Ep. 53 - NASCAR Spring Las Vegas and IndyCar Arlington Preview

About the Podcast: The Throttle to the Floor Podcast is a motorsports podcast where me (William Earnest) and Evan Sager co-host and sit down with guests each week to talk about what is happening in the world of NASCAR, IndyCar, and NHRA plus we take frequent looks at other racing under the motorsports umbrella.

About the Episode: On this episode of the Throttle to the Floor Podcast, I preview NASCAR Cup and O'Reilly's action from Las Vegas and IndyCar's debut on the streets of Arlington in the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of the Thor of the Floor Podcast. I'm your host, Will Ernest, here today. Uh, but we got a scorcher of an episode, and we're gonna start with some literal uh flaming hot news. Uh, if you will, next weekend's uh FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by uh N NGK Sparkplug, excuse me, has had its start times moved up as weather for that weekend of March 20th to the 22nd has been forecast to have highs anywhere from 104 to 107 degrees. I mean it's it's hot right here recording in the studio, and I can uh barely get my own letters and words together, and I mean triple digit heat plus you've got just I mean 104 to 107 degrees, that's just the air temperature. So, I mean, not only is that dangerous heat, but I mean the track temp and the temperatures inside the race cars, that's gonna be even hotter, so not a great situation. Um, but shifting gears now. According to Sky Sports and later reported by ESPN, Formula One is set to cancel uh April's races in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia doing to due to the ongoing Iranian and Middle East war conflicts, which if this is confirmed, which is likely uh set to happen next week, then the next F1 event after this weekend's racing um in China and then uh Japan's event, which is at the end of this month in March, uh the next event would be Miami all the way in like the first weekend of May. So not not a great situation there um for F1. But I mean, what can he really do uh at this point? But in some lawsuit news now, Joe Gibbs Racing is seeking expedited discovery in their lawsuit against Chris Gayhardt and Spire Motorsports in uh everybody's favorite place, the Western District of North Carolina. That's where the of course the big NASCAR antitrust lawsuit, that's where that was all handled. But uh Gayhard says that he wants the court to deny that request because it is uh quote unnecessary, premature, and seeks to circumvent the process, end quote. But he also says that if it is granted, he wants it to be reciprocal so that he can then seek internal communications from uh Joe Gibbs racing. And also the big storyline that came out earlier this week, Alex Bowman. Once again, he's been ruled out in the NASCAR Cup series race at Las Vegas. Justin Alguier will drive the uh number 48 Chevrolet in his place. Although the rumor is that Bowman is gonna be out sometime until April with his uh Vertigo, but I mean he could be out even longer than that, so it's just not a great situation uh for Bowman in that 48 car, unfortunately. But hopefully he's able to get better quickly and get back in the car. Um, but I want to jump to uh IndyCar now. IndyCar uh making their uh debut uh race, the street course around uh the Dallas Cowboys ATT Stadium and the Texas Rangers Globe Life Field Um down in Arlington, Texas. I mean, that in itself, um building a street course around those two historic stadiums, that in itself is impressive. But what's even more impressive is the character that it has compared to some of these other street courses. Turns one through eight, they're pretty technical, uh including the uh horseshoe section, which contains turns four through seven. It's the uh slowest part of the course, but every street course has got its own technical sections, but that's just this is just on another level, and then after you exit turn eight, you get like a quick right-hander through uh turn nine, and then the drivers they'll reach the extremely long back straightaway, which is almost a mile long, about 0.94 miles long. It's about 700 feet longer than the straightaway at Monza. Um, Indianapolis, their straightaways is like just over six-tenths of a mile, and then uh Detroit and Long Beach, theirs about two-thirds of a mile. So, I mean, this is basically the longest or one of the longest straightaways we've really ever seen on any track, let alone a street course. I mean, this is just um this is just pretty unprecedented. And what's also unprecedented is that early estimates they report that at the end of the long back straightaway before breaking for the uh sharp right-hand 90-degree corner uh turn 10. Um, they're saying that speeds could reach anywhere from 180 to 200 miles an hour, and this is on like the street course package. I mean, if you put like the Indianapolis super speedway package, I mean pretty fast. But yeah, just I mean, for a street course, this is pretty unheard of with these kinds of speeds, but um yeah, and then turns 11 to 14, just some more right-handers, but I mean the drivers can't really take that lightly, especially with it being a street course. We talked about this um on the show here. Um, back like when we were previewing St. Petersburg street courses, you don't really have any room