Ep. 72 - NHRA (Chicago) + Dover All-Star Weekend (NASCAR) Recap

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, me, my co-host Evan Sager, and my guest Noah Altman recap 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, we also recap the controversial NASCAR All-Star weekend, where this year it took 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

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of the Far All Floor Podcast. I'm your host, Will Ernest, and here today with my co-host, Evan Sager, my guest Noah Ollman.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Hello, y'all.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

What up? Noah, you're finally back.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Only took you a month and a half to get back here, and we don't talk about uh what happened in seventh period in class today. That that's a later problem. That's uh that's our own por personal lore. But anyways, I want to touch on some other things. Uh the NASCAR Hall of Fame class of 2027 has been announced. Kevin Harbick and Jeff Burton got in on the Modernera ballot while Larry Phillips got in on the Pioneer ballot and Lisa France Kennedy won the landmark award. They will be inducted next January. So good for them. I mean, at first I was a little surprised with Jeff Burton, but then I kind of thought about it for a second, and he was pretty good driving-wise, but then he has all the broadcast work and he did a lot of the safety stuff. Um, you know, after Dale Sr.'s passing and all that, so pretty, pretty deserved there, at least for me, and then of course Kevin Harvick. We all we all knew Kevin Harvick was getting it. He got like 92% of the monetary value.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, that's he deserved it, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

For sure. Uh also some big news last weekend for Indy Carr that I wanted to touch on. Three things. First, Alex Pillow wins the poll for the 110th Indianapolis 500 with Alexander Rossi second, more on him later, and David Malucas third, second, Kyle Collette and Jack Harvey. They had their times disallowed post-qualifying, which moved them to the back of the grid, which moved most of our qualifying spots uh up a spot. Um and third in Monday's practice session, Alexander Rossi had a scary-looking crash exiting turn two. He got spun and then uh pretty much almost flipped on the wall when he hit the wall and then Power Ward spun, trying to avoid and slammed rear end right into the side of Alexander Rossi's car. But Rossi went to the hospital for minor surgery on his left wrist and right ankle. But hopefully, he's hoping to run Carb Day on Friday and of course the big race on Sunday. So uh prayers out there. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. We will see.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

I hope it looked like almost a Zane Smith type of crash from last year's Kansas race.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, well, it was it wasn't a cool wall ride, it was just slamming to the wall, and yeah, but I get I get I get the similarities there. But onwards to NHRA, NHRA, they were in the Chicago Lane area this past weekend, specifically Joya, Illinois, at Route 66 Raceway for the Gerber Collision and Glass, Route 66, NHRA Nationals, presented by Peak and me and Evan. We got to be there.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

We did go.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

We did get to go. Where track conditions were definitely a handful, especially after round one. The sun kept coming in and out throughout the day, which it it baked it baked us both on the stands a little bit, but Evan, definitely you more than me.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

I I'm two shades darker than I was on Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You just you you wanted to go home.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

I was done. I was ready to go. We were there for almost what 13 hours.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah, we were there for like 12-13 hours. We were there basically right as gates open until after all the racing was done. But I mean you were out waiting in the car, waiting on me while I was taking winner's circle pictures. But anyways, some some tough days for some of our good friends, including Throttle of the Floor podcast guest, Sean Reed and Clay Milliken, who both lost in the first round. Uh Clay actually he blew his drag strap. We caught up with him afterwards after after that whole uh experience. But Justin Ashley somehow he managed to lose it his own game. He lost I don't even know how he pulled that off. He lost on a whole shot to Josh Hart. Normally he wins on a whole shot.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Let alone losing on a whole shot. That's just wild. But to add insult to injury, after the lights, after they went through the lights at the thousand foot mark, uh he blew up the supercharger and the fuel injectors.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

