This week on Bringing the Heat With Trey Lyle, Zane Smith joins to chat about the ongoing in-season tournament in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Smith shares what it’s been like to return to Front Row Motorsports, this time as a Cup driver, and what he’s learning in his second full-time season. One of Smith’s goals for the summer stretch was to find consistency, and he discusses how his team has done that in recent weeks, contributing to his advancement out of the early rounds of the tournament.
After the interview, Lyle and Dalton Hopkins discuss the future of street racing in NASCAR. The series has a few options, with the Chicago mayor voicing his wish to have the race moved to a different time in the weekend, all while rumors swirl about replacing the Chicago street course with a race in San Diego instead.
The two also review NASCAR’s announcement that the Clash is returning to Bowman Gray Stadium in 2026, and they react to the most recent status of the lawsuit between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports vs. NASCAR.
The soundbite of the week comes from Cody Ware, who shares his perspective after his great day in Chicago came to a sudden — and surprising — end. After listening to his comments, Lyle and Hopkins go over NASCAR’s decision to wait to throw the caution for Ware until after the white flag was waved.
The podcast wraps up by discussing the post-race comments from Joey Logano on Ross Chastain, and how modern NASCAR affects how drivers handle conflicts
Listen here or wherever you find your podcasts.
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.
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 Frontstretch 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
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!