AFP Podcasts
Politikk og nyheterSportStreet Knowledge is hosted by Chris Graham, the award-winning editor of The Augusta Free Press (Waynesboro, Va.), with episodes highlighting local news, Virginia and national politics, arts and culture, mental health, sports and professional wrestling.
Siste episoder av AFP Podcasts podcast
- Deep inside the dust-up between Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace (00:30:15)
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 (00:25:18)
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? (00:13:13)
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.
- UVA Football | What do we know about this team three weeks into the 2025 season? (00:11:23)
If the 2025 UVA Football season was one long game, we’re in the break between the first and second quarters. What we’ve seen so far: ‘Hoos 55, W&M 16 | UVA Football takes care of business in Cupcake Bowl UVA Football | Red zone issues, what else is new, doom ‘Hoos in 35-31 loss at NC State UVA 48, Coastal 7 | What do we know about this UVA Football team? Not a lot, not yet Good a time as any to ask: what do we know about this team, three games in?
- Whit Babcock makes his case | Is it time for Virginia Tech to move on? (00:05:04)
Whit Babcock isn’t pleading poverty because he thinks he can get Virginia Tech donors to open up their checkbooks. He knows that Tech Athletics has pretty much tapped out what it can get from its money people. There isn’t another $50 million or $60 million a year just sitting out there waiting to be tapped. What Babcock is doing is, he’s daring the Virginia Tech administration to fire him. Be careful what you wish for there.
- Podcast | JGR makes it 3-for-3 in the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs (00:21:57)
Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in Bristol Saturday night, giving Joe Gibbs Racing its third win in three starts in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The win puts Bell in the 12-team second round, which begins on Sunday in New Hampshire at the USA Today 301. Rod Mullins was at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s night race, and breaks down the win for Bell, the issues with the tires that caused “uncontrolled chaos” at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”
- Charlie Kirk murder update | The truth comes out: The shooter is a MAGA (00:07:22)
Donald Trump, on Thursday, speaking about the murder of MAGA provocateur Charlie Kirk, blamed the shooting on “radical-left lunatics,” and added, ominously, “we have to beat the hell out of them.” Not surprisingly, on Friday, we’re learning that the suspect in custody in connection with the shooting is a 22-year-old MAGA. Nothing from Trump, to this point, retracting the call to his supporters to “beat the hell” out of innocent people on the left, who had nothing to do with the murder of Charlie Kirk, which was an inside job. You’re not surprised to learn any of this, no doubt.
- AFP is 'fringe' | Virginia Democrats don't have time for us (00:21:19)
People who read AFP for our sports coverage know that I got the label “fringe media” from a mainstream sportswriter last year, and decided to adopt what was meant as an insult as a badge of honor, because that’s how you disarm people who want to diminish you – by making their attempts at insults into a big joke, to point out the absurdity. What I’m going to do here today is tell you, it’s not just the dwindling numbers in what is left of the sports media profession who treat us as fringy outsiders.
- UVA Football podcast | Reviewing the Week 2 loss at NC State (00:17:12)
UVA Football faces William & Mary, an FCS school, in Week 3, so, not as much need to get folks ready. This allows us to take the mid-week to review the disappointing 35-31 loss at NC State in Week 2. It was disappointing because, in a lot of ways, the ‘Hoos did everything but win that game. Today’s postmortem grades the offense, defense and special teams.
- Preview of the Bristol night race, playoff eliminator (00:31:55)
NASCAR Podcast | Preview of the Bristol night race, playoff eliminator Denny Hamlin punched the second ticket to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 with his win in Illinois. Who will join Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the Round of 12? Rod Mullins will be representing AFP at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s night race, the eliminator for the Round of 12. On the podcast, we go through the drivers on both sides of the cutoff who have work to do to get to the next round.
