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Ep. 38: Ford Sweeps Championship Weekend at Phoenix
30 Plays1 year ago
The season finale of Cloudy With a Chance of Racing is here, with the whole gang together to discuss the championship weekend at Phoenix. Jake, Dillon, Steve, and Braxton recap Ben Rhodes, Cole Custer, and Ryan Blaney winning championships, as well as the wrecks with Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim, Justin Allgaier coming up just short again, and Ross Chastain's surprising win.
Pop Up Showers features a deep dive on stats, props to NBC on a great animation, full-season TV ratings for all types of racing broadcast in the US, and how racers are athletes. Then it's a recap of the real and random race picks and revisiting our playoff predictions from the beginning of the year, where Dillon won the real pick championship, Braxton won the random pick championship, and Braxton somehow picked the Blaney to win the title.
We thank you all for listening to Cloudy With a Chance of Racing all season long. Make sure you're subscribed so you get notified when we post our next episode, looking ahead to the 2024 NASCAR season. As always, you can follow along on social media @CloudyRacingPod.
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Transcript
NASCAR Championship Highlights
00:00:15
Speaker
For one final time in the 2023 NASCAR season, Cloudy with the chance of racing here, talk about everything that happened in the championship races at Phoenix International Raceway. Braxton, Jake, Dylan, and Steve here, the whole crew, once again, as we finish off this 2023 season, we saw three champions crowned, and guys, I think we can agree that, all right.
00:00:38
Speaker
I don't think any of the guys who won championships were the odds-on favorites entering the weekend. They produced some interesting racing. Well, the truck series certainly produced some interesting racing that felt like it was never going to end. But it was absolute madness, I think, in all three series. But specifically, the truck series was ridiculous.
Unpredictability in One-Race Format
00:01:06
Speaker
Oh yeah, it was. And, you know, um, with the championship format, just being one race, um, you know, you really can see any of the four drivers ultimately winning and finishing ahead of the other three. So that this weekend, definitely in the, in the truck series, you know, um, you know, that that's what it is. It's racing for a championship. You get one race, one shot at it. Um,
00:01:36
Speaker
But definitely I thought in Xfinity series, there was hard racing. And I applaud those guys. And then in the cup series as well. And you saw a couple of races this weekend where the race winner wasn't in the championship four, which was also interesting.
Entertaining Phoenix Cup Series Race
00:01:55
Speaker
Overall, pretty good racing weekend, I thought. And this was a, you know, for as much as we, you know, kind of tag on Phoenix, I thought for the championship race at Phoenix, for the Cup Series, it was pretty entertaining and probably one of the better ones we've had in recent memory. Yeah, I thought it was a fun weekend out, you know, the trucks.
00:02:23
Speaker
kind of turned into craziness, which a lot of frustration with that series. Uh, but you mentioned, you know, Braxton that none of the winners were favorites really coming in. And I thought that was Cole Custer winning the XFINITY race. Um, that ended up being, uh, you know, you didn't know who was going to win it till the end kind of race that the cup series was kind of, I think the most interesting, not the most exciting, I would say, but definitely in terms of.
00:02:54
Speaker
You know, you didn't know who was going to win the race itself and the championship for some, we've had that in a while for NASCAR. So that I think added to that race and overall a nice cap off to the season, especially with the strategy that we got in the cup race. Yeah, I think it was, uh, it was pleasantly surprising in the cup race. I kind of expected some, some good chaos, uh, in the truck and XFINITY races, because those always deliver, you know, they're Phoenix, it seems like, but
00:03:23
Speaker
I was pleasantly surprised by the cup race, especially the back half. It was crazy how the vibe kind of shifted shortly after the start of the third stage in the cup race, how the first half of the race, everyone was like, oh, this is garbage. This is regular. Well, Phoenix is terrible. Then all of a sudden, people started coming around later on in the race. And it
Truck Series Finale Chaos
00:03:45
Speaker
definitely got more interesting there with Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney.
00:03:51
Speaker
for sure, but let's go back to Friday night, the truck series finale. I honestly, and not that for lack of excitement, because it was a very exciting race, but I personally struggled to stay up for it because it was a 10 o'clock green flag here on the East coast. That was pretty difficult to stay up for, but man, all kinds of action in that one. And it was,
00:04:19
Speaker
It really looked like any of the four drivers were going to come away with the championship, right? At various points in the race. And that was true in all three, but the truck race, they were back and forth and back and forth. And really the, the sleeper in all that was Ben Rhodes. And he, he really just kept his nose clean, right? Uh, the longest and, and was able to get up there and battle for it, uh, within finger late in the race. Um,
00:04:44
Speaker
What did you guys see there? And I want to preface that by saying we're going to get deep into the high end and host of our stuff. But what did you guys see out of the race overall in that championship battle?
00:04:55
Speaker
Well, uh, I mean, it was, I think a lot of people watch the truck series for, uh, nonsense a lot of the time. Um, it's kind of not like an Arca race, but you see a lot of carnage in Arca races and I kind of expected there to be a lot of carnage in this race specifically. And I don't know if we saw like that much, but the, the.
00:05:17
Speaker
the wrecks that we did see and the taking drivers out that we did see was certainly interesting. I mean, I don't know. I was pleasantly surprised with the race. I thought end finger toward the end there was, so I'm trying to remember, I think it was the last restart. He was like,
00:05:43
Speaker
oneeeth or something along those lines. And they he kept our last few restarts, they kept, you know, go into a caution and then coming back. And then he kind of just kept really just, you know, knocking positions down to the very end where on the last restart, I think he gained like something crazy, like 1516 positions and ended up finishing sixth. So it was
00:06:07
Speaker
There was a lot of just hard driving toward the end that was really impressive to me, but I mean, it was, it just seemed like one thing after another kept happening. And it was just like, Oh, okay. Like, like enough of this. Let's just finish this race already. But overall, I thought it was a good race. Yeah. When you look at the race recap about kind of you just at the end, you're like, okay, I'm kind of.
00:06:34
Speaker
coming through with this and just needed to end. There were 12 caution periods but the crazy stat I guess would be the 29 laps of overtime competition. And I mean for a championship race too that's extreme. And so it had a little bit of everything and you know I mentioned in the open that
00:07:04
Speaker
normally, especially, you know, in the cup series. And I'm not sure the statistical history of the championship races in trucks and Xfinity as far as, uh, how high the championship driver finishes. Um, but you know, the championship driver in this case, um, Ben Rhodes, you know, secured a fifth place finish and the title, which was also interesting. Um, but you know, and, and finger was right there. Um,
00:07:34
Speaker
And those two, I respect, they've been there all season. They took advantage of some other things that happened. And they were right there. And really, I thought raced pretty hard there at the end. And Enfinger had some close calls there over time, as did everyone else. But just one position behind Rhodes had to have stung for him.
00:08:05
Speaker
that you know as far as the host of our Haim stuff we're recording this on a Wednesday and there were some penalties and everything that came out with that which we'll get to in a second for that incident but crazy way to end the season for those two especially a guy like Carson Hosevar which
00:08:29
Speaker
We talked a lot this year about him and, and racing in all three, you know, national series, um, and with a lot of talent and aspiration and, uh, certainly kind of ended the season, um, the wrong way. I just think that what happened at the end of that race should have been expected. You know, I mean, that's just kind of what we get at the end of those kind of truck series race. I will say.
00:08:59
Speaker
as now as a transplant West Virginian in Kentucky. You know, it was cool to see Kentucky, Kentucky driver winning there.
Podcast Recording and Audio Quality
00:09:11
Speaker
Hey everyone. Braxton here with cloudy with a chance of racing. And I want to tell you about how we make this podcast happen, which is within caster.
00:09:19
Speaker
You've heard us talk about how we're in all different parts of the country, so remote recording was the only way Steve, Dylan, Jake and I could do a podcast together. When we first started, we were just recording on our regular video conference call service. It worked okay, but I wasn't happy with the audio quality, and it caused big issues if one of us had an internet connection problem.