to run compared to a road course, you don't have runoff areas. Um, you if you get into trouble on a street course, you're kind of just in the wall and your day's pretty well done. But yeah, but after you get through those 14 turns, you spit on on the front stretch to complete the 2.73 mile long lap. It's the second longest in IndyCar this year, only behind Road America, which is 4.048 miles long. Um, and Road America's also got a pretty long front straightaway as well, but not quite as long as Arlington's back stretch. So, yeah. Um, Arlington, their pit road is a is a uh split pit road, which is something we see in Detroit also, just a better experience overall for the fans, and the fan support for this race has been pretty successful so far. So hopefully the racing on Sunday uh is able to kind of back that up. But our indie car um picks for this weekend. Uh I picked Kyle Kirkwood. Kirkwood secured four of his five career victories on a street course, including last year at both Long Beach and at Detroit. Evans picking Alex Pelow. Pillow, he lost the uh championship lead to Joseph Newgarden last weekend at Phoenix when Pelow DNF'd and Newgarden won the race. Um Pelow losing the championship lead is the first time in 622 days that Pelow didn't lead the point standings or since June 23rd, 2024. So it's been a long time, but the last time that IndyCar was on a street course was two weeks ago in St. Petersburg, and Pillow was the winner. So um we'll see. And also Alex Pillow was second in practice in opening practice uh earlier today. So yeah, um Haley's picking Alexander Rossi, who finished sixth last weekend in Phoenix, and was seventh in opening practice earlier today. Um Scott McLaughlin finished second to Alex Pillow at St. Pete a couple weeks ago, and led Pillow and everybody else in opening practice. Um yeah, Scott McLaughlin's Stacy's pick. Um Bernardo's picking David Melucas. He won his first IndyCar NTT P1 poll award last week at Phoenix before uh finishing third. And Noah picking Scott Dixon Dixon in his last 20 races on a temporary street course. He has four wins, with those being Toronto in 2022, Nashville in 2023, and then Long Beach and Detroit in 2024. So uh we'll we'll just we'll see how uh Arlington goes. I'm very curious, especially um at the long backs at the end of the long back straightaway, heading towards turn 10. Um, it's either gonna be a really good passing corner or there's gonna be a ton of people overshooting that corner or just break failures. Um yeah, we'll see. And being Texas, you also gotta worry about the heat down there too with high track temps, but um, yeah, we'll see how it goes. Getting into Las Vegas now, we'll start with O'Reilly's. Um more cup drivers in the O'Reilly's field this weekend. It's funny how we get to O'Reilly's and then I start talking about cup drivers, but yeah, Connor Zilich is back in the one car after finishing second last fall at Las Vegas to uh Eric Almarola back when he ran the 19 car. And speaking of that, 19 car, Chase Briscoe is the one piloting the car this weekend with new sponsorship from Wix Filters, those those cars. Uh it's on the 19 O'Reilly's car and on Briscoe's cup car. It just it looks really good. Um, yeah, and then in Zilich's old 88 car, uh now this week is def is driven by Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson, who last year uh after Zilich got injured in uh af at the end of Talladega um in the O'Reilly is in the O'Reilly's race last year, he missed Texas and Larson got in the car then and won. So we'll see if Larson can do it again. Um and then Justin Algar, who just went last weekend in Phoenix, looks to go for two in a row in the O'Reilly series at Las Vegas, where he won this spring race last year as well. And then, of course, as mentioned earlier on Sunday, Algar will replace Alex Bowman in the cup race due to uh Bowman still recovering from his uh vertigo. So, yeah, again, hopefully Bowman's able to get better. But our picks for uh Las Vegas, I'm going with Corey Day. Hopefully he doesn't wreck half the field, but he finished fourth last fall in lost in Las Vegas and just his ninth O'Reilly series start. Evans picking Sam Mayer, who finished fifth and ninth at the two races in Las Vegas last year. Haley's picking Austin Hill, who won the spring race in Las Vegas back in 2023. Stacy's picking Jesse Love. He has four starts in Las Vegas, and his last three finishes are sixth, third, and sixth. So pretty good there. Uh pretty underrated track for him. Bernardo's picking Connor Zilich, who was previously mentioned last fall when he was still in the 88 full-time, uh finished second to Eric Almroo, and Noah picking Austin Green. I'm not really sure um what his thought process was there, but I mean, you know, some people have different ways of thinking. I'm not gonna complain about that. But he's hasn't done too well. He's ran two Las Vegas starts, he's finished uh outside the top 30 in both of them, but hopefully he can turn it around uh this weekend he's been he's ran good occasionally and showed flashes, he just hasn't had the finishes to show for it. So um, yeah, just hopefully uh O'Reilly's can go well. Hopefully, as I mentioned, Corey Day doesn't wreck half the field. Um Allgiers gonna try and fend off uh some cup regulars to try and go for another win. Um and yeah, we'll