Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - 5 Makes 4

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Carson Hocevar is joining Spire. Sheldon Creed is leaving RCR. Denny explains why he wore a firesuit to Travis Scott's concert last week. Kyle Larson dominates Las Vegas. NASCAR finally penalizes drivers for laying back on restarts. Martin Truex Jr not pitting backfires. Denny reacts to how his race went. Ryan Blaney gets disqualified. And, #DearDenny that includes NASCAR and a missing trophy.DraftKings State-Specific Problem Gambling Information:In Massachusetts, call [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org, In New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369). In Tennessee and Kansas, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). In West Virginia, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.1800gambler.net. All games regulated by the West Virginia Lottery. Please play responsibly. In partnership with Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Licensee partner Golden Nugget Lake Charles (LA). 21+, age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. See DKNG.co/autoracing for eligibility, terms and responsible gaming resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can I get like a NASCAR 101 on the important why this part is? Sure. My answer is I really don't know. Was it too short or too long? I don't know. How does it affect the car? Man, y'all are really exposing me here. I don't know that I don't know the reason why you would want to.

The car is Travis. They don't know anything else about. Shut up, Jared. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental. I'm Denny Hamlin. I drive the 11 car for Joe Gibbs. racing and the co-owner of 2311 racing for bubblewals and Tyler Reddick and your co-host is uh purple

vest guy 560 Jared Allen and I take photos for Denny Emma and others and others yes yeah um so we had some off track stuff this week a little bit of uh news as far as the musical chairs of seats go we had Carson Hosephar who signed with Spire. That was not a very well-kept secret there. But great for him. He's going to completely skip over Xfinity and go right to CUP. So I think a lot of that has to do with the results that he's had when he has subbed so far for Noah Gregson.

Yeah, he's had some great results. Do you have any feeling on this? I'm just curious of what you would say the expectations are for him next year, considering for the most part when he's driven a cup car this year, it's been one of the legacy cars. Right. What should his expectations be in the 77 Spire car? Yeah, it's a good question.

I would say they should probably, the expectations should be for him to run probably on average, maybe two or three spots worse than what he's currently running in the 42. That's just a guess. I have no idea. But that would put him in the range of kind of where Corey's at. You know, it's interesting because you never kind of know within race teams, like what resources are poured into what. Especially a team like Spire Motorsports, it's, you know, you don't, you know, we, for the greater part,

have not known, well, what team gets the resources? And you would think, well, they're under the same roof. They would be the same. But there's an opportunity there where maybe one team has the A engine program, which means that whatever is the latest and greatest from Hendrick Motorsports, that's what the seven car or 77 has. And I think maybe for a while, the 77 was a B car. So it got all the stuff that was probably six months, eight months,

maybe a year behind. Maybe it was used more. You just don't know. So as far as I understand, the 77 has the same thing that the 7 does. Now, of course, the 77 does not run, you know, kind of close to the 7 right now. So I think Carson should, in my opinion, probably run as good as Corey LaJoy. So, I mean, that would be a good expectation for him to run next year, which means that's, what does that put you in points in the low 20s somewhere in there?

Corey is currently, this is owner points. The seven cars 26th in points and the 77 is 33rd. Yeah. So there's a little gap there for sure. But, wow, Corey's 26th. Yeah, the 43 and the 42 are 27th and 32nd. Well, I mean, I guess that makes sense. They haven't been as strong.

They started a year off, you know, decently strong. But they've kind of tailed off a little bit. So my expectation is he's run right there probably in the low 20s consistently and then pop off some good finishes here and there. I guess we already knew this, too, based on the announcement back during Bristol. But Spire is now officially a three-car team. We know that it'll be Carson, host of our. Zane Smith and Corrie LaJoy. Yep, yep.

So, yeah, that's going to be new. Interesting for sure and see how that all plays out. Obviously, Zane is just kind of on loan over there for a track house. That it's a TBD seat of where Zane will go in 2025. But you got to assume they're either going to look for a charter and run three cars. or, you know, this could be a possible replacement for the 99. Over in the Xfinity series, Sheldon Creed will not return to RCR next season. Yeah, I don't have a whole lot on this either.

Usually I've got some backstory to it. I do chuckle at times the RCR responses. They're just, their tweets on the blackboard, I guess you could have. I don't, you know, Sheldon made it really clear in his message or announcement that he was, he's decided to leave RCR, right? I mean, that was like the first sentence. Is that what he said? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So he says, I'm deciding, I'm, I'm leaving RCR. Obviously, it sounds like they, listen, it wasn't a redic situation where, you know, they were like,

Time it could not be worse. This is, I mean, I don't know. The PR department over there, something is interesting for sure and the responses to these things. But yeah, he's leaving. I don't know where he's going. But you've got to think he's got something on his mind for sure. I mean, it's certainly the results have been lackluster, in my opinion. I when I saw Sheldon Creed run trucks for many years I thought man he's really really good and I think he's going to excel when he goes to RCR and Xfinity series and he just hasn't he hasn't run like I expected him to run I mean he's battling around the same spot every week and that's at the back half of the top 10 maybe even in the teens just

they're not they're not clicking for sure and so you can see why you know and I don't know why is that right is it Sheldon is it RCR equipment I don't know

I just know that the results are not what I expected and clearly it's not what Sheldon expected and now you're going to find out wherever he goes next like is this a Sheldon thing or is this an RCR

or or two-car team, a two-car thing, right. So I just, I don't know, but it will be, you know, Austin Hill, he's got success. I mean, a lot of his success has come on the super speedways, but, you know, he's a, he's a contender, I guess you could say, certainly a more of a contender on the other racetrack. So, yeah, it's just, that one's a head scratcher for sure. I don't know what Sheldon's doing, but I would assume he would not leave unless he had an alternative, you know, plan. Do you have any guesses on who may replace him and drive the two car? No, not offhand, not for sure. One thing we certainly need to talk about is Riley Herps,

and, you know, I, once the Xfinity regular season concluded, you know, I mentioned that I thought Riley Herp's not making the playoffs so this was a surprise he's been in the Xfinity series for a while you would think he would make it he expected himself to make it I expected to make it he didn't but I did see

a trend of a driver that is getting better this year so it all finally came together this Saturday like they really they hit the setup I mean obviously they hit the setup because

I was watching lifetimes throughout the event. And Riley was when went out front, he was two, three-tenths faster every single lap. He just, I mean, he spanked him big time. And, you know, this is just, I think this is kind of a maturing Riley. He's getting, he is getting better. We're not just saying that. He's, his results, he's being more of a contender inside the top five on a regular basis, top 10 on a regular basis.

where he wasn't before. And he's running against some guys in the Xfinity Series that have been there a while. So I think that this is a great win for him and that whole team. And I believe he announced he was coming back this week, right? So, yeah, that was a big one for him. I know in his hometown, his dad, Troy, was there. And it's just a great, great all-around win for him and his family. and in their hometown.

