October 8, 2025 • 29 mins
In this edition of Into The Smoke, Evan previews the round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs, and Evan weighs in on more horsepower and likely a new points system coming to NASCAR in 2026.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Drivers, start your edge.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Let's go Into the Smoke with Evan Ludwig and welcome
back again to another edition of Into the Smoke podcast
edition right here on the Sports Radio f and Z
Podcasting Network. I am your host, as always, Evan Smoke Ludwig,
And in today's edition of the show, we recap what
happened at the Roval here in Charlotte, North Carolina or
(00:33):
Concord and previewed a round of eight of the NASCAR
Playoffs in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So, without further ado, let's get.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Into what happened this past weekend at the Roval, And
in all honesty, I think it was yet another sign
that the road course package under Gen seven era has
taken a step forward overall in twenty twenty five. I
just think unfortunately, not a lot of people that are
casuals are going to recognize that for the most part.
And I'm not saying, you know, it's their fault, because
(01:02):
sometimes you don't know what you're looking for.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You just look at some of the basic stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And this year the road course races have been dominated
by Shane van Gisbergen. It didn't matter what strategy you
were on or whatnot. You weren't getting a job done,
and that was the case he had again for SVG.
I mean, SVG has only not won one road course
race this year in the Cup Series, and that was
the first one at CODA. Ever since then he has
dominated and it was much of the same this past
(01:29):
weekend at Charlotte. As you know, he didn't lead almost
every single lap because different strategies and all that. But
Shane had nothing to lose. He's not in the playoffs anymore,
not in a championship, so he just basically did what
he did during the summer, go out there and win
the race. And he won the race by eighteen seconds.
But what I characterize as a good race in terms
of good signs for this road course package in twenty
(01:51):
twenty five, and I will give credit for NASCAR for it,
because you know I harp on NASCAR a lot, but
I want to give credit to is the fact that
the road courses have improved quite a bit this year
for the most part. If you just essentially just act
like SVG's not there and look at the whole entire
field from second to thirty eight, thirty ninth, fortieth, depending
on the race. You look at the action that takes
(02:13):
place nearing those races at the street course at the
Roval Sonoma Watkins Glen, ninety nine percent of the time,
you're gonna get a pretty darn good race. It's just
Sfg's been kicking. But because he is so ahead of
the curb of everyone else, he won the race by
like sixteen seventeen seconds, and even then it was him
kind of coasting the last few laps. If he really
(02:34):
wanted to, he could have won by twenty five seconds.
But what really I think stood out was the fact
that tire where was a massive factor in this race.
The amount of times that the guys went on to
Pit Road. You know, I'm running a post game show
and doing a Hornets broadcast, so I can't you know,
I don't have the broadcast feed on in terms of
what Lee Diffy, Steve Ltartan Jeff Burton are saying. But
I'm like, dad, gum, they're going to Pitt Road again,
(02:55):
Well do tire go down? And then you just see
another cycles like wow, the tire cycles have been that
drastic in the race, and kudos to Goodyear. Kind of
similar to what we saw at Bristol. But and again
it's SVEG just completely dominated and made everyone look like
a full and to anyone saying oh, I don't want
to look forward to this with all these road courses
next year, I get it. But I also think we're
(03:18):
gonna see a little bit of a different twist because
if you've been watching the Exfinity series, his teammate in
the Exfinity Series and his future teammate in a Cup series,
Connor Zilich, is a wonder can and he can go
toe to toe with SFG. So keep an eye on
him for twenty twenty six, and I think some of
the guys will get better and some people might learn
a little bit more tricks oft the trade to compete
(03:38):
with SVEG in twenty twenty six on the road courses.
But most importantly, the championship field has dwindled from twelve
to eight and like I predicted last week, it was
gonna be status quo, and that's exactly what it was,
even if it took a little bit of drama down
the stretch to get there. Joey Logano made one last
(04:00):
pit stop to get fresh tires to gain a couple
of spots. Ross Chastaine was out there on old tires.
He was cooked, uh, and then you know he gets
passed by Denny Hamlin. There's a lot of miscommunication. There's
a lot of communication on what too and what not
to do by multiple teams across the board. So Raceman,
the impilation's right there. Yet again on an elimination race,
who would have thunk it? And then it it caused
(04:22):
Ross Chastain to essentially do what Jimmy Johnson did to
Martin Truex Junior when he was trying to go for
the win, and that was dump him and then he
tried to put it reverse. Unfortunately, Bowman and a couple
other cars, including I think Legano passed Chastain, so that
move was for not and I think Logano would have
had the tiebreaker. And then you just had a moment
(04:44):
where Ross Chastain finishes the race and reverse, and you know,
if you're watching that on the outside looking in, it's like,
oh my god, look at that move, Holy crap. But
even then I was like, my jaw was dropped, like
did he actually did it? But it also doesn't make
your looks serious yet again, and that's why I've been
harping on this playoff stuff. And we'll get into the
playoffs more on into the future of it. But that's
(05:06):
why I've always had a problem with this playoffs. Yeah,
it's cool if you have a moment like that once
every ten to twenty years, But we're having moments like
that once every year, and.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
He's like, Oh, that's cool, Game seven moments. Oh my god,
you gotta love it.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, because it makes your sport look like a joke.
It looks like amateur hour. It looks like a bunch
of guys that gets together and just decides to wreck
each other. You know, there's a reason why they don't
let stuff happen like they do on Nascar thunder where
you put your car in reverse, because A it's deadly,
and b after the second or third time, it gets
very tiring. So I don't blame Ross Jastain, I don't
(05:40):
blame Denny Hamlin. I don't blame Joe Biligano like I
have to say that as a precursor every single time
I mentioned this, But that shouldn't happen, honestly, it should
take itself out naturally to natural way, and it's not good.
Where a lot of these guys that complain about the
the old Winston Cup system saying, oh, you hated when
they go I clinched about two or three races left
(06:02):
and you know, or you had to finish twenty eighth
for better. Last time I checked, that battle Ross Chastain
had was for fifteenth, so you still had drama even
if it was manufactured for fifteenth place in an elimination round.
And honestly, I would be much more happier if we
didn't have just needless drama in the last few laps.
(06:26):
I mean, if you can't create your own drama and
just get based on what you have on the canvas, dude,
what are you doing? You're just lazy. So that's my
faults on it. Logano stays alive and Ross Chastain is
officially out.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Look.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
For as much as Logano has not been great this year,
he's been better than Ross Chastain on a more consistent basis,
especially during the playoffs. So technically speaking, you get a
better guy in the playoffs than Ross Chastain. Now here's
the thing. Now, you look at the field of eight
and it consists of Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney,
(07:03):
William Byron Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Joey Logano. Now,
the main thing here is the first race at a
Round of eight is at Las Vegas, and this has
been a godsend of a track for Penske throughout the years,
over the last fifteen years, to be honest, and last
year it was a godsend on field mileage for Joey
Leganoh to win, to eventually get to the round the
(07:25):
four a championship for and win a championship, just like
he did when he won a championship in twenty twenty two.
