Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Is This Tyler Reddick's Year? Matt Weaver vs South Alabama Speedway AI Drama | The Burnout

Transcript

Is This Tyler Reddick's Year? Matt Weaver vs South Alabama Speedway AI Drama | The Burnout · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  What's up, everyone? Welcome to the burnout.
• 0:03
  I am Ryan Larkin. Matt is it's a mess in that
• 0:09
  waivers hotel room. He'll, he'll figure it out
• 0:11
  eventually. I, I decided, just decided to
• 0:14
  press the live button because I, I couldn't wait any longer.
• 0:16
  Matt, there's something blocking the top.
• 0:20
  I'm going to troubleshoot in real time and this is just part
• 0:24
  of the the beauty of this show. We're going to talk racing while
• 0:28
  I troubleshoot because I'm I'm taking way too much of your
• 0:30
  time. It's going way too late.
• 0:32
  I think this is actually good entertaining, you know,
• 0:36
  podcasting. I really do.
• 0:38
  So we we can do this at the same time.
• 0:41
  Right. Yeah, I don't typically stay up
• 0:42
  this late unless I'm getting lucky and I I don't feel like
• 0:45
  that's going to happen tonight. So where, where are you at,
• 0:48
  Matt? Where?
• 0:48
  Where do you have to drive to before we got going?
• 0:51
  Oh man, I'm in Monroe, NC because it makes no sense for me
• 0:56
  to go back home tonight because as you guys probably know by
• 0:59
  now, I'm doing door bumper clear tomorrow.
• 1:01
  And so it doesn't make sense for me to go all the way back home
• 1:04
  just to come back to, to, to whatever town this is in that
• 1:09
  I'm going to Mooresville. It's so late, all these.
• 1:13
  It's been a weekend. And so, yeah.
• 1:17
  Awesome. What time you got to be off for
• 1:21
  that? Is that early or is that?
• 1:22
  I'm glad you asked. When?
• 1:24
  When? When Freddie Craft texted me the
• 1:26
  other day was like, hey, you want to come on, DBC?
• 1:28
  Well, hell yeah, man. And he's like, it's 9:30 or
• 1:32
  10:00. I'll let you know tomorrow.
• 1:33
  As in Saturday. Well, now it's Sunday.
• 1:36
  I texted Freddie and I said what time?
• 1:39
  And I'm here to tell you if we ever have lunch, we have we have
• 1:42
  coffee, we're going to go somewhere.
• 1:45
  If you give me multiple choices, I'm always choosing the latter.
• 1:48
  So right now we're recording at 10 in the morning because he
• 1:51
  told me 930 or 10. Smart smart.
• 1:54
  Well, that's not too bad. Then you'll you'll hopefully get
• 1:56
  a few hours. I'm glad we got got going here.
• 2:01
  I was starting to get. I feel so bad these I'm.
• 2:03
  Sorry. Every week I put a time up like
• 2:06
  hey, show starts at 11:00 and we've never hit that time so.
• 2:11
  I'm, I'm going to be super candid the, the weird place that
• 2:15
  we're in and maybe even talking about it publicly will will
• 2:18
  change the dynamic a little bit. Like this is an unsanctioned
• 2:22
  podcast. I work for motorsport.com and
• 2:26
  you know, I've brought up to them in the past.
• 2:28
  Hey, listen, I want to be in this space.
• 2:31
  It would make more sense that if I'm, if I'm, I'm doing it
• 2:34
  through Motorsports, I'm always super conscious because they
• 2:39
  don't want to do it right now. It's it's a can they keep
• 2:42
  kicking down the road. We're going to do podcasts and
• 2:44
  multimedia stuff later and later, later, later.
• 2:49
  And so like I, I want to do this show because I want to talk to
• 2:53
  people, the people who are, who are watching, who are, who watch
• 2:56
  later. We've, we've got a community
• 2:58
  that's growing here and I care about it, but it's not part of
• 3:01
  the actual job description right now.
• 3:04
  And so if I could ever actually get motorsport to buy into this
• 3:08
  thing and want to do it, well, then maybe I could do it sooner.
• 3:10
  But I don't want to, to leave and drive to wherever I'm doing
• 3:15
  the show or to go into the, the radio room if I'm not done doing
• 3:19
  the actual job that I get paid for, because that still comes
• 3:22
  first. And so I'm constantly balancing
• 3:24
  those things, the things that I feel like I need to do to make
• 3:26
  sure I keep my job, trying to cultivate this community and,
• 3:30
  and the thing that we're building here and the Kenny
• 3:32
  Wallace, you know, media network, there's just a lot of
• 3:35
  different factors. I'm constantly weighing in my
• 3:39
  brain. Short track scene is always a
• 3:41
  distraction. But certainly this weekend, my,
• 3:45
  my brain is running, you know, 150%.
• 3:50
  Nice. All right, well, let's talk
• 3:51
  NASCAR since that's what we're here to do Real quick.
• 3:54
  Thank you for everyone. He's here at, you know, 12:51 in
• 3:57
  the morning and, and watching this live really appreciate.
• 4:00
  You you can be here at 12:51. I guess there's some people that
• 4:03
  are on the West Coast. It's not too bad for them, but
• 4:07
  for for the people that are up late, I, I really appreciate it.
• 4:12
  Very fun. Darlington race weekend.
• 4:13
  I, I do think it kind of for the most part delivered.
• 4:16
  I do have questions about the Cup race in terms of what we the
• 4:20
  hyperbolic nature of the conversation heading into the
• 4:23
  weekend and then what we actually saw.
• 4:26
  But let's talk Kyler Reddick, fourth win of the year, just
• 4:29
  kind of kicking everyone's ass at this point.
• 4:31
  He was untouchable. If you really look at the speed.
• 4:34
  The only thing that was going to hold him back was was the
• 4:35
  alternator issue. And and even that didn't matter.
• 4:38
  They brought out the the big boy battery and we're able to make
• 4:41
  it to the end. Kyler Reddick, what do you make
• 4:43
  of Reddick's run? And then sprinkle in some RFK
• 4:46
  talks and say we're kind of the dominant team in in the middle
• 4:48
  stages. Why Reddick had to make his way
• 4:50
  back up there. No, listen, I don't, I don't
• 4:52
  know what more we can say about about Tyler Reddick in the the
• 4:56
  run they're on right now. I mean, I tweeted it when I
• 4:59
  wrote my my first post race story.
• 5:02
  You're not supposed to do this in the Next Gen. era.
• 5:06
  I mean, I know we've seen teams roll off three wins in a row,
• 5:12
  but to open a season 4 out of 6, having a 95 point championship
• 5:19
  lead? And there's some caveats.
• 5:20
  And I wrote this in my motorsport piece that, you know,
• 5:23
  the first one's the Daytona 500, so OK.
• 5:25
  And then the second one's kind of this super intermediate track
• 5:30
  and you could go, well, you know, he's always been good on
• 5:33
  road courses, so of course he won there too.
• 5:36
  But man, I'll tell you when you win Darlington, people say it
• 5:40
  all the time. This is like the ultimate test
• 5:43
  of driver and team and it tests every, every component.
• 5:49
  And for them to have even had something go wrong, it's very
• 5:52
  similar to the Blaney win at Phoenix two weeks ago.
• 5:56
  You have something go wrong and you can overcome it anyway.
• 5:59
  And it's just a reminder that this team is really, really
• 6:01
  good. And so I don't, I don't know
• 6:03
  what more I could say that I haven't said already or written
• 6:08
  about this team. Billy Scott in 2311, Nick Payne,
• 6:12
  the spotter like this is a real championship contender.
• 6:16
  And it's it's actually kind of a shame now because I think
• 6:19
  they're going to win maybe one or two more races in the regular
• 6:22
  season because they look that strong.
• 6:24
  And the most they're going to have to show for it is a 25
• 6:27
  point advantage. They could win the next 20 races
• 6:30
  in a row and they're still just going to have a 25 point
• 6:33
  advantage when when the Chase starts.
• 6:35
  And that's kind of unfortunate. But more than likely this is the
• 6:38
  ebbs and flows of a season. I mean that they're the hot out
• 6:41
  of hand right now, but you know, Penske's going to keep bringing
• 6:45
  good cars and Gibbs is going to bring good cars, and there's
• 6:48
  going to be some Hendrick tracks too.
• 6:50
  But man, it's just really interesting to see someone roll
• 6:54
  off for the first six in this era.
• 6:56
  That's just not something you're supposed to do.
• 6:58
  Yeah, for sure. I mean that the parody aspect of
• 7:00
  this car is meant to kind of avoid the situation, right?
• 7:04
  Like it eliminates dominance, but and there is a lot of unique
• 7:08
  oddity Ness to winning Daytona Atlanta back-to-back and then
• 7:12
  also getting a road course where you're obviously very good at
• 7:15
  the the schedule and the situation lined up perfectly.
• 7:18
  Thankfully we're going to get a you know, I don't want to say he
• 7:22
  won't win the next two weeks, but he has one top ten at
• 7:24
  Bristol and Martinsville in the last 10 races combined.
• 7:27
  So I feel comfortable to say that he's probably not going to
• 7:30
  be a factor for the next couple weeks.
• 7:31
  So it'll be interesting to see as we get further into the the
• 7:34
  schedule tracks that aren't great for him.
• 7:37
  Kind of the field catches back up how that points lead kind of
• 7:40
  shrinks or does he just continue being elite?
• 7:43
  He he's obviously fantastic. Darlington, I'd say he's the the
• 7:46
  best guy at this track right now.
• 7:48
  He he's as good as everyone. Everyone says Larsen is.
• 7:51
  In my opinion. Everyone loves saying how good
• 7:53
  Larsen is, but Reddick has been the guy.
• 7:56
  Aside from a couple years ago when he was running for the
• 7:59
  regular season points and was sick in the middle of the race
• 8:01
  and all that. He's had huge race winning
• 8:04
  upside every single time and it's a joy to watch.
• 8:06
  Honestly, it feels like he knows how to navigate this track
• 8:09
  better than anyone. Well, you know, it's funny, I
• 8:11
  asked him after the race. I said, you know, again, you're
• 8:15
  not supposed to do this. And he's like, well, you know,
• 8:18
  we've we've we've had some great tracks, you know, say what you
• 8:20
  will about Daytona, but Echo Park, we've had some good runs
• 8:24
  there and code all all those caveats I mentioned, right?
