Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / SVG Dominates The Glen & Critiquing FOX TV Coverage | The Burnout
Transcript
- 0:00What's up everyone, welcome to the burnout.
- 0:02I'm Ryan Larkin. With me is Matt Weaver.
- 0:04We have an early show. Matt did not go to Watkins Glen
- 0:06this week, so he's in his home. He got all his writing done and
- 0:09now we're, we're getting this thing done pretty early in the
- 0:12day. So hopefully some of you guys
- 0:13were able to catch us. If not, we totally understand.
- 0:16We, we, we move forward the show about 3 hours.
- 0:19Watkins Glen kind of a it was a race, it happened there.
- 0:24There's a couple things to talk about, but not not a ton of
- 0:26exciting moments. Matt, go ahead and and give us
- 0:30your thoughts on the race and, you know, make it brief because
- 0:33I know you got a Anaheim Ducks game to watch here pretty soon.
- 0:36Well, you know, I'm not in a hurry, but certainly I would say
- 0:40I I thought the race was compelling, but not like in a
- 0:43super newsy way. And like one of the reasons why
- 0:47beyond a race that I'm not on the road for this weekend, that
- 0:51they were on the air so early is I didn't have a lot to write
- 0:54about. Like there were there were there
- 0:56were interesting stories, things that were like interesting, but
- 1:00not like in a oh man, I need to get this story up right now kind
- 1:04of way right. Like the race in a lot of ways
- 1:08played out the way that we expected.
- 1:10We thought that it would be some version of a Shane van Gisberg
- 1:14and ass kicking. There were there was a detour
- 1:16along the way. Thanks to, you know, this week's
- 1:19version of how does the Penske 22 team implode this week
- 1:23variety, which is super unfortunate in and of itself,
- 1:27unless you just hate Joey. I know those guys are out there.
- 1:31There are. But my main take away from this
- 1:34race is that and I'm I'm going to call out fans, which is
- 1:38always a good idea for a podcast, in which case we need
- 1:40fans. But I think that our fan base,
- 1:43more than any other in professional sports, rejects and
- 1:48resents excellence. Like the, the, the amount of
- 1:52vitriol in in my feed. And I don't know if this is just
- 1:55a reflection of my feed or if you see it in yours, but there's
- 1:59like Shane van Gisbergen Rd. course fatigue and numerous
- 2:05people trying to undermine or underplay or downplay the, the,
- 2:11the performance and execution and drive.
- 2:15I, I just don't think that people really appreciate his
- 2:18version of excellence the way that they should.
- 2:21I mean, I, I know this car was made for him and this is playing
- 2:26into all of his strengths, but you still have to go out there
- 2:30and execute. And I would say that this car
- 2:33also plays into the strengths of a of a Michael McDowell in an AJ
- 2:38Almanager. And I, I know that colleague
- 2:42doesn't currently have, you know, the OEM potential to
- 2:44maximize their cars, but you still have to go out there and
- 2:48execute. And it's just clear that after
- 2:50three years where the entire garage has been able to study
- 2:54his SMT, look at the video, look at the footwork, all those
- 2:57things they still can't replicate in a next Gen. on a
- 3:00road course what he does. And I, I just think all of that
- 3:03is so impressive in ways that this fan base doesn't seem to
- 3:07want to embrace. Yeah, and, and I think a lot of
- 3:12this is car related. You know, this is what he drove
- 3:15essentially for two decades, right?
- 3:17This is what he he made his money doing.
- 3:19And you see that, you know, in the O'Reilly series, he's not,
- 3:24you know, unstoppable force, right?
- 3:26He is very much an equal to zealot.
- 3:28I'd say zealot is even better in that car.
- 3:31And so this is very much a situational thing, but we should
- 3:34embrace it. These are the tools they're
- 3:36given and no one can touch them. And, and you know, in the past,
- 3:39we would glorify Dylan Hart or Jeff Gorner, any driver for
- 3:44being excellent. But then when we see excellence,
- 3:46we're just like, oh, that was a boring race or that didn't have
- 3:49enough chaos or whatever. And that's probably NASCAR's
- 3:52creation, right? All the stuff they've done the
- 3:54last decade, they they make you think you need something you
- 3:57don't. And I thought today's race was
- 4:00fine. Was it special?
- 4:01No, but I was intrigued. I was like, OK, we got different
- 4:04strategies. We'll see what happens.
- 4:06And he did what he needed to do. You know, at the end of the day,
- 4:08he put on a master class and no one else was able to do it.
- 4:12McDowell was close. But I mean, no one else was able
- 4:14to make the passes as efficiently, you know, take care
- 4:16of the tires as well and then do everything they needed to win
- 4:18the race. So it was really cool.
- 4:20Yes, it's the same guy, but that's the point.
- 4:22Someone needs to go up there and and take him off the throne and
- 4:24no one's doing it. And I'll, I'll say that even
- 4:27though I wasn't at the racetrack, I have consumed a lot
- 4:31of the post race chatter and pit Rd. interviews.
- 4:34And I thought, I thought Michael McDowell summed it up pretty
- 4:38well, that the quote that stands out to me is that he's not
- 4:42unbeatable. He's just really hard to beat
- 4:45because he executes and, you know, he does all the little
- 4:50things very well. Like, for example, Mike said
- 4:53that he's very, very good through the bus stop and he was
- 4:57actually kind of excited to a certain degree to follow him
- 5:01during the race because it's like, OK, well, let me see if I
- 5:04can, can, can try to do that too.
- 5:06And it's not so much that Shane is that much better than he is
- 5:12and maybe he is, but in in Mike's mind, it's not so much
- 5:16that Shane is just that much better than him, but he's like
- 5:18his car is just very good over the curbs in the bus stop in a
- 5:23way that mine is more unsettled. And he's like, but at the same
- 5:26time, I felt like our car was better than theirs in certain
- 5:30areas of the track. And when you throw all that into
- 5:32a blender, he still executes better.
- 5:34And all of this to say that to Mike's point, he's not
- 5:40unbeatable and there's some very good Rd. racers that if you give
- 5:44them the right set up. I mean, we we saw it already
- 5:46earlier this year and I know Koda is not his best track.
- 5:50We're learning. But certainly Reddick is in that
- 5:52category. Mike is in that category.
- 5:55AJ, if given, you know, a little bit of OEM support, certainly
- 5:59you know, we've proven that he's that guy too.
- 6:02And there will be times where it looks like people can beat him.
- 6:07Just this car, this driver, this dynamic, it's going to be really
- 6:11hard to crack for the next couple of years and embrace it.
- 6:15You know, I grew up a fan of the 90s and it's it's not apples to
- 6:19apples. But this is in a lot of ways,
- 6:21Jeff Gordon at Watkins Glen and Sonoma back in the days where
- 6:24you go to those two tracks knowing that the 2014 was going
- 6:29to take the belt to ass. And that's what is happening
- 6:31right now with this 97 team and eventually the the pendulum will
- 6:36swing somewhere else. Yep, absolutely.
- 6:41Let's talk about SVG in the case I know we talked about this last
- 6:45week, the environment has shifted significantly for him
- 6:49kind of what we expected. And I think now that
- 6:51conversation that I know people are just going to be tired of
- 6:53hearing about points at at a point.
