Fontana: Kyle Busch quickly returns to victory lane with Richard Childress; what does the future hold for NASCAR at Auto Club Speedway and in Southern California

Hi, welcome to the NASCAR and NBC podcast. I'm your host, Nate Ryan here for the second episode of the 2023 season. We're talking here after the final race on the two-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway. It was won by Kyle Busch and to talk about it. I'm joined by the mayor, Jeff Burton, who just spent eight glamorous weekend in Fontana, California. Jeff, thanks for being here.

That's great to be here. It was fun to be in Fontana. I mean, it was a great crowd on Sunday. I mean, for the weather, it was freezing out there. For the weather, it was a so-and-out event. It was, I mean, we like to meet 90% of people in our seats all the time. It was a lot of energy, a lot of excitement. It was fun,

fun atmosphere, fun to be there. I think certainly it was great to see the track sold out for the second consecutive year by my town. I think that was the 11th sellout for Fontana. I track that a lot of people talked about, hey, nobody goes there. There were some people there yesterday. And as you said, I mean, certainly some surprises with the snow showers that we

saw on Saturday. But I think the big surprise that everybody's gonna take away from this race, Jeff, of course, Kyle Busch gets his first win with Richard Childress Racing. Even Kyle Busch said, Jeff, that he was surprised that the win came this early. Bob Hocker's Fox Sports, I know you know you're good. But did you think you would challenge for wins, the clash, Daytona 500, and

here right off the bat with RCR? You know, truthfully, no. I felt like there was gonna be a little bit of a learning experience, a little bit of a growth pattern. But also on the flip side of that, I always just kinda look back and watch some of their results and success that they had last year with Austin. He ran second here last year, and Reddick

was super, super fast. And so they were fast at the clash before they broke. The eight car was, you know. It's just been really, really cool. And it's been a great piece of, we're making history, right? But a great piece of opportunity to go out there and continue to win races at a new team with RCR. So I can't say enough about, you know, Austin giving

me a call first and foremost, but then Richard and Judy giving me this opportunity to go out here and race for wins. And thankful to be a part of our Lucas Oil Chevrolet team today. Have you been surprised by how good Kyle Busch has been immediately at Richard Childress Racing? You know, I came into this year not having any idea of what was going to happen

with this pairing. It's not because the lack of talent or anything like that. It's just how quickly could they get together and did Tyler Reddick's stuff that he was so good with with that work for Kyle Busch? And what kind of adjustments, how long would it take? Shoes you how silly I am, they want to race in which they had no practice. They want to race

in which they went in completely blind and just made it happen. And that to me is the most fascinating thing is, if you look at what they've done this year, they have had a chance to win every event. They were in position to win the clash. And I would say that they probably passed more cars than anybody else. They were in position to win a day,

torn to 500. And obviously in position to win yesterday, that's, they're three for three for performance. They didn't get the finishes, but they're three for three for performances. And that is a ton to build on. And I don't care who you are. I don't care how confident you appear to be as a driver, especially when you haven't been having, when you used to have a success,

and then you don't for a period of time, man, the question start rolling in your head. And what am I doing? What am I doing wrong? What am I not feeling? What am I, there's no way it doesn't, unless you're just, you know, just so arrogant that you can look past that. Well, I don't think Kyle Busch is that arrogant. I think he truly was questioning,

what is it that I'm doing wrong? What am I far of the problem? And then to go three for three. I think that's the most important thing in my eyes in performance. I just think that's an unbelievable start for that team. And I think they're going to be really difficult for people to deal with the rest of the year. You know, Kyle said after the race,

Jeff, he told Fox that I think it ranks high just because it ranks to the fact of, I can do it. You know, I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do, you know, you kind of get down on it, you wonder what's going on and what's happening, and you put yourself in a different situation, and you're able to come out here and reward your guys. It's

not about me always winning, I've been with a lot of great people that have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career. So it's awesome to be able to reward them. You know, so I'm going to enjoy it for sure. And hopefully there's many more left to go. You know, we were just talking about, I'm looking at that monster mile Dover trophy behind you.

