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Ep. 27: The Watkins Glen Railroad
12 Plays1 year ago
NASCAR went to Watkins Glen, and somehow with a short race and very little passing, Steve, Jake, and Braxton managed to find a lot to talk about. They broke down the Xfinity and Cup Series races on the lefts and rights of upstate New York, including Sam Mayer vs. Ty Gibbs, the Xfinity playoff bubble, Michael McDowell's disastrous day, the shortest full-length Cup race in over 50 years, and the regular season's final countdown.
In Pop Up Showers, Jake highlights the news that NASCAR and Netflix are teaming up for a limited series about this year's playoffs, Steve takes inspiration from Parker Kligerman and asks what car you'd like to take for one lap at any track, and Braxton gives a shoutout to LiveFast Motorsports co-owner Matt Tifft getting back in a race car as he recovers from a neurological issue.
On our Real Picks, Braxton and Jake are locked in a tight battle for 3rd place, with Jake having a top-10 average finish over the last 5 weeks and Braxton having a 20+ average finish in that time. In Random Picks, Jake has made huge strides and now owns 2nd place! The guys make their picks for Daytona, and discuss what could be a crazy finish to the regular season.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating or review! You can also follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter/X @CloudyRacingPod.
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Transcript
Watkins Glen NASCAR Weekend Recap
00:00:15
Speaker
with a chance of racing episode 27 coming at you here after the Watkins Glen weekend with the NASCAR national series Braxton Crisp Jake Fowley Steve Binko with you tonight Dylan Godet is doing weather things I'm sure and and yeah so we are going to recap the
00:00:38
Speaker
Watkins Glen weekend without him. And that's okay though, because honestly there wasn't much to recap there, right? It was very much a freight chain race on Sunday.
00:00:49
Speaker
And Saturday, well, I mean, Saturday, yes, Saturday, I think, was the most exciting part of the weekend, considering we saw a little bit of drama with Sam Mayer and everybody on the track just about who was first through fifth. So overall, I mean, it was a snooze fest, I think, on both races, but specifically the cup race. I'm still a pretty big fan of Watkins Glen. I think it's my favorite road course. I think that there are
00:01:19
Speaker
There's a lot of potential with the next gen car. I don't like how the race was set up as far as stages go. I still think there needs to be stage
Chase Elliott's Fuel Miscalculation
00:01:28
Speaker
cautions. And obviously the biggest storyline of the weekend was Chase Elliott running out of gas after Alan Gustafson says, I believe, and I believe I quote, they got bad information about how much gas they didn't have. But yeah, I mean,
00:01:47
Speaker
It was a, it was a snoozer for me, at least. Yeah. I got some bad information picking him this week too. Isn't Alan the one handling the information though? But anyways, I thought that it was just, it was just a forgettable race, you know, and I like Watkins Glen and it
William Byron's Historic Win
00:02:10
Speaker
probably is. And like many race fans, I think if you just hold a NASCAR fan, your favorite road car
00:02:15
Speaker
course on the schedule would probably walk in Glen the place was packed with fans it's just disappointing that they didn't see you know a good race I mean you kind of knew at well at first it looked like Michael McDowell he got to the lead looked like a clear favorite man could go back to back once you know the race
00:02:40
Speaker
you know, pretty much came down to Pitt Road and the mistakes that happened. And once William Byron got out front, we know how good his pit crew is. We've seen it all season. It was kind of, okay, this is Byron's race to lose. He didn't make any mistakes. And it seemed like for the most part, the guys up front pretty much remained up front. There was the caution towards the end during green flag stops, kind of jumbled the order up.
00:03:09
Speaker
just a little bit but ultimately it was just William Byron's day and you look at, it was a lot like last week which is another road course and you look at this stat, the race went under two hours and that says something right there, one hour, 58 minutes, 44 seconds, the shortest full distance Cup Series race since August 1971.
00:03:38
Speaker
Which is bad, I think.
Race Length Debate
00:03:40
Speaker
I don't think that's good. That's not good. I hate that. I mean, that was like a Greg Maddox game, you know? There aren't a lot of opportunities to see restarts. I think restarts are necessary at road courses.
00:03:57
Speaker
stage cautions are necessary at road courses well at least at least this road course it's a little bit different on other ones because this is such a big track as far as like there's a lot of space a lot of areas where you can run it wide open which creates i think a lot of separation between cars sometimes um but i thought the state the stage cautions are necessary in this race and um
00:04:22
Speaker
You know, you, or the only other thing that I could think of, if you want to keep, keep it without stage caution, just just make the race longer. Um, that's with this one specifically, uh, that I think would have made it a little bit more intriguing and there would have been more attrition and you might not have seen William Byron win this one. It might've been somebody else. There may have been another situation that, uh,
00:04:47
Speaker
You could have seen Chase Elliott or somebody else have a better situation in the pits. It's just, it's tough to say, but overall, I mean, like, I don't know anybody who could have looked at this and been like, yeah, an hour and 57 minutes. That's definitely good.
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, the short time frame of that race was really disappointing. And I always feel like the last couple of races, Indy and then here at Watkins Glen, it makes me feel like the fans kind of got shortchanged a bit, right? Like, you know, both of them were on about two hours for a full length cup race.
00:05:24
Speaker
I feel like they weren't really getting their money's worth on seeing their their favorite drivers, you know, actually do battle, especially with the way the racing was that you couldn't get within 10 feet of the car in front of you without your handling going to complete trash. They really didn't get to see much action at all. So it makes it pretty disappointing. I like your idea, Steve, on on lengthening the race. And it kind of brought about an idea of
00:05:50
Speaker
Of what if there is a minimum time that they have to meet in the cup series race, you know, um, it is a two and a half hours, three hours for a total duration. I mean, I feel like 95% of all cup races reach three hours or, you know, some number, right? Uh, just to, to kind of justify the length, because, you know, you know, you know, if you go to.
00:06:14
Speaker
a NFL game, you're going to pay a premium for an NFL game. It's kind of the big dog in American sports, right? But you know, you're going to be there for at least three hours, you know, you get, you know, kind of your money's worth there. I think the only one that you might have a bit of a speedy deal is, is maybe, you know, baseball, you know, somebody throws, you know, just complete, you know,
00:06:35
Speaker
dominant game, whatever, then you might have just a game, especially with the new pitch clock stuff, which is a whole different story. You know, it might have a game in the two hour, 15 minute range. But then again, there's you have, in theory, 41 or 81 opportunities to see your your favorite team, you know, at home.
