Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - All-Star Race: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. & Kyle Busch Steal The Show

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

In this episode, Denny Hamlin and co-host Jared Allen delve into Joey Logano's standout performance and the tire strategies used in the All-Star race. They debate whether NASCAR should adopt the soft compound tire for future races and discuss the potential of North Wilkesboro Speedway hosting a points race, considering the success of its repave (31:00). Denny shares a surprising issue with the track that has more to do with beer sales than racing.The episode heats up with a breakdown of the post-race altercation between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch (38:30). Denny reacts to the incident, analyzing what triggered the fight and if either driver was at fault for the initial wreck. He also dissects the failed conversation between Ricky and Kyle that led to punches being thrown and shares his own strategy if he were to fight another driver.Off the track, NASCAR's announcement of an in-season bracket challenge for next year sparks further discussion (1:03:00). The team also examines the uncertain future of Stewart-Haas Racing (1:10:00). Plus, in #DearDenny, Denny answers questions about the grueling physical demands of racing the Coca-Cola 600 (1:12:50).For more Actions Detrimental content, head over to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You see Mike Tyson with the bags. That's me. That's me. No shot. No? No, I've been waiting. No, you are not. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

Hey guys, welcome to action's detrimental. Ow! That hurt Charlie. This is not going to be a rose color glasses show. Pleading with NASCAR, who I guarantee you is listening to this. It was warm, and then it was. cold, but I kind of liked it. The 11, D.H. We're all in.

We're going all the way to promise them. Hey guys, welcome to Action's Detrimental post-all-Star Race Weekend. We had Corey Hine taking the truck race. We had Joey Lugano taking the cup race, the All-Star race. I am, Danny Hamlin. I got silver. I got silver this week. I drive the number 11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing and my Steam co-host.

It's Jared. I'll introduce you. Don't worry about it. I got you. Okay. Jared, doing the double. Alan. How was it?

How was your experience in Indy? Falling around your favorite driver. It was really great. It was really cool. I feel like the excitement was just starting to ramp up on Friday. with the crowd and the people and everything. I watched the download last week and Dale Jr. It said something like that the Indy 500 was one of the greatest,

if not the best sporting events he's ever been to. I mean, Dale Jr. has been to all of them, right? He's been to the derby. He's been to everything. So I thought that was cool to hear. And I'm looking forward to next Sunday. That's cool. Yeah, nobody's talking about Jared doing the double.

And I kind of feel a little offended that he's not getting enough. Yeah. You weren't on the helicopter flight, though, right? I wasn't on the helicopter flight. I was on American Flight 7-9-4-1 on Saturday. All right, okay. So wouldn't you leave in this week, Friday? No, Sunday morning.

Oh, Sunday. So, yeah, everyone's talking about Kyle. And it's great that Kyle's doing the double-ins driving 1100 miles and all that. But I'm going to be up at like 4 a.m. on Sunday. It's going to be like a 24-hour day. So you're going early commercial to Indy. and then you're going to stay there, do all the social stuff, and then just come home. Surely you're not going to the 600.

Yes. No, I'm on a Hendrik plane Sunday morning. We'll get there. I'm sure the crack it on Sunday morning. And then I'll be home. I doubt we'll make the green flag for the 600, but somewhere in stage one. Well, there's not much to talk about with the race. I think, you know, when you get into the race, it certainly, I see like, did we have expectations

too high? I didn't think I was overselling it, but perhaps I did. Certainly the way I saw practice. Now, we had to take practice with a little bit of grain of salt because you had people on different tire strategies in the middle of practice. So you had reds and yellows and some were fresh reds, some were old reds, some were new yellows, and we were all out there at the same time. So there was tons of passing going on because there was a variation in speed between

fast cars and slow cars, depending on what tires you had on. What Sunday did was confirm my worries that once you put us all out there on the same lap tires, on the same color tires, or on. all going to run the same damn speed. And that's kind of what happened somewhat. It seemed like at the very end of runs, there was some variation there where you saw, you know, like me and the 22, we pulled away there at the very end. I thought we definitely had the two fastest cars. But it just, man, I would get close and then there we say it, like arrow. I just couldn't get any closer than about two car lengths.

Um, the cars just, they just don't like air in it. And it's certainly I think Chris Gabehart did an interview with, uh, Matt Weaver. Correct. And he kind of summed it up. He was like, listen, this is definitely not a track problem. Um, I think we can confirm that this is a, this is a car issue, right? It's, it's, you know, he summed it up by basically saying, we've taken horsepower out. So if, I mean, I was on the chip at the end of the straightaway, both straightaways at the end of the race.

The last two, you know, the last two laps, certainly. But like, that tells you how much I'm in the gas. And so it just wasn't enough falloff. When you look at the lap times, he said, you know, so to finish what he says, he says that we took away, you know, 100 so horsepower from what we had in Gen 6 on short tracks. He says you widen the tire and these cars just make more grip because of it. So what happens is you have more on throttle time. And the more on throttle time you have,

the tougher it's going to be for me to drive into the corner deeper than Joe Lugano and then try to figure out how I'm going to get off on the exit. I can't drive in any deeper because he can drive in deep. and so it's very, very tough for us to have a difference in speed. And when you do have a difference in speed, the person in front has such an aerodynamic advantage that you can't overcome the one-tenth that you are faster than the car. So you need to be two and a half to three-tenths faster

to really, honestly, truly try to make a pass. The reason, you know, I thought that the race actually would be better if we had all the cars out on the track because if you saw in the very first stage they started catching lap cars couldn't pass lap cars and i think bova wallis held him up for quite a while um and boba wallis goes and finishes sixth like it just says wherever you put me in the field that's kind of where i'm going to run now there is some there is some cars that can pass um there's no doubt about that but they have to be extremely faster than the cars around them.

I thought it was a lot faster than both trackhouse cars, but it took me ages it felt like to try to pass them. Once I did, at the end of the first stage, we were running down the first five or six cars at a massive clip. I think about two and a half to three-tenths we had on the field there to end in the first stage. So he's definitely right.

Would a hundred more horsepower really do? do something, it would do something. It wouldn't do nothing for sure. I really, you know, we're going to die on this hill trying to get more horsepower, but it's, you know, it seems like that's not going to be an option. So, but it's part of the problem for sure. But is it fair to say that the 22 car was just really good as well? Because, you know, you were side by side with him for a bit. Christopher Bell was side by side with him for a bit. There were multiple drivers that attempted to pass the 22 and none of them were able to do it. Well, the preferred groove, especially in one and two,

is kind of the third lane up at the very top. And it seems like once he got that going, there just wasn't enough grip on the bottom to really be able to complete the pass. You could get beside them, and he was most vulnerable on the short run. But it, yeah, I mean, yeah, he said he had 800 laps of testing there, you know, a month, you know, a few months ago.

