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August 6, 2025 20 mins

In this edition of Into The Smoke, Evan reveals why he believes NASCAR needs to make some adjustments after the last 2 weeks of fuel mileage races have left a lot of questions, and Evan believes one former champion will play spoiler before the playoffs begin.

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Episode Transcript

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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 yet again to another edition of Into the Smoke
podcast edition right here on the sports radio FNZ Networks.
I'm your host, as always, Evan Smoke Ludwig, and we'll
get right into the show here as I don't want

(00:32):
to waste any time.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I already wasted enough time.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's been a busy week here in Charlotte for the
Carolina Panthers. But let's get into NASCAR as I've got
some opinions on what happened this past weekend at Iowa,
not so much for the winner, that being William Byron,
which I do want to get this outther way. Big
win for William because it's his first since Daytona. He's
had a good year, not a great year, and I

(00:57):
think this could get him back on too to Mark
as he really starts to find his jail as we
get near the playoffs yet again. But the main topic
of discussion has to do with how he won the
race and how I think this is yet again another
wake up call for NASCAR specifically, and what I mean

(01:17):
by that is this has to lead to some changes
with the car. And the reason why this comes up
is for a lot of reasons. But over the last
two weeks, going back to Bubble Wallace's win at Indianapolis,
he won on fuel mileage. Now that wasn't too much
of a like an exaggeration of a stretch, like it

(01:39):
was a big stretch, don't.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Get me wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
The fact that he was able to make two overtimes
when it felt like he was only going to be
able to make one overtime based on Charles D. Nike's
estimation thout the race, and then he was able to
do a whole burnout in the process while going around
on the cool down lap of a two and a
half mile track that was a stretch pretty much a
big stretch as is. It's like, okay, he got it,

(02:03):
good for him, but it's one of those like how
was he able to save enough fuel when they had
no confidence, especially with the technology that they have now,
that they were actually gonna make it.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Either that or Charles D.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Nike had one of the best poker faces of all time,
but based on the radio communication, that did not seem
like it was the case. Now move forward to this
past weekend at Iowa. You know the strategy of the
rays got completely thrown over its head during a caution.
Uh and then once that caution happened, it was yellow
after yellow after yellow. This was more than a yellow fever.

(02:36):
This was almost a full on, outbreaking pandemic of yellow
fever at Iowa this past weekend. So that did play
a big factor. But contrary to that, there was still
a seventy five lap run at the end of the
race with no cautions. That's almost a whole few run
at Iowa based on what the current generation car has.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And I look at that.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
And I see, you know, William Byron, who should have
had no shot at making it on field based even
with after all the caution laps, somehow still able to
have enough feel and no one's able to get him.
And you know, unfortunately Brad Keselowski, you know, and the
whole rest of the pack, Ryan Priest, Ryan Blaney were

(03:20):
not able to get to him, even though they had
more fuel in the car. They didn't have to worry
about it. I know, to tire where it can be
a massive factor. But if William Byron's having to save
so much fuel, he should be getting passed not only
by lap cars but by the leaders that are right
behind him, and it was yet again another problem with
this car. I know it's hard to it's extremely hard
to pass, and no matter what era of NASCAR you

(03:41):
get to, you're gonna have people complaining about it's hard
to pass. But in these cars, specifically, when you get
to tracks like Iowa, which it's not really a short track,
but it kind of is a short track, it rears
its ugly head again, and we're gonna have the same
problem play out in a couple of weeks at Richmond.
I know they're gonna be at Watkins Glenn this upcoming weekend,
but Richmond's a very similar track to Iowa, without as

(04:04):
much banking and speed. But you're gonna have a similar problem.
My problem with it is, specifically, you go back to
races fifteen, twenty years ago. Heck, even ten years ago,
you didn't really know if you're gonna make it on fuel,
like the art form of saving fuel. It seems a
lot easier now than what it used to be, and

(04:25):
more so in the past you were going on a
hope and a prayer. And now they have all these
war rooms back at their home bases. They have computers
all across the pit box that give them information that
can help. But even then it still feels like too
much of a stretch for a guy like William Byron
and to a lesser extent Bubble Loss able to save
enough fuel to win the race and then go through

(04:47):
a cool down lap and be able to burn it
down with a burnout right at the start finish line
for the fans to see. It's getting a little too ridiculous.
And I think this again proves that there needs to
be more horsepower in these cars. I'm not saying more
horsepower will fix everything, but I think more horsepower will
make it feel like a few mile age race is

