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Ep. 36: Homestead Homecoming for NASCAR
14 Plays2 years ago
The whole gang is together, as Jake, Steve, Dillon, and Braxton recap a fantastic weekend of racing for all three NASCAR national series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In what might be the most off-the-rails fun episode of the season, the guys break down the playoff ramifications from all three races, and look ahead at Martinsville for the Xfinity and Cup Series.
Plus, a very dirt-themed Pop Up Showers, a very warm forecast for this weekend at Martinsville, and a very wacky set of race picks as the 2023 season winds down.
If you like Cloudy With a Chance of Racing, be sure to subscribe and tell a friend about the show. You can also follow along on social media @CloudyRacingPod.
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Transcript
Recap of Homestead Miami Weekend
00:00:16
Speaker
Those two races remain in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season after the series, all three series competed at Homestead Miami Speedway this past weekend. Cloudy with a chance of racing episode 36 here. Braxton, Jake, Dylan, and Steve, all four of us here tonight. How are we feeling after the Homestead weekend?
Why is Homestead Miami so special?
00:00:39
Speaker
Can we all agree?
00:00:40
Speaker
possibly the best race weekend of the season, just it's an awesome track. I am a big fan of Homestead. Um, I'm not going to kind of lean into what I think a lot of people have been leaning into, which is we need the championship back at Homestead. I would love that, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Um, but, uh, yeah, I thought it was a, I thought it was a great weekend of racing. Yeah, it was, it was really fun. Um, you know,
00:01:06
Speaker
and just seeing all the series come together. And I like it where it is in the schedule. I wouldn't mind seeing it go to the championship. It's a fun track. It always kind of has been. And the only thing I didn't like of the weekend, I was on the wrong side of my Kyle Larson pick once again. And we'll get to that crazy moment in the race.
00:01:36
Speaker
But there were a few, few surprises.
Xfinity Series Thrills
00:01:38
Speaker
The Xfinity Series race was pretty entertaining. Dale Jr. back, got into a teammate. So I think overall it was a pretty big win for NASCAR this weekend. Yeah, just the track that delivers in a big way. TV ratings look nice coming out of it. I think it's just a really popular track. Wouldn't be opposed to getting two dates.
00:02:05
Speaker
It's that good of a track. I know that the location, yes, it's in Miami, but I think the location actually kind of hurts because it's kind of out there, not in a very popular area for racing as much. So you're not going to get like those super packed crowds. That's the one downside to
Weather Impact on Race Dynamics
00:02:21
Speaker
it. But yeah, um, great weekend, great weather there as well. The weather actually played a little bit of role in the race where race started out cloudy and a little cooler than what they originally anticipated. So I think we added some combers and goers and stuff.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really happy with how the weekend turned out. And he's gone. We'll work on getting Dylan back here in a second.
00:02:50
Speaker
Um, yeah, so all three series were in the, uh, in action there at homestead with the, uh, the winner of the truck series being Carson Hosevar, the Xfinity series when, uh, going, oh, remind me who won that.
Race Winners and Notable Performances
00:03:10
Speaker
Uh, Sam Mayer, Sam Mayer that I had it like on the tip of my tongue.
00:03:15
Speaker
Sam Ayer, I knew it was an S and I almost said Sheldon Creed like three times and like, I know it's not Sheldon, I know it's not Sheldon. Sam Ayer getting his first win on a oval in the Xfinity series. And then of course. Looking like a championship contender. It really is, yeah. And then Christopher Bell coming through in the clutch once more, getting his win and clinch into the playoffs as well.
00:03:43
Speaker
Um, so let's take a look at some news that happened in the week. Uh, I guess the, the one thing that I noticed was the, uh, Rockley war announced who's going to be in their trucks for the rest of the year. So Trevor Bain was in the 25 truck for the homestead race. And then, uh, Stefan Parsons will be in the truck in a couple of weeks at Phoenix. Uh, and I thought, you know, it was a, uh,
00:04:14
Speaker
Not a terrible showing for Trevor Bain. I thought he was pretty competitive in that truck. Ultimately, he didn't get the finish. I don't think he really, really wanted.
00:04:26
Speaker
But I thought Trevor Bain did an okay job there. I thought I thought Raja Karuth had a solid showing too. Raja I really did with a with a top 10. So, you know, he's been he's been last like two months, he's been a really, really super solid driver. So it's, you know, the best stretch that he's had all year. So yeah, 14th place finish for Trevor Bain, a
00:04:54
Speaker
finish of eighth for Raja Karuth. Got to give Bailey Curry a shout out for the top five in the 41 truck. I thought that it was really interesting to me how Carson Osavar had that kind of track down. He came, what was it, on Majeski at Richmond.
00:05:14
Speaker
Uh, he, he just seemed like he drove and tracked down Majeski and, uh, and, and passed them in the closing
Playoff Strategies in Truck Series
00:05:22
Speaker
stages. And then I thought Josef our did, you know, he worked the strategy in his team, right. Uh, to get the wind, but also the, the call of the year so far has to go to Rich Lucia's on the, uh, uh, on the Ben Rhodes truck on the box for Ben, uh, that pit strategy, like they wouldn't be in the final four if it wasn't for that. Well, he had been what just by one point.
00:05:45
Speaker
Uh, I think so. It was, it was right there. I mean, what a call. So, um, so based on Zane Smith's disqualification ended up being zero point, like Nick, Ben Rhodes and Nick Sanchez were tied on points and ended up, uh, Ben Rhodes got the tiebreaker. Wow. So it's yeah. Roads, Kosovar and finger in time.
00:06:13
Speaker
Correct, yep. Corey Haim, Carson Hosevar, Grant Infinger, and Ben Road to the four drivers that will vie for a title in a couple weeks in Phoenix.
00:06:23
Speaker
and I gotta say, I can't, it's hard to pick. I mean, I would probably put Ben Rhodes like as a number two there, but the other three, high and most of our in-finger, I guess it could go 1A, 1B, 1C. They've all been fantastic. In-fingers had a little bit of a quieter of a season, but he's been consistent and put together finishes and I think it'd be fitting for GMS to go out with a trophy.
