Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - A11 Aboard…It’s Championship Week

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Denny Hamlin and his co-host Jared Allen are back from Martinsville, where William Byron and Kyle Larson were the last two to punch their ticket to the Championship 4. The guys get into Byron winning his race, Denny’s car blowing up, Sam Mayer’s wreck, and a whole lot more: 1:20 Will the Playoff format ruin Corey Heim’s season?6:15 Should Sam Mayer be suspended?15:30 William Byron dominates Martinsville20:00 Kyle Larson able to outperform Christopher Bell24:30 Denny’s goal was not to make drivers mad27:50 Concern the 11 car will have more mechanical issues33:30 Preview of the Cup Series Championship 439:15 Just how confident is Denny going into next weekend43:40 New tire setup at Phoenix will have a huge impact Real fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimentalFanDuel Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I think about it. I do last night at about 9.30. And I asked Jordan, I was like, I wonder what it's going to be like seven days from now. Like, you know what I mean? I just, I can't help but wonder. Like, oh my gosh, we're seven days from knowing. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck to drink and drink to win. I know, you do.

Two trophies missing from your collection. A championship and the most popular driver. Salon told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to Actions Detrimental. Most Martinville Speedway. The second, no, is it the penultimate? Penultimate race of the season.

and that means before the last. Correct. I knew that, but I never said that ever before. That's a word that you really don't need. The white flag is out, right? Yeah. Second to last. Last one.

Last but one in a series of things. Quick on the Google there. Nice. Second to last. All right. Well, we had an exciting weekend. We had Corey Heim taking the trucks, Taylor Gray, taking Exfinity. and William Byron taking the cup.

Where do you all want to start first? Nothing beats Martinville in the fall, though. Golly. Let's start with trucks. Trucks? Corey Heim? Corey Heim. I don't know.

You want to copy and paste from... I'll describe other audio from previous weeks. I will say this. I think that they've really improved their short track program. I thought for quite some time this year that that was kind of their only Achilles his heel with the 11 truck was their short track results. It seemed like the front row guys, especially Lane Riggs, seemed to have a leg up on them.

And, you know, I think of races like IRP, where Corey just wasn't very strong. There are some other races in there, but they've gotten better. And I don't know what it is, whether Corey's just, you know, gotten better or they're getting more of the trucks. Scott Zipadeli and his team's getting more out of the trucks, but it seems like they've hemmed up all their weaknesses,

and they're heading towards a chase out of title next weekend in Phoenix. What do you think? If I'm the playoff format, I hope that Coriheim wins. Yeah, yeah. It only seems like there should be one reasonable champion in that series. I mean, it'd be, you'd have to be a really hard NASCAR shill to just, justify really anyone else. But I get it.

Corey, I think, explained it really well in his presser after the race. He was just like, you know, we can do all this. And then someone just kind of wipe us out in turn one and that's it. And, you know, next thing you know that the storybooks would be written that this person was the champion of 2025. Yeah, combined. The other three drivers, Caden Honeycut, Ty Majeski, Tyler Angram, have one win. Wow.

Wow. Did you not know that, Travis? I didn't know that. Oh, God. Please win, Corey. Yeah, we're rooting for him. Listen, as a 2311 development driver, we're definitely rooting hard for Corey,

and I think that most folks out there, if you're a fan of greatness, you're going to be rooting for the 11. The Xfinity Series, our four drivers, head to Phoenix, Conor Zillich, Carson, Koppel, Justin Algeyer and Jesse Love.

Well, hold on. Let's keep it on trucks for one moment. Let's kind of talk about their championship. In the final, we have Majesky. Helping out here. Tyler Ancrum. Ancrum. Caden Honeycutt. Wow.

How did Anchrom make it? Must have just kind of had some good average finishes, I'm guessing. Well, Anchor must have the tiebreaker over Lane Riggs. Did he have a good Taldega then? I mean, I know I'm asking all questions you probably don't know, but it just is interesting.

I just didn't hear much from Tyler Ancrum. I mean, I think Majesky is the closest suitor to be able to run with him on speed. Hayden Honeycutt, great talent. You know, I don't know. I think the 52 truck is capable, and that team is capable. they're going to need to hit it just right. I mean, they haven't been leading a bunch of laps or anything all through the season, which is an indicator of your speed.

So, I mean, obviously, advantage Corey, but I think, you know, if you rank them on probability, it's going to be Majeski at 2, it's going to be Caden at 3 and then Ancrum at 4. Ancrum finished 6th at Talladega, and then ninth at the roval. Okay, yeah. So he had three top tens.