Now do I think this time he's going to win it? No,
I don't think he's gonna win it, And honestly, I
don't think he's gonna make it to the championship for
this round. He's been good, but you know, there's not
that many upset there's really no upset guys here into
(07:46):
round of eight now, Like if you're looking at the
guys outside of Logano, and Logana has been good, but
he's not been great. But outside of those guys outside
of Legano, you have Kyle Larson who's been very good
for out the year and I think it's starting to
get back into his mojo in a rhythm after the
summer months where he dwindled. You have Denny Hamlin, who
has been outside of the first month of the year,
(08:07):
has been on a tear. Ryan Blaney, honestly, you know,
if it wasn't for some of the early REX and
dns throughout the year, would have a much better year
on paper. But even then he's been dominant and been
really strong thout the latter half of the year. William
Byron's been steady, nothing too high, but nothing too low
throughout these playoffs and the regular season, and plus he's
(08:27):
led a lot of laps. It's just he hasn't had
to finish his go his way sometimes, but he's it's
not been too too high, but too too low. So
that's William Byron this year. Chase Elliott kind of the
same thing, but just extremely consistent to the point of
nauseating a.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Lot of people.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
But he's never really had race winning speed outside of
a couple of races, but it's been showing a little
bit more down to stretch here this year. Christopher Bell
who won at Bristol and has been really back to
what he was in the early part of the year.
So I wouldn't be shocked if he wins, and plus
he's been close at Las Vegas a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Chase Briscoe.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Who if I look at the guys that are in
the championship eight out of all the guys, everyone's gonna
say Legana's wild card, and understandably so, because there's history
there from what happened in eighteen, twenty two and twenty four.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
But if anyone's going to be a wild card in
this round, I think it has to be Chase Briscoe.
Because it's year one at Joe Gibbs Racing. He has
been for as much as we like to say Chase
Elliott's been consistent, and that's true, Chase Briscoe has been
damn near just as consistent as Chase Elliott thro out
the season, especially in the second half of the year.
(09:33):
And look at his finishes throughout the playoffs. He won
the seven five hundred to get himself to the round
of twelve, but following that second, ninth, tenth, fourteenth, worst
finished in the playoffs so far as fourteenth, So he
hasn't the bottom hasn't fallen out for Chase Briscoe. And
while I'm not saying that he's gonna make the Championship four.
I just feel like enough too many people are already
(09:54):
putting Joe with Logano in out wild card dark Horse
rolled it. I feel like a lot of people are
forg getting Chase Briscoe. Remember the only other time he
was in the playoffs at well the first time. Excuse
me because he did make the playoffs last year by
winning the seven to five hundred, but the first time
he made the playoffs was Stuart Haws Racing and what
was what has turned out to beat their dying days.
He was able to get to the round of eight.
(10:17):
Now he's in top tier equipment. This is year one.
I'm not expecting him to, you know, make it your
championship for and win it. But I will point out
what is the thing that Chase brisco has been the
best at this year. Qualifying. Qualifying has been massive for
that nineteen team this year. So if he can get
and you know, he got the poll at Kansas, which
(10:38):
is a similar track to Las Vegas, and he did
have a top five finish at Kansas, which is very
similar to Las Vegas. So I wouldn't be shocked if
Chase Briscoe gets the poll. Wouldn't be shocked at Chase
Briscoe gets to win. I look at that, and then
tal Dagga. If he gets a good qualifying effort there,
he can stay out for a lot of stage points,
get himself up Martinsville. He's been pretty good at Martinsville
(10:59):
over the years, so on and so forth. So you know,
we kind of take qualifying for granted sometimes, but this
is one of those instances why I think that Chase
Briscoe is the dark horse because he is so great
at qualifying. This is his first time in this equipment
at this point in the playoffs, and no one's really
talking about him. I mean, people are talking about him,
but when you're looking at the guys that he's next to,
He's next to Joey Legano's three time champion. He's next
(11:20):
to Chase Elliott, one time champion and been a championship
contender for a decade. You're looking at Christopher Bell, a
guy who's been on the doorstep of winning a championship,
just like his geamemate Denny Hamlin, first ballot Hall of Famer,
done everything but win a championship. Larson has won a
championship Blaney has won a championship, and William Byron's in
the same root as Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell. Everyone's
(11:42):
talking about all those guys except for Chase Briscoe. For
a guy who's been very good, rock solid, very good
throughout the year and had a couple of wins to
his name, I just feel like there's not that much
chirping about Chase Briscoe heading into this round, And in
my opinion, that could be disastrous for a lot of
other people because I think Chase Briscoe is the wild card,
is the dark horse, Not Joey Logano, No, it's Chase
(12:05):
brisco And so that's gonna be very interesting to see
throughout the next three weeks. Maybe this all gets blown
up in smoke if he wins the race this weekend.
But as we've seen, if you win to Race at
Las Vegas, not only do you make the championship for
you get two weeks to basically prepare for Phoenix and
then a lot of the times the guys have won
Race at Las Vegas wins a championship, as we've seen
(12:26):
with Joey Logano twice. Now, now, before we get to
my picks for this weekend's race in Sin City. I
do have to go over some pretty big news that
happened on the dal Junior downloads, So if you haven't
listened to it yet'll be sure to listen to it
after I debrief youel on some of the stuff that happened,
because it is definitely a juicy one. Steve O'Donnell, one
(12:48):
of the heads of NASCAR, one of the big wigs
so to speak of NASCAR, was on the Dell Junior
download and a lot of topics were discussed. The first one,
this doesn't really pertain to playoffs, but it pertains at
the future of NASCAR in twenty twenty six. The big
one being that NASCAR will increase the horse power from
six to seventy, which I believe has been uniform at
(13:11):
all the tracks on the NASCAR circuit. So the horse
power is six hundred seventy. They're increasing it to seven
hundred and fifty at every track under a mile and
a half as well as road courses. So that's a
pretty big jump eighty well, not a massive jump, but
it's a pretty quality size jump considered what NASCAR has
been doing over the years of force power over the
last decade. If you remember in the two thousands, I
(13:33):
mean it was basically nine hundred thousand horse power. They
got it down to like eight to fifty at one point,
and then you know, seven eighty seven fifty, and then
they got it down to five point fifty with that
horse power package in twenty nineteen, and it was it
was bad. And they've been at six seventy ever since
they've been They've been kind of teasing and there's been
hints about this, but NASCAR officially moving to seven hundred
(13:55):
and fifty horse power at every track that's beneath a
mile and a half in size and road courses. So
it will not have a full effect on the circuit
next year, but it will have a pretty big effect
on short tracks and road courses. And that's big because
what have we complained about the most into Gen seven era.