00:06:53
Speaker
I agree. Sorry if I got cut off earlier. He's back. No, it's OK. We know that the Kentucky internet falters kind of like the Kentucky Wildcats football team. Actually, the Kentucky internet is about like the Kentucky Speedway. It's gone, but hopefully coming back. This is actually AI Dylan. It is AI Dylan. It's not real Dylan. It's computer generated. We're having a little connectivity issues with them.
00:07:23
Speaker
So yeah, so it was a big win for Carson Hosevar in the truck series. And I think, you know, one thing that impressed me about the way he handled himself this weekend is it was announced a couple of weeks ago. He was going to be finishing the cup series season in the 42 car. Then they come out early last week and announce, well, wait a second. We've worked out a deal with Toyota and Joe Gibbs racing and everything to have John Hunter Nemechek, who is going to be driving that car full time next year.
00:07:52
Speaker
Get a ride in it at homestead and so it bumped Carson out of the seat and at least outwardly it didn't seem like her so far was Was too like super upset about it and clearly he wasn't all that Distracted because he went out and won the truck series race and locked himself into Phoenix I just thought that showed a lot of maturity out of Carson given some of the Immaturity that he had displayed on track, you know at previous parts of his career
00:08:19
Speaker
I think he's, he realizes that he's really, you know, about to make the next step and probably doesn't want to, uh, feel like he's going to go into kind of the next level of his career, being a reckless driver that could potentially, you know, gain him some enemies very quickly. Absolutely. So onto the XFINITY series race.
00:08:49
Speaker
Where Sam Mayer did get the win in that one, not Sheldon Creedus has what popped in my head at first, but Sam Mary gets the win there. And a, uh, you gotta say it was a, uh, quite an
Playoff Standings and Predictions
00:09:02
Speaker
interesting race. I mean, Dale Jr. Had a solid run finishing in fifth place. Um, Riley Herbst with another solid run.
00:09:10
Speaker
I felt like the luck has switched at the SHR camp from Riley Herbst having like the Murphy's Law vibes to now Cole Custard feels like he has some Murphy's Law vibes going on in the last couple weeks. But it was Riley Herbst finishing second, backing up his strong performance from Vegas winning the week prior. John Hernimachek third, Austin Hill fourth, and then Dale Earnhardt Jr. in.
00:09:37
Speaker
fifth place. I think the big controversy of the Xfinity series race was Dilla Jr. pancaking Josh Berry into the wall and ending Berry's day. Man, that's got to really suck for Dale. Yeah, that was brutal. I missed that part of it. And then I saw it that they got into each other. And my first instinct was,
00:10:03
Speaker
Why would Josh Berry do that to him? And then I saw what ended up happening. I was like, man, that's tough luck, especially like how do you talk to each other afterward? Like awkwardly, I would assume. Yeah, I mean, I think they're they're close enough guys and stuff that deals be like, you know, I think down the TV broadcast, they kind of surmised that Dale might have misunderstood the the call from the spotter.
00:10:29
Speaker
and then ended up running into Barry there thinking he had more room than he did, but I think that was... I guess if there's any silver lining, it's that it didn't cost Josh a spot in the Final Four because Josh Barry was already eliminated in the playoffs, so that would have been extra bad if it happened there. But I also think there's a level of irony there that
00:10:51
Speaker
that, you know, the season started with all the JRM cars taking each other out of Daytona. And then here we are, that the boss man gets in on the act too late in the season. You know, in the middle of the season and on, every other race felt like
00:11:10
Speaker
Junior motorsports was just hurting themselves in one way or another. One, you know, a couple drivers a week, it just, things just didn't go their way. So it is, it is a lot of irony that this occurs, but also, you know, with Sam winning the race, uh, it also has to feel good. Totally.
00:11:30
Speaker
to the four as it stands right now in the Xfinity series. They do go to Martinsville this weekend. Sam Mayer has locked himself in. He's the only one locked in as they go to this elimination race because Riley Herbst previously eliminated in the playoffs, one at Vegas. So Sam Mayer is the only one locked in. There are three spots up for grabs as it stands right now. And John Hunter Nemechek is feeling pretty good at plus 44, but then
00:11:58
Speaker
There are three drivers within three points of each other. Cole Custer, Austin Hill, and Justin Allgaier within three points. Custer and Hill actually tied at 3,113 points. Justin Allgaier, three points back. So Hill and Allgaier, or sorry, Hill and Custer are in, as it stands right now, Allgaier, three points out. Then Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, and Sheldon Creed all have must-win situations, like Sammy Smith is 49 below.
00:12:28
Speaker
Chandler Smith is 54 below and Sheldon Creed is 65 below. But the wonderful thing I think about the playoffs, and I don't have a whole ton of good to say about the playoffs because I think it should be a full season championship. One nice thing, though, is that I think any of those three drivers, Sammy Chandler or Sheldon, could go to Martinsville and win.
00:12:52
Speaker
Sheldon is very good at Martinsville. And I could see him winning that race. And this year, I think he was, if I remember correctly, I want to say he wrecked or something happened early on in the year. But his finish this year wasn't good. But I believe last year, he was the runner up to maybe Ty Gibbs. But the point being that he's in a position now where he has to
00:13:22
Speaker
basically, I think would have to win it. So if I had to make a prediction, I'm going to say that Sheldon Creek does win. I think there's probably, you know, a little more possibility of some shake up in one of these guys. I mean, they're gonna need, like you just said, Braxton need to win to get in. I think there's definitely a higher possibility of one of these guys winning and maybe someone
00:13:52
Speaker
you know, a surprise winner in the Cup Series, if you will. But if I had to look at those three, it probably would be a guy like Sheldon Creed, you know, in a must win. So Sheldon did finish 27th in the spring after starting third. For what it's worth, the spring top three was
00:14:20
Speaker
John Hunter Nemechek, Sammy Smith, Cole Custer. Uh, so that would be quite an interesting top three, uh, at this year's, uh, or at the fall race, uh, going back to, Oh, I messed it up. I'm going to previous with this track on good old racing dash reference. Will you be there for the Xfinity race?
00:14:47
Speaker
I will not. I'm driving up early Sunday morning. Gotcha. I've never seen an XFINITY race. Actually, that's a lie. I have. I saw Josh Berry win there, dominate there. Spring 2021, I believe. That sounds right, yeah. When he was still like part time. Yes. Steve, you are correct. Sheldon Creed did finish second to Ty Gibbs last fall at Martinsville.
