Las Vegas: Chase Elliott sidelined by broken leg in snowboarding crash; Lord Byron and Hendrick Motorsports still reign; whats up with Stewart-Haas Racing?

Hi, welcome to the NASCAR NBC podcast. I'm your host Nate Ryan, and I'm here with our NASCAR NBC analyst, Kyle Petty. We're going to talk about the race today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For those of you watching the video version of this podcast, you can see that I am not in my normal location in Charlotte. I am in an undisclosed location on the Florida Gulf

Coast south of St. Petersburg, where today's Indy Car season opener happens. So I am going to be relying on Kyle Petty to tell me a lot about, to tell us both a lot about both me and the listeners about this NASCAR Cups series race day at Las Vegas. Kyle, I saw about five minutes of this race and would be totally honest. So I know you watched

it. I know William Byron won. Just to start your general thoughts about what we saw today at Las Vegas. The shavies were strong. Man, I mean, I was really surprised. I'm going to say this. I think when they dropped the green flag, it was William Byron's race. First segment, second segment, he and Kyle Larson. The Toyota's were better than what I thought they were going to

be. I had kind of followed this weekend. I ended up going to bike weekend. They told me that I had kind of followed and called a couple of people and stayed in touch and seeing what was going on. I think the Toyota's kind of struggled in the short practice, qualifying, whatever. And Joey was good. And most of the time, Joey Lagano sets on the pole, that's

a sign, man. That's like the old Matt Kenzah syndrome. When he qualifies, he'll top five or six, he's going to be hard to guard. But watching the race, it was the wind affected the race. They talked about it today and you hear it so much with these cars. 170, 80 miles an hour, wind gusts from 20 to 35 miles an hour. Listen, it's like airplane turbulence.

Everybody wants to say, oh, it's like driving down the interstate. You pass a fascinating, it's not dude. It's like you're coming in on a jet airliner and you're landing and you get caught in a crosswind and there's a gust of wind. It upsets the car that much. So it was a basic, for me, it was a typical Las Vegas race. You run it until the last

five or 10 laps. I think they've had multiple cautions over the years in the last five or 10 laps. You get a caution and then it's a different race. If we hadn't had the last caution, Kyle Larson wins a race. He and William Byron arguably the two best cars. So it was just a typical race. There was nothing special to me. I'm sorry. But we'll say

that this, I kind of consider this the first race of the season because it is a mile and a half. It's more in the wheelhouse of what we're going to see all year. So I would take some notes on that and say, okay, this was a pretty decent race for just about every team out there had at least one car that ran pretty good. All right.

Yeah, I definitely want to get a little bit deeper into that now that we've got a few races under the Cup Series belt here. We can kind of digest a little bit about what we think we've learned. And I also feel a little bit better that I wasn't the only one who was sort of playing hookie this weekend in Florida that you got to bike week

in Daytona. That's great. I of course was was working. I mean, you were probably working too. Oh, you're saying that's not working. What are you talking about? I was bike week before we go back to Vegas. Tell me a little more about what nick weeks like. All right. So bike week was great. I went down for an event called Sons of Speed that a guy named

Billy Lane puts on Billy Lane's a custom bike builder and it's vintage motorcycle racing and you some murder. And let's let me take they raised bikes that were that came off the assembly line for Harley Davidson in 1909 1909. So when I say vintage bikes, these bikes are 100 plus years old, some of them were for somebody who loves motorcycles. It would be like going back

to Daytona and watching them run superverts. It would be like going to the beach and watching them run Hudson Hornets. It was that kind of event. So for me, I was down there working it. I did some broadcasting for it and some some. Yeah, some streaming for it and stuff, but it was a lot of fun. It was listen, it's going to be a event that

I try to get to every year because I think it's grown. First year they had 10 bikes this year. They had like 62 bikes. They've got big sponsors, Northern Tool and equipment. I mean, they've got a lot of people that have kind of bought into this over the last four or five years. So this is something that was really cool. It really was for me. That

is cool. I'm glad you got down there and sorry to make the improper assumption. You're always working. So working something and I know you're really enjoying it as well. So that's cool. And I hope to get the bike week someday too. Obviously we had the super cross race on peacock on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. That's one of the crown jewels of the circuit. I

guess sort of like the maybe one of the signature events of bike week certainly. So hope I get to see that someday. But as I mentioned, I was in St. Petersburg for the Indycar season opener. I appreciate your summation. I also got some great notes from our producer Zach Tanzarelli. So he's prepared me well. But I did see, as I mentioned, some of the race. And

