Talladega Review, Kyle Busch's Future Uncertain, Dover Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E13

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host discusses the races at Talladega, Kyle Busch's uncertain future at Joe Gibbs Racing, and previews the upcoming races at Dover. Ross Chastain wins the Geico 500, Kyle Busch has a strong finish, and there were some engine failures for the ECR engines. The Xfinity race at Talladega was exciting, with Noah Gregson winning and Jeffrey Earnhardt finishing second. The host also talks about the point standings and the possibility of Ty Gibbs replacing Kyle Busch. The uncertain future of Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing is discussed, as he has lost his main sponsor, Mars. The host speculates on possible scenarios and future plans for Kyle Busch. The TV ratings for the Talladega races are mentioned, as well as some news updates and a preview of the upcoming races at Dover. The host predicts John Hunter Nemechek to win the Xfinity race and Alex Bowman to win the Cup Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I'm your host Will England and in this episode I'm going to go over the races from Talladega. I'll also talk about Kyle Busch's uncertain future at Joe Gibbs Racing. I'll also go over the news and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Dover. But first, let's take a look at the results from Talladega. Ross Chastain survives the carnage on the final stretch and wins the Geico 500, followed by Austin Dillon who becomes the second driver in the three car to finish second during the weekend. Kyle Busch has one of his best plate race runs in a while and finishes third. Kyle Larson gets his best career finish at Talladega and finishes fourth, Martin Truex Jr. finishes fifth, Eric Jones ends up in sixth although he was coming to the checkered flag first before getting moved out of the way and coming onto the front straight, Chase Elliott finishes seventh, Michael McDowell finishes eighth, Alex Bowman finishes ninth, and Kevin Harvick rounds out the top ten. In my opinion, this was a very good plate race and I'd say it's probably better than the Daytona 500. It's still not as good as the Gen 6 was in its late years because they just struck that magic with that car because before then they just had the plate but then they started using the tapered spacer instead and that led to that awesome racing. And in my opinion, we're starting to get back to that after the switch to next gen car. The Daytona 500 was a great race overall. Atlanta was a great race too. But I'd say this is probably the best plate race so far this season and you had no yellow line controversy. It wasn't a right finish in the last ten laps although you had some weird moments like the first major incident of the day when Joey Logano got knocked out of the groove and then came back down on the track and took out a bunch of cars. Apparently that was caused by Truex getting on the brakes and that caused the stack up and that put Joey Logano up into the wall and back down the track. One thing that was quite odd was the bad day for the ECR engines. Tyler Reddick had an engine failure. Daniel Hemrick also lost an engine and caused a wreck. I don't know why ECR was having those issues but the engine failures of the Childress satellite teams were a big issue during this race. So overall, great racing, no major pile ups, and not a crap show. But before we get to the Xfinity race, let's take a look at the ten race point standings update. Chase Dillian is currently the points leader with 368 points. Ryan Blaney is 21 points behind in second. William Byron is 34 points behind in third. Kyle Busch is 56 points behind in fourth. Alex Bowman is 59 points behind in fifth. Joey Logano is 60 points behind in sixth. Kyle Larson is 69 nice points behind in seventh. Martin Truex Jr. is 70 points behind in eighth. Ross Chastain is 76 points behind in ninth. Erika Amarola is 103 points behind in tenth. Kevin Harvick is 116 points behind in eleventh. Chase Briscoe is 122 points behind in twelfth. Austin Dillon is 123 points behind in thirteenth. Chris Rebell is 125 points behind in fourteenth. Tyler Reddick is 126 points behind in fifteenth. And Austin Sindrick rounds out the top 16 with 130 points behind in sixteenth. William Byron, Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, and Austin Sindrick are winners this season. Leaving eight playoff spots left for winners as well as drivers playing their way in. As I take a look here at the cutoff line, Eric Amarola is 23 points above the cut line. Kevin Harvick is 10 points above the cut