Daytona: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.s calculated aggression; Kyle Larsons last-lap lament; the importance of crew chief-driver bonding; why so many unlikely winners

Hi, welcome to the first edition of the NASCAR on NBC podcast for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. I'm your host Nate Ryan, joined today by NASCAR and NBC analyst and Daytona 500 winning crew chief Steve Littart. Steve, we just wrapped up the biggest race of the year. The Daytona 500 last night, Ricky Stenhouse, junior, the winner gets JTG Dordy. It's second cup victory ever. A

lot to unpack there about the winner a lot to break down about the race. I want to get to all that. But I want to start with you were there pretty much from Wednesday on last week. You saw the jewels. You saw how things transpired up until the race itself. What were your general takeaways about speed week 2023 and what did you think we learned about

super speedway racing this week for 2023? Well, Nate, thanks for having episode one. That's bragging rights over all of my fellow analysts. I'm going to go ahead and use those as I stumble in the fantasy lineup. Let's say this. Let's start off the track. Daytona is back. That's what I'll say. Daytona is back. I was slow to make my reservations. I wasn't sure if I was

going to go shame on me. You couldn't get a hotel room. You couldn't get a reservation for dinner. You couldn't drive around pre-race. That's what the 500 used to feel like. And man, that's what it felt like. It felt like Thursday night. It felt like Saturday. It felt like it again on Saturday. Sunday, the buzz in Daytona was as big as I had felt it in

recent years or decades. That is a great thing for the sport. And it's back because what we're seeing on the racetrack. So let's start at the beginning of the week. I was team no practice. I read all the articles. We don't need practice. And I'm like, I agree. Why do we need practice? Okay, I was wrong. I do believe a little practice before Daytona 500 qualifying

would improve the fan event. I think I'm going to prove the fan. I don't think the team's needed. I know there was a couple mechanical issues. Ho-hum, ho-hum, do better, be more prepared. But the simple fact is, it is the biggest race of the year. It's the Daytona 500. And I believe for that reason, and to start off the year, I'd like to see an hour

on Wednesday before we qualify. I would even be okay if... So why don't we have practice? This is multiple reasons. But the first thing is, you don't want to build three or four speedway cars to go down there. And anytime you're on the track, I'm a draft. You could wreck. I will be out. We have an hour practice. And we just say, listen, it's single car

only. You've got to go out and run by yourself. Run as much as you want. We don't say they have to be qualifying runs, but it's going to be single car. I'd be okay with that. I'd like to see Travis Pastrana run some more laps before we had to qualify. Zane Smith in a cup car. And I think as the Daytona 500 grows, we're going to

have the opportunity for some major stars to want to enter the event. So I think an hour practice pre-qualifying makes sense. Shame on me for thinking it didn't... Not that I had a vote, but I will defend the ones that voted against it because I was also team no practice. I want to ask you about the first day race. I think we saw a different race

because of the no practice. And I think that led to some concern that we might see a more conservative race Sunday. And we didn't. But that's what you're getting at, right, Steve? You have early practice. Maybe you get a race year duels, you get a race year week. Even if you have the risk of breaks. And I'm not even sure about a race year duel. What

I want is 50 cars entered for the Daytona 500. So in this ability to, quote, purchase most of the vehicle, sign an engine plan. So let's bring the fan back. If you want to go to Daytona, five years ago, and have a legitimate shot, you had to call Hendrick Gibbs, RFK, RCR, I'm missing some. But one of the bigger teams try to buy a car, rent

a car, you weren't going to build a car to compete without the knowledge. Well, now I believe you can assemble a car to compete. Now, do I feel it will be as fast maybe not? There's definitely some information. I'm not here saying they're all the same. What I'm saying is you could part a car on the racetrack without a year long commitment. That should be spectacular.

We saw a 23-11 bring a third car with Travis Pastrana. I want it where all the teams that don't have four. So go down the list. What do we got? We got track house, 23-11, rickware racing, brought an extra ankle for them, live fast, only brought one. They could have brought many. Legacy brought an extra, Spire could have brought, you know, take all those teams. Penske

could have brought an extra, like, take all these teams that could bring extra cars. I want them to go sign the biggest names in motorsport, like we see at the Rolex and bring them to the Daytona 500. For that, you got to get them on track a little bit. You're not going to go to an Elio Castra Neva's and be like, hey, man, your first lap's

going to be qualifying. While I think he can do it, that's not the question. I think it's unfair. Like, let him at least get through the gears and get up on the high banks. And, you know, he doesn't need two days of testing. The man could drive a race car, but just an hour. Lock the rust off and be like, okay, man, this is where my

shifter is. And this is how the pedals work. And this how fast the steering is. I got the guy get a little acclimated. That's really why I'm team practice. I don't think it carries over to Thursday quite often. I think that's analytics. I think that has nothing to do with practice. I heard more teams on the radio say, let's save this race car. Drove me nuts.

I think the tools are looked at completely wrong from the garage area. It's the only on track, Mulligan of the year, the only one. You reckon the tools, it does cost you a race car. That's it. So I'm going to pick on the 21 of the wood brothers, because I was scanning them. So I could say single handedly what I heard on that radio. There was

a concerted effort to, hey, let's just not tear this car up. I understand that on the analytical side. I'm not saying I wouldn't even do the same thing. Perhaps if I only could see the race through their lens. But as I'm a little bit broader lensed as a TV person, I stood on top of the victory lane building and watched that first duel. And I'm thinking

to myself, this is, when else is the 22 year old Harrison Burton going to get a dress rehearsal? When else is he going to zig when he should have zagged catch a bumper and smashing the outside fence and destroy a race car and go, well, did you learn what you need? Because in three more days, we're going to ask you to win the biggest race of

the year. And I think we underestimate how much experience Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr., Tony Stewart, Joey Lagano, Brad Kuzlowski. We, all of those guys, and I know some are retirement as they built their careers. So many tools, so much practice. You know, they're lapsed. These guys had to learn how to draft as exponential to our current younger stars. Now listen, if I was Joey Lagano's crew

chief, would I tell him to race? I'm like, hey, buddy, if you don't think you need to race, I really prefer you not, right? Take it nice and easy. Because I don't think you need, but if Joey Lagano looked at me, and said, no, man, I only got a few, you know, I don't really know how this car is going to race. I need to go.