same with Ty Gibbs. So we saw the two cars, two of the three cars that dominated the night were the ones that tested there just a few weeks ago. Is that what happened to you when Bell and him were fighting and you looked like you're about to pass, take first? And it looked like you're almost cleared him, but then he was able to get back. Is that what happened? It was. I just didn't have enough grip on the exit to kind of fully clear him. I wish I had to do it all over again. I would have probably been a little more aggressive and like shoved the 20 up into the 22, get them. all jacked up and then I clear because I think that that was the race for the win. I think whoever clears there, clearly, you know, I stayed within half a second of the 22, the entire race. So we were certainly good enough to compete. But is it worth it, though, to be that aggressive in an all-star race that's not points and

potentially piss off Lugano for future? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think that everyone understands that this race is a little different. can be a little more physical, I believe, in the All-Star race. I don't know that everyone says that, but I think everyone abides by that. That, like, you know, I'm not going to sit here behind you and just, you know, not talking about Ligano, but when I was coming through the pack, I think it was the one in the 99, like, I'm running behind you. I've clearly ran you down very quickly, and I've tried to get under you multiple times. Like, okay, screw this. I'm just

going to knock you out of the way because I'm tired of I'm not going to just sit back here the entire race and they're both fine with it because it's just part of it you just understand that this race is a little different for whatever reason. Gaypart also said though that he thought one was temperature might have played a role and then two if you took the the tires to Phoenix and changed like how many sets there are or whatever that might impact it what do you think of those things. Yeah, I certainly think, you know, we only pitted once. Yeah. We're at the start, right? No. Well, I'm sorry, twice. You're right. We did after the Ricky Kyle one, so lap one, we took the soft ones off, put the hard ones on. That's when we were really making some ground there in the long run. But yeah, I think had we to do it all over again,

we just stayed on reds, you know, because it seemed like those tires, um, we never thought they were to last at 90 some laps, but they did. Did teams have different information? Like, you know, Joey started their race in the front and then didn't pit under that first caution and stayed out on those same tires. Did he have different information that you may not have had because of the way you guys ran practice? Well, I looked at, um, well, I watched, uh, um, um, um, Kyle Arson's crew chief, Cliff Daniels, interview after the race, and he said that, you know, once they saw the open cars last as long as they did, they looked at the lap times, and I'm doing

the same thing in the bus. I'm looking at the lap times to say, man, they're not that much different. And especially at the end of the race, it was maybe a tenth or two. Again, a tenth or two is not going to cut it for passing. You're not going to pass someone that you're only a tenth or two faster then. So I looked at the lap times. I'm like, oh, they hung on pretty good. But that was only 40 laps. I'm thinking for sure after 50, 60, 70, they're going to, eventually you're going to wear one of these tires out. And then the lap time's going to drop really dramatically. And it just never did. And so, you know, from what I heard from the cars that ran 90 laps on Reds at the end of the race, us included, the tires looked fine. And so, boy, this is a,

wake up call for the good year and the whole industry that we can get way more aggressive with our tires. And certainly I think that, you know, I agree with the Rodney Chilters and those guys that are saying, just blindly take this thing a loudon. I know that they think that, you know, if we take this thing to Richmond, I talked to one of the good year engineers and he was like, yeah, you know, if we took it to Richmond, and we just think it would cheese grade the tire right off. And it's like, so? You know, at least put the softer tires on the left side of the car that have less load.

Because I think personally that it's the left side tires we have got to get dramatic wear on. Because once they start wearing and we start wearing them out, that's when you're going to see these cars really have a difference in lap time. and so I think put the softest rubber you can possibly manufacture on the left side of these tires on the left side of these cars and I'm talking about I don't care what track big track small track do it at all tracks and this certainly was a step in the right direction that we need to do just blindly and and I love broadening's like if it turns out to be a show so what we saw what the last show look like it was great right well isn't that the point right is that

you know, with tireware, you're trying to add a variable into these races, which is driver skill. There you go. So if you have 20-minute practices, 30-minute practices, whatever it may be, just give the teams this set of toys to play with it. They don't know how they work. They don't know how to put them together. You get 20 minutes to figure it out. And whatever you figure out in 20 minutes is what you get and you go into the race with. You're only going to run 30 to 40 laps in practice anyway, and a run in the race could be 60.

So you're not going to know how the tire is. And I think this is precisely why more practice is not good. I'm not saying we shouldn't be practicing for promotional reasons for a given weekend, but the teams figure it out and they all start. So at the beginning of practice, we had cars that were way off and we had cars that were really good. And then by the time one hour goes by, we do this. And we all just get really close. and then so then everyone runs the same speed.

And then when you have a tire that doesn't fall off, it's, you're not going to pass. It is going to be a conveyor belt, which is why I said, I think it would actually be better if we had more cars on the track because we needed Joey and I to catch lap traffic

to bring the field back to us because we were going to have a tough time passing lap cars if we caught them, but it just wasn't long enough to catch them. I assume you're saying more practice would just allow you guys to get closer. Well, I'm saying because JGR has got all these people to crunch numbers.

Is that what you're saying? Well, we just... Or is it just the drivers are figured out? We refine our car setups. You know, if you have a car that is extremely tight or extremely loose or the balance is just way off because your SIM didn't hit it that week or whatever it might be, we then once we hit the track and we were like, oh, well, that's not right. Okay, let's come and fix it.

The crew chiefs and all have, you know, good tools to be able to fill. fix whatever's wrong with the car. And then by the time we get to the race, everyone's like, yeah, my car drove pretty good. Wherever you put me, I'm going to finish. And that's kind of what we got going on right now. Yeah, you want enough practice that you can iron out any like major kinks you have with the car. Like you don't want the ballast falling out of the car. Yes. Pulling out of pit road for the longest race the year. Yeah. But you don't want these crew chiefs to like solve the entire equation. That's right. You want them to have. have to try to solve it like during the course of a race and that's what what bristol was right we're

like holy shit okay what are we going to do and how are we going to manage it so i agree what do we got to lose over the next you know couple of short tracks um just just blindly put this on there and let us try to figure it out and and so um i think that that's the right key but it sounds like they're from what I was told they are very close to reaching their capabilities like they don't believe that they can build a tire much softer than what they've got there like it just it's they're not

capable for whatever the process is like there is no other softer well you praise the tire on Friday you practice during the day because it was hot so one thing that we noticed between the two tire sets during practice is that the heat was the biggest difference. So if you look at the red tires for us,

we're 25, 30 degrees hotter, and you can see the graining on the left rear tire. We love, love, love to see graining as race teams because that means, okay, this thing is getting used really hard. And eventually, it's going to grain the rubber off of the tire. It's going to wear it out. and it looks like that kind of went away as the temperatures dropped, track temperature dropped. We didn't have enough heat to cause the tire to grain.