line. Austin Dillon is 3 points above the cut line. Christopher Bell is 1 point above the cut line. Tyler Reddick is 1 point below the cut line. Eric Jones is 12 points below the cut line. Kurt Busch and Daniel Suarez are both 25 points below the cut line. Chris Buescher is 47 points below the cut line. And Bubba Wallace is 50 points below the cut line. And those are the point standings after ten races. I'll check back in in another ten races shortly before the playoffs. Next we have the Xfinity race. Noah Gretson gets his second win of the season at Talladega followed by pole sitter and standout of the day Jeffrey Earnhardt. Making an Earnhardt-like charge to finish second. A.G. Allmendinger wins the dash for cash two times in a row and finishes third. Ryan Seay has a good run and finishes fourth. Landon Castle comes in fifth. Anthony Alfredo finishes sixth. Riley Herbst finishes seventh. Joe Graff Jr. finishes eighth. Myatt Snyder finishes ninth. And Brett Moffitt rounds out the top ten. In my opinion, this was probably the best race of the weekend. Not only had some great racing, but he had the fascinating storyline of Jeffrey Earnhardt winning the pole with Larry Mack back on the pit box, crew-chiefing him and leading him to a second place finish. And the RCR drivers, as well as the college drivers working together, they showed they probably had the best speed in all the field. And Jeffrey Earnhardt was probably the biggest standout after getting the pole. He had a fast machine in that three car. And although he ran top 15 most of the time, he went up there and led some laps thanks to the help of Austin Hill. And he was making his way through the field during the overtime restart and made an Earnhardt-like charge and got up to second coming off of turn four heading for the checkered flag. And Jeffrey could have passed Noah Gregson, but Noah Gregson pulled the block on him. And that led to Jeffrey Earnhardt filing in behind him and finishing second. Jeffrey in post-race interviews said that he was grateful for the opportunity and he's going to go back and run for Sam Hunt probably for the rest of the year. But keep an eye during the off-season if Jeffrey leaves Sam Hunt for Richard Childress. That may be a possibility. We'll have to see about that if Richard wants to have a third Xfinity ride with Jeffrey in it. So overall, a great weekend of racing at Talladega. The cup race was great and the Xfinity race was better. And it was overall a great weekend for Talladega. So with Talladega out of the way, let's talk about one of the biggest stories that came out of the weekend, which is the uncertain future of Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing. Kyle Busch on Saturday was asked by reporters about his future at Joe Gibbs. And he simply told them, ask Joe Gibbs. And he told them that he was very uncertain about his future, especially now that he lost his big sponsor, the Mars Company, which is running a lot of money from their different brands like M&Ms and Skittles and Predigree. And that's led to an uncertain future for that number 18 team because Joe Gibbs lost probably its biggest sponsor besides FedEx because M&Ms wanted to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and allocate those funds towards something else. And that's led to a very uncertain future for Kyle or anyone else that drives the 18. Apparently, Mars would help bring a big sponsor in. And so far, we've seen Yahoo join Joe Gibbs Racing as an official partner. I guess they're only sponsoring TRD and their development programs and they don't seem to be helping Kyle Busch's car in any way besides maybe having a few races on his number 18. And Interstate Batteries has also been an oil partner to Joe Gibbs, but they don't have that big major sponsorship like that M&Ms gave them since 2008. And in my opinion, if we end up seeing a sponsor, then Kyle Busch will, of course, return to Joe Gibbs Racing. But there might be that slim chance that he doesn't return to Joe Gibbs Racing. In my opinion, it comes down to the sponsorship. And apparently, they had a big sponsor lined up. And I'm not sure if they signed a deal yet or if the deal fell through. And that's why Kyle Busch was upset. But it's clear they don't have a sponsor right now. And I can see Kyle's frustration because he doesn't know what he's going to do because not only was Mars sponsoring his CupRide, but also his lower series teams. That will also be a big thing that the next sponsor will probably have to do is fill in that sponsorship for KBM in both Trucks and Arca now. In my opinion, there's probably a sponsor out there that wants to