I'm like, well, okay, guys, get the other one prepped. Because this one might not come home, but we have to give our driver a chance. That's my tools. That's my gripe of the week. My gripe of the week has nothing to do with that. Car is nothing to do with fans. My gripe of the week is in the garage area. The tools should be spectacular because

it's the only mulligan out there. Let's do it. Let's let these guys race. Thankfully, we didn't see as much of that analytics type approach to Sunday's race. You and I were talking earlier. We saw a day tone of 500 that we've come to see. We saw a lot of guys going for broke. We saw a lot of crashes, not a lot of concern about if you

were bring anything more home in the steering wheel. I know you love watching the day tone of 500 Stevie because it is this 3 3 1 2 1 2 chess match where everything matters, every move matters, every strategy matters. And I know you love turning points. So take us through what led up to Ricky Stanage Jr. winning this race, the turning points, the caution flags, the

pit sequences that you saw that made this race so critical. So I'm going to get my notes out because if not, I'm going to get the lap count wrong. But I think really the key for me is and you mentioned it. So the day tone of 500 is really a chess match. And when no one wins the race, they're just slowly eliminated. And they could be

eliminated by mistakes. They could be eliminated by just misfortune. There's a lot of different ways you can lose this race. And in my mind, the race was there. And the first green flag pit cycle proved to me that we were watching the type of race I love. And what I mean by that is if you look at the field pre cycle and post cycle, it's very

jumbled up. And I am not a believer that's a too bad. No, not too bad. Everyone did the same thing. Everyone pitted. Service their car went back on the racetrack. And to go back to the doels while the first race probably wasn't as racious some want. I thought that was an excellent duel. I was thoroughly entertained by the strategic play of when to pit not to

pit. My gripe was more with I wish we should have let the drivers do what they do. The second duel was kind of that way. Maybe they learned from the first fast forward to Sunday to your original question. You know, when I looked down on my notes right here, right? We saw a lot going on that first pit cycle in the lap 30ish, whatever it was,

35 to 40 range. It instantly showed you that how you get on pit road with how many cars, how much fuel you put. I think we are totally underestimating that the fuel load is a huge part of this entire race. Now it's very Indy 500. You could put tires on faster than you can fill. You put two tires on you wait on fuel. And it's like,

I see a lot of nervous crutches trying to get to the end of stage one. And I'm like, oh, this is an interesting fact. I think it's because they pitted. So you think they should be good, but they don't want to spend a lot of time there. In my mind, the first big change was all week long. I was beating the drum of Denny Hamlin, Ryan

Blaney, Chase Elliott. The numbers said they should have been there. The buzz in the garage said they were going to be there. And then in the blink of an eye, poof, two of them are eliminated, basically in the same rack, Ryan and Blaney and Chase Elliott, the damage right away. And that was the first one that I think changed the complexion of the race for me.

That was what? Around lab 118, right? So it starts with the four getting into Tyler Reddick. You know, it's pushing. There was no harm, no foul, but definitely a wreck was caused. And it kind of just started stacking up cars and started to take it out a few of the players. And that's what changed it. And then we continued on and continued on. But I really

think it's exciting. At the last say, 20 laps of that race, different groups kept cycling themselves to the front. RFK was in control. And then on the racetrack, great move by RCR with the 47's help to then take control of the race. And then do it in a manner where they kind of had it in tow. I don't know what we were going to get for

the final five miles if it would have gone green, but it was going to be very interesting to see if Austin Dylan loves his new teammate or if Austin Dylan wanted to win a Daytona 500 and where we'd joy like, go on and go on what Ricky Stenos do like the layers were growing. And then we had to spin with Suarez, which set up the and

I won't lie. I think I would have enjoyed the race running green to the end more than I know those restarts are exciting, but they kind of turn into a chess match, but some guys wear in a boxing glove. And I think if it would have ran green, that anticipation builds in my stomach. Right. As I'm watching this race, I'm like, well, there's five to go.

There's four to go. It's kind of like you're like watching the weather channel on the coast of Florida. And they tell you this hurricane's coming and every day they update the potential path. And that's what I was watching. Right. This hurricane of action is coming. And where's it going to land? Is it going to be the white flag into one, two to go? Who's going to

do it? And we got robbed a little bit of that because of the caution. And then we have a choose rule. And then the RCR guys decide to play the old game of letting the guy in on top. I'm not saying it was a bad decision. But can I say Rick Allen and I were texting on a group text and I'm thankful they play this game.

