Latest / Throttle to the Floor Podcast / Ep. 82 - NASCAR (Summer Daytona), IndyCar (Milwaukee DH) + High Limit (Gold Cup and Douglas County) Recap

Transcript

Ep. 82 - NASCAR (Summer Daytona), IndyCar (Milwaukee DH) + High Limit (Gold Cup and Douglas County) Recap · Throttle to the Floor Podcast

• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of the Thor of Four Podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Will Ernest, here tonight, uh, just myself, but we got a loaded episode.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get right into it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit of other news to start us off.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: NHRA enters Indianapolis this weekend for their crown jewel, the 72nd Cornwall Quality Tools, the U.S.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nationals.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what's notable is the massive entry list, even for Indianapolis standards, is there's 85 entries across the main four Mission Food series categories, including 45 top fuel and funny car entries for the largest fields at Indy in almost 15 years, which is great to see.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: John Hunter Namichek will not return to the 42 car at Legacy Motor Club next year on the NASCAR side.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Josh Berry is now favored to take over that ride in 2027.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Also, Connor Zilich and Shane Van Gisbergen will both run the late model stock car race Friday night with the CarSTour at Florence Motors Play, which is up the road from uh Darlington where NASCAR is this weekend.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: SVG in the 51 car, and Zilich will drive the 8 car that normally uh Dale Jr.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: will drive, but Dale Jr.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: will make his pro late model debut for the car's tour earlier that same day in the 23 car.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be fun to watch.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindricks' pit crews will swap ahead of the chase number this weekend at Darlington.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Blaney enters as the two seed, while Cindrick enters as the 15 seed.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see if this helps improve the pit stops of both teams, particularly Blaney's, as his pit crew ranks just 32nd on the whole year.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's really their one big weakness, and of course, Blaney and the rest of the chase field is trying to run down one seed Denny Hamlin, but we'll see.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um moving on to High Limit now.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start with the Gold Cup last week.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: On Thursday, High Limit they rolled into Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California for the 72nd Gold Cup race of champions, and yet again the championship uh is heating up.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: The prelim nights Thursday and Friday were chaos, is because uh High Limit decided to have all 50 cars run all three nights of the Gold Cup, and so High Limit series points were awarded for all three nights, which is something that uh we don't really see for a lot of other major events like the Knoxville Nationals that I think we should see.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just because it's a big major event and there's a risk that you can't make the main event, they should still pay series points, whether we're talking high limit points or world of outlaws points or whatever series.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have you know, you can still have the risk of missing the main event on a regular night.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um not quite as much as a major series event, but you can still miss the main event on um whatever races that night.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, yeah, the Knoxville Nationals, for example, is the Knoxville Nationals, but at the same time, like it's on the World of Outlaws schedule, so it should pay World of the Outlaws drivers series points, but that's just me.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but numerous cars uh went over the cushion off the track, um, getting back to the gold cup anyways.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in turns three and four, because there was only one flight of qualifying for all fifty cars, which made the track surface extremely slippery, as if you know that wasn't having all 50 cars run all three nights wasn't chaotic enough.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do one flight of qualifying.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um Rico, Abraham, Giovanni, Selzing there and Reitzel, who are the three main challengers for the high limit title, were only 13th, 14th, and 15th in qualifying, despite Hot Sauce being second in hot laps.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: They all started third in their respective heats.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, Dylan Wimfield secured quick time with a 11.690 second lap.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Rico and Gio were second in their heats, but Reitzel didn't advance out of his heat or the B-main, so he needed a provisional to start the A-Mane.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh Geo Celsi involved in a big wreck on lap two.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: He had some tough luck with big wrecks this week at the Gold Cup.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um Rico ends up going from 9th in the A-Main to win the opening night at the Gold Cup.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Caleb Montgomery was second.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: James McFadden was third after starting in 21st, easily getting the hard charger award.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Reitzel, he had a provisional for the A-Mane and started 26th, but he still ended up 11th despite all that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Gio only ended up 19th after the wreck damage.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Rico's 30th high limit win, which extends his all-time record, and 12th win at Silver Dollar.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But Friday was much of the same uh chaos.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: This time it was Dayson Persley going quick time with an 11.977 second lap.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Gio went 11th quick, Reitzel and Rico go 19th and 20th.