This week on Bringing the Heat with Trey Lyle, Zane Smith and Lyle talk before the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway and subsequent off week. The topics include some marriage advice from Smith to Lyle, and Smith discusses his favorite Long John Silver’s order.
On the racing side of things, Smith talks the perspective he carried through the 2025 season as his Front Row Motorsports team was involved in the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR. With his team, Smith is still looking for consistency, improvement on road courses and contending inside of the top 15.
Following the interview, Bryan Nolen joins Lyle to review some of the hottest topics after the Cup off-week. The two react to the impending return of Alex Bowman after being cleared to return for Bristol Motor Speedway and Legacy Motor Club adding Joe Gibbs Racing COO Michael Guttilla as its president.
This week, NASCAR announced that stage lengths at Talladega Superspeedway will be changed to shorten the final stage in an effort to prevent extreme fuel savings. Nolen and Lyle debate whether the change will make a difference or if it’s another small attempt at fixing a larger problem.
The soundbite of the week comes from Cleetus McFarland’s social media as he reacts to news that he is not approved to race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Talladega. Nolen and Lyle add their opinions on whether or not that is the correct decision and how McFarland could potentially make more attempts to establish himself as a legitimate driver.
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.
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
Chris Graham is a motorsports producer, director, and broadcast engineer based in the Philadelphia-area. Through his work with NRN Productions, he’s helped build and execute live race coverage and sports streaming workflows ranging from lean, two-to-three person crews to full broadcast-style productions. Chris has worked across nearly every position in the truck—producing, directing, technical directing, replay, graphics, camera operation, and engineering—and has supported events and partners including FloSports, the ASA STARS National Tour, and Diamond State Digital. He’s also involved in developing live show formats and digital coverage that bring fans closer to the stories behind the racing. He is currently also the producer for the Frontstretch podcast Happy Hour.