Latest / Throttle to the Floor Podcast / Ep. 81 - NASCAR (New Hampshire), IndyCar (Washington D.C.) + NHRA (Brainerd, MN) Recap

Transcript

Ep. 81 - NASCAR (New Hampshire), IndyCar (Washington D.C.) + NHRA (Brainerd, MN) Recap · Throttle to the Floor Podcast

• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of the Thor of our podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Will Ernest, here tonight with a big recap episode.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's jump right into it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, lots of other news to kick us off.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: We got the uh 2027 NASCAR schedules for the top three series.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: They've been released today.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Cup will continue to have two off weeks with Easter on March 28th, and then a week off in the summer on August 8th after Naval Base Coronado, which interestingly, Coronado will be the in-season challenge finale, and also could potentially go away in 2028 as NASCAR plans to possibly rotate to a different naval base in the future.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or rally's it kind of stays about the same as the cup schedule as it normally does, and the trucks most notably have their last two regular season races at Bowman Grey and Canadian Tire, which is sure to cause absolute mayhem.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But also notable news that came out today.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: After next year, it's rumored from Jordan Bianchi and The Athletic that FedEx will become the new title sponsor of the truck series, which definitely raised some eyebrows.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: FedEx initially left NASCAR in 2024 after being the longtime sponsor at Joe Gives Racing, most notably on Denny Hammond's 11 car, but now they're back.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: FedEx previously also was the title sponsor of Cart from 1998 to 2002 during the car IRL split.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we'll see how that goes.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh big silly season developments.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Austin Hill will drive the 33 car full-time next year in Cup as expected.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Chandler Smith and Carson Brown will take over the 21 and the two cars at RCR in O'Reilly's next year.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesse Love will replace Josh Barry at the Wood Brothers.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: But Sammy Smith is leaving Junior Motorsports after this year, so could we see Barry reunite with Junior Motorsports?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll see.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Also, some interesting news out of the Tyler Reddick camp as this year's Daytona 500 champion prepares to return to Daytona this weekend.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Reddick revealed a sleep apnea diagnosis along with a new 2311 partnership with the equipment that he's been using, Res Med, which will sponsor Reddick at Bristol, Talladega, and the finale at Homestead.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Which, speaking of Bristol, two things.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one, rest in peace to Dolly Parton.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when Redick drove his RCR number two car, sponsored by Dollywood, at Bristol in the spring of 2019 to a second place finish after he led 61 laps.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And two, at Bristol next month on lap 18, fans will be invited to wave uh special Kyle Bush yellow towels that the track is handing out to be a part of the tribute, which also uh of course includes the Ty Gibbs MM uh mosaic car that will race under the lights as well.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So great to see there.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: But in other news, uh could TWG Motorsports be sold?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: TWG Global is currently under federal investigation for potentially not disclosing affiliated assets, and TWG Motorsports is under that brand.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is it with uh motorsports and federal cases of some kind?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it feels like just yesterday we were talking about the NASCAR lawsuit, which got settled uh last winter, and here we are again with uh some other form of motorsports, or in this case, uh a brand that houses a lot of motorsport.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's definitely very ugly.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But this could affect numerous teams, including Cadillac's F1 program, which has them as primary sponsor, and Dreddy's three cars and indie car with Will Power having them as primary sponsor.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: NASCAR with Spire Motorsports, High Limit with uh Spire's entry with Giovanni Selzi and more.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it'll be interesting to see what happens as TWG Global said none of their motorsports empire is up for sale, but you know, if we get uh federal prosecution involved or anything, uh things could get iffy, but this whole situation could have championship implications with you know if things don't play out good as Carson Hospar and Daniel Suarez for Spire and NASCAR have made the chase, which starts after this weekend at Daytona.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Kyle Kirkwood is second in indie card points, trying to run down Chip Ganassi's Alex Plow for the title, and Selzi is second in high limit points, only behind Aaron Reitzel.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll have to keep tabs on uh what happens with all that.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: But on to NHRA news, uh tensions were definitely very high in Brainerd, Minnesota, and I mean after all, it is the second to last race uh in the regular season and the last competitive tune-up before the biggest race of the year at Indy.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So naturally the veterans were able to come out on top.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But notably against some young guns, though, who all came up just short.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: In pro stock, it was Greg Anderson, the Duluth, Minnesota native, taking his uh second straight Brainer victory and fifth overall win here over first-time finalist Chris Vang with a 6-58-4 at 208.17 miles per hour for his fourth play of the year and a hundred and sixteenth career win in pro stock.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, Anderson now holds an 85-point lead over teammate Dallas Glenn, thanks to Glenn losing in the first round despite qualifying number one.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see what happens to Indy.