And I heard they had a nice little blowout at one of the places that night. So it's really fun when you get your first. You could see how excited he was when he got out of the car. It was just, it was great to see. I'm curious, he had a crew chief change earlier in the summer. What kind, you know, what does that do to a driver as far as confidence goes?

What happens when you have a change of crew chiefs? Yeah, I'm not sure. did he have a change of crew chiefs because somebody went over to Cup? Or I'm wondering what it was, why he had the change. Maybe they weren't getting the results they were hoping for. But I mean, I don't, I've never had, I'm trying to think. I don't think I've ever had a crew chief change mid-season, except for maybe a suspension because of tire falling off.

But yeah, usually anytime I've had a crew chief change, it's happened all six. season, then you've got time to kind of get to know each other, figure out what each other expects of one another. I'm imagining if it came mid-season, it is difficult because you're, I mean, as soon as you get to the Monday or Tuesday of that week, you flip the switch. You're going to the next event, right? And when you have someone new over there, what's their process to get ready? Like what information, you know, Raleigh's probably wondering, well, what does he need for me? Like, is there certain information he's looking for? He's obviously been the one that's been hired to write the ship.

What does, what do I need to do to help with that? It also puts a lot of pressure on the driver as well because it's no different than a quarterback who struggles and they change the head coach. Well, eventually you keep changing these pieces out and the spotlight will shift to you. eventually. And so anytime you've had a bunch of crew chief changes, it definitely does put the spotlight on you. And it seems like from whenever that point was, I think he's been better. But are you to give like different information? Like think about all the crew chiefs you had. Has like, does Gabe Hart now require different information that like wheels hasn't required in the past? It's just different. It's, it's a, it's a crew chief preference.

You know, they're trying to get your car driving as good as they possibly can. They're trying to be good leaders for their team. Everyone leads a little bit differently and everyone has a little different style for sure. But yeah, absolutely. And as a driver, you're just trying to figure out how can the results haven't been good, haven't been running where I want to run, this new guy's coming in. What more information can I feed him to get him for something? to click to have them working on how my car can drive better.

Like, when you go back to racetrack, maybe the crew chief, the new guy is asking more questions about, well, when we were here last time, you said you had this problem, that problem, and he will hyper focus more than likely on those issues to try to fix them for the driver and hopefully get the results. So it usually just is a reset. But yeah, each one is a little different, and I've worked with a lot of different crew Chiefs, Xfinity Series and Cup, and they all definitely do things differently, that's for sure. So Riley's crew chief went to Briscoe.

Okay. And so then Riley's was actually the lead, his new crew chief was the lead engineer for the 10 car and cup. Okay. Yeah. So it was just kind of a shuffling deal over there with SHR to kind of, and that kind of what happens at Gibbs as well. They'll shift, you know, Xfinity crew chiefs and engineers from Cubs. up and switch out all around. So it certainly appears to me like it was a good change for Riley.

Before we move on to Las Vegas and this weekend, let's add some context to this Travis Scott concert from last week. Yeah, I was giving you, I was giving you flack on the plane, but I was, I had no issue. It was, here's, here's, I don't catch. casually go out in a racing suit to a concert. What I thought Jared was going to piece together there is that I said, hey, we got a box from Nike and Jordan brand right here in the garage. We should do an unboxing of basically whatever is in that box, I have to wear something to the concert out of that box. No one knew that. You just placed it together like I picked this stuff out out of my closet.

So, so I wanted, which that's okay too. Technically it is part of his closet, right? I mean, if they send him a box. That's exactly what I thought. I was like, this is just, didn't he just grabbing stuff and throwing it on? And then I thought the fire suit was like a part of just like, all right.

No, so the fire suit was sitting on the kitchen counter because I requested it from Lilletta over at 2311. It was Tyler's suit from Bristol. I'm like, I'm going to need that suit. So that was sitting there as well. and there was a box of stuff in the garage. And so evidently you and Charlie went through this and you picked out kind of your three or four favorite

obnoxious. Ridiculous looking. Ridiculous outfits. Loud. Yeah, loud, ridiculous. And had me try each one of them on and then had people vote on which one I should wear out. Now, I was being a team player when it comes to this,

trust me, I did. there was not a whole lot but i did start to lean into it surely as the night went on right uh and so i just threw the uh tyler reddick suit in there as a alternate and i was actually hoping that that was the one they were going to choose because i knew that oh man the others i mean i things always look a little better on other people than you feel like they look on you for sure so I was I was going to be a little nervous because I just

yeah I just those aren't things I would wear normally and I was a little nervous about their outcome luckily they went with the suit couldn't believe the how many people were excited about the suit though

I got a lot of comments on the suit as I was going through the crowd they loved it and so I mean the most common question was are you NASCAR like that was the question like are you NASCAR are you NASCAR so and I just said yeah and then that's it so okay cool yeah yeah so it was it was fun I went out with me and a bunch of friends to Travis Scott it was his first concert tour date and it was in Charlotte man I didn't have that was your kind of show they had mine mosh pits and everything. It was huge. It was crazy. I couldn't believe we were second row in the lower level. Thank God I didn't buy floor seats. Well, I don't even, they're not seats, by the way. It's just, it's a mosh pit. So there's just people going crazy in there. Yeah. You

must not know the history of Travis Scott. I do, but it's the first time I've seen, that's the first time I've seen a mosh pit in person. Oh, really? Yes. How timet? Oh, that's it to go out in it. A little bit. A little bit because everyone while banging into each other and pushing it, like they were still friendly. Yeah, yeah. It's a unique situation because, I mean, depending on the show, right, you're in the circle and everyone's swinging arms and whatnot.

But immediately if someone falls down, everyone rushes to pick the person back up and then keep throwing punches or whatever. That's what I got a little worried of is. like somebody's going to get down to the ground. Nobody's going to notice. No, no, that's the complete opposite. If someone goes down, everyone picks them up, but then they start hitting each other again.

Oh, man. I think I kind of would like to do it then. Yeah. You ever seen the Dewey Cox movie? He's like, I think I kind of want to. Did you get hot in the fire suit there at a concert? I did not. I thought for a while.