That was your win in 2006 that I think came after a period in which you hadn't won a race in a few years and Kyle pushed one race for the last two years. Oh, by the way, also extends this streak of consecutive seasons with a win in the 19, which is an all time NASCAR record, another big mark on his resume. How does a driver, you

know, you've been through it, Kyle's been through it. What do you think went wrong for Kyle the last two years at Gibbs, and how do you get through that? Well, you know, he went through a couple of different crew chiefs, both crew chiefs are very talented people. Kyle's a very talented race car driver. I think a lot, you know, things just kind of get going down

the wrong path, and it's hard to get it turned around. And honestly, you can look back and not even know why. And that's what's difficult about it is, you know, the most difficult thing about driving a race car, Nate, is finding a way to push through the bad times. And that's a lap-per-lap situation. And when you're watching it as a crew chief, as a guy like

me, that's been around the sport forever, you can't watch that and say, the driver's the problem, the car's the problem. If you've got this variable in there that no other sport has with the vehicle. And so a driver when he's struggling is not out there doing something intentionally wrong. He's doing what he believes is the right thing to do. And the team has set it up

the way they believe the right way to set it up is, and it just doesn't work sometimes. And that's so hard to navigate through. And if you sit there and you say, as a driver, I'm me, that's how I'm going to drive. You got to make it work like that. That puts the team in a crazy box that is somewhat impossible to work with. At the

same time, if you're constantly compromising on, OK, I need to change this. I need to change that. Then what is your identity as a driver? And what is the team? What can they build around? It is dancing on the razor blade. And how much you should change and how much you shouldn't. And that honestly is one of the most difficult parts about being a driver, because

nothing stays the same. You go to a racetrack. I mean, think about the number of times we went to Pocono, the number of races that were so close together. We used to race in like six weeks apart. And you would go there the first time and be great. And go there six weeks later and be horrible. New Hampshire also. So things are always changing and trying

to figure that out and keeping your base is the best way I know that I'm describing it. Who am I as a driver? What is it that I know I got to do to be successful? Relaying that information to a team. But when it's not working, it gets so difficult to figure it out. And look, Kyle Busch can wake up this morning. And I think this

is really important for Richard Schilder's racing. I think it's really important for Joe Gibbs racing. Kyle Busch can wake up this morning and say, I can win races. And that doesn't mean Joe Gibbs racing was part of the problem. It means that collectively they weren't doing as well as they needed to do. And RCR has immediately done it better compared to the last two years, right?

Or maybe even three years. That's not a knock on Joe Gibbs racing. It's an opportunity to say, OK, what is it that we could have done differently, not just to play it in reverse, but to look and say, how is it company can we get our drivers what they need? And what do we need from our drivers to get them to relate to us the information

that they need to be successful? It's a learning opportunity for everybody. And they'll all treat it like that. But Richard Schilder's and Kyle Busch, they both wake up this morning doing, yep, yep. I knew I could. And that'll be real dangerous. I'm glad you touched on children. And that's an interesting point about Gibbs, too, which I hadn't really thought about. They'd probably wake up call for

them as well. But going back to RCR, that's another organization that you are intimately familiar with. You drove for them for several years. You won races for Richard Schilder's. And like I can remember talking to you once might have been your fourth or fifth year at RCR. And sometimes you got frustrated that there's these notions that a bunch of guys just up in the woods of

North Carolina outside Winston Salem just trying to race. And no one really respected what was there. Again, you've got perspective on what it's been like for that organization. We talked about the Kyle Busch side of it for the team knowing that they've won championships with Downer and Earth. They've won races with you and so many other drivers. But to go through the dry spell, they've had.

They've won a few times last year with Reddick. They've won with Austin Dillon. But they haven't been that championship contender level. And now it seems like you can get back to that with Kyle Busch. I mean, what does it all mean for Richard Schilder's racing? And how does the team survive those down years? Well, it's huge for RCR. I mean, Richard, I talked to Richard before

the race yesterday. I talked to Andy Petri quite a bit and out at the clash in LA. They knew that it was perform time. Andy told me, Andy Vichy, the director of competition told me that there was a lot of pressure on them. They had Kyle Busch. And you got to win with Kyle Busch. And he was feeling that pressure. And so it's great that they've

been so fast early in the year. And I think it says to the industry, do not count Richard Schilder's racing out. And by the way, never count out Richard Schilder's. You think about the changes that that man has gone through in the sport. And how many of the people that he used to race against are no longer in business or no, you know, and he has

