Original subtitles

Last week at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania.

All of the racers on Team Kai

were out by round two.

That gave other teams the chance to go some rounds and close the gap. And boy,

did they.

The biggest win went to Ryan Martin.

who won his first invitational race of this year.

He

moved his team

back into third place, just 140 points out of first.

But with four events left, it's still anyone's championship.

Michigan.

How y 'all doing today?

A little damp.

A little damp.

Yeah.

Hey, look, we're going to be dodging this stuff all day long, y 'all. But

I will tell you one thing. We're going to try our best to get this track dry.

If a little shower comes through, we'll turn around and try to get it dry the

moment it stops raining.

But now we're going to go ahead and try to get started, get some racing in, and

try to beat this weather.

We are here today at US 131 in Michigan.

This is the first time for us at this track. With the weather being kind of

weird, cold and wet, what it does for the drivers is they'll make a path and

they get data, and then the track conditions can change completely when it

rains. They have to come back, wait for the track to dry.

All that data they got is now gone. It's useless.

We're getting a late start today because of the rain, which may mean we only get

through the first round of racing tonight, and we'll have to come back and

finish tomorrow.

Yeah, Ryan Martin, winner of last week's event, got his first invitational win

of the season.

Comeback starts now.

That's right. Right now.

Coming into this race, Kai Kelly is still sitting number one in points, but

the last three weeks, they have struggled.

And as we're getting closer to the end of the season, it sounds like all of the

captains have spent a lot of time on the phone this week working out potential

trades and deals of all kinds.

There's a couple of teams that know they don't have a shot at winning.

And, you know, every team's got a couple of decent guys in it. And then after

that it goes, you know. And so they're talking about getting rid of their

one and number two picks to hire up teams.

For money.

Politicking, politicking.

We made some decisions to make some trades.

Due to the performance of our team, our team has been on a spiral going down.

We got two guys who've been killing it for us all year, Nathan and Damon.

These guys deserve an opportunity to win a championship, but a hot commodity

right now, man. I'm auctioning them off. We got the deal pretty close. These

guys want an opportunity to win, and I gave them an opportunity to pick the

they wanted to go to.

All right, fellas, so I got some pretty good news. Buddy called me, said that he

realizes that his team ain't got a shot at the championship, and he wanted to

sell a Damon Merchant.

What's the bid? Are we bidding or what? What's the bid? Ten grand and ranking.

Worked his ass off the whole year. The guy's put in the work. He's done a lot,

but he just can't get off that struggle bus right now.

Man, this ain't friendship. It's business. We got to do what we got to

Pretty much halfway through this season already, I was... Already talking to

Bodie about possibly trying to get Damon Merchant. I hope y 'all are in, because

I already told him yes.

He named a price. It was $10 ,000.

And I immediately told him, hell yeah, we want to do it.

I did hear some more things. I don't know if they're true. But I heard Ryan

or may not have bought Nate Saylor, which is a weapon right now.

This is the last event before the points and a half starts and if there's any

moves to be made now is the time if you think you're gonna make a push that

being said I've got to make smart moves for my team to try to strategically get

out this championship And so I got a phone call from Bodie. Bodie's got two

commodities. Nate's car's fast. He wants to be on our team. He's going to take a

little bit of money.

It's going to be interesting today. Yeah,

you know.

You know how it goes. Everybody got knives.

So last week when Bodie called me wanting to sell Nate and Damon, I

told him that I would take both of them for the money he was asking for them.

Nate. He called Ryan, actually got Ryan to buy him.

Damon, we went back and forth, back and forth, and I thought all was good. Like,

I thought Damon was coming out on my team, and it was going to be great.

I almost feel like I got a knife in my back.

Hey, you've got to take the best shot at winning this championship.

Coming up, look at those coming up races. It's a lot.

Lizzie's going to run good there. Kyle's going to run nice.

Test there a lot. It's going to be a good race for them.

I feel Alabama's going to be a good race for Ryan.

Texas is where it's like, it's any man's game at Texas, I think.

Was Ryan trying to get you too?

Uh, we talked, he talked a little bit. He got, I think he got Nate.

Huh? He got Nate.

What's up?

That's why I'm on the bottom of the ladder.

You're not wrong on me.

You're upset.

I'm not upset.

Are you okay?

Are you upset?

No.

Do I have a reason to be upset? I could be, I guess. I don't know.

Should I be upset? You should wake up in a happy mood.

Why? You should.

I know you're waking up angry.

No.

I know. You just look like you've got a face frown.

Uh -uh.

I'm good.

All right, guys. This is the captain's meeting. As you know, this is where you

can make changes to your team.

So we're going to start at the bottom. Not the bottom. Sorry. We're going to

start with the team that has the most opportunity to do well.

Yes. Dean. Yeah, no change. Really? No change. Okay, I like it. I got faith in

my guys. One of these days they're going to pull through.

Murillo. Yes. Any changes?

Man, you know what? We're doing so good right now, I'd hate to mess it up.

Y 'all are just a well -oiled machine over there. So no changes. Yeah, we're

good. Keep it where it's at. Status quo. Yes, sir.

Swanstrom.

No. I found out this week my money doesn't go as long as some others, so.

Oh. Oh.

What happened? I don't know. I'm going to stay because there's no trade there.

Got it. Uh, Bodie.

I tell you what.

We're going to make a lot of changes over here today. First. What?

Yeah, the first change I'm going to make is I'm going to put myself back in for

Tim Brown. Like it. I'm also going to make a major trade with my two top guys.

OK.

So who are you starting with?

First, I'll start here with Kai Kelly.

What's going on here?

We was talking about negotiating.

I got Damon.

He wanted to go to your team. He was going to bring me back over, rank it,

couple extra dollars.

Ooh!

Say no more.

$10 ,000.

Why a timeout? $10 ,000.

Trading Damon for Rankin is huge for us because Rankin's been struggling. When

it does make a pass, it's a pass. But to win these deals, you've got to be

consistent. And you've got to be consistent every single week with no

now, he's just not consistent enough for us to win a championship, and Damon is.

It's business, and it's $200 ,000.

I hate it for Rankin, but I've got to do it.

Rankin, please do not take offense to this, but you just traded Damon Merchant

for Chris Rankin.

And $10 ,000.

I get a lot of credit. I'm the great GM because everybody had an opportunity to

pick these guys, and they didn't. So I GMed these guys, and I got them here,

they showed me that they was worth every dime of it, so this is what I get in

return. And we're not done. We're not done. Oh, you got more trades.

Wow. Okay.

What else you got? The next trade we got... Blockbuster trade. ...is Nate

Thaler. We're working a deal with Ryan Martin.

Yeah.

For who?

For Jerry, unfortunately, the Bird Boys.

That's what you think. I wasn't going to do this, but then I heard Kai was going

to do it.