So we need to get more heat in the tire. Maybe that's increasing the tread depth. Maybe we could do that to, I know we've already done it on short track. Make it, make it deeper yet. So the deeper the rubber is, Goodyear says, is the hotter it will run. well clearly we need more more heat these things to wear them out you must get heat and so the left side tires need to be just really thick really soft and then i think that's we'll kind of get us where we want to go but overall you would agree that this weekend was a step in the right direction racing with two

different tires yeah i think that good year would have never had the balls to run this at at any track you know, intentionally. And this was an experiment. I mean, you took a really new paved track. Typically, this is where Goodyear just goes over the top and builds the hardest tire that they can possibly build and it chatters across the racetrack and it's really, really bad. Now, I didn't realize how hard that the normal tire felt

until I went to the soft red compound. It was a big, big difference in how it felt. but it just needs one more step yet. And I love Cliff Daniels comments too. He was like, maybe we just build, you know, tires that are, if you're going to do one step solver, do the hard tires as one step harder. And you say, okay, Richmond, you got five sets of each, have at it, go figure it out. And certainly there's something to be warranted and said about that as to how much passing

it would create because certainly you would have teams on different strategies of when to use them when to not. Do you have drivers in your old's group chat just wanting to tell NASCAR, hey, stick with it. Just give us two tires going forward at these tracks and let's roll with it. Well, I think that, you know, the NASCAR has really got the pulse on the media, right? They see all the comments that get said. They understand the sentiment of how people feel. Certainly after this race, they were all, you know, it's easy to hang your head and say, damn, it didn't work. But I think the entire industry is saying it's okay, let's just keep going, keep going down this path and we'll figure it out. So I think that, you know, the hotter the racetrack,

the more load the track has, it has, this tire has potential to work at many, many short tracks. I mean, one I really look at is Phoenix and that racetrack needs. needs something for the racing to be better, this tire could bring a lot to Phoenix. And maybe it doesn't work on the right side, but the left side needs it bad. You could run an entire race on a left side tire at Phoenix, and that's just not what we need.

If anything, the broadcasts really benefited from us. I'm not sure if you were able to watch any of the broadcast back yet, but it added just another layer of detail that these guys could talk about. Because whether the tire worked or not, I felt like as a fan, you were on the edge of your seat waiting to see if it was going to work. And whether or not a caution was going to come out before we got to that point. So, I mean, I think, if anything, the broadcast benefited from this. Absolutely.

Yeah, it was definitely a storyline that they could talk about. And, you know, there was a decision to be made at LAPS. 150 where we were I mean you heard on the 11 car we're like he says what do you think I says I think we got a pit and Chris is right he's like I know my driver he wants to be on the offense he wants to be able to and I told him I says just give me tires and let me go like let me cut through this field and and do it I'll just be wide open every lap and it just he's like I think the most aggressive play is to stay out. I think we should stay. And when I stayed and I saw that like there was, you know, the new tires are going to start eighth, six, you know, eighth to tenth. I'm like,

they're going to get us. And then when Kyle Larson got up there, I'm like, like, we could have been right here. And if I had 50 lap fresher tires than Joey, surely I could be able to get there. But when you look at the lap times, Jared, think about this i ran 90 laps on the prime tire the prime tire so that is the normal tire that we're going to run and my last lap because i was the fastest car on the last lap of the first stage lap 100 and the fastest car on the last lap of the race i ran at 1872 on the hard tire after 90 laps. After 90 laps or 100 laps on the soft tire on the Reds, my last lap was a 1868. It's the same. It was the same. And so it didn't accomplish the end of the run fall off that we were hoping for.

And so it's just not enough lap time variation. That's going to be my thing that is going to be the savior of short tracks is you've got to have lap time variation. You've got to have fast cars and slow cars. You're not going to create fast cars and slow cars through parts and pieces. All of them are like Chris says, quote unquote, the same. So everyone's going to be running the same cars. Then you've got to put it in the driver's hands like you're saying, Jared, of who manages it, who, you know, because you've got to get these tires to go all the way down to the cords and then holy shit, hang on. You know, that's what Bristol was. Yeah. It, it, I, it, I, I know it sounds like we're, I don't know, poo-pooing these tires and the result,

but I feel like there was so much to take away from this. Rarely are you going to have a short track race that's at night. What is there two more on the schedule this year, Richmond and Martinsville? Yeah, and certainly what plays a factor is the- Martin's supposed to have it at night. The loads that it takes as well. Like Martinsville won't have nearly the load, which when I say load, I'm saying when the car goes into the corner and it catches the banking of the track,

how much force is going through the tire? Well, tracks that are banked more, the forces are higher. When the corners are tighter, the forces are higher. So North Worksboro certainly has probably a higher load than what we will ever see at Martinsville. So Martinsville tire could be way softer, way, way, way softer. The only difference is Martinsville, you do have the capability or possibility

of spinning the rear tires once you get them hot. And then once you spin them, you could blow the rubber off of them, which would be a good thing, a really good thing. So I'm really excited for, there's an Iowa test coming up, a Martinsville test.

NASCAR wants to fix it. I mean, they don't want us to run around in a freight train like we're doing right now. So at least they're working in the right area. And tires is the only thing. If you're not going to give us horsepower, tires is the only thing that I feel like,

you know, can fix this car and the problem that it poses. Another unanswered question we had going into this weekend was the North Book's Barrow repave. And it sounds like from every driver that I listen to, that was a grand success. Yeah, it really was. I mean, you know, it has definitely, it has the bumps that it had before. And likely it's because they just paved like they did at Sonoma. I mean, it worked out nicely here. but it like they did at Sonoma where they just cut the top layer off and then paved on it I think I saw photos of that's kind of how they did it um is that why you got loose by I think Ross yeah on the bottom there is they probably should address that because it is hampering the ability to go to the bottom um there's a massive massive bump off of turn four that could could use some addressing for sure and William Byron hit the wall in brookotillo link off the bump. Yeah. So I think that that's it that probably hurts a little bit. You know,

I think that it creates huge shockwave through the car. So I think, but other than that, it was, I thought it was really, really good. It had consistency from top to bottom. Certainly, we were able to move up, move to the middle to the bottom. It had options for sure. So I thought it raced as good as any repave that we've ever seen truly. Is that why we saw some side-by-side racing with Bell and Legano, Bubba and Lugano? Yeah, it just seems like it has some variable banking, especially through one and two, that it's, the very bottom lane is, let's just pretend it's flat. You got the next lane, the middle, which has got a little bit more camber to it. And then you got the top lane that's got even more.

And so the higher up you run, the more momentum you're going to have on the exit, but you can run lower, cut distance, and then get beside the person. So I thought it created great racing. The truck racing was, I thought, phenomenal. I thought that there was a lot of passing through there. But it just, the cup teams are all just so close. And so I think it was a really, really good repave. you got to give credit words due

and certainly feel like it's got the potential if we can get all this right to be one of the best short tracks that we have. What is the connection, when it comes to a repave, what's the connection between the repave

and the tire wear? Like a lot. You know, you're praising the repave and that there were multiple lines that you could run. You could take multiple lines, yep. Because you couldn't just run the bottom because it didn't have the same

it didn't have the same banking as the lane up from it and then the lane up from that. So it's one of the very few short tracks that has variable banking. Bristol is another one that has some variable banking so you can run bottom or top.

But can you repave with a rougher surface or is that something that just comes with time? You could. I saw them saying that the surface itself, the aggregate, and when they say aggregate, basically they're saying the mixture of asphalt itself is it, is it got a lot of rocks in it or not? Because you want rocks. Rocks in the asphalt itself

acts like razor blades, right? And so when you slide across it, it grades the tire off. But the problem is, is that, you know, the world has gotten smarter. And when they pave highways and all that stuff now. They're made with plastics and polymers and all this other stuff. And the asphalt is really, really smooth. So they don't have to pave it again for another 30 years. So they made the asphalt really reliable over time. And racetracks just took that advancements in technology from highways and they put it onto the racetracks. Well, that, as we have learned, is not good for wearing out tires and it's not really great for racing, which is why we've said for many years. it takes a decade plus to get good racing at a repave.