found a way to grind through it to, I mean, he has found a way. And he's a fighter. He's street smart. He's a fighter. He's willing, he constantly invest in his company. He makes it willing to make that investment. And this is his life. You know, he doesn't make, you know, this is his business. This is it. He has some other businesses, but this is where

the money comes from. And he's done an incredible job of surviving. And it's great for our sport if he can get back to championship caliber, right? It's great for our sport that a guy like Richard can do that. And I think he can. I just, he has so much fight and so much grit. And he just never quits. And he's put a really good group of

people together. And if you work there, you recognize what's there. You recognize the opportunity to be successful. And he is underrated from a technological standpoint, from an asset standpoint, they're way underrated in the tools and the pieces that they have. They just, they have been for a long time and they still are today in my opinion. I agree with you. I mean, it's a great story

for an Asgard to have a team like that that has such connection, especially to one of the greatest drivers of all time. It's hard to have them in the mix again. When we talk about Kyle Busch, Jeff, I want to ask you about racing with a chip on his shoulder. I think it was Tony Stewart who said this during the broadcast yesterday and who better to

talk about this than Tony Stewart. Some drivers race better when it's me against the world and it seems like Kyle Busch certainly is in that category. How do you think a driver does that? Because to me, it'll be easy to kind of get lost and feed too much off of anger, rage or whatever. But guys like Kyle Busch, guys like Tony Stewart, they seem to excel

when they're in that position. How does a driver channel that those types of emotions successful? Well, I think Kyle Busch has raced his entire career with a chip on his shoulder. And I think Kyle and his brother, brother, both, Kurt, have had an unbelievable knack. It'd be unable to take things outside distractions and put them aside when they get in that race car. I've always admired

how they're able to do that. They just go to work. And when they're in that race car, anything else that's happening isn't happening. And they're able to just go back and focus on racing. I struggle with that as a driver. My outside life sprinkled in. They seem to have a way to shut it off. So that's a great trait because that's what you have to do

as an athlete. It's shut it all off. So I don't know that Kyle, so I disagree with the assessment of like he's now racing with a chip on his shoulder because I think he's always had a chip on his shoulder. What he is racing with is this may be the first time in his career where he has to prove to himself that he can do it.

I think this is the first time in his career where he's down his crypt in. And I think that that is a bigger than a chip on his shoulder. You know, a chip on his shoulder, to me it's internal. Like it's an internal thing with him just because of the performance. I don't think that he was mad at Joe Gives racing. I don't think he left

Joe Gives racing in a fit of rage. I don't think he feels like that they underhanded him. I just think he got dealt a hand that he didn't like, but I don't think they were horrible people. And I'm going out to kick Joe Gives racing. I don't think it's any of that. I think it was I got a clue to myself. I can do this. And

so now there's confident Kyle. And confident Kyle is way more dangerous than chip on shoulder Kyle. Chip on shoulder Kyle makes a lot of mistakes. There's a lot of silly things, makes a lot of silly comments. Dust things on a race track that you shake your head, you know, like man, you're better than that. That's chip on shoulder Kyle. Confident Kyle is he's going to put

it in there and he's going to make some mistakes, but it's it's done not out of desperation. It's done out of trying to go have success. There's two different. That's two different ways to look at it. Right. And so I think confident Kyle is very dangerous and chip on shoulder Kyle, I think is dangerous for him. I think it's a negative for him. Is it is

a positive for him? Yeah, that's what I said. And those negatives certainly added up to some booze over the years from the grandstands. You were there in Fontana. I was watching from afar, but what really stood out for me was the cheers that he got when he went and got the checkered flag. Here it is. You're going to swear in the comments to see those four

hundred five. Kyle. And how do you know he should love it? I was thinking we didn't hear that. We didn't hear the booze we're used to hearing. That's right. That was a different tone. It's a good point. It reminded me a lot of Jeff Gordon, late phase career, Jeff Gordon, and you know the booze that he got early in his career and you won everything. That

changed towards the end of his career. And even Kyle kind of noted this after the raise. Yeah, man, Browning Asian is growing, bro. Loud and proud. Watch out. We're going to take over. So it's just fun to see them and to give them something that cheer for again and to have an opportunity like today to win a race this early in the season, get everybody juked

up and excited and also continue to hopefully have more races like this where we're able to win, get some of those playoff points, kind of stockpiling a little bit so we can have a good time at the end of the year. I'm sure some of this is about the fact it was the last race on the two mile oval. I'm sure some of it was fans

