Grip Strip Podcast

Phil and Josh return and pay homage to Mike Joy for a busy E161 of the GSP.  Joey Logano finally earned his first win at Atlanta on a last lap pass of former teammate Brad Keselowski.  The crew discusses the race, the track and issues that exist with the superspeedway setup they run along with great performances from an ill Tyler Reddick and the best finish of Corey Lajoie's career. 

In XFinity, Austin Hill continues to dominate with another plate-type victory to increase his points lead and add crucial playoff points, but the real story was Josh Williams getting parked by the series due to extending a caution because of his DGM Racing team's repairs to the car.  Phil and Josh give their thoughts on that whole fiasco and what it says about NASCAR and their officiating.  For Trucks, Christian Eckes takes McAnally Racing's first Truck Series win in a complete wreckfest at Atlanta.

F1 raced at Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian GP, which saw Sergio Perez continue his street course mastery with a lights to flag victory.  His teammate defied team orders (per usual) and took the fastest lap on the last lap. MV finished second after starting 15th due to a driveshaft issue in qualifying. 

Verstappen was assisted greatly by a full safety car thrown for Lance Stroll's mechanical issue on his Aston Martin.  His teammate El Plan took the lead on the start after driving out of his start box and incurring a five-second penalty.  The team then received another penalty for working on the car, but that was amended along with his second podium of the young season. 

NFL talk briefly then leads into the GSP Roundup, discussing IMSA, WEC, F2, Supercross, WRC, MotoGP/Moto2, NHRA, and Formula E prior to making previews and picks for the tripleheader at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX.  Josh provides his info during the Sim Segment prior to show close.

Phil and Josh return for E160 of the GSP to recap White Bread William Byron's second consecutive Cup Series win after a late-race caution screwed Kevin Harvick out of a 10th victory at Phoenix.  The guys discuss the Hendrick domination prior to what would transpire in the penalty phase.  Harvick takes the points lead and sets a record in the process while Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe finally get decent finishes in 2023. 

Sammy Smith added his name to the record books with his first career XFinity win the day before and solidifies both Joe Gibbs full-time cars into the playoffs after four races.  Phil and Josh cover other keys and the points for both series heading to Atlanta.  

NFL Free Agency saw the San Francisco 49ers make a blockbuster splash, signing Javon Hargrave away from the Philadelphia Eagles to bolster arguably the best defensive line in the NFL while the Jaguars lost tackle Jawaan Taylor to the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs.  The guys get into those two signings and much more across the league.  

The GSP Roundup is busy as always with recaps of NHRA in Gainesville, Extreme E in Saudi Arabia, Supercars at Newcastle, Supercross at Indianapolis and previews of the 12 Hours of Sebring for IMSA/1000 Miles of Sebring for WEC and F2 at Jeddah.

F1 returns for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the question is who will finish behind Verstappen?  Phil and Josh preview, make picks and bring out the Tate Fogleman Algorithm for the super-speedway slot car racing that is current day Atlanta Motor Speedway. Josh provides plenty of info on the world of sim racing in his Sim Segment prior to Show Close.

Phil and Josh return for E159 of the GSP after a busy weekend in the world of motorsports.  IndyCar opened their season at St. Pete with flying cars, tempers and running over the TV time.  However, #thesneakyswede Marcus Ericsson passed Pato O'Ward coming to three laps to go for his fourth career IndyCar victory and third on a street circuit.  The guys talk about the incidents, the key players and what to look at as the series takes a break for essentially a month.

Formula 1 was a rinse and repeat affair with Verstappen winning at Bahrain for the first time and Red Bull getting a 1-2 finish.  The story of the weekend was Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who battled back after a poor start to get on the podium.  Aston Martin showed great pace in testing and that also came through during the race weekend. 

On the flip side, Ferrari's reliability issues bit Charles Leclerc again and cost him a likely podium while Carlos Sainz struggled but finished fourth.  Mercedes is well behind and has similar tire deg issues as Ferrari, but both cars finished with Sir Lewis Hamilton rounding out the top five.  Phil and Josh cover all of this and Logan Sargeant's F1 debut which saw him finish 12th.

NASCAR had a triple-header at Las Vegas, with William Byron, Austin Hill and Kyle Busch winning in Cup, XFinity and Trucks respectively.  The biggest news though was William Clyde Elliott II breaking his leg in a snowboarding accident, having surgery and no announced time table for a return.  

