Daytona cutoff: Two critical moves by Austin Dillon in a playoff win; Tyler Reddick's good faith play for RCR; NASCAR's rain drama ... and dilemma

to do. We had to tap dance through a lot of delays, but it all worked out. Yeah, thanks for being here after all that. It's fun to be here. We had the opportunity to do over 13 hours of rain feel. So I hate that for the fans that went there in person, but on the other hand, we had some cool content. We showed some old races.

We showed part of the race from Saturday. We showed a lot of different stuff. So that part of it was a, that's just another opportunity to be involved in this sport. So I'm not going to complain about that, but I will not lie. When I got home last night, I was exhausted. I had had enough. Yeah, I needed a break. I got a text from my

tart late last night of, I think, you just sent a gif of like a guy collapsing on his couch. And I felt for you guys. I did not go to Daytona, but of course I was watching from afar and enthralled with all of the action in Sunday's regular season finale. As always, this turned out to be a barn burner, a lot of wrecks. I want to

start with the winner, Austin Dillon, two critical moves that he made, Jeff. The first was the one that got him through the big wreck that happened just before the red flag. And that got Austin Dillon into the lead. Austin Dillon said it was instinctive. The 99 when he kind of got turned and up in the air, I saw that. So my immediate reaction was get to

the flat because I knew he was headed up the hill. You start to understand certain things of which way cars are going to momentum, is going to take cars. So he's going up the track. The next thing is going to happen is somebody's going to get clipped and turned back left. So you're hoping that you make it far enough forward before that car comes back across

the apron or my direction change is really going to hurt when I get clipped and go up the hill. So the bottom is like advantageous because you always have an out. But in the same sentence, some of the hardest hits you're going to take are when you get right reared and shot into the fence. So let's discuss that move because I mean, it's instinctive, but at

the same time, I remember you came on the podcast recently and we're talking about this about I think it was a Jeb Burton decision during a wreck about all the things you have to do to get through a wreck knowing that you're probably not going to make it. Well, it is instinctive and sometimes those instincts, you know, they work and sometimes they don't. You know, every

one of those drivers in that wreck were doing what just came natural to them. By far, the majority of them, it didn't work out for because it couldn't have. Now you go back and watch that wreck and like nobody did anything wrong that could have avoided the wreck. It didn't. It's just super hard to track gets blocked. I mean, essentially almost the entire field was in

the wreck. I mean, it was crazy. And so, yeah, there's an element of luck there. There's no question about it. There's a there is instinct, but there's also just there's a time where he wasn't surrounded by anybody. There wasn't anything going flying by him like there wasn't something just inadvertently got him. That part of it is the luck part. The part that's not luck is when

it is a decision to be made and you make the right one. But any time you get through a when you're in the middle of a big wreck at Dayton, Talladega and you get through it, every one of those, there's an element of luck involved. Is what Austin says there? Does that make sense that it does maybe just be natural to just go to the bottom,

go the apron, go the flat? Did you approach it so it you know, all you can do is look at what's happening in front of you and respond to it. I mean, the two cards that I thought were that close to making it through was Harrison and Ty Dylan. They were inches away. They were on the bottom. The track was it was early in the wreck.

The track was clittering to the top and the track was wet so Ty spun and they were both on the bottom and then Harrison's behind him on the apron and they both made contact and that made the way for the next guy that had an opportunity was Austin. Harvey had an opportunity and the cold just closed up and you know, but if you go back and

watch that big glob of cars, none of those guys had a shot. To me, it was Harvey Austin and Ty and Harrison. Those were the four that had a possibility and only one made it through. Yeah, and it looked like Harvey could hear from what I could clean from the video. It looked like he kind of hit the gas and he did. He did. He looked

like he was going to get through and then the cars just went like this. There's a whole goal. You know, and that's and that's the thing that I think it was really cool watching that because from being a driver, I know there's times when you're going to wreck that you have to accelerate. You have to go against your instinct and accelerate. If it doesn't work, now

you're going to hit them harder than you were going to hit them. But that was his only shot and he did accelerate and then it just reminded me of the good fortune to fly in the front seat of a lot of airplanes and there's clouds that you don't like to fly through clouds if you don't have to because you know what's in them. And sometimes the

clouds just, you know what I mean? Next day, you know you're in them. And that thing just closed up so quickly and it's just, there's nothing he could have done. It's nothing at all. So as I mentioned and you did mention that the track was wet and we're going to get to that eventually but first I want to handle everything that happened around the Dylan wind.