might be mindful of the fact that Kyle's made this huge career switch and go to a different team. But what do you make of all of that that it seemed like this was a more popular victory than Kyle Bush normally gets that reception after he wins a race? Well, so I want to be clear about something when he got caught for speeding. The crowd erupted in

cheers when that. Good clarification. Yeah, so like I was, you know, I watch a race from the top of those infield suites and the crowd started cheering and I didn't know why and I looked over and there was a big screen there and it was speeding though me for Kyle Bush and I'm like, wow, they got loud like that. They liked it. He got paralyzed and

then the contrast to that was when he won the race, they all cheer. It was like it was very interesting to be there. It was like a Rocky movie Nate where they're cheering for, they're not cheering for Rocky, right? They don't want Rocky to win and then by the end of it they're all cheering for him. And something changed it through the race, something changed to

where you had this massive amount of cheers for his failure and then a massive amount of cheers for his success. I don't know. I don't want to play NASCAR fan analyst from, you know, like I don't want to do that, but something changed and you know, I don't know. Maybe let's say Richard Childress go back to Vickery Lane, maybe that perine, I think Richard is viewed

very favorably in the fan base and I think maybe that perine and I think, you know, I think that Kyle also showed some humility. I thought he showed some humility and wasn't that I'm glad you all heat me guy. You know what I mean? He wasn't that in Vickery Lane and I think people moved up to that too, but I don't know, man, like that thing

moves, that thing moves so quickly, but there was a very positive reaction to him and I think he probably like, what the hell is going on? Yeah, yeah. No, you're right. I don't want to get into the dime store cycle analysis too much, but it was definitely different. I mean, Chicago 2019, we all remember Kyle Bush crying his eyes out after he beats Kyle Larson in

this fantastic finish and there were certainly more booze that day. Yeah, you know, it's, I, now listen, I'm not advocating for Kyle to be the fan friendly Kyle. I like it when Kyle is the antagonist. You know what I mean? I think. Same here. Same here. I mean, I support, we don't need robots. Yeah. Like we don't need drivers that are trained to say the right

thing all the time and like with that man, we need personalities. We're all different as humans and we need to, our drivers need to show that and be given the confidence from the sponsors and everybody else, hey man, be yourself. Like I'm not advocating for Kyle to just all of a sudden turn into Jimmy Johnson, you know, never make anybody mad like Kyle needs to be

Kyle. And I think confident Kyle, it's easier for him to be, it's easier for him to be himself when he's confident. But certainly, certainly, if you think about it from a career standpoint, is this the most confident Kyle has ever been? Because when you lose that confidence and you gain it back, it's like a double shot of it. It's like, yeah, look at that, man, I

got me some stuff now. Like it is a, it is a double shot compared to when you're always confident versus when you lose it and you get it back. You know, Kyle right now, maybe as most of the most confidence been at any point in this career. And by the way, why wouldn't he be like he has put that car in position to win every race

they've been in? And that's that's saying something. Saying a lot. And obviously he had a really good car yesterday and maybe he definitely had the best car at the end. But I think throughout the course of the race, Boss Chastain was the other really good car. He finished third, he led the most laps, led 91 laps. That was the guy Kyle had to pass. So two

top fives, Jeff, for Trackhouse Racing and I'll confess, I'll admit to it, I didn't see this coming. Like I know Ross Chastain made the championship round last year, but I just thought year two, we might see a little bit of a regression. And if anything, track, again, it's, you know, four races in really, two points races. But if anything, it feels like Trackhouse Racing has picked

off right where they were last year, but might even be better. The start for Chastain and Suarez has been impressive. Yeah, really has been, you have to know that going into this off season for a young team, the fear of coming out of the gate slow had to be there. I mean, only naturally, like, you know, because you, you're doing well, Nate, you think you know

why, but you don't really, and when you're doing poorly, you don't really know why. And so you're always questioning yourself, are we doing the right thing? Or what can we do better? It's just, you have to, you just have to. So for them to come out of the gate and not get knocked out by Hendrick and not getting knocked out by Penske and not getting knocked

out by, you know, all the big teams, you know, say, hey, man, we're here to stay. Like, it's really important for them because there would be only natural to think, okay, how are we going to continue this? How are we going to take what we did last year and make it better? And they've done it. And that, that's really hard to do. Now you're right. We've

