Ranking Top NASCAR Prospects | Harvick Puts JGR Drivers On The Spot

one of NASCAR's top young prospects adds to his 2024 schedule who would you take in a hypothetical NASCAR [Music] draft how's it going y'all my name is Eric welcome to out of the groove happy Friday today we're catching up on a couple of stories some interesting sound bites from this past week we'll start with Connor zillich earlier this week Spire Motorsports confirmed zillich will make three three additional truck series starts this season Richmond Bristol Martinsville he was already scheduled to race at Talladega and Homestead Miami in the fall so adding some short tracks to the mix we know Conor zillich is a tremendous Young Road Course racer cool to see a variety of ovals on his second half seon schedule on top of the I believe four exfinity Series starts he's expected to make separately with Junior Motorsports lots of good experience for a young Chevy driver a young track house development driver I keep forgetting that track house has already signed this kid he's only 17 years old you know with all the talk this week about the NFL draft young prospects it had me wondering where would Conor zillich rank on my hypothetical NASCAR draft board if I was a Nascar Cup Series team owner and I could pick any driver age well what's like college age 22 23 and younger who would I pick that's a tough call lots of of good young drivers from different backgrounds with different levels of experience and success let's just come up with a hypothetical top five oh shoot I'm on the clock let's go in reverse order we'll start with number five Christian eus does not get enough respect in my opinion he is 23 years old you compare that to 17-year-old Connor zillich that's a big difference but eus had four Truck Series wins last year he's already at two for this season he's currently the points leader in the Craftsman Truck Series and I think people forget that a few years ago Christian ekis won the Arkham andards Series championship the dude can drive he deserves a spot on this board but my next spot would go to Chandler Smith maybe this is a little low for Chandler Smith I'll admit I would argue if everyone we're about to discuss he's probably the most cup ready right now but I still think he's got ways to go before he's a consistent Cup Series Contender he did well last year in xinity with cig despite cig I think being in kind of a Down year he still got a win he shifted into Maximum Overdrive this year though with Joe Gibbs Racing already two wins on the season he's leading the Xfinity Series points with a 7.0 average finish I really like what I'm seeing from Chandler Smith he's got a little bit of Cup Series experience already under his belt Chandler Smith would be a fantastic hypothetical draft pick I think Conor zillich slots in in the three spot look he's really young only 17 high ceiling potentially low floor we don't know EX exactly what he's going to develop into just yet so many people in the industry believe he is going to be the next big thing we've already seen him show incredible Pace at Watkins Glenn in an ARCA car he was extremely fast at Kota this year in trucks despite making a couple of mistakes that's going to happen when you're a 17-year-old racer on the national stage I'm convinced Connor zilli will grow into a fantastic road course racer I'd argue he already is he's a Rolex 24 class winner the question will be over I think he's young enough still early enough in his development that he can figure out the ovals but again he's 17 years old Anything Could Happen he's still in many ways a blank slate so I've got him in the three spot at number two I'm big on Cory Heim he is so darn consistent won three races and made it to the championship for his first full-time season in trucks probably should have won the championship and this year he's only got the one win but he has a 3.9 average finish and he scored his first career top five in an Infinity Series race this year driving for Sam Hunt racing he'll get a taste of the Cup Series this weekend at do I'm very high on Cory Heim he just talks like a Cup Series driver but at number one he's kind of a balance of 21-year-old Cory Heim and 17-year-old Connor zillich I've got 19-year-old Jesse love what's not to love he did in nine races what Sheldon Creed couldn't do in two years with RCR that is win a race Jesse love has a ton of confidence he won 10 races in ARCA last year I think this kid is legit he's young enough that I think he still has Room to Grow he has not reached his ceiling but he's not so young that I have no idea what we're getting this kid is already an Infinity Series winner I love what I'm seeing from Jesse love gosh there are going to be so many puns no pun intended there you go there's my hypothetical uh NASCAR driver draft board you know if I had to pick a non- Cup Series driver under the age of or 23 and younger let's say you know college age I'm trying to draw parallels between this and the NFL those would be my top five I'd