- 6:55But he's now 16th. He is the last guy in.
- 6:58He's clear, Briscoe and Lugano, which is just crazy.
- 7:02But when I think about the guys that are right ahead of them and
- 7:05they're just a handful of points ahead of them, Cindrick, Suarez,
- 7:08priests, I think he has the potential to beat all three,
- 7:11especially when you factor in the upcoming Rd. course races.
- 7:14So what do you make of his chances to make that chase and
- 7:17still bring the value to the team, which is essentially that
- 7:20top 16 points finish, which gives you more value for the
- 7:23charter and everything Like that's why he was brought in and
- 7:26that's what it seems like he still has the ability to
- 7:28deliver. Yeah, And you know, I, I, I
- 7:30really appreciate what Shane said after the race, which is,
- 7:35you know, without the win and you're in, it's a little less
- 7:38straightforward for them to you being a top 16 into, to your
- 7:42point, raise the, the charter's value, which is his entire
- 7:49reason for being here, that the higher in points, you finish the
- 7:52owner's points, the more money you receive per the agreement
- 7:56with NASCAR. But but Shane said, I want to do
- 8:00this the, the quote UN quote hard way.
- 8:02I don't want to just win one race.
- 8:03And that's how our season is at a minimum defined.
- 8:08I had him in the top 16 when the when the season started, like I,
- 8:11I thought he would win enough of these races and would be
- 8:14improved enough on, on ovals to to get there.
- 8:18And I mean God, if he wins 4 or how many, how many is left now
- 8:23in the in the regular season? I think there's two more in the
- 8:26regular season. Someone could clarify that for
- 8:28me. I think it's Sonoma.
- 8:30Hey, what's the other one? I'm looking at San Diego.
- 8:35San Diego, yeah. So if he goes 3 and then in the
- 8:39in the regular season, I get some there I think because I
- 8:43think that he's been a 10th to 15th place car a lot of weeks on
- 8:49on the ovals and that that gets you in the top 16.
- 8:53I mean, he's actually, he's actually been unlucky in some
- 8:56ways. Like some of his better runs
- 8:58have been derailed by misfortune.
- 9:00And that's racing. That's that's everyone has that
- 9:02right. So it all comes out in the wash.
- 9:05I don't think he's a slam dunk for the top 16.
- 9:07And I think something is, is is small in the grand scheme of
- 9:13things as the outcome of this Ryan Priest penalty, which I'm
- 9:17sure we'll get into the appeal. Yeah, it could be the the
- 9:22difference. But I think that with the extra
- 9:2515 points for winning a race, if he can get two to three of those
- 9:29in the regular season, gosh, that's that's 153045 extra
- 9:33points on everyone else who is struggling to win even a single
- 9:38race. Because he's racing against
- 9:39people who aren't going to win anywhere at all.
- 9:42And you're, you're, you're spotting him 30 to 45.
- 9:45And that's going to be really hard for people on the bubble to
- 9:48catch up to. I have a couple things I want to
- 9:51talk about and this is probably just rambling at this point.
- 9:55Stages, I'm I, I know we've talked about how I want to get
- 9:58rid of stages. I know a lot of fans have this
- 10:00belief. I watched Cinderick, Blaney,
- 10:03Chastain, all those playoff guys are on the bubble guy.
- 10:06I mean literally 12th through 19th were the guys that were
- 10:08starting inside the top ten and taking stage points in that
- 10:10first stage. And I watched those guys,
- 10:13Blaney, Cinder throw away running inside the top 10 so
- 10:17they can take stage points and not get a better finish later in
- 10:20the race. I have a big pet peeve when we
- 10:23have these races, especially because they can't pass with
- 10:26this car where you are sacrificing the finishing
- 10:30position, what you are going to go to the track and accomplish
- 10:34for stage one points 25 laps into a race.
- 10:38Is this ever going to change or is this just part of the the
- 10:41game we play now where guys can have, I mean, Blaney had a top
- 10:44five car. His speed was legit.
- 10:46He was able, He's one of the few people that can make passes
- 10:49through the field. He even got involved in a wreck
- 10:52and it didn't seem to slow him down too much.
- 10:53But he he was nowhere to be seen at the end of that race because
- 10:56he was just battling traffic the rest of the way.
- 10:59Well, you're throwing a lot at me.
- 11:02I'm, I'm, I'm of two, two minds. I'm, I'm constantly wrestling
- 11:06with this because listen, I'm not going to defend this car.
- 11:11I've been super honest about this car for a long time on
- 11:14short tracks and road courses. And even though I think that
- 11:16we're getting it better, you were, the bigger issue is not
- 11:20the horsepower. The bigger issue is not the, the
- 11:24downforce levels or the tire, it's a spec car.
- 11:28And so no matter what change you make fundamental to the car that
- 11:32they, they, they still have the same Lego kit.
- 11:34So they're all running the same speed.
- 11:36And that's why the track position matters.
- 11:38And so I don't know how you crack that on any track where
- 11:44it's a single groove, which Rd. courses are short tracks, flat
- 11:48tracks. So that's unfortunate.
- 11:52And so I, I share fans frustrations on they can't pass
- 11:57and all the things that come with that.
- 12:00The the decision to flip the stage and give up points or take
- 12:04points and try to, you know, make the best out of that
- 12:08situation, I think makes the race a little bit more
- 12:10compelling. Not not for the right reasons,
- 12:13right? Like from a purely sporting
- 12:15standpoint, you're asking someone to throw away signals of
- 12:22performance in the name of the greater good.
- 12:26But I also think that adds A strategic element to and I, I
- 12:29also think with 36 races or 26 regular season races, all of
- 12:34that also comes out with the wash.
- 12:35And I, I, I love encouraging with a spec car.
- 12:39I love encouraging teams to do something different because
- 12:41that's the only way we get passing and the only way that we
- 12:45get shuffling the field and having to watch Shane come
- 12:49through on fresher tires versus people on older tires or trying
- 12:52to save fuel. The, the stage breaks encourage
- 12:55that. And I would also say most
- 12:57importantly, because we've seen this, we have the sample size of
- 13:01data that if you do not stop the race and you do not throw the
- 13:04stage cautions, it gets way worse 'cause we still have the
- 13:08same fundamental issue, which is this is a spec card.
- 13:11Everyone's running the same speed.
- 13:12It would be the same conveyor belt cause everyone would still
- 13:15pit within the same windows. We, we saw that it's no longer
- 13:19debatable. We, we literally lived that a
- 13:21couple of years ago. And so I still think this is the
- 13:24the best option we have to mix up the racing and to break up
- 13:28that conveyor belt. But to your point, it is super
- 13:31unfortunate that teams are being faced with the the choice of
- 13:35throwing away points to try to win the race.
- 13:38And if you don't win the race and you just threw points away
- 13:41and into what? And was it good?
- 13:43You look at the the 71, right, McDowell, they, they were faced
- 13:48with that scenario and tried to get points and didn't.
- 13:52And I think it's just part of NASCAR racing with a spec car.
- 13:57I want to prep the chat because we actually got a lot of people
- 14:00in there today. I'm I was shocked.
- 14:01Maybe there's just more people at 9:00 going to watch this,
- 14:03but. Imagine that.
- 14:05I want to talk about the Fox broadcast.