00:06:53
Speaker
Whereas the Cup Series goes to your market at max twice, and a lot of times it's just once. I feel like there should be some sort of, maybe a time minimum. Plus I think having a, maybe if they do it at Glen, like one of the Watkins Glen's biggest events throughout the year is the Salin six hours. Their sports car race with IMSA. What if you did a timed race like that? Maybe not six hours because then it necessitates.
00:07:21
Speaker
having a second driver on each team. But what if they did a two and a half hour race or two hour, 45 minute race or three hour race? I think that would be that would be interesting, especially because you don't know how many laps you're going to complete in that time. So it could really throw the strategies all over the place. Well, I agree. So I was at the sale in six hours at the Glen last year and the
00:07:48
Speaker
You get, I mean, I wasn't there all six hours because it was like 150 degrees outside. But when you're there, it doesn't feel like a long time. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's not an oval. So you don't see the cars going round and round for a long period of time. You see a group of cars and a couple stragglers, leaders, kind of some mid
00:08:18
Speaker
like middle of the road drivers every minute and a half or so. So I think that it's a good idea to have there be some sort of minimum time because
00:08:31
Speaker
Two hours, under two hours for a race is just unacceptable, especially considering the fact that so many of these people, I mean, you look at Watkins Glen, I think, Jake, you mentioned the attendance. Well, let's talk about the people who camp, who go, who are looking for, you know, they spend a certain amount of time there. Well,
00:08:52
Speaker
They also expect the race to be a certain length of time, you know, so, um, you know, they go and wait and camp out for multiple days to see an hour and 57 minute race. It's bad for the product on TV, but it's also bad for the product in person. You think of in, in also where Watkins Glen is located in the market itself and think about how, how long some fans even just drove to the race.
00:09:22
Speaker
I mean, they are driving longer than the race lasted, a lot of them. And I mean, I do where, I mean, where I live in Southern West Virginia, you got to drive this, you know, pretty good distance to get to the track and to the closest ones. But I know that, I mean, a lot of fans drive long distances. So yeah, I don't think any, a full length, you know, nothing, a
00:09:51
Speaker
you know, crazy happens to end it early. If it's a full distance, it should never be under two hours long. That's for sure.
Xfinity Race Highlights
00:10:00
Speaker
Well, I think we're all on the same page there. Let's talk to him about the on track action starting on Saturday with the Xfinity series race. Yet another race where Ty Gibbs seemed to be the car to beat, just like he was in Indianapolis last week. He led most of the way there at the Watkins Glen course as well. And Justin Allgar was up there fighting for it.
00:10:30
Speaker
the jrm teams just cannot get out of their own way in a lot of ways and and all guy got bit by that again of course it was his teammate sam mayor picking up his second win of the season his second career win also on a road course and a controversial move uh... on tie gibbs
00:10:48
Speaker
And, uh, I thought, you know, definitely it wasn't a spectacularly spiny means, I don't think, but certainly much more entertaining, uh, than the cup series, which is something we've come to expect. But, uh, I think the cup series set a new low this week, but, uh, what do we think about the Xfinity series race on Saturday? Well, it was fine, I guess.
00:11:09
Speaker
I mean, we've said time and time again that the Xfinity racing generally is the most, uh, watchable of the weekend and you know, that is, um, applicable in this instance as well. Now, um, it's good for Sam Mayer. I think that I, I think that I wasn't really that upset with what happened.
00:11:32
Speaker
Um, I don't know how you guys feel about it, but it didn't really bother me that much. I mean, you know, obviously this is not ideal scenario for multiple cars, including, uh, Gibbs, uh, and, um, Austin Hill, but, um, you know, it, it let there's drama, you know, and that's, it's Sam Harris really kind of no stranger to drama, especially last year with him. He and Gibbs, I think was at Bristol. Um, but, uh, overall, I mean, you know,
00:12:03
Speaker
Parker Kligerman had a great day. Um, Sheldon Creed, same deal. And even Ross Chastain, uh, snagged the top five. So you would have thought that there would have been kind of more crossover between, uh, you know, Xfinity and cup with, uh, Chastain, but not as much, but Gibbs had a solid day, both in both races overall. Um, but again, you know, it just wasn't overall the weekend. It wasn't good racing.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, you wonder if the late race incident didn't happen over time and all of that, if we would really be talking about the Xfinity race being decent, I would say. Kai Gibbs, he dominated that thing, led 70 of the 86 laps, won both stages, was really in position.
00:13:01
Speaker
you know, then the late race incident happens. And I thought, man, Ty Gibbs, obviously wasn't pleased. And then afterwards, you know, kind of, you know, made some disses there at Sam talking, Ty talking about his own wins and how he races on Sunday and whatnot. So, you know, that's,
00:13:27
Speaker
That's part of the reason why it's fun when some of these guys come down even though I mean ties still super young and he's a cup series rookie, but When you mix in some guys who do race full-time on Sunday some things like this happen and But looking at at the finishing results there weren't Too many surprises I would say you you know you have a guy like
00:13:57
Speaker
Connor Mosack finishing fifth. That's a nice run for him. The highest finishing Toyota right in front of John Hunter Nemechek. But for Sam, this gives him a boost and this is a series that's, I think, going to be extremely exciting here in the playoffs.
00:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, JHN had some tough luck where he had basically half of his door skin ripped off on the left side. Late in the last caution, a lot of the foam ripped out of it.
00:14:31
Speaker
I kind of wish Dylan was here, uh, because there was a strange meteorological phenomenon. I, I, I witnessed during the, the, um, the Ty Gibbs interview where it seemed just like a lot of clouds rolled in and there was just a ton of shade in that interview. Did you guys notice that too? Yeah. Just a ton of shade from Ty Gibbs, uh, on, uh, on, uh,
00:14:56
Speaker
on Sam Mayer there. Oh, I get it. That was a really bad dad joke. He's dissing him and the young guys call it, young people call it shade. That's a good one. Yeah, that was a really bad dad joke. That's okay. But yeah, so there was a lot of thinly veiled smack talk going on there from Ty Gibbs in the direction of Sam Mayer. I also want to talk about the
00:15:25
Speaker
the cut-off line because it was a big change there where Riley Herbst just had a day of rotten luck and first he was having issues with the gate and the transmission that holds the car into fourth gear where it wouldn't stay into fourth so he was having to hold it into fourth and then they had an issue where they were just going through the
00:15:50
Speaker
going around the course and it just ripped a weld in half that holds the track bar on and And day was done like they couldn't you know? Obviously can't go back and weld that up and get it square the way it needs to be for the car to run, right? so day done for For Riley Herbst, and that has big implications on the cutoff line because now with his fifth place fourth place finish I believe it was no third sorry third for Parker clearman and
00:16:19
Speaker
Third for PK gets him three points below the cut line. And remember the XFINITY series, their playoffs don't start until after Kansas. So they still have Daytona, Darlington, and Kansas to wrap up their regular season. And the fight is heating up there with Clickerman, just three points out of that coveted 12th spot behind Riley Herbst.