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But it looks like Anderson's got an inside path for the regular season title.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: In Funny Car, the all-competitive Funny Car class.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was Matt Hagen defeating Jordan Vandegriff for his second Brainerd win, third win of the year, and 58th career win, while Vandegriff was only looking for his third career win after wins at South Georgia in May and Sonoma in July.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hagen's win with a 394-6 at 320.13 miles per hour.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Miraculously took him from fifth in funny card points at the start of the day to leading the funny card points by the end of it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, by just seven points over Jordan Vandegriff heading to Indianapolis.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in top field, it was Doug Coletta collecting his third win in a row, second straight Brainerd win, fourth win this year, and 63rd career win with a 374-3 at 333.74 miles per hour to defeat rookie Maddie Gordon, who was only looking for her second career win in her second career final round after winning in Norwalk back in June.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: But NHRA returns with one more event in the regular season, and it of course is the biggest event of the whole season: the Crown Jewel 72nd Cornwall Quality Tools, NHRA U.S.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nationals from Indianapolis at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Labor Day weekend from September 2nd to the 7th with eliminations on Fox on Labor Day Monday itself.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: The only time that eliminations are on Monday.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I can't wait to watch it, even though I can't go.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: That sucks.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was there last year.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can't go this year, but I'm still excited.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: But speaking of uh historic events on the uh IndyCar side, IndyCar ran on the streets of Washington, D.C.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: for the first and possibly only time ever to celebrate America's 250th anniversary.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Although uh President Trump did talk about trying to bring the event back, but we'll see what happens there.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if you just ignore the whole political situation of our country and the political situation of the things that had to happen to put this race together, I mean the race itself really wasn't all that bad, but this race was a race to forget for points litter Alex Pillow and for third and points David Malucas.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Malucas wrecked out of this race big time, also collecting Stingray Rob in the process, and Pelot, despite being the pull sitter, did not lead any laps in this race, had a pit road penalty for interference, lost time on another pit stop because the left front didn't get all the way tight, and late in the race, he ended up hopping the curbs and smashing the wall, destroying his front wing, which ultimately ends up uh finishing 20th.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But we also saw uh Maluka's Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin try and dive bomb for the lead, and he ended up also collaborating the wall and wrecking his race car as well.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it was uh definitely the Kyle Kirkwood shows the Jupiter Florida driver, widely considered to be the street course master in the indie car.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh American Citizen wins the American race, the inaugural Freedom 250 Grand Prix by leading 128 of the 147 laps, another dominant Kirkwood street course victory.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Kristen Lingard second, willpower in third for the third week in a row.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Man, if only Will Power had this much speed early in the year.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Marcus Erickson a week after winning, and Markham finishes fourth, which completes an Andretti Auto Sport uh first, third, and fourth, and Kevin Simpson ends up fifth.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Kirkwood cuts his points gap to Pelow from 133 points down to 91 after Pelow's uh 20th.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's only three races left heading into the Milwaukee Mile double header this weekend, so um Pelow is definitely still favored to take uh the IndyCard title, which would be his fourth indie card championship in a row, and fifth overall all in the last six years.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll see what Kirkwood can do.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And also Andretti swept the three inaugural races this year with Kirkwood winning at Arlington and DC along with Erickson winning at Markham.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: But our picks and updated standings, I have clinched the IndyCar Championship with three races early.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I currently technically, if you will, lead Evan by 264 points, but I have locked up the championship.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Evan's 264 back, Stacy's 272 back, Haley's 293 back, so it's still definitely close for second in the points.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bernardo 367 back, Noah 387 back, Ethan 407 back, Zane 475 back.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be interesting to see if Ethan, even uh as a part-timer, can run down Noah and Bernardo potentially, as Ethan got the win with Kirkwood this weekend.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So he's definitely made up a lot of points in a very short amount of time, as he's only been uh part-timer for eight races when the rest of us have run 15.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, Ethan picked Kirkwood, who won the race, led 128 laps, dominant performance there.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I picked Kristen Lingard, who ended up second.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is what clinched me the championship.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh Evan would have had to go out and dominate the race just like uh Kirkwood did to have any chance of staying alive in the championship, anyways.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it was pretty much a uh foregone conclusion.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna win the indie card title anyways.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Evan certainly did not go out and win the championship, or win the championship, go out and dominate the race to stay in contention for the championship, picked Louis Foster, ended up 18th.