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Matt Weaver's Daytona 500 Post Race | The Burnout · Kenny Wallace Media

0:01
Hello, welcome to the first ever episode of The Burnout, a weekly
0:06
NASCAR post race show. I'm Ryan Larkin.
0:10
I'll be the host of this thing. The main event though, the main
0:13
person we're here for is going to be Matt Weaver.
0:15
He is going to be at the track each and every week, I believe
0:17
each and every week, most weeks. Some weeks.
0:21
Some weeks. I think I'm going for.
0:24
I was asked this question in the Media Center earlier today.
0:27
I think the number I'm aiming for is 25 out of be 25 out of
0:32
38. Not bad, not bad.
0:35
And, and of course motorsport.com allows them to do
0:38
that. So it's it's awesome.
0:39
He's going to give us the breakdown from the track every,
0:42
every, every week. And the only caveat, and we'll
0:45
go ahead and say this now this will be a live show, but it'll
0:48
probably be a 11:00 or 12:00 on the East Coast.
0:51
So it'd be a later thing. Might be something you want to
0:53
check out on your drive into work the next morning or
0:56
something like that. But I really appreciate Kenny
0:58
Wallace and Charlie allowing us to come on their YouTube channel
1:02
and and do the show and and give it a go.
1:04
And we'll see see how everything is still work in progress with
1:08
me and Matt. So we'll see how it goes.
1:09
But Matt, you've done your full week in change there in in
1:14
Florida wrapped up with the great Daytona 500.
1:17
How you feeling? How's everything going and
1:20
what'd you make of the the big race?
1:22
Well, first and foremost I got, I got to make sure the people
1:24
know what we're doing here, so. Fair enough, this.
1:29
Is terrible terrible way to open this show listen, I I have a lot
1:34
of qualms just in general about what the Daytona 500 has turned
1:39
into over the last five to 10 years.
1:45
But I will tell you that every single time that I, I, I, I'm
1:49
allowed to show back up for another speed weeks, speed week,
1:53
it's special. I have a job covering the sport
1:56
that I have loved since before I was born.
2:00
I was going to the racetrack in my mom's womb, watching my dad
2:03
race his dirt cars before I was born.
2:06
And I feel blessed. And we can talk about some of
2:10
the things I don't like. And I think there's some cause
2:13
for optimism about some of the things that I'm sure all of us
2:16
do not like about the current dynamic of superspeedway racing.
2:21
But I'm at Daytona, We're here at Daytona talking to you.
2:24
And I am so stoked to be doing this show on the Kenny Wallace
2:27
Media Channel. Thanks, Kenny.
2:29
Thanks, Charlie. Appreciate you guys.
2:31
Big supporters, big, big friends.
2:34
Let's do this thing. Perfect.
2:36
So I want to start off with Tyler Reddick.
2:38
That was a huge win for him. I believe he went winless last
2:42
year. It was kind of a down year.
2:43
He struggled a little bit. Obviously he had a lot going on
2:46
in a lot of aspects, but this is a big, big win, a big win for
2:51
Michael Jordan. I'm sure there's a lot we'll
2:53
talk about. We didn't want to go lawsuit,
2:55
but obviously this is quite the win directly off of the the
2:59
lawsuit that that happened a couple months ago.
3:02
Break that down for us. Talk about what it's like seeing
3:05
Michael Jordan Victory Lane, what it might, you know, mean
3:07
for the sport, what it means for Tyler Wright to kind of get over
3:09
the hump here. We're no longer saying locked
3:11
into the playoffs, which is fantastic.
3:12
But, you know, talk about what that win means, not just for
3:15
those guys, but, you know, in, in the general popular zeitgeist
3:19
of, of sports. Nice word, zeitgeist.
3:23
That was a Smashing Pumpkins album I think too.
3:27
I think it was important for the sport.
3:29
I mean, listen, we we could find very positive things to talk
3:33
about with whoever would have won that race.
3:35
At the end. There was, you know, 15
3:38
different stories that nearly played itself out over the
3:41
course of just one lap. But given that I was in that
3:44
courtroom practically every day, I missed one to go to go to the
3:48
Snowball Derby. I was in that courtroom
3:50
practically every single day and watching Michael Jordan and Jim
3:55
France as kind of two of the three or four main characters
4:00
combatants of that trial. And, you know, it was super
4:04
surreal to see them walk out on the steps of the courtroom
4:06
together. But it was even more surreal to
4:09
watch the handshake. And to me, that kind of
4:12
signified that it's truly passed and it's and it's over.
4:16
And and, you know, Denny Hamlin was here in the Media Center.
4:18
This is where I'm at now. I'm in the SiriusXM room.
4:21
They're they're not live at 11:14 at night.
4:25
Denny Hamlin was here in the Media Center.
4:26
And then he said that, you know, some things have changed even
4:31
after even before this win, before the handshake, they've
4:34
been in more meetings. And Denny and 2311 and NASCAR
4:39
have had a lot of communication and dialogue about how to grow
4:42
this sport. And, and Denny said that a lot
4:44
of those conversations are where do we want to be in the next 5
4:48
to 10 years? And we can get into that later,
4:51
but I think I don't want to lose sight of Tyler's, Tyler's win.
4:55
And we can get into that too. But just the, the immediate take
4:58
away for me was the fact that we spent so much of the last year
5:03
and a half watching them fight and one race in handshake.
5:06
And it was like the final moment that, hey, this is over.
5:10
Yeah, yeah, sure. And kind of piggybacking on on
5:13
that, how about all three car owners essentially involved in
5:17
that front row wins on Friday, richer children's on Saturday.
5:20
It just it's it's weird how the stuff works out.
5:24
Then he said. Then he said it's a coincidence.
5:26
Sure, yeah, sure. It it's it does feel like a a
5:30
fresh start. I thought there there's a lot of
5:32
things to discuss in terms of the race itself, right.
5:34
I think we got some fuel saving stuff you're going to want to
5:38
beat into, you know, beat upside the head.
5:40
But this is obviously it feels like a good fresh start.
5:43
I thought the race, once it got going, once they were going full
5:47
throttle, it was enjoyable. The first stage was awesome.
5:51
Yeah, the first stage was off because we got that caution,
5:53
right. We got that caution, everyone
5:54
came and spice it up. Getting in before the weather
5:58
was a fantastic as a blessing. Obviously it started raining.
6:01
What about an hour after the race ended?
6:03
So. That was immediately.
6:06
Really there's there's a lot of positives, you know, moving that
6:09
up an hour. Great call.
6:10
They got it in, you know, so there is some, some positives,
6:14
but let's get to the negatives because I think that's still the
6:17
storylines we're going to be talking about.
6:18
At least the, the majority of our fan base, people that are
6:21
watching this and, and commenting on it is going to be
6:24
the, the Toyota's holding up 3 lines.
6:26
It's going to be the fuel saving.
6:27
It's going to be kind of the negativity surrounding the race
6:30
because they're, you know, it was boring at parts where you're
6:33
just sitting there like this. I was on my phone for 20 minutes
6:35
just not even paying attention because I knew nothing was
6:38
actually imminent. And so give me a solution.
6:41
But also just kind of where are you at?
6:43
What's that feel like on the grounds there?
6:45
What are all the teams and drivers saying?
6:47
What is the general feeling about this situation?
6:51
Because I don't know how or when it gets better.
6:53
Yeah, I don't I don't know that I've even had a chance to to
6:56
digest that yet. Because if you think about it,
6:58
it was it was it was kind of surreal because the race ends
7:02
and Tyler Reddick crosses the finish line 1st and literally
7:06
second on back. All went to infield care.
7:09
Certainly in the top five, right?
7:11
Elliott Stenhouse, Logano Kazlaus Can't forget who was all
7:16
in the top five out of that group got.
7:18
Into it, yeah. They were they were all top five
7:20
top 10 drivers and so I could not really go and talk to people
7:27
about, you know, big picture stuff.
7:29
I I ran to pit Rd. and if you look at my my Twitter XX feed,
7:34
it is not super pretty post race.
7:36
I try to have like good quality production.
7:38
I've got a good camera, good mic.
7:40
I like I've tried to really step up my digital social game this
7:45
year and this was not pretty. Like I, I run and I see Carson.
7:49
I grab Carson for two minutes and I run to the other end of
7:51
pit Rd. where Zane is because both of them finished Byron more
7:55
or less finished to not the prettiest speaking and not
7:58
pretty. I grabbed Byron and I'm like,
8:02
well, who else is not on pit Rd. And I'm like, OK, all those guys
8:04
in the top five, they crashed. I've got to go now run to
8:08
infield care and anyone who's been to Daytona, I know not all
8:10
of you have. It's a big freaking facility.