It's been the lack of good races at short tracks.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Now.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Luckily, the race at Bristol earlier, not this month, but
last month now in September was very good, but that
was because of the tire wear, really wasn't because of
the horsepower. I think adding horsepower is a step in
the right direction to helpings fix I think some not
the whole entire thing, but some of the woes at
the short tracks. They've done everything but tinker with the
(14:38):
horse power, it feels like, and I think now they're
finally admitting defeat by adding horse power, and so it'll
affect tracks like Phoenix that'll also have increased horsepower. So
the Atlanta is the drafting tracks to Charlotte's and mile
and a half to Cookie Cutters not gonna affect that whatsoever.
It's still gonna stick at six to seventy horse power,
but we do get an eighty degree horsepower improvement, and
(15:02):
I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's good.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I also am trying not to be too greedy because
I also want more. I look, I don't know if
we're ever going to return to the days of nine
hundred horsepower across to the whole entire circuit, but I
do think some of the woes when it comes to
passing and just stuff like that amal short tracks and
across the circuit could be helped by adding horsepower. So
I do agree this is a big step in the
(15:26):
right direction, but hopefully this is kind of a test ground.
In twenty twenty six and then in twenty twenty seven.
If it works like I think it will, you increase
to horse power even more or less, at least get
it up to eight hundred across all circuits.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That's what I That's what I'm hoping for.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's the big thing I'm hoping for, and I think
a lot of drivers are hoping for as well, at
least eight hundred by twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
But that wasn't the biggest news.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
That was just any more instant news that Steve o'donald
could talk about freely. The big stuff is regarding the playoffs. Now,
you guys know my stance on the playoffs, and in
case you don't, I wanted to go back to what
it was throughout the seventies, eighties, nineties, in early two thousands,
the Winston Cup format with a slight tweak, just add
more points for wins, and a pretty substantial amount of
(16:09):
points not ridiculous, but like forty to fifty extra points
for wins. I think that's doable. That's basically what I've
been wanting. And this current playoff format, which has been
almost around for twelve years, if not twelve years, has
been a dud. I mean, just go take a look
at the ratings. The ratings technically took a jump at
Charlotte this past weekend. And I know there's been more
(16:31):
races on USA this year compared to NBC, but we're
getting to the point where some of these races have
lost hundreds of thousands of viewers week by week by week.
And you can't say the NFL excuse, because I get it,
NFL is gonna take away viewers, but NASCAR, like they
have their core audience, and the core audience has been
dropping more and more by more, and we're seeing lower
(16:52):
numbers than we've really seen for races down the stretch
of a NASCAR season during the playoffs, which they're hyping
up so much for it. They're very important, and yet
less and less people are tuning in. And I felt
the core audience for NASCAR was right at two million. Well,
we're getting rating numbers on Sundays that are one point
five million, one point three million, one point two million,
and there's no delays being involved. In fact, there's I mean,
(17:17):
the last time there's been an outright full day delay
that's been moved to the next day, you have to
go back last year. There's been delays this year of rain.
Don't get me wrong, it's just they haven't had the
force to move it over to the next day. See,
can't of you use that excuse? Like for example, the
race last year for the Roval, which was on NBC,
got two point four million viewers. It got about one
(17:38):
point five million viewers on USA this past weekend. That's
nearly a million people lost. And I get it helps
with NBC probably got a lot of people that just
flipping the channel and they want to have it on
before they get to the six o'clock news, or they
just turn on because they're getting ready for Sunday night football.
But still, that's drastic and it's not good, and you've
(17:59):
been doing this year for over ten years. Something has
to be done.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Now.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
What I do know for a fact is that the
playoffs as currently constructed, I think are gonna die. In
four weeks. It's gonna be over. But Steve o'donald did
kind of tease what could be happening here in the
coming months, because usually when we get a full official
announcement on the NASCAR wherever it's postseason changes or rules
(18:26):
changes or maybe stage break stage cautions, when does that
stuff usually happen January, right before the team's head down
to Daytona, and I think it's going to be like
that yet again, maybe a little bit earlier. But here's
what Steve O'Donnell told Dale Junior on the deal Junior download.
Nothing will be announced before the end of the season.
Like I said, they don't usually announce this stuff at
(18:48):
this point. Steve o'donald said, and this is summarized by
Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. He apparently says that he
thinks the current playoffs potentially hurt star power, which I
would wholeheartedly agree with. How many multi time champions you
really have in a sport?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
You have Joey Logano, who's a three time champion, But
a lot of people look at that with Sidey based
on how he's won the championships. Once again, not knocking him.
He's doing the most with what he can do with
the cards that he was dealt with, and I give
credit to him, but a lot of people don't view
Joey Logano as that. Kyle Larson, he's touted as the
world's biggest star in motorsports and NASCAR specifically. He's been
(19:27):
in NASCAR for a decade. Now only has one championship,
yet he's been one of the more consistent guys. Chrisopher
Bell he's not won a championship, but he's been extremely
consistent in the last three to four years. Chase Elliott,
he only has one title. Kyle Busch has two titles,
but you look at the multi time champions as across
NASCAR right now. Joey Logano. He's been around a long time,
(19:47):
but he's still thirty five, so he's still got ten
years left. You can build around him. Plus, he's one
of the most pr savvy guys on the circuit, if
not in motorsports over the last twenty five thirty years.
He knows what it's all about in terms of, you know,
making sponsors happy, making public appearances.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
He's the best at that. There's no denying that.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Kyle Busch, he's got two championships. He hasn't won a
race in two years. He's forty years old. A lot
of people were wondering, like and a lot of people
are wondering if twenty twenty six is already going to
be a watch at RCR, because it's just been a disaster.
Outside of that first half of the season, So you
can't really promote those guys because one guy's hated because
(20:28):
of the way he's won titles, and the other guy,
who also won championship into controversial fashion after missing ten
races yet still being eligible, has not really been up
front that much and that often. And all of the
other guys. You have a lot of guys with one title,
and a lot of these guys are talented. Ryan Blaney
has one titles, talented, Kyle Larson has one title, talented,
(20:49):
Chase Elliott has one title talented. But I could argue
that in the years they won a championship, they didn't
deserve to win a championship. They just wanted it because
of how messed up this playoff system is. So you've
gotten so much parity that you know, NASCAR loves to
top parody, and I think in some instances, in a
good portion of instances, parody's good, But not when it
(21:10):
comes to championships. No. Look at the worst era of
the NBA, the seventies, that's when they had the most parody.