sponsor the Candyman. Although he's probably the most hated NASCAR driver these days, besides maybe Joey Logano and Vinny Hamlin, he's probably one of the best drivers out there right now. Although he's fallen off quite a bit since 2019. So far in the past few seasons, he's only gotten a few wins compared to getting like a few wins each a year. And so far, he's only won one race this season. And that was a lucky win at Dirt Bristol. Although he probably should have won Las Vegas if it wasn't for the caution. To be honest, I'm not sure what's going to happen with Kyle Busch. Although I think he'll return to Joe Gibbs, I'm not sure how long he could stay there if he does if there's no big sponsor. And he'll have to scrap for a sponsorship like a lot of other teams had and not get those big multi-year primary sponsors like FedEx, Bass Pro Shops, Exalta, Ally, Napa, etc. And I think there's a sponsor coming that could help Kyle Busch. But could it be at Joe Gibbs Racing? Or could it be somewhere else? Could he possibly leave Joe Gibbs Racing? Right now I think no. But if this situation escalates, then maybe yes. But according to someone higher up at Toyota, they're working with Kyle Busch to get a big sponsor. And apparently, he's frustrated too, especially since Kyle Busch is making those stupid comments in the media center, which may hurt some things with the relationship between Busch, Toyota, and Gibbs. But right now, I don't see Kyle leaving. But there is that chance that keeps growing and growing. And if he doesn't get a sponsor soon, he may leave Joe Gibbs Racing or retire. But to be honest, I'm not sure where he would go or who would replace him besides Kyle Busch's funny statement saying that he'll be the hauler driver for his son, Rexton. And like many people have said, he may want to go back to the truck series and see if he can get a championship in that series. Because he's won an Xfinity Series championship and a Cup Series championship twice. But he's yet to get that truck series championship. In my opinion, those are probably the big two. He either retires fully or goes back down to trucks and gets that truck series championship. And to replace Kyle Busch in that ride, if he were ever to leave, probably the big front runner right now is Ty Gibbs. But Ty Gibbs doesn't bring that big sponsorship money. Yes, he's got the Monster, but Monster also has those deals with Kurt Busch, Bradley Hurst, and Haley Deegan. And so Monster would have to choose. Do they go with their big, experienced driver, their most popular female athlete? Do they go with probably the most talented young driver in the series right now? Or do they go with someone that doesn't really show that much talent and hasn't even won a race in Xfinity yet? Although, Ty Gibbs also has sponsorship from Sports Clips, what Denny Hamlin also has that. And I'd say Sports Clips would probably be more committed to Denny Hamlin until he retires than they are currently to Ty. So in my honest opinion, if Ty Gibbs were to take that ride, Kyle Busch would probably have to leave Joe Gibbs Racing before that big sponsor comes in. And then when it comes in, Ty Gibbs takes the ride. It takes Kyle Busch's sponsorship with him, meanwhile Kyle Busch goes somewhere else, like maybe down back to trucks or wherever. Let's be honest, that's a rare chance. And honestly, I think Kyle Busch will stay at Joe Gibbs Racing as long as he wants. The only thing that could probably stop him is probably his aging. He's starting to approach his 40s, but he's not there yet. It's apparent that he's not on top of his game as like he was a few years ago. So clearly, something has changed, either mentally or physically within Kyle Busch. I don't see Kyle Busch going for another 10 years. He'll probably retire within this decade. But when he retires within this decade, I have no idea. But in my opinion, it ain't gonna be until probably like 2027 or something. In my opinion, he'll want to get that Daytona 500 victory before he retires. Because that's the one thing that's eluded him. He's tried since 2005, and he has yet to win his first 500. And his last attempt was of course earlier this year, which was his 18th. And he's nearly getting to Dale Earnhardt territory with that. He's basically caught up with Darrell Waltrip. Darrell Waltrip won it in his 19th try. And then of course Dale Earnhardt got it in his 20th try. And currently Kyle Busch is right at that point. In my opinion, it's either gonna be next year or the year after that. He's either gonna get it in his 19th or 20th attempt. But if he doesn't get it by those two, I don't think he will. To be honest, he may go down as probably the best driver ever to not win the Daytona 500. Like his teammate right now, Denny Hamlin, is the best driver right now that has yet to win a championship. In my opinion, I don't see Denny Hamlin winning a championship. Because it's clear that the next generation of drivers has become the dominant force in the series. So in my opinion, there is no way Denny Hamlin wins a championship. And if Kyle Busch doesn't win the 500 in his next few attempts, he'll never get it. But right now, that's still way far in the future. 