00:09:39
Speaker
So I got looking around and found Zincaster. My favorite feature is that it can record perfectly clean audio over the internet. That way if one of us starts having a weak connection, it doesn't hurt our sound. All of us at Cloudy with a chance of racing love the audio quality and how simple it is to use. Since then, I found that Zincaster is much more than just a recording service. You can edit, produce, and publish your podcast right on the website. It's truly that easy to start a show of your own.
00:10:05
Speaker
There's even options for recording video as well, so you can bring a visual element to your podcast. Then once you're ready to post, Zencaster can help with that too, because they'll distribute your podcast to Apple, Spotify, and all other major platforms.
00:10:20
Speaker
So what are you waiting for? Go to zincaster.com slash pricing. That's Z E N C A S T R dot com slash pricing and use our code cloudy racing pod. That's all one word cloudy racing pod. And you'll get 30% off your first month of any Zincaster paid plan. I want you to have the same easy experiences I do for all my podcasting and content needs. It's time to share your story.
00:10:46
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and you remember too late and one of those rate restarts, if you're speaking there on that, uh, that kind of crossover Dylan, uh, wasn't the, uh, the nine truck, the, uh, the Cudi robot racing or the CR seven truck up there in the mix late in the race. That's true. Yeah. So that was definitely a, uh, um, very interesting finish. I think part of what really sparked that off because
00:11:14
Speaker
It was the two cautions that really got all the the cautions breed cautions stuff going was the incidents between Carson House of R and Corey Haim going into turns one and two.
Truck Series Race Analysis
00:11:33
Speaker
It seems like it was earlier in the race, but it was actually kind of late in the race I think it was like with 30 some laps to go host of our gets in way low on on the apron of one and two and And slides up and gets into Corey Haim. Most of our on the radio right away said he expected Haim to take a wider arc but I don't know if you guys saw but I from why I saw in the replay like
00:11:59
Speaker
Haim took a pretty wide arc to begin with and Osavar just slid up there. But it spurs off the first crash of the championship four. And then later on, both trucks do continue. Haim actually was making good progress, good time on his fresh tires after he went to Pit Road and was clawing his way back up there. Osavar never really, I don't think, got his mojo back after that.
00:12:26
Speaker
And then Haim made sure that Haim had no mojo left later on. And basically it was the exact same move that Denny Hamwinded to Ross Chastain back in the spring in the cup race. Just absolutely dored him into the end of the wall off of turn two. And then it ended both of their days. And that was that.
00:12:49
Speaker
Do you think that, so I saw Martin Truex Jr's comments about how he said that he didn't, he kind of thought it was all an act because, I mean, like Hosevar did at least show what seemed like a lot of remorse for his actions, but I mean, you know, his actions have spoken much louder than words this season. However, I don't know, I mean,
00:13:16
Speaker
He was, he was pretty beat up about it, but I mean, he could just be saying that because he really did, uh, manipulate the race and for multiple people, because like those actions did have consequences for multiple drivers. So, um, I don't know. I mean, I. Which one was that the, there was, was initial crash with hosts of our Indohyme. Is that the one that took out, uh, Stewart Friesen, who was having a good run as well?
00:13:45
Speaker
I don't remember. Let's go back and look at the. The race report, I suppose. Also, do you like how Corey Haim said that he did not hit host of R on purpose, right? Like you know, and like I was reading on Jay ski today, you know the specifically in the areas of the rule book attempting to manipulate the outcome of the race or championship.
00:14:14
Speaker
Which we kind of talked about before could be an interesting, uh, like part of what could potentially happen with Ryan Blaney and Ross Jastain. But obviously we're going to talk about that later. Yeah. So the, the first crash between hosts of Arnheim also took out Stewart Friesen.
00:14:37
Speaker
I mean, it's just reckless. It's just dumb. Like, I mean, at some point, you know, like, I don't think that this is like Chastain. People have gotten on Chastain this year about his actions. And I think that for the most part, he's kind of kept his nose clean. Um, especially when like the race was on the line, but like, this was a really bad situation that host of our put himself and other drivers in.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, it was not great for sure. And didn't get, you know, the benefit of the doubt from pretty much anyone. I mean, you look at immediately when it happened, you know, some of the bigger names in the in the cup series are actually on X or Twitter.
00:15:33
Speaker
saying some things and I'm like, wow, I mean, uh, Tyler Reddick, you said something along the lines like, you know, he'll, he'll never learn. I mean, right away when it happened, um, which is interesting, uh, because, you know, some of these young guys and like Carson will be racing against, uh, you know, going up to the cup series and racing some of these guys and that, you know, we'll not be getting the benefit of the doubt. That's for sure. But it's just a shame.
00:16:03
Speaker
Um, you know, it happens and it's a, it's a one race format for it all. So you, as soon as you just can't, you can't take it back as soon as it happens. And you know, you're hurting multiple teams and then, you know, ultimately you end up hurting yourself, um, in both the race and in the longterm, uh, you'll, you'll be remembered for this one.
00:16:33
Speaker
Now, that's for sure for a long time, probably. And that's what NASCAR wanted, I think, right? With one of the positives, I guess, if you want to call it a positive, switching it the championship to Phoenix, you know, outside of the multitude of monetary reasons. But the fact that it's a shorter track, you get people with more close proximity and you get these kind of moments. So, you know, NASCAR, I think, with their penalty that they're issuing for it,
00:17:04
Speaker
You know, it's kind of, you know, backhanded considering they asked for something like this with having the championship at a track like Felix. Yeah, there's a fair point on that, Dylan. Like, it is pretty backhanded that they kind of asked for it. Also, I think that the Cup Series Championship race should be at night. I just wanted to point that out there.
Nighttime Cup Series Race?
00:17:33
Speaker
That's true. It would just be tough considering football head to head. Yeah. Right. Maybe they can move everything up a day. I mean, other ratings would be terrible for a Saturday night NASCAR championship, but well, uh, the Thursday night football games, the last couple of years have been absolute stinkers. So maybe run on a Thursday night or just move it back to the East coast and it will be dark. There'd also be like 25 degrees potentially. No, I mean, if they have it in Miami. Yeah.
00:18:03
Speaker
After the time change, you win the race at dark. Miami, I think, would be the best place. Miami or Charlotte, I feel like, would be the best place to have a championship race. But I just don't see it. Also, I know they're making significantly less horsepower, but I think about
00:18:25
Speaker
Uh, a night race at Charlotte, like the first weekend in November, like think back to the old days and stuff. Like they used to always say, Oh, it's cooler air. Like they're going to be making more horsepower and stuff. Like imagine like the gin, like four cars, in five cars, uh, like absolutely screaming that Charlotte on the first weekend in November. That'd be awesome. Absolutely. And anytime I see a video on my social media of like that, the early 2000s cup cars, like qualifying at Charlotte and they're just holding out wide open.
00:18:54
Speaker
Like I have to watch it because it's like, you just don't get those sounds anymore. They're screaming too. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so was, I want to go kind of down the line here.
Xfinity Series and Cole Custer's Victory
00:19:10
Speaker
Was host of art, was that move a bad move? And then was the retaliation justified or was it excessive? Um,
00:19:23
Speaker
It wasn't a great move considering the circumstance and The retaliation I think was justified Okay Yeah, I I didn't like the move but you know, I think that the retaliation It's it's really tough to say I don't think it's
00:19:53
Speaker
was justified uh well if it was any other race it's kind of you know if this was just in out of the spring phoenix or wherever it would be a lot different i think a lot of differing opinions um it being the championship race probably just i don't know you you want your driver to be aggressive and get them back because they did you know take your championship chances but
00:20:23
Speaker
you know, just race till the end and see what happens. It's a tough call. Yeah, I agree. It is just such a tough call considering it being a championship is really the thing that comes down to, you know, I think both were uncalled for. But I think since the first one happened, the second one also had to happen. You know, it's just you can't let
00:20:53
Speaker
I don't know, again, if it was a normal race that people would be as upset with hosts of ours and move, but given the circumstances, what's on the line for Haim. Yeah, I think his, his reaction is, is justified, but you also have to, you know, realize that that is uncalled for in terms of, you know, racing integrity. So it just, it's just a bad situation, I think.