Damon's a heavy hitter. He's one of the fastest cars here. Obviously top five

for sure. So to go get this championship, it's going to be tough to

there without having an equal team.

I need people that are going to be heavy hitters.

Cody put up Nate Saylor. It was a $10 ,000 purchase.

I talked it out with my team. We split it up four ways. It was $2 ,500 a piece.

We thought of it as a very cheap investment to possibly guarantee us

driver to collect points for us to go get that championship.

Did you already have the money wired to you, or is it in cash, or what's going

on with that? You know I'm good for it. Yeah, yeah.

I'm good for it. I'd also like to point out that I'm sure Team Dave and Murder

Nova maybe are not exactly happy with the trades because that just kind of

them back as well. It makes it harder for them to win the championship as

It's kind of stacking the teams, you know. Set me back.

All right, is that it? Yes, sir. All right, Murder Nova, I think you're good.

Yes. I ain't got 10 grand, so.

It looks like I'm sticking with my guys.

Yeah.

Okay. All right, guys. Well, there you have it.

That's the captain's meeting.

Let's do it. You know what you got to do. Good deal. All right. Team Kai

another heavy hitter onto a team that is already sitting in first place.

And then you've got Team Ryan Martin, who is also getting an extremely fast

driver. Moving up, huh?

I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing. That's right.

This will put a lot of pressure on Damon and Nate to really perform for their

teams because these captains made these moves to try to win that team

championship.

What do you think about the team deal?

I don't mind it. It helps y 'all. But at the same time, the way he did it.

Yeah. You know.

I got to talk to him last night. I said, I'll probably be the next one to go. I

said, but.

I'd rather kind of be anywhere than with Nate.

We still had a chance.

We wasn't out.

You know what I'm saying? That's what I kind of said, too. Me and Nate talked

about that. We still had a chance for the championship.

We wasn't out.

But all that benefited was his pocket. That's it.

And then he threw up in my face.

Oh, well, I didn't have to pick you.

You ain't done for the team.

You ain't got a point. You ain't went a round.

But you want to.

Stick all the money in your pocket and sell out on your people? That ain't no

cap. That's chicken.

All right.

Well, folks, we are now going to move into the invitational round one driver's

meeting. Folks, this is the main event for the weekend.

This is the class where 32 drivers battle it out for $40 ,000.

It seems like those trades really opened the floodgates for other team captains

to try to make some moves. I said no. I said you've worked more than five. He

just don't like you, man. He don't like you. He thinks you can't win a

championship. He don't want you to either.

That's where we're at with Mike right now. That's the type of guy Mike is.

You had Sean trying to get Mike Murillo to trade Scott Taylor for $5 ,000.

But for some reason, Murillo is not down with that. He's trying to go from

fourth to third.

Yeah. But he's not getting his paper right.

How much paper is he going to take? Ten thousand.

Ten thousand. You're good for it, right?

I guess that's what top tier people go for.

Are you talking about Ryan?

Oh, wow.

Wow.

Hey.

Wow. I love you,

man. All right. Well, look, Sean, it looks like Murillo is not going to crack

yet. We'll try next week, buddy. Sorry.

And now, after all the successful and unsuccessful trading, plus our race your

way in, the 32 -car field is set.

Since he auctioned off two of his team members, Bodie only has two drivers in

the Invitational today. But Ty's and Ryan's investments are really paying

as they each have all five racers in, unlike Dave, who only has four.

We'll go ahead and get the bucket here. We'll draw out of this bucket real

quick. All right.

Anyone ask me, I think you're worth $10 ,000. Thank you, bud. You're welcome.

In the first round here in Michigan, eight teammates drew each other.

You got Chuck 55 going up against B -Rad.

Sean had four racers coming in to this race.

Unfortunately, this guarantees that he'll have, at the most, three racers

continuing on after this first round.

Then... The race that everyone's got their eye on, it is a rematch between

Kelly and Lizzie Musi. Those two are the heaviest hitters on their team.

Plus, you factor in the history they have between each other, this is going

be a good one.

Then you have Robin Roberts versus Ryan Martin. Again, two of the heaviest

hitters on their team.

And for Ryan Martin, who's trying to get to the top, he needs all of his

strongest racers to stay in as long as possible.

Finally, you have Dave himself going up against Paige Coughlin. Paige has been

trying to prove herself all season long, and Dave is the captain of the team,

which means there'll be a lot of pressure for Paige and Dave to get the

I think you're in a better position now. I do, too. I mean, for sure now, but

Dave was really wanting to make a run.

All right, folks, first pair here in the Invitational first round.

We've got Rich Bruder going up against Jim Howell.

It's a rematch from last weekend.

Here we are, U .S. 131. What a crazy day.

Rain on and off, getting cold out.

We're up there for Invitational chip draw. We draw Jim Howell. It's going to

a rematch from the last race.

We went up there, third round, last race. Went up there, we had a problem

the car.

After that race, we went to a dyno, dynoed the car a little bit, got it

where it should be, and it's running strong today.

Damn, somebody's on some sticker tires.

Holy.

So we're here in basically my hometown. We're in Martin, Michigan. I grew up

racing here for two days. That's all it's done is rain, rain, rain, rain,

The sun finally came out this afternoon.

I do not like racing in the winter weather, and that's what this is. You

it's no prep racing, and this is what it is.

It's what makes this sport and this particular series such an interesting

That's why we've seen so many different winners all year.

We're moving on to the next round of the invitational class.

All right, next pair coming at you right now. We got Brandon James going up

against Kayla Morton.

We are getting ready for today.

And he chose to go with Kai. So we just need to use that as drive and, you know,

a fire lit under our ass to do better. If you don't want to be on our team,

we're going to show you that you made a mistake.

All kinds of sideways over there in the left lane.

Woo! The right lane was a little more sketch.

Up top, man, it was a little shaky. It was all over the place, but I am glad

that we drew that lane, and now we have some data in both lanes, and I'm just

hoping to keep this momentum going.

There's something to be said about winning five times in a row, and

can just keep that up. I was driving.

Mine drove to the center. I held, and I almost about wrecked.

Did you really?

Yeah. Damn, that track is just so cold now.

Yeah, it is.

Good job. Thanks, Brandon. Good luck, Ma. Appreciate you.

Next pair.

Coming at you right now, we got Clay Cole going up against Scott Scooter.

Taylor.

So I went up and drew chips today for round one of the Invitational. I drew

Scott Taylor.

I've not raced Scott yet, so it ought to be an interesting race.

So round one's a little bit different today. We've had Mother Nature against

all weekend, unfortunately.

cooler out so it's definitely going to be tricky and uh you're going to have to

be on your a -game for sure to get down this track

what's

wrong it's trans right it ain't clicking looks like scott taylor having issues

out there stuck not packing up jiggle right there

Mike Murillo, team captain, needs to get out there and figure out what's going

on with his teammate, Scott Taylor.

