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Welcome to the Calamity Corner Podcast, your destination for NASCAR analysis, motorsports discussion, race recaps, driver stories, and fan perspectives from across the racing world. Hosted by James and a guest featured every week, each episode dives into the biggest moments from NASCAR Cup Series action, breaking down race results, championship battles, driver performances, controversies, and the stories shaping the sport.
Subscribe and follow Calamity Corner Podcast for weekly NASCAR coverage, motorsports commentary, and everything happening on and off the track.
Speaker 1 0:01
Hello guys, and welcome back to the Calamity Corner podcast. It's James again, and today I'm joined by Mike. How you doing, Mike? What's
Speaker 2 0:10
going on, everybody?
Speaker 1 0:12
Doing good, doing good. So, good
Speaker 2 0:14
man, good. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 0:15
Yeah, of course, bro, it's good to have you, fellow NASCAR guy. I would say,
Speaker 2 0:20
yep,
Speaker 1 0:21
all right, so we missed a lot because I didn't get to record last week, so we're gonna get into San Diego a little bit. So that was the first ever cup race on a naval base, which I thought was pretty cool. What did you think about
Speaker 2 0:39
it? You know, I had a lot of mixed feelings about it when they first announced it. I thought that it was slightly a cool idea, but at the same time, I'm not the biggest fan of road courses. I know that that's kind of a hot take, but I thought the racing was really exciting, from what I saw, a lot of wrecks, a lot of close quarters racing, and best of all, great finishes throughout the weekend.
Speaker 1 1:02
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. That was really good to see. My favorite part was probably not even the winner, because Corey Heim winning was pretty cool, because that was his - he's like part-time, right? And I was only his start,
Speaker 2 1:16
you know, it's his 13th start,
Speaker 1 1:18
13th start, that's pretty crazy. But what I thought was the best part of that race was Kevin Magnussen in Project 91
Speaker 2 1:28
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it was cool to see that car come back. I think the last time that they were in the field, what was with SVG, right?
Speaker 1 1:37
Yeah, it's with that SVG when his first start,
Speaker 2 1:41
yeah. So that was really cool to see the project 91 come back. I don't know why they took so long to come back, but I'm glad that they are bringing in more faces, you know, familiar motorsports faces, and I'd like to see more in the future, but you know, you are talking about Kevin Magnuson.
Speaker 1 2:02
Yeah, he
Speaker 2 2:02
got into a little bit of an altercation with Noah Gregson.
Speaker 1 2:06
Yeah, I honestly thought that was honestly pretty funny. The words that he said I won't share back on this podcast, but they were very strong.
Speaker 2 2:17
Um,
Speaker 1 2:18
no, you're good. And then all right, so going back to what we were talking about with, like, the project 91 Kevin Magnussen, his, his interaction, I would say, with
Speaker 2 2:35
Noah Gregson, that's right,
Speaker 1 2:36
yeah, and then another thing I wanted to talk about is just how aggressive the racing in San Diego was. I felt like it was more aggressive.
Speaker 2 2:48
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And I'm not, I'm not really sure why. I don't know if it was the way the track was or whatever. I felt like there was a lot of altercations throughout the week, like we saw in the Trunk series, Adam Andretti and Parker, and Kilgrem, and got into it? I don't know how you pronounce the last name, by the way. I've seen it different ways. We've seen that happen, and yeah, I don't, I don't know, man. I like seeing a lot of altercations, though.
Speaker 1 3:16
Yeah, they're good for the fans. It's very entertaining. Then, though, one thing that I've noticed early in the race was there was a lot of tire wear, which I thought was interesting.
Speaker 2 3:30
Yeah, definitely
Speaker 1 3:31
teams had to manage their runs so that they can last in the entire stage, and it felt like we saw a lot of cars, including SVG himself, fading with like 11 laps into the stage,
Speaker 2 3:43
yeah. And then he probably wouldn't have been in the situation that he was in, unfortunately,
Speaker 1 3:48
yeah. So that just brings me to my next point. So the client.. so this podcast is called Calamity Corner, and what I usually like to do is have like a Calamity Corner section of the podcast, and of course that's going to be the wreck with Austin Hill, SVG, and Connor Zillich. What did you think about that? I
Speaker 2 4:14
think it was just regular racing, but you know, it did definitely take out a lot of great players, especially SVG. You know, I picked him in our pick 'em league, as you may know.