00:21:20
Speaker
I want to just point out that the execution – the part that I think, as far as justified, is Haim wrecking Hosafar. What I want to say is the execution of what he did was very, very bad.
00:21:38
Speaker
Um, the, the, obviously I think, you know, in that situation, you're in a position where you can either, you know, just forget it and, you know, just keep, keep going, which is what the team probably would have wanted more, or you can take matters into your own hands, but you can't also put yourself in a position where your team is going to be like, okay, well, we get that you wrecked him, but you also wrecked yourself.
00:22:05
Speaker
And that's it, you know, that's your season right there. So, um, I mean, I was fine. Look, it is what it is that we kind of expected there to be madness, but I just thought that, you know, Haim, if you're going to do it, you're going to get the fine. At least make sure that you put yourself in a position where you can keep going after the race or after the rec.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've said it many times here on this podcast that, uh, throughout this year, the host of ours made some dumb moves and then it's that, you know, he's seemingly had, had turned it around. Uh, and he certainly did show remorse, you know, on the radio immediately afterwards and after he got out of the truck, but, you know,
00:22:47
Speaker
Intent and outcome are are entirely different things and he he got bit by that pretty bad and that's kind of a disappointing for sure because it seems like That's gonna leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths about him You know as they look forward to him going full-time cup racing next year for Spire, so certainly disappointment there It's worth mentioning to the Christian echoes did win the race and and
00:23:16
Speaker
It was an impressive season, I think, for Ekas. He didn't make the championship four, but with that win, he tied Hosevar for the most wins in the series this season with four. He finished, tied for third for most top fives in the series with 10.
00:23:33
Speaker
And he was, see, fourth, third and laps led across the entire season. Well, he also the last seven races, he had five top fives, five of those top fives, including the two wins. So he was he finished the season on absolute terror. Yeah, I guess was turned it on really well on a 19 truck. So certainly don't want to overlook his effort and close out to the season.
00:24:01
Speaker
Even though it was a championship race and won by Ben Rhodes Anything else you guys want to add to the truck series before we move on to Xfinity? Well, the Xfinity race was the only one on the weekend that was won by the eventual champion that was Cole Custer coming away with that win it was a I thought that was a
00:24:27
Speaker
I'm pretty entertaining battle with him and all Geier. Um, and I immediately want to get to a point I made to you guys, like in the group chat at wise, we're watching the end of the Xfinity race. Justin all Geier is a very good race car driver. I think we can all agree on that, right? I don't think Justin all Geier has that dog in him. Explain what having that dog in a means to the, to the listeners. He, it is.
00:24:55
Speaker
He just didn't seem, he's never seemed like the kind of guy who will stick his nose in there and not wreck somebody, but you know, stick your elbows out and do what you have to do to try to get the win. I know he's a very calm and he comes across as a very non-confrontational guy outside of the race car, but
00:25:20
Speaker
In the car, you have to beat that a little bit. Like I think he is a calmer version of Joey Logano because Joey Logano openly admitted earlier this season, right? That he is a totally different person inside the car than he is outside of the car. Like Justin is a very calm guy and yeah, I can say a very non-confrontational seeming guy outside of the car. He's largely the same way in the car too. And that doesn't necessarily serve him well on winning tight
00:25:51
Speaker
you know, tight battles like that. Uh, and, and that was disappointing to see because he really turned it on towards the end of the year too. And, you know, I think for JRM to get two drivers in the top four or after the start of the season, they had was a great effort. Uh, and then for, for it to end up the way it did with neither of them winning the championship, uh, especially when Justin had every opportunity to there, it was, uh, I can see how it left a sour taste in the mouth of a lot of JRM fans.
00:26:19
Speaker
But I'm curious to see what you guys thought too. I thought it was an impressive win for Cole Custer. I mean, he's had kind of an interesting couple of years. He was in the cup series. He wins a race. He was a rookie, not rookie sensation, but he was looked at as like, oh, he's one of the next potential drivers.
00:26:37
Speaker
a bad following season bumps down to the Xfinity series wins the championship, but he's also signed for next year in that same car. So it's just kind of a strange
00:26:53
Speaker
scenario for him. I do think that he's like one of those like, he's like a tweener, like very good in the Xfinity, but probably not sure if he's good enough for the cup to be a full-time driver, although starting to feel that way about Austin Sindrick, who knows. But I thought it was a good race overall. I mean, I was texting you guys in the group chat that once the sun went down, I thought that the racing got a lot better.
00:27:19
Speaker
I also thought that, you know, Algyre looked good. I thought that he had a couple opportunities that we were talking about before, just couldn't really capitalize on. And, you know, also Sheldon Creed. He's had a probably not an ideal few weeks here with kind of the I don't want to say turmoil, but the issues with his team and that organization and the owner of the organization. So
00:27:48
Speaker
Um, I thought it was good. I've been kind of on his side with a lot of this, so I thought it was good to see him, uh, where, where he kind of, where he finished. But overall, I mean, I thought that the, uh, Xfinity race was solid racing. I mean, it always is, but especially at this track.
00:28:05
Speaker
Um, one other thing of note, uh, for, and this is the end of the, uh, at least at the end of the season, but, uh, Rajak Ruth had a 14th place finish, which I thought was a solid day for him. So still not a hundred percent sure where he's going to end up next year, but he showed some speed in that car and, uh, in the races that he ran the 17 this year.
00:28:29
Speaker
Certainly hats off to Cole. And we've talked about, Steve just mentioned part of his journey here. It's always tough, I would imagine, to make it to the Cup Series, the biggest series in NASCAR. And then having to, you struggle, granted, Cole got a win in the COVID year.
00:28:58
Speaker
and having to go back down to the Xfinity Series. But to put everything together, and I think it was a championship that was earned. And what a big win for Stuart Haas racing as well. Because we know the Cup Series program for Stuart Haas has just struggled. And you saw some of the post-race stuff after Cole won with
00:29:27
Speaker
Tony Stewart and he could have been happy. I'm sure that, you know, Tony was relieved and that's a big championship. I feel like from that organization and Cole coming back, you never know. I mean, this is something, you know, I forget who exactly, you know, Justin Allgaier has kind of turned into, you know, an Xfinity series veteran, Xfinity series guru. Could this be something that Cole Custer kind of turns into? You don't know.
00:29:57
Speaker
He really turned it on. And how about, you know, with this format and I thought, in my opinion, between the three series at the start of the playoffs, that the Xfinity series, I would have put more, you know, marbles down for either John Hernimacek or Austin Hill. I thought they had, the Xfinity series had two of the heavier favorites to win a title.
00:30:26
Speaker
and it just didn't happen. The cup was in the air, the truck was in the air, the Xfinity, I thought one of those two would probably win and it didn't end up happening and that's kind of the beauty of the format, if you will. Yeah, I think that Braxton's point about not having just what it takes with All-Guy or
Comparative Analysis of Xfinity Championships
00:30:51
Speaker
And I think that's why we never have really seen him make the jump up and be successful in the cup series. So, and I think it comes back to that, but, um, yeah, the, the race itself, I thought it was a good race. I love seeing Tony storage reaction to Cole Custer winning in the pits. And that was just, you know, all people will say Tony store doesn't care anymore, but he's still an owner.
00:31:15
Speaker
in the Cup Series. He still has several cars in the Cup Series. He still has the Xfinity Series operation going on. So to see him showing that excitement clearly as a fan of Cole Custer being his team owner. But overall, I actually expected more out of the Xfinity Series Championship than kind of what we got it. I don't know.