Are you going to put him on the clock?

Yeah. All right, so Clay Cole has put Scott Taylor on a two -minute clock.

Oh, my.

See it broke anywhere?

I don't see anything.

Oh, yep, right there.

Can you shove it back?

Y 'all push me back. I'm going to try. Maybe it goes red or something.

Man, Clay, if you don't give him extra time, that's sorry.

All right, so got about 10 seconds.

Nine, eight, seven.

All right, we good.

We good. He's got to tighten one thing. Five, four, three, two, one. He's almost

got it. He's almost got it. That is.

Pedaling over there in that wide lane. Scott Taylor has something happen there

right on the hit. Damn, does not make the pass.

We had a wire break on the trans break on the dash, and we just needed a few

minutes to fix it. He didn't want to give no extra time. I know that Clay

is not going to give anybody one second to actually get a drag race. We know

that. We established that. So in the future, anybody, you know, goes up

Clay and he has a problem, he ain't going to give you time. So you got that

stuck in the back of your mind.

What happened, brother?

Trans brake wouldn't work.

It just ain't meant to be right now. Oh, man, I'm sorry. Oh, good, man. I didn't

put you on the car. My guy did. I'm sorry. No, you're fine. I don't know if

could have got it fixed or not.

It's all good. Good?

Yep. I think we had one of the fastest cars on the property tonight, and a

you know, one wire broke, and I thought that maybe, you know, the testing and

stuff had paid off. We do really good when the track's not great. That's our

specialty.

We're in the biggest slump we've ever been in, but there ain't one way to get

out of it. Let's keep digging.

You lay down in a slump, you get covered up.

We ain't going to lay down.

All right, folks, next pair.

That's going to be David Gates going up against Murnova.

Man, I'm going to have to go up here and race my buddy Sean Murnova.

Try to get that win and put him on the trailer.

Man.

It's starting to go into these points and a half. We got a shot.

We're not that far behind.

No, y 'all are in a good spot for sure.

It's achievable where you're at. Yes, yes.

Pretty tight. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But now it's going to start doing this because they all got five guys in.

So normally we race first round during the day, and you have to worry about a

tricky track that's hot.

Well, this is a little bit different. We're really far north.

It's cold, and a cold track could be worse than a hot and greasy track.

David Gates' car has the capabilities of being one of the fastest cars on the

property. I know he's been struggling a little bit, but I can't look at it that

way.

How much power is this lane going to take whenever I try to put it down? And

that's the route we're going to go.

I heard her. Nova takes the win. He'll move on to the next round.

Next pair coming at you is going to be B -Rack going up against Chuck 55.

Good luck.

Be careful.

We just drew a teammate. We drew Chuck Parker. It sucked.

It's their fair.

But I really want to win first round. That's my simple goal for the week. Win

first round.

Next pair coming at you is going to be B -Rack going up against Chuck 55.

And Chuck 55

takes the win.

All right, coming at you right now, that's going to be Disco Dean going up

against Nate Taylor.

At the end of the day, it's the captain's choice to do what they want.

put us down in a reserve pool, trade us, swap us.

Nothing we can do about it.

But Bodie gave me the choice. He said, you pick where you want to go.

That's where you can go.

And to be honest, I didn't want to go to the first place team, Kai's team. I

want to earn the championship.

Like if we win, I don't want to be like, oh, well, you got traded at the last

minute onto Kai's team and he was in first place.

I want to go to a team that's going to work their ass off.

Make it happen.

Now it's crunch time.

After this race, then it's points and a half, points and a half, and then double

points. Like, if you don't have your group and your team together before

people are going to go flying by you.

I'm just looking for the opportunity to go win a championship.

Thanks, brother.

Good run.

Did you make a clean hit? Yeah, I was right there next to you the whole time,

just getting loose down there like that.

I lifted about the mile an hour cone just to be safe because it was getting

-washing. I hear you.

Good lap. Thanks, brother.

Next pair, that is going to be Damon Merchant and his competitor, Jeff Lutz.

What's wrong?

Number one, sitting at around 700.

You got no power.

Huh?

We've just been fighting little gremlins all day, really.

Got a blower.

We keep having cylinder one shut off randomly.

So we got the coil swapped and a new spark plug wire on it. So we're just

to, I mean, it's time to go up. So we're going to give her hell.

We do jet bluts for the first time this year.

In all honesty, I haven't got to race very many 405 guys this season.

He's another big block Chevy out here. There's not too many of us out here.

He's going to find out if his big block is faster than my big block.

What do you think?

I don't know. I didn't get to see Damon's earlier pass.

I'm not worried about him. I'm just worried about cold track.

And I went over and asked Ryan, I said, what's your plan? He goes, man, I think

I'm going to leave it alone.

I said, yeah, I think we're going to too.

He's 12th. I said, well, pay attention because we're going to leave it alone.

Don't you know I draw Damon Merchant? You know, it's been cold all day. It's

been raining. It is what it is.

Let's give it what we got, you know. So our test pass earlier today went really

well. We ran pretty close against Ryan, and I said, let's just rerun that run.

Takes the wig right past there.

Woo!

I'm done eating that.

Damon won his race. So far, my trade is going exactly the direction I needed it

to go.

His test passes, they suck.

Broke a blower, burned up a spark plug, but he showed up for an invitation to

round one. And that's exactly why we paid the money for him, because he's

it. Woo!

I had a little drive in that time.

All right, folks, it's the next pair. That's going to be Larry Larson going up

against Axeman.

Larry Larson.

Larry. How many times you beat him?

Shoot, I don't know how many times I've raced Larry. I got him the last time we

raced. But it was nose to nose.

Larry has stepped his game up a lot. So it's not going to be easy.

Not going to be.

Putting my mittens on now. What's that?

I'm going to put my mittens on.

You're all set.

Cold out here.

Yes, it is.

Hold Larry, Roach, Axeman.

Same guy tunes his, tunes Kayla's, and a couple other ones. So I know about how

fast they are. I think we're fully capable of outrunning them. Going to

be good on the light and make a nice, clean run.

The track's really cold right now.

Sun's went down.

It hasn't rained this afternoon, which is great, but the track conditions are

going to start to get a little treacherous down there from half -track

All right, folks, it's the next pair. That's going to be Larry Larson going up

against Axeman.

So that's moving on to the next round.

We rolled in. When that light turned green, I come off that button.

I'd never seen him again.

Like I said, I was walking up on the center line. I'm fighting it back,

it back. I kept telling myself, I'm not going to let off. My light come on.

Now that's another bullet.

Man, I'm glad to get past that first round.

Next pair, that's going to be Giuseppe going up against Tony McKinnon.

