S1: Episode 15: RFK Baby!!!

Speaker 1 00:00:05 This is Ray Rowdy Racing with Caleb Conrady and Dawson Edwards. Speaker 2 00:00:12 Good morning. Beautiful people. What up? What up, what up? Speaker 2 00:00:19 Hey, R f K baby. R f k <laugh>, R F K. He says already coming to win, coming in with a one-two. I mean, that's, that's incredible. That's incredible. What a weekend it was for, uh, I know for racing at Daytona, it was a great time and I'm very excited. I really enjoyed it. Very excited. We got to see some of it. Yeah, it was a really exciting, really exciting race, so. Well, yeah, welcome back to another episode of Raised Riding Racing. You got Dawson Edwards over there. I'm Caleb Conrady. We are excited to be back again. And it was such an exciting race. We've got a ass load to talk about and it's, it's, it's a really packed little schedule we've got here. We were just going over the notes we've got, so we got a bunch of notes this week, talk week, and we both contributed, this is heck yeah, we did <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:01:09 This may be like an hour and a half podcast by the end of it. We got so much stuff to cover. I told Caleb right before we got on here, I was like, dude, let's just talk, man. We got, we're off for 15 days. We got, we got time to watch racing move in our houses. So I was like, let's just talk, you know, let's talk racing Yeah. For an hour and a half or however long we need to go, you know? Absolutely. And moving into the house wise, you just noticed it just a second ago, but Allison got back here and built us a little hat wall, so I finally have something hanging in the background. It's not just me talking on the camera hanging. I see one something hanging up piece wine hat right there hanging. I can see it from here. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:01:44 She specifically put only hats that were NASCAR related up there. There's one missing and it's the one on my head. It was a Daytona race, so I put on the 500 hat, but, uh, oh, I didn't even think about us both wearing 500 hats and it was at Daytona, but that's pretty cool. Heck yeah, absolutely. She's got, I love my looking hats, so I wear it all the time. Yeah, I mean, that thing is awesome. Whenever, uh, when Brandon brought it out to us at the race, he was like, nobody's wearing these. They're just too bright, too loud and everything. And Allison's like, I freaking love it. So she's got one and you got one that same day? Or did, oh, did we get that one sent, uh, by Brandon? Uh, my kinks of wine had is black, solid black. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 00:02:24 Not colorful, not the other. She's got the, uh, she's got the really colorful one up here. It looks. Yeah, mine is, mine's solid black. I'm a big fan of those things. Kings Hawaiian's just been all in on R F K and for damn good reason. Look at what they're doing with it, with their year, man. I saw the, uh, the fun, the meme. Everybody's seen that meme. It's a little guy. He is like digging for gold or diamonds and it's like, he gets right to the end and, you know, it's like this far away from the diamonds, you know? Yeah. What I'm talking about. He turns around and he stops digging and he's crying. Yeah. <laugh>. Yeah. So, uh, someone made a meme, it was like Kohler generators with R F K and it was like, they dug right to the end and then right before they started, you know, getting, getting all these wins, they, they, they gave up on 'em. Speaker 2 00:03:05 That's hilarious. Yeah, I mean that's the hard part about NASCAR is you gotta impress the sponsor and you gotta finish up front for 'em. And they're finally doing that and talk about a good time for them to do it. And they got a bunch of sponsors coming in and going all in for 'em. I, uh, I know I wore this same exact shirt last week, but I wore the Fifth third Bank shirt again in honor of the, uh, seventeens win last night. You got to, or two nights ago. I don't even know what day it is anymore. All my days running together, they're freaking getting hot man at the most perfect time. The R F K is, yeah, I mean, there are three wins and five races, I wanna say in all three of his wins. The, the six is finished. Top five, top 10, you know, up there ran great as well. Speaker 2 00:03:47 So I really think that they are just getting hot at the exact right time and it's perfect for the playoffs. And these guys are about to just come in and like you said, you got Bristol in the first round, dude. I mean, come on. They, I mean, that's their, yeah, that's another, that is plenty enough. Shot Buscher won there last year. He is plenty enough shot for him to win again at, you know, coming up at the night race. And I honestly, I could see, I could, I mean, and ke uh, he's won the Southern 500 I think multiple times, so he could totally, um, I mean, I, they're ready to rock and roll dude. They got plate tracks coming up, you know, road courses coming up, which they're great at. So they're, they're, they're getting ready to rock and roll. They really are. I completely agree. Speaker 2 00:04:31 We were, um, we're gonna go over this in more detail, but we were talking about our playoff predictions for out in the first round, and if you had asked me at the middle of the year, if you had shown me what the playoff was gonna look like, I would probably have said the sixth of the 17 would be out in the first round. But with everything they've got going on, spoiler alert, they're not in there for me. So yeah, the 17 we'll get into that specifically has, has a, has a lot of potential to roll deep into these playoffs, I think. Oh, I completely agree. Yeah. That is, uh, that's at this point starting to be a given. I can't believe how much they're doing with Yeah, no, that's what, three years especially we were talking about last week when they're getting hot. God dang talking about getting hot at the right time. Speaker 2 00:05:10 It's not the underdog guys. It's like, okay, these guys run good every single week now. Like let's talk about 'em every single week. You know? Absolutely. They, they need more media coverage and we may not be the biggest media partner they got, but we're gonna be their most, uh, we're gonna be right up front here in the R f K flag for sure. Yeah. We, we talk about 'em plenty, but, you know, I'm, I'm, I I'm ready for the, I'm ready for the world to understand and get it and like it was before your time. But I mean, there was a time when Roush Racing was the top tier NASCAR team. I mean, they had five cars in the playoffs one year. That was when it was only 10. I mean, they were the best, the best. And, and you know, that's been 10 to 13 years ago that that's happened. Speaker 2 00:05:51 So it's really cool to see a team, you know, come, come back from, I mean, they were, they were really bad, really, really bad. And they have made themselves a, a contender every single week and they've done it in a year and a half since Brad K's been there. Yeah. We, uh, we had a Instagram comment come in the other day. I don't know if you saw this one, but, uh, we were talking last week about how much more competitive the series has gotten and how the top tier teams aren't as locked in for a win as they used to be. And somebody argued our point and said, I don't know what you're talking about, small teams, if you call R F K a small team, I guess, and it's real funny to see a lot of those old school NASCAR fans will still consider Rausch Fenway Klowski as one of their top tier teams. Speaker 2 00:06:40 And in my estimation, they've been struggling since I've been a fan in 2017, which isn't as long as others, but it's getting to be a long enough time to where you can see those trends kind of building. And they really are taking a, a, a lower tiered team as of the last six years and turning it back into that top tier team. So I absolutely would call them a smaller team with more difficulties in the road than your Hendricks and your Gibbs. They've got the ability to do big things, but they haven't done big things in a really long time and nothing like a lack of success to put your mindset into a different mold of we're not looking out of the top spot, we're looking to get back into the top spot. And that's definitely what we're, what we're shooting at. When we say smaller team, do they have vast amounts of money different between them and Hendricks and Gibbs? Speaker 2 00:07:32 I don't specifically know that answer, but they're not the same equipment that they were running back in those days when they finished one, two last in 2014 back in the day. Yeah. That we're talking about a whole different type of team now. Yeah. And, and they've been running, it's not just the last six years, like when you've been watching, it's been, like I said, they, their people are throwing up stats about Rouch racing all over Twitter now because they're doing so well. I mean, they haven't had back-to-back wins since 2000, I think 11 with Carl Edwards. Like that's how long it's been since they got a back to back win. And you think about a lot of these other teams getting a back to back win or, you know, three runs in five races or, you know, stuff like that. They, they, uh, it's been, all these stats are coming from 2010, 2011, 2000, you know, 12, you know, all that. Speaker 2 00:08:18 And that was back in the early two thousands. All the way up till then was when they were, I mean, killer. But then when, you know, Klowski left, they were having trouble with Spon Klowski Ken had left. I mean, uh, Ken had left. They're having trouble with sponsors. Carl Edwards left still losing sponsors. Like it just really took a dive. And you listen to some of those guys on, you know, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, they talk about it on the on Junior's podcast. It's like they, Jack Rausher just very stubborn and wanted to keep doing things the old school way as technology. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> just kept taking over and he, he technology was running him out every single week. And that's just what it was. Yeah. He was very, it seemed like he was just very stubborn and wanted to keep doing that same old thing. Speaker 2 00:09:00 I mean, it's, it's so funny. That's, uh, that's the entire storyline that, I mean, this is a goofy thing to bring up, but it's so funny how much they nailed it. But back in the third cars movie they made, and it's all about how these new guys are coming in. They're younger, they're more techno, they're more focused on technology, they're more focused on the way forward. And these old school teams are starting to struggle a little bit more and having to understand that it's either adapt or die. You either have to understand that this new car is a completely different machine that is designed to do things completely differently and they're starting to get better about that. But these old school guys have to up their game and look what it's doing for 'em. Rash Fin Lake has Laski now has three wins on the year. Speaker 2 00:09:41 A one, two, and two of those wins were back to back. Right. Going into the playoffs. They have a huge points cushion. If you had told me Chris Buscher, Chris Buscher in the 17 was gonna be in the fourth place position in the playoffs at the first round of, uh, at the first round of 16 race I'd, I'd have laughed agree. I'd just said, I agree. I could see him being in the playoffs, but I would see him being where your McDowell's are right now with one win. And they're, they're barely squeaked in there and they're sitting there underneath the cut line. Right. Already at the very first race. That's where I would've seen them. They have gone out and proved everybody wrong. I got a question for you, and I don't know if this is my lack of knowledge or what, but when you get a win, you get five points, correct. Speaker 2 00:10:24 Five playoff points. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So like if three wins will be 15, correct? Yeah. Okay. Well, just wanted to show everybody, I screenshotted this this morning off the NASCAR Facebook NASCAR's page. They show the standings butcher, I don't know if we can see this here, but it has, butcher is only having 14. So I'm super, I I I don't understand why Bushy only has 14 points and not 15. Did they get a penalty at some point in the year? Uh, I, I don't, I don't know. I don't think so. I think they got, they got those big penalties last year, but I don't think it was this year. So I didn't know, I didn't understand why that was a thing. Speaker 2 00:11:04 Maybe someone listening can let us know, but it says 14 and I was wondering why it wasn't 15. That's a great question, but I would have to do a whole lot of research to answer it. 