00:31:44
Speaker
I would have expected it to be the best week race of the weekend. And I would probably put it second just because of the stupidity that happened at the truck series race or, or else I'd probably put the truck series race out of it. I don't know. I just, I was a little bit expecting more out of it, but I can't complain about Cole Custer coming away with the win. Yeah. And to be clear, I, I, I wasn't like opposed to Cole Custer winning the championship, but you know, you
00:32:14
Speaker
You can't help but notice how Allgaier had these opportunities. But Custer held him off. There has to be credit given there that the Custer drove a great race and didn't collapse under the pressure. And really, like all three, I think there was interesting parallels in all three championships that all three Final Fours were two Chevrolets, a Toyota and a Ford. And I think you could have said maybe not so much with the
00:32:43
Speaker
Uh, the cup series, but I think you easily would have said in the Xfinity and the trucks that the Ford was the long shot to win the championship of the four. None of them had the number one pit stall that all week was said that was so valuable. And, uh, it ends up working out the, where they all win the championship. So, um, yeah, if I got to give credit there, I'm with you there, Dylan. No, I thought the Xfinity race would have been a bit more exciting. Um, but.
00:33:12
Speaker
Is it just me? But I felt like last year, I'd have to look at last year's standings. But I felt like the end of the race of last year's final with Noah and Ty, it seemed really similar to the end of the race this year with Justin and Cole. And that the car behind just couldn't quite get close enough. And it resembled a lot of the same issues that the Cup Series cars demonstrate.
00:33:42
Speaker
I don't know if that's just a coincidence in the ways the race has played out or the quality of the tires or setups or whatever it might be, right? But it has seemed like, you know, it could have been a such a better finish, whatever, but the trailing car couldn't get more than, you know, five or six car links behind the lead car there in the final handful laps in both XFINITY finals last couple of years.
00:34:10
Speaker
So, uh, again, I said, that was the only one that had a, uh, uh, the winner win the championship, a disappointing finish for John Hunter named Jack. He makes the final four. Uh, but then it was a non factor, uh, and ended up, I believe crashing out, uh, of the race on Saturday. So it's going to be a disappointing end for him, for his season. Uh, and really he, he was absolutely dominant this season. Uh,
00:34:40
Speaker
So he went seven times, leads 1083 laps, um, has the most top 10, uh, top five at 17, the most top 10 to 24. Interestingly enough. So Austin Hill was pretty dominant throughout the season, right? He had four race wins, um, 16 top five. So second in the series, he only won four stages and only led 346 laps all season. I'm not like.
00:35:10
Speaker
extremely high on Austin Hill.
00:35:15
Speaker
I think he's a good Xfinity driver, pretty good. But I don't think that he's a world beater. I think that people in RCR have wanted other people to believe. He had a really, really hot start. And then to the season, a very, very hot start. And then he went a consistent top five for a while. But I just didn't see
00:35:43
Speaker
a whole lot out of him like he was like a mr top 10 this year but nothing in any given race that made me think after like the first month of the season where i was like yeah i think that this guy's going to be like the next uh you know next good cup driver
00:36:04
Speaker
Yeah, I feel you there. I don't, I don't see the writing on the wall either, but, uh, perhaps we'll see. Uh, there was some interesting comments made on another podcast this week that indicated maybe Austin Dillon might be getting out of the car sooner rather than later or sooner than we think. So maybe that's a opportunity for Austin Hill. You never know. That's purely speculation to stop hitching their wagons to people named Austin. Right. Well, here's the trouble though, Steve is.
00:36:33
Speaker
Do you know many young children out there named Dale these days? I don't. That's a fair point. Well, yeah, no. I don't think I've ever met any. But I'll be honest with you. I don't think I've ever met anybody named Dale in my life. Interesting. OK. Anything else in the Xfinity series you guys want to hit on as we wrap up their 2023 season? I don't think so. Well, I'm excited to see how they get on next year, for sure.
Cup Series Finale and Unexpected Results
00:37:03
Speaker
Hopefully the Cup Series can get back to matching their excitement level a little bit, but even if it doesn't like the Xfinity Series, I'm looking forward to them putting on great shows again in 2024. Let's get to the Cup Series, and that was the big show on Sunday with a race win for Ross Chastain and a championship for Ryan Blaney.
00:37:32
Speaker
I was kind of surprised, honestly, to see Ross up there. But I think Ross has had some good runs in the playoffs and really come back. And, you know, for a lot of the summer after, between Nashville and the Southern 500, Ross Chastain was a ghost. He was nowhere to be found. And I think Ross Chastain turned it on a little bit in the playoffs, even though it didn't really matter. He didn't make the playoffs, but he turned on a bit. What do you guys think?
00:38:02
Speaker
He was good. I mean, he was not great. I mean, like, you know, I'm looking back on it now, like, you know, Bristol, 23rd, Texas, 2nd, Talladega, 37th, Rovel, 10th, Vegas, 5th, Homestead, 31st, Martinsville, 14th, and then the win of Phoenix. So, I mean, he was all right, I guess. I mean, I wouldn't say that he was like,
00:38:25
Speaker
I was super impressed. He's usually good at Phoenix, really good at Phoenix. So I wasn't surprised by, I don't know what his average finish is there over the last two years being in the equipment that he's in.
00:38:42
Speaker
Um, to me, it was no surprise that he was as good as he was, uh, for, for the length of the race. I thought there were some surprising, um, just wanted to touch on real quick, just some surprising, uh, like areas chase Elliott was the non factor for almost all of this race. Tyler Reddick was kind of the same way. And I thought that, you know, were the way that they both qualified.
00:39:04
Speaker
uh that they would have been a little bit better um bubble wallace looked pretty good uh and so i think that toyota probably was pretty happy uh but just kind of some random really random finishing order uh overall i but um
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah, it was a good race. My heart was pounding in the last 20 laps of it or so. It was the first time that I think I felt that way at a Phoenix race in a while, because the last two years at least, they haven't been great.
00:39:42
Speaker
I was really pulling for the King of Phoenix, but he wasn't able to get it done. But I was very pleasantly surprised with how good I thought the racing was. There were a lot of battles that I thought that the broadcast did a good job of showing. Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by the racing itself as well.
00:40:09
Speaker
Not surprised that Ross won. As I noted in our group chat, I picked him to win the wrong Phoenix. Because I remember in the spring, I picked him to win. And that was the incident with Denny Hamlin at the end of the race that led to the Hamlin penalty and everything. So he's always raced well. And you look, with Ryan Blaney,
00:40:37
Speaker
just big time win for Ford after we've noted and very well so that Ford struggles, especially in the cup series all season. But you look at the finishing order, you know, Blaney in second, Busher fifth, Hardwick seventh, Michael McDowell in the top 10 as a Ford ninth,
00:41:05
Speaker
Then he had three Fords in a row, 13th, 14th, 15th. So they, they showed up kind of like what we expected though. We expected Ford to be strong. Ryan Blaney. Um, you know, now that Harvick, uh, is retiring, you know, Blaney could be this next guy at Phoenix cause he already, we felt like it last week. Um, even though he wasn't the odds on favorite, um,
00:41:30
Speaker
You know, I think we all agreed what obviously wouldn't be surprised to see him win. He had the highest average finish at Phoenix, um, of at least the championship for always ran well there. And he capitalized at the end that, uh, but the, the racing between him and Ross, uh, well got, got dicey and, but, you know,
00:41:58
Speaker
It's to be expected, I guess, when you're racing with Ross. And Ryan, I thought, tagged him a couple of times. And I'm thinking, I'm sure Blaney wants to win the race. But in this format, he's ahead of the other three. I was like, man, he better be careful here. And it ended up working out for Ryan Blaney.