But I think we've got it right away in North Worksboro, which we should be blessed with. We just got to match up the tire in the car or something with it. Hey fans, Carla Gevhart here. Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 23rd for Junior Motorsports Fan Day presented by Lionel Racing, where Dirtymo Media will have a full day of live shows featuring some of your favorite personalities. At 10 a.m. Andrew Curlin from the Download and Jordan Bianchi from the The Teardown will host the Dirty Mo Game Show where you, the audience member, can compete for awesome prizes. What's your name where you from?

Heather and Virginia. Carolyn, Virginia. I love your sunglasses. Just to keep the bad vibes out. Bad vibes. Yeah. And we can't have any bad vibes here. We have to discuss the elephant in the room.

You look damn good, my friend. Oh, I'm so hard being Jeff Gluck. At 1115, AM door bumper clear will bring their humor and insight to the stage to preview all the races that weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I saw some toes? Why? Why? He's definitely got white rocks at his mailbox. You think that was the same guy that was shaving his wife's back last week?

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We'll see you there. May 23rd. Should North Wilkesboro be a points race next year? Yeah. I mean, it's not going to be because it's hosting the All-Star race. But certainly it seems to have enough fan support. Now, we're only there once a year, so maybe that's why the fan support is so high. but man, the atmosphere felt great, right? Pre-race. It's just one of those tracks where it's a half a mile.

It feels like Martinsville, but the crowd almost feels closer to you than what Martinsville does, right? So you can hear the crowd, the track is right there in your face. The infield is small. It's just got everything going for it as far as like a short track feel.

I mean, you're driving along on this back road and then all of a sudden a fucking racetrack pops up. And it's like, damn, it's just, it's in the middle of nowhere. And so it certainly is a racetrack that is like grounded in our roots. And I would love to see it to be a points race. I would. But that's selfish thinking. but a lot of it is because I think that, you know, it's got the support from the fans

and it's certainly, you know, has the capability of putting on good racing if we get it all figured out. Yeah, it feels way more intimate than Martin's size. It does. For whatever reason. I don't know. I just felt like the last two years since going back to North Wilkesboro,

you've left there wanting more. Like I wanted more, even though these 200 laps weren't the greatest, I wanted to see 200 more. Yeah, but. Did you want more because it was only 200 laps? Like, man, could you endure another two hours of us just running in a line? No, I feel like the strategies would have changed, you know?

If they listened up the rules with the tires and change like a little so that you don't have to start on one and things like that, then I think it would be entertaining if you made it 400. Yeah, I mean, I just, that's the thing that you got to be aware of, right, is that we want more. But that's our human nature, right? Is that it's a short race. We only go there once a year. And it was like, oh, that was great. What we do in our sport too much is we keep feeding the kids dessert. And it's just you got to leave people wanting more, right?

Like, no one's talking about football right now, except for maybe Travis and talking about Ohio State. but once the football season starts, it's like, yes, it's finally here. Because you have to give the people a break every now and then from your sport. And it just, this is more of a general topic, but sometimes less is more. And in this case, I think less is more. And that's why we want more. Perhaps that place just feels good.

Yeah, it does. You're right. You're right. And the fans, just were awesome this weekend. I mean, they showed up and I'm thinking when they were announcing, hey, we need you to carpool. Some of these broken lots are underwater. We're bringing in, you know, we're bringing in gravel to help. They'd open up a quarry, right, to get stoned in? It was great. I mean, I love that they, you know, were, they did that. But they showed up. And that was

just fantastic. I do have one beef, though. Well, hold on. I, before, you get the beef. I saw you made one fan's day. Apparently some fan was screaming for like 30 minutes. I think Taylor, what's going to point it out? Taylor kept, Taylor was always very observant, you know, when people were shouting or whatever or cheering. And so she saw this young fan and if you check out my Instagram at Denny Hamlin, you can see. He was there and he was very proud wearing his Mavis shirt.

his FedEx hat and um and so I'm sitting there I'm like well I don't have you know he was at the he just wanted me to turn around and wave and once I turned out around and waved I saw him and his mom I believe it was uh they were like hugging each other and like the kid was just I think he was crying I'm not really sure just because I turned around and I waived and so I'm like I need to give him something. I can't give them the hat off my head because trust me, you don't want the hat off my head. It's a size, extra, extra, extra, you small. I have the tiniest head ever. But there's only, I only have one white, one black. People ask me all the time for my hat. I can't give you my hat because it's fit for my head only. You know, Nike and the dorm room, I actually have to

especially make my hats. And I only have one white, one black of each. So I have to use these things sparingly. But I saw him and I'm like, I got to find something to give them. I'm like, Tyler, where's my Coke bottle? He usually gives me a Coke bottle for my driver intros. And then in the interviews, like, oh, I threw it out after intros. So Brandon, my chief mechanic on the 11 car, he's like, here, take my hat. I'm like, oh, man, what a team player he is.

So I took his hat over there, signed it for him, threw it over the fence and then the kid was really, really excited. So it's great to see that for sure. Now to your beef. Oh, my only beef is coming from my friends saying there's no freaking alcohol in the infield. It's like you're going to lock us in here, but not feed us what we want. We want alcohol. But can't they come prepared? You can't bring it in. Oh, you can't. No, you got to fix that then. I won't, I won't ever go to the infield then. I kept telling my friends, don't get trapped in the infield, especially if you're thirsty.

Don't do it. So, yeah, we got to work on that. There's a concession stand too, isn't there or is there not? It's just a media center, isn't it? I think so. That's one thing that I think will change in due time is that there will be a, what do you call it, a bridge put up or something to get from the inside of the to the track to the outside track. I'd have to imagine. I can't stay this way forever, I don't think. I mean, if they had, yeah, you would hope, I mean, you don't want them digging an underground

tunnel because I think that that you're going to end up tearing up the racetrack causing a huge swell in the track if you do that. But yeah, something, we should do something to be able to get in and out of. Although, or maybe you don't. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you don't. Because when a driver gets wrecked on lap two, he has to stay in the infield and watch the rest of the race. Well, I think that's a perfect segue for us. Um, everyone, this is what you've been waiting for. We made them earn it. Buried the lead. We did. We did. So, I mean, when I look at this, I think this was started and I didn't realize that, you know, when I went back and look, there's a, there, we have a group text and and it's me and Austin and it's got JP and Jared, my buddy Greg,

and it's got Ricky and Kyle Larson on it. And he was letting us know while the race was going on, he's going to go after him. So of course I'm in the race, so I don't see it, but there's others that are not in the race. And so he's stuck in the infield on his phone, And he's fuming and, um, well, he went to Kyle's pit box and told, uh, his crew chief, I'm going to see Kyle afterwards. Like, he let everybody know apparently. Yeah. And you heard

Kyle's radio after, uh, the, as soon as I threw the checkers. Um, hey, you're probably going to have a visitor in here when you get in, just FYI. So yeah, I mean, I think, I think it's, this is difficult. This is a difficult. This is a difficult. this is one of those difficult positions that I find myself in because I try not to pick sides, but I'll call it how I see it. Let's go back to the on-track stuff. Okay. I see both sides. However, my driving style supports a little more of Kyle's side because I believe that there are times, there are times where Ricky finds himself in these situations because he puts himself in these situations. It is lap one. Did he shove through the middle of us? Yes. Did I have a problem with it?