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um Reitzel and Geo were 1-2 in Heat 3, Rico won Heat 4.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they were pretty good in the Heats.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um Geo started third in the A-main after the invert.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Reitzel 10th, Rico 13th, before Reitzel ended up wrecking on lap two.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Aaron Reitzel had a rough uh trip to California.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: He had four straight finishes outside the top 10, but he broke that streak uh in a big way, which we'll talk about in a minute.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jeff Yantis uh flipped while leading after starting on the pole, making uh one of his first few 410 sprint car starts.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: His debut in a 410 sprint car was the previous week at Santa Maria, so not not great to see there.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then another restart stack up collecting hot sauce again, which plummeted him to 16th in the night.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was Dylan Bloomfield getting his first high limit win, and Rico charged up to second, which ended up putting him on the pole for Saturday's finale.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Reitzel was out in 26th.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but Rico also took the points lead back um after Friday night at the Gold Cup by 11 over Reitzel, 61 over Selzi for the 11th championship lead change this year.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Saturday's finale at the Gold Cup, it looked like Brent Mark's race to lose, though, is he made a three-wide pass for the lead on lap 17 and had a 2.924 second lead on lap 34 when the red flag was displayed for Justin Peck getting upside down, and then Rico took the lead on the restart and held off March for the final six laps to claim his third Gold Cup after wins in 2016 and 2018, his sixth win with this year, and his 31st career win, which again extends his all-time record with Highland Racing.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Rico dominated the Gold Cup, uh one on Thursday night, second on Friday night, and one again on Saturday night in the finale.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Brent Mark second, still trying to secure the first win under the Chase Briscoe racing banner.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: James McFadden third for the second time in three days, as he was also third on Thursday.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Rico became only the fifth driver to win three or more Gold Cup titles and becomes only the ninth driver to win three or more six-figure paydays.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: His first two came at Skagit Speedway, where um this weekend we got the Skagit Nationals, and Rico and others will try and win$126,000 Saturday night in the finale.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the biggest high limit payout um of the season.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and Rico's points lead it ballooned to 50 points over Wrightzel, who ended up 17th in the finale, and then 79 over uh Geo, who finished seventh Saturday night after atrocious luck on both prelim nights.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean his seventh wasn't terrible, but he didn't really make up all that much ground since Rico won.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but after the Gold Cup High Limit headed to Oregon at Douglas County on Monday night, which before it became a three-eighths of a mile dirt track, it used to be a paved track that hosted numerous Canon Pro Series West races and also an arc of West race in 2020, where uh get this Gio Selzi himself won the poll, led 15 laps, and finished fourth, which uh a little over six years later, both Celsius came to town as uh Gio was fastest in hot laps, and brother Dom was third.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Dom Cells Donak Selzi, um Giovanni's older brother is uh filling in for Brendan Crouch on the West Coast swing.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but nine cars were underneath the previous track record in the qualifying session, starting with Tyler Courtney as the first car out and ending with Justin Sanders who secured quick time with the new official track record at Douglas County with a lap of 11.598 seconds.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Gio was third in qualifying, Reitzel seventh, Rico eighth, um Sunshine won heat one, Max Metry won heat two, Dom Selzi was fourth in the heat.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Reitzel and Selzy or Geo Selzi were one two in heat three, despite Gio being the fastest qualifier in the heat.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So Hot Sauce almost got ace in the hole, which would have put him on the pull of the dash automatically.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: I bet he wished he got that, because he certainly did not get the pull of the dash.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Aber won heat four, so it was uh Tyler Courtney, Justin Sanders, Max Metry, Justin Peck, Aaron Reitzel, Giamatti Selzy, Rico Abra, and Brett Marks.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: They were the eight in the FK Rodden's dash.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Reitzel got the pull for the dash as he and Courtney both spawned double zero, the best spin uh on the wheel you can get.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Reitzel goes on to win his 14th dash of the year with Courtney in second, Marks third, Rico ended up fifth, Selzy only ended up seventh.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I bet you wish he got uh the pull for the dash then, but he ended up only seventh in the dash.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Landon Brooks won the B-man and ended up as the hard charger in the A-man, gaining 10 spots from the 21st to 11th, but we didn't even get to turn one as the field was wrecking on the initial start.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Reitzel was wheels up and got into Sunshine's left front, which stacked cars up behind and caused Oregon fan favorite Tanner Holmes and James McCadden to flip before we even got to turn one.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like we were green and then we weren't, and then we were red, and uh.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then uh some late caution stalled out Brent Marks' attempts to pass Aaron Reitzel for the lead and for a second straight Douglas County win as Max Mitchell is off the pace in third after blowing a tire with 13 to go, and Dylan Bloomfield wrecked with nine to go right as Marx was getting underneath Reitzel for the lead, right as the caution came out.