So the second move I said two critical moves by Austin Dylan. That move got him in the lead. Then the red flag comes almost a four hour delay. They restart the race with Austin Dylan lead. On the restart, he actually gets passed by Austin Cindrick who ends up leading the next 13 laps and before Austin Dylan is able to pass him with three to go. He

makes this maneuver Jeff in which he gets to him and then in turn one, he makes kind of light contact. Austin said it just kind of happened. I was kind of planning on getting a bigger run than that before and pulling out to the right and I figured that the two was going to be a sit and duck because they were going to go with me.

The Chevy's would and then we'd race it out from there. But he just kind of got loose as I got to his back bumper that time into one and I'd kind of been given that same shove. I don't know if I just caught him a little more momentum that lap than the others but when he got free I just kind of moved up the track. So

I want to say this was controversial but it was kind of different from what we normally see with a pass for the lead at Daytona. It wasn't a bump in a run like a short track but it sort of looked like that. So let me back up one second. So I thought there was actually three moments. I want to add one to it. So on the

restart you mentioned he had the lead and got passed. He fell back like fourth. And then he got down the back straight away. They got a run. The 77 car was behind him with landing castle driving it and I believe that Kyle Busch may have been behind him. He pushed the 77 push the three and then when Austin got cleared himself with the guys on the

outside he had a decision to make. And he got to when he got to Martin Truex Jr. And he instinctively just jumped to the outside and was able to clear him and then get himself to second. So that move, that ability to get that momentum down the back and then get himself to second ultimately led to him being able to take the lead away. And then

you could see him start to fool back trying to slow down, slow down to get some momentum. Austin Cindrick said in his post race interview he was watching that happen. And he was trying to drag the break and do everything he could to get back to them. They did not let him get momentum on him but he couldn't what he was able to do it. And

then it's hard for me to say that Austin Dillon intentionally pushed him out of the way because how much pushing do we see at Daytona? Right. All the way around. Yeah. I like the thing. It's hard for me to imagine that Austin knew he could push him and get him loose and grab around him on the outside without pushing him and spinning in front of him

and taking him out. Awesome. You know what I'm saying? So I don't know. I don't know that Austin intentionally did that. Right. I can't say that he didn't because there's so much on the line. But it's hard. It's yeah, I don't know. I don't know what happened there. I don't know. I know he meant to hit him. But we see people hit people all the time

at Daytona, Talladega. It's not like you said, it's not like a bump in running out of the racetrack. I don't know how you would have known what the outcome was going to be about pushing a guy into Turnmore. That's what struck me. And again, after hearing what Austin said, he described it the way you did that it wasn't like he meant to give him that show.

That's just what he'd been doing the whole time. And he just sort of slipped free of him and went off the track. And Austin Cindrick said that I got hit by another race car going 192 hours an hour. Glad I saved it, glad I had his shot to come back through the field, but he's racing for a playout spot. Totally expect to get drove through just

kind of a matter of time. But pretty bombed, you know? I mean, we had a shot to win today. It made Tecmanard Ford Mustang. It was obviously quick. We put ourselves in position, not a scratch on it. Dang it. I mean, he knew, so he's pretty sure he did an own purpose. I mean, Austin Stringett said he took it pretty well, right? Because he's a Ford

with three Chevy's behind him. I was surprised it took as long as it did, essentially, right? I mean, they waited until three to go and they could have done it any time of four or five laps. I think with 10 to go, they were lined up behind him. Richard Childers, we played him on the radio, saying, wait till the last lap, wait till the last lap.

And I'm like, no, no, no, you can't wait till the last lap. You got it. If you get that run, you got to take it. And that's what, again, that's what's interesting to me is that I'm not for a minute saying that Austin didn't get in the back of Cindrick trying to mess him up. I'm not saying that. I just don't know that's what happened. He

could have taken that run and jumped to the outside of him, got the guys behind him. He's pretty sure they would have gone with him. But who knows, man, it's just racing with the damn whole season on the line. I mean, really, yeah, I mean, you're three to go the day, Tony, and literally it's your whole season. I mean, that's crazy. Do you think about it

like that? I never really, I wouldn't say I didn't get in that situation, but every playoff that we do in the end of regular season that we do now that I'm on the other side of the fence, I'm just fascinated by what drivers teams can do. You know, it's fascinating to me. And then the results of that effort, you know, you're Cindrick, you're pissed off if

you're dealing your dancing and victory lane and you got life. And you now have made the playoffs and that matters. Like that matter is not only for today, it matters for tomorrow because you're now a playoff team and that's a tremendous amount of selling power for sponsorship for your place in the sport as a driver. It's really important. It's very powerful. Yeah. And certainly for Richard

