[Boosted] Last week at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania...
All right, so Jim Howe gets the win. Kye Kelley goes red.
If you wasn't a grown man, you'd just cry
or drive off the end of the racetrack.
[Boosted] All of the racers on Team Kye were out by Round Two.
-Here's your chance to make a comeback. - [engine revving]
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] That gave other teams the chance
to go some rounds and close the gap.
And boy, did they?
-[engines revving] -[pistol fires]
[Boosted] The biggest win went to Ryan Martin,
who won his first Invitational race of the season.
[Ryan] Whoo!
Congratulations to Ryan Martin and his team.
[crowd cheering]
There you go, brother. You just earned it.
[Boosted] 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.
[man] Here we go.
[Boosted] Michigan, how're y'all doing today?
[crowd cheering, whooping]
A little damp?
Little damp? Yeah.
Hey, look, uh, we're gonna be dodging this stuff
all day long, y'all, but look, I will tell you one thing,
we're gonna 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 gonna 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,
uh, what it does to the drivers is,
uh, they'll make a pass and they get data,
and then the track conditions can change completely.
When it rains, they have to come back,
and 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.
-[crowd cheering] -[Boosted] Yeah. Ryan Martin,
winner of last week's event,
and got his first Invitational win of the season.
Comeback starts now.
-That's right. That's right. -[man] Let's go! Let's go!
-[Ryan] Right now. -[Boosted] Right now.
Coming into this race, Kye Kelley
is still sitting number one in points.
But for 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.
[Shawn] There's a couple of teams
-that know they don't have a shot at winning. -Yep.
And, you know, every team's got
-a couple of decent guys in it, you know? -Yeah.
-And then after that, it goes, you know... you know? -Yep.
And so, they're talking about getting rid of their
number one and number two picks
to higher up teams for money.
-How's it going, baby? -[Rankin] Politicking, 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've 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 they 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 team they wanted to go to.
[Kye] All right, fellas, so I got some pretty good news.
Boddie called me and said that he realizes that his team
ain't got a shot at the championship,
and he wanted to sell us. Damon Merchant.
-What's the bid? Are we bidding in or what? -What's the bid?
-Yeah. -Ten grand and Rankin.
He's worked his ass off the whole year.
The guy has put in the work. He's done a lot.
But he just couldn't get off that struggle bus right now.
-Yeah, uh-- -Man, this ain't friendship, it's business.
-We gotta do what we got to do. -Well, yeah.
Pretty much halfway through the season already,
I was already talking to Boddie
about possibly trying to get Damon Merchant.
I hope y'all are in 'cause I already told him yes.
He named the price. It was $10,000.
And, uh, 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
may or may not have bought Nate Sayler,
which is a weapon right now.
-[Jeff] Hey, you buying anybody? -[Ryan] I might.
-I might. -[Jeff] I mean, you might as well.
-[Ryan] I might buy somebody today. -Must be a thing to do here.
-Well, I might buy somebody today. -If you're getting stuck,
-you can just buy people. -Yeah.
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 after this championship.
And so I got a phone call from Boddie.
Boddie's got two hot commodities.
Nate's car is fast. He wants to be on our team.
It's gonna take a little bit of money.
It's gonna be interesting today.
-That's-- -[man] Yeah, it's gonna get [bleep].
[chuckles]
Yeah, you know [bleep], man.
You know how this [bleep] goes. Today everybody got knives.
-[laughs] -Sha! Sha! Sha! Sha!
-[chuckles] -Yeah.
So last week, when Boddie called me wanting to sell Nate and Damon,
I actually had told him that I would take both of them,
uh, for the money he was asking for 'em.
Nate, he called Ryan,
uh, actually got Ryan to buy him.
Uh, Damon, we went back and forth, back and forth,
and I thought all was good.
Like, I thought Damon was coming on to my team,
and it was gonna be great.
I almost feel like I got a knife in my back.
-[Damon speaking] -[man] Hey...
I think, coming up...
-If you look at the coming up races, the lot... -[man] Mmm-hmm.
[Damon] Lizzy's gonna run good there.
[Damon] Kye's gonna run, like, [bleep] test there a lot.
-[man] Mmm-hmm. -[Damon] It's a good race for them.
Still, Alabama is gonna be a good race for Ryan.
Texas is where it's like...
It's any man's game at Texas, I think.
[man speaking]
[Damon] Um... 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 glad I'm on the bottom of ladder. -What's the matter there?
-[Dave] Ain't nothing wrong with me. -Look like you're upset.
[Dave] I'm not upset.
-Are you okay? -[Dave] Are you upset?
Nah. No.
Do I have a reason to be upset?
That could be, I guess. I don't know. Am I--
-Should I be upset? -No, you should wake up in a happy mood.
-Why? -You should.
-I didn't know you're used to waking up angry. -No.
I thought you just looked like you had... like a face frown.
[scoffs] No. I'm good.
[Boosted] 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 gonna start at the bottom...
I mean... not the bottom. Sorry.
We're gonna start with the team
-that has the most opportunity to do well. -Yes!
-Dean? -Yeah. No change.
-No change. -[Boosted] Really? Okay. I like it.
I got faith in my guys.
-One of these days, they're gonna pull through. -[Boosted] Of course.
-Murillo, any changes? -[Mike] Yes.
Man, you know what? We're doing so good right now,
I'd hate to mess it up.
[all chuckling]
Y'all are just a well-oiled machine over there.
-[Boosted] So no changes? -Yeah, we're good.
-[Boosted] Keeping it where it's at. Status quo. -Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
[Boosted] Swanstrom?
-Changes? -Nah.
I found out this week
my money doesn't go as long as some others, so...
-Oh. Oh! -[Swanstrom] That's all right.
-What happened? What did he just say? -I don't know.
I'm gonna stay because there's no... there's no trade there.
Got it. Uh, Boddie?
I tell you what,
we're gonna make a lot of changes over here today.
-First-- -What?
Yeah. The first change I'm gonna make is I'm gonna
-put myself back in for Tim Brown. -Like it.
I'm also gonna make a...
a major trade with my two top guys.
[Boosted] Okay.
So who are you starting with?
First, uh, I'll start here with Kye Kelley.
-[sighs] -[man whistles]
-[Boosted] What's going on here? -[Boddie] Uh...
He was talking about negotiating, uh...
I got Damon.
He wanted to go to your team. He was gonna...
bring me back over Rankin and...
a couple of extra dollars.
-Ooh! -[all laughing]
-Say no more. -$10,000.
-The deal is done, man. -Time out.
-Wait. Time out! -[man] How much?
$10,000.
Trading Damon for Rankin was huge for us 'cause Rankin's been struggling.
When he does make a pass, it's fast.
But to win these deals, you got to be consistent.