So in Maple Grove, we had Nate first round, which is tough. He's fast.

Obviously, he's coming off a win.

Yeah. He's been moving lately. Yeah. So he got us by a fender, but we made a

good run. Yeah.

Car's fast. We made some changes. We changed the combination up. Yeah. So I'm

feeling confident for the rest of the season. I feel real good. Yeah, I'm

feeling real good.

Going in, we got the chip draw, and we drew Tony McKinney for first round here.

Haven't raced Tony McKinney this year, so not sure how fast he is or not.

Haven't really gauged him yet.

But we're about to find out here in a little bit.

Car's really fast, flying.

But we got to make it to the finish line.

We tried a couple more things. Let's see if it makes it to the finish line this

next run here.

With the win, that car was out of here.

It was fast, fast.

Right through the stripe. Didn't see Tony McKinney that whole run.

And we pulled off a win.

I just had to cut gas.

I knew I had to. I know how fast you are.

Yeah,

that was a good run probably right there.

Yeah, wheels up. It was moving around a little bit.

Man,

we packed the wheels and then they still had the wheels packed. And the one -two

shift. And I failed it. As soon as I failed it way ago, I was like, oh, and I

cut gas and it almost went over into your lane. So I was able to save it.

Hey. All right, buddy. Congratulations.

All right, man. Thank you.

All right, Nick. Bear coming after you. We got Tally Mills. Go up against Mike

Marillo.

Got 100 bucks on the left lane.

Going into the first round of Race Your Way In against Jerry Bird and had just a

killer pass and broke a rod.

We're applying, you know, 5 ,000 horsepower at, you know.

2 .2 seconds in. Have we reached a threshold, a limit? You know, I don't

What does this mean?

It means we're broke.

That's what it means, we're broke.

I draw none other than Mike Merlo.

Unfortunately, he broke his motor.

Like, it's, I guess, in pieces. Not good. I hate that for them. Very

luck. But on our end, we got lucky.

On the 2 -3 shift, it had the wheels up and just got sideways. I needed to have

the chute out a little bit sooner because it was... And that was not good.

So, just had it too hopped up.

Next pair coming at you right now.

Kai Kelly going up against Lizzie Musi.

You know, I know you're sick, so there's nothing you can do about it.

I honestly, like, standing, like, I feel like I could throw up any minute.

That's how I feel like. Really?

I'm not feeling the greatest this weekend.

I'm trying the best I can, so I'm pushing through it.

And guess what?

I draw freaking Kai first round again.

Definitely didn't want to freaking race him again. No matter what, one of us is

going on to the next round for the team. So that's the way I kind of look at it.

Let me win one.

Round one, I drew Lizzie.

I don't like racing my own team. I definitely don't like racing Lizzie. It

like every time I get beside her, I get emotional.

And I don't like the feeling, and I'd rather hurt you.

Draw somebody else, because their car's fast, and we've got to run the hell out

of my car to try to outrun her.

So it just sucks because there's two fast people, and one of us has got to go

home first round when we draw each other.

We've got to be on top of our game. We've got to go as fast as we've

ever been right here today if we want to get out of the first round. It's

probably the toughest first -round draw you can get.

Next pair coming at you right now, Ty Kelly going up against Lizzie Yusey.

Addiction there. Takes the win.

Lots of smoke down there in Lizzie's lane.

At the very end of the track.

I couldn't imagine having more than one motor. Where you're cool with just

burning it down.

Every lap.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't get it.

They said he was up against the wall.

Was he? I don't think so.

I can't.

But a good thing about a car. It ate itself up before the finish line, but

had me anyway.

You're right. Good job.

At least we won and won for the day.

Oh, what a... If they ain't blowing the motor up, they ain't trying to win, and

that's exactly what I want my team to do when they draw me. I want them to win

because I want the fastest car to go to the next round because at the end of the

day, that gets us more points.

I'm still proud of you, though. You're my hero.

Why?

You're fighting what you're fighting. Stop.

Hard on me this weekend, so... Still love you.

Always. Good job.

Go kick ass, okay?

Okay.

Robin Roberts going up against his team captain, Ryan Martin.

Here we are now. It's nighttime.

It is.

It's really cold out here.

The track surface is good for about 100 foot, but after that, it's not great.

You know, I'm trying to make this deal a comeback, right? So we won the last

race. We're trying to do well.

And all the guys have all talked, like, hey, we just need a couple of good

draws. And here I am today, and I drew Robin Roberts again.

Good luck, man. Be safe, man.

Good luck.

Good luck.

Good luck, homie.

You too, man.

Be safe.

He has one of the fastest cars here.

Very similar combination to mine. I mean, not who I wanted. We're pulling

all the stops.

We'll see if it's enough.

You know, I hate drawing Ryan.

One, he's my buddy.

Two, like, he's my team captain.

But we got Ryan. We're going to have to make it work.

Clubs did it.

Rolling in the lights, and I know he likes to do that double bowls real fast,

I tried to light mine real quick behind him. We both left at the same time, and

he just flat -out run. It's in the middle of the track. He just pulled the

fender on me.

You know, I hate to lose in the sucks, but the team, four out of five, are

moving on to the next round, keep gaining points for Team Ryan Martin. You

what? I've drawn my teammate four times in a row. Started with him, then I drew

Giuseppe, then I drew...

Bird boys, and I drew him again. What about drawing Lizzie twice in one day?

Yeah, no.

Great eight in there. Good job.

And then I hugged her and started crying.

You did? Yeah.

This pair here got Paige Coughlin going up against her teammate and team

captain, Daddy Dave.

The car just needs to do what it did earlier.

What's that? It just needs to do what it did earlier. Yeah, it will.

You'll be nice.

Nice. It was a nice, smooth run and pretty similar.

All righty.

We're here at US 131 Dragway. We finally get to go some rounds. You know, we

were able to make a test pass. We're going up for first round.

We've been battling, like, the cold weather, the rain, sunshine, clouds.

But finally, we're able to hit the track. We're ready to rock and roll.

We went up for chip draw, and we drew Daddy Dave. But you know what?

Positive outlook on this. One of us from Team Daddy Dave is going to be

guaranteed a spot in round two.

We drew our own teammate again, Paige Copeland. We raced her a few weeks ago

another event.

At this time, I hope it's a little closer race because she got this new

there. We'll go up here, let go of the button, and see if we can't go on round

two.

And Daddy Dave takes the win.

Looked like Paige Coffin was out in front, pulled the chute a little early.

Oh, my God.

I'm so scared.

Why? What happened?

I was going everywhere but straight for a minute. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no.

Hey, good job. Oh, my God. It was scary. Knocked my head off at the tree. I go,

where is she going?

You know what, Daddy? I got to keep you in line, at least on the foot.

That's the second time I've left before you. Yeah.