What that get them? Tape delays of the NBA finals
when Magic won his first title not really great. You
look at the NFL parody. You know, parody's encouraged, but
parody doesn't win you too.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
The NFL wants every team to be hovering around eight
to nine, nine and eight. But there's also you know,
they know that parody is not really good for the
sport in terms of how many teams are truly contending
for titles. And here's the dark secret that no one
wants to reveal, is that dynasties is what makes people
(21:50):
really want to watch sports, whether you love them or
you hate them. And people can say, well, the ratings
started to go down there in Jimmy Johnson, and I'd say, yes,
they did go down, but that's because of a lot
of radical changes that happened within the sport with how
they were running to cars. The economic crash didn't help things,
and just the massive amount of points changes during that
era didn't really help.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Matters as well.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
But you look at all the eras and sports, you
look at the Yankees. You could talk Murder's Row, you
could talk late nineties, early two thousands. You could talk
to Dallas Cowboys. You could talk to Pittsburgh's Steelers. You
could talk about the Boston Celtic's LA Lakers, The dirty
secret is even though people say they don't like dynasties,
they actually do because if you look at the viewing numbers,
(22:34):
a lot of people watch when a dynasty's doing something.
A prime example look at this past year with the
Super Bowl and Kansas City Chiefs everything leading up to it.
People have really turned on the Chiefs because they've actually
won a lot. You know, it was one thing when
they won the first Super Bowl, maybe a little bit
when they won a second, but they've won three and
five years. It's a little too much now, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I'm sick of them.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Well guess what people weren't turning away to the TV.
They were watching to see if they actually could do
what has never been done before and win three straight
Super Bowls.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That stuff happens all the time.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So yeah, people love dynasties, they just don't want to
admit it. And NASCAR has not been wanting to admit
it for two decades now. So now that Jimmy Johnson,
Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dellenhardt Junior, Kevin Harvick, and a
lot of other names from that late nineties, early to
mid two thousands, even late two thousands, ever have retired.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Who you got?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
You got a lot of one time champions. No one's
really sticking up above the crowd because you got a
lot of one time champions, a three time champion who's
not really liked, and in a two time champion that
hasn't won a race in over two years. See, yay,
you're not really having anyone stick out to the casual fan.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Steve O'Donnell also said he doesn't like that people talk
about the playoffs when someone wins the dates on the
five hundred. He said NASCAR needs drivers to buy in
whatever format is and says NASCAR can't have a format
in place to bring in new fans at the expense
of the existing fans. Nascar fans are not like football
fans now, I of course NASCAR needs the drivers to
buy into it, perfectly understand. Yeah, yeah, that feels corporate
(24:05):
speaky to me, but I get it. But here's the thing.
How many times have I had to hear the stupid
thing about someone went into the biggest race in NASCAR's
series to start the year and it's like, and they're
already in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Dude, who cares about that? Right now?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
We got twenty five more weeks to the stupid playoffs.
Let this guy have his moment. He just won the
biggest race that you can win in stock car racing.
His car is going to be on display at the
museum in Daytona for a whole calendar year. His name's
immortalized forever. Yeah, I should care about some playoffs that
he may or may not win. Give me a break,
(24:42):
Come on, and then I'm glad they're saying that. And
the biggest mistake with the whole entire sixteen playoff format,
you know, for as bad as it is, I didn't
like it they added up the sixteen from twelve, which
includes basically half the field at this point, is the
fact that.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
It's winning in.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I mean, anyone can win one race and then not
do much of anything after that. It's about if you're
like top tier. It really embraced mediocrity more than ever,
and I think that, more than anything.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Hurt the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Like if they just would have had top sixteen, I
would have not been a fan of it, but hey,
at least your top sixteen points you deserve to be there.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I guess if they're putting the qualifications, but if you
win and you're in. You got it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And then when they took away to the qualification that
you had to be top thirty in points as well.
I mean, I just opened the floodgates. And we all
saw it happen. When Harrison Burton won the race at
Daytona right before the playoffs. It was an amazing moment,
you know, Lee Diffy's calls the legendary. Seeing Jeff Burton
into booth going crazy, seeing his mom going crazy in
the pit box with his fiancee now wife was awesome.
(25:46):
And then you remember, oh, yeah, now they have to
pigeonhol him into the playoffs because you know, you want
a race. It took away from a moment and it
was not Harrison Burton's fault, but it just shows you
how winning in is a stupid formula for the NASCAR
playoffs any kind. And you know, I think that last
point says NASCAR can't have a format in place to
(26:06):
bring in new fans at the expense of the existing fans.
NASCAR fans are not like football fans. See, that's the
big thing. I think they're finally admitting, in somewhat shape
or way or form, that they've alienated a lot of
people with this system, in this format, A lot of
people who don't watch football, probably don't even watch baseball.
They're only sports they watch are motorsports. They'll go to
(26:28):
the local shot track at Hickory, They'll go to the
local short tracks, the dirt tracks all across the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia.
They go up to the Midwest to watch some dirt races,
they go up to the Northeast to watch some modified.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Races, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Maybe they go on the odd chance to go watch
a race in Portland, you know, with the Northwest scene.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
So I think they.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Finally realized that this format is not good enough. Now,
what that makes it sound like is that it couldn't
be potently a marriage of the two concepts while embracing
the pass but also trying to stay in touch with
the times that currently are. Because I don't think they
want to do a whole drastic move of going back
to the Winston Cup format, but I think it's what
we're going to see next year. No matter what it is,
(27:16):
it's going to be a change of some kind. And
even though I am full throated defending the Winston Cup system.
I have said time and time again I would welcome
back and as a compromise d ten race Chase. If
you bring back to ten race chase with ten or
twelve drivers have at it boom.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I don't really care. That'd be a lot more fun.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It'll be a lot of less drama, a lot less
of race manipulation, a lot less BS going on every
single race weekend during the last ten weeks of the season.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I'll be four it.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But I think what Steve O'Donnell basically mentioned in that
interview with Dylanhart Junior, which I highly recommend you go
check out afterwards, is that change is a coming and
it's later times.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It's better to be late than never.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And with that, let's get to my race picks for
this weekend in Sin City, Las Vegas. Evan thinks he's
pretty smart when it comes to Nascari. The inner mechanicians
of my mind are in enigma. Let's see if that
holds up as he tries to pick the race winners
in the Burnout. All right, no truck series this weekend,
(28:25):
but we have the Infinity and Cup Series going out
to Las Vegas first.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
The Xfinity Series, the.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Focused Health PreO two at Las Vegas Catch to race
on the CW Saturday, October eleventh at seven thirty pm.
I've got Jesse Love winning this race. No, Connor Zillich.
I could very well happen, but I just want to
be different this time. Give me Jesse Love and for
the Cup Series, the South Point four hundred Cats to
race on Sunday, October twelve, five thirty pm on USA.