8:14
I am flat wore out, my shirts all wrinkled and I was doing a
8:17
lot of running. My cardio is good.
8:19
And so then I had to talk to to Chase and Ricky and and Brad and
8:24
all those guys. And so there wasn't a lot of
8:25
time to do Let's digest stuff, right?
8:28
Like I'm excited to be at Atlanta on Thursday and when
8:31
people roll in on Friday and Saturday, I'm going to ask those
8:35
questions. But Denny did open up the door a
8:38
little bit to have this conversation.
8:42
I'm not so mad about the fuel saving stuff because to me it's
8:46
no different than watching an intermediate race when it comes
8:49
down to the end and people are trying to fuel save.
8:52
To me, that's strategy. I know, I know it bothers a lot
8:54
of people, but I, I, I think we're, we're, we're, we're
8:57
talking about the wrong things. It's the same thing, but we're
9:01
we're, we're, we're targeting the wrong culprit.
9:05
Fuel saving to try to gain an advantage on pit Rd. to jump
9:10
people. You're racing.
9:11
That's not the problem. The problem is, is that you
9:14
can't pass on the racetrack. And so because this car has so
9:18
much drag and in lieu of a car that as soon as you try to pull
9:21
out, you die of death, you just go straight backwards.
9:24
The only way to pass is to do it on pit Rd.
9:26
It's the only way. And I know we saw points where
9:29
somebody could drive through the fields because they weren't fuel
9:31
saving and two things happen. Either one, it was self penalty
9:35
finalizing. So if you do that, BJ McLeod
9:39
told me, it's like using up two laps per everyone lap.
9:42
That's just not sustainable. And, and so the issue is, is
9:46
this, this, this drag in the car.
9:48
And, and Denny said that as part of those conversations that I, I
9:51
brought up a second ago with 2311 and NASCAR and all the
9:55
teams trying to communicate and get back together, they've
9:58
discussed a version of the Clash next year that goes back to
10:03
Daytona. Yay.
10:04
That's what we all wanted, right?
10:05
Everyone says we want to go back to Daytona.
10:08
Not me. I don't I don't want to go back
10:09
to Daytona because I don't want to go back to the last clash we
10:12
had at Daytona. I called it the Bush crash.
10:15
I don't want to do the Bush crash at Daytona where you had
10:18
everyone crash and you had, you know, Eric Jones with a beat up
10:21
race car crossing the line as the winner.
10:23
I don't want to do that again. But Denny says this, this idea
10:26
and I'm being so long winded, I'm sorry.
10:28
I can do this sometimes Is that is that he wants to take as much
10:33
of the drag out of the car. His idea was the spoiler, chop
10:36
off the spoiler. And if there's so some other
10:38
things we have to do to balance the car, whatever, things like
10:42
we need to lift and that's going to break up the packs a little
10:45
bit. So we're not going to maybe get
10:47
the pack racing we're accustomed to.
10:49
Maybe it looks more like Atlanta.
10:50
We all kind of like new Atlanta. Either way, I think it's worth
10:54
trying, right? Like, what do you think?
10:55
I think just coming to Daytona for an exhibition race and say
11:00
let's just try something and we'll see if it works out.
11:03
Yeah, I I mean, yes, exhibition race, do what we can, right?
11:06
Like just test stuff. It doesn't matter.
11:08
We've done that for years. We did that with the All Star
11:10
race with the 450 horsepower package out that one year and it
11:13
it looked ridiculous the first time.
11:15
But yeah, that's a great opportunity to try stuff.
11:18
I definitely agree that something has to be done.
11:20
And I think to his point, getting off the all time it is
11:25
probably the the best way to do it.
11:27
I mean, obviously aside from eliminating stage cautions,
11:30
which is a whole nother conversation I wouldn't mind
11:32
having, but you got to impact the car in a way to to kind of
11:37
create something else. And my my only issue with that
11:39
is is that would be next year and that'd be a week before the
11:43
500. So any changes probably aren't
11:45
in 28. It's like you're getting two
11:48
years down the line. Let's just show up in July or
11:51
August at at Daytona and just do something.
11:53
You know what? I, I don't know what that is,
11:55
but I'm torn because I'm like you, I see feel saving in every
12:00
form Motorsports forever. And it's not necessarily just
12:03
feel saving, but I don't think we can be 5 seconds off the pace
12:06
for for 30 laps just for the fun of it either.
12:10
And that that part was not fun but.
12:13
To me, my biggest problem is, and this is, this is the rant
12:15
that I wanted to go on when the show started, which by the way,
12:18
can you turn the chat on? I got people messaging me saying
12:22
where's the chat? We want to be in the chat, we
12:23
want to talk with us and talk to talk to each other.
12:26
So you didn't work on that while I go on a rant.
12:29
I'll see what I can do. Yeah, absolutely.
12:31
I'm not so mad about the fuel saving.
12:32
What I'm mad about is that, and I love the Daytona 500, the
12:37
history of the Daytona 500, but this is supposed to be our
12:40
showcase spectacle event. It's supposed to be the thing
12:44
that we say to the world, hey, This Is Us.
12:49
Hell yeah, we are NASCAR. And and I don't like that.
12:53
The, the first impression that a lot of people have is that we
12:57
get down to two laps to go. We put the cars into a blender
13:01
and we just shake them up when you pull a car out and that's
13:03
that's your winner. And it just seems like
13:06
inevitably that's what we have. And, and I want to celebrate the
13:11
team for their work and the driver for their drive.
13:14
And it just, it, it almost feels like they were more like they,
13:18
they hit the lottery then then truly earned it or, or achieved
13:22
it. And so I think that Denny's idea
13:25
about trying to break the pack up, get them to lift, yeah,
13:28
that'll solve the, the fuel saving issues.
13:30
But I also think it could give us a cleaner, more traditional,
13:34
you know, superspeedway style experience that you know, it's
13:38
going to. It's not going to be OK for the
13:41
people who love the packs and who love the crashing.
13:43
But I think it might give fans and non fans a more authentic
13:51
sporting experience, something that truly feels like a sport
13:55
and not just chaos for the sake of chaos.
13:58
Sure, absolutely. I think I got it.
13:59
So if you want to leave a comment and and give it a shot
14:01
there. I I age restricted it so I was
14:04
making sure no one could post anything bad.
14:07
I am not for kids. No, but you know, first time
14:11
jitters we're we're working things out here.
14:12
Sorry about that so if someone wants to try leaving a comment,
14:15
it may may not work this time around because we started the
14:18
the the show like that, but apologies I'll I'll make sure it
14:21
doesn't happen next time yeah. So I didn't catch the last half
14:25
of that because I was messing around with with that, but I
14:29
don't know if there's anything more to touch on the fuel saving
14:31
thing. I I don't want to beat that in
14:32
oh, fix. Thank you.
14:34
Let's go all right, I I did something right.
14:36
Let's do it. So if you want to leave a
14:38
comment, you know, ask Matt a question.
14:40
What we'll try to try to do our best and and get up there and
14:43
and talk about it and it'll make my job easier because then I
14:45
won't have ask ask a question I want to ask.
14:48
By the way, this is so raw. We started a version of this
14:51
show for the playoffs last year and we do not have like 2-3
14:55
years of, of cadence and, and just comfort and familiarity of
15:01
doing this. We're, we're learning this on
15:03
the fly. It's not going to be pretty TV
15:06
or radio yet, but I think we've got like 100 people or something
15:08
watching us. And so for, for y'all who are a
15:11
part of this, thank you. We appreciate y'all.
15:13
Yeah, absolutely. We got 4 1/2 weeks in, so we're
15:16
we're working on it. I got a conversation I want to
15:20
have with you, BS. I think on Friday we saw three
15:24
or four cautions for trucks spinning.
15:25
Most of them were Carson Hosvar. Saturday they didn't.
15:30
They held the yellow. They held it for most of the
15:32
race and then at the end of this race, we saw obviously a crash
15:36
into turn one on the final lap, no caution thrown.
15:40
This is the second time I feel like if NASCAR was manipulating
15:42
races, they could have gave Chase Haley a Daytona 500.
15:45
But they didn't throw it. They held it.
15:47
They raced all the way around. I don't want to say if there's
15:50
any consistency because I'm very happy they held it.