So that was unfortunate.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

In insult to injury there, especially since uh Skag, like they're from the Illinois area. So like home track pretty much just about for them and just ended pretty early. But it was not all bad for Skag racing as the Bluebird Turf cars, Will Smith in Top Fuel, and Dave Richards in funny car, they secured upset round wins on route to quarterfinal finishes as a fellow Will. I am proud. Yes, and we got his auto raft. Yes, we did get a lot of auto drafts. We we met quite a few people, but yeah, but both Tony Stewart racing nitro cars, they advanced to the semifinals, uh Matt Hagen and Leah Purit. But Tony Stewart himself, driving for Elite Motorsports and the defending top field winner at Chicago, he could only get to the second round where he was eliminated by again, ironically, Josh Hart, who on Saturday he set the track speed record at 341.25 miles an hour. It's the first time that Chicago has even seen a pass of more than 340 miles an hour. So pretty pretty fast speed there. Pretty fast speed. Um Ron Caps Motorsports, in my personal opinion, they they had a half full, half-empty glass of water kind of weekend. It depends on how you look at it. Um, I mean, they won their first round matchups, but they couldn't get past the second round despite qualifying uh number two in both Funny Car and the Top Fuel. Caps lost on a pedal fest against eventual funny car winner Chat Green, more on him later. And Maddie lost on a shootout of a drag race against eventual top fuel runner up, Antron Brown. But while we didn't meet Maddie, we did meet Ron Caps, and I will say, great, great guy. He's definitely a man of the people.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yes. He was always signing autographs. He was barely in the hauler when we saw him. He was man of the people, I must say.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yes, I mean we were we were by his pit multiple times. He was out there signing autographs, taking pictures, talking to people every time. We were over there. He signed my Napa hat and got a couple hero cards too. Great guy, great guy. Um, but in the semifinals, it was very interesting. It was still pretty hot because at that point it was more sun than clouds at that point. Um, and you were you were baking a lot. I was dying. Yeah, you were practically turning into a lobster, but it also got very windy in true Chicago windy city fashion. Ironically. But I mean, just the Lucas Oil Sportsman classes, they had to be pushed back till after the Mission Foods classes because it was so windy. I mean, I'm not really sure how that managed to happen, but it pretty much screwed up the schedule for the rest of the day. Yeah, it really got all wacky. It got very wacky. But when the chips were down, we saw very interesting final rounds. None of them more tragic than in pro stock marsh, oh man, you Matt and Angie Smith, they lined up once again, husband and wife, just like uh the 2014 New England Nationals. But then Angie's bike just died on the starting line as Matt Smith coasted to his second straight victory on the season at a 6.835 at 185.41 miles an hour. But what sucks is Angie Smith was the number one qualifier and was the fastest bike every time down the track. All seven previous runs, the four qualifying sessions, and the first three rounds before that, she was the fastest bike on ET wise down the track, and it just it wasn't even closed until the final when the bike just shut off. Yeah, just didn't go over it.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah, and plus even uh Matt in a post-race interview even said that Angie had the best bike all weekend, which it just came down to that one race where it didn't pull through. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

I will also add, she did say in the post-race interview that she was having transmission issues in the end when in the final in the hour they had between rounds, and she was trying to fix it, and she thought it had it fixed, and apparently not.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

It was not fixed. Just just tragic. But I mean, I mean, in the in the winner's circle, they had both the bikes there taking pictures.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

That was pretty nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

I mean, no marital disputes. That that's good. Yes, that's good. Um, but it's Matt Smith's 44th career win and third victory in Chicago. But in pro stock, it looked like Greg Anderson's race to lose. And then he lost. Then he lost went 96,000ths of a second red almost a whole tenth of a second. That was that was bad. That was that was pretty bad. Throwing away the fastest run of Eliminations all day.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Nothing. And it just it hands the win to Aaron Stanfield, who in the semifinals beat his dad, Greg, by seven thousandths of a second, and then Greg's car caught on fire after the lights.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah, we were on the red flag for at least 20, 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, they did clean up that them tractors are running. They had a busy day. They're running up and down that track all day.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I feel like this weekend brings a lot of family uh problems.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Like, I guess, yeah. I mean, the more I the more I think about it, yeah. You you're not wrong there, but it's Stanfield's uh Aaron Stanfield's first win since Reading of 2024. It's his 15th career win, and it's Elite Motorsports' first pro stock win since the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis last year. Man, can Elite Motorsports finally turn the corner and do something to beat them TB. Maybe KB Titan cars. Maybe maybe. Maybe. Maybe just maybe. We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

