Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle is back with just a few weeks left in the 2025 season. This week’s guest is Ryan Ellis, who caught up with Caleb Barnes ahead of last weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega. You may know Ellis as the driver of the No. 71 for DGM Racing and one of the top X follows in the Xfinity garage. What you may not know is that Ellis is a spelling ace, going back to his days in the classroom.
Bryan Nolen makes a return to the show after the interview, and there are plenty of hot topics to hit on this week. The two start by reviewing the course layout unveiled for NASCAR’s highly anticipated race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego next summer.
Another future race, the 2027 Daytona 500, had its date announced. With the Super Bowl happening a week later, the Daytona 500 will also be pushed back. Nolen says NASCAR fans might have to adjust to the Great American Race starting a week later than it traditionally has.
As far as on-track news, Spire Motorsports announced Daniel Suarez will replace Justin Haley in the NASCAR Cup Series No. 7 next year. The two discuss the quality of the ride Suarez is stepping into, as well as connections between Suarez and other Mexican-born drivers in other racing series.
This week, crew chief Cliff Daniels breaks down the strategy at Talladega that ultimately resulted in Kyle Larson running out of gas. After the soundbite of the week, Nolen adds why Larson and the No. 5 team will need to go after the victory at Martinsville Speedway, despite being 36 points above the cut line.
Listen to Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle here or wherever you get 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 co-host Happy Hour and help out on the podcast front.
He now hosts Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle and oversees the entire podcast operation for Frontstretch.
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!
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