I saw the most important part, which of course was, as you mentioned, Kyle, the final restart where it's in overtime. And Kyle Larson has the lead when the yellow flies with a few laps to go. He loses the lead in the pits to William Byron and actually Martin Truex Jr. takes the lead because he stays out while he's undercarst pit. William Byron wins the race, which

is I guess good because he had the best car. Let the most laps. But it was in doubt again until this final overtime restart. I guess my question for you, Kyle, is did it surprise you? I know this is an age old question, especially for somebody who's been around NASCAR's entire life like you. But why don't more guys just stay out when they know there are

only two laps to go. Provide there's not another overtime finish. Why don't you know, there's only two laps left. Why didn't more guys stay out like Truex did? Yeah. And I'm always fascinated by that. OK. I'm running 10th. I'm going to finish 10th. I'm going to snowball a chance in the hail of finishing nine. I'm going to finish 10th. Why not stay out? Why not stay

out and make them pass you? And listen, I got to give kudos to Truex and those guys for doing it, for staying out and listening. And all it takes is two or three sometimes. All it takes is two or three to just create that havoc at the front. But Truex, you know, when everybody faded, everybody peeled off and Truex was the only one and he looks

in the mirror and he's like, what is this, man? I'm a setting duck. And he was. I thought he did a good job. I thought he did a good job hanging on and kind of being where he was at. But listen, that's the age old question. And I don't understand it. Listen, we're in Vegas. Gamble. You know what I mean? If any place you can gamble,

it's Vegas. But I was, I was fascinated. You know, they talked about two tires. Man, two tires. That's a big deal. Two tires are on a big deal. That's a no brain call at that point in time. You know what I mean? Yeah. If you're going to come down pit road, put two tires on it. I mean, don't just come down pit road and put gas

in it or do nothing. You know, do something. I was with a green white checkered with those two laps. You don't have much. So stay out block, man. Yeah. Why not? I mean, like you said, I mean, Trux hangs on for a seven-place finish despite the fact that like you said, I mean, Byron, Laras and Boat took two tires. Some other cars took two tires. But

like, there's 18 cars that finished on the lead lap. So the numbers to me, like I always thought that you do the opposite of what the leaders are doing if you're like in the back half of the lead lap. So to me, it's like eight or nine cars should have stayed out. You know, if you are, listen, if you are, if you're a fourth, fifth, sixth,

seventh, you not to tough call. If you're leading the race, if you're leading the race, you know you're set in duck. Because if you don't come, they're going to come and they're going to come right out behind you. So that's a, that's a, that's you, you, you, your hands about forced. If you're a lat, ten, again, if you're 10th, 11th, 12th, if you're 15th, what do

you have to lose, man? What do you have to lose? You got two laps to fall from first back to 15th where you were at. You got two laps to fall from, from fourth or fifth back to 19th or 20th where you were already at. And you're not going to fall that far. It's just, it's, it's, it's not going to happen. It's just not going to

happen that you're going to fall that far. So I don't, I'm always fascinated when it comes down to it that, that these teams don't, and maybe that's why they're just always 15th and 16th place teams as they don't think far enough ahead sometimes. And I know I'll take criticism for that, but that they don't think far enough ahead to put themselves in a different position. They

just do whatever, what's safe and what everybody else does. Yeah. That group think that we sometimes see, I think a lot in NASCAR. But again, like, I think a valid winner in William Byron leads 176 of 271 laps. I was surprised, Kyle, when I looked this up, I mean, I knew that we all talked about last season that he had two early wins and then he

went through this dead period through the summer, but he, but William Byron ran pretty well in the playoffs, I thought. I mean, he got to the round of eight, but I was stunned when I looked this up and this was his first win in 30 starts. Martin'sville April, 2022 was the last time that the 20 number 24 Chevrolet had been the victory of Lane. So I

guess like for one, on one hand, it's good for your man, Lord Byron. I mean, he's, he's back on top. I'm a class of the field for Hendrick, the best team in NASCAR. But on the other hand, he's kind of been here before and now they got to prove it during the middle part of the season. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's the big deal

for this team. Remember when they were finishing in the top 10, like every week, every week, they had that long stretch and you thought, man, these guys have hit on something. You know, they don't have to win every week, but they, they're, they're putting themselves in position every week. And then they just disappeared, man. They just disappeared and they did come back into playoffs and they

did have a strong play-offs. And there's been races where we're William and Rudy both together. When you look at him, you look at him and you think, man, they got it going on. They, they are right there. And then the next week they show up and they're just not. This year, to have started this early and to have started the third race of the year for

whatever and, and to click and to kind of click and, and, and, and make things work the way they work there. They're going to have to do something. They're, they're going to have to make it work all year long. I'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Listen, I, I love this team and I'm a big way of buying fan. Everybody knows that.

