SVG Wins Again, Joey vs Ross Debate, & Riley The Next Superman? |The High Line Podcast Episode 155|

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Shane Van Gisbergen does it again at the Chicago Street Course again and gets his 2nd win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Season! Hosts Trent Davis & Riley Embree breakdown everything from Chicago and more! Is this the last time NASCAR races on the streets of Chicago and is there a place for street racing in NASCAR? News broke last week that Trackhouse Driver Daniel Suarez will not return in 2026. Who takes his spot and where does Daniel go from here? In RTT this week the guys talk about the in season tournament bracket update, Joey vs Ross, the Xfinity race and the new NASCAR video news. The guys hand out their “Attaboy” and “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” moments from this past weekend and preview wine country as NASCAR tackles Sonomo Raceway this weekend!

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Music Rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DywYZhMC9io&t=47s

Exciting News – Diamond-Tunes Infinite Energy

Welcome back to the High Line Podcast. Hit that button. Yeah, let’s go. You can’t do that. I can’t get it right. Shut the up and let me talk. I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken. You’re only young, but you’re going to die. Proceed to party. Oh, are you ready? Rally. What did he say? Go Tigers. That’s incorrect. Go Cox. I think that might be the best one we’ve ever done. That was good. I like that. [Music] One step ahead, but he’s still behind where he thought he’d be by this time. D. It’s hard to please, much less believe that screaming voice in his head. Dubb’s [Music] in a free fall, racing to the wall. He’s scared to lose it all. Is anybody out there or is he alone? Reaching out for someone in a free fall. He’s got a million reasons to hold on, but he needs one to let it go. [Music] He smiles like it’s okay, but he’s got pain that no one knows. No one knows. He thinks that he’s thinking too much, so he eats till he eats too much McDonald’s. It’s all spinning faster and faster. He’s in a free fall, racing to the wall. I’m scared to lose it all. Is anybody out there or is he alone? reaching out for someone in a free fall that oh [Applause] hey, we did it. Let’s go. I mean, my voice cracked at the end. That’s that man. My voice was in a freef fall after 400 takes of that. Hey, you do Hey, you keep doing that 10 times like I had to do. That [ __ ] hurts your throat. Oh my god. You think your throat hurts? He said he wants some head from you. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. I ain’t talking about the singing. All right. Well, thanks for listening to the podcast this week. Yeah, that’s all I got. It’s like 155 million degrees in here. I’m usually the one complaining about the heat. Yes, but that that had me uh I was fine until I started doing the sweating. I am sweating my ball. Promiscuous fre female and I just showered church service. I didn’t shower because I knew I was going to come into this hot ass studio. Well, I stunk from the gym. So, I figured I needed to get cleaned up for you cuz I know you complained about how I stink. This is true. There’s that. There’s that hair loop again. Yeah. Look at that. Zoom in Trenton editing. Look at that. It’s my uh Superman curl. Yeah. Are you Are you Clark Kent? Uh, my neck works. Your neck works. Didn’t what’s his name break his neck after filming Superman? Oh, the guy that died. Did he end up dying? Henry Caval never broke his Henry Caval. The guy that played Superman before that. He’s so hot. Yeah, he is. Yep. It’s not Pride month anymore. So, Oh, can for real. But welcome back to the Highline episode 155. I am like it’s coming out like it’s ridiculous now. I’m going to come. Oh, I’m about to shower again. I don’t know if a gray shirt was the right move for you today. Why? It’s going to be dark gray by the end of this episode. It’s going to be the color of that Highline hat right there, which is dark. [ __ ] it’s like seven. Um, I’m already out of beards. Welcome back to the episode of the podcast that you know what we’re talking about. Trent Davis Riley be back at you with the action. Uh, Riley, how you doing? I’m doing swell, my guy. How are you? Swelling up. Yeah. Um I’m all right. Other than being um very very very hot. Um and then also it’s it’s temperature- wise hot in here. Um I’m doing all right. Um not too bad. Not too bad at all. Uh kind of disappointed at the race this weekend, but um other than that, not too bad. College Football 26 is essentially out for people that aren’t poor. Uh but me, I am poor, so uh can’t play it till Thursday night. So excited for that. I would have bought it like I would have be able to play it, but $99. Yeah, I’m not paying $100 to play a game three days early. Not going to happen. But uh and we’re already almost halfway through the three days and I got to Yeah, I got to work. So uh tomorrow and and Thursday. I’m getting it on Thursday. My wife bought it for me for early birthday present. Hopefully, I’ll be getting it Thursday. If not, then that kind of sucks, but it I’m getting the disc version. I I always like discs better than just the digital versions. I know there’s [ __ ] a lot of [ __ ] can happen to it, but that’s just the kid in me. I always like to buy the disc, get a physical copy, see the back, see the cover. There’s something about nostalgic reasons. That’s fair for me. So, I got it coming in the mail. I’m going to come. No, don’t come. Yeah. No, don’t do it. No. Get those lights off. Anyways, yes, this is a NASCAR podcast. Done doing my Trump impressions. Um, but yeah, um, doing doing all right. Uh, short week of work this week. Um, got some changes coming at work. Not so happy about those, but uh, we’ll uh we’ll keep that on the DL for now. Uh, but anyways, um, yeah, I mean it’s uh it’s another week. Got another root course coming up. Not super excited about it. Uh but it’s your favorite road course. It is my favorite road course. Chris has been really well uh well really good there. So excited uh to see what he can do. Needs a bounce back after his somewhat disappointing race at Chicago. Um so excited to see that. I’m off so I’ll be able to watch it. Yippee. And uh yeah, I mean it’s uh another another week checked off the NASCAR calendar. um racing pretty close to the end of this bracket challenge and then it’ll be the playoffs and then it’ll be football season. So, um yeah, this year’s flying by then deer season shortly after that for me anyways. Yeah, I’m doing all right. Uh ate that deer you shot last year. It’s still in there. You ate some of it. I’m about to take some to the house. Do it. Um just don’t leave the backstrap, please. Um no, I’m doing all right. I ain’t I still ain’t worked since a couple episodes ago. I gotta go back Friday though. Friday night unfortunately I got to go back to the old grind. Um so I get to I’ll get to see some of the race Sunday but um I’ll be probably going to work when it’s not even as it’s probably about as it’s ending. So that sucks. But this is road course Soma. It’s just one of those races I’d rather I I can deal with, you know, not being able to enjoy a Soma race because a lot of Sonoma races aren’t that great anyway. So, um, but yeah, um, it’s just so incredibly hot here in the upstate of South Carolina. And, um, heat index was over 100 today. Yeah, I could feel it, too. Like, when I went to the gym today, of course, you know how that gym is. Um, I couldn’t hardly breathe. I was going to mow when I got back from working my side job and I I took my new lawn mower out the box and said, “Nope, I’m going to go play MLB the show. [ __ ] this.” Uh so yeah, it is extremely hot. Um and also we want to send our prayers and condolences to all the people in Texas with the with that um that flooding incident losing a lot of those those uh those those kids at the camp. I think totals up to 104 people now. Yeah, that’s just that’s terrible. That’s terrible. So um we send our condolences to y’all in Texas. If you got if we got any Texas listeners, um hopefully listen this podcast, take your mind off of off some things there. But hopefully um hopefully things will God puts everything here for a reason. Does everything for a reason. So just do it like that. Think of it like that. So um anyways, it’s getting to the NASCAR side of it. Shane Van Gizburgen wins at Chicago for his second win there in three tries at the street course. You don’t like him anymore? He’s still on my list on NASCAR. Hey, he’s two for two for me for picking him this year. Um, are he going to pick him again this weekend? No, I’m not. You can have him this weekend. I don’t. Um, but yeah, he gets it done at Chicago. I wouldn’t say in I don’t know if he dominated the race, uh, but he he was definitely he was probably the although Michael McDow, he never passed Michael McDow before McDow. Let’s say this. Um, the interview uh that Shane Van Gizburgen did with MRN uh I think it was MRN that was doing the radio broadcast this week. Um he said that he didn’t think Michael was all that good. Uh that he just, you know, did well at not letting Shane pass him, but but Shane felt like he was was better than him. Was off to like he got off to like a second league. Dude, he was on his ass. Not the whole time. I think he was near the end of that run before Shane pitted. He was like a second behind. I don’t think Shane was trying to pass him. That’s hard. If he was on on him the whole time, I get it. But he I don’t know. I think it it was a lot closer than people want to think. I saw some comments on my Tik Tok Tik Tok review that said uh McDow had the best car and if he wouldn’t have broke, Shane wouldn’t have won. So, um we’ll never know. That’s not true. But I don’t I think McDow had something for him. Um I think Chris had something for him. We’ll never know. It’s kind of the same thing. He He had a good car for two laps. Chris was down power and was still making passes throughout the field. Well, he had a whole bunch of wrecks and strategy and stuff. He passed like 10 cars in that second to last run there. He had a good car enough to he’s down two seconds a lap and he was still competitive. Still, you know, not faster than Catherine leg for most of the race. Yeah, Katherine Le got a good finish. Hell yeah, she did. 20th. Hell yeah. Should have took that bet with Matt Man. Sure should have. Cuz Bubba did not beat her. Did I win this week? Huh? Did I win the bet this week? Uh, no. Damn. Um, you probably finished second to last. Um, you think so? Me and Ethan kind of raw dogged it. Or that sounded gay. We did a quick count after the race. What did he say? And Ethan was last and you were second to last. So, good job. That’s rough. Yeah, Christiey’s probably going to pass you. Christy did pass you back for fourth. I won last week. How? like and I beat everybody by quite a bit. You were only up by four points on her. She beat you by way more than four points this week. But who are you flipping off? Christie, you know, she told me uh in the thing she’s like, you know, obviously I want to win, but I just want to beat I just want to beat Riley every week. I like Okay. Well, that’s cuz I’m the smartest one here. Oh, really? Yes. Everybody knows that I’m the competition. That’s why you’re fifth in the You’re in the middle of the tier. You are the Denver Broncos of this bologn of this uh that’s bologn season or this whole pick them thing. I am h Denver Broncos. No, I’m I’m Matt Kenth. I’m 2003 Matt Kenth. I’m going to win the championship. No, you’re not. Only winning one race. Dude, you’re like 250 points still behind Johnny. That’s not that many. It’s not. But it he got off that big lead and nobody’s got within 100 points still. Still, Matt is like, and he got lucky with a lot of that [ __ ] too. Most of the most weeks I have guys like half probably four out of my five guys running in the top 10 and something happens. No, most that’s not true. Um, what? That’s not true. What? My guys run four out of five and then uh Well, I can say that if I keep picking this beer up because I have my head of you in points. Um, but yeah, so for those of you who don’t know, I don’t know how you don’t know by now, but we’re doing a pick them. We haven’t talked about it much on the podcast with with a bunch of uh folks that we know, a lot of his in-law family. And uh E dog, he’s been on the podcast. Yeah, he’s he’s been in it. And um he joined late. Yeah. So he’s in last. But um yeah, I I’ve only won one week. So that was last week. That was last week at Atlanta. Yeah. By damn time. you the now Shannon’s the only one I hadn’t won yet. I’m going to win this week at Soma. But um yeah, sure you are. Anyways, into Chicago. Um I thought the race kind of sucked. I ain’t going to lie to you. It is the average for me. I thought it was the second worst road course so far. Granted, there’s only been three, but what was worse than this? It Oh, no. Cota’s been the best. Mexico was better than Kota, but um none of them have been great. I I’ll say this, this is the worst road course to me and I think the road course racing this year has been better than years past. Like I said, I don’t think any of them have been great. I don’t think any of them have been horrible. But I do think this one is the middle. And I think this was the worst uh version of the Chicago street course uh we’ve seen. Uh, a lot of that could be because of um no weather obviously um to to affect the the grip and the the racing on track. A lot of that I think is also because once these guys start figuring out these road courses, it gets tougher and tougher and tougher to pass because there’s not as much spread between the field. So, um I I think I think that’s got something to do with it as well. Um, and you know, it’s it is what it is. I mean, if if you’re going to run a track like this, eventually you’re going to have guys figure out how to get around there, and it’s just going to be more more difficult for for people to pass them. So, um, I think that’s what happened. And, um, you know, kind of made the first 75% of this race really boring to be honest. Not a ton of passing throughout the field. The only time you really saw any passing is when guys were making mistakes. Um, you know, locking up going into corners, hitting the wall, you know, causing a huge pile up on lap three. Thanks, Carson Hosvar. Um, [ __ ] like that. And and you know, that’s kind of disappointing. Um, you know, I was hoping hoping to see a little bit more racing um throughout the field. Um, a lot of that could be, again, which I’ll talk about this a little bit later, could be on TNT for just not showing it. Um, if there was racing throughout the field because they would, uh, there’s plenty of times where there was guys, you know, trying to make moves on guys and they’d cut to the leader and the leader would have a half a second lead on second place and we didn’t see the pass that they were literally showing before they cut away from it. So, um, a lot of that could be fixed with better, uh, broadcasting. Uh, but but all in all, thought it was just a a down week for NASCAR, a down week for broadcasting. Shane Van Gizburgen, everybody’s picked to win the race, won the race. Um, and it’s just, you know, we say it, you know, every time one of these races happens, you’ll have this in NASCAR. Um, but it’s doesn’t make it any easier when it happens, right? you’re not as any more happy knowing it’s coming uh every now and again. So, kind of disappointed in the race. I’d say three, four out of 10. Um the the ending kind of made up for it a little bit. There was some some good racing towards the end. Guys finally took the gloves off. You had the Bubba in the um Alex Bowman stuff. Um you had uh some bumping and banging throughout the field. Yep. Yep. You had uh you had the 45 coming up through the field on on new tires. So, um there was a little bit kind of when guys started racing, uh real hard towards the end. Um so, so