(28:53):
My pick to win is Chase Briscoe. Like I said,
he's my dark horse in a round of eight, not
Joey Logano.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Give me Chase Briscoe to punch his ticket to the
Championship four.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
So once again, my picks for this weekend are Jesse
Love and the Xfinity Series race and Chase Briscoe in
the Cup Series.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That'll do it for this edition of Into the Smoke
Bey Shirt.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
To tune in next week as we recap what happened
in Sin City and preview the madness that Talladega will
bring to the playoffs. But until then, I hope you
all have a good weekend. Remember everyone, stay fast in Jesus'.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Name, Buggety, Buggety, buggety.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Hey, ma'am
Drivers, start your edge.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Let's go Into the Smoke with Evan Ludwig and welcome
back again to another edition of Into the Smoke podcast
edition right here on the Sports Radio f and Z
Podcasting Network. I am your host, as always, Evan Smoke Ludwig,
And in today's edition of the show, we recap what
happened at the Roval here in Charlotte, North Carolina or
(00:33):
Concord and previewed a round of eight of the NASCAR
Playoffs in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So, without further ado, let's get.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Into what happened this past weekend at the Roval, And
in all honesty, I think it was yet another sign
that the road course package under Gen seven era has
taken a step forward overall in twenty twenty five. I
just think unfortunately, not a lot of people that are
casuals are going to recognize that for the most part.
And I'm not saying, you know, it's their fault, because
(01:02):
sometimes you don't know what you're looking for.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You just look at some of the basic stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And this year the road course races have been dominated
by Shane van Gisbergen. It didn't matter what strategy you
were on or whatnot. You weren't getting a job done,
and that was the case he had again for SVG.
I mean, SVG has only not won one road course
race this year in the Cup Series, and that was
the first one at CODA. Ever since then he has
dominated and it was much of the same this past
(01:29):
weekend at Charlotte. As you know, he didn't lead almost
every single lap because different strategies and all that. But
Shane had nothing to lose. He's not in the playoffs anymore,
not in a championship, so he just basically did what
he did during the summer, go out there and win
the race. And he won the race by eighteen seconds.
But what I characterize as a good race in terms
of good signs for this road course package in twenty
(01:51):
twenty five, and I will give credit for NASCAR for it,
because you know I harp on NASCAR a lot, but
I want to give credit to is the fact that
the road courses have improved quite a bit this year
for the most part. If you just essentially just act
like SVG's not there and look at the whole entire
field from second to thirty eight, thirty ninth, fortieth, depending
on the race. You look at the action that takes
(02:13):
place nearing those races at the street course at the
Roval Sonoma Watkins Glen, ninety nine percent of the time,
you're gonna get a pretty darn good race. It's just
Sfg's been kicking. But because he is so ahead of
the curb of everyone else, he won the race by
like sixteen seventeen seconds, and even then it was him
kind of coasting the last few laps. If he really
(02:34):
wanted to, he could have won by twenty five seconds.
But what really I think stood out was the fact
that tire where was a massive factor in this race.
The amount of times that the guys went on to
Pit Road. You know, I'm running a post game show
and doing a Hornets broadcast, so I can't you know,
I don't have the broadcast feed on in terms of
what Lee Diffy, Steve Ltartan Jeff Burton are saying. But
I'm like, dad, gum, they're going to Pitt Road again,
(02:55):
Well do tire go down? And then you just see
another cycles like wow, the tire cycles have been that
drastic in the race, and kudos to Goodyear. Kind of
similar to what we saw at Bristol. But and again
it's SVEG just completely dominated and made everyone look like
a full and to anyone saying oh, I don't want
to look forward to this with all these road courses
next year, I get it. But I also think we're
(03:18):
gonna see a little bit of a different twist because
if you've been watching the Exfinity series, his teammate in
the Exfinity Series and his future teammate in a Cup series,
Connor Zilich, is a wonder can and he can go
toe to toe with SFG. So keep an eye on
him for twenty twenty six, and I think some of
the guys will get better and some people might learn
a little bit more tricks oft the trade to compete
(03:38):
with SVEG in twenty twenty six on the road courses.
But most importantly, the championship field has dwindled from twelve
to eight and like I predicted last week, it was
gonna be status quo, and that's exactly what it was,
even if it took a little bit of drama down
the stretch to get there. Joey Logano made one last
(04:00):
pit stop to get fresh tires to gain a couple
of spots. Ross Chastaine was out there on old tires.
He was cooked, uh, and then you know he gets
passed by Denny Hamlin. There's a lot of miscommunication. There's
a lot of communication on what too and what not
to do by multiple teams across the board. So Raceman,
the impilation's right there. Yet again on an elimination race,
who would have thunk it? And then it it caused
(04:22):
Ross Chastain to essentially do what Jimmy Johnson did to
Martin Truex Junior when he was trying to go for
the win, and that was dump him and then he
tried to put it reverse. Unfortunately, Bowman and a couple
other cars, including I think Legano passed Chastain, so that
move was for not and I think Logano would have
had the tiebreaker. And then you just had a moment
(04:44):
where Ross Chastain finishes the race and reverse, and you know,
if you're watching that on the outside looking in, it's like,
oh my god, look at that move, Holy crap. But
even then I was like, my jaw was dropped, like
did he actually did it? But it also doesn't make
your looks serious yet again, and that's why I've been
harping on this playoff stuff. And we'll get into the
playoffs more on into the future of it. But that's
(05:06):
why I've always had a problem with this playoffs. Yeah,
it's cool if you have a moment like that once
every ten to twenty years, But we're having moments like
that once every year, and.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
He's like, Oh, that's cool, Game seven moments. Oh my god,
you gotta love it.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, because it makes your sport look like a joke.
It looks like amateur hour. It looks like a bunch
of guys that gets together and just decides to wreck
each other. You know, there's a reason why they don't
let stuff happen like they do on Nascar thunder where
you put your car in reverse, because A it's deadly,
and b after the second or third time, it gets
very tiring. So I don't blame Ross Jastain, I don't
(05:40):
blame Denny Hamlin. I don't blame Joe Biligano like I
have to say that as a precursor every single time
I mentioned this, But that shouldn't happen, honestly, it should
take itself out naturally to natural way, and it's not good.
Where a lot of these guys that complain about the
the old Winston Cup system saying, oh, you hated when
they go I clinched about two or three races left
(06:02):
and you know, or you had to finish twenty eighth
for better. Last time I checked, that battle Ross Chastain
had was for fifteenth, so you still had drama even
if it was manufactured for fifteenth place in an elimination round.
And honestly, I would be much more happier if we
didn't have just needless drama in the last few laps.
(06:26):
I mean, if you can't create your own drama and
just get based on what you have on the canvas, dude,
what are you doing? You're just lazy. So that's my
faults on it. Logano stays alive and Ross Chastain is
officially out.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Look.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
For as much as Logano has not been great this year,
he's been better than Ross Chastain on a more consistent basis,
especially during the playoffs. So technically speaking, you get a
better guy in the playoffs than Ross Chastain. Now here's
the thing. Now, you look at the field of eight
and it consists of Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney,
(07:03):
William Byron Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Joey Logano. Now,
the main thing here is the first race at a
Round of eight is at Las Vegas, and this has
been a godsend of a track for Penske throughout the years,
over the last fifteen years, to be honest, and last
year it was a godsend on field mileage for Joey
Leganoh to win, to eventually get to the round the
(07:25):
four a championship for and win a championship, just like
he did when he won a championship in twenty twenty two.
