Ep. 71 - NHRA (Chicago) + Dover All-Star Weekend (NASCAR) 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 NHRA's venture into Route 66 Dragway in the Chicagoland area for the sixth of 20 events on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series calendar. In addition, I also preview NASCAR's All-Star weekend festivities, where this year it will take place at Dover Motor Speedway for the very first time; listen, watch, and download episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of the Thorn of the Floor Podcast. I'm your host, Will Ernest, here today with just myself. Got a short preview episode today, so let's get into it. Uh, real quick, I want to touch on this. Catherine Leg, she will attempt the Indianapolis 500 Coca-Cola 600 double uh this year. She's the first woman to attempt the double, just the sixth all time to attempt it, and looking to become only the second driver to complete all 1100 miles after Tony Stewart finished sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte uh back in 2001. So hopefully hopefully that goes well for her. But I want to get into uh NHRA. They're at the uh they're in the Chicagoland area this weekend, specifically Julia Illinois at Route 66 Dragway for the Gerber Collision and Glass, Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak. And me and Evan, we get to bring you all the action uh in first person as we'll be there on Sunday. Last year we saw Tony Stewart uh in top field, Jack Beckman and Funny Car and Gay Terra and Pro Stock Motorcycles score wins here. Pro Stock is back in the fold as they'll be racing at Chicago for the first time since 2024. Uh but Coletta Motorsports, they come into this weekend in high control, both top field and funny car. Sean Langdon and Doug Coletta come into this weekend uh one and two in top field points. And at the last event, the Southern Nationals, two weeks ago, Langdon broke the official national speed record that Britney Force set at Indy last year with the first 345 mile per hour pass in NHRA history. Langdon also backed it up with a second pass the next day at 344.91 miles per hour and the top field win on Sunday. So Langdon now holds the two fastest speeds in the NHRA history and comes in as the most recent top field winner after winning at South Georgia Motorsports Park two weeks ago. Uh but sadly, just it it doesn't look like the weather's all that great. It's pretty hit or miss. We might not see any more record breaking runs due to put uh rain and possible storms forecast for the whole region into early next week. But Doug Coletta, he's second in top field points behind teammate Langdon. He got a win of his own at the four white nationals at Charlotte last month, which was his 60th career win. Uh Coletta looks for his fourth win at Route 66 raceway this week, and Langdon seeks his first. And then J.R. Todd, he currently leads the funny car points after advancing to the final round at the Southern Nationals, where he lost to first-time funny car winner, Jordan Vandegrift. And Todd has never won at Route 66 raceway either, but had a runner on finish there back in 2016. Antron Brown and his team, AB Motorsports, they come into this weekend with some optimism as Antron has four wins here, including back in 2024. But both here, but or both last year here at Chicago and last week at South Georgia, Antron was eliminated in round two. Sean Reed, a good friend of ours, is he's been on the throttle for a podcast before. Uh he hopes to swing some momentum his way as he does not have a round win this year. However, last year Reid advanced to the second round before uh falling to eventual Chicago winner, Tony Stewart. And Ron Caps Motorsports looks to continue their hot start to the year so far as Ron Caps sits second in funny card points with two wins at Phoenix and Charlotte. And Maddie Gordon, despite being a top field rookie, already has two semifinal appearances in her first five starts. So we'll see what all happens going into this weekend with possible rain. But I don't know if the rain's actually gonna happen, so we'll see. But Dover for the All-Star weekend, trucks on O'Reilly's they're running points races still, but the cup race is the exhibition non-points all-star race for the truck series. It's the first truck race at Dover since August of 2020. Long time ago. Man, August of 2020, that's like COVID times. But current cup series uh driver Zane Smith won that race over Matt Crafton and Brett Moffitt. But Kyle Bush is back in the 7 truck for Spire Motorsports, and he not only won the poll, but he set a new uh track record in qualifying at 161.74 miles an hour. Bush is looking for his fifth truck win at Dover and fourth in a row that he has entered, but this is also the first truck race at Dover that he has entered in since 2014. And uh speaking of N Tray, shout out to NHRA Pro Stock motorcycle rider Destiny Spurlock, who managed to qualify for the truck race at Dover and is now the first African-American female to race in a top three NASCAR series event. So great to see there. But our picks for the truck race at Dover, I'm picking Chandler Smith, he starts in 14th, Evan with Lane Riggs starts 11th, Haley with Stuart Friesen starts 13th, Stacy with Ben Rhodes starts 12th, Bernardo with Ross Chastain starts eighth, and Noah with Justin Haley starts 26th. So for the most part, we're all bunched up there from like 8th to 14th place. We're pretty all we're pretty all bunched up there. Um but in the O'Reilly series last year we saw Connor Zilitz take the win in a rain short race, only 134 of the 200 laps were run, so not not great there. But Zilitz is not on the entry list this week. He took his third straight run at Watkins Glenn via a last lap pass on Jesse Love last week, and once again, no Fords on the entry list, which is a separate problem in itself. Now NASCAR really needs to look at