I did not. It is the All-Star race. We just talked about it earlier. That drivers, you kind of understand that there's a little bit more aggressiveness going on in this type of race. But I So I see Kyle's side of it as like, dude, you shoved middle on a short track on lap one. Like, where are you going? I see that part. I understand. However, the counter to that is that I see Ricky side saying, dude, I never touched you until you hit the wall.

Now, I think contact was inevitable because there wasn't enough room for Kyle no matter what. Ricky did put him in a position where Kyle was going to have to lift. And if he did not lift, the contact was going to happen. Kyle didn't lift or he tried to lift, but it was too late that the 47 was already coming up. I knew we were three wide. I left plenty of room on the bottom. I have no part of this drama whatsoever. I got no part in it.

So I, you know, because my spotter tells me, I'm going through one and two, he's like, 47 shove a middle, shove in middle. And I'm like, okay, well, this, somebody's not going to leave enough room. And it ain't going to be me. I'm going to leave enough room. So I go down straightaway, pretty low. Those two are up high. They run in, they make contact.

The contact was inevitable because there was not enough room left for Kyle on the high side of the racetrack. So, you know, was the contact? so egregious that it warranted him like destroying the 47? No, I don't believe so. I certainly don't believe it was, you know, I think that that kind of contact was warranted if the eight car, or I'm sorry, if the 47 car ran into the back of the 47,

or I'm sorry, the 47 car ran in the back of Kyle and spun him out earlier in the race. and when the eight comes back around, and this is later in the race, the eight, sure, spin them out. An eye for an eye. I just think it was a little bit overboard considering, you know, all the variables that had happened. But I do think there's a little bit of pent-up frustration on Kyle's part. I think Ricky is probably right that he's frustrated, that he's not got the consistency. And I'm not speaking for Kyle.

I'm using the information that we have at hand, and that is that Kyle has publicly said, you know, we're just not consistent. We don't do this week after week. We're terrible some weeks. I mean, he said last night, we suck. I was getting there. By the way, there's very few drivers more qualified to offer an opinion on this type of racing incident than you. Thanks, Jared.

I appreciate that. It's just an opinion. It's just an opinion, folks, and you can take it, you can have your opinion as well. But my opinion is, is someone that knows both of these people personally, have raced with them for all of, Kyle, for all of my career, 20 years, and Ricky for, I don't know, the last 10. It was just a clashing of styles. You know, I think that Ricky typically, and when I said he finds himself in these positions, he is the first to push it right on lap one.

And, you know, you just aren't going to, I just don't know that you're going to win the race or even finish. Guarantee yourself a top 10 or 15 finish by shoving it in places that are a low, or high risk situations. But it's at the start where you can gain positions. What's the difference between lap 1 and lap 20? Are you not supposed to race? The difference in lap 20 is people are more predictable.

They know what their car has. On lap one, we are literally going through the first corner, feeling out the grip, understanding is our car loose? Is it tight? By lap 20, we have enough repetitions where I can leave you less room in the middle and I have faith that we're all going to hold our line. on lap one, I do not have faith that we're all going to hold our line

because we are all jukeing and jiving trying to figure out what kind of grip the track and the tire has. But that seems like the best opportunity to pass. He may not get enough. It is.

Okay. I love that you guys are refuting this. You have valid points, but I'm telling you it is going to lead to Rex more than it's going to lead to success. That's my opinion. Is that you've got

200 laps. And if your car is really good, really that good, because we started right next to each other, we drove up to the top two, I had a really good car. But if you think that that is your only shot to get a couple of spots, because you know that we're probably not going to be competitive, so I at least got to just look good on these restarts. I don't know. Well, that's the different mindset of a team that's winning three, four times a year.

You're correct. and a team that... If Ricky was driving my car, he probably would be more patient. That's probably a fact. That's probably a fact. Ricky's doing the most he can with what he has. And I'll die on that hill. I believe in Ricky's talent.

I'm just saying that it leads to incidences more than not. And it's not Ricky. I'm just saying in general, if you are really aggressive and you just want to go get two spots on lap one, it is a higher risk situation because cars are not as predictable as they are on lap 20. It's just, that's just facts. I don't know how we can refute that now. But yes, it is an opportunity to gain spots.

But I don't know. It's just, I've never won a race going 100% every lap. I've crashed doing that before, but it's just, you know, these races need to be managed, just like any other NBA gamer. NFL, you manage the game to win the game. And you must, the best advice I've ever given in my rookie season is to finish first, you must first finish. I'm like, got it.

I'm going to work on finishing. That's some John Wooden shit right there. Tim Sparkman gave me that advice. Still works at JGR. Shout out to Tim. We call him Sparky. I don't know.

So I don't see fault in either. All this is to say is that and I'm not picking on Ricky making an aggressive move on lap one. I'm just saying those you're putting yourself at a chance to be to and if you don't crash you're going to piss someone off someone is going to get rubbed wrong by you jamming in there i was fine with it because i kind of knew it was coming the eight it rubbed him wrong and not only you know emotionally but physically he had rubbed him wrong

because he got into the wall in turn two so i think that kyle's frustrated in general right now in life he's just frustrated what is that wrong to say just the he's frustrated in life not like not like i mean just with racing he's on track frustrated he's on track frustrated right because he feels he should be running better than he is i i think he should be as well i think that you know he's he's in a different situation that he was in for many many years and he's trying his best to carry this thing as far as he can carry it but you certainly your emotions get the best of you at times and I think it got the best of them in turn two when he when he knocked Ricky into the fence and so did he think that Ricky was going

to get loose and nose it in no I think that he thought I'm just going to spin the shaker out here and mark it there you go um and and I'm you know we're just going to go on our way but it certainly was more than that and yeah then there's so many elements to this and how it actually broke down but then you know rickie's piss because he has a valid point i never hit you until you hit the wall and then we make contact rickie's right he is 100% right so then before his his face-to-face with Kyle, he put himself in a box. He put himself in a box on TV by saying he was going to do something. And Ricky is one of those stand-up humans that when he tells you he's going to do something, he's probably going to do it. I mean, he said Richard can hold my watch.

So at that point, short of Kyle, when they first meet face-to-face saying, oh my God, Ricky, I'm so sorry. I screwed up. You are so right. That was the only way he was not going to get punched. It was the only way because I thought that Kyle didn't really justify anything, but he was like right before the punch, you heard him saying, well, because Ricky says, go look at it. I never touched you. He's like, well, if that happened, boom. like he was just about to make the turn into the relationship where he was like, okay, you're right. I apologize.

I'll look at it. If that's what happens, sorry. He just never got the chance to say it because Ricky saw the opportunity to throw this punch starting to dwindle. And he says, well, I said it. I guess I got to do it. So I just think that he's a man of his word and he told us he was going to do it. That's why all the cameras were following Kyle.

You know, they knew that Ricky was camped out at the eight hauler and we had we had. I mean, I just, I loved on the tear down them doing them. this, the role playing. Where you got Jordan playing one character and Jeff playing the other and they kind of go through the conversations and the words that were said. And so I thought, I don't know, I thought that Kyle handled it really, really well. And was, he was about to say words that were going to defuse the situation. He just...

