NASCAR fights, Stewart/Haas and Dale Jr. All on this episode of GET OUT N DRIVE
Transcript
Announcer
You're listening to the get out and drive podcast with John custom car Nerd Meyer and Jason old car Guy car will be bringing you gearheads everything you never wanted to know about cars and why they should be on the road and not in your garage. Are you ready to get out and drive?
Jason
So welcome back to another great episode. I know it's been a while, a little bit of a hiatus, but we've got our crap together and we're ready to start talking some NASCAR on this episode. John, welcome to the podcast.
John
I love NASCAR, so it seems like I'm in. The right spot.
Jason
Yep. Well, I think we're in the right spot before we get going. My name is Jason, Olde Car Guy Carr.
John
I am John Custom Car Nerd Meyer.
Jason
And today we are talking NASCAR. There seems to be an awful lot going on in the NASCAR world and I think it's worthy of a little bit of an episode to get this out there and get some thoughts and some interest in what people are thinking. And we want to start right out of the gate with the boxing match that broke out at the All Star race a couple of weeks.
John
There was almost a hockey game.
Jason
Right.
John
There was so much fighting.
Jason
Absolutely. And it wasn't just two people fighting. It started that way, but it ended up where? On lap two of the All Star race, Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse jr, got into each other, leading to Ricky Stenhouse getting wrecked. On lap 2. It was just to me. I was watching the race and to me it was just. A racing thing. Rubbin’s racin’.
John
Rubbin’s racin’.
Jason
Uh. Kyle Bush, get into a little bit and when they come back around for the next go at it. They just crossed paths a little too close. Ricky Stenhouse got up in. The. Wall, at which point he proceeded to go to the pit box of Kyle Bush, where his crew chief was and tell them that he would be waiting at their hauler at the at the race. And that's exactly what happened when everything was all said and done, Kyle Bush goes back to his tower and there's Ricky Stenhouse getting ready to have a little chat. UM.
John
He was in his fancy beach attire. I saw that.
Jason
The shorts alone was worth the admission.
John
Yes.
Jason
So they tried to talk it out and I think Kyle Bush and a lot of the announcers during this time were saying that Kyle Bush was pretty much prepared to admit that he messed up. He never got that far. The fish, the fish started flying. And. And Ricky Stenhouse junior ended up with a 75. $1000 suspension. And ordered immediately to burn those shorts. No, I don't. Know about the shorts, right? It.
John
That was my vote. That was, that's just my. Vote. That's how I find him.
Jason
So John, in a case like that, I can go back probably 10-15 years in NASCAR when the rules of the higher ups in NASCAR was. Have a turbo. Meaning they wanted to see the rivalries, they wanted to see a little bit of rubbing on the track. They wanted to see a little bit of. In your face. You know, good cop versus bad cop or whatever you want to call it and.
John
WWE on Wheels.
Jason
Exactly. You know, that's one thing they don't want. They don't want them using these cars as weapons, but.
Speaker
MHM.
Jason
You're in the pits. You're heated. You're racing for a million dollar bonus. And you get wrecked on lap 2, regardless of whose fault it was you got. And despite what was going on, is fighting. The answer is that what the fans want to see is that what NASCAR was hoping to accomplish when they said boys have at her.
John
My unpopular opinion is in the past many, many years, NASCAR seats are getting more and more. And more empty. My opinion. It has to do with safety. It has to do with everybody is the same car, same everything? Same, same only things changes the driver. And the driving style, or if you blow a tire or how quickly you change a tire, how quickly you refuel, there's not a whole lot of variables other than maybe temperature. You know Dave Race and. Your own, your own, your own, your own. There's only so much people can watch of that, and I don't. I'm not conspiracy theorist, but I sure want to throw in the fact that. They're telling these guys to have at it because that fills the seats. That gives good guy against bad guy. That gets the old rivalries against the new rivalries, vice versa, whatever that gets people buying merchandise that gets people online, that gets people talking, it's. It's bad for the sport to see somebody jump on each other in another pit. But. That's WWE. That's this guy isn't supposed to win. That guy isn't supposed to win, you know. OH, man. Bigfoot crashed. Guess who won again? Grave Digger, that kind of thing. That's my opinion. Is I believe it's kind of sort of a little bit contrived. What say you?
Jason
Well, what I what I say is that. Ricky Stenhouse jr got fined $75,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct. But what did they do? The whole preview or the whole following week? that was the news clip. That was the Punch, and NASCAR blared that.
Speaker
Yep.