'cause I didn't look into that specifically, but I'm here for it. They're doing great stuff. They are, man. It's been, it's, it's really cool to see, obviously we've been talking about R F K since we started this podcast. I mean, if you, if you listen to the first one, we were, I mean, as we Caleb's still doing and that, you know, my, my stuff's more winterized stuff that I have for R F K, but you know, we're R F K stuff every single week. It's, you know, we're big fans, so, you know, we're, we're excited. Absolutely. We can get, I'm like, Kayla said, we can get into more, find anything more, more about the points. Speaker 2 00:11:50 Yeah. I, I don't know. Yeah, I just saw that and it really, I I was like, hmm, that's interesting. But, uh, we'll get, we'll dive way deep into R F K. We have a bunch of notes about R F K here in a minute, but we were in, uh, Wisconsin and Iowa this weekend. We had one indoor show in Iowa and two outdoor shows in parking lots in Wisconsin. But the weather, it did sprinkle on us outta nowhere at, uh, the first Wisconsin show. But man, the second one, it was like 74 degrees and chilly and just felt incredible. It really did, man. I, it was the weekend we needed for, uh, everything we've got going on out there. It was definitely a, uh, it was definitely something I was hoping for. It was having a nice easy weekend. Yeah, we did get the rain that one day we woke up and it was 0% chance of rain, sunny all day, boom. Speaker 2 00:12:40 Thunderstorm blows right through, right as we were getting done with soundcheck. So just like we say, that's just our, that's our freaking luck man. If you want to have rain in your town, book a Travis strip show or book a NASCAR race and we'll bring it. I promise. Yeah, we really will. We have an 80% chance of rain anywhere that we are, are where we're at at the moment. <laugh>, I mean, shoot, I'm looking outside right now. It's cloudy as hell outside. It could rain today. Who knows? Supposed to be Big Rain here today from what I was told. Big thunderstorms. Oh dang. Good thing we're getting this done earlier. You'll probably lose internet. I hope not, but uh, but yeah, we're, uh, so we had our, we had a good, we had a good weekend out there. Uh, I do wanna say, Scott, if you're out there listening, uh, our tour manager, he had to take the weekend off. Speaker 2 00:13:25 He just wanted to focus on some things he had going on back at home. But dude, we're thinking about you. Uh, we hope everything's going well and we can't wait to have you back out there. Let's see you back in Knoxville in a couple weeks, Knox. 'cause we have a couple, couple weeks off. He's got plenty of time. Can't wait to see you back out on the road, man. We do you out there a couple weeks to rest up. I'm really hoping he can get back out there in Knoxville. Yeah, absolutely. We got a good long two week run coming up in the, in our future. We're gonna start in Knoxville, Tennessee, and then we're gonna end up all the way out in Pueblo, Colorado. Albuquerque and Kansas. We got a really big run, Kansas. Yeah, we're gonna a good time. But yeah, we got the, yeah, September's split in half. Speaker 2 00:14:05 We got like, we got like 14 off, 15 off and then like 14 on. Yeah. And man, I, I was telling Allison about it this morning. We get done with the last show and Dawson's just fired the hell up. Daytona race is going on while the, while the show was going on. He's got his phone propped up, just having the race, just going in the background so he can kind of keep up with it. He came up and found me. He is like, dude, we made it, man. We got two weeks off. Woo <laugh>. He was going for it <laugh>. And I was, I was when I was so damn excited. Uh, we need it. So was was in a good mood, but with the weather being so good and uh, just, just knowing that we're gonna be off for two weeks and then Buscher winning the race. Speaker 2 00:14:47 I was just very excited. Yeah, three good things all in a row, man. That uh, stuff you can't predict stuff you just damn sure want <laugh>. God, it was awesome. Hey, ham Rams. I want, I want, I want everybody to see Rams real quick. Oh, we got Rams coming in. I wanna make an appearance of the dog that always barks at the mailman when we're in the studio. This is our first guest appearance since the new podcast update Here. Let's go. This is Rams everybody. Hey, to look at all Rams to talk to 'em. Rams. Oh yeah, there we go. Absolutely not a word. <laugh>. She just barked you hear? Oh, there you go. Hell yeah. Yeah. All right. I just wanted to get Rams in the picture there to uh, show all the viewers our, our little mascot. She's my NASCAR buddy. She sits in my lap and wants your races with me. Heck yeah. She's a big R f K fan too. Yeah, she's actually getting a, uh, Dale Earnhardt shirt made currently. There you go. Hell. But getting a Dale Earnhardt shirt made, that's just fine. That is just fine. It's a little black shirt that says something on it. I can't remember what it says, but Speaker 2 00:15:53 Yeah. But it's, it's got a number three on it for Dale, so she's gonna have it just in time for the playoffs to start. She'll have her weight and Dale's number. Yeah, I'm hoping she can wear it. Uh, these two weekends I'm here hanging out. That'd be fun. Heck yeah. I love it, man. That's awesome. You're gonna have to show a picture whenever you, uh, whenever you get that made. We have to put a picture up on the Instagram page for it. Yeah, I'll post her on there. But if she keeps barking, we have to make her leave Uhoh. Yeah, it says Race hell and praise Dale. The number three on it. Love. It's what? That's awesome. That's what the, and it's on a black shirt, so it'll be cool. And Rams does love raising hell when the mail, when when the mailman comes. So he'll get a kick outta outta that. Speaker 2 00:16:31 She does. Yeah. She's one of the craziest dogs I've ever met. <laugh>. What's <laugh>? You met my ba my dog ad back in the day. That was pretty crazy dog. Oh God. We won't go into all that <laugh>. No, not worth it. But, uh, so after the, uh, after the shows we kept catching back up on the races 'cause all the races happened during shows this weekend except for the truck race. And we'd barely gotten back in town when that race was getting started. So yeah, I got to watch, we'll go into the truck race later, but I got to watch every single lap of that. So that was super. I I, I'll go into it later, but I really, really, really enjoyed the truck race. It was up there was one of my favorites I've seen in quite a while. Heck yeah. I only got to catch a couple, a couple little laps this morning. Speaker 2 00:17:14 I tried to catch up on what I'm, what what we missed. We, uh, we actually didn't get a chance to watch any of the Xfinity race this week 'cause we were working that show right in the middle of it. But yeah, that's what I was about to say. We probably won't have much to say about Xfinity because of that. We just, I mean, there's just no chance to watch it. There was, it was just too busy. Yeah, it's, it, that's the hard part about races on show days. These night races used to be my favorite ones and I still love 'em whenever I get to watch 'em. But it's really tough when we're out there on the road because that night race is just gonna happen pretty much right As soon as the show's starting <laugh>. Yeah. Super. Just all those events gotta start about the same time. Speaker 2 00:17:45 Well it was super cool. I felt like Daytona started early. It started like six o'clock, so we got to sit, we had the whole band, um, in there and, and crew and everybody. We got to watch the whole first two stages and everyone's sitting in there when Blaney gets hooked into the wall and everyone jumps up like, oh, you know, starts going crazy <laugh>. And it was the whole bus erupted. Yeah. It was super cool to have everybody in there and, and doing that with the race going on. I was like, this is super cool. And I also wanted to say, we talk about on this podcast how, you know, I don't know if it gets more people watching NASCAR or more people know we're doing this, so they text us, whatever. But, uh, I got like five or six text messages, um, when the Bush or uh, priest had his wild wreck just like, oh my God, did you see that? Speaker 2 00:18:30 Is Buscher o or is Priest okay? And stuff. And I was like, hell yeah man. This people really are watching racing nowadays. They are, man. And that was one of the things we're gonna talk about is just how nasty those two wrecks were this week. It was a bad week to be named Ryan in the Cup series for sure. It really was because it was two of the most brutal wrecks we've had all year. And I mean all the way back to pretty much 2020 with the old, uh, Ryan Newman 500 situation. That's a, that's how long you gotta go back to find a wreck that looked that just rough and had two one driver get out with and Blaney and looking like he had the wind knocked out of him and rubbing his face and just taking a minute to even get outta the car and get to the safety vehicle all the way over to where a priest got carted off the, uh, infield and on a stretcher. Speaker 2 00:19:18 I mean, that's scary stuff. Anytime the broadcast goes silent and the broadcasters don't know what to say, even Rick Allen's being quiet, that's when you know, that was a tough look. And we gotta make sure this guy's all right before we even show a replay, before we even do anything. They do great jobs at that. It's just that's scary. That's scary as hell. And it was two, both of them, I mean both of those wrecks, I was amazed that they came out of there that that Blaney got outta his without anything more than just looking shaken up. And that Ryan Priest got released from the hospital the very next day just for observation, I guess. I'm not sure if there was any, any word as to any injury or anything to him. I just saw that he was released. But damn, that's scary is very, that's that's huge. Speaker 2 00:20:02 Rex very shaken up. And as I always say, man, you know, I think NASCAR should be happy and pat themselves on the back and whoever's in charge of all this, like, you know, racing a race car at 190 miles an hour, 200 miles an hour is never gonna be safe. And it's just, it's just not, no matter what you do, it's just not gonna be safe. But to see some of these wrecks that are like that and to know, I mean, these guys are okay, you know, I mean, I feel like that's, that's great. I mean, you can't, you can't ask for much more than that. I, I don't, people get really upset on social media about, you know, this, that and the other and I'm like, man, just let it be like, it's just, it is what it is. It's super speedway racing. It sells tickets. Speaker 2 00:20:46 Everybody knows it's dangerous, but they do a hell of a job making sure these guys are safe. Yeah. You're not wrong. Every time something like this happens, they look at it and they say, what can we do better? And I I'm I'm with you. Like, if it's something obvious that happened, and a lot of, a lot of times you can't predict how these wrecks are gonna go down and they're gonna, at Murphy's Law, there's at some point someone's going to wreck in a way no one ever saw coming. Yeah. That's gonna point out something that was just so obvious that I can't believe nobody ever thought about that. That should have never even been a thing. I don't think either of those wrecks that happened yesterday can fall into that category. That was just a category of racing happens and wrecks happen and some wrecks are gonna be worse than others. Speaker 2 00:21:36 But every wreck that's happened this year has been so mild compared to that. It's just an outlier of how bad a wreck can be. And it just a good reminder of we can do everything. We could focus so much on safety. They add bars, they take away supports, they add crumple zones, they add do this. All of that stuff has happened throughout the season. So if you're giving NASCAR hell about safety right now, I don't know what you've been seeing happen the last 10 years plus because they have been getting better and better and better and they continue to get better and better and better. And I'm sure they will make an improvement based off the way Ryan priest's wreck happened. But if you're firing them up and acting like NASCAR messed up in any way, I don't know what else you could ask for other than them racing around rubber cars at about 20 miles an hour. Speaker 2 00:22:22 'cause man, they've done such a good job and sorry to, sorry to priest that he's the one that had to go through such a traumatic event, but all they can really