00:16:44
Speaker
Uh, I feel like Riley Herbst has had a good season. Parker clearman's had a good season. Neither of them have, uh, you know, consistent outstanding runs, but, uh, at least there's going to be a, uh, a dog fight to the finish there, uh, for that last spot in the XFINITY series. Um, just a kind of a random thing that whenever I hear the word track bar, I always think of that clip of, uh, Jimmy Johnson yelling at, um,
00:17:11
Speaker
Chad Canouse, where he tells him that he's, I think five inches down on the track part and Chad Canouse is like, why is that low? And he's like, I don't know. Why is the earth round? I'm loose. But anyway, one thing about Parker Clickerman that I I wanted to add is that you're right. I don't think that I have I haven't really we haven't seen super outstanding runs, but he's one of those drivers this year that's just been able to really kind of hang around.
00:17:37
Speaker
And like in that war of attrition and in a lot of these races, he kind of, he just, uh, he, he succeeds. Like he's able to stay clean and not worry about kind of getting into somebody and wrecking in late. And he's been really good over the last few weeks. I still don't think I see him winning. Um, but he's close. He's close enough that a couple of good runs and maybe some misfortune from Riley Herbst and he's going to be, uh, he's going to be right there.
00:18:04
Speaker
Remember, where are his wins in the truck series? Road courses, super speedways. So he's got a, he ran well at Watkins Glen and he's got a prime opportunity this coming week at Daytona as well.
00:18:20
Speaker
But no wins in Xfinity. No wins in Xfinity. I realize it's different, but still the tracks that he excels at, this is a ripe opportunity for him. We're going into the third of three weeks now. Yeah. And Steve mentioned his kind of consistency and the ability to be there at the end. I mean, you look at the Xfinity standings, he has 12
00:18:47
Speaker
Parker Kligerman has 12 top 10s. That's more than six of the guys above the cut line. And just points-wise, without a couple guys having their win to get them in, he has more just total points than a few of them. So he's right there. And he has, also looking at DNFs, he only has two. Bradley Herbst has six.
00:19:17
Speaker
Um, so he's, you know, consistently, uh, dependable for the solid races and man, only three points behind now. Um, and, and Riley's had, had a great season. Um, and, and it's hard to make the playoffs in Xfinity two, considering the only, only take 12. So instead of that 16 in the cup series. So.
00:19:42
Speaker
uh... it'll that it will certainly be uh... something to watch and i mean really not that far above herps is uh... you know daniel haemorrhic in sheldon creed yeah totally you know haemorrhic creed any of them get caught up in a mess at daytona and and riley or parker sneak through yeah totally flip-flops the uh... the xfinity series standings there as they head to uh... to darlington after that so uh...
00:20:10
Speaker
The playoff battle is hotting up there, and it'll be something exciting to watch over the next few weeks.
Qualifying and Race Challenges
00:20:17
Speaker
Again, much more exciting than yesterday's Cup Series race, where somehow Denny Hamlin has become a qualifying monster in the Cup Series on road courses. A track type that he admittedly is not very good at and doesn't care much for, but is trying to get better at. But he can't quite
00:20:38
Speaker
get it done in the races. He won the poll, and then almost immediately surrendered the lead to Michael McDowell, who led the way. It was running great. And Michael McDowell's demise was very much self-inflicted in the first part of the race with the peri penalty. We texted in our group chat, like, what in the world was he thinking? He must have gotten some bad information, just like Alan Gustafson did. Well, I don't understand.
00:21:07
Speaker
boxes that he drives through for so basically he went through four because there's an empty box and he thought the empty box did not count towards the three that you're allowed to go through 16 years and driving when the cup series basically and he didn't know that. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's a lapse on him. It's a lapse on the crew chief kind of everybody on that organization and it
00:21:33
Speaker
I will say it was very valiant of them that they were able to come back from like 15th, 16th or so after they blended out serving their penalty and were able to fight back on the top 10 just after the end of stage two. So a very good effort there by those guys.
00:21:53
Speaker
Then they had another issue where did they have another penalty? Dropped him back further. Was it just the ECU? Too many men over the wall, I think. That's right. Or over too soon, something like that. Or, yeah. Yes. And he fought back again in the race. He passed Chase Elliott on the long green flag. He was one of the few cars that actually could pass people, right? Yep. Yeah.
00:22:23
Speaker
Ran into some issues, but it was, you know, when he was leading, if he, you know, it could have would have should have, but I mean, if he didn't have those issues, I mean, clearly he was one of the class of the field along with Byron.
00:22:38
Speaker
But also you have to wonder too, like you saw as the as the leaders caught lap traffic, you know that that they weren't exactly blowing by Andy Lally and Cole Custer and the Rick Ware cars either that almost makes you wonder you could have stuck.
00:22:54
Speaker
I don't know, Chase Brisco was pretty bad yesterday, but you could have stuck one of the HR cards that were well off the pace out front. And they might have been able to hold off, you know, and stay in the top five, at least just because of how hard it was to pass. Well, Chase was pretty good. Elliot in clean air, which he had a little bit of for the beginning of the race, and he was top five car.
00:23:15
Speaker
And when he made the first pit stop, they went on an alternate strategy and he got out in some clean air and laid down some blistering laps too. Very fast, but you could, he couldn't pass, nobody could pass. So, you know, it was like, this is, you know, and I guess, I don't know if, you know, we're going to get to it, but like, you know, when you look at how
00:23:37
Speaker
He's one of the road course, the best, one of the best road course drivers, I guess probably ever. And you had all been dinger and a couple others, but, um, you know, William Byron, not historically a great road course driver wins the race. Um, and you had some other road course drivers who are usually very good, who weren't very good yesterday. So it was like a mixed bag of things all happening. It was like a hodgepodge of like,
00:24:03
Speaker
randomness in this, uh, in this race. But overall, I mean, you know, Michael McDowell couldn't get out of his own way. And then you had somebody who like Kyle Larson at the end of the race, who was pretty fast. And then, um, you know, boneheaded penalty that cost them any chance that they may have had, um, at a better finish. And, you know, you gotta think that Rick Hendrick is not happy with what's been going on this year.