And you got to be consistent every single week with no breaks.
For now, he's just not consistent enough
for us to win the championship, and Damon is.
It's business, and it's $200,000.
I hate it for Rankin, but I gotta do it.
[Boosted] Rankin, please do not take offense to this...
-[chuckles] -...but you just traded
Damon Merchant for Chris Rankin.
[Boddie] And $10,000.
I get a lot of credit. I'm the great GM
'cause everybody had an opportunity to pick these guys and they didn't.
-[Boosted] Yeah, so it's-- -So, I GM these guys,
and I got them here, and 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.
-[all exclaiming] -Oh, you're not. You've got more trades?
Wow. Okay. [bleep] What else you got?
-The next trade we got... -[Boosted] Blockbuster trade.
...is Nate Sayler.
-We're working a deal with Ryan Martin. -[Ryan] Yeah.
-For who? -For Jerry,
-unfortunately, the Bird boys. -[Dean] Oh!
-Oh, that's what you think of him, huh? -[Mike] What?
You [bleep]!
-[bleeping] -And you what? I wasn't gonna do this.
But then I heard Kye was gonna 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 gonna be tough to try to get there
without having an equal team.
I need people that are gonna be heavy hitters.
Boddie put up Nate Sayler.
It was a $10,000 purchase.
I talked it out with my team.
We split it up four ways.
It was 2,500 bucks apiece.
We thought of it as a very cheap investment
to possibly guarantee us another driver
to collect points for us to go get that championship.
[Boosted] Did you already had the money wired to you?
-or is it in cash? Or what's going on with that? -[laughter]
-You know, you know I'm good for it. Yeah. Yeah. -Yeah... Ryan's word.
-[all laughing] -Yeah, I'm good for it.
I'd also like to point out that I'm sure Team Dave and Murder Nova,
maybe you're not exactly happy with the trades
'cause that just kind of sets them back as well,
makes it harder for them to win the championship as well.
Kind of stacking the teams, you know?
It set me back.
[Boosted] All right. Is that it?
-Yes, sir. -All right, Murder Nova,
-I think you're next. -[Shawn] Yes.
I ain't got 10 grand, so...
[all laughing]
-It looks like I'm sticking with my guys. -[all laughing]
Yeah.
Okay. All right, guys. Well, there you have it.
That's the captains' meeting. Let's do it.
-Do what you got to do. All right. -[Boddie] Good deal.
Team Kye getting another heavy hitter on to 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.
-[Mike] Moving up, huh [bleep] -[chuckles]
[Nate] [bleep] I'm just gonna keep doing what I've been doing.
[Dean] That's right. [groans]
[Boosted] 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.
[Damon] What do you think about the team deal?
I don't mind it if it helps you out,
but at the same time, the way he did it...
-Yeah. -...you know?
And, like, I told 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 a snake.
We still had a chance.
We went 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 to... for the championship.
We went 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."
[bleeping]
-You ain't done [bleep] for the team. -[chuckles]
You ain't got a point.
-[Damon] Yes. -You ain't win a round.
But you wanna [bleep] stick all the money in your pocket,
and just sell out on your people?
That ain't no captain. That's chicken [bleep].
[Boosted] All right...
Well, folks, we are now going to move
into the Invitational Round One Drivers' 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're worth more than $5,000."
He just don't like you, man.
[Jeff] Yeah, he don't like you.
-[Shawn] He thinks... -[bleeping]
He can't win a championship, and he don't want you to get it, either.
-That doesn't work on him. -That's where we're at with Mike right now.
-[all laughing] -That's the type of guy Mike is.
[Boosted] You had Shawn 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...
-[Boosted] Yeah. -...but he's not getting his paper right.
How much paper is it gonna take?
Ten thousand.
[Boosted] Ten thousand. You're good for it, right?
Hell, no.
I guess that's what, uh, top-tier people go for.
-[all laughing] -[Boosted] Are you talking about Ryan?
-[all] Whoa! -Oh, wow!
-[bleeping] -[all chuckling]
-[Boosted] Oh, wow! -Damn!
[bleeping]
-Hey... -[bleeping]
-[all chuckling] -[Boosted] Wow!
We're just recovering!
I love you, man.
All right, well, look, Shawn, 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,
Boddie only has two drivers in the Invitational today.
But Kye's and Ryan's investments are really paying off,
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?
Bring it in here, you son of a [bleep]
-Is that yours or Larry? -I'm just trying to get it mixed up.
If anyone asks me, I think you're worth $10,000.
-Thank you, bud. -[Boosted] You're welcome.
[Scott] There ain't no chips in here. No, I'm just... [chuckles]
[Boosted] In the first round here in Michigan,
eight teammates drew each other.
We've got Chuck 55 going up against B-Rad.
Shawn had four racers coming into 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 Kye Kelley and Lizzy Musi.
Those two are the heaviest hitters on their team.
Plus, you factor in the history they have between each other.
This is gonna 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 win.
So, uh, 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.
[Boosted] All right, folks, first pair here in the Invitational First Round,
We've got Rich Bruder going up against Jim Howe.
It's a rematch from last weekend.
Here we are, US 131. What a crazy day.
Rain on and off, getting cold out,
go up there for Invitational chip draw,
we draw Jim Howe.
It's gonna be a rematch from the last race.
We went up there third round last race.
Went up there, we had a problem with the car.
We, uh... after that race, we went...
to a dyno. Dyno'd the car a little bit,
got it back where it should be,
and it's running strong today.
[engine revving]
[Shawn] [bleep] damn, somebody's on some sticker tires!
Holy [bleep]!
[Jim] So, we're here in, basically, my hometown.
We're in Martin, Michigan. I grew up racing here.
For two days... all it's done is rain, 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 know, it's No Prep Racing, and this is what it is.
It's what makes this sport and this particular series
such an interesting deal.
That's why we've seen so many different winners all year.
[engine spluttering]
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Rich Bruder...
-takes the win. -Boom! Boom! Boom! Out of there!
[Boosted] Rich Bruder moving on to the next round
of the Invitational class.
All right, next pair coming at you right now,
we've got Brandon James going up against Kayla Morton.
[engine roaring]
[Kayla] We're getting ready for today,
and Dave and Kye kind of went at Damon,
and he chose to go with Kye,
so we just need to use that as drive
and, uh, you know,
a fire lit under our ass to do better.
If you don't want to be on our team,
then we're gonna show you that you made a mistake.
[engines spluttering]
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Kayla Morton takes the win there.
Brandon James getting all kinds of sideways over there in the left lane.
Whoo!
The right lane was a little more sketchy 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.
Um, there's something to be said about
winning five times in a row,
and, uh, hopefully we can just keep that up.
-I was driving. -Yeah, mine drove to the center, I pedaled,
and I almost about wrecked [bleep].
