Ep. 65 - NASCAR (Talladega) + NHRA (Charlotte 4-Wide) 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 a wild weekend on tap with NASCAR action at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and NHRA 4-Wide action from zMAX Dragway in Charlotte; listen, watch, and download episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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Hey and welcome to today's episode of the Thor of the Four podcast. I'm your host, Will Ernest, and uh we got lots of news today on this uh late night episode, so let's get into it. Uh I want to start with the big news that dropped today. Jim France will step down as NASCAR's ex chief executive officer, although he'll still be the chairman, and uh Steve O'Donnell, who's currently NASCAR's president, he will replace him, marking the first time in NASCAR history that someone outside of the France family will be CEO of NASCAR, which is a pretty huge deal. Um Ben Kennedy, who's France's great nephew, was also announced that he would become the new chief operating officer moving forward. So just a huge deal. I mean, the France family has controlled NASCAR for its entire 78-year history, and I mean now now things are different. So it's gonna be quite a big change to get used to. Um also NASCAR, they completed their Chicagoland Speedway Goodyear tire test earlier this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Uh Kyle Arson, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Blaney tested for the Cup series on both days. While Justin Algeyer and Brandon Jones tested for the O'Reilly series on Tuesday. Uh Algayer on Tuesday, he actually cut a tire down in the test session, but it seems like for the most part, from what I can see, the drivers are impressed with the aging of the track. Uh I'll read you what Ryan Bladey had to say. Uh quote, one of the neatest things about this place, I thought the surface was at a really good point of like very well aged to where we're going to use the whole racetrack. Tire fall-off is gonna be pretty big, especially when we come back in the summer. So we're gonna be able to use everything on the racetrack, which is good, but that's always nice when you have mile and a halves that are wide. I just remember it puts on really good races and the curved back stretch is different, but I have a lot of fun memories about this place, Rhyme Lady said end quote. Um, I just me personally, I just hope that Chicagoland can turn back into the modern day old Atlanta is despite Chicagoland opening all the way back in 2001, it's never been repaved. So I mean the surface is 25 years old at this at this point, and if the car handles well and the tire compound is just right, we could see some great racing and some more great intermediate track racing when we come back in July, but uh we'll see. In track house racing news, uh finally some good news for them. Connor Zilich and Shane Van Gisbergen have been announced to run a truck series race at Watkins Glen next month. Connor Zilich is in the 71 truck for Spire Motorsports while SVG's in the four truck for Nice Motorsports. I'm just I'm hoping for one, they can have a good clean battle for the victory. And for two, I mean Track House as an al as an organization really needs help, especially after last weekend's cup race at Kansas, where all three of their cars finished multiple laps down and outside of the top 25, so not great there. But if there's any good way in NASCAR to regain and build back some confidence in when you're a cup series driver is to drop down to some lower series races and win some of them, which Zilich and SVG have already done this year already. Connor Zilich dropped down to the O'Reilly series and won at Bristol, and SVG did the same just at Coda earlier this year. Um, speaking of building, IKEA is sponsoring Carson Hosefar for three races as an associate sponsor. Well, supposedly, I mean, we saw kind of what a primary scheme would look like, but I don't really know if it's like a show car or like an actual primary scheme that's gonna run, but we'll see. But the three races that they're sponsoring, whether or not they're an associate or a primary or whatever, the three races that they are sponsoring in some capacity are Texas next weekend, uh Echo Park, aka Atlanta in July, and Kansas in September. So hopefully the car is fully assembled and built by then. Um Ikea joke. Um, but I want to talk about views for a minute. First, TV ratings-wise, the cup TV ratings from Kansas last weekend, they they look good, but they're really not that great. As they pulled 2.926 million viewers compared to last year's 2.319 million. But I mean, sure, NASCAR will spin it off as it's a 26% increase. It's