- 14:07So what I need is for you guys to write all the incidents that
- 14:12they missed and there were a lot, a lot.
- 14:15So I don't want to forget any. So please, if you got them the
- 14:17real quick while that's that's prepping.
- 14:20Ty Gibbs, is he legit championship contender at this
- 14:23point? He is good everywhere.
- 14:25He's running top five. It feels like every single week.
- 14:27He needs more winning upside, but he's 6IN points.
- 14:31He is. He was right there again.
- 14:33He was legit top five all day. I don't see a weakness right
- 14:37now. Obviously Denny is going to be
- 14:39tough and there's those couple of guys, but he feels like a top
- 14:423-4 guy right now to me. And is he a legit championship
- 14:46contender or or or am I making a little bit too much of this?
- 14:48Well, so I'm, I'm going to throw it back at you.
- 14:51Is he a championship contender versus legit championship
- 14:55contender have two different connotations, right?
- 14:58So like, I think he is a he's a championship contender.
- 15:03Like he's going to be in the mix and I think that the team is
- 15:06good enough and he's becoming consistent enough that there
- 15:09will be a point part way through the chase where it's like, hey,
- 15:155014 is kind of hanging around and, you know, maybe he wins
- 15:19another race and and moves up the the regular season seating a
- 15:23little better. I don't think he's going to win
- 15:25enough right now when when he's going up against the the status
- 15:30quo, whether it's the right now Reddick, who I still think has
- 15:33some more wins in him. I don't think that was a early
- 15:35season fluke. Certainly the 11, I'm still not
- 15:39I, I know it's been a rough stretch.
- 15:40I still think the 20 is going to go on a tear.
- 15:42I mean, we, we saw last year winning, you know, three in a
- 15:45row. At some point they can do that
- 15:46again and all of a sudden they're back to five.
- 15:49I know it's been 36, but I, I just, there are a handful of
- 15:52teams right now that I, I know for a matter of fact that you
- 15:56can go ahead and throw three or four wins into the bucket.
- 16:00And I just can't bring myself to put the 54 there yet, even
- 16:04though I think he's almost there.
- 16:05I think that, you know, if you were to ask me, do I think
- 16:08that's realistic for next year? Yes.
- 16:11I just don't think he can win enough.
- 16:12Not that he can't win. He is not going to win enough
- 16:15right now, in my opinion, to to bridge that gap.
- 16:19The the reason I brought that up is because I was looking at
- 16:21stats. Reddick obviously is kind of
- 16:23leading in all categories because he has five wins.
- 16:26But second and top fives is Tyler is Ty Gibbs with six top
- 16:29five so far. He also has eight top 10s.
- 16:32To kind of give you an idea, Ryan Blaney has three top fives,
- 16:34Hamlin has 5, right? So he is the consistency when we
- 16:38go into a chase format where A10 race sample and you're going
- 16:41against different track types. If he can be that consistent and
- 16:44get a potential win in there, he's getting stage points at
- 16:48will. It seems like he's doing the
- 16:50things quietly under the radar. We know what Hamlin is, right?
- 16:53We know what Blaney is. We know what those top guys are.
- 16:56But is he? I just feel like there's
- 16:59something here bubbling under the surface with him and there
- 17:01is a second-half of the season where if he kind of breaks out,
- 17:04all of a sudden you're looking at a potential surprise champion
- 17:07it. And it just kind of struck my
- 17:08mom when I'm watching him lead the race again.
- 17:10I'm like how Ty Gibbs in this race last year finished like
- 17:1330th because he couldn't stop arguing with Gabe Hart and they
- 17:16wouldn't change tires because they're trying to say in some
- 17:19pit window or whatever the hell that was.
- 17:20And they're unraveling like the team was literally unraveling in
- 17:23this race seven months ago because this was ran in, you
- 17:26know, August or whatever. And now he's literally 6IN
- 17:29points run top five every week. I was like, this is one of the
- 17:32best turnarounds I've seen in a very, very, very long time.
- 17:35And two, I like, I don't see anyone more consistent than him
- 17:38other than Reddit. And that just puts him right
- 17:40there at the top of the list for me of of potential champions.
- 17:43You know where he's at to me and I I guess I need to get racing
- 17:46reference and get it in front of me.
- 17:48But if I were covering NASCAR in 2004, I probably would have said
- 17:55that I think Kurt Busch will be a championship contender, but
- 17:59he's not a championship threat. And he put together that really,
- 18:03really, you know, great Chase and, and caught the one lucky
- 18:06break with the the tire. I, I, I think the tie is in that
- 18:11same area that Kurt was in that year to where it did not
- 18:16surprise me even as a fan, many, many, you know, decades ago now,
- 18:20it's crazy to think about good Lord, with a great team, you
- 18:25know, great young driver, just when is he going to make that
- 18:29next step? And Kurt made it whenever one
- 18:33thought that he was probably another year away.
- 18:41Yeah, sorry I broke up a little. Bit OK.
- 18:44You broke up a little bit lastly on this race, Bubba Wallace, Joe
- 18:48Logano, we've talked about this in recent weeks.
- 18:51They continue to implode it. It just seems like nothing,
- 18:54nothing can go right. I I mean, I think bubble walls
- 18:58still has a pretty good shot to to make the playoffs, but it's
- 19:02not it's not safe at this point. He is only, he is 30 points
- 19:07clear of the cut line now and he was second like 7 weeks ago.
- 19:10I don't know what the Hell's happening there.
- 19:12It is an absolute mess and obviously Gano is on the outside
- 19:15looking in and he is in there 40 points behind SVG for 16th.
- 19:20I don't know how he gets in almost, you know, let's see,
- 19:23just feels a couple wins and just does something outrageous.
- 19:28It feels like both those guys are really at risk.
- 19:31What do you make of those two guys and is there anything they
- 19:33can do to turn around the season?
- 19:35Yeah, I think this is going to be, it's disappointing to say if
- 19:40you're you're fans of these drivers, but I think to a
- 19:43certain point you are with the back of your baseball card says
- 19:48if if you look in terms of a recency bias, like regardless of
- 19:53how a season starts out, you know that more often than not,
- 19:57Bubba Wallace lives on the cut line.
- 20:00His entire career to date, despite the upside, despite A
- 20:04conviction there's more to get out of Bubba that you know when
- 20:11you throw it all out in the wash again, that he's going to be a
- 20:1415th, 10th to 15th place driver. Now, the only thing that's
- 20:18different this year is that Bubba was good to hang around
- 20:22the top ten in points and with the win in your inners, you
- 20:25know, bumping closer and closer to the top ten, that's where he
- 20:29got hurt. So it's not quite the same way
- 20:32he he's gotten there in the past, but he lives on the cut
- 20:35line. Logano, if you look at the last
- 20:39couple of years, you know, you're waiting for him to win
- 20:41his way in and survive his way through the playoffs.
- 20:44And, you know, it's not a surprise to me to see Logano
- 20:49outside of the top 16 in points because that's where he's lived
- 20:53the last couple of years too. And it's astounding.