Speaker 1 4:27
Yeah, so if you guys did not know, me and Mike, we are a part of a NASCAR pick 'em league, and we try our best to pick the winners every week. Some do better than others. I've had a rough start that season, but things are trending up. I did pick SVG this week, so that was pretty good. How would you say your season has gone? Mike
Speaker 2 4:56
is something that, frankly, I don't even want to talk about, I. Um, I've been last place two years in a row, basically.
Speaker 1 5:05
Yeah, I've
Speaker 2 5:05
had some moments where I'm up and down.
Speaker 1 5:08
I understand. Yeah, I started, you know, yeah, I started the season. Go ahead, I feel
Speaker 2 5:13
like I'm cutting you off a lot.
Speaker 1 5:14
Oh no, you're good, man. Go ahead. I
Speaker 2 5:17
was just gonna say, I do like the competition of a pickup league, and it sucks that you know I'm not really in the mix, but sometimes that happens.
Speaker 1 5:27
Yeah, it is a lot of fun. All right, so we're caught up with San Diego, Corey Heim, he got his first win in his 13th start, that ties a record with seven time champion Jimmy Johnson. So I thought that was pretty interesting as well.
Speaker 2 5:47
Oh yeah, all
Speaker 1 5:49
right. For
Speaker 2 5:50
Corey Heim, Corey Heim, just to bring him up, it sucks how talented of a driver he is, and that he, he's been having a lot of sponsorship trouble, but I'm glad that he's able to go part time with 2311 and Robin Hood's been behind him the whole way, and I'm excited to see how he does next year in 35 car.
Speaker 1 6:10
Yeah, I would love to see him in a Gibbs car, but his quote unquote beef with Ty Gibbs isn't letting that happen,
Speaker 2 6:22
I didn't even really know he had beef really with tigers.
Speaker 1 6:27
Yeah, it's something that hasn't been mentioned a lot, but it has been brought up in the past.
Speaker 2 6:33
I think I vaguely remember hearing something about it, but it's not something that I fully keep up with, and it's not on a national stage like Haim and Hoso, or
Speaker 1 6:41
yeah, exactly. And then all right, so then we'll move on to Sonoma. So the race was yesterday, and Ty Gibbs started on the pole, and this was the first time that SVG did not qualify in the top five at a road course in the Cup series. What were your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2 7:06
Well, it happens again. I mean, we've seen it in restrictor plates, where some of the best super speedway racers, they always qualify near the back, and they manage to find their way up. Yeah, and I wasn't really pressed about SVG qualifying, where he did. I probably couldn't tell you off the top of my head, I'm not going to lie, but I figured he'd find his way up there. He's proven time and time again to be one of the more talented drivers on road courses, of course. He's just been dominating the entire field, and I even made a prediction in our pick and league that he'd sweep all the road courses, but yeah, he did look like he had a fast car. I thought Gibbs was going to beat him early on in the race because his car looked very good, but yeah, you know, SVG again school in the field on a road course.
Speaker 1 7:57
Yeah, I feel like strategy had a play in that too, because you would see drivers pit a couple laps before the stage ends, so that they can have track position when the next stage starts, and I really feel like that took away from Ty Gibbs a little bit, because his car was really fast.
Speaker 2 8:16
Yeah, it was super fast in the first stage, like I couldn't believe
Speaker 1 8:20
it. Yeah, like I feel like if he was on the same strategy Shane was on, he probably beat Shane, because Shane even said his car wasn't that good.
Speaker 2 8:31
Yeah, it didn't look that good, like I could see toward the beginning of the first stage when they were battling, he could get up to Ty Gibbs's bumper, but Ty Gibbs just had such a great drive off the corner,
Speaker 1 8:43
yep, and so, as you mentioned, SVG, he wins again at Sonoma, even though he didn't sweep the road course this season, he did go 204 so I think that's pretty good still,
Speaker 2 8:57
that's very good,
Speaker 1 8:58
yeah, yeah, and then he did win the Xfinity race on Saturday, so he sweeps the weekend in this again,
Speaker 2 9:08
I mean, just class of the field, I'd say.
Speaker 1 9:10
Oh yeah, in
Speaker 2 9:11
terms of road courses, that
Speaker 1 9:12
is. Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. And then this was his eighth road course win, and that breaks the tie with Chase Elliott at seven, and he is now tied with Tony Stewart for second all time, and he trails Jeff Gordon by one.
Speaker 2 9:29
Yeah, I think he's going to break both those records very soon next year.