All right, next pair coming at you. We got John Odom. They go up against Bobby.

They're coding.

We'll try to get the point.

We kind of got our whole team smashed out from under us.

Great captain decided to just sell everybody to pad his own pockets to hell

everybody else. His ass still ain't racing. He ain't got a single point this

year, went a single round this year, but he put all that money in his pocket to

hell with the rest of the team.

Whatever. It is what it is.

I'll probably be traded next week.

I don't really know where I'm going. I don't really care. I'd rather be

than with a snake like that.

And John Odom will take the win there.

Yeah, John, we got the win. At least that was pivotal.

I was pulling back, too. I saw you the whole time, dude.

The whole time, brother.

Were you like, there was a point.

Did you see me the whole time? I can see your nose right here. Yeah, the whole

time.

Battle of the turbo cars coming at you right now. We've got Chris Rankin over

the left lane in the Conquest.

Going up against Chuck Seitzinger in the Rylance.

We drew Chuck, and him and I are usually door -to -door, so it could be

anybody's race.

Him and I are both high -strung as hell, so, you know, hopefully we can both

have a good drag race, and I come out on top, man. I go in round two.

So, that's it.

Chris Rankin in the left lane, twin -turbo Conchrest going up against Chuck

Sizer. Twin -turbo Mustang in the right lane.

This is the first time I've been in the Invitational in three or four weeks,

though. I need to go to the semifinals.

So when I go to Galat, I'm not in the race to weigh in. But right now, I just

can't give up. So I'm going to do the best I can.

All right, Chris Rankin will get the win.

Chuck Seisinger has problems on the hit.

All right, folks, we got Jimmy Taylor going up against Justin Swanstrom.

It's being so cold here. It's pretty rough.

We'll see how it plays out. I know the tracks are going to be very tricky for

everybody today, too. But everybody's got to go down the same surface.

All right, folks, we got Jimmy Taylor going up against Justin Swanson.

Going into round two, Ryan Martin has four racers moving on. Meanwhile, Dave

Kai only have three.

It does feel like Ryan is picking up some momentum in his program. He came

his first invitational win last week.

Now, he's picked up Nate Thaler, and he's looking to continue that forward

movement. Nate Thaler and Damon Merchant are moving on to round two. It really

seems like they're trying to prove that they are worth the investment that was

made. All right, folks, I'm going to have my driver's draw tip.

All

righty, where are

my number ones?

Kelly Mills versus Kayla Morton.

Shot 55.

That's a two. And Giuseppe, yes, Giuseppe, that is a two.

Oh, Axman versus Ryan Martin.

Oh, my.

Daddy Dave versus Murder Nova.

Chris Rankin versus Nate Thaler.

It's going to be John Odom versus Damon Merchant.

Jimmy Taylor and Kai Kelly.

All right, so my eighth and final pair will be Rich Bruder versus

Clay Cole.

All right, drivers, well, y 'all got some time to think about what you got to

to your cars.

Because this round will be run tomorrow.

We appreciate you coming.

See you tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the rain yesterday set us back late enough that we were only able

to get the first round of racing in.

That means we will have to be spending one more day here in Michigan to finish

up the round and determine who will be walking away with the $40 ,000

Invitational Prize money. How are you? What's up? How's everybody doing today?

Good.

For those that were here last night, you know that we made it through our first

round of the Invitational Class.

We're going to finish it up today on a beautiful Sunday here in Michigan.

First pair here in this second round of the Invitational Class.

Callie Mills going up against Kayla Morton.

You ready?

Yeah, I think so. Last night, so we changed the cam, you know, to make more

horsepower out the back. And so they didn't have the drive shaft.

curve close enough to it because they were trying to see what it would do

we had that fight against mike and hell it went out there and it was like i was

like you did a hell of a job last night yeah i'm like i so i just hope we can

make it down and if i can do my job on the tree i think it'll be okay today's a

new day second round of invitational we drew kayla morton i'm gonna have my work

cut out for me because my car has not been happy but last night we made a good

pass to like the 330 and then when it shifted into high gear it just got

sideways and did not go well

So hopefully we can get it to go A to B and I can do my job on the tree because

I think I'm going to have to have a really good light.

Perfect.

Nailed it.

Started off the day good, guys.

Callie is not one to take lightly.

She's getting better and better, faster and faster each race. She's been to a

semifinal this year. We are first pair, so that is another factor to kind of

take into account.

But we have momentum. We've made pass after pass and just looking to get six

round wins here in a row, which is super exciting.

Going to take the win there. Callie Mills.

Car makes a hard move out there.

We both be driving.

All right. Next pair. We got Chuck 55 going up against Giuseppe.

We just need to figure out. We got a Giuseppe.

He's got a good setup.

Fast car.

But he's been struggling a little bit. I'm going to try to tear their head off

on the light.

And if I can leave with them.

It gets game over because I'm telling you, I'll pull them on the big end.

We hold things together, I'll make more power on the big end.

You need to make it to the final.

That's it, I know.

You need to get to the final, baby.

All right, you guys good over there?

Yeah, we're good.

Right now I just put a bunch of fuel, the air -fuel ratio that the car would

normally run at, which has just changed.

The weather, whatever, don't know, but now it needs a lot more fuel in the car,

so we put more fuel in it.

Chuck 55.

I know he made it to the finals a few races back there.

We're really going to just try to run our own race, try to go as fast as we

with the track we'll take. But I'm going to just worry about our program right

now and try to push the limits of the track and see if we can pull it off.

Right now, we've got four guys in. We've got the most guys still going rounds

right now. We're the only ones who have four in. So we're going to try to close

that gap this weekend.

Hopefully we can get two of our guys in the finals.

And I'm hoping for all four of our guys for the semifinals left, then two of our

guys in the finals to get max points out of this weekend and close that gap

against Guy there.

gonna take the win there nice pass from him it was loose out there i did what i

didn't want to do shook no we uh we took power out of it on the hit not knowing

where to take yeah and uh plus you left on me oh yeah and so that didn't help

yeah but man i mean as when i felt the power ramp in i started reeling you up

but yeah man it's too late too late

All right, folks, this right here is going to be a good one. That is going to

Axeman going up against Ryan Martin.

Better make a straight hit.

We'll have some boy. Definitely can't pedal against Ryan, so you're going to

have to drive. No, no.

Got a tough competitor, Ryan Martin.

The maddest man on the planet as far as I'm concerned. Like, I mean, he's tough.

He's got a couple advantages.

He's changed his new car over. He went to that new blower. But I'm going to

figure out some way to get around here.

I've got Axeman first round. They got a new motor in the car.

I expect them to be a handful, so we're not going to turn this car down.

I'm going to bank on the track holding what I'm going to put in it, and

hopefully it does.