A packed GSP Roundup covers F2 & F3 at Bahrain, World Superbike at Mandalika, Indy NXT at St. Pete, AMA Supercross at Daytona, NHRA season preview with the Gatornationals this weekend, Extreme E season preview with the Desert X-Prix in Saudi taking place and Supercars starting their Gen 3 era with Mustangs and Camaros at Newcastle.

Phil and Josh get back to make their picks and preview the weekend at Phoenix for Cup and XFinity prior to Josh's Sim Segment and Show Close. 

Phil and Josh come back for E158 of the GSP to cover all things motorsports and the season really takes off with F1 and IndyCar having their season openers.  However, the guys cover NASCAR at Fontana (likely for the last time) with Kyle Busch winning in only his third start for RCR in Cup and John Hunter Nemechek in XFinity for JGR after rain affected the entire weekend.  Both races are reviewed and early points checks are done for both series.

In depth previews of the NTT IndyCar Series and Formula 1 World Championship come next with Phil and Josh making predictions on champions, rookies and other key story lines to focus on leading into St. Petersburg and Bahrain accordingly. 

The GSP Roundup covers Formula E at Cape Town, WSBK in Phillip Island, F2 & F3 at Bahrain and Indy NXT at St. Petersburg before the crew previews the Las Vegas triple-header for NASCAR with win and wild card picks prior to Josh's Sim Segment and Show Close.

After a busy weekend at Daytona to open up the 2023 NASCAR season, Phil and Josh are back to cover all the action on E157 of the GSP.  OH RICHARD (Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.) broke a 199-race winless streak by capturing the 65th Daytona 500.  The race actually went 530 miles due to overtime but the JTG-Daugherty driver is now immortalized as a 500 champion along with a playoff berth.  The guys get into the race itself, the wrecks, standouts and picks made before moving into XFinity and Trucks, which saw repeat winners in Austin Hill and Zane Smith respectively. 

F1 is gearing up for their only pre-season test of 2023 prior to the season opener at Bahrain in a couple weeks and IndyCar is also looking towards their opener at St. Petersburg, so Phil updates any pertinent news items prior to a full preview next week for both series.  The GSP Roundup is short and sweet with Formula E in Cape Town, South Africa for the first time along with WSBK opening their 2023 campaign at Phillip Island in Australia. 

Phil and Josh preview what likely is the last race at Auto Club Speedway for Cup and XFinity and make their picks for both races before Josh covers his exploits in the iRacing Daytona 500 (both fixed and open setup attempts) and the show close.

Phil and Josh return for E156 of the GSP to get into Speed (half) week at Daytona for NASCAR, culminating in the Daytona 500.  However, the guys get into the Super Bowl which saw KTF (aka Patrick Mahomes) and the Kansas City Chiefs win their second Super Bowl in the last four years, coming back against the upstart Philadelphia Eagles.  Phil and Josh discuss the key plays and players in the game along with other significant moments.  Updates on coaching and GM searches are looked at before moving onto NASCAR.

All three major series open up their season, so previews of the Craftsman Truck Series, XFinity and Cup Series are done with final four and championship selections made.  Formula 1 car reveals and IndyCar news is brought up next prior to the GSP Roundup that includes Formula E, WRC and MotoGP. 

The Tate Fogleman Algorithm makes its return to the GSP for Daytona, with Josh getting the machine out of hibernation to possibly make another insane choice.  Phil and Josh make their picks for all three races, wild cards and who gets the front row and goes home for the 500 (Phil whiffed on both open choices).  Josh gets into the iRacing Daytona 500 with an opportunity to join legends in racing as winners of both Indy and Daytona among other races for this week prior to the Show Close.

Phil and Josh are back for E155 of the GSP to recap Martin Truex, Jr's win at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum.  The cluster of the "race" featured 16 caution flags and an average speed just over 22 mph.  The guys get into this event and who stood out, like Ryan Preece and Darrell Wallace, Jr. 

While they had an opportunity, the RFK Racing duo of Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher missed the main for a second consecutive year.  Phil and Josh look at that, who else of value missed the main and key news stories leading into Speedweek at Daytona. 