We don't go the eight pulls down and the drop the top drives right around them. And I was kind of like, Hey, the choose rule is here this year. A plus choice by NASCAR. I started bringing it. I thought it affected a lot of what the outcome was. That was it. I mean, that was the loss of control for RCR. Right. They had control. And in

my opinion, it was executed well by the drivers. I think whoever in leadership thought that that was the better strategy. To always easier after it happens. Obviously it wasn't because the top lane they didn't do anything special. So much so let's go back to the last restart of the race. So much of Ricky Stenhouse started up top and just said, my man Joey Lagan was the

best pusher in NASCAR. I'm just going to let a hook to my bumper. And off we go. And there we did it. And that was all fine. But then you always come. I'll say this. I'll say it again. The final five miles of the Daytona 500 is amazing. Every year, there's a new move that that amazing. You and I have dissected the Denny Hamlin. No block

on the back stretch to come back to win on the front stretch. We have dissected the, yeah, the Truex junior Matt Kenza finish. Kenza goes for the big block. The drag race to the line. That was maybe 16. Hamlin is the race closest finish ever. Yeah. So there's all these things will Ricky Stenhouse Jr. I encourage the fan go back and watch this. He takes the

lead on the restart with a big shove from Joey Lagan. They're coming around for the white and Clint Boyer says it. Now that energy's all broke us now. Now we're going to play out. Coming from behind. Where's he going to go? They're both going to get to it pretty hard. Pretty quick. He's too far out what lanes he going to block. And that was the look

for me. And in hindsight, it's easier to go back and understand what he was thinking. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. waits to the absolute possible minute to block the bottom. Why do I think that matters? I think he forces Kyle Larson who's going so fast at this point to either shove Ricky Stenhouse way back out there again. Rack him or go three wide. Kyle goes three wide. The

pinballing starts. Stenhouse, the reason I say blocking the bottom matter is I believe and I can't wait to ask Ricky myself. I believe he's done enough speedway racing that he knows the yellow line is clogged. He knows when he goes left. Kyle Larson can't go left. That's below the WL line. He's going to go right. Well, when he goes right, that's going to leave a gap.

If he doesn't go right, he gets a big push. If he does go right, there is a fear that the guy behind Larson will go with him. I thought that could happen. But eventually someone on the yellow line. There's a lifeboat coming. The yellow line is going to have cars in it. And it was very fortunate for him that hit that help did come in time.

By Joe the guy could easily won this race. The top could have led off turn two when the rack happened. But in the end, it was Ricky Stenhouse's move. But it was it was it was interesting. I do want to say this. Make sure this is crystal clear. I'm going to go on here because my wife asked me a lot of questions. At the moment of

yellow, when the button is pushed, the lights illuminate. That's simultaneous. That is when the field is frozen. There's no lines. There's no loop lines. The only then question mark. There's two questions to answer. Now that we've established this time and space. This is the minute. This is the moment of the caution. Per this time stand. Then all we do is decide two simple things. First, were

you or were you not involved in the accident? Because if you were there are different rules for you. If you were not, where were you in the running order? That's it. There's a lot of other conversations. And this one, thankfully, in the biggest race of the year wasn't even close. It was Ricky Stenhouse by over a half a car. Congratulations Ricky Stenhouse. Listen, it was it

was amazing. I thought we saw Ricky Stenhouse. I handed captain all week long and I had Stenhouse not finishing. I've seen him being over aggressive at the speedway races. Ever since he had that big success back in the late teens, I thought he had tried to hard and tried too hard and tried too hard. And the Ricky Stenhouse I saw today. Now listen, don't be wrong.

When it's time to get the elbows up and the boxing gloves on, he'll box with the best of them. But I thought a little bit of discretion over 400 miles that I hadn't seen at a Ricky Stenhouse junior. Congratulations. I don't think there's a more liked guy on the garage area. He kind of does things his own way. He's not afraid to disagree, but he doesn't

pick fights for no reason. I couldn't be happier. One of the nicest guys, JTG, a long time supporter, took that very tough challenge from two cars to one. Could have been very easy. Just said, you know what, sell the other chart. Let's get out of business, make a little money. Tadding and Jody Gishekter didn't do that. Our good friend and colleague, Brad Dordy, super involved over

there as well. And Bravo for the little engine that could just stay with it. Continue to build this. Continue to commit and to win the biggest race of the year. Yeah. And a lot to break down there, Stevie. I want to get back to all of that eventually because there's a lot about the winner and the winning team. I think it's very interesting that you touched

on. Want to get to that. But first, want to go back to the winning move by Stenhouse. As you said, he puts Kyle Larson in a really interesting position here. And Kyle Larson talked after the race, after he was out of the care center, took a big hit. Thankfully, he was okay. He talks to Dustin Long and some other reporters after the race. And Kyle Larson,

I think, seemed to be showing some great here. Yeah. No, I'm okay. It was definitely a huge hit. So my first time wearing that mouthpiece. So I'm curious to see what it that reads. It was definitely one of the bigger ones I've ever had. So, but thankfully, you know, car held up, I guess, and all my safety equipment was fine. And I'm fine. So just a

bummer, you know, felt like we had a, I mean, everybody in the top four to six has an opportunity to win there. And just, I had such a run from the 20. I didn't know what to do with it. I felt like where I was going to hit the, or get to the 47. I wanted to stay committed to him. You at least through one or

two down the backstretching and have things work out. I definitely didn't want to try. I didn't go for the lead as early as I did. I just had such a run. I didn't know what to do with it. And I thought if I got to him where I was going to get to him, it was just going to choke us up or cause a crash. And

then we weren't going to win. So wish I could play that over again. But happy that Ricky won. I'm super. I mean, that's all I could think about after I crashed was just waiting to get out and hear that he won. So, yeah, super happy for him and his team, Chevrolet and everybody. But wish I could have at least finished. When you listen to his words,