Do you wear a cool shirt? I didn't. and I did wear a shirt under though because just in case I wanted I did get hot I was going to tie it around the waist but that was fine no issue and and I did get asked a few times are you hot I'm like I'm in a car that's 125 130 no I'm good I'm good here so it was fun the the mosh fits were awesome to watch I mean crowd surfing I watched there was this guy in a and doctors scrub that he was the he was see your outfit wasn't that that wild oh no no no no that's people that's why we wore these like people wear very outlandish things to this concert it's almost like a it's like a Halloween concert but Travis Scott apparel it's just the wackier the more normal right so um it was cool encourage you all to go it is He put on a great show.

It was the first, he definitely had some hiccups in the show where, like, his stage person would come out, like, in the middle of song, and he talked to him. And, like, they were working out some kinks for sure, but I thought it was great. It was the Twitter comments were funny because you had a wide range. You had people saying that, oh, my gosh, this guy's got so much drip. You got others saying, oh, my gosh, this guy looks like an idiot. And then you got others being on Travis. Is he talking about Travis Trit?

It was great. Yeah, you could definitely tell that there was a group that they knew I was joking. There was a group that thought, that's my swag. And then, yeah, that it was what the fuck he was. What is he doing? Who is Travis? Yeah, who is Travis? Yeah, I mean, you didn't even put Travis Scott.

I feel like you should know. I feel like you should just know. No, not. It was a little confusing for me. And I feel like I understood it then for a second, but it took me a minute to like, See? Like, you failed this week. Yeah, he just made me look silly instead.

Well, you did look silly. I know, thanks. Mission accomplished. I thought people would know Travis concert. Like, I did not think that would be. Listen, the whole point was I was supposed to be going through the box. If I Google Travis' concert. I don't know what's in the box, but I'm going to wear something that's in this box.

That was what it was supposed to be, Travis. The question at work was whose idea, was it your idea? originally didn't need to do those that or was it Jared's idea Jared? Was it Charlie's idea? Charlie texted me as like, hey, by the way, Denny just got this box. I knew Charlie was kind of scheming. I think Charlie just wanted the box to be open so he could see what extra stuff was in there that he could take.

You're right. You're right. Charlie, he plays both sides. We know that, right? Yeah. The old silver fox. But, oh gosh. Yeah.

I don't know, Charlie, Denny's idea. definitely not mine. But I was okay with it. I understood, listen, you wanted to shoot some content, and I obliged. It worked out. It has a lot of views way more than the average on Instagram Reels, so I don't care what he says.

It did its job. Okay. All right. Well, moving on from that. Experience the thrill of the racetrack like you're in the driver's seat with Draft King Sportsbook. Bet on your favorite racers and feel the rush of every pass, pit stop, and victory like never

before. Right now, new customers can turn five bucks into 200 instantly in bonus bets. Bet five on anything to score big no matter what goes down on the track. The action is going to heat up as drivers take on Homestead Miami Speedway. Could a playoff driver secure the win or will another look to play spoiler? With so much on the line, make sure to tune into Dirty Mo Doe as they handicap the field and recommend bets to watch. With props, parlays and more, there will be action to follow all race long. The racing action doesn't stop till the checkered flag drops. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and join with Code Denny. New customers can bet $5 to get $200 instantly in bonus bets. That's code Denny only on the draft king sports book. The crown is yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit www.1-800 gambler.net. For state-specific disclaimers, check the show notes. 21 and older varies by jurisdiction. Voided in Ontario. See D.K. NG.co slash auto racing for eligibility, terms, and responsible gaming resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. We actually had a race this past Sunday at Vegas, the first of the round of eight. So there's only eight of us left. Generally speaking, let's just give your, Jared, give me your kind of,

you left there thinking what like i thought it was a clean i thought it was a solid playoff race all all eight drivers were super competitive no one really had any issues during the race um you know there were some comers and goers it was kind of like a status quo race right it's like kind of what you expected nothing that wasn't no playoff drivers had issues during the race. Right. So yeah, it was. I got back to the bus.

I'd look at the scoring monitor. I'm looking. I'm like, oh, well, we all finished in the top 10. Yeah. And it was one of those races too, where the best driver probably won. I mean, qualifying was Larson and Seabell and Larson and Seabell were the top two guys on Sunday as well.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, best car, best driver won. no question about it he spanked the field went at Texas Kyle Larson did and backed it up with a really really strong run

at Vegas on Sunday he really didn't have I mean I was trying to think did he have really some contenders throughout the day but once he was out front it didn't look like there was many contenders until the very

end with Seabell I didn't know if lap traffic played a role in that or not. But yeah, I think that clearly when it comes to the mile and a half he's standoutish, even to his team. You look at the team cars, the 9,

the 48 and 24. You know, he's just been a gap ahead of those guys. So it's just they got it going on right now and now they can shift their focus towards Homestead, or I'm not Homestead,

to Phoenix. So what that means when someone says, and you'll see it in the media a lot this week. Larson's got an advantage. They'll talk about Larson has an advantage because he can now shift his resources and thoughts into Phoenix. What that basically means is that he's going to spend extra time instead of doing a bunch of work for Homestead

and meeting with this crew chief about Homestead this, Homestead, this, how can we do this, what's our strategy? They'll shift their focus into, you know, what do we need to do to run well and win at Phoenix. And, you know, it's, while it's a very, very small advantage, it is still an advantage because he's not having to, they're not having to hyperfocus hours and hours and hours on what's our strategy for this race or that race or Martinsville. What are we going to do there? Do we need to run extra send time? It's not historically been a great track for him.

He can forget all that. Pass that up and go right to Phoenix and apply that extra time. I was hearing, though, that he had said, and Cliff Daniels had said that it's not necessarily an advantage, because you don't want to take your foot off the gas, right? You don't want to take a break and look away from these next few tracks. You don't want to go to Homestead and Martinsville and just run average and then show up at Phoenix hoping to have that mojo again, right? Yeah, I mean, I think that I understand that for sure. There's no question there will be a shift of resources towards. Phoenix for sure. I mean, do we expect them to go to homestead and run average?

No, we don't. We expect him to be up front. He was really dominant in that race last year. So, you know, Martinsville, I'm not sure. Like, you know, you just, it's kind of roll the dice, but it really doesn't matter for him at this point. Isn't this more like a college football team, for example, when you have a cupcake, you're going to focus in game plan for that week,

but you're also going to spend a little extra time on the bigger game coming up. Yeah, most likely, and I don't know this for a fact, but I would think that a college team, let's just say you're, what's your favorite team? Ohio State. All right. Let's say you're Ohio State. Or playing the Charlotte 49ers. That's to be a good example.