We'll find out eventually.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

We still got a long while to go. But in top field, Sean Langdon continued his dominance in top field with his third win this year in just the first six events, including now two wins in a row. It's also his 25th career victory. Langdon took down Antoine Brown, who made the drag race competitive to about half-track or so, about the 660 cone when he started to haze his tires. But Langdon with a 3.775 at 335.90 miles an hour to score his first win at Route 66 race. So he finally got it done. I mean, Doug Coletta, his teammate, had three top field wins at Route 66. Langdon gets his first. But man, just Funny Car was about the only normal final we got. Yeah. As Chad Green picked up his second win of the season after winning the season opening Gator Nationals and just his fourth career victory. Ironically, both of Chad Green's wins this year have come at the expense of John Force Racing's Alexis Azoria. Green's 3.945 at 324.75 miles an hour was enough to beat the Joria's 3.965 at 328.86 miles an hour. So two one hundredths of a second.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Pretty closely. It was a pretty good race, I must say. Pretty good race. Green is now the second driver to win multiple races this year in Funny Car after Ron Caps, who is now tied with J.R. Todd for the points lead. Green now sits fourth in points himself after the win in Chicago. This man, Evan, then proceeded to go back to his car while I stayed to get plenty of winner's circle photos, and I ran into the legend himself and Atre on Fox, main broadcaster Brian Lunds. We chatted, we chatted for a few minutes, mostly about uh Maryland coming up in a couple weeks. But all in all, Route 66 Raceway, Enjoy, Illinois, in the Chicagoland area is a great place. What's not great is Illinois Department of Transportation closing the interchange by the track.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

The whole the whole entire DOT sucked in the drive.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

I mean, yeah, but like closing that interchange right by the racetrack, you know, the week, you know, they closed it like the Monday before race week, like less than you know, just a few days before the race weekend, and it's closed till Halloween of 2028.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Like it's closed for over two years, so it's gonna impact uh NASCAR Chicago Land weekend in July too, and then you know the following two years after that. But yeah, just otherwise, I mean, it was a little warm and a little breezy, and Evan was roasting like a tomato. I guess we kind of both were, but I I have the heat tolerance. He does not.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

I hate heat. Heat is my enemy.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah. But me and Evan, we had a great time. Hopefully we can go back soon. Yes. Hopefully we can go back soon and go to more NHRA events this year. Yes. Because I think all in all you enjoyed it. I did uh more than not enjoying it in the heat.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

But N Tray returns with the inaugural Potomac Nationals presented by JEGS at Maryland International Raceway in two weeks from May 29th to the 31st. And ironically, Evan has a JEGS hat on. We did.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

We get some get some Jeg's merch while we were there.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

We did get some Jegs merch. We got a lot of merch, but ironically, you have a JEGS hat on while we're talking about that. But switching gears now, talking about Dover, first the truck series, just basically all you need to know about this truck race is Kyle Bush and Ross Chastain, they dominated this race. They combined to lead 196 of the 200 labs. And while Chastain ended up downing 18th, Kyle Bush went on to win yet another truck race. Yes, dominated in his career, dominant race. It's Bush's second truck win of the year after Atlanta. His fifth truck went at Dover, including fourth on a row that he's entered because prior to this race, he hadn't run, he hadn't run a truck race at Dover since 2014. Did not matter whatsoever. And it's a 69th career truck series win. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

Very, very nice number.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Very nice number. But our picked on standings. We have some big changes here. Big changes in the point standings. Evan, you now lead the truck series standings.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

I'm leading a series.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Evan is now leading the truck series points. Meanwhile, Stacy and Bernardo are both five points back. They're tied for second. So we have a very competitive truck series championship now.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Yes. It just took a few months.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

It took a little while, but yeah. Noah, you've trimmed it up a little bit to 108 points back. I've trimmed it up to 125 back, and Haley's 127 back. So uh pretty competitive for fourth place.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

We we are still like about a race and a half back, but you know what? We're small gains here or there. That's all we need.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Whatever we can take.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

It's whatever we can take at this rate. I picked Chandler Smith. He was pretty finger-licking mid all day long, but comes home in 12th. Evan, the reason why you took the points lead was Lane Riggs with a solid day in third.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

I have no idea what happened in this race. I'm not coming by you. That's all you need to know.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