that kind of saved this race from being terrible. Um but, um like I said, the beginning of the race was just so so boring to me that that it didn’t really bring it bring it up that much in my perspective. Yeah, I give this race a five out of 10. It’s an average NASCAR race and uh Fourth of July weekend, you know, racing in NASCAR, you always want it to be um a little more special um just because it’s, you know, Independence Day weekend and a lot of people are out vacation and you know, a lot of people’s traditions is to watch NASCAR on Fourth of July weekend. There’s not a lot of other sports to watch on Fourth of July weekend other than baseball. There’s not really only any competition. Basketball. Yes. WNBA. Can’t we can’t wait to watch the fever in the sky or whatever the [ __ ] We’re forgetting about the most important sport of them all. Cornhole. Yes. Fire. But uh yeah, so little disappointing on that end. But I think reason why this race was a little lackluster is like you said, we haven’t had a dry Chicago race the first two years of this. And it just seemed like a lot of the day until you said the last like 15 20 laps, these guys were just kind of a little hesitant. just kind of scared to overdo it. We saw a lot of guys in practice. Chase Elliot, William Byron, we did him blew up, but um Bowman I think messed up. Bubba wrecked in qualifying. Bubba wrecked in qualifying. I hope Kathern Leg wrecked in qualifying. Cory Him hit the wall in qualifying, broke a toe link and didn’t make the show. Katherine leg beat him, which was a big shock to us. Uh Cory Him we just figured would would make the show um on speed. He had the speed in the car, just messed up. Uh, but you know, I think these guys kind of got a little scared on Saturday and it made them kind of for 85% of the race kind of drive a little hesitant to make moves, hesitant to throw it in there, throw it in, you know, overdrive a corner just a little bit by 5%. You know, you had your breaking points and a lot of people just stuck to those breaking points. Never tried to overstep it because they didn’t want to mess up. And I think that’s what you saw. I mean, especially early in the race, Cars Hosvar pushing the limit at top five really for no reason. He wasn’t trying to pass anybody, just kind of out there by himself. And he clips the inside wall and that little righthander going uh into another righthander near the end of the straightaway where it’s all a big old convoluted mess. And you saw what happened. He had a [ __ ] parking lot crash. So, um I think a lot of these guys all day just kind of were being conservative with how they drove uh this racetrack. And uh I get it to an extent cuz like I said, we haven’t had a dry racetrack or dry race here with this car and with this street course and other than Shane Vang Gizburgen, he’s the only person that really has experienced dry driving on a dry street course uh in the past really ever. Um so I think that’s reason why he kind of saw what we saw on Sunday. But um yeah, I think it was the worst race worst road course race of the year. um Mexico City just because it was different, new and we had Shane did dominate towards the end, but he still had some some good moments throughout the race and then uh Cota earlier in the year I think is still the best road course race of the year so far. Great finish, pretty good passing throughout the field throughout the race and of course like you said the finish matters on how these races are remembered and that was a very good finish there. So but Chicago um like I said still the worst road course race of the year but still not not terrible. Like I said, I think road course racing this year has been better than the previous three years of this car. So, uh, this weekend at Soma has a chance to probably usually you have really good races or really bad races at Soma. There’s usually not a whole lot in between here this weekend at Soma. So, we’ll see. It’s a little later on the year, so it’ll be a little it’ll probably be hotter in Southern California or Northern California. It’s Northern California. So, we’ll see if that changes anything on how the how the guys race. It’s a repay from last year. So, we’ll see how that goes. We’ll get in that a little bit later. But, uh, but yeah, I mean, Shane deserved to win the race. He won the race. Um, he had some Tai Gibbs impressed me all day. Um, Tyler Reic was good after being really bad at uh, Mexico a few weeks ago, so that was good for that 45 team. Been close. Keep on getting closer to that first win. I think that first win is coming for the 45 team. And um, close. I think I think, you know, obviously a disappointing guy for me would be Chase. just Yeah, me too. Yeah, he just he got damage earlier on in the race and it really disinfected his car. He sucks. Um Well, you picked him. So, um you know, that was disappointing to see. It was a layup, huh? It was a layup. Was a layup. Pick and chase. Why? Cuz he’s one of the guys you don’t expect to win. So, yeah. How about last week? Um God mighty, it’s hot. But uh but yeah, and then and then Blanny actually had the best day of all my guys, which was would be on the bottom of my totem pole on who I thought was going to be good on Sunday. Uh one stage two uh using that strategy, just getting the stage points. Never had a chance to win the race, but uh then he hit the wall and blew a tire or something in stage three when he was coming up back through the field after pitting. Had to repit again. Then those cautions at the end, he’s able to work his way back up through the field to 12th. So, uh good good rally for for Bly after getting a stage win, too. So, that was a pretty good day road course wise for for Bla and then Chris obviously having his motor problems early. I thought he was the best guy to have a chance to win out of my guys and we’ll never know. I think he did probably have a a top five car, but just hard to say with everything that worked out on on the strategy side and if Chris would have been on the right or the wrong side and all that stuff, but um but decent day I guess for my guys. All top 16, but they’re all top 18, but all of them in the lower half of that. So, not the best day from for my guys, but um not too worried about it. Chicago is just so unique that uh we won’t have to see nothing like this the rest of the year, so I’m not too worried about it for for my guys. Well, we might not see it again ever. Uh obviously, we we’ve talked about it a little bit on this podcast that uh Chicago might be going away. Yeah. You think about that? Yeah, I think uh I think it is the last year of it. But I think there’s just been a lot of push back uh from uh the people in Chicago that just don’t want this race uh anymore. Uh the luster has kind of worn off. You know, it kind of remind me of the LA Coliseum. The first couple years it was really just the first year was, oh man, it’s a lot of people, a lot of hype around it, you know, and then second year, okay, a little less hype. Third year it was just a complete disaster. And uh weather affected that, but it was still a disaster. I think whether the weather got into effect that race or not, but kind of same thing with this uh first year old was really cool. Second year, okay, but it’s [ __ ] still pouring down rain for the past two. This one was a dry race and had a chance to, you know, see a dry NASCAR race in the streets of Chicago and it just didn’t have the same uh pop and flare that we’ve had the past couple years. So, I think the people of Chicago were kind of especially the the higher ups are kind of over. I mean, the mayor that wanted this race, uh, just that, you know, helped build get this, uh, project going a couple years ago is now out. It’s a new mayor. Um, he’s never been a huge fan of this event. And a lot of the people in the Chicago council, city council, whatever, just they’re kind of not all that thrilled about having it. And, uh, a lot of the people Chicago complaining about, you know, the noise and could, you know, mess up artwork and the m museums around that. It’s just it’s a joke. But uh yeah, I think uh it’s over for Chicago. Doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s over for street racing in NASCAR, but I do think it is the end of Chicago street course in NASCAR for the time being. They could return, but uh I think 2025 is the last year uh for for now. Yeah, I agree. Um I uh hopefully that means Chicago land will be coming back next year. Yeah, we’ll see. Um, I don’t think necessarily that Chicago going away means Chicago Land will be here. Um, I do think that Chicago Land deserves to be on on the schedule. Chicago is a big market not to have nothing. That’s and that’s fair. I mean, you got some tracks around Chicago, but not What I’m saying is Chicago, I think there is room for a street circuit in NASCAR. So, I don’t think that necessarily getting rid of Chicago means that you abandon the street. Yeah, abandon the street course stuff. I think that you replace this race with another street course and bring Chicago back in place of something else. Um, which, you know, pick what that would be, whether you, god forbid, take one of Bristol’s dates because, you know, the day race at Bristol has been historically bad. Um, you know, other than the year that that we both went uh last year, um, you know, there’s there’s plenty other racetracks that have two dates that maybe shouldn’t. So, uh, pick which one you would would on that. But, um, you know, street racing as it goes is has been fine. Uh, but I think you’re going to run into the same trouble no matter where you go. I think, you know, year one, whether it’s, you know, San Diego or Denver or New York or whatever, pick whatever metropolitan area you want, um, year one’s going to be really cool because it’s new and you got all the pomp and circumstance going around and, um, everybody’s excited to be there. And then, you know, they elect a new mayor and the city’s not for it, but they have a contract, so they have to race the contract out and then they’re just not wanting to to put it on. And you know, probably by year three, it’s not putting on good racing anymore anyway because the teams have figured out how to go fast. So, um, you know, I I think you’re going to run into the same issues no matter what. And I I think that’s just just a nature of the beast of of street racing. Um, you know, street racing and in Indie car is not all that good in my opinion. Most of the time it’s kind of follow the leader. Um, and you know, F1, there are some good street courses, there are some really bad street courses. There’s not really any in between. So, um, you know, if they ended up going to San Diego, which is what it sounds like they would do if they they went to another street course, I’d be okay with it. But I think in three years, we’ll probably be having the same conversation again. Um, which I don’t I think I’ve said it on this podcast before. I’m okay with having street courses. If you want to do a street course, I’m okay with having it every couple years and having it rotate. You know, you got the Chicago street course this year, you got Denver this year, you got Miami the next year, you’ve got San Diego or New York or whatever, Houston. You know, you know, have five or six rotating street courses that way that the cities never u you know, get tired of it and every time you go back it feels new. So, um I’m okay with that. Um, I’m okay with having a rotating street course kind of schedule. Um, but I I know that that would be a real pain in the ass for NASCAR to set up logistically. So, um, you know, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. Um, I I do think that there will be a street course on the schedule next year. Um, but if you told me there wasn’t going to be, I wouldn’t be surprised. Um, I do think they’re going to figure it out and they will release that that’s going to end up happening. But um but if if they say nope, Chicago’s getting replaced by Chicago land and everything else is the same, you know, it is what it is. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Yeah, I I do think there will be a street course next year. Probably be San Diego just how much uh how much traction that that rumor’s gotten the past couple weeks. And then you you know, you come to Chicago this weekend, you just see kind of how it’s just how the buzz just wasn’t quite there. I think um San Diego is a good spot. It’s Southern California. It’s a big market where NASCAR’s uh struggled to to always get into since they got rid of Auto Club. Even Auto Club’s kind of what two hours away from LA I think or something like that. So, um it’s, you know, San Diego, I don’t know how far San Diego is from LA. It’s probably about the same actually. Maybe a little closer, maybe like an hour away from LA. I don’t know. Los I don’t know California distances and stuff like that. But, um San Diego would make sense. Um you want to do it in a big market, doesn’t make sense to do it in a smaller market. um Chicago, New York, San Diego. Want to go to LA again, but you do a street course version. Um I don’t know how you do that, but you did the LA Coliseum. Now, be fair. It’s a coliseum, not a street course. Uh logistically, that would be a nightmare as well, but uh that would get some a lot of buzz. People are out in LA all the time. They don’t care about their own sports teams. You got to come to them. Uh from what I’ve heard in LA and California and stuff like that. So, um, that would be a good idea. I do want to I do want a street race because I think it is unique and and it works enough. Um, especially with I wouldn’t say with this car, but just NASCAR in general. I think it it it has a place. It does have a place in the sport now that we’ve done it for three years. Me and you both were not happy when they announced it a couple years ago. Um, didn’t like it. Didn’t like the idea of it, but I think it’s kind of it’s kind of like New Atlanta. Uh, obviously New Atlanta has worked. Doesn’t mean we don’t miss old Atlanta, but um, New Atlanta definitely has worked. And I think Chicago Street Course has worked as well. I think a good comparison is the Roal. You know, I I don’t remember talking to you about it specifically when they switched to the Roal. I’m sure we did talk about it, but I was happy about this before this podcast. I’m sure I wasn’t. Uh, but back then, you know, the mile and a half stuff was so bad and, you know, the road course racing was actually pretty good. Watkins, Glenn, and Soma put on pretty decent racing and and then they said, “Hey, we’re going to we’re going to switch over to running the Roal.” And, you know, I was I was okay with it. And, um, was still still an Oval guy. Always will be, always have been. Uh, but you know, the Roal, you know, had its first couple races and they were they were really good and then they got stale and and you know, it got stale because we got this new car and the cars are easier to drive on road courses. Um, the team that’s one of the worst tracks in NASCAR. the team’s figured out how to get around there and you know like you said I think it is if it’s not the worst it’s top five and and you know it’s if it’s not the worst road course it’s second and um it’s and the only reason why you have some decent moments from there the past few years is because it’s a playoffs it’s a cut off race drivers just driving crazy [ __ ] and and that you wouldn’t have if you had this race in June you wouldn’t have it what I would what I would love to see and obviously this is never going to happen because it’s just it is what it is. But if if they had a street course in in the Gen 6 era, I think that would be really good television because those cars aren’t meant to do what they’re trying to make them do. And that’s what always made road course racing interesting in NASCAR was that those cars were not built to turn left and right and you know go over the rumble strips and you know like Robbie Gordon would do at at Watkins Glenn in the bus stop and you know [ __ ] all four tires