the most watched spring Kansas race in 10 years, but last year was Mother's Day weekend um in May and on FS1, which is cable, and I mean those last 10 years, all of them have been on cable. I mean, this year was in April, right before Talladega and on Big Fox, and you still couldn't get three million viewers to tune in. I mean, the last time Spring Kansas was on Fox, it pulled five and a half million viewers, so still a big drop there. I mean, yeah, which side note this weekend at Talladega is the last race on main broadcast TV until NBC televises the summer dayton race on August 29th, but that's a whole separate issue. But meanwhile, O'Reilly's and IndyCar TV ratings they continue to be good as um O'Reilly's pulled 1.18 million viewers with the most watched Kansas race since 2023, which was on Big NBC, and IndyCar pulled 1.269 million viewers, which it's the most watched IndyCar race at Long Beach since the 2008 merger. It's up 130% over last year's 552,000 viewers, and IndyCar themselves, um, over the first five races, it's averaging 44% more viewers, so pretty good there. Also, in the viewing world, somehow Imsa's YouTube channel has more subscribers than NASCAR's YouTube channel, which I don't really know how that's possible. Um, and Kyle Larson's showing prime video about his attempts at the uh Indy 500 Coke 600 double that premieres on May 21st, so good good for both of them. Um, but I want to talk to back touch on back to O'Reilly's for a second. It was brought up by NASCAR's executive vice president and chief racing development officer John Probst that NASCAR could use an uh electric crossover SUV in the O'Reilly series to supposedly give them a better brand identity. I don't really buy that, but I'll I'll read uh this quote from Probst uh quote, there is certainly a needle to be threaded there along the line of entertainment and sport, and maybe you can even go beyond sport and just say pure engineering. I think for us, I feel like we don't need to be on the absolute bleeding edge of powertrain technology to be relevant to our OEMs and also be entertaining to our fans, Probst said end quote. I do not agree with this, as I mean, we've seen and talked about the increased viewership in the O'Reilly series, and you could argue some weekends that it's the best series on the racetrack. You could argue sometimes it's better than the cup series, but I don't think it needs a different brand identity, especially now when it's seeing uh its most increased viewership that it's seen in years. So I mean when it's doing so well right now, I mean, why would you change it? I mean, I get that NASCAR needs to think towards the future, and you know, maybe Electric is the future, but if it is, it's like, you know, make a different series or something. Like, don't don't get rid of the one series that's still kind of left and been untouched as O'Reilly's is kind of the last series that has had its own, like, I guess, room to grow, if you will. And we've been seeing that with the increased viewership. But O'Reilly's has been doing so well right now, so it's like, why, why would you touch it? Like, don't touch it. Um, but yeah, we'll see what NASCAR decides to do down the line. In NASCORT news, some new NASCAR news, a partial preliminary injunction was granted for Joe Gibbs racing against Chris Gayhart, uh, but not against Spire Motorsports in new lawsuit developments. The court determined that Gaypart acquired JGR's confidential information improperly before he left, which includes data like race strategies, analytics, and financial details. Evidence shows that Gaypart copied this information onto personal devices without authorization, which warrants the injunction. Uh GayPart is prohibited from doing similar services for other NASCAR teams for up to 18 months. However, the injunction towards Spire mode was denied as there was no evidence that suggested Spire even acquired or used JGR's trade secrets that Gaypart stole. So this case will proceed on with restrictions on GayPart individually, but not on Spire as a team so that they can continue to operate without court limitations at this time. So we'll see what happens as this case continues to drag on. But something about lawsuits is just like why? So many lawsuits. Um but speaking of law, some good law um and legislation being passed, uh, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly officially signs House Bill 2416 into law, which protects racetracks from noise complaints from nearby homeowners under right to race protections in collaboration with the Specialty Equipment Market Association, CEMA, and the performance racing industry, PRI. It's a similar bill like the one that Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds uh passed here last year. It's another great day for racetracks. Hopefully, other states can follow suit and pass similar legislation to protect our racetracks, but um at least with Kansas's new law, there was not nearly as much debate as this past week with unlike the whole controversy with ESPN sports analyst Stephen A. Smith, and in the world of motorsports, particularly NASCAR, I mean, look, if you're trying to say that NASCAR or really any motorsports driver, like if you're if you're trying to say they're not an athlete, like you trying to say that is like if we uh said about you that you know, Stephen A. Smith, that you're just a guy that talks about the Lakers, Yankees, Knicks, and Cowboys all day, but like you're not you're not that. You're a sports talk host, you're a sports analyst, and drivers and team personnel in any racing series are athletes. Athletes are people that compete in a sport. Drivers and teams compete in motorsports and are athletes. I mean, motorsports have sport in the name, so what Stephen A. Smith said doesn't make any sense, and multiple people in the motorsports industry have tweeted they'd be more than happy to put Stephen A. Smith in like a two-seater car, which I don't blame him, but I'd take it a step further and just say, yeah, just go have him go test an ARCA car or something, just to really get the full true experience. Although we know that'll never happen. But uh back to the IMSA world, real quick. Some surprising news. Uh Actur is pausing their MSA GTP factory program after 2026, despite literally just winning at Long Beach, and they were the title sponsor of that race. Um, but they just won at Long Beach last week, and they're pausing their MSA GTP factory program to focus more towards IndyCar where they'll occasionally sponsor Meyer Shank racing. So some interesting news um there. And lastly, I want to talk about a few things in the Formula One landscape. It's definitely been a challenge with the US and Iranian war canceling both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia um in April. So no F1 races have been in April, they haven't even ran since late March with uh Japan. But F1 is back next weekend in Miami. There's been some new policy changes that have been announced. First, the first practice session in Miami was extended to 90 minutes, so get some increased track time, especially since you haven't run in like a month at this point. And second, there have been some tweaks to the cars and the energy they produce as uh super clipping has been a hot button issue where the power unit automatically diverts energy from the engine to the battery and it slows the car down, even if the driver is just straight up flat on the throttle. So they've made some changes to um adjust the energy and also improve the safety of the cars. I mean, we've seen uh Red Bull's four-time world champion, Max Verstappen, he's straight up questioned his future in F1 because of this. We're we've been wondering, is he going to retire um over this? But the cars will have a reduction in the maximum permitted recharge that they can produce from eight megajoules down to seven, which will hopefully bring more consistent flat-out driving. And also, peak superclip power has been increased from 250 kilowatts to 350 kilowatts, which should reduce the time spent recharging. Um, so new policy changes. We'll see if they um manage to work out, make the cars safer, make the racing more exciting. And yeah, but I mean F1 fans, we're we're gonna be glad to even see them back after a whole month off due to unforeseen circumstances. So great to see there, and also great to see uh F1's coming back to Turkey starting in 2027. So as of right now, the calendar next year is at 24 races, so it's always nice to see uh a boosted and beefed up schedule. But getting off the other news train now, a lot of other lot of other news on this episode. But we stopped first in Charlotte, North Carolina, where uh this weekend in Charlotte as Z Max Dragway, it's the only four-wide event of NHRA's 75th anniversary season. So I mean, as if 24,000 horsepower with two nitro cars wasn't enough. Try 48,000 horsepower with all with four nitro with four nitro cars all at once. But I mean, yeah. Remember as we talked about earlier this week, Ford and Dodge have a new 11,000 RPM limit in Pro Stock that's 500 RPM higher than Chevy. Uh, it'll be to try and increase parity in the class. So we'll see what Pro Stock looks like, especially with these new changes. Funny car wise, I mean, if there's any place in format that Austin Proc is looking forward to, it's the four-wide racing this weekend. As in the three four-wide races last season, proc won