AFP Podcasts

Intrigue in NASCAR on the track, in the courtroom, as 2025 season winds down

A settlement conference in the NASCAR antitrust suit will head into a second day, after lawyers for the privately owned racing circuit and two of the sport’s top teams met in court on Tuesday to see if they could resolve their many disputes.

Rod Mullins joins the podcast to report on the latest.

We also spend some time on news from the track, with the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs down to the final two races – this weekend in our neck of the woods, down in Martinsville.

Pete Barlow to Virginia Democrats: Let’s be the big tent party

Healthcare isn’t a red or blue issue, says Pete Barlow, an Augusta County Democrat running for Congress in the 2026 midterms cycle.

Farmers having markets closed to them because of the Trump tariffs – not a red or blue issue.

FEMA not being there to respond to natural disasters – not red or blue.

But for Democrats in Western Virginia to be able to be a part of the solutions, we need to open up the tent.

“We always talk about being a big tent party. Well, let’s really be a big tent party and talk to people who we disagree with,” said Barlow, who stepped down from his job as a manager with FEMA earlier this year to throw himself full-time into his run for the Democratic Party nomination for the Sixth District seat in Congress.

 

Link: https://augustafreepress.com/news/pete-barlow-to-virginia-democrats-lets-be-the-big-tent-party/ 

Lisa Vedernikova Khanna | Soon-to-be new mom running for Congress

When Lisa Vedernikova Khanna called her Russian immigrant mother a few months ago to tell her that she was running for Congress, mom was, let’s just say, a tad bit disappointed.

“She was hoping that I was pregnant,” said Khanna, who went public last week with that news – that she is expecting, and due in February, meaning, she’s now running for Congress and about to become a first-time mother.

Who is this ‘Humble Denny Hamlin’ of whom you speak?

Denny Hamlin, who won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race in Las Vegas, was described by our Rod Mullins as downright “humble” post-race, which leads to the question: did somebody do something to our Denny Hamlin?

Rod joins the show to discuss.

We also go in depth on the latest development in the NASCAR charter lawsuit, which appears to be headed to trial in December – though I wonder if NASCAR might be better advised to settle ahead of time, instead of allowing a judge to decide how the series does its business going forward.

That, and we preview Talladega, coming up this weekend.

Happy Anniversary, OBX news, UVA-Trump, UVA Football in the Top 25

It’s the anniversary edition of the #TeamAFP podcast. My co-host and breaking news editor, Crystal Graham, said I do 25 years ago today, on Oct. 7, 2000.

To mark 25 years of her having to put up with my nonsense, I made her acknowledge that she married me, which is no small admission.

Then we get to business: talking through the recent spate of homes collapsing in OBX and the Trump administration’s effort to get UVA to bend the knee on ideology for a few extra bucks.

Also: the very important story involving UVA Football being 5-1 and ranked 19th in the AP Top 25.

That, and we have to get packing for our anniversary week trip to NYC.

Van Gisbergen wins at the Roval

Shane van Gisbergen, shocker, took the win at the Charlotte Roval, notching his fifth road-race win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Rod Mullins was down in Charlotte for us this past weekend, and reports back on van Gisbergen’s road-course dominance, and the scramble among the 12 drivers still in the playoff hunt to get to the cutline for the Round of 8.

Also on this week’s show: we go into detail on the latest in the antitrust case in which two teams are challenging the NASCAR charter system.

Neighbors disagree with couple’s efforts to push homeless out

Augusta Free Press reporter Crystal Graham breaks down two sides to an issue involving homeless people at a Waynesboro church.

 

While a couple who lives next door has raised concerns about safety and property values, residents nearby overwhelmingly have spoken out in support of the church's plans to become a re-education center for the unhoused population.

 

An upcoming meeting Tuesday night will bring both sides to the table.

 

Deep inside the dust-up between Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace

Denny Hamlin drives for Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s also the co-owner of 23XI Racing, which has Bubba Wallace efforting to stay alive in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

So, when Hamlin bumped Wallace into the wall toward the end of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, that was going to get folks’ attention, including Wallace’s.

The word “dumbass” may have entered the chat, for instance.

Wallace is, right now, on the outside looking in, with one race left in the Round of 12, which becomes the Round of 8 after this weekend’s Charlotte ROVAL.

Rod Mullins will be down in Charlotte covering the race for AFP.

I chatted with Rod on today’s podcast to get into this Denny Hamlin-Bubba Wallace story, among other things, including the rumors that NASCAR is going to shutter its current playoff format to go back to the way things were down pre-2004.

Matt Kenseth comes up as we talk through that one.

Also, discussion of declining NASCAR ratings, and how politics is playing a role in that.

Two strokes don’t stop Erik Simonsen from finishing the Killington Ultra

Erik Simonsen isn’t one to let obstacles get in his way, so when, toward the end of a recent 31-mile hike through the Vermont wilderness, for something called the Killington Spartan Ultra 50K, it was just a 60-pound sandbag between him and the finish line, OK, that one almost got him.

“Just cruel, yeah, I think that they put it at the end was the cruel part. You know, in the middle, I could have done it fine and gotten through it. But the very last thing is just this huge sandbag carry, and it’s, oh, why is it here?” said Simonsen, a 33-year-old Waynesboro High School alum, who got past the sandbag carry to finish the Sept. 13 Killington Ultra in 12:26:12.

Biggest losers in the Jimmy Kimmel drama | Disney, ABC, ESPN, Hulu, Marvel, Trump?

Jimmy Kimmel has doubts about the official story from the MAGA prosecutor handling the Charlie Kirk murder. So does Steve Bannon, among many others, but Bannon is also a MAGA, and a bit of a crank, so he’s safe.

The Trump administration used a leverage point over a company seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger to force Kimmel off the air “indefinitely” – not so much about what Kimmel said about the Kirk murder investigation in the opening monologue of his late-night ABC talk show on Monday, but rather, that Kimmel is a frequent and high-profile critic of Donald Trump.