NASCAR on TV this week

Happy Hour: Can Nostalgia Help Promote Change in NASCAR?

On this week’s Frontstretch Happy Hour, hosts Dalton Hopkins, Michael Massie and Caleb Barnes are joined by Elijah Burke, manager of digital and social media for RFK Racing.

The quartet discuss the growing popularity of watching old races now that NASCAR Classics is uploading them in high quality. Could more exposure to classic races lead to change in NASCAR? Is nostalgia-fueled change good or bad?

The guys also talk the four-wide racing that happened in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday (Oct. 6). Though it was manufactured by fuel saving, was it still good racing or not?

See also
5 Points to Ponder: Would a Non-Playoff Race Spice Up Talladega?

The ending of Talladega was marred by numerous controversial calls or no-calls by NASCAR officiating. The Happy Hour gang offers solutions to these problems.

The four then predict which drivers currently below the Cup Round of 8 cut line (Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe) will advance.

In the bonus segment, in honor of Burke’s creative content with RFK, the quartet each name their dream NASCAR content they wish they could make.

Watch the whole show below or listen to the audio version wherever you get your podcasts.

About the author

Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!

Content Director

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.

Content Director

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

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3 Comments
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Echo

4 wide at half throttle. I’ve already heard what the drivers think, that says it all.

DoninAjax

NA$CAR has shown what they think about nostalgia!

Jeremy

The only hope for NA$CAR would be for Dale Jr and Tony Stewart to buy out the France family and run it.