Speaker 1 9:34
Oh, for sure, for sure. And then Denny Hamlin, he didn't have that good of a day. It started off pretty good for Denny, and then contact with Halsevar. Some would say Keselowski pushed House Vir into Hamlin, but I guess that's up for debate. What were your thoughts on that accident?
Speaker 2 9:57
Well, I mean, I like Carson Hill. Savarla, I think he's a good personality for the sport, but besides that, I think that he drives like an idiot sometimes, and yeah, because Lasky, I think he had some role in that accident, but I do want to also mention how Savar was racing Bell in the beginning of the race, how he kind of just pushed him out of the way, like it was like two laps to go, when it was like the eighth lap of the race, so he just drives really aggressive in really bad moments of the race, and it definitely alienates fans, and it's sad to see, because Hosobar is bringing a lot of personality in the sport, and he's showing the new age of NASCAR fandom, if you will, as like an adulthood. I don't know exactly how to explain it. That's a good way
Speaker 1 10:51
to say it.
Speaker 2 10:52
Yeah, but it's.. it kind of bums me out, because I'm a supporter of host of our, because me and him are around the same age, and again, he does bring a lot of personality, but I don't like the way that he drives a lot of time. I think he does make a lot of stupid moves, and it ends up alienating drivers. I think most of the drivers in the field hate him, so it's not surprising to see him caught up in incidents every week.
Speaker 1 11:16
Yeah, and I've seen a thing on Twitter, it was some person, he was talking about Joseph Hard. He was like, well, why aren't the drivers like doing anything about it, or like wrecking him? And I was just thinking, like, they really can't directly, because they will get penalized by NASCAR.
Speaker 2 11:38
Yeah, I think that when Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson had that incident in 2022 I believe, Las Vegas. When they had that incident, that changed the whole circle of like getting payback on a driver.
Speaker 1 11:52
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 11:53
Obviously, you right rear hook a driver. Anybody that watches the sport knows this now, that's a suspension, or at least automatic,
Speaker 2 12:00
subject to being like discussed, because Centric did it on a road course, and he didn't get suspended or fined,
Speaker 1 12:07
which, honestly, I found that to be very surprising, because,
Speaker 2 12:12
right, because I don't know if they're looking at like the speed of it, like I understand that a road course, you're mainly going like 90 miles an hour, like up speed,
Speaker 1 12:22
yeah,
Speaker 2 12:23
but if it's a right rear hook, it's a right rear hook, and that's a problem with NASCAR's rules, but that's a subject for another podcast, I'm sure,
Speaker 1 12:32
yeah, NASCAR is.. I wouldn't say that they're very fair or consistent when it comes to penalties, I wouldn't say going back to Nashville, I wouldn't say that Austin Dillon intentionally tried to wreck Brad, but that was still very interesting, you know, that was
Speaker 2 12:52
really bad. I don't know, that was close for him.
Speaker 1 12:58
Yeah, for sure, for sure. All right, and then so we talked about host of our making contact with Slam Hamlin, and then one thing I wanted to talk about too was in the post race interviews with Jeff Glock, like Hamlin was like, I know you want a reaction out of me, but I haven't seen the replay of the wreck yet, so I will have to wait to see it.
Speaker 2 13:26
Yeah, I mean, that's that's a good answer.
Speaker 1 13:28
Yeah,
Speaker 2 13:28
and I'm sure that we're gonna hear it on actions detrimental for sure.
Speaker 1 13:33
Oh, yeah, can't wait to hear that.
Speaker 2 13:36
Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to that clip of that
Speaker 1 13:38
real. It's gonna tie in to what Kyle Larson said about Coastal Carson, host of our, excuse me, about how he acts eight years old.
Speaker 2 13:51
Yeah, I mean, I discussed this in the Pickham League chat, I believe it was either that chat or another chat, but I think that Carson, like I said, I hate to repeat myself, but Carson is bringing a lot of personality into the sport, and the thing is, it's like I mentioned, I'm around the same age, I know you're around the same age as host of our James,
Speaker 1 14:09
yeah, he's
Speaker 2 14:10
bringing in like an era in which, like, we grew up, we grew up with streaming, we grew up with YouTubers, and now today everybody wants to be like I show speed ties to that,
Speaker 1 14:23
yeah.
Speaker 2 14:23
And I wouldn't say he's necessarily acting like an eight year old because of it. I think that he's just trying to bring his own branding and he's using any means that he can to put a brand on him, which is, you know, totally fine. I mean, Twitch is, you know, it was even popular when we were in, like, middle school.
