New Hampshire and Pocono Recap and Indianapolis Picks | Chasing The Cup Mini S1:E22

The host of "Chasing the Cup Mini" gives a recap of the races in New Hampshire and Pocono. Chris Furbel gets his first Cup Series victory, while Tristan Ollegar wins the Xfinity race. There were disqualifications in the Xfinity race for Landon Castle and Noah Gregson. Chase Elliott wins at Pocono after Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are disqualified. There was a feud between Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin. Chandler Smith wins the Truck Series regular season finale. The playoffs begin at IRP. The host talks about Haley Degan's incident with Todd Bodine and predicts winners for upcoming races. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup Mini. I'm your host, Fluenglingland. And once again, I'm doing a mini episode because I'm in Northwest Georgia, pretty close to Atlanta visiting with some family, because of this I didn't have the time to do a full episode this week. By the time you probably are listening to this, I'll probably be back home. I'll have this episode edited and it'll be out. So in this quick episode, I'm going to be doing a quick recap of the races in New Hampshire and Pahukano. And I'm going to give my picks for this weekend's races at Indianapolis. So let's start with the New Hampshire stuff, starting with the Cup Race. Chris Furbel gets his second career win with his first Cup Series victory at New Hampshire. Of course, he has dominated the scene in the Xfinity Series, but now he gets his first Cup victory and might be the first of many Furbel at that racetrack. And in general, that race was pretty good. It seemed to be on the same level of Gateway. And Gateway was a pretty good show, and I think in my opinion, New Hampshire's kind of underrated. And the next Gen Car, these past few races on shorter fly ovals, has done a very good job. Not sure what NASCAR figured out, or if these were just good tracks. But whatever they did, it worked to get the racing product back where it should be. Next for Xfinity, Tristan Ollegar once again gets another win at New Hampshire. That race was also very good. Lots of great battles. And of course, that race had some disqualifications. Landon Castle and Noah Gregson were disqualified for their front end and back end being too low. I believe it was one end for one driver and the other end for the other. I don't remember exactly what they were. But that's not only the DQs that have happened since I last recorded. So let's talk about Pocono real quick. Chase Elliott gets the win after Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch get DQed for using an illegal material that couldn't be detected earlier because it was under the wrap. I believe this was on the front passcha. Not sure where that part really is. But it was definitely probably important. I'm not sure how important it was. But I'd say it got a little bit of those tents. It definitely helped because they were the dominant two cars of the day. So Chase Elliott becomes the first driver since 1960 to win a race that he finished third in. And he becomes the first driver since 1956 to win without leading a single lap. And of course, we gotta talk about Ross Chastain vs. Denny Hamlin. Before he was DQed, on the second to last restart, Denny Hamlin had enough of Ross Chastain. He forced him up into the wall. Chastain hit the wall, went down the track, and collected Kevin Harvick, ending both of their days. It was clearly payback for all those other races. So is Denny even? I'd say maybe. But of course, Ross Chastain did more to Denny than just one. So Denny might have another one. And maybe Chastain might also continue beating on him. And Denny will have to do it again. So we'll have to see about that. And then, for the Xfinity race, he had a great battle for the win between Ty Gibbs and Noah Grixen. But this race was very underwhelming compared to Cup just because of how the Xfinity cars work. Because they have about the same dirty air problems, not to a greater effect, but they have the same dirty air problems as Cup. And that showed because Ty Gibbs was able to go beside Noah Grixen, but he could not pass him. So it just seemed artificial, kind of like how the 2020 Kansas Fall Race was in Cup with the Gen 6. And then finally, the Truck Series regular season finale. Chandler Smith gets the victory. That race was really good. Probably the best race of the weekend. Definitely some action. And now it's time for the Truck Series playoffs, which begin this weekend at the IRP. So here's the playoff grid. Zane Smith, Chandler Smith, Ben Rhodes, John Hunter Niemicek, Stuart Friesen, Christian Ekus, Ty Modziski, Carson Husavar, Grant Infinger, and Matt Crafton. And the top 8 are currently above the cut line, with Grant Infinger being minus 3 points out and Matt Crafton being minus 4 points out. But we'll have to see what happens this weekend to see who will be in or who will be out. Because there are some drivers that could falter during this round, or they could be a lot better and knock someone else out than were better in the regular season. So we'll have to see. And one last thing before we move on to picks, I gotta talk about Haley Degen versus Todd Bodine. Of course, the fall started with Texas when Todd Bodine just wrecked Haley Degen for 13th. And then this past weekend, it looked like Haley Degen may have come down on him. I think also Todd was coming up. They just collided and that sent Todd Bodine into the wall, spinning around, and collected a few others. I didn't hear Haley Degen's side of the story, but I did hear Todd Bodine's saying that drivers like her were over their head. And to be honest, I think it was a mixture of both him and her. Haley Degen came down, but I don't think she did that on purpose. She may have not known that he was there, but I will never know because I haven't heard anything from her radio or Todd's radio during that incident. It looked like also Todd came up into her as well. So you can't really blame it all on her. So I'd say it was just one of those racing deals. I didn't see anything blatant like I saw with Hamlin versus Ross. Of course, she was eliminated along with several other drivers. I guess she had a couple of flat tires, which really took her out of contention. So what she can do now is probably go fight for wins now that she doesn't have to worry about the playoffs. And we can see if she gets an Xfinity ride for a few races this season, or at least one. Now with the 07 opening up, I thought that would be the perfect opportunity. But right now, last week you had Cool Custer do it again. And now this weekend it'll be Chase Briscoe. But we'll see what happens next week or any other weeks coming up. If the 07 car is still open and any of the Cup drivers cannot run those races. So we'll have to see. So now let's move on to our picks for this weekend. Starting off with the truck race, which is at IRP. Even though I had her as a race pick last week, I think this time I'm going to go ahead and do it again. I'm going to do Haley Deegan for the victory because she has run better here in ARCA than Pocono and she has quite a bit of experience at IRP. I think while a lot of drivers do not have that experience, I think her previous experience in ARCA might help. And since she's going for the trophies this week, I think she'll get her first truck series victory this weekend. Next is Xfinity for the Indy Url course. I'm going to go with AJ Almendinger. AJ Almendinger has been pretty unstoppable for the road courses, although Ty Gibbs won at Road America. I think AJ Almendinger will come back and I think he will win at the Indy Road Course. And finally for Cup, for the Indy Road Course, I'm going to go with Chris Buescher. Chris Buescher hasn't won since 2016 at Pocono, but he's been fast on these road courses. He finished second at Sonoma. I think this time it's his turn. All the road courses have had first-time winners this season. I think next year continues and this time it'll be Chris Buescher's turn to take the victory. And so that's it for this week. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more of these mini episodes and full episodes. If you're going out to Indianapolis for the races at DIMS or IRP, I hope you have a good time. Have a good time wherever you are and I'll see you next week.