-Did you really? -Yeah.
-Damn. That track is just is so cold now. -Get in there.
Yeah, it is.
-Good job. Good luck tomorrow. -Thanks, Brandon.
Appreciate you.
[Boosted] Next pair coming at you right now,
we've got Clay Cole going up against Scott Scooter Taylor!
[engines revving]
[Clay] So when I drew chips today for round one of the Invitational,
I drew Scott Taylor. Uh, 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 us all weekend, unfortunately.
[engine revving]
[Clay] It's a little cooler out, so it's definitely gonna be tricky.
And, uh, you're gonna have to be on your A-game
for sure to get down this track.
[both] Hey!
[spluttering]
-[man breathing heavily] What's wrong? -[Scott] It's the transbrake.
It ain't clicking.
[engine sputters]
[Boosted] Looks like Scott Taylor having issues out there. Stuck.
Not backing up!
[Scott] It did go right there.
-[man] Right here? -[Scott] Yeah.
[Boosted] Mike Murillo, team captain,
needs to get out there and figure out what's going on
with his teammate, Scott Taylor.
-[Clay] Put him on the clock! -[man] He's... Got it. Got it.
-[bleep] -...on the clock.
[Boosted] We gotta put him on the clock?
-Yeah. -[Boosted] All right, so Clay Cole has put
Scott Taylor on a two-minute clock.
Oh, my.
[Scott] You see it broke anywhere?
[man] I don't see anything.
Oh, yep. Right there.
-Could you shove it back? -[man] I'm trying to.
You don't get it!
Oh, it ain't my team. I don't give a [bleep]!
One minute has surpassed.
[Scott] Don't push me back. I'm gonna try.
Or maybe it goes red or something.
-[indistinct conversation] -[clattering]
Man, Clay, if you don't give him extra time, then sorry.
All right, so we got about ten seconds.
Nine, eight, seven...
-Hold on. We good. -...six...
-We're good. He's gotta tighten one thing. -...five...
four, three...
-He almost has it. He's almost got it. -...two, one.
That is two minutes.
-[engine whirring] -Two minutes...
-[engine spluttering] -...has surpassed!
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] All right, so Clay Cole will take the win and...
pedaling over there in that right lane,
Scott Taylor has something happened there right on the end.
-Damn. -[Boosted] He does not make the pass.
I think we had a wire break on the transbrake on the dash
and, uh, we just needed a few minutes to fix it.
He didn't want to give no extra time.
I know that Clay Cole is not gonna 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 against Clay and he has a problem,
he ain't gonna give you time.
So you got that stuck in the back of your mind.
-What happened, brother? -Transbrake wouldn't work.
I just... It ain't... just ain't meant to be right now.
-Oh, man, I'm sorry... -Oh, good, man--
I didn't put you on the clock, my guy did. I'm sorry.
-No, you're fine. -I don't know if you could've got it fixed or not.
It's all good.
-You good? -Yep.
I think we have one of the fastest cars on the property tonight,
and a wire...
you know, one wire, uh, broke and... um,
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 the only one way to get out of it is keep digging.
You lay down in a slump, you get covered up.
We ain't gonna lay down.
[Boosted] All right, folks, next pair,
that's gonna be David Gates
going up against Murder Nova.
Man, I might have to go up there
and race my buddy, Shawn, Murder Nova.
Try to get that win, put him on the trailer.
Damn, we're starting to go into these points and a half?
-Mmm-hmm. -We got a shot.
We're not that far behind.
No. Y'all are in a good... Y'all are in a good spot for sure.
[Shawn] Yep.
You're... It's achievable where you're at.
Yes. Yes.
Pretty tight. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But now, it's gonna start doing this
-because they all got five guys in. -There's that guy.
So normally, we race, uh, first round during the day,
and you have to worry about a tricky track that's hot.
But 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.
[engine revving]
[Shawn] 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.
I have to look at it like,
how much power is this lane gonna take
whenever I try to put it down.
And that's the route we're gonna go.
[engines spluttering]
[pistol fires]
-Argh! -[Boosted] And Murder Nova...
takes the win. He will move on to the next round.
[man] Good job, man.
[Boosted] The next pair coming at you is gonna be B-Rad
going up against Chuck 55.
-[B-Rad] All right. Good luck. -Be careful.
-Good luck, guys. -[woman] Good job.
We just drew a teammate. We drew Chuck Parker. It sucks.
They're fast...
but I really want to win first round.
That's my simple goal for the week, win first round.
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] The next pair coming at you is gonna be B-Rad
going up against Chuck 55!
[engines spluttering]
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Chuck 55 takes the win.
All right, coming at you right now,
that's gonna be Disco Dean going up against Nate Sayler!
[Nate] At the end of the day, it's the captain's choice to do what they want.
They can put us down in the reserve pool,
trade us, swap us.
Nothing we can do about it.
But Boddie gave me the choice.
He said, "You pick where you want to go.
That's where you can go."
Um, and to be honest,
I didn't want to go to the first-placed team, Kye's team.
I want to earn this championship.
Like, if we win, I don't want to be like,
"Oh, well, you got traded at the last minute on to Kye's team.
And he was in first place."
I want to go to a team that's gonna work their ass off
and make it happen.
[engines revving]
[Nate] 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 [bleep] together before then,
people are gonna go flying by you.
I'm just looking for the opportunity to go win a championship.
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
-Whoo! -[man] Let's go, baby!
-That was hard, man. -Looked close to me.
Holy [bleep].
-Good lap, Nate. -Thanks, brother.
[sighs] Good run.
[Nate] Did you make a clean hit or no?
Yeah, I was right there next to you the whole time.
-Oh. Okay. -Just... just getting loose down there like that.
I lifted about the mile-an-hour cone just to be safe
'cause it was getting wishy-washy.
[Nate] I hear ya.
-Good lap! -Thanks, brother.
[Boosted] Next pair, that's gonna be Damon Merchant
and his competitor, Jeff Lutz!
[Damon] Argh!
[Damon] Number one's setting around 700.
[crew 1 speaking]
Huh?
[crew 1 speaking]
We've just been fighting little gremlins all day, really. Uh...
Just got a blower.
We keep having, uh, Cylinder One shut off randomly,
so we got the coil swapped
and a, uh, new sparkplug wire on it.
So, we're just kind of...
I mean, it's time to go up,
so we're gonna give her hell.
We drew Jeff Lutz 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,
so, uh, just have 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.
Oh, I... I'm not worried about him.
I'm just worried about the cold track.
And I went over and asked Ryan, I said, "What's your plan?"
He goes, "Man, I think I'm gonna leave it alone."
I said "Yeah, I think we're gonna too."
He's 12th, so I said, "Well,
pay attention to us 'cause we're gonna 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."