That is basically all you need to know. Haley with Stuart Friesen ended up 11th. Stacy with Ben Rhodes down in 19th. Bernardo picked Chastain in 18th. Uh, led 49 laps, but down in 18th. Not good. And then uh Noah with Justin Haley ends up with a solid 10th. Ram, I Ram is putting together, they're they're making some really good strides. They like they were running like 15th to 20th every week, and now they're starting to get some top 10 runs fairly consistently. I think this is like the third race in a row they've had Ram trucks in the top 10. Something something like that. So they they've that they definitely have a uptick in speed for sure. Um, but getting into O'Reilly's now, Brandon Jones, he led this race early, one stage one, but the big story of this race were the cautions. Why were there so many cautions in this race? Nine cautions for a total of 54 out of the 200 laps, that is over 25% of this race. Run under yellow five conditions. Ross Chastain, who won the poll for this race and won stage two and led 68 laps on the day, uh, more bad luck.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Yes, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

More bad luck. Late race contact with Taylor Gray, saw Chastain fade back and ultimately finished in 13th. But it looked like Justin Algayer's race late, though, as in the last like third of the race, he led 71 laps, even though he started 13th. But those 71 laps were the most laps led, but he was stuck battling another Hendrick driver for the win, just like Texas.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Two weeks prior. This time it was Corey Day, and this time Algayer was in the lead with a handful of laps to go instead of in second, but the result was the same. Second. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Just different Hendrick driver.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yes, different Hendrik driver still second place. With just four laps to go. Corey Day caught Algar and they split the lap car to the 55 of Blake Lothian, which allowed Day to clear for the lead and the victory. Yes. Lap traffic at Dover. Not fun.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Not fun. But Corey Day gets his second career Riley's win after winning at Talladega last month, and he only led the final four laps in this race. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. As long as you lead the last one. As long as you lead the last lap. It's all that matters. Augner in second, like we mentioned. Sam Mayer in third. William Swalic in fourth, who had the fastest lap. And Austin Hill rounds out the top five. Our updated picks and standings. My points lead baby trim. Baby trim by Stacey. Trimmed off three points off my points lead. So I lead Stacy by 87 points. Haley by 190. Evan by 223. Bernardo by 237. Noah, you were 323 points back. Let's go! You might want to let's see how low we can go here. Yeah. At this point. Yeah. Let's see. Because we are we're we are about like we're we're a little over a third of the way through the O'Reilly's uh season, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Do you slip it up?

SPEAKER_01 17:14

I can make the meanest comeback.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Sure. Yeah, uh this is this is gonna be a little bit harder than that academic comeback you were planning, but crazy. But I picked Brandon Jones, who ended up in sixth with 31 laps left one stage one. Once again, Brandon Jones has to sell me in an O'Reilly's race. Once again, just like Kansas. I mean, it it wasn't as bad as Kansas, but Kansas wasn't his fault. Yeah, yeah, I guess that's true. Kansas was not his fault. But Evan, you picked Jesse Love, ended up in 23rd.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

Um, Roger Cruth, I'd like to have a word with you. You know, I can't put fully blame that was just a racing deal. As much as Roger Cruth takes the blame, that's more of a racing deal than anything.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

It was just a racing deal. Roger Cruth was down on the bottom, and then, you know, he went up in the corner, you know, naturally, and they just got together. It's a racing deal. It's like it's like how Chastan and Taylor Gray got together off of turn four. It's just it's just a racing deal. Sometimes it'd be that way. Yes. Sometimes in drag racing, in drag racing, you have the best bike and your bike shuts off.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Evidently.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah. So Haley with Sam Mayer, just a quiet third. Let led a single lap, which doesn't seem like a lot of match, but you know what? That's five bonus points. Yes. In our points, that does be five bonus points. Stacy with Justin Algar, yet again, uh, ends up in second, leads the most laps. I'm just glad Algar didn't win this race. Yes. That's about it. Bernardo with Carson Quappel. Uh, at least he was in the one car where he belongs uh this weekend. Ends up seventh. And Noah, why did you pick Ryan Ellis, who ended up in 25th?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

I don't know. This was kind of just a random pick of the entry last year.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

You just went shot in the dark and roll the dice. Yeah. You didn't want me to spin a random wheel, so you just did it yourself. Correct. Pretty much. Yeah, but just uh too bad uh we we are now entering into like the depths of hell now. Yes. Uh with the with the Cup Series. Dover, man, just it would have been a good race.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