• 8:27
  He's like, you know, we'll we'll see what the rest of the season
• 8:30
  comes. But he said these are me tracks.
• 8:32
  I'm like, OK, well, every track seems like AU track right now.
• 8:37
  Like what what else is it is AU track and he didn't really bite
• 8:42
  on the question, but Denny Denny did.
• 8:44
  And Denny said their weakness right now is short tracks.
• 8:47
  They didn't win Phoenix, obviously.
• 8:50
  Tyler even said at the end of the his press conference, Amanda
• 8:54
  Ellis from NASCAR said what she says after the end of every
• 8:57
  press conference. You know, thank you for joining
• 8:59
  us this weekend, Darlington. We'll we'll we'll see all of you
• 9:03
  next weekend at at Martinsville. And Reddick was like, well, if I
• 9:07
  really, if I win there, it's really going to be the end of
• 9:09
  the world. So I think he recognizes that is
• 9:12
  not a strength of his, but I will I will tell you they found
• 9:16
  a gear as a company. He's found a gear as a driver.
• 9:20
  I actually, I think he'll be in the mix.
• 9:22
  I don't, I don't know that I'm calling him to go, you know, win
• 9:25
  back-to-back again. He's he's going to do the full
• 9:27
  Michael Jordan, win 3, leave for a little bit, win 3 again.
• 9:31
  I'm not calling that. But when you have a hot hand man
• 9:34
  it it, it takes a little bit for someone else to take it.
• 9:38
  Yeah, for sure. I think there's a a a pretty
• 9:43
  good chance that he gets out of the regular season as a champion
• 9:46
  at this point. I mean, it's going to be very,
• 9:48
  very hard to to bet against that.
• 9:51
  How much of a factor do you think having just 2525 points
• 9:55
  will be? Is that, is that enough?
• 9:57
  Do you think it kind of just resets and and?
• 10:00
  Are we talking playoff format six weeks into the to the year?
• 10:04
  Is that what we're doing? Yeah, pretty much.
• 10:07
  Yeah, I will. Tell you on the draw on the
• 10:09
  drive tonight, I I thought about it, I was like, man, is this.
• 10:13
  Course you did, we're all thinking.
• 10:14
  It's turning unfair, but you know what we we said we wanted
• 10:19
  points racing and we wanted this to be more of a, you know,
• 10:25
  having a champion be determined by some sort of average finish
• 10:30
  mechanism. And they are rewarding wins, you
• 10:36
  know, more value for the win. But gosh, it doesn't mean
• 10:42
  anything for this final ten, I guess.
• 10:43
  And if he doesn't win the championship after winning four
• 10:46
  races early in the regular season because he doesn't win
• 10:49
  again in the final 10. It feels like we can already get
• 10:53
  to the conversation where it's like full season points.
• 10:55
  I feel like I'm almost in the bar.
• 10:57
  I'm like none of this really matters.
• 10:59
  Yeah, this is going to turn into when the brights were when the
• 11:03
  lights were brightest is what this is turning into Mamba.
• 11:07
  Yeah, real quick. I just want to say something.
• 11:11
  If people want opinions, I'll I'll give one.
• 11:13
  No, there's no conspiracy. NASCAR is not letting Reddick
• 11:17
  win because of a lawsuit. If you believe that, you're an
• 11:19
  idiot. I'm going to say that and move
• 11:21
  on. And.
• 11:22
  Not a performance. It's irrational, think that way.
• 11:27
  RFK looked great. I mean, they've been really
• 11:29
  strong all year. Obviously they've got all three
• 11:32
  cars in the top ten points are really close to it.
• 11:35
  Heading into it, they were already in the top 16 and then
• 11:37
  this race really solidified it for them.
• 11:39
  It looked like the RFK of two years ago on intermediates,
• 11:43
  although with the short track package now, I don't even know
• 11:45
  how you necessarily equate that. It seems like they're just good
• 11:48
  here at Darlington. Regardless.
• 11:50
  What do you make of them as a potential 2311?
• 11:54
  I guess isn't a big three, but RK even feels a step below 2311
• 11:58
  in terms of information and and everything.
• 12:01
  Do you think they have a dark horse chance?
• 12:03
  Maybe contend for a championship given their early season pace
• 12:06
  and everything we're seeing from them.
• 12:08
  Yeah, I mean, I I want to say more and that's not fair because
• 12:11
  six races is still it's small, it's a small sample size.
• 12:17
  And this is also a track, this is a Brad, Chris, Chris and and
• 12:22
  and Priest track. So like if you were to tell me
• 12:26
  that all three RFK cars were good at Darlington independent
• 12:32
  of anything else that happened in the year, I would say yeah.
• 12:37
  And next, but I, I will, I will tell you though, and this is
• 12:42
  kind of a larger picture, one thing that's kind of satisfying
• 12:45
  to watch this year is that we spend so much time talking about
• 12:50
  the big three OEM teams and how it's so hard for other, other
• 12:55
  teams and organizations to overcome just the, the data gap
• 13:00
  that those three OEM affiliated teams have.
• 13:04
  And 2311 is not part of the Big Three.
• 13:06
  RFK is not part of the Big Three.
• 13:08
  And I, I just, I, I think it would be cool if we get to the
• 13:12
  Coke 600. And we're still talking about
• 13:14
  there being a pathway for, you know, Chris Buscher and Brad
• 13:18
  Kozlowski to chase a championship, for Tyler Reddick
• 13:21
  to chase a championship in addition to the Big Three.
• 13:26
  Yeah, I want to throw inspire a little bit there too.
• 13:29
  You know, what is what is the element of Darlington that
• 13:34
  allows for not the big three powerhouse teams to necessarily
• 13:38
  be just Uber dominant for guys like?
• 13:40
  GR setup. Oh OK, Reddick side JGR setup
• 13:44
  aspire HMS connection yes, but still I mean Suarez top 10 post
• 13:49
  far looked amazing RFK obviously like that's that's not a small
• 13:55
  sample. That is more than half of our
• 13:57
  top ten was was populated by kind of second tier teams, so to
• 14:02
  speak. Is that just Darlington being
• 14:05
  Darlington and kind of open up the field for everyone or is
• 14:07
  this a sign that some of these teams are narrowing in on the
• 14:11
  gap to a degree? I know we've talked about the
• 14:14
  Spire lawsuit and they're spending money at will, bringing
• 14:17
  as many guys and and knowledge as they can.
• 14:19
  Obviously they're trying to make a push, but is there a point and
• 14:23
  you're going to say no, but is there a point where some of
• 14:25
  these teams can start going toe to toe?
• 14:27
  Obviously Reddick's doing it, but toe to toe with the big guys
• 14:30
  and we get a bigger, There's a lot of potential, you know, race
• 14:36
  winners on a weekly basis. Well, I'll say this, we still
• 14:42
  have a spec car and the, the gaps in margins are so tight, so
• 14:49
  tiny. And I, I, I do think that this
• 14:52
  higher horsepower, lower downforce configuration does
• 14:58
  create a little bit more separation between everybody.
• 15:02
  And I think that it's no surprise that good drivers, like
• 15:06
  really good drivers who are not with the elite teams were able
• 15:12
  to, to break out of the pack a little bit and to, to show up
• 15:16
  today. Because I think this, this
• 15:19
  racing product lends itself to being able to, you know, I'll
• 15:24
  kick your coverage. I'll kick your coverage a little
• 15:27
  bit over the course of the entire year.
• 15:30
  And, and when, when you, when you create a larger sample size,
• 15:34
  I still struggle to see how you can overcome those big three
• 15:39
  OEM, you know, data sample sizes.
• 15:42
  I just, I don't, I don't know, you're asking me a really broad
• 15:46
  question and it's really late and I have so many different
• 15:52
  thoughts on that dynamic. I, I'll say this, I think that
• 15:56
  this championship format, even, even once you get to the Chase,
• 16:00
  I think it makes it more likely for an RFK for Aspire for 2311
• 16:05
  to win the championship as opposed to just simply getting
• 16:08
  to the final four and needing to win one race that you've
• 16:11
  prepared all year for. That's where I think Penske,
• 16:16
  Gibson, Hendrick, just even when 2311 and and Reddick got to
• 16:20
  Phoenix couple of years ago, they could not, you know, bring
• 16:24
  the, the knife they needed to that gunfight.
• 16:27
  And so I think when you have that larger sample size, you
• 16:30
  have a better chance to win a championship because you here's
• 16:33
  the thing, Reddick and nickel and dime them from here.
• 16:35
  He's got four wins. He can nickel and dime them to
• 16:38
  the chase. And then once he gets to the
• 16:40
  chase, he's got to win again. But I I do think this format
• 16:42
  allows for a little greater collection of championship
• 16:47
  contenders. Yeah.
• 16:48
  What was the general consensus of the race itself from the
• 16:51
  drivers? Because watching the race, I
• 16:54
  didn't notice much different from past years.
• 16:57
  I mean, tire fall off I don't think was as much as they were
• 17:00
  advertising it would be. I think it was a little bit less
• 17:03
  than than what we were hoping for.
• 17:04
  There also wasn't that much guys busting their ass, which, you
• 17:08
  know, I don't want a bunch of guys spinning out in chaos.
• 17:11
  But I it felt like pretty much the same event with a little bit
• 17:14
  more tire fall off. Did the driver seem to like it
• 17:16
  more? Did they think is it just going
• 17:18
  to be like softer tire, more horsepower?
• 17:20
  Every single time they they bring it out, there's going to
• 17:22
  want more, more, more. Well, keep in mind that this
• 17:27
  this formula is complicated like downforce actually creates tire
• 17:33
  wear. And so yes, when you lower the
• 17:37
  downforce and you're you're potentially sliding the tires
• 17:41
  more and you're lifting sooner, that creates tire fall off too.
• 17:46
  When you're taking less load off the tires that that decreases
• 17:49
  horsepower. The cars were hard to drive.
• 17:52
  They were absolutely harder to drive.