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
-[Boosted] Damon Merchant... - [all cheering]
...takes the win. Great pass there.
[Damon] Whoo!
[Kye] Damon won his race.
So so far my trade is going
exactly the direction I needed it to go.
His test passes, they sucked.
Broke a blower, burned up a spark plug.
But he showed up for Invitational Round 1,
and that's exactly why we paid the money for him 'cause he's worth it.
Whoo. I had to do a little driving that time.
[Boosted] All right, folks.
This next pair, that's gonna be Larry Larson going up against Axman.
Larry Larson.
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. Dead close.
Larry has stepped up his game up a lot,
so this is not gonna be easy.
Not gonna be easy.
Putting my mittens on now.
-[man] What's that? -I'm gonna put my mittens on.
[man laughing] You're all set.
-Cold out here. -[man] Yes, it is.
[Larry] Old Larry Roach. Axman.
Same guy tunes his that tunes Kayla's and a couple of other ones.
So I know about how fast they are.
I think we're fully capable of outrunning him.
We're gonna have to be good on the light and make a nice clean run.
[engine roaring]
The track's really cold right now. The sun's went down.
It hasn't rained this afternoon, which is great,
but the track conditions are gonna start
to get a little treacherous down there from half track on.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] All right, folks.
This next pair, that's gonna be Larry Larson going up against Axman.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Axman...
-[cheering] -Good job, baby. Good job.
[Boosted] So Axman moving on to the next round.
[Axman] Whoo!
We rolled in.
When that light turned green, I come off that button...
I've never seen him again.
Like this thing is walking up on the center line.
I'm fighting it back.
I kept telling myself, I'm not gonna let off.
My light come on, I said, "Whew! Dodged another bullet."
Man, I'm glad to get past that first round.
[Boosted] Next pair,
that's gonna be Giuseppe going up against Tony McKinney.
So in Maple Grove, we had Nate first round, which is tough.
He's fast, and 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.
The car is fast. We made some changes, we changed the combination up.
So I'm feeling confident for the rest of the season.
-I feel really good. -Yeah, I'm feeling good.
Going in, we got the chip draw,
and we drew Tony McKinney for the first round here.
I 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.
[Giuseppe] The car is really fast. It's flying.
But we gotta make it to the finish line.
We tried a couple more things.
We'll see if it makes the finish line this next round here.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] Giuseppe with the win.
That car was outta here.
[Giuseppe] It was 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 were gonna go.
[bleep] flying, so...
Yeah, that was a good run, probably, right there.
-Yeah. -Yeah, wheels up.
And it was moving around a little bit, but...
-Was it? -Yeah.
Man, we packed the wheels, and then...
They still had the wheels packed
and the 1-2 shift, I failed it.
As soon as I felt it wiggle, I was like, "Oh," and I cut gas.
-And I almost went over into your lane. -Oh, [bleep].
-So I was able to save it. -Yeah.
-Hey. -All right, buddy.
-Congratulations, bro. Good one. -All right, man, thank you.
[Boosted] All right, next pair coming at you.
We got Kallee Mills going up against Mike Murillo.
Got a 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 2.2 seconds in.
Have we reached a threshold or limit? You know, I don't know.
It means we're broke.
[chuckles] That's what it means. We're broke.
[Kallee] I draw none other than Mike Murillo.
Unfortunately, he broke his motor.
Like, it's, I guess, in pieces.
Not good.
I hate that for them, very unfortunate luck.
But on our end, we got lucky.
[pistol fires]
Attagirl. All right, girl!
[Boosted] All right, so Kallee Mills pulls the chutes,
gets it back straight, nice job.
[Kallee] I got out there and got loose 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... [mimics car swerving]
And that was not good.
So just had it too hopped up.
[Boosted] Next pair coming at you right now.
Kye Kelley going up against Lizzy Musi.
Honestly, like, standing, I feel like I could throw up any minute.
That's how I feel.
Yeah.
I'm not feeling the greatest this weekend.
I'm trying the best I can, so I'm pushing through.
And guess what? I draw freaking Kye first round again.
Definitely didn't wanna 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 kinda look at it.
[Kye] Round 1, I drew Lizzy.
I don't like racing my own team.
I definitely don't like racing Lizzy.
It seems like every time I get beside her, I get emotional.
And I don't like the feeling.
And I'd rather her just draw somebody else
'cause her car is fast and we gotta run the hell out of my car
to try to outrun her, so it just sucks.
There's two fast people,
and one of us has gotta go home first round when we draw each other.
[Kye] We gotta be on top of our game.
We have gotta go as fast as we've possibly ever been right here, today,
if we wanna get out of the first round.
It's probably the toughest first-round draw you can get.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] Next pair coming at you right now.
Kye Kelley going up against Lizzy Musi.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] Kye Kelley gets the redemption there, takes the win.
Lots of smoke down there in Lizzy's lane at the very end of the track.
I couldn't imagine having more than one motor.
But where you're cool with just burning it down.
-One every lap. -What the [bleep].
Yeah.
I don't get it.
They said you was up against the wall.
-Was you? -I don't think so.
[bleep]
It ate itself up before the finish line, but you had me anyway.
-Good race. -Good job.
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 'em to win
'cause I want the fastest car to go to the next round.
'Cause 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. -Oh, stop.
Hard on me this weekend, so...
Still love you.
Always.
Good job.
-Go kick ass, okay? -Okay. Thank you.
[Boosted] Robin Roberts going up against his team captain, Ryan Martin.
[Ryan] Here we are now, it's nighttime.
It is 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.
All the guys, we've all talked.
Like, "Hey, we just need a couple of good draws."
And here I am today, and I drew Robin Roberts again.
[both] Good luck.
Good luck.
-Good luck, homie. -You too, man. Be safe.
[Ryan] He has one of the fastest cars here.
Very similar combination to mine.
I mean, not who I wanted.
We're pulling out all the stops.
We'll see if it's enough.
[Robin] You know, I hate drawing Ryan.
One, he's my buddy.
Two, like, he's my team captain.
[engine roaring]
But we got Ryan, we're gonna have to make it work.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] Ryan Martin.
That didn't even really look close, did it?
[Robin] Rolling into the lights,
and I know he likes to do the double bulbs real fast.
So I tried to light mine real quick behind him.
We both left at the same time, and he just flat outrun us in the middle of the track.
He just pulled a fender on me.
You know, I hate to lose, and it sucks, but the team?
Four out of five are moving on to the next round.
Keep gaining points for Team Ryan Martin.
You know 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 Lizzy twice in one day?
Yeah, no [bleep].
-Great eight and now. -Good job.
And then I [bleep] hugged her and started crying.
-You did? -It's still in there somewhere, yeah.