00:42:26
Speaker
it, you know, Larson right behind him and then Byron and forth. Uh, it was, it was pretty good racing. So overall I was happy, uh, with the way the cup series race turned out as far as racing goes. I thought it was a really, really fun race strategy wise because you could tell, I think for most of the race, I mean, Blaney might've had the fastest car of everyone, but
00:42:57
Speaker
I don't think that that was as evident that the championship cars were faster than everyone and what we've seen in the past. So again, I thought Truex and Ross Chastain were the class of the field with Blaney there with them as well. But to see the championship for drivers to go through their struggles with Blaney and Christopher Bell starting
00:43:22
Speaker
a lot further back than the Hendra cars. And then with Christopher Bell blowing out his rotor, I just thought the race had a lot of key strategy points, but then also just came down to, you know, who wanted to go out and win the race and then, you know, 20, 30 lap run. Uh, my, my girlfriend was really, really into the race and I was kind of surprised. Like I was worried she might think it was kind of boring, but she literally, you know, was, she was rooting for Blaney and
00:43:50
Speaker
Just, uh, she thought it was exciting and legitimately, like I told people in her family, like I was really into that race. So I think that was, uh, pretty cool to see as well. Um, but, uh, Ross winning, I think it is a surprise in terms of, you know, how aggressively he race. He, he clearly has just gone full gung ho on his, his style. Like he is, he is not changing.
00:44:16
Speaker
I think fans have to respect that. And I think a lot of fans do respect that. And I think him driving like that, let us see a little personality out of Ryan Blaney. Some people call him doll. I don't think he's doll personally, but sometimes he can lean towards that way. But I mean, he flipped them off when they had an in car. I mean, that is as good as it gets. I think from an entertainment perspective, you know, watching the race, I mean, you had to think that was funny and cool to see.
00:44:44
Speaker
just that kind of emotion. I mean, that was a Talladega nights moment in the NASCAR championship race. So I don't know. I thought it was a really good race. I was really surprised that Hendrick, the Hendrick cars didn't get much better throughout the race. Um, I was expecting them to maybe find some speed at that last run, the whole Blaney off, but they just weren't able to.
00:45:05
Speaker
Well, just about the Blaney personality thing, I remember when a couple was at 21, when the whole Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick thing happened. And then when they were at the roval, and he kind of have Harvick ran himself into the barrier.
00:45:27
Speaker
Uh, you heard over the, over the radio, Blaney said, good F him, which I thought was kind of funny considering they're both, you know, Ford guys. And you, you know, you wouldn't expect, I mean, I wouldn't expect somebody to say that, but obviously he was kind of, you know, chase Eliot's best friend. So it makes sense. But I mean, these, they, there's these little, you know, glances of personality that come out from Blaney and they're always really, really funny.
00:45:56
Speaker
He he's definitely a guy who kind of picks his spots, right? And and he doesn't say much, but when he does, it's usually pretty good. I in terms of the Hendrick guys struggling, to your point, Dylan, it definitely seemed like they weren't on top of things at at Martinsville either. And it makes me wonder if maybe they just didn't have a good handle on the the new short track tires that they came out, the softer short track tire.
00:46:26
Speaker
that they had that came after Loudon, I think. I don't know, because it was definitely a different tire compound than what they ran back in the spring. And all of the other, I think all of the Hendrick domination of the short tracks was on that other tire that they ran earlier in the year. So it makes me wonder if they just didn't have a handle on the setup with how those tires would react. But that's certainly the biggest variable I can think of how that all played out.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah, you're right too. It was definitely funny to see Blaney just giving Custer the bird there for sure On the Ross chest anything real quick He really turned it on in the playoffs like I was saying so he had one two three four top fives and an extra another top ten in the playoffs and granted he did have some some down runs in there as well, but
00:47:22
Speaker
you look back, you know, after kind of, I guess it was Darlington in the spring is when he had the talking to, right? And so between then and the start of the playoffs, he had one, two top tens, three top tens, one of those being his win at Nashville. And that win at Nashville was his only top five.
00:47:49
Speaker
in that summer stretch. So you definitely did turn it on in the postseason there in the playoffs. One thing I have to say about Ryan Blaney, and as a guy, as a team, they definitely did.
Ryan Blaney's Championship Journey
00:48:05
Speaker
He definitely is deserving. They are deserving. They turned it on at the end, right? They go 6-2-1-2 as they're finishing results in the final four races of the year.
00:48:18
Speaker
It's hard to lose a championship when you're running like that, right? But the thing that I struggle with is that after he won at Charlotte in the spring, he won the 600 in those 16 races, he didn't have a single top five. He had one, two, three, four. Five. But so between his win, his win, so between Charlotte Spring and Talladega,
00:48:46
Speaker
He had five top 10s. One of those was sixth. That was at Gateway right after he won at Charlotte. And then the others were ninth place finishes. In those 16 races, he had a average finishing position of 17.125. And that's the part that kind of annoys me a little bit, is that they were far from the best team for the entire stretch of the season.
00:49:14
Speaker
You know, if you're going to look at the best team for the entire season as being the most deserving champion in that case, you'd have to say William Byron or Kyle Larson, uh, because Denny had some down times. Martin Truex Jr. Had an atrocious playoffs. Um, yeah. And, and I said, they turned it on at the right time. They, uh, you know, and that's a, that's a good group. It seems like, and Ryan seems like a really good guy, but man, there's this part of me that
00:49:44
Speaker
can't stomach that a guy who went 16 straight races between wins without a top five is the most deserving champion. I sort of agree, but I also look at, um, the length of time that Blaney went without winning a race and then coming back this year as so where the last time he had won a race prior to this year was 21 at Talladega. Is that right?
00:50:11
Speaker
What was it? He didn't win one in 22. Yeah. So he, there's a 20. Yeah. He won back to back in 20. No, it was date. It was Michigan and Daytona. All right. So he goes the entire half that entire whole last season without winning a race.
00:50:27
Speaker
and then picks it up at Charlotte. The way I look at it is that like he went like I think it was what 56 56 races or something like that without a win and then comes back this year and wins three races and then finishes runner up in the championship to win the championship. So like I get it. But I also think that he was he was so like Mr. Runner up kind of last year that this year
00:50:55
Speaker
Regardless of how he finished, he still had, you know, more wins than he's had in a single season ever, I think. He had, right. No, he had three in 2021 Atlanta and then the back to back. But then I think that was, I don't think he had more than two in a season. In fact, he's never won two races in a season.
00:51:22
Speaker
In 17, 18, 19, and 20, he won one race. He won three and 21, none in 22, three and 23. Yeah. So I just, I think that like, regardless of how he finished in races this year, he was finishing first more oftentimes than he was in previous years. That's fair. I mean, of his top fives, he had eight of them, three of them were wins. Um, yeah, I mean, I just, like I said, it just, something doesn't sit well with me that
00:51:53
Speaker
You know, I will say that like Kyle Larson did have eight DNS to
00:51:58
Speaker
to Blaney's three. And one more thing to add about the this season was that Ford generally I think didn't look amazing. The top Fords didn't look amazing. And then you had guys like Busher who weren't in theory supposed to be the top car in their organization who were the best car in their organization by far. So I just think it's a wonky
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah, that was another thing, too, is like Toyota and Chevrolet were dominant this season, it seemed like. And then out of nowhere, Blaney comes in and wins and gets the championship. It was definitely a wonky year, you're right. Let's look at the standings because it was a wonky year. You end up with both 2311 cars in the top 10 of the final standings, Reddick and six and Bubba and 10th.
00:52:53
Speaker
Chris Busher and Brad Kozlowski finished back to back, seventh for Busher, eighth for Kozlowski. If you had put money at the beginning of the year, both 2311 cars and both RFK cars would finish in the top 10 in the championship standings. I think you would have had really good odds on that.
00:53:16
Speaker
And you're a favor to win a lot of money. It definitely seemed like it was going to be an uphill battle for both his organizations at the beginning of the season. What a tumultuous fall for Martin Shrix Jr. He ends up finishing 11th in the final standings. He dropped five spots just after the Phoenix result. He was bad. The whole playoffs, he was bad.