You gotta be quicker than that. You gotta be quicker than that. But you gotta be quicker in your apologies apparently. So that's where it all broke down. Can we ban fireworks post-race? Oh, gosh. I can't hear them.

I couldn't figure out whether that added or took away from the fight because they were so prominent there in the background during all the video. Yeah. Do you think it added? or took away from it?

It took away. Because you couldn't hear him as clear. Yeah. But I thought there was enough cameras there that you heard every word that was said. After you put all the cameras together. Yeah. Also, I get you're doing your job, but we need that security guy out of there. We can't have him breaking up fights so fast.

He's ruining it every time. Hey, that guy ended up having 175 pound Ricky or 80 pounds. I don't know what he is now. He's been getting swole. He had him laying on top of him. so poor davy seagull on kyle bush on top of him i know i know it was uh that's what you get guys you come into the fire you're gonna get burnt can we can we talk about this incredible screenshot from this video though it is i i tried to tell jordan on the ride home because we're listening to the

tear down and they got to get the tear down like come on man y'all got to get this thing out within an hour and a half of the end of the race like you've got to get snappy with this stuff um says the guy who records on 10 a Monday morning. Well, I mean, these guys ain't running around Northworksboro. I mean, they're sitting and they're, you know, God knows where Jeff Gluck is. He's at his in-law's house for the next 10 days. I saw Jeff in India.

Yeah, but you got, you got the winners. He ain't doing it. You got the winners press conference that you have to deal with. Oh, shit. And you just talk forever. No one, I said, no one give to a fuck about Joey Lugano went in the all-star rates. That's a fact.

And I hate that, like, our media. was like, you know, oh my gosh, they're only showing, you know, Barstool or ESP, they're only showing the fight. Like, oh, yeah, we got to understand who we are. I tweeted this was great. Like, right before they went to get up on Sports Center, they ended the show with the fight. Like, this is the greatest thing that could happen to NASCAR yesterday. Yeah.

You know, with all due respect to the 22, no one gives a shit. It's just, that's just a fact. And if it was 11, no. want to give a shit either it's just it it's just this was the story out of it thank god because this podcast would have been over with 20 minutes ago what do you make of rickie's punch connected connected i mean there's nothing else i mean there's nothing else you can really say i mean i always think about if i'm going to be the first to punch what am i going to do Just as a heads up, I'm probably going to go for the, I'm going to do a left gut punch first.

You can't go with the body shot. Oh yeah, because it gets them down. It gets them, their head down, and that's when you come right underneath. Well, but the thing is, I don't know if you'll be able to get the second punch in. We got to make sure security guys not next to you. You see Mike Tyson with the bags? That's me. That's me.

No shot. I'd be like one of those fighting guys. on the game. Rock him sock and robots. Yeah. No shot. No? No, I've been waiting.

I'm a fighter. No, you are not. How can you possibly say that? I've followed you into at least a half a dozen confrontations in the last five years and not one of them. Joey gave me a hard tap to my shoulder and I went after him. That was good.

That was good. But nobody else, there was no other. Chase Briscoe took a win away from you? I know, but that's, didn't warrant him getting punched in the face. Like, there's... Jared, here it is. Put a pull-up on Denny's account. Is Denny a fighter? Yes or no? Look at the highlights. I'm in all kinds of scuffles, but it's not...

It's been like the Chase Briscoe thing. Like, he didn't say anything that sent me off the deep end. Like, if I were to say, hey, you wrecked me and someone said, yeah, what are you going to do about it? They're going to get it. Yeah, but Ricky is... So you're looking for an additional... Yeah. Additional spark.

But I'm a normal level head of human being that is as long as you hear me out and you hear my side of things, I then listen to your side of thing. Speak of the devil, Travis. Speak of the devil, Travis. Speak of the devil. Let's talk about Denny's altercations. We can just go around around, people. Denny, why didn't you punch Chase last year when he wrecked you? when i was in the er what you got cleared yeah but that there was also a board over there with

actions detrimental i mean the the examples are all over i'd say it's like one out of ten so this one i'm i'm looking at the 2017 i crashed him certainly i'm not going to crash him and punch him for the podcast people he's talking about chase yeah i'm not going to crash him and punch them. And usually, you know, like I've, there's not been that many face to face here too much lately because for a while the crew members were getting involved. It was just, it was getting a little messy. Danica, we have a woman over here. I mean, and you're friends. Denny, you're my friend. I realize that. You just, there's just nothing good that was going to come out of that situation for sure so i needed to just take my tongue lashing and and move on when's last time

he threw a punch i mean last time i threw a punch was joey at martinsville it didn't land because i had his crew guy come and snooker me from behind and grab my collar like such a cheap move i he uh i think he got suspended for a couple weeks or something like that but yeah that was the only that was the last punch i can remember being thrown but again i think this it was all as long as you're level-headed and we have a conversation, I think that we can have a conversation. So, okay, prime example. The Ross thing. Remember when we, when I maybe or maybe did not squish him in the wall there at Phoenix, he came up to me and we had just a conversation. And it started with, well, I probably deserved that, didn't I? And I said,

Yeah. And then we listened to each other's sides, right? At no point was it contentious where it was like, you're a f*** a prick and you're going to get it. Mark it. Like, you know what I mean? So I just think every situation is different. But I'm definitely a fighter if you put me in a corner. No doubt. It takes two to tango. Yeah, you're going to have to have two tango. And we had this was a perfect two to tango moment, right, between the two. And then you have to have two. And then you have to have two tank. And we had, and then you had one of Kyle Busch's crew members just getting everybody off the hauler. Get out of here. Yeah, he used his physical abilities and his body weight to his advantage. You get a lot of old people that fight. Yeah, he was he was tossing smaller older people off for sure. But you know, hey,

it's kind of a rule of thumb. I do agree when you come to our stall or our hall, or our that's our space. Now, you know, that's very convenient that you want to throw them all off. You know, now you didn't want, when they were talking, you had no problem with them being there. But, but yeah, I think it ended as good or as bad as you would expect. I mean, it's the first man that gets to punch in is always the winner because they break it up before that. Swing first. Would your dad have gotten into any of these scuffles with you?

Jordan asked me that. I said, no, my dad would not have gotten into these things for sure. He would have just said, it's your problem, you figure it out. That's just kind of what my dad would have done. But, you know, kind of going back to this photo, it was perfect. Jordan Bianchi's view over the shoulder of Kyle, you turn the corner, and Ricky's just sitting there in front of the three hall. It's so good.

I'm waiting. And so it was just, they tried to talk it out, and I think if Kyle would have said, I'm sorry, immediately. Yeah, maybe you don't get punched. But I just think that Ricky was waiting on any sort of rebuttal of tough shit. And I think Kyle gave him a little bit of that. And that was the invitation at that point. Ricky missed one opportunity, though. He did an interview with Jamie Little after the fight. all he needed to do is say i just think that kow's going to need some icy hot after that would have made the sponsors happy with this car would have been perfect walk off yeah no doubt um someone's going to need some icy hot for sure uh i mean surely kyle's got some sort of soreness or something but

again i i think kyle was starting to let his guard down and concede the moment but It just, uh, Ricky made sure he didn't have that, have that moment. So, uh, crappy situation for those two,

entertaining for all of us in the media. I guess on media, um, when it comes to stuff like this. Oh yeah, you had a good facial expression because I think you were just seen it right before Jamie Little was, or is it Reagan that interviewed you?