do is work on two of them this year. Him that wreck him and Larsson had at uh, day, uh, Talladega earlier this year. Mm-hmm. And then he had that one, I mean he's had two of the hardest hits in the next gen car I think that have been out there. Yeah, he has. That's, that's just bad luck <laugh>. There's nothing else to say about that other than just bad luck. It's, I mean, it, it, I mean I I think everybody remembers that wreck. I mean the, the his car went through Larson's car and broke all those bars and all that stuff. I mean the, in the in-car camera, I actually posted it on my, uh, TikTok back, you know, a few months ago when that happened. Speaker 2 00:23:05 It is, it is absolutely brutal of a hit to see that go down. Yeah. And they made, they made an effort to increase the strength of those cars in those spots that he got hit. So they really, they, they pay attention. They figure out a way to make it better. I mean, the only thing they can really do about what happened to priests this time is just pave that part of the infield. I mean Yeah. What else can they do? He just managed to get just enough air built up under that car that it just took off like an airplane. And I mean, they've don't had flaps and they've had flaps and outlets for the air to go away. They've done everything they can to keep that from happening. I, there's just only so much you can do at one time there and they'll work on it. Speaker 2 00:23:48 They'll do something different. I it's just how NASCAR's always been. Yeah. And I still, I don't think that the 41 would've flipped if the 14 wouldn't have been there to give him that extra angle spinning. And junior even said it on the broadcast, it's like usually these cars don't get upside down unless there's something else to help 'em out. That's like you said that maybe you just can't, you just can't plan for, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I feel like that was one of those situations. I i, if you just get spun across the infield, he might've been okay, but it was a hard spin and then made it even more of an angle when he got across the nose of the 14. So, I don't know. I I I, I do think though, while we're just talking about the next gen car and safety, whatever, they gotta figure out something. Speaker 2 00:24:39 And it's been a thing since we raced at California, the second race of the year in this thing, they gotta figure out how if you just have blown tires to not completely ruin your race, just because you ran through the grass, it shouldn't completely ruin your race. Chase Briscoe ran, all he did was get a car spun across his nose and ran through the grass car had to park on Pit road, couldn't go anymore. It's done. I'm, I don't understand. Larsson gets caught up in that first wreck yesterday, that big wreck Blaney's wreck just has flat tires, but he has to sit there, you know, can't go anywhere three laps down, ruins his race. Joey Logano just a couple weeks ago, cusses everybody out, you know, goes viral for that. He did hit the wall, but he just had flat tires, man. Like Yeah. What do they have to do? Speaker 2 00:25:24 What? They gotta figure something out and, and I've, I haven't heard a good solution yet and I don't have a solution. I'm not gonna pretend like I do. And I, and all the ones that I've heard bring up, like, Joey's is terrible. He wants to put four guys out there and and bring tires to 'em and all that. That's, that's a terrible idea. They just have to, they gotta figure something out though where just blowing a tire because you spun out because you spun blowing a tire that should not ruin your whole race and put you three laps down. It puts you through that thing at Daytona. Imagine how many laps that puts you down at at, at a smaller track, a mile and a half. A half mile track. A mile track. Like, come on. Like, it's just ridiculous. It's really ridiculous to me that a spin can ruin your race and you have, your car has zero damage. Speaker 2 00:26:10 Larsson was three laps down and was running in the top pack. That's, I mean, that's how intact and good his car still was. He was pushing the nine Yeah. The whole race and it just completely ruined the race for him. Yeah. So like I just don't get how, what they gotta change or what they gotta do, but something, something's gotta change on that aspect. Yeah. We already know they can't put inner airliners on this car because of the, the size of the tire and the way that that structure would work. They already, they've already told us they can't do that. So we know that's no longer an option. That was a great idea back in the day for the Gen six car and, and before whenever they implemented that. So we can write that one off the table. But what I, I agree with you. Speaker 2 00:26:48 What do we need to do? Is there some sort of stops or bumps that they could add to the suspension housing? Is there some way that they could put something in the car, like maybe some sort of switch to flip or some sort of mechanical thing to engage that can cause that? I don't know. It's gonna take a little bit of creativity and at some point enough of these team owners are gonna get pissed off about it. They're, especially if, if that turns into an elimination in the playoffs, I guarantee you something happens about it. Yeah. If somebody gets eliminated because they were on the bubble and they end up three laps down because they couldn't get going at Talladega in the infield because they spun out, there's gonna be something done about it and they're gonna look at 'em and say, look how good my car was. Speaker 2 00:27:30 I could have raced this thing back up in the front and I'm, I just really hope we don't end up at a situation where NASCAR's like, oh, we're not gonna keep you three laps down. We're gonna put you back in the lead lap since it was no fault of your own, you couldn't get going, then all of a sudden you got playoff manipulation and stuff going on. It's, yeah, there is such a, there is such a problem there. And I think you just pointed out a major thing that could be a, a playoff storyline. At some point this person got eliminated because they got blown off into the grass they couldn't get going again. But it took 'em three laps under caution for the a m R team to finally get out there and push 'em off with a wrecker. Yeah. That's gonna be a really, really sad way to get eliminated from the playoffs just because you can't move after and then they drag you back around. Speaker 2 00:28:14 It just ruins the underbody of the car, which is another issue. And then it takes longer to put the corner a rollback. There's just so many things they gotta figure out about that with this car. Yeah. You know, and arguably Kyle ran one of his best plate races ever yesterday and he finished 25th because he ran, he ran, he ran in, he ran in that eighth to 10th spot all day long. Couldn't get a lap Couldn last. And who knows how well he would've ru Yeah. How well would he have raced if he had not been those three laps down? Would he have raced even better? Would he have possibly won this race and, and snubbed out R f k? We, who knows? I mean that's a lot to ask of, a lot to ask of one guy. But I mean, those are all possibilities. Speaker 2 00:28:54 He was definitely racing differently, being three laps down than he would've if he was on the lead lap one race differently. And he's, and he's just, and he's, his goal then is he's not making any moves. He's just going where Chase goes. 'cause he is helping, trying to help Chase, you know, get into the playoffs. But man, I just, the list I, you could think of a hundred different guys in the last two years that have happened to, it's just like really getting on my nerves personally that it's still still happening so often. Yeah. They, that that's definitely something that needs to be figured out. Uh, and I hope they do get that figured out because I would hate for that to be the reason why somebody, uh, somebody ends up outta the ch p chip runs just because of four a blown tire. Yeah, me too. Speaker 2 00:29:32 That would just me too. I really would. That would be awful. <laugh>. Uh, well you, uh, you brought this up, um, in the, in the notes here. I didn't even see this on Twitter, but apparently I'll let you kind of take the lead on this, but, uh, 91% Yes. On the Jeff Gluck poll. Yeah. 91%. Yes. Which puts it at the all time, uh, best Daytona race previous was uh, 20, uh, I don't remember it was 90%. I think it was also in 2020 because both races I looked at here were in 2020. Um, 91%. Yes. On yesterday's Aona race beats out the original 90% of all races polled at Daytona and it comes in second all time on plate tracks because, uh, 2020 April Dega had 94%. So I mean, I agree. I voted yes. It it was an incredible race. I mean, these guys, we haven't seen a race like that since or since the Gen six or seven. Speaker 2 00:30:33 Yeah, since the giant. There hasn't been a, the giant, giant spoiler <laugh>. Yeah, there hasn't. And and I personally, that's my favorite restricted plate racing of all time was giant. That was spoiler, that was a lot of fun. It was dangerous. It was dangerous and crazy, but it was awesome. Dang. It was fun. It was awesome. And, uh, yeah, I do miss those days. I just, I, I I don't, I don't know where it came from. I don't know if this's an intensity. I don't know what it was. You know, we talked about it on here. You did call it with the guy that already had a win winning and Bubba making the playoffs. But you know, you talked about it being two by two. It was everything but two by two. They ran three wide thank, kept it, kept it. I mean I, I might just because the intensity of being a playoff cut the cutoff race. Speaker 2 00:31:13 I mean that probably is it, but man, they didn't have a chance to just ride around. They were at it all day long and I loved everything about that three wide action that they were doing. They could do. They had some runs going. You saw guys going from the back to the front. It, it looked like it looked similar to what the plate races used to look like. It did. And I have never been more happy to be wrong. Uh, I mean that was kinda like saying I ain't going to drink and then going out and having the best day of your life because I really saw <laugh>, I really saw it being like every other day tone race, it's gonna be either two by two with no one switching lanes or single file. That's gonna be the only two types of racing we get. Speaker 2 00:31:53 And the wrecks are gonna come when someone gives a bad push. Well the, the last piece of that was right, every wreck happened because of a bad push somewhere, which hard to blame 'em. They have a aging racetrack and that's plate racing. Uh, I don't give anybody every, every wreck's usually because of a bad, bad push or a bad block. Yep. And uh, that's just, that's just how it goes. You can't really blame anybody for it. Uh, but I was extremely happy as well when they went three wide and they just held that and they did an entire green flag pit stop cycle and came right back out of it in three wide again. It was like, what more could you ask for out of plate racing at Daytona? They were keeping it clean. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and lines changing with momentum. Speaker 2 00:32:33 It wasn't like the last few races with this next gen package where they just got too wide and it just kind of ebbed and flowed outside, inside, outside, inside. Yeah. Nobody's changing lines. Everybody's staying loyal to their team. Nobody's doing anything stupid. Man. I'm with you. I don't know, is it the playoff intensity? Is it the fact that there was oh, that the racetrack, they talked about it so much yesterday how the age of the racetrack's coming into play and handling is getting a lot worse there. It's so awesome to see that can be helping out a shit load at Daytona and Atlanta. Just watching 'em be, I mean, it, it's, it's fun to watch it. It just really is. The the, they're just looks like they're driving their ass off and just hanging on for dear life. And when they're hanging on for dear life, that makes great racing for us watching at home. Speaker 2 00:33:21 It does. And I, I loved every second of it because you see all the way down to the very end, some playoff can, playoff contenders leading it, some people that don't have wins that need to win to get in the playoffs coming right there behind him in third, fourth, fifth, sixth. All those different places, they're shuffling around. Crazy things are happening. And it's uh, that's just what plate racing is made of. That is exactly what you're looking for every time you're watching a plate race is how many differently changes could we possibly have in the same race and how hard can they race each other because it just gets better and better the longer it goes on. And it just gets your attention and you can't look away. It's like watching a train wreck, you know, is coming, but you don't know when it's gonna happen. Speaker 2 00:34:04 And I love every second of it. I love when you can see that intensity pickup even, and it's already intense, but you can see it rising, see it rising. You're like, man, these guys can't keep making these moves and doing this like this without something crazy happening. And and that was, like you said, it was a, it was a, it was a relatively clean race. They did have those two wrecks, but it wasn't a wreck fest by any means. And no, I mean that's like, that's, you know, people wanna see a little bit of, of a big wreck here. A big wreck there. Especially at Daytona Talladega. Like it just had that good old school Talladega Daytona feel where it was great racing slick as hell. Couple big moments and, and a great finish. Like that's that's what you want. Great. Finish with a team, finishing one two and kind of getting an underdog win there. Speaker 2 00:34:54 Fricking love it. Give it to me every week. Yeah, exactly. We have, we also have on the notes here, s h r Strong Day, uh, they, they qualified. I even said on this podcast last week, I was like, they're probably qualify 34th, 35th and 36th <laugh>. Well, by God they went out and got like first, second, fifth and sixth, something like that. It was awesome. I mean this is where, I don't know what it is about Ss h r and Plate Tracks. I know Fords are strong there, but s h r being the top team pretty much coming out the gate, just, they have something at S H R for Plate Tracks. Their only problem is there's only four to six of 'em if you count Atlanta. There's only so many of those on the schedule and they're such crap shoots and it's so easy. Speaker 2 00:35:36 I mean mean hell, two of their cars running into each other caused one of the biggest wrecks we saw all, all year. So <laugh>, it's like be good. Being good somewhere is awesome. Being good at play tracks is like the least amount of awesome you can have if you're gonna talk about being good at a certain type of racetrack. Yeah, no, and Bo uh, Briscoe, I wanna say he had the most lap sled, it was like 66, 68, something like that. Yeah, he was strong all day. He hits the grass and his day's done. I I just, I just would be so frustrated if I was Briscoe and I think they, they only got, they got one, only one guy in the playoffs, you know, Harvick being that one, which no surprise there Harvey, you know? No, just, he's, he's just makes chicken salad outta chicken shit every single week with that car. Speaker 2 00:36:24 But, uh, as we do each week, let's talk about s h r that there's rumors going around that they are possibly selling to charters, you know, and Yeah. At least looking for buyers. Yeah. And I think, you know, they're saying charters are, you know, 40 to 50 million right now, you know, what are they thinking there? Does that money does, they're losing Harvick, losing Anheuser-Busch, are they gonna run the four and the 14 next year is priests going over to, I've heard Priests, the colleague I've heard, I've heard the 10, you know, not being, coming back. And those, the 41 and the 10 could be the two that are, that are gone, you know, and they sell those, is that a hundred million, you know, a hundred million dollars sitting right there that they put into the four and the uh, 14, you know, I don't know. Speaker 2 00:37:14 And and Stewart is is very vocal now about, he wants guys that are race car drivers, not guys that bring sponsorship and all this. So is that, is that what they're going, is that what they're thinking? You know, I don't know. I I don't, I'm just, I'm just bringing up some rumors that I've heard throughout the, the Twitter mill there, you know? Yeah. And I'm not gonna say that any, I'm not gonna say we can really make a prediction on that. That is, that's really tough. But the most logical thing in my head that I can possibly think of is, you know, that Harv's out this year and you know, a Amarillo is probably out this year as well and I, I forgot to say Smithfield is also leaving with Amarillo. So I want didn't meant to say that while ago. Yeah. You're losing two of your major sponsors. Speaker 2 00:37:59 You're losing two of your, probably your two strongest drivers as it stands right now. I mean Amarillo is not doing great, but he is still the, the most seasoned and definitely doing a little bit better than everybody else on a consistency basis. Uh, you're losing two of your stronger drivers and you got two, two younger guys who have some experience. Each and both are proven in their own right honestly wondering if this extra a hundred million dollars they're trying to get is what they're gonna use to fund these race cars next year and say that's that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Say we've got, we've got Briscoe who we know Tony Stewart loves Briscoe to death, you know, he does. He's probably gonna try to hold onto him. And I think pri brisco's a driver race car driver. I mean we both absolutely. Speaker 2 00:38:45 We thought that in the Xfinity series. I mean he drives absolute hell out of those cars back. He does. He just needs, he just needs a better car. And then you've got Ryan Priest over here who we know is a phenomenal race car driver driver also. Hell a race car driver. He can go out there and win and can go out there and win. And he loves to work on his own race cars. And I think he has Tony Stewart's respect because Ryan Priest is also a, I don't give a shit. I'm gonna say what I think kind of guy. Yeah. So makes me wonder if we're gonna have priests and Briscoe still stick around, maybe some number flopping, uh, just depending on what it is they want to keep, uh, number wise. Get rid of two of your chargers, all of a sudden you have an extra hundred million dollars lying around. Speaker 2 00:39:24 Well that's, that's not gonna happen though because Barry's for sure coming in. So I think it's Barry and Brisco. Good point. That's a good point. Barry Briscoe stay and I forgot that. And the 41 are gone, I think, I think Priest goes somewhere else. Hmm. Man, that's Barry Barry's coming in completely. I completely forgot about the Barry coming in part of that and the 14 is signed through. He signed, he signed a long, pretty long deal. So like, and you like, just like you said, he he is, he is. Uh, Stewart loves him and yeah, I don't see Stewart letting him go. So I, I see next year being Barry and Briscoe and the, I could, this is just me talking, I could see priests go into that 31 car that's open next year when they've already talked about it. They've already got that deal. How big a surprise. Yeah. How big a surprise it is and all that. Like that's, that's a, that would be a surprise. Yeah, it would be. Ah, who knows, is little Shane Van Bergen signed yet? He might be the other half of that surprise. He's going to, he's going to track house. There you go. Speaker 2 00:40:27 Ah, man. Anyway, so that is, uh, lots of rumors flying around. So much so that I'm just keeping my head down waiting on one of them to land. Uh, but it's fun to, fun to think ahead and try to figure out what the heck everybody's thinking. 'cause there's a, there's a whole lot of moves to be made and that's a really big one for sure. Uh, so I'm excited about it. We have, uh, Truex winning the regular season championships. I don't think anybody's really surprised there. I mean, Hamlin definitely. Did he have a shot yet? Not as hot as they got in the summertime. I mean, they, they were lights out over the summer and then Truex wins that first stage and it was pretty much locked into the books. It was over from them. Good for him. The good for him definitely gets him, uh, gets him into my potential Final four. Speaker 2 00:41:10 I really think he's gonna take it really, really long ways, especially with that extra 15 points added on. It's gonna be hard to get him knocked out for a while. He's got a lot of really strong racetracks he's got coming up here. Uh, so good for him. That's, uh, that's Allison's favorite driver. So she's, uh, she's definitely really happy. I told her about that. She was like, heck yeah. So, uh, watch out for Truex coming into this, into this championship battle. He is coming in with the momentum with the regular season points lead. Everything's looking all Truex going forward. So is with the 15 extra points that gets him to plus 29. Am I reading that correct? I think you're right. Yeah. So B Byron still tied him without winning the thing. They both got 29 points, so he, that 15 points ties them in the playoffs. Speaker 2 00:42:00 Not I know regular season, he blew him outta the water. Yeah. But for playoff points, that tied him with Byron for them going into the playoffs. So that's, those two dudes are going pretty deep. I mean, they're gonna go pretty deep in the playoffs with, with having that much more. I mean the next closest it's 18, 14, 12, 10. I mean, they, they have a, they got 11 point buffer over Hamlin. And I mean, Hamlin runs up front too, but you know, I, I think back to, um, Hamlin and uh, Byron's points, penalties they had earlier this year, and one of 'em, you know, Byron got one big one flipped over, but then they got that, they got the 24 and the 48 right back on that other one. Man who, who knows what his point situation, he could be really far ahead if he wouldn't have got those, he got some playoff points docked, he got driver, he got his normal points and some playoff points docked. Speaker 2 00:42:53 So without those five win, I mean without the, uh, without that having a man, Byron could really, really, really be up there. But he's tied for first. So it's gonna be a dog fight. I really think it is there. There's a few guys that are very, you know, they're just those top five guys every single week. And I, and then we will talk about it with our playoff picks, but I really do think those four that we have are gonna be the four at the end. I really do. Yeah. I'd it's hard to, it's hard to argue against them. Um, also this is just, I'm gonna bring this up again. The NASCAR app has it listed as 30 all the points differentials you just talked about, like leading Hamlin by 11 are all the same. But on the NASCAR app it lists them as having 36 and 36 and 25 and 21 and 19. Speaker 2 00:43:40 <laugh>, nascar, we talked about this dude, we talked about bus, we talked about it last week. I can't find, you look up points and you got regular, everything you look at is regular season points. You can't find playoff points. We got NASCAR post and one thing, NASCAR app and website post and something else. No one knows what the hell point situation is. Somebody's, somebody's gotta figure that out. Somebody needs to clear all that up for all of us that we're trying to keep, keep up, you know who needs to clear it up is the NASCAR app. The NASCAR app should be my go-to place where I can look up anything and they've got, uh, they've got the whole layout right here. I'm looking at it. You can look up the schedule and you can look at results by race. You can look at the standings, both driver for a regular season. Speaker 2 00:44:20 You got the playoffs for the playoffs season, you got owner and you got manufacturer points, you got everything that you need. But every single time you look at it, like if you look at playoff points right now, it's got them all listed in order. Top 16 as they run. For some reason the whole year, up until now, it hasn't had it listed that way. Where if you had a win that should put you at the whatever point standings you are in terms of winners and then comes the non winners. But if you looked at it before this happened, you'd had non winners placed above winners because they had more points. It's like that doesn't, that doesn't matter at all. Winners are above anybody. That's the way you show it on the broadcast should be the way you show it on the app. There's no reason it should be so freaking complicated every day. Speaker 2 00:45:07 I can't can't figure it out. Yeah, yeah. I I showed you on the bus, uh, they had Stenhouse above McDowell and McDowell had two stage wins plus the win. So that automatically put him above Stenhouse, but they had stenhouse listed first. So Yeah, I agree with you man. Holy cow. We now, now looking at it, right? We gotta figure out, we gotta get some consistency here. You do. And looking at it right now, it all of them are listed as plus zero. Nobody has a points differential listed next to it, like it's not