• 17:55
  And I think that made the drivers a little bit more
• 17:58
  conservative. And so I, I think sometimes fans
• 18:01
  think there's a direct correlation between, oh, harder
• 18:04
  to drive. That means you're spinning.
• 18:05
  Sometimes it's so hard to drive, you're just hanging on.
• 18:08
  And that's the one thing I heard from so many drivers today.
• 18:11
  I was hanging on. I was hanging on.
• 18:13
  But when you race that way, and this is I think TV failed fans
• 18:18
  today because I was watching the race, I had TV in front of me,
• 18:23
  the live screen with radio also in my ear to my left.
• 18:27
  And so I, I felt like I was watching two different races
• 18:30
  because I don't think that TV was, was telling me the same
• 18:33
  story that radio and the live feed was.
• 18:37
  And that's really unfortunate because there was a ton of
• 18:40
  passing. There was way more passing for
• 18:42
  this race than there was in the spring race last year. 16 lead
• 18:46
  changes for this race compared to four last spring, just
• 18:49
  comparing the 400 mile race. But I think sometimes, you know,
• 18:55
  the the narrative for this race was they're going to be so out
• 18:58
  of control when it's going to be tons of wrecking and tons of
• 19:01
  action. It's not that kind of race.
• 19:03
  Darlington is super narrow. So like, this car still wants
• 19:07
  clean air. But the thing that I immediately
• 19:10
  saw, I'm so surprised that more fans didn't pick up on it too.
• 19:14
  And the drivers, you know, validated what I thought I saw
• 19:17
  with my eyes is that you could suck up right up to someone's
• 19:20
  rear end and follow them into the corner and set up your next
• 19:24
  corner in a way that you couldn't couldn't before.
• 19:27
  And that is objectively true. And I thought that made the
• 19:30
  racing so much better. I I think back to this the the
• 19:34
  first southern 500 with the next Gen. where air Jones was just
• 19:37
  air blocking Denny Hamlin. Denny was faster.
• 19:40
  You can't do that with this. The car is too out of control.
• 19:42
  You can't point and click the way you you could with the old
• 19:45
  package and with less power. I thought that this race created
• 19:49
  a lot more comers and goers. Blaney had the best line.
• 19:52
  Blaney was like, this used to be how NASCAR racing was.
• 19:55
  He's like, we would take the green flag or we would come off
• 19:58
  a pit cycle and somebody would just be hounding me and just be
• 20:02
  racing all over me and I'm just like.
• 20:04
  Go. And he's like, I will see you in
• 20:07
  20 laps. He's like, lo and behold, for
• 20:09
  the first time in my Cup career that actually happened.
• 20:12
  He's like, I've always said that.
• 20:14
  And it doesn't really play out that way.
• 20:16
  Blaney was like 20 laps later, they burn their shit up.
• 20:18
  And I committed to my my driving approach, which was
• 20:22
  conservative. And so there was lots of this.
• 20:24
  And I think fans think action means this constantly.
• 20:29
  And it wasn't this race. Darlington's never this race.
• 20:31
  Good Darlington, though, his drivers having to manage manage
• 20:35
  their pace go hey, do I want to go 70% Do I want to go 7580%?
• 20:40
  There's lots of this and there was tons of passing.
• 20:44
  I don't think TV and this is not Mike and Clinton Kevin's fault.
• 20:48
  I think the direction did not do a good job of emphasizing, you
• 20:52
  know, the amount of strategies, the amount of undercuts on pit
• 20:56
  Rd., the multiple ways that teams and drivers had to try to
• 21:01
  get their track position. You want to pass on the back end
• 21:04
  or try to get it on the front end.
• 21:06
  There are so many storylines and TV just they failed fans.
• 21:10
  I think they really failed fans. Yeah, for sure.
• 21:13
  And, and that's been a big complaint of the fans of TV for,
• 21:17
  for a long time now is the, what I call the dumbing down of the
• 21:21
  broadcast, which is they're just not going to fill you with any
• 21:23
  information and they're just going to talk bullet points and
• 21:26
  show the race lead and just, you know, do the normal deal.
• 21:29
  I, I think, you know, I, I, I'm a big F1 fan.
• 21:33
  So I, the undercut, there's one or two stops in F1 race and, and
• 21:36
  they're very hypersensitive about undercuts and overcuts and
• 21:39
  the time differential and get like, you hear that all the
• 21:43
  time. That's a huge part of the
• 21:44
  broadcast. I even feel like IndyCar has a a
• 21:46
  significant amount of that with the way they're the races,
• 21:49
  playoff with the, you know, they have these, they have two
• 21:51
  different compounds and it's similar situation.
• 21:54
  I feel like Fox, you know, NASCAR coverage does nothing
• 21:56
  like that. They almost treat us like we're
• 21:58
  dumb. Well, I think that too.
• 22:00
  I think Fox, this is the failure of Fox and it's not intentional
• 22:05
  and it's it's not a slight. You have two driver analysts.
• 22:08
  So you've got, you've got, you know, Mike Joy, who I think is
• 22:12
  as good as he's ever been. I know there's some knocks, some
• 22:14
  criticism of Mike, but Mike is good.
• 22:17
  But he's got. Yeah, well he's got 2 drivers in
• 22:19
  the booth with him and I think Clint is fine with what he
• 22:23
  provides and Kevin is great at what he provides.
• 22:26
  But they need that, you know, Steve Letarte type of character.
• 22:31
  I say all the time, Todd Gordon on radio, I love listening to
• 22:36
  Todd Gordon call strategy races. He was very clearly one of the
• 22:40
  best strategist when he was on top of the pit box.
• 22:43
  And when he takes that to the radio, it's it's a master class,
• 22:46
  but Fox TV needs Todd Gordon. Yeah, I why?
• 22:53
  I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm looking at the chat a little bit.
• 22:55
  They're they're loving MRN and and the, the radio broadcast.
• 22:59
  I feel like that's always been the case.
• 23:00
  So what makes it so difficult besides the in and out of
• 23:04
  commercial breaks and stuff? Probably.
• 23:05
  Why can't we get more of that with our Fox broadcasting?
• 23:11
  I think NBC for a period of time was with par and, and some of
• 23:14
  the guys they had, they did a good job with with the
• 23:16
  broadcast. I think they've actually kind of
• 23:18
  regressed some too. But why can't we get that MRN
• 23:22
  style of we're going to make you feel like a smart fan and and
• 23:25
  give you all the information and, and call a race that way?
• 23:28
  Why don't we get that? I don't know.
• 23:30
  Oh, yeah. I, I wish I had some eloquent
• 23:35
  explanation for understanding Fox's direction.
• 23:39
  And listen, they've heard it. They've heard it from the fans.
• 23:42
  And I think they've responded to some fan complaints.
• 23:46
  And I, I do think it's fair to say that out of all of the
• 23:49
  Current TV broadcasters, Fox is always leaned in more towards,
• 23:56
  you know, entertain comedy, you know, big personalities and less
• 24:01
  analytics, less data, less of the hardline competition stuff.
• 24:05
  It's just their brand. Their brand identity has always
• 24:08
  been boogity, boogity, boogity. So.
• 24:12
  Against today. And literally the boogity,
• 24:15
  boogity boogity today and just their stylistic approach does
• 24:18
  not lend itself for these super technical mathematical races.
• 24:25
  Correct me if I'm wrong, CW uses it's.
• 24:29
  It's NASCAR's protection team that does that, correct?
• 24:32
  So when it's when I see Jamie McMurray, Parker Kligerman and
• 24:36
  they're just out there one having a blast and feel
• 24:39
  enthusiastic and deliver at men you're tired S that they're
• 24:43
  delivering such a fun and entertaining broadcast while
• 24:45
  also being smart and treating us like like real fans.
• 24:51
  I I know it's a possible product to get.
• 24:53
  How do I is it never going to have?
• 24:55
  We don't need a belabor to point on it.
• 24:57
  We we can move on pretty quickly, but like it feels like
• 25:01
  it's there for us, right? It feels like, hey, just give me
• 25:03
  Jamie McMurray and Parker Kligerman, even McMurray and
• 25:05
  interviewed some past. He's like, I don't know why they
• 25:07
  won't let me do cup stuff. They just don't want me, you
• 25:10
  know, So I, I, it's frustrating. Let's move on.
• 25:13
  Listen, I don't, I want to say this too.
• 25:15
  I don't, I don't want to. To me, this is not a personal
• 25:17
  critique of whether it's Kevin or, you know, Larry Mack or or
• 25:24
  Clint, like individually, they all have things to bring.
• 25:28
  I just think that combination does not lend itself to the,
• 25:32
  the, the data-driven analytics. I wish we had a second screen.
• 25:37
  That's really what it comes down to now.
• 25:38
  ESPN does the second screen experience.
• 25:42
  I wish I had I had a second screen.
• 25:44
  Yeah, Ross Chastain versus Danosaurus fallout.
• 25:48
  I thought there's some really good sound bites throughout the
• 25:50
  week. I was.
• 25:51
  It seemed like that most of time when we had these scuffles on a
• 25:55
  Sunday, it kind of disappears, like, Oh yeah, we're moving on.
• 25:57
  These guys didn't move on. They found out that we don't
• 26:00
  like each other. That guy's an idiot.
• 26:03
  What do you make of it? Where do we go from here?
• 26:06
  Well, I'm especially surprised of of Ross.
• 26:10
  I mean, Daniel's super passionate and always has been.
• 26:13
  And so it doesn't surprise me that he's, he's the one bring in
• 26:18
  the smoke, if you will. But Ross, we, we, I think we
• 26:23
  talked about it last week. Ross is usually so reserved and
• 26:26
  he did his, you know, not, you know, not today, boys.
• 26:29
  And you know, it turned out to be Tuesday.
• 26:32
  But it's funny because then Tuesday rolls around and Ross is
• 26:35
  super candid and super thoughtful.
• 26:37
  And I was, I was appreciative of both of them because this this
• 26:46
  felt like a genuine thing that wasn't over the top.
• 26:49
  Like, you know, sometimes in the sports history, there's been
• 26:52
  like these kind of forced fake rivalries.
• 26:55
  I think what's really refreshing about this one is just they both
• 27:01
  say I don't, I don't like him. We don't get along.
• 27:03
  We tried, our team tried to force us to and it didn't work
• 27:08
  out. And that's OK.
• 27:10
  It's been kind of a theme of of my week too.
• 27:13
  Sometimes people just disagree and that's OK.
• 27:15
  It doesn't have to be a a big blow up.
• 27:19
  It's healthy for the sport. It, it added another layer to
• 27:22
  the race to see them racing together.
• 27:24
  And it's like, let's just see that there's one cut off the
• 27:27
  other or there's one kind of pinch them into the corner.
• 27:31
  And we just need more of those. We need more people saying they
• 27:34
  don't necessarily like each other.
• 27:36
  And by the way, I love the fact that we we finally this week had
• 27:39
  a a good faith, authentic, honest conversation about
• 27:44
  fighting and and why that's a 50 to $75,000 penalty.
• 27:49
  Ben Rhodes comes out of the the infield care center after the
• 27:52
  crash in the truck race talking about Tyler Anchor.
• 27:55
  And he's like, I want to fight him.
• 27:56
  And he looked at me and was like, but that's too expensive.
• 28:00
  So instead I'm going to call him the upside down face kid from
• 28:04
  from whatever show that is. Yeah, so that's been from Family
• 28:08
  Guy. Yeah.
• 28:09
  I mean, I as soon as he said I was like, yeah, but why, why are
• 28:12
  we doing this? Let him, let him go up there and
• 28:14
  fight him. Obviously Reddick or not Reddick
• 28:17
  Ankrum had a while ago still in the race.
• 28:19
  Ben Rose probably would have got in the car and left by by that
• 28:21
  point. But it's a good point.
• 28:24
  It's like why can't these guys express real emotion?
• 28:28
  So hopefully something comes to that.
• 28:30
  Hopefully there's there's a push needle move there with NASCAR,
• 28:33
  maybe a little be a little bit more boys have at it with that.
• 28:39
  That does a pretty Cup race. I I was going to spend some time
• 28:41
  on Blaney's pit crew, but they probably had a bad enough day
• 28:44
  they got to. Clean it up.
• 28:46
  It's it's this is a real problem.
• 28:48
  You're a Team Penske pit crew. You're not.
• 28:49
  They're the worst team in the they're dead last right now.
• 28:54
  And so that's a huge problem for a guy second in points.
• 29:00
  But we'll we'll see. I get, you know, I it's a long
• 29:02
  way. It's got to make the Chase
• 29:03
  right. O'Reilly Race or O'Reilly Series
• 29:09
  let's you want to talk to Cletus spinning out at Rockingham just
• 29:11
  for giggles. I mean, I'll, I'll say this, I'm
• 29:14
  actually, I respect him more for spinning out than if he hadn't,
• 29:20
  because he needs to know where the line is.
• 29:22
  And like, it's unfortunate what happened at Daytona in the truck
• 29:26
  race, but now he knows that's that, that that's a lesson that
• 29:29
  he's logged. And for this to work, for this
• 29:32
  to be even the bare minimum successful, he needs to know
• 29:37
  what will make that car go around even by itself.
• 29:43
  And I'd rather him learn it in the test than than in the race.
• 29:48
  I talked to Danny Lawrence, long time RCR official and every man
• 29:56
  last the test was Tuesday or Wednesday.
• 30:01
  No idea. Thursday was Thursday because I
• 30:05
  yeah, I talked to Danny on Wednesday.
• 30:08
  This is for a story I'm working on.
• 30:09
  So these, these quotes aren't out there yet, but that is a
• 30:13
  story that I'm working on. Is that how serious Cletus is
• 30:18
  taking this? Because we've had this
• 30:20
  conversation so many times I wanted to know what is RCR doing
• 30:23
  to make him take this seriously? What is Mark Reddit Red Jones
• 30:27
  racing doing? What is Cletus doing?
• 30:29
  And to me it's it's a relief to know that he spun out because
• 30:32
  I'd rather him find out there then on Saturday in a couple of
• 30:36
  weeks. Yeah, for sure.
• 30:38
  I I figured we just need to get him in the show.
• 30:40
  It wasn't anything too malicious there.
• 30:43
  Algar wins the the O'Reilly Series race.
• 30:46
  Larson dominated early, but at the end it looked like Algar had
• 30:49
  the fastest guard. His fourth win at at
• 30:51
  Darlington's potentially his best track.
• 30:53
  Honestly, I know he gets a lot of Yeah, I mean, he he he was
• 30:57
  really strong there at the end. That was an impressive 1.
• 30:59
  Obviously he's the front runner for the title and everything,
• 31:02
  but you know, the one thing that I loved about this weekend is
• 31:05
  you have Larson, you have Bell, a lot of strong guys In this
• 31:08
  particular race, Saguar went up there and and said no, this is
• 31:11
  my turf and won the race. We had a similar situation truck
• 31:14
  race with a lot of Cup guys and and a really strong showing.
• 31:18
  There wasn't really much to talk about with the O'reilly's race.
• 31:20
  It it was pretty straightforward, not a lot of
• 31:23
  chaos, not a lot of frustrations.
• 31:25
  I did want to give a shout out to Viking Motorsports.
• 31:28
  That was really impressive seeing Redsloff and Alfredo
• 31:30
  running top 10 for for most of that race.
• 31:33
  Anything for you to add there? I know you.
• 31:35
  No, no, Just hearing you talk about it.
• 31:38
  Like I agree with you about the race.
• 31:39
  I thought it was like a fine race to every Cup fan who is
• 31:44
  like the Cup race didn't give me what I thought it was going to
• 31:47
  be. I would turn right back around
• 31:49
  and say look at Saturday and everyone says all the time is
• 31:52
  that well, we need to make the Cup cars like the O'Reilly cars
• 31:56
  and. And.
• 32:00
  So I think I think we need to start changing our filter a
• 32:03
  little bit about how to evaluate these races too, because I think
• 32:07
  we're starting to see in every division less go for broke moves
• 32:14
  because of this format. You want guys to points race
• 32:17
  well, it's not as advantageous to to do whatever it takes to
• 32:21
  steal your track position. You know, even if it's for 3rd
• 32:24
  or for second, you know, even for a chance to win a playoff
• 32:27
  point after the end of a stage. I think you're going to get more
• 32:32
  procedural races across the board.
• 32:34
  I think Martinsville, Martinsville O'Reilly races have
• 32:37
  been shit shows for years and I think taking away the win and
• 32:42
  you're in is going to make it less of a shit show.
• 32:44
  But as a result, it's going to be more of a procedural race.
• 32:48
  And then fans, listen, this is my biggest take away from the
• 32:51
  weekend. I was going, I was going to
• 32:52
  leave with this and then I had my tech issues.
• 32:55
  Fans say they want 1990 Winston Cup racing until you admitted to
• 33:00
  them and this was like a right out of 1997.
• 33:04
  If you replace stage caution with debris caution, that is
• 33:08
  like every Cup race. I grew up with the racing
• 33:11
  product, the way it looked, the the cadence of the race.
• 33:14
  Just call the stages debris cautions and that is every race
• 33:19
  I grew up watching at Darlington.
• 33:21
  Yeah, very much so. Yeah, completely agree be.
• 33:24
  Careful what you asked for. I wanted to bring something up
• 33:26
  to you. I was, I was doing a bit of
• 33:28
  thinking with some some friends this past weekend on the 48 car.
• 33:32
  Obviously Alex Bowman announced that he's going to be out for a
• 33:34
  few weeks, which we kind of knew.
• 33:36
  There's really no reason to send them to Bristol with Vertigo.
• 33:39
  But he's also in a contract year.
• 33:42
  We don't know what's going with that.
• 33:43
  I have this belief that if Corey Day does not step on his, you
• 33:47
  know what, this year, that he's going to be in that car next
• 33:50
  year. What are your thoughts on that?
• 33:55
  I want to go on the record right now.
• 33:56
  Was it March 22nd? It's funny, I'm working on that
• 34:00
  story too. I'm doing a a big picture Corey
• 34:03
  Day development story and so I I guess I'll have a better gut
• 34:07
  feeling. They won't tell me straight up,
• 34:09
  obviously, but I'll have a better gut feeling based on
• 34:13
  talking to everyone. That is awfully ambitious.
• 34:16
  But I I did ask Corey. I said because Corey had a media
• 34:22
  availability on Tuesday at NASCAR productions.
• 34:24
  Why are you in O'reilly's? Like if we're trying to prepare
• 34:27
  you for the Cup series, you know, shouldn't you be in trucks
• 34:30
  right now? Not because I believe in the AA,
• 34:33
  AAA, MLB model, but like, yeah, yeah, I mean the trucks better
• 34:38
  prepare you from a field standpoint to the cup series.
• 34:43
  And it's like the the host of our model, host of our has like
• 34:46
  7 O'Reilly starts. But they want to give him the
• 34:52
  competition and they want it to be in house.
• 34:56
  It would be important. It is important because he he
• 34:59
  says they want it. They want me to learn the the
• 35:02
  Hendrick way immediately. The the best case I can make for
• 35:06
  just putting Corey in that car next year is if you believe that
• 35:10
  he is your guy for the next 10 years and you are comfortable
• 35:16
  with him getting his teeth kicked in for a couple of years.
• 35:21
  Why? If you if you have them in the
• 35:23
  the O'Reilly car right now, just to give him a full year and
• 35:26
  something in house, the only thing that you you're you're
• 35:32
  doing then is that you just want him in the car immediately.
• 35:37
  But God, that's going to be a tough couple of years.
• 35:40
  Yeah. But he's not ready.
• 35:41
  He's not remotely ready for. Where do you get the experience
• 35:44
  in that car? At some point you got to just
• 35:46
  pull the trigger and, and again, I think he's, he's running top
• 35:49
  five every week. He's running 5th, 6th right now.
• 35:52
  And it's only going to get, I don't want to compare him to
• 35:55
  Zillow because that's, that's wrong.
• 35:56
  But zilch, the first eight races, 9 races of the year was
• 35:59
  not very good. Last year he struggled, he made
• 36:01
  mistakes, he did all stuff. And then it clicked.
• 36:03
  If we have the same moment with Corey Day, how why do we keep
• 36:07
  him if he's wins 3-4 races and he goes out there and continues
• 36:10
  to run top five every week And yes, he has the best car, but
• 36:12
  you're just going to do it again.