But I'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt. The end of May, June, July, when, when they are no shows at the race track. And then expect them to come back and turn to switch on again. They've got to, to be a championship team, they got to perform all year long and it's going to be interesting to see who are, how they perform

it as, as the year goes. Yeah, and a big win, not just for William Byron, Rudy Fugel. But as I mentioned, Hendrick Motorsports, yeah, always talked about as, as the class of NASCAR. They finish one, two, three with William Byron, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman. And it's their first one, two, three finish since Dover in 2021. It's only the third one, two, three finish in Hendrick Motorsports

history, which surprised me because it's, wow, your this team would, would have a few more one, two, three. So I remember one of them was 97 day, 10 to 500. They were, Gordon one, that one, I think with Labanian Craven. Yeah. And second straight one, two finish at Vegas in the March race at Vegas for Hendrick Motorsports. But of course, you know, the big story come

in, Kyle, it's a big moment for Hendrick because they already were the news of the week, the big news of the week, probably the biggest news of the season so far in NASCAR. We learned last Friday that Chase Elliott has suffered a broken leg in his snowboard and he's having an accident. It was replaced by Josh Barriott this race. He's going to be out in definitely.

We think it's for sure going to be several weeks. What's your initial reaction to Chase Elliott's injury and being out of the Cup Series for a while? You know, I don't know. And honestly, honestly, I don't. And listen, I've listened to, I've listened to, so go on the bike week and then ride back from bike week, I listen to serious radio a lot and serious NASCAR

on serious. And I'm fascinated at the thought process of a lot of fans. I mean, it just blows me away, man. It's like, yeah, he doesn't need to be, don't give him a waiver. He doesn't need to come back and be in the playoffs. That's not fair, man. If you get hurt driving a race car, it's okay to get a waiver. If you get hurt snowboard,

no, you don't get to. And it's just, so what's up, man? I mean, that's crazy. I look at it this way and listen, you're talking to a guy that my whole career, I rode motorcycles everywhere. Yeah, you know, I mean, and did all this stuff. So you drive a race car and that is your life. You know, that, I mean, that's what you do. But that's

not necessarily your whole life. You know, I mean, you got to be able to step out of that sometimes. And you know, we praise God bless the NASCAR fans. We praise Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson and all these guys that go out and race six nights a week and wing sprint cars and go cars and midgets and whatever they want to race. But you know, God

forbid, you can't go snowboard and get hurt. Right? You just can't do that, people. I don't know where y'all been, but you just can't do that. So I look at it as, yes, he should get a waiver. You know, I mean, will he come back? How will he come back? We don't know the extent of the injury. You know, obviously I had a compound fracture on

my left femur. I was out for an extended period of time. His dad broke his leg. He was out for weeks. Darrel Walter broke his leg. We know that this is not something that you're going to jump back in the car next week and a half. And especially just if we go by the amount of time, a two or three hour surgery. Obviously, this was a

little bit more intense than just, hey, I twisted my ankle. Got to wear a cast for six weeks. It's a little bit more intense than that. And so I didn't stay at a holiday in last night, so I don't know his medical condition. So I will say that. But what the point is, I don't care how you're hurt or what happens. That's what the medical waivers

for. Medical waiver is for an injury, an illness, a death in the family. Whatever it may be, man, that's what the, that's what it's for. So I look at it more is how will that affect the team? How will that? And we're talking about Rudy and we're talking about, talking about William and those guys. Josh, they're not going to just plug Josh in or whoever. And

they're not going to just, those guys are not going to move the ball forward. Those are placeholders. That's all you're there to do. All Josh is there to do. Okay, it is getting that car and drive to the best of his ability, not put it in the wall, not put it in a wreck, run as many laps as he can and keep that nine car in