Jason
Like it was all over the place. And so, yes, they're saying unsportsmanlike. But look what might happen at a race when things get heated. Maybe you should watch the next one. Maybe you should buy a ticket to the next one. Maybe you should go online and watch the next one. So it's one thing to sit there and say that Ricky Stenhouse junior was in the wrong for throw on that punch. Yes, he got fined. But you don't ask, don't, don't think for a second. NASCAR as an entity is not going to exploit the crap out of that to put ***** in those seats for the next race. And they and that's.
John
Any publicity is good publicity.
Jason
Absolutely. If you're talking about me. Or they're talking about the sport. That's good. Every time somebody says the word, NASCAR dollar signs are flying in somebody's eyes.
Speaker
MHM.
John
Well, sure, that's why I said, you know, contrived or not, or somebody said. What if this were to? Happen. Well, let's see. And there are very few. Dale Earnhardt's style go out there and win at any cost finish on the roof backwards. Ricky. Bobby.
Jason
RIGHT!
John
Type. OH fart. No, I'm on fire but. There's not those racers aren't there anymore because rules regulations. Safety equipment 100 other reasons are sponsors how the sponsors look in and in in what light they look. You walk a fine line as a sponsor of do you want to be a sponsor of the bad guy, quote UN quote bad guy? Do you want to be the sponsor of the good guy?
Speaker
Hmm.
Jason
That's right, the bad guy gets talked about and every time the bad guy gets talked about, they're showing his car.
Speaker
MHM.
Jason
With that, sponsors name on it, it seems how we are on a little bit of maybe an unpopular topic, whether we're for or against this fighting. I think the whole idea of you talked about, you know, there's no, there's nobody that's been the current version of Dale Earnhardt senior. Here's the unpopular part. I truly believe as much as I dislike Kyle Bush, I believe that Kyle Bush. Is about as close as we're getting to the intimidating driving style. The win at no cost. The I'm going to wreck you if I can to move ahead. And the fact that this kid, I say kid, he's not younger than we are. Wins in everything he gets in.
John
OH yeah, he's got the Midas touch man, he.
Jason
Wins in the trucks. He wins in the Xfinity he wins in the in the Cup cars. And when he goes out wherever he's going, he whatever he's sitting in, he wins. So I'm not, I'm not necessarily comparing him as the equal to Dale Sr. I'm saying he's the current version in my opinion of what we see today in NASCAR, so.
John
Yeah within these rules and within this atmosphere of today's NASCAR. You know it's difficult to be aggressive and not get in trouble.
Jason
Yeah. And you know what I say? Boys have at her.
John
Right.
Jason
If that's what it takes to get NASCAR, I stepped away from NASCAR. I quit watching NASCAR a few years back when Jeff Gordon retired. I watched for a year or two after that and Jeff Gordon was my driver for years, right from the 90s when he first started. On through to his retirement and at the beginning I said, you know what? I've got all this 24 merchandise that I'm going to continue wearing, so I'm going to follow Chase Elliott. And then what's chase Elliott? Do changes his number to #9. His old man. But I just kind of got away from it for a while, and now that I'm back, I've bought the subscription. I'm watching every race, every Sunday and I'm getting back into seeing who these new up and Comer. And one of the names that jumps up as an up and Comer who's been around probably since I walked away from it is Kyle Larson and Kyle Larson has been in the news over this last week because he tried to do the double header, the Indianapolis 500 and the Coke 600 all in one day. If it hadn't been for rain. He'd have done it. And my guess is he likely had the car to make it happen. So John, what had happened was the Indy 500 got rain delayed and the start of the race pushed. Ahead or a push back so that they let they race later in the day, that that didn't. Jive with the schedule for the Coke 600 so they had to have a relief driver start the race for him in the number 5 car at the Coke 600. He did not start that race. The rules in NASCAR say in order to qualify for the cup or sorry, in order to qualify for a championship. To get into that, you have to start every race. Now there is a caveat. You can get a waiver and the waiver may allow him based on unforeseen circumstances, may allow him in. But should he go forward and race in the chase and win the championship? Was it a real championship? This is where the some of the controversy lies right now. John, what do you think? If you, if the rules say you've got to be there. What circumstances constitute a waiver approval?
John
If it is weather related, I believe it's going to be out of your hands if you. Have some issue that's completely your fault. I believe that you should not be allowed to race. That's 100% my opinion about. I can't. I can't control the weather and neither can NASCAR. If the race was completely rained out, nobody could have started the race. How would they deal with it then?