Okay. Okay, you've got Michigan in two weeks, but you play the Charlotte 49ers this week. Do you think the people in the film are looking at Charlotte 49ers film? No. Chavisda, no. They're not, right? They're already putting clips together for Ohio State. Yeah.

And for Kyle, he's going to, some people, all right, I think on the turn on there, like, here's an extra 10 minutes that we're going to go work on the Phoenix car that we would have maybe worked on the Martinsville car. Yep. Yeah, because you know, you don't want to assume, like even if you run second, you're not going to assume they, won't assume that they're moving on, right? They don't, they don't know until they win the race. So they're going to have to, they feel like they got to go into every racetrack and win these next three. But now you don't. So absolutely, it will, there will be a little shift there. But he's still going to be strong in these next few weeks. I mean, Martinsville, I don't know. He, he, he has a, as a driver,

has been very hit or miss there. He's had some better races for sure over the last few years. But, you know, I think the 24-4 car and the 48 are really his other teammates have all been really good. The nine is one at Martinsville many times. So, yeah, they all are going to be really strong, so I would expect Kyle to be pretty strong as well. But again, the care factor will not be as high. That's just mentality, I'm telling you, he's shifting his focus towards Phoenix, which will be a very small advantage, but it will be something.

Did you see his save? I guess it was early in stage one. Yeah, I was probably a half a straight way back when he made that save. All I saw was smoke. And so I didn't know. And then I saw him dropping really quickly. Quickly, I think I passed him maybe down the next straightaway. Yeah, it was down the next straightaway on the front stretch.

So I wasn't too far behind him, but I did see it. I saw him comment that he felt lucky he. that the wall was there, which absolutely helped him save it. But he's got a good technique for saving a car. Like it's the old lockdown, you know, eye racing, locked down, the brakes. And then even though he was dropping a rock there, because he probably flat spotted his tires, he definitely got the caution that how pivotal do you think that costumer? I mean, it was pivotal to him getting his track position back. so I remember if I remember correctly

he fell back a spot or two a few spots I passed some others and then when we came to pit road he passed us right back like on pit road he got back a handful of spots

then he passed one or two cars on the restart right? I want to say you actually had a faster pit stop than him on that one too but his selection he was right there yeah Yeah, I mean, that's my fault.

We qualified 15th, and we had to go around a car most of the day. However, I'm not sure who was driving. Was it the 15 or 51? Who's in the 51? Anyone know? We can look. But they did choose later in the race to stay out. So thank you, Rick Ware, crew chief of the 51,

for allowing us to have an opening out there late in the race, because they knew we were battling. Shout out JJ Yaley. J.G. Yaley. Okay. Awesome. Yeah, they chose to stay out at one of the cautions to let us pit cleanly. And that happens a lot. Actually, the TV doesn't talk about it that much,

but sometimes guys in the back will choose to stay out when the pit road opens if they know they're pitted around contenders in the race. So it's just kind of a little courtesy to them. So yeah, it's interesting on pit road. I thought we had a good solid day. I didn't notice any stops that were out of the ordinary, but we definitely lost spots. You know, obviously one, we came in, the leader,

came out, I think, third or fourth, something like that. You lost most spots, it seemed like, just to the two car pit stops or the two tire pit stops. Like other guys would come down. Oh, that's a point too, yeah. You would lose spots to those guys who took two tires. then you'd have to struggle to pass them, right? Yeah, that's a great point.

Yeah, all of it plays a factor, right? It's not just, you know, how fast is your pit stop? It's how fast are you rolling down pit road? All those things play a factor. Are you having to go around somebody because that affects your time leaving your pit stall or are you going around someone on entry? That affects your pit stop time. All of it plays a factor.

but yeah it's there was some really really fast pit stops out there um the 20 he had the number one pit stall so he would always gain on the exit because of the because of the timing line there so um yeah it was a it was a competitive race we were racing around the same cars all day it seemed like uh you know the five the one made a really strong charge there towards uh the middle stages of the race he was really fast on the short run 22 was fast on the short run but they they would drop an anchor after that. So yeah, it was a, I thought it was kind of status quo, but Larson dominated, showed his strength, punched his ticket to the final four early, and yeah, it's not much else.

I mean, he had Gibbs, he lost the tire there. It was interesting, the tire in the wheel, right? The tire in the wheel. But the tire was off the wheel. How'd that happen? You tell me, you're the race car driver. clearly I'm not a pick crew guy I'm a race car driver so I'm asking you

to observe what happened I didn't make any sense to me while the wheel was separated from the tire because it looked like the tire was I don't know it looked like it came just off the rim I mean obviously it was a loose wheel

right because they didn't get the it was a loose wheel yeah it was a loose wheel yeah because they penalized and I mean the lug nut was still on the wheel like when it it came out like it was all on one I believe interesting yeah it's a race

down through turn two between the wheel and the rim damn so so they penalize them a couple laps yeah they held them yep the new old tire rule yeah that's better it's versus the four races and stuff like I agree let's get the penalty over with

and that's the way they should do it They did, they did, uh, penalized two drivers for laying back. Good job NASCAR. Great job. We have to have this. This is going to get the attention of the drivers. They told me, um, they told me to start the race. Hey, someone had been penalized in Xfinity for laying back.

Stay, stay closed up. Is this how? And then when someone had it at the beginning, maybe it was a 40. AJ. AJ. They just said, hey, they busted the 16th

for laying back. Stay tightened up. Like, my team would tell me that. So that's, and then did they get the nine? Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. So they're putting a line in the sand that they're not going to put up with it. And certainly, this is what we asked for, and I applaud them for doing this, because it had gotten out of hand. We saw how awful that restart was at Kansas

at the end with guys laying back. And so, I like this move certainly and hopefully it changes some people's mindsets when it comes to laying back on restarts. Is this how you set a precedent you start tagging these guys who are

mid-pack hoping that it gets to the guys who are in the front so you don't have to alter a race by black flagging the guy in sector or something? But it's saying that we will do it. Yeah. It chases cars a contender for the

playoffs. Right. I mean they're in the owner's championship. So they, they took it serious by, by, you know, dingin him. So, yeah. What did you make of the 19 teams decision to stay out on that sequence that you took the lead? They lost quite a bit of track position. At the end of the day, they made most of it back up or, you know, enough. Yeah. I mean, I didn't know where they ran all day because I didn't see them all day except for that time they did stay out and we passed it for the lead. Well, they were behind you, obviously. Yeah, yeah, but it's, you know, I didn't know whether they just had handling struggles or they fought to trying to battle back their track position. I don't know, I mean, how

far back did they go? I believe 16th Travis, the far they drop back? That sounds right. Him and him and Bush were back there mid-teens. Yeah, so they rallied late. Yeah, I mean, I've been saying on this podcast for weeks now that I just think the 19 team is going to flip a switch and they're going to be there and you just might as well count on it. I still believe it. I do. Until they don't make the next round, I still believe it. I think they were stronger than their finish yesterday.