Speaker 1 14:42
Yeah,
Speaker 2 14:43
so he wants to stream, let him stream. It's not hurting anybody. He's promoting his brands very well with Chili's, and I have no issue with Parson Hos of our off the track, on the track, even though, yes, I am a fan. I like, I said, I have an issue with the way he drives sometimes.
Speaker 1 15:00
Yeah, I feel like people would say that a lot about Denny Hamlin, because I know for sure that's how I used to feel for the longest time about Denny, like I didn't appreciate the way he would treat some drivers, specifically Kyle Larson, as I'm a Larson fan, but that's a discussion for another time.
Speaker 2 15:22
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 15:24
All right, so we're gonna get to the drivers trending up and down part of the podcast. Some some drivers that I wanted to talk about that are trending up. The first one being Kyle Larson, he has an average finish of 4.0 in June, which is super consistent for at least a month, even though Denny Hamlin won three races in a row before the two road courses, but that is still very good to see
Speaker 2 16:01
that definitely host or Larson, he's showing why he should have been the champion last season. He's a very consistent driver.
Speaker 1 16:11
Yeah,
Speaker 2 16:12
I know he hasn't been into victory lane in a while, but he's making the right steps in order to get to victory lane, and I think some tracks, like Indianapolis, for example, could be great opportunities for him to get a win.
Speaker 1 16:25
Yeah, that's that's been the common consistence around the NASCAR community. I think they're going to look for Larson in Indianapolis for sure.
Speaker 2 16:36
As for Hamlin, I'm not really surprised, he's had a very consistent season overall, it's not just the month of June.
Speaker 1 16:43
Yeah,
Speaker 2 16:43
I could see him definitely winning the championship, unless Reddick starts bouncing back like he did in the beginning of the season, but right now I would say Hamlin is my mid-season championship pick.
Speaker 1 16:56
That's a good pick. I wouldn't, I wouldn't disagree with you, it may be be a little bit too early to see, we still have eight races to go before the chase, but Hamlin, Hamlin's been really good, and then the last one I had for the trending up, obviously it has to be SVG, right, because I mean it's just another road course domination.
Speaker 2 17:26
Yeah, but he did move up three positions in the points, and he's definitely improving more on ovals, which is pretty surprising to see, because I've always thought of him like, even though, yes, I did praise him as being the class of the field in road courses, I did think he was a little overrated, because I felt like fans kind of gravitated a little too much towards him, especially when he was in the Project Anyone car, but you know, he's actually making the steps to like learning and improving in this car, so it's going to be really interesting if he continues to race for another like two to five years to see what he could actually do on an oval.
Speaker 1 18:02
Oh, yeah, for sure. I think he, what, he's only 37 right? So,
Speaker 2 18:09
yeah,
Speaker 1 18:10
yeah. So, I think if he keeps improving, keeps getting down his lines on the ovals, I think he would have a pretty good nounscar career overall, outside of the road courses, oh
Speaker 2 18:22
yeah, I think so too, like maybe like even if he never wins on an oval, let's just say he could have as like a reputation being a solid driver, but mainly a road course ringer,
Speaker 1 18:34
yeah, all right, so one driver trending down now from both weekends in San Diego and Sonoma, it was Erik Jones. He finished 20th in San Diego, 23rd in Sonoma, and then he dropped three positions in the points, and he lost his chase spot.
Speaker 2 18:58
Yeah, Erik Jones, he's been having kind of down years, you know. He's made, he is good on like Darlington and the restrictor plate tracks, but on other tracks I'm not really looking at him as like a favorite or like a dark horse pick.
Speaker 1 19:14
Oh yeah, so
Speaker 2 19:14
this isn't really too surprising for me.
Speaker 1 19:19
And then the second one that I had churning down was your guy Joey Logano.
Speaker 2 19:26
Well, I mean, I mean, it's, it's what happens. I mean, Joe Logano has had a horrible season, and you know, I'll say that bluntly, he's, he hasn't been, I don't think his team is that great. I've never really been a fan of his team, even when he's won his last two championships, I wasn't really a big fan of his team, and it's, it's unfortunate because Roger Penske is supposed to be one of the top three owners in NASCAR, and I feel like they're giving Logano kind of crappy cars, and I wouldn't be mad if Logano leaves Team Penske because he. Needs a better opportunity. He's a great driver, and that's another guy that you know we've mentioned that a lot of people like off the track, but on the track, you know, no one's really a fan of him, except for myself and a few other people. But
Speaker 1 20:13
yeah, you
Speaker 2 20:14
know, Logano is a very talented driver, whether people want to admit it or not. And, oh, yes, unfortunate to see him struggling like this.