contention point wise and keep moving it forward, keep moving it forward. That didn't work out for him today, but that's, that's your job as a relief driver. That's just an under an unstated rule that that's your job. Don't go win the race. You don't have to be a hero. Just go do this. So how would the loss of chase affect these guys moving forward, moving, moving

the ball? Now in this day and time, maybe not as much as we think, because even with a broke leg, you can set the simulator, even with a broke leg, you can, you can go through the data. You can go and you can break down a race and you, you can begin to move. And maybe this makes this a better team long term because chase has

the opportunity to just be there mentally and not so much physically. Maybe he's, that has an opportunity to lead and God and put them in a different position later on. So I don't look at all things that happen. There's a story Chinese farmer. I don't know if you've ever heard it and I'm not going to tell it here, but it's, it's all about looking at, it's,

it's a story about a Chinese farmer and the point is, it's all about looking at anything that happens, whether it's tragic, whether it's, whether it's joyous, but making a difference. You look at it and you say, okay, maybe good, maybe bad. Let's just see how it works out. And that's kind of, well, look at chase alien. Maybe bad in the moment, but long term, it may

not be as bad as what we think it is. Case, Sarah, Sarah, somewhat. That's probably not what the Chinese farmer said, but like, somewhat of the same, the universe does what it does and we just living it and deal. And that's right. And we live in it and we deal and it's, it's how we react to it. We make this a positive. You know what I

mean? Are we just going to be, what was me? You know what I mean? And I probably shouldn't have said that because chase is always what was me. You know what I mean? Because he's hard on himself. So maybe it's not case for us for him. Maybe this is a bad, your moment for him. But at the same time, I do believe, I do believe, you

know, if I've got a driver, I know this. At the time I drove, if I had broken my leg and couldn't get an erase car for six months, but I had the opportunity to set my button a simulator, I would have been an simulator. I would have been an simulator in the same trying to figure out how to make this car better for Kenny Wallace who

were Leaf Drove for us and Bobby Hill and for different guys that drove for us, trying to make the team better. And I think Chase is a team player in that organization. I think that's what he'll do. I should mention, reference Josh, that's Josh Barry who filled in for Chase Elliott today. I didn't mention that he finishes 29th. Wow, Hendrick goes one, two, three with Lars

and LA at Bumman. Of course, totally understandable given that Josh Barry had never driven a next-gen car before in a cup race. This was his debut at next-gen. So finishing 29th, you know, like he said, he's just trying to like move the ball forward, just keep the seat warm. And we learned today that Hendrick Sampto decide tomorrow on who's racing Phoenix, he has to put the

seat in the car when it goes out the Phoenix. But I want to go back to Kyle, what you said, Kyle, about how it might be different for drivers today because we've seen this recently, I mean, eight years ago, Kyle Bush broke his leg and had a foot problem after that Daytona or Xpennedy wreck. He missed three months and he comes back and wins a championship

in 15. I don't know how much Simwork maybe played into that, but that's certainly, I think, a good kind of parallel to what Chase Elliott's probably, I mean, it's pretty much the same generation even though a different car. Do you think that maybe glows well for Chase? Oh, definitely, definitely. Because we know, listen, we know how severe Kyle's injuries were. His injuries were to his lower

legs and his ankles were, those were bad, bad injuries. Chase's injuries are to his lower leg. It's not into his foot, it's not into his feet, it's not into to multiple bones. At least that's not been the report. It just seems to be the tibia, I guess. That's what they're talking. Now, I don't know how severe that is again, but it seems to be a little

bit more concentrated in one area than what Kyle Bush's were. So I do think it votes well for Chase Elliott to miss X number of races and be able to come back and get in that car and be able to go out and listen, and we know he can go in one race. Just like we knew Kyle Bush could, we're not talking about, and I'm not,

this is not a criticism on any other team. So we're not talking about a Michael McDowell. We're not talking about an Eric Jones. We're not talking about some of these teams that can win races and have won races, but there's specific races. They don't contend weekend and week out. We're talking about a Hendrick car and a driver that wins weekend or can contend weekend and week

out. And even if you only give him six shots at when in a race, he's got to shot at all six of those, not like some other teams that just have a shot at one. I understand what you're saying to about the waiver. And I totally think, you know, five time most popular driver, they've given a waiver to virtually everyone who's ever applied for a waiver.