The Super Bowl is on-tap with the Eagles and Chiefs facing off in the Andy Reid/Kelce Bowl or the KTF coronation ceremony.  The crew make their predictions known along with what to watch from both sides in Glendale.  IndyCar, F1 and other pertinent news items are discussed prior to the GSP Roundup, which includes previews of the Indian E-Prix in Hyderabad and Rally Sweden for the WRC.  

Josh lets us know about all things sim racing in his Sim Segment before Show Close.

Phil and Josh return for E154 of the GSP to discuss a wild NFL conference championship weekend and the Rolex 24 at Daytona amongst other events.  Kansas City and KTF made their third Super Bowl in the last four years after withstanding Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, which means JD Harmeyer is a mush-mouthed bald guy. 

Prior to that game, the San Francisco 49ers season ended six plays into the game after a Hassan Reddick sack and forced fumble on Brock Purdy, which left Mr. Relevant unable to throw and looking at elbow surgery.  Phil goes off in frustration and anger after another close call and the Eagles basically being able to coast to victory.  Also, tech difficulties happened, just like the entire 49ers team had that day.

In more positive news, Josh attended the Rolex 24 and let us know about how the atmosphere was for the first race of the new GTP era in IMSA.  The guys get into the race and talk about all the class winners including the Meyer-Shank Acura team repeating as Rolex 24 champs with new hire Colin Braun.  With plenty of talk that the GTP's may not make it, the race came down to four cars (Two Acuras & Cadillacs) battling at the end.  However, Porsche and BMW struggled but they all have time to adjust prior to Sebring in March.

Phil and Josh cover NASCAR news before the GSP Roundup looks at the Race of Champions and the Formula E Saudi E-Prix doubleheader.  For the second consecutive year, the NASCAR Cup Series will start their season at the LA Coliseum for the Busch Light Clash.  The crew previews the race and makes their picks before Josh's Sim Segment and Show Close.

Phil and Josh return for E153 of the GSP with more NFL Playoff talk and a preview of the Rolex 24.  With the Jaguars exiting the playoffs at the hands of Mahomes, Josh was disappointing but knows the future is bright for his team after a lean period for the organization.  San Francisco has now won 12 consecutive games going back to a loss versus Kansas City in October, giving Phil a healthy jolt on his birthday week.  The crew discusses Divisional weekend along with previews of both championship games with picks.

The 61st Rolex 24 at Daytona takes place this weekend with the GTP nomenclature returning to IMSA for the first time since 1992.  Nine cars from four manufacturers will take the start on Saturday, looking for reliability and the opportunity to earn overall accolades along with some nice Rolex watches.  Each class is covered along with some familiar names for NASCAR fans racing in the Michelin Pilot Challenge.

Over the past week, there's been plenty of NASCAR news, so Josh and Phil get into the key stories with the Clash only a couple weeks away.  One big topic involved odds for winning the 2023 Cup championship, which had some interesting lines.

The GSP Roundup looks at Sebastian Ogier's record-breaking ninth victory at Rally Monte Carlo, Supercross in San Diego, Nitro Rallycross at Trois Riviere, along with previews of Formula E in Saudi Arabia and the Race of Champions.  Josh gives us the latest news from the world of sim racing during the Sim Segment before the Show Close.

Phil and Josh return for E152 of the GSP to discuss the NFL playoffs, which saw Josh's Jacksonville Jaguars make one of the biggest comebacks in NFL history vs. the LA Chargers.  Josh was on site for the game and with his brother who happens to be a Chargers fan.  Phil celebrated after a difficult first half for Mr. Relevant Brock Purdy, since the 49ers advanced and will host the Cowboys in the divisional round.  The crew covers all the games and make their choices for divisional weekend.

Kevin Harvick officially announced his retirement from Cup racing after the 2023 season.  Phil and Josh give their thoughts on the man known as Happy and many other nicknames.  Jimmie Johnson returns to Cup in 2023 as a car owner and introduced Legacy Motor Club aka PettyGMS.  Travis Pastrana was announced as a third driver for 23XI at the Daytona 500, adding more spice to the open field, including Seven-Time. 

Phil and Josh review the 2022 Weathertech Sports Car Championship with the Roar on tap.  The guys give their views on the champions and early observations for 2023. The GSP Roundup looks at the Chili Bowl, Dakar Rally, Mexico City Formula E and previews the Roar Before the 24 and Rally Monte Carlo. 

Josh gets into the 24 Hours of Virtual Le Mans controversy and other happenings in the world of Sim Racing prior to the show close.