00:24:30
Speaker
outside of William Byron, who has obviously been the shining light for Hendrick Motorsports. But I mean, every week, it seems like one of the HMS cars is shooting themselves in the foot, sometimes multiple in one race. Think about like, I mean, before the season, you would have been William Byron five wins, but then Bowman and Elliott don't make the playoffs. So, you know, just seems like I see. But more so that like,
00:25:01
Speaker
Bowman and Elliott both got hurt.
00:25:03
Speaker
doing not cup series related things. And then Chase gets Chase Elliott gets suspended, which is, I mean, like, you know, you would have never thought Chase Elliott would have been suspended from a race prior to this year, the idea that he would have gotten hurt snowboarding, something he's done for at least, you know, 15 1015 years, something along those lines. So just the most bizarre season for HMS in recent memory.
00:25:33
Speaker
I mean, the same thing goes, though, like, you know, no way you could have predicted that Alex Bowman would have broken his back in a spring car wreck, because, I mean, look how many times Kyle Larson gets in those cars. And thank goodness he's not gotten hurt in those. But yeah, it's a fluke deal, right? Right. It's weird.
00:25:54
Speaker
You reminded me, based on the Chase Elliott suspension thing and him crashing, do you believe Sam Mayer's excuse on Saturday that he wheel hopped into turn one and that's what cleaned out Ty Gibbs? I mean, no, but you could see the... No, I mean, if he did, he wheel hopped intentionally, like he knew what he was doing.
00:26:20
Speaker
Um, but not really. I mean, he knew it. He was trying to win the race and he did. So yeah, I don't, I don't really buy it either. I mean, I think kind of clear. And then you heard a lot of, uh, you know, chatter on the radio from, you know, something intimate happened a little earlier in the race.
00:26:43
Speaker
you know, and get them back and, you know, kind of encouraging something like that. Totally. Yeah. And NBC had a great shot from the inside of turn one there on. And you could see that the back wheels did not, you know, stop and chatter like you would have with wheel hop. And you could see, say, America loose. But in my estimation, that looked a lot more like
00:27:09
Speaker
a ton of front brake cranked into it loose, more so than a wheel hop loose. But that's what you have to do in NASCAR these days. You're going to get docked 25 points and find an excellent amount of money. Ask Denny Hamlin about it. Right. But yeah, in the Cup Series race, they've got to do something to improve the passing. Because I know we talked about a minimum race length idea that was floated earlier in the show.
00:27:35
Speaker
That doesn't matter is it's going to make it 10 times worse. If you have a minimum race, like could you imagine another hour of that yesterday of just the same thing would have been miserable. Well, no. Yeah, I agree. And here's another thing that, you know, if there was another hour of it, um, the only other thing that I could think of is that like, if you, like when, when these guys were on fresh tires, there was a day, all of them who were fast were very fast.
00:28:01
Speaker
When the tires fell off, they were very slow, which I know I understand is like how, how it goes. However, um, I don't think, I don't know, but I don't think that if you change the tire, like the compound to any, any kind of different compound that it's going to make.
00:28:16
Speaker
that much of a difference. At the end of the day, everything always goes back to needing more horsepower. The Gen 6 cars, I think, were very good on road courses. And they were a lot of fun to watch. I was texting with one of my friends, and he said, we should bring back the Gen 6 cars just for road courses and then have the next gen cars for everywhere else. I know that's ridiculous, but
00:28:41
Speaker
There's courses on short tracks. There's nothing good at all about the next gen cars on road courses. I mean, Sonoma, they're too good. It's there's, you know, the one thing that I think that that helps is that, you know, there are more and more drivers that I think are
00:29:03
Speaker
getting better at road courses in this car that you may not have seen like in the gen six cars have a shot like somebody like Daniel Suarez last year at Sedoma or Reddick who has become very good in
00:29:17
Speaker
in the next gen car at road courses. And so I think it's good in that aspect of it, because there's more of a level playing field. But the flip side of that coin, though, a lot of the time is that you can't pass. So if you have a good qualifying lap and you end up on the pole, there's a realistic possibility that you win that race despite maybe not even being the best driver of the day. Yeah, I agree.
00:29:48
Speaker
if you look at, you know, this combined with this change this year with the stage cautions, which at first was celebrated.
Improving NASCAR Racing Quality
00:30:01
Speaker
I mean, and a lot of people, including, I'm sure we discussed it early on in the season when they made the roll change with the no stage cautions at the road courses. I think people were like, makes sense. But,
00:30:17
Speaker
If you're putting out something like this with this product, you might want to lean back and go back to the stage cautions. I would imagine with the performance of the next gen on the road courses and the amount of road courses on the schedule, NASCAR might, and I would hope so too, probably take one or two
00:30:45
Speaker
back off of the schedule because it kind of loaded up in the recent years. But I wouldn't be surprised to see more schedule changes or role changes to try to fix this.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think that they've got to do something. I'm not entirely sure that a tire change or a horsepower change at the road courses is going to make much a difference. Purely because like yesterday, I feel like they said the fall off was like a second. It was like two laps. The whole way is what I remember Almondinger singing.
00:31:23
Speaker
And then I just think that part of the trouble with the passing is that you can't get close enough to a car to really affect them, to really work underneath them. You get so close that your handling just totally goes away, and then you can't do anything. So that's why they had to stay back two and three car lengths is because their handling goes away so bad.
00:31:46
Speaker
And that tells me that there's a couple of things going on, that there are a couple of things they can try to do to change things. One would be add some mechanical front grip, or two, reduce the reliance on aero grip. Because they are, that's exactly why every single car, every single driver in the Cup Series says in the next gen car, they get ridiculously tight when they get up behind another car.
00:32:14
Speaker
And so if the front end washes out when there's no air hitting your nose, they're so reliant on arrow grip on the front that it's just killing the racing. So I think that's where they need to be looking on trying to make improvements.
00:32:30
Speaker
Get it to where they can get back up behind the car and give them a bumper. Work underneath them. It's the same thing that happens at Martinsville and Bristol and Richmond to an extent. You just can't get underneath anybody because you can't get close enough anymore. That's why I think, as I said earlier, bring back the Gen 6 cars for road courses and short tracks.
00:32:53
Speaker
And it wouldn't be that bad. I mean, it'd be a little bit more expensive, for sure. But also, you don't feel so bad destroying those cars.
00:33:04
Speaker
You don't have that many of them. I mean, you know, exactly. And they're pretty expendable as it is. One thing I did text you guys about in the group chat is as I was drawing a comparison to like the IndyCar series, which uses a spec chassis, right? Very similar to to the NASCAR spec chassis. In fact, I think they're both made by Delara. I know IndyCar is and I think NASCAR's chassis, at least Delara had some impact or influence in the chassis design.
