S2 Episode 25: Phoenix Phinale

[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Ray's Rowdy Racing with Caleb. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Conrady and Dawson Edwards. [00:00:13] Speaker A: Well, good morning, beautiful people. Yeah, I don't really do that as well as Dawson does, but when Dawson's not here, we're just gonna have to mess around. Well, heck, yeah. Well, welcome back to another episode of Rage Ride Racing. The first two weeks in a row that we've done, and I don't even know how long at this point, but let's go. Heck, yeah. And so you got me, Caleb Conrady, and you got Ike over there. We're just chilling this morning. It's just the two of us going to talk about some championship racing, some damn controversies and wild stuff, because that's apparently all NASCAR can offer anymore, is controversies and stuff. That doesn't make any sense. [00:00:57] Speaker B: It at least gives us stuff to talk about, though. You know, that's. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Hell, yeah, dude. I was making a list right before we got started, and, like, half of it is, like, this good thing happened because this bad thing happened. This good thing happened because this bad thing happened. And it just seems like that's, like, the story of the last two weeks. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, literally. I mean, it totally has been, but it makes for good podcasting, so I think we should dive into it. [00:01:20] Speaker A: Heck, yeah. Well, let's freaking get on down into it. So, first off, you were on the podcast for the first time last week. How was it? [00:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean, we did a segment with me and Ashlyn, and we used to work for nascar, and so that was a lot of fun. And then me and Dawson talked for a while about kind of everything under the sun. You know, it was really fun, and I'm excited to be a part of this. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Hell, yeah, man. Now it's been exciting. Whenever Matt texted us about adding y'all in, I was like, that just sounds like a good damn. A good damn time. You've been in the group chat since the very beginning of the damn thing. So you've seen how everything's gone after we got this whole sucker started. So it's just glad to finally get to share a podcast with you because I was off drunk and stupid in Mexico last week. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah, how was that? The honeymoon? [00:02:11] Speaker A: It was awesome. But, man, I needed a break. I haven't drank since we've been home, and I really. I think I've left the house for, like, two small reasons other than that, I've just been, like, planted here. [00:02:22] Speaker B: When did you get back? [00:02:24] Speaker A: On Sunday we got back. So actually, during the championship race, we got on the first plane when it started, we got off the second plane and got our bags as it was ending and I didn't get to see a single lap of it while it was happening because the plane's damn live TV thing wasn't working. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Well, I don't think you missed too much. Racing wise. I think you catch up on it. Yeah, pretty easy. [00:02:45] Speaker A: I ended up watching last night. That is the reason. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it is a fun race, but, you know, it just. I don't know if something about Phoenix is just not. I hate to say it because I love Phoenix City and the track is such a great experience to go visit, but the racing is not really what you're looking for. [00:03:05] Speaker A: I feel you, man. It's. I feel like that's just been like a constant problem for there for the longest time and burying the lead a little bit. You were actually at the championship race actually there. [00:03:15] Speaker B: I got this little proof, which is awesome. [00:03:18] Speaker A: What is on the side of that thing? [00:03:19] Speaker B: It's got the trophies on there. [00:03:21] Speaker A: Oh, the trophies. Okay. From the, from the quality level that it sends to me right now. I was looking at it thinking it was some sort of gladiator standing back. [00:03:29] Speaker B: That would be kind of big. But trophies, man, it was fun to be out there. Cause I've been to Phoenix a couple times to cover races when I was out at Arizona State and this was the first time I got to go as a fan. And Ashlynn got me and my dad pit passes and everything. So we were down there, you know, watching from pit road and it was really, really cool just to share that with him, obviously. And you know, the fan experience at Phoenix is better than anywhere I've been. I haven't been really tracks, but yeah, I mean, I've been to Darlington, Wilkesboro, Phoenix, and the fan experience there is insane. I mean, that you get the same kind of access at all these tracks. But for a fan buying an infield pass, you can be right up in the garages. You know, they got walkthroughs, fan areas where the drivers go for the drivers meeting. So you can be up on the gate and it's. It's a really cool experience and they do a great job. The stands are really nice. It's covered. It's all plastic seats. There's no bleachers. [00:04:26] Speaker A: Hell yeah. [00:04:28] Speaker B: And now, you know, if only they could put on a show to go with it for real, it might be the best track in the country. But unfortunately, yeah, I don't know, they can't figure out that part of it. [00:04:38] Speaker A: And they Say they got a repave coming and. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah, they. I don't know. I think that they were trying to PJ1 for a while. [00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And just ruin the damn place. Just absolutely ruined the place. [00:04:49] Speaker B: They. They. Yeah, they got to fix that. But maybe. Maybe it's a package thing, too. I don't know. What. You know. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Well, I think I just go back to. I can't remember if it was Jamie McMurray that said this, but there hadn't been a good race in Phoenix since the very first time that they've raced at Phoen. [00:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:05] Speaker A: And you could talk about anything you want to with the car, and I still just have that feeling like we've seen the car go to different places and, like, you know, between generations. Suddenly, like, in 2017, the mile and a half stuff sucked and everything else was awesome. Now you come to this time, and it's like the mile and a half stuff, the best stuff we have, and nothing else even measures up right. And that happens for every racetrack. And then you go to Phoenix, and it's like, we could straight up put slot cars on this thing and have somebody else out there controlling them. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Don't matter what car. [00:05:40] Speaker B: And it's crazy because they got that dogleg there. Like, there's the makings of an exciting race. They just. Yeah. I don't know if they need to widen it or, like, it would be hard to make it bigger, obviously, but, you know, something needs to change where they can have some grooves going on and passing can be possible because we saw it at the end of the race. I mean, Logano did a great job driving defensively, no doubt. [00:06:00] Speaker A: Damn straight. [00:06:01] Speaker B: But. [00:06:01] Speaker A: Damn straight. [00:06:02] Speaker B: Had they been at Homestead, you know, he would have been gone, like. [00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, eventually Blaney would have been able to do something. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah. If there was a chance for a pass without knocking his own teammate out of the way, then, you know, he would have been able to do it. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I was watching the. Watching it last night, finally, and just seeing how the last few laps played out, I was like, this is what we want at Phoenix to a certain extent, but the fact that it took him 30 laps as what you could tell the fastest car at that time, it took him 30 laps to get around two guys and just get to the bumper of the guy up front. It's on one hand you got a problem of you can't pass, and on the other hand, you got a problem of the race is Too damn short. So nothing can actually end up playing out. It's the shortest race of the year practically. And you're talking about the championship race. It's like, let's just get this thing over with, I guess. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of. It's kind of really weird thing. I mean, that would be like making The Super Bowl 3/4, you know, I. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Never thought about that. That's hilarious. [00:07:04] Speaker B: Why would you do that from any standpoint? [00:07:09] Speaker A: But God, that's. Well, that's a NASCAR decision making in a nutshell right there. We just do stuff and hope it works. [00:07:15] Speaker B: No, literally, I don't know. But it was fun. I mean, I think in terms of championship races I've seen there, it was as good a test of team and car that I've seen. Yeah, just because, you know, we stress we saw strategy play out. William Byron's crew got him up front. I thought it was hilarious. When his teammates both chose the high line. I swear, NASCAR went to Hendrick and they were like, yeah, you guys cannot interfere with this again. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah, for real. Don't do it again. [00:07:38] Speaker B: Make sure your guys are out of there. They can race hard, but make sure they're not blocking at all. [00:07:42] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. [00:07:44] Speaker B: I thought that was hilarious because, you know, that could have set him up for the win right there with. If they could have, you know, one behind and one next to him and they played it right, like they could have blocked all day long. But I'm glad they didn't because that NASCAR did not need that after for sure. [00:08:00] Speaker A: And I mean, even whenever it ended up happening, they're over there racing everybody in the back as hard as they possibly can. [00:08:06] Speaker B: I mean, that I have no problem with though. I mean, you know, like, that's just hard racing for sure. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Oh, without a doubt. It is hilarious because I feel like this is the first time since I've been watching in 2017, this is the very first time I've ever seen a championship race where the guys that weren't in the championship four were racing the guys in the championship four as hard as they were. That's the first time I've ever seen that. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Bell and Larson were fast. And yeah, some other guys in there too. I mean, Bubba was almost up to Tyler Reddick, his own teammate. [00:08:38] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And then Truex coming over the radio in the middle of the race, which I don't know if you got to hear anything about this. Whenever he came over the radio in the first or second stage stage and Logano had lined up right in front of him. And apparently he had done some kind of wild block on him. And he said, and he called over the radio, you might want to relay the message. I let that one slide because you're in the Championship 4, but you get one after that. If you do this again, I'm just driving through you. I don't even care what you're racing for at this point. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Dude, for him, I don't blame him. I mean, I think, you know, he's racing the 500, but other than that. [00:09:11] Speaker A: Like, yeah, he's done. [00:09:12] Speaker B: He's not going to get penalized. He doesn't care. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Exactly. So he's just out there for himself at this point. I'm just here. I'm just here to make checks and collect trophies. I just wish he could have gotten that one last win, you know, it. [00:09:23] Speaker B: Would have been really cool to see. [00:09:24] Speaker A: I mean, maybe he goes out in the 500 and just somehow pulls a trump card and ends up getting it all he could. [00:09:29] Speaker B: You never know with the 500. That'd be pretty cool. [00:09:31] Speaker A: I'd love it. I mean, as much as he struggles at plate tracks, I'm not the most. I'm not like the most enthusiastic or optimistic about it, but, hell, I'll be cheering for him. At least Allison's a Truex fan. She'll have one more race with her driver. [00:09:44] Speaker B: There you go. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like he's going to be more of the Jimmy Johnson type of retired someday. [00:09:50] Speaker A: You know, just the way that he actually. That way he acts. And as much as he loves just the sport and everything, I could totally see him jumping in every now and then. [00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:59] Speaker A: Especially with a good teammate like Denny that has a team for him, just ready to go. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah, right. That would be fun. I mean, even though he seems to be pretty over the way the young drivers race, but, yeah, I would be, too. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Honestly, if I had to race around Carson Josephar every week after week, I'd be pretty pissed off myself. [00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Give him a couple years. He'll get the itch again. [00:10:19] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Ah, well, all that to be said, we get a champion this year in Joey Logano that just seemed to scrap and claw and fight his way from the bottom all the way to the top. And not that he ever even managed to make that happen other than at the very, very end of the. Of the season. So we get a driver that was, what, 17th, average finish, and I mean, never hardly had a top 10 or a top five or a win or nothing. I mean, he just kind of gets lucky when he needs to get lucky and ends up winning the whole damn shebang. Very interesting for this playoff format. [00:10:58] Speaker B: It is very interesting. And I mean, that's the situation NASCAR built like. I think they're fine with it. I mean, it's kind of equivalent to the Diamondback spinning the World Series last year and the Rangers, you know, and like all these other sports, you see it and that's what they wanted. I don't think you need it in racing. Yeah, I think the beauty of racing is everyone's competing on the same track every week. You know, it's not like you have to have one on one matchups. But yeah, they wanted that excitement, they wanted that playoffs. And you know, I don't know if it worked out for him because there wasn't, there wasn't a ton of excitement out there. Like, I'll tell you, like his championship celebration. We were down there on the front stretch, like even got the trophy and it was pretty dead. [00:11:36] Speaker A: Really. [00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, part of it was that they didn't really have the PA system set up very well. You quite literally could not hear a word that Joey was saying or the interviewer was saying when you were standing there. You just kind of saw him talking and him holding the trophy up. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Oof, that's tough. [00:11:52] Speaker B: That kind of killed the energy. But also I think people realized that like, okay, you know, Joey earned it. Obviously he beat the format and he did what he was supposed to do. But, you know, I think they were realizing there's better ways to crown a champ than what we have right now. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Dude, for real, nothing drove me crazier than having to hear Jeff Burton over the broadcast say about five different times, five different times of race. Throughout the playoffs, the drivers are racing in the format that was presented to them at the very beginning of the year. They're just maximizing what this format is about so you can't really get mad at them. And it's like nobody has ever been mad at the drivers for trying to take advantage of the situation they're in. [00:12:34] Speaker B: I mean, what are they supposed to do? [00:12:36] Speaker A: Exactly. We've been sitting here this entire time complaining to NASCAR about the playoff format. Nobody's mad about these drivers. I think even the drivers are pretty sick of it at this point too. I think everybody's just pissed off at NASCAR and we know there needs to be a change. And if you have to sit there and tell me why I should love something, then it's probably not something worth loving in the very beginning anyway. [00:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah, right. People love March Madness, because it's crazy. But that's because it's different. It's basketball and it's, you know, how else are you going to figure out a champion? You can't throw all 64 teams on the court. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:13:10] Speaker B: You can put all the drivers on the track week after week. That's the whole point. [00:13:13] Speaker A: Damn straight. [00:13:14] Speaker B: You know, they're all right and that's they're out there. [00:13:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're sitting there fighting with guys in points and at the end of the day they always make such a focus on like a season long format. We can have a champion crown before the end of the year is over and that's fine. You know, sometimes that shit happens. And then we get two freebie races where nobody gives a shit and is just racing for their own specific spot in the point standings and maybe passing two or three guys here. And the guy that won the championship, he's just going out there just trying to make sprint laps, you know. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean trying to get trophies. Like why not? Like. [00:13:49] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:13:49] Speaker B: That's how racing works and that's how. [00:13:52] Speaker A: It'S just always worked. And there's a reason that format works. And I get that there's times when it's not that exciting when you have a guy dominating the year, but you're talking about years now with the next gen car. I think it would make a phenomenal point standing season long championship because it's so similar from team to team and there's 15 to 16 different winners throughout the year. So every single win you can possibly get is huge for you. [00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:19] Speaker A: And it counts for so much. And I really think that we have a great, we have a great opportunity to go back to like a season long points or even like y'all were talking about in text. A 10 race end of the year championship top 10 guys just go back to the chase format and that'd be phenomenal racing because you'd have the best guys running up front and trying to make points on each other. With only 10 races to do it in. I mean that's stressful. I think it'd make for a phenomenal end of the year if we could just switch over to something like that. And it sounds like they're going to be taking a look at it. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they definitely should. I don't know if you've seen on Twitter there's this account that posts the like points if they were under the Winston cup format after every race I've seen them. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah. And literally this year if they had run Winston cup points, Christopher bell would have made a huge comeback over the last 10 races and only won it in the last race. Like, it would have been one of. [00:15:09] Speaker A: The most five points. I think I saw it probably would. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Have been one of the most talked about championship runs, like, of all time in nascar. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:15:17] Speaker B: He was like 320 points down at the start of the playoffs. And then, you know, would have passed Chase Elliott in the last race to win by five. Like, that would have been nuts, you know. [00:15:26] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely nuts. It would have been a ton of fun. And Chase Elliott being the most popular driver, you know, you'd have people cheering like hell for him to keep going. And you give people something to watch. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:37] Speaker A: Every single person's race matters. [00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Would it have worked out that way, you know, had the points been different? Probably not. But like, that the idea and the concept is there where it's a body of work over a whole season and people can be more invested versus, like, I feel like with this championship format, sometimes it's hard to be invested in a driver because they'll be making a run in this round. You know, like, I think it was two years ago, Austin Dillon, like, had a really good start to the playoffs. And it's like, all right, here's the underdog. But like, you know, he's not going to make it to the final four. [00:16:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:06] Speaker B: Because he could. He could win two races in the round of three. He could win all three or like in the first round and then be out the very next round very easily. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I mean, lord forbid that I ever say this again, but if I was a bubble Wallace fan, if he gets to the point that he did where he's almost in the championship four, he's about almost in the championship 16 at the end of the regular season, he was probably the most talked about driver for like three and a half weeks before the playoffs ended because he was such a high profile driver and a high profile team that was about to miss the playoffs. He got a ton of coverage right there. And then all of a sudden you would have thought he dropped off the face of the planet. [00:16:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:47] Speaker A: Once the round of 16 started because he wasn't a championship driver anymore. Those sponsors, those teams, those fans are all getting cheated because it no longer matters at all what he's doing because the drama is all up front with your top 16 teams and it's just not fair to the fans of those drivers. It's like, I may not cheer for a guy that's in the playoffs. I'm cheering for a guy that's trying to get his way there eventually. I mean, you're just taking their enjoyment out of it. I. No wonder we lose viewership while the playoffs are going on sometimes. I mean, if I'm not cheering for one of the top 16 drivers, why should I care? I mean, even Dawson was texting me about this championship weekend. He's like, we're going to be pretty damn busy and Pigeon Forge. This isn't going to be an eyes glued to the TV kind of weekend for me. And it's like, you know why? Because Larson's not in it. Larson doesn't have a chance anymore. [00:17:40] Speaker B: And it's crazy. Like. Yeah. And even if, like, I think F1 does, like the last race, double points, like that could be interesting, you know, because. Oh, that's a cool idea. Yeah. So like, even if 60 points out, like he's got a Hail Mary chance, he could go win the race and the other guys could have a bad one and yeah, there you go. Stage points as part of it. Still. [00:18:00] Speaker A: I love that there's so many crazy ideas out there, man, for like making those playoffs better. [00:18:05] Speaker B: We'll probably settle on the worst one. [00:18:07] Speaker A: But dude, for real, they'll be like, to be honest, we just took a look back at last season and we thought, man, man, everything was great. The only, the only time people were bitching about the playoff format was when the playoffs were going on. So we have like a six month buffer before it happens again. Yeah. [00:18:21] Speaker B: Literally that will be what they do. It's crazy for someone like Bubba too, because you know, you could be getting hot at the end of the year and then playoff start, you don't make it. All those resources go to your teammates. Especially on a two car team. [00:18:33] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:18:34] Speaker B: You know, manufacturer resources, team resources, like, and then your momentum is killed. And how does that affect you going into next year? [00:18:40] Speaker A: Mm. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:41] Speaker A: For real, he's talking what, is his teammates going to be placed fourth this year? [00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:47] Speaker A: And Bubba's going to be placed around 17th or 18th. I'd have to look back at it to even see where exactly he ended up. But you're talking a difference in the amount of money that they could have possibly made is so different. [00:18:59] Speaker B: Sponsorship to everything. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Everybody's going to be looking at this completely differently. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Confidence. I mean, imagine rolling into next season with that confidence built up. You have a great 10 race stretch to close out the year, even if you didn't make the playoff. [00:19:12] Speaker A: Mm. [00:19:13] Speaker B: Like great 10 race stretch, you know, finished top 10 in points. All right, here we go. Now, though, he's got to build that all the way back up because he didn't run too well because he didn't have the resources. [00:19:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And now he's going to be stuck back there with even less resources because he probably truly ran higher than he ended up placing. Finally, at the very end of the year, just because of the fact that some people that would have finished below him automatically seeded above him. I mean, I wonder. [00:19:39] Speaker B: I'm going to look up this Winston cup account and see where he would have been. [00:19:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be. That. That would be perfect. Because then you get a good idea about where he should be and where he actually was. [00:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:51] Speaker A: Because, my gosh. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah, he would have been, well, 13. So 13th. He would have been head of Truex, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, you would have been ahead of a couple of the playoff guys. But, yeah, 13th place. I mean, it's not too shabby. [00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And overall, at the end of the year, he finished in 18th place. [00:20:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:10] Speaker A: So you're talking. [00:20:11] Speaker B: That's a big swing. [00:20:12] Speaker A: I mean, that's a huge amount of money that he lost just because the playoff system, as it stands, puts him in a lower seed than where he would have ended up if he would have just ran normally. [00:20:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Why guys are eliminated? Why don't they go? They should at least go back into the points pool. Like, they shouldn't be locked into that group for. [00:20:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:20:28] Speaker B: That doesn't make sense for the final standings. [00:20:30] Speaker A: You know, I completely agree, and I get where they were coming from. I feel like the playoff system all is a. A factor of. We put this in place, and then we just needed to give it a test run to see how it was going to work. And I think as the team start getting better at it, as the drivers start understanding it more and they really see all the different scenarios playing out, I think we're just getting to the point where people are just mathing their way into a championship because they're racing completely differently than you would ever like. If I was into a NASCAR race for the first time and somebody told me that they would rather their driver not win a stage just so that way they could possibly win the race because there's no way they can get enough points for it to matter, or vice versa. There's no reason for them to try to go win this race. They'd rather just go ahead and collect the stage points and just get in based off of pure points. That. That sucks to me. I mean, it sucks that my driver isn't trying to win the race. At that point, they're just trying to have a good, solid day. Like, screw a good, solid day. Let's go get a damn win. [00:21:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:34] Speaker A: If it's not all about winning, like, what are we even doing out here? [00:21:37] Speaker B: It used to be before stages that points races were a thing. I mean, like, you could go out, have a good points day, but the only way to do that was by running up front. [00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:45] Speaker B: Finishing up front for sure. So, you know, even if you weren't necessarily out there trying to win, if you were going to play it a little safe and try to get third or fourth, you know, you're still up there and you still have a shot to win. And once, you know, you get the 10 to go, I don't think anyone was thinking about, oh, let's just finish fourth. They were running hard. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. And they were hitting each other and pushing each other off of each other and not worried about the concept. [00:22:09] Speaker B: And I think NASCAR thought that by having stage points, that they would have more of that, because, you know, okay, Now I have 16 points already locked in, even if I crash. But it hasn't really worked out that way. [00:22:21] Speaker A: No. Now it just kind of turned it into a damn chess match on wheels. You've got so many drivers whose only ambition is to get the points, and so many drivers whose only ambition is to get the win. Well, only one of them is going to get the win. And really, at the end of the day, I could give a shit less about your points until the very end of the race. I don't want to watch my driver take. Take points and throw away a chance at a win. I mean, we're out here to get trophies and be winners. I don't care about the amount of points you get. Not winning. [00:22:51] Speaker B: No. [00:22:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:52] Speaker B: No, I agree. And it's like, it makes all the cutoffs so weird, because imagine a cutoff race, or the only thing that mattered was the points at the end. Yeah, like, that would be way more exciting than, like, oh, you know, now we got to recalculate every, like, 60 laps, who's actually in first and who. Where are they going to be? And, like, I don't know. It's kind of a mess. [00:23:12] Speaker A: It really is. And we can go into wax philosophical on that all day long. And I feel like Twitter's doing that for us as well. And I just. I really hope they do come up with a better solution. I don't know what that solution is. There's so many different idiots that have to get involved in the decision making of how all that comes out. It's honestly just impossible to even know. And they'll probably won't even have an answer for us until two weeks into next season anyway. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. Yeah. [00:23:41] Speaker A: Yeah. The way this charter agreement all rolled out, I mean, it took them all the way from March till now just to not even fully have one in place. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Were you at all three of these races or were you just at the championship? [00:23:55] Speaker B: Only. Only at the cup race. Damn. [00:23:57] Speaker A: I mean, you picked a good one to go to. [00:23:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, the Xfinity looked pretty solid. Yeah. And I'm happy for all guy that he finally got one. That's pretty cool, dude. [00:24:06] Speaker A: For real. I was starting to get worried he was going to go the way of Denny Hamlin and be racing his entire career without ever getting him one. And talk about a guy that just needs to. Just needed that. I mean, just to cap his career off, get him that Xfinity series championship. But he's obviously not done yet, so hopefully he'll get another couple. But I mean, it took him how many years of just trying. [00:24:27] Speaker B: I mean. Yeah. God, I wonder if he makes the jump up to cup here at some point now. [00:24:33] Speaker A: I don't know. I feel like he's happy where he's. [00:24:35] Speaker B: At, you know, I think he is too. I mean, he just won the title. Like, why not? [00:24:38] Speaker A: He's racing for Dale Jr. He gets to win a title, gets to win all these races. He gets to drive a single digit car. I mean, my gosh, what else could you ask for? [00:24:47] Speaker B: And I mean, everyone, you know, everyone's talking about how the Xfinity racing has been better all year. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Hell yeah. [00:24:52] Speaker B: Which is true. It's kind of the best series for pure racing if that's what you want to see. [00:24:57] Speaker A: Dog. You and Mark Martin and Kenny Wallace and a bunch of people agree. Yeah, it just. Mechanically loose cars are just a wonderful sight. I don't want to see an arrow loose car ever again. Oh, no. You took the air off my diffuser. I spun out. It's like, I don't give a shit. Just go out there and fucking get. Get it. But they can't. [00:25:20] Speaker B: No. Yeah. They're just kind of stuck in there. [00:25:23] Speaker A: Ah, it's so frustrating. But I didn't get much of a chance to watch any of these races really. So it's, it's. That's the hard part for me is like I get to see all the winners and it, you know, being in Mexico, there was only so much I Can do. Watching NASCAR and s. Like SAP like, oh, you make the pass. It just goes. They just go crazy. They were watching a bunch of soccer and everything everywhere. I was walking around and we went to a sports bar on Saturday before we left when they were supposed to be airing the Xfinity series championship. They had the Thursday Night football game on. So it was hilarious. On a Saturday watching a game that's already happened. [00:26:05] Speaker B: So that's great. [00:26:07] Speaker A: But he gets him a good win and I loved it. I loved it for him. And I was really hoping. I really funny. That he was the only. The second guy to not have the win of the race to get the championship there. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:19] Speaker A: Right With Riley Herbs passing him right there at the end. One last good win for SHR before they go out. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, that was crazy, too. I don't know if you saw they. There was a lot of drama with them and with the 41 car with priest. He was. [00:26:34] Speaker A: No, I didn't see the thing. [00:26:36] Speaker B: They were going to do this photo op at the end nascar, like, let all the Stewart host cars roll around and like, do a picture on the track. And Priest had already pulled on a pit road and, you know, like the spotter for. I think it was Gragson Spotter, who was Priest's last year, was like, not. He was like, basically just talking about how he wasn't surprised that Priest wasn't out there. And then like, they posted this photo of all three drivers without Priest on their Twitter. So I don't know, some interesting drama there with Priest and the team. I don't know how much to read into it, but I don't know. [00:27:07] Speaker A: I hear it's. The wild part is like, I want Priests to do well, but I also hear some random things here and there. Like a tweet here. Just your comment right now that make me think that there's something more to that story. Like maybe this guy is just like a grade A hole and I don't know about it. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. I. [00:27:25] Speaker A: Kind of weird. [00:27:27] Speaker B: Kind of weird, but kind of sad that that team's going away. I like them. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:31] Speaker B: I mean, they had obviously Harvick carried him for a while, but they had some good drivers. Almirola, Stewart, obviously. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Daniel Suarez being there for a while and yeah. Tony Stewart, Chase, Briscoe. I mean, they would. They've had a slew of really good drivers. And I mean, you throw back to them. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Right. At one point, I think. [00:27:50] Speaker A: Who was that? [00:27:51] Speaker B: Emerick? Daniel Hemrick. [00:27:53] Speaker A: I think he might have been. And Kurt Busch was there for a little bit at 41. [00:27:57] Speaker B: You know, Daniel Hemrick ran the most laps of any driver this year. [00:28:01] Speaker A: Like, completed the most. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Yeah, completed the most laps. I mean, that's kind of impressive. [00:28:05] Speaker A: Golly. You're kidding. I miss that. I heard about Willie B. Were completing, like, 98% of them, but, like, he outdoing Willie B. [00:28:14] Speaker B: Percentage of laps, completed the most laps. [00:28:16] Speaker A: So pretty impressive when you're not racing around anybody. [00:28:20] Speaker B: Yeah, true. You're not getting caught up in any wrecks. [00:28:23] Speaker A: Exactly. If you're already three laps down, there's no real reason to race anybody too hard. [00:28:28] Speaker B: That is true. [00:28:31] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. That. That is a wild stat. I would have never even thought about that. Damn. Ah. So the last one we got here is Majeski winning, and I love that. I love that he had the middle of the week controversy to put his name out there, and then he goes out there and skunks him with the wins, like, here. Hopefully that you can just take that 12.5 thousand out of my paycheck for the end of the year. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Yeah, right. It worked out pretty well for him. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Hell, yeah, it did. And I'm just glad it was him out of. Out of anybody down there. I mean, I hate it for Corey Haim going through everything he's going through, and just, like, dude deserves a ride, and it's just not getting one. And maybe having to go back and work construction, which, like, makes me more of a fan of the guys. Like, hell, at least your dad works construction. I'll be. I'll be cheering for you down there, building that building. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Yeah, we should post up one day. [00:29:22] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Just get our Rays Rowdy Racing headquarters and lease it out of the building they're building. [00:29:27] Speaker B: That'd be sick. Yeah, but he's a good driver, too. It's crazy. I feel like he's like, as far as guys go who are, you know, racing kind of near the back. He does well week to week. [00:29:37] Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. I just. I don't get it. Like, what is it that keeps him out of a top. Out of a top ride? I mean, talk about Xfinity, talk about Cup. [00:29:46] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, he's had in all the series. I don't know. Like, he's probably better than some of these guys who are getting bigger rides. [00:29:54] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:29:56] Speaker B: You know, money, too, and sponsorship, and it's all a factor now, so. [00:30:01] Speaker A: It really is. And that's just a whole bunch of garbage for that exact reason. I mean, I laughed when Blaney Gets out of his car, and he's talking about finishing in second behind his teammate. He goes and starts listing off all the supporters he's had all year. And I know it was a little bit of an extra long one because it was the last one of the year, but, I mean, it took him probably 20 seconds to rattle off every single sponsor that's been on his car all year. I don't know. Without those cards that they hold up, I don't know how the hell he'd remember all of them. [00:30:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No. No chance. [00:30:37] Speaker A: And we're sitting here begging NASCAR to give us more money while we're having to read off 15 sponsor ads per driver for every interview. It's like you're wasting half your interview just thanking everybody that supported you. It's like, no thanks to NASCAR, though. We've gotten $5 out of those fuckers all year. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Y. Yeah, it's crazy, dude. I mean. And now, like, we'll see. Like, FedEx is leaving. A lot of these big ticket sponsors are getting out. [00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:02] Speaker B: And they're having to just, you know, kind of build everything together. Patchwork everything together for a season. [00:31:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:10] Speaker B: Which is a shame. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Can you imagine selling that sponsorship? [00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it'd be nuts. [00:31:16] Speaker A: You mean you'd be on the phone all day long to every company you've ever heard of? [00:31:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Literally be like, you want one race on our hood? [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah. For real. We'll give you a small contingency spot for $2,000. And it's like, God dang, was that even worth at that point? I'm looking at my little diecast sitting right here, and I can't even read the damn $2,000 contingency sponsors on there. [00:31:38] Speaker B: It's insane. And I think companies are so hesitant to get in for a full year because obviously that's expensive. But that was the identity of NASCAR. At one point, you see Jeff Gordon, the DuPont car, Dale in the good wrench and, like, you know, and I guess he had a wrangler, but, like, it doesn't. You know, it's like one or two sponsors per guy who just committed to them. Jimmy and the lowest car. [00:32:00] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:32:02] Speaker B: And now, you know, it's just all over the map. Even for someone like Denny, this past year, he had some other weird sponsors that would pop up there. Yeah. [00:32:11] Speaker A: And it's. [00:32:12] Speaker B: It's just hard. Like, for me, it doesn't really. Like, I don't know, I feel like I watch enough where the numbers are kind of the defining factor. But, yeah, for someone who was trying to get into the sport or someone who watches casually, like, that would be huge difference. [00:32:24] Speaker A: Your team isn't wearing the same uniform or the same colors every week. It's a completely different car every time. [00:32:30] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Like, even for merch, like, think about how iconic a number three, you know, good wrench jacket is. Or a 24 Dupont. [00:32:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:32:40] Speaker B: You don't get that anymore. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. [00:32:43] Speaker B: Not as part of a pop culture thing. [00:32:45] Speaker A: It. Yeah, it's almost like the pop culture about NASCAR right now is all the vintage stuff that we put out, and it's for that reason. It had personality and style. It had a meaning behind it, and you can tell that by how clean it is nowadays. It's just like, wherever the hell we can fit another sticker, we're putting another sticker there. [00:33:03] Speaker B: That and, like, you know, you could get a. You know, you get Chase Elliott, like, he lost Hooters. You can get a Chase Elliott Napa. And, like, it works. But he has so many other sponsors. Same with, like, Ryan Blaney. You could get a Pennzoil jacket, but, you know, he may be racing Money line that day. You show up or whatever. Like. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:33:23] Speaker B: It's kind of. It kind of loses the effect. [00:33:25] Speaker A: It really does. I mean, you can have a bunch of cool diecasts because of it, but I've actually slowed down my diecast purchase them because I just can't. I can't keep up and keep all the different sponsors and cars and different things. I'd have to put, like, half my paycheck into it. [00:33:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:40] Speaker A: I'm just not willing to do that. [00:33:41] Speaker B: And, you know, they may only raise that scheme one time. [00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:45] Speaker B: Even if it's for a recurring sponsor. [00:33:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, we. My favorite one is when Blaney is normally running that neon yellow car with the blue hood, and then all of a sudden, they'll put Cendric in it for a race. And if I saw a Cendrick T shirt with that car on it, I'd be asked so many times, why is that a Cendric T shirt with a Blaney car on it? It's like, no, this is the one race out of 36 that he ran this scheme instead of Blaney. And it's just too much to explain. I would have to remember what damn race it was even at so people can go look it up. [00:34:16] Speaker B: No, it's kind of ridiculous sometimes. I mean, that. That just icon iconography and those looks defined sport for a while, but they don't now. [00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Gosh. [00:34:27] Speaker B: You know, Joey. Joey does have a pretty consistent one, which is good. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And definitely one of the reasons why he's one of the highest paid guys in the sport right now. Yeah. With him and Pennzoil just being together, which, I mean, half is half of the reason why Napa's on Chase. Elliott's car, like you mentioned, is because of those business to business deals that are just helping both sides. So you kind of get some free sponsorship out of it. [00:34:50] Speaker B: Yeah, true. No doubt. So here's a question for you. [00:34:53] Speaker A: Yeah, this is. [00:34:54] Speaker B: I was thinking about this while Blaney was trying to run down Logano at the end of the race, and like we've heard guys say, they'd wreck their own mother for championship, even for win. Was it, was it weird that Blaney didn't put the bumper to Joey? Did he have a chance? Really? Even like I was, it was hard to tell from where I was. Like, did he really get that close to him? Like, I know he was there a couple laps, but at Phoenix, you know, man, where's the line there? [00:35:21] Speaker A: I just, I feel like Blaney has shown multiple times that he's one of those guys that will keep level headed enough to race a teammate pretty fairly. I don't see Blaney going. I've kind of viewed Blaney and Martin Truex in kind of a similar vein of good guys that will race the hell out of you, but will not do anything out of line and will get pissed off whenever you cross that line. [00:35:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:47] Speaker A: And I don't see him. And granted he had almost an opportunity, but I don't think he ever quite got close enough to where a bumper move was going to work just based off of, like the onboard, because they showed the onboard for a really long time. They've been doing that a lot in NBC this year. As those last few laps were winding down, the onboard showed him inching closer and closer and closer. And they went finally to the overhead shot for about the last seven, eight laps just to show them naturally fighting it out on the, on the racetrack. And to be honest, I saw multiple times where I thought Blaney might be getting a good run on him. But just like you said earlier, Joey was driving so well that I think Blaney was almost having to think twice as hard to make any kind of time on Joey where Joey was just doing a really good juke move. There was one moment where they were showing the onboard overhead camera, the roof cam for Blaney, as he was right up behind Joey. And it was going into 3 and 4, and right at the very entry of the lap, I mean, they're already halfway under breaking. You think Joey's just going to take this soft, slow arc down to about the middle groove to the bottom groove, and that sucker just hauls it to the left all out of nowhere. And, I mean, it's. It was so fast, I wouldn't have been able to react to it if I was Blaney. And Blaney just acts like nothing's even the matter. He just understands. Okay, I guess I'm not getting the inside, but you can just tell that if Blaney could have gotten down there and Joey would have washed up a little bit, it would have been a completely different race. But it's all because of the way that Joey cut at the last second. Blaney's having now take the outside line. He never gave him an opportunity to even calculate a counter move to what Joey was doing, because he was making his move so late, you almost thought he was the driver of the pace car. [00:37:49] Speaker B: That was wild. [00:37:51] Speaker A: Yeah. But it was really cool to see. But I genuinely don't think that. I don't think one. That Blaney would have done anything to wreck his teammate. I think he would have 100% moved him, and I think there's nobody in NASCAR that wouldn't. But I don't really even think he had much of an opportunity ever. [00:38:09] Speaker B: No. [00:38:09] Speaker A: At the very end there. [00:38:11] Speaker B: And I mean, at that track, you don't until you do, you know, until you're passing them. But can you imagine if you had tried that dough and wrecked him both and lost Roger a championship, like, you would feel so horrible, special. [00:38:22] Speaker A: He would have shown up for real. Peter showing up next year with that same old haircut and the lack of facial hair he started out at the 21 group with. Yeah, literally, they'd have chapters hide, for sure. [00:38:36] Speaker B: No doubt. [00:38:37] Speaker A: And I love how many people asked them about it pre race, about, what would you do if it's the U2 racing for the championship? And Logano's answer was perfect. As long as the Penske car wins the championship. We did our job. Just basically, I just. As long as we don't wreck each other out, it doesn't matter who wins, as long as it's me and we don't wreck. [00:38:56] Speaker B: Yeah, right. You know, I mean, Penske, though, has fostered that kind of organization for a while, and I feel like Gibbs does a good job, too. Yeah, but it's like, had it been chasing Kyle up there. I don't. I don't know. It might have been a different story. [00:39:08] Speaker A: No doubt about it. No doubt about it. Kyle would have raced his ass off. [00:39:14] Speaker B: It would have been straight up. Call his bluff, but, you know. Yeah. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Oh, hell yeah. I love that, man. Ah, so speaking of the pace car, we had the pace car take a hard left turn into the sand barrier, and it was hilarious. I. The only thing I can think. The only thing I can think is that the dude just straight up had a brain fart and forgot that the entry to pit road was into 1 and 2 and not in 3 and 4 and just. Oh, shit. [00:39:42] Speaker B: And tried to take a. [00:39:43] Speaker A: Haul it off to the left. [00:39:44] Speaker B: And I think that was prob. That would have been his second exit, I guess, of the day, because it was right after. Right after the crash. So he would have, I guess, gone off at the initial start. Right. But. [00:40:00] Speaker A: Well, I think Michael Phelps was driving at that. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [00:40:02] Speaker A: Unless he was in the back, you know, if he was in the, like, the back half of the field, so who knows? [00:40:07] Speaker B: No, he probably wasn't. He probably was sitting shotgun out with Michael, so he probably was, you know, that probably was his first exit. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Man. I'm gonna show Michael how to do this shit. That's how you do this shit. [00:40:19] Speaker B: Can you imagine? Like, you hit those sand barriers. It was so weird because I was down on pit road and watching them come around, and, like, we're like, all right, like, here they are, double file, no pace car. Why aren't they starting? [00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah, for real. It would have seemed totally normal to you because the pace car supposed to be gone at this point. [00:40:35] Speaker B: Right. And I couldn't see, you know, that he had crashed at that point, so. [00:40:38] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:40:39] Speaker B: And then I was like, oh, maybe they're doing a special pace lap with no pace car. [00:40:43] Speaker A: Just special pace bas. [00:40:48] Speaker B: Just to test the drivers out, you know, man. [00:40:52] Speaker A: See how good y'all are at this. Damn, that's funny. Holy crap. I'm glad we remembered to bring that up, because I almost forgot to even mention it. Holy. [00:41:03] Speaker B: I've never seen that before in my life. Maybe he didn't realize it was the last lap and he was supposed to get off when he. [00:41:08] Speaker A: Yeah, could have been. [00:41:09] Speaker B: Holy shit. [00:41:11] Speaker A: I laugh whenever the drivers up in the booth, like Jeff Burton and Steve Watard, he was even in on this. They were like, I've never seen that. And I think Steve's like, nope, That's a first for me, Jeff. Yeah. Oh, man. I've only ever seen a pace car wreck in F1 because they're having to drive those pace cars around at, like, a blisteringly fast speed to keep the F1 cars warmed up. That's the only time I've ever seen it. I've never seen that shit happen to NASCAR. You're going, like, 50 miles an hour max. Like, what are you doing, dude? [00:41:42] Speaker B: And it's a wide track. I mean, and it's a pretty wide pit road entry, like, if, you know, actually use it. [00:41:48] Speaker A: But I know sometimes I think the drivers are going to accidentally end up on pit road coming off 2. [00:41:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Literally. [00:41:53] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:41:55] Speaker B: Ah, it was wild. I remember watching him come in. Then the next time, you know, before they actually started, I was like, oh, yeah, he went down way early. [00:42:01] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Not taking any. [00:42:03] Speaker A: Not taking any chances. But I'll give it to the Camry. It took that hit like a boss. There was no scratches on the damn car. It looks like nothing had ever happened. [00:42:12] Speaker B: No. That's pretty impressive. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Hell, NASCAR ain't even gotta have to worry about their insurance premiums going up because they're not gonna be able to call it in. Oh, man. So I know we're getting, like, a little short on time, so I've got to hear it. I haven't had a chance to listen to last week's podcast to hear what y'all had all talked about yet. Did y'all do a hack of the week last week? [00:42:37] Speaker B: We kind of did. We didn't officially, but it was. I lose mine. Was that everyone on the radio who talked about the collusion to block for Byron and. [00:42:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:42:47] Speaker B: Like, why talk about it on the radio? It was so dumb. I was like, you can do that, you know, is one thing. But, yeah, to be on the radio being like, does he know the plan? Like, does he? [00:42:56] Speaker A: Yeah. What are you doing? We got to keep this on the download that there's a plan. But does he know it? [00:43:03] Speaker B: Everyone in the world can't hear your radios, like, for real. [00:43:06] Speaker A: You know, I bet they're going to start speaking to the lawyer, speak up there at some point. Like, hey, you know that thing that we did didn't talk about? Wink, wink. Yeah, not do that. Wink, wink. [00:43:17] Speaker B: Dude, it's crazy. It's like they have code words for pit stops. Why could they have not worked that in for whatever they were doing there? [00:43:24] Speaker A: Oh, God. And just learn Navajo or something like we used to do back in the day. Just figure something out. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Just click. [00:43:34] Speaker A: Well, I gotta ask you, then, what is your hack of the week? [00:43:39] Speaker B: That is obviously the pace car driver, I think. [00:43:43] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. [00:43:44] Speaker B: Either. Either. The pace car driver. The PA operator at the championship celebration. [00:43:48] Speaker A: Damn, I like that one even better, because not everybody even knew that that was a thing. And that's. [00:43:53] Speaker B: It's crazy, because I imagine, like, that showed up fine on tv. Like, the audio, obviously, but the crowd around it probably showed up fine on tv. But being there in person, it was so dead, and it was so weird because, like, you expect some excitement and, you know, championship is celebrated. Blaney's in the pits with them, Cedric is there, Harrison, Burton's there. Like, you know, it'd be a good experience. But, no. Like, you couldn't hear a word he was saying. [00:44:18] Speaker A: Yeah. What a lackluster time. I mean, like, this guy just did something that most people just dream about and never accomplished, and he's done it for the third time. Now we're not even gonna hear what the hell he has to say about it. Like, get that man a megaphone. Let's go. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Literally, dude, like, he could have yelled and we would have heard him, but. [00:44:35] Speaker A: God damn, just get a megaphone with Bosley written on the side of her hair club or whatever. The hair club for joeylegano.com that's literally what we needed. [00:44:45] Speaker B: Who's your hack of the week? [00:44:47] Speaker A: God. Well, my hack of the week was going to be Ben Kennedy saying Toyota instead of Ford on the. At the end of the truck race, which, you know, mistakes do happen, but, damn, you, like, had a 33% chance of getting it right, and you still messed it up. You just got to not say two. And you said one of them. Yeah, but my actual hack of the week is going to go to Southwest Airlines for giving me the option to watch live tv and on the first plane, it didn't work. Which, granted, not necessarily their fault, because we were in international waters, but then as soon as we got over Florida, it just didn't work. Then we get on the second plane. I've already given up on trying to watch the race live. I already know I'm going to have to watch it recorded. It is what it is. It's already, like, halfway over, and I'm not just going to jump in and I go to watch the Detroit Lions game. And the live TV thing is working all the way up until the very minute the Lions game is supposed to start. And I'm. I mean, this thing time to the minute when the damn game was supposed to start. And I heard from Dawson that it was one of the most blockbuster, awesome games that he's Ever seen five interceptions and they still win the game. [00:46:03] Speaker B: It's pretty wild. [00:46:05] Speaker A: And I don't get to see it because the live TV drops out the moment the game starts. So Southwest Airline gets my hack of the week all day, every day. Live TV on planes has just got to get figured out. I don't know how we're in 2024. We don't have this shit figured out. We haven't. We have the technology. It's obviously there. And I was watching live TV until the damn game started. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Dude. I've seen videos of people watching live TV on the space station. So for real on an airplane then? [00:46:30] Speaker A: I mean, my God. I know it's a expensive, but shoot. We give you how much money per ticket? [00:46:36] Speaker B: Yeah, literally, that. Yeah, I think. I think they earned that hack of the week. [00:46:40] Speaker A: Yeah, they definitely. They. They earned it for sure. And. And the. My. My back. My. My third hack of the week just because I'm full of hacks. This week is the taco stand in our Mexican resort that only served hot dogs and hamburgers, but called themselves a taco stand. They were literally advertised and told to me, you can go there from 11:00pm to 6:00am and get tacos. We show up at 1:00 in the morning. Hot dog or hamburger? All right, well, that's how this is gonna go. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Which one did you get? [00:47:17] Speaker A: I got a hamburger. Late night, McD's run, you know, well off the track. Did you hear that Brett was leaving? Door bumper clear. [00:47:29] Speaker B: Yeah. That's big news. [00:47:31] Speaker A: Crazy. Was he fired or did he leave? [00:47:34] Speaker B: I think he left. [00:47:35] Speaker A: I think so, too. [00:47:36] Speaker B: I think, you know, I think he probably had some other opportunities and whatever and wanted to try something else. [00:47:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like he's finally. I think all the Twitter people finally got to Junior Motorsports, and I think they might have asked him like, hey, can you, you know, tone it down a little bit? And he just said, screw y'all. I'll just go find somewhere that appreciates my talent and just left. [00:47:57] Speaker B: I think that's very possible. [00:47:59] Speaker A: What a death. That's just so crazy. People will just get their knickers in a twist over everything anymore. Yeah, I swear. But so one last question for you here. [00:48:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:13] Speaker A: Did you have a favorite paint scheme of the year for a trading paint segment? I know that's a really big question right there. Cause I'm even having to think back to my favorite schemes of the year. [00:48:25] Speaker B: There has definitely been some cool ones that I'm like, a lot of the throwbacks. I think this year Are pretty good for guys that did them. Was this year that William Byron did@ Rainbow1. [00:48:36] Speaker A: I think it was one of the years that he did that. [00:48:39] Speaker B: If he did do it. I like that one. I like seeing Luke Combs on Bubba's car. That was pretty sick. [00:48:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that is pretty damn neat. I love seeing those. I mean, Luke's such a good guy and then you added it like he's on nascar. [00:48:49] Speaker B: That was cool. There was a nothing fancy car too in Xfinity. [00:48:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that one. [00:48:55] Speaker B: That one was pretty cool. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Hell yes. [00:48:58] Speaker B: It's cool to see like people were around or like even tangentially around like being on cars or having sponsorships like that is pretty sick. [00:49:06] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Love that kind of stuff. I've been seeing a whole lot of smaller time people making Xfinity series cars because it's a little bit cheaper and they can manage to make it happen. Uh, it's really neat to see like the crazy different schemes that'll come out of all that. [00:49:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:24] Speaker A: It was really cool though to get to see Truex go out there and lead a couple laps and run up front in a throwback scheme to his very first race. I mean that's really, really cool to see him go out on top like that. [00:49:38] Speaker B: I mean, absolutely. Dude. He was the very first this week too. It was like a sunset. [00:49:42] Speaker A: Oh yeah. And there was a fan designed. Yeah, that was which like a carvana like a contest or something like design the car. [00:49:52] Speaker B: Yeah, that was pretty cool. [00:49:54] Speaker A: Damn. Yeah, cool year. I mean out of all the moments too this year there was a lot of really cool moments. Like, you know, you had a three wide finish at Atlanta. You had the closest finish in NASCAR history with Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher. You had crazy points battles that go all the way to the end of the season. You had Kyle Larson making the Indy 500 and missing the Charlotte 600. You've got a wacky playoffs that Logano somehow ends up winning due to an Alex Bowman disqualification. I mean, I know we're right at the end of this episode, so it's just cool to like wrap up the whole season. So I mean, what was your favorite all time favorite moment of the season this year? [00:50:37] Speaker B: Probably the Atlanta finish. Yeah, I think. And I don't know how you. Because it wasn't even the closest finish of the year, right? I mean there was. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:44] Speaker B: But just the visual of that, like it literally looked like cars. Yeah. Like, I don't know. That was like that. I literally didn't end up going to Atlanta for the fall race. But I bought tickets to it right after that. I was like, we gotta go. Like, yeah, that's so sick. And like the fact that that can happen in these new cars is sick. And I don't know, it was really cool to see that. Not at Talladega or Daytona. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. [00:51:09] Speaker B: It reminded me of this one Pocono race from a couple years ago too. Where was it? Priest who won? Somebody won from Stuart Haas. Custer one, I think, going around the outside, four wide. And I was like, there's finishes like that where it's just NASCAR in a nutshell. [00:51:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:27] Speaker B: And that's what makes the sport different. And so seeing that was very cool. [00:51:32] Speaker A: For real. I mean, for as much complaining as we can do at the end of the year about certain things, we don't like to take a look back at this year. I think about some of the years that I've watched where you had two cool finishes throughout the entirety of the year. And this year starts off and in the first five to six races, we already have two to three absolutely storybook crazy finishes that'll be highlight reels for the rest of time. Yeah, you just can't beat that. I know there was a bit of a lull there in the summertime, but once the playoffs ended up rolling around, we had more great races and different controversial finishes and things like that. So it was really, it was a wild season. And I wouldn't be surprised if we end up getting together and doing like a season wrap up podcast here in the next couple weeks. So I won't wax philosophical on it for too long. [00:52:21] Speaker B: And we definitely should do that. [00:52:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we should definitely put one together like that. And we'll get all four of us on here so we can all just talk a bunch of crap drinks, drink a few beers and talk some shit about racing. [00:52:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Well, I think we have finally hit the end of our race recap for Phoenix. I had a lot of fun, man. Yeah, a lot of fun. Getting to add you in and getting to talk with you for a little bit. [00:52:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:52:47] Speaker A: Heck yeah. Well, find us all on social media. You can find me at Caleb Conrowdy across all the platforms. You can look up raised Rowdy racing on Twitter, on Tick Tock and on maybe your mom's LG fridge if you know how to hack those things. I go ahead with all your social. [00:53:05] Speaker B: Media Ike Everard on Instagram and that's about it. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Hell yeah. Good enough for me, man. Keep it simple. It makes a billboard a lot easier to read. [00:53:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it does. Sponsors, let's. [00:53:19] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. We don't have to have all the bullshit where I can't read it. Just give me one solid one. We'll just know what the hell we're doing. That's exactly the way I do it, too. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Yep. [00:53:27] Speaker A: If you feel like following Dawson Edwards, you can look him up at Dawson Edwards. Music across the board. He's all right. He decided not show up today because, you know, he just really doesn't give a crap and just does what he wants. But that's what happens when you buy goats, man. You just get all up in your head about it. Hard headed, you might say. But anyway, we love y'all. Thanks for listening and keep in touch. And we should be back here soon, within the next couple weeks with some race recaps, maybe some wild and crazy stories over the off season because everything has been going on and I'm just exhausted from the news. But anyway, thanks for listening, y'all. We'll catch you on the next one. [00:54:10] Speaker C: I don't drive a Monte Carlo and my truck ain't painted black it ain't got a big white number three turning left around at the track but you can hear me coming from a mile and a half away these good years can't handle dirt don't need no curves with banks what I like in horses I make up with four by four I'm in and out of traffic till I make it to your door Checkers record my foot hammered on the gas I'm making my way to you, girl Earn hard bath.