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: But Marx was throwing everything except the kitchen sink at trying to pass Reitzel for the lead, even with Kidner Cox flipping in turn two with three to go to set up a shootout, it it just couldn't happen.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Marks couldn't get by.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Reitzel comes off of four straight finishes outside the top ten in California, a disastrous gold cup, and goes out and wins in his debut at Douglas County in Oregon for his tenth win of the year, 17th career win.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as it turns out, he ended up barely hanging on in this race.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: As when he pulled into victory lane, he had a flat right rear tire.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So one more restart in the feature probably would have done him in.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mark second, once again, for the sixth time this year.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Tanner Thorsen third for the second year in a row as well.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Justin Sanders fourth.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Rico fifth, uh Gio seventh, Dom Selzi as well, with a nice, nice, nice ninth place run.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Rico still holds the overall championship lead now by 36 over Reitzel and by 83 over Geo Selzi.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: While Marks still leads the midweek series championship lead, as this was the second to last midweek series race.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um Brent Marks leads now by 17 points over Aaron Reitzel and 42 points over Rico Avery, with only one race left in that miniseries that pays$25,000 to win.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that is September 23rd at Kokomo Speedway in Indiana, which is live on FS1.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's the sixth and final um broadcast race that's live on FS1 for High Limit this year.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if High Limit wasn't crazy enough, I think IndyCar might take the cake on that front.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: IndyCar, they were at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend for two races, and the whole weekend basically went off the rails right off the jump.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: First off, Kyle Kirkwood, the winner in DC last week, and Kristen Rasmussen, who was the winner at Milwaukee last year, were involved in a hard crash in practice where Rasmussen turned down early in three and four and almost ended up on his side.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Both cars had to be rebuilt overnight as qualifying Saturday morning.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Was two laps that set the lineup for both races.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Lap one set the lineup for race one.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lap two set the lineup for race two.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Kirkwood paid the price as he was trying to run down pull up for the championship, but he only qualified 22nd, 24th of the two races.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But so you see, race one was supposed to be held on Saturday, and it did start on Saturday and ran about 90 laps, but then it got pushed to Sunday morning because of rain.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then it got pushed to Sunday night because of rain after the quote unquote second double header race.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, we ran 90 laps of the first race, and then it got pushed to by rain to Sunday morning, and then pushed by rain to Sunday night after the quote-unquote second race had already been done.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it was a whole mess um by itself.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll talk about quote unquote race one.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: First, Powder Award, Joseph Newgarden, Felix Rosenquist fought for the lead before Rosenquist took off.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: He had a seven plus second lead by lap 40.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: He wishes he could have held that the whole race.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Kirkwood started the pit cycle on lap 44, just trying to do something to gain ground by trying to short pit everybody.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Award took the lead after the pit cycle.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then we had rain on lap 65, and you might be thinking, wait a minute, didn't we run 90 laps?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: But uh IndyCar decided for some reason they'd run like 25 laps under yellow before the red flag was finally displayed.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what an awful decision by IndyCard officials.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I know what they were trying to do.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were trying to stretch it to get to halfway just so they can call the race, but it didn't work.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So uh fast forward to Sunday night after multiple postponements.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Award uh led as the races resumed on lap 90.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: David Malucas to the lead during pit stops while running along.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Award then leads after Maluka Pitts.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Newgarden was slow off of turn fours, he might have had something broke.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Then Roman Grosjon and Mick Schumacher immediately get together, which sends Schumacher spinning, bringing the caution out.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Malucas back to the lead after the caution, but he had some kind of uh engine problem uh with Chevy, which um he said some not really nice things about Chevy and then kind of took him back, but Chevy kind of investigated and they did realize that there was a problem, which I I believe it was something uh on the restarts, I believe, and it just he couldn't get the power down enough to where Maluka could even charge for the lead or the win um late in this race.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh speaking of engine issues, Christian Lingard he had a uh over-everish over rev issue on restarts as well, which also kept him from contending for the win.