My team has done really good. We've got four cars in right now, which is what we

hoped for. Nobody else has that many in. The trade move that we did, Nate's

still in, and it was a smart move. I need all four of my guys to advance to

round because we didn't draw each other, and it would be fantastic if we could

get there.

He can't be mad. He did it last week.

I told that. I said, you can't be mad ever again.

You did it last week. He did it last week.

How you doing, baby? I'm sorry, but I had to.

So, unfortunately, we had a car tuned up and a good car for the weekend.

And somebody guessed and put us on the trailer.

We all got the same opportunity.

That's just not the way I race.

He's a guesser.

Hey,

hey. Hey, one day you're going to have a car fast enough you ain't got to do

that. Let me tell you, that blower is 600 faster and you know it. I know

going to hit some of those and some of you ain't. That one you hit. I had to

make up 600, brother. I get it.

Axeman ended up guessing on the tree. And as we know, Ryan Martin absolutely

hates that. But it just goes to show that these racers will do whatever it

to get the win.

Everybody knew you were going to do it.

Next pair, and that's going to be Daddy Dave going up against Murder Nova.

It sucks because what do you do here? You know what I mean? Like, you can't

it down because you'll get outran.

You can't turn it up anymore because the track ain't going to take it. You know

what I mean?

That's going to be a drag race. We finally don't suck, so don't turn it

This is where your tune -ups get tricky.

I drew Daddy Dave, and we're the fourth pair.

That's not a whole lot of heat in the track.

This might be one of those days where a later round probably would have been

better. Dave's a tough draw, no matter what. Even if you have Dave outgunned,

which I truly believe I do, Dave is Dave, and Dave tends to win races.

Sean's been hauling ass lately, going rounds, and I couldn't be happier for

guy. But when we pull the start line, the friendship's over right there.

Next pair, and that's going to be Daddy Dave going up against Murder Nova.

We take the light.

We left together.

He got me a little bit in the middle. I put about half a car on me on the finish

line.

Side by side.

This next pair, that's going to be Chris Rankin going up against Nate Taylor.

Okay, we can go up.

Second round, we have Chris Rankin. He can make a stupid fast pass.

But it's one here or there. Our car is, like, more consistent, I would think. So

as far as the matchup goes, he's going to have to tree me, and I'm just going

make it impossible for him to do that.

He got traded to Team Bodie, which is where I came from.

I love my old team still. In fact, I'd go back to them if I had to.

But now we're Team Ryan, and we're going to do everything we can to chop their

heads off.

He guessed.

I knew he knew he had to. He ain't got nothing for this car, let's be honest.

Man, I went red, dude. I knew I was going to take a shot at it with your

dude. I'm sorry, man. We're moving on anyway. You ain't sorry, don't lie.

moving on anyway.

Yep. All right, next pair coming up right here. It's going to be John Odom

up against Damon Merchant.

Did you see John make a pass yesterday?

No, I didn't. His test pass wasn't very good, but they said he ran pretty good

in his first E1 pass.

I don't know who he raced, though. He raced Bobby.

We'll talk to Bobby and see how it went.

We know how Bobby runs.

Bobby's not shy.

We got our draw last night in John Odom. I've raced that car twice this year,

once with Jim driving it, once with John driving it. We've outran him both

times, but after the problems that we've been having this weekend.

You can't count anybody out. I don't know if it's a deal where his tuner's

to have all the confidence in him to get it down that cold racetrack today.

So as long as vinyl hit on all eight cylinders, I'm pretty sure we can outrun

that car again.

Jim, we throwing in the kick -ass tune?

I got David Merchant today.

You know him and Jim have had a little drama.

Now he's on Kai Kelly's team. As you guys know, Kai Kelly's number one. He is

fast. So that just makes it a little bit harder for Team Swannstrom just to get

to that spot. But we're working really hard.

Jim had a problem with his car. It went right last night, so he's out already.

Justin's out. He had a problem with his car. So let's just see if we can go out

and get us in the finals, and we'll help Team Swann.

Team Weiser still got three in. We lost David and Lizzie. Brian Martin's got

three. Just like we got three. If we can just make it to the next round and they

all win, we'll be tied up with him.

We'll keep points in between us. He can't catch us.

And David Merchant.

Get it. The win. Great path here in the left lane for David.

Take the win there and move on to the next round.

Woo! Baby, that's a good race.

It is a good one.

Oh,

I didn't think he was coming with no weak.

Oh, I wasn't. We were right there. I'm super proud of you, man. That was a

race. Good job.

Good job.

Next pair coming at you right now. Got Jimmy Taylor going up against Ty Kelly.

Hey, man.

Welcome to the team today, man. Don't stop.

You need some help, I'm available. Don't forget nothing.

All right?

Got it. Other than that, I'm going to let go of the button, kick Mr. Jimmy

Taylor's ass.

Let go of the button on time.

We're back. We're in Michigan. We're starting round two in Invitational. We

last night. We got that monkey off our back. We got Jimmy Taylor. He took out

Justin Swanstrom yesterday, so he must be fast, but we're ready for him.

We need also another pro -charger car.

Pro -chargers are hard to beat. Some guys are just bouncing data off each

and hooking each other's computers to their cars, and they're all getting

and faster.

Gets there first with a great pass there down the track.

We just got through round two, which felt like round one because it was the

first race of the day, and our car went really fast.

Adam nailed the tune -up.

I think I did pretty good on the tree.

Jimmy Taylor, he pulled on me in the middle a little bit, and then my car

shifted into high. I just went around it.

It was a lot faster than I thought I was about to go. I'm real happy with it,

and I think we got a hot rod.

I think as long as I do my job, I think they got their hands full today.

All right, last pair here in the Invitational class.

Rich Bruder going to go up against Clay Cole.

We double -checked all the wiring and the fittings on the front of the car

there? Yes, sir. And then suspension good up front?

Yep, yep.

How do you feel about it? I feel good. I feel really good. We got a good driver.

Yeah? Yeah.

I got Rich Bruder. I've not faced off against him yet. I know he's got a fast

hot rod, but I feel like we're probably a little bit faster on the big end.

So we're going to go up there, see what we got for Rich Bruder, and hopefully

we'll go on with the third round. So last night, it was really cold. The

temp was really, really down. It was bottom 40s. So we had to pull a lot out

our tune -up just to get down the track. And if you've seen the past, it was

pretty sketchy already.

So today, being the complete opposite, we're going to be able to put all that

power back in the car, and we're going to go a lot faster today down the track.

And we're going to make a good A to B path.

We got Clay Cole.

I haven't raced him this year yet. He's been doing good. But like I said, we got

our hot rod back.

And I'm not even worried who's in the next lane. We're going to race our race,

our lane, and turn on that wind light.

Made a clean pass, straight down. We got that win. On to round three right now.

Keep it going.

You good, bud?

Oh, yeah.

I had to lift. Did you? Yeah.