had two point-faying races. So let's, you know, let's be careful to not crown champions and just yet. There's a lot that's going to happen between now and the time to play all-start. But the start they've gotten off to is really good. And that helps them because they're probably not doing everything they did last year. They probably made some changes. And now they're saying, hey, that was

good. But again, let's don't downplay the no practice. That affected some cars and teams negatively. It helped some cars and teams. So let's see what happens when we start getting into a normal schedule. I mean, that's a really good point. You can't overlook the fact that if there's practice, just Kyle Larson have the engine trouble he had. Does Chase Brisco come out and just fall flat

on his face like he did? I'm sure that some of these teams would have addressed some of those issues. You would think. Yeah. And just performance, you know, just like, wow, we're way off. We're way off. And then we're going to go over to like, let's go to with the four Scott. Let's, you know, whatever, whatever. Yeah. Right? Because I know that in a perfect world,

all the team cars are running the same speed, but they don't. And there's a reason for that. They've got different drivers in them with things that they like or don't like. And typically a team doesn't unload. You know, all the 100 motorsports doesn't have the same setup. Like, you know, some teams, you know, engineer, true chief, they're like, no, we want to go this direction. And

so especially this time of year, I mean, you know, especially this time of year. So you go to California with something that you believe in and you're going to stick, you're going to stick with it most likely or some people bailed, some people went, oh, that's too big of an experiment. We need to bail and go to something that's more reliable. But yeah, I love 20

minutes of practice. Doesn't seem like much. It still gives you some direction. In bottom of the way it's not enough. We can't have a series that it practices for 20 minutes every week. I mean, at some point, at some point, and I know this controversial conversation, but at some point, we got to have some days where we have more practice. That's just my opinion. There's some

value in practice, not just for the teams and drivers, and some value for the fans, or some value for building up the energy for the weekend. I mean, we are the only major motorsports that is doing this. That doesn't make it wrong. Less practice is okay, but we've gone 34 on one side of it. Yeah, it really stood out for the biggest race of the year

last week where I was really scratching my head before the duels. What would be the right number, do you think? Like an hour? I think it's fine to do some races with 20 minute practice. I also think we need some events where you have a full hour or teams and drivers. You know, we've got to remember this, too, Nate, is we're also developing the next drivers.

We're the only sport, except for golf, but major sport, that you pull for a driver that's going to retire. The Dallas Cowboys aren't going to retire. You're going to pull, if your Cowboys fan, although you may or may not like him as a player, you're going to pull for that quarterback. You're going to pull for that running back. You're going to pull for that wild receiver,

because they got the star on their helmet. Here, you pull for Kevin Harvey. You pull for, that's no disrespect to the owners. It is what it is. You pull for Chacelleon, whoever it is. Well, he's going to retire, and he's going to be replaced by somebody. We've got to find the more you practice and tie, you pull away from these young drivers, the more, well, that's

the opportunity they have to close the gap. That is a major part of our sport, is finding the next round of drivers. It's constant. Almost every year we have a driver leave. That's probably an exaggeration, but we've got to have a way in which our young drivers are being groomed, and they have enough time to be ready when that shot comes. It's really, really important. Here

you go. There are certainly some examples of some younger drivers who have persevered, despite the lack of practice in recent years. Corey LaJoy, he stuck out to me, ran top 15 consistently, came back from some early trouble, finished 14th. In terms of other underdogs, I think we saw some people run out of the front. RFK Racing looks strong again. A lot of people talk to Jeff

about how this was the first race of the real season, as they say. Like you said, I don't know how much you can take away without practice, and with Fontana sort of being a unique track. But what else stood out to you, both good and bad among teams? I thought that the Pinsky guys had good speed, and they just, before I'm not 100% sure what happened

to Logato, but he lost some late in race. Wayne, he got damage, Cinder got damage, so they had some good speed, but didn't get the results that they hoped to get based on the speed that they had. Chase Elliott, Chase Elliott, a champion running second is not great. It's a good sign, because they really struggled toward the end of last year. That's good for them. Kevin