- Getting to know Jena Crisler | Democrat in the 35th (01:06:35)
I don’t live in the 35th House District anymore, but the wide-expanse district – which stretches from Bath County, into Highland County, through the western half of Augusta County, to the northeast into a corner of Rockingham County – is still where I spent the bulk of my life. The district covers 1,963.7 square miles – an area bigger than the state of Rhode Island (1,545 square miles), and not far behind Delaware (2,489 square miles). There are no cities in the 35th; there are a lot of wide-open spaces and beautiful vistas. And a lot of good, hard-working folks who have been abandoned by both political parties. The 35th voted 70.5 percent for Donald Trump and 73.0 percent for Ben Cline in the 2024 cycle, only to see the MAGAs approve what they called a Big, Beautiful Bill that cut healthcare to the point that one of our two regional hospitals, Augusta Health, has had to close down two primary-care centers serving the outer reaches in the 35th. Hospitals cutting services are just one impact of the trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that are on the horizon. “Please understand that Medicaid funds the Affordable Care Act subsidies that many of our neighbors rely on for health coverage. That includes cancer screenings, mental health services, addiction treatment, and doctor visits for chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease,” said Jena Crisler, a medical doctor who lives in Port Republic, in the southeast corner of Rockingham County, and is the Democratic Party nominee in the 35th.
- UVA Football | Preview of ‘Hoos vs. NC State in Week 2 (00:10:53)
UVA Football is in the Triangle for a Saturday noon kickoff at NC State, with the Pack installed as the 2.5-point favorite. My job: to get you ready for the main storylines in the matchup. I go through the Five Things to Watch For, and break down State based on what we saw in its 24-17 win over ECU in Week 1. ICYMI UVA Football vs. NC State | Five things to watch for in the Week 2 matchup UVA Football Week 2 | What ‘Hoos fans need to know about NC State Chandler Morris update | UVA Football QB a full go for Saturday at NC State UVA Football Week 2 | Notes, press conference quotes, depth chart for NC State
- Briscoe takes NASCAR playoff opener (00:22:31)
Podcast | Briscoe takes NASCAR playoff opener; latest in the charter lawsuit Chase Briscoe took the checkered flag at Darlington, punching his ticket to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12. Briscoe was the big winner, but plenty of playoff contenders lost ground in the opening race of the 2025 playoffs. Rod Mullins joins the show to break down the list of guys who have a lot of work to do to stay on the right side of the cut line the next two weekends. We also discuss the latest in the lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports challenging the NASCAR charter system.
- Review of UVA Football’s Week 1 win over Coastal Carolina (00:34:16)
The UVA Football team opened its 2025 season with a visually impressive 48-7 win over Coastal Carolina on Saturday. What did we really see, though? Part of my job is to try to make sense of such things. On the pod, I go over the basics, tell a nice story about Cam Ross, the game MVP, who has been in college since 2019, and then break down, in granular detail, my Week 1 Report Card. ICYMI Report Card | Grading out UVA Football in the 48-7 win over Coastal Carolina UVA Football | The Cam Ross you saw yesterday: That’s ‘basically normal’ UVA 48, Coastal 7 | What do we know about this UVA Football team? Not a lot, not yet Live Coverage | UVA Football opens 2025 season with 48-7 win over Coastal Carolina
- Grieving father advocates for bicycle safety (00:34:46)
A Waynesboro man is on a mission to improve safety for everyone on the road after his daughter, Robyn, died tragically in New York City while doing bicycle messenger work in 2019. Three weeks after their death, his younger daughter, Rachel, who was doing a training ride, was hit by the driver of a car in Charlottesville. Rachel, thankfully, was not seriously injured in the bicycle crash. “Think about that for a moment,” Jay Hightman told AFP. “I nearly lost both of my children to road violence in that brief amount of time.”
- It’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff season (00:22:21)
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin this weekend, with a Sunday night race at Darlington. Rod Mullins joins the show to help get us ready. We also break down the 2026 NASCAR schedule, which was released last week, and talk through the latest in the lawsuit challenging the NASCAR charter system, and what it could mean for 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
- One race left for drivers to punch NASCAR playoff ticket (00:26:38)
Austin Dillon stole one of the remaining spots in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with his win at Richmond on Saturday. Two spots remain in the final race of the regular season, coming up Saturday night at Daytona. Rod Mullins joins us to break down the field of contenders, and bid-stealers. We also discuss the new sponsor for the second-tier series, O’Reilly Auto Parts, which will replace Xfinity as the title sponsor in 2026.
