Clash Review, Hailie Deegan to Xfinity, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E2

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the Bushlight Clash and discusses some news stories. The finishing order of the Clash is provided, as well as the drivers who did not finish. The chaos in the qualifiers is mentioned, with several drivers not making the show. The host also talks about the tension and incidents during the race. The episode also covers the ratings for the Clash, the possibility of the Clash returning in the future, and various news stories, including sponsorships and partnerships. The host then discusses Haley Deegan's rookie year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and her potential move to the Xfinity Series. The Xfinity Series contenders for this year are also discussed. The episode ends with the host making a Super Bowl pick. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I am your host, Will England. In this episode, I'll be reviewing the Bushlight Clash from this weekend. I'll also go over some news stories. I'll also talk about some other stories from the offseason, primarily in the Lure Series. So, what news stories did we have last weekend? Let's get started by reviewing it. Here is your finishing order. Joey Logano won the Clash, followed by pole sitter Kyle Bush. In third was Austin Dillon. Fourth, Eric Jones. Fifth, who was my pick, Kyle Larson. Sixth, William Byron. Seventh, Cole Kester. Fifth, Rebell Eighth. Eighth, AJ Ombendinger. Kevin Harvick, 10th. Chase Elliott, 11th. Harrison Burton, 12th. Ricky Sinhaus, Jr., 13th. Daniel Suarez, 14th. Martin Truex, Jr., 15th. Michael McDowell, 16th. Ryan Blaney, 17th. Bubba Wallace, 18th. And those are the drivers who were running at the end. Now here are the ones that DNFed. Justin Haley finished 19th after being involved in an incident with Kyle Larson. Ryan Preece had an oil pressure issue and finished 20th. Both Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe both had drive train issues finishing 21st and 22nd. And Dan Hamlin finishes dead last and 23rd from power steering issues. Drivers of note who did not make the show were Ross Chastain, Eric Almarola, Brad Kieslowski, Austin Sendrick, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman, and Ty Dillon. The reason why these drivers did not make the show was probably because of the chaos in the qualifiers. The first three were not primarily chaotic. It was just one driver dominating and everyone filing single file behind, battling while the others battled it out for the final transfer spot. But the fourth one got a little more intense, but it was not as intense as the last chance qualifiers. Eric Almarola was wrecked out by Todd Gilliland and that led to Eric Almarola pointing at him after he got out of the car. There were many other cautions during that heat, but the real chaos was in last chance qualifier number two when Ty Dillon was just wrecking everybody. He had everything but the lottery in that race. And he was initially placed first and was originally going to transfer, but due to a restart violation, which happened twice during that qualifier, but the one that D&Q'd him was the final restart. He was disqualified and he did not make the show and Harrison Burton, who finished fourth, made the show. The tension between Eric Almarola and Todd Gilliland was not the only tempers that went on during the race. Justin Haley accidentally got into Kyle Larson after being shoved by his teammate William Byron. Then Kyle Larson intentionally went back and wrecked him into the inside wall and ruined Justin Haley's day. I knew that was intentional. And then Eric Jones got into Ryan Blaney and that sent Ryan Blaney to the pit lane. And then after he got out of the car while his crew members were working on the car, Ryan Blaney took his Hans device and threw it at Eric Jones. And we didn't get to see it on TV because NASCAR and Fox did not show it. Now this past weekend, as I noted in the last episode, Pitbull, Ice Cube, and DJ Ski performed and lots of people noted that the crowd, which was primarily the NASCAR crowd, did not really get into the music. And some people think that it was a redneck thing saying, oh, they just like the culture music. Well, I'm from the country and I know a lot of people that love rappers and primarily they're around the age that the people in the crowd were, which were mostly millennials. So I think it's not to deal with country. I think it's the age thing. These are millennials and they're used to the crap that is so-called rap. These are mostly old school rappers that were mostly popular when they were children because Ice Cube was big in the late eighties and nineties and Pitbull in the two thousands. So in my opinion, it's more of a age thing, more than a Southern redneck thing. And so many people did not like this