• 36:13
  You're just going to keep running it back when you have an
• 36:15
  open seat, it feels. Like if you believe, if you
• 36:18
  believe he's your guy, then you just put him in the car.
• 36:22
  The thing is that you don't want him making the mistakes that
• 36:25
  he's made earlier and his O'Reilly career at the Cup level
• 36:28
  because the consequences are just so much higher and you
• 36:32
  don't want to crater his confidence.
• 36:34
  But I can tell you, knowing Corey a little bit and having
• 36:36
  covered Corey elsewhere, he takes his worst days and it does
• 36:42
  not faze him. He's like, lesson learned.
• 36:46
  It's never, man, I'm not as good as I think I am or I'm not as
• 36:50
  good as people believe that I am.
• 36:52
  He has a rough day at the racetrack and he turns to Kyle
• 36:57
  and Jeff and Jeff and he's like, what do I need to do better?
• 37:01
  And that's, that's all there is to it.
• 37:02
  And so that's, that's what you want to see.
• 37:05
  Like his, his mindset is already cup level.
• 37:09
  It's just a matter of can can the the physical skill set match
• 37:12
  the mental skill set? I got to ask Anita because you
• 37:16
  know, she's got 48 next to her name there.
• 37:19
  Are you a Bowman fan? Am I ruining your driver's
• 37:22
  future? If, if I am, I'm sorry, I, I
• 37:26
  will make it up to you, but I, I don't want to kick Bowman out of
• 37:30
  the seat necessarily, but it just feels so obvious to me, so
• 37:33
  I want to bring up. Important ability is
• 37:35
  availability, and that's the biggest.
• 37:38
  Unfortunately for Alex, he's just he's not consistently
• 37:42
  available. Fair enough.
• 37:45
  All right, you brought it up already and and we just let's
• 37:48
  get into I know you're going to do a lot of on DBC, but I I
• 37:51
  think we should still talk about the here bees were more
• 37:53
  important U versus South Alabama Speedway.
• 37:57
  What in the world happened? What?
• 38:01
  What's going on there, man? Yeah, it's just unfortunate.
• 38:03
  I mean, now, now this is like my my race car driver, man, that's
• 38:06
  just unfortunate to me. This is not an emotional thing.
• 38:10
  And I I think to Malia, who is the daughter of track owner John
• 38:15
  Dykes, it was a very emotional thing.
• 38:18
  I had a pretty strong opinion about the use of AI and they
• 38:24
  they picked a race logo that they were supposed to award to
• 38:29
  the fan that had the best design.
• 38:31
  It was clearly something that was put into a ChatGPT prompt.
• 38:35
  And I I simply said I never said hey you guys suck for doing
• 38:40
  this. All I said initially to, to
• 38:42
  'cause this shit show is that I will take whoever designed real,
• 38:50
  real designs. I will, I will incorporate it
• 38:52
  into my coverage. It's all I said.
• 38:55
  And they were so mad. They were so offended that I
• 38:58
  even like referenced it. And you know, even Malia I, I
• 39:04
  finally talked to Malia last night and we, we buried the
• 39:07
  hatchet. But she was like, well, you
• 39:08
  never asked me why we did it. I'm like, I know why you did it.
• 39:13
  John picked the logo he likes the best.
• 39:15
  It's his track. He can do whatever he wants, but
• 39:18
  to me, this is not an emotional thing like this.
• 39:20
  This is, this was never a fight. But when she told my
• 39:23
  contributors, because I was at Darlington, when she told my
• 39:26
  contributors when they signed in at the gate, that you can't
• 39:29
  create any content for short track scene.
• 39:32
  If you've got clients, if you're shooting for drivers for their
• 39:35
  social media or for their hero cards or whatever, you can do
• 39:38
  that. But you can't create anything
• 39:40
  for Matt until he apologizes to me.
• 39:42
  It's mechanical. I, I, I can't abide like that
• 39:46
  can't be the standard. Because the moment, even if I
• 39:48
  wanted to apologize, let's say I did, it tells every single track
• 39:52
  that I go to on on the short track side, it tells people on
• 39:56
  the NASCAR side that you can, you can buy compliance with
• 40:01
  access. And so to me, it was just as
• 40:03
  simple as I can't do that. It, it makes the entire
• 40:08
  integrity of my of my system collapse.
• 40:12
  And she just struggled to separate her personal feelings
• 40:19
  from the professional decisions you have to make sometimes, even
• 40:24
  when you don't agree with someone or or like someone.
• 40:27
  And I even told her on Friday once I caught wind that my
• 40:32
  contributors told me what happened at the sign in gate.
• 40:37
  I texted Malia and I said, I've got 2 1/2 hours of windshield
• 40:41
  time for whenever you want to have at it.
• 40:44
  And she said that made her upset because she's like, well, you
• 40:47
  should have said, hi, Malia, this is Matt.
• 40:50
  Give me a call when you get a chance so we can go over what
• 40:52
  happened. And I don't mind if I texted
• 40:55
  someone that they would be like, were you abducted by an alien?
• 40:59
  I, I am a straight shooter, man. I texted her and I just said,
• 41:02
  let's have at it. So she refused to even call me
• 41:05
  on Friday during my drive because I said that.
• 41:08
  And so I get closer to Darlington.
• 41:10
  And I said, Malia, I will be at the track at 2:30 and I will
• 41:16
  start writing something. And if I don't hear back from
• 41:19
  you at six, the result is going to be very uncomfortable for
• 41:24
  you. And I would rather it not come
• 41:27
  down to that. And she's like, well, you
• 41:29
  threaten me. I'm like, you threatened my
• 41:32
  ability to cover this event unless I apologized.
• 41:37
  And so again, to me, this is not emotional.
• 41:39
  You know, I was given choice A and this is response A.
• 41:43
  If you'd given me choice BI would give you response B.
• 41:46
  And the moment she didn't respond, I'm like, well, you're
• 41:50
  calling my bluff. And so I wrote the column
• 41:52
  because I listen, I'm not going to hurt their event.
• 41:55
  Some people are like you were trying to hurt them.
• 41:58
  One, they had a sold out show. I don't think it hurt them at
• 42:01
  all. I would even argue in in in all
• 42:03
  candor, I brought more awareness to their event through the the
• 42:08
  the shit show trigger that I that I pulled.
• 42:12
  And so if you're going to tell me that I can't cover this, I.
• 42:16
  Didn't know what was happening until you posted it.
• 42:18
  Yeah. If you're going to tell me that
• 42:19
  I can't cover the event because I didn't apologize, well then
• 42:23
  the only recourse for me is to do something that'll create
• 42:26
  awareness for my brand, create an opportunity to talk about it.
• 42:30
  I wrote something that gave me more page views than had I just
• 42:33
  covered the race, so I got my page views anyway.
• 42:36
  I created business opportunities.
• 42:38
  I get to go on DBC now and talk about all the things I do.
• 42:41
  It's short track scene when it goes right.
• 42:44
  And by the way, it probably created more awareness for them
• 42:47
  anyway. Now, did it make them
• 42:49
  uncomfortable in the process? Sure.
• 42:52
  She concluded she doesn't want to do that again and she's not
• 42:54
  going to ask me to apologize for access.
• 42:58
  We could have just done this on Friday before I pulled the the
• 43:00
  shit show lever. Yeah, it, it didn't make any
• 43:04
  sense to me. Like the AI stuff aside, it's
• 43:07
  like, what are we doing here? Like this is the most petulant
• 43:10
  thing and it just doesn't. She's a South Alabama woman, and
• 43:14
  I'm here to tell you it was a South Alabama man.
• 43:16
  It comes down to honor and pride.
• 43:19
  And you know, when you feel wronged, you wronged someone
• 43:21
  right back. I get it, I'm from Mobile, AL,
• 43:25
  But sometimes you have to. You have to take off the
• 43:30
  daughter of the track owner who's emotionally invested in
• 43:35
  something and put on the track operator hat and say, OK, well,
• 43:39
  we disagree, but. Who else?
• 43:43
  I mean, who else is covering race?
• 43:44
  Why would you not want people to cover it?
• 43:46
  I mean like. That's another thing too, right?
• 43:48
  Like so Short Track Scene has become the largest short track
• 43:53
  racing publication in the country.
• 43:55
  We've outlived some other entities that that has done it.
• 43:59
  I've invested $10,000 a deficit into Short Track Scene and I'm
• 44:05
  not asking for pity. That's an investment that I
• 44:08
  believe is important for the industry.
• 44:09
  I believe in races like the Rattler 250.
• 44:12
  I believe in tracks like South Alabama Speedway.
• 44:16
  And then by the way, that investment and that diligence
• 44:21
  has also bought me, in my opinion, a certain degree of
• 44:25
  deference to have opinions like saying AI logos are trash.
• 44:29
  You don't have to agree with it, but I I've earned the right to
• 44:32
  say that if I feel so inclined. Yeah, fair enough time Majeski
• 44:38
  won. Right for the 6th time. 6th time
• 44:42
  goes out there untouchable. Time Majeski that that that's
• 44:45
  the race that made him. And then by the way, no one, no
• 44:49
  one would know that if short track scene wasn't there either.
• 44:52
  Time Majeski was a young Wisconsin ace.
• 44:57
  He was great at Wisconsin Dales and Milwaukee Mile and Linger
• 45:02
  Superspeedway, all these great Wisconsin short tracks.
• 45:06
  But typically eventually you have to go South.
• 45:10
  And he had some pretty good runs.
• 45:11
  You know, he he he won the pole for the Snowball Derby and and
• 45:15
  had some decent runs and some more new Sumerno for the World
• 45:18
  Series. But he made his claim to fame at
• 45:23
  the Rattler 250. That is the racetrack that he
• 45:25
  went down there and he just won and won again and won again.
• 45:29
  And it was a place where people started to really take him
• 45:32
  seriously as a a true prospect. Winning that race for like the
• 45:35
  third or fourth time is what got him his first Ford development
• 45:39
  deal. And so it's awesome that he
• 45:44
  continues to go down there and support those events because I
• 45:47
  know that Ty feels very strongly about this kind of racing in the
• 45:52
  same way that I do. Yeah, for sure.