15:52
But what do you make of the the two races Saturday and Sunday
15:55
that that they did hold those caution flags that they didn't,
15:58
you know, rush to throw them? And then we got a green flag
16:00
finish here for our 500. Yeah, my, my preference is
16:03
always were the style of races to end under green.
16:07
We, we all want that, right? Like it feels how it feels
16:11
somewhat cheapened when you don't make it back to the line.
16:14
And I, I, I respect and appreciate the reasons why those
16:17
cautions come. And I'm not dismissing anything
16:20
that's safety related. And so, but this, this is
16:24
another thing we need to follow up on on Thursday because I'm
16:27
curious too. I did not expect that otherwise
16:29
I would have ask the questions on on Thursday and media day.
16:33
I want to know and I'm guessing NASCAR and the drivers Advisory
16:38
Council competition committee probably had this is one of
16:42
their talking points that hey, we're thinking about holding the
16:45
cautions for situations just like this.
16:49
NASCAR's question to the drivers and the teams would then be the
16:55
obvious push back is safety that you know, we are probably giving
17:00
up ten 1520 seconds. If if we think something is like
17:05
bad and don't come basically, I I don't want to put words in
17:10
their mouths, but don't come after us, even if if we were a
17:13
little bit longer on that because you're saying that you
17:16
want us to let you race. And you know, if it's funny,
17:19
fans always say NASCAR don't don't listen to us.
17:22
They don't know what we want. I'm here to tell you there is a
17:25
big data, I don't want to call it a data center because it's
17:28
not like Amazon, but I know inside the glass office across
17:32
the street, they have like a, a on a scale, a data center which
17:37
is constantly reading tweets, reading YouTube comments.
17:41
There is the NASCAR found fan council.
17:44
This is what fans want to fans want to see the race go back to
17:48
the checkered flag. And so there's there's there's,
17:51
I don't say consequences, but there's a potential peril to
17:54
that. And so I'm sure they reached out
17:57
to the teams and the drivers who would be most affected by that
17:59
to say, hey, are you OK with that?
18:01
I'm guessing the answer is yes. Right, right.
18:04
Yeah, I, I was very pleased. I, I thought the finish
18:07
obviously there, you know, again, it might be a three lap
18:10
race that everyone's thrilled about, but I, I do think the
18:12
finish was good. I, I don't know if there's any
18:15
other major takeaways. Obviously Kosowski was kind of
18:18
pissed at at Herb's for, for that last second block.
18:22
I, I don't know if I fault him too much.
18:25
I mean, it's you're coming, you're going for the wins, split
18:28
second decision, maybe yes, it'd be wonderful.
18:30
But I feel like we got through the weekend.
18:32
There's not really many frustrating storylines.
18:34
I feel like it was kind of just a smooth weekend.
18:36
Do you have any other major takeaways from the 500 from the
18:39
big race from what you've seen and talked to?
18:42
Or is it kind of like, hey, we covered the four bullet points
18:45
and that that's all we got from the first week of the year?
18:48
One, no red flags, which given the the impending weather there
18:52
was. Like, yeah, those were held on
18:54
purpose, right? Like.
18:55
I I I wonder, I do wonder, I do wonder with that, you know, the
18:58
big crash with the all guyer, all guyer and.
19:03
Hamlin and the whole, the whole group up there in the front, I
19:06
mean that was he was leading the pack, so it took out the front
19:08
half of the field essentially. I thought that would have been
19:10
the red flag, right? Yeah, the the first half of the
19:15
race, just the, the the third segment too, right.
19:17
The fact that there wasn't the all the Chevy's, all the Fords,
19:22
all the Toyotas. I'm very surprised that, you
19:25
know, just a group of three and four here, some some mixed
19:28
manufacturers. I thought that that first stage
19:32
was like, to me, my favorite version of superspeedway racing
19:36
because you didn't have the big wadded up pack.
19:38
Should multiple strategies play itself out.
19:40
It kind of reminded me the one year Talladega where SHR was
19:44
able to line up 1234 and just drive away and everyone tried to
19:48
throw a bunch of different strategies at them to to beat
19:50
them. I I love when driver decisions
19:55
and crew chief decisions impact the race more than just.
20:01
You know, carnage and chaos and that first stage was like, this
20:04
is pure, this is like pure Speedway racing.
20:06
And I just, I hope that whatever conversations they have produces
20:12
something that looks a lot like that because that was a lot of
20:14
fun before we got to the, you know, the chaos and carnage
20:17
portion of our Daytona 500 experience.
20:20
Sure well, cool. I, I, you know, I, I enjoyed the
20:24
race. I think obviously there was some
20:26
lols. I think there's things to work
20:28
on, but I'm trying to be extra positive to start the year.
20:30
It's it's week 1. Let's not let's not get too deep
20:32
down you. Don't want to talk about the
20:33
playoffs for the for the 10th time on this show?
20:38
Right now I want to transition Austin Hildo is what you know,
20:42
what we've done on our rehab shows, we've already done as we
20:45
kind of go series by series, we kind of touch on them all.
20:48
Obviously, it's a big, big week for all three series in Daytona,
20:52
Austin Hill just seemed untouchable yet again.
20:55
Either that or the rest of the field doesn't know what the hell
20:57
they're doing. Probably a combination of both.
20:59
It seems like we're seeing something that we haven't really
21:03
seen outside of people with last name Earnhardt, obviously, and
21:07
it does feel special. But how much?
21:11
Stewart? Stewart in the Bush Xfinity, you
21:14
know, series, Nationwide Series back in the day won, won a bunch
21:17
of them as well. What do you make of this?
21:19
Given the way he's doing it, the strength of field he's doing it,
21:22
Do we need to put an asterisk next to it or do we just sit
21:25
here and say, yeah, he's he's just better than everyone and
21:28
and he deserves to be in that conversation with those guys.
21:30
He has a teammate that could be just as dominant as as he is on
21:34
these, the style of race tracks. And granted, he's right there
21:37
with them, but it's it's it's just clear to me that RCR has an
21:41
exceptional superspeedway drafting program.
21:45
And then you pair that with the combined experience working
21:49
together that Austin has with Derek Nealand his spotter and
21:54
just that that combination is so potent.
21:56
But I wrote this on Saturday night.
21:58
I think there's another thing that's starting to happen.
22:01
I asked Austin. I said, listen, man, I don't
22:03
expect you to share your secrets, but like, how would
22:06
Austin Hill try to go beat Austin Hill right now?
22:10
And he said that he's like, I don't want to like sound cocky
22:15
or arrogant, but he's like, I think I've gotten into people's
22:17
heads and that if they would just work together, they have
22:22
the numbers advantage. It's it's me and and and Jesse
22:25
out there, but he's like everyone wants to be the man to
22:29
go to go beat us. And then they just beat each
22:32
other trying to beat me. And I thought that was like so
22:35
fascinating because he's right. You know, the number of
22:38
opportunities at JRM and no one beats JRM at superspeedway races
22:44
quite like JRM. They've got beating themselves
22:47
down to a a masterstroke. They're like the the anti RCR,
22:51
the anti colic back in the day. No one's beating JRM quite like
22:55
JRM, but he's like they had all four cars in a in a group
23:00
together and they were ahead of Austin and Austin was like, and
23:05
all the 88 had to do was just to line up with his teammates,
23:09
Raja. And all Raja had to do is line
23:11
up with his teammates. And he tried to race his
23:13
teammates and he pulled out to go try to take take his run.
23:16
He was the 4th car back and it killed the three cars.
23:21
Yeah. And so Austin just drove right
23:22
on by on the outside and was like, thanks, appreciate y'all.
23:27
And so I just, I don't know. I don't know if that's if
23:31
they're just aware that they're doing it and I don't know.
23:34
He's he said everyone's so selfish.
23:36
Everyone wants to be the man. And he didn't say this.
23:40
This is me editorializing. But when you've got a driver in
23:43
a car that's that good, you're not going to beat him
23:47
one-on-one. You're going to have to if
23:50
you're if you're Raja there and I know Raja's got a lot to prove
23:53
and Raja is going to be a star. I love Raja JRM, but he's just
23:56
got to line up behind his teammates and just join that
23:58
train and just help one of them beat the 21 because he can beat
24:03
you one versus 3. He can't beat you one versus 4.
24:07
Yeah, and. You know one more thing though,
24:09
one more thing. I love the dominance because for
24:12
every reason that I hate the chaos and and the the the
24:15
carnage and the randomness. I love that we come to Daytona
24:19
and there's a hierarchy and it makes these races feel less
24:22
random and more pure because of it.