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I will say though, Louis Foster did have a really good run at Markham uh the week before, before he ended up clobbering the wall.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like it was a total shot in the dark, you know.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Foster, I I kind of expected more out of him, but he was just pretty pedestrian all race long.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Haley with Alex Plow started on the pole but didn't lead at all.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: As we mentioned, ended up 20th after a miserable afternoon.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy with Justin Newgarden ended up eighth.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Noah with Christian Rasussen ends up 14th after a spin.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Zayn with Felix Rosenquist ends up 19th.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just meh.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But in the truck series now, this race, naturally, we knew it was gonna be chaotic because it took two overtimes to set the 10-driver chase field, but Tyler Anchor's 16th place finish was enough to edge out Stuart Friesen by seven points, and Jake Garcia by 11 points for the 10th and final chase spot.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But as for the race, it was another dominant lane rigged shortable victory as he picked up his sixth win of the year and 11th career truck series victory after leading a race-high 106 of the 189 lapses.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, it went into double overtime.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but Riggs locked up the one seed in the chase in the process, heading into Bristol next month, where Riggs is the defending winner.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Chandler Smith last year's winner at New Hampshire and uh at the spring Bristol race last year, uh finished second, giving Front Row Motorsports a 1-2 finish.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Honeycutt finished third despite losing a tire in stage one, but that third place finish gives Honeycut the two-seed entering the chase, 25 points behind Riggs.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Freesen ended up fourth, uh, but he comes up short of making the chase to Ankram.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: As we mentioned, Connor Zilich sweeps the stages, uh, ends up finishing fifth.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Good run for him in the truck race.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And shout out to Tristan McKee.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: One week after finishing eighth in his truck debut at Richmond, he falls up with a sixth place finish at New Hampshire, which gets the 77 truck into the owner's chase.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Different from the driver's chase.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a driver's championship and an owner's championship.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It got the 77 truck into the owner's championship, which actually pays a good majority of uh the money and the bills and stuff.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So good to see there.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But our picks and updated standings.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Evans still leads the points by 53 over Stacy, 59 over Haley, 60 over me, 194 over Bernardo, 229 over Noah, 303 over Zayn, 360 over Ethan.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gotten tight uh for second in the standings, but I mean, even the top four in standings, you know, it's still less than a race uh gap as we get into the chase now.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, it's a season-long points for our points, so we don't have any chase reset, but seven races to go in the truck season.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be interesting uh to see how it all shakes out.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I picked Ty Majesky again for the second week in a row, ended up 11th.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had a good drive uh on the last run towards the end of the race, climbed into the top 10, but then the double overtime shuffled me back to 11th, so that kind of stuck there.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Evan with Justin Haley went from 25th uh at the start of the race all the way to 9th.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Haley with Chandler Chandler Smith ended up second, led 10 laps.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Stacey with Ben Rhodes, just a pedestrian 18th, as Ben Rhodes stumbles into the chase.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um with Patrick Emmerling, DFs in 35th.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan uh with Eatman ends up 10th.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh very surprising performance there, especially in a knee struck, and Zayn with Lane Riggs ends up dominating the race and goes out and wins.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's Zayn's second truck win in a row.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: He picked Honeycutt at Richmond the previous week, so pretty impressive there.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that definitely gained him a lot of points.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: But moving on to the cup race now, this race, man, it once again we see the return of the wet weather tires for the race at New Hampshire just like 2024.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Carson Ospar spun on the pacelap.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't care whether he was trying to get attention on television or not.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like, what are you doing at that point?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oof, spinning on the pacelap.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's a new one.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also Pulseter Tyler Reddick, he spun out and turned four from the lead on the very first laptop as well, collecting Denny Hamlin and Chris Busher.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: The field eventually, they got off the wet weather tires.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: They switched to the dry slicks up to 42 laps under the caution where Ross Chastain ends up out of the race with a drivetrain issue, ends up in last place.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: That eliminates him from making the chase.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Tough deal for Chastain.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a very disappointing year as he's winless, only one top five, which was a third, all the way back in February at Atlanta, and five top tens through 25 races, with only one top ten coming in the last two months, which was a seventh uh back at Iowa.