Right, but the tiebreaker was actually Caden Honeycutt and Lane Riggs, not Tyler Ancombe. That's, yeah. And they ended up tied, right? Correct. Yeah. So Ancrum had a good round of eight. Yeah, that was a bummer for Lane. So evidently he didn't have a good, well, he got wiped out in the first corner of the roval.

if I remember right. Yeah, so Yeah, it's just, man, you get these short three race seasons and you know, your perception of, you know, who can go out there and challenge it can definitely change. And so,

so we kind of rank those trucks Exfinity. Taylor Gray gets his first Xfinity win. Shouldn't be his first. He probably should have won last year, right? Going into the last corner, I think Sammy shipped it in No, this season, not last year.

No last, oh, that was this season? Hmm. Yeah, so Taylor Gray gets his first win. Very timely win. Obviously, they were very strong there in the spring. Didn't get the win. Sammy kind of got desperate there and made a move on them, and it looked like an absolute replay on the last lap of kind of how far he was back,

but I think Sammy thought better of it this time. and says, yeah, I can't, can't do that twice. And so, and Sammy was in a position where if he wins that race, he moves on. So, you know, good restraint by him on that. And really kind of a all-around job well done for the Xenity series, not turning this into a show like it usually is. Until after the checker flag. Yeah.

Yeah, that was a whole other thing, right? this whole Sam versus Jeb you know I don't know I try to see it both sides I didn't I don't know I don't just my opinion

I didn't think that what Sam did on the restart to Jeb that got Jeb all pissed off like was that egregious like you were you're going to be in the way anyway someone was going to root you out of the way because you chose a strategy that was going to put you up front, but you were going to be way off on speed.

So, and then Sam is one of the guys. If you're going to get nudged by someone, it's going to be someone that has something to gain that weekend. This wasn't, I don't know, naming an Xenity driver that wasn't racing for anything this weekend. Just give me someone. Jeremy Clements. Jeremy Clinton. All right, this wasn't like Jeremy Clements that just knocked Jeb out of the way.

Like this was a guy that was battling for points and battling for his, you know, trying to go to the final four. So I get it that Jeb went back to like 20th, but that wasn't entirely Sam Mayer's fault. He got ping ponged around. And like I said, he was going to get ping ponged around by anyone that was around at the time that felt like they were being. held up. So I didn't see where Jeb's gripe was, I think it was a little exaggerated there. And then, you know, Jeb knocks this 41 back. I got to get no issues with that. He's up, you know, he was pissed off about it. He didn't wreck him. That's good. But then Sam Mayer just after the race, I don't know what he was doing. That was a bad call. And I don't know if he's racing this weekend. Should he?

I wish I had a good answer for you. Wrecking someone after the caution into the wall? No, probably not. I think because points doesn't mean anything. Yeah. Money really, I think you need to send a message, especially at the Exfittity level. I think they were trying to clean up the race. They did a good job.

So now you send this message. Listen, this is unacceptable. Yeah, I just, I didn't have any issues with the back and forth on track. until the checkered flag thing. And then that's where it was like, and then in his interview, terrible. I know, it just didn't help.

I'm not going to pile on because I think he's going to have a bad week. You know what I mean? I just, it just didn't help. What do you else do you want me to say? I think he's watching Phoenix. I wish one, Jeb, don't say that you're going to go after someone

on the radio, because then you're going to get punished if you do, but also after the race, just go talk to him. Well, yeah. Well, I think Jordan Anderson stopped that. I think Jordan Anderson did a phenomenal job of when Jeb's car stopped. Jordan jumped into the cockpit and said, let me go over there and talk to him. And so Jordan did a fantastic job. And if you talk to people around the Xfinity garage, Jordan is just one of the

more well-respected guys out there. And obviously he's transitioned from being a driver himself to being a car owner. And so you've got to say a big tip of your cap to Jordan to kind of de-escalating the situation and then going over there and addressing it himself as the car owner of, hey, you just wrecked the car that I got to repair. And so I think he did a great job. I can't remember the last Xfinity race where there wasn't someone, you know,

face to face with each other. But it was a relatively calm Xfinity race from that standpoint. So, Jesse Love, my buddy, Jesse, I don't know what they were doing all day.

It was like they were just trying not to lose at all costs. And so they were running about 25th most of the day. And, yeah, they got to get back on offense, you know, starting next weekend.

Yeah, they came into this race plus 40. Yeah, but they were just trying to keep four tires on the racetrack. And so they were on the struggle bus. On pit road, they were struggling. They were making big mistakes there. On the racetrack, I've been there before. You're driving your car far worse than it actually is. Because you're just trying not to make a mistake.