24:25
Yeah, definitely. And you need someone to either
24:27
root for or root against, right? Like every sport does better
24:31
when there's a dominant figure. That's just always been the
24:33
case. And at superspeedways at least,
24:36
Austin Hill is that guy. You know, piggyback on that.
24:39
You see my biggest issue, at least halfway through the races,
24:43
I'm watching Austin Hill in bad positions, positions where he
24:48
can't get past, positions where he's kind of hung out.
24:51
And then you'll watch Carson Kwoppel just push him right back
24:53
to the lead. I'm like, this was your chance.
24:55
Stop doing that. Stop helping him.
24:58
Why would you help the boogeyman you know and so?
25:01
Because because I think they know that he's the fastest car
25:04
and so he's going to punch a hole.
25:05
I mean that that's the strategies like, well, if I push
25:08
him, he's going to clear the path for me, but then you're
25:10
just going to run second to him. You need to shake up the apple
25:15
cart, so to speak, right? You, you have to do something
25:17
different. Bad news is we probably see the
25:20
same thing here in about about 6 days, right?
25:23
You know something really cool to me by the way, though, fans
25:26
are sick of the 21 winning these races, right?
25:28
And you would think that would be the sentiment around the
25:31
garage because I think some people are just frustrated with
25:33
Austin too. But it was, it was so
25:35
fascinating. I was talking to BJ McLeod after
25:39
the the O'Reilly race. I got to call it the O'Reilly
25:41
race now. Just a casual conversation.
25:44
It's so, so hard. And it's, it feels like a
25:46
mouthful, but it's the same syllables as Xfinity O'reilly's.
25:50
I don't, I don't, I don't know why I'm struggling, but I was in
25:53
the garage as the 21 team was pushing their car through the
25:57
garage area and it was, it was such a weird but cool show of
26:02
respect. The entire garage was like, hell
26:04
yeah, gosh, I'll did it again. Very cool.
26:07
I'm like, I'm looking at the JRM teams like the crew members,
26:10
like the guys who work on cars. And it was so cool to me because
26:13
that to me was just a show of respect, a sign that even after
26:17
they kicked your ass, they thought, what a great team, what
26:21
a great engineering department, what a group effort.
26:24
They're, they're the standard. And all we can do is tip our cap
26:26
and say, you know, hell yeah. This is the thing.
26:31
They, they gave me this, this, this is a replica of the hell
26:35
yeah billboard. And it's actually kind of cool.
26:38
But I, I, I see right here to the distance, I'm just like, can
26:41
we get a hell yeah. And I'm just like, hell yeah,
26:42
hell yeah, brother. Perfect.
26:45
Well, hell yeah. Austin Hill dominant.
26:49
I don't know if there's again, there's there's only one other
26:52
major take away from from that race.
26:54
I don't want to jump into it too quick.
26:55
I'm trying to think if there's another something to talk about,
26:58
but it really felt like the Austin Hill show and and a bunch
27:01
of unprepared under underperforming other drivers, I
27:06
think. But overall I thought that was a
27:08
really good race. I thought all the racing, you
27:09
know, on the lower series truck race will obviously get to was
27:12
fantastic, But I thought the expanding race was really good,
27:14
aside from just not being able to break that bubble of of
27:17
Austin Hill. But the big storyline, I think
27:19
for for most of us that that like to talk on on social media
27:23
and stuff was Natalie Decker the big.
27:26
We're we're going there. Yeah, I want to go there because
27:30
hold on are. We talking about the actual the,
27:32
the physical wreck or are we talking about the figurative
27:34
wreck? Because there there was a lot of
27:36
wrecking. There was a lot of wrecking on
27:37
social media. Yeah, well, it was a rough week
27:41
or weekend. I, I, I think we'll, we'll stay
27:44
away from the comments that she made that not very smart and
27:48
we'll go straight to a wreck starting and then 16 seconds
27:53
later we're plowing into a side of a, of a car. 7 to 10 business
27:58
days. I saw that comment and I just
28:00
cannot stop laughing at it. But but Natalie had 7 to 10
28:03
business days to to not be in that wreck.
28:06
Yeah. I mean, there's at what point,
28:10
and I'm going to get there with Cletus too, which I'm sure will
28:12
upset some people, at what point do we have higher standards for
28:15
the people we let on a racetrack?
28:17
Because that was you can't 16 seconds after a caution starts
28:23
driving inside of someone. That is just unacceptable.
28:26
And there's no consequences. She'll be at the track next time
28:28
she's scheduled. And I guess because she's got
28:31
sponsorship money, everyone's like, well, that'll help that
28:33
team stay funded. So we ignore it.
28:34
I, I feel like there there needs to be serious consequences in
28:37
this, you know, situation, but it just won't be.
28:39
How do we get there? What do you think?
28:41
Obviously everyone knows it. It was a ridiculous situation,
28:45
but what? What?
28:46
Is there anything that can be done?
28:47
I mean, we just, yeah. I don't think so.
28:49
I mean it looked bad. I want to give her some benefits
28:53
of the doubt. Right?
28:54
Like on one hand, these Xfinity cars, the the superspeedway
28:57
brake package is non existent. They they don't stop on a dime.
29:01
It's like stopping a train. I have not talked to Brian
29:06
Kozlowski yet who was spotting for her on Saturday.
29:09
And at some point this week, I just want to be like, hey, I
29:11
don't want you to like trash your driver, but just to give me
29:14
proper insight. Hey, can you let me know what
29:16
happened? Like it could be on the record,
29:19
off the record, on background, whatever.
29:20
I'm just I'm curious as a racing guy, like is it purely the
29:25
brakes are so bad? And by the way, that's not a top
29:27
tier team, so that their brake package could be even worse.
29:31
But visually it did not. But I'm trying hard.
29:35
I'm trying hard only because I've been around this game so
29:38
often. And when I was younger, I would
29:41
put my foot in my mouth so often and just be like, what a stupid
29:45
thing someone did. And then I, I get older and I
29:47
realize that there's so many factors that go into every
29:50
single thing that happens. And I'll just say it's a bad
29:53
luck. It's a bad look.
29:54
And I, I, I want to believe that it was not as bad as it, as it
29:58
appeared. Yeah, sure it was bad.
30:02
First off, Matt Weaver's the man.
30:05
We we got that on there so. Long time friend.
30:08
I I love Anita. I think we've been on this
30:10
journey together for like 1314 years.
30:13
Like seriously like you like you're an OG.
30:15
Like I'm so-called Twitter because it was Twitter back
30:17
then. You're an OG Twitter follower.
30:19
It's still Twitter, just like it's still the the Bush series.
30:22
It's. Still real to me, damn it.
30:25
All right, so couple of people have talked about her reaction
30:28
to the wreck itself. NASCAR all out wreck was worse
30:32
or the reaction was worse than the wreck itself.
30:34
And then we also why why even put that on TV?
30:37
Why why throw her under the bus like that?
30:40
I kind of agree. It's like, man, can we not do
30:43
it? Which, you know, she had this
30:45
exact same issue at Bristol when the tow truck pushed her and she
30:48
couldn't, you know, keep it straight there and that audio
30:52
got out and it looked really bad for her.
30:54
And now we're fast forwarding to this point and this is also not
30:57
a good look. Is it unfair for drivers audio
31:01
to be able to be blast on TV like that and kind of put them
31:04
in in situation or is that just part of the game and it's.
31:07
Part of the game as as someone who loves scanner, I'm always
31:10
listening to the scanner. I'll scanner out.
31:12
I might put it away already. I love scanner.
31:15
I love, I'll say this, you know, the short track communities had
31:19
to learn very quickly when I started covering short track
31:21
racing the way that I do NASCAR. No one was ever doing scanner
31:25
traffic on the short track ranks until I started doing it.
31:28
And there's there's another podcast, the Cars Tour podcast
31:31
with Brandon Pierce. And he was like everyone in the
31:34
cars tour has learned by now that when Matt's at a race, he's
31:37
scanning you and he's going to blast it to everyone.
31:41
So watch what you say. It's so entertaining.
31:44
I'll say this. I love that we as an industry
31:46
and as fans and as a community that we're allowed into the
31:50
huddle in a way that no other sport lets you do right?
31:54
Like, you can't go into the dugout, you can't go into the
31:57
huddle. You know, we are better off as a
32:02
community being smarter. And more often than not, scanner
32:07
communication helps us better understand the nuances of racing
32:12
at the highest levels. And then there's other occasions
32:15
where it's just, it's embarrassing.