off the ground sliding through that [ __ ] sideways uh when he landed on the other side. You know, they weren’t meant to do that and that’s what made it interesting. Now, these cars are built, purpose-built essentially to turn right and left and and they handle so well that you don’t get those crazy moments that you used to get at road course racing. And that’s that’s what I think’s hurt a lot of the the road course racing. And it’s what I think is going to end up hurting the street racing in the long run once teams figure out the layouts is that these cars are just too good. And you know, it’s same reason why the short track stuff’s, you know, not not great right now is cuz that the cars just handle too well. They break too well. They’re they’re too planted. Um they mess up, drop a gear. Yeah. That you don’t you don’t really get guys slipping and sliding around. Now at street courses, you got guys, you make a mistake, they hit the wall, right? So, you know, you got opportunities for passing there, but you know, other than that, it’s drop a gear and disappear, right? and and that’s just that’s unfortunate, but that’s just that’s that’s the nature of NASCAR uh road course racing in the moment. So, um like you said, San Diego is probably going to be the option. Um it’ll be fine for a couple years and and in three years, mark my words, we’ll be having the same conversation. What I will say though about San Diego is, you know, Chicago, they got all their big sports teams. You got the Cubs, you got the Bulls, you got the Bears, you got the White Socks, you got uh the Blackhawks. Yes. Right. Um the sky. Yeah. Shout out Angel Reese grabbing her own rebound. Yes. Um and you even got some college football. You got uh Illinois and ill-y and uh Depal uh Depal. I don’t know if they play football, but they got good basketball. Yeah. And you got Northwestern there, too. So, um a lot of a lot of sporting teams and franchises are there. San Diego, as you all know, lost their foot professional football team to Los Angeles. What was it? Charges gold. Seven, eight years ago. And they don’t really have a whole lot of professionals. They’ve got the fathers. They got the Padres’s, but that’s about it. [ __ ] the Padres’s. Um, so it’s a it’s a big market to where the the town is starving for some sporting action and there’s a lot of bluecollar fans there. I mean, you’ve got um there’s a Navy base there. That’s where they do SEAL team trainings down in San Diego. There’s a lot of military presence in San Diego. It’s a military town. I think NASCAR could definitely find a market there and they they would they would sell tickets for sure. I think it’ do better than Chicago. The buzz around um and I think it would be better received by at least the populace, but the weather would probably be better, too. That’s fair. Uh the problem with it is you just got to build a racetrack that’s good. And I’m not saying Chicago wasn’t, but we’re not building a you’re you’re making designing. You have to design a racetrack that’s street track. Interesting. Now, if you want to build a racetrack in San Diego, [ __ ] yeah, let’s do it. I’m all for it. Uh but if do your uh what was your uh do a uh two mile or three mile Bristol or whatever. What the hell did you say? 35 degree bacon or whatever. Some wild [ __ ] Um but where are you turning constantly? Um but you know I I think San Diego is a good market. I’m here for it. I just I I I it’s going to end up being the same story. It it could be. But I I’m holding out hope that San Diego could be better received and could put on and that’s another thing too. The hard for me to admit this, but the racing product I think in street courses, it matters, but it it’s not the biggest factor. The event’s more important. The event in there’s certain events and certain tracks, especially nowadays in NASCAR, seem like that’s all they go for is just the event, the the publicity it gets o over than the actual racing. And that that sucks for a lot of races because I think the racing product should be the one and only focus really. Um yeah, but in a street course version like you go to a big city like a Chicago, if you go to San Diego, you go to New York, I think the racing itself isn’t the the top priority on we need this to be good. The top priority is let’s make this easy for the fans. Let’s make it a cool scenery. Let’s make it easy access. Let’s get out. Let’s make sure it gets out and everybody knows about it. Um, that’s more important in my opinion with these street races than the actual racing product itself. And if you have one or two of those a year, I’m okay with that because that helps you build the sport. Um, it gets it grows the sport back up to where it used to be back in the heyday. Now, to be fair, we didn’t have street courses back in the heyday and NASCAR, but those days are gone. They’ll never we’ll never get back to that. So, another way to try to get people interested in your sport is you bring it to the big cities and to the the the casual fans or the fans that don’t really care about NASCAR. Bring it to them. They’ll have to pay attention if they live in that big ass city where millions of people live and then that’s how you kind of grab their attention. Millions and millions. I don’t know what you’re referring to. The Rock, huh? The Rock. That’s what the Rock did. That’s what you get him in a race car. The rock says it doesn’t matter. Simon says. Anyways, Simon says touch your pick. Your pick. What is that? You got a guitar pick, right? Yes. Okay. Does Simon say Daniel Suarez find a new ride next year? Uh, I don’t know. Uh, Daniel Suarez uh is out at the end of the 2025 season at a track house. They’re gonna be putting uh called it. Oh, gee. Like every other [ __ ] person. I was the first one. Oh, were you? Yes. Let’s be Let’s be fair. I was the first one to say it. You I think I think to be fair you said it like speculated. You said it like after Atlanta. I wrecked not not the first not the second Atlanta. The first first one I said that [ __ ] gone. Yeah, you said it. Yeah, I think you did to be fair. And I didn’t disagree with you either. I know you didn’t. But I was the first one to say he will not be racing at Track House next year. Everybody get a cookie and send it to Riley Embry cuz he wants his cookies. I’m right again. By damn. How about them pick? You know, I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken. Yes, you were. That’s very [ __ ] You picked SVG at two road courses. You’re going to get four points over that. Guess what? Guess what? I had the ability to pick SVG because you would have picked them too. But guess what? I beat you in the other four, [ __ ] Or four or whatever it was. Who is winning? I beat you six times. Other than those two, who would be winning? We’d be tied. Fair enough, jackass. Anyway, you just got lucky with winning specific races before road. That’s right. I’ve gotten three outright wins this year. You ain’t got none cuz you still going to win. Still going to win. I finally got my steak dinner, by the way. I forgot to take a picture of it on and send it on put on Instagram. But you did buy me my steak went out back last week. Um it’s good stuff. It was very good. Had to put it on a credit card. But hey, actually, no, I didn’t. I put it on my debit card cuz I gave him the wrong card. Oh, that’s right. You’re like, ah, [ __ ] Oh, well. It’s a damn shame. Still got money on have to do no didn’t have to clean no dishes. That was good. That was good. So, I finally got my I just forgot to take video or picture proof of it, but uh yeah, Daniel Suarez. Last one you’ll be getting. I’m okay then. I’ll be getting another one here in about four months. I’m not buying it. Yes, you are. Wait till July next year. Hope your but hope your wife comes comes back then, didn’t you? Then I’ll get one or I’mma cry. Do it. Won’t be the first time. Um damn. Yeah. But Daniel, baby, come back. Daniel Suarez. Sing that next week. Do it. uh well I get the song um is out at track house and um he said some things uh that were kind of interesting last weekend. I get it. It’s kind of a breakup thing and you’ve been with the team. You were the first driver of the team inception in 2021 when track house first began. It was Daniel Suarez and that was it. And they were he they were kind of lean on him as being the uh the main guy and then they got Ross Chastain the next year and Ross proved to be a better driver than than Daniel. go out and won two races, won the ch went to the championship four. Won the championship. Wow, that’s great. He almost did. Um, why Daniel did win a race that year, but got eliminated in the round of 16 or round of 12 that year. 2023, same [ __ ] Didn’t win a race, or not same [ __ ] but just didn’t run all that great. Um, then last year did win at Atlanta, make the playoffs earlier in the year based off that win, but he was nowhere near championship really level driver. Got eliminated the round of 12 last year. And um yeah, just kind of said things like he just said like the past few months it just felt weird. Felt like he hasn’t been included in a lot of things. Just hadn’t felt that his input matters anymore and just you know all this stuff. But obviously they got rid of Pitbull in the offseason. Dolly and that where kind of the speculation started be to begin because I know Pitbull was a big benefactor and he’s a big supporter of Daniel and when Pitbull got out is kind of when the the rumor started speculating around hey this could this Daniel could be out at the end of the year and ultimately it’s what it wound up being just not good enough and all year really struggled this year. Had like one good run that was at Las Vegas. um finished second to to Josh Barry, but gave up the lead to Josh Barry um late in that race. Had a chance to win the race. And maybe he’s not even in this position right now if he if he wins at Las Vegas race earlier in the year. But been a rough year. I think he’s like 29th in points. Uh he’s he’s right there with Brad. So, you know how bad that’s how how bad that is. Brad’s bread. Brad who who is Brad? Brad has wrecked out of like every race this year. So, yeah. So, um, he has been a rough year for Daniel and, uh, I do think not cupwise, but I think he will go, although he said he does not want to go back to Exfinity. It’s like he’s got the taste in the cup series. He’s got the the taste of the best of the best in the sport. He don’t want to go back down to Exfinity. I think that that tune will change once we get to later in the year and he really ain’t got no Cup rides available. The same thing. Yeah. So, and Cora Joy regrets what he uh what he did saying what he said about the truck series race um about Mali U Hill Hilderman. Yeah, Hillerman. I think it’s Hilgamin about the 19 truck. He could have had it this year, but he chose not to. So, I think he will go down to Excinity next year. He could go drive for Junior Motorsports. He’s already won a race in that U organization this year obviously in Mexico City and he’s a Cinity Series champion uh back in 2016. So I think that kind of leads to what makes sense for me for Daniel. I don’t think I think I don’t a big team is not going to really I don’t think give him an opportunity. He’s had so many opportunities in the sport with with JGR. I know that he kind of got thrown in there after Carl suddenly retired but still didn’t do nothing in two years there. went to Sword House when Sword House was still at its peak. Didn’t do nothing there. Had a rough year in 2020 with the Gaunt brothers racing and obviously we’re not gonna hold him against that. Forget about that 95 car. That thing was 96. That’s right. Um and uh 2021 on has been Track House and you starting a couple years getting a little bit of a break. a newer team. And then you see you see what Ross is doing now. SVG, it just kind of it made him just look worse as Ross was winning races and SVG now is winning races and uh it just kind of he was the the worst driver on that organization that kind of put Track House in in a bind. Got this young phenom and Connor Zilich where if we don’t put him in a cup series soon, somebody else somebody else will car um you need to. But uh yeah, so Daniel uh didn’t like the direction and how he felt the past couple months, but you can’t really complain when you’re not getting the job done on the racetrack. But he will go to Infinity next year in my opinion. I agree. And you know, this might be low hanging fruit, but I’m giving you my perspective. Um I was right about him getting out of the car and I believe I’m going to be right about what car he’s going to be getting into. I think it’s going to be an even swap. I think Connor Zillich is going to hop in the Cup Series ride that Daniel Suarez is driving. I think he’s going to go down and drive that 88 car next year uh for junior. I don’t think he’s going to have very many cup opportunities. I do think the Cody Wear team or the Rick Wear team will give him a look. Um I I think if he stays in cup, that’s probably going to be his opportunity. Pusher or whatever his name is that bought it. I don’t think that I don’t think that Cody Wear is going to stay in that car uh full-time. Um I could be wrong, but um you know, I I think that that might be a landing spot for him if he stays in the Cup series. Uh, but I do think his best opportunity, and I think I think Eric said it in his video about this, is that um, you know, he needs to go down to the Xfinity Series, do do a Ryan Priest, do a Daniel Hammer type deal, and go prove that you can win races. Now, he’s already won a race, like you said, he won Mexico City. Debatable whether or not he should have won that race. Um, really not debatable. It should have been either Zillich or or Gibbs, really. But um you know, one Mexico City in the nine car. Um and obviously I I think Dan Suarez is a talented enough driver to be competitive in the Xfinity Series. I think he’s a race winner in the Exfinity series, especially he’s a champion. Yeah. What I’m saying is I think he could could be continuing on. I got you. uh obviously he’s won a championship in that series before, but you know, we’ve seen some not so great drivers Cup Series wise win the Exfinity Series championship. I mean, you can think of, you know, Austin Dylan, Daniel Heck, Cole Kuster, Cole Kuster. There’s a lot of guys that haven’t really cut it at the Cup level that have won Tai Gibbs so far. Um there’s a lot of guys that have won in the Exfinity Series that just haven’t done it in the Cup series. I think Daniel Suarez might fit that bill. That’s a good point. Um, the only Exfinity He picked up another one. Um, the only recent Infinity Champion in the past 10 years that has really worked out Chris Busher. That’s well technically that’s 10, but 16 when Daniel won to now. Tyler Reic and even him, he’s only got eight wins. Um, let’s think on this here. That’s it. We’re forgetting somebody. No, we’re not. Bel never Oh [ __ ] Byron. [ __ ] I did forget about Byron. Byron’s the most successful one. And Reick second. Okay. William and and Tyler. Yeah. And they drove the same car that nine car in series won. Who won the series championship last year? Byron and [ __ ] the seven car. Yeah. Agar. Yeah. He didn’t make it in a cup series. He didn’t. He did not. Um old as [ __ ] too. A little gator. But yeah, it’s it’s uh so you think he’ll go to I think the 80 is the most likely. Um and I think it’s the smartest move for him. And you don’t think he gets back in the cup series or do you? I don’t think he makes it this year. Um I think I think if they bring some more charters in the 2026 season going into 2027 is a lot more open. There’ll be some movement because I I think Brad I think Brad’s closer to being done than not. Um, you know, I think Denny’s closer to being done than not. Uh, there’s a lot of cars. Now, I’m not saying he gets in those cars. Kyle Bush. Kyle Bush. But I’m saying there might be some Cup Series guys that take those rides that open up some kind of second tier organization type stuff. Now, maybe