You're not trying to get near anyone. And he just found himself in a very weird spot. there at one point, but he had enough buffer there that he was going to be fine. So our top four now, our final four at Phoenix in the Xenny series, Connor Zillich, Carson Quappel, Justin Algeier, and Jesse Love. You're nothing. This isn't as grievous as the truck series, right? It's not.

No. But Connor Zillich, let's just rank them at one. And then you got Justin Algar is in there, right? That's two. Quaple and who else? Jesse Love. Yeah, so, I mean, based off of speed all year, I mean, it's 88, 7, 2, 1. I don't know what Carson Quaple's stats have been this year.

It was interesting. He started the year off, and I'm thinking he's going to win a lot of races and just plateaued. like really plateaued and I just thought that that one team was very underwhelming for the bulk of the season. Seven top fives. Yeah, seven top fives in the Xfinity series is not much. Not much at all. Jesse Love has one win, eight top fives. Yeah, I just feel like Jesse's been faster than Carson.

Jesse was pretty good at Phoenix last year. I don't know, you got to think like the seven car last year in the championship race of Justin Algar was very, very dominant, had it going on. You got to think he's going to be pretty tough again, but you also got the 88 who is part of that team and has gotten better on all types of tracks throughout the season. and I think it's still going to be a close one. I think Justin's experience at Phoenix will counter whatever success the 88 has had throughout the season. And so I think that's going to be a 1 and 1A, 1A1B type of race. And then Jesse will be right there near them.

And then Carson is going to need to find some speed. Who's your pick then, if you've got to pick one of them? I'll give the nod to Justin. Just based off of his car is going to be just as prepared as the 88. He's not going to get beat on equipment. I believe this is where experience will benefit him well. And you won it too many? And he's, and he's, that is a great, that might be one of his best racetracks.

Remember last year all the mistakes he had and to still come back. Yeah, they were, they were lightning fast. So, Justin's my pick. Uh, move on to the cup race. Sure. William Byron. Impressive. Dominates.

Impressive. It's all you can say about that drive is that I was certain when me and the two Penske cars flipped the stage and was in front of William, I thought they were never going to get back around Blaney. I thought that they had given the race away, not giving it, but they wanted to get the stage win, max points, just in case. At that point, I thought it was going to be a tall task to pass to 12, and he did it. made a run at him uh was very patient that last run waited on lap traffic got him so 61 point day doesn't get any better um set on the pole led the most laps i mean just nearly a perfect week it was a perfect weekend essentially i thought rudy did a really good job of like kind of coaching him because i think william wanted to go immediately he's like you're going to get to the lap traffic save me some tires

is like just trying to like you know calm him down and you know letting him know like hey you're going to get there don't worry yeah i thought william showed a ton of poise through the race and just even when he was leading just he was just patient and so um i thought it was one of williams if not his strongest performance as a driver only and so uh yeah they they absolutely earned the spot took the spot and it's going to race for a championship next week. Yeah, I think to me that was what was most impressive is just like the patience, right? You think that Blaney gets out to lead, the guy who's won this race last two years, everyone's favorite, now he's just going to get away.

And William didn't rush to make a move to get around him. He just waited and takes time. And then didn't let Blaney get back to him. Right. Yeah. And, you know, I think that, you know, Blaney said in his interview, he was like, yeah, I would have made that same move. And William was close enough to where, I mean, you can't, you just can't sit behind these guys for too long. Your stuff gets hot and then it just, you burn it up. So he was

close enough to where William thought, I'm going to dive into one, show him my nose. And at that time, it just so happens that the 12 was doing the same to a lap car. And so they were three wide there and he heard Blaney say he tried to cover the space as much as he could, tried to crowd them. but obviously that the 24 was there and it was a heck of a battle. But yeah, I thought that the 12 would get back to him at some point, but it just showed that the 24 was better. At that time, he had the best car and he got around him. Even on the restart there, there was a chance they got restacked right from the Carson Hosevar caution towards the end.

Yeah, well, which host of our incident? the third, fourth, however many we counted? Oh my goodness. Can someone tell me what all happened there? It was, that was, I just, every time they said car low, you know, go high, car low and turn two, or stay low and turn four, there's car high, it was always a 77 up there.

I couldn't figure out what, what was going on. but Martinsville is a test of patience, and you're just, if you're not a patient person, it's just you're going to find yourself in bumper tag with everyone that you're around constantly. So I don't know what happened, but it seemed like people lost their patience with the 77, or he was, I don't know, just wrong place, wrong time.