00:53:45
Speaker
Yeah, it was not great for sure. And you look, Joey Logano with a down year, finishing 12th. Kevin Harvick's final campaign finishes from 13th. Kyle Busch 14th in those standings. That's certainly a disappointment for him. And then Michael McDowell in 15th, Ricky Stenhouse in 16th. So overall, you got to say it wasn't
00:54:14
Speaker
It was compelling in that there wasn't a, a true runaway in it. Although, uh, Dylan, have you looked at the, um, the, the Winston cup standings account to see who the champions would be? Yeah, it would be Christopher Bell. I mean, sorry, sorry. Excuse me. It would be William Byron, Christopher Bell. Uh, because of what happened with him blowing his rotor law would have lost the championship in the final race to William Byron.
00:54:44
Speaker
Do you think there's anybody in the organization happier than Alex Bowman that William Byron did not win? Yeah, that definitely helps some of that. Braxton, you're talking about the season stats.
00:55:05
Speaker
This was kind of been my pop-up shower tonight and I this a breakdown that we saw from Trey Ryan 99 on X of pretty much any statistical category for the entire season and Blaney wasn't he didn't lead one of them and I thought that was interesting I mean anything from
00:55:30
Speaker
consecutive top 10s, 15s, you know, races finished, driver ratings. But it and Trey did the same thing for the playoff breakdown. And in the round of eight, almost every category was blainey. So, you know, I guess in this format,
00:55:50
Speaker
he got it done you know when it needed to to get done um he in that round of eight i mean him and uh larson had laps led but blaney almost led any every category um i had this graphic which actually um
00:56:09
Speaker
went viral among the NASCAR community. It was so well put together, um, tells kind of the story of the whole season. And I'm sure you guys, you guys have mentioned certain things that you see from this, um, you know, just looking at it. I mean, Austin Dillon, 10 DNFs, 27% of races, by the way, that he didn't finish.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yeah. And then right above it, Corey La Joy races finished 36. I mean, what, that's an accomplishment for that team. Absolutely. That's exactly what, you know, a team like Spire should do. But that, that graphic is, I don't know if you guys have anything to chime in from that, but I mean, that kind of puts the whole thing into perspective and some interesting bits from the season you wouldn't expect. Yeah. I mean, I like, I like that one. I like for sure the, um,
00:57:02
Speaker
The guy who does the point standings in the old Cup Series format. So Corey Haim did win the championship in the Truck Series in that format. Although, even with his penalty today, he won it by 36 points over Grant Infinger. Then it would have been John Hunter, of course, who would have won in the Xfinity Series, rightfully so.
Insights from NASCAR Experts
00:57:23
Speaker
Three more wins than anybody else in the series. And then it would have been, yeah, William Byron.
00:57:29
Speaker
And that was a tight race in the cup series in that kind of in that format of four drivers within 100 points, five drivers within 100 points. So certainly some excitement there. You mentioned pop up showers, Jake, let's go ahead and get our final pop up showers of the year. You mentioned yours, Steven Dillon. What do you guys have?
00:57:48
Speaker
Well, I have two. The first one is I wanted to kind of give a shout out to the broadcast when Christopher Bell's rotor blew, they had that
00:58:05
Speaker
They had the animation that goes in depth into the car and shows you. Steve Latart did a great job explaining what exactly to a T happened to Christopher Bell's rotor. And what I thought that they did with it was really cool was they showed a side-by-side or a top and bottom to show exactly at what time he was saying that his rotor was having problems
00:58:35
Speaker
and showing kind of the air moving through the animated car and showing the point that the rotor exploded. So I just think those are the things that, like, NBC does a lot better than Fox. And I think Steve Latart does a really good job of explaining a lot of that as a crew chief. And it's mesmerizing to me.
00:58:59
Speaker
The other one was a tiktok that I saw with break hard he does you know he's kind of like a pundit about NASCAR news and stuff and he brought up that he thought that NASCAR did a bad job of marketing Ryan Blaney after the championship win.
00:59:18
Speaker
which I kind of agree with. I mean, I wouldn't say that they did a horrible job, but they didn't do, I think, as good of a job as they possibly probably could have done. I didn't see him on any late night talk shows or anything like that. I didn't see any kind of like
00:59:52
Speaker
Um, but yeah, so I just don't think I, I agreed with what he said. I don't think they did a good enough job, you know, kind of he's the, you know, he was the top name in their sport after that day. And, um, you know, I didn't really see him in that many places. Yeah. Dylan, a quick question for you. Cause you know, TV ratings pretty well is the today show, the leading, um, uh, morning show national or is it GMA? I believe it's, uh,
01:00:03
Speaker
that he was on a morning show, Kelly and Mark, and then he went to the Empire State.
01:00:22
Speaker
today's show. So that that's interesting to me because NBC obviously has today's show and they own the rights to the championship race. Yep. How do they not get the champion driver on their own show? Yeah, it's I don't know how that happened. I do like what you said, Steve, though, about the the graphic animation. And I think it was Parker Kligerman pointed out, like,
01:00:48
Speaker
I don't know how the award Emmy is, but this is Emmy worthy right here. That was great. It's truly fascinating. And I think if you're with somebody who, I don't know, maybe doesn't understand. I know a lot of people who kind of knock NASCAR, who are fans of really the major sports, kind of don't see the intricacies of some things. But I think guys like Latart and when Jeff Gordon was in the booth,
01:01:15
Speaker
uh, explain, you know, why certain things are happening. Like, you know, Latart, I think does a really good, you know, sometimes speaking of animated when Jimmy Johnson was like in, he would, you know, mention how many times he was a seven time champion, but like outside of stuff like that, like, like seeing him, uh, listening to him break the, this stuff down, uh, especially with Larry Mack, I think is just so much fun and it's so much information.
01:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. It does remind me to an extent of like hearing like Tony Romo or Troy Aikman, like breaking down a play. I was like, we see when that Lyman grabbed the other guy. That's a hold. That's why it's like that, right? Right. It's just, it's just cooler animation to be able to walk you through a little bit more of what happened instead of just a guy grabbing a jersey for a second and a half that slowed down to make it look like it's five seconds. Right. Dylan, what do you have for a pop-up shower for the season finale?
Formula One Challenges in Las Vegas
01:02:15
Speaker
I have, uh, my pop-up shower as formula one ticket sales for Las Vegas are way down. I saw an average of like 30 to 40% for Thursday, Friday, Saturday ticket sales. Uh, I wonder why they're running into an issue of one, it's insanely overpriced to begin with. Two, you have a runaway champion who's multiple races left in the season has already
01:02:43
Speaker
Secured the championship, you know, he's probably going to win this race for staffing again So yeah, I don't see the intrigue to anyone to want to go to Vegas especially if you're spending a thousand dollars for a ticket So yeah, I think a little bit of a taste of reality for formula one friends out of there. I
01:03:04
Speaker
It's also very, very much, they are having so many issues with the Vegas Strip, with vendors and then restaurant owners and stuff like that. It's causing, it's kind of like imploding a little bit. Other reports, I have not seen one good report out of Las Vegas about Formula One coming there. And I would like to just point out that I think that
01:03:33
Speaker
Uh, I, I, somebody, I think, was it Dylan who sent in the, uh, the, in the Twitter, in our Twitter XDM today, um, the racing, uh, it was Braxton ratings. Yeah. It was it. I don't know who, I don't know who it was, but it was the ratings for all of the races. Yeah. It was you Dylan, I think, I don't know, but it showed all of the ratings and not one, uh, in the top, what?