see what happens in O'Reilly's. But on the cup side of things now, I mean we got we got the first of the bread and butter intermediate tracks this year. There's like it basically makes up like a quarter to a third of the whole schedule. So, I mean, just Las Vegas really it'll show and give us a clearer picture to how this year is gonna go. Kyle Larson has made Las Vegas his playground recently, wins in two of the last five races here, and laps led in each of the last six. However, he hasn't won a cup race since last May back in uh Kansas, despite winning the title last year. And I mean the guy who arguably should have won the championship last year was Denny Hamlin, and he won the last time we were in Las Vegas last fall. Um, and then Josh Barry, he just he just hopes that his miracle run to win last year's spring Las Vegas race wasn't just a fluke. His four other starts, his best finish is 20th, which isn't all that great. But I mean his cup win last year, kind of a fluke, kind of not a fluke. It's it's weird. He won two of Riley series races at Las Vegas before his cup win, so um, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what he can do. But our cup picks, um I'm picking Kyle Larson. Larson has mentioned he's won two of the last five races here in Vegas, has led laps in each of the last six. Um Evans picking Ty Gibbs. It looked like he was gonna get his first career cup victory last weekend in Phoenix before he was passed late by uh eventual winner Ryan Blaney. Uh Gibbs has a fifth place finish in the 2024 Spring Las Vegas race, but otherwise, no finish here better than 22nd. Um Haley's picking Joey Legano, he's won four times here in Las Vegas, sixth here last March. Um Stacy's picking Denny Hamlin, as previously mentioned. He won here last fall, but only finished 25th here last spring after being on the wrong side of strategy. Bernardo's picking Christopher Bell, who's been kind of on both sides of the coin here lately. Uh he finished second in the fall race at Las Vegas in both 23 and 24, but he crashed in the 24 spring race, and last spring he finished 12th after uh, well, it was pretty known he didn't have a wheel tight, so then he had to go to Briscoe's uh pit area to get the wheel tight to make sure the wheel didn't fall off, but still only finished 12th in a failed attempt to win four races in a row as the prior three weeks before that. Um Atlanta, Dakota, and Phoenix, he won all three of those. He was trying to go for four in a row, couldn't get it. Um yeah, and then Noah's picking Chase Elliott. He only had uh Chase Elliott only has an 18.9 average finish at Las Vegas. Statistically, it's one of his worst tracks with uh four DNFs, only three top fives, six top tens, and no wins in uh 17 starts. So uh we'll see how cup goes. Fifth race of the year uh for cup first of the bread and butter intermediate tracks. Uh it'll kind of sort out uh a lot of the mess that we have in the point standings with guys like Briscoe and Bell still kind of buried a little bit in points. Um but yeah, I'm hoping I'm also hoping that SVG can uh keep his momentum going. He's still fifth in points, and I'm just wondering, just you know, can he perform on another oval um like he did last week in Phoenix? They said that they s on yeah, they said on the radio that they circled Phoenix and Bristol as his two oval tracks that he wanted to improve the most, and despite spinning twice at Phoenix last week, he managed to finish 11th. So SVG's making quite a bit of progress, and it's kind of just a matter of, you know, I I don't want to say, you know, if SBG's gonna win an oval, I think it's when. Um, but we'll we'll see. Uh still a long way to go uh this season, but lots of fast action this weekend from both Las Vegas and especially Arlington. I'm looking forward to that race, uh, especially all them indie cars flying down that long back stretch. Um but yeah, we'll recap it all on Monday. Uh hopefully from uh Indianapolis as uh weather permitting uh with the big blizzard trying to come into my area. Um but plan on doing a special episode with uh Sean Reed uh racing that day from their shop in Brownsboro, Indiana, and then after that we'll uh do the regular episode. The special episode will probably come out probably Tuesday or Wednesday um next week. Uh assuming ends up happening, being that uh assuming that travel conditions are safe, uh getting down to Indy, it'll be me and Noah and Evan. We'll be all there. So uh yeah, but if you want to see that, um you'll have to tune in and download and subscribe um on all the platforms. But uh yeah, that's all we got for uh this week's uh little bit of a shorter episode of the Throttle Floor Podcast. Um to make sure you uh tune in on Spotify, uh Apple Podcasts, YouTube, check out the chill photography and throttle for podcasts, Instagrams and TikToks, and like and subscribe and comment and tell me how to uh get good YouTube content. But um yeah, so uh that's all we got for uh today's episode of the Thor Four Podcast, shorter episode. Um we'll hopefully fingers crossed, uh see y'all on Monday from Indianapolis, and hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll have the uh great special content uh either Tuesday or Wednesday after that. But yeah, that's all we got for uh today's episode, and we'll hopefully see you all Monday.