(05:09):
more legitimate because you'll have more cars, in my opinion,
run out of feel now. Luckily, Elton Sawyer has said
that they've talked about a potential power increase and thinks
that it could happen. He says it's the right move,
but it won't happen until twenty twenty six at the earliest.
The current challenge, according to him, is deciding which tracks

(05:31):
would get the short track increase, and in my opinion,
it needs to be at almost all of them. I
don't think you maybe take as big of a jump
at some of the bigger tracks that are a mile
and a half or two miles bigger, you know, But
like everywhere from Iowa slash Phoenix, under needs a humongous
power increase. I wouldn't mind if you get it as
far up as nine hundred horsepower. It won't fix all

(05:52):
the problems, but I think it'll make it more challenging
on the guys, and I think the passing will be
better and it creates more challenges. And here's here's my
real qualm here with what's going on. This is twenty
twenty five that we're living in right now. Not trying
to get holier than Dal mentioning the year. But the
reason why I say that is the new car Gen

(06:15):
seven car, next gen whatever you want to call it,
came out in twenty twenty two, so we're in the
year four of the next gen car. They said they've
made changes, good years, they've had goodyear, do all this stuff,
but NASCAR really has stayed firmal, not doing much of
anything with this car. No massive changes to really help things.

(06:38):
The only changes we really hear are to make sure
that these cars don't fly off the air again. And
even then it fails, and I think a lot of
it has to do with the structure, specifically on the
underbody with the diffusers.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Just my guess.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I'm not an engineer, but it's been essentially almost full
four years and they've not really made any changes in
all these problems continue to persist. They essentially, in my opinion,
I believe they just throw cheese at the wall, see
if it sticks. If it sticks, great, we fixed the problem.
Except you didn't, because the cheese won't fix a damn thing.
You go back to the Car Tomorrow, which gets lamb

(07:15):
basted by fans and was lamb basted at the time.
And for those who don't remember, to Car Tomorrow started
in two thousand and seven. Okay, they did it for
about at least a third, if not nearly half the
year in two thousand and seven. They then were supposed
to run twenty four or yeah, twenty four to twenty

(07:35):
six races in two thousand and eight and didn't have
the full start come in two thousand and nine. They
didn't rushed it to have the full schedule in two
thousand and eight with the Car Tomorrow's in the two
thousand and eight races or Snoozefest two thousand and nine
a little bit better, but much of the same. And
then by the time twenty ten rolled around, they finally
made some changes to make sure the cars stay on

(07:57):
the track, to make sure that the racing was better better,
And guess what it actually worked. The twenty ten to
twenty twelve era of the Car of Tomorrow was pretty good.
It was pretty damn good. Now, was the damage already
done in a lot of ways? Yes, it was because
the racing from two thousand and eight to some parts
of two thousand and nine was pretty brutal, pretty boring.

(08:19):
Lots of long runs, fuel mileage races were plenty in
that era, a little bit too much.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Are some feel milea races fun?

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Hell?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, you go back and look at it.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Two thousand and nine race at Michigan where Mark Martin
wins after Greg Biffel and Jimmy Johnson both run out
of gas on the final lap.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's a badass race.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
But when you have about six or seven within a
twelve week stretch, not as fun anymore. And I think
this is where putting more car power into the cars
while not fixing everything specifically with this car can make
it more digestible. Moving forward, I think we'll actually have
drivers run out, I feel a little bit more. I

(09:02):
think it'll be much harder to save feel in my opinion,
especially if you jump the horsepower up by one hundred
to one hundred and fifty on somebody's short tracks, I
think it'll make the short track racing a good bit better,
not perfect, but I think it'll be a big step
in the right direction. We've been talking about somebody steps
in the right directions, but they feel like minuscule steps
baby steps. Instead, let's start taking about two or three

(09:23):
steps in the right direction instead of a baby step,
which is about a quarter of an adult sized step.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
That is in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
I think the fact that NASCAR finally acknowledged it on
their own radio station might be a good sign. But
I also am concerned that it's a a little too
late to be doing this. We're in year four now.
You jumped a little bit earlier in the car tomorrow era,
and even then that was a little bit too late.
And I also think they won't take enough measures to

(09:53):
do it.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
That's my concern.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Now, with the potential change in the short track racing
and adding horsepower, it seems like you're going to do it,
but it's more of the froid dog of bones, so
we can shut the hell up. And in my opinion,
that means it's only going to be about a fifty
two one hundred horsepower jump, and I don't think that's enough,
especially on.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
The short tracks.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Please fix it, for the love of God, That's what
I think on the matter. Hopefully NASCAR can do more
than just a froid dog of bone and actually make
changes that can help this car, especially on the short tracks.
Your bread and butter for a lot of die hard
fans moving forward, because remember Bristol aink that far away
and the Bristol race earlier this year was garbage. Arguably