01:04:02
Speaker
30 40 there's one in the top 40 that was a formula one race and it was the one that was in the United States so I think it just kind of goes to show that like it's really not that popular outside of Netflix and people who watch Drive to Survive and the racing stinks I Will say it people gave NASCAR a hard time for Chicago But it was not as big of a mess as this and I mentioned this on my radio hit here in, Lexington
01:04:30
Speaker
on ESPN radio here in Lexington, where I was doing my motorsports wrap up from the week. And they mentioned that they had the, you know, score people are seeing how big of a mess the setup is in Las Vegas. I said, we heard about this shutting down Chicago, but not to the extent of the problems this is causing Las Vegas. So I think NASCAR should be again, looking back commended for their efforts in Chicago, making it a lot more seamless than what's happening in Vegas.
01:05:01
Speaker
This is all encouraging things to hear as that's where I'm going next week for work. Well, Hey, yeah, good luck with that. Yeah. It's going to be a mess. I mean, I've even heard that like the drivers are going to have to like wear some sort of insulated gloves inside of their driving gloves because they're, they want the race to be completely in the dark at night. So they have all the brilliant lights of Vegas and everything, which is good in concept.
01:05:28
Speaker
But after the sun goes down in the desert, it gets cold fast. Or Steve, you know that you grew up in Arizona. Oh yeah. It gets cold fast. They're talking about like race time temperatures in the forties Fahrenheit. And also the asphalt that they put down to repave the strip or whatever and the different roads so that they can handle the side loads and whatever of the tires from the cars.
01:05:52
Speaker
Is a very fine material that it doesn't provide a lot of grip. So it's not very porous. So it's not like doesn't give much for the tire to grade across it just slides across the track and then
01:06:08
Speaker
having it being so cold or worried about tire temperatures, it's going to be a mess, I think. Verstappen has won 17 races this year. And I think they've run 20 race, 20, 19 races, 20 races so far. I just like the people who are going to, and I mean, we all know who's going. It's mainly people who are just have a lot of money and aren't doing anything else.
01:06:33
Speaker
It's not a race fans race. It's a go there to be seen type race. No. And I would like to point out the parallels or just kind of like you look at Formula One, you don't get anything. Whereas you go to a different, like you go to an IMSA race or you go like the Rolex 24.
01:06:52
Speaker
Um, where you can spend like $125 and get paddock passes for the entire weekend and as much access to some of the biggest names in, some of the biggest names in motorsports, like, you know, in that side of it. So, and the racing is so much better and it's longer, you know, so for me, 24 hours of action compared to two hours of action. And that's another thing, like you're paying all of this money really for a race that's an hour and 40 minutes.
01:07:20
Speaker
You know, so I just I I've for the one still takes a backseat to every other form of motorsports. Like I've seen a few V8 supercar races and those are so much fun to watch. But like IndyCar still, you know, kind of trumps everything else as far as, you know, the open wheel racing goes. Here, at least.
01:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, I just counted it. So the highest rated NHRA race on Fox got one and a half million views. That was in Reading, Pennsylvania. That outscored like 17 of the Formula One races. That's insane. Was that at Maple Grove? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I've been there.
01:08:12
Speaker
Anyway, so yeah, very interesting point out there on your, uh, on your ratings, uh, thing. That was a good one. Dylan, that was really good.
Jordan Taylor's Ironman Achievement
01:08:21
Speaker
My pop-up shower, uh, are, are one of our very favorite racing drivers on the show. Rodney sandstorm. He's also apparently a really good athlete. Uh, this past weekend, he did the iron man in Florida.
01:08:38
Speaker
finished the entire thing in nine hours, 59 minutes, and 45 seconds. So a sub 10 hour Ironman did his 2.4 mile swim in an hour nine. His 112 mile bike ride in five hours, five minutes is an average of 22 miles an hour. And then did the marathon 26.2 mile run in three hours, 35 minutes for an 8.12 average mile.
01:09:05
Speaker
And three 35 is a dang good time for a marathon to begin with, much less after having ridden a bike 112 miles and swam 2.4 miles. So completed the Ironman in under 10 hours. Uh, so it's a great accomplishment there for Jordan Taylor. And can we, can we finally put to rest now the whole drive race car drivers are not athletes trope. Cause I want to see anybody who says that race car drivers are not athletes go.
01:09:35
Speaker
do a, uh, uh, an Ironman and under 10 hours. I would like to see them sit in a cup car in 140 degree heat for, for five minutes. Right. Exactly. Yeah. It's a, it's definitely challenging for sure. Well, that's Jake. Do you have anything you want to add on a, uh, a pop-up shower or was that yours, uh, I spoke your piece earlier. Well, I kind of have, I guess this would coincide with reviewing our race picks here.
01:10:05
Speaker
Uh, when I, at the beginning of the playoffs, I went back to our first episode and listened to all of our preseason picks. No, no. Yes. And how far off are we? Well, someone in here picked Ryan Blaney to win the championship. Wow. And it was Braxton. Was it Dylan? You did Braxton. Wait, I picked him? Yes. According to what I wrote it down at the beginning of the playoffs.
Blaney's Championship Prediction Accuracy
01:10:33
Speaker
Uh, you had Hamlin, Elliott, Blaney, Reddick, and I, it says champ Braxton champion, Ryan Blaney. So we need to go back to episode one and find, find the clip. I'll go, uh, chase Elliott, Diddy Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, and Tyler Reddick as my final four. And I'll go, uh, Blaney as the champion. No, should have put money on that. That kind of blows up in my face. Like what I said earlier about Ryan Blaney wasn't really deserving.
01:11:01
Speaker
I guess I could have stopped you there. Dylan and I picked Hamlin, Steve picked Elliott. Wow, I was way off. Braxton, all three of you picked Blaney in the championship four. I did not. And then a bunch of the over unders on the wins. I don't know where we ended up with a lot of these.
01:11:32
Speaker
I know we got the Chase Elliott one wrong. Only one person. Dylan had the under on Chase Elliott wins. Everyone else had it over. Congratulations, Dylan. I can just see injuries in the future. I also think there is like a, I would say the main thing about that was that
01:11:57
Speaker
Blaney finished eighth last year in the standings without having won a race. So I think we were all on pretty solid ground with that. Hey, guess who finished eighth this year in the standings without having won a race? Brad Kuzlowski. Correct. There we go. What's the new Ford design? I think he got a hammer of Ford once again next year. Hey, yeah, we didn't mention that you have the new Ford design. Does those win total numbers? Yes.
01:12:27
Speaker
All four of us picked under on Lugano three and a half. I think he had three. I think he had one or no last year. Oh, last. Yeah. This year we had. Okay. We were, we were split on Ross Chastain over under one and a half. Everyone picked on Phoenix. He hit the one he hit the, he hit the over everyone picked under Christopher bell one and a half. We're all wrong. Oops.
01:12:57
Speaker
Uh, Dylan had over Larson three and a half. The other three had under. Oh, okay. He had four. Okay. Yeah. Um, Hamlin. I don't think I have an A for Braxton for these last three. I don't know what happened. Um, I think you were just hosting here at this point. Um,
01:13:22
Speaker
Dylan and Dylan and myself had over two and a half wins for Hamlin. Steve had under. And then Reddick, Steve said smash the over of one and a half wins on Reddick. And then Dylan had under, I had over. And then Kyle Busch was our last one. Dylan said smash the over one and a half wins. And then myself and Steve said under. So pretty, pretty mixed there.
01:13:51
Speaker
Okay, how many did he have to try wish at three? Yeah, I mean I need to find a book that actually has the win totals for the year next year that'd be good to go through like actual list because I don't I think we like went on some
01:14:16
Speaker
non-legit site to get to us. Yeah, we just looked at some random website, I think. Looking at the championship four picks, it looks like that Dylan, you had two of the four. You also had Larson. You had Hamlin, Larson, Blaney, Kyle Busch. I didn't have one driver in the championship four. Hamlin, Elliott, Logano, and Harvick. So there you go.
01:14:46
Speaker
Thanks, Denny, once again. Dear Denny. Yeah, I don't know. Well, let's get to our race pick recap, since we don't have any actual picks to make now. Dylan was Connor champion a couple weeks ago. Well done, Dylan. You know what's particularly embarrassing for my pick is that I picked a championship four driver.