- 20:56And, and I, I don't know what to make of it because I, I don't
- 20:59think Joey's washed. I don't think Paul is the
- 21:03problem. I think there are some things
- 21:05that Ford and Penske are going through that kind of gets easily
- 21:14easy, easy to dismiss because, you know, Blaney has been so
- 21:18good. So I hope that he got paid all
- 21:19the monies, all the gold boats, because he's clearly
- 21:23overcompensating for some deficiencies within Ford and
- 21:27Penske right now. And so I I don't understand why
- 21:31the 22 is not good. But I'm with you that the math
- 21:35is very quickly starting to not math because the back of the
- 21:38baseball card says he's not going to win in Mass enough to
- 21:43make up for that. And so, you know, even the 19
- 21:46team, right, they've been super unlucky.
- 21:49And certainly last summer we saw that they could win a handful of
- 21:53races and make this a moot point.
- 21:56But we've got 14 to go now, I think.
- 21:59And again, you know TikTok, the math is starting to not to not
- 22:02math. Yeah, absolutely.
- 22:04All right, Fox Time. I watched this race on TV so
- 22:10I'm, I'm with you, I, I, I've only missed, I've only missed
- 22:12like 5 or 6 cup races this year. And so I don't watch a lot of
- 22:16races on TV and I see what fans are saying but I can't fully
- 22:21relate 'cause I'm there. Oh boy, this was bad, This was
- 22:25bad. But let's go.
- 22:27I don't even know where to begin because it's that bad.
- 22:29Like it is unwatchable as a product, and when something so
- 22:35unwatchable that it makes it already kind of monotonous,
- 22:38boring product even worse, that's that's where the problem
- 22:41lies, right? Like, you can have great
- 22:44television coverage and mask some of the issues with the
- 22:47race. This is making those issues so
- 22:50much more prevalent. And that doesn't even account
- 22:55for the fact that they're missing all the action on track.
- 22:58You got guys in the booth who don't even understand simple
- 23:01math to calculate how Shane van Gisbergen is going to still win
- 23:04this race. Like Boyer's up there.
- 23:06He's 7 seconds behind. He's like, he's not going to get
- 23:08there. He's like, what are you talking
- 23:09about? He's literally there.
- 23:10And they just seem oblivious to what's happening.
- 23:13We can throw NASCAR into this because Cody Weir had a huge
- 23:16wreck again. He he had a huge wreck at
- 23:18Chicago last year. They didn't throw caution.
- 23:20He had a huge wreck this week. Damn near knocked the wall down.
- 23:23Kind of did knock the wall down. NASCAR doesn't throw caution.
- 23:26They don't fix the wall. TV doesn't even I mean, you
- 23:30don't even know what's happening there.
- 23:31You had the I got a list over here, but we'll all spin.
- 23:35We don't know how that happened or why that happened from from
- 23:37TV coverage, Josh Berry and Cole Custer.
- 23:39We don't know what happened there necessarily.
- 23:41Josh Berry and coast and host Carson Hosfar.
- 23:43I had to catch that on Twitter. It was very interesting.
- 23:46I thought Hosfar, you know, hooked them after he got booted.
- 23:48No, Berry just came off and we wouldn't know.
- 23:51Kyle Busch ran out of gas. He's running 5th.
- 23:54We didn't know Kyle Busch going for a top five after all the
- 23:58shit he's been through this year.
- 23:59He's going to go get a top five runs out of gas.
- 24:01Don't talk about it. I am dumbfounded how in the last
- 24:0410 laps of that race they missed all that action.
- 24:07How they you have the pieces to make this somewhat entertaining
- 24:10for us and you don't. On top of that, you just sound
- 24:13ignorant when you're commentating on the race.
- 24:16Yeah, I, I, no, no, I'm, I'm with you.
- 24:19I felt frustrated because, you know, I, I have a lot of tools
- 24:24at my disposal that even the average fan doesn't in terms of
- 24:27like real time scoring and, and data and analytics that, that
- 24:36were provided in the media. And so there's ways for me to
- 24:39comprehensively consume the race like fans.
- 24:42I have HBO Max, so I, I have the ability if I want to, to consume
- 24:46races that way. But because this is kind of my
- 24:49off weekend, I mean, I'm never really off, but because I'm not
- 24:52on the road, I kind of just wanted to casually watch this
- 24:55race, right? Like I, I grabbed my cat, my cat
- 24:58on my lap. I'm like, this is sit down and
- 25:00watch a NASCAR cup race and I don't want to turn on any of the
- 25:02other things. I barely use my scanner today
- 25:05because I just wanted to casually enjoy a race because I
- 25:08also thought it would be instructive to to kind of
- 25:11consume a race the way the fans do.
- 25:13And by the end of the race, I was so mad because I'm getting
- 25:16more more information and more details from my peers in the
- 25:22media who did go than I did from the broadcast, who should be the
- 25:26chief storyteller for this race and in this event.
- 25:30And I still don't fully understand.
- 25:32Like, I'm reading the comments, I'm listening to you.
- 25:34And I, there's things that I want to go follow up on.
- 25:37Like, I want to go fire up HBO Max tomorrow morning and watch
- 25:41some of those incidents back because TV did not tell me what
- 25:45I, as a consumer, as a fan in that moment needed to know.
- 25:48And it's just so disheartening. I will give Clint and the the
- 25:52booth kind of a pass on the math part of it because all they have
- 25:58to go on is based on Shane's pace throughout the day.
- 26:02And it's very clear that he had another gear all along that he
- 26:07was kind of saving and so. He's 2 seconds a lot faster.
- 26:10Yeah. Like it was huge.
- 26:12And so I will give them a pass on, well, the math doesn't say
- 26:14he's going to get there because we, we, we see his trends, We
- 26:17have the, the bar graphs, I have it in front of me too, of what
- 26:21his car's potential was all day. And if that's all you have to go
- 26:24by, he was supposed to get there with like 4 laps to go and he
- 26:29shattered that. That's because he was just
- 26:31withholding so much from, from all of us.
- 26:35So I'll give him a pass on that. But the number of crashes and
- 26:39last couple of lap, the Kyle Busch situations fuel all that's
- 26:44unacceptable. Like as a consumer who is more,
- 26:49more, more equipped with more data than most fans, I should
- 26:54not have as many questions as I still do, you know, 2 hours, 3
- 26:58hours after the race. Yeah, absolutely.
- 27:00I'm, I think I'm most disturbed by the Cody Ware thing because
- 27:06we saw this issue with the robo and Parker Clergman in the race.
- 27:09He should have, maybe shouldn't have won when the car was stuck
- 27:12in their entire barrier for 30 seconds right?
- 27:15Then this, the next year, Cody Ware has an incident in Chicago.
- 27:18And now we're a year later and we're having the same issues
- 27:20where NASCAR's oblivious to a car smashing the wall.
- 27:24Like I, I just don't know how. And it's not like Cody Ware was
- 27:2730 seconds behind the pack either.
- 27:29He was actually running within the he was about 20th when that
- 27:32happened. He's running mid pack with a
- 27:34bunch of guys and it just seems like we are not doing anything
- 27:39to rectify the issues that they said they were going to rectify
- 27:42the last time this happened. And so I, I just, I, I'm a, I'm
- 27:46a little disappointed and, and like the racing being is what it
- 27:50is, what it is. And I can live with it.
- 27:51And you show up with the pieces you got and you race with it
- 27:53and, and the show's good or not whatever.