I think he's wondering, hey, I have this big run for Christopher Bell. I didn't quite know what to do with it. I didn't know, you know, whether to stay in line behind Stan House and push him or, you know, if that causes a wreck. It seemed like he was pretty conflicted about the end this race. I want your take on that. Because when we talked about

this earlier, Stevie, I said, I thought Larsen maybe made the wrong move here and showed just, hey, just run over Stan House. Just go for the win like anybody else would. But you think that that wouldn't necessarily have meant a win for Larsen. Yeah. So first of all, the fact that Kyle Larsen has regret shows you what this race means. You know, he's not going to

have a regret for a day. He's going to have a regret for 365 days until he gets back to the day, 200, 500. The other thing is, I think we had a lot of conversation a couple years ago that Kyle Larsen may be one of the best to have ever. I think we could have that argument still. And the fact that it wasn't so crystal clear

tells you why we think Danny Hamlin's going to be so good. Why we think Brad has lots of things to be so good. I want the fans to know you are not watching Roulette. Like you were watching surgery. Like these guys are not. This isn't where the ball bounces. Now for some, it's affected that way. But just because they're doing the right thing and you're taking

out. But somebody else doesn't mean it was just completely luck for everyone. That's like a slap in the face to the ones that are great at it. This is a skill set. This is practice. And to be quite frank, Kyle Larsen self-adminally for years has just not loved the style of racing for multiple reasons. He's also not been in this position and enough to know. But

whatever happened Sunday and only Kyle Larsen knows how he's going to adapt that. But Kyle Larsen heading to Talladega heading to Atlanta. He's now more dangerous. He's now a more experienced drafter. We know he has a skill. This isn't a skill question. This is a decision making question. Right? Like, you know, what we thought was happening a fast forward. Kyle Larsen knew exactly what was happening.

I had a run from Bell. This is it. What do I do with it? I think it's two options. We're this the middle, which he chose. And if Bell goes with them, I think Kyle Larsen's leading the day to 500. I think his other option is to somehow try to give that push to the 47. And the real question to my mind that is the 47

loves him because he's leading off to the question is, you know, it's kind of like a wave, right? When you push, when the wave crashes into shore, what happens? Well, it rolls back off the shore. So when that momentum of that wave of Kyle Larsen crashes into the 47, he shoves him way out there. Where does the run go? Right. Does the five lose that momentum

and does the whole inside laid accordion back and now top lane takes control of the race. Like, I don't know. It's impossible to know. I think either of the moves were okay. I don't think this is right move because let's be clear. Kyle Larsen didn't wreck. The 10 hit the 67 who caught the five. Let's be clear here. Kyle Larsen didn't go to the middle, start

ping ponging, lose control of his car. That is not what happened. I'm not putting blame anywhere else. I'm just saying Kyle Larsen went to the middle stable in control and was hoping to have some help in the middle lane. He then got caught up in a wreck. That speedway raising. I'm not even going to pick on Travis Pastrana. I don't know what we watched. What did

I just say? We watched the four push the 40 five. Nobody's questioning Tyler. He got spun out. So apparently, whatever push the 10 gave to the 67. I don't know. The 67 couldn't control it. He got spun out. So I say all that because Kyle Larsen was in the mix. All the time. And I learned this because I got to work with Jeff Gordon and Dale

junior. If you're in the picture, if you're one of those 15 cars, we just talked about eight cars. We just talked about Kyle Larsen specifically. We just talked about. That's all you can ask because if you are there time and time and time again, you will win a day to 500. You will get the right move, the right this. The right that and Kyle Larsen's going

to question it. I don't think his move was completely wrong. You could go back and play. It could happen even way. I think instead of questioning Larsen's move, I want to give the credit to the victor. Congratulations. Ricky Stethouse because he didn't top bottom, top bottom. Oh, no decision three wide or no decision. Recton down the infield. He waited, waited, waited, waited left turn. And it's

kind of like, you know, a little bit of a game of chicken, right? Like he waited in the last minute to pick his lane. And then it was in a abrupt move to the point that Gabe Kyle Larsen enough time still to hit him or miss him, which tells me it's not a bad block, just a well executed block. But I do want to get back

to what you said. I mean, Stan House has a reputation and history of running over guys at super speedway races. Everybody has seen the Twitter meme of Ricky Stethouse, junior's 40 foot car, you know, monster trucking its way through speedway races. This is Danny Faden, Frenchers.com. Ricky, in the years since you got your first two wins back in 2017, there's been a lot of like criticism

and jokes made at your expense because of your aggressive driving style in these races and accents you may or may not have caused. And I like this on this stage when everyone else is in the garage fixing torn up cars and you're crossing the finish line, not much of a scratch on your car. Do you feel like you got the last laugh tonight? I mean, obviously

you're going to have haters everywhere. And when you have somebody at the time like Kyle Busch getting out and bashing you, yeah, that's difficult to overcome. But, you know, I mean, I feel like I've put myself in some bad spots. Yeah, throughout my career. But, you know, the faster we get our cars, the more I can take care of them and still run them close to

the front. You know, something I've always tried to do, which is at sometimes in expenses, try and take a car and try and get way more out of it than, you know, than what's there. And so, you know, I feel like that's my job to do as a race car driver. To get, you know, the most speed out of a race car that you can, but

you also in the sport, you got to take care of it and can't just leave it all out there every single, every single race. You know, fairer unfair. He'd won at Talladega. He'd won at Daytona before. So it's not like he wasn't good at this. But as you know, Stevie, I mean, this time he was decisive and he made the right moves without causing a wreck.