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Will power um at times was uh running up there in this race, but he gets into the wall in turn four, which brings out the caution with under 50 to go, and uh Kyle Collect gets in the wall with 37 to go, but Award holds the lead through the restarts and holds off Malucas for the win.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Although it's interesting if Malucas had the proper power um to actually get up there and charge for the win.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Malucas ends up second again, still trying to get that first indie car victory.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Renus VK third, Scott McLaughlin fourth, Christian Branch Smith in fifth, but now on to uh race quote unquote two of the doubleheader, even though it technically finished first.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Alex Pelow goes to the lead in uh Newgarden to second.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Grosjon was up 10 spots in four laps on the fresh washed away green track after the rains that came overnight, which pushed race quote unquote one to Sunday night.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Kirkwood was up seven spots in 15 laps as he was fighting for his championship of life, but Pelot um was leading Newgarden, took the lead a lap or so before the caution for Gerson's spin.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Tough break after Groshon gained 10 spots since the start.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Kirkwood was up nine spots from the start up to 15th.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Pelow leads Newgarden at their pit stops as Kirkwood gets up to seventh, tried for six as McLaughlin was struggling.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Renus VK to second, Lungard to third, Newgarden falls to fourth, and then Newgarden pits first and cycles out second behind Pillow, but quickly falls to third behind VK.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then Renus VK ended up passing Pelow for the lead in this race, which was very impressive.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Kirkwood got as high as third before Malucas gets it to second.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Newgarden down to fifth, Kirkwood down to sixth.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Renus VK goes from the lead all the way down to eighth.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Pillow retakes the lead, then Newgarden wrecks out from fifth after hitting the turn four wall.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tough uh break for me as I picked him in this race.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Power beats Pillow with Pit Rub, but then uh McLaughlin and Scott Dixon stay out.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Grosjon wrecks again on the ensuing restart.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: McLaughlin manages to stay in the lead.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Will power with a pit rub penalty late, costing him a top five run in this race, ultimately finishing 14th.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Award goes to the lead and wins again.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: McLaughlin second, McLaren teammate, Lungard in third for his best career result in the Noval.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Malucas fourth, Pelow fifth.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So to recap and kind of piece these two broken races together that were race one was supposed to happen on Saturday, race two was supposed to happen on Sunday, they started race one, they pushed race one to Sunday morning, and then they pushed race one to after race two.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we had the start of race one on Saturday, and then all of race two on Sunday, and then the rest of race one after race two.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: But to piece them together, Powder Awards sweeps the doubleheader weekend at Milwaukee for his 11th and 12th career wins, second and third wins of the year, second and third wins at Milwaukee after a win in 2024, and he's now up to six oval victories.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: both of those wins came on the same day, which Award is the first indie car driver to win two races in one day since June 28th, 1981, when Rick Mirz slept a doubleheader at Atlanta Motor Speedway, of course now Echo Park Speedway.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's just wild.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: But Alex Pillow in the two races finished fifth and tenth compared to Kirkwood's sixth and fifteenth, which is enough to give Pillow his fifth title, all in the last six years, which is the first time that that's ever happened.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: This also gives Pillow his fourth title in a row.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: The only other time that happened was by Sebastian Bordaes from 2004 to 2007, back in the Champ Car era, and Pelow's fifth title is now solo third all-time behind uh only Scott Dixon's six titles and AJ Foyt's seven titles.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: IndyCar will close out their season next week at Laguna Sega in California, where Pillow has won three times, including two straight, but they're still a tight battle for second in the standings as Lungard, Kirkwood, and award are only separated by four points between them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be something to watch.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our picks and updated standings.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, I clinched the IndyCard Championship after DC.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but technically I lead Evan by 239, Stacy by 262, Haley by 294, Ethan by 370, who's up to fifth in the standings, despite only running 10 of the 17 races to this point.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Noah 394, uh Bernardo 398 back, and Zayn 461 back for the first N E car race.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I picked Pillow, who ended up 10th, Evan with Newgarden ended up seventh.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Haley with Will Power, who was running pretty good in um this race at late at one point, but ended up wrecked out late.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Stacy with Rosenquist, who ended up 17th.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: He led 30 laps in the early going when it was on Saturday, and then once it turned to Sunday, uh his car was just awful.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Noah with Santina and Ferrucci ended up 20th.