32:19
Yeah, yeah. And, and obviously Ryan Blaney
32:21
gets a lot of Flack for it's not just, it's the tippy top, it's
32:24
the best of the best. Sometimes people open their
32:26
mouths and they, they wish they, they, they didn't.
32:29
I, I, I enjoy having it. It was a very kind of rough
32:32
moment, though. Obviously a lot of people did
32:34
not like the reaction to it. And quite frankly, they're
32:36
right. I mean, at some point you have
32:38
to know the situation we're in and own up to it and take
32:43
responsibility or, you know, all that stuff.
32:45
Like, so I, I, I agree with the fan sentiment.
32:47
It's obviously hard. I mean, she's, she's never going
32:50
to get the benefit of the doubt regardless.
32:52
So it's. It's, it's interesting with
32:53
Natalie, I, I, I respect Natalie's passion for racing and
32:57
we can, we can question her, her marketing strategy.
33:01
Listen, she has assets and she uses that as her marketing
33:06
platform. And by the way, I don't begrudge
33:07
her for it. Like whatever it takes to be
33:09
able to make it in racing. People have criticized me over
33:11
the years for my approach or my style, my marketing strategy,
33:15
and I don't give a shit. But I do know she loves racing,
33:19
she loves NASCAR, she loves short track racing.
33:22
And so I don't, I don't want to dismiss her out of turn.
33:26
I think there's a place for Natalie Decker.
33:28
I, I, I think sometimes I wish that she could be a car owner.
33:31
I think that she is genuinely so good at connecting with brands
33:37
and and and and making them. Yes yeah, big brands too, right.
33:42
The Walla partnership as I, I think that she could have a
33:46
really interesting career as a as a car owner.
33:49
I don't know. I so I just I, I say all this to
33:52
say I, I respect that she's here, but I just wish sometimes
33:56
she would take accountability for the mistakes that we all
33:59
know she's made. I don't know if this one truly
34:01
was yet, but there's things in hindsight that we do know were
34:04
mistakes. And she never says that one's on
34:08
me. It's always because of this,
34:10
this happened, that happened. And I would just as much as I
34:13
respect her acumen and her respect for racing, I don't
34:16
respect that she's never once said that one's my fault.
34:21
Just talking about this and maybe there's, I don't, I don't
34:24
know, maybe this is the wrong way to bring it up.
34:25
But since we're talking about a female driver and there's a lack
34:29
of them at the top levels, is there anyone out there, since
34:33
you're at the short track level, is there anyone out there that
34:35
we should be keeping an eye out that can I, I saw a comment
34:38
about, you know, girl kicking the boys asses.
34:41
So it kind of popped my mind was like, well Dang, is there
34:44
someone out there that could start challenging and not be the
34:47
Natalie Decker series, but actually go toe to toe, get good
34:50
finishes, be an actual long term competitor at at the Xfinity
34:54
truck level or even Cup level one day?
34:56
Yeah, 1 I don't want to pit women against each other, right.
34:59
Like I, I feel very, very strongly that once a woman or a
35:03
man or anyone puts on the helmet, they're the same.
35:06
And so, like, I don't, I want to be very careful to, to make
35:08
this, you know, Jade Avidisian versus Natalie Decker or
35:12
whoever. Yes, I believe that Jade
35:16
Avidisian has the upside potential and put this on the
35:20
record. This better appear on all the
35:22
aggregation sites. Jada Avidisian has a pathway to
35:26
winning a NASCAR Cup Series race.
35:28
I really believe that and she so quickly wins and everything that
35:35
they put her in and she's a Toyota development driver.
35:38
She's driving the mobile 1 Wilson Motorsports car, which is
35:41
their, you know, their P1 program and their super late
35:44
model development system, working with Bond SUS and in her
35:48
second time driving a super late model on Saturday, last
35:53
Saturday, she won a World Series of asphalt race against a really
35:58
good field of cars that it appeared early to race the ASA
36:03
National Tour race on Tuesday. They ran that Saturday race to
36:06
get some extra laps in before practice on Monday.
36:10
And she beats, you know, Spencer Davis, Casey Rodrick, there's a
36:17
lot of good teams in that field. Right there was there was an
36:20
invert situation. So I'm trying to think who she
36:21
had to go through, but she started 4th had to pass Casey, a
36:26
Dawson Sutton Truck Series driver.
36:28
That's the other name I was looking for.
36:30
Jade is good. Jade is winning an outlaw cart.
36:33
She's winning a Midget. She's winning a prolate model.
36:36
Now she's winning a a super late model.
36:38
And someone said on my on my Facebook page to like, you know,
36:42
you know, money, money buys another win.
36:45
And I'm like, I'm here to tell you that money does not buy you
36:49
a Chili Bowl Midget Nationals a main start as a rookie.
36:54
Spare me. Like she Chase Briscoe.
36:58
I had to I had to like I had this recurring theme.
37:00
I would call Chase Briscoe every December after Christmas.
37:03
I'd be like, you know, is this the year you're going to make
37:05
the Chili Bowl a main? It's like, well, we've been so
37:08
close. It's so hard.
37:09
It's tough. Chase Briscoe struggle to make
37:12
the A main. And Jay did it as a rookie or as
37:14
her second year, one of the one of the two.
37:16
She is so good, so polished, so focused, so determined.
37:19
I am so excited to see her make Orca start Super Late Models.
37:25
She will race in the national touring level and I truly
37:28
believe that the pathway is there for her to win on Sundays.
37:31
Nice. OK, yeah, I mean, the the money
37:34
thing, news flash, most of the people in those late model
37:37
races, at least the top half of them, they have big money.
37:40
They're they're spending decent amount of money.
37:41
They're she's not out spending most of them.
37:43
So that's really. Cool talent.
37:45
Talent doesn't pay for tires. Yeah, so that's really, really
37:48
cool. I, I appreciate that.
37:49
I just want to, it kind of sparked my interest and, and,
37:52
you know, I, I watched the Chili Bowl.
37:53
It's probably 2 years, 2-3 years ago now.
37:55
And, and that was the first introduction I had to her.
37:58
I was sitting there on my, my computer off, off to the side of
38:00
me and I'm like, who's this? And so, you know, I've been
38:03
honestly a couple years since I, I heard her name.
38:05
Since then I I haven't and paying attention as much to the
38:09
late model stuff. Sorry, Matt, I don't I.
38:10
Well, no, they took her off of dirt though.
38:12
That's the crazy thing is they she, she's so upset she wants to
38:15
race more dirt. But Bond SUS told me earlier
38:19
this week that they intentionally, they took their
38:21
cars away from her because they had her in these super obscure
38:25
prolate models and outside of the cars tour prolate division,
38:28
no one's watching prolate models.
38:29
And they just had her working focused on being the best
38:32
pavement driver. So as a result, she's not
38:34
running Sprint cars, she's not running midgets.
38:37
She was out of the spotlight until she was back in a super
38:39
and supers have a spotlight and I I think that how much you've
38:43
missed her the last couple of years.
38:45
She's about to reappear on a in a in a big way.
38:49
She's running super races and she's running ARCA races.
38:52
Nice. OK, there you go.
38:54
Maybe maybe I missed her because she wasn't in the right spots
38:56
and and everything, but that's that's fantastic.
38:59
All right, I I thank you Matt. And this is exactly what I'm
39:03
hoping is the kind of pull some of these things that I don't
39:06
know, maybe some fans don't know.
39:07
And obviously everyone thinks they're the smartest person, but
39:09
I'm I'm clearly not so. I'm not either.
39:13
Transition let's get to the truck race.
39:15
The the finish to that thing was fantastic.
39:18
First off, I mean the the racing with the trucks.
39:21
I don't know what it was. They weren't wadding them up the
39:24
other night. I've saw so many saves, so much
39:27
good racing. It was one of the best truck
39:29
races I've ever seen, honestly, in terms of quality of
39:32
competitors. I had a couple of issues, again
39:36
with race control, with the situation around stages, with
39:39
the commentary. But let's talk about the race
39:42
itself. Channel Smith gets a win.
39:45
Very, very competitive race. Very, very deep truck field,
39:49
base level takeaways from the race itself, who won it and
39:53
everything what what do you think of that event?
39:55
I thought that it was one of the most tremendous truck races
39:59
ever, even even by my very low, you know, bitter superspeedway
40:04
standards. That field, that entry list was
40:08
the most star-studded truck race probably ever.
40:12
I mean I need to go back and look and see in terms of.
40:15
You know wins and championships when you have Tony Stewart in
40:17
the field, it elevates everyone, right.