all three of them, but he desperately needs some good momentum. He's still looking for his first funny car round win of the year um at Tasca Racing. Of course, he left John Force Racing after winning back-to-back funny car championships to go over to Tasca Racing at Ford. His replacement, Jordan Vandergrift, uh at John Force Racing. Um, he already has two semifinal appearances in three races so far this year. So I think we know who won uh that battle so far. So we'll see if Proc can even get a round win. But four wide is so unique, being that like in in the first round and in the first in the first quad and the semifinal quad, you only need to finish in the top two to advance. So four-wide racing is definitely a lot different than traditional. Um, but in top field, um, we also mentioned earlier this week, but Edith Zedderstrom will step into the Sean Reed Racing Top Field Dragster this weekend with new partner global skill. It's certainly some new changes for Sean Reed Racing and further operation. I spoke to Sean himself last month about those changes, so um they're they're definitely big changes, and we'll see what they're able to do with them. But um after Friday and those couple qualifying sessions, uh you had Sean Langdon, Ron Caps, Greg Anderson, and Matt Smith. They currently sit as the provisional number one qualifiers, and it was Langdon, Proc, Dallas Glenn, and Matt Smith who won this event last year. So um yeah, but everybody's chasing not only the 75th anniversary Diamond Wally, but a win at the only four-wide event of the season. So we'll have to see who gets it done this weekend. But as if NHRA four wide wasn't crazy enough for you. We also have NASCAR in Taladega, Alabama, this weekend, including some more arca action where um first up, Squirrel McNutt has been approved. Uh he finished 12th place in the Arca race at Kansas last weekend, so he's approved to run at Talladega in Arca with Cleese McFarland. So they're gonna be shaking and baking uh tomorrow. But Gio Rogero, he won last week in Kansas. He won the other super speed race for Arca at Daytona back in February. He looks to win and add another win tomorrow from the poll. And uh also, real quick, shout out to a great paint scheme for Jackwood's 28 car. I mean, it's sponsored by Road Ranger, which is nothing out of the ordinary, but it's got Larry McReynolds himself on the car. I mean, it's the Macmobiles. I mean, uh cool scheme there. We'll see if it's as fast as it looks. But in O'Reilly's, I mean, are we going to see another are we gonna see another flip after Carson Guapel's flip last weekend at Kansas? I'm not totally sold on that, but at the same time, you got Arca at Talladega. You always have Arca breaks as a risk. Um, but I th I think I think somebody's gonna flip. Somebody's gonna flip or at least come pretty close. I mean, we've seen some pretty hard wrecks at Talladega recently. So we'll we'll see what happens. I mean, the big the big one always strikes, it's just when and where. So, but can Richard Childress racing make amends after last weekend's running at Kansas to score another super speedway win? Will Austin Hill and Jesse Love will they play nice after last weekend? Austin Hill, he won the season over there at Daytona this year as well as both Talladega races last year. Jesse Love won last year's season over there at Daytona and won the poll for tomorrow's race at Talladega while he'll start sixth. But of course, if you want to talk super speedway racing, at least recently this year, I mean you gotta mention Haas factory team. Sheldon Creed scored his first crew in at Atlanta back in February, which that was the last time he even raced on a super speedway. He finished second last weekend at Kansas to Taylor Gray, and teammate Sam Mayer qualified on the outside pole in second. So uh we'll see who survived the chaos. Our picks. I pick Jesse Love, who ends up starting on the pole tomorrow. So we'll see what he can do. Evan with Austin Hill starts in sixth. Haley with Sam Mayer, who starts second, uh Stacy with Sammy Smith who starts back in 13th, Bernardo with Harrison Burton deep in the field, starts 30th, and Noah with Brandon Jones uh also deep in the field starts 22nd. But if there's any place that it kinda sorta-ish doesn't matter, um like where you where you start, where you qualify, it's the super speedways, it's Daytona, uh a little less Atlanta, but Taladega as well. It's like it's a super speedway, you know. You could you could draft your way up from 20th to the lead in 10 laps. So, I mean, it's like qualifying matters, but at the same time, it's more of like how well can you draft, what moves can you make, when it's you know, when it's time to fuel save, can