I fully expect that they're going to grant this request from Hendrick Motorsports for a waiver. And I'm with you. Like, I don't want to come off like Joe Fan on serious ex-NASCAR radio saying that these guys should be told what to do with every minute of their lives because they make millions of dollars driving a cup car. But I am curious, Kyle, what you think? This

is what struck me about the Chase Elliott news. So this injury happens Friday morning and it happens in Colorado several hundred miles away from where Chase Elliott is practicing and qualifying a cup car the next day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. So do you have any issue at all with the optics of that? Like, I know that these guys should be allowed to live their lives,

the professional athletes and they have a lot of people depending on them. But on the other hand, they need the stress relief. They need to figure out how to maintain that mental physical health balance. But the fact that he's doing this and then we know he's flying like that night again all the way to Vegas to do his primary job, is there anything about that that

might make you turn your head? No. No. It's just, listen, and I know, let me say this to you, Nate, optics, and that's a great point and that's a great point. The optics may not be good. You know what I mean? You know, I mean, I'm completely understand what you're saying, but at the same time, at the same time, you know, it's Cal Patti and that

let's just put me. So Cal Patti races at California Motor Speedway and you know, you do this, you do that whatever and I'm riding my motorcycle to the racetrack and I hit a slick spot and I go down and I break my leg. What the heck? You know what? That's what I do. I ride motorcycles. Tony Stewart. Come between California and Phoenix. Tony's out in the

desert running, running one of his doom bugs or something and he rolls it over and hurts his back or whatever. You know, my point is this. My point is this. It could have happened on Monday. It could have happened on Tuesday. Just so happen to happen on Friday, you know what I mean? And that's where the optics, I agree with you. I agree totally, but it

could have happened any day. It could have happened any day along that week. Did you expect him and do we as race fans expect him to get back in his cocoon and go over to Vegas and just set in a hotel room and don't do anything because I don't want you to get hurt. You know what I mean? I want you to get hurt. So you

can't do it that way either. And again, again, again, again, again, again. Would the optics be the same? Would we be having the same conversation if Kyle Larson had flown to Northern California and run a sprint car race and flipped it on Friday night? No one he had to be in Vegas owned Saturday to qualify as car. Would we be saying the same thing? And according

to serious radio, race fans would say, thumbs up dude, that's good. You know what I mean? We love Kyle Larson, but it's different because it's snowboarding, it's different because of some of the stuff. So it's a perception. You know what I mean? The perception is, you know, it's snowboarding versus being in a race car when you get hurt. So I don't have a problem. You make

a great point too, like with Larson, I mean Rick Hendrick didn't let any of his drivers do anything, you know, after Casey Kane like barrel rolled an outlaw's car. Yeah. Whatever in 2012, Rick Hendrick said no more until two years ago when Larson joins the team and Rick Hendrick says, ah, maybe I'll let you run dirt cars. Larson runs dirt cars to his heart's content when

10 races in 2021 wins the championship. And the narrative the last two years has suddenly been, Rick Hendrick's good with you know, William Byron's art ran late models, Alex Bowman's running the chili bowl, Chase Elliott's running dirt cars and sports cars. So it's kind of funny, like that's another layer to this that like Hendrick had sort of been on the other end of the spectrum and

then came over here and everything had been going well, but now this happens. And I wonder what Rick's reaction was I guess. Tell that. Yeah. That's the question. You know, how did Rick react to it? Yeah. But you don't want to listen to godly, man. I don't even know. And listen, I'll tell you this, my dad one year, we were out motorcycle riding when I was

a kid and he broke his thumb or no, we were that he fell and hurt his leg that time. They're playing football in the front yard. Yeah. During lunch, during lunch before the day, they told him 500 and he breaks his thumb. You know what I mean? And has a cast on it, you know, and they cut it. I didn't know this bird. This is right

before the day, you know, 500 and he broke his thumb. Yeah, they told him one year. Yeah, they're playing football out front and they break their thumb. But the thing is, the thing is so it's like, oh my gosh, you shouldn't have been playing football. Yeah, they just played football. That's what they did during lunch. You know what I mean? Now, it was just like a

standard thing. I don't know how to, how to tell you that. So, so the thing is, it's almost an oxymoron to say that we're going to let you go out on Sundays and do the most dangerous thing in the world. But the rest of the week, we want you to do needle point. Okay. Don't do anything, but cross stitch and needle point. Nothing, nothing that puts