the eight car is legacy. They want a third charter. Yeah. Maybe that’s something he could, you know, do is, you know, hop in the eight car when when Kyle retires. Or, um, you know, maybe, you know, whoever, you know, Zayn Smith, if he hops in the six, you know, just throwing his name out there, if he takes a six when uh I think when Brad retires, Boston retires, I think they get rid of the three again, go back to the 29 or something. I mean, they they should have never brought it back to begin with, but you know, Richard Childress in a couple years could be an option. Um, front row could be an option. Collague could be card the 10 card but I think they’re Ty Dylan’s I think on contract for next year too and and he deserves to be. I mean Ty Dylan’s been better. He beat your favorite driver. He maybe not better than than Daniel all year, but for the for the equipment Yeah. You know, Tai Gibbs is is outperforming his equipment a lot. Ty Dylan is that he said Ty Gibbs. Uh he is underperforming. But uh he’s gotten a lot better though. Yeah. So, Daniel Daniel’s been the guy that’s kind of underperformed and he he needs a reset and he needs to go back, I think, to the Infinity Series, prove he’s still got it, prove he can do it, maybe gain some confidence back and jump in, you know, maybe a second tier Cup ride and be the Ty Dylan and be the, you know, AJ Almondinger and be be that guy. You know, he’s never going to be the the leader of your team. He’s never going to be the guy that goes out and wins, you know, five, six races a year. Uh, but he could be a guy that, you know, competes for a win here or there and, you know, maybe competes for a fringe playoff spot as the second driver on a decent team. Um, you know, that could that could be his path forward. And you know that’s there’s nothing wrong with that. Um I just don’t think that that opportunity is going to present itself this year. So um jump jumping in the Exfinity ride, making a decent payday. Um you know going he’s got sponsors with a lot of sponsors. Yeah, you know, going to victory lane a couple times competing for a championship. Uh that’s what he needs to do and and we’ll probably see him in the cup series and a and a tier 2 ride in the years to come. Yeah. And if he does well in the Expinity Series next year, it could open up a mediocre Cup ride um into I mean, look what look what Cole Kuster did. Now, to be fair, things kind of fell off the rails with with Stewart Hos and uh Tony Stewart backing out, but you know, he was a he he did win a race his rookie year at Kentucky. Kind of lucky, but he did win one, make the playoffs, but then other than that, it was a disaster. as Tor Hos goes down to the Cini series with Tor Hos. Wins the championship, wins a lot of races, boom, he’s back in the cup series again. You know, obviously circumstances a little different. If Sir Hos was still what they were, he’d be in a great organization um right now, but he got back in the cup series and he’s done decent this year in a few racracks, but um it just it just you need sometimes guys need to come back to reality. Hey, let’s work on my craft. Let’s win some races. build my confidence back up in a lower series and then hopefully in a year or two I’ll get another opportunity and that’ll be hey make it or break it time. I can’t this is my last opportunity here because Daniel is what 33 so he’s he’s not young. Yeah, he’s not young. So um I think one or two years in Exfinity would do him justice and uh possibly give him a one more chance at the Cup series um in a couple years, but we’ll just have to see uh where that dynamic goes. Yes, we will. That’s the wrong thing. R T hit the butt. Hit the boot. Rip the topics. [Music] RTT. What’s on RT this week there? Rally things and such. In season tournament, let’s skip this. Well, you got the things down there. Um, we’ll do it real quick. Uh both of our brackets are [ __ ] now after uh Chicago after um all of my final four are gone and so is yours I believe. So um start off Ty Dylan beating Brad got that one wrong. Um Bowman beating Bub. I did get that one right. Uh John Hunter beating Chase Elliot. Got that one wrong. And I got Eric Jones beating Ricky right. But I’d had Eric out in the first round anyway. But I did have his updated one picked like right last week. Uh had um had Priest beating Greggson, but I didn’t have Priest making it out of Atlanta. So, but my updated one, I guess, is right. Uh I had Reic beating uh Hosavvar, although I had Reic beating Blaney, but I did get that one right as well. Um, I got uh Tai Gibbs beating AJ, right? But I had Tai Gibbs again losing to Justin Haley in Atlanta. So, I mean, it’s [ __ ] And then Zayn Smith beating Chris Busher obviously got that one wrong. So, all my final four are gone now. Chris got eliminated, Chase got eliminated, and um William and Denny were already eliminated after the first race. So, yeah, all of mine are [ __ ] All right. to give us the uh the matchups for this week at Tai or at Tai at Sonoma. All right, so you got Ty Dylan versus Alex Bowman. You got uh the legacy cars of John Hunter and Eric Jones. You got Ryan Priest and Tyler Reic. And you got Ty Gibbs and Zayn Smith. Those are your elite eight. Eric Jones and who? John Hunter. And then you got Priest Priest and Reic and Gibbs and Zayn. I’m not even going to I’m just going to guess um [ __ ] it. You know, he’s made it this far. I’m going Ty Dylan over Alex Bowman because whatever I think is going to happen, it goes the opposite. I think Ty Dylan beats Alex Bowman. Um, I got John Hunter Neimch beat Eric Jones. [ __ ] it. He’s better at road. [ __ ] I got a hip hiccups. I got John Hunter is better than Eric Jones at road courses. That don’t work. Uh, I’ll take Tyler Reic over Ryan Priest and I’ll take Todd Gibbs over Zayn Smith. All right. So, you’re picking Ty Dylan. Yep. John Hunter. Yep. Tyler Reic. Yep. And Ty Gibbs. Yep. All right. So, the only one we’re agreeing on is Ty Gibbs. Give me Ryan Priest, Alex Bowman, and Eric Jones to advance. So, I’ve got Bowman, Jones, Priest, and Gibbs. Have you not watched this tournament so far? Pick the thing that you think won’t happen. Well, fair. Ty Dylan is lucked into making it this far. I think his luck runs out at Soma. Alex Bowman has not been bad at road courses, you know, this year. I think he’ll be all right this weekend. Um, John Hunter and Eric Jones, I don’t expect either of them to be good. So, that’s John Hunter is pretty good road course. I don’t expect either of them to be good. So, I’m picking uh just to pick them there. To me, the the long shot here is Priest. I think Reic will have a chance to win the race. He’ll be fast. Obviously, he’s been really good at road courses his whole career. Ryan Priest has stepped up his game. The Rous cars have been good at Soma uh since the NextG has come out. Uh and uh qualifying is going to be big, I think, at Soma because cautions are a premium there. So, I I will take Priest because he’ll probably outqualify Reic. Um, Ty Gibbs, Zay Zane Smith’s not good at road courses. Uh, he got lucky that Chris Busher blew up and uh, and even then he still finished 12th. Chris Busher probably had a chance there if the You are underestimating Zane Smith. The pit strategy didn’t help Zane Smith. He’s won a road course race at Front R row in the truck series against the truck series. I could win a truck series race at [ __ ] road course. You couldn’t win a truck series by yourself at Bristol. That’s not true. Anyways, so yeah, it’s it’s [ __ ] And um overall your overall overview of this, a lot of people hate the way they’ve done this. The tracks are [ __ ] No, I the track. Okay. Other than um Atlanta should I don’t like two I don’t like two road courses in this and Atlanta should not have been week one. No, I do like Atlanta being week one because it is supposed to be it’s supposed to be for fun. And it’s supposed to give you that March Madness feel. [ __ ] million dollars at the end of this [ __ ] Yeah. Same thing with college basketball. First round is always the craziest. I I like this. I like Atlanta being the first race because it’s supposed to be for fun. It’s supposed to be chaotic. It’s not supposed to be so serious. We talk we I feel like incar sometimes we take everything so seriously because serious because the playoff [ __ ] is such a joke. I would rather the playoffs be way more serious than this [ __ ] Yeah, me too. Um, so I like the Atlanta being the first I like a round one chaotic rank race. I don’t like the backtoback road courses. They only have one road course. You need to have a a a a different track type for every race. That’s what I would like. And they almost have this. You take out two. If you put If you put Yeah. If you do this same thing next year and you put Chicago land right there, I’d love this. I It would I would have not a problem with these. I think you I think you switch Chicago land and Atlanta and it’d be perfect because I think I think Atlanta need and I said this so you want a a more chaotic race to to determine the Elite 8 over than the 16th. I said that makes a lot of sense. I said two years ago that Atlanta needs to be the Fourth of July race. It needs to be a Saturday night 400 mile. That’s fair. Take out tournament. That makes more sense. At Atlanta on Fourth of July weekend, the firecracker 400 at Atlanta and Echo Park. We’re good. [ __ ] Echo Park. It’s Atlanta. So you do Chicagoland week one, Atlanta week two, Sonoma week three, do week four, Indie for the final. That’s perfect. That’s perfect. I like the setup. Just take out Chicago Street Course. I think it’s dumb. Get rid of the challenge. Okay, boomer. All the All the damn NASCAR oldheads hate it. Which just calm down, guys. Hate the playoff format. Don’t hate the inseason tournament. Like, calm down. Hate the player, not the game. Yeah, do that. I don’t know. But yeah, ours is [ __ ] So, we’ll have to see uh what happens this weekend. But uh Joey is a character on Friends, but Joey Logano is a race car driver. How’s Chandler doing? Damn. Damn. Chandler who? Being Bean or Bean. Being Billy Bean. Who? Brandon Bean. Atlanta. Bean dip. Bean dip. That’s a neck. Joey versus Ross. This is uh Ross is also my friends. This is a Ross. It’s a Ross topic or Ross. It’s a friends topic. They’re not friends. You got a friend in me. They don’t. Uh Joey and Ross got into it on Sunday. Also, Cynric uh came in there like a wrecking ball. Um he did the you can’t do that intro. Have you seen any of the video intros yet? Never seen them. Are you serious? Yeah, I watched them. Oh, okay. I think I did pretty good. The you can’t do that. You pinching my nipple at Bristol. That’s funny. I don’t recall. We were both drunk. You blew a motor that day. Um didn’t eat anything all day. Yeah. No, you ate pizza. Um drank 32 beers, but uh still no excuse cuz I didn’t throw up. So, uh yeah. Uh this is kind of like the uh I mean it’s a racing deal and at the end of it, um it just tensions got overflown. Um both Ross and Joey drive the same [ __ ] way pretty much. And Joey didn’t like that Ross dumped him because Ross almost got spun out by Cedric going in there like a wrecking ball off a restart. Nearly spinning Ross spun out somebody else. Um in the next corner uh Joey passed Ross from Ross by spinning out. Ross goes in there just cleans out Joey and Ricky Stout’s in the process. So I’m sure Ricky Stout isn’t a fan of uh of Ross as well. that ended Ross’ or ended uh Ricky’s day there. Um but yeah, uh I get Joey’s frustration. I don’t mind him being frustrated because I want to see emotion u out of these drivers and Joey uh he’ll uh it’s kind of I don’t know. It’s kind of just a racing deal. Like I get Joey being mad, but if I’m Ross and it just looks like the 22 drove through you and you got one more corner, but he didn’t. I know. But Larson hit him. No, Joey is the one that ultimately spun Ross out. No, but let me hear. But it wasn’t Joey’s fault. That’s not I’m not saying it was Joey’s fault, but Joey’s the one that ran in the back of uh Ross and spun him out. Almost split him out. That’s why Joey passed him. Brother Ross was in front of Joey on the outside heading into a lefthand turn. The five car was on the inside. I’m not. The five car got hit from behind, got moved up and tagged Ross in front of the 22 in the left rear corner. He half spun in front of the field, collected it up, the 22 drove by him, and then that [ __ ] happened. The 22 had absolutely zero to do with it. Zero. I need to watch it again cuz I watch Joey’s in card. Type in Joey. No, I saw it. I saw it on Facebook or something the other day. You keep talking. I’ll I’ll I’ll find it. It was Joey. I’ll find it. Calm down. There’s a video of Joey’s incar. They’re going into the turn. It’s a lefthand turn. I can’t remember what turn it is, but it’s a 90° left. They’re going into the corner. The five car gets hit from behind, gets moved up, and tags Ross in the left rear corner panel and turns him quarter spin across the nose of the 20. The 20 goes around him, passes him, and heads down the straightaway. Ross thought that it was the 22 and did what he did. Joey’s got nothing to do with it. Nothing. And yeah, I understand why Ross is upset, but you’re mad at the wrong guy. I get it. You don’t know that in the in the the moment. You think it’s a 22. That’s fine. But Joey’s 100% in the right here. You go to that guy, you tell him, “Hey, [ __ ] I got nothing to do with this.” And you cuss him out. You do what you got to do. We got the video pulled up. Bear with us. That is the wrong one. That was the restart after. It’s hard to find [ __ ] like this. It is. It is. I don’t know if we can play it or not, but if we can, it will be on the the the screen for it. It won’t. Well, I could do it with no sound, but I probably will forget. I saw it. I saw the end car. I just can’t remember where I saw it at. Was it on Instagram? Um, come on. Come on. I can’t cut this. Keep talking. Talk talk talk talk. I don’t have anything to say because I got to show you the video. Yeah, I would like to see the video, too, because Here we go. I found it. All right, let’s see here. See, there’s Priest on it in there. Cyn coming in. Yeah, you’re right. Duh. Duh. I wish you could find the end car from That’s what I was I swear I saw the incar of Joey. Yeah, I think NASCAR might have posted it on their Facebook. Well, I just found it. Oh, the incarcer. All right. See how it kind of looked like Joey hit him right there? Joey might have got into him, but that’s not what turned I know. I know. That’s what I for some reason that Okay. Okay, the five car 100. This is what I saw. So, I’m thinking Joey did barely hit Ross, but he wasn’t the reason Ross split out. The five car 100%. There’s no debating. Well, the the five. It wasn’t the five. It’s not the five. It was the two. It’s nobody’s. It’s racing. It was It was You said it. It’s a racing deal. It was a racing deal, but it was citrus. But if you’re going to be mad, you’re not mad at Joey cuz Joey barely even touched you. Yeah. You wouldn’t even know that Joey was there if it was just you and him. But you see the 22, you know the 22’s right behind you and you get half sideways coming out of one and you see the 22 just pass you. You think it is [ __ ] Joey Joe Lagano is not Chris Busher in this instance where Chris Busher really ever does that. Joe Lano has done that [ __ ] before. Sure. So you got to pres Joey doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt here is what I’m going to say. That but what I but it’s not Joey’s fault. Obviously, it’s not Ross, but Ross, what he did was is wrong. Ross needs to, and I would say this about everybody, unless it’s 100% obvious who who done what they did. I would love to hear the spotter communication between the one the payback the between Ross and uh Brandon Mcrenolds. You need just like you can take this. Brandon could have said, “Hey, you’re sideways here. Hey, get that 22 back.” That could have been it. Well, he needs to be suspended if he did because they’ve been suspended groo spotters for saying [ __ ] like that. Just ask Austin Dylan. But, uh, what I’m saying is is you can look at the Alex Bowman Bubba Wallace thing at the end of the race. Don’t say [ __ ] before you know the facts. Alex Bowman talking [ __ ] about Bubba before he knew that Bubba was not upset at him. was was wrong. Now, it makes for good TV. It makes for good content, but it’s wrong. And Ross Well, Bubba walked right past Bowman when they got out of the car. Exactly. He sure did. And didn’t say a word. So, if you’re if you’re thinking you you and everyone else should know that if Bubba’s got a problem with you, he’s going to [ __ ] tell you. I don’t know. He got suspended for going up to Kyle Larson and pushing him after he was out. All was his fault. Maybe you don’t want to do that. Yeah, maybe not. But it’s the heat of the moment. You can’t get mad at Alex Bowman for saying what he said. No, I’m not mad at him. But what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. Talking [ __ ] before you know the facts is wrong. Which is what everybody does. Every driver does it in the field. Every driver does it in the field. Every one of them. Most drivers preface it. Hey, I haven’t seen the replay, but this is what I feel like happened. I think Bowman said that. Well, he didn’t even need to see a replay. He done it for Anyways, what I’m telling you is Roman said is he didn’t do nothing wrong. Ross paid back Joey without knowing Joey did anything wrong. He thought Joey did something wrong. That’s fair. But he paid him back and he shouldn’t have. I get it. You’re in the heat of the moment. He’s there. You’re getting him back. But now you got Joey Logano. Mad at you. And you’re going to be racing this guy in the playoffs for no reason. Oh, I thought you put like down the road. Well, that’s what I’m saying. You are you’re going to be racing this guy. He races hard with everybody. Sure. So does Ross. But Joey wrecks people back when he thinks they deserve it. And so again, so Ross has got one coming now. When Joey got out of his car at the All-Star race and said Christopher Bell drove him dirty. If I would have got back to him, I would have spun him. You had no problem with what he said. But you have a problem with Alex Bowman saying what he said. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s the same thing. No, because it was He knows that it was the 20 car. Now, his perception of what was dirty and what was not was wrong. Sure. But he knows who it was. He didn’t say, “Oh, the five car drove me dirty.” And the [ __ ] five car was nowhere to be found, so I dumped the 22. That’d be funny. No, he didn’t. He got out and said, “I feel like the 20 car drove me dirty.” And then he came back the next day and said, “After watching it, what’s fair? Love and war, right? We’re good. He didn’t drive me dirty. That was clean.” What if Ross says the same thing? I spun out the wrong guy. My bad. The damage is already done. You wrecked him. You [ __ ] wrecked him and he had nothing to do with it. Now, there’s no debate that the 22 and the 20 were going at it at the All-Star race. You can debate whether or not the move was dirty. I don’t think it was. Joey said he doesn’t think it was after watching it, but there’s no debate that those two were the two going at it. Ross wrecked the 22 and the 22 had zero to do with Ross wrecking none. I get you on that. I agree with you. So the the one is 100% in the wrong here. And Joey chewing his ass on pit road was 100% deserved. That’s all I’m saying. And Ross is owed one. And he’s probably going to get one because Joey will do it. And it’s dumb to make that decision knowing that you’re probably going to be out of the round of 16 without some help. And now you got this guy gunning for you. It’s a dumb move. It was a dumb move. It was a dumb move. But I think at the end of the day, it’s kind of just heat of the moment so quick. Hey, I about wrecked and I see the 22 pass me. [ __ ] it. I mean, I’d be upset if I was Joey, too. I’m not arguing. And Ross is way more in the wrong than Joey was. Joy’s, but they’re both the same driver. I don’t know. Now, I could be wrong. How many times have I talked about Dale Earnhard on this podcast? Joey, if Joey’s put in the same position as Ross, he could go in there and do the same [ __ ] thing to Ross as what Ross did to him. I could see that happening with Joey. It’s not like Chris Busher. Chris Busher doesn’t do that. It’s two aggressive drivers. Sure, I could see Joey doing the same thing. And I know that’s hard to say, well, that didn’t happen. I know, but based off President, I could see Joey doing the same thing to Ross. I think what you’re missing out on is Yes, I can see 100% Joel Lagano going in there and paying somebody back. Yes, I the wrong person. I don’t. Name it. Huh? Name it. Name when it’s happened. Name when the Tom Ross did it. other than this weekend. One is enough. Okay. I have never se I don’t think I’ve ever seen another drop. I I can’t I’m not saying it’s not happened. It probably has. You could You’re You’re the [ __ ] guy that could remember who led lap 35 in a [ __ ] 2004 Atlanta race. But I can’t think of another time where I’ve seen a driver wreck the wrong person as play payback. I can’t think of one. I can’t. And I get it. I was about to say, you know, you brought up, you know, aggre two aggressive drivers going at it and, you know, being hypocritical, being mad about that stuff. How many times have I talked about Dale Earnhard on this podcast being the first guy to wreck you? At least twice. Being the first guy to wreck you, and then as soon as you drive him dirty, he gets out of the car bitching and moaning. Everybody does it. Yeah, that’s what I was saying. Everybody does it. And to be honest, the one guy that you [ __ ] hate the most does it the least, that’s Denny Hamlin. Denny Hamlin doesn’t really do that [ __ ] He’ll get out of the car and be like, “Yeah, that’s what that was. It happens.” Joy Denny will get out of the car and say, “Man, I love what Ty Dylan said.” Yeah, he was talking [ __ ] but that’s awesome. I love it. beating somebody in a tournament. Denny will get out of the car and say that was Bubba’s fault cuz that’s what he said on his podcast. He blamed it on Bubba, not on Alex. But race fans can’t see that. And race fans will take Ross’ side because they don’t I’m not taking Ross. I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying these guys will. They will take Ross. They don’t like Ross that much either. They like him more than Joey. Yeah, that’s fair. And there’s no reason I do not understand the hate for Joey Logano. I do not understand the hate for Denny Hamlin. I do not understand it because this is what you want. These are the type of race car drivers you want. This is those two are more Darn Hart than anybody else. And you guys Carson I think Carson’s getting there. Uh Carson doesn’t win races. It’s fair. Carson will be there one day probably. But Joey is the closest thing. I’ve said it a h 100 times. Joey Logano is the closest thing to Dale Earnhard that we have seen since Dale Earnhard. He’s got three championships. I think Tony was a little bit more three Tony was a little bit more of Dale than maybe those two would probably on the on the same level. Yeah, we’ve seen Tony three championships he races you nicest guy you’ve ever met on the you know cool guy outside the car, whatever. But on that track, he’s the man in black. Joey drives a yellow car, but he drives like Dale Earnhard. This was not his fault. And him getting out of the car and going after him was 100% justified. And if he [ __ ] sends his ass into turn 11 tire barriers this weekend, the 22 sends the the the one, it’s 100% deserved. Not arguing with that. I’m saying it’s kind of a it’s a freak deal on a restart. Just picked the wrong guy. And I get it’s a bad mistake, but I I pro I’m probably fighting you if you wreck me and I got nothing to do with it. I mean, if I if you owe me one, you owe me one. I don’t think Joey wants that smoke. Uh ask no ask no, but I I’ve got confidence in my ability against Ross Chastain and about the same weight class and everything. That’d be a hell of a fight. And he that that’s I mean that’s deserving of an ass whooping. That’s fair. That’s fair. I just It’s the drivers I think that matter in the situation as well. Not just it. I think you have to I think you have to look at every situation as as the situation. Unless there’s unless there’s beef between those drivers prior. If it’s a retaliation, you have to go back to the prior incident. Well, Ross wasn’t driving the Wendy’s car, so there was no beef. Next on the agenda, we got the Exfinity race on Saturday. Riley, talk to me about it. Uh, they raced on Saturday. Next, Shane Van Ginsburgen won the poll. Won a race. Big surprise there. Um, yeah. The first person to win the poll for both Exfinity and Cup and win the races since Kyle Bush in 2017, I think at Bristol. Yeah. So, makes sense to me. Yeah. I mean, it was a I think the race on Saturday was better. Um, you know, I watched the whole race. I missed kind of half, not half of it, but a decent amount. I’m struggling to remember anything that happened like at all. Um, Saturday was a long time ago. I don’t I don’t remember who finished second. Connor. Remember chasing him down. Couldn’t get to him. Sure. Yeah. I mean, it was a race for sure. Um, it was one of the NASCAR races of all time. Dustin Nogar broke. Um, remember that? You know, I I I remember there was a lot of pit strategy in it. Uh, there were some guys there that shouldn’t have been there for a little while and then there were some guys that weren’t there when they should have been. Uh, I know Jeb Burton was up there for for a little bit and um, yeah, I mean Shane Van Gizburgen is the best NASCAR uh, or best road course racer in NASCAR. Went down and got that nine car in one. He’s racing it again this weekend. Is he? Uh, so good luck to the field on that. Um, but you know, it’s uh, yeah, it was definitely one of the NASCAR races. Um, that is fair. Not a lot happened from what I’m seeing. I don’t really remember anything. Crazy. Uh, Sie finished last. He broke him and Sallet got erect, didn’t they? Sual second to last. Anthony Alfredo third to last. Those some bigger guys. They had to have a problem. I just can’t remember what it was. Taylor Gray 34th. He had a problem, too. So, Jack Perkins, bad day for Jug Gives Racing Saturday. Um, three other three other guys 32nd or worse. Um, the Benadetto was faster for a little while. I think he had a mechanical issue. I think he ran in, you know, he hit the wall or something. He spun out or hit the pounded the tires or something. I remember that or just drove right down the bear. I can’t remember which what what it was. Carson had a he got some damage I think earlier on. Sanchez was quick at one point. Yeah. Uh, Jesse Love was leading there and passed him. Shel the Creed was all right. There was some there was some racing. Yeah. on Saturday. Yeah, just Shane just kind of him. It was it was a Shane and and Connor show. Um what you kind of expect when when both those guys are in the Exfinity race together on a road course. You’re going to have the same thing this weekend. Those two guys are going to be batting for the lead. Austin Hill historically has been very good at Sonoma. Almost won the race. He was pretty good at at uh on Sunday. Fourth or fifth or pretty good on Sunday, too. Yeah. Got top 10 uh for for his one off with RCR or at least his first or maybe second. I don’t remember. He may think he ran the 500. Might run the 500, but um yeah, just a decent uh good race. It’s not a lot. I mean, Shane and um Connor has kind of dominated the race. So, Junior Motorsports continues to dominate the Excin series this year. Um I think that’s now what, five or six different drivers to win in the nine car this year. Um or no, not the nine car in Virginia Motorsports this year. Um so that’s I think a record uh for the series. the most drivers winning in an organization. So, that’s cool on their end. And they’re the dominant team in the sport right now um in the Excennis series. And for years, it’s always been Joe Gibbs Racing been the dominant force, but you know, their their driver lineup’s not quite as good as Junior Motorsports right now. And you know, they got an all-star car um that they run every week, which got different drivers, got good drivers like Eric Mola, then you got a guy um that ran this weekend in the 19, the road course specialist, but he does not use these cars in Jack Perkins. So, uh he had a bad day. So, um, Junior Motorsports is clearly head and shoulders above the field right now. Now, when playoff time comes, it might not matter because the playoffs are weird and you can have a guy if a if a if a Junior Motorsports car does not win the championship this year. It’ be a not a disgrace, but it it shouldn’t happen uh based off how good they’ve been this year. So, um Shane got off to the right foot on Saturday by winning the Exfinity race and it kind of carried on to Sunday and uh gave him even more of an advantage on the field. I think when when guys do double duty, even though the the Cup and Exfinity guys or cars are so different, I think these type of tracks, these type of races on road courses where rhythm is so important, getting a rhythm at a track where you’re just not that comfortable in, I think it matters a lot um for getting just track time. So, double duty Shane, that definitely helped him to win the race on Sunday. Now, he probably would have won the race on Sunday regardless if he raced on Saturday, but um it definitely uh did not hurt his uh his calls uh for for going uh for sweeping the weekends and that’s what he did on Sunday or Saturday and Sunday. So, um yeah, I think the booth was was solid with Adam and uh AJ Almaninger was up there in the booth with uh Parker and and Adam. AJ was pretty good. I think he was solid. uh not the best uh driver that they’ve had up there, but he’s definitely not the worst. So, uh yeah, overall was just kind of a another NASCAR Infinity race on on a road course. Solid, not great, but uh the the best guy won it. The best two guys finished one and two. So, and Connor was chasing him down at the end. Just couldn’t get there in time. So, um I think Connor probably had a little bit of a better car to be honest with you. But uh Shane uh got it done at the end. Held him off. So yeah. What are you looking at? Facebook. Oh my god. [ __ ] blabbing. Is that lean beef fatty? She in the NASCAR video game. I should be uh got some NASCAR 25. Tell me about it cuz I don’t know what the [ __ ] you talking about. Well, there’s there’s some drivers uh last weekend and this weekend this past weekend talking about playing the game a little bit. Uh, Noah Grexon uh tweeted out saying, “Man, you guys are gonna love this new game. It’s it’s really good.” We Byron got a screenshot of We and Byron playing it a little bit. Um, I think Anthony Alfredo tweeted out, “You know, this game’s going to be, you know, really good. You guys are really going to enjoy it. The physics are great. Um, all that stuff.” So, if you don’t know, what’s real Radman saying about I haven’t watched that guy in months since he started working for NASCAR. He doesn’t gota he’s got to watch what he says. He’s always been a [ __ ] He He works for NASCAR now. You know that, right? Good for him. Yeah. So, I don’t even watch him no more. Got to tone down what he says. Maybe not. I haven’t I haven’t really watched him, but he you see race reviews do a lot of other stuff. He don’t really do it no more. What does a what if racing say about it? I hope that guy is I hope that guy is still living. You know, do you think do you think Winval will come out with a 25 series? I hope he does. The game’s good. I don’t know. He’s done two indie car races in six months. So, yeah, probably done. He’s he’s supposed to do another Dick Piston season on NASCAR road to Daytona dirt to Daytona because he lost the championship a couple months ago. But, uh, we we’ll