• 45:54
  I mean, a lot of, you know, NASCAR drivers, a lot of
• 45:58
  successful people have won at that track.
• 46:01
  It's a it's an important one for a lot of people and it is an
• 46:05
  important race and it is cool to see him.
• 46:07
  So being a a top late model guy and going out there getting a
• 46:12
  win, it obviously anytime I see him in a race, I kind of peg him
• 46:17
  as the potential race winner and that kind of gives people
• 46:20
  someone to shoot for right on the other side of late model
• 46:24
  racing. I saw the IHRA had a race,
• 46:28
  didn't know they're racing until after the race happened, but any
• 46:33
  background on that race and what's going?
• 46:35
  On where? Where did you see that headline,
• 46:36
  by the way? IHRA.
• 46:39
  Yeah. I just, I believe a short track
• 46:42
  scene maybe, I don't know. Crazy how that works.
• 46:47
  Yeah, I'm very. I'm very curious to see how that
• 46:49
  thing develops. They're throwing a lot of money
• 46:51
  around The entry list rotate not a lot of stars and I I think
• 46:57
  some of the bigger names were like I want to see how this show
• 47:00
  goes before I I go Kyle Dudley won $25,000 for basically a
• 47:06
  limited late model race to put in perspective what that what
• 47:10
  that means for those who are not aware the the limited late model
• 47:15
  classes derivative of the of the late model stock car that you
• 47:20
  know in cars tour. It's a, it's a it's a different
• 47:23
  carb rule. Basically this is the way that
• 47:26
  tends to work out a different carburetor.
• 47:28
  Those guys race for like 1000 dollars, $1500 for like a local
• 47:34
  show. And every now and then there
• 47:36
  might be like a big limited late model show that pays $3000 to
• 47:40
  win Kyle Dudley with that same rules package, one $25,000.
• 47:45
  Because IHRA is throwing crazy money around for they don't want
• 47:52
  to be car store. They want to try to get people
• 47:54
  who don't, who can't afford to go car store racing.
• 47:57
  So that part's kind of cool to me.
• 47:58
  Kyle Dudley doesn't run a lot of car store races.
• 48:00
  He's got the car, but that Rolls package is expensive.
• 48:04
  So I'll be very curious to see how that platform grows because
• 48:09
  they're their model is very different and their ownership is
• 48:14
  interesting and weird and they're buying race tracks and
• 48:17
  drag strips and Rockingham. And I don't know what their long
• 48:21
  term model is because I've done the math and they are set to
• 48:25
  lose $3,000,000 this year just on the series.
• 48:29
  It was with what it cost to run that series.
• 48:31
  They are operating at a $3,000,000 deficit and the owner
• 48:35
  says he's doing it just for funsies.
• 48:38
  Yeah, I don't know why that. All right, well, we'll keep an
• 48:42
  eye on that. I I, you know, I feel like they
• 48:44
  don't have much of A social media presence.
• 48:46
  I feel like they don't have much of an advertising present right
• 48:48
  now. I I don't know when the next
• 48:51
  race is. You know, when they advertised
• 48:54
  it last year, I was like, what in the world's going to happen
• 48:56
  here? And then I don't know, I guess
• 48:58
  we'll see. As long as the checks keep
• 48:59
  cashing for the drivers, that's a good thing, right?
• 49:02
  That's, that's all you can really ask for Last Let's talk
• 49:04
  truck race, because I think it was the best race of the
• 49:06
  weekend. I think is the best show.
• 49:08
  I don't want to skip over that one or or ignore it.
• 49:11
  The first thing I want to talk about is my perception of the
• 49:15
  Cup drivers being in the race, which was host of our Chastain
• 49:19
  and it felt like quintessential bushwhacking, but at the truck
• 49:23
  level where Kate and Honeycutt had the best truck, but he got
• 49:27
  out driven by elite drivers, Heim Chastain and he kind of
• 49:32
  went to school. And I'm like, that is exactly
• 49:34
  why those guys need to be in that race.
• 49:36
  So a young prospect like Honeycutt can learn how to
• 49:39
  develop, put on a good. I mean the racing was fantastic
• 49:42
  for the lead all race. What do you make of that?
• 49:45
  Do you agree with me? Do you disagree?
• 49:46
  What would you make of the truck racing in in general?
• 49:49
  Yeah, I will tell you I'm, I'm curious because like I, I, I
• 49:55
  view things through a different lens than I did before I became
• 49:59
  established as a media member. And I remember being younger,
• 50:04
  even 13 to 15 years ago, watching Kyle Busch and Joey
• 50:09
  Logano when all the Dang time in the Nationwide Series and I was
• 50:15
  like, this isn't fun. I didn't, I didn't think the
• 50:17
  competition product was good, but how much of that was also
• 50:21
  the, you know, just who was winning those races, right.
• 50:25
  And now I don't, I don't know if, if I've changed or if the
• 50:29
  dynamic has changed, but the way I look at let's, let's start
• 50:33
  with the The O'Reilly Series. I kind of want to see more cup
• 50:38
  drivers in those cars because those cars are now so
• 50:42
  fundamentally different from the actual cup cars that it feels
• 50:45
  like a completely different series.
• 50:47
  Like when, when, when that division was cup light or, or
• 50:50
  diet cup, that felt redundant. I feel like now it's just a
• 50:54
  completely different platform. I would love to see the best
• 50:57
  stock car drivers in the world drive the last true remaining
• 51:00
  stock car series. It's a, it's a valuable learning
• 51:04
  tool. I think there should, should
• 51:06
  still be limits and reductions. I don't want to see, you know,
• 51:09
  Kevin Harvick being able to win the championship, running all
• 51:13
  the races like you did 15-16 years ago, whatever it was.
• 51:19
  But, you know, increasing the number, which they're, they're
• 51:22
  starting to do 10 to 15 races a year.
• 51:25
  Here's the thing. I don't think we're going to see
• 51:28
  bushwhacking become more dominant because simply drivers
• 51:33
  can't afford to anymore. Like Joey Liano says, I would
• 51:38
  love to run more of those races, but I don't have the disposable
• 51:42
  income to do it, and I would need to be paid to do it or find
• 51:46
  a partner who wants to do it. The one person that I think
• 51:50
  would probably benefit from this system the most would actually
• 51:55
  be Parker Ritzlaf, right? I think Parker is so incredible
• 51:59
  and you know, Jr. is a really good team and they're building
• 52:03
  something. He's not Jr. anymore, he said.
• 52:04
  Viking, Viking, Viking is a really good program.
• 52:07
  He was good at Jr. too, but Viking is a building program.
• 52:12
  But he's never going to become a winner, more than likely at
• 52:16
  Viking maybe. Talladega or something random
• 52:18
  but. Yeah, yeah.
• 52:19
  But like if I'm trying to think what was the program would be
• 52:24
  there's they're Chevy's right if.
• 52:29
  It's kind of like what Raja's doing this year.
• 52:31
  He gets a few races at. JRM and a few.
• 52:34
  Al Bush was in the car for 15 races and then Parker was in the
• 52:37
  car for 15 other races and maybe he runs the rest of the season
• 52:40
  for Viking. He would win races.
• 52:42
  He would benefit from being able to piggyback off the Cup guys
• 52:46
  and I think a lot of Cup drivers would benefit or a lot of
• 52:51
  O'Reilly drivers would benefit from the Cup drivers for a lot
• 52:54
  of different reasons. I sometimes think Parker would
• 52:56
  be better served taking the money that he's putting towards
• 52:59
  a full season. And I know it sucks to do this,
• 53:02
  but do what Priest did, say I'm going to not go run the full
• 53:04
  season for, you know, Johnny Davis.
• 53:07
  I'm going to put all of that money into four races with JGR.
• 53:10
  It made him a Cup *. Yeah, no, I I completely agree.
• 53:15
  I mean it, it was so my background for people who may or
• 53:19
  may not care is I worked at Junior Motor Sports in OAO 9 and
• 53:22
  a little bit of 2010. That was the brackets last years
• 53:25
  and we just had to battle Kyle Busch running the full year,
• 53:28
  Carl Edwards running the full year.
• 53:29
  Like all those Cup guys came down and pretty much kicked
• 53:32
  their ass, right? We had a few wins, but it it,
• 53:34
  those were the guys were battling.
• 53:35
  We finished third and points both years.
• 53:38
  And that was to the Bushwhackers come down running full time
• 53:41
  schedules. Brad was an exceptional case
• 53:44
  because he has a ton of talent and could go toe to toe with
• 53:46
  them. But you're right.
• 53:49
  I mean, when you look at that era when Kyle Busch did run a
• 53:52
  partial schedule or Carl Edwards didn't run a partial schedule,
• 53:54
  those younger drivers that got opportunity in those cars had
• 53:58
  the ability to showcase their talent.
• 54:01
  And you almost need those Cup drivers to prop up a car.
• 54:06
  A-Team run 20 races with the funding to give another guy a
• 54:10
  shot. I think you know at the time,
• 54:12
  and This is why Kelly Byers got the 88 after Bragg's last
• 54:15
  season, Kelly Byers ran a part time schedule and he ran top
• 54:17
  five every freaking time. And it's like who's this Kelly
• 54:20
  Byers car now? He got 6 races in a JRM and
• 54:23
  they're like no, we don't want them.
• 54:25
  But you know, that was a great example of a guy getting a part
• 54:28
  time ride, getting a chance and whether it worked out or not,
• 54:31
  that is how drivers got rides back then.
• 54:34
  And right now you're right. It's like you either pay for a
• 54:37
  Viking Motorsports ride or do what Jeb Burton's doing every
• 54:40
  week. Or you try to spend 5-6 races in
• 54:44
  a top tier equipment and and give it a real go.
• 54:47
  I, I like the truck race back to the truck race just because you
• 54:51
  know, the first initial restart or race start.
• 54:54
  Heim pushed Honeycutt out and then cleared him, took the lead
• 54:56
  from him the second time around. Honeycutt knew how to defend
• 55:00
  against that, learn from the existence of Heim and was able
• 55:04
  to retain the lead for that That stage too.