[Boosted] This pair here has got Paige Coughlin
going up against her teammate and team captain, Daddy Dave.
Car just needs to do what it did earlier.
[man] What's that?
It just needs to do what it did earlier.
[man] Yeah, it will.
[Paige] You be nice.
It was a nice, smooth run and...
-Pretty similar. -All righty. Oh, [bleep].
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 the cold weather, the rain, sunshine, clouds.
But finally we're able to hit the track,
and 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 gonna be guaranteed a spot in Round 2.
[engine roaring]
[Daddy Dave] We drew our own teammate again.
Paige Coughlin. We raced her a few weeks ago at another event.
This time, I hope it's a little closer race
'cause she got this new motor in there.
We'll go up here, let go of the button,
and see if we can go on to Round 2.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Daddy Dave takes the win.
Looked like Paige Coughlin was out in front,
pulled the chutes a little early.
Oh, God.
-You frigging... -I was so [bleep] scared!
Why? What happened?
Oh, it was going everywhere but straight for a minute.
And I'm like, "Oh, no, no, no!"
-Hey, good job. -Oh, my God. [bleep] scary.
You knocked my head off at the tree, "Where is she going?"
-You know what, that is right. -Yeah, it was [bleep].
I gotta keep your mind at least on the top part, you know?
-That's the second time I've left before you. -Yeah.
[Boosted] All right, next pair coming at you.
We've got John Odom going up against Bobby Ducote.
[engine roaring]
[Bobby] We'll try and get some points.
We kinda got our whole team snatched out from under us,
and our [bleep] great captain decided to just sell everybody to pad his own pockets.
To hell with everybody else.
His ass still ain't racing, he ain't got a single point this year,
win a single round this year.
But he put all that money in his pocket.
The 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 anywhere than with a snake like that.
[pistol fires]
Oh, [bleep]!
-[Boosted] And John Odom will take the win there. -[bleep].
Yeah, John, we got the win.
At least that one's moving on.
I was pulling back to you.
I saw you the whole time, dude. The whole time, brother.
Were you like... There was a point I didn't...
Did you see me the whole time?
I could see your nose right here the whole time.
[Boosted] Battle of the turbo cars coming at you right now.
Got Chris Rankin, over in the left lane in the Conquest
going up against Chuck Seitsinger in the right lane.
[engine roaring]
[Chris] 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 and I go to Round 2.
So that's it.
[Boosted] Chris Rankin in the left lane, twin turbo Conquest,
going up against Chuck Seitsinger,
twin turbo Mustang, in the right lane.
[Chuck] This is the first time I've been in the invitational in three or four weeks.
So I need to go to the semifinals.
So when I go to GALOT, I'm not in the [bleep] Race Your Way In.
But right now, I just can't give up.
So I'ma do the best I can.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] All right, Chris Rankin will get the win.
Chuck Seitsinger has problems on the hit.
All right, folks, we got Jimmy Taylor
going up against Justin Swanstrom.
[Jimmy] It being so cold here, it's pretty rough.
We'll see how it plays out.
I know the tracks are gonna be very tricky for everybody today, too.
But everybody's gotta go down the same surface.
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] All right, folks.
We got Jimmy Taylor going up against Justin Swanstrom.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Jimmy Taylor will take the win.
Justin Swanstrom having to pedal over there in that right lane.
Going into Round 2, Ryan Martin has four racers moving on.
Meanwhile, Dave and Kye only have three.
It does feel like Ryan is picking up some momentum in this program.
But he came off his first invitational win last week,
and now he's picked up Nate Sayler,
and he's looking to continue that forward movement.
Nate Sayler and Damon Merchant, moving on to Round 2.
It really seems like they're trying to prove
that they are worth the investment that was made.
All right, folks, gonna have my drivers draw chips.
[bleeping]
What is that?
All righty, where are my number ones?
Kallee Mills versus Kayla Morton.
-Chuck 55 and Giuseppe. -That is a two.
[Boosted] Yes, Giuseppe, that is a two.
Oh, Axman versus Ryan Martin.
Oh, my.
Daddy Dave versus Murder Nova.
Chris Rankin versus Nate Sayler.
It's gonna be John Odom versus Damon Merchant.
Jimmy Taylor and Kye Kelley.
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 gotta do to your cars.
'Cause this round will be run tomorrow.
We appreciate you coming.
See you tomorrow!
[Boosted] 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 rounds
and determine who will be walking away
with the $40,000 Invitational prize money.
So, how are you?
What's up? How's everybody doing today?
Good.
[Boosted] All right, folks, gonna go ahead and get started on racing.
For those that were here last night,
you know that we made it through our first round of the invitational class.
We're gonna finish it up today on a beautiful Sunday here in Michigan.
First pair here in the second round, invitational class.
We got Kallee 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 in the back.
And so they didn't have the drive shaft curve close enough to it
'cause they were trying to see what it would do
since we had that by against Mike.
And, hell, it went out there and it was like... [mimics car swerving]
Nah, you did a hell of a job last night driving too.
I just hope we can make it down.
And if I can do my job on the tree, I think we'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 the 330,
and then when it shifted into high gear,
it just got sideways and did not go well.
[crowd exclaiming]
[Kallee] 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 gonna have to have a really good light.
Perfect. Nailed it.
Started off the day good, guys.
Kalle 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 kinda 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.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Kayla Morton gonna take the win there.
Kallee Mills' car makes a hard move out there.
[Kallee] We'd both be driving.
[Boosted] All right, next pair.
You got Chuck 55 going up against Giuseppe.
We just need to figure out... We gotta...
Giuseppe, he's got a good setup, fast car.
But he's been struggling a little bit.
I'm gonna try to tear their head off on the light.
And if I can leave with him, it's game over
'cause I'm telling you, I'll pull him on the big end.
If we hold things together, I'll make more power on the big end.
[man speaking]
-That's it. I know. -[man chuckles]
I need to get to the finals, baby.
All right, you guys good over there?
[Giuseppe] Right now, I just put a bunch of fuel to 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 few races back there.
We're really gonna just try to run our own race, try to go as fast as we can,
what the track will take.
But I'm gonna 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 got four guys in.
We've got the most guys still going rounds right now.
We're the only ones who got four in.
So we're gonna 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 this weekend
and close that gap against Kye there.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] And Giuseppe gonna take the win there.
Nice pass from him.
It was loose out there, Chuck. What happened?
I did what I didn't wanna do.
No, we took power out of it on the hit not knowing what it'd take.
And plus you leapt on me, so that didn't help.
-Yeah. -But, man, I mean...
I felt the power ramp in, I started reeling you up, but it was... Man...
-Too late. -Too late.
[Boosted] All right, folks, this right here is gonna be a good one.
That is gonna be Axman going up against Ryan Martin.