(10:36):
the worst Bristol race I've ever seen, and it's not
because of the track, it's because of the car.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
All right.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Before I get to my race picks, I feel like
this is going to become a weekly occurrence until the
start of the playoffs and then we'll have playoff previews.
But do need to look at what the playoff bubble
looks like now with only three races remaining in the
regular season. Street races are as follows Watkins, Glen Richmond,
and Daytona, so he got a road course, a short track,

(11:07):
and a superspeedway. Big variants in the tracks, so that
should definitely be interesting. But what I find interesting is
the bubble. Not much has changed from last week to
this week. No new winner, so that keeps things afloat,
and that's good news if you're on the bubble. You
don't want a new winner to win. But Tyler Reddick,

(11:28):
his gap has kind of closed a little bit. He
lost a good bit of ground to think about, nearly
forty points if I'm not mistaken from what happened at Iowa.
Just did not have a good car from the start
and to get go at all. Alex Bowman another good
solid week for him. He's increased his points total up
a little bit. He's now up sixty three points. Not
in the best situation, but definitely not in the worst situation.

(11:50):
As long as he can finish in the top ten
to fifteen over the next three weeks and no one
else below him wins, Bowman should be fine and he
should get in points, but after him is where things
get dicey. Chris Busher still is above the cut line,
but he's only twenty three points above the cut line
as his teammate is nipping at his heels yet again.

(12:13):
Ryan Pries had another strong outing this past weekend, a
top five second straight top five to four priests as
he continues on his career year. The guys beneath him
that are on the bubble that they'll show on TV
Kyle Busch seventy three points below the cut line. Basically
his week was never going to be fully recovered after

(12:34):
he wrecked in practice. Ty Gibbs another solid run, it
just seems like it's going to be too little, too
late for him unless he wins from his first six
races of the year. And got to give an out
of a boy to aj Almendinger and colleague for being
in the playoff bubble, albeit one hundred and eighteen points
back step in the right direction for Colleague Racing to

(12:54):
have a guy in the top twenty end points no
matter which way you cut it, So Almondinger's last one
into top twenty. He he's going to be a factor
this weekend, no doubt. At Watkins Glen to keep an
eye out for the sixteen car, but that's likely.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Outside of that.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
In Daytona, potentially the only legit shot he has is
winning this weekend at Watkins Glen of making the playoffs.
But the focus is not with him, and it's not
even on the guys that are the last one in
and the first one out and Chris Busher and Ryan Priest. No,
my focus is actually going to their boss, and that's
Brad Keselowski. Because I mentioned a little bit earlier that
Ty Gibbs had a horrendous start to the year, well

(13:33):
the same can be said, if not more true than
it was for Brad Keselowski. Go back to early May
when he wrecked at Kansas, had the second place car
was chasing down the leader and then the tire went down.
He finished thirty seventh. Folks, he had not even one
top ten at that point of the year and just

(13:55):
wreck after reck after w reck, problem after problem after problem,
or just being a complete NYE factor. At that point
in the year, he was thirty third points after his
strong third place running at Iowood. Has past weekend, he
has found himself right outside the top twenty in around
twenty second, twenty third. And you know I mentioned after Kansas,

(14:18):
which was the twelfth race of the year. Once again,
the twelfth race of the year, and nearly the halfway
point of the regular season he was outside the top thirty.
Ever since then, they've now completed twenty three races, so
it's been an eleven race sample size. He's had four
top fives and seven top tens. Folks, I don't know

(14:42):
if Brad Keselowski's going to have enough left in the tank.
He's not going to get in on points. He's too
far back. He's about one hundred and twenty some odd
points back. He's a little bit behind Allmendinger. He's going
to have to win to get in. But I fully,
I firmly believe that Brad Keselowski is going to mix

(15:04):
up the playoffs. You could say Bubba did, but Bubba
was already in the playoffs technically in on points. He
got a win. That makes him safe and he doesn't
have to worry about any of this. But there hasn't
been a full and like, oh my god, he won
and if there was anyone to do it, in my opinion,
it's gonna be Brad. I mean, you look what he's done.

(15:25):
He started to turn a season around once he finally
put a full race together at the Koke six hundred
and finished fifth. Had a couple of mediocre runs at
Nashville and Mexico City, mixed in between that was a
top ten run at Michigan and then ever since then,
outside of wreckingham lap two at the Chicago Street Course,
he's been dynamite, a ninth at Pocono, a second at Atlanta.

