On April 1, 2016 I sat down with Paul Andrews, 1992 NASCAR Cup championship winning crew chief on Alan Kulwicki’s No. 7 car. In this classic episode we talk about Andrews’ career, his relationship with Kulwicki and that fateful night on April 1, 1993 when Kulwicki’s plane crashed on entrance to an airport in Bristol, TN.

Hendrick Motorsports had their appeal heard for their penalties following Phoenix. The teams fine and crew chief suspensions were upheld however the 100 regular season point deduction and their 10 playoff point deduction has been overturned. It’s big news for the organization as three of their drivers are now in the top ten in points and will begin the playoffs without any penalty. We give our thoughts on the appeal committee’s decision and look at NASCAR’s response to Daniel Suarez bumping Alex Bowman on pit road. We also look at the Xfinity and Truck events from COTA and look ahead to next weekend’s events.

Tyler Reddick dominated the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. It’s his 4th career win and the first of his 2023 season. We’ll discuss the whole event, talk about who we good and who struggled. We’ll also talk about the racing at COTA and the long term future there.

TV ratings for the Cup Series has been a bit rough as of late. We explore the possibilities of movie the start times to 1:00 on the east coast and whether or not that would help the ratings. We’ll also discuss future schedule changes we’d like to see. Bring back The Rock! Then we touched on the 2024 silly season. Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 car is available, but what else could be available? Who else could be in Cup in 2024? Take a listen!

On this episode of Talking in Circles, we discuss the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series events from Atlanta Motor Speedway. Will anyone challenge Austin Hill for the Xfinity Series championship? Also, is this Christian Eckes’ breakout season in the truck series? We also discuss Josh Williams’ suspension and look ahead to COTA.

Joey Logano won the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a race where he led the most laps but it looked as if he wasn’t in position to win in the closing stages, however a big push from Corey LaJoie and some great driving found Logano passing former teammate Brad Keselowski for the victory. It was career win No. 32 for Joey Logano and the first of his 2023 season. Brad Keselowski finished in 2nd, after an impressive day and Christopher Bell ended up 3rd. We discuss the day’s action and look at others who ran well and looked at who struggled on Sunday. We also discussed the racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway and if it should continue past this year.

This is one of the most passionate episodes of Talking in Circles in recent memory. Hosts Brandon Caldwell and Clayton Caldwell discuss the decline in tv ratings this year and why that may be the case. They also talk about how many in the industry want to make NASCAR like Formula 1 and whether or not that is a wise move. Plus, they give their thoughts on other things in the NASCAR world.

Hendrick Motorsports was hammered on Wednesday with the largest fine for an organization in NASCAR history after they were found to modified NASCAR issued parts. We discuss what this means for Hendrick Motorsports, how it will affect them moving forward and also look at the ramifications of the playoff points for those teams. Kaulig Racing’s No. 31 team also received the same penalty but it’s a little more of a problem for them. Also, Denny Hamlin was fined $50k and docked 25 driver points for his role in a late race altercation with Ross Chastain at Phoenix and admitting to wrecking Chastain intentionally on his podcast. We’ll discuss whether or not NASCAR should have done that and the can of worms NASCAR has opened with this penalty. Also, we’ll preview the weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

It was another victory for Hendrick Motorsports and Team Chevy, the fourth straight win to start the season as William Byron took the checkered flag on Sunday at Phoenix. It was his second consecutive victory. He held off Ryan Blaney after a late race restart to secure the win. However, with 14 laps to go the race looked to be Kevin Harvick’s to lose as he was leading and pulling away when Harrison Burton spun causing a caution. That set up a round of pit stops where Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers took four tires. 6 other drivers took two and that proved to be the difference as Harvick was not able to regain the lead. We discuss the end of the race, Childers’ strategy and whether or not the new rule package was a positive. Also we talk about the possibility of penalties being handed down to Hendrick Motorsports after parts were confiscated after practice. Finally, we talk about the new short track rules package and whether or not we saw positives after just one race.

On this episode of Talking in Circles we dive into the news that Josh Berry will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports for five of the next six races. How will he do? Plus, we look at who are the favorites to replace Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Ford in 2024? Is Berry a candidate? Also, Kyle Petty made comments about Ryan Blaney saying that so far he has failed to live up to expectations. Were Petty’s comments warranted? Finally, we look at Phoenix and give our thoughts on who we think will be strong and what to look out for heading into this weekend’s events.