If it'd make a straight hit, we'll have something for him.
No, no.
Got a tough competitor, Ryan Martin.
The baddest 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 gonna figure out some way to get around him.
Love you.
I've got Axman first round, they got a new motor in the car.
I expect them to be a handful.
So we're not gonna turn this car down,
I'm gonna bank on the track holding what I'm gonna 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 the next round
'cause we didn't draw each other.
And it would be fantastic if we could get there.
[pistol fires]
[crowd cheering]
[bleeping]
Guessed the light.
-But that was like [bleep]... Super guess. -A guess. Super guess.
-He can't be mad, he did it last week! -[bleep]
I told [bleep]. I said, "You can't be mad ever again."
-You did it last week. -'Cause he did it last week.
[Axman] Yeah! Had to do it, baby!
I'm sorry, but I had to [bleep] do it!
Whoo!
[Ryan] 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 guessing [bleep]. -[laughing]
[Axman] Ay.
Ay, one day you're gonna have a car fast enough, you ain't gotta do that.
Ay, let me tell you. That blower is six-hundredths faster and you know it.
I know you're gonna hit some of those, and some of 'em you ain't.
That one you hit. Good job.
-Hey, I had to make up six-hundredths, brothers. -[Ryan] I get it.
Axman 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 takes to get the win.
Everybody knew you were gonna do it.
[Boosted] The next pair,
that's gonna be Daddy Dave going up against Murder Nova.
Sucks because what do you do here? You know what I mean?
Like, you can't turn it down because you'll get outran.
You can't turn it up anymore because the track ain't gonna take it.
-You know what I mean? -I promise you don't turn it [bleep].
Yeah, it's gonna be a drag race.
We finally don't suck, so don't turn it down.
This is where your tune-ups get tricky.
I drew Daddy Dave, and we're the fourth pair.
It'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.
[engine roaring]
Shawn's been hauling ass lately, going rounds,
and I couldn't be happier for the guy.
But when we pull to the start line,
the friendship's over right there.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] The next pair,
and that's gonna be Daddy Dave going up against Murder Nova.
[pistol fires]
[Boosted] That was a drag race, folks.
But Murder Nova gets there first, turns on the win light.
Nice job.
[Murder Nova speaking]
We take the light.
[pistol fires]
[Dave] We left together.
He got me a little bit in the middle,
putting about half a car on me on the finish line.
It was side by side.
It was. It was a good [bleep] race, man.
[BoostedGT] This next pair, that's going to be
Chris Rankin going up against Nate Sayler.
[Nate] Okay, we're going to go up.
Second round, we have Chris Rankin.
He can make a stupid fast pass,
but it's one here or there.
Our car's, 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 to make it impossible for him to do that.
He got traded to Team Boddie,
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
and chop their heads off.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
That crazy car, fast as [bleep]
Did you see how fast that boy is?
God!
[Nate] And I still almost drove around him.
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 have to take a shot with your ass, dude.
-I just... -That's all right.
I'm sorry, man. You're moving on anyway.
You ain't sorry. Don't lie.
-You're moving on anyway. -Yep.
[BoostedGT] All right, next pair coming up right here.
It's going to be John Odom going up
against Damon Merchant.
Did you see John make the 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 can talk to Bobby and see how it went.
We know how Bobby runs.
Bobby's not shy.
[Damon] 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, you know, his tuner's going to have
all the confidence in him
to get it down that cold racetrack today.
So as long as mine will 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 Damon Merchant today.
You know him and Jim have had a little drama.
Now he's on Kye Kelley's team,
as you guys know, Kye Kelley's number one.
He is fast.
So that just makes it a little bit harder
for Team Swanstrom 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,
get us in the finals,
and we'll help Team Swanstrom.
[Kye] Team-wise, I still got three in.
We lost David and Lizzie.
Ryan 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.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Damon Merchant...
gets the win.
Great pass here in the left lane for Damon.
Takes the win there.
Move on to the next round.
[Damon] Woo!
[John] Baby, that's a good race!
[Damon] That was a good one.
[John laughs]
Oh, I didn't think you was coming with no weak [bleep].
-Oh, I wasn't. We were right there. -That's for sure.
I'm super proud of you, man. That was a great race.
-Good job. Good job. -Good job, brother.
[BoostedGT] Next pair coming at you right now.
Got Jimmy Taylor going up against Kye Kelley.
Hey, man.
-Welcome to the team today, man. -Be careful out there.
-[indistinct conversation] -[bleep]
If you need some help, I'm available.
And don't forget nothing.
-[Kye] 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 of the Invitational.
We won 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.
[engine revving]
[Kye] Jimmy's also another ProCharger car.
ProChargers are hard to beat.
Them guys are just bouncing data off each other
and hooking each other's computers
to their cars
and they're all getting faster and faster.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Kye Kelley...
-[bleep] -[BoostedGT] ...gets there first
with a great pass there
down the track.
[Kye] Woo!
We just got through round two,
which felt like round one,
'cause 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.
[pistol fires]
[Kye] Jimmy Taylor, he pulled on me
in the middle a little bit.
And then my car shifted into high.
just went around him.
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.
[BoostedGT] 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 over there?
-Yes, sir. Yes, sir. -Okay.
And then suspension is good up front?
-Yep. Yep. -Okay.
How do you feel about it?
-I feel good. I feel really good. -Yeah?
-We got a good driver. -Yeah?
-Yes, sir.
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 on the big end.
We're going to go up there,
see what we've got for Rich Bruder.
And hopefully we'll go on to the third round.
So last night, it was really cold.
The track temp was really, really down.
It was bottom 40s.
So we had to pull a lot out of our tune-up
just to get down the track.
And if you've seen the pass,
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 pass.
[intense music playing]
[Rich] 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 win light.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Rich Bruder takes the win.
Nice job there.
Rich Bruder going rounds.
[Rich] [bleep] yeah!
Made a clean pass, straight down.
We got that win.
On to round three right now.
Keep it going.
[steward] You good, bud?
[Clay] Oh, yeah. I had to lift.
-[Rich] Did ya? -Yeah.
Just going that way, I was like,
-"This ain't worth it, bro." -Yeah.
-You know the deal. Yeah. -Oh, yeah.
[Clay] Good race, though, bro. You made a good lick.
-[Rich] Yeah. You know. -Good job!
We got some [bleep] figured out,
and hopefully go some rounds now.
-No, good job, man. You guys are killing it. -You, too.
-Good job. Thank you. -Good luck this year, buddy.
[BoostedGT] All right, folks, that'll do it
for the second round of the invitational class.
Going into the third round,
Ryan has three racers left in,
while Dave and Kye 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 can go ahead and start
our invitational drivers 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 two's.