00:15:15
Speaker
felt like down the stretch there, Ty Gibbs is winning every race. But I, I think, uh, I think that, uh, he's Crete is good there. And, uh, I don't think anybody's really set themselves apart that much that there's a favorite that's really heavily favorited in this race for the Xfinity series. So, um, I definitely think that, uh, it's going to be him. Awesome. Let's get on to the cup series race on Sunday.
Kyle Larson's Pit Road Incident
00:15:43
Speaker
Uh, one that,
00:15:45
Speaker
Clearly thought that the dominant car was Kyle Larson until, uh, he decided to go play in the beach. We'll put it that way. I was, I was kind of confused by like his comments. It made it, he made it seem like post race where he liked the Blaney checked up a bunch, but the way that, I mean, like, if you looked at the miles per hour, both of them coming in, Blaney was at like 45 and.
00:16:10
Speaker
Larson was at like 65 heading into the pits. It honestly looked like Larson just came in too hot and had to adjust quickly. I mean, unless I'm like misread that. No, I think that's what Kyle did say. Um, I understand what he was trying to do. He was trying to close that gap before pit road speed limit hit. I guess it makes complete sense. Um, but I also feel like.
00:16:37
Speaker
A factor he wasn't, you know, giving enough credit was that, you know, you're kind of looking right in the sun at that part. So it's possible that, you know, he had just couldn't see Blaney for a while there. And then all of a sudden he was right on top of the 12 car and couldn't go anywhere.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, I was kind of surprised by how that whole thing happened. I mean, those things, he hit it pretty hard. You would think that whatever miles per hour he hit it out that it wouldn't do irreparable damage to the car, but it did. And I mean, you really got to hand it to
00:17:16
Speaker
JGR, they have made the playoffs so ridiculously interesting in a good and bad way. Blaney was the subject of two people's stupidity, one with Larson and the other with Denny. But it's really put up or shut up time for Denny
Denny Hamlin vs. Ryan Blaney Incident
00:17:36
Speaker
because
00:17:36
Speaker
you know, he's been elite this year. And, you know, he's hit a couple milestones. And, you know, it really would be interesting to see what happens at Martinsville, especially considering we're going back to the race where he called Alex Bowman a hack. And, you know, it's always a lot of fireworks at the paperclip. And I think a point to that is
00:18:05
Speaker
Yes, Denny, you know, theoretically has people to pay back this weekend. But I think a lot of people have to pay back Denny. I mean, there are a lot of people still that haven't gotten, you know, I think to do, you know, justice. This is a situation where I don't know if Larson would do something, but maybe Larson bumps him out of the way for a position, runs him a little harder for a position than what he would have before.
00:18:30
Speaker
Um, William Byron's had some run-ins with them as well. Ryan Blaney, who is ahead of him in points right now, you might be thinking, you know, Hey, uh, Denny Hamlin might, uh, be in a situation to Rick, um, Blaney, but I, uh,
00:18:46
Speaker
I think it could be the opposite as well. That whole situation was weird. Yes, it was hard racing. But I think Denny Hammond was of the three drivers in the whole thing, the whole incident. He was the one in the wrong. He was pushing it too far. And then to have that random piece break at the same moment, that was just that was just odd. It was out of nowhere for me. It's kind of instant karma a little bit, right? Yeah, absolutely. And that's that's what Ryan Blaney's post race.
00:19:15
Speaker
I mean, post-incident driver communication sounded like he used words that I'm not going to use on the podcast, but he was frustrated with it. He was right. I agree. I mean, like when Blaney basically said, you know, he used me up and like, if you're going to, if you're going to make the pass, make the pass. But, you know, Blaney had lost a lot of momentum and he had, he had momentum.
00:19:42
Speaker
And this track is all about momentum. Look at how much time. I think the one thing that I like about Homestead is that it's one of the few tracks where you can visibly see a car get faster as they're going around the ride in the wall, which at the time he was doing.
00:20:02
Speaker
And you also see somebody get a lot slower, which it's not as easy to do with trucks that where they're not like really right up against the wall. So I agree. I think that that was just kind of, you know, it was really just bad, bad racing on Denny's part. And, you know, that was that instant karma that you mentioned.
Martin Truex Jr.'s Playoff Struggles
00:20:24
Speaker
So, you know, and I mentioned this yesterday while Blaney was leading and you know, Bell ends up winning, but
00:20:31
Speaker
Then this means that, you know, at least one of Byron Truex and Hamlin, who have really been ballin' this year, one of those three, at least one, won't be in title contention come Phoenix. Truex, you know, with the playoffs that he's having, that doesn't really come as a surprise. And I guess, I mean, if he somehow, you know, got in on points,
00:21:00
Speaker
I don't know, wouldn't that be something if he ended up winning at Phoenix, but with the trend that he's on, what, 17 points below the cut. Truex is one of those guys, though, and I've seen it, because I've been there, that could just take over a Martinsville race and just be gone with it. Same with a few other guys, and that's what I'm kind of expecting hitting the Martinsville, but as far as Miami went,
00:21:30
Speaker
Man, I have to just, you know, hats off to Christopher Bell. There were times in the race where, you know, he was, he was fighting to stay on the lead lab. I mean, he was down on the leaderboard in the 15 to 20 range.
00:21:51
Speaker
And for him to be there, you know what had mattered most and another year Where he was pretty much facing, you know, you get a must-win to advance to the championship for he did that last year at Martinsville this year at Miami so that that's you know back-to-back years in the championship for for Christopher Bell, I mean that is that's something that
00:22:19
Speaker
That's very impressive by him. So shout out to that team.
Christopher Bell's Comeback Victory
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was really impressive how they were able to, like you said, Jake, move their way back up to the field. And it wasn't that they went totally off script with strategy and had it play off with them with caution. They just worked on their car and made it better. And he drove through the field.
00:22:38
Speaker
And that shows that it can be done. I just wish that kind of thing was possible more with this car. It seems like between the sim work and the limited practice time.