00:33:29
Speaker
One thing that IndyCar has though, is they still have control of some components on the car, the teams do. Specifically they have like their shotgun and spring and damper package is still controlled entirely by the teams that they have a sandbox to play in for sure. But it is a pretty large sandbox, they can kind of they have a pretty wide range of what they want to do, compared to the cup series, where it's
00:33:54
Speaker
Here's your shock off the shelf, and you can make like two changes to it. Have fun with it. It just makes the cars in such a small box that you can't do anything with them. So I wonder if maybe NASCAR or Link, which is a little bit of control on things like that, just to have some variance within the teams. And sure, you probably are gonna go back to a little bit of what they were trying to get away from with, he who wins the most races.
00:34:20
Speaker
But IndyCar has the same thing right now, right? You see Penske and Ganasi winning a bunch of IndyCar races. They have the most money. Dale Coyne is not setting the world on fire in his cars because he does not have as much money as Penske and Ganasi does. That's racing for you.
00:34:37
Speaker
I feel like that could be a move that NASCAR might make that would help the racing and have trickle down effects too and perhaps helping the industry by employing some more people that were let go when the next gen car came around and there's no need for shock specialists or anything anymore. I agree with that. I think with courses like Watkins Glen where they are
00:35:06
Speaker
You can hold it wide open for a shorter period of time. You have the opportunity to potentially catch somebody before going through somewhere like the bus stop, but outside of that, I mean, you're not really going to get that many opportunities to get to somebody's bumper and try to pass them unless it's some sort of like restart within the first lap or so before everybody gets spread out.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's not a whole lot they can do right now. I mean, we're going to get to the roval in what a couple of weeks. And so I don't think that there's going to be that much of a difference between now and then. But let's hope next year NASCAR sees how bad the product has been at road courses this year and decides that they want to make a change. Maybe they're listening to our podcast.
00:35:50
Speaker
I hope so. I mean, you think too, like you literally cannot wheel hop the next gen car. There is, you know, the range of or the likelihood of a mistake being made with huge breaks that they have on the next gen car and zero possibility for wheel hop has made them super easy to drive on the road course compared to
00:36:11
Speaker
the previous generation of car. Also the previous generation you had a little bit of a wiggle room where teams could pick gear ratios in the transmissions and your rear gear ratio whereas all of that is locked up now with the next gen car you cannot
00:36:27
Speaker
touch anything inside the transmission or the final drive of the transaxle. So that's why you don't see anybody able to get a run on somebody off of turn four there at Watkins Glen, for example. It's because they all have the exact same gear issue. What do you expect?
00:36:44
Speaker
So another little part of this is with how these cars look outside. I don't know if anybody noticed how any of those in-car cameras, how violent some of those
00:37:00
Speaker
uh those bumps are yeah it is like great like i think they had they were on chase elliot for i think maybe close to a lap and uh you could just see like when he would hit one of those curves it's it's oh especially the the uh what is it the exit of the carousel where they run wide going to turn six
00:37:18
Speaker
And you go really, really fast over those. And you can see, I mean, obviously, you know, it's less people are listening, but like he has it's like kind of like saw on the wheel without actually going anywhere, you know, and then it's a violent, really violent collision.
00:37:35
Speaker
between the tires and the road after that. So they're harder to handle, I think. But that also works as a detriment to them because you can't do anything with the next gen car, especially on a road course.
00:37:55
Speaker
I mean, I have a feeling that NASCAR is going to have to loosen up. I mean, these are not exactly the same complaints, but there were certainly many complaints in the mid-2000s when the COT came out. And NASCAR relented, and we ended up with a pretty darn good race car in the Gen 6 car. Oh, absolutely. So I certainly hope that NASCAR isn't sticking to their gun so hard that they're being hard-headed and not wanting to improve the racing.
00:38:22
Speaker
And we can kind of make some progress in the next year or so.
NASCAR's Netflix Partnership
00:38:28
Speaker
Well, I think that kind of puts a bow on our rant about the Watkins Glen weekend and the how how boring the the road course racing has been in the last couple of weeks. Let's get to our pop up showers for this week. How about that, Jake? Sure thing. And my pop up shower and something that everyone has seen and been excited about was announced today.
00:38:53
Speaker
where NASCAR and Netflix are partnering for a new series documenting this season's playoffs which were scheduled to come out of Netflix early 2024. Looks like it'll be five episodes, 45 minutes each. And I think the big news, we kind of knew this was in the works, but
00:39:16
Speaker
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is among the list of producers. Ben Kennedy is in one of them. NASCAR Studios will be part of the production side. And then the group is partnering with Connor Shell and Libby Guest, who worked on the last dance, 30 for 30, which was oh, so popular. And just bringing it back,
00:39:43
Speaker
just the fact that NASCAR is partnering with Netflix alone, I think is just a huge deal no matter what it is. So let's hope there's some, I'm sure there will be crazy playoff drama because I think NASCAR has a lot to show the world in terms of entertainment.
00:40:00
Speaker
I will say a quick note. I know many fans, people who might be listening to this podcast might have watched some of the other sports docu-series on Netflix, such as Full Swing with tennis, or sorry, Full Swing with golf, Breakpoint with tennis, Drive to Survive with Formula One, that whole series.
00:40:19
Speaker
Those are all produced by the same company, Box2Box Productions. That's a different group from what's doing the the NASCAR event. So I would not expect the drive to survive type deal and some of the same production elements, but still a very good production group that did the last dance. So a lot to be excited for there. I think also there were some complaints about drive to survive of how it was pretty overdramatized.
00:40:47
Speaker
And I don't think that's really possible in this instance, considering there are so many NASCAR purists that I think are going to call them out on it. Not only call them out on it, but you can't fake the funk. You can't really have a situation like you have in Formula One where it's not as popular here. So if somebody watches it, they are not
00:41:16
Speaker
They don't pay as much attention as they're kind of forced to assume that it's the truth right and so in this instance like people like us are you know listeners of the pot or just NASCAR fans watch something and if it's nonsense than they're gonna. Dale Earnhardt wouldn't do that Dale Earnhardt junior wouldn't do that he's not gonna put something out that's gonna be like.
00:41:38
Speaker
bogus. And I think that he's got, if anybody in NASCAR has a pulse on fans, it's him. And so I'm actually, I'm very, very excited to see it. Totally. Steve, what's your pop-up shower? My pop
Dream Racing Scenarios
00:41:53
Speaker
-up shower comes from Parker Kligerman. And he tweeted today, now I will ask you guys this question. I'll give you my answer, and then I'll ask you. He tweeted, you could drive any race car for one time.