• 55:06
  Period. Those are the moments I want the
• 55:08
  drivers to get. And then on top of that, I think
• 55:10
  the racing was just great. I mean bell came and went, host
• 55:13
  of our came and went. Like it wasn't just pure
• 55:15
  dominance. I feel like there was 8 guys
• 55:17
  that potentially could have won that race realistically and it
• 55:21
  just was a good show. And I want more existence of Cup
• 55:24
  guys learning, you know, giving Lane Riggs something to go off
• 55:29
  of, giving kid hunting cut something to go off.
• 55:31
  And the same thing can apply to to the O'Reilly series.
• 55:34
  I just don't think the talents is good there.
• 55:36
  If I'm being honest. I don't think cup level talent
• 55:38
  is as high in that series as it is the Truck Series.
• 55:41
  I think there's more prospect with more upside in the Truck
• 55:43
  Series right now just because I don't need to see Al Guyer at
• 55:47
  cup level, right? I don't think Sammy Smith and
• 55:49
  William Swallock, I don't think they're cut out for that life.
• 55:52
  So when I'm looking at Kane, Honeycutt, lane rigs, lane rigs
• 55:55
  especially, I think really highly of it's like give them a
• 55:58
  shot against these guys and see how they perform.
• 56:01
  No, listen, you said everything. I would probably echo like I'm
• 56:04
  I'm with you 100%. I would also then add there's
• 56:07
  good business reasons to do this too and that I want racing to be
• 56:13
  successful. I want TV ratings to be up and
• 56:16
  you know when Kyle Bush runs five races, more people are
• 56:19
  going to be watching when Christopher Bell and Ross
• 56:22
  Chastain and insert your favorite cup driver right Or are
• 56:28
  in these these two lower levels. I cover short track racing on
• 56:32
  the side and I can tell you that when a Cup guy, William Byron,
• 56:37
  Kyle Larson, when he ran a car store race a couple years ago,
• 56:41
  Christopher Bell showed up and ran a Speed Weeks race last
• 56:44
  year, my business goes up. And it's in NASCAR's best
• 56:49
  interest to to allow them to participate more.
• 56:52
  Maybe not full seasons. I don't think they can anyway
• 56:55
  from a financial standpoint. It's just it's good business to
• 56:58
  have stars running as many races as possible at every level.
• 57:03
  Absolutely. We talked about Rhodes, Acrum,
• 57:06
  Riggs and Majeski did not get away from each other the whole
• 57:09
  race. Early in the race, Majeski kind
• 57:10
  of clipped Riggs and put him in the wall and then vice versa.
• 57:13
  At the end of the race, Riggs just cleared himself.
• 57:16
  It looked like. Think there's any fallout from
• 57:18
  there. Or, you know, they kind of
• 57:20
  veteran enough and they're they're just going to let it
• 57:22
  roll and, and move on because they're probably 2 of the top
• 57:25
  three or four guys for the championship this year.
• 57:27
  They're going to be racing against each other the entire
• 57:29
  year. Yeah, I I didn't talk to Ty
• 57:31
  because Ty was actually allowed to go to OP And so as soon as
• 57:34
  that truck race ended, he immediately opt in his truck and
• 57:38
  and drove over to the OP Alabama.
• 57:40
  But I did talk to Lane and they they are both so level headed.
• 57:44
  Like I don't know that I've ever seen Ty or I saw I've seen Lane
• 57:48
  get into some some altercations, but it's not his personality
• 57:52
  type. I mean they are very level
• 57:54
  headed, thoughtful. Lane just told me we just had a
• 57:58
  really hard race and he's like both of us were really just
• 58:04
  trying to take it to the other. And he's like we, we have a
• 58:07
  great relationship. There's a lot of respect there.
• 58:09
  We're 4 teammates. I asked him, I said, do you
• 58:15
  think it warrants a conversation or do you think he understands?
• 58:18
  He's like, I think he understands, but like, I will
• 58:21
  probably talk to him. It might just be at the next
• 58:23
  race, but he's like, I think that for the most part, this is
• 58:28
  what you want to see us do. Like you don't want to see it in
• 58:32
  that way, but you want to see two guys who are racing for wins
• 58:35
  go at it and just probably back her down just a little bit more.
• 58:39
  And so the fact that Lane was super like accepting that it
• 58:44
  went too far says everything that you need to know.
• 58:49
  I don't think this will be a thing.
• 58:51
  I I think there's a rivalry there in the sense that both of
• 58:53
  them are driven to compete. I don't think you're ever going
• 58:56
  to see, you know, Lane and, and Ty like get into fisticuffs.
• 59:01
  It's just not what they're prone to do.
• 59:04
  My eyes are glazing over, so I have one more talking point.
• 59:08
  Corey Heim wins the race. He was third.
• 59:11
  Fourth best truck All night comes in.
• 59:14
  We're going to have the playoff conversation.
• 59:17
  He's 8th in points. I was going to get there.
• 59:20
  OK, I was going to get there. So he is not eligible because
• 59:24
  he's not a full time driver, right?
• 59:25
  Like he has to get up, he has to get a waiver, which I think
• 59:28
  without the playoffs and without winning in, why does that matter
• 59:32
  anymore? I agree.
• 59:33
  I agree. That should go away.
• 59:36
  But First off in the in the race itself comes in late restarts
• 59:43
  wealth or something drives to the front on and I think they
• 59:46
  were scuffed tires, but they they got the pressures where
• 59:48
  they want them. They got them cooled down and
• 59:50
  had a little bit. Better 7 laps scuffs. 7 laps,
• 59:53
  scuffs, so obviously very, very impressive drive.
• 59:56
  Very, very smart call. I don't know who's that was, but
• 59:59
  you know, that's definitely a shot you take at Darlington when
• 1:00:01
  you're not going to win and you can get a little bit better
• 1:00:03
  tires. That's a great call.
• 1:00:06
  What are we doing with him though?
• 1:00:07
  He can't run for a truck championship.
• 1:00:09
  He's maybe running some or O'Reilly races.
• 1:00:11
  I haven't heard anything announced.
• 1:00:12
  He's got a a dozen Cup races, I guess, but.
• 1:00:16
  He's got 7 late model stock races.
• 1:00:18
  Yeah, I like, I'm just sitting there and because I he's 8th in
• 1:00:21
  points, I'm like why can't this dude still run for a
• 1:00:23
  championship right now? Why can't we make this happen?
• 1:00:28
  Yeah, the, the, the best part to me is, is like I've been a Corey
• 1:00:32
  Heim believer for like 7 years. So like, I'm not, I'm not new to
• 1:00:37
  this train. I, I, I saw him run super late
• 1:00:39
  models. I'm like, this guy's good.
• 1:00:42
  He's super polished, but what's? The best work for too polished.
• 1:00:48
  Yeah, what what was really impressive is that he's doing it
• 1:00:52
  without Scott Zippideli. Like it's almost really figured
• 1:00:55
  Scott's really good too. And then their combined
• 1:00:59
  superpower was just that you've got 2 elite people at what they
• 1:01:03
  do combined. And so for him to do it, for him
• 1:01:07
  to beat Scott Zinfandeli, which you know, there's some strategic
• 1:01:11
  caveats there. It's just really impressive.
• 1:01:14
  It's very clear that you stick, you stick Corey Heim and a good
• 1:01:19
  truck, regardless of who he's paired with and who he's teamed
• 1:01:22
  with and he's going to carry you.
• 1:01:24
  He's that he's that good from a championship standpoint.
• 1:01:28
  I don't know. He's got so many other things
• 1:01:30
  going on. I don't I don't know if his his
• 1:01:32
  late model stock starts are going to conflict with it too.
• 1:01:35
  Like for example, he's he's going to run the Martinsville
• 1:01:38
  300 this year. It's the most prestigious late
• 1:01:40
  model stock race in the in the country that is opposed to a
• 1:01:44
  Truck Series chase race. So like if it comes together, I
• 1:01:48
  guess theoretically go chase another championship.
• 1:01:51
  But I think he's doing some things that are fun too.
• 1:01:55
  He's being developed to go Cup racing.
• 1:01:58
  This is just going to be a year where he doesn't need to win the
• 1:02:00
  championship like he's already done it because so it's not like
• 1:02:02
  not. What he needs to do?
• 1:02:04
  Right, yeah. And so I don't think he's like,
• 1:02:06
  oh man, I want to go win the Truck Series championship.
• 1:02:09
  I think that Cups Cup. Seat time's probably more
• 1:02:11
  valuable than anything. So whatever resources you're
• 1:02:14
  going to put into a truck schedule or or a Riley schedule
• 1:02:17
  is better spent on 13 cup races getting as much, you know,
• 1:02:21
  experience. And that's that's kind of my
• 1:02:22
  point with Corey Day earlier. It's like, how long are you
• 1:02:24
  going to waste time in the Truck Series if you're Corey Heim,
• 1:02:26
  like you need to be in a cup car.
• 1:02:28
  You need to get as much feeling for that car and get as much
• 1:02:30
  experience. And what's the path for him next
• 1:02:35
  year, though? What is it?
• 1:02:37
  I mean, what? It doesn't feel like it's
• 1:02:38
  getting any better necessarily. What?
• 1:02:40
  What's he don't know? I really don't know.
• 1:02:43
  All I know is that every time Denny's asked, he says that
• 1:02:46
  we've got a plan. Every time Corey's asked, he
• 1:02:49
  says he's trusting the the system and the process.
• 1:02:53
  And I almost wonder like, are they going to run him as a a non
• 1:02:58
  Carter car? I mean, I think one of the
• 1:03:01
  dominoes that has to fall is what happens with with Riley.
• 1:03:05
  And I'm not a Riley hater. Like I believe in Riley's work
• 1:03:08
  ethic, but you just have to look at the way that that team is
• 1:03:12
  growing. They've got 2 championship level
• 1:03:15
  guys and Tyler and Bubba and I, I think that it's fair to then
• 1:03:22
  say that we've got another championship ready guy who you
• 1:03:25
  could plug into that system and he's immediately a top five to
• 1:03:29
  10 cup driver. I, I really believe that Corey's
• 1:03:31
  going to have so many cup starts.
• 1:03:33
  He's not going to feel like a rookie.
• 1:03:36
  There's some other things there with that, that charter in the
• 1:03:39
  way that the, the business around, you know, that team is
• 1:03:42
  structured that has to be sorted out too.