00:22:51
Speaker
And just the way this new car is itself, with the setups you have to run, the box is so small that you're not able to make those wholesale changes that make a huge difference in your car, like you could with the old cars and stuff. And I thought,
00:23:08
Speaker
You know, that was one of my favorite parts of racing is is kind of the engineering part of it and how they they can can take a swing at it and and it makes a huge difference. There's this no such thing as taking a swing at this next gen car. But that was that was impressive. I think it would be a travesty if Martin Truex Jr. somehow wins this championship. Yes, because he has done nothing in the playoffs.
00:23:38
Speaker
Like absolutely nothing. He would be possibly the... I guess his regular season would say otherwise. But what he's done in the playoffs, I think would make him the least deserving champion in NASCAR history if he was the champion. Because he's totally like...
00:23:57
Speaker
done nothing in the playoffs. This would be Kyle Busch's definition of backing into it, right? Like Homestead 29th. Vegas was a top 10. The Roval was 20th. Talladega 18th. Texas 17th. Bristol 19th. Kansas 36th. Darlington 18th. And then Daytona right there was 24th. Brutal. He's done nothing. Let me pull up the Winston Cup standings and see where he
00:24:27
Speaker
Stands on that. Oh, yeah, that's a great Twitter account. What's their handle again doing? Yeah, it's at NWCS mass NASCAR wins a cup series underscore standings and actually crucifer bell now leads the standings How crazy is that That is wild and
Driver Stats and Championship Scenarios
00:24:48
Speaker
it's pretty tight. I mean for drivers within a hundred points. Yeah, I
00:24:53
Speaker
So I was wondering if truex is he had lost that I thought he was still ahead of that It was denny hamlin that was but there was a big checker shakeup. So Had we had the winston cup? Yeah, obviously a lot of factors, but still denny hamlin went from first to fourth after one race If i'm not let me check again, but yeah, yeah, he lost three spots Yeah, that is that is a wild that would be that would be again
00:25:21
Speaker
A lot of drama. Imagine that drama, you know? Yeah. It would be, it would be epic. And then you have Ryan Blaney ninth sitting ninth in that right now. Um, you know, kind of well below everybody else still in it, which is pretty interesting too. Real quick, Dylan, don't give it away. Cause I know you're looking at the same thing I am right now. Jake and Steve. How many, who do you think has more top tens this season? Christopher Bell or Denny Hamlin?
00:25:50
Speaker
I would say it's probably Denny. It is Seabelle. He has 18 top 10s to Denny's 17. That's the second most in the cup series, which is crazy to think about. That isn't saying, yeah. And Chase LA has 15, which is also nuts considering how many races he missed.
00:26:12
Speaker
I think it's funny that I mean, people are looking at Chase like he's having a down year. I mean, he has outside of like wins. He has been ridiculously good when he's like, there have been very few races where he truly was not a factor at all. You know, it was one of them.
00:26:28
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, this was, this was like a, a kind of a weird race, but like outside of that, I mean, you know, and look at, look at a race like Watkins, Lynn, he was the fastest car on the track before he ran out of gas. And then it was basically over for him, you know, so, yeah, I'll go ahead. Like this race of the entire play, this round, at least he has not gotten the equipment. Obviously I think is, it's kind of noticeable as Larson and yeah, absolutely. This is, this is kind of an appropriate time for my, um,
00:26:58
Speaker
pop up a shower real quick and then we can get back to the race because I looked at at Trey Ryan 99 who gives a lot of stats on NASCAR. He had the average percentage of laps in the top 15 this season when drivers have competed and do you guys have a guess at who number one would be? Of course you guys already looked at the
00:27:23
Speaker
Standings percentage average percentage of laughs in the top 15. Yeah, I'm gonna say Kelly Kelly. Yeah, cuz of what you said Mmm Denny Hamlin at seventy six point six percent, but I did Chase Elliott is eight It goes Hamlin Byron Larson Reddick is fourth and Bell Truex Blaney Elliott and then number nine I thought was kind of surprising Alex Bowman and
00:27:53
Speaker
It's pretty crazy to me with Chase considering he's missed what, 10 or 11 races. Yeah. I guess this, this doesn't count the races. Obviously they, that they only competed in, but still, I mean, Elliot and Bowman, you know, as much as we said, you know, they've been out and.
00:28:13
Speaker
All this out of contention for a while, but they've, when they've been in the cards, I mean, they're both top 10 in this, in that particular stat, which is pretty impressive. Are we doing pop-up showers? Yeah, let's go for it. I had a couple of things I did want to add to the race conversation. Yeah. Okay. But I just wanted to say, um, it, it turned out the race at first, I mean, you're watching the first stage and you think this is going to turn into Larson just dominating, but.
Tire Wear and Dynamics at Homestead
00:28:41
Speaker
It was interesting to see what the tire wear factored in. I mean, the fact that he, you could, he mentioned it earlier, you could see who was gaining and who was losing. When, when Larson started to slow down, you could really see that happening right before your eyes, where you had Blaney closing in on him, um, which I think Blaney's performance was, was I think one of his,
00:29:06
Speaker
better races. It's really unfortunate, you know, he got used up by Denny Hamlin because I was really impressed with him. And I thought, you know, for there for a while, I was like, man, this is we're watching the turning point in Ryan Blaney, you know, the career is he getting ready to take the next step, you know? So that was that was added to the race, I think, especially, you know, from a viewer standpoint. Yeah, that makes sense.
00:29:33
Speaker
It was definitely interesting, like we talked earlier, just watching the cars really fluctuate on speed. It's not as evident in many places. Yeah, that's true. What happened with Christopher Bell, though? So he obviously didn't pit when the whole Kyle Larson, he wasn't first in the pit. So that helped him move up. I watched that part of the race back, and I really don't know how he got to the front.
00:30:00
Speaker
He had a good pit stop after the Larson incident. Is that what happened? I'm, I might've missed that when I watched it back. Yeah. Cause I, cause I was thinking like, where did he come from truly? Because I think he was benefiting because he hadn't pitted yet and wasn't a lap down like Truex and you know, others were, um, in the top 10 that had pitted early. Um, so I think that helped him leapfrog a bunch of people that were caught a lap down if I'm not mistaken.