00:42:07
Speaker
or drive any race car one time for one lap, what car, where, and why. I'm going to choose the, it was a toss up between two cars, but I'm going to choose Jeff Gordon's Monte Carlo from 1998, and I'm going to do it at the fall Daytona race that he won. Any race from that year, really, one of the,
00:42:36
Speaker
if not the best season of all time. I think that the, you know, 13 wins, it was a probably the best season in recent history of NASCAR and maybe ever. And, you know, there was a story that he had with that he was doing with Jeff Gordon with Joe, I think it was Joe Buck, and talking about how there were times during his
00:42:59
Speaker
peak where, uh, he would have more than a four second lead over the field and he would get a, he would get a call basically over the radio from Ray Evernham telling him to slow it down a little bit. Cause he's making the, uh, he's making the show look bad. So 98 Jeff Gordon, uh, car I'd pick any race, the T-Rex car that, uh, from the, uh, from the all-star race that was very illegal, but also technically legal enough to make the all-star race. Absolutely. Sure. We'll go with that one.
00:43:31
Speaker
But I'm curious what you guys have to think. So I got to ask here, is it like one lap, right? Do you get laps to build up to it? Because obviously, we're not race car drivers. Or is it just total zero to nothing that's your one lap? You get a qualifying lap. How about that? You get a warm-up lap, and then you get the one lap to go through. OK. Yikes.
00:44:01
Speaker
I would love to do one of the early 2000s, like the V12 Formula One cars at Spa Franco Shop in Belgium. Because, oh, Rouge, you've probably seen videos of it online. If you haven't, it's E-A-U-R-O-U-G-E. The V12 screaming at 18,000 RPM going up that hill.
00:44:25
Speaker
some of the most epic video of racing you'll ever see. However, I don't want to pick that because I know, absolutely sure, that I'm not going to be able to get that car up to full chat on one practice lap, like one installation lap, out lap, and then one flying lap. There's no way in the world.
00:44:48
Speaker
So because of that, I think I'm going to have to go with a top fuel car, a top fuel drag car. Just because I feel like the learning curve is still very steep, right? But I feel like the learning curve is incredible to have 12,000 horsepower basically strapped to your back.
00:45:14
Speaker
And all you have to do is get it staged. When the light goes green, you let go of the brake handle and you put your foot to the floor and you hold it there until you get a thousand feet down the road and then you throw the chute.
00:45:28
Speaker
I definitely don't mean to diminish it and make it sound like a how hard can it be kind of thing because it's still very difficult It's a lot of strain on your body But that would be just so exhilarating and I feel like I would catch on to that a lot easier Than trying to get the most out of an f1 car to really get that sensation of running a spa This is tough and I'll be you know, it's funny my selection is
00:45:56
Speaker
I'd probably just want to go race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indy 500 and in an Indy car. It's different from obviously open wheel and different from a stock car. So that itself would be awesome. And then I just feel like I love the Daytona 500.
00:46:23
Speaker
But there's something about the Indianapolis 500 and being there. I guess coming off the most recent winner, I guess maybe for Team Penske and Roger Penske would be really cool. But I think the thrill of it and obviously the speeds, I mean,
00:46:48
Speaker
Uh, just, you can't really compare that I think to a lot around the entire world of auto racing. See, I see you're kind of bending Steve rules there, Steve's rule on like the qualifying lap thing. Cause in India, of course, this tradition for your qualifying is four laps. So you just bought yourself three laps there. I think, uh, my other, my other option would have been, um,
00:47:13
Speaker
The Bill Elliott world's fastest car, or was it 85 Talladega? Oh, yeah. He basically had like half a degree of spoiler angle. Yeah. And I think it was some ridiculous number of speed around Talladega. Right. I think I don't was at the race where he was he I think he blew a fuel or an oil pump or
00:47:41
Speaker
Fuel line when he went to laps down and unlapped himself and then won the race Possibly. Yeah, I can't remember I was alive but it actually that's a that's a good segue Steve because something I wanted to mention It's not really my my pop-up shower, but it's a good time to mention it is NASCAR classics NASCAR put up what they call to be the 75 greatest races in NASCAR history are up on their website now to watch in full
00:48:10
Speaker
uh... it i haven't got a chance to watch any yet but i know it's going to be some epic watching epic viewing i told you guys the one that that i'm looking forward to most and i've seen it before but it's such a good race is the uh... the nineteen ninety two season finale at atlanta uh... of course where there is the dogfight for uh... for the championship ultimately won by alan kolwicky uh... the changing of the guard uh... richard petty's last cup series race jeff gordon's first cup series race
00:48:39
Speaker
So much happening in that race there in Atlanta, so I'm looking forward to watching that one for sure.
00:48:46
Speaker
I think my pop-up shower for this week, though, is going to be something I saw online, I think on Saturday, maybe. You might remember Matt Tift drove a season, most of a season in the Cup Series for front row motorsports, ended up having to step away from driving race cars, had some neurological issue that I think caused seizures and made it unsafe for him to be behind the wheel.
00:49:15
Speaker
Uh, he's gone through a lot of medical stuff since then. He's also a part owner of live fast motor sports with BJ McLeod. And, uh, Matt Tift shared over the weekend that he has been cleared to drive again and he got to go, um, test the late model, uh, there, I believe somewhere in the Virginias or Virginia or Carolina. So, uh, uh, great to see Matt Tift, uh, on the road to recovery and maybe we'll see him on a racetrack, uh, in competition sometime soon. Yeah, that would be great.
00:49:45
Speaker
Great pop-up showers this week, guys. We'll have to keep our game going for next week, for sure. Keep our game up. Let's
Upcoming Race Predictions
00:49:55
Speaker
go to our race picks for this past week.
00:50:01
Speaker
It was a dismal day for Chase Elliott that is well established with bad information he got from Alan Gustafson on the amount of reserve fuel they had running out of gas and then rode around for the rest of the race basically two laps down.
00:50:19
Speaker
I got a 30 second place finish out of Chase. I got nine points out of him. He did get some stage points in stage one. Dylan had a tough day as well with Daniel Suarez finishing 22nd got 15 points for that.
00:50:34
Speaker
Jake had a pretty good day. He's on a heater of, what is that? Five straight, yeah, five straight top fives, average finish of fifth. He had an eighth place from Tyler Reddick getting 30 points. And then Steve led the way for our group with Martin Shrek's junior finishing sixth and getting 31 points. That's made a big shake up in our standings. So Dylan is up at 861 leading the way.