Childress and Richard Childress racing, which now has two cars in the playoffs with Tyler Redick Austin, Dylan, RSC said it after the race. It was it was a million dollar move literally literally that car getting the playoffs. He said means it's a seven figure difference. And if Austin, Dylan doesn't make the playoffs. I wonder if RSC went and huged Tyler Redick after. Well, it's funny. He

bring that up because that was the next thing I wanted to talk about was the fact that Austin, Dylan had Tyler Redick riding shotgun all the way to the finish. Tyler Redick was the good teammate. He pushed Austin Dylan all the way. He said he never intended to get out of line. Fortunately, I was able to make the right moves at the right time to get

close. You know, me and Noah being right there behind Austin. And then when Austin made his move on the two, it was kind of perfect. It was timing for me to get around Noah and the two both and then get his back bumper and make sure that anyone coming for the three is going to have to wreck the eight. So that was with Tyler Redick. Yeah.

What was the roller skating thing when they. Oh, roller derby. He was like the blocker. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good way to look at it. I hadn't thought about that. So the other thing is that you know, that says to me that Tyler Redick has the word with all and the self awareness that I even though I'm leaving Richard Children's racing, I drive for Richard Children's

racing. And the respect that he showed on Sunday to help our CR get another car into playoffs is a sign of his character. Now I know that Richard is upset because he's leaving. That's not a character flaw. It's not a character flaw to make a decision that you think is in your best interest for your career. That's not a character flaw. You can have a disagreement

about it. But it doesn't mean you're a bad person. And Richard's not a bad person either. I know Richard really well. Richard's a really good person. But feelings get hurt. And moments like that is a good reminder that Tyler Redick understands his place. And that's what Tyler Redick respects our CR. And Richard now, after all that's happened, can now look at Tyler Redick in a different

light. And I think that's good for the future of Tyler Redick's success, assuming something crazy doesn't happen and he doesn't leave at the end of this year. That goes a long way to helping that team. So a lot of things happen for our CR on Sunday afternoon. Not just Austin Dillon winning that race in my opinion. And I've said to you before, I think Richard Childress,

the best thing he can do for his company is put as much effort as he can into that eight car to win as many races he can between now and the time Tyler Redick leaves. Because all that Richard Childress is doing is recruiting the next driver, the next crew chief, the next tire changers, the next sponsors, all that stuff. That's what he's doing with that eight

car. And how you do that, right? You win with it. And I think a lot happened on Sunday that was a really positive, very, very positive RCR. No, it's a really good point with Tyler Redick slated the leave for 2311 racing in the 2024 season. That clearly, and as you know, surely that was recognized by Richard Childress that he has not forgotten that, hey, I'm in

the Cup series because Richard Childress racing gave me that ride after I went to this team and won the Xfandy Series Championship in 2019. RCR sees the guy who put me in the eight car in 2020 and that's why he's going to 2311 racing. So it meant a lot to Richard. I want to get your take on one more thing on that, Jeff. It meant a

lot to Austin Dylan as well. Austin Dylan had this really interesting quote after the race in the media center. I mean, Tyler made his decision a couple months ago. I could hold him and congratulated him. And for me, being a owner's son sometimes comes with caveats and I wanted to make sure that I had nothing to do with the reasons that he was leaving. And when

I called him, I was like, hey, man, I'm just making sure I've been a good teammate to you. You've been an amazing teammate. I love working with you Austin. I love me and Alexa both really enjoy being around you guys. And I'm like, well, look, man, congratulations on your deal. Let's go try and win some races for RCR of the next year and a half. And

for me, I was in none of his negotiations, talks, or anything. So it was more like he's been, you know, in a way inspirational to me to pick up my game because he's got so much speed and he shows it constantly. So not only is this really good, I think you're right for the company, but the relationship between these drivers, not that we question it, but

obviously it's solid. It's important. Austin is aware, he has self-awareness too, that with being Richard Chudas grandson, it's a different ballgame. And he always has to fight and Richard always has to fight the perception of favoritism, the perception of those things. And Joe Gives will have to fight it with his grandson. It's just, it's natural. People are always, oh, he's getting this, he's getting that. And

they've got to go, they got to double down to show people that we're not showing favoritism. And if you are making decisions, it's because it isn't the best interest of that car, not that driver because he's my grandson. Difficult decisions have to be made. And you just have to make sure when you make it on, you make it on for the right reason. It's not for

family. I don't think Richard Chudas is cut from that cloth. I think Richard Chudas is willing to sit down on Austin and saying, it had the tough conversations with him. I think Joe Gives is willing to sit down with his grandson, have the tough conversations, but I don't think there is. But, but you got to go actually above and beyond. Yeah. Because all those people in