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah. So he had been taken out. He had pitted early there. We would not be having this conversation right now. True. I did think it was impressive how he, after he got the track position, however he did, and we have to go back and watch it again to figure that out. Um, you know, I think there was the, like the last, last pit stop cycle. He was like, he pitted in like second or third and he, uh, maybe second, and he got shuffled back and he lost a couple more spots in the pit stop and then made him back up.
00:31:01
Speaker
Like he, he restarted on like the second or third row, like three or four times in that last stage and was able to make it up to like the front, like two or three cars every single time. Yeah. I, uh, onto his restart ability. I, a guy I work with now in our sales department on my TV station, raced one time against Christopher Bell and sprint cars and started fourth in the future. Christopher Bell started 16th. Something happened in his.
00:31:30
Speaker
you know, qualifying or something, but it took them two laps to go from 16th to the lead in sprint cars, which is pretty nuts. Yeah. I think, uh, Christopher, Christopher probably won the hard charger award for that race too. Yes. Yeah. He's, he's one heck of a talent. And I know that the, the dirt track racing skill, it doesn't really apply much anymore to the cup series, but
00:31:57
Speaker
It's not lost on me that the two drivers who have locked themselves in with wins into racing for the championship are probably two of the best dirt track racers in the cup series. Right up. Cool. Are we good to go on to pop up showers then? Yes. Heck yeah. So Jake already gave his, uh, what do you guys want to go next?
00:32:23
Speaker
Well, OK, I'll go.
Dirt Racing Spotlight
00:32:25
Speaker
I have two. One of them is, I always think it's pretty cool to see, and I've mentioned this before, and it may have been one of my pop-up showers before, but I thought it was cool to see Michael Jordan at the race, but Jeff Gluck had a tweet where he said, it's commonplace at this point, but MJ was on pit road again after the race. Not sure if he's missed a single playoff race this year.
00:32:51
Speaker
I know that, obviously, an owner of a team is not completely strange to me. But this is Michael Jordan, who has been extremely present in all of the races that his guys have been in, including Denny Hamlin. So just a cool sight always to see. And I think that he's done a lot for the sport. And it's also cool that one of his drivers could
00:33:17
Speaker
potentially win the championship. But my other one is
00:33:25
Speaker
Wanted to give a shout out to Hudson O'Neill, who won the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship. I got to interview him a couple weeks ago, prior to the race, the Pittsburgh race at PPMS. And super cool dude, and really just a, you know, really impressive run at El Dora and, uh, uh,
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, just really, really again, I've mentioned this before, but dirt racing is a lot of fun, but you know, they, I think do a pretty good job, at least in that series of highlighting their stars. And, um, you know, I think a lot of people thought Ricky Thornton Jr. Was going to win, uh, the points championship, but it ended up being, uh, Hudson O'Neill. So that's my pop-up shower. Yeah. And you took mine. Cause we were talking about that before you had got on the pre so, you know,
00:34:19
Speaker
whenever I waiting lobby. Uh, but yeah, that was a, that was a wild night at Aldora. Um, that's my pop-up shower. Um, the new format for the championship, you know, yes, Hudson O'Deal is very, very deserving, but the fact that, you know, Ricky Thornton and Jonathan Davenport didn't win with the, you know, the seasons they've had, I think shows there's a lot of talent right now in the, their late model scene.
00:34:46
Speaker
one thing, but then also the format was a little wonky. But it was a fun weekend. There were several local drivers from here in Kentucky that actually made a pretty far one from West Virginia. Tyler Carpenter had a great qualifying effort. He ended up, you know, I think he started like last in a heat. I believe he started last in a heat and came back and
00:35:13
Speaker
won the heat or something like that, which is crazy. Everybody said he was flying. He just he didn't have the car to last. Yeah. Tyler Carpenter, I think he's from Parkersburg. Yeah. And he's a regular at Tyler County Speedway. And he actually I think he drove one of the nice trucks on in the Bristol dirt race earlier this year. He did. Also, it's more western in the dirt racing ties there. Hudson O'Neill drives the one car, right? The rocket one. Mm hmm.
00:35:41
Speaker
So Rocket Chassis is in Shinsco, West Virginia. So a championship going to the Rocket one, the Rocket house car there. So that's pretty awesome as well.
00:35:54
Speaker
I think all three of our pop-up showers are kind of intertwined because mine is the news that dropped yesterday that the All-Star Circuit of Champions Wing Sprint car series has been sold from Tony Stewart to Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson.
00:36:15
Speaker
They own obviously the high limit racing series that had a, I think a pretty successful first year running mid weeks earlier this year, uh, throughout the country with some pretty big paydays. I think their minute, their lowest payday was $20,000 and they had a couple of 50 grand races on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. Uh, they are now.
Impact of All-Star Circuit Purchase
00:36:34
Speaker
uh... owners of the uh... all-star circuit of champions uh... and of course twenty the connections that to what you guys just mentioned is that tony stewart uh... owns aldora just sold uh... the all-star circuit of champion series so uh... in the all-stars is a really good series they uh... they stick around mostly in the midwest for right now um... don't don't know if that will change any but they uh... they put on a good show that i think the closest they come to me is
00:37:03
Speaker
Fremont Speedway just east of Toledo but they put on some great shows and so it's exciting to see how that series develops and grows under the watchful eye of Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson and also I'm just curious of how
00:37:22
Speaker
how the world of Outlaws feels about one of their champion drivers owning their primary competition, like their primary competing series. That's true. I didn't actually think about that. Probably not great, but I don't think that what are they going to do?
00:37:40
Speaker
Well, so the outlaws did. So they always have a program where if you have to run X percentage of all of their dates and then you get some added money that helps kind of like tide you over like to to wait to spread out the cost between like, you know, and if only gaps in like the money for any winnings you don't get or like whatever winnings you're you're missing out on and stuff.
00:38:07
Speaker
Basically, it helps you get to the track, right? As opposed to not having to lean on sponsorship so much. Indie Card does something similar. So when the High Limit series was brought about, the World of Outlaws made a rule that I think you could only go to like five, like if you were in that circle and expected to get like some of that supplemental money from the Outlaw series, you can only go to five non-outlaw sanctioned races the whole year.