you in danger. I mean, that's not, that's not who race car drivers are. So I mean, I mean, I'm just fascinated by, by the way, the world sees this story. You know, I mean, and I can understand it. I do understand it. Don't give me wrong. Don't give me wrong. I do understand it. But it's just, it's just a non story to me. He got hurt

doing something that he loves to do. He grew up snowboarding. He grew up skiing. He loves it, his mom loves it. That's just what they did. It's just what happened, man. You think it's the perfect storm of five time most popular driver, Chase Elliott, snowboarding, like you said, Hendrick Motorsports, best team in NASCAR. Like is it just kind of all those things make it a bigger

story? It is. And that's, that's what I'm saying. It is, it's everything. And that, that's what it has created to opt it. Okay. Yeah. Again, again, this is not a slam at anybody, but we would not be having this conversation over BJ McLeod. We would not be having this conversation over Cory LaJoy. You know, I mean, we would, you know, nobody would be saying, yeah, that

guy shouldn't get a waiver. Yeah, that guy, you know, I mean, you just wouldn't be having this conversation. I don't, I'm not sure we would be having this, this conversation. If somebody, if Ross, I didn't just fall off a watermelon truck. I'm not sure we'd be having, would we be having the same conversation? You know, I mean, I think it's just chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, the

expectations, most popular driver, so much there, though everything feeds into it, you know, to, to, to make this story what it is. I mean, listen, I, I listen to serious radio on the way down the road on Friday and I didn't even know they were racing in Vegas. I thought everybody was camped outside of hospital somewhere in Colorado. Because that's what it sounded like a cordon

to everything. That was the story on Friday. Make me wish I would have, like, rode a motorcycle with you to bike week. So I could just listen to serious exams for four or five straight hours. Well, you mentioned Corilla Joy's name and I think you're right. Like, if it was him or another driver, we probably would not be talking about this. But Corilla Joy was somebody

we were talking about after this race because he has now started this season with three straight top 20s. Daniel Suarez had a top 10. Again, he's got top 10 and all three races this season. I'm actually, you know, something that Ross Chastain, again, ran at the front today, his teammate is track house teammate, can't claim because he fell back on that final restart. You know, it

seems like you mentioned it, Kyle, like Chevy's Toyota's ran pretty well, but they're only two forwards in the top 10 and Joey Logano starts on the pole and ends up smacking the wall, has a bad day, says he was terrible, even though he qualified first. You said that you feel like this is the first race of the season. There's a lot of things there to digest.

I know that you love when we all over analyzing, jump the gun and now we know he's going to win the championship eight months from now. But what do you think are some of the big takeaways from this race and through three races in 2023? So for me, let's take Hendrick and we look at Hendrick and I say those guys are on track. Right, Mr. Snowboard

King out of it here, but these guys are on track. The team is on track. They have run up front. They've done what they needed to do in the last two races. But we get to this race and they have three incredibly competitive cars and then these race tracks fit their drivers. So let's say that at the same time. I look at track house and the

whole time that Ross was running third and fourth, Daniel was running 13th, 14th, 15th. He was right there. Just speed wise, if you watched it on the computer, they were pretty close. Just didn't have that track position. So I look at that team and I'm like, there's two guys are solid. I look at the fours and I look at Penske and I look at Joey and

and Ryan Blaney. And you know, for me and I'm going to be honest, man, Ryan Blaney is the new Casey Kaye, potential unfulfilled. You know what I mean? Yeah. Everybody wants to talk about what he can do, but he never does anything. You know what I mean? For whatever reason, for whatever reason, he just never gets passed out, huh? As I look at it and send

it, he brings a lot to the table, but he's really not showed up since Daytona last year, you know, and a lot of ways. And he's got to get in the mix. So that's a forward team that I worried about. I'm worried about. I look at it and I'm worried about it. They shouldn't have missed Vegas that much. I've seen, I've seen Joy Lagana win that

race as we had the conversation earlier by not taking tires and putting himself in a position just to take control of race for the last four or five laps and out drive people. So I know Joy Lagana can get it done. He just doesn't have the equipment to get it done right now. I look at Kevin, I look at that team at Stewart Hospital. The forged