Not really sure, but anyway, that caution happened with, what was it, about 15 to go somewhere around there? I thought it was over at that point. I know that you're saying he got back to him on that restart, but the short run speed of the Hendrick cars was, if you remember right, one qualified on the pole, the other one qualified 31st. So it wasn't, I don't think it was a fair fight as far as that's concerned.

Now, Blaney made it charge on them in the last few laps, but you don't, I mean, William at that point, he's trying to just hit the bottom and not make any mistakes. I thought it was going to be a tough task. unless the 12 got the actual jump on the restart and then held him down tightly, there was just no way. The speed of the Hendrick cars in the short run was just far superior. We had a pretty clean race overall, right?

William Byron dominates, he wins. The battle between Kyle Larson and Bell was... Larson just had him all day. The same. Yeah, he just had him. Larson just did everything he needed to. He stayed in the top five, and Bell just struggled to run top seven to eight.

You know, he was always like two or three positions behind, just struggling. And I was behind him for a decent amount, and I could just see his, he was fighting the car quite a bit. I think because of the way the point situation was, we didn't have any drama at the end of this race with so-and-so's holding this guy up,

so-and-so let this guy buy. Yeah, which is refreshing, right? Like that we didn't have, that wasn't a storyline leaving this racetrack. And it has been over the last few years. And so it played out as naturally as it could play out. What do we make of, though, like the host of ours and like some other Josh Barry, some hard racing at the back of the pack? Is that fine?

Or is it because it's the cutoff, they should race a little easier? Or is it just that's racing? No, I think it's racing. I don't know. I've always thought, especially at the end of these races, you said it before we start recording, like once you get inside 30, 50 laps to go, and you're like 20th or worse,

like, by the way, this weekend, do me a favor. Please don't bring out a caution for no particular reason. Swear to God. Like, let's just get it to the finish, fellas. Red Rock's gift cards on everyone. Sorry, Ron. But not really. But yeah, you got to see the finish line.

Like, you know, I don't know. You just, you want to let these things try to play out naturally, but sometimes their caution comes out late, and that is what's natural. And certainly McDowell and Hosevar that was in the incident of the final caution, you know, I don't know. I don't know what they were doing back there, but it just, it's pretty wild. I have a theory.

What's the theory? I think some of these teams, their bonuses for where they finish, aren't exactly top five or wins. They're a little further back. Oh, you think they get some like top 25 bonuses? Top 20, top 15. So you got these guys trying to go for it to get a bonus. I think that's probably fair.

If you're within a spot or two and you've got to keep digging for 15 laps. I mean, all you guys are living in your own worlds in these cars. You guys are headcases to begin with. Put some extra money on the line? But for 20th, second? Okay, but what if you get 20th and all of a sudden now you're... What if you get 20th? All right, you're willing to risk being in the headline for the being responsible for the final caution when it's your manufacturer leading and your associate cars that you have a tight alliance with and you're back there playing grab ass for 20-something?

Clearly, there's no punishment from the manufacturer for that because it happens way too much. I'm just saying down and distance. At some point, you have to realize, okay, I, inspire, you have an affiliation with Hendrick, and you surely know that the 24 is leading the race, and you're back there wrecking each other. But when's the last time a team said, you know what, we're no longer been affiliated with you?

That happens on race day. That's fair. You know, six of the seven days, your alliance. and then seventh day you go race. Like Hendricks got the money, they're not going to pull it off of... But if you're at Spire, like Hendricks Big Brother,

like all those drivers know that like that the information funnels down to you from Big Brother and like, I don't know. I get it. Everyone's run their own race. It's not, to me it's just, it was more funny than it was,

you know, dumb. But for the record, do that next week drivers. Y'all heard it from Travis. You're going to have to read the wrath of him on his ex. I'm building a nice little, I'm building a nice little army of new fans that have said they're jumping on board for Sunday.

Let's go. Let's go. We got fans, we got Ross Chastain fans coming out of the woodwork, like a Chase Elliott fan. Listen, I spent the whole day on Sunday just not trying to be a part of any headlines. That's what I wondered. If someone was faster, come on by. Come on by.

Like, I still felt confident that I was going to race for the win. And it's like, to me, giving up a, so many people panic over, like, giving up a position on lap 150 of 500. It doesn't, there's so many other things that's going to happen. You're going to have your, if you're really truly good enough, you will have your shot at it. And so, yeah, it happened through pit sequence or flipping the stages or whatever it is, but I let no less than five cars actually pass, like let them pass. I could have just held my line and air blocked them and made them get their stuff hot and it would just be very detrimental to them. Maybe they would eventually pass me, maybe not. But then this weekend, if I'm racing those guys, hopefully they pay that back, right?