Jason
Yeah. And one of the. Things that was out of. That that leads me to talk about this a little bit is when Kyle Bush. Broke both of his legs in a crash that happened at one point during the season and he was out for several races. But yet the waiver allowed him to heal, to get back in the car because he had won a race. They allowed him to qualify.
Speaker
M.
Jason
Or the cup championship. I agree with that. I do, however, had Kyle Bush been off. Gallivanting and racing in a different series and received an injury.
John
MHM.
Jason
I would probably say no. I wouldn't grant that waiver. But in this particular case, had everything gone to plan, Kyle Larson would have raced the Indy 500. He'd had time to fly to Charlotte, race in the Coke 600, start the race, finish the race. Like I said before, he's a winning driver.
Speaker
M.
Jason
Quite possibly have won that race, but he will never know. So I guess the idea is if everything had fallen into place, he'd have been able to raise that he would have been able to qualify. The weather did not work in his favor.
John
Thanks tornadoes and rain.
Jason
On the topic of the Coke 600. 600 miles. The longest race on the NASCAR schedule, 400 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Christopher Bell was leading when the caution flag came out and then the red flag for rain. It was well into the early morning when they realized they weren't going to be able to get the track dry.
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
Jason
With the jet dryers, all their efforts and have the drivers get back into the car in the wee hours of the morning and finish this race, they called it. It was halfway or better. That constitutes an official race. Christopher Bell? No. Well, I guess I think he did before. Anyways, he won was given that win. Now he is able to race for the championship as well.
John
Every time you're saying what you're saying, all I can think of is somebody pulling in in the clown car and Ricky, Bobby gets to gets the race, cause he's busy getting a lemon. Made the driver is busy getting the lemonade and the chicken sandwich. You know, that's all I can, that's all.
Jason
Yeah, we need someone who can race this car. Who wants?
John
I can think of.
Jason
To go fast.
John
Exactly. I think we're wasting time. Yeah, that's fantastic. But yeah, as you're saying that, you know, replacement driver, that's all I can think of. So.
Jason
I want to go back.
John
If I'm in a daze somewhere, it's because that's what's playing in my.
Jason
Head other news that I think is probably some of the biggest news in modern NASCAR times is the fact that Tony Stewart. NASCAR Cup series champion. And team owner Tony Stewart.
John
And Leah Pruett's husband.
Jason
Leah Pruett's husband. It's an inside joke if you know, you know. Has decided that that it's time. To exit NASCAR and he's going to focus his. Efforts on his NHRA team and try and you know build that up over there. NASCAR is an expensive, expensive sport. There are high demands. It's a 365 day a year business and organization just because they're not racing doesn't mean they're not working. Stuart Hoss holds 4 charters. If you guys don't know what charters mean, it means you have to pay money to own A-Team to be able to compete in NASCAR's top series. They own 4. If they're getting done at the end of the season, that means four teams somewhere out there in the atmosphere can grab a hold of one of those charters. Or two of them, or all of them, or however they're. Going to do it. And. Make their competition efforts greater. And. The one name that comes to mind in that is Dale Junior, Dale Earnhardt junior has been talking about racing a car or a team in the Cup series for the last several years. And was trying to. Figure out whether it was worth it. And I think that this might be an opportunity for. For. That to happen, wouldn't it be great to see the Earnhardt name on a team back in the Cup series? John.
John
I would love it. It would be a chance to weave some nostalgia into current NASCAR times. Whether or not they would choose to do that through colors or vintage looking sponsors or anything of the sort, silver and black and red, and you know, all sorts of things, I think I think it would be fabulous.
Jason
And to tie into that headline with Tony Stewart and Stewart Haas being out. 4 charters being up for grabs. And the thoughts of possibly Dale Junior and Junior Motorsports coming to the cup side. How awesome would it be? For that number.
Speaker
Right.
Jason
To be back on the track. The original font.
John
MHM.
Jason
That sideways leaning #8 that Dale Junior started with his father at DEI, and the reason why I wanted to bring that up was simply because of the copyright on that #8. Is B is owned currently by Teresa Earnhardt or Dale Earnhardt incorporated, and for years?
Speaker
Just.
Jason
She just held on to it. She would not let it go. And now it seems as though. It may happen that Dale Junior will apply for the copyright on that #8 and. Again, how awesome would it be to see the number 8 in the Cup series owned by Dale Junior or Junior Motorsports and?
Speaker
Hmm.
Jason
Having a big name come up behind that to race? How awesome would it be to see Dale Junior behind the wheel again?