Also a hugely popular win. I want to get to that minute too. Like I think you're right. Stenhouse is well liked in the garage despite having a little bit that history. But do you think that history, the fact that he did run over people in the past, he caused the big racks at Daytona at Talladega, did it factor into the reason that he became a first

time day, tone of 500. We are all a total of our choices. Anyone who thinks any different is ashamed of what they've done. Like we are all sitting here today. You can't take away the days that I've walked the years that I've lived, the decisions I've made. You can't appeal that onion. We throw these terms around all of us. Guys, a very experienced driver. What does

that mean? Well, that's a plightway of saying he's hit a lot of stuff. He's made a lot of mistakes. But since somebody else paid for all that, I'm going to hire him now. That's really what we're saying. When somebody goes, oh man, you're always getting Kyle Busch at the best of his career. Oh, so you're saying because he's already learned these lessons. Yes, I did it.

I was very lucky early in my career to have a couple of pit calls go my way. And there was a stretch there that I think I was ignorant, arrogant. Didn't give some people enough credit. Makes a pit calls. And they were so egregious. They didn't go the right way. And you're like, man, what are you doing? Why are you trying so hard? I lost the

race at Las Vegas putting two tires on Jeff Gordon. And when you go back and look at it, I'm like, we have 30. He's six car lengths to the next car because the lap cars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like you flat, fumbled the ball at the one. Like on it. And I think what we saw from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is he won those races

in a certain manner. So why would you not go back to that well of success? And I think he then took that style. And it didn't go well for a little bit. And the memes came and the things came and this came. And he took it on the chin. I never saw him. He didn't get mean about it. I never saw him point fingers. He kind

of self reflected a little bit. And for whatever reason, what I saw on Sunday, there was two or three moments in the race. Where discretion over came. And listen, I'm going to say if you look at Ricky Stenhouse's age. And if you look at the current format of any full time team, there's no more top 30 points. You win a race here in the playoffs. Where

can this team go? I don't know. One race. I'm not going to say, oh, it's a second race of JTG. Oh, it's a great. Yeah, there are changes. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, what I'm saying. What I'm saying is any organization out there that is building or expanding Ricky Stenhouse Jr. His name now will just continue to be tossed around as a guy that

can absolutely give you a chance at at least the six drafting tracks. Perhaps this year, we're going to talk away more bottom. I'm not saying he couldn't give you a chance. Other places. But I think everyone will have him at the tip of the conversation when we go to these drafting tracks. Congratulations to Ricky. I think this is going to be a marquee win that, you

know, as we head into the next TV contract and as Charters expand and teams or Charters move around as a better word and teams become more and more and more solid and looking for that person. I don't know how Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a multiple time Xfinney series got like he's going to be a race car driver for a long, long time. And the congratulations to him.

Super, super person easily the biggest win of his career and a huge win for his crew chief as well. Mike Kelly. To Xfinney series championships with Mike Kelly, Mike Kelly had sort of bounced around a little bit, but had always sort of stayed in Ricky Stenhouse Jr's orbit. Been a part of this team. But now he's in that crew chief role. Again, he talked about the

fact that he didn't think he was ready for the crew chief role at the couple of when he first got it. And now he's in there. He wins the Daytona 500 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. And Steve, I want to talk to you about Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Mike Kelly's relationship because this was one of these examples where I think driver crew chief symbiosis really does matter. And we

heard, I'm just a little the man. I know what you meant. But come work with a guy here. I'm just I'm just a racer. Yeah, I know you outscored me on verbal on SAT. So I know that you know symbiosis, you know, rapport. The way these guys talk to each other. It's like you and Dale junior. It's like what you and Jeff Gordon had in that

2007 season. And when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rolled off the line before he won the Daytona 500 yesterday, he had a sticker on his roll bar that said, we believe in you. Mike Kelly had placed that there without telling his driver on Sunday morning pre-race. Mike Kelly asked Ricky Stenhouse Jr. After he won the Daytona 500, if he had seen that sticker. Look up up your head.

Look up there, little barn. I see it boys. I see it. More than when I woke up, it was at 330. And I've been coming here for a long time. I think it's like my 27th year coming here. But it just something to something this morning felt different. Kind of how our week started. I kept telling myself if we just keep working on our car and

keep believing in ourselves. So when I woke up this morning, I told myself, and this is something I used to do for Ricky when we had tough days in the Xfinity car. I just wrote him a note that only he would see. And it was on top of the roll bar in front of him. And it just said, we believe. And that's kind of been our

team's motto all off season. Is that we believe we're a small team. We're not we're not a super powerhouse team. We're small. I think there's 40, 45 employees that work in our shop every day. But I have 45 people that believe in what we're trying to accomplish. We're trying to get people to believe in Ricky Stenthouse again. We're trying to get people to believe in myself

and in the vision that we have. Man, it's probably as much of the things you guys know about on the race track that we have done off the race track. And the things we've gone through in our lives together, the ups and downs, the going to Tulsa and spending all our weeks together in the chili bowl and just talking about this sport and what this sport

means to us, but also what it has done to us, the ups and downs and the places it's taken us. You know, we we've seen a lot of things. We've seen a lot of highs, but we've seen a lot of lows. And I remember sitting in meetings where Ricky's career almost ended before it ever started. You all you all know the story, right? He had to

cut cars up at Raul. Because he had wreck so much stuff. And I remember sitting in meetings when they basically voted and not one person out of that group voted to cast them to the side, but it's been as much off the track. It's been sleeping on my couch or in his motorhome. Just two people that when you say you have someone who's back, you know

they have your back. And when you say I'm going to make this decision, he knows I'm making the best decision for Ricky's Stenthouse, not Mike Kelly by myself. It's it's for him. And we almost wrestled one year at Bristol. I mean, literally grabbed each other. And I thought we were going to kill each other because I'm a mistake. But we he knew I made the best

decision I had at that time. Obviously that belief that he has in his driver, you understand that you've been a crew chief. You know how much that matters. I stand out as a great driver. He's a great super speedway racer, but how much did it matter to have Mike Kelly? And this guy believes in him back on his box. Well, so I'm going to start with