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Normally Ferrucci is really good on these types of short ovals, but he was a no-show the whole weekend.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan with Christian Rasmussen ended up fifth, led a lap, couldn't quite defend his uh win from last year across either of the races.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Zayn with Scott McLaughlin ended up fourth uh from the poll, so good run there.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: The uh second race picks, I picked Joseph Newgarn who DNF, so unfortunately that's my first DNF of the year, and it comes in the second to last race of the season.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Also my first finish outside the top 20.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I was trying to make it the whole year, but comes up, I come up short.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Evan Christian Rasmussen ended up eighth in the second race, led a couple laps there.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean Rasmussen, he had that wreck in practice, and he rebuilt the car, but he still had really good speed.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Kirkwood, not so much.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Haley with Alexander Roxy ended up 11th.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a quiet run.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Same with Stacey with Marcus Ericks, ended up ninth.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Noah with Marcus Armstrong ended up 16th.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan with Dave Malikus ended up fourth, and Zayn with Kevin Simpson ended up 19th.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we're finally through all of that mess.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've pieced together both indie car races.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is um NASCAR was in Daytona this weekend, which uh brings chaos to the table automatically.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll start with O'Reilly's.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Roger Caruth um led this race early after securing his first O'Reilly series pull.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jesse Love had problems early as he had debris on his grill and was spewing water.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Love uh pitted to get the debris off the grill with eight to go in the stage, but he stayed on the lead lap.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Patrick Starpoly then ended up ended up wrecking, causing Sam Mayer and Brent Cruz to have big damage, and ultimately this would cause cost Brent Cruz a chase spot, but what a valiant effort.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: He missed four races early in the year due to not being eighteen at the time, and he still almost ended up making the chase.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I mean, I think of Iowa um about a month ago where he uh wrecked late in the race and wrecked like half the field late in the race, but think about how many spots he lost there.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he could have Gains those back and maybe even made the chase, but eh.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh well.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Austin Hill won stage one under caution.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Carson Klopple and Corey Day contact off pit road, but it wasn't super significant.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Love back in the top 10 midway through stage two.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Kwaple was leading Hill shortly after the pit road contact, so the the contact on pit road really didn't all that matter matter all that much.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Big rec on the front stretch took out Sammy Smith, William Sawalic, and others, which also cost Sawalic to chase spot as well.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Despite winning at Rockingham back in April, Hill gets spun to end stage two.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Caruth wins the stage.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Kwapal back to the lead in the final stage.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: JRM was in control late in this race.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: You had Kwapel up there, you had Carruth and uh Justin Allguyer behind, and then Caruth gets wrecked by Allgyre for like no reason.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I he must have just tried to pretend it was the 2021 Daytona 500 or something, but we go into overtime and on the restart, it's Ryan Sieg who pulls away with the victory.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan Sieg gets his first career O'Reilly series win in his 424th career start, which is the most starts ever by a driver before getting their first O'Reilly series win.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't even supposed to drive the 38 car.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: He normally drives the 39 car, but that was given to Andy Jenkovich, who won the Arca race at Talladega back in April, so that uh he was guaranteed to make the show in his O'Reilly's debut.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up finishing 30th.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Gray and Roger Cruz, they did enough to advance to the chase, eliminating Swalich and Cruz.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hill ended up second after the stage two ending spin.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Kwaple ended up third.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Alfredo fourth.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Brandon Jones, fifth.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Justin Algar, after his dominant regular season, enters the chase at the one seed, which he locked that up weeks ago.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he has got a 25-point advantage on teammate Carson Kwopel after the reset, heading to Darlington, where Algayer won at in uh March.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Kwaple, meanwhile, ended up fifth in that race.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So something to watch there are picks and new standings.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I still lead the O'Reilly's points by 60 over Stacy, 205 over Haley, 358 over Evan, 370 over Bernardo, 523 over Noah, 733 over Zayn, 820 over Ethan, as they've only run nine of the races so far.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: I picked Jesse Love, ended up 20th.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: It looked like he was going to be okay after getting that debris off his grill, but just kind of faded back towards the end.