race because they said there was not a lot of passing and it was mostly a rec fest and stuff. But in my opinion, I liked it because it's just basically good old fashioned short track racing. You know, beating and banging, tempers flaring, hot drivers, damaged cars, and some great racing. And if you don't like that kind of racing, then you shouldn't watch NASCAR because that's what NASCAR is. And this showed what NASCAR was at this event last weekend. They brought a new audience to show that short track racing at the Coliseum. In my opinion, this was a pretty good race, despite Fox, whose coverage quality was very low. So next time they need to work on that and in general, just try to fix their quality with NASCAR coverage and stuff. With that out of the way, let's get to the news. The first piece of news is the ratings for the Clash. The Clash earned a 2.32 rating with 4.283 million viewers on Sunday, which is up 168% from last year's Clash, which aired on FS1. Now, comparing it to other NASCAR races, this is pretty high. In my opinion, this shows that the Clash was a success this year. Because usually, races on network television for NASCAR currently are usually around the 1 to 2 million. But this race was 4 million, so it's sort of in the range of NASCAR at its peak. So in my opinion, this shows that the Clash was a big success. In my opinion, it should happen again if the option is out there. Which is the next news story, which is that NASCAR can have the Clash back next year or the next year, 2023 and 2024 if they want. In my opinion, they should go for that if they want to, then they can do it. But they got a few months to decide, so they better get to it. The next story is that 2311 Racing and Kurt Busch have partnered with the Jordan brand. And Kurt Busch will have the Jordan logo on his car and his fire suit. In my opinion, this is great for 2311 because the Jordan brand is well known for sports. And this could help bring in more people into the sport. Because this is a big sports brand, and I hope more sponsors like this come in. Next, Horizon Hobby has announced integrated partnership with Front Row Motorsports with Zane Smith and Michael McDowell. In my opinion, that's really good for that team to have sponsorships, so that way they can be funded for the full year. And here's something that if you like protecting the environment, Team Penske used a fully electric semi-truck to pull Austin Centric's Holler to the Clash this year. And so, this is definitely the future for NASCAR, and it looks like Team Penske has took that leap. Next, Love's Travel Stop will continue to sponsor Mike McDowell, which is very good. Because Love's got that exposure to NASCAR thanks to Michael McDowell winning the 500 last year. And he is your defending Daytona 500 winner in the next coming weeks. So, it's great to see Love's back on board. I hope they continue to sponsor him. Same thing with Kroger returning to JTG Geordie with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. That's good for that little team. Next, J.J. Yelly will attempt the Daytona 500 with MBM Motorsports. And finally, one of the biggest news stories last week is that Kaz Gra will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 with NASCAR's newest team, the Money Team. Which is owned by Hall of Fame boxer Floyd Mayweather, also known as Money. In my opinion, this is good for a new team owner to come into the sport. This shows that the next gym car is really attracting new team owners to the sport. And I hope that it will continue to bring in more competitive teams. And I hope the Money Team is competitive and will stay in NASCAR for a good long while. And so, that's it for the news. Let's talk about some other things before we end the show. First, let's talk about Haley Deegan. Haley Deegan completed her first rookie year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. It was kind of a disappointment to some people. Some people said that she would have been very competitive and would have won some races and would have been the first female driver to win in the Top 3 National Series. But she didn't. She only gained one Top 10 last year. And that Top 10 was at Gateway. She led no laps. Her average start was 18.7 and her average finish was 20.7. But one thing that shows something good about her is the amount of DNFs she had last year. She had no DNFs for the regular season. But she had three during the playoffs at probably one of the most dangerous stretches during the playoffs. Which is Bristol through Talladega. At Bristol and Talladega, she was involved in wrecks that was pretty much unavoidable. It was kind of the same way in Las Vegas, but it was sort of unavoidable when she got mixed up in someone else's mess in that race. Probably because the Camping World Truck Series is full of crazy idiots driving out there that some people think