00:38:38
Speaker
And they wanted the outlaws wanted to be none and then the drivers threw a fit about it rightfully so so So like most of those drivers like Brad sweet only raced in two of the high-limit races because he didn't he wanted like like the Aldora
00:38:53
Speaker
I think if I'm not mistaken, I think like the four crown Nationals doesn't count as one as an outlaws race So you burn one of your five on that the Knoxville Nationals don't count as a outlaw race So you burn one of your nights on that or when you're five on that. So I'm not sure like the outlaws might tighten it up. That was my
00:39:12
Speaker
You know, you might see Brad's feet leave Casey Kane racing or Brad's feet, not, not go for that, uh, winter circle thing, whatever they call it to, um, to get money around to, to some of the teams to help them, you know, cover some bills. So, uh, I think that'll be interesting to see how it plays out in the future, but at least there's interest from some of the best racers in the world to invest in dirt track racing the way that Kyle Larson and Brad sweet are. Yeah.
00:39:41
Speaker
How cool Dylan, I know, um, Kentucky is a lot of like lay model and modifies, but how cool would it be to see the outlaws at Richmond? Yeah, that would be wild. I think the best place for them would be, um, ponderosa speedway. Probably the best spot. So I have heard boring. So I know the all-stars they do in Ohio speed week. So they'll race Fremont, uh, Attica.
00:40:10
Speaker
Aldora, um, Sharon, and then I'll go to Portsmouth, Ohio, which is not far from where I grew up in Huntington, West Virginia. I think it's just a couple hours from where Jake lives now. And probably not very far from you either, Dylan. Sharon is about an hour and a half from me. So yeah. Yeah. But I heard some people saying that like Portsmouth was an amazing race for the all-stars in the Ohio speed week. So that might be something you have to check out next year. Absolutely.
00:40:39
Speaker
Well, that was that was a dirt filled pop-up shower segment, but it's still very cool that explains how We got cloudy with the chance of showers those clouds from the dirt. Yeah Oh and and it's fitting too because you want that the dirt to be wetted down like they'd have to roll a water truck But if it rains anyways, if you're fine, yeah Sorry Jacob kind of left you out in left field there you okay? I'm good. Yeah, that was a great conversation
00:41:09
Speaker
We got to get you out of some dirt races, dude. Yes. Yeah. I, uh, I'm, uh, I did see, uh, West Virginia speedways looking, uh, for a buyer and I'm hoping that everything turns out well for the track up in mineral wells that just came back just what two years ago. Um, I wrote a story on that. So I'm, I'm hoping things, things turn out well for that track.
00:41:39
Speaker
Well, I got 50 cents in my pocket podcast to buy it. Yes. Cloudy Speedway. That'd be funny. Cloudy Speedway. All right. Well, uh, let's get onto our race picks from this past week. Um, I somehow locked into after going, what was it earlier in the season? I went on a streak of.
Pre-race Predictions for Martinsville
00:42:08
Speaker
Eight straight weeks without a top Five I've somehow won back-to-back races now and I'm on a three race top ten streak with Christopher Bell I did not get top points of the week though that went to Dylan who got 49 points from William Byron overall. Thanks to some stage points In a fourth place finish Steve got 42 points just like I did from Tyler Reddick
00:42:38
Speaker
Who I thought, side note, how cool was it to see Grimace and the Hamburglar on the race cars? They were at the track. Amazing. I thought it was hilarious.
00:42:49
Speaker
I think the only thing would have been better is if is if Reddick had like worked his way up for the front and people could say he stole the race. Could you imagine like being Christopher Bell? And if there was momentum with Reddick, you see the Hamburglar in your like rearview mirror or grimace coming up in your rearview mirror, that goofy smile. Yeah, and so Jake mentioned earlier that he struggled with Kyle Larson. He was all well on his way to a great run and then
00:43:19
Speaker
Like I said, when, for a trip on the beach, uh, finishing 34th, but really day, not terrible points wise, uh, it could have been a lot worse. He got 21 points. Uh, most of that through stage points. So, uh, the big news from our, uh, our real race picks from this week is that Dylan currently holds a.
00:43:43
Speaker
Commanding. Commanding lead of 136 points. Which means with two races to go and max points of 60, that Dylan is our real picks champion for 2020. Look at that. That's right. Let's go. We've had a campaign that would be mustin' right now.
00:44:11
Speaker
Until we're not going to do a post-race technical inspection. So there's no way to bust you unless we find out that you've been talking with that staffer from the University of Michigan. And then in which case we will disqualify you. I had no insider information. Yeah, it took him a long time to answer that though. So I don't know. Yeah, he did hesitate. You guys heard it too, right? Mm-hmm.
00:44:38
Speaker
Ok, well Dylan is our champion for this year. He's got 4 wins, 17 top 5s, 23 top 10s, only 3 finishes of 30th or worse, to this point 1176 points and an average finish of 10.4. The good news for the rest of us is the second place battle is extremely tight now. I have managed to catch up with my back to back wins and now
00:45:06
Speaker
Just 15 points separate Steve, Jake, and I as we go to the last two weeks of the season. Steve leads the rest of the three with 1,040 points. Jake is 10 points behind at 1,030 and I am
00:45:20
Speaker
15 points behind at 1,025. So a very tight race for a second as we go to our final two races of the season, going to Martinsville next weekend. And Jake, with your 34th place finish from Kyle Larson, you have the honors of first pick. Shout out Kyle Larson for letting me pick first here.
00:45:51
Speaker
I'm leaning to, and I guess I can't lean anymore. I'm going to pick. I'm going to pick Denny Hamlin. I just think, um, 2021, he was leading the, the, had the incident with Alex Bowman late. Um, you know, last year he suffered a heartbreak with the, uh, Hale Mellon and Ross Chastain didn't make it into the championship or running well. Um,
00:46:20
Speaker
I just, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I'll be there. I would, I would kind of really like to see him and Wayne solely to see the crowd reaction. Um, Jake is, is you realize you're picking who's going to win the race, not have the most booze, right? Yeah. Yeah. But you know, I, I would, I would like to see that. Um, so I'm going to just going to go ahead and.
00:46:45
Speaker
Hamlin in and probably, I guess Byron coming in and points, so to set the championship for. Okay. Take going. I just want to say one thing on that about the Denny Hamlin moment, seeing him go from cheers. I was at the race that he wrecked Chase Elliott, seeing him go from cheers from the entire crowd pre-race to the whole place raining down booze on him.