that. They like they were trying to say, oh, the O'Reilly series has an identity problem, like, and we should think about running crossover EVs. That is a mistake. The O'Reilly series is the best product on on track on a weekly basis, and the TV numbers are really good too. It's just the the problem with the O'Reilly series is that there are no Fords, and like 85% of the field are Chevy's. So, like, not not it's not it's not good. That that that in itself is a problem that needs to be picked. But our picks, uh, I picked Brandon Jones, he finished third last year at Dover in that range shortened race. Evan with Jesse Love ended up fifth in that same race. Haley with Sam Mayer, Stacy with Justin Algeyer, who was fourth in that race, and tenth last weekend at the Glen after starting second. Uh Bernardo with Carson Quappel, who's back in the one car this weekend, back in the car that really should be his full time, but whatever. And Noah with Ryan Ellis. Uh I'm not gonna question that, but you know what? That that's his pick. So but in the Cup Series, this is the first time that the All-Star race has been held at Dover in its 41 year history. It was, of course, back when you know in 1985 when it was founded, it was called the Winston back to uh to Winston title sponsorship, but it was held at Charlotte in 1985, and then it went to Atlanta for one year in 1986, and then it was held at Charlotte again from 1987 all the way to 2019. COVID in 2020 sent it to Bristol, and then it was at Texas in 21 and 22, and then it was at North Wolkesboro from 23, 24, and last year in 25, before moving, you know, this year to Dover. Last year, CRISPR Bell won the all-star race, and also Denny Hamlin is the two-time defending Dover winner, and Ty Gibbs got his first win at Bristol, which was the last time the Cup Series raced on concrete. All three of those, if you're wondering what they have in common, they all drive for Joe Gibbs racing. So we'll we'll see what all happens there. I just I feel like the Dover I I felt I've always felt that Dover needs Dove Dover's one of those tracks that just needs time to settle in. Like it needs a 400 lap points race, you know. Like Dover Dover Dover's not gonna be like crazy well, okay. Dover's probably not gonna be crazy exciting when like you only run like a couple hundred laps or something. Like it's like Dover's not really like a I don't I don't wanna say it's a flashy track, but like it's just it's not like super insanely boring, it's just like Dover's a track that just needs time to settle in because when you have when you give it time to settle in the cars and the drivers they wear down and that's what and that's what makes Dover that much better because Miles the Monster will come and eat you. That that is what it does. It gives time it it you need time for that concrete to come and eat you alive, but just I don't know how I feel about Dover being the all-star race. For one, Dover should be a point state, for two, having an all-star race in the daytime, like I get Dover doesn't have lights, but having an all-star race in the daytime, like television coverage starts at noon central time, like middle of the day. I mean, uh but I don't know how I feel about that, and it's also even more scary being that uh you got FS1, you know, Fox televising it, so uh not not not not not great there, especially after last week of Walkins Clinton. But luckily, this is the last week of uh Fox FS1 coverage next week starting with the Coca-Cola 600. We get Amazon Prime. Thank goodness. I I'm I'm glad that Prime is back. That is good, but anyways, um I want to touch on uh back to my test segment. Uh just welcome welcome back to how's Hosabar, aka where we see how Carson Hosabar is. How how is Hosabar? It's it's pretty self-explanatory. He streamed Spectrum Night in America last night. They was it was pretty funny. They they took trophy trucks around both Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Kokomo Speedway, the dirt track. Uh apparently Hospar also loves catch up on certain things, and he only eats craft mac and cheese. That's a real one. That's the only mac and cheese he likes. I'm like, yes, that is also the same for me there. He also uh started talking about Vejitas for some reason, and we all thought he was pronouncing it with a V. Sometimes I question myself and realize wait, did I pronounce it with a V or an F? Like it it it's it's hard. But on track wise, he ran fifth in practice, but only 18th in qualifying in the truck while Spire truck teammate Kyle Bush won the poll with a new track record, like we mentioned earlier. But yeah, so that that's that's how's host far for you. Thank thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk. But we got Dover All-Star Weekend and as well as Entrait Chicago coming up this weekend. Me and Evan will be in Chicago all day on Sunday, uh bringing you all the action and content and all that. But that's all we got for today's short preview episode of the Thor of the Flirt 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 podcasts, Instagrams, and TikToks, and that's all we got. So yeah, we'll recap it all on Monday. We'll be back from Chicago, so we'll tell you all about that, and we'll tell you how the all-star race goes. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to it. I mean, if I would be happy if the all-star race is mediocre. I really don't want the all-star race to be a disaster because I feel like if it's a disaster, people are gonna be like, get rid of Dover. You know, Dover doesn't deserve to exist anymore. Like, no, Dover is a good trek, it just needs time. It's not designed for an all-star race, that's designed for a 400 lap, you know, a 400 lap race. That that's what it's designed for. But anyways, we'll recap it all on Monday, but that's all we got for today's episode of 504 podcast, and we'll see y'all on Monday.