00:51:03
Speaker
Steve 63 points behind 798 and through my horrible luck and that same stretch where Jake has had five top tens I have had five consecutive races of tenth or worse including two thirties or worse average finish of 23rd in that span
00:51:24
Speaker
So Jake has caught up, he is just one point behind me for third place, and I could be finding myself in the cellar before the Cup Series playoffs start. So with the 32nd place finish from Chase Elliott last week, I am picking first, and I gotta go with the guy who is currently in 16th in the playoff standings.
00:51:44
Speaker
I win with search like 100% secure his way into the playoffs. Bubble Wallace. He runs well at the super speedways. Let's see what he's made of. Is he going to get a win or is he going to crumble and miss the playoffs? We'll see and I certainly hope he does get the win for my random fixate or my real pick sakes. Excuse me. Next is Dylan. Of course he's not with us, but he has messaged in that he wants Chase Elliott and
00:52:11
Speaker
I admire his thought there with the back against the wall, but the HMS cars have not been great in races at Daytona for a while.
00:52:32
Speaker
Yeah, so he did win, I know he won one of the summer Daytona races, but by and large, the Hendrick cars are lights out and qualifying at Daytona.
00:52:42
Speaker
and just don't have what it takes or have the right plays there in the race to be up front at the end and make it to the end. They sometimes get caught up in messes. So I think a brave pick there for Dylan, but he's swinging for the fences hoping that Chase gets his win and gets himself locked in the playoffs. And I guess Chase paid off for him last time he picked him. Chase finished second at Indy two weeks ago. So let's see what happens there.
00:53:11
Speaker
for Dylan. Next up is Jake. Are you going with Rhettick three times in a row? No. Rhettick has done well for me the last couple of weeks, but I will go to a guy I think is due and he's ran well at Daytona. Super sweet ways, Brad Kuzlowski. All right. Thank God.
00:53:40
Speaker
Okay, maybe I was close but uh I just think you know he's been he's been close a lot of times this year and in the past and He's one of the him and Kevin Harvick both clinched after walking Glenn so pressures off and away and and Why not? He's got nothing to lose and getting a win would be a huge momentum boost for that group headed into playoffs. I
00:54:11
Speaker
Well, all right. So I like in the I always look at whenever I think about Daytona, I think about like manufacturers that show up like I feel like Ford, like they show up in like a suit and like Toyota shows up in like khaki pants and the Chevy shows up like
00:54:28
Speaker
With the clothes they were wearing the day before from like a bar. Like, you know, are you saying that Chevy shows up looking like Joe Dirt? Yeah, basically, you know, it's like, so so cuz like Brad keselowski is a solid pick, but whoever's in front of him is going to get wrecked, you know, but the forts are always there at the end.
00:54:49
Speaker
However, the reason I'm mentioning this is because obviously the Forge work well together They're always fast at super speedways. They're always I'm sorry. They're always fast at Daytona specifically, so I'm going with Ryan Blaney who has been good for me and I'm thinking that he is going to have some sort of
00:55:14
Speaker
Redemption, I know that he had a win earlier in the year. But this is a kind of race that if he stays clean, he's going to be fighting for a win at the end of the race, though. But I am hoping to see Chase Elliott win. I really think it would be awesome to see back against the wall him go to victory lane.
00:55:39
Speaker
We'll see what happens, but this is, I'm confident in Blaney. So I had Blaney for the Daytona 500. He finished eighth and Jake had Blaney for Talladega finished second.
00:55:54
Speaker
I don't know. I picked Blaney for one race and I can't remember what it was. Bristol dirt 23rd and you had him at Kansas 16th and gateway six. So he's due again, by the way, redic good. I'm glad nobody picked him because that dude is not good. I love redic. He is not good at Daytona.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think that might be a detriment to Bubba. It's just the Toyotas just don't have the numbers. But they always find their way up. And maybe I can get a good point today out of it if he wins a couple stages. Looks like this is the first time any of us all season has picked Brad Kozowski. And that's looking through. That's a testament, because Brad Kay has been picking it up.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yeah. Still not going to win, but. I mean, what, yeah, don't want, you know, what a win for the organization to get both. You know, yeah, to get both in the play. I was just thinking that, you know, both RFK cars in the playoffs.
00:57:02
Speaker
when they were the absolute dregs of the field just a few years ago. It's a testament also to how good Brad Keselowski is as a driver when that six car, I think, you know, I think Ryan Newman kind of got the short end of the stick for a while. They just didn't have the kind of performance that they had in years past. And I think he was the best driver that could have had that car at that time. But Brad's been very good
00:57:31
Speaker
He's done the best he can with that car. But as we've seen Brad in Super Speedway since his last race, since his last win, he is extremely aggressive. And that is something that works to the field's detriment and doesn't help him much either. So we'll see what's going to transpire throughout the race.
00:57:59
Speaker
Man, I do not want to be in front of him in any double file line. Yeah, I'm interested. None of us picked Joey Lagano, who I think applies the same thing there, too. OK, so let's get to our random pics real quick.
00:58:16
Speaker
Dylan had a tough day with Michael McDowell, who finished 36th dead last, but he did win the first stage, so he got 11 points out of it. Next was Steve, an 11th place finish from Todd Gilliland. What a run for Todd. Let's go. I picked Todd Gilliland somewhere in my after kicks.
00:58:35
Speaker
I think it was at Chicago. Yeah, I think it I think if I did, yeah, he finished 19th. But but this is the kind of run I expected of the Todd Gillen for that one. I knew he had it in him. And that car has been I think outperforming expectations as well. And it's good to see that they'll have both Michael McDowell and Todd Gillen back in those cars next year, build something up, get some experience going in a second car and bounce ideas off each other.
00:59:04
Speaker
Uh, it'll be good for the frm group. Uh, next was me. I had blaney in random this week ninth place finish from blaney with uh, um Yeah, it's a run that you don't normally expect from blaney He's not necessarily the the cream of the crop on road courses and gets the top 10 out of it 28 points for him And then uh, jake had mtj who as I mentioned earlier was steve's pick in uh real picks finished six and got 31 points
00:59:29
Speaker
So in our, and that actually has a huge shake up in our random standings. I still lead the way with 671 points. Jake has leapfrogged all the way to second place in our random standings. 554 points. So still 200. I've had a huge run, got 200.
00:59:49
Speaker
Plus point lead over Jake Dylan is in third with 538 so just 16 behind Jake and then Steve another 13 points back in fourth place of 525 But a great battle going on there and we'll see what we get this week For our random picks and the first one will go to Dylan. So let's get the wheel spinning here. I'll see who Dylan gets for 15 of Reed Sorensen and
01:00:18
Speaker
Uh, not quite. He'll get the 99 of Daniel Suarez. Oh, so I actually click in the window, type it in. All right. Uh, next will be, uh, let's see, that is Steve had Todd Gilliland last week. And okay. You'll get the, uh, 2022 day two and a 500 winner, Austin Sindrick.