should not be out there. And recently in an interview with Fox Sports, she discussed how practice and qualifying not being there to not finishing well. And she also told Bob Pocaris that she wouldn't be in this position without social media and her marketing. And I can tell you what, she is a social media marketing cow. And her popularity on social media has led to her winning the 2021 Camping World Truck Series most popular driver award. And so, in my opinion, Dani Degan needs to improve this year because practice and qualifying is back. And she said it was the primary reason she didn't run that well last year. But now with it back, she needs to perform better. After this interview was published, Ford came out and said that they wanted Hayley Degan to run Xfinity possibly full time next year if she does well. Currently they have Riley Hurts in the 98 in the Xfinity Series for Storchaus Racing. And that's their current only Xfinity prospect as far as I know. And it's also been rumored that Hayley Degan may make some part time starts in the Xfinity Series this year. Although nothing has been officially announced. So here's what I want to expect from both Riley Hurts and Hayley Degan. If Riley Hurts continues how he was last year and doesn't run that well and is involved in multiple wrecks. Meanwhile Hayley Degan runs well and keeps the car clean like she did last year in trucks. She may move up full time in 2023. But if Riley Hurts really improves next year and doesn't take out his equipment and is an Xfinity Series Championship contender. While Hayley Degan isn't that competitive and wrecks out a lot. Which is probably not going to happen because of how clean she races in the truck series. Then I think Riley Hurts is here to stay and he'll probably take over before Hayley Degan's career would be over. But if it's the opposite like I mentioned before. Hayley Degan would probably be the biggest thing in NASCAR. And after this year probably Riley Hurts career will probably end. So what I want to see from Hayley Degan is her to run well in both trucks and Xfinity Series. And I want to see Riley Hurts improve from last year. Because he's a veteran in the Xfinity Series now. If he doesn't drive like one then he's going to be yanked out. And a new young female phenom will take his place. And the final thing I'll discuss is the NASCAR Xfinity Series. And who I think will be contenders this year. So I'm going to go in the order of the final driver standings. Daniel Hemrick is the champion but he's no longer in his Joe Gibbs ride. But he will be with College Racing which has shown to be a competitive organization. So what I want to see from Daniel Hemrick this year is if he can win a bunch of races and compete for the title again. Next up is Noah Gregson. Noah Gregson finished third in the standings after making his first Final Four appearance. And so what I want to see from Noah Gregson is improvement from last year. And he's shown that he's been improved. This was his first Final Four appearance last year. And he's well known for his aggression. So I want to see him improve. So that way he can have an opportunity in the Cup Series. Next is AJ Allmendinger. And what I want to see from the binger is I want to see him win the championship this year. Last year it all came down to one race and he blew it. And he finished fourth in the standings. So what I want to see from AJ Allmendinger is redemption. And I want to see him get that title. As well as go out in the Cup and win some races. Next up is Brandon Jones. And Brandon Jones had a little bit of a slump this year. And so what I want to see from Brandon Jones is him be a competitor this year. He won races in 2019 and 2020. But what I want to see from him is come back and win some more races. And also be a competitor for the championship. And finally I'll talk about Ty Gibbs. Ty Gibbs had his rookie season in the 54 car. And it's believed that he'll run full time in the 18. And so what I want to see from Ty Gibbs this year in this full, full time season. Is that I want to see him win races and be competitive. And also be consistent. As well as not get too over his head. So if he can do that he can be a champion in the Xfinity Series. And he'll also have a good shot in Cup in the coming years. And so that's it for this week's podcast. There's no races this weekend but this weekend is the Super Bowl. So I guess I can make a pick on the show. I'm going to go with the Bengals. I'm not a big NFL fan. I'm more of a college football fan. Going out in years. But since Cincinnati is the closest team to me. I'm just going to go with what I consider my home team in the Super Bowl. So I'm going to go with Cincinnati. And so that's it. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Please subscribe and leave a like for more. And I'll see you next week. We'll be right back. 🎵