you fuel save? Um, and just can you stay out of trouble? That's that's kind of the biggest thing, and it definitely requires a little bit of luck, too. But we'll see. Cup, man, just there's there's three big there's three big storylines coming in. Well, I guess four, if you want to mention um the the stages being flipped. It's gonna be so weird. Stage one is 98 laps to try and get the fuel saving out of the way, and then stages two and three are just 45 lap sprints, so that's gonna be very unique. It's trying to um calm down the fuel saving and just make it uh full throttle sprint to the finish. So who knows? Maybe all super speed racing ends up being this way. But in terms of the really big storylines, um first up, there's a 41 car entry list at Taladega this weekend for Cup. So one of the five open cars are going to go home empty-handed. I mean, you got the 36 charters plus the five open entries. You got Casey Mears for Beard Motorsports, JJ Yaley for NY Racing, Chad Vencham for Garage 66, Jesse Love for RCR, and Daniel Dyde for LiveFast, making his cup series debut. So man, that's gonna be wild. But if qualifying gets rained out tomorrow, which it kind of looks pretty likely, then Casey Mears with DQ is beard motorsports, has no owner points after their disqualification um at the Daytona dual race back in February with Anthony Alfredo with those uh hope. Is disconnecting so that that'd be a pretty tough deal. But I don't even know if qualifying is gonna end up happening, so we'll see. Um, second, we know that Taladeg is always unpredictable, it's always been unpredictable, but there's been 11 different winners in the last 11 races here dating back to the fall of 2020. There's a pretty good chance, in my opinion, that we see a 12th different winner. I look at my pick for this weekend. Carson Hosovar to score his first career cup win this weekend. Trust me, um, you heard it here first. If you doubt me, uh just look at two weeks ago where I picked Ty Gibbs at Bristol, and he won that. So that that that's that's my opinion. But Hosovar, he led on the last lap of the Daytona 500 back in February until he got spun. Finished fourth at Atlanta in February, and finished sixth at both Talladega races last year, so he's been up front at a lot of these super sphere races recently. I mean, it's only a matter of time before he closes the deal and scores his maiden victory. But third, I mean, if if Hosamar or really anybody wants to score the victory, you have to stop Tyler Reddick. I mean, he comes off of his fifth win of the season last weekend at Kansas, even though we've only ran nine races so far. But Reddick has a win at Talladega back in the spring of 2024. If he wins this weekend, for one, it'd be the debut primary sponsorship race with Rockstar Energy. For two, it would net Tyler Reddick his sixth win in just ten races, and for three, he would go three for three this year on super speedways, which is just insane. But Toyota did win last fall here at Dega with Jogas Racings, Chase Briscoe, so I mean, it's not totally out of the question, but at the same time, what are the chances that Reddick's gonna win again? But I mean, Redick has won a Talladega before, he won the Daytona 500, and he won Atlanta, so Redick knows how to get it done. It's just will he get it done? But I mean, yeah, but our picks, uh, I mentioned it already, but I'm picking Carson Hosovar. Um, Evan is picking last spring's winner, Austin Cindrick. Uh Haley with Ryan Blaney, who's got three wins here at Talladega, Stacy with Bubba Wallace, whose first career win came here in the fall of 2021. Bernardo with Brad Keslowski's got six wins here, which is tied for second most of all time, but none since leaving Team Penske after 2021. And Noah with Joey Logano, three three wins here, but none since the spring of 2018. So we got all three Penske cars, and then Brad Keslowski for RFK, who used to be a Penske car, and then Bubba Wallace and Carson Host of ours. So pretty interesting uh mix there of drivers, and we'll just I mean it's just it's Talladega. I mean, you just you just have to thread your way through the chaos and put yourself in the right position and not make mistakes and then have luck on your side. That's pretty much how it goes. But we'll see what crazy things happen this weekend from Talladega and Charlotte, and we'll be here on Monday to recap and talk all about it. But that's all we got for today's episode of the Throttle Floor Podcast. Make sure you tune in and listen and watch and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, check out the chill photography and throttle floor podcast, Instagrams and TikToks, and uh that's all we got. And we'll see y'all on Monday.