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Evan with Sammy Smith wrecked out 36th on that big big wreck on the front stretch that took out Sawalic.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um Haley with Austin Hill ended up second.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh won stage one.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Stacey with Justin Algar ended up sixth despite uh committing terrorism on uh Roger Carew for absolutely no reason.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Noah with Taylor Gray ended up 26th.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was enough, though, to get Taylor Gray into the chase.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan with Parker Retzloff ended up 14th.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I really thought Retzloff would have done better, but he was just he was kind of there, pretty pedestrian.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um and Zayn with Corey Day ended up 29th.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh also got damage in that big front stretch wreck as well, but he was able to continue.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: But moving on to Cup, there was some shocking news on race day.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Harrison Burton will replace Riley Herbst the day of the race, as Herbst was still suffering from symptoms from his hard wreck at New Hampshire la uh the previous week.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully it's nothing serious, and he's able to return quickly to the car.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: We know Herbst will be out of his ride for 2027.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: That'll be driven by Corey Heim, who's got two wins this year in the part-time 67 car for 23-11.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he finished 16th at Daytona.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Burton me while subbing for Herbst in this one race, finished 12th, but back on track now.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Florida Native Ross Chastain led from the poll at the start.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then Austin Hill leads by lap 13, which was definitely emotional.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: As this is the first time that we were back at Daytona since the unfortunate passing of Kyle Bush back in May, who won his final poll in this year's Daytona 500.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then uh Shane Van Gisbergen won stage one as Chris Busher, Ryan Priest, and Kyle Larson.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: They spun at the line, but only Busher had serious jamage that basically ended his race.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: When NASCAR reviewed the timing and scoring at the caution, Priest ended up eighth in the stage, but he was still definitely behind the eight ball as SPG won the stage.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Todd Gillam got to the lead at the start of stage two, and then um before Hill got back to the lead, he would go on to lead 27 laps in this race, which was the most in the race, and then the league continued to swap hands with Chastain, the pole sitter back to the lead, Chase Elliott taking uh a turn up front, Zayn Smith, Ryan Blaney, Austin Schendrick, and the annual appearance of Cody where at the front of the field.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, with Blaney the defending Summer Day Tonem winner winning stage two, and then in stage three, Chastane had a pack of four cars.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: They uh they pit, and due to them being so organized, if anybody else pitted at the time, they'd be like 10 seconds behind them.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it was very interesting strategy-wise.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean it mostly paid off as although Chastain ended up 24th, the other three in that strategy all ended up top ten at the end of the race.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then with under 10 to go, Carson Hospar, after riding in the back for most of the race, goes to pass for second on the inside of Ryan Priest and ends up spinning himself out as the clean air that he shoved onto his nose, which he hadn't had much clean air all night because he was riding in the back tight in uh the dirty air traffic, so he just he dived to the inside, got a bunch of clean air on the car, and then you combine that with the new super speedway package in this race that had a three-inch shorter spoiler, it just it the the air just sucked him around, and then he overcorrected hard into the outside wall.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Jones having nowhere to go.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Hosabar was seen visibly limping out of the car as he was slow to get out.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some thought he could have had a concussion after seeing his interview, but I think he's fine.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: He'll just be sore going into Darlington.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: But this raises a larger uh problem that we'll talk about in a little bit.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: But on the overtime restart, Priest gets a good restart and leads on the back stretch as uh 20 cars right behind him, spanning basically the entire track.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Daniel die ran into Kyle Larson and almost flipped in the air.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: So NASCAR was definitely uh forced to bring out the caution.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: They they had their hands tied, but it gives Priest his first career points when he won the clash this year at Bowman Gray.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Priest with an incredible drive coming back from his stage one ending spin to win his first career race in his 249th start at the track that tried to kill him twice.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: He flipped a Daytona twice in the summer of 2023 and the Daytona 500 last year.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: 2023's flip in particular was so bad it ruptured the blood vessels in Priest's eyes, but he didn't miss a he didn't miss a race, and now he's a Daytona winner.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: In the process, stealing the 16th and final chase spot from SVG by just 17 points after ending 31 points back, which SVG he was caught up in the mayhem of 20 plus cards that wrecked on the backstretch on the last lap.