00:47:14
Speaker
still is ingrained in my memory. One of my top all time, you know, as a fan in the stands, one of my top all time, any sport, football, basketball, baseball, that sits near the top, if not at the top. Is that one of the moments where you think that
00:47:32
Speaker
the fans just started to turn on down. Yeah, I think it was then because they, you know, look at the next week at Phoenix, I think he, you know, everybody cheered in the crowd there when Chase Elliott put him in the wall there. So, yeah, I think that was the moment. Martinsville Fall has had just insane moments, I feel like, in the past just decade. I mean, in the past, you know, just crazy good moments towards the end of those races.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. It's been it's been exciting. And I mean, one, I guess the silver lining, we know that the next gen car is not great on short tracks, but we know with so much on the line that that kind of bails out this race in terms of the watchability factor. Absolutely. OK, Dylan, you are up next, but your pick is essentially already made for you.
00:48:30
Speaker
not yet we said the last race i'm gonna actually have a pick here okay i want to extend this lead i don't care if i already have the championship we're going for wins and i'm going blaney come on screw you both out of getting to pick him i'm going ryan blaney
00:48:53
Speaker
Do you know what his average finish at Martinsville is? He's been there 15 races. You know what it is? It's absurd. Is it? 9.5. 9.5. 15 races. Oh, all 15. OK, I was looking since the next gym. But yeah, he's very good there. OK, going Blaney. So I'll already put in for Phoenix then. You're going with Reed Sorensen. Yes, I'm picking Reed Sorensen. Shout out.
00:49:22
Speaker
to the 15 car. I thought for a second you were trying to do a Pat McAfee impersonation with that. All right, Steve, since Denny and Blaney have been taken, who do you want? The hack. I'm going to take Alex Bowman. You're going Bowman twice in three weeks. I feel like, I mean, he's burned me a couple of weeks ago. Well, I mean,
00:49:48
Speaker
You know it is what it is like I'm not gonna win the championship and you know, I think it would be hilarious to see if there is a last lap pass by Bowman that bumps Denny out and once again takes the grandfather clock away from him and
00:50:09
Speaker
Uh, could be a potential reason that he doesn't get into the championship for, uh, would be, especially because they're he, like Bowman has absolutely nothing to gain from this race at all. Um, but, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll see. I don't even know what his average finishes there. When you make your pick, I'll, I'm going to check that out. I was going to say that would probably be the funniest thing, funniest thing that happened in the race to Denny Hamlin and Les Ross.
00:50:38
Speaker
He does another hail melon. Well, the hell melons are legal now. Yeah, but he has nothing to lose. That would be wild or or if even Ross is like, OK, I'm not going to go on the outside of this time. I'm going to go for you on the inside. Yeah, that's funny. Oh man, that'd be wild man. So I have a lot of good cards available to me now.
00:51:04
Speaker
There are, I love these races because you literally can sometimes get like six or seven guys, even through the race, you're like, I don't know who's going to win this thing. Yeah. Man. So like the Stewart Haas cars were good there in the spring. Um, and I guess Harvick did have a, uh, an okay run this past week. Um,
00:51:26
Speaker
You know, the RFK cars have been strong. It seems like Buscher has fallen off. Keselowski is leading the way now there. While you're looking for your pick, Alex Bowman's average finish at Martinsville is 18.7. Steve, tanking does nothing for you here. You don't get the first overall pick next year.
00:51:50
Speaker
Uh, but he does have a win and he has well, I guess what he did that Does that mean he has a top five and a win or he his top five was his win? His top five is his win So he has four top tens and one top five and he's going to win again on sunday Okay, then. Um, I think i'm gonna go brankoszewski That's a great pick. I think
00:52:15
Speaker
I mean, I think he he's so close, like it eventually is going to happen, right? It was like all the times that Chase Elliott finished second before he finally got that win on Watkins Glen, it was like he's eventually going to get one. I don't I made the prediction that he's never going to win another cup race again. I just he doesn't know Brad. Yeah. I'm looking right now, by the way, not that it matters. He's had 27 races at Martinsville. His average finish is twelve point five.
00:52:44
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. He's good. I was looking at some stuff. So, uh, looking since we never do this on a Tuesday where we get, you know, most sports books, putting in their odds for the race didn't him. And I think is too much of a favorite. Um, you know, he's, he's three to one odds and his draft Kings even has him below three to one odds. He's at plus two 75 right now. Um, which is, you know, that is, I think
00:53:10
Speaker
you know, way too high. Yeah, for a winner. Yeah, that's, that's tough. Um, maybe, you know, he did run well there in the spring. One thing, um, he was pretty fast there, but I also want to say to that, that, um, what do I want to say that the store horses
00:53:34
Speaker
Her store horse cars actually are pretty respectable. And of the drivers left in the playoffs, Chris Buscher has the lowest odds right now at 28 to 1. Tyler Reddick right now is at 15 to 1. But if you remember in the spring, he did run well there. But to get my weather forecast in for this week, I don't really know how much the spring is going to teach us because it goes from cloudy and cold like we dealt with in the spring. This Sunday is going to be maybe partly cloudy to mostly sunny.
00:54:02
Speaker
Um, there will be some late day cloud cover rolling in ahead of rain Monday. So whenever you're leaving the area, Jake, you're going to run into some rain on your way back to where we were going, but it's going to be hot likely 80, maybe even the low eighties, Saturday and Sunday both. Is that, I mean, that's pretty near record highs there, right? Yeah, I do not have that data in front of me. I was hoping, uh, our buddy there, Ryan from my fantasy racing would have some access to that, but yeah, it's gotta be.
00:54:31
Speaker
Especially I don't think they've ever had a fool like the campers right now Martensville. They're getting the best experience I think you could mid 70s all week. Not a lot of some chilly mornings, but dry have a hot dog also Yes, now it's about to ask so Jake. How many hot dogs do you plan on eating? At least a bagged I mean last year I don't know if they sold them in
00:54:59
Speaker
Six pack, they did them in like these bags and I got like a six pack and I go meet up with my buddy there and we split the six. So probably three or four. And really, it's a great deal as far as, you know, how much it costs and everything. So I know the Martinsville hot dog is kind of controversial. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Does Aaron like the Martinsburg hot dog?