Like, it's, there was nothing to gain by, like, frustrating Chase Elliott or frustrating Joey Legano. Like, it's deposit some withdrawals. And if I get it back, I get it back. If I don't, I don't. But they're just, I don't know why some people feel so necessary to, like, airblock and chop noses on lap 100 when we're not even, we got such a long way to go. If you're good enough, you will get your shot at some point through the day. But do you think Chase is going to be like, you know what, next weekend? Denny was nice to me at Martin.

No, I don't. So then why? What's it matter then? It makes you feel better? There will be a time. There'll be a time. I just, I don't know how to explain it. But there's a time where when we will race each other, maybe it's not next week.

Maybe it's next clash. Maybe it's next Phoenix, next Michigan. Like there's a time. People remember, everyone remembers stuff. And when you drive them like a dick, they definitely remember. Why do you think Carson Hosephar was in four wrecks? You know what I mean? I'm not asking for anything.

I'm just saying that it's okay to let people go. And if you're good enough, you're still going to get your shot. And so I just, you know, even though that those guys were racing my teammate and racing, for their own spot in the final four, to me, it just didn't really matter, right? So is what it is. Hey, this is Dale Jr. And for the latest actions detrimental gear, go to shop.durdymomedia.com. We've got plenty of options for you.

We're adding new stuff all the time. That's shop.dardtdurtymomedia.com. Well, William Byron wins his way in. And we've now got yourself, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, and William iron in the championship four next week. Hendrick versus Gibbs. We've been here before. So first thing, first Hendrick versus Gibbs.

Hold on. Before we get to the champ for, your car. What would you like to say, Travis? I was trying to avoid this. It's my obligation to bring it up. Where are you?

We blew up. Okay. Okay. The engine went boom. And you're still going to tell me that there's no concern. of course there's concern my first concern is will my car start it was it's quite funny actually in driver intro

as William and I were talking and he's like what happened to qualifying he's like they had to push start you I said yeah well I eventually got it going he's like man that's kind of funny like that it won't start but once it gets rolling it's actually pretty fast Travis, we can't worry all week about it. We're not going to be able to change it.

The parts and the pieces are already in the car. We're going to cross our fingers and hope this thing sees his finish line. All right. But should there be some concern for people like Travis in the world? I mean, so there's the difference right there, Jared, is. Right, Denny can't be concerned about this. That'd be stupid if he's concerned about this. But you and every other Denny Hammond fan.

I think are going to be concerned about this. My concern is that over half the playoff races, I've had mechanical failures. So, like, five of the nine, I've had major mechanical failures. The ones we haven't, we won. I mean, that's the good news. Right, so DNF first. They're going to bring their best. I'm confident we're going to be fine.

And if we're not, we're not. I don't know. I just, I hope I'm going to do the best that I can. I'm going to drive it as fast as I can. But I'm confident this week, Traff. I'm not negative in any kind of headspace way. It's everything's going to be fine. It's championship week.

Did you get any clarity on any of these situations? I was like, why? Not yet. I think they're, I got a text this morning said they'll explain it. in the comp meeting. So I'll know after that. Hopefully it's avoidable. It's like, oh, yeah, we just forgot about this.

No, I don't think it's going to be that. No big deal. We won't forget that next week. Yeah. Now you get to your champ for, Jared. Okay, well, I got one more question on this. In that you won Las Vegas, right? Had a great, good Las Vegas race.

But then the last two weeks, I mean, you were good yesterday up until, but the results just aren't there. It just feels like it was like a week off in a way. I mean, I found myself inside the top four at Talladega with 15 laps to go. And my throttle hung open. No, I've raced these two weeks to win. I will say I put in far less work into these two weeks. You know, if you want a real and honest number,

it was 45 minutes at Talladega and about an hour and a half at Martinsville. That's it. That's all the work I put into those weeks, preparing for those races. Obviously, there's bigger fish to fry, and that's where all the time has been spent. That in the courtroom, that's for sure. Yeah, I think I'm just trying to get a temperature check because it seems like the guys who, you know, you guys get on rolls and, you know, you stay hot

and you go into Phoenix hot. I don't know that there's any rhyme or reason to it. I don't know. I'm trying to think back of like my wins. Are they after good finishes or are they after horrible finishes? I have no idea and I don't think there's any correlation. I truly do believe in my heart of. heart that this sport is week to week.

