Podracing

In this week's Podracing, Neil and Tyler break down a buzzworthy return to Chicagoland that saw all of our favorite "Killer B" drivers -- from Byron to Bubba, Bowman, Bell and, at the end, Briscoe -- swarm to the front of the field. Then we dig into the In-Season Challenge bracket, which offers a number of powerhouse battles... plus Bowman vs. Gilliland. (Then again, 32-seeds apparently own this t...

This week on Podracing, Neil and Tyler are finally podcasting from the same state after Neil's move caused him to drive more miles last week than the Indy 500-Coke 600 double. We break down the classy wine-country vibes of Sonoma, which offered a predictable-sounding result (SVG at a road course) that was surprisingly down to the last lap with Chase Briscoe in pursuit. After bidding official farew...

This week on Podracing, Neil and Tyler recap the race that was in San Diego including SVG's shocking early exit and Corey Heim taking down the first win of his young Cup Series career. Then it's time for some Bracketology on the eve of the In-Season Challenge, with Neil breaking down the favorites and some potential Cinderellas that could make a run. Get your brackets set now! Finally, the crew pr...

This week on Podracing, Neil and Tyler recap yet another Denny Hamlin win for all the 11s at Pocono -- where he outlasted Christopher Bell's unconventional fuel strategy to win his third race in row, to a chorus of... cheers?? Then we are joined by NASCAR's Cameron Richardson, who explains the format of his (not at all fictional) World Cup of Motorsports, and then helps us assign World Cup teams t...

Tyler and Neil are coming off another thrilling race at Michigan that gave us a familiar result -- Denny Hamlin starting from the back and making his way through the field for the win. We wonder if anybody can beat Denny the way he's driving right now, and we give major respect to NASCAR's safety team and regulations for helping Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott survive one of the gnarliest crash...

In this week's episode, Neil and Tyler break down the excellent strategic racing at Nashville -- even if it wasn't a great Sunday for brake-rotors. We once again give flowers to SVG and Denny, two of our favorites, before moving on to Neil's NASCAR column on driver stock-watch for the past month: who is trending up or down and why? Finally, we look ahead to the Temple of Speed that is Michigan, wi...

After a week of tragedy, Podracing is back to reflect on the life and legacy of Kyle Busch, both on and off the track. We talk about his titanic resume as a driver, but also break down Neil's story on the incredible spread of Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers throughout the Cup series, where they've made up roughly one-third of Cup starts and nearly half of all wins in recent years (ev...

Neil and Tyler are coming off the All-Star Race with a new appreciation of both Dover and Denny Hamlin -- we break down Denny's (basically) wire-to-wire win at one of the most skillful tracks on the circuit, and what that means about him as a title candidate. Then we pivot to Neil's column about the Six Types of Underrated NASCAR Drivers -- who fits in each archetype? Finally, we look ahead to the...

Podracing's Official Patron Saint, Shane van Gisbergen, is back! Neil and Tyler break down SVG's unbelievable comeback drive at Watkins Glen, going from 24th to 1st place in the span of 17 laps, and why the multi-way drama between a hunting van Gisbergen, a desperate Connor Zilisch and a leading Ty Gibbs was peak NASCAR road-racing. Then we zoom out to ask what the stats say SVG needs to do to mak...

Podracing's streak of picking winners came to a close in the Lone Star State-- although Kyle Busch  was  one of the main characters Sunday -- but that didn't stop Neil and Tyler from analyzing all things Texas, including Chase Elliott's win and the bumpy pavement at the track. And in fact, our driver focus segment is on Elliott as well, and whether his ability to mix wins with never...

Podracing did it again! Another driver we highlighted as a first-time winner to watch found his way to Victory Lane, in the form of Carson "Hurricane" Hocevar. (Sure, we were 1 week off compared with our winning Ty Gibbs prediction, but don't worry about it.) We'll break down what led to Hocevar's maiden win, and everything else we noticed in a Talladega race to remember. Then, we talk about Neil'...

Another week, another Podracing where we find new superlatives to heap upon Tyler Reddick following a win. This time around, the No. 45 car prevailed in a race defined by a series of literally unbelievable twists and turns in the closing sequence. After breaking down how Reddick ended up the last driver standing, we update our previous research on how many races Reddick might win -- and where...