this shop, unless you're working on that specific team, everyone else, which is by far the majority of people, they have to know that everybody's got the same shot. Or it will erode. It will erode and it won't work long term. And also important, I think, that with Tyler Riddick having two wins this year, Dylan now has one. I think probably maybe a little bit more belief

in the number three Chevrolet. The way that Austin Dylan won this race, this was his fourth cup win. But I think it's fair to say the other three had a few question marks. I mean, the Coke-Coast 600 was a mileage win. He won the Daytona 500. And I went taking a thing away from that. But he essentially knocked it on Marola the way on the final

lap to do it. And then he won Texas a couple years ago on strategy. So Austin Dylan was asked about Poker's Fox Sports. Is there any extra satisfaction to winning it? If they had called it, it would have been a little bit controversial. Yes. Win. Is there any extra satisfaction to winning it kind of straight up? For sure. I've got four wins in the cup series.

Each one of them mean something different to me for different reasons. But the Texas one where I had multiple restarts and had to win and cross the checkered flag was probably one of from the driver standpoint. One of the most important wins to me. And then now this one too is to go through all that and to be able to be, I guess, clutch in a

moment that mattered is important. I mean, to us in all sports, right? It's to deliver when you've got the opportunity to deliver. And this year I've had some moments that were very close. Charlotte being one of them. I mean, I didn't sleep a lick after the 600. Just knowing that we had put ourselves in a position with a tire advantage. I made a heck of a

move and everybody's like, man, that move is amazing. Bob, I mean, I thought that I kind of gave that away in the turn three because I overdrove it. And I got loose. And it hadn't done that the whole race, but I was carrying a lot more speed than I had the whole race. That one hurt me and it kept me up a lot in time. So

I'm always kind of proud of myself is to finish races when I have the opportunity. And today it feels good to finish it off. This win and what it means for Austin Dylan's career, Jeff. Not just the fact that he was able to regain the lead as you detail like after losing it on the restart and essentially put things back to where they were before the

red flag, but also just kind of seizing that moment and showing like, hey, I can win in the Cup series. I can do this. So it is important. The interesting thing about Austin is he won a truck championship. He won a championship. He's won the Daytona 500. He's won the Coke 600. Coke 400. Coke 0400. Fair amount of prestigious events. They're pretty big pressure situations, which

again, I don't want to take anything away, but at the same time people are going to race this. He's not had the success. That's some other people have had. He's also, I mean, I'm not so sure that their equipment is good as enter the motorsports either. So you know what I mean? So it's, you're always going to be judged. The kids, grandkids, siblings of people in

this sport are judged differently than others. You just how it is. I was judged differently because I race award. Jeb is judged differently because his dad raised. Austin is judged differently because his grand dad owns the race car. How many times you heard people say, tie Gibbs only has his ride because of his grandfather? Well, no crap. That's the only reason he has his ride. But

the reason he's kept his ride is because he's succeeded. Right. Right. You know what I'm saying? So guess what? Kyle Petty got his ride because of his grandfather. Kyle Earnhardt got a ride because of his dad. Go through the hall of fame list. Allisons. Go through it and look. There's a lot of people that did this and had success because of their parents were in it

first. They have to do it on their own. So Austin's going to be judged because his grandfather owns a race team. He drives a three car. He drives a three car. Those two things collectively put a tremendous amount of spotlight on him. He has not performed the way Tyler Rettich this year has outperformed Austin. Last year they were pretty close, but this year he's outperformed. Can

Austin Dylan be the anchor driver? Can he be the anchor driver? That's the question or will you, will Richard Children's need to bring in someone that has as much talent as Tyler Rettich to help carry that team? That's the pressure on Austin Dylan. And it's not without a tremendous amount on the line. Austin Phil, there's no way Austin doesn't feel that pressure. He works as a

soft. I know he's got a great work ethic. He's won races. He's won championships. He's under, he's underappreciated in my opinion. I'm not saying he's Jimmy Johnson, but he's underappreciated. Listen, I never wanted to be a total 500. There's a lot of people I know that had one day a total 500. I never want to experience any championship. I never want to track championship. He must

be pretty damn good. Fair point. And I think you're right. I think Nepotism obviously comes into play when it comes to racing and guys getting rides. But the genetics have to come into play to actually do well eventually. I mean Richard Petty gets a ride because he's lead Petty's son. But that's not a reason you wanted seven championships. Yeah, buddy Baker. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean,

it's a long list. It's a very, very long list. So Austin Dylan steps up to win this race, but he wasn't the only guy who was outside the playoffs, came into this race and even went and stepped up. Eric Jones led 22 laps. We saw Justin Haley at the front. It was a gamble by the team, but he kept it up there for eight laps after