Mike Kelly. And I'm going to throw the challenge back to you and our friend Dustin Long. I want you all to get him to pen an editorial for our website because I want I want to hear it from him. I don't want to report on him. I want to hear the editorial from him. And I think he can do the world of high school and college

age kids around the world. A great debt here by writing an editorial on patients of his career because I believe I don't know this the fact I can't be shocked if he didn't have a lot of opportunity. He's between those chambichips and where he stands now. And yet he chose not to take them. And he was patient and he built and he learned. He was patient

and he learned. So I would love for you to challenge him and say, Hey, you tell your story. Listen, listen, you were kind enough to write the book that you and I put out there together. So I know how well you can tell somebody else a story. But sit down. I want you to sit down with Mike. And I want to hear this story from him

because I think we're all going to be shocked about how dark some of those nights can be when you're when you're second or third on a team. That isn't winning races and you have the chance to go somewhere that might win win races, right? So I think we'd do the younger person. Gorilla Roy coming out of college coming out of high school to be patient and

kind of letting the career come to you because I am a big fan of the former crew chief at JTG. I think Brian Paddy's very very smart. He has a long career. He's won a lot of races. He's found a lot of success. So I don't think Mike Kelly. I think it's a disservice to one who left to say, Oh, Mike Kelly's just way smarter. Isn't

there all smart? This crotchier is full. Smart people. What Mike Kelly did is I think we forget that these race car drivers because they put a fire suit on and they put their Superman helmet on and they they're they're supposed to be bigger than life characters on the racetrack. And I think sometimes you know that race car can be their their sword if they're winning races,

but it can be a very empty canoe. If you're by yourself and you're the only guy with a paddle, right? And when you're losing. I think it can be a little solitary out there, right? You're riding around and you're in. Do you feel as a race car driver your team is in that car with you? Right. You think they're whispering about you on the pet box.

Do you think they're on channel two talking between driver and crew chiefs and what you should be doing? And I believe what Mike Kelly has done with that simple sticker and probably weeks and years of conversations. I think Ricky Stenhouse Jr. knew whatever happened in that race. He was going back to a group that supported him and that allows him to be his best. And that

could be making a mistake or winning the biggest race of the year. And I think that says a lot to your point after the biggest race of the year. That's the conversation. It's not the move and the team and the this and the that. It's we believe in you. And I think the fans coming like, well, of course they believe in you. We're their team. Listen

man, athletes are fragile. They're fragile beings. As we all are. So what Mike Kelly did for his driver there was I was outstanding. I listen. It was a fairy tale story because I won the 500. But even if they didn't only Stenhouse knows and he might not even know, right? It might actually be just kind of a natural thing. You know, what we saw on Sunday

was that his, you know, was the more patient was he just like, we don't know. Right? Like I saw Dale her junior overtime, focus more on what I needed him to focus on. That was really the goal with Dale. I had no question of his talent. I knew he could win races. He was amazing. I just felt like he was spending a lot of energy worrying

about stuff that didn't help us win. And I wanted to let him know that man, you don't have to defend yourself to me. You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. I just want you to do X Y and Z. If you prepare like I've asked X Y and Z and we aren't good enough and we need to go to work over

on our side. And I want you to believe that if I think you're not good enough, I'm going to tell you what I think you need to do better. I'm not going to whisper it to Nate, the reporter off the side. I'm just going to call you in and say, All right, Dale, I need you to do X Y and Z. And he can tell me,

All right, well, I need you to do a B and C. And we got that relationship that we found success because we didn't have to have pleases and thank you. So what is he thinking? Like I don't have time for that. Do this. Do that. Do that. We laugh about the Jimmy Johnson Chad Canal's relationship. And it perhaps got a little bumpy at times. Yeah. But

I think it's fair to say in the heyday, there was not a lot of wasted words. I mean, they were on their game. So, so I think that's what Mike Kelly's done. Right. He's taken ownership of this team. And he has found his signature. I don't think it's like anyone else's. He's taken it over time. And obviously Ricky Stenhouse Jr. reacted to that because it wasn't

just what you've seen. You hear the emotion from Ricky. Like I see it. I believe in you guys. I appreciate you got like it was it was a spectacular moment. And Ricky in general, like the man got married. He's kind of like friend to everybody, but yet his still his own person. It's just he's just a very interesting person. And good for him takes a lot

of courage to kind of stand out and be on your own in the spotlight. And he's that way. I saw him that morning. Ham and his buddy, Bealer from Phoenix, who's standing at the back of the truck. Couple of fans were coming up. But here's Ricky. Looks very nice T shirt though. Logo shorts. They well put together uniform, but he didn't look like any other driver.

It looked like Ricky Stenhouse. You know, I'm like, you know, that's kind of pretty cool that you always sat there. We shot the breeze. He kind of gave me his synopsis. So what he thought Sunday was going to look like and off we went. It was it was fun. It was a good day. Obviously a great day for him. And sort of a firms maybe Stevie.