I will say that. I think that they did get behind on that call. I don't know there was a bad call, though. I mean, I guess the result showed that it didn't work out. But, I mean, there was other. with two tire calls that it worked. Well, I guess he was the only one actually stayed out. That's, that's, that's, you're nod in your head like, wait a minute, I was about to correct

you. They stayed out. So, yeah, I mean, I saw, I saw Martin because I was, there was one car between us. Before we came to pit road, he was very wishy-washy. You know, you can tell as a driver when you're looking at the car in front of you, is he pitting or not? You can very, you can tell by the body language of the car. you know because he's cleaning his tires off that means he's getting it ready to go in the pit stall so he doesn't slide

or he's he's pulling down on the apron telling you i'm pitting here i'm pitting here i'm pitting and you could just see with true x he was always a half a car wide to the right like giving himself an option to pull out on the racetrack or pull down pit lane and he for the most part he was lining up and he was going down the bottom and then I saw his car go a little to the right then back to the bottom and he went to the right

and he, I don't know how many lapses were on our tires. Oh, it was at the end of stage. It was in the middle of stage two. One. He stayed out. It was at the end of stage one.

Into stage one because we had pitted, we had 11 laps on our tires. Because you came out second and you quickly went to the lap to take the lead and think then host of our product caution out maybe. Yep.

So we were on two, a handful of guys were on two, then there was four. And so the problem with staying out is that you need to stay up front. Like you've got, you really got to stay up front because if you get swallowed up pretty early on restarts,

it just keeps getting worse. Four tires are passing you every lap. You can't run the line you want to run because you've got cars splitting you three wide. And so he needed it to, he probably needed it to go ahead and have a quick caution so he could recover from that.

But, but yeah, It's just, it's one of those things where they made a call stay out. This probably seems like a great call, genius call, if three or four others stay. I mean, it's that, it's just, sometimes the right call is just dependent on what the others do. It's not your call. It's, do others join you in making that decision? And when no one did, that's when it, that's when it could have been, yeah, we probably should have taken tires.

I was just curious. I mean, that kind of answers this question that I was about to ask. you know, is the 19 team right now just overthinking everything based on recent results throughout the playoffs, like trying to, you know, figure out how to get back into that regular season winning form? I don't know. I mean, you know, in a few hours in the debrief, I'm going to sit right next to the 19 team. I'm actually, I sit between the 19 and the 45 team in our Monday meeting. And so I don't know. I don't know if they're overthinking. I don't think so. I think that that team's well led and I don't, I'm not sure, but certainly the mojo they had is they don't

have that. But it's, I don't know. It's just, I feel like this sport is just so week to week that like you could have 10 bad weeks and if you're a strong team, you can turn it on the next week. or I just, I feel that way because of me and my team, but that's all I know. So I don't know whether that is a real thing on others or not. So, but certainly they are, they're struggling to get results. They've gotten unlucky in this bad run of races as well. But, you know, you look at the playoff grid. They're still right there.

There's still plus three. Larson Byron, Hamlin, Truex is still the top, top four. we started the we started the playoffs with those four or this round with those four up top and he still got them up top so i mean if there was a team that's going to have issues for just the audio as a fan james small mart tricks is the car that you want to have because their dialogue in the races is the best to listen to is it oh it's the perfect i i saw a clip on on nascar's twitter but i didn't open it and it said that like this duo and had a laughing emoji what it's just constant like it they sound like a married couple that is just like sick of each other but it's just like but that's just

how they operate and that tricks that like I shouldn't have listened to you or something like but I'm not good at that like it's just they're just perfect and then james small off the accent too like just makes it yeah i know that james is a pretty soft-spoken individual he's very soft-spoken and Shurex is not shy about saying, I can't fucking hear you. I can't understand you. You know, and he had to be, you know, for him to have an accent and self-spoken, it's,

and Turex is not shy about calling out both. It's just, you know, it is laughable. It's funny. It is funny. It's funny because it's not me. It's not my situation that's going on. But they are a married couple for sure. They, you know,

they got that kind of relationship that they're all right with giving each other about stuff that maybe others are not comfortable with. Bantor. Yeah, it's just banter. Amongst teammates. Yeah, yeah. Is Coke Zero Sugar the best Coke ever?

I know that's a bold question, but it's got that irresistible taste to back it up. Well, one thing's for sure. When you've got an irresistible match like Zero Sugar and Zero Calories, something sensational is bound to happen. It's like when me and my co-host Jared team up to make a podcast. It's too bad you can't taste with your ears because Coke Zero Sugar tastes so,

amazing. It's hard to put it into words. But hey, that's my job, at least on Mondays. You have to taste it for yourself. Coke zero sugar, the best Coke ever. One thing we haven't touched upon yet is how you feel about your day. I mean, I'm obviously disappointed in the way we closed the end of that race. you know there was a couple defining moments one was restarted fifth and then legano split me three wide i was tucked up on the car in front of me pushing them and then all of a sudden he gets a run on me and and sticks me three wide in the middle and that was still okay but you know chastain he kind of he gave me room on the out in the middle lane but then also sudden he turned left and didn't give me room and I'm squeezed between him and Lugano and I'm like

Jesus I mean like two guys that don't care about the playoffs now you know and so I'm I'm in the middle of them and I still hold my ground and it just then the caution came out so I lost two spots and then I think we restarted we got some of the spots back and I and I and I liked my car but we had I got sideways in one of the corners and got a little loose. And so we made some adjustments in the last stop, and it just didn't fit the car that well. And I couldn't go anywhere. It just was, I had a ton less grip and just didn't work out.