gist aren't getting it done at California or here. So that's a little bit of a concern to me. Toyota's don't seem to have that qualifying kind of speed. But I got their race car drivers and they've got race teams. Danny Hamlin, Truex again, Gips up there, Gips in the mix, Bubble Wallace is in the mix. I'm a little surprised that Tyler Reddick hadn't shown me something

in these first few races because I really expected him to set the woods on fire. And then internally in a couple of these teams, I look at everything that Kyle Busch has done at RCR and everything that Austin Dillon has not done at RCR. You know, as you look at that, to ends of the spectrum. So we've got teams that have that going on internally too,

as you look at it. And then you look at Cory Lagoy, who just hammers it out, head down, blue collar, make it happen, get it done with the team. It probably shouldn't be running the way it is. But they're, he's having solid finishes and it's because of him. He's driving incredibly smart. He's not putting himself in bad positions. He's not taking a 18th or 19th place

car trying to run in the top five with it and going home on the record. He's doing what the most that he can do and getting the most out of that car. So when I look at it, I'm still not sure where the year is going to go or how it's going to play out. But I think we're seeing the same players early in the year,

meaning the Chevy drivers, the Hinder drivers, the track house drivers, those guys have not checked up from where they're at. And the Gibbs guys, they're where they need to be. You know, I think, I think that the, the, the, the, the, the, and, and especially Martin that those two teams have been, been pretty good. Christopher Bail, he ends up fifth. He didn't run that well, but

he ends up fifth today. But he's had a pretty good year and he had a pretty good second, second half of last year. The jury's out on tag gives, but it's out on anybody that's a rookie. I don't, I don't expect a lot from that. But I think I think as you go into it, nothing's really, nothing's really surprising. Nothing's really changed. And it's so far

in these first thing. It thinks we'll be in another test to come to that mile track and see, because we know Kevin Harvick, that's been a place that he's on. We know Chase Risco, that's been a place that he gets around. So let's see how the forwards do when we get to a mile track. It's going to be a big test for them. And, you know,

as I look at the results, like, I'm somewhat surprised. Like, I, Austin Cindrick actually was the highest finishing for today in six, but I think that was kind of the result of the jumble and the final restart. And that final restart really kind of turned things around where a lot of guys maybe finished better than they ran or finished worse than they ran. So it's kind

of hard to judge completely because of that green wide checkered finish. But I do think it's interesting, Kyle, that you have Kevin Harvick finishing ninth, all of the Steward Host team mates finishing outside the top 15. And I don't know if it's like panic button time yet for Steward Host, because it seems like they've had some moments. But I mean, Chase Risco was terrible at Fontana

and said after the race, they couldn't figure out why Ryan Freese clearly has not gotten out of the start. He won. I think he's been a crash in each of the first three races that he's been that 41 Cup Car for Steward Host racing. You know, again, it's Harvick's final season. Like he said, he's traditionally been good at Phoenix. Phoenix is a huge marker because of

the championship race. What do you make of what's going on with SHR? And how do they kind of turn things around? Like, knowing that like, it's not just Harvick's final season, but I don't know. It just feels like that team to me is like maybe the biggest question mark right now in Cup. Yeah. So look, look, this is, man, what do you ask me these questions?

So they turn their answers. When Kevin won, when Kevin won, what, nine races that year, which was in 2020. Yeah. 2020. Okay. Yeah. They turned it around in 2020 and they've been going in the wrong direction ever since. Okay. That's when they turned it around. They were at a place where I really thought, man, the sky's the limit. These guys, these guys can get it done.

And I know I'm hard on people and I'm sorry. Okay. But Kevin Harvick can't carry the ball every play. Every play he can't carry the ball. You know, you just run, you run your back in the ground, giving it to him. And that's all they've expected from Kevin and Rodney and they've run the ball in the ground. And the ground because Kevin just can't do it.

