Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've just been fed some intel about the Charlotte Hornets
and the culture building over there and some of the
newcomers and how they've been received, and how they're mixing
it up with some of the vested veterans and the
guys who've been around for a couple of years. Like
I'm hearing good things about the Charlotte Hornets. I know
we're not there yet, smoke, But have you thought much
about it?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
No? I don't want to get my hopes up. No,
just don't do that to me. No.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
All right?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Fine?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Do we have Marty is Marty with us?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Marty Snyder, NBC Sports turner, Amazon, NASCAR studio host, acclaimed
pit reporter, good friend of ours, and a Friday conversation
here on the show. Marty Snyder, Good Friday, buddy, How
are you?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
KB? What's haddening? Don't go around start talking about hornets yet.
I mean, come on, you get us excited about panthers,
getting us excited about the hornets too, I mean, come on, now, KB.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It might be a fool's errand I admit that upfront,
but you know I'm an optimistic guy by nature. So
we're here now, Marty and I think you're a pretty
optimistic guy by nature. You know, Week one, well, okay,
week wanted Jacksonville, Robert hits the road. This weekend, Marty,
you got to give us a final prediction of what
you think is gonna happen. What's going on?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Good Lord, I don't know, kV. I mean, I'm still like,
I'm a Jaden's Hornets fan. I'm a Jaden Panthers fan.
I'm afraid to afraid to hope. But now I feel
good about this weekend. I asked, hopefully the the Panthers
can do what we think they can do, hopefully. You know,
I heard, you know, West Wilson having the conversation day
(01:28):
you know about you know, Ken TETs show up and
be the player we all think he's gonna be and
then says you need to be great, And I just
wanted to see something good happen. I just want to
see some positive moves on the offense and progression on
the offense, and if the defense can just hang in
there and be a mediocre defense, I think it could
(01:48):
be a great year. But I'm afraid to hope. I mean,
we left camp and everything was great, nobody was hurting,
now of a sudden, everybody's hurt. So I'm afraid that
that's right there, proof enough that you can't hope for
the Panthers fan.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, fair enough, We'll see what happens on Sunday on
the football field. We'll go back to the track though.
For now, Sunday's pretty exciting there as the playoffs have begun.
And talked to Ryan McGee about it earlier this week,
and one of the first things he pointed out to
us was that guys just don't win back to back
years the Southern five hundred down in Darlington. But that's
what Chase Briscoe did last weekend. What did you think
(02:20):
of the performance and all that went down in a
pretty dominant performance by Briscoe.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, I'll go even further. Guys don't win back to
back Southern five hundreds with different teams, and I think
that's really the big accomplishment for Chase brisco And I
think listen, you know, we kind of talked about it
in our interview on the front stretch right after the
race and winners interview, and I just don't you know,
I think he's just now learning how to drive the
Jogi's racing car and what it expects out of him
(02:48):
and James Small as crew chief, has been spending months
trying to say, hey, don't you can't drive it like
you used to drive. You got to drive it like this.
You got to trust the car a lot more. You
can change your driving style to be this and you
don't have to you know, you know, be one hundred
percent every lap and put yourself in peril every lap.
The car can handle this. So it's taken him a while.
(03:10):
So I agree with Chase Briscoe's assessment in that they're
just now sort of seeing and kind of really just
scraping the surface of what the potential of the nineteen
team can be. Can they get to Martin TRUEX Junior
Championship level. I'm not sure if they're quite there yet,
but I do think that he's certainly putting himself in
the conversation as one of the drivers who will be
(03:31):
a factor when he gets down to Phoenix later this year.
And by the way, Phoenix Attrack he's already won at
and a Phoenix Attrack he is very good at, so
sort of underrated because a lot of people talk about
Dean Penske at Phoenix a lot of people talk about
Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin at Phoenix, not a lot
of people bring up Chase Briscoe. If he makes it there,
he'll be a threat to win the title.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Marty, this smoke here and you were talking about Chase Briscoe.