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: But remember, the difference between first and second is 20 points.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: So Priest, even though winning your end was uh dead from the playoffs, the previous postseason system, you know, now we have the chase where it's all points-based.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow Priest managed to find a way to win himself in, and he was in a must-win situation in a non-winning in format, and he won.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So Priest is Priest did enough to get into the chase.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: So did Austin Sindrick, his finish of sixth was good enough to get him into the chase as the 15th seed as well by 26 points.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Bubba Wallace locked himself in at the end of stage one um as the 14th seed.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up finishing 20th.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: But Daniel Soraz and Michael McDowell, they ended up second and fourth for Spire, which is a really bad look for Hosovar, as if that spin wasn't already bad enough, because his teammates were up there, so he really should have uh used them for help.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: But Suarez and McDowell ended up second and fourth for Spire.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um Hospar once again he tried to go for the win himself, but I mean it gets worse.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was fifth in points after a ninth place finish at Indianapolis in late July from the poll, but then following um in the following four races leading up to the chase, he was 31st at Iowa, 38th at Richmond, 19th at New Hampshire after three spins, including a spin on the pace lap, and then the 38th at Daytona.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: It plummeted Hosovar all the way from fifth in the points to twelfth heading into the chase.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even Suarez enters enters the chase 11th in points ahead of him after he finished second.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hosovar's fall from fifth to twelfth in the standings took him for what would have been 45 back at the start of the chase, which Briscoe is in that spot.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: He holds the five seed, uh, to now 80 back.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a 35-point difference, which is certainly possible to make up.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that's extra work that Hospital has to do now, and he's gonna need a big turnaround right now, which he did finish fourth at Darlington back in the spring, so maybe one could be coming, but we'll see.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't all these chase tracks, Hostbar's not really good at.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, at best, he's got a few top 15s at some of them, along with the fourth at Darlington back in the spring, and then of course back in the spring he won at Talladega, which we have Talladega uh coming up in about a month and a half.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, you know, he's gonna need to do good at a lot of these chase tracks if he's got any chance of making up any ground um in the chase, but we'll see.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of possible comebacks, though, Tyler Reddick has definitely stopped the bleeding he's been on just in time for the chase.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: He had an eighth place run at New Hampshire from the poll before surviving.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Daytona to finish third and actually took third in the standings back from Ty Gibbs by just two points, who was caught up in that melee on the pack starts on the last lap.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Reddick will start the chase at 35 back.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: But Denny Hamlin, after his dominant second half of the regular season, enters the chase as the number one seed that he locked up the previous week in New Hampshire with a 25-point advantage on Ryan Linney heading to Darlington, where Hamlin has three Southern 500 victories, but ended up just 11th in the spring compared to Blaney's third.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Reddick, who's third in the standings, won back at Darlington in the spring this year and finished second in last year's Southern 500 to two-time defending Southern 500 winner Chase Briscoe, who enters the chase as the fifth seed, 45 back at Hamlin, as we mentioned.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our picks and standings I still lead the points in the cup side of things by 182 over Haley, 251 over Evan, 326 over Stacy, 484 over Bernardo, 592 over Noah, and Ethan Scott, like a 77-point lead over Zane.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right there, they've only run 13 of the 26 races so far.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I picked Hosovar as I mentioned, ended up DNF'd in 38th.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Tough deal for me.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, trust me, I would have rathered Hosovar used his teammates to help him and ended up in like third, but um, you know, it's just another case of Hosovar just going all for broke, and it's like, you know, I don't know.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I like that he goes all for broke, but at the same time, like, you know, he ends up wrecking himself way too much.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's very volatile, if that makes sense.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Evan with Joey Logano ended up 18th at the end of the night.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Haley with Bubba Wallace ended up 20th.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy with William Byron ended up 22nd.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Noah with Brad Kozelowski ended up 14th.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan with Austin Hill ended up 27th, led the most laps, but none of us really did all that good except for Zayn, who actually picked Ryan Priest and won this race, leading just five laps to win.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Zane's been on a good run recently.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's won the last two truck series races at uh Richmond and New Hampshire, and now he's got two straight cup wins at New Hampshire and uh Summer Daytona, so he's been on a hot streak lately.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll see if he can uh keep it going as we get into the chase.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: But lastly, welcome back to Hot Sauce Hurricane where we see how Geo Selzi and Carson Hosebar are.