Like the choices he's made in his career is life. Like he said, he gets married in the off season already a big year for him. But you said it. And he's he's well liked by his peers. But I wouldn't characterize him as necessarily being like a follower or being he's got his own piece of land way out in the middle. No where Charlotte area where he

lives. He kind of does his own thing. He's the dirt racer. He kind of marches to his own beat. But yet he is in everybody's circle. How would you describe kind of like the essence of Ricky? Because you know, I'm all you've golf with him. Well, so, so if you look at Ricky Stenhouse's social media, his commitment to fitness and racing is I mean the man

ran. What do you run? I can't remember what it was, but like two marathon's over 48 hours earlier this year with a bunch of other. Some of my buddies to raise money for charity. Like he's just always doing these things. You see Harrison Burton and Todd Gilleland working with them all the time. They drive for Ford. He drives for Chevrolet. But they're friends. And I think

they have a lot of the same connection to some of the agencies that work with. So he's mentoring these younger men showing them how to do different things and how to prepare how to perhaps avoid distractions and focus on the racetrack. He's proudly from Mississippi. He is very proud and who he is and what he's become yet. He's not so close minded to not understand. The

opportunities or that he has as a race car driver to spread whatever word he wants to spread. He's understand what's going on in the world. Like he's kind of like the Renaissance man in his own sort of way. Right. Because he is not afraid to have an opinion. But then doesn't assert his opinion when it's not needed. And that's, you know, I mean, look at the

world. Everybody with a phone thinks they're all, oh man, I look at me. I'm a I got a megaphone. I'm going to type out to the world. Well now Ricky Stenhouse really does his a megaphone. But he chooses not to not to jump into it. Right. Even on the golf course, he's a great golfing lefty who I will put on this podcast has passed Denny Hamlin

as the best NASCAR driver on the golf course. Denny can come at me. He's going to have to agree. Because we've played enough golf together. But he even kind of golf set his own way. Right. Like my Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is this we were playing together a couple of years ago. And I know you're going to find this hard to believe. But I talk a lot

on the golf course. And we were paired up together. I jump in the golf car. He looks at me and he doesn't mean any ill will. But he says, listen, man, we're going to have a good day. But I need a little about half the word you normally give. Talk a lot. I can't have that all day long. I can't have TV Steve Lutard ride with

me. He goes, I just my mind can't do it. But he did he didn't such a way where I'm kind of like, man, that was some constructive criticism that I'm going to have to listen to. And what I mean by that is that's Ricky. Right. That's why I enjoy being around him. Because you always know where you stand. He's one of those guys out there that

we're not close friends. I don't want to position it that we are. Right. But if I was in a bad situation and truly needed help. I have zero doubt he would help. Even though we're not the closest to friends. He's just he is just a good person. And I think he does that for everyone on the garage when needed. So I think I think that's kind

of the key. And he's popular in the garage area now much like the Truex first win. And much like everybody else who's popular in the garage area. Go ahead Ricky. We need a couple more. See how popular you are. And, and, you know, congratulations to him. He's earned the right to perhaps not be so popular with his competitors. And I love that you can appreciate that

brutal honesty. That's a Steve Lutard home mark as well. One more before we move on from Daytona and rap things up with Fontana Stevie. Daytona was repaved before the 2011 Daytona 500. They had to do it. Track was gone apart. And in the 12 years since the repave. The Daytona 500 has had a list of winners that has included Trevor Bame, Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Austin

Cindrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. I think you can argue that those are five great storylines for they're all for varying reasons, all different reasons. They're great storylines to have those guys win the biggest race of the season. But if you're a casual fan or somebody doesn't know NASCAR, which there might be some curiosity there. How do you have guys who I'm not sharing those guys are NASCAR

Hall of Famers? Certainly not yet in some of the cases. And probably not ever going to be in at least one. How would you explain to people how you end up with a list of winners like that in the biggest race of the year? Well, I think because the biggest race of the year is the snapshot of really the historic NASCAR. We're now celebrating 75 years

of NASCAR. And we all know Dale senior Richard Petty Jeff Gordon. Jimmy Johnson. Okay, so that's what 21 and for its 25 of the 75 championships will this 50 more or 49 more in this case. We haven't crowned our 75. So start listing. And the reason I say that is because, you know, what makes NASCAR beautiful is that there are at least 30, 35, 40 full

time competitors. It goes up and down every year. I would not have to get into the numbers. But they all put the effort in. They all show up in each and every week. And there's a lot of reasons why the technology, the car, the opportunity, the driver, the team, the finance. Will challenge even the best of drivers. The age old question is what matters more the

driver of the car. And I answer this question. I have new owners every once in a while. Call me and get my advice. I guess because I'm the TV guy. And I'll say, well, listen, if you have all this money and you have, and you had a lot of ticket, I would hire a driver driver and a driver and then try to hire the best driver

on top of that. Still again. Because the best drivers in the world are required to win races. Now, once you have him, you have to put him in a great race car. What I mean by that is I think we discount how great the 15th place driver is on Sunday. I think we discount what the 25th place driver is on Sunday. I don't think we give

credit to just how deep this field is. I love the sport because I never drove a race car yet. I get the credit for these wins because it is a team sport. Dale Jr. was driving car or Jeff Gordon was driving the car. I was just organizing people in the call of shots. Yet I've shared a little bit of that success. So, you know, you listed

the drivers, but you didn't list the teams they drove for. You didn't list the people behind them. So, if you say Trevor Bain, well, you know, he was driving with Woodbrothers. They have nearly a hundred wins. You say Austin Dillon, well, if you've ever heard of Dale or Hart Sr., you know who Richard Childish racing it. You get my point. My point is really help me.

