118 - Charlotte

118 - Charlotte

In this week's episode of Atop the Pit Box, Josh and Justin open with a heavy heart, reflecting on the tragic loss of Kyle Busch and detailing how the league rules will handle fantasy points and remaining swaps for the 21 teams still carrying him on their rosters. Transitioning to the track, the guys recap the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, discussing Daniel Suarez's huge win in the Spire Motorsports car and its massive impact on the fantasy standings. They highlight the fantasy winners and losers of the week, including Chase Elliott's painful first DNF of the season. The standings saw a massive shakeup this week, highlighted by a rookie team taking the #1 overall spot. Josh and Justin also break down the biggest risers and fallers, dive into the latest driver trends, and tackle a brutal Commissioner's Dilemma concerning a regretted William Byron-to-Chase Elliott swap. Finally, the hosts look ahead with a preview of Nashville, make their weekly head-to-head picks, and officially set the stakes for the season's loser punishment—having to wear the winner's favorite driver apparel to an upcoming race

117 - Watkins Glen

SVG came from 29 seconds back to win Watkins Glen and single-handedly saved what was otherwise a forgettable road course. Justin's brother-in-law witnessed his first NASCAR race, declared road courses exciting, and has no idea that was not normal. Fantasy winners: Ty Gibbs bounces back with a P3, silencing the swap talk and moving up to 6th. Michael McDowell delivers a P2 and climbs back to 22nd — a real drive that got completely overshadowed by SVG. Fantasy losers: William Byron goes P36 (worst finish of his season, down to 11th, owned by 165 teams) and Joey Logano continues his freefall to 26th in the standings, 8 spots below his $16 value. The number of the week: Tyler Reddick has 33 total fantasy points through 12 races. Joey Logano has 268. Josh and Justin run the math on what SlideJob's season looks like if he'd started with Reddick instead of Logano — he'd be in 23rd instead of 265th. One driver. The top 10 barely moves, Jeffrey Bona 2 goes back-to-back in first, and the first Larson drops of the season finally happen — two teams swap him for Hamlin heading into Watkins Glen. Best swap of the season goes to JMO's Zilich-to-Reddick move at Las Vegas, up 156 points since. Worst is now Buescher-to-Gibbs, negative 53 points since Kansas. The Commissioner's Dilemma this week is Biscuits Best No. 2, and Justin is 60% on dropping Byron for Elliott right now — but Charlotte is Byron's best track, so maybe wait. Picks contest moves to 11-4, punishment options are narrowing, and a sunburn stencil of the other host's driver number is firmly on the table.

116 - Texas

Josh and Justin are back after a race that felt a lot like the season itself: fine, but not quite fireworks. Chase Elliott took the win at Texas and Denny Hamlin finished second — which, as Josh cheerfully points out, is exactly how he wants every race to go. Justin is... less thrilled, but mostly because he was busy moving into a new house. On the fantasy side, Justin's winner is Daniel Suarez — quietly putting up a P6 at Texas, now the 11th-best fantasy driver in the league, owned by just 14 teams. Josh's winner is Ryan Blaney, who bounced back with a P10 after some self-inflicted pit road chaos (three missed gears, but who's counting). On the loser side, Christopher Bell leads the race, gets taken out, and finishes dead last — his bad-luck run continuing into a seventh consecutive race without a single-digit score. Josh's loser is Ty Gibbs, who dropped from 3rd to 9th in the driver standings after back-to-back 30-plus point weeks following seven straight single-digit scores. The big storylines: Kyle Larson is now the 13th-best fantasy driver, and Justin is openly considering dropping him. The top 9 teams in the league don't have Larson on them — Denny Hamlin is on every single one. Jeffrey Bona 2 jumps into first place for the first time all season, fueled by Elliott, Reddick, and Hamlin. Tool Hangers drops from 1st to a three-way tie for 2nd after Christopher Bell's disaster. And the new "Commissioner's Dilemma" segment debuts, putting Justin on the hot seat about whether Tool Hangers should swap Bell for Chase Elliott. In the picks contest, Josh wins for the fourth straight week — Buescher (P5) beats Byron (P8) — and he immediately takes SVG for Watkins Glen. Justin, ever the strategist, counters with Connor Zilich and explains his long game. The score sits at 9-4. Looking ahead to Watkins Glen: SVG is the obvious favorite (1.5 average finishing position at the track), Buescher could genuinely contend, and Tyler Reddick — the league's runaway top driver at 2.5 points per race — is good on every single style of track.

115 - Talladega

Josh and Norton recap Talladega, where Carson Hocevar wins his first career race and delivers one of the most talked-about celebrations in recent memory — Josh missed it live and regrets every second. Hocevar is the Fantasy Winner at P1/-6 points, owned by just 42 teams (10.4% / 42 teams). Fantasy Loser is Kyle Larson, dead last at P40 with 229 teams (56.8% / 229 teams) feeling the pain. Norton raises the uncomfortable question: do you actually drop Kyle Larson? Josh says no — but it's not as easy as it used to be. The track stats were historic: best score in the league was 52 points, average hit 115 — tying the all-time single-race high with Bristol Dirt. ToolHangerz takes first place for the first time, 2Z Designs falls to fourth. Chris Buescher enters the top 5 in driver standings after P2. JayMo's Zilisch-to-Reddick swap is now the season's best at +130, moving him from 267th to 69th. Nine swaps at Talladega, five of them dropping Kyle Busch — who then finished P10. Josh called Hocevar, Norton went Keselowski — series now 8-4 Josh. For Texas, Josh takes Chris Buescher (first use, +2200 odds), Norton counters with William Byron. The loser punishment wheel gets formalized — spins after Charlotte.

114 - Kansas

We're a little late getting this one out — apologies for the delay — but Josh and Norton are back to recap what turned out to be a two-part Kansas recording after some brutal connection issues forced them to restart mid-episode. Tyler Reddick wins for the fifth time this season, and his average fantasy points per race somehow dropped again to 1.1 — the guys marvel at what his final number looks like if the wheels ever fall off. Josh makes him the Fantasy Winner while Norton gives the nod to Denny Hamlin, now up to second best fantasy driver with three straight single-digit scores. Fantasy Loser is Ryan Blaney, who hit Allmendinger on pit road and had his worst finish since Daytona at a track Penske typically owns. SVG gets the other nod as the Trackhouse struggles become impossible to ignore. The top 10 is remarkably stable — only two teams swap in and out — with 2Z Designs back on top for the fifth time this season and JLAS Racing climbing to second. The guys spotlight Chase Briscoe's back-to-back top 5 finishes as a vindication of their "don't give up on him" stance, and Ty Gibbs now sits third in the driver standings with seven straight single-digit fantasy scores. Daniel Suarez gets some long-overdue credit, running $7 above his original value with only 12 teams owning him. The Pizza West bet on Busch vs. Bowman is not looking good for Josh — Kyle Busch just posted his worst fantasy result of the season at P35, and Norton notes Austin Dillon is outrunning him. Kansas snapped the two-week swap drought with 12 moves, pushing the season total past last year's record. Most notable: three Logano-to-Reddick swaps, two Chastain-to-Gibbs swaps, and a deep dive into the Shox 8's McDowell-to-Zane-Smith move that the guys aren't sure will pay off. Best swap of the season holds at Bowman-to-Gibbs at +137 points; worst is still Gibbs-to-Buescher at -72. Looking ahead to Talladega, Josh takes Carson Hocevar (first use for either) and Norton rides Brad Keselowski. Josh leads the series picks 6-4.