- UVA athletes are getting paid: Some people have a problem with that (00:11:30)
I had a nice, informative – I’d like to think, to both sides – back-and-forth with an AFP reader this week, on the costs to attend the University of Virginia, and the impact that UVA Athletics does or doesn’t have on that. The reader was responding to my recent series of articles discussing the approach that the athletics director, Carla Williams, has been taking to keep UVA Athletics competitive in the still-developing era in which college athletics finances are driven by the need to provide significant compensation for student-athletes in high-profile, money-generating sports like football and men’s basketball.
- #TeamAFP was in Bristol for the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic (00:34:33)
#TeamAFP staff writer Rod Mullins was down in Bristol this weekend – both days, as it turned out – for the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Atlanta Braves got the win, 4-2, over the Cincinnati Reds, but that was just part of what was going on at the iconic NASCAR venue. Rod takes us in the press box and on the field to give us insight into what was going on behind the scenes.
- MLB Speedway Classic preview (00:31:12)
The Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves are on their way to Bristol after the splitting the first two games of a four-game series. Why Bristol? Rod Mullins previews the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic, which will feature a record-breaking crowd – more than 85,000 are expected – at Bristol Motor Speedway, which has been remade into a state-of-the-art baseball stadium for a one-night-only game on Saturday. Rod was at BMS on Thursday, and he takes us behind the scenes to get us ready for this most unique sporting event.
- Mo’ money, no problem for UVA Football (01:06:49)
If you want to know what you need to know about UVA Football, you need to follow the money. AFP staff writer Scott German joins the podcast for our summer UVA Football preview, and most of what we do over the course of the hour is, follow the money. Scott talked last week with the new GM for UVA Football, Tyler Jones, and the assistant GM, Justin Speros, to learn more about the massive influx of dollars into the NIL budget, and how that changed things in terms of recruiting.
- UVA Athletics isn’t sorry; Abigail Spanberger needs to tell us what she’ll do (00:13:59)
Two topics on the news podcast today: It has been made abundantly clear to me that UVA Athletics does not want to say anything, publicly, privately or otherwise, regarding the finding of misconduct against associate head swim coach Gary Taylor. I have had it up to, wherever, with Virginia Democratstelling me, several times a day, everything that Winsome Earle-Sears is doing wrong. Main issue for me here being: they never tell me what the person who I want to be governor, Abigail Spanberger, wants to do that’s right.
- NASCAR charter lawsuit latest (00:30:02)
An appeals court lifted an injunction in the antitrust suit filed by the owners of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, which could put the status of the two race teams in doubt ahead of the beginning of the trial in December. Rod Mullins joins me for the podcast to break down the latest developments in the case/. Rod also reports on the pending closure of the company that produces the grandfather clocks presented to winners at Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway and the preparations for the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic. The show wraps with a recap of Shane van Gisbergen’s win in Chicago, and a look ahead to this weekend’s action in Ponoma.
- UVA President Jim Ryan resigns (00:11:57)
UVA President Jim Ryan, whose contract was extended in 2022, before the MAGAs started gaining power on the BOV, was a goner; the only question was, how? There was plenty to work with – the issues with leadership at UVA Health, which led to the resignation of its CEO, Craig Kent, in February; the failures on several fronts that factored into the entirely preventable shooting deaths of three UVA Football players in 2022. Turns out, the leverage point would be DEI, with a pair of UVA alums in the Trump DOJ, Gregory Brown, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Harmeet K. Dhillon, a civil-rights lawyer in the department, leading the charge on that front.
- Richard Petty didn’t like Shane Van Gisbergen clinching a NASCAR playoff spot (00:30:08)
NASCAR legend Richard Petty seems to think Shane Van Gisbergen did something wrong when Van Gisbergen won his way into the 2025 Cup Series playoffs this past weekend. We talk about that, plus break down Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s one-off this coming weekend as a crew chief at Pocono.