How big the last few months have been for him,
But like it feels like this has been just as big,
if not bigger, for his crew chief Chain Small, because
I remember over the last few years, even though the
nineteen team was competing for wins, something would get into
way and there were a lot of angry transactions on
the radio between he and Mark duch Junior. I mean,
how big is it for James Small to have a
(04:13):
season like this after the last couple of years with MTJ.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It's big, and James and I are really close friends,
and I'm very happy for him that he is seeing
this level of success because you got to realize he
lived in Colpern's shadow for a long time. Colpeern obviously
championship crew chief and was a tremendous leader of that team.
James was his engineer, and it took a while to
kind of make that transition from hey, I can make
(04:39):
the car great to being I can I can make
the car great and lead the team and call a
great race. That's very different. There's a lot of guys
who can do all the nuts and bolts to make
the cargo fast that they can't lead a race team.
And it took James a while to learn all of that.
And yes, in the middle of all the Martin Truck
Junior stuff, there was some frustration and and there were
(05:00):
there were some heated moments on the radio which very
well publicized on national television and all the you know,
talk shows and all of that. But I think at
the end of the day, he's learned how to lead
the team. I think having Chase has actually helped him
a little bit smoked, because he's had to really lead
the driver more than he's had to do in the
past and coach the driver more than he's had to
(05:22):
in the past. And James has welcome that. At first,
he kind of, you know, you know, just said do
it like this and just do it like that. Now
he's learned how to lead him a little bit better,
and I think that's starting the show as well. But again,
I think we're just seeing the potential of that race team.
Just a little bit of it. I don't know that
they'll be dominant like that in the rest of the playoffs,
but I do think that's what that team is capable
(05:43):
of doing.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
He led three zero nine of three sixty seven on Sunday, Marty,
and you know these things better than I do. But
this week I've heard a lot more of the revival
of the next gen car, criticism, griping about that the
way racing used to be at Darlington as opposed to this.
Obviously it's not a new topic, but it does be
like we haven't discussed it this much in a while. Like, what,
you know, you talk to these guys all the time,
(06:04):
what's the current opinion on the next gen car and
the tinkering and what can be done at places like Darlington.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Well, I mean, there's no question if you don't have
a second lane, you can't pass. And that's why you
saw in the spring at Darlington William Byron lead literally
every lap of Stage one and States two. You just
don't see that happen at Darlington, right, And that's why
you see Chase Briscoe be so dominant. So yeah, I
think the criticism, or at least the talk is warranted.
(06:31):
They've got to figure out something at these these these
intermediate tracks, and Darlington certainly falls into that category of
where if you don't have a second lane, you got
to figure out a way to pass. And that can
be good, that can be bad. But it just gets
to the point where these guys get behind someone and
they're just stuck. I mean, look at Denny Hamlin. I
would argue Denny Hamlin had one of the top three
(06:53):
cars in the race at Darlington last Sunday night. He
has a bad pit stop, he goes back to twenty eight.
It takes him the entire race to get back up
to seventh and that's as far as he could get.
And I think that just shows you that a good
car it matters. But really qualifying track position that's what matters.
(07:15):
Pit stops matter. That's why to me, KB we're seeing
all these mistakes on Pitt Road because teams know the
best way to pass teams pass another car is in
the pits. You have to have a good pit stop,
you have to have a quick pit stop. That's how
you pass people these days, and that's why you see
so many mistakes and why it ramps up in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Now, Marty, speaking of the playoffs, the race got off
to a chaotic start, not even half of that through.
Josh Berry wanted a playoff driver's wreck coming off of
turn two and that really ended his day. Alex Bowman
got caught up in that. He never really recovered. But
it was a rough day for Hendrick Motorsports outside of
William Byron and Kyle Larson, because Chase Elliott and Alex
Bowman both had pretty bad days. Bowman's well below the
(07:57):
cut line, but Chase lot had his gap that he
had heading into the playoffs is gone. I mean, what's
your concern level for both Bowman and Elliott for the
remainder of around to sixteen.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Well, I'm concerned smoked for Hendrick Motorsports period going into
this weekend because they all kind of had Saint Louis
Circles as the track they were the most worried about
in the playoffs, not just this round, in the playoffs
because it's a big unknown. You know, we talked about
all these you know tracks where all this chaos comes.
