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- Elliott Clears Busch of Richmond Blame, What Jimmie Johnson Learnt Living in London, and More
Elliott Clears Busch of Richmond Blame, What Jimmie Johnson Learnt Living in London, and More
Jerry Bonkowski
August 22, 2025
Welcome to Hoot in the Oval — your all-access pass to everything NASCAR. From Denny’s clutch finishes to Ross’s wild moves, Chase Elliott fandom to Bubba’s bold takes — we’ve got the stories that fuel the track and the timeline. Fast, loud, unfiltered. Buckle up, y’all. 🏁
The latest edition of our newsletter covers :
Chase Elliott holds no grudges with Kyle Busch post Richmond
Corey Lajoie’s take on drivers battling to make the playoffs
Jimmie Johnson reveals his biggest takeaway from living in London
🏁Inside the Oval
Chase Elliott Was ‘Never Mad’ at Kyle Busch Despite Richmond Clash
Chase Elliott is one of the most chill, laid-back drivers in NASCAR. Very little seems to bother him or get under his skin.
Even when he got hit accidentally by Kyle Busch and wound up last in Saturday night’s race at Richmond, Elliott was cool. The result marked Elliott’s first DNF this season and cost him the regular-season championship.
Elliott and Busch had a phone conversation earlier this week where Busch explained how he ended up running into Elliott. Busch, it seems, just didn’t see Elliott.
Busch thought he was clear of the multi-car wreck that broke out in front of them, and had not noticed that Elliott was in proximity to his car. There was nothing nefarious, and no bad blood is brewing between the two of them.
It was a mistake, plain and simple. “Kyle did reach out to me. He apologized for what happened. I don’t have any differing opinion on it. I was never mad at him. I knew it was a mistake right when I saw it. It sucks and I hate it,” Elliott said.
“It obviously killed our night and our regular-season championship hopes, kind of all at the same time. But I knew it was nothing that he [Busch] did on purpose. It wasn’t anything aimed at us. It was just the way that it all went down, and unfortunately, we were on the bad end of it,” he continued.
“He didn’t realize we were all coming by down there on the bottom. Obviously, he just got through the wreck like a lot of us who had kind of been in it,” added Elliott.
Though Richmond was bad, Elliott will be optimistic going forward after this Saturday night’s race at Daytona. After all, he’ll be among the top seeds heading into the playoffs.
While he has been lacking in the wins department, with just one win heading into Daytona (he won several weeks ago at his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway), Elliott can be one of the most dangerous drivers in the playoffs.
Once Elliott gets on a roll, he could potentially be hard to stop. That’s exactly what happened in the 2020 Cup playoffs.
Elliott qualified fifth in the 16-driver field and stayed steady and consistent through the first five races. He then kicked things into high gear, winning three of the last five playoff races (Charlotte Roval, Martinsville, and Phoenix) to clinch his first (and only to date) Cup championship.
🏁Insider Take
Corey Lajoie's Blunt Take on Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick's Playoff Situation
The NASCAR Cup Series will congregate at the Daytona International Speedway this Saturday to decide the final two drivers who will join the 16-driver playoff field.
23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman are right on the bubble and are the most likely ones to make it through in case no new winner emerges.
But if one does, it means only one of them can make it. Not getting to race for the championship will be a heartbreaking outcome for either driver. Reddick was crowned the regular-season champion last year and reached as far as the Championship 4.
Bowman finished last year in ninth place in the standings. He has been an exemplary performer this year as well. A fall from such a height will deflate his morale.
Veteran driver Corey LaJoie weighed in on their situation while speaking on NASCAR: Inside the Race with Todd Gordon and Steve Letarte this week. To start with, he clarified that it was their fault that they found themselves in such a position.
LaJoie's contention was that Bowman and Reddick were dealt the same cards as Shane van Gisbergen or Austin Dillon, and they failed to reach Victory Lane in 25 races.
“Because they didn’t execute for the first 25 races, now they have to wear the stress this week and go attack Daytona with the potential of missing the playoffs, even being top-10 in points,” he said.
This removes any space for sympathy for either driver on the basis that the playoff system is what hurt their seasons. They knew what they were in for, and LaJoie stressed that hard.
He added, “If NASCAR sets the game board and says this is what you have to do to make the playoffs, then Tyler Reddick has had the same opportunity to do that. Alex Bowman has the same opportunity to do what Austin Dillon did, what SVG did, what Josh Berry did earlier in the season.”
Bowman sits ninth on the points table, and Reddick is in seventh place. Bowman also has a 29-point cushion over Reddick in the playoff standings. So, what he needs to do is secure a finish of ninth or better on Saturday, and he will get through even if there is a new winner.
But the Daytona track is unpredictable. There is no telling in what order the drivers will finish the race, for one mistake can completely turn the tables around.
🏁 Trackside Trivia
2025: Record-Breaking Highlights From the 2025 Season-Opener at Daytona
This year’s Daytona 500 on February 16, 2025, shattered multiple records, showcasing the NextGen era’s competitive nature. The race featured an astonishing 16,389 total green-flag passes, the highest ever recorded at Daytona.
The event also logged 331 green-flag passes for the lead, also a track record. Drivers swapped the lead 56 times, marking the most in the NextGen era and the fourth-highest total in the event’s history.
Remarkably, this also marked the third consecutive Daytona 500 (2023–2025) with 40 or more lead changes, cementing a new standard of intensity for NASCAR’s crown jewel race.
🎙️ Hoot’s Radio Chatter
“That Was a Real ‘Aha’ Moment”: Jimmie Johnson Reflects on His Time in London
Jimmie Johnson may want to keep his watch set five hours ahead of Eastern Time for the time being (no pun intended). Johnson and his family recently moved back to North Carolina after spending the last two years living in London — as in England — which is five hours ahead of the East Coast.
Johnson and his family originally moved across the Atlantic to get away from some horrible memories: his wife Chani’s parents and their 11-year-old grandson died in a murder-suicide in June 2023.
It’s understandable why Jimmie and Chandra (Chani is her nickname) wanted to put such a horrible tragedy behind them.
When the couple decided upon a move, they chose London and originally planned to stay only one year, but extended it to two years before returning to the U.S. recently.
As for the time difference between Charlotte and London, it’s understandable why Jimmie and Chani liked one of the perks of living there.
“For the first time in my adult life, Chani and I had four or five hours for ourselves before the East Coast woke up and either of us had work responsibilities to check in with,” Johnson recently told Marty Smith of ESPN.
“So, up get the kids to school and then from there, we had time. I had time to think. I had time to train. I had time to go to breakfast with my wife. We had ‘us’ time. And that is something I so desperately hope we can hang on to being back here. I think that was a real ‘aha’ moment for us.”
But some things may take a bit longer to get readjusted to back on this side of the pond: like ordering French fries at a drive-thru and not calling them “chips”, as they’re referred to in jolly old England.
🏁 Lap Back in Time: NASCAR Stat of the Year
(One stat. One year. Every edition.)
1952: The Fabulous Hudson Hornet’s Domination in the Grand National Series
Hudson-manufactured Hornet model cars triumphed in 27 of the 34 races in the 1952 NASCAR Grand National Series. No other manufacturer claimed more than three wins that season.
This dominance was largely thanks to the Hornet’s innovative design. Its low center of gravity, ‘step-down’ body, and center-point steering gave it superior handling on the era’s often rough, dirt tracks