see. But, um, yeah, I think a lot of positive views coming out of this. Now, I get the drivers are not going to come on come out and say, “Oh, this game [ __ ] sucks. Don’t buy it.” You know, that’ll that hurts NASCAR. It hurts, you know, the sport. because video games are a very important aspect of building your fan base for younger kids and um with not a lot of known sponsors or kid-friendly sponsors out there in NASCAR no more. You need video games to try to get these guys engaged, these kids engaged in your sport. So, this game is huge. It’s been hyped up for now two years. We saw the disaster of NASCAR 21 Ignition was terrible. I absolutely got it couldn’t unplayable for the first month till they fixed a lot of [ __ ] and it still wasn’t even that good. go back to the Heat series. It wasn’t I was never a fan of it. The physics, the graphics, it just wasn’t I was never a huge fan of the Heat series. The Uteknix games were probably the best that we’ve had in recent memory, but there were so many glitches and the the replay would never work and it was just it was it was just very bare bones. There wasn’t a lot of stuff in those games. Good racing physics, but other than that, you didn’t have a whole lot. And then you go back to the Thunder days other than the short tracks. You go back to the Thunder days and that’s the last time it was good. But even the last few Thunder games, which they weren’t called Thunder, they were just NASCAR05, 06, 07, 08, 09, they weren’t. They were kind of bare bones as well. So we have a good a really good NASCAR game in almost in over 20 years. Um, so this is huge. iRacing has done it. Dale Junior’s been putting his stamp on it. Been doing a a lot of involvement. The soundtrack’s supposed to be really good. Um, a lot of deep dive career mode things that you’re supposed to be able to do. Um, the the racing itself is supposed to not be broken. Uh, the online play supposed to be pretty good. So, you know, it we should get a trailer either the end of this month, the end of August. The trailer will kind of it won’t give out everything because I got hooked on the NASCAR 21 Ignition trailer. I did too. I thought it was going to be awesome and it turned out to be [ __ ] So, even if the trailer comes out next month or the end of this month and it’s really good, still got to kind of tamper your expectations, temper your expectations, but I have a better feeling about this than I have in a long time about the about the video game. And I hope it’s good because I’ve been dying to play a NASCAR console video game. It’s it’s been a long time. So, hoping it’s good. I trust iRacing for the most part. I think they should do a really good job at it. Um, I don’t expect it to be perfection, but as long as it’s playable and I have fun playing it and there’s a decent career mode, I’ll take it. I just we need that we need to get in that video game stuff again. It It’s It’s more important than having a new college football game because people still watch college football no matter if you had a video game or not the past 10 years before they got a they had the new one last year. NASCAR is so important. It’s a dying sport. It’s not dying as much anymore. But if you get a good video game to attract these younger fans, you get new fans and you should be able to stick with them. I mean, Eric Eep, one of the most famous NASCAR YouTuber out there. He started watching NASCAR when he got the NASCAR 04, I think it was 04 video game and he started playing as Matt Kenneth and right then and there he was a Matt Kenneth fan and he see what he does now. So, if you get you get that, you get a good video game, you can get a lot of new a lot of new viewers and new fans in the sports. I’m hoping good things about it. Still hold my breath, but I’m hoping it’s going to be good. Yeah. Um, you know, and I’m I don’t want to say I’m not looking forward to it because I am, but I am more cautiously optimistic about this one than I have been for the other ones. NASCAR Heat, the first one that came out, I think we talked about it. I think you know it was what 2017 18 16 16 um 16 and you know I uh I was super excited for that game and and you said don’t buy it it’s going to suck and I said no you’re wrong and I bought it and it sucked and then you know it got progressively better for the couple years and then it kind of leveled out and whatever was really great. Yeah, Heat four was the best one. And uh then Heat Five was pretty much the same thing. Yeah. Heat four. And you know, then heat went away and then they came out with the ignition game and I was really like really excited with it because, you know, I watched the video of them, you know, displaying the graphics in that game. And graphics are the easiest way to like hook somebody, I think, in video games is like if you show good graphics, people believe it’s a good game, whether it is or not. You don’t show any gameplay, you show the graphics, people will be like, “Wow, this looks really good. They put a lot of time into this.” Yeah. It’s going to be good. Yeah. And I was I was hooked. And I was I’m buying this game day one. I’m going to take a day off work. I’m playing this [ __ ] It’s going to be great. And then they released the gameplay trailer, you know, month or whatever it was before the game came out and I was done. Like I could tell right away like this is not it. You know, you had Spotter saying [ __ ] that was just dumb. Didn’t make any sense. Um just really like the scoreboard was all [ __ ] up. Yeah, it was just it was just you could tell if you’re an ASCAR fan that the game wasn’t right. So, I have still to this day yet to drive a single lap in that game. Will not play it. I haven’t either. So, with this game, I’m excited because iRacing’s making it and I trust iRacing. I love iRacing. The graphics don’t look super great to be honest. Uh, from what I’ve seen from the screenshot that they took of of the 24 playing, it it looks kind of weird to me. Uh, but I think in some kind of weird way that it’s a good thing that I’m not super excited about this game because they’re I don’t think they’ve shown us anything to lie to us. Yeah. And I don’t think that they’re trying to show, you know, the the one millisecond of gameplay that makes the game look good to the masses. I think the game’s going to I think they think the game’s going to sell itself because it’s quality. And I think that’s a good thing because like I said, if they were showing us, you know, trying to hype this game up more than it should be, it would be setting off a red flag that isn’t there. So, I don’t think my hype is quite as high as the past couple games because of them not hyping me up for it. But, I think in the long run, that’s a good thing. And I do think that this is going to be, you know, year one, the best game that we’ve seen in a long time, and it’s only going to get better. You know, I’ve I’ve played a lot of the iRacing online stuff. I do 90% of my iRacing I do online with other people that I don’t know which is where iRacing shines. But I’ve done some of the AI stuff and their AI is not bad. Uh so I think if they can it’s gotten a lot better than when they first started. I think if they can incorporate the AI from iRacing into the video game, not the simulator, but into the video game. Still keep some of the simulation stuff, but but make it a little bit easier for console players. I think I think they’re going to have a home run with this. And it’s it’s going to come down to the career mode because the reason people love NASCAR 2004, at least the reason I love NASCAR 2004, is because that career mode is amazing. It’s start from the ground up. You suck. I mean, you’re awful. You you struggle to keep up with the draft at Daytona if you have the hardest difficulty. You go to Rockingham and it’s tough. I mean, there’s a couple tracks you’re one that you’ll be okay at. We’re racing. You’ll finish in the 20s most of the time, but you’re you’re bad. Like, you’re real bad. Unless like a caution happens, you know, you you do some you fuel strategy, you’re finishing in the 30s most week. And if they can if they can implement a way that the game is hard enough to give you a challenge, but easy enough to play and and fun enough that you’re like NASCAR 2004, year one, you’re happy when you finish 25th. Yeah. You’re happy. You’re you’re you’re celebrating that. Yeah. NASCAR Heat, those games, you’re mad when you finish 25th. Yeah. Because you’re supposed to win every race, especially when you, you know, get a year year into, you know, your your car is good enough, you should win every race, like legit legitimately. And if if they can figure out a way to implement a career mode where you’re competitive, but you’re happy with a 10th place finish and you win a race here or there and you make it to the playoffs, that’s what I think is going to hook people, especially, you know, NASCAR fans like us. Because I don’t know about you, I don’t want to win every race. I want to fight tooth and nail for a 10th place finish. I want to have to I could finish 10th here, you know, if I take four tires on this last stop or I could take two, take the lead, you know, maybe move up to fifth, but it’s going to be a problem, you know, holding on to this car. I want that because you could do that in NASCAR 2004. It’s all about replicating what you see on Sunday and giving giving enough challenge to to to keep your attention, but not making it so hard that you can’t compete. That’s the that’s the the medium they’re going to have to hit the career. I also do also think I agree with you, but a lot of I could be speaking out of my ass here with the younger generation and how short their attention spant gratification. They want that instant in instant gratification. That’s what I hope they don’t do. That’s what the Heat games kind of did. You were you were decent off the start. You weren’t the best car, but like you said, it didn’t take too long to get to the top five car, top car in the in the series while you’re doing a career mode. You had to grind in 04. You had to grind in 03, 02. Even the early games, 2011, you weren’t great at a lot of tracks. 2012, same thing. You weren’t great at at a lot of tracks to start. That’s where I hope iRacing in this game doesn’t jump the gun. It’s like, oh, we got to make the we got to make it a little easier because we don’t want these guy these kids turn it off because they’re always finishing last every week. That’s what I’m afraid of. Um, but I want that have a have a have an option of having if you just want to go out there and win every race and whatever, then have an option like that. Turn the difficulties way down or something for those guys. That’s what I like about a lot of the sim the sims that are out on on PC is that they have a like NASCAR Heat had the difficulty slider went up to 105, right? But 105 was not hard enough at some tracks. At some tracks it was pretty difficult. Like if you didn’t put a setup in, it was going to be tough. Yeah. Right. But if you raced, you know, there were some tracks where it didn’t matter what the difficulty setting was, you’re going to win the race if you don’t wreck. Yeah. And I think I think if you put the difficulty at 105, it should be [ __ ] hard. Like it should be a struggle to finish top 10. A struggle. Like you should really have to like other than the super speedwise. Yeah. You should really have to put some practice in, put a setup in the car, practice, hit your marks, drive a perfect race. Like it should be hard. Those guys should be fast. And you know, especially NASCAR video games obviously a passion of both of ours. NASCAR obviously a passion of both of ours in general, but you know, I want to have to go into practice, set up the car and and and hit my marks and make it difficult. But there’s a balance, right? You can’t make it so hard that you qualify last even. And that that’s the problem with NR203 in my opinion, which I’ve been playing a lot more of here recently, is I will put a setup in the car and and be in practice. I’ll have a top 10 car in practice. I’ll go into qualifying, change it to the qualifying setup, you know, tighten it up or loosen it up a little bit. um you know, put some tape on a grill, you know, do what you do, you know, for a qualifying setup and I will be seconds off, like seconds off of the qualifying pace. Like qualify last, but in the race I’m top five. Like I’m the fastest car in the race and it’s not fun because I qualify last. Now I got to drive my way through the field, but it’s so difficult to get through the field without wrecking that it’s just not worth it’s not worth doing. So there there has to be a h happy medium somewhere in there, you know, with with the qualifying pace and the setup pace and there has to be a happy medium with the difficulty to to hook people but not make it so easy that you win everything. And if they can nail that, which is going to be difficult. I’m not saying that it’s not. And if there’s anybody on the the earth that can do it, I think it’s iRacing. Um, you know, cuz they’ve got the iRacing stuff. They are the they’re essentially Papyrus. Papyrus turned into iRacing that made NR 2003. They’ve got the last 20 years of failures in NASCAR games to look back on. They’ve been building this game for a while. They’ve not rushed it. They’ve got Dale Jr., which is an average sim racer but also an avid video game player that understands that can understand both sides of things. I think I think NASCAR and iRacing can find that happy medium. The problem is is do they see the reason to and are they looking to sell games to the younger generation and make the most money? Yeah. because if so, it’s going to be too easy. Or are they trying to make an authentic NASCAR experience, which if so, might not sell as much, but will be a better better game. And I think down the down the road, it will be better. Yeah, if it is like that. I agree with you. Have to see. Like I said, it’ll probably come out I think what in late September, early October is the expected release dates, which I’m surprised there’s not a date yet, but yeah. So, like you said, they’re not rushing it. So, I do I do like that aspect of it. So, we’ll have to see. Anyways, hit that button for at a boy. and a boy. [Music] Had a boy. Had a boy. Chris Busher. Um what? Yeah, I’m going to give it to Chris Busher. Um, whenever whenever you have a car that can win the race and you have mechanical issues and you’re riding around cuz at the when he had that mechanical issue, it was under caution for that that wreck on the backstretch. The backstretch. On the backstretch on uh Hope they had a backstretch. Whatever the [ __ ] wherever the wreck was, like turn 10 or something. Yeah, it was on the back side of the track. Yeah. Near the Yeah. And you know, they had that wreck. They parked it. They went to Chris under red flag his radio and he said, “Uh, something [ __ ] up with his car.” They pit under the caution when they lifted the red flag. Realized that the So, they pulled the ECU, put a new one in it, downloaded the info off the old one, realized that the problem was internal and it was not anything they could fix. I don’t think they’ve released exactly what it was. They probably won’t, but something was internal. Motor was a miss. Down on power. Bad day, right? Lap down early in the race. Runs the rest of stage one. Uh, a lap down. Only car lap down. Gets his lap back. Kind of rides around a little bit most of stage two. Almost makes it I think he finished 11th in stage two. Now granted, there’s some pitch strategy there, but almost finished in the top 10 to get some stage points in stage two and then, you know, making a lot of passes throughout stage three. Pitch strategy ended up hurting him at the end there, I think. Um I think, you know, he ended up uh pitting when he shouldn’t have uh towards the end of that uh the last caution there. Um he pitted. I don’t think he should have. Uh but he did ended up finishing 18th 18th. Um which for Chris at a road course, not great. However, in