Now do I think this time he's going to win it? No,
I don't think he's gonna win it, And honestly, I
don't think he's gonna make it to the championship for
this round. He's been good, but you know, there's not
that many upset there's really no upset guys here into
(07:46):
round of eight now, Like if you're looking at the
guys outside of Logano, and Logana has been good, but
he's not been great. But outside of those guys outside
of Legano, you have Kyle Larson who's been very good
for out the year and I think it's starting to
get back into his mojo in a rhythm after the
summer months where he dwindled. You have Denny Hamlin, who
has been outside of the first month of the year,
(08:07):
has been on a tear. Ryan Blaney, honestly, you know,
if it wasn't for some of the early REX and
dns throughout the year, would have a much better year
on paper. But even then he's been dominant and been
really strong thout the latter half of the year. William
Byron's been steady, nothing too high, but nothing too low
throughout these playoffs and the regular season, and plus he's
(08:27):
led a lot of laps. It's just he hasn't had
to finish his go his way sometimes, but he's it's
not been too too high, but too too low. So
that's William Byron this year. Chase Elliott kind of the
same thing, but just extremely consistent to the point of
nauseating a.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Lot of people.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
But he's never really had race winning speed outside of
a couple of races, but it's been showing a little
bit more down to stretch here this year. Christopher Bell
who won at Bristol and has been really back to
what he was in the early part of the year.
So I wouldn't be shocked if he wins, and plus
he's been close at Las Vegas a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Chase Briscoe.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Who if I look at the guys that are in
the championship eight out of all the guys, everyone's gonna
say Legana's wild card, and understandably so, because there's history
there from what happened in eighteen, twenty two and twenty four.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
But if anyone's going to be a wild card in
this round, I think it has to be Chase Briscoe.
Because it's year one at Joe Gibbs Racing. He has
been for as much as we like to say Chase
Elliott's been consistent, and that's true, Chase Briscoe has been
damn near just as consistent as Chase Elliott thro out
the season, especially in the second half of the year.
(09:33):
And look at his finishes throughout the playoffs. He won
the seven five hundred to get himself to the round
of twelve, but following that second, ninth, tenth, fourteenth, worst
finished in the playoffs so far as fourteenth, So he
hasn't the bottom hasn't fallen out for Chase Briscoe. And
while I'm not saying that he's gonna make the Championship four.
I just feel like enough too many people are already
(09:54):
putting Joe with Logano in out wild card dark Horse
rolled it. I feel like a lot of people are
forg getting Chase Briscoe. Remember the only other time he
was in the playoffs at well the first time. Excuse
me because he did make the playoffs last year by
winning the seven to five hundred, but the first time
he made the playoffs was Stuart Haws Racing and what
was what has turned out to beat their dying days.
He was able to get to the round of eight.
(10:17):
Now he's in top tier equipment. This is year one.
I'm not expecting him to, you know, make it your
championship for and win it. But I will point out
what is the thing that Chase brisco has been the
best at this year. Qualifying. Qualifying has been massive for
that nineteen team this year. So if he can get
and you know, he got the poll at Kansas, which
(10:38):
is a similar track to Las Vegas, and he did
have a top five finish at Kansas, which is very
similar to Las Vegas. So I wouldn't be shocked if
Chase Briscoe gets the poll. Wouldn't be shocked at Chase
Briscoe gets to win. I look at that, and then
tal Dagga. If he gets a good qualifying effort there,
he can stay out for a lot of stage points,
get himself up Martinsville. He's been pretty good at Martinsville
(10:59):
over the years, so on and so forth. So you know,
we kind of take qualifying for granted sometimes, but this
is one of those instances why I think that Chase
Briscoe is the dark horse because he is so great
at qualifying. This is his first time in this equipment
at this point in the playoffs, and no one's really
talking about him. I mean, people are talking about him,
but when you're looking at the guys that he's next to,
He's next to Joey Legano's three time champion. He's next
(11:20):
to Chase Elliott, one time champion and been a championship
contender for a decade. You're looking at Christopher Bell, a
guy who's been on the doorstep of winning a championship,
just like his geamemate Denny Hamlin, first ballot Hall of Famer,
done everything but win a championship. Larson has won a
championship Blaney has won a championship, and William Byron's in
the same root as Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell. Everyone's
(11:42):
talking about all those guys except for Chase Briscoe. For
a guy who's been very good, rock solid, very good
throughout the year and had a couple of wins to
his name, I just feel like there's not that much
chirping about Chase Briscoe heading into this round, And in
my opinion, that could be disastrous for a lot of
other people because I think Chase Briscoe is the wild card,
is the dark horse, Not Joey Logano, No, it's Chase
(12:05):
brisco And so that's gonna be very interesting to see
throughout the next three weeks. Maybe this all gets blown
up in smoke if he wins the race this weekend.
But as we've seen, if you win to Race at
Las Vegas, not only do you make the championship for
you get two weeks to basically prepare for Phoenix and
then a lot of the times the guys have won
Race at Las Vegas wins a championship, as we've seen
(12:26):
with Joey Logano twice. Now, now, before we get to
my picks for this weekend's race in Sin City. I
do have to go over some pretty big news that
happened on the dal Junior downloads, So if you haven't
listened to it yet'll be sure to listen to it
after I debrief youel on some of the stuff that happened,
because it is definitely a juicy one. Steve O'Donnell, one
(12:48):
of the heads of NASCAR, one of the big wigs
so to speak of NASCAR, was on the Dell Junior
download and a lot of topics were discussed. The first one,
this doesn't really pertain to playoffs, but it pertains at
the future of NASCAR in twenty twenty six. The big
one being that NASCAR will increase the horse power from
six to seventy, which I believe has been uniform at
(13:11):
all the tracks on the NASCAR circuit. So the horse
power is six hundred seventy. They're increasing it to seven
hundred and fifty at every track under a mile and
a half as well as road courses. So that's a
pretty big jump eighty well, not a massive jump, but
it's a pretty quality size jump considered what NASCAR has
been doing over the years of force power over the
last decade. If you remember in the two thousands, I
(13:33):
mean it was basically nine hundred thousand horse power. They
got it down to like eight to fifty at one point,
and then you know, seven eighty seven fifty, and then
they got it down to five point fifty with that
horse power package in twenty nineteen, and it was it
was bad. And they've been at six seventy ever since
they've been They've been kind of teasing and there's been
hints about this, but NASCAR officially moving to seven hundred
(13:55):
and fifty horse power at every track that's beneath a
mile and a half in size and road courses. So
it will not have a full effect on the circuit
next year, but it will have a pretty big effect
on short tracks and road courses. And that's big because
what have we complained about the most into Gen seven era.