Harvick, just telling you, he's going to be dangerous this year. There's not a question in my mind. He's going to be dangerous, because Rodney's shoulders has so much respect for Kevin Harvick. Rodney's shoulders is going to be his the best he can possibly be for Kevin Harvick to have a chance to leave full time cup racing with that Dixropy. Rodney and Kevin are coming into this

year, super, super hungry. This is not the, hey, we're going to ride around retirement tool in a way that people make friends. That is going to be the opposite of that. They are on full till. Martin Jutex. So I know he finished 11, but he was two laps down at one point. He won the clash. Didn't win a race all year, ran well last year. They

had the wheel come off, but persevered and still had decent speed and came back and finished 11. I know that again. It's not a great day for him. But then as we get deeper in the field, Harrison, the last start of the race, they had really good speed. They came on with the top 15. That's an improvement for those guys on mile and a half for

a young driver. We just talked about Chase Brisco was a surprise that he just didn't run well. I was there in person, so I'm not sure if they were having a mechanic. I don't know what was going on, but they just didn't have the speed that you expected. You mentioned Corey LaJoy, he was in a minimum of three incidents yesterday. But listen to him, more in

his fall. I mean, the race that happens, he was in their day in the fight with them and showing people, hey, we're going to be up front. Clearly, they've got more speed than they had last year. One of those incidents I wanted to ask you about, Jeff. I think it was the biggest yellow in California Speedway history. Biggest number of wrecks involved in that restart crash.

There was a lot of discussion afterward from drivers. People had tried to maybe pin it on Joey Logano and Joey Logano explained, hey, the restart zone is longer now. It's going to be different for us to judge off of our fellow competitors and the cars around us. When to go, when to slow, that's going to take a little bit of adaptation time. What did you make

of that? The longer restart zone, if you have any insight into that for this year? I think Joey got it exactly right. I think Joey did do anything wrong. Man, why it's the restart he left in the restart zone. The restart zone is longer this year. Most of the drivers wanted a bigger restart zone. There he enters the restart zone. He's in the restart zone still.

He just went by the first line. He hasn't gotten to the second line. He just now was accelerating. There went the second line. Joey just went late in the box. Everybody behind him was trying to anticipate when that start was going to be. This is a wreck that I've seen at California many times. This is not a new wreck. I've seen this wreck. I'm going to

reach you 10 hours and I were talking about it last night. He's like, I've been in the same wreck at California. It gets more difficult. The restarts get more difficult on the tracks that the drivers are all on the same straight and they can't see around. If you think about it where we have big pilots, we used to have it in the all the time. We'd

have it poking out all the time, do hampsure, places like that because the drivers can't see. Certain tracks are easier and you can see what's going on in front of you so we don't get these pilots. The restarts zone, yeah, I think it played a factor. But I also know that I've watched this wreck many times before with all different kinds of restarts zones and all

different kinds of rules. Lack cars starting on the inside. I've seen this wreck many, many times. Yeah, I think the restarts zone was a factor and I agree with Joey. I think there will be a learning time where drivers understand when is he getting toward the end of that box because all those lines look great. They look great on television but you can't see them. You're

a row five. You don't know what line you're on. I think some of that just, it's restarts. So racing is fascinating to watch today because the whole goal is to get position on somebody and then mess him up. Just mess him up and find a way to get the air taken off of him and find a way to take his lane away from him. And that

starts when you drop that green flag. I mean, when they go into turn one at California, there's many opportunities for drivers to do all kinds of different things but you have to have four momentum to do it. And that all starts and that restarts zone. And so they're all anticipating a win to go because they won't four momentum when they get to that star finish line

so they then can make the move they want. If you're going backwards, then the people behind you are making the move on you. And so that four momentum as you get to the star finish line is really important and that's why we see these seconds. Yeah. And unfortunately, that's going to be the last one we see on the two mile oval at Fontana. We've seen some

great racing at this track over the last 12 years. Didn't start out quite as great. You were there for that first race. June 22nd, 1997. You saw the scene then. You've seen the tracks history over the years. I've said my piece on this. What's your take on California Speedway, Auto Club Speedway? It's history, two mile oval. What's ahead in the short track? You know, it's clearly

they came out very confident. We're building a short track. You know, we're going to do that. That kind of has wavered a little bit since. I think there's just a real analysis going on. I think we see a change in the sport starting with the opportunity. Think about you got Nashville, the Marcus and his team, and then we're working really hard to get Nashville up and

running. I think that's going to happen in due time, North Wilkesboro, the clash of the Coliseum, the street race in Chicago. I mean, think about that. So there's a change happening in the sport. And the question is, do you have to own all these racetracks to put on races? And does not own in racetracks provide more flexibility to do things that's right for the sport at