- 27:56But these fundamental flaws that we have as as an I, I, I don't
- 27:59want to say we because I'm not technically in the industry
- 28:01other than this podcast, but that the industry has with
- 28:04officiating or talking about electric freaking O'Reilly
- 28:07series or all these dumb things that they continue to do.
- 28:12This feels like it highlighted so many of those things today
- 28:14and it just kind of set me off. I don't know.
- 28:19No, Yeah, I don't. I don't know if they have,
- 28:21because here's the thing, like TV did not give us great angles
- 28:24of what happened, which leads me to believe that they, they don't
- 28:28exist. So like TV was not capable of
- 28:31telling us the stories there because they didn't have the,
- 28:35the, the information and the views to even illustrate it,
- 28:39Which then leads me to wonder, does race control then not have
- 28:44it for? And I, I think some of this is
- 28:46front and center of mine because of what happened in the IndyCar
- 28:49race on Saturday, right? Like I, I think we're all super
- 28:52hyper aware of. Driver.
- 28:55Yeah, the driver safety and just general standards and practices
- 29:00that are being missed in high level Motorsports and super
- 29:05unfortunate. I'm not going to I'm not going
- 29:06to beat the hell out of them, but I, I think they know both TV
- 29:10and race control knows that there are some things to take
- 29:13back to the to the drawing board and I trust them to fix it.
- 29:16That's just unfortunate that these sort of things are
- 29:20manifesting a couple of Rd. course and or street course
- 29:23races in a in a row because they've already told us.
- 29:26Yeah, we acknowledge there's a problem.
- 29:28We got to clean some of that up. Well, here we are again.
- 29:32It's like when you date someone who cheats on you all the time.
- 29:34They're like, yeah, I know I shouldn't do this.
- 29:35And then they just go do it again.
- 29:37It's like, your words mean nothing, bro.
- 29:39Anyways, Ryan Priest, I I was very pissed off when this
- 29:45penalty was announced and Kyle Busch did not get one.
- 29:48I did not understand it. I do not agree with it.
- 29:51It's as obvious as night and day that they both did something
- 29:53intentionally. But no, that's not true.
- 29:59That's that's, that's, that's, that's not true.
- 30:04OK, So I, I, based on everything that I've I've heard and have
- 30:10been told and seen and I understand.
- 30:13Listen, I, I listen, I'm the guy.
- 30:14If you watched the show last week, I said you got to penalize
- 30:17both of them based on the information we had, with the
- 30:21caveat there might be some things in SMT that might
- 30:24convince me otherwise. So all this to say, last week I
- 30:31thought both of them should be penalized and right now I'm not
- 30:33sure either of them should should have been.
- 30:36But everything showed that Kyle was turning left, that he was
- 30:41trying to keep it straight, and the car appeared to have had
- 30:46some mechanical issues that prevented it from making the
- 30:50corner. Everything I've seen and
- 30:53everything that I've heard and everyone that I've talked to,
- 30:55they're kind of of the mentality that that that starts to track a
- 30:59little bit more. I know the visual just purely
- 31:02from a camera doesn't make it look good, but if you're trying
- 31:05to turn the car and it won't, Is it on him to then maybe lift?
- 31:10Yeah. But he hasn't made a corner yet,
- 31:11so I don't know if he knows how bad it is to that point.
- 31:15But all of that to say, I think, OK, I, I can understand the
- 31:20priest thing. I, I've kind of changed my mind
- 31:23on because there's nothing in the data, the SMT data to show
- 31:30that he was that that much more aggressive in the, the, the
- 31:35turn. Like he he really appeared to
- 31:37have not cut him a break tie a break that he would maybe would
- 31:41have cut him before or any anyone else.
- 31:44It wasn't that egregiously different.
- 31:45The only thing that NASCAR had to go go on was, you know, what
- 31:50was it? The next time I I get to the 54,
- 31:52I'm I'm over it. It's not like Ryan says I'm
- 31:55going to junk him. I'm going to destroy him.
- 31:58He just said something to the effects of I'm I'm over him,
- 32:01right. And so I'm not sure the data
- 32:04indicated enough for either now that we've had a week to chew on
- 32:08it, that either of those should should be a penalty.
- 32:11But I again, for those who don't watch the show regularly, I'm
- 32:14also still the mentality mentality of we just let drivers
- 32:18get out of the car and and punch another driver in the face.
- 32:21This would all be a moot point, but I digress.
- 32:24What so are you of the mind that this penalty should be
- 32:29overturned? Do you think they have a case or
- 32:32he's this is going to be, I mean, he's the cut line is
- 32:34sneaking up on them now after that and in this particular
- 32:37race, do you think there's opportunity to get those 25
- 32:40points back because it it could be a a crucial situation for
- 32:43him? Yeah, I think it would be
- 32:45similar in spirit to the buyer and penalty that, you know, he
- 32:48gets his points back and there's still a fine.
- 32:51And I think, I think that the 60 team would be more than glad
- 32:54they'll pay double the money to to get to get their points back,
- 32:57given, you know, the proximity that they're falling into.
- 33:01Those points are so valuable. And RFK is probably good for it.
- 33:07If it comes down to that. My gut says it'll be it'll be
- 33:12reduced on a pill, but we'll see.
- 33:17Last part about the Cup, Cup Series All Star race next
- 33:20weekend at Dover. It's obviously a unique
- 33:24situation that we're going to Dover for this particular event.
- 33:27First time out of the southeast at least we we did that one race
- 33:31at Bristol, but it has been a Charlotte Marsh Speedway at
- 33:33Landmark Speedway for a couple years.
- 33:35Whatever in the 80s and then North Wilkesboro.
- 33:38You don't You don't remember the The Fame Texas All Star race.
- 33:41Oh God, yeah, I forgot about the one Chastain.
- 33:44Chastain there that killed himself.
- 33:48I'm not too excited about the the entire prospect of this
- 33:52race, but I'm I'm, I'm also really nervous about the way
- 33:56they're going about it, the way, you know, the, the elimination,
- 33:59essentially the All Star Open, the length of the race being
- 34:04basically like a 350 mile race or whatever it is at Dover.
- 34:08What are your thoughts heading into the All Star race there?
- 34:09Are you keeping an open mind? Are you negatively looking at
- 34:12this thing like I am or what do you think?
- 34:14Dover in the Next Gen. era is not my favorite racetrack, but I
- 34:19will tell you I like the format and I think I think fans, and
- 34:25I'm not saying that fans are are stupid or anything like that.
- 34:29I just don't think that fans have fully opened themselves up
- 34:33to seeing what this format is. The Open still exist, just not
- 34:38in the way that you historically process it.
- 34:42Because they didn't want to take laps away from fans who have
- 34:45always attended Dover races. They wanted to give them a full
- 34:48length Cup race. And so the way they structured
- 34:51the format is they built the Open into this larger fulfilled
- 34:57race. We're just going to to cut you
- 34:59if you do not meet the the criteria.
- 35:02There's a little bit of of Vermont Milk Bowl.
- 35:07I don't know if anyone in the chat is familiar with the the
- 35:11Milk Bowl. It's this really, really famed
- 35:13ACT style car race. And in Vermont to where it's 3
- 35:17segments, they qualify, they race the first stage straight
- 35:20up, the entire field is inverted.
- 35:23And then they run the entire second stage and then it gets
- 35:26inverted and then they run the entire third stage.