40:20
But even in terms of like from a short track standpoint, you
40:23
know, Dawson Sutton again, butter bean and Mini Tyrell,
40:27
what they add to the mix from a star power standpoint, having
40:31
Cletus and we'll talk about Cletus, but he adds something to
40:34
the mix. But in the racing quality was
40:36
just so good. The last lap was so compelling
40:39
and so just interesting. And I just remember that I think
40:44
it was 24. What was it 2023, the year that
40:51
the Truck Series ran more laps under caution than under green?
40:54
And then the very next year they come to Daytona and it was a
40:58
crash fest then. And and and Seth Kramelike, who
41:01
is the Truck Series managing director, had to sit everyone
41:04
down after Daytona and says we have to stop.
41:07
This has to stop. We're embarrassing NASCAR, we're
41:10
embarrassing ourselves. And so to see this series go
41:15
from that three years ago to what it did on Friday, it's just
41:19
a testament to how good this current crop of young and old
41:23
drivers is. And it's a testament to to
41:26
NASCAR just saying the right things to kind of get everyone
41:29
focused and going in the right direction.
41:31
Yeah, for sure. And just kind of highlight the
41:33
depth of the field and, and obviously these guys had issues
41:36
throughout the race. But Tony Stewart was 36, Parson
41:38
host for host was 35th, Corey Lajoie 34th, Lane Riggs 31st,
41:43
right? They all had issues.
41:44
But those are some big names. And that's not even talking
41:47
about all the all the guys up top.
41:49
And McDowell was in the mix. Yeah, I'm getting a lot of
41:53
unacceptable comments. Maybe This is why I should keep
41:55
comments off, but so I'm kind of deleting those off.
41:59
But yeah, I mean, the the depth of the truck field is
42:01
unbelievable. And, and one thing I was going
42:03
to get to you later, but let's get into it now.
42:05
Is there an opportunity here with the additional Ram?
42:08
Obviously Ram is very truck heavy.
42:10
It's a huge brand. Dodge may be going to NASCAR,
42:13
it's one company, but they've split the branding over the last
42:16
few years. So RAM in isolation is, is doing
42:20
a really good job for the series.
42:22
I feel like there's more death and talent.
42:23
There's better racing to a degree at times.
42:27
Is there an opportunity for this to become the second tier NASCAR
42:31
series given the amount of attention Rams going to give to
42:35
it? Ford's pulling out of the
42:36
Xfinity Series to a great degree.
42:38
Right now it seems like there's a lot of momentum with the Truck
42:41
Series. Is it on the trajectory to
42:44
almost potentially overtake the O'Reilly Series?
42:46
Or am I being a little too crazy with that thought?
42:49
I mean, it's, it's a fair question and I, I appreciate the
42:52
question, but you know, O'Reilly races are all on CW and truck
42:57
races are on FS1 and many of them are on Friday nights.
43:01
And from ATV standpoint, Friday night is hell.
43:04
It's really hard to get anything to pop a number on Friday night.
43:08
But I think that if you're a racing purist and you and you
43:11
just love race cars, this, this series has so many fascinating
43:18
subplots and narratives and drivers young and old.
43:21
And I still think, I still think O'reilly's is that second tier
43:25
division. But I, I, I, I've never like, I
43:28
think one thing that NASCAR has done wrong and they've started
43:31
to overcome it is that they tried to do like the Major
43:34
League Baseball system, MLB, AAA, AA.
43:37
And I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't like that.
43:41
I, I think that you need to give each tour its own identity.
43:46
And, you know, historically, you know, Cup is the premier level,
43:52
what was then the Bush series nationwide.
43:54
You know, there's tons of cup participation, but there's also
43:56
a mix of young and veteran. And I love what The CW and
44:00
O'reilly's has done this year. They're the proving ground.
44:03
It's not names are made here. These guys are already names.
44:06
This is where names prove themselves.
44:08
They're the proving ground. And, you know, historically, the
44:11
trucks has always been, you know, just tough trucks.
44:13
And I know that's a cliche and it's cutesy alliteration, but I
44:17
just think they're the gritty, they're they're the late model
44:20
division of NASCAR, you know, this super lower budget, you
44:25
know, steel bodies, it feels old and throwback.
44:29
And yeah, for now, for now. And I I think that's the
44:33
identity and, you know, you can rank them however you want in
44:37
terms of what you enjoy. I think the O'reilly's package
44:39
is my favorite racing product, but I think the Truck Series is
44:43
the most familial. It feels the most like home
44:47
because as a guy that grew up in late model racing, tons of late
44:51
model drivers, late model teams, crew chiefs, those guys feel
44:54
like my home, my family, and so I just think they all have their
44:58
own identity. Yeah, and I didn't phrase my
45:01
question as good as I wanted to because I kind of got to it
45:03
quicker. The reason in my head when I was
45:05
building this out yesterday was a lot of the top O'Reilly Series
45:11
teams are filled with paid drivers and I don't want to
45:13
downplay their their talent. Brandon Jones, been there
45:17
forever. Obviously his dad and and his
45:19
connections and all that bring a lot to the table.
45:21
William Swallich right now on down the list and all the top
45:24
teams. Sammy Smith They're they're not
45:26
there because of anything other than checkbook they bring.
45:29
That's true. That's true.
45:30
That's true in trucks too. Yes, it is.
45:33
That's. Racing man seeing right now
45:35
we're seeing Mini Tyrells and we're seeing in some of this is
45:39
Ram Rams funding that team so you're able to be more flexible.
45:42
Obviously Toyota's going to have their team and they're one or
45:44
two guys that that are going to get a shot because of that,
45:47
right? Obviously the Gray family has a
45:48
part of that, so Hanner's always going to be there or whatnot.
45:51
But you're, you're seeing more and more improvement in terms of
45:55
quality drivers getting opportunities.
45:57
And for what I do for DFS, for instance, for, for DraftKings is
46:01
I look at each driver and, and how they're going to shape up
46:04
for a slate. And typically for these Daytona
46:06
races, we pay a lot of attention to the back half of the field.
46:08
And typically we have 8 or 9 Jason Whites or Spencer Boyd's
46:14
where they're just going to ride out in the back.
46:16
There was four of them in this race.
46:17
There was literally only four that was cut in half in one
46:20
year. And I feel like that type of
46:22
momentum where our depth of field is bigger, the amount of
46:25
teams with quality money coming in, they're not as reliant on
46:28
being bringing in those pay drivers.
46:30
I just feel like there's a lot of momentum there.
46:32
And obviously you're right, The CW on Saturday afternoon,
46:35
network television, that's always going to supersede
46:37
anything that they do on on Friday evenings.
46:39
But at some point with as big as trucks are in America in
46:42
general, Ford F-150, all these trucks are the best selling
46:45
vehicles in America. Cars are gone.
46:48
Like they're car companies don't sell cars anymore.
46:50
They sell trucks in America. And I'm just sitting there like,
46:53
man, it Ford's backing out because they sell more trucks
46:56
than cars. They don't make a car anymore.
46:57
So I'm just kind of look at that from the outside.
47:00
I'm like, man, is there an opportunity five years from now
47:02
where these guys flip the O'Reilly Series kind of takes a
47:05
backseat and it probably never will be.
47:07
NASCAR wants that TV deal, right?
47:09
But it feels like there's a lot of momentum from drugs, and
47:12
that's why I asked it it. Was this is what I want to add.
47:15
When Ram says they do things different, they are.
47:19
I mean, I will tell you I was briefly around at the end of the
47:25
Red Bull Racing NASCAR team and they were ahead of their time in
47:30
a way that NASCAR was not quite ready for.
47:32
I'm sure that is one of NASCAR's biggest regrets is they did not
47:35
understand how to cultivate the the F1 style party activation
47:42
atmosphere. You walked in the truck garage,
47:45
which is way over on the other end of this facility.
47:48
It's, it's tucked away and turn basically turn 3 and Ram had
47:55
this big activation tent, you know, the disco strobe lights
47:59
and disco ball and it felt like a part Dana White was there.
48:03
Dana White was not in the Cup series garage.
48:05
Dana White was in the trick series garage because he's
48:07
decided that's home for him too. And I, I just, I think that Ram
48:12
has infused a little bit of competition, some drivers on
48:18
merit and a, a, a party and activation program that I think
48:24
will make it more appealing for fans to buy a ticket on Friday
48:29
or Saturday and stick around for the whole weekend instead of
48:31
just showing up on Sunday. And those are all, all
48:34
positives. And I, I hope Stolantis does
48:36
bring Dodge back to cop because if that is the model and that is
48:40
the program and you scale that up to Sunday's, gosh, that's a
48:43
lot of fun. I stopped by three times on on
48:46
Thursday and Friday and they're they're just having fun.