probably Shuffle things around a bit but there you go let me know if you agree disagree a lot of good young drivers in trucks Xfinity outside of Nascar worth taking a look at and speaking of the NFL I saw a clip earlier today get ready for the Daytona 500 to potentially be pushed back a week in February in the not so distant future NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was on with Pat McAfee and hinted that the Super Bowl may get pushed to President's Day weekend which traditionally Falls right around Daytona 500 time anyone would be foolish to go up against Super Bowl Sunday so I would expect NASCAR to react accordingly they could I guess move the Daytona 500 up a week likely would push it back a week we'll be interesting to see in the next few years if this happens how it impacts future Nascar Cup Series schedule so a lot of NASCAR and NFL parallels here in today's episode EP now I want to react to just a couple of Clips here from Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast I actually think it's a great listen I think he and uh Mamba Smith Caitlyn Vincy have great chemistry I think they're fun together often have interesting conversations as a relatively new member of the media myself I'm always very conscious of the sorts of questions I ask drivers like I'm not afraid to ask a question that may elicit a negative response but I try not to ask questions that make drivers feel super uncomfortable just for the sake of making drivers feel super uncomfortable Kevin Harvick now is also technically a relatively new member of the media but he's a future Nascar Hall of Famer he's raced against so many of these guys for many many years so he is very used to putting these guys in uncomfortable positions and that came through this week Kevin Harvick sat down with all four Joe Gibbs Racing Cup Series d at once kind of an unorthodox format but he did ask some good questions got some interesting responses I'll put a link to the full half hour interview down below it's probably worth checking out but towards the end there were quite a few awkward moments like here how Christopher Bell refus to talk about you know him not being allowed to race dirt hey I run 36 races a year that's it that's it why I mean yeah you skipping see you're going to get him in trouble where he's going to get yelled at what would you race uh doesn't have to we're going down a wrong path here oh God I don't even know something on dirt yeah yeah I just be honest don't need to be r that all right I got not chills but like a weird kind of tingle down my back it look kind of uncomfortable as if that moment wasn't awkward enough Kevin Harvick then asked these four drivers straight up who's the better driver Dell Jr or chase Elliot that is wrong for you to ask me that go that is a gotcha question if I've ever heard one Chase Elliot it's hard it's definitely a hard question to pick though yeah you have to pick statistically I would say Chase Elliott right Chase yeah got to go I'm going to say Chase as well okay man a tough spot to be put in Tai Gibbs is right though from a statistical standpoint yes Chase Elliott is probably the correct answer Chase Elliot a Cup Series champion he's only seven wins away from Dale Jr's career Mark and he's made like more than 300 fewer starts Chase Elliot does drive for you know arguably the best team in the garage the era has changed Dale Junior's a two time Daytona 500 champion and he has those two exfinity Series Championships to Elliots one but this is a dumb argument this is a a silly question you can have this argument but I don't think it's worth getting everyone all riled up Dale Jr had a Hall of Fame level career on and off the track and Chase Elliot is well on his way towards having his own Hall of Fame career let's just leave it at that I appreciate Kevin Harvick trying to spark some interesting conversation hey we need more of that in NASCAR but the only point of asking that type of question is to try and stir the pot on social media I guess mission accomplished he got me to react to it dang it I fell for the oldest trick in the book walked right into his trap that's uh all I've got to talk about though this week just wanted to catch up on a few interesting like I said sound bites comments reports from this past week tied into the uh trending NFL draft that's going to do it though thank you so much for watching leave a like on this video If you enjoyed subscribe if you're new to the channel we talk NASCAR all day all week every week All Season all year long and a huge thank you to my patreon supporters as well I'm not at do this weekend obviously but I will be at Kansas next weekend new track for me get to check another one off my list excited for that hope to see you all out there have a wonderful rest of your Friday folks and a fantastic weekend I will see you again real soon h

Channel: Eric Estepp

Views: 23,012

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Id: lQ8uzzTY4fQ

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024