Nothing that happened last week is a direct correlation of what's going to happen this week. I can assure you that I left Martinsville in a pretty good headspace, and then I woke up this morning feeling even better. So I like where we're at. Okay, your championship four competitors, Ryan Blaine, or Ryan Blaine, Kyle Larson. don't put them back in there that's you're reading the 2024 notes Kyle Larson William Byron and Chase Briscoe gonna be tough gonna be tough I mean

Chase has obviously come on very strong here in the last part of the season if not for his Martinville DNF I think he had the best average finish going in the playoffs um qualifies extremely well the advantage of the number one pit stall has gone down so the timing line so qualifying on the pole will not be as big of an advantage as it has been in years past because they moved the camera where they they time you for pit out they moved it away because the you know like the year cow larsson won it i think he came in like fourth of the guys and came out first won the championship i think they deemed that kind of too big a minute advantage so they moved that out of out. So qualifying will matter, but it's not going to matter a lot. It's just simply because the top four will get top four pit selections as well. So no matter where you qualify, you'll be one of

the top four pit selectors. So we're definitely going to all have an opening of some sort. I don't know that one section of pit road is ultimately way faster than another. Track position, of course, does matter. But it's a long enough race. and the track gets wide enough there that I think that the best cars always eventually find their way to the front. You get extended practice too, right?

You do. Friday's extended practice, you can change whatever you want afterwards so you can completely overhaul your car. You're not locked into the major components that you're locked into on a weekly basis. So those who don't know, like on a normal weekend,

we get 20 minutes of practice depending on what group you're in and then you qualify well after then they go into the garages and then Sunday morning you get final adjustments and so that is just you're able to let's see

I always equate this to a Lego set so say there's 200 pieces of the set up Lego set and these numbers are not exact and I'm just very much trying to oversimplify let's just say on a normal weekend, you can change 15 parts of that 200-piece setup Lego set going into the next day.

Phoenix will be all 200 is on the table. You can do whatever you want to your car overnight to make over, you know, to big, big changes if you need to make big changes. Or maybe you find out something from a teammate that is beneficial and it's like, I really want to change. I just want to put their setup in. You can do that. So Hendrick and JGR are going to have two non-playoff drivers.

How much do you mess with their setups to kind of give you guys some information in practice to see what you want to do? I'm not really sure. We haven't kind of gone over that quite yet. Obviously, I'll be trying to pick Christopher Bell's brain as much as I can over the week. and just see how this all plays out. I mean, I feel like I've learned enough over the next two weeks where I'm changing my style slightly for that type of racetrack.

Like, I've locked in on how I'm going to approach it as a driver and then asked my setup to accommodate that new approach. But all information, I'm going to want to try to get as much information as I can. And so as far as teammates, not really sure. I mean, I'm sure they'll have some sort of role and, you know, maybe trying to experiment with something, but I'm not really sure how that's all going to play out. Back to this extended practice situation. You won't have, there's one practice, but you won't have an additional time after your crew can make those changes to the car.

How much of a difference does that make? Like, what if you make relatively big changes to the car? car but then you go into the race and it's like oh this wasn't the right direction hmm i mean you're you're back to now only being able to change five pieces of that leg of set right you know what i mean um it's just as the race once the race starts your your tools in the toolbox to fix what's wrong becomes much much smaller so you pretty much need to get it somewhat right and in the ballpark from the get-go so unless you're really off in practice, are teams actually going to make all that many big changes?

You wouldn't think so. As much work as they're putting into this given week, you would think that they, you've got enough track history. We've run there with the next gen car enough times. Everyone's setup is getting closer and closer to each other. So I don't foresee anyone overhauling overnight. Now, if they're way off on speed and maybe a teammate is good, then perhaps they'd go that direction.

But I would find it hard to believe that any one of the final four will be dramatically off. Where's your confidence level going into this weekend? Pretty high. It's just generally pretty high. I think it was a benefit

to have more time for myself, a person that's pretty analytical as it is, a week-to-week, to give me a little bit more extra time at that racetrack has been beneficial. Yeah, I think I'm smarter going into that racetrack than what I would have been had I just locked myself in yesterday. And some of the things just took time to learn.

So I feel good about it. I feel like we'll bring speed. We've been good speed-wise. New Hampshire was a little bit of a, you know, We weren't great at New Hampshire, and that's similar, you know, similar banking, similar tire. And so that was a little bit of a warning, but I think, I think we'll be good. I do. What about not happen to race Penske?