Yeah, I was watching it. So they were, they were doing the, Joey Legano. And then they cut to the fight. and they were waiting with me on the side. Of course, they've got a monitor right there

where we're watching all this. And yeah, so I saw it go down. And so I thought it was quite interesting. So that's why you saw my facial expression. It's a good night at North Volks, bro. Yep. Off the track stuff to wrap the show up with. We have off the track?

What's going on? Well, first reminder that the Denny Hammond Bracket Challenge is back for year two. Like last year, it featured the top 32 drivers in single elimination bracket format starting at Gateway in two weeks. Gateway, Sonoma, Iowa, New Hampshire, and the championship race will be at Nashville at the end of June. So the bracket will last all of June. That works out perfectly. Yep. Brackets will come out next Tuesday. But speaking of brackets, NASCAR announced last week in official in season bracket tournament starting next year. You're saying that ours is unofficial?

I don't know. There's is the unofficial. One million of the winner seeding by the best finish in the final three races. They'll be broadcast on prime next year. And then the bracket will start with the TNT broadcast races. But anyway, your thoughts on the bracket now being a NASCAR thing. Yeah, I mean, I think that I'll say, roll the clip from when I came up with this idea, you know, last year to, you know, to, for this to happen.

I said, we don't want credit. We just, we want this for the sport. And so I got the call. So as context, and I've, I said this through another media outlet, but I'll reiterate it here, is, that people were asking, Denny, are you pissed about this? They just took the idea and they, they stole it. Not really. Because they, we had dialogue with them last year during the bracket when they were asking, well, how many people signed up? Like, are you getting good traction with this? It's something that is very intriguing to us, but we don't think we can do it until the new media deal. So more than likely, they baked in some money for this for the media deal. I said, Listen, I just want it to be part of our sport. If you guys want to take it over, then go right ahead.

I have no issue in that. So that's what they did. I got a call about 30 minutes before the announcement last week. Phelps called me about 30 minutes before it was released and says, hey, because I think they were probably a little worried I was going to have a certain feeling about it. it. But I just said, sounds great. I mean, you know, that's what we wanted is certainly something that I think that would be good for our sport on and off the track. And so I think this is a good thing for our sport. And certainly the drivers are going to get, you know, excited about it. The teams will get

excited about it. If I had to pick it apart, the only thing I would do is I think there still should be a million to the winner, but I think that there should be an additional million spread out to the race teams in the sense of like if you qualify you know it's I don't know 20,000 dollars or something if you have each round you advance I think the team or driver whatever you want to say gets gets money for advancing I don't think qualifying should pay it's 32 out of 36 yeah so maybe if you advance it's 100,000. gram per round of you advance or something like that. Or like the biggest upset. It gets like 50,000. Like you could do some different things. You could. You could for sure. What do you think of

but I just think that, you know, having an all or nothing is tough. But I know that's what brackets are. I mean, when you have a, you know, the March Madness, it's there's, there's no prize for finishing second. But I just think it's in our sports a little different because as you advance rounds, it's certainly, it's big. So set aside a little more money for for this thing to, uh, to continue to reward teams for beating their head-to-head competition. What do you think about the format, though, for the seating? Yeah, that's interesting. So they're going to do determined by the best finish in the final three prime races.

Seating determined by the best finish. So if we both finished first, if two people finish first, it's going to go to their next finish and then their next finish, right? I guess. Well, no, it's seating. Yeah, seeding to turn by best finish in the final three races. So, yeah, so I got you. So, yeah, it's still going to reward, you know, finishing good in those three races,

no doubt about it. So if you win, you're probably, you will automatically be a one seed. So, yeah, I think it's fine. I mean, they could have used the points, but I think it's a good, it could be a good lead in to the bracket that starts at Atlanta, of all things. cow i mean will there be a perfect bracket after atlanta

unlikely right maybe i mean you gotta get what 16 right i don't i don't think so the match yeah i mean that's the point right you don't want yeah you don't want a perfect bracket you want yes and what nascar needs to do this is another thing is have a grand prize right for the perfect bracket they need to reward five million dollars they can

insure it for 500 grand or probably less than that. I mean, the odds of it. They could probably insure a $5 million perfect bracket for 20 grand. I mean, Warren Buffett does, I mean, it's $60, but it's a billion dollars. So surely you can give a couple million. The odds will be just so out of the site. I think they're probably, I hope they're working on that because you want it, you got to get people outside of NASCAR involved in this. And you give them a grand prize. They're going to have reason to participate. Right.

Amazon Prime to stream the 2025 Coca-Cola 600. I'm good with it. I've got to ask in the media center about it. I think it's fine. Certainly, it's the first race for this new partner. And, you know, people tune into Coke 600. Race more than the race before it or after it. So it's probably the great primer for their series.

So I have no issue in the Coke 600 being on Amazon. And we've got a lot of rumors starting to pick up with Stort House racing, charters. Chase Briscoe said there's just a lot of uncertainty. No one knows what's going on. Yeah, I mean, certainly there's tons of rumors out there about what's going on. I can't speak to any of them for sure. but it seems like there's going to be some movement around, but it's too early for me to speculate because, I mean,

these drivers are saying, hey, we're racing for a job and, you know, who knows what the team members are thinking at this point, but surely, you know, we'll know something soon because, you know, no one at SHR management or ownership wants, you know, this cloud hanging over them for the entire season. So surely they're going to say something either, hey, we're not, we're good, we're going to keep this train going, or we're not. And you guys are free to look around. So I think that, you know, that certainly would happen you would think sooner than later, but you just, you just never know. Is it normal for drivers for a team to be out of the know on information like that?

I mean, speculation always happens. It's just, different because this is an entire race team that we're talking about. But yeah, the answer is no. It's not, you know, I haven't seen anything like this, certainly, but, you know, there's some sensitivities likely around it to where, you know, they can't say anything yet. Right. So like, for instance, if you, if, if 2311 was going through some major changes. Yeah.

Would you like privy, Bubber, Tyler to that, to that news? hey, by the way, these things are happening, not sure what will come from it, just so you're aware. Yeah, probably. Probably. Yeah, you don't want to leave them in the dark, certainly. But again, it might be because plans are fluid and you don't want to set anyone into a panic mode. So when in turn, nothing will change. You know, everything is going to be status quo. So I think that they're still kind of waiting their options. And so, as they would say, there's no news to tell until there's news to tell. So I just, again, I don't know.

So I think that, you know, you got to just wait this thing out. Dear Danny, we've got some questions that we want to ask. There are answers and we need them fast. We tried to ask junior, but 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 raged track So maybe you won't choke

Two dear Denny's for you this week They're short and to the point here First one, will airspeed be open for tours this week? Yeah, ah, tours. Open to the public this week. Open to the public this Thursday. I'm not sure of the exact timing. I'm sure you can see it on our social handles at 2311

on Instagram and on 2311 racing, I believe it is. I have 3 o'clock to 5.30. Oh, wow. So that's our kind of our grand opening to the public. I think there's kind of like some autograph sessions and stuff. But yes, we are finally opening our doors. We have a nice VIP thing going on tomorrow night. Michael's coming in town.