the grand scheme of things with what could have happened, you know, give up on the day. Hey, this motor’s broke. We’re going to pull it in. Going to retire the car. You know, we’re just going to putt around at the back, not try to compete, whatever. scored some really really good points um for for what was what he was driving. And if this comes down to which it might if if if the playoffs come down to points at the end for 16th, this might be a race you look back on for Chris for the reason he ended up making it. You think other guys at the cutline had bad days, right? um Bubba Wallace uh to be to be the the most important one. Only two points to the good now above Ryan Priest. He’s the last car on the cut line. That could have easily been Chris Busher had he not salvaged a decent finish, top 20 finish out of a day that at the beginning of the day looked like he was going to finish in the 30s. So, um I get it. There’s other guys up there. SVG. You know, there’s a lot of guys uh that had really good days. Uh but but these are the type of races that you need uh in an NASCAR season where not everything goes your way, but you still find a way. And uh I give credit to those guys because uh that couldn’t have been fun for Chris to drive that car knowing you’re down on power. Uh especially when when you know you have a car capable of doing a lot more. So, um, at a boy Chris Busher, I think in a couple couple weeks, couple months, we’re going to be looking back at this race as as a turning point for and maybe not a turning point, but a very important day uh for Chris in the grand scheme of things if if he ends up making the playoffs. I’m going to give my ATA boy to Katherine Leg. My leg. Uh, getting a 20th place finish on Sunday is huge for her and that BJ Mloud racing team. uh got off to a rough start on Saturday, got a little bit of damage from practice um and then had to qualify her way into the show. Like I said, there’s 41 cars in the field this this past weekend and she had to beat Cory Him. Granted, he had damage from from his uh accident in qualifying, but that’s a lot of pressure to go uh put on yourself when you know you got to beat a guy that has damage and you should beat him because he has damage and um one little mistake and uh you’re [ __ ] So, um, good job putting in the show on Saturday and then on Sunday just avoiding all the chaos. Had a had trouble early on in the race. Spun out, I think, going into one. Uh, but didn’t, you know, hurt her confidence at all. Just kind of still just kind of maintained a race. Didn’t do nothing crazy. Avoided the crazy restarts. Avoided all the crazy wrecks and let other people take themselves out and at the end of the day got a top 20 finish. Finishing 20th. That is a great great job by Katherine Le and that whole race team. Uh she’s had a lot of rough moments this year, but this one is definitely the the best moment she’s had in NASCAR this year. And she should uh she should she should have held her her head up high on Sunday leaving Chicago. She did a great job. Top 20 uh in a in a NSA Cup race and a road course is not not uh easy to do. And they did a good job and she did a good job all day maintaining and surviving. And at the end of the day, she got a top 20. So, uh, great great job by Katherine Le. Um, all the pressure got put on her on Saturday, then on Sunday to to back it up with the top 20 was was very very impressive, uh, for Kathern Leg. So, add a boy or add a girl, I should say, to Katherine Leg. You can’t do that. You You can’t do that. [Music] You can’t do that. My you can’t do that from Chicago this past weekend. Give me NASCAR officiating yet again. just uh not being consistent and not I just it’s mindboggling of me trying to understand um what they’re thinking when they throw the cautions or not throw the cautions at at some of these tracks. And um again, I feel like the Josh Barry thing, him slamming in the wall, his damn front side of his car poking down towards the towards the bottom of the track. Um, clearly he wouldn’t be able to drive it back. I don’t think. Well, it’s hard to say if he could have drove it back, but he was stuck the street course, sharp corners. Um, that’s dangerous for the drivers come across there, even if with the spotters telling them, “Hey, 21’s broke down here for two laps.” Uh, and then you throw the caution allowing the Toyotas to come down pit road and get an advantage um on the rest of the field there on on fuel and stuff. And um that was disgrace. You throw the caution. If you’ll throw the caution, throw it, you know, give them, I don’t know, 15, 20 seconds. If you ain’t pulled it away, throw it now. Throw it then. Like I 20, 15, 20 second buffer. And uh yeah, and um but two laps and then you throw it is just ridiculous to me. Um I know he moved it a little bit out of the way, but he still couldn’t get it going. So that was a disgrace. And then I’ve gone back and forth with the Cody Wear thing. Um, I thought I understood it, but after seeing the replays and how hard he hit that [ __ ] tire barrier, seeing the smoke roll out when we first saw it on TNT, um, there’s no you NASCAR always preaches about safety and Cody Wear creamed those tires going like 140 miles an hour just straightening the tire bears. It was it looked terrible from a a fan in the right near the uh the turn there just Cody flying past them before he hits the the the tire barrier and they waited 35 seconds waiting for Shane to take the white flag and then even waited a little bit after that before they threw the caution to end the race ultimately. Like I get like you had rain and lightning possibly in the area, fog rolling in. I get you want to get the race in, but NASCAR always preaches safety and they did the exact opposite for both these instances on Sunday. uh which is ridiculous of how bad NASCAR fishing has gotten these past five, six years. Um like I’ve always been the proponent of it’s a caution now. If it’s a caution two laps is a caution now. Don’t wait to throw it and let the teams kind of jump ahead of other teams on strategy and determine, you know, have the outcome of the race be affected by when you want to throw the caution by when you want to hit that button and uh not that button, but uh yeah, it’s just it’s a joke. Hope NASCAR fishing is the worst it’s been I think ever. Um and uh he had Cody wear that could have been damn really hurt down there and you needed to you know dispatch ambulances to his assistance. He threw a caution with 20 to go cuz the fan was dying in the stands. You threw that one pretty quickly but you you don’t throw a [ __ ] uh caution when Cody wear comes pile into the damn tire barriers um 150 mph and you wait 30 seconds. It just don’t make no sense. And believe me, I didn’t want to see that caution. I don’t want to see I want Shane to win. He’s my pick and he got Toyotas behind him. So I don’t want Toyotas to win. You know how I feel about Toyotas. So I didn’t want that to be caution. Reic would have won the race. But it’s the right thing to do. You see you how hard Go back if you ain’t seen it, go back and watch Cody wear how hard they hit them [ __ ] bears. He smacked the [ __ ] out of them tires. And uh so NASCAR officiating gets it yet again. Uh they it’s been a while till last week or two weeks ago, whatever it was, I gave it to him again. Uh I’m giving it to them again this week. Uh just just I want consistency. I want to understand when it’s kind of like the pass interference rule in football. You kind of or the catch rule in football. You kind of don’t really understand it. It’s like that in fishing, but it’s in a whole you only got one thing to really officiate other than maybe restarts and stuff. That’s the only thing you got to officiate is when to throw the cautions. It’s a caution now and a caution in two laps. It should be a caution now instead of it backwards, but you know what I mean. So NASCAR officiating again drops the ball and uh just glad Cody Wear wasn’t hurt because if he was hurt and then they waited 35 seconds and he needed assistance right then and there, NASCAR would be looking very bad. They got lucky that Cody is okay. But yeah, just just a disgrace. Uh just a terrible uh result for NASCAR fishiating again this weekend in Chicago. Yeah, I agree. I I and this was going to be mine as well and I had a bit of a rant planned for this and you covered a bunch of what I was going to say. The Josh Barry incident uh was was dumb. Um just really stupid middle of the race. Obviously that car wasn’t going nowhere. Um he tried he tried he tried wasn’t going and they let him go and it and it just didn’t make any sense. Um, and you know, I thought it was was over and and you know, I give I give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt in in the the Josh Barry situation because like you said, they’re trying to allow I would rather them allow drivers the opportunity to drive it back than not. I think NASCAR should be, especially with how safe these cars are, and I said this after the Connor Zillots in incident at Tallaladega in the Xfinity series, safety is a concern for NASCAR, but it isn’t like it’s very, very rare that somebody’s injured in a wreck. Now, Connor Zilich ended up being injured in that wreck, but he didn’t know it while he was he got out of the car and he was fine. and it was the next day that he realizes something was was off. But, you know, in the Josh Barry incident, safety not really an issue there as far as his own health. The safety is going to come into play when um you know, other cars are getting on scene of a wreck, right? And and he was kind of out of the way. So, I’ll give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt for not throwing the caution there because I would rather see a race not have a caution if it’s not necessary. However, they have been racing at Chicagoland for three years now. Chicago Street. Yeah. Chicago street course for three years now. And, you know, we’ve seen a car here or there get, you know, dumped into the tire barrier, head on into the tire barrier that can get out. There was one last year that did. I think it was Kyle Larson maybe. Um, hit the tire tire barrier, backed his way out, and was good. But for the most part, if you hit the tire barriers, you’re stuck. Like especially head-on, like you’re in the mos, like you’re not coming out of that. And to me, you know, tires up to the roof as it was on Cody’s car, like that car is not coming out. And I don’t care what he does, that car is stuck whether it can still drive or not. And you know that should be a caution automatically cuz you should know that that car is stuck there. Number two, if we are concerned about safety like we were with Connor Zillich in the Tallaladega race, you throw in the [ __ ] caution flag before he even hits the wall. Like how are we not here? Like Cody Wear hit that [ __ ] a ton. Like a ton. You said it in your your speech. Like the [ __ ] if did not have brakes was running full speed down the front stretch or whatever [ __ ] long straightaway it was and it was going into six. Yeah, it was six the the the back stretch if you will. And just creams the tire barrier at essentially full speed because I think they clocked it like 100 miles. I mean just crushed. They did hit the wall at first. Slow down a little bit. Yeah. I mean essentially full speed. He wasn’t maybe maybe he scrubbed off 20 30 mph. Yeah. But still a 100 mile impact 100 mph impact into a tire barrier should be cause for concern if it’s cause for concern that Zillich hits the wall at Talladega at essentially the same speed. And you know, I just I don’t get how you can, you know, you’ve got TNT and I, you know, I talked about this earlier. You got TNT showing it on TV, which they missed most of the [ __ ] that happened. um which they’re going to be my you can’t do that but and I’ll get into that in a minute but you got TNT showing with a lap and a half left you know the the the SVG is half a lap away from taking the white flag you’re watching Cody wear sitting inside the tire barrier now granted at this time you don’t see how he got there but he’s he’s stuck he’s stuck in the all like he’s stuck there and he’s there he’s not going anywhere. It is a safety issue and I feel like and again I’m okay with Shane winning the race. He deserved to win the race. He would not have won the race had the caution come out. I think Tyler Reic wins that race if the if the caution comes out. But Cody Wear is balls deep in this wall. NASCAR waits to throw the caution till after SVG takes the white. And the only reason they throw the caution is because I don’t know if you know this or not, Cody Wear drops the window net and gets out before they throw the caution. And like the [ __ ] car is done. It’s cooked. It lost brakes. It hit the wall at 100 mph. And you got a guy getting out on a live racetrack because he expects the caution to be out. Like what the [ __ ] do you need to throw if you’re going to throw a caution for Connor Zilich hitting the wall when he’s out of the way for safety? You could say the same thing that about that with Cody though. He was out of the way. Eh, not really. Cuz if another car could get there, that’s true. Another car is not going to come down there and hit Connor Zillich with half a lap to go when they’ve already passed him by the time he’s at the wall. That’s true. That’s true. And the safety crew is going to get to Connor at the same speed essentially, give or take 10 seconds, 20 seconds, whatever it takes him to finish a lap, which I think cancels out this with 35 seconds. At least 35 seconds. Yeah, probably more. And you know, like you said, Cody Wear is fine, but it’s ridiculous that you’ve got this not being a caution. You’ve got the 21 not being a caution. And we can point at a thousand different examples in the past 10 years, six, seven years. Uh who was it at Texas a couple years ago that got close to the wall? Ricky Stenhouse. Ricky Stenhouse at the All-Star race. Got close to the wall. Some [ __ ] dust blew up 10 ft from the crossing the finish line through the caution. Ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. I think there was one in the Xfinity series too that now that I’m I’m thinking about it that was kind of dumb. But like the Parker when Parker was going to win the Roal last year. Same thing tires. But there was one this weekend in the Xfinity series that I saw. They did the opposite for Parker. They waited like 20 seconds. Somebody was buried in the tire barrier in the Roville last year. They waited till Parker. That’s what I’m saying. Parker was Parker was leading the race, not Parker was in the tires. Parker was almost to the white flag and they throw it right before he gets there. Yeah. So, you know, it’s just the inconsistency. I don’t give a [ __ ] Like, I would rather if you’re not going to throw it, don’t throw it. But don’t [ __ ] piss on me and telling me it’s raining, that you care about safety when you don’t. You care about who’s winning the race. And it’s better for NASCAR that Shane won the race. That’s what happened. And I’m okay that Shane won the race. He deserved to win the race. And it’s better for NASCAR that the race finished under caution right there after he took the white because they didn’t have to worry about rain and they didn’t have to worry about weather and they didn’t have to worry about darkness. They didn’t have to worry about any of that. Hey, they’ll take the white here. We’ll throw the caution. It is what it is. That’s what it was. You can’t tell me that they didn’t see it because that’s what NASCAR said. They can’t say the the impact of it. We didn’t see it. [ __ ] [ __ ] Yeah. [ __ ] There’s a [ __ ] guy waving the flag, the blue flag, and his arm nearly gets taken off because the [ __ ] comes in at [ __ ] 20 mph and it hits the wall. NASCAR knew that there was a car sitting there. They didn’t care. Yeah. Because it didn’t fit what they wanted to accomplish. And that’s [ __ ] It’s the reason I hate the NBA. They don’t call fouls at the beginning of the game that they call at the end of the game. NASCAR does not call cautions at the beginning of the race that they call at the end of the race. If it’s a caution on lap one, it needs to be a caution on lap 151. Oh, yeah. That happens lap five. That’s immediate. That’s a caution before he hits the [ __ ] wall. More than likely. Yeah. And and it’s just stupid that NASCAR continues to do this [ __ ] Granted, there hadn’t been a ton of examples this year. We’ve we’ve been easier on them this year, I think. You know, that I can remember. whatever it was. There had been a ton of these issues. Yeah. I gave to him a couple weeks ago for something. Yeah. It was the first time all year. Yeah. And but this is it’s just egregious. Like it’s egregious. Throw the [ __ ] caution if it’s a caution. Don’t if it’s not. Brisco at Pocono. Yes. When he pitted I think was it McDow or somebody? Yes. Yeah. The car was sitting there on the front for two laps. It’s ridiculous. I agree. NASCAR, you can’t do that. Honorable mention for me uh is going to be the 77 for you know destroying half the field’s race uh for some [ __ ] Um you know ended Brad’s day, ended a bunch of dudes day. Um and you know very stupid. You’re you’re driving like it’s you know the last lap of the Indy500 when you’re three laps into a Chicago street course. Very stupid. However, I’m giving mine to TNT two weeks in. This is awful. The booth’s [ __ ] up. Dale Earnhard Jr. has been bad. Um, getting people’s names wrong uh frequently. Um, the reporting’s been eh, but really the production has been as bad if not worse than Fox. I mean, we’re wa we’re looking at Chicago skyline. We’re looking at we’re looking at, you know, first place having half a second lead when, you know, we’ve switched. There’s a guy coming down a straightaway into a a passing zone. The guy pulls out to make the pass. We switch and we’re watching the guys go through that [ __ ] little carousel corner a half a second apart when there’s passing that you were about to show on television when but you didn’t I remember Dale Junior saying something about oh here come I think it was a 60 Ryan Priest he priest looking looking to pass whoever they cut to [ __ ] second place you’ve got you got a hundred examples of those during the weekend where the guys on the TV are not talking about what’s on on the TV because the [ __ ] production crew switches the camera for some reason. The action is where the commentators are talking about it. What is going on with NASCAR broadcasting in the past couple years where they don’t underfucking stand that I want to see the pass. I don’t give a [ __ ] It’s for 10th or if it’s for [ __ ] 35th. If there’s racing on the track, I want to see the racing. I don’t want to see the leader leading the race. I don’t care. If there’s no action, don’t show it. Now, if there’s nothing going on, show me the leader. Show me what he’s doing. We’ll talk about why he’s leading. But if there’s passing going on in the [ __ ] top 15, show me that. That’s what I want to see. So, you know, it’s it’s it is what it is. I mean, we’re going to watch these races no matter who broadcast them, but it’s it’s it’s pathetic these days. And TNT is starting to piss me off already. I can’t wait for NBC to come back and and be almost as good as Amazon Prime. Uh Amazon Prime’s only the only one this year that’s going to do it right. And uh even even they had some some downfalls sometimes, but at least their production was good. And um I’m just I’m I’m tired of it. I don’t give a [ __ ] what the crowd’s doing. I don’t give a [ __ ] what the Chicago street course looks like from 30,000 feet above. I don’t care about the [ __ ] skyrises that are in the background looking over the hill. I don’t give a [ __ ] Show me the racing. I’m tuning into a NASCAR race to watch the race. That’s it. Yeah. For all you YouTube fans out there, our card got full. So, uh I’ll just have I guess the logo in black with uh the rest of this. So, we apologize for that. But, uh went a little long this this week. Got a lot of got a lot of monkeys off our backs, a lot of gripes we’ve had. So, we do apologize for that. But um yeah, it’s a good one. I’ I’ve not been happy with TNT. Last week it wasn’t great. Audio mixing was terrible. This week it wasn’t audio mixing. It was about everything else. So I agree. Dell Junior’s not been great. Um and like I said, the production’s not been the camera angles have just been god awful. I agree with you on that one, just like Fox. So we got Soma this weekend. Uh wine country, Northern California, second year of this repave. Um, Riley, what are you expecting? I’m expecting more of the same as what we’ve seen so far uh in in road course racing. I think SVG is going to be the guy to beat. I think uh you know, you you’ll have guys like Chris Busher and um Kyle Larson, Tyler Reic, you know, the the normal guys at road courses. Um Christopher Bell probably be pretty good. Um I think think you’ll expect that. Um, I don’t really see cautions being a big deal, uh, as far as wrecks. Um, of course, the stages will come into play as far as fuel strategy and tire strategy goes. Uh, but, um, all in all, I think it’s going to come down to qualifying and and who flips what stages and and, um, you know, if tires matter. U, which I don’t think they will um that much. Uh, so I think qualifying is going to be huge. Um, I think not making mistakes on pit road as far as your, you know, two pit stops go. Uh, and and you know, we’ll see where the strategy cycles out. Um, you know, I think it’s going to come down to one of those guys. You know, Chris Busher, SVG, Tyler Reic, the guys I named earlier. Um, who who comes off pit road first and, you know, who who’s got the track position at the end of the race. I think that’s what’s going to end up winning it. Yeah. This this race last year actually wasn’t too bad for a repave. Um you obviously had uh Larson probably the best car all day, but you know, you had you had Trux right there with him, which obviously Trux not racing anymore, but the 19 car should be good. Brisco is a pretty good road course racer in himself. Um you know, obviously Chris trying to use the strategy there towards late in the race, leading it late, trying to hold off Lion and couldn’t do it. Um fuel strategy came down a little bit. Trux running out of gas on the white flag and and uh all that stuff. Uh Sonoma is probably one maybe other Watkins Glenn uh where fuel mileage could be a problem. Seem like it’s the most problem on road courses is Soma and Watkins Glenn. Uh but the stages according to when the natural cautions happen where it could get a little a little tricky on fuel. Um obviously I’m looking at at Larson. He’s he’s won here quite a bit since he’s got to Hendrick. Uh he’s probably one of the favorites. So is SVG. Um although I think SVG is not going to win this weekend. I think the the drivers this weekend after him beating their asses in Mexico and then him winning again this weekend go to a NASCAR road course where they got way more experience than Shane. I think that’ll wind up paying dividends for those guys. Shane will still be a good and still be a you know up there. But I think the the good drivers and the good road course racers I think will be able to uh fight back a little bit on SVG this weekend. But, um, it’d be interesting to see what guys, you know, decide to take the points, stage points if if Busher thinks if he’s up in their top five. Um, does he go for stage points? Does he go for the for the win? I think he should go for for the win, but and that I’m sure they will based off, you know, how they’ve been talking this year. They want wins, but uh, you know, Bubba Wallace, you know, some guys that are kind of on the edge of the top 10, top 15, they take stage points and fall back. And, you know, you never know. Uh or does SVG try to get another stage point and give up track position? Just trying to get more stage point or playoff points for the playoffs. Already got two wins now this year. Uh it could change the the outcome of the race as well. But uh it should be a decent race. Uh you know it’s this is the latest um Soma race we have run in the year I think ever. Um you know usually we’d run it second first second week of Jul second week of July. So, should be a little hotter. Maybe the cars will handle a little bit worse. Put the driver skill and driver input into these cars a little bit more. We might have a better race than we than we normally do at Snow. We’ll never know. But, uh, you don’t speed on pit road obviously is going to be a huge factor. And, uh, try to keep your track bish as much as you can. And, uh, you usually don’t get a late race caution here, so it’s usually a long run to the end. And, uh, expecting the same thing this weekend. Um, yeah, to see who can who can stay out of the sand, stay out of the uh the dirt and uh get her done at the end. Well, who you picking? So, obviously I’m not picking SVG. Uh uh me either. I’m taking a taking a break from him, but uh I am going with another road course guy. Ran really good last week at Chicago. Um he’s never won at this track in NASCAR. Um, but the recent speed uh has come back after struggling there for a little bit after getting off to a good start of the beginning of the season. Had a little rough patch in the middle. He’s getting back to it. Um, give me AJ Almaninger. Uh, he’s a very good road course racer. It’s what he does. He’s been on this track enough. K has shown enough speed the past few weeks to to to say I think I can trust that team and maybe him getting a win. He needs a win. He’s not in points. I mean, he is kind of on the cut line. I mean, not the cut line, but he’s on like 20th in points, I think, 19th. So, he could go for stage points here, but I don’t think he will. I think he realizes this is one of his two best opportunities to win a race. I think they’re going to go for if they got if they get a qualifying spot, they’ll be up there. Don’t make no mistakes on speed on pit road. Don’t get involved no stupid [ __ ] which I know sometimes hard on road courses, but he’s done that a lot. But, yeah, give me AJ Almondinger this weekend. Um, yeah, I think it’s going to be a good pick. uh hadn’t won at this track yet, but I think he’s going to be a strong contender after what I saw last week at Chicago. I think that’s a terrible pick and I love it. How [ __ ] is that? He’s not been that good. He’s not been that good on courses. U Oh, yeah. Only finished fifth last week, which strategy helped him a bunch there. Oh, no. He was up there. He was right there behind Shane all day. Sure was. He was. Yeah. For a little while. Um but uh that’s pretty good in my book. Yeah. One out of seven. Great. Um he was decent at KOD. I think he’d been all right, but he wasn’t great at Mexico. He ain’t been race winning and uh one guy that has been and has won a race um on a road course and is I doubt he’s got the best average finish anymore. Uh but uh had the best average finish going into last week on road courses in the next gen cars. Chris Busher, I’m going to pick him. U should have won this race couple years ago uh when uh when the 99 won it. Daniel should have won that race. Very very good here last year. Obviously time with Chris obviously winning the race uh or when um when uh his tires gave up and and the 19 pass him and then he ended up running out of fuel and and uh Kyle ended up winning the race. But um very very good here. Very very good car. Those Rous cars have been really quick the past, you know, five six weeks. Um, you know, Priest has been really good at road courses and he’s uh not good at road courses. So, I think there’s something in those cars that are are are helping them out. And I think that Chris has got the the most talent as far as uh the Rous guys go on uh on the road course stuff. So, I expect him to qualify well. I expect him to race well as long as he don’t blow another motor. I think he should at the very least beat AJ. But I do think he’s going to uh compete for the win. Um people forget that he did beat Shane Van Gisburgen head-to-head at Watkins Glenn last year. Um you know, granted was on a restart, but um you know, still uh beat him. Well, he was leading before the restart. He was, but beat him headtohead on a restart and uh ended up winning the race. And I think that’s uh I don’t think it’ll come down to another restart, you know, this week. Uh but uh we’ll definitely be up there to contend. So, as long as he beats AJ, I’m fine. But I do think he’s going to end up competing for the win at the end of the day. It’s a good pick. The guy I almost picked was Michael McDow. I think he’s going to be fired up. He’s really good at Soma. Might have had the best car last weekend. We’ll never know. But almost picked Michael, but uh I trust AJ just a little bit more than Michael. Probably shouldn’t, but probably should have picked me D, but oh well. We’ll have to have to see on that. That might be that’s a pretty good pick for you because uh you ain’t beat me since you picked the last Rous car that was at the 600. [ __ ] him. That was a long time ago. I’ve won six straight times. Two outright wins, by the way. Thank you, Shane. But anyways, um probably what you got going this weekend. Not a goddamn thing. Cool. I got to work. So, I think uh I think it’s just the Exfinity and the Cup. I don’t think trucks are racing to Sonoma this weekend. I don’t think they Are they racing in the real quick? No, they’re not. Okay. So, so it’s just Excinity and Cup. Um, this weekend at Sonoma should be a decent show in Wine Country. Get through another road course and then we will have to have deal with the best road course in the Cup series, Watkins Glenn, but that’ll be in in mid August. So, we got a little bit of a break from road courses after this. So, get back to some traditional ovals after this weekend. Um, yeah, that’s all I got, guys. Thank y’all so much for listening. Made this far an episode. Drink a beer. Shotgun a beer. drink a ice cold Coca-Cola and uh yeah, we’ll come back with you next week and uh pre preview Dover. Yep. And review Soma and I’m sure a whole bunch of stuff in between. But guys, follow us on Tik Tok at the Highline Podcast. Follow us on YouTube at the Highline Podcast. Follow us on Instagram at The Highline Official. Follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcast at the Highline. Hit the notification bell. Ding ding to get every update, every time we drop an episode. Drop one once a week. We’ll be back with you next week. Go Tigers. Go Cox. [Music]

5 Comments

@wildeturkey2006 3 weeks ago
Soon as a foreigner comes to nascar and starts winning races the NASCAR community shits itself and starts questioning road courses. I bet if an American was winning them this would be a non question.
@edwardreuben6650 3 weeks ago
It's only new and needs time for drivers to get to know how to drive these street courses. Once they know the tracks inside out and know the corner and overtaking lines, they will flourish. I'm not sure if bringing Shane Van Gisberg was a great idea as he is a seasoned street driver vs novice street drivers and it showed. It was great for him and the team, but not for the sport. Also when a country sees something new, it may not be as popular as it is somewhere else. It reminds me of Rugby and NFL , Softball and Baseball. Similar but not similar.
@get.1.man. 3 weeks ago
Ovals are the most boring type of racing hands down…street racing or tracks with corners that require skill and breaking are what real drivers live for.
@get.1.man. 3 weeks ago
You americians have no idea…i dare your top 10 nascar drivers to go to aus ,get in a car they have never driven on a track like bathurst and then find out how average they relly are…i mean what moron cant drive in circles😂
@ZacheryKempOfficial 3 weeks ago
BOWMANNNNNN!!!!!🏁🇺🇸

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SVG Wins Again, Joey vs Ross Debate, & Riley The Next Superman? |The High Line Podcast Episode 155|

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