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Kyle Larson won stage one before William Byron and Christopher Bell.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: They had equipment issues on pit road.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then more host of our trouble.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Second host of our incident of the day is uh he and Connor Zelich got into each other, which also collected Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So phew.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but Josh Barry and Ryan Blaney, they began to battle hard during stage two before Blaney took the lead just past halfway and went on to win stage two before having a absolutely garbage pit stop that cost him the lead.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then Host Bar brought out another caution, the third hose of our incident of the day.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just uh not not a good day for him.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then Bubba Wallace uh got to the lead by going by Josh Barry and stage three.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were banging doors off each other, which sent Ryan Priest to second, who's fighting for his chase life uh at the moment, before Zilich and Riley Herbst had a hard impact in three and four with 77 to go.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then shortly after Byron lost his left rear wheel and spun into the wall.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna uh have pit grid implications for him as they'll be suspended for a couple weeks through Darlington, the chase opener.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh then Blaney and Briscoe, they battled for the lead with around 60 to go before Briscoe uh he plummeted through the field as he ends up finishing down in 26th.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know what happened to his car.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Something must have happened there.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if his car just fell off that hard, but it it looked like it fell off a cliff.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, one minute I saw him, he was in the lead, and then he was in the top ten, and then the next moment I look and he's 26th, so tough deal there.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But this race came down to Blaney, Bubba, and Barry.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: They were all battling for the win with the round 10 to go, and then Bubba, he was he was reeling in Blaney through lap traffic, but then he locked it up big time.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that allowed Blaney to survive on two tires for the win.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: If Bubba didn't lock it up, Bubba probably would have gotten to Blaney's back bumper and easily could have drove around him for the win.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Blaney hangs on, gets his third win of the year, second in New Hampshire, uh back to back.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: He also won last year, and it's his 20th career victory.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bubba still ends up second.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really good point stay for him.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's technically not locked into the chase, but he only needs two points to clinch.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, he's he's pretty safe.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: He'll probably lock in after stage one at Daytona.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Barry third, which despite not having a job next year, he's now got four top tens in a row, despite only having six top tens all year.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a seventh at Indy, fourth at Iowa, and then an eighth at Richmond to go along with the third at Loudoun.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what I find interesting is two years ago we saw a very similar situation with uh Harrison Burton for the Wood Brothers heading into the summer Daytona race, knowing he wasn't going to have a job next year, and he went out and won.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: So could Barry do the same?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he finished ninth in the Daytona 500 back in February, so never say never, I guess.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean that's crazy because you take the ninth with Barry in the 500 back in February, along with the four straight top tens that he has right now, and that's five of his six top tens that he has across the whole year, which is just wild.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bell ends up in fourth, and Larson ends up in fifth, solid days for them.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: While Hosovar somehow comes back to finish 19th, the first car one lap down after spinning three times during the race at New Hampshire.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, three times, including his pacelap spin, which honestly it's pretty incredible, even with how much criticism he's gotten lately.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the real question is, can he turn that criticism into actual results?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because ever since uh really really the last three races, he finished 31st at Iowa, 37th at Richmond, and then 19th at New Hampshire, but it looked like he was gonna finish sub-30th there, too.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean he's just plummeted.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after Indy, he was fifth in the standings, and now he's like 11th in the standings.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's absolutely plummeted.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he's locked into the chase, but I mean, just going from fifth to 11th, that's a lot of that's a much larger points gap that he'll have at the start of the chase.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see what he can do.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if there's any chance to uh gain some confidence back, I think he would much uh rather go to Daytona rather than anywhere else, which luckily we are going to Daytona this weekend.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was leading on the last lap to Daytona 500 back in February before being spun and ending up 18th, finished fourth and third at the two Atlanta races to of course go along with his win at Talladega in April.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Gives him an average finish of 6.5 on the Super Spearies this year.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if again, if there's any chance of Hospar gaining any confidence back, or particularly any uh positions in the standings uh back before the chase begins.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Daytona's probably uh his best shot of anywhere to pull that off.