48:50
Yeah, and, and this was, you know, part of Brad Kozlowski's
48:54
entire deal 2-3 years ago. He, he did a really good job
48:57
explaining the amount of extra money a, a fourth OEM brings
49:01
into the sport, what they do for activation, what they do for the
49:04
teams. Because you're not spreading
49:07
Toyota over or Chevy over 20 teams, all of a sudden you can
49:11
get a, a big lump of money to buy trucks, you know, or, or
49:15
however that plays out. So it's good for everyone
49:17
involved once you get them in. So I I think obviously the cup
49:20
side of it's coming. Do you have any info?
49:22
I mean, obviously rumors are are starting to circulate.
49:26
Aside from call, I get the couple of anyone else sprinkling
49:30
their way into that conversation?
49:31
Or is it just a one one team right now?
49:33
Right now it's the one team. We did have the, the press
49:36
conference with all four OEMs and had a chance to talk to
49:39
everyone a little bit afterwards and they're super tight lipped
49:42
about the to be fair to this was Kevin Kid who is the, the
49:46
representative for, for Ram. Not that you know, Kevin, long
49:50
time NASCAR crew chief and, and competition director.
49:53
His job is purely competition. And so Kevin's not really fully
49:58
authorized to talk about Dodge. He's he's the competition
50:01
director for Ram. I would have loved to have had
50:05
Tim Kaniskas stop by did not get a chance to talk to Tim.
50:09
I want to and Tim's a little guarded too.
50:12
And so it's hard to get time with Tim.
50:15
This gets back to them. That sucks.
50:17
I want to talk, I want to understand better what y'all's
50:19
plans are. But Kevin did say right now
50:22
we're fully focused on trucks and we continue to evaluate the
50:26
market and the landscape, all the things that look good on APR
50:30
type deal. But they've said from day one
50:33
that they want to be in cup. And to me colleague did not
50:37
crater their CUP series program. It's going to be a really rough
50:41
year for call likely. I think they're both outside the
50:44
top 30. It's going to be a struggle
50:46
because they have no OEM support.
50:49
They would not do that to their prize cup series program.
50:52
They didn't think there was something on the other end of
50:54
that to make this awfully appealing.
50:56
And listen, this is this is this is the point I want to make.
51:00
There are three organizations that truly would, can, and will
51:04
continue to win championships and that is Penske as Hendrick
51:09
and that is gifts because they are the tier one for each
51:12
manufacturer. Colleagues bet is that they end
51:16
up on the other end of this, a tier one partner for the 4th
51:20
manufacturer. So they will be on that same
51:24
championship level scale. I mean, it's a good gamble
51:28
honestly. They they were 25th anyway.
51:30
What what are you you know, it is definitely worth the gamble.
51:33
Obviously the lame darkness of two years almost to an extent it
51:38
is harsh and then the time it might take to ramp that up, but
51:42
I think it was the right move. Obviously you can tell from the
51:45
college racing themselves, and I know a lot of people are maybe
51:47
downplaying it, the amount of publicity they're getting from
51:51
just the Truck Series involvement of Ram and how the
51:56
it's a secondary TV show, but it's ATV show centered around
51:59
their organization, right? You can see how those.
52:01
Main character. They're the main characters.
52:04
They're the main character and and so it it's definitely a good
52:07
opportunity for them. We'll see how it plays out.
52:09
Obviously, you never know. We saw when Toyota showed up at
52:12
the Cup. Series is really rough for MWR
52:14
is really rough for those teams the first couple years.
52:17
Well, well, it helps if you don't put jet fuel in your car.
52:21
And and a few other things, but I mean, you know, the second
52:25
that money kind of showed up at Joe Gibbs Racing door though,
52:28
they, they took over the sport, you know, I mean Toyota money,
52:31
Joe Gibbs Racing, once it became this is our team, this is what
52:34
we're going for, they exploded. Joe Gibbs Racing became so
52:37
dominant in O8 and O9 at all levels that they're racing.
52:40
And so there is an opportunity that call gets that type of
52:43
funding, gets the right people in place.
52:46
They literally can, can challenge potentially.
52:49
And, and that's, that's the goal.
52:50
So I, I love they're swinging for the fences and I, I love
52:53
that. Cletus McFarland, are we
52:56
talking? Yeah, I think we're talking
52:58
Cletus. All right, so before I wanted to
53:00
get at least far into this episode before we ran anyone
53:03
off, you know, again, I I called him a gimmick the other day on
53:09
Twitter because there is nothing to state that he deserves to be
53:15
at that level. Nothing.
53:16
It just doesn't exist. And he may be the most likeable
53:19
guy on the planet, but when you put yourself in that position
53:22
and then you wreck lap 7, you have to be ready to to answer at
53:29
least to some people. Now, I got immediate people
53:32
commented. It was like he's got more talent
53:35
than half that field. And I'm like, how do you know?
53:37
What are you basing this off of? But I don't know.
53:43
I don't want to lump him in with Natalie Decker in the same.
53:46
But what is again the qualifications met for him to be
53:52
it in a Truck Series race at Daytona?
53:55
And are we OK with it? Should I ignore the fact that he
53:58
spun out on lap 7? Is he better than I believe he
54:01
is? As someone who's down on the
54:03
situation and doesn't really get into the gimmick, tell me why
54:07
this is OK. I mean, to me, he's like Marty
54:10
Robbins. Marty Robbins who raced short
54:14
track cars at Fairgrounds Speedway, country music star,
54:18
for those who don't know Marty, Marty Robbins and that pink and
54:20
yellow car, you know, come down to Daytona.
54:23
And, you know, historically speaking, Daytona has always
54:27
been the place that people who are not like professional race
54:32
car drivers who have money or partnerships come in to do
54:38
things. Now, typically they do it in
54:40
ARCA. Historically since like 1979,
54:43
that's been that's been what the ARCA program is for.
54:47
I would prefer Cletus to have done a little bit more in ARCA
54:53
before doing this. But I think NASCAR has got a
54:56
failure here too, in that, you know, Cletus running these races
55:02
is not problematic in and of itself, but he's got no track
55:05
time like they there's there's no practice.
55:08
There's no ways that someone like him can come in and get
55:11
better. I will tell you, I've gone
55:13
through a 180 on on Cletus McFarland because when he first
55:18
showed up last year, I rolled my eyes at every single thing.
55:23
Every single. It was a gimmick to me.
55:25
And I'm just like, OK, get your 15 minutes in the in the, in the
55:29
Fame, 15 minutes in the spotlight and let's move on to
55:32
real racing. But he gets closer to Greg
55:35
Bethel and of course, we lose Greg Pitfall.
55:38
And that man came back here and there was a slightly different
55:42
tone. He's still here to have a good
55:44
time and he's here to, you know, bald eagle.
55:46
He's still doing his thing in this gimmick and having fun.
55:50
That man's determined. I, I came away from Thursday,
55:54
Friday and Saturday seeing a man who really wants to to do this.
56:01
And he says all the right things when you when you when you just
56:05
peel apart the onion layer of the character and the facade and
56:09
the and the character character. This is a man who says, listen,
56:15
I went to Bristol. That was the hardest thing I've
56:17
ever done in my life. I'm not going to win races at
56:20
Bristol, but I can come here with the right car and enough
56:23
experience. He's like, I want to win.
56:26
I will not stop till I win a race at at Daytona.
56:30
And he even said like his original goal was, I'm going to
56:32
race the Daytona 500. And Greg was like, no, you're
56:35
not. And in time, he convinced Greg
56:38
that there was a pathway where he could do it.
56:41
He wants to do it the right way. And I don't think he'll make
56:44
that mistake again at Talladega. Talladega is wider so he's not
56:47
going to experience Turn 4 at Talladega.
56:51
The he wasn't the only one that did that.
56:54
Jake Garcia did the same thing and it took out Tony Stewart and
56:57
Jake. Garcia how Bush did it today, he
56:59
just got saved my breakfast last year.
57:01
And it happened. To you, Omar sent that tweet.
57:03
His case was sparkling as good. As and so like, all I know is is
57:07
that I've tried to grow my Facebook page more and more.
57:10
Like obviously my, my ex feed is really strong.