It was going that way. I was like, this ain't worth it, bro. Yeah. You know the

deal. Oh, yeah.

Good race, though, bro. You made a good lick. Yeah. Good job. We got it figured

out, and hopefully go some rounds now.

No, good job, man. You guys are killing it. Good job. Thank you.

All right, folks, that'll do it.

The second round of the invitational class.

Going into the third round, Ryan has three racers left in, while Dave and Kai

only have two. Even though Ryan Martin is out of the race, his teammates are

still gaining ground on the two teams in front. All right, we're going to go

ahead and start our invitational driver's meeting for the third round.

Let's go ahead and draw chips.

Gently, gently.

All right, my drivers have their chips. Where are my number ones? Going to be

Damon Merchant versus Kayla Morton. Number twos, Giuseppe versus Ty

Kelly. How fast did you say it was going? I'm not sure. I don't even know.

Number three,

Rich Bruder versus Axeman.

Which means the fourth and final pair will be Nate Saylor versus Murder Nova.

All right, drivers, you know what you got to do. Go back to your pits, get

cars turned around, put them in the staging lanes.

One of you is going to win $40 ,000.

Let's go.

All right, first pair here in the third round, the Invitational Class, going to

have Damon Merchant going up against Kayla Morton.

If we let it lay over against her out back, she'll drive around us.

Quicker than John down low, and it pulls way harder out back.

All right, round three here, we drew Kayla.

Hard to come to one of these deals.

Super confident when, you know, she's running really good this weekend.

We've been struggling. We've been getting by, but we've been struggling a

bit. But we feel like we do got a hot rod right now. So we're not here for no

reason. You know, we're going to go up there and do our thing. We're the first

pair down.

And hopefully put our ass on the trailer.

Didn't get to do it yesterday, so maybe today's the day.

Ready suit up.

Suit up.

All right, first pair here in the third round.

Great drag race between both those cars.

I said

at the very beginning, if we finish in the final eight at every race,

consistency wins over just a win here and a win there. So I can't be mad about

that. I'm not pouting over the top eight ever. So we're officially in the badass

group of people here.

Mama Shark is coming for a lot, man.

Pretty pass.

It was rough.

It was pretty.

I figured you was coming.

I was. I figured.

All right, next pair coming up is going to be Giuseppe going up against Kai

Keller.

Around three, I went up, I drew Giuseppe.

He's been struggling the last couple weeks, but he's going around, so he's

probably got it back figured out.

We're just not going to take Giuseppe lightly. We're going to go out there and

go as fast as we think we can go on this racetrack. There's $200 ,000 on the

line. We've got to keep clicking that 10 points towards our pot.

been able to beat them this year. I'm feeling pretty good, though. The car is

running really good. I feel like we're back to where we used to be. The car is

making great runs again, so I feel like we're going to go rounds, and we've got

a chance to win this this weekend.

So we got past Giuseppe in round three.

It was a good side -by -side race.

I got about a fender on him, I think.

You got me on the tree, I think. I feel like you pulled in front of me in the

middle. In the middle, I think I did.

You got me a little early, I think, in the middle. It was a good race.

Man, you're going so fast, you blew the wind out. I'm going to have to watch out

for you. I know, I know.

Good race, man. You too, buddy.

Coming at you right here. That's going to be Rich Bruder going up against the

Axeman.

So, he agreed we race straight up.

I hope so. After the last pass. You trust him? After the last pass you did,

hope he's straight up. I mean, if we ain't going to race straight up, I don't

mind not racing straight up. We can do it. He played a game with me last week.

I'll play it again this week. But if you want straight up, we got straight up.

I'm fine.

Round three, I drew Rich Bruder driving a Jackal.

He jumped on me last weekend.

I just showed him I can do it too.

I'm going to tell you, it brings a pair of medics if he jumps.

So I went over. I told him, I said, I'll race you straight up. I said, you

jumped last week. You know why I do it. I said, if you want to play games, I'm

good with it. But if you want to race straight up, we'll shake on it.

Is he going to guess on him?

I will.

Good race, Larry.

Damn, it cut off on me. Did it? Yeah.

Front end.

I hate it.

We have our hot rod back, and we can go rounds. And it's showing.

Good job, bro. Oh, yeah, bro. It's always fun racing. Oh, man.

All right, folks. Last pair here in the third round. That is going to be Nate

Baylor going up against Murder Nova.

It does not change.

It doesn't. I guarantee it doesn't. I got data that shows how high it is. It's

about eight inches off the ground.

It's about eight inches off the ground.

The beam's only seven.

The beam's between five and seven.

Seven tops.

Thank you. Crazy.

I don't think it does anything anyways. Okay.

I'll get it fixed before the next one. I think it does.

And I would have it on him. We draw Nate Saylor, who is at the top of his game

right now.

He's killing it. His car's really fast.

And right now, he's in the top three out here.

We've outran him before. He's outran us before. So it can go either way. It just

matters on who gets more aggressive with their tune -up. If the track holds it,

I'm not real sure he can get more aggressive than what we're going to.

Werner Nova has problems over there in that right lane. Out of the gas way

in the pass. So Nate Saylor will move on to the semifinals.

I told the tuner, I was like, if you're ever going to put a tune -up in at this

gambling, now is it, because we're going to need it.

And I think it carried the tires so damn far, I couldn't steer the car. So when

the tires came down, I had to bring her back to the groove. So he put a tune -up

in it. I wanted to win, and we won, and now we're going to the next round. We've

got two Brian Martin cars in the next round, so we're collecting those team

points. I let go of the button, and it just shook instantly.

Dude, I carried the tires so damn far, I couldn't steer. Nice job.

Nice job, man. Thanks, brother.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it broke the gears, but they're howling the

whole way.

So I didn't even make it to the 60 foot. Well, I'm not going to bullshit you. If

you lost, I'd just assume it'd be for me. Oh, yeah, yeah. For sure. For sure.

I'm good with it.

So there you have it, folks. Damon Merchant, Kai Kelly, Rich Bruder, and

Saylor. Moving on.

All right. We're going to go and get started with our invitational semifinals

drivers meeting.

Folks, we started with 32 drivers. We are now down to four.

Four drivers.

Man, we are close. All the teams have been knocked out except for Team Kai

and Team Ryan Martin.

Kai, they're kind of catching up on you.

Yeah. Look, man, do you just not like number one? You prefer number two?

No, you know, all year Damon's been, like, really close to me. So I went

and bought him, Ryan, to worry about that.

There you go. I like this strategy. All right.

All right, look. Kai's nothing but honest over here. He has a plan. I like

All right. Let's draw chips, y 'all.

Where are my number ones?

Y 'all want to trade?

Oh, wow.

The teammates drew each other.

Damon Merchant versus Kai Kelly, which means the other teammates drew each

other. Rich Bruder versus Nate Saylor.