00:55:28
Speaker
uh no and um it was her i took her first ever nascar race was martinsville she's i mean she's been the two martinsville and burstel but we had the hot dog uh we stood in line forever to get the hot dog and she was like you know we stood in line for this yes yes we had to stay in the line for this
00:55:53
Speaker
I thought it was, I will say I was at the worst Martinsville race in history there last spring and they ran out. Oh no. Wow. So it was not only a terrible race, but when I tried to go get a hot dog at the end of stage two, there were no hot dogs left travesty. So, uh, yeah, that was a, that was a rough, rough time. And then we took a nap in the car.
00:56:22
Speaker
and drove back that night and it was, uh, miserable. I will say that was, I had my best fan experience at a Martinsville race, but also my worst. Yikes. All right. So to recap the real picks for this week, Jake has Denny Hamlin, Dylan has Ryan Blaney, Steve going with Alex Bowman, and I have Brad Kozlowski. Let's get over to our random picks now where we all had pretty miserable days overall.
00:56:51
Speaker
Uh, our highest finish was Dylan with Eric Jones in 14th. Uh, Steve had Alex Bowman for the second consecutive week, uh, in random, which the 19th place finish, uh, Jake had Martin Truex Jr. with a 29th. And then I had, uh, Reed Sorensen, AKA, uh, JJ Healy, uh, in 33rd place. Dylan, I just had a wild idea.
00:57:21
Speaker
Um, do you have a Halloween costume yet? I actually do, but it's for not Halloween itself. So, so I could pull off too. So how about you, you need to acquire or make some sort of fake race suit and you need to go do Halloween as Reed Sorensen. You just get the old, uh, just go. I mean, my most memorable Reed Sorensen driver suit is the target one. So I can just.
00:57:49
Speaker
cover myself in like target wrapping paper. There you go. Okay, I'm gonna do the random pics real quick. Normally, we do the weather forecast here. What do you guys want to talk about when we do the random pics? Well, I did see that. Yaeli is in the 15. So he is in the reeds or in some car and Newman again making another start in the 51. Okay.
00:58:15
Speaker
So I with the 33rd place finish I go first and it is AJ Almondinger is my pick this week What one thing we can mention real quick we need to get some news I forgot to do this earlier, but I think the big news in the Xfinity series is that it has been announced that Sheldon Creed will not be returning to the RCR 2 car next year and Chandler Smith
00:58:43
Speaker
uh, will not be returning to the, uh, colleagues 16 car in the Xfinity series, uh, is widely believed that Chandler Smith is going to joke Gibbs racing. And then, uh, no word really yet that I've heard with any kind of certainty of where Reed Sorenson where Sheldon Creed is going. Oh, Freudian slip there. Yeah. Uh, well it's, it's a Freudian slip because Jake did get Reed Sorenson. Okay.
00:59:11
Speaker
So back to back week, see if we've had to read in the random fix. I'll say this, you guys have mentioned Stuart Haas in Martinsville. I was rewatching last fall race. And I think, I mean, I kind of forgotten I was there that Chase Briscoe was leading that race with a shot at the championship forward, like 10 laps to go. He was, yeah. And Cole Custer was right behind him in second. And he has great value for the win.
00:59:41
Speaker
35 to 1 but also top 10. It's not bad. I mean, it's Martinsville so kind of close odds, but he's at Plus 150 top 10 Okay
00:59:52
Speaker
which is a head of Alex Bowman, who somebody picked to win. Who did that? It was AI Steve. Yeah, it was AI Steve. It was the artificial unintelligence though. Right, I was also a head of Alex Bowman. Well, okay, that actually does make sense to me. And I don't know, I must have had gremlins in my brain or something.
01:00:18
Speaker
Hey, you mentioned priests. The modifieds are running Martensville this weekend. Oh, they're running. They're running Thursday. They're always a great race there. The ground pounders. So, Jake, you got Reed Sorensen. Steve, you got Kyle Larson. Actually, a really good random pick. I'm coming for Dylan, except something's going to happen. It's going to be DNF Larson, I think, again. And then Dylan got Michael McDowell.
01:00:48
Speaker
I didn't go over our random standings earlier. So I lead by 58 points over Dylan. So if I have a more than a 60 point lead at the end of Martinsville, then I have locked up the random championship. Jake, you are only 15 points behind Dylan in the random standings. And then Steve, you are 120 points behind Jake. Breaking up the rear baby. So if you somehow win,
01:01:17
Speaker
in consecutive weeks with max points and Jake finishes, uh, dead last each week, then you'll still come up, I think two points short of catching Jake. So you're telling me there's a chance. There's a very, very slim chance. Come on, read. That's awesome. Okay. Well, we've kind of gone off the rails a little bit, but I think it's been a fun episode here on Connie with a chance of racing. Uh, anything else that you guys want to mention as we get ready for, uh, the Martinsville weekend?
01:01:49
Speaker
I would like to say that an interesting caveat to this race could be Ryan Newman is participating in it. So will he be a thorn in someone's side at the end of this race, trying to get through lap traffic? That could add something to this race. That's true. That is very true. But I'm looking forward to it. The weather good, not going to be an impact.
01:02:17
Speaker
It's going to be hot. Hopefully it puts down rubber. Hopefully the cars perform well, and we get a good show because the fact that Denny Hamlin has so much ground to make up, he's going to be very aggressive. And I think he's at his most exciting when he's very aggressive. True that. Well, Jake, you now have the forecast. So I'm going to have to put away your jeans and pack your jorts. You're ready to go. Yep.
01:02:45
Speaker
I can't wait. It's always fun. Well, I guess since Kentucky went away, probably the closest track here to where I live here in central West Virginia.
01:03:00
Speaker
All right. Well, uh, well, thank you all for tuning into this week's cloudy with a chance of racing. I'll be sure to give us a subscribe and review on your favorite podcast platform and tell a friend about the podcast. We'd love to expand the cloudy with the chance of racing family. Also follow us on social media at cloudy racing pod for Dylan, Jake, and Steve. I'm Braxton. Thanks so much for listening to cloudy with a chance of racing episode 36.
01:03:27
Speaker
We'll check in with Jake from his experience and the rest of the crew next week after Martinsville. Have a good one everyone.