Podracing told YOU, dear listener, that Ty Gibbs would win at Bristol -- and you can't say we (and he) didn't deliver. We break down Gibbs' long-awaited first Cup victory, and the scary competitors he did it against under pressure. Then we talk about the Next Ty Gibbs, and why it might just be Carson "Hurricane" Hocevar (or at least why he's next in line to win from that generation). Finally, we h...

After a week's break for Easter, the boys are refreshed and ready for the Cup Series to be back. Neil and Tyler chat for a bit about the off-week for Cup, which did include action at Rockingham in the Trucks and O'Reilly Series, and speculate about the NASCAR-based anime we want to watch. Then we pivot to breaking down Neil's NASCAR.com piece about Ty Gibbs' strong potential to...

It's the Easter Break, so it's time for a bit of a different episode than usual. Up top, Neil and Tyler dissect last week's Martinsville race like normal -- with flowers for winner Chase Elliott, but also Denny Hamlin, our guy Ty Gibbs, Austin Cindric and more. Then, instead of talking about That Oval or That Driver, we zoom out and Neil breaks down his NASCAR.com piece about t...

What can we even say about Tyler Reddick's 2026 season at this point? The No. 45 Toyota won AGAIN at Darlington for his 4th victory in the season's first 6 races. We break down the incredible challenges Reddick yet again overcame while highlighting some non-Reddick drivers who impressed us -- chief among them being Brad Keselowski. Then we pivot to more Reddick talk, unpacking Neil's story ab...

The Podracing fellas are thrilled about what was the first mile-and-a-half race of the season last week at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We break down the high points — both driving-wise and emotionally — of Denny Hamlin’s win at Vegas, then pivot to Neil’s research about the surprisingly large predictive effect of the season’s debut mile-and-half “Marioval”. Then we look ahead to a totally unique...

Neil and Tyler are known for their straight-talking, so they are right at home breaking down the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix, won by Ryan Blaney after passing his way up and down the field. We shoutout the race's other top performers as well, including Christopher Bell, longtime Podracing fave Ty Gibbs and, of course, podcast patron saint Shane Van Gisbergen -- whose 11th-place...

The Tylers can't be stopped! In this week's Podracing, our Tyler (Lauletta) and Neil Paine break down Tyler Reddick's unprecedented 3-peat to start the 2026 season, which is now verging on absolutely legendary status. Not only did he survive a pair of drafting tracks for his first 2 wins, but then he held off the road-racing GOAT, SVG, over the final nearly 20 laps to take the crown at COTA. Looki...

The boys are excited to be back out on a track with left AND right turns this week -- but first, we break down a great race at Atlanta, where it was the Tyler show again as Reddick won back-to-back to open the season. We talk Carson Hocevar's aggressive choices, Bubba Wallace's missed shot at the win (and why that's not so bad this year), and we shoutout the surprisingly good perfor...

In this week's Podracing, Tyler and Neil break down all the chaos of the Daytona 500, including the epic final lap and Tyler Reddick's daring pair of race-winning moves to survive the carnage and score the greatest victory of his career. Then we talk about a pair of Neil articles -- one on Reddick's potential to make Daytona the first part of a huge bounce-back campaign, the other on the lasting l...

Neil and Tyler open the 2026 season by diving straight into Daytona — NASCAR’s biggest race and also, by reputation, its biggest chaos-factory. But Neil breaks down his surprising research showing the Daytona 500 does have a measurable predictive link to the rest of a driver’s season (especially on superspeedways). Then the guys run through the betting board, arguing about why 2-time defending win...

Following an icy and chaotic Clash at Bowman Gray, the boys are back to unpack a season-opening (sort of) win by Ryan Preece, one of our favorite drivers. We talk about the beefs that already seemed to be in mid-season form, the impressive ability to actually run a race under these conditions, and what we liked and didn't like coming out of the first warm-up of the year. Then we talk about Ne...

This week on Podracing, Neil and Tyler talk about NASCAR's much-anticipated return to The Chase system for determining its championship. We break down the new rules -- which we find are actually much simpler to explain than the old ones -- and get into how past seasons' results might have changed with the current format in place. (Sorry, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney -- and congrats, William Byron!)...

The boys are back on track for the last Podracing of the 2025 season! In this week's show, Neil Paine and Tyler Lauletta recapped their favorite moments of 2025, including Mexico City weekend, SVG's streak, Larson's peak, Zilisch's arrival, barriers broken by Bubba Wallace and Katherine Legge, and more. Then we pivot to our own "red-carpet" award show with Neil unpacking his NASCAR.com&n...