I think Saint Louis is the biggest unknown of the
playoffs because there's ever been a playoff race at that track.
(08:30):
It's you know, there have only been three Cup races
period on that track and Hendrick has not been spectacular
at any of those three races. And if they have
a weakness, and unfortunately this all is the category of
Phoenix as well. It's these flat one Mileish race tracks,
which that's Saint Louis, that's New Hampshire. In the next
round it is Phoenix, which is the championship race. I mean,
(08:50):
so there there are certainly pitfalls for Hendrick Motorsports along
the way to be able to get to Phoenix and
have a shot to win the championship. But this weekend
you mention Alex Bowman is below the cut line, Chase
Elliott's just nine above the cut line. He doesn't have
a lot of breathing rooms. And if you look at
lately at Bristol, that hasn't been a phenomenal racetrack for Hendrick.
(09:10):
Other than Kyle Larson, who's been dominant at Bristol, that
has not been a great racetrack. And that's next weekend,
the night race at Bristol to close out the first
round of the playoffs. So I think Hendrick Motorsports desperately
needs a good weekend. This weekend, I know they've been
working really hard. They feel like they made some progress
at Richmond in terms of setup and things that they learned,
(09:32):
which does apply to Saint Louis. So we'll see what
happens on Sunday on USA. But I really think this
is going to be a massive challenge for Hmdtrick Motorsports
on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Marty, I'll let you go on this. I've just received
correspondence from a man who goes by the name Hurricane
Carl on my fantom text line. He claims that you
and him were fraternity brothers at Charlotte and he would
like to know your thoughts on their chances against Carolina
and Bill Belichick this weekend.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Oh lord, uh good lord. Bill Belichick's still cushing in
Chapel Hill at me. I thought that would be over
by now now I'm kidding. Unfortunately, you know, I don't
know Carl and we could have been turning brothers. But
but I will say I don't think I don't think
the Niners have much of a chance Belichick off of
a Uh. First of all, is Belichick and to start
(10:19):
the right quarterback, that's a question. That's the other question,
I got right. Gio doesn't need to be the quarterback,
but that's another story. But I think I think Belichick
is not gonna stample what happened last week. I would think,
and I think they're gonna come into uh, into Charlotte
and uh and lay it down this weekend. I think.
I don't know. I mean, I thought the Niners were
(10:40):
in that game for a little while and they just
kept getting worse and worse and worse last week. So
I hate I missed that one in Charlotte, but I
just don't think the Niners are going to be strong
enough to be able to beat Carolina. What do you think, KB?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not picking not after
what I saw from the quarterback spot with Charlotte last week.
If if they had and better quarterback play, I think
you could safely, you know, get a little bit irrationally
confident and think they've got a chance here. But after
what I saw from Connor Harrell last week, no matter
how bad Carolina was on Monday night, I'm hard pressed
to think that Charlotte's going to find a way to
(11:15):
do that. I do, I mean, but to your point
a second ago, the Belichick thing was so ugly on
Monday night, Marty, it has forced everybody to recalibrate. Vegas
dropped their win total from seven and a half to
five and a half. You know, I don't think the
talent level is all that great out there. It does
make you wonder immediately just where this Belichick thing is
gonna end up going.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I just don't get it. I mean, the you know,
the flip chart with nobody listed on it. I mean,
come on, man, I mean, what are you doing kicking
kicking kick in New England Patriots at it? I mean,
come on, man, just like a guy. Just be normal,
you know. You know Keith Newmark, my buddy, that is
going to be the ad there soon and left raph Senway,
(11:56):
Kevowski racing to go up there to back to chap
Hill and he will. But what a mess he's walking
into it?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
All this? You know, Well, my gut tells me he's
going to get a chance to hire his own football coach.
And they're not too distant. Keep but we shall see,
We shall see, Marty. Thank you, brothers. Always enjoy Saint Louis.
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Sounds good. You got to think they