- 35:29And the winner is not the first driver that crosses the finish
- 35:31line, it's actually the driver with the lowest average finish
- 35:35across the three segments after being inverted twice.
- 35:40And NASCAR was very heavily inspired by the Milk Bowl, but
- 35:46they just could not bring themselves to go all the way
- 35:48with having the winner of the race not be the person that
- 35:51crossed the finish line 1st. And I think it's probably fair
- 35:54to say that fans who are not familiar with the Milk Bowl
- 35:58probably would have rejected it. As much as I love that race, I
- 36:01still think we should try it because there's constant action,
- 36:05constant passing. Your constantly flipping the
- 36:07field over and over and over again.
- 36:08It just requires too much math. And as we've learned, asking Fox
- 36:12to give us real time good math might be a a tall order to.
- 36:18I don't. I don't think the racing will be
- 36:20great. It's.
- 36:23So I'm open to what they're going to give us.
- 36:26I, I, I, I'm open to the race being as long as it is because
- 36:30they're trying to give fans that and they're building the open
- 36:33into it with the inversions. All this to say, I've made my
- 36:38mind up to go and a lot of that decision was made based on the
- 36:43format. I waited until the format came
- 36:45out to book everything and I'm like, you know what?
- 36:48I think there's something here. I don't think it'll be enough to
- 36:50overcome this car and this product, but I I'm open to being
- 36:56proven wrong and if nothing else, I'll get a pretty good
- 36:58truck show and I'll get a great O'Reilly show and then the All
- 37:02Star race can be whatever, whatever it is.
- 37:04So to me it made it worth going. Gotcha.
- 37:07All right, well, the chat is getting anxious.
- 37:10Cletus McFarland is on on their mind.
- 37:15I'm not watching if y'all ain't talking about Cletus.
- 37:18How can we pigeonhole Cletus into this this episode?
- 37:22What do you think he had for breakfast this morning?
- 37:24Like I I don't know what else to talk about.
- 37:26So you think he's like a ham and egg guy or?
- 37:30I don't know. I'm not touching this.
- 37:33Do we have actually something, something of substance to talk
- 37:37about Cletus? No, do you see I got him into
- 37:39the into the whatever graphic? Yeah.
- 37:43I didn't. I didn't look at the graphic
- 37:45yet. I put him on the hood of Shane's
- 37:47car. Where was where was he this
- 37:49weekend? What did what did he have going
- 37:51on? I have no clue.
- 37:52I I don't I don't know if he's doing anything.
- 37:54That's what the chats here for. I figured because I'm, I'm, you
- 37:56know, oh, you. You stuck them on the car.
- 37:59Jesus. No, clean us up.
- 38:02Actually, I do have something to say.
- 38:04So I got a paycheck from Kenny Wallace and that was.
- 38:10Kenny Wallace. Kenny Wallace Media, to be
- 38:12clear. Kenny Wallace Media, the the,
- 38:13you know, the highest end of of media platform that there is.
- 38:18And I was like, what am I going to do with this money?
- 38:20It was just for a couple shows. I was like, I went and bought a
- 38:23couple of Cletus McFarland hats and a Cletus McFarland T-shirt
- 38:27and I'm going to give them away to to the fans as soon as they
- 38:30come in. We're going to do a giveaway to
- 38:33the Cletus fans because a lot of you guys are here for Cletus and
- 38:37we'll give it away. So I do have Cletus news and I
- 38:41just dropped it. So hopefully that satiates you
- 38:43guys for guys for the week when he starts getting into Nashville
- 38:46in a couple weeks, we'll obviously talk about that and
- 38:49then we'll we'll keep ramp things up.
- 38:51Maybe if the stuff arrives before then the giveaway will be
- 38:53for the national race. Maybe we'll mix it in with that.
- 38:55So we will give you Cletus content, I promise.
- 38:58I know he's the the money mover right now.
- 39:01So our needle mover. So we will definitely get there.
- 39:03Kate and Honeycutt, this is the the last thing I really have on
- 39:06my notes here. Absolute monster weekend.
- 39:08This is he needed this for, in my opinion, this is the thing he
- 39:11needed to really launch the rest of this year.
- 39:13To go out there and just be like, I am a dominant force and
- 39:16I'm going to go out and win every damn race.
- 39:18Similar to what Hyman's done in that 11 truck.
- 39:20I know he's super strong in late models and got a ton of truckies
- 39:23there, but that first truck win was huge.
- 39:25To do it on a road course is crazy.
- 39:26To beat Zilich is crazy. Like the way he did it was
- 39:29perfect because now he's going to be able to say, you know
- 39:31what, hell, I got the best truck.
- 39:32I'm just going to go kick ass. So I know you're you're good
- 39:35friends with them. You guys conversate a lot.
- 39:37Talk to me about his entire weekend, all the things he
- 39:40accomplished and just kind of put a bow on on what is it
- 39:44obviously a special weekend for him.
- 39:46Yeah, so I, I didn't go to Watkins Glen because I, I
- 39:49schedule all of my off weekends with Cars Tour races.
- 39:53I I love the cars tour and I try to schedule not going to cup
- 39:58races around the cars Tour. So certainly I was, I was at a
- 40:01Speedway last night. Kaden crosses the line after
- 40:06winning the Late model Stock race.
- 40:08He won the pro late model race earlier in the evening, won the
- 40:11late model stock race. And this kind of got him in
- 40:13trouble a little bit, but he came over the radio and was
- 40:15like. Who's the best?
- 40:19I am. It was kind of like that the
- 40:21bowling guy thing, you know, who are you?
- 40:24I am. This is kind of like what it
- 40:26was. And he had kind of ran Landon
- 40:30Lewis of Kevin Harvick incorporated into the wall on
- 40:34one of the final two restarts. And Landon was so mad.
- 40:39And Landon, who is the the understudy of Ron Hornaday
- 40:44junior was was like, you know, I heard him say, you know, no
- 40:49one's going to beat me. Well, I'm going to beat them.
- 40:51And so I appreciated the gamesmanship.
- 40:53Go go back to my social media feeds or on short track scenes,
- 40:57facebooks and and you'll see the the content.
- 41:00It was very compelling short track racing.
- 41:03But to your point, Kaden deserves to be a little big for
- 41:08his britches as as Landon said, because he had a great weekend
- 41:13and his star got a little brighter.
- 41:16I mean, even Justin Marks in the post race press conference today
- 41:20at Watkins Glen even took some time away from talking about
- 41:24Shane and then track house to to give a shout out to the Kaden
- 41:29Honeycutt, which I thought was really surprising because that's
- 41:32a Toyota driver. Now keep in mind, Justin Co owns
- 41:36the car store with Dell Junior, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick.
- 41:40So he, he does have a vested interest in that pipeline, which
- 41:44is where Kaden came from. But people are taking notice.
- 41:48And I, I've known for a long time that that Kaden was going
- 41:54to be special, not because he's a good race car driver, but he
- 42:00knows race cars. He grew up running, you know,
- 42:03dirt modifieds and dirt late models in Texas and was always
- 42:07super hands on with his equipment and every step along
- 42:10the way driving for Donnie Wilson and super late models,
- 42:14driving for Tom Usry and late model Stocks and every other car
- 42:18he's driven, he's been super hands on and he knows his way
- 42:22around the race car. He's everything you want A a
- 42:26blue collar grassroots turn potential superstar to be.