It was a points race.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

If it was a points race, if it was a 400 lap points race at Dover, it would have been a good race. Probably one of the best in the last decade at that track.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Dover might be cooking with the PJ one.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Well the resin, but close close enough, close enough. It it's it's a track compound, close enough. But the resin, it was applied in the corners, and normally, like when we're used to PJ1 or resin, like they they do it all wrong, and they'll apply it on like the bottom or the top of like corners, but they just did top, they just did all the way up and down, like all throughout the corner, and somehow it kind of worked. Yes, just a little bit, just a little bit, but man, just as an all-star race, it was horrible. Yeah, the format sucked. The format sucked, such a terrible format. I mean, you had guys like Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain who were locked into the main all-star race, but because it was a 350 lap, you know, total distance, but you had, you know, two segments, and then you had the main 200 lap actual race for the million all-star race, but I mean you had three segments, and the first two of them had all the cars in it. Like you had Elliott and Chastain, they got wrecked out before the actual 200 lap main part wrecked in. I think there was like eight or nine cars that got wrecked and they couldn't go to the all-star race. So you had extra transfers that did not even belong and weren't even supposed to be there. I mean, Suarez supposedly won the fan vote. Did he actually vote? No, he didn't definitely did not. I don't know. I, you know, at the same time, I know Daniel Suarez has a lot of friends, you know, being from Mexico, but I don't believe that he actually won the fan vote. I think they just went down the clipboard and see who was still alive. Yes. Because I mean, and and don't even get me start, don't even get me started on like the math that you had to do in the first two segments to figure out where people would start, where you would start in the main segment. Did you transfer the main segment? You had to do you had to do some algebra just to figure out who was gonna advance to the 200 lap main segment. And then even once you got there, I mean, it wasn't all that great. But we had a big lap, a big wreck on lap two. Two. Priest uh had a scary wreck and almost died again. Yeah. This time, instead of uh flipping eight times down Daytona's back stretch or flipping in a corner Daytona turn three or uh getting T-boned by Kyle Arsen at Talladega. This time he caught on fire just like Ricky Bobby, except Ricky Bobby apparently showed up at Dover for some reason. He almost showed up at Chicago land, too. Yeah, you know what? That wouldn't surprise me. But he did. Remember, we saw we saw him in the um the walkway. Yeah, yeah, you know what? Yeah, we did. But oh yeah, the yeah, that's right. The guy at the Ricky Bobby. Be impersonated. That's right, that's right, that's right. We did see him at Route 66 raceway. We did see that. But back to Ryan Priest, just I think that that was like that's the biggest wreck that jogs my memory at Dover since Logano's flip. In what was it, 2009? Yeah. Overall, yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

But the biggest crash since 2016 Dover.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Oh yeah, 2016 Dover when what was it? Jimmy Jimmy forgot to shift. Jimmy forgot to shift and stacked up the entire field. Just turned Dover into a parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Not Chicago Street Race parking lot, but parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Parking lot. But apparently Bub Wallace and Tyler Eck won the first two segments. Nobody will remember that. No. Nobody will remember that for how awful this all-star race was, and it sucks for Dover. They deserve a point stay. Yes. The resin that they put all throughout the corners actually kind of worked. Yes. And it sucks because NASCAR really did them dirty. I mean, we need we need to find a better all-star race location for this. I mean. Huh. Charlotte. Yeah, bring it back to Charlotte, please.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Or just in North Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Yeah, just yeah. Put it put it somewhere other than Dover. I mean, how many, how many worse? I mean, there are worse places you could put the all-star race, but how many worse places could you put the all-star race? Daytona Road Course.

unknown 23:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Hey, hey, hey. I have seen that idea thrown out where, okay, you go to Daytona Road Course, but you do it like IMSA, where you have couple rides and trucks and multi-class.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