Does that ease the nerves a bit? Well, it certainly psychologically makes you feel better. I don't know that it really matters, but it certainly makes you feel better just because you have to respect. You're an idiot if you don't respect what they've done at that racetrack. Right. I mean, we, I know Blaney downplayed this weekend quite a bit about people just expect me just because I've won the last two Martinsville races. I'm going to just, it's easy. I'm going to go do it again.

He's like, it's not that easy. And he's right. But he nearly did again. And so when we, when we, when we all. all talk about and the media talks about mostly keeping Penske out. It's just because you have to respect what they've done. And you would think that going into that racetrack, if they were part of the final four, they would be a favorite to winner, which would be rightfully so. I have a question for you. As a fan when like Ohio State getting ready to play for natural championship, I'm thinking

about what it's like to win or whatever all that week. How do you as a driver keep yourself focused on the task at hand and not what it would be like to win? Or do you, do you, think about that? You know, I find myself, I think about it. I do. It was last night at about 9.30. And I asked Jordan, I was like, I wonder what it's going to be like seven days from now. Like, you know what I mean? I just, I can't help but wonder, like, oh, my gosh, we're seven days from knowing the result. I don't know. I'd love to think about it, but I also,

those thoughts only creep in between all the work and stuff that I have to do. You know, it's when you wake up first in the morning and I'm not thinking about how I'm going to approach turn one, you know, first lap of practice. It's, I'm just thinking about, okay, the moment, what day is it? Getting closer.

And it's just, I think it's natural that you have thoughts about what if, but the, you know, that's not going to drive the result. I'm old enough and wise enough now in my years doing this to know that the what ifs is is not going to dictate the result. It's what you do now, what you do tomorrow, and how you react when things don't go as planned. Yeah, but in contrast to that, you've always. also probably thought about those things for the last 20 years, right? This isn't your first chance at a championship for it, right? 2019, 2020. You've been there. Time before where you thought, oh, I wonder what it's going to be like in seven days from now. Yeah, and I can lean on that experience. I certainly have been there before. I know the mentality. I know, you know, typically

where my headspace is at, you know, in the days leading up. I know what my headspace is typically, at him during practice. And I'm just going to use all those results and to, you know, refine how I approach this time around. And so, listen, nothing is a given. But I, I'm confident that, you know, if I don't have any negative unlucky breaks, like, I'll be there. I'm going to be there in contention.

and it's just a matter whether we got the speed and we got the execution. If we got those two things, I like our chances. I'm sure you have to have more SIM work to do this week. But at this point, are you, like, will you know flying out to Phoenix? Okay, this is the car that I'm going to have this weekend, or is it going to be a bit of a surprise to you on Friday when you get in and you kind of feel what you got? Well, that's a good question. I think that we're all going to be guessing a little bit

because we have not run this full tire set up at this racetrack. That's right. Yeah. Because the first one there was the option tire? There was, but they've changed the left side. And we mostly ran on the prime tire, which the primary tire in the spring,

which is a much harder tire. So this is going to be a little bit of a guesswork. So part of the championship, a picture will be which one of these teams guessed right on this tire. And it is not an exact science. We are guessing, but it's using all the other data points that we have from other racetracks that have very similar tires or same tires and tracks with similar radiuses and bankings and trying to put all that together to figure out what does it need. And so I think, I hope we've guessed right, you know? But I'll have a pretty good indication of where I feel like my car is before I even

hit the track, yes. I don't know if this question is going to make sense, but I'm going to try to make it make sense. So when these teams are having to guess, right, and to nail this setup, let's say you've got 100 numbers and the right answer is number 10, right? That's the right right answer if you guessed 10. Are the two JGR cars going to guess like five and 15? Whereas like the Hendrick cars could guess like 90 and 80, you know? Or are your two guesses, the two JGR cars, they're going to be pretty close. When you put it in a number form, that's such a very good analogy.

I don't know what the 19 is going to go with. I have not run his setup. I know where we are guessing. If the guess, if the right answer is 10, we're trying to guess 10, but it could be 19, it could be 25, whatever it might be. We're trying to hit it on the number.

I don't think we're trying to hedge a little on this side, a little on that side. I wouldn't think so. I would, maybe, I mean, only just because the drivers are so, different. Me and Chase are very different in our styles. And so I think naturally we're going to be probably on either side of whatever the perfect number is, just because of our styles. And just, you know, he is a person that attacks corner entry, you know, quite a bit. I'm a person that tries

to get off the corner as good as I possibly can. So that's going to require different things out of our cars. And so it might naturally put us in different numbers if that makes any sense. But you won't be real drastically different. What kind of what I'm asking is, are you guys really discussing? Like, hey, this is what we think the right answer is. And then they're like, this is what we think the right answer is. And you're just like, oh, well, we're just totally off.