- 42:30And so there's a lot of really good young race car drivers.
- 42:33So I don't want to go overboard about Caden, but this is Caden's
- 42:36moment and I'm sure other drivers are going to have their
- 42:39moment and we'll give them their flowers too.
- 42:43But now that he's got this first truck went out of the way and I
- 42:45never would have predicted Watkins Glen because he just
- 42:48didn't grow up doing Rd. racing. That's a testament to him doing
- 42:51his homework. I think he's going, he's going
- 42:54to win a bunch of them, right? Like this is still the same
- 42:56team, Scott Zippidelli, the the entire same engineering crew
- 43:01going back to their time together at Hattori.
- 43:04People don't realize that this team that that's dominated the
- 43:07Truck Series, that is Greg Zippidelli or Greg Zippidelli.
- 43:11Scott Zippidelli's same Rd. crew going back to Atori.
- 43:14They just moved from Atori to Tricon and so you stick a good
- 43:18race car driver like a Corey Heim, like a Caden Honeycutt in
- 43:22that system and they're going to win 5 or 6 races and it might
- 43:26not happen this year. You give Caden a second year in
- 43:29that truck, he's probably winning 6-7 races too.
- 43:32Like get used to it. I still think he's got that
- 43:34outside this year. I mean, when you look at it,
- 43:37Laneburg is going to be tough week in, week out.
- 43:39But there's not. I mean, there's only a handful
- 43:40of guys that are really true race winners at at every track.
- 43:44And I, I think Kaden's in the best situation and, and like you
- 43:47said, zip it though, he's been doing this for a decade.
- 43:50Brett Moffett champion, Austin Hill should have been champion
- 43:53if if he just had Phoenix under under control.
- 43:56And then you look at, you know, what he did with Corey Heim.
- 44:00This is the next guy. And, and I think Honeycutt's
- 44:02going to kind of launch here the second-half of this year because
- 44:04he has a speed. It's it's there.
- 44:06We didn't get to it last week and I don't even know if I want
- 44:09to bring it up now because he just went 4 for four.
- 44:11But what I was bringing up with Caden Hunnicutt when he texted
- 44:14you was his closing ability. I was like, right there.
- 44:17I was like, man, it's he going to be able to start closing
- 44:20these races out because that, you know, he was really hard on
- 44:22himself after that race. And this, This is why I think
- 44:25this is such an important win is because not only did he close it
- 44:28out, but the the way he closed it out and how he did it, I
- 44:31think was about as impressive as you can do it.
- 44:33And I think it's just a a huge, huge win for him.
- 44:36Yeah, and it's the last thing that every race car driver who
- 44:39is a top guy at every level has to eventually overcome is that,
- 44:44you know, you, you, it's a cliche, but race car drivers say
- 44:47you have to run, learn to run in the top ten.
- 44:49The top five lose some some races to then eventually win
- 44:52them. And he's been in the mix, some
- 44:54second place finishes and restarts that got away from him
- 44:59and which race was earlier in the year.
- 45:01They all start to run together. Darlington, I think it was
- 45:07Darlington had a spring truck race, right?
- 45:10Yeah. And that was a race that he lost
- 45:12on a restart, if I recall. And he got out of the car and
- 45:14actually hugged his parents. And you could just tell he was
- 45:16he was wearing that one. And he wears his heart on his
- 45:21sleeves. And he's always been of the
- 45:25mindset that I will lose a race a certain way once, but I'm not
- 45:29going to lose a certain race twice.
- 45:32And that's generally been his career.
- 45:34And now that he's learned how to to throw away a race every which
- 45:39way possible, he's not going to make those mistakes again.
- 45:42So to your point, that ceiling is certainly there this year.
- 45:46And he's the presumptive championship favorite until
- 45:49proven otherwise. I mean, Riggs is right there
- 45:51too, obviously. But I still think a Scott
- 45:54Zippideli team, I'll take that over a front row team.
- 45:57Yeah, and the and the real positive for him is just the way
- 46:00the the playoffs layout Kansas, Charlotte, Homestead that is
- 46:02just goldmine for Scott's ability teams, you know that
- 46:06they're intermediate packages untouchable.
- 46:08So very, very cool weekend. Congratulations to him.
- 46:12I should we should talk about Connor Zillich just because I
- 46:15put him on the graphic, it would be pretty silly not to talk
- 46:18about his O'Reilly wins. So we can touch on that real
- 46:20quick. Jesse to me is the bigger story.
- 46:22Yeah, to me, I mean, give, give Connor all the praise in the
- 46:26world. But to me, Jesse was so close to
- 46:29perfect. And he he did make one mistake.
- 46:31He was, he was forced into the mistake.
- 46:35That's a rotten way to lose a race.
- 46:37Because I think that Danny Stockman just a brilliant, gutsy
- 46:41call that will not get credit now.
- 46:44But God, he, he he knew he had the car.
- 46:46He knew he had the driver, the driver just had to be perfect
- 46:50and he was up until the final corner.
- 46:52Yeah, absolutely. I don't really know if there's a
- 46:55whole lot from that race. Obviously zilch doesn't hurt
- 46:57himself getting out of the car. That was a big win.
- 47:00I I find everything about, you know, getting out of the roof of
- 47:03the car funny to every single time.
- 47:04I was like, yeah, I remember when he fell on his head, you
- 47:07know, I just, I just replayed every time.
- 47:09So glad he's OK from from that deal.
- 47:10But a little extra moment there in Victory Lane with the pad on
- 47:15on the ground. So I thought that was just just
- 47:17kind of cool. And then the last thing I want
- 47:19to talk about from that race or I have two things.
- 47:21One, Brett Cruz is now within the the Chase bubble.
- 47:24He's now officially in which we knew he would be.
- 47:27He is closing in on top five. Like he is chomping down points
- 47:31on these guys. He's coming, he is coming.
- 47:34So I wanted to update that. And then Natalie Decker, we
- 47:38talked about Cletus not being ready for O'Reilly races at at
- 47:42Rockingham. I shouldn't be on the track.
- 47:44We've had that point. Natalie Decker is at the point
- 47:47where I'm I'm like, how can we allow this this to continue
- 47:51Daytona? The not even checking up and
- 47:54destroying car was was unacceptable.
- 47:57She was 10 seconds off the pace. Now, either that truck was that
- 48:00bad or she has no business on the racetrack.
- 48:04What do you think? I am very reluctant to opine
- 48:10just because I'm old enough now and I've been doing this long
- 48:13enough that I, I used to, I would used to just shoot from
- 48:17the hip and I thought I was the smartest guy in the room and I
- 48:21would say stuff and then I would be very quickly reminded how
- 48:24little I didn't know. And so I, I wasn't at the
- 48:26racetrack this weekend, right? So I haven't done my due
- 48:28diligence. I haven't checked in.
- 48:30I haven't talked to anyone from the team.
- 48:31So I don't know. But I can tell you, historically
- 48:34speaking, that teams, when they're cashing a check and it's
- 48:38from a driver that they know is not there to be competitive and
- 48:44to to put in the work, the effort on a car is not the same
- 48:49as it normally is. And I'm not saying that was the
- 48:52case here because I do not want to undermine or diminish
- 48:57anyone's work ethic or the work that they do.