working, so what the hell going on? I don't understand. Like why can't we have an app that works? Why can't we else we have an that works else pick a, pick a bone with here. Um, let's figure out how to get all three series to have the cutoff race and the playoffs start in the same time. Speaker 2 00:45:54 You got, we're already two races in into the truck series playoffs and it's like no one even knows about it. There are drivers in the NASCAR Cup series that said they had no idea that the truck series playoffs had even started. Yeah. What are they doing? It used to be where all three series playoffs started the same weekend. They had cutoff races the same weekend and then the FI final was in Phoenix. They got the truck series running. They, they run two race. They've already ran two races in the playoffs. The Xfinity still has two races to go till they get to the playoffs and NASCAR and the Cup series is starting the playoffs this week. It's so hard to keep up with. No one knows what I don't think. No one knows. It's hard to keep up with. No one knows what's going on. Speaker 2 00:46:41 It doesn't make any sense to me to have it like that. And then on top of that, from Kansas to the next track, I can't remember if it's Kansas to the next track or how, however it works. It's a seven week break in the truck series till your next race. Yeah. What the breaks in the truck series are ridiculous. How do you keep any momentum? How do you do anything? How do you how do you remember what happened seven weeks ago? <laugh> seven weeks. You're just sitting on the couch. Seven weeks. That's almost two months. That's, that's ridiculous, dude, that is ridiculous to me. Yeah, I don't, I don't understand that that scheduling is very questionable. It doesn't any sense. I'll give, I'll give them at least some credit. Like scheduling that shit is hard. Like that is really difficult because you gotta find a time the track's available, you've gotta time ti find a time that TV broadcast can happen. Speaker 2 00:47:31 You've gotta make sure that it's all happening at least at some good time of day and all, there's so many factors and sponsorships and, and TV track driver, uh, sport, uh, who's available when, how can they do it? It's, it's tough. I give them a le a little bit of leeway, but I still do agree with you. Like a seven week gap is not the solution to that. Don't make us wait seven weeks. 'cause to be honest, I was with you. I, I watched that a little bit of that truck race this morning and it was like a, oh yeah, trucks are in the playoffs now kind of situation. I didn't even remember the fact that they had started and I really remember the fact that that was the second race of the playoffs <laugh>. So it is to what I agree with you, it's, it's, it is really goofy how separated up, like being a week off is fine, but being like three weeks off and I don't even know if it was three weeks. Speaker 2 00:48:24 It could have been that that first race happened a freaking month ago and I don't even remember it there. A lot of stuff is just really tough a couple weeks ago. I I just, it's hard to keep up with and, and we, me and you are two of the most diehard fans I know. And that's, and if we, if we have a hard time keeping up with that, good luck on getting anybody else to keep up with it. Yeah, I mean that seriously, if, if, if your diehard people have a hard time explaining something or knowing and understanding and keeping up with something, good luck on trying to get a new person to understand any of that and how that works and that, how that's coming and all, all that coming along. And that's our NASCAR complaint of the week. Well actually we have another one coming up, but uh, we'll get there. Speaker 2 00:49:05 <laugh>. Yeah, so <laugh>, all of that said we, uh, so I made a prediction, bub Wallace Week Wallace that Bubba Wallace would be your last playoff driver, which was, I mean, that was kinda like bunting for <laugh>. That was my, my way of bunting that week. 'cause it's so tough at these, at these plate tracks to predict anything. But I picked the most statistically likely outcome, which is exactly what happened of Bubba making the playoffs. But it wasn't for a lack of trying. You look at the, uh, you look at the finishing order and who was already locked in and who wasn't and where they finished non locked in, drivers finished third, fourth, sixth and 10th all the way through the, uh, through the top 10. So it wasn't for a lack of trying by these guys that aren't in and locked in already. Uh, Eric Amar and Chase Elliot finishing in third and fourth about as close as you can freaking get man. Speaker 2 00:50:01 And yeah, chase not making it, I feel for the guy, uh, one less race of fucking around with getting his suspension would've really helped him out. But hindsight's 2020, he really thought he could go out there and get a win at some point. Six, trace his back really, really hurt him too. That that definitely hurt him as well. But at the end of the day, missing the cut line by as little as he did is still an achievement and shows the amount of speed that team still has. I seriously think they're going to get one of those surprise wins in the playoffs where that comes from a non playoff driver and they need it just for their confidence going into the next season. But they've been running great at, at Indy Road course, they finished in second. Here we are one race later, uh, or two races later. Speaker 2 00:50:49 They finish in, uh, in fourth. He's going out there and he is doing the damn thing. I mean, if he hadn't run outta gas at Watkins Glen, he probably would've had a solid top 10 day there too. So they've got speed. I really see them coming out and getting a win at some point. I don't know where, if I can say where it's coming at, uh, Darlington coming up next week is a great opportunity for him. He does race well there, but man, it just, it does suck for all the Chase Elliott fans out there. We don't have him in the playoffs. Most popular drivers gonna be taking a backseat to the other 16 that are up there. So good chance for somebody else to come out here and really get a lot of attention because you know that, that, that's a, the Chase Elliot factor is real. More people are gonna pay attention to him when he's in the playoffs than any other one of the other drivers. So him not being there really opens up the gate for a lot more media to coverage for maybe, I don't know, R F k somebody that deserves it a little bit right now. Yeah, R F K deserves some media spotlight. Speaker 2 00:51:44 I i, I topped this in the notes and, uh, mainly because we talked about it last week, but it's just, it's just sort of a slap in the face to me. If it was, if I was Chris Buscher, like Chris Buscher goes across the finish line and the first thing they do is Bubba Incar woo make playoffs. Oh great. You know, whatever. And it's, they're, it's hard to even tell Junior clarified it up, it was actually Brad ca, Brad Klowski radio, but on the broadcast Busher wins the race. They play Brad Klowski in-car audio in their show in Bubba Wallace. Speaker 2 00:52:25 Yep. I don't, I don't, I don't understand that one. That that one I just would be, I don't know, I'd be confused. I'd be pissed. You know, the 17 went across the line first. I usually, they just show they play their in-car audio, you know, so when they show their, their in incar, but it's just weird. It's NASCAR's always been that way, you know, given someone that necessarily might not deserve the credit or you know, they might have deserved it, whatever, they'll, they'll just, you know, jump in all on that, you know, I get it. Whatever, you know, makes people click. We, like I said, we talked about this last week, but it's just like, wow. Alright. Yeah. 17 goes across the line first, but let's go to the 23 and the Sixers radio. Yeah. Which, whatever something I, you know, that's something we brought up on the bus too, is it kind of did take a little bit about what you said. Speaker 2 00:53:17 It is all about engagement nowadays. If this was the days before social media and this was the same pla if we put the same situation but took the social media aspect out of it, I don't think you see nearly as much of Bubba Wallace as you do now because him being on the screen causes engagement on a different platform. It's not necessarily that anybody wants to see him on the screen for finishing in 16th for the regular season and making it into the playoffs. To be honest, that's really not as exciting as the 17 car getting the win. And I completely agree with you. It is simply because he does get a lot of reaction and he does drive engagement for these posts for nascar. And uh, in addition to that, like we talked about last week, the, the cutoff line is a great way to get a lot more media attention. Speaker 2 00:54:05 So you take the two of those things and drive 'em together. Is Bubba Wallace the most popular driver in NASCAR right now? No, but he's a great, he's a great other guy. He's a great, almost in, in some ways what they used to call's other guy, like, I'm trying to think of like a, a good word for it. Like they used to use Kyle Busch as like your bad guy or your villain. And that's kind of the role that he's stepped into now and he's doing a great job at keeping his name at the top of your brain every single week. So on one hand we can hate it that somebody that's in 16th is getting so much attention. But you gotta give the guy credit. He does a great job of keeping himself in the media spotlight in some way, shape or form. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Speaker 2 00:54:52 But he just does a great job of engaging with an audience no matter what kind of engagement that is. I've, it's, it's impressive that he's done what he's done with the situation that he's found himself in. And here we go. I am just with you though, that Chris Buscher winning that race should have been the highlight of at least the first five minutes after the race. Then let's talk about Yeah, that's then Yeah, that's exactly, I feel the one that fills in that last playoff spot then let's talk about that guy. Exactly. That's exactly how I feel. But no reason that we should be putting him on the screen the moment after Chris Buscher gets a huge win at one of the most history racetrack in the sport. That should have been Chris Butcher's moment. That shouldn't have been Bud Bull Wallace's moment. Let Bubba have his moment later because he did make the playoffs and good for him. Speaker 2 00:55:43 But man, N B c let's, let's focus on the real winner here. Let's focus on that guy. Yeah. Um, wanted to bring this up just because they got the win. But now we talked about with with Track House 2311 and uh, R F K all kind of coming on the scene at the same time. R F K coming a season later. You know, um, R F K has the same amount of wins as 2311 now and 2311 still is in the spotlight way more. And we know why. Bubba Wallace, Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin for sure. Yeah. Star Power out there. That's right there. They have in less amount of time, uh, less a year and a half over the three and a half or almost, I think they got two and a half years about to be three. So R F K has a year and a half about to be two four wins a piece. And Track House has what also 23 11 4 wins or three Three. You talking 2311. Yes. And Track House and R F K I'm saying? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You got, you got R F K with 4 23, 11 with four Track House with Suarez has, I think Suarez has one eight. Oh, they might, they might have, they might have four or five if you count. I think. I wanna say Chastain has three. Speaker 2 00:57:04 Yeah, Chastain has three. He got two last year. One this year Suarez has one and then Shane Van Ginsburg and has one. So that puts them at four. So they all three have four. Five. Five total Five. Yeah. Don't ask me to count 'em, but five. I just looked it up just to make sure we have the number. There we go. So, so R f k baby, I'm just, we're just gonna keep talking about 'em. More coverage, more coverage for R F K and I mean there's a reason that those other teams are getting media coverage. I mean, like you said, Michael Jordan, Bubba Wallace, any, he, three of the biggest names that are in Ask Our right now are those three guys. And whether or not that has anything to do with nascar, they're still your three biggest players in the sport. You got pit bull along with Track house, track House doing a lot of exciting things with the hail melon. Speaker 2 00:57:51 You got Josh Chastain being in the media a lot for being the bad guy for wrecking a lot of people or back earlier in the season and last year. Uh, I mean I think that's the, if anything R F K just does it quietly. They do it with class, they do it, they would do it week outta week through hard work. But do they have the highlight reels to show? Not necessarily. They, they are they winning the races? Yeah, it's just that they, they, they're, the only thing they're missing are those big magnetic moments. Their, at the end of the day, all that matters is race wins and if they keep clicking 'em off, that's really all that matters. It, it really is. That's that's, that is so true. I mean, those big, those big moments help you get attention, but winning races helps you get sponsorship and money <laugh>. Yeah. So take it. I mean you could use a little bit of both, but I mean, they're doing it right, they're doing it everything that they need to do and they're working their asses off and that work is showing so good for them. Congrats on everything that they're accomplishing. 