he took a shot. Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Chris Boucher, they all led laps. Harrison Burton was also at the front. It was a good to see, I guess, when everything was on the line that it matters for these guys that they do step up. Yeah, I love to see step up moment. So if you go back and you look at one way I like to look

at races and determine who Randwell is, you look at stage finishes. If you look at the average finishes of the stages, you had a lot of guys that had step up moments and they brought, in my opinion, their best on that day. And Eric Jones, he was out there driving his ass off and he had his hands full. And you could see he had his hands

full, but he's like, I got it. And he was just committed to doing what he had to do. I thought, you just mentioned it, Nevathism. I thought Harrison, Harrison, he had a really good day. He was in there mixing it up all day long. He had a lot of aggressive moves to get himself there. He came from the back, a couple of to three times, came

from the back. He had a strong day, Justin Haley, you mentioned him. He got up there and he stayed up there. So I thought a lot of drivers that were in difficult situations, they brought their best. And that's great experience for them. Now it's not as good of experiences as it was for Austin Dillon, but it's great experience for them. And I think it's something that

their teams can look at and say, okay, we collectively came into this event with the deck stacked against us with a tremendous amount of line. And we put ourselves in position. I think that's empowering for teams that didn't make the playoffs. That because you got with this week, when you go to Darlington, and I don't, it's Martin Truex ever experienced this. It's been eight years since

he's been out of the playoffs. It's going to be a show. You are forgotten. Yeah. We're not talking about you anymore, sorry. And there's no other way to say this, but I mean Gibbs is going to shift resources. They have to. They have to. If they're going to be the smart about it. They got to take anything that they can do, pit crews, that kind of

stuff, anything they can do. If there's something that they learned and they don't have time to implement it on every card, it's going on those three. And by the way, if somebody doesn't make it through the first round, they get pushed aside too. It's just how it is. Right. I don't blame a team for doing that. It's the smart play. There's millions at risk. Yeah. I

got in that situation one way or the other, I completely understood. When I was good, I'm sitting there saying, I need this. I expect this. And then when it was the other way around, and they came to me and said, hey, you got to give this. Hey, man, got it. You got to do what you got to do. And we should have made a playoffs. It

happens every day. It happens every day in every shot. The team that runs the best gets the most help because that's when we, the decision has to be made, right? But allocation of resources are we going to put toward whatever it is. They don't have endless amount of money. And when you put resources to a Kevin Harvick and a Rodney Chorders and they deliver results, where

are the resources going? And then it puts pressure on the other teams to say, hey, we could do this for these guys and they deliver and how do you, you all got to find a way to do it. Happens every day. Those decisions get made every single day in every shot across all the racing. Not just, not just cup racing. Every racing it has teammates. Yeah.

And like you said, those guys who came to Daytona and took their shot, that showed the team they've got something to work for maybe in that vein in the future. So as I mentioned, two critical moves by Austin Dylan, two critical calls for NASCAR. We'll start with the good one. I want to give them credit. They waited out this delay as we mentioned. After the race

got postponed from Saturday night, the race ended, I thought, as it should. Though the winner remained the same, it did impact the grid. You know, Truex would have gotten in if they call it on lap 139 as opposed to Blaney. So I thought the competitive integrity was done a service here by ensuring that the race finished. 100% and I think that, listen, if that race would

have started at Sunday night at four o'clock and we race for an hour and a half and then we waited a three hour rain to lay out and we're not going to start again until 1130 or midnight or something. Maybe the same decision is not made if it's on a Sunday night, but you had a Sunday, right? Yeah. And then we had a Sunday night at

four o'clock which gave you this tremendous window to keep digging. And I think the 100% especially being able to look at the weather. And by the way, you know, I'm up there with Bill. I mean, they're in the booth right next to me. And when we have these long red flag periods or pre-race or post-race, we hang out together like we go and talk and they

come over and, you know, they have a full meteorologist. They have access to the National Weather Service. They have cool, they have incredible radars. Like they work in their guts out to make sure that all the NASCAR officials have access to all of that and their booths. And so when they look and they're like, if this front gets through the way we think it's going to

get through, we've got a big window opening, then they're going to wait it out. If that weather report would have been, it's going to rain for the next six hours and it could rain after that too. The same decision wouldn't have been made. They had all that information. They took that information and they said, okay, we got a shot. We're going to take it. We're saying

it's going to happen. We're going to sit here for three hours and we're going to have to come back and say, oh, we shouldn't have done it. But we owe it to the fans for them to see this race end under a checkered. And that's 100% right call. The same call would be right if the weather didn't look like that and they said, hey, we're done.