John
Do your sources say anything about him actually being behind the wheel or only managing a team?
Jason
Well, he would be the team owner and I think at this point in time because he owns I believe it's four teams or four cars in the Xfinity series. He doesn't race over there. He's got drivers over there, so my guess is that somebody from over there on the Xfinity side would likely come in and move up into the cup series if they were ready. Honestly, Dale Junior is my age in his late 40s. I can't. Imagine him at this point, getting back into a car at that age because it seems as though once you hit 40 and above. Yours somewhat. A nobody in the sport again, but you've got Denny Hamlin. Kyle Busch. You got some of those guys who are in there for? He's continuing to compete and win races, so don't count them out yet. Don't count Dale junior out. I don't think that for one second, he doesn't have that opportunity or wouldn't make that opportunity for himself. But you never know. It could be something that could. Happen either way. I think if everything all comes together, it would be great to see the number 8 in the Cup series again.
John
Oh yeah. I mean, it's despite what other people say that that auto racing is not a strenuous sport. They are completely wrong. I mean, it takes everything out of.
Jason
Yeah. And we've had, we've had some NASCAR drivers that we've talked to here on the get and Drive podcast. We've had some of the inside from the NASCAR teams, AJ Ware who come over here from Petty GMs Racing, which is now Legacy Motor Corporation Co owned by the Great Jimmy Johnson. As well. Says. I think Richard Petty still has some dabblings in there, a little bit, so it's always great to get some of that inside information from NASCAR. John, anything that you want to add to that?
John
Not really. I hope that NASCAR gets to a point where they get butts in the seats. Because. Social media has made it to where you almost don't need to go to a race unless you want to feel the race. Everybody can get the same passion, the same mental backing, and hurrah for their driver and the whole bit and everything through. Video through social media, people watch the races, the live all that thing. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to go to all the tracks and watch their favorite driver. So I think anything that NASCAR can do if it is to let their guys rub a little more and get a little heated, I think it'll help.
Jason
Yeah, and of course you guys are right down the road from what used to be Gateway International. What is it called now?
John
Yep, Worldwide technologies Raceway.
Jason
And I was my closest race track to where I am was loud in New Hampshire and we would go every fall to the fall race. We would pack up the camper, we would drive down, we'd make a great weekend out of it. And there's nothing like. The smells, the sounds and the feel. Of those NASCARS and trucks when they're riding by you at, you know, 100 and 3000 and 40 miles an hour, or in some cases more when they're at. The bigger tracks, but. It's definitely an experience and I think NASCAR has done something right with this latest generation of NASCAR. The If you're making all the cars the same, the biggest difference is going to be in in your strategy and that guy behind the wheel who's able to, you know, run the wheels off and take chances and do exactly what it is they do in NASCAR and not just at the top series at all levels of NASCAR. You've got to start low and work. Your way up. You know, and it's fun to see. That NASCAR is willing to make changes. Throughout the seasons and to move with what? What's what people want to see. And you know, if you happen to see a swinging fist or a knuckle sandwich in the pits, well, guess what, if that's what it takes to get some seats in John, this was great being able to talk a little NASCAR with you. And share some of the news that's coming out right now. And I think that, you know, as time rolls on, maybe this is something we can come back. To and. See update on some of these stories. What do you think?
John
I can't wait. I'm going to watch every single race to see if there's a pass in the grass.
Jason
There was one last week. Really. Yeah, you missed it.
John
Wow, I did not. I did not see it. I was, I was busy, but no more passing the grass that that, that kind of stuff makes the makes the world go round.
Jason
Yeah. And if it wasn't for the 1979 Daytona 500 race, where I forget the names of the drivers, but I think Bobby Allison was one of them and maybe David Pearson there was 2 two guys. The race, they wrecked each other coming around the final lap and they're back stretched duking it out. And it was the first race. Rebroadcast on TV, and I think that's what drew a lot of people in, so maybe that's what we're trying to get back to. I don't know at the end of the day, we're excited to see where NASCAR goes in the future and hope to be able to talk to you guys a little bit more about it. Let's see where this goes. Hope you enjoyed this style of podcasts. Make sure you let us know if you like it and if you have any suggestions on what you want us to talk about. Make sure you had an over to get out and dr.com scroll all the way to. The very. Bottom there's a list or hotline tell us what. You're looking for. Tell us what you want to. Hear and we'll do our best to fill you full crap. Just like we do with this episode, we'll keep it moving. Thanks a lot guys. We'll talk to you in the next one.
Announcer
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John
What drives you?