I mean, that'd be kind of smart.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Like that would that would sell some tickets. I I think I think they should like try that. Or maybe just do that like during speed weeks, just for the hell of it, you know. Just the test. You know. Just like uh I don't even know how you would market that, how to relate that to the rest of speed weeks, but I think it's a cool idea. Or I mean, I know they're bringing back preseason thunder at Daytona in January next year. I just don't know when that's gonna be because I mean you have the Rolex 20, the actual Rolex 24 for Imsa in late January. So maybe you could just do that crazy idea and just add it on the Rolex 24 weekend. Because if you think about it, it gives an excuse for the NASCAR fans to go watch that and watch the Rolex 24, you know. It's like it the marketing. I mean, I've just I've seen I've seen that idea thrown out there. I've also seen Road America get leaked at the Hall of Fame trying to come back for next year. I really hope that's a real thing. And here's here's my take San Diego, just like you know, IndyCar Street Race in DC, that's supposedly gonna happen, but it's probably gonna be a one-off deal because it it's kind of hard to run on a military base or run on the streets of the nation's capital, and even if San Diego doesn't happen this year because of the Iranian war, they'll just do the contingency plan, which is ironically, they don't have a road course. But San Diego will probably be a one-off, and so it's like, okay, what what could possibly fill that day? Road America. And you know what's the best part? You know it's the same weekend of San Diego, so like if you kept it the same weekend that Indy car that June 21st, yes, IndyCars that weekend, so boom, you have automatic crossover, and like they were talking about doing more of those after the success of uh Indy Car and the trucks at St. Pete, and then uh Indy Car and you know Cup and O'Reilly's at Phoenix the following week.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

So we'll see. Um, but just we need a different All-Star race, please. Or at the very least, just bring it back to Charlotte until you can get your stuff together and solve solve problems, please. But by the time we even got to the final segment, most of Denny Hamlin's challenges were either knocked out entirely or just crippled, puttering around the track. It was not good. Hamlin put BTA on that field. Yes, for sure. I mean, Chase Briscoe gave him a run for his money, but that that that's about it. Hamlin pretty much dominated all day, second in the first segment, third in the second segment, started the last segment from the poll before leading 103 of the final 200 laps for the victory. Denny Hamlin, third win in a row at Dover, counting the previous two years, which were points races, and it's his second all-star race victory after 2015 at Charlotte. Please come back to Charlotte. Please bring back the old style of the pit stop challenge inside the the Hornets Arena. Yes, that was that was a million times better than whatever we have now. Yes, run a lap, mega pit stop, blah blah blah. Like, ugh. I don't even know what is going on there. But Briscoe comes home second, Eric Jones, third, Austin Dillon, fourth, Connor Zilich Browns up top five in fifth. None of them deserve to be there. No, none of them. And you want to know if that's a product of the terrible format. Man, that was just no, that was so bad. But thank God, Fox. They're done for the years. Yes. That that deserves a golf clap. No, no, no. That deserves a loud clap, actually. There we go. They they really went, they really went up down bad. They were terrible to close up their television schedule. I will give you the TV numbers right now. 1.8 million viewers for the all-star race on FS1 cable. Terrible.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Absolutely terrible. Which is down from 1.965 million viewers from last year's All-Star race at North Wilkesboro. And you think, oh, Wilkesboro was a primetime date. Sure, but at the same time, Dover was at you know 12 o'clock noon, and because of how screwed up the format was, it was like a four-hour all-star race. Plenty of time for you to tune in and at least watch it and then realize how terrible it is. But not even people wanted to do that because they realized how terrible it was before even clicking on it.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

And that is how we ended up with only 1.8 million viewers. Fox needs help. Please. Please get help. Mike Joy, I love you. You're a great guy. You're a great broadcaster, but at the same time, you need to retire or at least do what Ken Squire did and be the studio host of the day 2500 for a few years and then retire. And we need Rick Allen back in the TV booth and put him put him on Fox. Yes. Get Clint Boyer out of the booth. Harvick, I think, keep for now as kind of a contingency plan. I mean, Harvick when he's good, which shout out Harvick for, you know, 2027 Class Hall of Fame. You know, good for him. But Harvick, when he's good, he's good.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

When he's bad and turns into Clint Boyer, oh, he's bad. He's bad. He's very bad. And don't even get me started on uh speed speed with Harvick and Bucks and don't even get me started on that.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

That's a separate That's a separate problem.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

But Prime is up next with their five-race television schedule starting with Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend, unless the rain has something to say about that.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Yeah, uh rain looks very likely. It's not supposed to be a washout, just scattered showers and thunderstorms all weekend, which kind of sucks.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