It's been the lack of good races at short tracks.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Now.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Luckily, the race at Bristol earlier, not this month, but
last month now in September was very good, but that
was because of the tire wear, really wasn't because of
the horsepower. I think adding horsepower is a step in
the right direction to helpings fix I think some not
the whole entire thing, but some of the woes at
the short tracks. They've done everything but tinker with the
(14:38):
horse power, it feels like, and I think now they're
finally admitting defeat by adding horse power, and so it'll
affect tracks like Phoenix that'll also have increased horsepower. So
the Atlanta is the drafting tracks to Charlotte's and mile
and a half to Cookie Cutters not gonna affect that whatsoever.
It's still gonna stick at six to seventy horse power,
but we do get an eighty degree horsepower improvement, and
(15:02):
I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's good.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I also am trying not to be too greedy because
I also want more. I look, I don't know if
we're ever going to return to the days of nine
hundred horsepower across to the whole entire circuit, but I
do think some of the woes when it comes to
passing and just stuff like that amal short tracks and
across the circuit could be helped by adding horsepower. So
I do agree this is a big step in the
(15:26):
right direction, but hopefully this is kind of a test ground.
In twenty twenty six and then in twenty twenty seven.
If it works like I think it will, you increase
to horse power even more or less, at least get
it up to eight hundred across all circuits.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That's what I That's what I'm hoping for.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's the big thing I'm hoping for, and I think
a lot of drivers are hoping for as well, at
least eight hundred by twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
But that wasn't the biggest news.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
That was just any more instant news that Steve o'donald
could talk about freely. The big stuff is regarding the playoffs. Now,
you guys know my stance on the playoffs, and in
case you don't, I wanted to go back to what
it was throughout the seventies, eighties, nineties, in early two thousands,
the Winston Cup format with a slight tweak, just add
more points for wins, and a pretty substantial amount of
(16:09):
points not ridiculous, but like forty to fifty extra points
for wins. I think that's doable. That's basically what I've
been wanting. And this current playoff format, which has been
almost around for twelve years, if not twelve years, has
been a dud. I mean, just go take a look
at the ratings. The ratings technically took a jump at
Charlotte this past weekend. And I know there's been more
(16:31):
races on USA this year compared to NBC, but we're
getting to the point where some of these races have
lost hundreds of thousands of viewers week by week by week.
And you can't say the NFL excuse, because I get it,
NFL is gonna take away viewers, but NASCAR, like they
have their core audience, and the core audience has been
dropping more and more by more, and we're seeing lower
(16:52):
numbers than we've really seen for races down the stretch
of a NASCAR season during the playoffs, which they're hyping
up so much for it. They're very important, and yet
less and less people are tuning in. And I felt
the core audience for NASCAR was right at two million. Well,
we're getting rating numbers on Sundays that are one point
five million, one point three million, one point two million,
and there's no delays being involved. In fact, there's I mean,
(17:17):
the last time there's been an outright full day delay
that's been moved to the next day, you have to
go back last year. There's been delays this year of rain.
Don't get me wrong, it's just they haven't had the
force to move it over to the next day. See,
can't of you use that excuse? Like for example, the
race last year for the Roval, which was on NBC,
got two point four million viewers. It got about one
(17:38):
point five million viewers on USA this past weekend. That's
nearly a million people lost. And I get it helps
with NBC probably got a lot of people that just
flipping the channel and they want to have it on
before they get to the six o'clock news, or they
just turn on because they're getting ready for Sunday night football.
But still, that's drastic and it's not good, and you've
(17:59):
been doing this year for over ten years. Something has
to be done.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Now.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
What I do know for a fact is that the
playoffs as currently constructed, I think are gonna die. In
four weeks. It's gonna be over. But Steve o'donald did
kind of tease what could be happening here in the
coming months, because usually when we get a full official
announcement on the NASCAR wherever it's postseason changes or rules
(18:26):
changes or maybe stage break stage cautions, when does that
stuff usually happen January, right before the team's head down
to Daytona, and I think it's going to be like
that yet again, maybe a little bit earlier. But here's
what Steve O'Donnell told Dale Junior on the deal Junior download.
Nothing will be announced before the end of the season.
Like I said, they don't usually announce this stuff at
(18:48):
this point. Steve o'donald said, and this is summarized by
Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. He apparently says that he
thinks the current playoffs potentially hurt star power, which I
would wholeheartedly agree with. How many multi time champions you
really have in a sport?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
You have Joey Logano, who's a three time champion, But
a lot of people look at that with Sidey based
on how he's won the championships. Once again, not knocking him.
He's doing the most with what he can do with
the cards that he was dealt with, and I give
credit to him, but a lot of people don't view
Joey Logano as that. Kyle Larson, he's touted as the
world's biggest star in motorsports and NASCAR specifically. He's been
(19:27):
in NASCAR for a decade. Now only has one championship,
yet he's been one of the more consistent guys. Chrisopher
Bell he's not won a championship, but he's been extremely
consistent in the last three to four years. Chase Elliott,
he only has one title. Kyle Busch has two titles,
but you look at the multi time champions as across
NASCAR right now. Joey Logano. He's been around a long time,
(19:47):
but he's still thirty five, so he's still got ten
years left. You can build around him. Plus, he's one
of the most pr savvy guys on the circuit, if
not in motorsports over the last twenty five thirty years.
He knows what it's all about in terms of, you know,
making sponsors happy, making public appearances.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
He's the best at that. There's no denying that.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Kyle Busch, he's got two championships. He hasn't won a
race in two years. He's forty years old. A lot
of people were wondering, like and a lot of people
are wondering if twenty twenty six is already going to
be a watch at RCR, because it's just been a disaster.
Outside of that first half of the season, So you
can't really promote those guys because one guy's hated because
(20:28):
of the way he's won titles, and the other guy,
who also won championship into controversial fashion after missing ten
races yet still being eligible, has not really been up
front that much and that often. And all of the
other guys. You have a lot of guys with one title,
and a lot of these guys are talented. Ryan Blaney
has one titles, talented, Kyle Larson has one title, talented,
(20:49):
Chase Elliott has one title talented. But I could argue
that in the years they won a championship, they didn't
deserve to win a championship. They just wanted it because
of how messed up this playoff system is. So you've
gotten so much parity that you know, NASCAR loves to
top parody, and I think in some instances, in a
good portion of instances, parody's good, But not when it
(21:10):
comes to championships. No. Look at the worst era of
the NBA, the seventies, that's when they had the most parody.
What that get them? Tape delays of the NBA finals
when Magic won his first title not really great. You
look at the NFL parody. You know, parody's encouraged, but
parody doesn't win you too.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
The NFL wants every team to be hovering around eight
to nine, nine and eight. But there's also you know,
they know that parody is not really good for the
sport in terms of how many teams are truly contending
for titles. And here's the dark secret that no one
wants to reveal, is that dynasties is what makes people
(21:50):
really want to watch sports, whether you love them or
you hate them. And people can say, well, the ratings
started to go down there in Jimmy Johnson, and I'd say, yes,
they did go down, but that's because of a lot
of radical changes that happened within the sport with how
they were running to cars. The economic crash didn't help things,
and just the massive amount of points changes during that
era didn't really help.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Matters as well.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
But you look at all the eras and sports, you
look at the Yankees. You could talk Murder's Row, you
could talk late nineties, early two thousands. You could talk
to Dallas Cowboys. You could talk to Pittsburgh's Steelers. You
could talk about the Boston Celtic's LA Lakers, The dirty
secret is even though people say they don't like dynasties,
they actually do because if you look at the viewing numbers,
(22:34):
a lot of people watch when a dynasty's doing something.