There's no way we're going to get this done. That would have been okay to it. So the other big call that made or maybe didn't get made, of course, was the big 13 car pile up that happened right before the red flag for the rain. I just want to bring this up, because it's the third time in two years that this is affected a race. We

had Kevin Harvick at Texas in 2020 had what might have been a race when in car hit a damp spot on the track when there was mist and he crashed last year at New Hampshire Kyle Busch Martin Tricks Jr. Denny Hammond all crash when the tracks wet and NASCAR was a late on throwing yellow. I'm an unaware of any changes that have been made in the

tower around the track since New Hampshire last year. But it seems like I don't know what can be done, but it seems like NASCAR has to do something to be a little more proactive. Because I understand that there's only so much you can do in terms of a two and a half mile racetrack. If it's raining in turn one, it's not in turn four. But at

the same time, when you got all these drivers saying, hey, this was happening, this is affecting us. It impacted too many cars yesterday, unfortunately. So I agree with you that clearly the result was wrong. Obviously they drove in a turn one and the track was wet and it was raining. I do not compare what happened at Daytona to what happened at New Hampshire. Because what happened

at New Hampshire was there was a lot of information that it was raining and the raining rain was getting harder and a decision wasn't made as quick as it should have been made. I don't think that's the case this time. Now there's a video of a fan in the stand saying it's raining and it's raining. I've seen it. But I also have seen no in-car camera

views that showed it raining. So I've been to people are going to believe me when I say this. I've been to Daytona before in the old cup garage. Remember those? Yeah. And I'm standing on the turn one, in the turn one side of the garage and it's raining. On the turn four side of the garage and I'm talking about a garage that's like two cars go

together like this, right? So this side it's not. And it did that for about three to five minutes. There were little sprinkles over here but it's raining here. I don't know other than NASCAR saying rain's coming. We're going to throw the caution in this case. I don't know with the technology that's available to them today that something could have been done different other than what I

just said. The problem I got with other than what I just said is that if they throw the caution because rain is coming and chase Elliott is leading the race, what does everybody say? It opens yourself up to a pretty big pile of conspiracy theories being tossed out there in favoritism and all that. I get it. So we the sport, the industry, NASCAR is got to

find a way to not let what happened Sunday happen again. There's no in my world. There's no ifans or buts about that. But with every bit of information that I have, I don't know how they would have thrown the caution before they threw it. In this case, this case is not the same as the case in New Hampshire. I vaguely remember the Kevin Harv. I remember

it but I don't remember it in full. That doesn't, all my opinion is my opinion but it doesn't change the fact that there was a massive wreck in turn one because it was raining period into story. So what do we got to do to keep that from happening again? In my opinion on Sunday, the only way to do that would have been throw the caution before

it started raining on the racetrack because I don't believe it was raining on the racetrack on the racetrack until they got there. So what do you do? You put a spotter, where did the NASCAR spotters go? Like the pace car is somewhere between pit exit and turn one on the infield of the racetrack. What rain in there? Yeah. No, I get it. So huge place. And

I mean, there's so much at stake. And it wasn't raining on turn two either. That was the other strange thing. It literally rained. It literally rained in this hundred yard. I'm making it up. Hundred yard section. And literally that's where it rained. It didn't rain in front of it or after it. When they were approaching turn one, it was not raining. It didn't start raining until

they got there. From every NCAR camera review we saw, we even had spotters saying, hey, it started to pick up, keep digging, keep digging. It wasn't raining enough for them to say, hey man, it's freaking raining. You need to slow it out. We didn't hear that. So it's, it's, it's, it's, they wrecked. They wrecked. It was raining and they wrecked. So what do we do to

fix it? It's a difficult conversation to have because the reason I agree to you, they got to address it. I want them to fix it. But the reason I want them to fix it is also the reason they shouldn't throw the yellow. That's because there's so much at stake that you don't want them to presumptively or preemptively throw the yellow and have an impact to play

off. So like I get, like they're in, like this is the ultimate rock in a hard place situation in some ways, especially dealing with unpredictable Florida weather and the size of this racetrack. I just, I think that we're going to have to say, here's how we're going to attempt to address this or fix this, but maybe with the, the understanding that as you're saying, there's, there's

only so much we can actually do. We can really do. Well, the conversations are underway about, okay, what's the next step? And you know, I know they're underway as, as they should be. Like, what is the next step? Are there sensors? Are there how sensitive do you make the sensors? Ah, huh. I know. These are things I really don't want to, I mean, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, there's things I really don't want to, I mean, I've stood down the rabbit. Well, I stood, so here's what even makes it more difficult. I've stood at racetracks before with my son racing in a late model, or a canine car, or a truck. Hell, we were at Martin'sville. I think it was pretty sure was