01:15:16
Speaker
Dylan picked Reed Sorensen and finished better than I did. There was a point in the race where the 15 car got the free pass. Let's just say that. I love how it's the Reed Sorensen car.
01:15:35
Speaker
I had Christopher Bell, who of course blew a brake rudder and finished 36th, and Dylan had JJ Yaley in the 15 car, officially known as Reed Sorensen, who finished 27th. Also, I don't think enough people are talking about what they did in the Xfinity series with
01:15:55
Speaker
you just said i don't know how i just forgot his name sorry it's late for me but where it was like a fan voted on all their strategy calls and it was like a disaster
01:16:13
Speaker
I wish I would have known about that beforehand. I would have participated in that. Could you imagine a fan-controlled NASCAR car setup? Could you imagine Cliff Daniels looking at this and being like, we are going to blow an engine.
01:16:31
Speaker
Yeah, or you let like you get a bunch of dirt fans in there who are like, yeah, just like cranked down to compression on the right rear like to get it leaning over real hard over on the going around the corner like the high banks of Daytona where they have that just absolute like carnage. Oh, um, that reminds me of I think it might have been
01:16:53
Speaker
mid-ohio maybe or road america uh one of the maybe a portland one of the road courses the xfinity series ran that the cup series didn't run this year um parker clergyman's car and the xfinity series they took the front sway bar clear off and so he was picking up the inside tire on every sharp corner and it was it was wild looking and that's what that's what comes to mind when i think of like random fans making setup decisions like that
01:17:22
Speaker
That's amazing. Yeah, so Jake had the highest finish in the finale. He had Blaney finishing second. Steve had Hardwick who finished seventh. That was second highest. And of course Yaeli in the 15 finishing 27th for Dylan. And I had Christopher Bell who finished last.
01:17:43
Speaker
Let's look at some of the season long standings. So Dylan was our champion. Like I mentioned he finishes with 1,245 points five wins 18 top fives 24 top tens only three finishes greater than 30 and an average finish of 10.6
01:18:04
Speaker
Jake finished second in the standings. It's a monumental comeback for you, Jake. Only two wins, 12 top fives and 21 top tens. Three finishes greater than 30th, 1,118 points and an average finish of 13.1. Steve was only 26 points behind Jake finishing third.
01:18:31
Speaker
with 1092.3 wins, 10 top fives, 21 top tens, four finishes of over 30 and a 13.9 average finish. And I brought up the rear.
01:18:46
Speaker
1042 points in our real picks, three wins, two of those coming in the final. I was on my best Ryan Blaney impersonation there through the middle of the playoffs, middle of the last half of the playoffs and then managed to finish 33rd, 36th to finish out.
01:19:01
Speaker
So I had three wins, nine top fives, 14 top tens, a finish of greater than 30th seven times, and a 15.7 average finish. So Dylan, the champion there.
01:19:20
Speaker
You know, what's funny is that my stats in, uh, in random, we're actually really close to my stats and, uh, an actual fix actually had one fewer finish of greater than 30th in random than I did an actual fix, which is amazing.
01:19:35
Speaker
In our actual picks, I did win 906 points. Second was Dylan with 817, then Jake was 787, and Steve was 721. So Jake had a win. That came at Texas in the fall with William Byron. He had four top fives, six top tens, and six finishes of over 30th. Average finish 19.9.
01:20:05
Speaker
Dylan didn't have a win, but five top fives, 14 top tens, six finishes of over 30th, and 17.8 average finish. Steve got a win in random. That came at Michigan with Chris Buscher, six top fives, eight top tens, seven finishes of over 30th, and a 19.7 average finish. Then I didn't have any wins, but I had nine top fives, same as I had an actual picks.
01:20:34
Speaker
uh... fourteen top tens again same as i had an actual pics six thirty over finishes which is one fewer than i had an actual pics an average finish of sixteen point eight which was uh... just one point one position higher average than on my rain my actual pics so uh... i have some work to do next year or maybe next year i can just do um...
01:20:58
Speaker
Again, we can do random first and then actual pecs. I can just take whoever I get in a random every single week. And I just have a chance of doing no worse than this year. I guess we'll see when February comes around. Yeah, for sure. But it was fun doing this. And it was definitely exciting to keep track of it all week and kind of give us someone to pull for, right? Besides our natural fan drivers we're fans of or anybody we might have
01:21:26
Speaker
place a friendly wager on. It was definitely fun to do that. Got to give credit to Steve Luevender for the idea, by the way, on the random. It's a shame that Elon has killed that over on X. We know. All right, guys. Real quick, I want to mention, because Dylan brought it up a second ago, the
01:21:47
Speaker
Um, the new body for the forwards and the cup series, that's going to be a definitely an interesting look. And I mentioned to you guys in the group chat, I think it's going to definitely help on the forwards, uh, front downforce, uh, in the cup series, but, um, anything else you guys want to add as we look forward to 2024.
01:22:06
Speaker
Uh, I just, it was a great season. Um, I know that NASCAR a couple of years was the last year marketed best season ever, but I thought this season was, was better than the last, but then last season. And, uh, I thought that this was a really, uh, successful, uh, I had a podcast. I thought I was, uh, kind of unsure of how I would sound doing it, but we, I thought put a lot of, uh, did a lot of good stuff and put a lot of good information out there.
01:22:37
Speaker
Certainly had a lot of fun too. And I'm looking forward to next season and potentially also trying to get together for a race, which would be fun and go on location with one of these. But I look back at this season, I think the most, the one race
01:23:03
Speaker
that consistently pops into my head is the Chicago street course. I think that was the race of the year for a few reasons. Um, and, um, I, you know, it, it'll be interesting to see what Chicago brings in year two. But when I think of this season, probably that one will be at the top of my mind all off season.
Season Reflections and Gratitude
01:23:25
Speaker
And as always, uh, can't wait to start next season with the granddaddy of them all as one,
01:23:32
Speaker
one would say there, not the Rose Bowl, but Daytona. And looking forward to it already. And it'll be here before you know it. It will. Yeah, I'm looking forward to next season as well. I think there will be, you know, with the new faces in different places and the new Ford body and things, it should be pretty exciting, especially also to have two Hendrick drivers hopefully running a full season would help things out over there as well.
01:24:04
Speaker
Most definitely a lot of changes happening. Farewell to Kevin Harvick. Farewell to full-time driving for Eric Almarola. Lots of things to shake out before the series gets to the
01:24:19
Speaker
L.A. Coliseum for the clash in February, just a little over three months from now. We certainly thank all of you for tuning in, whether it was for one episode or the entire season. We greatly appreciate your listenership and support. We certainly hope to have you back joining us next year. I can't thank you guys enough, all three of you, for sacrificing a little time every week to do this and and joining the podcast here.
01:24:48
Speaker
And all of our guests we've had throughout the year, Ryan from my fantasy racing, Blake harms from flow racing and wood TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jason toy from a Kindred communications in Huntington, West Virginia, and a motor racing network. We can't thank them.
01:25:05
Speaker
enough we certainly want to get some more and of course Travis Braden mechanic there on the Hendrick 48 car shout out Travis he is going to be in the snowball derby this winter so still some racing to keep up with we will certainly do that but uh certainly thank all of our guests and everyone who helps uh make things possible around here all our significant others for granting us the time to do this without
01:25:28
Speaker
coming in screaming or their heads off that we are taking too much time talking about racing. And once again, all of you listeners. So thanks so much for tuning in to episode 38, the end of season one of cloudy with a chance of racing. Enjoy the winter, enjoy the off season. We might have some special or two throughout the, uh, the winter, but as unconfirmed.
01:25:51
Speaker
So goodbye for now. Have a great end of the 2023 year and we'll be sure to join you for sure at the beginning of the 2024 NASCAR season around the time of Clash and the Daytona 500. Have a good one everyone. We'll catch you next time.