(15:46):
You know, if there was another guy behind him outside
Alex Bowman, he probably gets a bump draft to get
past Chase Elliot and sling shot past him and win
that race at Atlanta, you know, the thirty seven fat Chicago.
That to mention, even at Sonoma, which he's not a
good road racer, he got a lot of points and
finished eleventh, dover top ten run Indy top five, and
this past weekend at Iowa was the best run of

(16:07):
the year for that six team.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
They finished third.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Folks, it could be too little, too late, but I
do think Brad Kaselowski is gonna win before the end
of twenty twenty five, and in my opinion, I think
he's going to win within the next three weeks. And
even though Watkins Glenn, he's had a couple of good
runs there, but in large part he's not a road racer.
Brad Keselowski is going to be a fret to win

(16:33):
at both Richmond and Daytona. Daytona don't need to mention
much about him. He's one of the best restrictor plate
or bump drafting drivers that you can find on the
circuit today or even all time. But at Richmond, Richmond
is going to be a sneaky good track. Iowa was
very similar to Richmond in a lot of ways. You
go back to two years ago when Chris Busher won

(16:53):
it Richmond, who had the best card that weekend? It
was actually Brad Keselowski. Brad Kaselowski had arguably the best
car of the weekend at Richmond a couple of years ago.
I truly think that we're gonna see Brad Keaselowski win
at Richmond.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Am I giving him away my pick? Yeah? Probably?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
But you know, for as much as you want to
talk about the two RFK cars on the bubble and
Ryan Priest and Chris Busher, Brad Keselowski's actually the RFK
car you should be looking at because the veteran still
has it. He just had a horrendous start to the year.
But over the last three months, the summer months have
been very kind of Brad and he's gotten into a rhythm.

(17:31):
And even though Watkins Glenn is not his strong suit,
I think he can run decently enough there to gain
a little bit of points, probably take some stage points,
you know, late in the stage, even though he's not
gonna make it in on points in the playoffs. But
then Richmond, that's where things really get interesting, and that
I think is where he's gonna really take the full opportunity.
And if he doesn't, he can easily win it Daytona.

(17:53):
He's that damn good. So folks, don't keep your eye
on the seventeen or sixty, keep your eye on the
ball of the seventeen and sixty because bad Brad, I believe,
is going to return to Victory Lane, spoil the playoff
party and turn it upside down one time. Because we
really haven't really haven't seen the playoff Pitcher and Bubble

(18:14):
really get flipped on its head this year. But I
believe Brad Keselowski saving the surprise for a late in
the regular season. And with that, let's get to my
picks for this weekend's races. At Watkins Glenn.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Evan thinks he's pretty smart when it comes to Nascari.
The inner mechanicians of my mind are in a.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Enigmab Let's see if that holds up as he tries
to pick the race winners in the burnout. All right,
all three series are racing at the Glenn this weekend.
First off, the Truck Series the Mission one seventy six
at the Glenn. Catch the race on FS one, Friday,
August eighth, at five pm, right at Quentin time. Great

(18:56):
way to start the weekend. It's five o'clock somewhere. I've
got Connor Zilich winning. He's racing in his first ever
Truck Series race. I believe he's gonna go one for
one this weekend. Into Truck Series he wins at Watkins Glenn.
But wait, and the words of Billy Mays, there's more
because the Mission two hundred at the Glenn for the

(19:17):
Infinity Series is on Saturday, August ninthe at three pm.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
And even though.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
SVG's running in that race too, I have Connor Zilich
going double duty and winning both of the races before
the main events this weekend. He wins the Infinity race
now forty Cup Series race the Go Bowling at the Glenn.
Catch the race on USA, Sunday, August tenth, at two pm.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
You may be thinking I go with Shane Van Ginzbergen.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Well you will be wrong because I have Chase brisco
getting his second win on the year for Joe Gibbs
Racing and at number nineteen Bass Pro Shops Toyota. So
once again my picks for this weekend are Connor Zilich
to win both to tr rock Inexfinity race and Chase
Briscoe to win the Cup race. Be sure to tune

(20:04):
in next week as we'll recap what happened in Watkins Glen,
New York in preview NASCAR's first trip to Richmond since
all hell broke loose with Austin Dillon. But until then,
I hope you all have a good week and remember
everyone stay fast. In Jesus' name, buggety, buggety, buggety, Hey, ma'am,
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