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On the debut edition of Frontstretch‘s Happy Hour Podcast, Bryan Nolen, Michael Massie, Dalton Hopkins and host Trey Lyle dive into why the 2023 NASCAR season has been such a bummer so far.
They also discuss Chase Elliott returning to the NASCAR Cup Series after injury and the coverage surrounding it, the Kaulig Racing penalties, as well as Carson Hocevar and his rough driving.
Listen on your favorite platforms.
About the author
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT
A Graduate of Virginia Tech in Sports Media and Analytics, Trey Lyle has been covering NASCAR since 2021 as the producer of the Fast Lane with Ed Lane on VTRN Sports 93.3 FM in Lynchburg, Va.
Trey joined FS in 2023 to cohost Happy Hour and help out on the podcast front as the producer for Brining the Heat with Bryan Nolen. Now, he oversees the entire podcast operation for Frontstretch.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020. Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
Bryan Nolen is the Operations Manager and Multimedia Director for Frontstretch.com. He also hosts the Bringing the Heat with Bryan Nolen Podcast and occasionally makes appearances on The Happy Hour Podcast. He has a Sportscasting degree from the Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting. He resides in Boise, Idaho, with his wife, his French Bulldog Archer and two rabbits.
Follow him on Twitter @TheBryanNolen
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I thought 2022 was an awful season. There were a number of different winners partly because of a spec car but also because of the crapshoot nature of 12 races on the schedule. Who was good last year? Logano and his team were great last year, for one race. They ended up champions.
Meanwhile, Martin Truex scored the 7th most points of any driver all season and wasn’t even eligible for a championship because the rules stipulated that Austin Cindric was more worthy. It was a glowing statement on how the NASCAR championship has very little to do with merit.
This year is a continuation of the same, and as someone who was a huge fan in 2003, I can still point to how damaging the Chase has been to this sport.
NASCAR should want to go back to when the grandstands were packed and the ratings were through the roof and soaring.
You mean admit that they made a mistake? Fat chance. LOL
I’m old enough to remember New Coke…NASCAR is the equivalent of Coca-Cola saying in 1985, “screw what the customers want, we’re sticking with this new formula”. It’s too late to go to Classic NASCAR now, they’ve doubled down so many times on this PoS playoff system, including designing it so that Danica had a chance to be in it.
NASCAR screwed the pooch in 2007 with the COT. The experiment is still ongoing and the results have been pathetic.
Who introduces an innovative, state of the art product that after 15+ years is still “under construction” and worse than the previous product? NASCAR does.
You gotta build a car that races well on the tracks that exist. Blaming the tracks for 15+ years is getting old. NASCAR needlessly ruined several tracks, when all along it’s been the darn car.
Meanwhile, the smoke blowers keep on blowing that smoke up the collective rearends of what we call NASCAR.
This.
Summer Bummer? Just wait until Nascar goes to Chicago of all places. If they offered me free tickets and free hotel I would immediately decline. Definitely seeing disaster on the horizon due to out of control crime in that dump not to mention a probable lack of passing opportunities for the drivers.