NASCAR makes major change to 2027 Daytona 500 week, fans furious with another change & race wife in Costa Rica

Monday Morning Pit-Stop is a weekly NASCAR column that runs on OutKick.com and Fox News Digital. If you're looking for a normal NASCAR recap, go check out insufferable ESPN ... assuming they still know NASCAR exists.

It's the Summer of Corey Heim and Ty Gibbs in NASCAR ...

On a totally unrelated note, what a rough summer for NASCAR!

Lordy. You take a week off, regroup, recharge, and come back to Leigh Diffey, another TV channel to find, and more domination from the Toyotas in a car nobody likes.

Congrats to Ty Gibbs!

How in the world am I supposed to make content today? I'm gonna need NASCAR to work with me a bit here. I can do most of the legwork, but I need this summer to turn around. We're running out of time!

Oh well. I reckon I'll figure it out. I always do. It's why we win (alleged) awards around here.

Yes, Leigh Diffey is back, and NASCAR fans made sure to voice their appreciation on social media. We'll talk about it. They continue to despise the Next Gen car. We'll talk about that, too.

Do y'all like anything right now? Well, you like Kyle Busch stuff, right?

I've also got Ryan Blaney giving us maybe the best Kyle Busch tribute yet. There. Finally! Something positive today.

Daytona can't get here soon enough. This sport needs a real race right now in the worst possible way. Nineteen more days.

Four tires, a couple splashes of that Sunoco racin' fuel, and maybe a hug for all the Hendrick fellas, because that team STINKS right now ... Monday Morning Pit-Stop — the 'The Week Off Didn't Do Much' edition — is LIVE!

Well, before we break down Iowa (not much to break down, I'll be honest), we might as well stick with Daytona while we're talking about it.

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Did y'all see the big news last week? Next year's Clash is returning to Daytona, where she belongs. See? I'm not gonna be all negative today, NASCAR. You're welcome. I'm coming out of the gates with some praise!

Yes, the Clash is returning to Daytona for the first time in a few years. It went from the LA Coliseum to Bowman Gray, but she's coming back home to where she belonged for decades.

More importantly, the date will also change, and it's maybe the smartest thing NASCAR's done in a while.

The 2027 Wheatley Vodka Clash (yes, it's no longer the Busch Clash) will run Saturday night, Feb. 13 — eight days before the Daytona 500 and on the eve of the Super Bowl.

Yes, you read that right. We finally get some iteration of "Speedweeks" back. The horrible "run the Busch Clash then take a full two weeks off before the Daytona 500" schedule is DONE. One of the dumbest scheduling strategies in all of sports, if you ask me, and it's finally over.

The race will run on the oval, with eligibility for the invitation-only event still to be determined. The late Kyle Busch won the last Clash at Daytona in 2021, but that race was on the road course.

Yes, Kyle Busch won a road course race. Amazing. Man, I miss him.

Look at that schedule. What a throwback! In recent years, the old "Speedweeks" have turned into "SpeedDays," with some drivers not even getting to Daytona until the Wednesday before the race.

Disgusting behavior, if you ask me. Not anymore.

We've got the Clash a full eight days before the 500, and a on the eve of the Super Bowl. Another smart move. The Super Bowl is a full week later this year, which means the 500 has been pushed a week. NASCAR made the right call jamming a race into Super Bowl weekend. You get a piece of that pie however possible. Trust me.

Good to have some sort of Speedweeks back. Lord, I'm just glad to have it plural again.

OK, that's enough of the warm and fuzzy today. Unfortunately, I can't milk it forever. Everyone's favorite Aussie announcer, Leigh Diffey, returned to our TV screens this weekend, and NASCAR fans were thrilled!

I could go on and on, but I won't, because I'm tired. We've been doing this song and dance with Leigh Diffey for five years now it seems.

Look, I don't love him, but I've made peace with him. Does it sound different? Yeah, duh. Let's just be honest here for a second. It sounds like I should be watching an F1 race, and Lord knows I'd never watch an F1 race.

But credit to Leigh for at least trying to make yesterday's race sound exciting. It's not an easy job, you know? Try to make a race with these current cars, which don't allow you to pass, sound exciting.

It ain't easy. Mike Joy does it better than anyone (duh), but I thought Leigh was fine yesterday. He did at one point call the final few laps "phenomenal," which I guess were? I don't know. Did anyone think Christopher Bell would actually pass Ty Gibbs? You couldn't do it all day. Why would it happen at the end?

I will say this ... Leigh can make paint drying sound exciting. NASCAR fans will never get past the accent, which I get, but fair is fair.

OK, let's get to a couple quickies on the way to Richmond ... First? How about this Kyle Busch helmet Ryan Blaney broke out this weekend?

"My thought when Kyle passed was, I've always thought in situations like that, how do you remember somebody and how do you think of all the good that they did in their life and all the success they had? Blaney said. "I think helmets are a unique thing in our sport, we kind of get to design them, a lot of them have special meaning. And this is kind of my best way of showing my respect towards Kyle Busch and respect to the Busch family.

"I hope to run it for one race and give it to Brexton, the Busch family, and they can do whatever they want with it. So just showing respect, and I'm glad people noticed it."

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Solid helmet out of Ryan Blaney yesterday. Well done. My favorite Kyle Busch win came in 2021 when he won the season-opening Clash because Chase Elliott wrecked Ryan Blaney.

Not really. But it was a cool win:

Can't believe it's been five years since NASCAR raced on Daytona's road course. Let's never do that again!

Speaking of Chase Elliott ... has anyone seen just how bad Hendrick Motorsports has been lately? Goodness gracious. This might be their worst summer ever, and that's saying a lot given they've historically had rough summer months.

William Byron finished ninth yesterday, giving HMS its first top-10 in nearly a month. Chase hasn't finished in the top-10 since Nashville ... on May 31!

Do you understand how bad that is? What in the world is going on over there?

Yikes.

OK, that's it for today. We made wine out of water. Or something like that.

Here's McCall Gaulding's vacation recap to take us to Richmond.