But. What that does guarantee is it'll be a Team Kai Kelly, Team Ryan Martin

finals. All right, y 'all, go back to the pits, get your cars turned around.

Now, I'll tell you, $10 ,000 does sound good right about now.

Invitational semifinals coming at you right now.

Hey, take it easy on me. Make it look like a good race on you.

So chip draw did not go our way going into the semifinals here.

Ryan's got two guys in.

Kai and myself are in.

It would have been great for points if we could have drew them two, put them

out, went to the finals together.

Chips didn't fall that way, so we got Kai.

Anytime you throw me in a race, It's a race for $40 ,000.

I'm not laying down for any team captain, teammate, or anything.

We're going to give them hell out there, and like I said, the best car is going

to go to the finals.

Hey, Bootsy.

Yes, X -Man. Aren't these two on the same team?

Two.

Nate and Damon.

Ryan paid for Nate and Kai paid for Nate. I don't really watch those for me,

I? What happened? You missed the first day.

There was some trading that went on.

Nate Saylor went to Ryan Martin's team and Damon Merchant went to Kai Kelly's

team. You don't even know? So they bought them?

I didn't see it. Man. We got sold.

So literally paid money for them. Yeah, there's a little bit of money exchanged.

Both sold these two guys.

Holy shit.

And I didn't get anything. And Ryan? Ryan done it too?

Ryan did it also. No way.

Actually, Ryan was the first one that did the training.

But y 'all's team, you know, co -captain is the one who started this whole deal.

Dave tried to, but he didn't get his money right.

Couldn't get his money right.

Can we move on? Can we move on now?

And the National Semifinals coming at you right now.

Those cars there.

If Ty Kelly gets the win, he will go to the finals.

Picking up Damon, that's probably the best $10 ,000 I ever spent. He went to

semis with me today. He helped me hold off Ron's team from getting any points

us. He puts in the work. He's got a badass, fast car.

I race side by side with him.

Whoever leaves on the light. And to be able to buy somebody like that and put

them on your team, it's just a gift. Appreciate it, buddy.

Hey, man, you passed me. What happened?

Let him loose, man.

There he goes.

Last pair here in the semifinals for the invitational class.

Rich Bruder going up against Nate Saylor.

Sucks, but at least one of us are moving on to the next round. One team Ryan's

going to the next round. That's the only thing that's good about this.

Semifinals, we got Rich Bruder.

Didn't want that. We were trying to stay away from each other so we could race

each other in the final.

We're going to put a tune -up in the car we know is going to haul ass.

He's going to do the same, I guarantee it.

And we're going to see if we can go get some money and some points and get into

the final.

If the track's going to be there, I don't think there's going to be an issue

with that. We're hanging more weight on the front end. This is the fastest pass

that we've made to date.

It's been shown. We're going rounds now. So hopefully we'll be back, be in the

final.

will take the win. That was a drag race. Super close to the other end, but Nate

Saylor turns on the wind light.

So your finals will be Kai Kelly versus Nate Saylor for $40 ,000.

Good race, brother.

Thanks, man.

Good job.

We got our front end high up. We got to make a barge age on the thing now.

Oh, man, that thing did a monster wheelie. Yeah, same thing. It was

Good job. Thanks, brother.

We're going to go win us the championship.

That's it. We're going to do it.

All right, Michigan. This is your invitational final right here, right

Dude, I want this one so bad, I can't even tell you.

Finals here. We're against Kai Kelly, and that is my kryptonite. He has beat

three out of three times.

Y 'all got everything ready to go fast?

Yep. I know they're going to throw the kitchen sink at it because they know

we were running them before, we were right there at his door. Well, this car

faster now.

And I don't want to think these guys all pooled their money together to buy me

and I'm not doing my job.

So I'm out here trying to do the best I can for my team.

We'll see what happens here.

Win or lose, we'll be at least 100 points ahead of Dave's team.

Not to mention, we're about to go up there and race for $40 ,000.

This right here will be a drag race between these two extremely fast cars.

When Nate Saylor first came into the MPK, you know, everybody was saying he

a lot of money, he was going to be fast, he was going to be hard to deal with.

And he's done one thing that most of the rich guys don't do. He's putting in the

work. He's out testing.

He knows his car. He's got a good tuner.

So if there was any time we needed to bring our best game up there, now.

We made some changes on the car to go fast, quicker, let go of the button.

He left right with me.

And it was door to door.

And then my car was coming in his lane. His car was going to hit the wall.

But we got the win. Nick Thaler and crew, Michigan.

We got a fast race car. We're on a good team. We're going to come to that

championship. About ate some wall, buddy. I about ate you.

Thanks,

brother. I told him that if he beats me, I ain't going to be mad because I beat

him several times this year. Three out of three, he beat me. It was a good

though. Believe it or not, I feel pretty good coming out of the final race. I

did get my ass kicked, but I beat on Nate Saylor all year. It was due.

He beat me today, but what we did do is me and Damon went to the semis with him.

We made sure they didn't make up any ground on us in the championship.

And that's what it's all about right now. We're racing for $200 ,000.

I'm going home. I'm safe. My car don't have no scratches on it. And Nate Thaler

got a win.

All right.

Nate Thaler, it is payday, sir. Look, you battled all weekend and steamrolled

through the invitational class.

Two in one season.

Nate Thaler, congratulations, man. What are you thinking?

Man, I can't tell you how excited we are.

We're on a new team. Team Ryan Martin proud right there.

Already paying off.

We made a big move for our team. You know, Nate's car is really fast.

He's won two events now. Me picking him up paid off dramatically for me. He won

the race. He took our team to 110 off first place.

And while that might seem like a lot, with the points and a half and the

and a half and the double points, it's very achievable.

Wow.

Look at that. Nate Saylor, man. Hey, congratulations, sir. $40 ,000 to Nate

Saylor.

Nate Saylor has won his second invitational of the season.

You've got to ask yourself, where did this guy come from, and how did the

teams miss him?

With that being said, Ryan Martin has to be pleased with himself, his team, and

his decisions, as he is now within 10 points of Team Dave.

He's got to be feeling pretty good about himself.

There's only three events left, and at this point, it is anyone's championship.

Next week. All right. How y 'all doing today?

I think we got the most solid team there is here. As long as we can keep things

together. You got Ryan with a lot of momentum.

Kai's team might be holding the lead in points.

Kai's been running away with this deal. We need to go get him. And this is our

chance to make a big move.

But the fight for the championship is far from being over. Bodie, you still

a couple guys on your team you have not sold. Points and a half. Three races.

And at this point right now, we're getting left behind. Some of the teams

out of reach of this championship. We are not. So we're going to do whatever

can to get Scott Taylor on our team. Oh, my God.

Is it going to happen?