that moment? Because you and I are sitting here talking about California putting on good races. If we had said that seven years ago, someone would have hit us. Like what? Like. Things always change. And if you had that opportunity to move the sport around and to take it different places and do different things, then you have the opportunity to put it where it needs to be

at the given time in history that something's better than the other. And so I think that they're just looking at it from a different perspective than ever before. And we have, you know, we have made, I've said it to you many times. I believe that our sport needs to be in as many places as possible. And that doesn't mean run as many races as possible. That

means being in as many places as the right number of races for our series. And when you get locked in of saying, okay, we have to go to this track. We have to go to this track. We have to go to then how do you do that? And so I don't know what's going to happen. I would love to see a short track built right there

because not only could it be a short track for Cup race and it could be a short track for for late model racing for all types of racing and with losing racetracks or losing racetracks all over the country. So it would, I would love to see a racetrack right there. You know, I would have even been talking about a half to a three quarter mile racetrack.

Like I would love for that to happen. I hope it does happen. But right now today, I don't know if I don't know. I'm 50, 50 on whether the assessment gets done and they decide, okay, this is in the best interest of sport or maybe they decide to sit on it. Maybe they decide to say, hey, let's just, you know, kind of like what I feel

like going on to Chicago Lance V-Way. Like let's just sit on this saying, let's see what happens and how does this fit in. And maybe that's the determination. I don't know. I, but I do know that we're at a point in our history where we're able to look back at some mistakes, some things that we're done right and then some mistakes that were made. We're going

back to North Wilkesburg. We're going to, I convinced. We're going to be back in Nashville. Like, you know, so there's an assessment going on and maybe times the best thing to make that profit for assessment. Maybe the best thing to do is not just 100% commit to something. Let's see what happens with this next TV deal. Let's see what happens with the new charter agreement. Let's

see what happens, you know, where are we as a sport? I think it's an important market, but you know, we talk about the LA market and we talk about all that. I feel like that's important, but I don't, not smart enough to know if it's important enough to make that investment out there or not. I don't know. Yeah, it's, there's a lot going on. There's a

lot happening. There's a lot that can influence these decisions and these are big, strategic moves that NASCAR has to consider and weigh and make. All that being said, in 2024, I think they're going to be at the call of CM. I think they still have a contract, but is there a points race for the CUP series in Southern California in 2024 and does there need to

be? Well, I listen, I hope there's not a point race to the Coliseum. I just don't like that idea. That's just my opinion. I mean, I've been wrong about many things. I just don't think, if you go to have a point race, you can't have a point race and not have all other teams on track. That's not good for our teams. I just don't like that

idea. I don't. Maybe there's some kind of format that you could create that everybody, I don't know, but we can get creative now more than we've ever done before. I don't know. I don't see us with a point race in Southern California in 2024, but that's okay. Again, why do we have to go to the same places every year? Why can't we mix it up? Could

we go to a place like Kern or could we do something like that in California or is there a track somewhere else on the West Coast? We do go to Vegas and we do go to Phoenix. The market we've never really gotten up into is Pacific Northwest. I mean, that area is how do we get there? So I don't know. I mean, what's fun is we

get to talk about it. Like we get to think about it because 15 years ago, you and I knew where we were going next year. Yeah. I mean, we all knew, we just might, they might change it when we go and they might know or something, but we knew when we were going. And now there's an honest debate about what's best for us at the moment.

And then so now you can look at long term and this end in the moment. I don't know what's going to happen. And I think, but I do think there's, I think we can see a substantial schedule shift for what our point races are because we had to do that some new tracks, new slash old tracks coming back on and we have the situation at California.