• 1:03:45
  You know, Riley has the the means to go anywhere if there's
• 1:03:50
  an opening for him to go there. And so there's just there's so
• 1:03:54
  many layers to this. And when you ask me, I just do
• 1:03:58
  not know. I don't, I don't know how that
• 1:04:00
  even begins to remotely work itself out.
• 1:04:04
  The only thing that I could think of is is that Tyler is a
• 1:04:08
  free agent and I know with with each consecutive win, he's
• 1:04:16
  getting richer and richer by the day.
• 1:04:18
  And the question just becomes like is, is is he working
• 1:04:21
  himself into that 48? You know, we talked about the 48
• 1:04:25
  earlier and Corey I. Mean could you imagine Hendrick
• 1:04:30
  with Larson, Reddick, Ellie and Byron?
• 1:04:32
  Holy. Crap, I could.
• 1:04:33
  Like, I literally did. I just don't think that Toyota,
• 1:04:37
  Toyota is not going to lose. I don't I don't think they're
• 1:04:40
  going to lose Tyler Raddick. I think they're going to do
• 1:04:42
  whatever they can to make sure that he stays in that car.
• 1:04:45
  The 2311 has all the resources they need to basically be
• 1:04:50
  another JGR. But then that creates the
• 1:04:52
  question of what are what are we doing with Corey Heim?
• 1:04:55
  Because I don't think they're going to legacy.
• 1:04:57
  I don't think that that's I don't think that's a situation
• 1:04:59
  he wants to be in. I know they're building
• 1:05:01
  something important there. And I believe in Jimmy and I
• 1:05:05
  believe in and Cal Wells. They're too smart for this thing
• 1:05:09
  to fail. But right now, there's a lot of
• 1:05:11
  turbulence. And everyone that I know who
• 1:05:13
  currently works there, who has ever worked there, says that
• 1:05:16
  team is not in a good place right now.
• 1:05:18
  I don't think Corey wants to go there as part of a Toyota
• 1:05:21
  affiliate. Doesn't make any sense.
• 1:05:23
  It just doesn't. But then you say, well, what
• 1:05:26
  else is left? And nothing else makes sense
• 1:05:28
  either. So I don't, I don't know.
• 1:05:31
  Yeah, So I while you're talking, I was thinking about how Danny
• 1:05:35
  would have one more year in the 11 and then that ride is
• 1:05:39
  presumably opening up. Obviously there's a Corey Haim
• 1:05:44
  not going to JGR dynamic in play, but do you think there is
• 1:05:49
  A and this is where I don't, I don't think 2311 should let this
• 1:05:53
  happen, But is there a potential for either Bubba or Reddick to
• 1:05:57
  move to that 11 car just because Bubba has a lot of mainstream
• 1:06:02
  popularity and and he can move the needle on that aspect that
• 1:06:06
  not many drivers can. So I can see him moving to a top
• 1:06:09
  tier team or Reddick going to the flagship 11 car in the prime
• 1:06:14
  of his career, going to the top. And that's the way you open up a
• 1:06:17
  seat for Heim? Or is that just too convoluted,
• 1:06:19
  too ridiculous? Because I don't know who's going
• 1:06:22
  in that car once and then leaves and it seems like Heim will
• 1:06:26
  never drive for that team. So what?
• 1:06:27
  What happens there? I don't know.
• 1:06:30
  I know you don't know, I'm just spitballing.
• 1:06:32
  I don't. Even I I struggle to speculate
• 1:06:34
  because nothing makes sense. I mean, unless Denny wins a
• 1:06:38
  championship and says sayonara, I will tell you that having the
• 1:06:44
  Super tight relationship that Denny and coach do, I can buy
• 1:06:48
  into there being a scenario where they just exchange assets.
• 1:06:53
  That's not Corey driving the 11th.
• 1:06:58
  Fair enough. Yeah.
• 1:06:58
  I, I, I think, I think you probably are right about the
• 1:07:01
  open car situation. I mean they're basically halfway
• 1:07:03
  there that did you know this year with it operationally
• 1:07:09
  obviously you know. They, they were prepared to do
• 1:07:11
  it last year. Now they, they, they got out of
• 1:07:14
  it with the settlement. They, they ran that car for
• 1:07:16
  large swaths of the year. All of their cars is open.
• 1:07:20
  Yeah, right. I, I listen, I've read emails
• 1:07:22
  between Denny and MJ talking business and two emails come to
• 1:07:27
  mind. There's the, you know, Michael
• 1:07:29
  is willing to do whatever it takes to build a winner and
• 1:07:32
  Michael and Denny talking about Corey Heim.
• 1:07:37
  The the the narrative was we need to lock him down because
• 1:07:41
  NASCAR tried to use that line is how is that any different than
• 1:07:45
  us trying to lock the teams down with the charter?
• 1:07:48
  But in reading those emails, the actual context of those emails
• 1:07:53
  that Michael Jordan and Denny believe in Corey Heim and they
• 1:07:56
  believe in paying him and they believe in making sure that he's
• 1:08:00
  part of the building block. So I would not be surprised if
• 1:08:03
  they just run a car open for one year until they can sort out the
• 1:08:06
  musical chair. They do not have to run that car
• 1:08:09
  is open. They don't have to run it as
• 1:08:10
  open to win the championship. Did they have enough equity and
• 1:08:14
  money to do that for one year? They already proved they would.
• 1:08:18
  I I think that's, I think that's the most likely option if
• 1:08:21
  there's not some other, you know, business arrangement with
• 1:08:26
  the, the 35 charter. I just, I, I think that they're
• 1:08:29
  willing to run that car open and they would.
• 1:08:31
  Yeah, and then it's got more money from the lawsuit, right.
• 1:08:33
  So it's, it's not as hard to accomplish as we might think.
• 1:08:38
  I, I, I think that's probably the way it goes, at least for
• 1:08:40
  one year. I I I love silly season NASCAR
• 1:08:44
  when it's open like this, when you got Danny Hamlin's ride,
• 1:08:47
  when you got like all these different pieces, but I brought
• 1:08:50
  the Corey day thing and and I was just throwing out to my
• 1:08:52
  friends. But I I'm like, that's fun to
• 1:08:54
  talk about and I don't want to know the truth.
• 1:08:57
  I don't want to know early. I want it to be like one day
• 1:08:59
  they say Danny Hamlin's retiring and Tyler Redicks in the 11.
• 1:09:03
  I want to be like, holy crap. So that's why I bring up that's
• 1:09:06
  why I brought up both of those bees.
• 1:09:07
  They they kind of struck me as interesting dynamics that the
• 1:09:10
  follow throughout the year and kind of see where everything's
• 1:09:12
  going. And then, you know, I, I just
• 1:09:15
  saw someone posted is Brad Kay retiring?
• 1:09:18
  That's a good. Brad says he doesn't want to go
• 1:09:20
  for another 10 years. Yeah, Brad is going to want to
• 1:09:22
  run as long as he can go, but he's mentioning priests because
• 1:09:26
  they're going to be out of that where charter, right?
• 1:09:29
  And now are they going to run open car?
• 1:09:30
  Are they going to go spend $80 million for the one open or one
• 1:09:34
  charter that's left available or that feels like a dynamic
• 1:09:38
  situation that that's going to have to play out?
• 1:09:42
  The thing that's most logical there is that one of those guys,
• 1:09:46
  Priest, let's just call it Priest, goes to run for quick
• 1:09:49
  wear racing that Cody's out of a job and and he's driving the 51.
• 1:09:57
  Right. My issue with that is like their
• 1:10:04
  current branding with sponsorship is, hey Kroger, you
• 1:10:07
  come here, you're on all three of our cars, you come here as a
• 1:10:10
  spot and they do this with all their branding is you're not
• 1:10:13
  just getting Brakazosi, you're getting all three of our
• 1:10:15
  drivers. You can still do what it's just
• 1:10:17
  the 51 car. I don't like it or, or it's the
• 1:10:21
  Rick Ware racing #60. Or do they just lease that one
• 1:10:25
  for two years and then you? Can't.
• 1:10:27
  You can't. Take the ball down the road.
• 1:10:29
  It's been leased, has been leased already.
• 1:10:33
  Has it? So this this is the second year
• 1:10:37
  of the current charter term. The first year of the 60 was the
• 1:10:40
  first charter. The second year of the 60 was
• 1:10:43
  their second charter. What's the other charter?
• 1:10:44
  Because you can only do one year.
• 1:10:45
  That's right. You can only do 1 charter
• 1:10:47
  release per charter period. Right, right, right.
• 1:10:51
  OK. So the only other option then is
• 1:10:53
  just for them to buy it outright.
• 1:10:56
  But there's another team trying to buy those charters too, and
• 1:11:00
  that's been in legal lease. There's so many layers to this
• 1:11:04
  that you have to consider what Legacy says.
• 1:11:06
  We're going to have 1/3 full Time Team too.
• 1:11:08
  Yeah, yeah, they've said they get who's going to drive for I.
• 1:11:12
  Think it's going to be cool? Yeah, I forgot about the
• 1:11:14
  precinct until they said it. And it's like, yeah, what?
• 1:11:16
  What does the priest do? So that's interesting.
• 1:11:19
  OK, more to talk about in the future.
• 1:11:20
  Let's go to bed. I appreciate Matt.
• 1:11:22
  I know it's it is a long weekend.
• 1:11:24
  You got to get up early for DVC. Freddie did text me.
• 1:11:28
  We're doing, we're doing this at 9:30, so like 5 hours from now
• 1:11:31
  or whatever. Oh Jesus.
• 1:11:33
  All right, get to bed, man. Thank you guys for checking on
• 1:11:35
  the show. Appreciate you guys here wait
• 1:11:37
  awake with us. I'm I'm just slurring my words
• 1:11:39
  at this point. We will catch you next week.
• 1:11:42
  Hopefully have a better time slot and.
• 1:11:44
  It's Martinsville, so it's 30 minutes from home, so yeah.
• 1:11:48
  Perfect. All right, guys, Have a good
• 1:11:49
  night. Good morning.
• 1:11:50
  Good day, good week. We'll catch you next time.
• 1:11:52
  See you.