So we faded there to 10th. You know, we probably, I think about kind of where we should have battled. I mean, I certainly thought that we were as good as Bell throughout the day, if not better in the long run. and just couldn't just every time my car started coming in and I started to really go forward a caution will come out and just never got the long enough runs to really let it all pay off for me so yeah it's probably you know I certainly thought we had a top five car and ran in the top inside the top five for most of the day just didn't get the didn't get the result you know we didn't

have a catastrophic day but just yeah very i mean by our standards uh below average um on our day there for sure how do you feel about the the playoff grid now being plus four i wish i was plus more um but i on on on to homestead i mean i saw you know on a cincinnati by bill check Belichick, you just, I can't change your result, right? I can't go back and rerun the race. So just moving on to homestead and trying to figure out how to extend that gap and win the race. Post race, Ryan Blaney was disqualified, left front shock, did not meet the overall length specified by NASCAR. Yikes.

I'm going to need a show and tell session by NASCAR to why it was not. I don't know was the shock altered or did they put it together and not meet the specified length? And the teams are pretty diligent on making sure those are the right length. How it ended up not being not sure. Hard for me to speculate. We'll know when we go to Homestead this week. Can I get like a NASCAR 101 on the important why this part is? Is there like?

Uh, sure. My answer is I really don't know. Was it too short or too long? I don't know. How does it affect the car? Man, y'all are really exposing me here. I don't know that I don't know the reason why you would want it. The car is Travis.

They don't know anything else. No, I shut up, Jared. I don't, on this subject, listen, I didn't bring it up because I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. I need to do some research on it for sure. And I probably should have before I grab the mic today. I don't know whether you want that short or long and why you would want it short or long. So I don't know. I need to find that out.

But it wasn't the specified length. That's for sure. And it was not the specified link. So NASCAR said you broke the rules and you get DQed. That's what they're doing. Go NASCAR. Doing a great job. Inspection, they're not, you know,

I can give you a NASCAR 101 about 10 years ago, 15 years ago. They'd say, hey, don't do that. Don't do that again. They would let so much stuff go that was blatantly wrong, but they didn't. They were just apprehensive to lay down big penalties because they didn't like the bad pub and all that. Not anymore.

They're like, we don't care who you are, what you're doing. Don't mess with this next gen car. We give you the rules, play in the, those rules. And if you don't, you're going to get DQed. I'm genuinely, I'm genuinely curious if, you know, something like this was on purpose or it was just an accident

because it seems like NASCAR set the precedent that you're not going to get away with cheating these things. If that's what you're doing, which makes me think... Is it on purpose or an accident? If it's an accident, that is a huge mistake. There's no way that something on the car is an accident. When they did the show and tell on Harvick's windshield where they said, okay, these are airplane grade fasteners.

This is not a washer. It pretty much told me what I needed to know on that, right? That these bolts did not accidentally fall out. Like, they just don't. Like even if you unscrew them, you cannot unscrew them enough for them to fall out. I get it. It's just not possible. It's just Blaney wasn't a race-winning car yesterday.

So if you're taking this chance to... Was he better than he has been on mile and a halfs? Yes. So then what are we talking about? It doesn't matter. He doesn't have to win the race. He just needed to make up points and stay a lot like... And he was doing a great job of it.

I guess. He was still seventh in the standings post race before the... This is touchy for me because I don't know. I mean, did that play any factor in how well he ran? I have no idea. This is where I'm a race car driver. I am not a mechanic. That is for sure.

Now, I worked on my own when I was younger, and when I crashed it, I had to fix it as well. But this is, it's too technical for me to answer. This is where we need, we need a real crew chief in here

explaining why someone would want that shorter or longer. I'll get the explanation later, but it's going to be too late. Yeah. Did you cheat up your car when you were younger when you were working on it? No, sir. No, sir.

People thought, I mean, we won so many races in late models, people thought that we were, but we didn't. I had great equipment in the latter parts of my late model career. 125 out of 35 in 2004 set six track records that year. That's what got me noticed by Joe Gibbs, or really it was by JD Gibbs, who came to the test at Hickory.

And then he called Joe and says, hey, I think we might have found something here. But I just had great equipment and short tracks. I just felt, you know, like I was strong at them. Personally, I was strong at them. So we didn't. I can't recall any time we got thrown out of a race or disqualified or anything like that. Now, they would tear us down every single week.

And that used to be the biggest pain in the ass when it came to short track racing was that, you know, is the track or a competitor would protest your cart just to get you to tear it down, tear it all apart? To put it back to you guys. to make you spend money to put it back together. Because a lot of times if it was an engine, you would have to send the engine back to the engine builder to get reassembled and put back together. And when they take it apart,

they got to put new parts back in it. And it would cost you significant money. And so if you just wanted to be a dix to someone, you could just protest them and make them tear their car all apart. And, you know, that's the way that goes. I don't know if the rules are still that way or not, but, you know, that was kind of a, crappy system back in the day.

But no, I don't recall. I didn't get DQed until I came to the Exfini and Cup series. I've had some encumbered wins. I had the one at Darlington where they ripped the trophy literally right out of my hands, leaving the media center saying sorry, we're going to need that back.

Your Xfinity card didn't pass inspection. I'm like, what? And at that point, like, you got me at Darlington. And why do we need? We don't need a thousandths of an inch. Like, don't make it close.

Just let me run the ball here. But yeah, it's just, I think this is a change in of the guard. And certainly NASCAR made it very apparent when they came out with us next gen. And they told us all. They told every team owner we're not going to put up with any shenanigans. And if it's not right, it's not right. There is no gray area here. It's black and it's white.

and so they're putting her foot down and it costs Ryan Blaney and now he's 56 out of the cut he will not make up 56 in two races so he will need to win. He's in a must win situation. Headed to Homestead this weekend.

Thoughts? Um I don't have any personal thoughts. I think that it's, once again it's been a strong track for us. Um, I can't remember how we ran there last year. I think we were somewhere in the top five.

I got in the wall late trying to push. And I don't know. I probably finished six or seventh. But I don't know. It's been a good track for us. We won there two or three times. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's, you know, again, I'm plus four.

My goal is to extend that out and win the race. So I love their track. there's been a lot of talk about should we move the finale back to Homestead? I don't know. If we run Homestead, you know, just because people aren't in love with the racing product at Phoenix, that's the reason they're saying this, right? Or should we move around, move it back? They don't love the racing product at Phoenix.

That's a good year problem, in my opinion. If we get the tire right, you will have a much better race at Phoenix. um we're they're trying i guess and it's just a really slow process to try to try to get it better um just know that if nascar lets races play out as they should in the in the finale if homestead race goes green do you know there could be someone with a 15 second lead and so you're going to have to be okay with that as well so it's not just automatically going to be the light switch of oh this is the racing we're looking for and Some people like for it to play out naturally.

They like someone to get a 15-second lead and show that, hey, I'm just spanking the field here. This is just, you know, domination. I'm one of those people. I like when they let it go, no shenanigans, no cautions that were very questionable. Like, just letting it play out because there's a lot at stake. And the team spent a ton of money to run well. and they deserve, if they've got an advantage in the race, they deserve to keep that advantage.

And so I don't know what the right answer is when it comes to the finale and where do you put it, but you have a chance for a runaway every single race that we go to. What do you think of Las Vegas potentially being thrown into the mix? I didn't think about that, but I think that certainly it could. Sure. Vegas could do it. The weather would be fine.

Um, you know, destination city. This was brought up on the tear down, which is why I'm asking you. Be a heck of a place to win a championship at. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt.

Um, oh. Not going to happen. Why? SMI track. This is, this is the red tape that, that people don't know about that you're just not going to get around. NASCAR owns, NASCAR owns the championship date. It will happen at a NASCAR owned track. Can't there be like a deal?

worked out there where a deal they're not Jared NASCAR's not gonna there's no deal that Marcus Smith can like I think the answer lies somewhere between y'all I think there is it they could make a deal but this is this is the politics of NASCAR you know you want to own the championship date because you get you know good ratings

great fan turnout which means lots of ticket sales concession, sales, parking, camping, all that stuff. So, yeah, one would have to concede to the other and then have to make a cash offer to get it. But Vegas certainly is a racetrack and a city and a property that you would be okay with it being part of the championship weekend. I just think that everyone wants to see.

the championship race rotate, and I really just don't think there's that many options. There's not. Yeah. There's not because, you know, when we race till November, when we go from winter to winter, basically, you know, it's not.

I get it winters later. But it's, you limit your options. You know, if our championship ended in September, like it probably should or October, then, yeah, you've got absolutely more options for sure. Yeah. You won a destination.

city with good weather, with good racing. And there's very few places that check all three. The negative part of it too, right, is that Las Vegas fans don't turn out like they do at Phoenix. Phoenix sells out. You know, that's why we can bust on Phoenix just because of the racing product, but it's, that the city turns out there. Would the fans show up in Vegas, though, if it was the championship race? That's a big if, Travis.

I do agree, though, that there's so many things in Vegas to offer, that it's hard to... Is it really a sports town, though? That's what I'm saying. Like, L.A. sometimes has issues drawing because there's so much to do. You're in Vegas. There's a billion things that they're offering. I know, but like this weekend, right? We were competing against a home Raiders game.

The PGA tour was there as well. Like, saturation, saturation. talk about like you know competing like you're it's just and we had our fair share of fans show up but it's there's only for what it's worth there's only so many sports fans so where are you going to go for what it's worth um if this is accurate this is wikipedia so it might not be accurate um capacity of phoenix is 45 000 Vegas is 80,000 so I mean that plays a part in how it looks right if you took all the fans from Phoenix and put them in Vegas, it would look half full. Yeah.

I mean, I see what you're saying. Again, for one entity, track entity to give it to the other would be a lot of red tape and a lot of money exchanged because there's value there. So I don't know that it will happen just because of that red tape. But yeah, it is going to be challenging. I mean, where do the tracks that we really could go to? It's limited. It certainly is limited. I'm trying to think.

Darlington is somewhat south, but that's going to be cold. Travis is like, eh. Not a destination city. And not a destination city. Now they have to race on Labor Day weekend. And by the way, we don't even have garages at Darlington. The garage area is basically this asphalt with a lean to. so it's it's not yeah you got to mark that one off the list i don't even know then we start

to get into super speedways i don't know that could be the next thing that's on our schedule don't be surprised daytona's our finale yeah dear danny we've got some questions that we want to ask dare danning we need answers and we need them fast we tried to ask junior but it his answers were lame. And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now we're caught on you because you're our own hope. This ain't the racetrack, so maybe you won't choke. Before we sign off, I've got two dear Denny's for you this week.

First one, how is the Netflix experience going? It's going good. I've been very open to those guys, and certainly, if you've seen around the racetrack, they've usually got about three guys following a, us around and it's um you know they've got i don't know how many crews they have uh but i've seen i work specifically with this one crew um and i see that there's alternate crews of like maybe two or three others i'm not really sure but uh i'm assigned this one and they've been great to work with all those guys are just awesome like i you know i talk to them when we're not filming like they're

they're all really cool guys and so they've been following around for, uh, it's a couple months now? Yeah, it's probably been a couple months. A few races before the start of the playoffs. And,

yeah, the, the intensity of them filming is going to keep, you know, it's going to keep ramping up. Um, as, as it trickles down.

You always, you want to be, you know, one of the goals in racing is you always want to be part of the story, the entire season, right? I mean,

there's a handful of them that got eliminated in the round of 12. You know, even if you get eliminated in the round of eight, you're only irrelevant for one race, right? Because you're still part of the story for 35 of 36 races. And so it's really important, you know, for us and certainly for our team to participate in it. We think it's a big part of, you know, a potential NASCAR growth moment. So we want to give them great access.

And I mean, you hear guys like Joey saying, I don't like it. It's a little too evasive. I mean, that's where you're going to get the content, though, is letting them in on your day and not changing what you do just because film crews around. Yeah. I don't know what is being shot with other drivers, but I will say,

I think if you're listening to this and you're a Denny Hamlin fan when this show comes out, I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised with the amount of access that you'll see because of which you've been given. Yeah. And I mean, the other thing is too, I do a lot of stuff not racing related, right? I mean, you know, whether it be the basketball league, the golf league, whatever it is. Like, I'm always doing other stuff. And I always have a group of friends. I hang around. You know, I've got a bunch of, you know, kid time. There was kind of a great moment that they got with me and my kids after what race is that? Darlington. Yeah, one that hurt for sure, one that we dominated at race. So, yeah, they got some good stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. But, yeah, it's going well.

Who has the trophy from the 2007 AT&T 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, you or Al Marolla? If neither do you know what happened to it? And do you even want the trophy, given the circumstances? I mean, I don't need the trophy, no. Do I want it? Eh, I wouldn't mind. having one, but it's like, I get it. I don't know who has the trophy.

As far as I know, Eric says that he doesn't have it. I don't have it. I'm wondering if it's just a crew guy has it. For those who are unfamiliar with this situation, can you recount it real quick? Yeah, I was, I was running cup, and Eric,

was he in Xfinity? I can't even remember it's been so long ago. I'm not sure if he was in Xfinity or just a test driver or something for us, but I was in Sonoma on a cup race weekend, and we were in Milwaukee, which is the home of Rockwell Automation. Rockwell Automation was my very first Xfinity sponsor. And so it was a home race for them. It meant a lot for them.