57:12
My Twitter feed's really strong. My Facebook page has been a
57:15
weakness of mine and I, I, I've started to focus on it starting
57:19
last summer and going into Speed Week, I was at 6900 Nice.
57:24
And I leave here with 8484 hundred.
57:28
And it's because every single piece of content I created
57:31
around Cletus, MacFarlane just blew up.
57:34
People love Cletus and I think there's a way, if he continues
57:38
to take this seriously and he cares and he does not want to be
57:41
an embarrassment. He does not want to make that
57:43
same mistake twice. And you saw a version of him in
57:46
the ARCA race that could contend for the wind driving for Mark
57:49
Rhett and Terry Jones. That man could, with the right
57:53
equipment and the right time, win races at Daytona.
57:58
Nowhere else. I don't want him going back to
57:59
Bristol. I was so terrified he was going
58:01
to take out a championship leader at Bristol, which he
58:03
didn't. He actually did pretty good at
58:05
Bristol, so credit him. He said it was hard, but he
58:07
treated it with respect and he wasn't in the way.
58:10
So kudos to him. I've turned around on Cletus.
58:14
I I'm OK with Cletus doing more trucks coming back here next
58:17
year in trucks too. Yeah, OK.
58:20
So I want to set up a a bit harsher than you know, so I
58:24
ended up watching the ARCA race. I thought he did pretty good.
58:28
I, you know, I don't want to call him.
58:31
I, I don't want to pigeonhole him to anything, but I, I sat
58:35
there and I was like, man, he is entertaining.
58:37
And my only issue with broadcast is they went to him like every
58:41
two minutes. Like there's other people in the
58:43
race, but could he be the Bobby Gerhart of?
58:46
Who who got more TV time during the ARCA race?
58:49
Cletus MacFarlane or the Kim Cam featuring Corey Heim for Taylor
58:54
Taylor Reimer. It was a 5050, it was a 5050.
58:59
And then they they go, they're interviewing Heim and and she
59:01
she has an issue there, battery issue at the end.
59:04
But I I thought to myself, I was like, OK, could he be an Arca
59:09
guy? Where it's like, this is the
59:11
reason I watch Arca, right? Can he be that guy?
59:15
And I didn't want to gatekeep him out of the Truck Series
59:17
necessarily at that point, but that's kind of what I was doing.
59:19
I was like, man, if he showed up here, he was like the main event
59:22
for the ARCA series. Everyone showed up for him and
59:25
rooted for him. And that's a level competition
59:27
he can't compete at. I kind of like the idea.
59:30
And then I juxtapose that with the Truck Series.
59:32
I'm like, you know, I'm I'm at what level should I be
59:36
gatekeeping him out of the Truck Series?
59:37
Or do you think, given time, with the right amount of
59:40
experience, that no. And listen, I grew up watching
59:43
Jerry Glanville in the Truck Series.
59:44
And for those that don't know, he used to coach the Atlanta
59:46
Falcons. He wasn't a racer at all.
59:49
He literally was like, I want to go race today.
59:51
So you know people. Said Bobby Gerhart too in ARCA.
59:54
Really. I know they ran one full season,
59:56
so I think it was second points and I'm I'm not saying to Bobby
59:59
Gerhart, is he he I'm not saying that he is Cletus, but like he
1:00:05
was a 1 trick pony. Absolutely.
1:00:09
If there's going to be a 1 trick party, you better do it here.
1:00:12
If you're, if you're going to do it, lean into it.
1:00:13
But so I, I wanted to get your, you know, your thoughts on it
1:00:17
because obviously that was not a good look.
1:00:20
I, I do think it's fun to try to get the notoriety like I tweeted
1:00:23
out being a smart ass just to get people to comment right?
1:00:26
I think we all kind. Of I'm glad it didn't take out
1:00:28
anyone else. Yes, yeah, that could.
1:00:31
It would have changed my narrative.
1:00:32
If you would have wiped out like, you know, Kaden Honeycutt
1:00:37
and Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes, it might have been a completely
1:00:41
different story. Does, I don't know if is he
1:00:46
planning on Talladega, is he planning what's he got?
1:00:48
OK. So planning on I guess.
1:00:50
Well, Talladega, Talladega Arca for sure.
1:00:53
And he's like, I want to do Talladega trucks funding
1:00:56
dependent, but his he's like, I want to do Talladega, but I tore
1:01:00
up their truck. That would have been that would
1:01:03
have been the trick you would have done.
1:01:04
I, I, I feel pretty confident that if Clete can find the money
1:01:07
and he, he can probably find the money.
1:01:10
I'm sure you know Al, and that company will be more than glad
1:01:13
to take it. Cool.
1:01:15
All right, well, Cletus, I will work on coming around.
1:01:18
I promise. It's not not my not my cup of
1:01:22
tea necessarily, but. You know the way, you know the
1:01:24
way that I you can. You can see that I've come
1:01:26
around on Cletus. I kind of dismissively called
1:01:30
him last year. I refuse to type Cletus
1:01:33
MacFarlane. I said Garrett Mitchell, 'cause
1:01:35
I'm I would do the same. Thing I would do the exact I'm.
1:01:37
So super, I'm not calling this guy about his fake name.
1:01:40
It's a made-up name. It's like, hey, it's like that,
1:01:42
that that spider man thing. Oh, we're using our made-up
1:01:44
names. I'm Spider Man, not, not Peter.
1:01:48
I started calling him Cletus. I'm all on board calling him
1:01:51
Cletus. He showed me that he cares about
1:01:54
my world and taking it seriously and feeling so guilty and
1:01:58
ashamed that he nearly took out, you know, serious racers that
1:02:02
earned respect from me that I will call him Cletus McFarland
1:02:05
because he showed me the things that I wanted to see from him.
1:02:08
All right, cool all right so that's truck race.
1:02:10
I don't have I mean, I don't want to beat up on the
1:02:12
broadcast. I I I think there's changes
1:02:14
coming throughout the year anyways, but that was the worst
1:02:17
call to one of the best finishes I've ever heard.
1:02:20
What we don't know what we're doing, it feels like, and these
1:02:23
are experienced people. So hopefully we'll see if that
1:02:26
gets better. I, I don't really want to get
1:02:27
into that now. I think we've.
1:02:28
Eric Brennan, 2026. We've got our here.
1:02:33
Anything to wrap up, Put a bow on Daytona if you got something
1:02:36
to talk about with, you know, the short track stuff there
1:02:39
while you're in town as well, Talk about that.
1:02:41
I I don't. Really listen, I'm, I'm driving
1:02:44
back to North Carolina as soon as we wrap this thing up.
1:02:47
Actually, let's let's wrap it up right now.
1:02:48
I just want to say to everyone, how many are watching right now?
1:02:51
Do you know I got? About 60 on my end showing live
1:02:54
6070 bouncing around. That's cool.
1:02:56
It's it's late if you're the 60 watching.
1:02:59
I love every single one of you like so much.
1:03:02
We're going to Atlanta. So, you know, Josh Williams
1:03:04
Hanhart, thank you guys for caring what we have to say.
1:03:08
We're going to continue to make this thing better.
1:03:10
We're we're amateurs. We're kind of just making this
1:03:12
up as we go along. So excited to tell the story of
1:03:17
this season on this show. Every year we'll make it better.
1:03:22
Thank you for your time. Thank you for trusting me with
1:03:24
the job. And Ryan, thank you for doing
1:03:26
this with me. Yeah, absolutely.
1:03:28
I, I'm, you know, what started out as, as a random Twitter
1:03:31
message is, is turning to something that I'm, I'm pretty
1:03:33
excited about. Hopefully we can improve and,
1:03:37
and obviously on my end, I will, I'll work on, on navigating the,
1:03:41
the comment section, all that. It's all new for me.
1:03:43
So hopefully we can improve, do a better job, have some fun.
1:03:47
If you guys got topics or things you want to talk about after you
1:03:50
watch the race, send, you know, Matt a message or on, on on
1:03:54
Twitter X whatever you can follow me, follow him.
1:03:57
Just send us and let us know if there's anything you'd like to
1:04:00
hear us talk about on a regular basis, you know, let us know.
1:04:02
We're we're kind of open book right now.
1:04:03
So very, very excited for the future.
1:04:05
Again, thanks to to Kenny and and Charlie for for letting us
1:04:08
do this and have some fun. And that's it, man, Thank you,
1:04:12
Matt. Safe trip back-to-back to North
1:04:14
Carolina and then back to Atlanta here in a few days.
1:04:17
And that'll do it, man. First show in the books.
1:04:20
See you guys next time. Thank you.