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um pretty short segment here to end the episodes.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: We already talked about a lot about Selzy and Hosebar already, but there's two things I want to add.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: First, uh Selzy um uh he races uh this weekend at uh Skagget Nationals um trying to chase another$100,000 payday.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: His his one high limit win this year was at Port Royal back in late July, which Port Royal actually comes up the week after the Skagit Nationals.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see if he can gain some momentum as he's starting to run out of time uh to try and chase this high limit championship.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's like 83 back, still it's still third in points, but honestly, with how good Brent Marks has been lately, Marks might end up uh getting up to third in points by the time everything's all said and done.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that Geo Celsi runs bad, it's just he needs to run better.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's you know, he's usually pretty consistently in the top ten, but you know, running consistently in the top ten is not gonna get you the high limit championship.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: It might keep you in third, maybe.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, you know, Reitzel's back to his winning race.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, Rico has been um first, second, first, and fifth the last four races, and Brent Marks has had two straight second place finishes.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, all three of them have been really good lately, and Celsius just been kind of okay, so I don't know.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Hosovar, I'm worried not only by his performances, which most of those could have been completely avoidable, but I'm really a little too distracted by everything going off track, specifically involving everything with Tabitha.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And sure, she is not 100% of the problem.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, she's not 100% of the problem.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, she's not a curse or anything, like, you know, like I'm sure she's a great person and brings Hospar joy, but however, like it it seems like ever since she's constantly been in the public eye with Hosabar, like at every race, it's and going to all his races.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it coincides pretty much with Indy, and Hosabar has done absolutely awful, and I'm worried he's just not really all that focused on what he needs to do.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm worried he's not really focused on driving.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's I feel like he's just he feels like he's living in a video game or on like a trip a Twitch stream or something.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean he he really needs to be focused on his driving now that the chase has started.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, over the last month, Hosovar has been the spire driver that's been in the public eye the most, and he's been the worst spire driver to show for it.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, I mean, over these over this last basically month or so, he's only got one top 20, and that was at New Hampshire, where he spun three times, including on the pace lab.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, he shouldn't have finished top 20 in that race.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: He should have been uh sub-30th in that race as well.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: But um Hot Sauce picked up the first high limit win for Spire at Port Royal in the Bob Weiker Memorial that we mentioned uh for$100,000.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he also won his prelim night at Knoxville during the 360 Nationals.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Suarez had the second at Summer Daytona to go along with three other top 20 finishes, which was consistent enough to edge out Hospital for the 11th seed entering the chase.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: McDowell, although he did miss the chase, but even he had two top 20 finishes to go along with his fourth at Summer Daytona this past weekend.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, has Hosovar been great this year?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or has McDowell been great this year?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: He missed the chase.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was the only Spire car to miss the chase.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: But even McDowell has been better than Hosovar recently in this last month or so sample size that I'm referring to.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Tristan McKee, man, he he's he's arguably the best at Spire lately.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: He picked up an ARCA win at Madison the other night for his third national arca win this year, although he was penalized six ARCA points and fined$750 for violation of spoyer and spoiler and body height rules, but he keeps the win.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um plus he won the Arca East race back at Iowa in early August for his fourth Arca East win of the season.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Picked up a super lame auto win at the Battle of Berlin, and he finished eighth and sixth in his first two truck series starts at Richmond and New Hampshire to lock the 77 into the truck series owner's chase along with the seven trucks.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: So both the Spires trucks made the owner's chase.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not saying Hospar isn't talented, he just needs to focus on his car and his team and wake up and uh stop pretending he's living in a video game or like a Twitch stream or something.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll we'll leave it at that.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Please, if you have any other opinions, uh leave it in the comments below.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that'll do it for tonight's episode of the Throttle 4 Podcast.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you tune in, listen, watch, and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, check out the chill photography and throttle for podcasts, Instagrams, and TikToks, and we'll see y'all next time.