Martin'sville and I'm getting wet in their racing like hell and nobody like it's, and I'm like, they got a better car and they've just, errrr, no spend-wise fun, nobody had any problem. I don't know. Like how do you put other than if you get any moisture at all, you got to the caution. Other than that, I don't know, man. It's just a complicated thing. There's just

been so many times we raced when there was moisture in the air, even a little bit of rain, other than just saying, okay, we're going to put some sensors out there and if we get any moisture at all, we're dropping the caution. I don't know. It's just, I mean, to your point, I remember a race that Danny Hamlin went on Martin'sville on 2008 when it was

a mist for three hours and you guys, you were in that race, you just got through it. I didn't expect to want it. It didn't affect the track enough. But, yeah, you probably shouldn't have had no regulation of that race, but I know I should have. You should remember every race. It's the Virginia that's the cup race. Just kidding. All right. Well, this- Oh wait, I

don't know what I'm doing now. We had a caution. We had a caution. And then there was controversy about how the cars get lined up. Yeah, you want to comment on that? We have to comment on that. I mean, we can't just gloss over this. Have at it, man. I know that you got some feedback on this, so have at it. So I don't, I understand

a race fan at home. We have a lot of rules and they're confusing. Racing's more complicated than people realize. It's not just cars going in circles. I mean, fairness, they're confusing. Football's confusing too. I don't understand half of that. When a caution comes out and you can't maintain speed, they don't take a snapshot picture of you. And you're sitting stopped in a racetrack or going slow

on the racetrack and people keeping maintaining reasonable speed and they put that guy back in front of you. That's not how this works. So you use loop data. You go to the latest loop. But if you- If you can't maintain pace, then you lose that spot and you blend in wherever it is that you blend in. And I don't know why drivers and teams don't know

that rule. I think it's got confused because in their heads, that was the finish of the race. And they were thinking that caution locked the race in because it was over. It froze the field and asked for a look at video in the term where everybody was at the time of caution. But that was caution. Yeah, it was a caution. Right. It wasn't the start finish

line. If you go cross checkered, the start finish line ended the race and it started checkered. That's absolutely. That's absolutely. Where wherever you are. Yeah, that's absolutely. That's black. The caution to your point is reasonable speed. And it's not reasonable speed for like, sorry to the four car. It's not reasonable speed for like 30 feet and then you stop when you get to cars. It's reasonable

speed. If the three car would have had to slow down, grind his brakes slow down, the four comes out ahead of the three. The four can maintain pace even with a wrecked race car. The four is the leader. Right. I wasn't darning with a car that was wrecked. I par- reigned, same damn thing. It started raining. They didn't get the caution thrown in time. I'm leading

the race. Big wreck off turn four. I plow into the wall. Plack. I mean, it's destroyed. I'm stood in the gas. Keep that thing going. The racing pace got to the pace car. I was able to stay behind the pace car. I wanted a race. If I would have pounded the wall, it could not have maintained pace. I wouldn't have wanted a race. That was 1999

or something. It was 1999. It was 1999. It's only 10 spring race. Nothing changed. Right. Right. The loop data is the loop data. But nothing changed in regard to maintaining pace. And I just think that people got in their head that this was the end of the race. So you got to lock me in wherever I am. But that's not how it works. And so there's

not a conspiracy theory against Kevin Harvey. There's not a conspiracy theory to get Richard Childers the three car in Victory Lane. It was the rule. It was the rule. And oh, by the way, when they restarted the race, the four was out. And none of it really ended up mattering. It just was something I could talk about for a few hours. But that doesn't even matter

to me. You should just know the rules. There was no controversy. They never would have got going back green. There was no controversy. The only controversy is if people don't know the rule. Well, that's not a controversy. That's not understanding what happened. Controversy is two drivers driving in the corner and a crash each other. And one guy comes out and you're like, well, he wrecked me.

He wrecked me. Controversy is NASCAR changing the policy. Controversy is throwing the caution before it rains. So I just, I should know better than look at social media. I'm looking at social media and I'm getting all this, but Jeff, my guy, but Jeff, my guy, but Jeff, my guy. And I'm like, so that and so I applaud Scott Miller for coming over during our broadcast live.