'cause it's awesome. I'm, I'm, I'm totally here for it. Speaker 2 00:58:53 So we, we ch we we touched on Chase. I mean it's just hard to make the playoffs man missing seven races. It just is what it is. It just Yeah. Is what it is. And that's seven, um, that's seven races. You don't have a chance to win to get into. Yeah, I know. And I wanted to talk about this, I just barely caught it this morning. Um, and I haven't seen this yet, but they made a good point. They, uh, the mirror, his, his digital camera mirror went out during the race, the race and it was like bothering us. It was like facing up. Yeah, he, he didn't like it. Uh, and they ended up do, they ended up fixing, not the camera, but put a different camera in there or something, something. They fixed it and he was like, that's why they had the old school thing in there. Speaker 2 00:59:34 And then Chase came across the radio. He was like, they did a good job for just, you know, slapping something up there, whatever. He said something on the radio. But yeah. Um, that's something I didn't ever think about. Like the, his dash was all messed up. Like he can't, he, that half the dash was black, like he was having some weird electrical problems going on there and that's just like, I should have thought about that, but I haven't thought about that with all the digital Dash and the camera. Like, damn, what if that goes out? Like you're just ss o l Yeah, I mean out of, out of everything that could go out, having your eyes go out is definitely rough. Especially at a play track where you gotta be watching where those pushes are coming. It really helps to be able to see how they're lined up behind you and yeah, the old school mirror works, but that sucker shakes around a lot. Speaker 2 01:00:14 <laugh>. I mean, yeah, there's always so much you can see outta that thing and there's a reason they went to the digital dashes, but talk about a guy who's just had a rough last couple races. Yeah. If it, it could go wrong, it's gone wrong. And like radio, like radio problems, running outta gas, digital dash problems. I mean they've, they, if they've had it, they've had it happen to 'em. Yeah. So like, I mean I give him credit for still finishing and forth through all of that and no one he had to win. He still went out there and nearly did it. So <laugh> just a tough place to be. Yeah. Um, so we're about to head off into the playoffs finally. And uh, so we finally get to talk about some predictions, some ideas that we have going forward. Um, I know you spent a lot of time on the bus as we were leaving last week, kind of coming up with some ideas of who you think were gonna get eliminated first round, second round and all that. Speaker 2 01:01:04 Uh, yeah. So I, and picking out a final four, and I think we can definitely talk about, uh, who's getting eliminated in the first round and who our prediction for the final four is gonna be. It's hard to talk about second and third round because you kind of need to know who's in it. But let's talk about, uh, picks for the first round, getting knocked out and who we think it's gonna be. Yeah. So I, I made, uh, you have all the numbers and everything here on on our thing, on our notes. I made a note just with the playoffs and what I thought, you know, how they would go down and it's funny, I looked, we didn't talk about this, we didn't go over this at all, but mine and Caleb's Final four didn't collaborate at all at it. Yeah. Mine and Caleb's Final four are the same four guys, which is hilarious. Speaker 2 01:01:49 Yeah. And we almost had the exact same first round getting, getting out. Yeah. First round going out. So let's, let's talk about, I'll talk about each one of mine and give you my reasoning why real quick. Yeah. So as much as I love them, as much as I've praised them in the last couple weeks, I do think just because of this first round, if, if the tracks were different, I could see the 34 squeaking his way out of this. I actually thought that the 34 was gonna be 12th in points. Not 13th, but he is 13th already one point out. Um, I just don't know with Darlington, Kansas and Bristol man, I just don't see them scoring the points. I really don't. I just, I hate that. But props of them for freaking running as well as they have ran. He was even running the top 10 yesterday or Saturday. Speaker 2 01:02:40 He had some bad problems in qualifying, didn't even know they wouldn't let him fix it. They were having all kind of problems like ended up still running great in the draft. So I'm still on McDowell train, but I do think they do not make it, um, just because of the track specifically. My next one is Stenhouse. I mean kind of the same thing. They just, they just, where they're at in points is where they run on the track and they don't run an average of 12th or better for me. So I think just where they're at, they are going to run in that same spot. Um, so third is, I also have me, so me and Kayla both agree on the 33 or 34 47 and then we both agree on the 23 I, I agree that 23 doesn't make it because he is eight points out starting out. Speaker 2 01:03:31 The only thing is the dude won Kansas last year. Does he come out and do that again? Obviously if he does he goes, but if you just go off of where they've been running I with where they've been running on top of being eight points out, it's a tough, tough, tough climb there for those boys. And then where me and Caleb are different is right here and I'll let him talk about his guy. I think the one car, uh, goes out. I I really do the, the one car to me, he came out of this season on fire, uh, had that crazy race at Darlington where he hit everything but the Pace car, he talked about an interview. I've said it on this podcast, I've said it on Twitter, whatever. I think they chopped his balls off and he has not been running with that same aggression. Speaker 2 01:04:20 And for Ross Chastain to be a badass race car driver, he has to run with that aggression. That's just my opinion. If you don't agree with it, that's fine. But I, I personally think that Chastain needs to be able to run just on the edge of knocking the shit outta everything to be badass. And he hasn't been doing that. And he said just this past week doing playoff uh, uh, media that he had a long conversation with Rick Kendrick about life and racing and he's been trying to live by that and you know, whatever that conversation is, he ain't running the same and they came out, he did great, had great speed at Nashville. I still think, I don't, I don't know if he would've won that race if the 45 doesn't lose a tire in that race, I'll be a hundred percent honest. So just overall since Darlington, even though they have that win overall since Darlington, I, the one car does not have the speed for me and only being four points to the good. Speaker 2 01:05:18 I don't see it, I don't, I don't see it at these tracks. They haven't been running good at these type of tracks over the last three months. It's just, you know, I don't see it. He could come out here and surprise me at Darlington. 'cause that's where he, you know, that's where all this started going downhill, even though that was a great race for him. But on these type of tracks over the last three to four months, he has ran so poorly at I do not see it happening. So my four guys coming out are the 34, the 23, the 47 and the one yeah on that. So I mean, a lot of good points you bring up there and a lot of things I really agree with. And I'll just kind of add to 'em a little bit for the 34, the 23 and the 47 47, since we all agree on those. Speaker 2 01:06:02 I mean it's kind of, it's kind of easy to pick on the little guy. It's easy to say that they're gonna be the first ones out the keys right now for those four drivers that you just talked about. And the one that I'm gonna bring up that's a little different for the 34 and the 47, their chances of going out and winning any of those three races that we're going to with Darlington, Kansas and Bristol, their best opportunity to win is gonna be at Kansas. But do I think that they're gonna go out there and have the ability to do that? No, I think their keys are gonna be consistency and execution. You need to try to get points in some of the stages. At some point you need to get points in stages. There's just no way you're gonna be able to do this off finishing order alone in my head. Speaker 2 01:06:47 But I agree with that. You need to go out there and you need to run at minimum 12th. I mean that's, that's basically their, their goal right now. That's, I'm saying that's, that's exactly what I was saying is you've got to run 12th and do and the 34 and the 47, are they capable of running 12th? Yes. But does a lot of stuff have to go right for that to happen consistently over the course of three races kind of? Yeah, they're, they're definitely in, they're definitely looking outta the playoffs for a reason. And that's just where they're at in their organizations. They've all made huge strides forward. You got the 47 win and a 500, you got the 34 win in a race and dominating the whole race at it. That's great. And Michael McDowell is even said it himself, if he can just get out of the first round of the playoffs, he's got a great chance of making the round of eight even because the next, uh, series of races includes a road course and a super speedway, both of which he's pretty damn good at. Speaker 2 01:07:41 So his whole goal right now is just to survive the first round. And I think that's a lot of people's goal. And you do see some of the bigger names get knocked out in the first round because it's a tough round Bristol and da ten two of the hardest race tracks. One race you could have, you go out there and have one bad race. We've seen this a million times. You go out and blow an engine, blow a tire, have a wreck and don't score any points. Hey, that's, that, that will, that will change what we just all just said in the, in the 34 is gonna have a lot better chance, you know, if, if something like that happens. So yeah, you're a hundred percent right, absolutely. 