-Giuseppe versus Kye Kelley. -[driver] Ooh. Ooh.
[Kye] How fast did you say it was going?
-I'm not sure. I don't even know. -[Kye laughs]
Number three.
Rich Bruder versus Axman.
[guys laughing]
Which means the fourth and final pair will be
Nate Sayler versus Murder Nova.
All right, drivers, you know what you got to do.
Go back to the pits, get your 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 of 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.
Her [bleep] quicker than John down low,
and it pulls way harder out back, so.
All right, round three here. We drew Kayla.
It's 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 little bit. But...
we feel like we do got a hot rod right now.
So we're not here for no reason.
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.
Um, didn't get to do it yesterday,
so maybe today's the day.
You ready to suit up?
All right, suit up.
Good luck.
See you down there.
-[BoostedGT] All right, folks, coming up next... -Okay.
[BoostedGT] ...on the third round invitational class...
[engines idling]
[engine revving]
Come on, Kayla.
[engines idling]
-[engines revving] -[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] All right, first pair here
-in the third round of the invitational class... -Come on, Kayla.
[BoostedGT]...going to have Damon Merchant going up
against Kayla Morton.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
-Damn it! -[BoostedGT] And Damon Merchant will
-take the win there. -She drove the [bleep] out of it.
[BoostedGT] Great drag race between both those cars.
[Damon] Woo!
[bleep] yeah.
[bleep]
[Kayla] 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 are officially in the badass group
of people here.
And Mama Shark is coming for GALOT, man.
Pretty pass.
-It was... it was rough. -Huh?
-But... I figured you was coming. -It was pretty.
-I was. -I figured.
[BoostedGT] All right, next pair coming up
going to be Giuseppe going up against Kye Kelley.
[Kye] At round three, I went up and drew Giuseppe.
He's been struggling the last couple of 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.
[Giuseppe] We drew Kye Kelley.
We haven't been able to beat him 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's making great runs again.
So I feel like we're going to go rounds,
and we've got a chance to win this weekend.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[bleep] damn it!
[bleep]
Man, I thought that [bleep] got it...
[BoostedGT]...with the win.
-[bleep] damn it. -[bleep]
So we got past Giuseppe in round three.
[pistol fires]
[Kye] It was a good side-by-side race.
I got about a fender on him, I think.
[Giuseppe] 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. -Yep. Yep.
You got me a little early.
I think in the middle, it was a good race.
[bleep] damn, man.
You was going so fast, you blew the window.
-I'm going to have to watch out for you again. -I know, I know.
-[Kye laughs] -Good race, man.
You too, bud.
[BoostedGT] Coming at you right here.
That's going to be Rich Bruder going up against Axman.
So he agreed we'd race straight up.
-I hope so, after the last time. -You trust him?
After the last pass you did, I hope it's straight up.
If we ain't gonna race straight up,
I don't mind not racing straight up.
We can do a...
[man 2] He done some [bleep] up.
[Axman] 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. -Straight up.
-I'm fine. -All right.
[Axman] Round three, I drew Rich Bruder driving a Jackyll.
He jumped on me last weekend.
I just showed him I can do it, too.
I'm gonna tell you, bring a pair of medics if he jump.
[Rich laughs]
[laughs] I'm just messing with you.
So I went over, and I told him,
I said, "I'll race you straight up."
I said, "You jumped last week. You know 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."
[Dave] Is he going to guess on him?
We'll [bleep] see.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Rich Bruder!
Wow!
Well, that [bleep] thing's fast.
That [bleep] fast.
[Dave] Damn, where did that come from?
Hey, at the big end, it's like, oh.
Yeah.
[Rich] Good race, Larr.
Damn, it cut off on me.
-Did it? -Yeah.
[man] Our [bleep] front end.
[indistinct conversation]
We have our hot rod back, and we can go rounds.
And it's showing.
-Good job, bro. -Oh, [bleep] yeah, brother.
It's always fun racing.
Oh, man.
[BoostedGT] All right, folks,
last pair here in the third round.
That is going to be Nate Sayler going up
against Murder Nova.
-[engine revving] -[man] It does not [bleep].
I guarantee it doesn't.
I got data that shows how high it is!
It's about 8 inches off the ground.
-[Dave] What? -It's about 8 inches off the ground.
-The beam's only seven. -[bleep]
-[man] The beam's between five and seven. -[Dave sighs]
-Seven tops. -I think you're [bleep] crazy.
-I don't think it [bleep] does anything anyways. -Okay.
I'll get it fixed before the next one.
I think it does.
[chuckling] And I would have it on...
We draw Nate Sayler,
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.
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.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Nate Sayler will get the win.
Murder Nova has problems over there in that right lane.
Wonder what happened to him.
[BoostedGT] So Nate Sayler will move on
to the semifinals.
[Nate speaking]
I told the tuner, I was like,
"If you're ever going
to put a tune-up in it that's gambling, now is it,
'cause we're going to need it."
And I think it carried the tires so [bleep] 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 got two Ryan Martin cars in the next round,
so we're collecting those team points.
-I let go of the button, and it just shook instantly. -[Nate] Oh.
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 were [bleep] howling the whole way.
So, I didn't even make it to the 60 foot.
Well, I'm not gonna bull[bleep] you.
If you lost, I'd just sooner it'd be for me.
-Oh, yeah, yeah. For sure. For sure. I'm good with it. -And if I lost, I'd just...
[BoostedGT] So there you have it, folks.
Damon Merchant, Kye Kelley, Rich Bruder, and Nate Sayler
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 Kye Kelley and Team Ryan Martin.
-Kye, they're kind of catching up on you. -[Kye] Yeah.
[BoostedGT] Look, man,
do you just not like number one?
You prefer
number...
number two?
No, you know, all year,
Damon's been, like, really close to me,
so I went ahead and bought him, right?
Don't worry about that.
[BoostedGT] There you go.
I like the strategy. All right.
-[bleep] -All right, look,
Kye's nothing but honest over here.
He has a plan.
I like it. All right. Let's draw chips, y'all.
Where are my number ones?
Y'all want to trade?
[BoostedGT] Oh, wow. The teammates drew each other.
Damon Merchant versus Kye Kelley,
which means the other teammates drew each other.
Rich Bruder versus Nate Sayler.
But what that does guarantee is
it'll be a Team Kye Kelley, Team Ryan Martin finals.
All right, y'all, go back to 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.
[Kye] Hey, take it easy on me.
Make it look like a good race.
[Damon] Oh, you [bleep].
So chip draw did not go our way
going into the semifinals here.
Ryan's got two guys in.
Kye and myself are in.
It would have been great for points
if we could have drew them to put them out,
meet in the final together.
Chips didn't fall that way.
So we got Kye.