Here's how this works. And the one thing he said that I didn't, that thought money did up a little bit. It doesn't matter if you're in the wreck. Jeff Austin, Dylan hadn't of hidden anything and he came in there and he had to slow down to keep from hitting something and somebody else crashed up against the wall and comes out in front of him and they're

able to maintain pace. That crash car is still the leader as long as he can maintain pace. Right. What about being in the record? It's about being able to maintain pace. All of that will be written into Daytona lore, certainly another memorable race. And you'll remember it. Yeah. This is to a quote today about Daytona. It's our motormouse of the race presented by eBay Motors. This

is a new feature in which we talk about a notable quote from the race. This one was from Austin, Dylan. Austin, Dylan was asked, Peter Stratton, TSH Sports Austin in 2019. You were leading this race and then the big rack happened that ultimately gave Justin Haley the win. Just how full circle is the moment now? Three years later, you got the win because of a big

rack also in turn one. You know, it's actually very funny about Daytona and I didn't even think about that, but I've always thought about, you know, I tore down the fence, probably one of the worst wrecks in NASCAR history, come back when the Daytona 500. 2019, I did feel about as confident as you could feel out front leading that pack. And it's cool how this place

just, I don't know, there's something about Daytona and when you pull through the tunnel, things just happen here. It's exciting place and always create some kind of drama for sure. You've been going to Daytona for a very long time. What's your take on the world center of racing? It's a place in NASCAR history. I mean, it really is. People talk about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but

as you just heard Austin Dylan say, when you go through the tunnel, Daytona, it's that similar sort of feeling. It's, you know, to me, Daytona and Darlington are the, you know, they're the two hallmarks of NASCAR and what makes Daytona so crazy, unlike Darlington, is it anything can happen? You know, Darlington, if you look at the list of winners, it's almost a hall of fame. Right.

And Daytona offers much more opportunity for strange things to happen. And it's just, you know, ever since the restrictor plate or the reduction in speed, I already it is. You do that. It's a new ballgame. It's changed, it's changed the world in regard to the super speedway racing. And then Daytona being, you know, the birthplace in NASCAR, it just, it just adds to the folklore. It

just adds to the history and anything can happen. And it's, and it's real. We say that every time we go there, but it's real. There's so many people that can win that race on Sunday that it was all real. And we're not going to have that many people this Sunday at Darlington, they could, could say that. It's just super speedway racing is bizarre. It's just bizarre,

always memorable. That was our motor miles of the race presented by eBay Motors at eBay Motors. You can be your own pit crew with 122 million parts right at your fingertips. Get the right parts at the right prices, eBay motors dot com. Let's ride. Okay, so you've got to do NASCAR American motor miles right here at this very desk. So before John Barnes yells at me,

I better get us out of here, but just, you brought up Darlington. We just left Daytona, Darlington next to open the playoffs. How wide open are these playoffs? In Chase Elliott's got 40 playoff points in first Kyle Larson's in second with 25, but then you and I were talking for the show Austin Dillens in 16th with five 20 points, separating second from 16th. So it feels

like these are pretty wide open. It's really wide open. And then you look at the three race tracks you're getting ready to go to Southern 500, Kansas and Bristol. Kansas is super wide run all over the racetrack. Bristol was Bristol, Southern 500 to Southern 500. You better bring your A game. And you wake up Saturday morning and you roll into the gates at Darlington, you better

be ready to go because if you're not, they're going to hand your ass back to you. And that racetrack will do that too. And so you start right off the bat with perhaps the hardest racetrack there in the rollboard, the two hardest racetracks in my eyes on the circuit. And you start race one of the playoffs, Southern 500. Go get you something. All get started Sunday

on NASCAR NBC. Jeff, thanks for being with us. Thank you, buddy. Jeff Burton for joining us after a long weekend of rain and racing at Daytona National Speedway. Always great having the mayor's perspective on all things NASCAR. Thanks as well to senior producer John Barnes and motor sports manager Emily Kongboy for coordinating Jeff Burton's appearance on the NASCAR NBC podcast. As you heard, we taped this

on camera just before NASCAR America motormouths, which is on every Monday and Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern on peacock. And you can see the video version of the NASCAR NBC podcast on the motor sports on NBC YouTube channel. Subscribe if you visit lots of great bonus content highlights features and interviews from NASCAR as well as IndyCar, MSA, Supercross, MotoGP, Monster Jam, all on the motor sports

on NBC YouTube channel. Check it out. The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will start this Sunday at Darlington Raceway and pre-race coverage will begin Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern on USA Network. Check out NBCSports.com slash NASCAR for detailed schedules, start times and coverage as always. Also a brief note, the NASCAR NBC podcast will be on hiatus the next couple of weeks, Labor Day holiday next week, and

then the week after that I will be on location in California covering the IndyCar Series season finale. So I will return with the NASCAR NBC podcast after Bristol and other speedways so stay tuned for that. And if you have any NASCAR NBC podcast feedback you can send me on Twitter at Nate Ryan's or maybe a lot more on Twitter atpu, crianas and your teenagersysis published the

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