I had built a relationship with Rockwell, and they wanted to see me in the car. I flew back after practice. There was cars parked on the helipad. So I went from the airport and then was supposed to have a helicopter from the airport to the track. I get in the helicopter

and next thing you know we're circling around. I'm like, what's going on? Why aren't we landing? I see they're about to start the race. And he's like, there's cars parked on the helipat. I had to go land back at the airport, drive there, and by then, we were probably 15 laps into the race, something like that.

And so Eric runs and he's leading the race. He qualified on the pole and led the race. Now, we had helped, you know... First 59 laps. First, he raced in the first? Yeah, 59. Of how many laps was it? I'll check that.

Okay. Maybe it was 200, 250? 120. No, that's laps led. 250. I'm going to say something real quick. This is the 2007 AT&T 250 at the Milwaukee Mile. It's a mile long racetrack.

They run 250. I didn't hear you say the AT&T 250. I'm sorry. Didn't you hear the 250 part? No. AT&T is at railroad firm. So anyway, here's saying the math checks out. I got a message.

I got a message from my crew chief. At the time was Dave Rogers, my now competition director at 2311. and he says they want you in the car and at this time eric is leading the race and i'm like i just look over at him we're on the pit box race is going on i i give him the old i'm not getting it no way i don't want to do it he's fine he's good he's leading they're like okay we're going to let him stay in there but if he loses the lead or it looks like he's starting to struggle they they want you in the car and so the whole time I'm sitting there going,

please stay up front, Eric. Just please stay up front. And on lap 59, apparently, he lost the lead. And then he faded to third. And they're like, next pit stop you're getting in. I'm like, all right, let me do this.

I did it. I went a lap down. I went maybe two down. Maybe it was one. Got the lucky dog back. And then, How many laps did we lead? Hunter?

Is that right? I don't see how many laps. Carl Edwards had the most with 123. Oh, okay. So anyway, we drove back to the front, won the race. And obviously, you could see the video of Eric. He's pissed off, and crew guys are trying to talk to him, and he's shrugging them off as he's walking back to the hall or after he got pulled out of the car. He left the race before it ended.

Yeah. So he didn't get the trophy. I don't know where that trophy is. I'm thinking a crew member actually has that trophy. If you are the owner of that trophy, I'll pay you a $500 finder's fee to return it. So just for the story, because I want to, you know, when I'm older, and this is all I've got is to tell old stories about, you know, old races.

This is, it'd be a fun show and tell. Eric Amarola, that was his Congratulations, that was his only Xfinity win, I believe. No, wrong. He won at Sonoma this past year. It was his only win up until that point. He won that race because I remember, you know,

it was interesting. What came to my head then was like the moment he had with his kids, which I thought was just awesome. So, yeah, he's listed as the winner. I crossed the start, finish line. Let's just say it was a team effort. It was a team effort all around And we want it together

That's a crazy set of circumstances That's like in football Like hey A single drive without a first down You're going to the bench And yet got credited for the victory Right Yeah

I mean I guess baseball and pitching It's probably somewhat like that right Yeah yeah You get credited with a win But what's the You got to be leading Yeah when you come out of the game

when you come out of the game. So yeah, I guess it's... So hold on. Travis, you're a sports guy. If a pitcher has a lead, say it's six to five. You have to go so many innings, though. Okay. But then what if you lose the lead,

but then your team comes back and wins? The pitcher that was out there when the lead was regained gets the win. I don't know how it related to this and... I'm not sure I really want to. It's kind of the same thing. Whereas Eric was leading the... race and then he came out of the game

you came in and you then he got the save it's a win and a save Eric got the win then he got the save there's a one oh he wasn't leading wasn't leading when he came out oh it's the closest we can come up yeah I don't know

anyway fun story it's in the past it was 2007 so a billion years ago what else you got Got a review? A review. Yeah, this is a good one.

This is from Matt Boltock, I think I pronounced that right. I grew up a huge Jimmy Johnson fan. I always liked Denny growing up, but couldn't root for him during the 2010 chase. After listening to the podcast the last eight months or so, Denny is undoubtedly one of my all-time favorite drivers. Pulling for the 11 car to win a championship more than ever this year, he's got a lifetime fan in Meenow. Awesome.

Yeah, that 2010 chase with Jimmy, heartbreaking. that that was certainly one where I look back and say, man, I could have done something different. I just, I can tell you about just how I handled that weekend. And clearly I just, you know, I was nervous that weekend. I changed what I had been doing, what made me successful. Our car was really fast. All year, I thought that we had the fastest car. and I just, I didn't get it done.

You know, we just had issues in qualifying. I second-guess myself, started qualifying in a different spot because somebody ran a fast lap. I just didn't handle that right. I locked myself in my hotel room. Wouldn't see any friends or family. And Durenhamstead weekend, championship weekends always fallen on my birthday weekend up until the last couple years when they moved it up one week.

And, yeah, I just remember, like, no, I'm going to study, I'm going to watch film, I'm going to look at all this stuff, I don't want to see anyone, just want to concentrate. And that was like the absolute wrong thing to, I needed to just play loose in the final week and didn't. Again, that was the other one where we dominated Phoenix a week before and ran out of fuel because of fuel miscalculation. That was the infamous taking the water bottle and throwing it up against the side of the car. My little tantrum there. So it was a, it was a tough one because we had, we had Jimmy down,

our foot was on his throat, and it was over. If we finished off Phoenix, like we had been running, we had dominated the race and just didn't do it. We had to just start our car at Homestead and go collect our championship. But, you know, that 48 team, they were resilient. They kept putting the pressure on us, and we folded in that last race. And so it just didn't work. out and that was probably the best opportunity I had as far as, you know, the car speed that we brought to the racetrack and me and Jimmy were basically racing heads up in that last race. I think we had 15 points difference between us. I had a lead.

So that means he could have finished like two spots or if he finished two spots ahead of me, he would have won the championship or something like that. So I started in the back, got in a wreck because I was three wide and somebody, I could just got squeezed, and I went down to the bottom spun, and it hurt the car, and we never, never recovered. That was a bummer. Hated that weekend. You got a lifetime fan now, though.

Yeah. Well, thanks, Matt. I appreciate you tuning in. And check us out next week after Homestead, and hopefully we give you all a little bit more better news than we had this week. So thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you all soon. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.