We're going to have a lot of our partners, NASCAR, industry people there. and, you know, kind of, you know, show them around and see what we built there. So really excited for people to check it out. And there's definitely a story to tell kind of around every corner. What's the physical toll your body takes racing the 600? And this is like your yearly opportunity to plug the sports science you did with John Brinkus 10 years ago. Yeah, it takes its toll for sure. It just kind of depends on who you are.

Every driver is a little bit different. but the 600, you know, I think I lost, this was 10 years ago when they did the study, but I lost about, was it 10 or 13 pounds of water weight? Now, I took some of that back through the fluids that I took in. I think I lost actually eight pounds during the race. It was a pretty hot one on that evening when I did it. So it was like 13.5 pounds of sweat.

uh, burned 25 to 2,800 calories. Um, yeah, it was, you know, your heart rate, I think was sustained longer than a marathon runner, uh, during the course of the same amount of time. Uh, so it, it takes its toll a lot. And for me, physically now it's more, you know, on, on my back, more than anything, just kind of riding in that position that I'm riding in, um, in the seat and taking bumps and stuff. And with us being on our shot. limiters all the time. It makes it pretty tough, but it just takes me about a day or two to recover, and then I'm ready to go again. Speaking of that, how is the shoulder doing? Shoulder's been good. It's been really a non-factor for me ever since kind of dover. I feel like

I've really kind of taken the turn there, and I'm probably, you know, I'm back to playing pickleball and things like that, so I'm good. I miss my opportunity. Oh, you're cooked. You're cooked. You're you'll never beat me ever again. I think I could take you. Well, I'll add you to the group chat and you come play. This guy apparently plays. I played. I played you.

No, you're good. But you played injured when I played you. Didn't I play left handed? You weren't like, you were like gingerly playing. Yeah, I couldn't get my hand over my head.

So that was a problem. But yeah, we, I got a text this morning from the pickleball chat saying, hey, let's play some pickleball this week. So I've got too busy of a week. Next week is a better.

week for me with airspeed opening Tuesday and then Thursday. I've got hoop group playoffs tonight. And if we win tonight, the finals is on Thursday. So, I mean, this week it's just packed. We got Jordan's better half down. How did she look last week? She did great. She did great. Really? We were in the partial wet and dry, so I'm like, Jordan. So she's on me all day. This was the end of last week. She's like, we got to go.

And I'm like, Jordan, it's pouring rain. It was when it was one of the days it just poured all day. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm not going out there in the rain. She says, well, these other girls have already gotten practice. And look, there's a window. It's not going to rain from five to eight. I'm like, Jordan, if it stops raining at five,

think about how long it takes to dry a NASCAR track. They don't have any jet dryers at our track house, right? Motorplex. So I'm like, I'm not going out there in the wet. And finally, she talked to me into it. I'm like, God, dang it. So I go out there and it's half wet, half dry. And I'm like, Jordan, these are the worst conditions possible for you to try to learn to drive.

But let's go. So I said, all right, I'm going to drive in front of you when my hand is up. you're off the gas on the brake when my hand is down you're on the gas so I let a ride behind me and I'm doing all these hand signals meanwhile I didn't know TRD

had a freaking all their young drivers there, Corey Heim oh yes they had Heim I saw on the list Tony Brightner she was there Taylor Raymer or Reimer she was there

and so I'm like oh, fuck, like they were the only people there because it was wet. And so I'm like, all right, so all I want to do

is go out there and race and compete against Corey and these other people. And I'm like, driving around there, going really slow, doing these hand signals. It's just so painful

because I'm like, I just want to go. I just want to go. But realistically, we were on the show, short course and she improved her lap time two seconds every time she went out and at the end she was only two and a half no or three seconds off of my time which was good like and it was like only a second half off of some other people's times so i think she really really improved a lot and so i told her i said

I think the biggest challenge with this better half to ask is that going fast by yourself is one thing. The one thing I watch when it comes to that is that you always, you know, what I see the girls doing is they always run the speed of the car in front of them. So they don't understand that, hey, my breaking mark is this point. And whether you're in front of me or not, I'm driving to that point. So I'm going to offset and I'm just going to go and I'm going to pass it. Typically, they get a little more timid because they're not, yeah, they're not. professional race car drivers and then they just kind of if someone is slow in front of them they just

run really slow behind them and they don't just keep the gas going to the point where i tell you to lift and gas and all that stuff so it'll be super entertaining to watch i'm sure it's only 14 laps so we're going to have to have some rickie stint house restarts no no no you can't start at lap one you have to wait absolutely in this deal you can absolutely you got to get after it I might have Ricky coach her, actually. It might be better. This will be a good time. I hate that I missed that the other night.

She texted me at 7 and said, hey, we're going out there right now. And I was on a rock wall somewhere and missed the text or something. I don't know. All right. Well, we got anything else? I got a review here from Rudy. Rudy.

Fugel. Might be. Might be. Speaking of Rudy. I mean, this is the first time I've seen you without a Larson shirt. You got a Byron shirt on. Nice. I was looking for Kyle Larson.

I was going to wear my McLaren hat, but it was too bright. I'd probably throw off the exposure. Well, 2024, Dayton 500 champion. I thought you were just trolling me with this big ass champion on your chest. I mean, you have a sticker on this computer finally, though, then he so. Is that Richard? Yeah. Nice.

Well, we got plenty more if you want to add to it. But you said you're willing to add stickers, right? I am. Yeah. Yeah. you could be like uh i mean i have all the i mean have you seen like the starbucks poles where people put all their stickers and stuff yeah i love looking at those have you ever put a sticker no no i should that's a good idea i love looking at him all right rudy what do you say uh rudy says i'm new to the nascar

scene motorsports was something i was never around growing up but after watching a few great documentaries i started to follow nascar closely i've become particularly interested in the 2311 team While I heard that Denny Hamlin is one of the most disliked racers, I have to say that I enjoy his moxie. I love listening to the podcast. I'm rooting for Hamlin to finally get that much coveted championship. Can I ask what Moxie means? I mean, I hear it all the time. It's like, it's whatever you want to mean, I think.

It's like what you had when you walked out for intros last night and flick boogers onto the fans. That's kind of what Moxie is. What? I thought we would go to the whole podcast and it would just get breezed right. right by. You can't end it without, you got to explain this. I did a fake

bugger flip. It's great, Travis. It's great. They introduced me and I did one of those fake out to the crowd. I flicked a bugger on them.

Then he gave someone his hat. It's all good. I know. I canceled it out. I'm a man of the people. I just, you know,

if they can boo me, why can't I flick a bugger on? on them. It's a fake bugger. It's a virtual booger. I didn't actually dig in. I just kind of did one of these things. Oh, that's going to be a clip, isn't it? Yep. All right. Anyway, rate, review, follow

wherever you get your podcast. Also, be sure to subscribe to actions detrimental on YouTube. All right. Well, thanks. Nothing. I, yeah. We'll see you all after the 600 hopefully we make it past stage one and we don't get wrecked but

I'm looking forward to it this is the the all-star break is over the brakes over back to work Jared have fun and indie yeah I didn't have a break I had no break

yeah I know taking pictures is full-time work it really is all right well we'll see you all next week check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter Facebook TikTok and Instagram Thank you.