You think it's A and I think it's D. Or you're asking, I think what you're asking then is how much is it, how much is JGR's knowledge influencing the setups versus the individual teams? Like, you know, like what I'm saying is JGR comes up with the, we think the answer is this. But then the individual teams come up and they say, well, I need to refine it for my driver. And we really think through past experience that it's probably that. So then we, I think it's probably 75% is common. And then there's 25% that we probably veer off into our own hemispheres.

So all four of these cars are going to be. pretty close it's not going to be the two jGR cars are just light years ahead of hendrick and or the hendrick cars are just light years ahead of jr i don't think so i think they're all going to be in a wad okay that makes for competitive race yeah anything else travis you got i got nothing we're just positive vibes now positive vibes i'm down with that we're on to phoenix yeah manifesting it's going to be a good week we've seen one championship this year trying to make it too Travis, when are you coming out? Thursday morning. I'm leaving 740.

Oh, let's go. Let's go. All right. It's going to be fun. We got a older family house, younger family house, and we got the boys' house. The Dennybro's house. Okay. Which one is the most exciting? Which of the houses is the most exciting? Well, it's a tie. I've not seen. The Denny Bros. House. and the main house are very similar, and they're 300 yards apart.

Really? Not even. Okay. Yeah. So you'll be able to walk back and forth. Okay. Both got all the outdoor games and fun. They're very close to the same.

I had one idea that we could potentially do during the race for some content, is do I put on a heart rate monitor myself? that thing would go crazy i think i don't know i and then we could match it up to like yours well no i've seen you in action it i there's no way you have the it's not the same no no you it's impossible for me cannot be the same as i high state it's impossible it's impossible i've seen it but man like that whole uh the whole uh game versus no the natty like you were i mean you had to be 180 beat per minute at the beginning of that game or during oh easily or your oh the jacksoreer oh the jacksore is probably like 200 yeah are you going to be

on like pins and needles Travis Friday Saturday or is it really no watch and practice hard a little but like so for like Ohio State the day before I'm starting to get like amped up but it's also because like I'm consuming like all this content you know podcast and shows they're talking about it so it's building it up where like there's not all of that. So like it's, you know. Mm-hmm.

But then Sunday will be ready. When are we doing this? Well, you know, I just think, well, I've got lots of winning ideas. Okay.

We're only planning for a victory. Yeah. We don't, yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't, uh,

plan for losing. Yeah. Positive vibes this week. I like it. After practice, how, how much should we read into practice results? 80%.

It's not the full result, but it's going to be a damn good indicator. Okay. Qualifying? 60%. Where are, do you know where these four pit boxes, the top four pit boxes are? Yeah. On the, I think the top four typically pick the same four. I don't know in which order.

But like, where are they on? I don't know. I can't tell you that. What's the odds at the 22 picks around you? Depends on who you ask. Hey, that guy, I should be on. on his Christmas list. Let's not forget, Joey. Kept you in this for two weeks in a row

and then I let you buy multiple times yesterday. Depository on withdraws. That's all I got. All right. It's all I got. Review, yeah. We got a review here from You don't have a name, Trav. I've forgot to put it down. It came off YouTube. You got, well, they might be from, it might be Shane Van Gisbergen.

You got the championship this year, mate. I hope you're not thinking about it too much. we're just keeping you awake. Just do what you got to do. SVG fan from New Zealand. It could just be SVG. Yeah. He'd be a fan of himself.

Yep. He's doing a great job on these ovals, huh? 14. He's making gains. I think it's as much the tire that he's really good at as it is his getting better at ovals. I think it's a 50-50 gain that he's going there. So yeah, he's doing well. Hell, I think he's, I don't know where he's at in the actual points,

but he's probably getting near the top 10 and like actual, you know, where he's going to finish in points. Like there's 16 playoff drivers. He's 12. Yeah, that's not, that's not bad at all. He's beating, beating four other guys that have far more oval experience. And this playoff has been more ovals than not. So, yeah.

Yeah, he's ahead of, I mean, hell he's nearly the highest point guy on his own team. How far is he behind Ross? 50, less than 50 points. So he can't get there, but still, it's a great showing. All right, well, we're going to see y'all next TBD. But after Phoenix, let's go get it. It's championship week. No reads.

No reads. Hallelujah. One hour show.