1, 1, 1 screw up from those guys. And we've been doing this now, you know, for the last 10 years, it happens every single year. Speaker 2 01:08:23 Something to a big name guy happens. One of those races and one of those it does situations. It does, it really does. So that's what they're, that's the, that's their keys to the first round is just be consistent. Be strong and don't, don't put yourself behind the eight ball due to a mistake. Don't go out there with the assumption that you're going to win this race. Go out there with the assumption that nobody is going to knock us out of these rounds but us. So let's just get through these. And then I think McDowell and Stenhouse both have good opportunities in the next round to be able to win their way through, but also are getting to tracks that are a little bit more geared towards the smaller guy. So now we get on into the other drivers that we talked about. Me and you both have Bubba getting eliminated out in the first round and I think Bubba has a solid chance to go out there and win one of these races. Speaker 2 01:09:14 And if he does that, obviously it's through to the next round. I think Kansas being the one, Kansas being the big one, but I mean, I don't see him being a snub at either of the other two. I don't think he's gonna run outside of the top 10 consistently the whole time. I think he's gonna go up there and he is gonna run well. The biggest thing is gonna be can in this moment of huge amount of pressure, can this team pull it off? It's been a really tough regular season for them, especially for the fact that they never got a chance to relax the whole way through. They had to point their way into it at the very end. They never had an opportunity to really take chances and run a different type of race. Now all of a sudden here you are, you're getting reset, you're already looking outta the playoffs and you're in last place in them. Speaker 2 01:09:56 It's tough. That's a tough position to be in. So Yeah, and you gotta come up from that eight point deficit or, or my phone says it could be more than that according to nascar.com. But they, they are coming from the biggest deficit of anybody. Yeah. And uh, they are to the cut line, they are eight points behind because they have no playoff points and Ryan Blaney on the cut line has eight. Okay. So yeah, so they're, they're, I mean they're accused of victory are gonna be, we've gotta run, they've gotta run, they've gotta run top eight better than 12. I mean they, they've got a run they better than 12 up there because they've gotta outrun Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick, uh, one of which is a teammate and two of which have shown more consistent race performance and have wins to their name and have had an opportunity to kind of relax a little bit and try out some newer things and maybe have an advantage going into the playoffs. Speaker 2 01:10:42 So I think that's, that's their biggest tough, that's their toughest part is on one hand, yes, they can do the same thing and be consistent like your Michael McDowell and like your Ricky Stenhouse and, and make it through. They can do that. But this team is also led by someone who cares about nothing but winning <laugh> and Michael Jordan. So he's not gonna have the ability to say, we just need to survive this first round. Bubba Wallace is going in with the mindset of we are a championship caliber team and we need to prove that. So they're gonna be doing what they, they can to be running up front and taking a bit more of a chance. So I could see that being a really tough way to get through the first round. They're not just gonna go out there to run consistently. They're gonna go out there to try to win a race. Speaker 2 01:11:24 So there's a lot more pressure on those teams to get further in. And I think that adds to the mental aspect of this race. Now when we get around to the last driver, you picked Ross Chastain as your guy out and I was so conflicted when I was making my fix between Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell and I ended up going with Christopher Bell. So C Bell has had one win this year and that put him into the position of making it into the playoffs just by that. But I can't think of many other times this season where Sea Bell has really gone out there and I'm sure there's, I'm sure there was a race or two that I'm just not remembering, but I don't remember him really being crazy that much of a factor. Yeah, he's quietly gotten himself into the playoffs. He's got 14 playoff points according to NASCAR's app. Speaker 2 01:12:17 So has he, he is not been a snub by any means. He's got the stage wins to prove that he can run up front. Problem is, I just haven't seen that consistent performance out of him and his name hasn't been on the top of my brain all year long. I could see this being a really tough series of races for him to get through and make it outta the playoffs. And by God I hope he comes out there and surprises me. Nothing, nothing against the guy. I don't have, I don't necessarily think that he should be eliminated outta the first round. I just think with the way that he's been running and how quiet they've been, I just don't know if I see that veracity coming out that's going to allow them to advance to that next level and we're just gonna have to see. Speaker 2 01:13:01 But like I said, I was kind of on the bubble between Chastain and Bell and it's both for the same reasons as one what you said about Chastain having lost that fire, but also he's just been, they've just both been the quietest, coldest teams. Uh, sea Bell's win was all the way back in Bristol Spring, what was that? March, April. So he's so far removed from that win and getting locked into the playoffs. I mean, I just don't, I don't know if I see it, I don't know if I see a deep run for Sea Belt this year. I'm gonna say two things that are gonna contradict themselves, but I'm just gonna bring up the points. Um, I would take, if I was gonna switch out a guy in mine, it would be Sea Belt for the 23. I could see the 23 making it and then Sea Belt not Yeah. Speaker 2 01:13:46 If I was gonna make it, I could excite mean, I could see that too if I was gonna make a switch. So I could see, I'm gonna say that because of the way they've been running, but I'm gonna say this last year they had the same exact season they're having this year. They won a race earlier in the season, didn't do anything all season, got into the playoffs, won two freaking cutoff races and made the final four. Yeah, <laugh>, I'm just saying, I'm just saying they're having almost the exact same season they had last year and they made it the final four. Yeah. Do I think they're gonna do that again this year? No, I don't, but I also didn't think they were gonna do it last year. So we'll see what happens. But I am with you. I I, I could see him. I, it's just crazy. Speaker 2 01:14:31 I could see him not making it out of the first round and I could see him doing it again. I mean, you know, he's already, the proof is there, he is already done it. So there's something about those last couple tracks and we've seen this before with different drivers where if you get into, if, if any of those tracks fit your style, fit your thing, man, you can really make some noise if you can get there. So it's possible, you know, it is possible. We'll see what happens. Names I'm sticking with guys names, but I'm just bringing up points. Yeah. And some notable names that we're not picking to get eliminated. Kevin Harvick, he's uh, he's only in 15th right now with no points, uh, with four Points to his name, playoff Point wise, the only reason why we that is because he average, he runs top 10 almost every single week. Speaker 2 01:15:14 It's, it's gonna be hard to knock a guy out in the first round. Do I think Kevin Hart's gonna win a championship? Does Caleb? No, but no, it's gonna be hard to knock a guy out that runs top 10 every single week. Especially, especially when he's got tracks where he's yeah. Where he's, he already finished Brist at this year and he runs great at Bristol and he could, he, I I totally see him finishing top 10 at Kansas. It's nothing stupid happens. So yeah, it's, it, you just, it's, it's hard even though he is sitting there at, you know, what, what'd you say? 14th, 15th, whatever, 15th he consistently runs in the top 10. He just doesn't have that winning speed. But he has top 10 speed every single week. So I'm confident in that pick of the four making it out of this first round. Speaker 2 01:15:55 Me too. I really am. I am as well. And then you have your Penske drivers, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney sitting there at 11th and 12th, both of them with eight points. I mean, they're having the exact same season according to the points situation by the end of it. And they, they've been in, they're, they're so inconsistent to me. They, they go up and down every week. They do both, both of 'em. They do Penske as a whole and the two car. We might as well put him in the same conversation as S S H R sometimes because he runs awful a lot more than he runs great. The two car in general. So Speaker 2 01:16:29 I don't know. Yeah, Penske's just been super inconsistent this season to me. I have, I mean I, I went ahead and created a full playoff bracket and I have not, I love Blaney, he's my driver, but I have him as a out in the second round. I mean they've, they're, I just don't see them having a bad run at any of these racetracks. Blaney does, Blaney does pretty decent at, at Bristol. Logano obviously is a great short track racer. He can go out there and win that race if you wanted to. Uh, he does well at, uh, Darlington as well. So I just see them con I having enough consistency in their team mm-hmm. <affirmative> to be able to pull out some top tens and get outta the first round without too much of a worry. And they have a little tiny bit of a buffer, just enough, just that little eight points. Speaker 2 01:17:10 But that's, that's more than, that's, that's a little bit, you know. Yeah. I'd better have eight than B negative eight. Absolutely. And then once you get on into the round of 12, I'm looking, looking ahead here, I mean Texas is, I, I don't really know what you can even call Texas, but anymore. But Talladega's a great place for Blaney, but that's a great place for anybody. Yeah. And then the Roel is just, the Roe's a tough track. I mean, Blainey may have won the first one, but that doesn't mean, doesn't mean crazy much at this point. It's so removed by five years that I, it's just hard for me to see Blainey making it outta that second round. One bad thing happens at Talladega. We just showed it yesterday, he almost got his damn head pulled off. Yeah. One bad thing happens at tall dagan boom, you're in a points hole. Speaker 2 01:17:52 So I don't know. It's gonna be tough for the, uh, it's gonna be tough for the Penske boys, but I do think I see 'em both making it out of the round of 16. I'd, I'd be surprised to see anything else happen. I I see 'em both making it outta that too. You wanna go down to our, uh, final four? Yeah, let's do that. We, we completely agree on this, which is it cracked me up. I we've done multiple things before where we didn't talk about and ended up having the same picks or same, you know, same things on stuff. What we had a parlay uh, not too long ago on a DraftKings. We made the same exact parlay. It was a couple few drivers and we didn't talk about it. Made the same exact picks. Yep. That's just something we do. Uh, so our final four that we've picked out, uh, that we think are gonna advance all the way to the end of this thing are Martin Truex Jr. Speaker 2 01:18:38 Denny Hamlin, William Byron, and Kyle Larsson, Joe Gibbs and Hendrick Motorsports being the, uh, entire Final four. I just, with the, with the points going on the way that they are for Byron and Truex. I mean, I don't see them. That's exactly what I was about to say. Don't see, I think they're gonna add to that points total as things go on. By the time we get down to the round of eight, I could see them starting the round of eight with like plus 50 by that point. Yeah. Plus 45. I mean that point maybe plus 50 is a little bit of a stretch, but they're gonna run great. These plus 40 plus 45 have basically a whole race that they could throw away and still be tied for the point cutoff cutoff line. And it's been a pretty good rule of thumb. The guy that wins that, the, the guy that wins the regular se or not the regular season. Speaker 2 01:19:22 Yes. But your guy, your couple front guys that are first in the playoff points, they normally make it to the end. Granted there's, in the recent time we talked about this a couple weeks ago, these guys, when those guys that have eight, nine wins in a season, seven wins. Yes. So they have, they have way more points. But when you have the 19 and 24 specifically being tied right there, I I see them gliding along into the Final Four just with the way they've been running all year. And all four of those guys, they're those kind of drivers and they're having this kind of season where it's like you don't really count 'em out anywhere. They're just kind of can kind of run top, top eight, top five pretty much anywhere, you know? Yeah. And that's, and that's, that's what you gotta do to be a championship winning team and they're doing the best job. Speaker 2 01:20:16 Those four guys, I feel like are doing the best job of that this season. So yeah, they are for sure. I think the one that's gonna struggle the most and obvious because of where he is at in the point standings now is gonna be Kyle Larsson. They've had kind of an inconsistent last few races. Uh, they've had an inconsistent year too. The whole year to me has been up and down, up and down, up and down all season. Yeah, it really has. I mean it's, it's either it's check record top four or five and wreck like, or finished completely out of the entire conversation. Yeah. I, it's, it's, I agree a hundred percent they're gonna need to clean up a little bit about what's going on with that, with that team right now. But I think there was a whole lot of turmoil over at Hendricks between them having three guys that were potentially, or two guys potentially outta the playoffs that are now out. Speaker 2 01:20:59 I