01:00:47
Speaker
OK. Not too enthused about that one. Sounds like Steve. I like Syndric, but he's I don't. Yeah, I don't want to say that was a fluke, but I'm not. He he he's he's regressed a little bit this year for sure. Next is me. OK. Michael McDowell. Speak 2021 Daytona 500 champion. Backtrack Daytona 500 winners. I'll get Ricky Stenhouse.
01:01:15
Speaker
That would, you could only hope. I feel like Stenhouse would be the guy to beat. You will not get Ricky Stenhouse. He'll get Reki Spinhouse. No, who is in the, Colt Custer will be in the 51 to speak, I believe, actually. You get Sorensen Reed. Yeah, Sorensen Reed. Let's go Demolition Derby.
01:01:39
Speaker
Hey, we were just talking about it, I think, before the show started, and, you know, it could be a demo derby, and the RicWare cars could finish top 10.
01:01:48
Speaker
Well, Cody Ware finished. I think top five and that rain, the rate, the race where there was rain in turn two. Oh, last year. Yeah, yeah. I actually I thought about that because we normally we get Dylan's forecast during the rain and picks like that. I'm like, man, I wish Dylan was on so I could ask him if he if it was going to randomly rain in one corner of the track and wipe out half the field. Well, I looked at the
01:02:17
Speaker
weather for Daytona, and I'm just looking at Google, and I don't see any chance of rain. It says, I don't know, I'm not a meteorologist, so I hope Dylan doesn't listen to this part of the pod. But it looks pretty good, I think. I mean, I don't know. It's Daytona. I feel like it's going to rain. I mean, it's Florida in August. That's a pretty eye.
01:02:46
Speaker
It's Florida in general. Yeah, so to recap our random picks, Jake gets Cole Custer in the 51, Dylan has Daniel Suarez, Steve has Austin Sindrick, and I have Michael McDowell. So it should be an interesting week in the random standings for the last week of the Cup Series regular season.
01:03:07
Speaker
Looking ahead to Daytona, I mean, we know what's at stake here. There's one spot left in the playoffs. It's either going to be points or it's going to be somebody gets a win and bumps out Bubba Wallace. I think the only person who can realistically catch Bubba on points is Ty Gibbs.
01:03:27
Speaker
I think Age Almondinger and Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott are too far down. They can't possibly get enough points to catch.
01:03:38
Speaker
to catch Bubba. Ty Gibbs, I think, needs to make up like 28 points. So if Bubba has issues and finishes last, then basically Ty needs to finish no worse than 7th or 8th, depending on how the playoff points shake out or the stage points. Here's a question. If you're Bubba Wallace, do you, like, I don't know where he's going to qualify. I think generally he's been pretty good qualifying at speedways, super speedways.
01:04:07
Speaker
Do you bail early on in the race to the back? I don't know. Because I feel like it's been so hard to pass and it's so easy to lose the draft in these cars. I remember Denny talking about it after the Daytona 500 this year that if you bail, you have to have something really special to be able to drive back up to the front. Especially because it's so difficult to get a second or third lane going too.
01:04:35
Speaker
I agree, but I, there's, there's part of me to think I wouldn't do it. I just think that there is something to be said for like, yes, it is hard to pass. It's hard. It's easy to lose the draft. You can't really side draft either because there's not, there's just, there's not a lot of horsepower in these cars. Um, but there is something to be said for like.
01:04:56
Speaker
being there at the end and there's no guarantee that like a big one doesn't happen and cleans you out anyway but you lessen the blow if that does happen and it takes out other people yeah and i think being in a toyota where there's just so few toyotas in the field anyways that if you drop back to the back um you know it's going to be very difficult for you to have anybody to work with you might be able to get some help from a rick wear car or something like that but there's probably
01:05:22
Speaker
odds are probably not gonna be great help. It's gonna be very difficult for you to get back up. Sure. You know, it gets you out of sequence with pitting with your group. I like the idea of preserving a car. But man, I just I think there's just too much, you know, that can go wrong there. And and yeah, I just don't know if it's worth it.
01:05:46
Speaker
Besides, if you stay out front and lead the whole way and win and go that route, you certainly can get caught up in a mess, right?
01:05:57
Speaker
No matter what happens if you win, you're in. Baba is a very aggressive blocker. However, that's one thing that I think doesn't help him because he is of people, you know, and like they say it, these speed super speedways that like your friends are where you can find them. But he blocks a lot. And, you know, as we saw was a Talladega this year.
01:06:22
Speaker
He should have won that race. I mean, he had the car to win it. And not that there was a problem with what he did. There's going to be several opportunities if you're leading the race to either take a chance and block or not. So we'll see. I mean, I'm hoping for a good race, and it's not a wreck fest. But it would certainly make it more interesting. Yeah.
01:06:45
Speaker
Listen we're guaranteed to have more cautions than we had like we're guaranteed to have as many cautions this week as we did the last two weeks combined, right? I Agree, I mean you have to considering there's been one or wait. Yeah, there's a one. It wasn't one at each. I think right. Yeah and One at each Indy and in Watkins Glen are guaranteed to have two with the stage breaks The race the race might take longer in time than the combined lasted
01:07:14
Speaker
That's not completely out of the realm of possibility. Yeah. Well, a big week to look forward to for the NASCAR Cup Series as they go on to the regular season finale with a lot on the line for Bubble Wallace trying to hold on to that 16th position and Hungry Pack of Wolves behind him trying to get to that 16th position by way of a win.
01:07:40
Speaker
We'll have a big show for you next week as well. I think we're Working on a couple of guests to wrap up the regular season and get pointed towards the playoffs. So Keep an eye on that on our social media and and be sure to tune in next week and it'll every week as always So thank you so much for listening to cloudy with a chance of racing we really appreciate it if you would subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform review leave a
01:08:09
Speaker
a rating on there as well.
01:08:12
Speaker
Now we really appreciate all that. Also, check us out on social media at Cloudy Racing Pod. We're there on threads, Instagram and Twitter slash X, whatever you want to call it. We greatly appreciate the interaction there. We love interacting with our fans on those platforms. So like we've mentioned before, a lot to look forward to with Daytona and a big show coming up next week. So be sure to tune in to Cloudy with a Chance of Racing. Thanks so much for listening this week.
01:08:42
Speaker
For Steve and Jake, I'm Braxton. We'll catch you with the top 16 finalized in the NASCAR Cup Series after Daytona this week. Have a good one.