Oooh, welcome to your inaugural playoffs!!! It’s been a pretty wild one so far; I hope you’ve been enjoying it. :) Are you rooting for/against any teams in particular??? Who’ve you got pegged for the final four?

I haven’t had a lot of time to pay much attention to what storylines have been playing out off-track, but I do vaguely remember him mentioning in the pre-race last week that he felt that respect needed to be re-earned. But that makes me sad, so I try not to think about it too much. I want JJ to win 10,000 races this season, strike fear into the hearts of men, etc.

As for everyone racing even if they’re not in contention for the championship–I actually had a similar question when I was watching my first NASCAR playoffs! Because I was like, man, this seems like a VERY expensive way to spend an afternoon, y’all. But I think it actually does make a lot of sense, for a number of reasons, some of which are duller than others, haha. Here are some, though by no means all, reasons everyone races even when they’re not in the playoffs:

Business reasons:

In Harv’s words, you signed a contract. Sponsors still want their colors on track.

Your driver, crew, supporting staff, etc. also still need to get paid, and so need to work. 

Development reasons:

Especially in years like this, where the rules package for 2020 is going to be pretty much the same as 2019, teams that aren’t in contention for the playoffs have a little more leeway to try out some experimental set-ups and strategies to see if they find any magic that’ll give them a leg-up next year.

Young drivers get seat time, new crew members get practice.

Especially for teams that are still developing, or perennially low-budget, track time matters. It takes a lot of work to build up a team and get it competitive (see: the 95 team).

Racing reasons:

It would be real, real boring watching only 16, 12, 8, 4 cars roll around the track alone. It only worked in Cars 1 because we, the audience, did not have to watch all million and ten laps of that tiebreaker race where NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED. XPP

Plus, racing only really works if you have a field of cars to work with–no one really wants to watch someone get out in clean air and then gap the field, never to be heard from again. So we need lapped traffic; we need the ability to lose 15 points because there’s a bunch of non-playoff drivers between you and the next guy in contention. We need fights for the lucky dog position, we need the potential for unexpected chaos and inopportune/opportune cautions. Especially with this rules package, which is so aero-dependent, and makes the cars handle so differently in clean air vs. in traffic, and brings side-drafting, etc. into play. If there’s no cars to cause these kinds of conditions, there’s really no race. The backrunners and non-playoff cars are crucial to the sport! They are not #meaningless at all! (#meaningless copyright Denny Hamlin)

And honestly, if you can’t maneuver around lapped traffic and hold onto your lead, you don’t deserve to be a NASCAR Champion, anyway. This is racing, real racing, not turning left.

Plus, even if you’re not in the playoffs, a win is a win. And for a lot of guys, a win is more important than a championship, because a championship was never in the cards for their team in the first place. A win, though? That’d be everything.

a) Truex because of his comeback story

b) Elliot because he is nice driver like his dad

c) Larson seems to be a cool guy who has finally overcome a series of bad breaks

Of my choices, only Truex currently has a slot in the final race.

I also follow Formula 1 and the comparison is interesting. In Formula 1, a driver becomes champion when no other drivers can mathematically beat him in earning racing points. This means Lewis Hamilton can (and most likely will) become the champion during his next race (Austin TX/COTA) with at least two races to run after that. His team, Mercedes AMG Petronas, has already won the constructor’s championship. For Hamilton and his team, the next races are really prep time for the next season. (And there is a lot of grumbling about “Mercedes dominance” in F1.)

(Omg, sorry for the world’s latest response, especially since this is such a great ask AND it’s about 

!)

@masked-king-dedede​ wrote an absolutely perfect and fantastic fanfic about Harv getting drinks with Chick’s agent, which can be found here:

Fridays

Harv’s favorite pastime as the World’s Greatest Agent is unwinding with a stiff drink and what can pass for a friend on a Friday night.

–

A few weeks ago I was looking up my newest favorite NASCAR Cup backrunner team, Spire Motorsports, and discovered that the parent company Spire is actually a talent agency for actors, musicians, and–yup–race car drivers. Like, a lot of race car drivers. A lot of racecar drivers who are all competing against each other in one national association for stock car auto racing. XDD I mean, I imagine they’re all represented by different agents employed with Spire, but given that in the Cars universe things are more simplified and the tasks of many humans tend to boil down to the task of one (1) anthropomorphic car, I was like, HAHAHA I BET YOU HARV REPRESENTS OTHER PISTON CUP RACERS IN ADDITION TO LIGHTNING. (Conflict of interest? What conflict of interest?)

He probably takes pride in his ability to fine-tune his strategy to the vagaries of each of his clients, and set up exactly the right kind of publicity that would play to their particular nature and strengths as a marketable entity. Lightning is by far Harv’s most high-profile client–and his favorite, though he’s not allowed to say that to anyone but Lightning. (Also, he tells everyone that they’re his favorite.)

Anyway! Back to your actual ask. XD Even though he’s taking a hiatus from the circuit, Lightning is obviously still very much a public figure, and he’s the kind of racer with such an investment in the sport that he’s probably never going to fade from view. So Lightning definitely still needs Harv. That and he also very definitely signed a crazy absolutely whackadoo contract with Harv his rookie year, lololol, where, likely in addition to Harv’s actual contract fees, Harv also gets 

10% of Lightning’s winnings

10% of Lightning’s merch earnings 

and appears to also hold the rights to any ancillary properties that might emerge from Lightning (movies, books, comics, and since we’re talking cars, probably throwback paint schemes, etc.) 

IN PERPETUITY. THAT IS, FOREVER.

F O R E V E R.

I’ve mentioned this before, in that it’s unclear whether that means 10% of the total pot or 10% of Lightning’s personal cut of it, but lolllll regardless I’ll bet Harv makes more money off Lightning than Lightning does.

Is Dinoco chill with that? I mean, they’re probably not thrilled, but in terms of Dinoco’s overall investment profile, the entirety of Rusteze Racing and Lightning McQueen likely aren’t but a drop in the bucket. Like the Hendrick car dealerships versus Hendrick Motorsports, for Dinoco anything related to racing is probably where the money gets spent, not where it gets earned. Even fielding a championship-caliber team. Tex got that big Texas oil $$$$$. XD 

I spotted this guy while at a local county building and immediately thought “Harv”? 😁

Harv waited by the office videophone. No way was he going to be late for this call from Dinoco Legal. That contract McQueen signed during his rookie year was rock solid. Not even the racer’s fancy lawyer girlfriend could poke a hole in it, and Harv knew she had tried. His own fancy lawyer had done a great job of making sure that McQueen was locked in for life.

I like Peeps.

I like milk.