Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Today, I was lucky enough to talk to the owner of the Leavine Family Racing team, Bob Levaine. We talked about how his team got their start back in 2011 and what kind of expectations Bob and his wife Sharon have after forming a new partnership with Joe Gibbs racing.
Q: So overall, You guys are still a relatively new team, starting back in 2011. Can you give us a little bit of a background about the beginning and what kind of drew you to NASCAR?
Leavaine: Well it has really been an interesting cycle, In the first five years we were just part-time and I got into it to help our first driver David Starr and of course with me being as competitive as I am, I really liked it so we brought in Scott Speed to drive for us our second year and then Michael McDowell for our first full time season and it has just kind of went from there.
Q: There were some new changes this year to NASCAR; one of the changes that many have been critical of has been the new qualifying format. Overall are you guys happy with some of the tweaks we saw NASCAR announced earlier this week?
Leavaine: What they did requires more oversight, but in the end It's still going to come down to the draft and if it comes down to the luck of the draw. I would prefer with what we were doing before with single car runs because a lot of these teams work too hard and spend a lot of money for qualifying and they don't get the lap they deserve.
Q: So there have been some major changes including moving the finale to ISM Raceway and moving Daytona to the final race of the regular season. Overall are there any changes you would like to see NASCAR make when it comes to scheduling?
Leavaine: If I was going to do anything with the schedule why not let them run the road course at Indy? I think that is really cool course and I think that a lot of the fans would come. It would be something different like with what we saw in Charlotte so that would be one of the things I would like to do. Also, I'd like to see them rotate their season finale and maybe make them bid on like they do the Super Bowl.
Q: And Finally I have to ask the question a lot of people have been wondering, with this new alliance with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, is there a possibility of expansion at LFR in the near future?
Leavine: Yes. Absolutely. We were going to run two cars for this year with Daniel Suarez and a driver we selected but that didn't work out but overall, I am happy with how everything turned out. I am glad we got Matt DiBenedetto because he wanted to come here but yes we are working on expanding for 2020 right now. It's just a matter of sponsorship because we can put the people on it and we have the organization and Toyota Racing Development will support that so yes we are working to expand.
You can hear the whole interview below.
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C.J. Stroud just about had to be scraped off the field inside Arrowhead Stadium by the time the Kansas City Chiefs had sacked him for the eighth time Saturday, the Houston quarterback's jersey stretched and torn and covered in grass and mud.
It pretty much summed up another trip to the divisional round of the playoffs for the Texans.
They rode a roller-coaster of brilliant performances and bitter flops into the postseason, but seemed to be gathering some momentum in the wild-card round, when they soundly beat the Chargers in a game many expected them to lose.
But that performance last weekend merely set up a showdown with the Chiefs, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, who had beaten Houston just last month and never seems to lose at this point in the season.
And with Patrick Mahomes finding Travis Kelce wide open all day and Kansas City's pass rush making life miserable for Stroud, the Chiefs methodically pieced together a 23-14 victory to deny the Texans a spot in the AFC championship game yet again.
They've had six tries to get through the divisional round. They have failed all six times.
Two of them have been in Kansas City.
Be sure to watch the video above as the crew from Texans on Tap reacts live to the game on YouTube.
And this one might have been every bit as bitter as the last, when the Texans blew a 24-0 lead in a 51-31 loss in January 2020 that would ultimately catapult Mahomes, Kelce and Chiefs coach Andy Reid to the first of their three Super Bowl titles.
Houston's Ka'imi Fairbairn missed a 55-yard field goal attempt that would have tied it at 6 late in the first half, but instead gave the Chiefs a short field. Five plays later, Kareem Hunt powered into the end zone for a touchdown.
In the second half, after the Texans spent more than 10 minutes driving 81 yards for a touchdown that should have tied it, Fairbairn missed the PAT in the cold, swirling winds. It not only left the Chiefs clinging to a 13-12 lead but also seemed to sap all the energy and excitement that Stroud, running back Joe Mixon and the rest of the offense had built up.
Kansas City proceeded to drive 81 yards for a touchdown of its own to take a 20-12 lead early in the fourth quarter.
The Texans still had chances to drive for a tying TD. But the first opportunity ended with three straight incompletions by Stroud and one of George Karlaftis' three sacks on fourth down, and the second with back-to-back incompletions and a punt.
By the time the Chiefs added a late field goal, and conceded a safety in the closing seconds, the game was over.
The Texans can still look back on a second consecutive AFC South title and that win over the Chargers. But they still have never won consecutive playoff games in the same season, something that is sure to fester within coach DeMeco Ryans, who was part of the first team to win a playoff game for the franchise when it beat Cincinnati in January 2012.
It also won't sit well with Stroud, who has done just about everything except make it to the AFC championship game.
The 23-year-old starting quarterback — the youngest to face a defending Super Bowl champ in the playoffs — is only the sixth QB to win a playoff game in each of his first two seasons. And he's the first Texans quarterback to win two playoff games.
Yet there was nothing he could do against Kansas City and its ferocious pass rush Saturday.
There wasn't much the rest of the Texans could do against the Chiefs, either.