think a lot more attention's obviously gonna get thrown to the 24 into the five. So I think a lot of that will clean itself up. A good thing for the 24 and the five, you've got a previous champion in Kyle Larsson and his crew chief. So they've got great leadership, they've got great people and they can absolutely pull this off. They've proved it before. They just got to get rid of the mistakes. They've gotta show up with a good car and they just gotta run all the laps. If they can just do all three of those things, the rest of the playoffs are gonna really put themselves together for them. So I could tell, I'm excited to see, I absolutely see it. Obviously Larson's my guy, but I'm excited to see it go down. Yeah. And there's a reason that, uh, there's a reason he's always in the conversation for the championship. Speaker 2 01:21:41 It's 'cause he is that good and he has that much focus on his craft right now. So we've just gotta see him clean up that, clean that all up and he'll, he'll make it far. But yeah, it's just, it is funny to see us have this exact same final four. I, uh, I'm picking, I know I'm gonna catch flack for this, but I think this may be Hamlin's ear. I could see him absolutely going out here and, and getting a championship ring. Finally, he's been working his ass off for it. He's leading a team now. He's got his podcast fired away and he's become kind of the NASCAR it guy for everybody to look at as what are the drivers think and how are the drivers feeling. I really think this could be a, a good solid opportunity for him to come out here and, and win it at the beginning of the year. Speaker 2 01:22:28 If it wasn't for William Byron and Kyle Larsson. Denny Hamlin would have what, three, four wins on the year already. So there's, there's a few races. They finished 1, 2, 3 at the beginning of the year, multiple times. He, and he's been strong all year. He hasn't let that fade. He's still going good. He's still third in the point standing. There's only 11 points behind everybody else that's in first and second right there. So I could see him coming out and having a really good playoff run. And I I, I would be surprised to see any, any on an 11 get eliminated in the round of eight or earlier. Speaker 2 01:22:59 I am going to pick, okay, who, who do I want to win? I'm cheering for the five all day day baby. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I think I'm, my pick is gonna be the 24. They are, they just, they just run good everywhere, man. And Byron's got five wins on the year, I think. Like yeah, he's, he's killing it dude. And, and he's always there either one. He, he um, one he has the most dominant car and just wins the race or two when people make mistakes, he's the next car in line and he capitalizes on other people's mistakes. And Rudy Fugal is a badass and I just see them, uh, I see them, they are consistent and they are having a good year and just, it feels like, it just kind of feels like that's where this year's headed to me personally. But like I said, who am I cheering for the five? Speaker 2 01:23:56 But I'm gonna pick the 24 I think to win if when it all comes down to it, heck yeah, you'd love to hear it. Uh, so we, uh, so that's our predictions for the playoffs and we'll kind of keep those things going. Uh, we're gonna have to definitely write those picks down so that way we can see who's doing well and talking about that. I gotta figure out the middle two. But then, but then, yeah, I think I'm, I'll figure out the middle two is gonna become more important once the middle middles who are coming around. Uh, but uh, for trading and paint this week, I know we each had our own, uh, individual opinions. I was a huge fan of that Bubba Wallace car with the Luke comb stuff on the side. I used to work for Luke back in the day. He's a great dude. Speaker 2 01:24:34 Uh, one of the best bosses I've ever had. And so seeing him with his name on a, on a NASCAR cup car was really cool to see. And just with the, with the Carolina Blue on the 23 and the, and the Columbia sponsorships all over that since Luke was one of the first artists that Columbia ever fully sponsored, it was really cool to see that all kind of come together and, and it made it into the playoffs with Luke Holmes' name on the side. So I gotta give them credit. I love that car just for the, the history that that it kind of showed. And for the big climb for Luke after, uh, after having worked for him, I'm a big supporter. So really cool to see that. Yeah, I dug the 23 car. I'm gonna go with uh, chase Briscoe's 14, just 'cause I love the color red and it was just blood red and maroon and black and looked super cool. Speaker 2 01:25:22 Had some chrome going on. So nothing more than that, you know, that's the only reason for that. Yeah, it was awesome. I completely agree. I, as soon as I saw that car leading the race, I was like, damn, I almost wanted to change mine. But I was like, you know what, no, I'll let Dawson take that one. 'cause I love anything maroon in black like that. Uh, we'll touch on this quick. I know I've been on here for like an hour and a half already, but yeah, <laugh>, I did hit, uh, I put 30 bucks on the race and won 46. I had, uh, yeah, I got Buscher top three and Amar top five hit both of those and that equals 46 bucks and some change. Very nice. The only thing I hit was ke in the top five. So sad. I had a sad day. Speaker 2 01:26:05 It had a winning bet on Ke. And I also wanna just point this out just to pat my own back. I said last week that I could see the six push, or I could see the 17 pushing the six to Victory Lane. I was almost there. You almost had it. <laugh> the six pushed the 17. I was close. I I was close to predicting how exactly how it was gonna pick out. Yeah. And I told you I was gonna put Betts on those guys and if I'd just had 'em flip flopped, man, I would've, I would've made some money last week if I had Bush to win and ke at to finish top three. That'd been it. That'd been awesome. But yeah, did that and then if freaking Ty Majeski coulda got past Cory Heim at the end of the race, I had a little parlay that I, I had a big parlay that all hit except that one. Speaker 2 01:26:48 And I was like, damn, damn. I was so close, so close, man. Like I said, I, I talked about the, I, I will watched the whole truck race, but it was, it was really good race. And I, I also wanna say props to everybody in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, they sold 20,000 tickets to a Turk race, which is just unheard of nowadays. So That's awesome. Pro props to them. That was, it was, and they put on a great show. It wasn't a shit show, it wasn't a wreck fest. There was a couple wrecks, there was a couple good restarts, there was strategy, there was, there was 2, 3, 4 wide racing at some point. Grant Infinger had the best car all day. He had a problem on Pitt Road, got him back to seventh and he drove all the way back up to first. So, uh, just shout out to the truck series guys in general. Speaker 2 01:27:32 Uh, we give them a lot of shit, which they deserve. Yeah. But they also deserve their praise when they, you know, yeah. Deserve it as well. So shout out to them and shout out to the fans for, for 20,000 people in the Milwaukee Mile First Race at the truck series, first Race back since 2009. So that was super cool to see. Heck yeah, absolutely. And we got one last thing we gotta talk about. It's our favorite section of the week. Every single week. It's the award you don't want, but you gotta work hard to earn it. It's the hack of the week, hack of the baby and first time for a network company to win one. Yes. First network. We had our first crew chief last week. We had our first network this week, but N B C dude, this actually affected us personally. Kiss all of our asses, they can kiss our ass for sure. Speaker 2 01:28:16 So we found out day of that they were gonna be blacking out the Daytona race in certain markets in favor of putting preseason N F L games on the TV games that don't matter over a playoff race. Cutoff race means everything. And they even did it for the town of Daytona itself, where the race was being held. They got blocked out for Buccaneers game for a Buccaneers game. Ridiculous. And the reason it affected us is when we are on the bus, our satellite that is, uh, we can watch anything live tv, as long as we got clear view of the sky, we can, we have a satellite on the bus. The satellite is based out of New York City. So for New York City, the Jets and Giants game was getting aired instead of to play each other. Yeah. And they, they were showing that instead of the Daytona race. Speaker 2 01:29:07 So we had to redneck engineer, we had to pull an H D M I cable out of the PlayStation on the bus and plug that into my computer and having my computer hooked up to my phone for internet. So it looked ridiculous. And that's how we had to watch the race. But N B C blacking out the NASCAR race for a preseason N f L game. Some of the dumbest stuff I've ever heard in my life, thing I've heard of in my life, hack of the week, double Birds Week C this week that, that shit just pissed me off. We, we inked an entire deal with U s A so that way we could have places to show the races whenever it wasn't big enough to get onto the regular local channels. And instead we had a nine one, we had a 9 1 1 marathon going on U s A and we had preseason N F L games covering up the other ones. Speaker 2 01:29:54 You would've had, they, we had not had my, our ability to do this. We would've had to do, uh, have a peacock account. So instead of the TV I already paid for, I've also gotta go in and buy a subscription to Peacock to be able to watch every single race. What, what the hell's that about? If you want to go to streaming, go to streaming, but don't have half one foot in, one foot out. No one's gonna go buy a Peacock subscription just to see post-race coverage and maybe one race a year because you black it out on another channel. Nobody's gonna spend $14 a month on that. Come on. That's stupid. Ah, I'll reiterate everything Caleb said that. That's ridiculous. I, I mean, yeah, just screwed us completely. There's our hack of the week. They earned it. Good job. N B C. Congratulations. You really had to work hard for that one. Speaker 2 01:30:45 Hell yeah. Well this, this will go down officially the longest podcast we've ever done, which I'm excited for. We had a lot of talk about, I mean there's just, yeah, great race, a lot of playoffs stuff to get through. I mean, just really a whole lot of stuff to talk about. Yeah, there was, we, we even said at the beginning, it's probably gonna be an hour and a half because everything we have to talk about and we, and damn it, we called it <laugh>. So hopefully y'all made it this far. We, uh, as we said, we're off for two weeks, so we're doing nothing but hanging out, relaxing, getting some stuff, finally moved into both of our houses and watching racing. So I may have a washer and dryer in the next two days for the first time in a month. So there we go. Speaker 2 01:31:21 Can't wait. There we go. Caleb's having all kind of great problems with his appliances in his house, but, uh, I could talk for another hour and a half about the stuff that has happened in this house since we moved in, but I'm gonna spare y'all the details and I honestly just can't talk about it. <laugh> without getting viscerally upset. I'll probably break a window, but yeah, don't do all that. Anyway. Anyway, thank y'all for listening. Uh, you can find us all on social media. My, uh, I'm Dawson Edwards, music across all platforms. Follow, raise, rowdy, raise, rowdy racing. Caleb, you can follow, you can find him on all his socials as well. Caleb con rowdy, let's go. Yeah. So again, thank y'all for listening. We'll be back next Monday after what hopefully is a awesome, uh, day, uh, Darlington race, which Darlington always delivers. So Southern f hundred, I can't wait. So I'm excited darling Darlington delivers. So here we go. It definitely does. Let's go and we will see y'all next week. Thank you very much. Y'all have a great day. Drink some beer, have some good times. And remember, watch your NASCAR race peace. Speaker 5 01:32:26 I don't drive a carload and my truck ain't black. Speaker 0 01:32:31 It Speaker 5 01:32:32 Ain't got big white number three turning left the track, Speaker 0 01:32:38 But Speaker 5 01:32:39 You can hear me coming from a mile and a half away. Speaker 0 01:32:44 These good years Speaker 5 01:32:46 Can't handle dirt. Don't no Speaker 0 01:32:53 Is I make up with four by four. I'm in outta traffic till I make it to door gas. Speaker 5 01:33:09 I'm making Speaker 0 01:33:10 My way.