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we are going to Daytona this weekend.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see if Hosovar can uh actually keep his focus on the track, which he definitely uh especially lately has struggled with that.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll see.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: But in terms of the chase cut line battle, SVG still holds the last chase spot over Priest by 31 points heading into Daytona, where they ended up 30th and 25th back in February, so they both have their work cut out for them.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think Priest has a chance if he can run up front with his RFK teammates, and if he doesn't turn into an airplane on the back stretch.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I also think S.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: VG has a chance if he can run like he's run uh sometimes at the super speedways too because he's been up front at some of these super speedways and I mean if he can stay there and stay up front and finish up front and not get wrecked out, he will get into the chase, legitly, which would be very impressive.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: But our uh updated picks and standings after New Hampshire, I lead Haley by 197, Evan by 277, Stacy by 347, Bernardo by 478, Noah by 614, Ethan by 704, and Zayn by 829, so definitely a big uh advantage on the cup side, but you know, we still got 11 races to go, so we'll see how it all shakes out.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I picked Bell, uh solid fourth place run.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Evan with Tyler Reddick, ends up eighth, comes back from that spin on lap one, uh, to finished eighth after starting on the pole.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't lead though, just like how Pillow uh started on the pole but didn't lead uh in the indie car race at DC.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: But Reddick with a much better performance than Pillow had.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Haley with Chase Briscoe, like I said, ended up 26th, just faded through the field on that last run.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy with Denny Hamlin ends up seventh.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh good recovery from him too after being involved in that first lap incident with Reddick.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hamlin locks up the number one seed in the chase as well.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh despite Blaney winning, Blaney uh mathematically cannot catch Hamlin for the one seed.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then Noah with Todd Gillen ends up 21st, just a pedestrian day.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan with Todd Gibbs ends up sixth.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh good day for him, even though he's particularly not run all that well at New Hampshire.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then Zane ends up winning with Ryan Blaney.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Another uh I wouldn't say dominant win, but another solid win for Ryan Blaine.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He gets a second straight New Hampshire win.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you think about it, Zane swept the truck and cup races at New Hampshire, and then uh when you throw in Ethan's indie car win at DC, the two part-timers swept the weekend, so very interesting.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then they're definitely no slouches despite not running uh the whole season.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: But lastly, welcome back to Hot Sauce Hurricane, where of course we see how Geo Selzi and Carson Hosepar.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're two nicknames, Hot Sauce and Hurricane, combined together.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not that complicated.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh definitely polar opposites this week.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Geo Selzi, he definitely had a good week.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: He finished eighth at Santa Maria, 11th at the Thunder Bowl, and with the battle for the High Limit Championship heating up at Plasterville, Aaron Reitzel and Selzi, who now sit 1-2 in the point standings.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: They led Flight A and Flight B of qualifying, both running some of the first 9-second times in High Limit history, with Reitzel breaking the 25-year-old track record with a 9.772 second lap.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Chio's best lap was a 9.889 second lap.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Selzy ends up third in his heat, third in the dash, and fifth in the A-main.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Reitzel had to win the B-mane after spinning on the first lap of his heat and not transferring through the heat, so he had to win the B-main, which he did, ended up 13th in the A-Mane as Selzy.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: He now only sits 49 points behind Reitzel for the points lead heading into the gold cup at silver dollar this weekend.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see how that goes.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh meanwhile, Hospar had a week to pretty much forget, ignoring all the chaos at New Hampshire that we just talked about, that ironically occurred in a uh Tabitha emphasized car, if you will.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it had kisses on the car, it had uh uh Tabitha's handwriting and the uh I love you abbreviation on the back.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, whatever.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Ignoring all that chaos, he was supposed to run the Dirt Late model in both Marshalltown and Mason City, Iowa's part of Flow Racing Night in America, but neither of those occurred with the car just straight up not running on Tuesday in Marshalltown, and then Michael Leach driving the car on Wednesday to a 13th place finish in the A-Main at Mason City.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, not a great look for Hosabar lately, uh, with the drama both on and off the racetrack.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, you throw in the TWG motorsports drama that both Hosebar and Celsius teams are a part of, and that just adds another wrinkle uh to all the chaos.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: But that's where we're gonna end it for the night.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna cut it off there, and uh that'll do it for tonight's episode of the Thorno Floor Podcast.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you tune in, listen, watch, and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Check out the chill photography and Thorfloor podcast, Instagrams, and TikToks, and uh we'll see y'all next time.