- 48:59But how could you? How could you, you know, put
- 49:02your heart and soul into a car that you know is not going to to
- 49:06to be in the mix? And so that's also not her her
- 49:11what what bread and butter she might have certainly isn't in
- 49:14Rd. course racing. She grew up in the, you know,
- 49:16late model scene in Wisconsin. And certainly she's capable of
- 49:22running superspeedways, you know, wide open on the throttle.
- 49:26But that that partnership that allowed her to go do a road
- 49:30course race was not well thought out, mostly just from a safety
- 49:33standpoint. And by the way, what I hate the
- 49:35most about it is that it then put NASCAR and all the teams in
- 49:43a bad spot because we sent trucks home with drivers who are
- 49:46more capable of competing. And I'm going to get you in a
- 49:49second. Yeah, yeah.
- 49:50And so it puts me in the position of having to defend the
- 49:52system because people are like, how can you allow that car, a
- 49:55truck to be on the racetrack? And I'm like owner points
- 49:59because if you if you do not give the owner points value,
- 50:04you're going to lose participation over the course of
- 50:06the year. And so the system is good.
- 50:08This is just one of the rare instances where a driver put the
- 50:13system in a bad light because I don't want to revamp the the
- 50:16owner point structure. Like you want to reward teams
- 50:18that show up every week because having fulfilled is in fact a
- 50:23good thing. But every now and then you have
- 50:25a situation like this to where it's hard to defend it.
- 50:29Yeah. So the, the question I want to
- 50:31pose that after everything you just said, which was fantastic,
- 50:34you're, you're very eloquent. Sometimes she was 9 seconds off
- 50:40the pole here. And in F1, there's a 107% rule.
- 50:45Basically you have to run a certain lifetime within the
- 50:47leader or they can say go home, you're not racing.
- 50:50She was, I think it would have been 112%.
- 50:53It's basically where she was at within the scenario.
- 50:56She's she's so far off the pace that she wouldn't qualify.
- 50:59Does there need to be some sort of rule within the NASCAR
- 51:02spectrum that says if you can't make a certain speed, it doesn't
- 51:05matter? Now, obviously if a motor blows
- 51:07in qualifying or transmission laser like you take certain
- 51:10things into account. But if she can't put up a lap
- 51:12time within reason and and like Tony Brighton, sorry, I messed
- 51:17up that the last thing there she was competitive.
- 51:19Her her she's she's never going to be a race winner right or
- 51:22anything. But her lap times are
- 51:23competitive. She's someone that I do believe
- 51:26belongs on the track for what she is in the situation.
- 51:29She and she was three or she was 5 seconds faster than what
- 51:32Decker was in qualifying. Like they're in different zip
- 51:36codes and and Brettinger would have been the 32nd fastest
- 51:39qualifier or whatever. Does there need to be a rule to
- 51:42prevent someone just showing up in a truck and and getting in
- 51:45the race? I'm still inclined to say no
- 51:49because you want to reward those teams, but certainly if they're
- 51:53not meeting minimum speed, then you get them off the racetrack
- 51:56and you slap too slow on the on the final rundown.
- 52:01And that's super unfortunate. And it's not, it's not fair to a
- 52:05faster driver or faster car, but it's also the rule.
- 52:08And I don't think this is going to happen enough to warrant
- 52:13having industry wide conversations about it.
- 52:17It's just unfortunate for everyone involved that we we
- 52:22never really look at them. But people get sent home faster.
- 52:24People get sent home all the time.
- 52:26Like we see that all the time. And it's only a talking point
- 52:30because of who it is and how slow this particular instance
- 52:35was. But week in and week out, this
- 52:38is not a thing that we tend to put a lot of energy into and I
- 52:41don't think we should as again, it's unfortunate and I hate it,
- 52:44but we won't talk about this again for another couple of
- 52:47months. Kelsey Graces again, maybe?
- 52:50Sorry. That's great, by the way.
- 52:53I, I, I, I said this at Daytona too.
- 52:55And I just, I always want to be clear because I I hate, I hate
- 53:00dunking on people that I have to look in the eye at some point.
- 53:05And I said this after Daytona when this became a talking
- 53:08point. I think there's a place for
- 53:10Natalie Decker and NASCAR. I genuinely, I want to tell
- 53:14everyone in the chat, she loves the sport and she wants to find
- 53:18a place to participate in it. Like despite the theatrics and
- 53:22her behavior, which is not for everyone and and certainly it
- 53:26has a shelf life, she does love racing and her she comes from a
- 53:30family of racers. That's all her family's ever
- 53:32done is short track racing and and compete at the the NASCAR
- 53:35levels. I still maintain that she is a
- 53:39brilliant marketer. She knows how to sell things,
- 53:44but I think that her her business savviness could be
- 53:48utilized in a different role to be valuable to a team and a
- 53:54driver who who has the skill set she lacks.
- 54:00And I would just love to see her turn her her marketing savviness
- 54:04to another Ave. because I want people to know she she cares
- 54:08genuinely about racing legitimately.
- 54:11But all she knows how to sell right now is her brand, and that
- 54:15brand has a very small shelf life.
- 54:20Well said. All right.
- 54:22Anything I missed? I, I I don't think so.
- 54:25Easy week. We're under an hour here, so I'm
- 54:26excited about that. You got a hockey game to watch?
- 54:28Anything else you need to get off your chest?
- 54:34No, I don't think so. I mean, I feel now, now, now I
- 54:37feel obligated to. I, I think I, I say this once a
- 54:40show that I, we have way more participants in the show this
- 54:43week than ever before, which I think is a really super positive
- 54:46sign given the race was not that compelling.
- 54:49And so I hope you guys stick around.
- 54:51I love talking racing with y'all.
- 54:54We're starting to build a community here and that is not
- 54:56lost on me. So I appreciate everyone in the
- 54:58chat. I read every single comment.
- 55:00You'll see me if I'm, if you're watching the show, I keep
- 55:02looking down as I want to know what you guys are saying and
- 55:07what you think about the race every week.
- 55:08And I appreciate our our community.
- 55:11Yeah, perfect. Well said, Thank you guys for
- 55:14checking out the show. I I don't know if the 9:00 PM
- 55:16start time will stick very long. It will probably be at 12:00
- 55:20next time. I don't think so.
- 55:21Dover. No lights at Dover.
- 55:23Oh, you're right. Are you going?
- 55:25I am. OK well let me know I'm here
- 55:28whenever you guys are ready to do a show.
- 55:31So just just send me a text. Check out short track scene.
- 55:35Matt's got a lot of good stuff out there this week.
- 55:36I thought a lot of cool. I thought the Landon Lewis quote
- 55:38was fantastic. I thought that was very, very
- 55:40good stuff. So check that out and we will
- 55:42catch you next week. Motor motor motor sport don't my
- 55:45my actual employer. That's up to you motorsport.com
- 55:49though, Yes, definitely. You can just follow me and Matt
- 55:53do whatever. He's going to post stuff all the
- 55:54time. So if you're if you're looking
- 55:55for good racing coverage, obviously give him a follow.
- 55:58We will catch you next week, guys.
- 55:59Thank you. Bye.