You know, it's not that he doesn't have the ability, but he can't move four teams forward. He needs to worry about his team and move and his team forward. You got one driver, Eric, who has just been constant his entire career. And that's not a knock. But listen, a lot of us were that way. We never, we never got to that place, but he's just been

a constant. But you know what you have with Eric. You know, I mean, you know, you know what you have. I think the deal with Chase is Chase will give you, Risco will give you a phenomenal week and then he disappears for two or three weeks. And then you'll give you a phenomenal week. Is that Chase or is that the team? And then I think run,

Prius, I think he's a wild card. You know, I just don't know. I know what he's done. I know what he's what he's done in the past and and exfinity cars and other things. But that was basically, I think from Cole custard to Ryan Prius as a lateral move. And they didn't do anything. They just took one driver out and put another driver in and it's

the same. None of those three drivers, sorry, they can't help Kevin. They're not helping Kevin Harvick. They don't appear from the outside to be to be pushing Kevin Harvick to be making Kevin Harvick or helping him move the team forward. And I think that's a problem. You know, we see it. We in American motor sports were just whims in a lot of ways. And I'm going

to compare it to Formula One. We're Formula One teammates hate each other. And they hate each other for a reason. They hate each other because they want to be the best one on that team. They want to be the best on that team. And they force each other to get better. That's what it's all about, man. I mean, the annals of Formula One are littered with

teammates that should have gone to prison for the amount I hate they had in for each other. You know, I'm saying, and the thing is, it's like you go to stew our house and everybody walks through the door. Yeah, Kevin's the best. Yeah. I'm with you. You know what I mean? And you just can see the fact. So you're not helping Kevin by that. You've got

to have that attitude that, hey, dude, I can kick your butt six ways from Sunday. Maybe not every week. But I'm going to force you to be on your game. Nobody's forcing those guys to be on their game. So their game's off. And I think that's what Rick has in my hindrachas with the drivers that he has. They're not all on their own the game every

week. But he'll have two up front that are putting force in each other to do something. And that third guy that's running ninth and that fourth guy that's running 15 is looking at the scoreboard saying, that's my teammate. I got to get back and they come back next week. So you get that. You get that cycle. You get that at Pinsky. I think you always got

it at Pinsky when you had Brad and Joey together. I'm not sure how much these guys push. Joey, but I don't think Joey is a driver that needs to be pushed. I think he pushes himself mentally. But I think you need that in a team. And I think, listen, I'm hoping that we see this with Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon. Because I think that Austin Dillon

people have always looked at it. And I think wrongly, I'm going to say this wrongly and said, that's his grand dance team. He's going to have a job no matter what. I think Richard Austin wanted Kyle. And I think Kyle will push Austin to be a better race car driver. And they've just started in a different place right now. But I think they'll get on track.

And I think Austin will be a better race car driver because of Kyle. Because he'll drive Kyle. He'll drive Austin to be better. But the Stewart-Hostain has amazed me over the last few years. Other than Kevin Harvick, there's not a bright spot over there. And I'm sorry to say that. I just don't see a bright spot over there. No, that's fair. Well said. And you put

out some incredible thoughts there about driver dynamics and the balance between especially four key meets in Henry. But also, like he said, Lugano, Harvick, all of these things are very fascinating to me. And would be good fodder for another podcast. I do have another Harvick question. But I'm not going to put you on the spot again and ask you who's going to take his place when

you're inevitable. Now we know it's going to happen in the season because again, that's why I think Stewart-Hostain racing is such a big question mark. But I don't want to get you any more trouble than you are, your K.P. So we're going to wrap this up. Thanks so much for watching the race and lighting me and all of the listeners, as always. And always appreciate having

me on the NASCAR and NBC podcast. Thanks for being here, man. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. We appreciate Kyle Petty for joining us on the NASCAR and NBC podcast. Thanks to Motorsports Manager Emily Convoy for coordinating and recording this episode with K.P. And thanks as well to producer Zach Tans already for providing some notes after I spent the entire day watching, covering and reporting

from the grown pre of St. Petersburg for NBCSports.com Motorsports Talk. That's not a humble brag on my part. I really watched maybe five to ten minutes total of the cup race at Las Vegas because of my other NBCSports.com obligations. Again, I'm Motorsports Talk. So I really appreciate Zach and Emily helping back me up on this and thanks to both of them and K.P. for taping this

episode at a special time Sunday night. We don't usually have this podcast out by early Monday morning, but because of a lot of circumstances that I won't bore you with, but they involve everything from travel schedules to jury duty. We had to take this Sunday night and I really appreciate everyone's flexibility. As always, you can find more news, columns and analysis on NASCAR Talk and MotorsportsTalk

on NBCSports.com. Please visit NBCSports.com slash NASCAR or NBCSports.com slash Motors. If you have any NASCAR and NBC podcast feedback, you can send to me on Twitter at Nate Ryan is my handle. Thanks again for listening to the NASCAR and NBC podcast.