But it is the south. Yes. So pop-up storms are pretty much a daily uh regular occurrence there. That that is a statement from Weatherman Evan. Yes. We will have more on Friday. Yes. Friday will be a more in-depth forecast. Yes. More in-depth forecast. Stay tuned. But um speaking of Prime, they uh today they released their special pre and post-race handles that will be at each of the five races. Carl Edwards at Charlotte, Mark Martin at Nashville, MTJ himself, Martin True Rex Jr. in Michigan. Boy Mike started excited. If you can't tell, I I am a big True Rex fan. I'm so glad they got him off the fishing boat. We haven't heard from him in over a year since what it'll probably end up being his last start, which was the 2025 Daytona 500. I do have that diecast. Yes. Very nice. Very nice. But just I'm I'm I don't even know how they got him off the fishing boat. It's like he was uh or he was like in the woods somewhere or something, but like to fish, he's it's fishing. I I guess I don't know. But um Colonel Driver Brad Kozlowski, he'll be there at Pocano, and Jeff Gordon at San Diego. I'm very interested how San Diego goes, assuming they don't cancel it from uh war impacts. That that's not gonna be good. You good? Yeah, okay. But um lastly, I want to talk about uh Carson Hospar on my House Hosbar segment, which if you don't know, uh it's it's how we see Carson Hospar is. It's pretty self-explanatory if you couldn't tell.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

He ran good in the truck race on Friday before once again DNFing in the truck. He's had some bad luck in the truck series lately. Not good. Ended up in 31st place in the main all-star race. He had another fast car before he blew a tire, fixed the car, which the car was somehow still good, and then uh waiting on, I think it was the last segment, got out of his car, took a piss because of how screwed up the whole segments were, and then he got screwed by the Joey Leano caution and cursed out everybody on the radio. That was that was something. Um and ended up only finishing in 14th place. And then uh his stream late last night, all he was doing, uh everybody in the server was driving around with Oscar Meyer Wienermobiles at Daytona in BMG Drive, which was hilarious in its own right. And he's also streaming uh tonight as we were recording, although we're not sure what he's doing. We're gonna go find that out on uh once we're done with this episode, and we will report that to you on Friday. Yes. We're gonna we're gonna see what he's doing. But uh thank you for listening to this segment of House Host Bar. But All-Star Weekend, finally done. Fox, finally done until February of 2027. Soak it in.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

Soak it in.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Soak it in. Praise the Lord. Yes, for sure. And me and Evan, we had a productive NHRA Chicago trip, but now we turn to Memorial Day weekend.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Okay, my mother's birthday.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Yes, happy birthday, Yamaha. On Memorial Day, on Memorial Day, on Monday. Yes, very happy day. Yes. Uh, but NASCAR Charlotte for the Coco 600, O'Reilly's and trucks, they'll also be there. We got the whole nine yards and IndyCar, of course, with the Indianapolis 500. So exciting weekend there. We will preview it all on Friday, including the Wieny 500. Don't worry, we will talk about the Wieny 500. Very important. Very important, Lord. Very important. Okay, here's the thing: there's been rumors of Carson Hospital trying to do the double next year. You know what he needs to do? The Wienermobile. I was gonna say, yeah, the triple dipper, the Wieny 500, the Indy 500, and the Coca-Cola 600. How much marketing would that be? And he could run a chili dog. The chilies on the Oscar My Wienermobile. Yes. There we go. There we go. That's perfect. But uh, yeah, that's all we got for today's episode of the Throttle of the Four Podcast. Make sure you tune in, listen, and download and watch on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, check out the chill photography dude and Throttle Four podcasts, Instagrams, and TikToks. I will have the photos from Nicarague Chicago coming up probably later this week. So stay tuned for those. Make sure you look at all those photos, like all those photos, comment all those photos, you know, whatever. Uh tell me they're terrible. But if you at least tell me they're terrible, at least tell me how to fix things. Just tell me something. I can tell you, tell me you like them, tell me you don't like them. I don't really care. Just help me get better. But anyways, uh, that's all we got for today's episode of the Final Four podcast. Thank you to Evan and Noah for showing up and uh sitting through uh all the preparation that it goes to go through one of these episodes. But yes. But that's all we got, and we'll see y'all on Friday. Have a good night, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Good night.