JTG might be the team with the least wins. Is that fair out of the list you just gave me? I think so. Yeah, they have less than Front Row, which is McDowell's team. And obviously the other winners there, you're talking Woodbrothers, RCR, Penske. So for sure. Even Front Row for the casual fans. And Front Row is in every race with two cars. JTG's been around for

decades. So, while it will seem like these names you don't know come to victory lane at Daytona, they are still there every week. They're at pop over from IndyCar and decide to win a race. So, I think that's what makes the allure the Daytona. If the biggest teams and the best, I don't use the word best. Let me back this up. If the biggest teams and

the most impressive resumes won every Daytona 500, you wonder what would happen to the legacy. No one will make an argument that Dale Earnhardt's senior isn't on the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR. It took him 20 years. Todd Butch has never won it. If it wasn't held at Daytona, if it wasn't a drafting track, I think it would lose some of the allure. I know this is

crazy, but it goes back to Bill France saying, no, I'm going to build high banks a few miles off the beach. They're like, what? It goes back to the first ever one that took days to settle because of a photo finish. Like the allure of the biggest names, it's kind of so I'm a big golf fan, right? Like, well, if you go back and look at

the Masters, they're not all Tiger Woods. That doesn't mean no one questions, well, what's the Masters then? So, what I love about the Daytona 500 is that I think there are a fluke, is it inappropriate word? Because I can assure you everybody down there wants to win. So, what it does though is it allows everyone who's willing to commit the blood-swet and tears to NASCAR. One

thing that keeps you going, as the name of the drivers you just listed, one thing that keeps you going is to think that the great American race. You know, that list you just gave me doesn't make the flags behind me any less valuable to me, right? That 2014 Daytona 500 to this day, you mentioned wither will or will they not, will they go on the Hall

of Fame? I don't know, but I will tell you this. Everyone that goes on the Hall of Fame, they tell you how many championships they wanted to tell you how many Daytona 500s they wanted. That is a resume builder. So, and I love the casual NASCAR fan and every year we hope they tune in and see this spectacular thing in NASCAR and continue to watch. And

I hope they still do after this year's 500. Appreciate that answer. Before we get out, the second race of the season, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Unfortunately, this is near and dear to my heart. This was the first race I ever covered, first race I ever attended in the Cup Series was the first race at Fontana in 1997. Unfortunately, it appears this will be the

last race ever on the two miles of the season. Gen Out Of What's Your Out Look? Because the season really starts now, Stevie, at Fontana. I don't know if we know who's going to be good, but this final race here will be a big determined of it. Yeah, listen, we're not at Dayton anymore, Dorothy. Like this is now your stuff that drive good. And last year,

the new car really, I'm going to 19 winners. My head exploded. I couldn't believe it. So what kind of, you know, what kind of race are we going to get? What are we going to see? I don't know the answer. No one knows the answer. Towards the end of last year, I thought we started to see some standout teams, stand out organizations. Who's done what over

the off season? What is there even to do over the off season? We had the first year of the next gen car. When now we've had the first off season of the next gen car. Who used the information correct? Who made the changes within their organization to be efficient? Are we looking at sprints or marathons? Have they learned how to make the car more efficient for

36 weeks? And this is the answer? Or can they be faster each and every week? I have no idea. I wish I know. I'm going to try to handicap at the best I can, but but I like auto club. If you go back to last year, right? It was a duel between a couple of Hendrick teams, Elliott and Kyle Larson kind of doled each other out.

Member Ross, just a and had perhaps one of the biggest hits we've seen. Well, seems like last year there were many of them, but that one at California without a doubt took everybody's attention right away. So I think this is going to have a different feel. The teams know better with the car. There are a little more confident with the tires, the drivers understand what they're

doing on a very difficult racetrack. So I'm looking forward to it because I'm I like you. I'm not sure what we're going to see. I and I think that's spectacular. That is so difficult to handicap. We had 19 different winners last year. Ricky Stanhouse Jr. wasn't one of them. So you look at the 37 points paying races in the next gen era. And now we're up

to 20 race winners. That's kind of how I'm looking at it. How many next gen race winners are we going to get? We're at 20 out of 37 if my math is good. So that's only like 17 races. We've seen a repeat. So is this going to continue? Yeah. I'm not sure if we can lock Ricky Stanhouse Jr. in the playoffs yet with the 19 winners

last year. Right? I mean, listen, you win and you're in is is easy to say, but you're winning. You're in. If you're one of the top 16, I will say Ricky Stanhouse Jr. who didn't win a race last year makes the belief in the storyline of multiple winners grow even more. So yeah. No question. All right. Well, yeah, a lot to unpack there for a lot

to break down for Fontana, a lot to see what one fold. No one knows what's going to happen. Just like day 200 500. But I do know that I'm really glad you were here to analyze all of it. So as always, TV. Thanks for kicking off the 2023 season with the NASCAR NBC podcast. Appreciate you being here. Absolutely. I always enjoy our thanks again to Steve

Lutart for joining us on the first episode of the NASCAR on NBC podcast for the 2023 NASCAR season. Thanks to Motorsports Manager Emily Conboy and senior associate producer Aaron Feldstein for coordinating Stevie's appearance and helping with the recording. You might have noticed the podcast was out a little earlier than normal. This time my goal for 2023 is to tape and produce these episodes earlier and have

them in your feeds before afternoon rush hour on Mondays. We are using video conferencing software to tape these so you can still hear and see an air quotes the video version. Of the NASCAR NBC podcast via the Motorsports on NBC YouTube channel. So check out the Motorsports on NBC YouTube channel for more. And as always, you can find more news columns and analysis for myself. Dustin

Long and Mike Embry on NASCAR talk and Motorsports talk. Both of those sites on the NBC sports.com website. Please visit NBC sports.com slash NASCAR or NBC sports.com. And if you have any NASCAR NBC podcast feedback, you can send me on Twitter. At Nate Ryan is my hand. Thanks again for listening to the NASCAR NBC podcast.