I'm going to throw this one out there. I haven't heard anybody say a word about it. Not a word about it as far as going back up racing, but they're paying the rock in them. I mean, it feels to me like what happened at Wilkesborough could happen there still, right? I mean, the seeds have been planted. Yeah. I mean, I know, I mean, I've had no

conversation about going back to Rock and Am Cup racing, but it's, it's, there was some funding there that the, the, the governor and North Carolina created to help race tracks in North Carolina. And that's being used at North Wilkesborough's, but use it's Charles Motors' feet away. It's being used at short tracks all throughout North Carolina and part of Rock and Am. Rock and Am was being

repaid. So I don't know. Can we end up there? I'd be fine with it. I would love to say, I mean, especially when you think about the last race there was one of the best races there and the tire wearer and it's good racing. And I agree with you, Jeff. Like I lived through the era of NASCAR schedule rigidity when it was just, you said it

earlier. Pocano twice a year or six weeks apart. New Hampshire twice a year, two months apart. That didn't work. And I'm glad NASCAR has reached this phase where there's more nimble thinking about where they should be, which is good. Well, look ahead, as we wrap up here, Las Vegas is next. I would suspect we're going to see something similar to Fontana, maybe not the same racing,

but certainly it's considered again part of the real season, a big test for the big teams who needs that really good race. I mean, it seems to me like Stewardhoss racing with the exception of Harvick really comes out on its heels a little bit after these first two races. Yeah, I think Stewardhoss needs a good day. Our performance, I know we talked about, I know we

talked a little bit ago, they didn't run that great, but their performance hadn't been bad. They just hadn't been getting finishes. This is the time of year where you see this massive flux, right? And people finishing well versus not running well. I'm interested to see just, to me, the aggression level is pretty high. And it started the Coliseum, it went into Daytona. It's really aggressive here.

Who's had enough? You know what I mean? I've got that, I'm not talking about paybacks or whatever, but people just start saying, okay, I gotta make a stand. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be pushed around. And I'm really interested to see where that goes. And this is the time of year mistakes. I mean, that's right now, you know, Tyler Reddick kind of jumps out at

me. Because we talked about Kyle Busch and the excitement and all the things that have happened with Kyle Busch will then we go back to Tyler Reddick. They've yet to finish a race this year. And so, and you leave the eight car and it goes and it runs really, really well. And you haven't been out of finished a race. Right point. Yeah. How do you emotionally,

how do you handle that? What are the people around him? Hey man, how are they helping him navigate? Like this, don't put ourselves in a position so early in the year that we're playing, you know, we're like trying new things that are out of our character. So Tyler Reddick, you to me stands out as a guy that, okay, you're watching the car you drove last year

do what it's done. You watching what you guys have done, you haven't been out of finished a race yet. How do we address this? And let's don't react to it. Let's respond to it. Let's respond and make some whatever we need to do to perform, to get the finishes, to get a foundation built underneath us. This is a long-term relationship. It isn't just about the first

two races of 2024, 2023 rather, it's said about that. It's about what are we built to so when we get to the end of the year, we're in position where we want it to be. And I think it's important for them to have those conversations to get the foundation built because they haven't been out of the foundation yet. And that's going to be really important for

that team. Great point. Certainly, keep an eye on that number 45 Toyota. We started out talking about the guy who's in the car he was driving last year, the number 8 Chevrolet, Kyle Busch. And we finished talking about what's next for Tyler Reddick. That is definitely going to be interesting to watch. Always interesting talking to you, sir. Thanks for being here, Jeff. I know that it's

a little bit of a slog getting back here to do this. And I always appreciate all of your time. The mayor, everybody. Thanks for being here. We appreciate Jeff Burton for joining us on the NASCARN NBC podcast. Thanks to Motorsports Manager Emily Conboy and senior associate producer Aaron Feldstein for recording the mayor's appearance and for helping with the recording. And thanks as well to producers Zach

Tanzer ready for turning around some video clips from the podcast and getting them posted on NBC Sports.com quickly after we finish taping. We are doing these over video conferencing. So you also can still hear and see the video version of the NASCARN NBC podcast on NBCSports.com and via the Motorsports on NBC YouTube channel. That channel also is where you'll find a lot of Motorsports content both

NASCAR and otherwise, including twice weekly discussions with NASCARN NBC analysts of some of the hot button issues in the NASCAR Cup series. So check out the Motorsports on NBC YouTube channel for more. And as always you can find more news, columns, analysis on NASCAR talk and Motorsports talk on NBCSports.com. Please visit NBCSports.com slash NASCAR or NBCSports.com slash Motors. This weekend I will be heading to St.

Petersburg, Florida for the season opener of the NTT Indie car series. Lots of content coming this week and this weekend on Motorsports talk NBCSports.com slash Motors. You can check out my reports from St. Pete. If you have any NASCARN NBC podcast feedback you can send me on Twitter at 8 Ryan is my opinion. Thanks again for listening to the NASCARN NBC podcast.