[engine revving]
[Damon] Anytime you throw me in a race to race for $40,000,
I'm not laying down for any team captain,
teammate, or anything.
We're going to give him hell out there.
And like I said, the best car is
going to go to the finals.
[engines idling]
-[engines revving] -[pistol fires]
-[Axman] Hey, Boosted. Aren't these two on the same team? -[BoostedGT] Yes, yes, Axman.
-Who? -Nate and Damon.
Ryan paid for Nate, and Kye paid for Damon.
I don't really watch social media much.
-What happened? -[BoostedGT] You missed the first day.
There was some trading that went on.
Nate Sayler went to Ryan Martin's team,
-and Damon Merchant went to Kye Kelley's team. -You don't even know?
So they bought 'em?
-[driver] Yeah. -I didn't see it.
-[driver 2] Man! -[Damon] We got sold.
So literally, paid money for them?
-[BoostedGT] There's a bit of money exchanged as well. -Boddie sold these two guys.
-Holy... -[driver 3] I was asleep.
And then I didn't get anything.
And Ryan done it too?
-Ryan did it also. -No way.
Actually, Ryan was the first one
that did the trade.
But y'all's team co-captain is
the one who started this whole deal.
Dave tried to,
but he didn't get his money right.
[laughing] "Couldn't get his money right."
[Kayla] Can we move on?
Can we move on now?
[BoostedGT] Invitational semifinals coming at you right now.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Kye Kelley gets the win!
Kye left first, never looked back.
Both guys driving those cars there.
Kye Kelley gets the win. He will go to the finals.
[Kye] Picking up Damon, that's probably
the best $10,000 I ever spent.
He went to the semis with me today.
He helped me hold off Ryan's team
from getting any points on us.
He puts in the work. He's got a badass, fast car.
I race side by side with it.
It's 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, bud.
Hey, man, you were passing me, What happened?
[bleep] let him loose, man.
I was like, "There he goes."
-[Damon grunts] -[chuckles]
Good one.
[bleep] that was a race.
[BoostedGT] Last pair here in the semifinals
for the invitational class.
Rich Bruder going up against Nate Sayler.
Sucks, but at least one of us are...
one of us is moving on to the next round.
-[Nate] One Team Ryan's going to the next round. -Yep.
That's the only thing that's good about this [bleep].
Semi-finals, we got Rich Bruder.
Uh...
Didn't want that.
We were trying to stay away from each other
so we could race each other in the final.
-Stay safe. Have fun. -Stay safe brother.
I'll see you on the other side.
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.
[engine revving]
[Rich] 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.
These are the fastest passes we've made to date.
You know, it's been shown. We're going rounds now.
So hopefully we'll be back, and be in the final.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] And Nate Sayler
will take the win.
That was a drag race.
Super close the other end,
but Nate Sayler turns on the wind light.
So your finals will be Kye Kelley versus Nate Sayler
for $40,000.
-Good race, brother. -Thanks, man.
-Oh, good job. -Thank you.
We got... Our front-end's high up. [chuckles]
We got to make a bar change on this thing now.
Oh, man, this thing did a monster wheelie.
-Yeah, same thing. -It was awesome [bleep].
-Good job. -Thanks, brother.
-We're gonna go win us the championship. -That's it.
That's it, we're gonna do it.
[BoostedGT] All right, Michigan,
this is your invitational final
right here, right now.
-Dude, I want this one so bad, I can't even tell you. -Oh, yeah.
Finals here, we're against Kye Kelley,
and that [bleep] is my kryptonite.
He has beat me three out of three times.
-Y'all got everything ready to go fast? -Yep.
[Nate] I know they're going to throw the kitchen sink at it,
because they know when we were running them before,
we were right there at his door.
Well, this car's 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.
Um...
We'll just see what happens here.
[engine revving]
[BoostedGT] These drivers are racing for $40,000.
[Kye] Win or lose, I'm going to 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.
[BoostedGT] This right here will be a drag race
between these two extremely fast cars.
When Nate Sayler first came into the NPK,
everybody was saying he had a lot of money,
he was going to be fast, he was going to be hard to deal with.
He 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.
[BoostedGT] Let's see who will win the bag of money.
[Kye] So if there was any time
that we needed to bring our best game up there,
it's now.
[engines idling]
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] Oh, and Nate Sayler gets the win!
-[whooping] -[BoostedGT] What a drag race.
Kye Kelley was right there.
But Nate Sayler is your $40,000 winner.
[Nate] I'm on cloud nine, dude.
We've made some changes on the car
to go fast quicker.
-Let go of the button. - [pistol fires]
[Nate] 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.
[BoostedGT] Nate Saylor and crew, Michigan.
Woo!
We got a fast race car.
We're on a good team.
We're going to come for that championship.
About ate some wall, buddy.
-Oh, dude, I about ate you. [chuckles] -Yeah.
-Good race, man. You deserve it, for real. -Thanks, brother.
I told Jim, I said, "If he beats me,
I ain't going to be mad,
'cause I beat him several times this year."
Three out of three, you beat me.
It was a good [bleep] race, though.
[Kye] 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 Sayler 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 Sayler got a win.
All right, Nate Sayler, it is payday, sir.
Look, you battled all weekend
and steamrolled through the invitational class,
two in one season.
Nate Sayler, congratulations, man.
What are you thinking?
Man, I'm just...
I can't tell you how excited we are.
We're on a new team.
[BoostedGT] Team Ryan Martin proud right there.
-Good drive, baby. Good job. -[BoostedGT] Already paying off.
[Ryan] We made a big move for our team, you know.
Nate's car's 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 points and a half,
and the double points,
it's very achievable.
-[whooping triumphantly] -[BoostedGT] Wow!
Look at that!
Nate Sayler, man.
Hey, congratulations, sir.
$40,000.
Nate Sayler, make some noise.
-[whooping] -[man whooping]
[BoostedGT] Nate Sayler has won his second invitational
of the season.
You got to ask yourself, where did this guy come from,
and how did the other 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, GALOT Motorsports Park, how are y'all doing today?
[Kye] 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.
[engines revving]
[pistol fires]
[BoostedGT] Kye's team might be holding the lead in points.
[Ryan] Kye's been running away with this deal.
We need to go get him.
And this is our chance to make a big move.
[engines revving]
[driver exclaims angrily]
[bleep]
[BoostedGT] But the fight for the championship is
far from being over.
Bodie, you still have a couple guys on your team you have not sold.
- [laughter] - [Nova] Points and a half.
You got three races to either catch up...
-Three races. -or forget about.
And at this point right now, we're getting left behind.
Some of the teams are out of reach in this championship.
We are not.
So we're going to do whatever we can
to get Scott Taylor on our team.
[BoostedGT] Oh, my God!
[Nova] Is it going to happen?
[tense music playing]