A prime example look at this past year with the
Super Bowl and Kansas City Chiefs everything leading up to it.
People have really turned on the Chiefs because they've actually
won a lot. You know, it was one thing when
they won the first Super Bowl, maybe a little bit
when they won a second, but they've won three and
five years. It's a little too much now, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I'm sick of them.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Well guess what people weren't turning away to the TV.
They were watching to see if they actually could do
what has never been done before and win three straight
Super Bowls.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That stuff happens all the time.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So yeah, people love dynasties, they just don't want to
admit it. And NASCAR has not been wanting to admit
it for two decades now. So now that Jimmy Johnson,
Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dellenhardt Junior, Kevin Harvick, and a
lot of other names from that late nineties, early to
mid two thousands, even late two thousands, ever have retired.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Who you got?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
You got a lot of one time champions. No one's
really sticking up above the crowd because you got a
lot of one time champions, a three time champion who's
not really liked, and in a two time champion that
hasn't won a race in over two years. See, yay,
you're not really having anyone stick out to the casual fan.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Steve O'Donnell also said he doesn't like that people talk
about the playoffs when someone wins the dates on the
five hundred. He said NASCAR needs drivers to buy in
whatever format is and says NASCAR can't have a format
in place to bring in new fans at the expense
of the existing fans. Nascar fans are not like football
fans now, I of course NASCAR needs the drivers to
buy into it, perfectly understand. Yeah, yeah, that feels corporate
(24:05):
speaky to me, but I get it. But here's the thing.
How many times have I had to hear the stupid
thing about someone went into the biggest race in NASCAR's
series to start the year and it's like, and they're
already in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Dude, who cares about that? Right now?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
We got twenty five more weeks to the stupid playoffs.
Let this guy have his moment. He just won the
biggest race that you can win in stock car racing.
His car is going to be on display at the
museum in Daytona for a whole calendar year. His name's
immortalized forever. Yeah, I should care about some playoffs that
he may or may not win. Give me a break,
(24:42):
Come on, and then I'm glad they're saying that. And
the biggest mistake with the whole entire sixteen playoff format,
you know, for as bad as it is, I didn't
like it they added up the sixteen from twelve, which
includes basically half the field at this point, is the
fact that.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
It's winning in.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I mean, anyone can win one race and then not
do much of anything after that. It's about if you're
like top tier. It really embraced mediocrity more than ever,
and I think that, more than anything.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Hurt the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Like if they just would have had top sixteen, I
would have not been a fan of it, but hey,
at least your top sixteen points you deserve to be there.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I guess if they're putting the qualifications, but if you
win and you're in. You got it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And then when they took away to the qualification that
you had to be top thirty in points as well.
I mean, I just opened the floodgates. And we all
saw it happen. When Harrison Burton won the race at
Daytona right before the playoffs. It was an amazing moment,
you know, Lee Diffy's calls the legendary. Seeing Jeff Burton
into booth going crazy, seeing his mom going crazy in
the pit box with his fiancee now wife was awesome.
(25:46):
And then you remember, oh, yeah, now they have to
pigeonhol him into the playoffs because you know, you want
a race. It took away from a moment and it
was not Harrison Burton's fault, but it just shows you
how winning in is a stupid formula for the NASCAR
playoffs any kind. And you know, I think that last
point says NASCAR can't have a format in place to
(26:06):
bring in new fans at the expense of the existing fans.
NASCAR fans are not like football fans. See, that's the
big thing. I think they're finally admitting, in somewhat shape
or way or form, that they've alienated a lot of
people with this system, in this format, A lot of
people who don't watch football, probably don't even watch baseball.
They're only sports they watch are motorsports. They'll go to
(26:28):
the local shot track at Hickory, They'll go to the
local short tracks, the dirt tracks all across the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia.
They go up to the Midwest to watch some dirt races,
they go up to the Northeast to watch some modified.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Races, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Maybe they go on the odd chance to go watch
a race in Portland, you know, with the Northwest scene.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
So I think they.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Finally realized that this format is not good enough. Now,
what that makes it sound like is that it couldn't
be potently a marriage of the two concepts while embracing
the pass but also trying to stay in touch with
the times that currently are. Because I don't think they
want to do a whole drastic move of going back
to the Winston Cup format, but I think it's what
we're going to see next year. No matter what it is,
(27:16):
it's going to be a change of some kind. And
even though I am full throated defending the Winston Cup system.
I have said time and time again I would welcome
back and as a compromise d ten race Chase. If
you bring back to ten race chase with ten or
twelve drivers have at it boom.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I don't really care. That'd be a lot more fun.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It'll be a lot of less drama, a lot less
of race manipulation, a lot less BS going on every
single race weekend during the last ten weeks of the season.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I'll be four it.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But I think what Steve O'Donnell basically mentioned in that
interview with Dylanhart Junior, which I highly recommend you go
check out afterwards, is that change is a coming and
it's later times.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It's better to be late than never.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And with that, let's get to my race picks for
this weekend in Sin City, Las Vegas. Evan thinks he's
pretty smart when it comes to Nascari. The inner mechanicians
of my mind are in enigma. Let's see if that
holds up as he tries to pick the race winners
in the Burnout. All right, no truck series this weekend,
(28:25):
but we have the Infinity and Cup Series going out
to Las Vegas first.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
The Xfinity Series, the.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Focused Health PreO two at Las Vegas Catch to race
on the CW Saturday, October eleventh at seven thirty pm.
I've got Jesse Love winning this race. No, Connor Zillich.
I could very well happen, but I just want to
be different this time. Give me Jesse Love and for
the Cup Series, the South Point four hundred Cats to
race on Sunday, October twelve, five thirty pm on USA.
(28:53):
My pick to win is Chase Briscoe. Like I said,
he's my dark horse in a round of eight, not
Joey Logano.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Give me Chase Briscoe to punch his ticket to the
Championship four.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
So once again, my picks for this weekend are Jesse
Love and the Xfinity Series race and Chase Briscoe in
the Cup Series.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That'll do it for this edition of Into the Smoke
Bey Shirt.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
To tune in next week as we recap what happened
in Sin City and preview the madness that Talladega will
bring to the playoffs. But until then, I hope you
all have a good weekend. Remember everyone, stay fast in Jesus'.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Name, Buggety, Buggety, buggety.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Hey, ma'am
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