Speaker 1 20:20
Yeah, people always are quick to mention Kyle Larson on his 42 race win this streak now, but there are other drivers that I think they should pay more attention to, Logano, maybe being one of those, William Byron is another
Speaker 2 20:39
one, yeah, yeah, William Byron is definitely one that I thought was probably going to win the championship, and I've thought that he's been a championship contender for the last couple of seasons, but he's just, he's just had bad luck toward the end of the season. I feel like he starts off hot, yeah, maybe this year because he's kind of been trending downward, maybe he'll turn it back up during the chase, and we could see a surprise run from him.
Speaker 1 21:01
Oh yeah, of course. Oh yeah, of course. And then all right, so one question I wanted to ask you, if Joey Logano did leave Team Penske, where do you think he would go?
Speaker 2 21:15
This is a great question. Do you want me to give you like kind of a bias answer? Do you want me to give you, like, a, like, an unbiased, like, kind of logical answer? You
Speaker 1 21:24
can give me both
Speaker 2 21:26
bias answer. I would want them to drive the 48 car, but I know that they're probably going to want host of our village, because they're already in this Chevy camp. But if he were to leave, and, like, he were to continue racing, I think that's a very tough question, because if he goes to Spire, he would probably have to replace Michael McDowell. He's not going back to Gibbs.
Speaker 1 21:50
Okay,
Speaker 2 21:52
I think that Logano may just end his career in Team Penske. Matter of fact, now that I'm thinking about
Speaker 1 21:59
it, unless
Speaker 2 21:59
McDowell were to retire, and Logano took over the Spire car
Speaker 1 22:04
because it feels as if Penske is putting their eggs more in Ryan Bellini's basket, because he's been, he's been good this year, he's third in points, yeah, he's been
Speaker 2 22:15
very good this season,
Speaker 1 22:16
yeah, his, his only downfall is his pit crew?
Speaker 2 22:22
Yeah, absolutely. Ryan Blaine, he's been a terrific driver all season. Austin Cendrick has had some moments too, but I do feel like they're putting a little too much emphasis on Centric.
Speaker 1 22:32
Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 2 22:33
Hate to say it, but you know, he's he's all right. I don't think he's the best driver in the field,
Speaker 1 22:40
yeah. For sure,
Speaker 2 22:41
and on their team, by any means,
Speaker 1 22:43
I agree with that. I agree with that. I think that I think most fans would agree with you. That is a great point. And then I just, so for this driver I picked, it's not really one who's trending up or down. I think it's just one that we should talk about, and that's Bubba Wallace.
Speaker 2 23:04
Yeah,
Speaker 1 23:06
so, oh yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 23:10
No, no, go ahead. All
Speaker 1 23:11
right, so I was gonna say, in San Diego, he had his wheel come off, and then he came back and finished second after the Caution Fest, we we would say, gave him his two laps back. Then, what were you gonna say? Bubba,
Speaker 2 23:30
Bubba's been improving a lot on road courses. He started out with his career 23 Xi really bad on them, and then over the years, kind of like SVG has been improving on ovals, he's been improving a lot on road courses, and we saw him crashing and qualifying, and then he ended up having a solid starting spot. Yeah, and finishing second is, you know, great achievement for him, I think.
Speaker 1 23:53
Oh, yeah, for sure. And then we turn around to Sonoma, and then he wrecks in qualifying, and they were able to repair his car. They didn't go to a backup, but according to the NASCAR rules, he still had to give up his starting position that he did have before he wrecked, right. And then I didn't, I didn't, I didn't hear them mention bubbles very often during the race, which I mean he wasn't very fast, at least I think 2311 as a whole wasn't very fast as they were last weekend. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2 24:36
Yeah, I would say 2311 hasn't been as fast recently. I mean, obviously, with Riddick, we're talking about, he, he had five wins start the season, he's been kind of down, Heinz looked decent, I mean, he won last week, but I feel like that was because of strategy too, and then Bubba, like I mentioned, is not really the best on road courses, so I would say for him that doesn't. Apply, but I would say for 2311 as a whole they haven't been looking as fast recently, but I feel like that they have plenty of opportunities to turn it back up,
Speaker 1 25:09
for sure. All right, so that'll do it for the first episode with you, Mike. It was good having you on.
Speaker 2 25:19
Yeah, thanks for having me, man. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 25:22
Of course, of course. And we will see you in the next one.
Unknown Speaker 25:25
Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai