he was that race car driver. I got a series driver.

50:21Yeah. He was at Red Rocks with Cole Swindell musician, the musician, Cole Swindell and Cole brought him up on stage. Let's check it out. I've been by the. You. I somehow. If we get him out of here, look, he's never been on space. They have been on stage at rail. So I'm going to bring my buddy Mr. No, I'm not here. Let's show the response what you've been working on. I'm going to tell you. Look at that. John Song or what? The piano man on the harmonica. He plays the harmonica. He's been so they made a deal a few maybe a couple of months ago that if he got good enough with the harmonica that he could go out on Red Rocks and perform it on the harmonica. Red Rocks is quite the venue. That is. Make a guest appearance. Wow. Never been. Oh, it's, it's awesome. I mean, I'll give him credit. It's got great. He's got all six. He's got big old cojonas to do that in front of a like Red Rocks.

51:23I don't know if I would have been able to do that. Oh, no, that's pretty impressive. And he did a good job with it. And they were fun and Noah's fun. So I need to hear the harmonica skills. Now I'm curious. You got to go listen. It's actually pretty good. Is he? Yeah. That's cool. We can't play it because of rules. Yeah. No, everyone go over to the social and finding. I'll take a look. He did a good job with it. And we got one more, one more, another artist, different kind of art. We're going into that art room. We're painting. Going into the art room. Art to crafts. Art to crafts. This, I saw this online. Kate's this young lady named Kate. She sold this painting. This is of college. But there was another one of Ryan Priests taking flight at Daytona. So it's a well painting. It's super high. I thought it was super cool. And I love seeing us in different areas and people doing different things. Yeah, that's really neat. She's obviously very talented. Are you in good at art? Huh? Are you in a good at art? What kind of art? Are you a drawer, painter, anything?

52:24Now about you, Caitlin. I did some courses and no, I don't. Nez. You just think I'm a total fucking loser. Oh, Nez. Caitlin had a red bull before the show started. She's flying high. Yeah, she's like, but I painted before. Like what kind of paint? I took pottery. I took art classes in college. What did you do? So I got this painting artist. I just I have no, but I've done it before, which I thought is what you asked. So you don't have any, you don't have any like painting crochet, drawing hobbies. No, I have the patience. Really? No, I do you? Yeah, no. Me? Yeah. No. I have no creativity. That's not true. No, no, that is not true. Yeah. Yeah. Well, apparently I knit my free time. I just take myself to the senior citizen home. Did you make that sweater? Yeah. It's a fair question here. You got hobbies, you know? No, that's not it.

53:24You can sing. I can sing, yes. That I actually can do. Now, what was the song you would sing? I didn't have a specific song, but. Can you sing the national anthem? You know, one of my old boss asked me to sing the anthem and I just never wanted to commit to doing that necessarily. Okay. What's your karaoke go to? I wear off topic now. What's your karaoke go to Kevin? I've only sang karaoke once. What'd you sing? I sing Madonna material girl. What the hilarious. Delayna Josh. I need video of somebody else. Oh, this is pre them. Oh, we didn't know that's not true. No, Delayna was there, but it'd be pre-josh. Yes. So. We need karaoke happy hour outing. We need to go to Syed's for one whole time. I've been there with you. I'm more of the, I'm more of the just kind of keep it to ourselves. You would be. Yeah. Otherwise, it'll wind up on video. Yeah, that goes back to our discussion. Yeah, put the phones in the basket. Put the phones away. And everyone can have fun again. Yeah. I like outcasts. Yeah, meanwhile, you'll find me knitting in a corner.

54:26Yeah. You have a song? Well, I don't have like a go to song. Okay. I do roses by outcasts in case anyone's wondering. Good to know. Yeah. And this went totally off the rails. Are you going to close it out or do you need to? I'll let you close it out. That does it from on the social steps that had a sign. That's over something else. And it mixed in. Okay. Time now, guys, for the last call. And this is where we get to grade the burnout. And I've been very good because I didn't. It was a great burnout. How about Lurs? I didn't see it. Oh, right now. Okay. So, okay. I mean, he starts nosing it up, which we all agree. It's like cool, but whatever. But then this part, watch this when he gets out. Yeah. Oh, he's getting creative. Yeah, here we go. Here we go. This is where we like show. Maybe. Like types of things. I like that. He's just hammering it. Right. Right. And then he backs it up. And he does it some more. He does a little like a break stand down to the rest of the finish line. I love the team was right there. Like those are always cool. Yeah. Oh, man. Those guys deserve it too.

55:26Yeah. I mean, I think you used to win in all of a sudden, you don't win for 51 races. I mean, that's a long time. I watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, look at the smoke. Well, the smoke. Okay. I mean, that's what I mean. And it's like we said last week, sometimes you can judge the burnout by the enthusiasm of where they are with their wins and everything. So yeah, I, you know, I think we're going to give it a high B. High B. Maybe a B plus. All right. There you go. Kyle Larson with a B plus. I would agree with that. So now's the time. Time now to take a look at the point standings and where we sit after St. Louis. Kevin is still leading at 49. He picked Joy Logano as did I so we both picked up some points. I'm at 27 to Mama said. It's hard. It's like, I, you know, I mean, seven more points than you can't beat me. Well, yeah, we got to keep it the whole way, but I'm going to win again. Yeah. I like I've said at the beginning I am I think my champ pick is gonna win and I'm

56:28It doesn't matter. You got to be within 50 points. I know so that's why I just got to do that. That's not He is all bought in on that's gonna be a saving grace Three points behind right now right so I got a little bit I got a cushion. I got a little bit of a cushion. Let's see if we can make up some ground So go ahead and pick no you gotta go first. You're the loser, but yeah But that's right you guys have been going first. I want to go first. Okay. Go first I had kind of already told you guys I had it written down before you talked about the paint scheme was Tigers and I mean I think he's actually a good pick outside the paint scheme He's well, so yeah, is that who you are taking to no, I didn't have a pick this week I'm gonna take the week off to give you guys a chance are you serious? I'm gonna take Christopher Bell. Oh, okay, so two votes of confidence for the the Joe Gibbs racing house Yeah, I'm really glad you did that because I wanted to pick tie really I've been thinking about tie No, no, I'm not gonna because now that Larsen and the five train is rolling It's gonna be hard to stop that thing. Let me give me Kyle Larsen because it's be tough to be this is gonna be how we know if they're really

57:33Back or not. It's right. Yeah, if you can have a really good show. I like that That's I'm excited for this excited to watch it all go down And he's a points coach help me out Bob you're at a old six for mumbo jumbo Gold six you get to it. You get a 16 after this week. That's right. Okay guys. Well, this has been fun There's always plenty to talk about after these chase races tell you what the shows right themselves. That's for sure Mm-hmm and we learned about our our favorite karaoke songs. We did and we did you did you tell yours? No, I don't have a favorite karaoke song So if you had to pick today, what would it be I would probably sing a Chris Stapleton song honestly, okay? There you go. We like him. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna go like Mariah Carey. I want for Christmas No, I don't she's got it mainly Chris stable Chris oh that's that one I thought you guys sound really good with female voice. Oh really? Okay, we'll have to report back on that Guys, this has been fun for Kevin Mamba myself that does it first make sure you subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts follow us as well at

58:36Parvig Kaffee pod. We'll see all of you after Bristol Before this There's this As you celebrate the game take a deeper look at its roots the people grow in the grass They've in the lot well-d in the goalposts Inspecting every football the hardworking people to make every Sunday possible Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game visit carhartt.com slash join the trades to learn more