2024 is still a couple years away. And right now, Kyle Busch is still pretty much in the prime, although he's dropped off a little bit. He can still win races. There's no way he gets another championship like I said with Hamlin. But he's still within the range that he can get a Daytona 500. So I think he'll stay with Joe Gibbs. But that's just my opinion. If you have a different opinion, leave it in the comments below. I'd like to hear it. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the rest of the news. Starting off with a little throwback news. Ryan Vargas will be driving a throwback to Jeff Gordon's 1999 Busch Series car for his short-lived team, Jeff Gordon Motorsports. But I'm going to save all the throwbacks for the next episode. I'll do a full rundown of all the throwbacks before Darlington. So stay tuned next week for that. Next let's take a look at the Talladega TV ratings. Fox earned a 2.61 rating and 4.682 million viewers for Sunday's Geico 500, which is down 1% from last year in viewership, which had a rating of 2.81 and 4.701 million viewers. Although it's slightly down, it's still pretty much flat. But for the Xfinity race, they got 2.061 million viewers, which is the most for any Xfinity series race since Daytona in 2017. And that's probably because both that they were on network television and the big story of Jeffrey Earnhardt driving the 3. I'd say those are probably the two biggest reasons why they got that much viewership since then. Junior Motorsports will be fielding the 88 car for five races with three current F-Series drivers, which are Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Kyle Larson. Chase Elliott will begin these five races next weekend at Darlington on May 7th. William Byron will then take over for Texas on May 21st and New Hampshire on July 16th. And then finally, Kyle Larson will race at Lockton Glen on August 20th and Darlington on September 3rd. Worldwide Express will be joining Shrek House Racing and will sponsor both Ross Chessane and Daniel Suarez. Jimmy Allen will perform a pre-race concert prior to this weekend's race at Dover. Russell Dirt will be returning next year in 2023, although no official date has been announced. And that's pretty much it for this week. Very little news for this week, probably because a lot of that news came out last week and the week before. So now let's preview this weekend's races at Dover. First we have the A-Game 200 for the Xfinity race, which will be 200 laps and 200 miles. And the race will be back on FS1 and MRN this weekend at 1.30pm Eastern Time. And for the Xfinity race, I'm going to pick John Hunter Niemicek. Niemicek was close to winning at Richmond earlier this year, if it wasn't for Ty Gibbs getting into him in Turn 3. And in my opinion, I think this time John Hunter will seal the deal and win for the first time in the Xfinity series since Phoenix last year. And then finally, for the Cup race, we have the Duramax Drydene 400 presented by Railodyne. The race will be 400 laps and 400 miles. And the race will be at 3pm Eastern Time, back on cable this weekend on FS1 and MRN. Which probably means that the ratings will probably not be good this weekend, because cable is dying. So let's take a look at the weather for the Cup race this weekend. There will be some sun in the morning, with increasing clouds during the afternoon, with a high around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Winds East at 5-10 mph, with a 13% chance of rain. So it's going to be cooler compared to Caledonia, but it will still be pretty warm. And so, for my pick for the Cup race, I'm going to go with the defending winner of this race, Alex Bowman. Alex Bowman has already won a race this year, and broke out last year with a few wins in the Cup series. I think he'll go two in a row at Dover, just like Jimmy Johnson did in 2002 in his rookie season. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe for more. If you're going out to Dover this weekend, I hope you have a good time, and if you're not, have a good time wherever you are. And I'll see you next week.