Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Almost The Perfect Week

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

Fresh off a grueling night at the Coca-Cola 600, Denny Hamlin and co-host Jared Allen are back in the studio to break it all down — from fuel strategy failures and surprise surges to why fans keep pointing fingers at Denny. Plus, they touch on chaos at the Indy 500, big wins off the track, and more:2:30 — Justin Allgaier not listening to his crew chief7:30 — Why drivers couldn’t hold the lead17:10 — Why Ross Chastain was able to catch William Byron22:25 — The physical toll the 600 took on Denny26:44 — Why Denny didn’t have enough fuel37:22 — Trackhouse and Chastain finally had speed45:45 — Smoke Bois got a Hoop Group Championship49:30 — Chaos in the Indy 50056:30 — Why do fans think Denny is to blame for Byron not winning Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Actions Detrimental merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental FanDuel 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.

Speaking of HMS fanboys, I'm getting some mentions that, like, I was responsible for Byron losing? Yeah, I saw that on Twitter. What the fuck are people watching? 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 than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it.

Hey guys, welcome to action detrimental post Coca-Cola 600 week. Memorial Day, where we are Memorial Day afternoon now. I had to push back, stayed at the racetrack last night. came home this morning. How was El's weekend? I'm licking my wounds right now. Same. Tad hung over. A little different.

Are you? Yeah. Did you have a day yesterday? I had a day. And an evening. And it started with the morning. So when you sent the text here like, I wanted to do it today, but when you said 12, I'm like, oh, thank you, Lord. Were we supposed to push to Tuesday?

No. We originally were doing it. it today. So I was like I. Travis was playing on 10 a.m. Yeah. So I'm glad you pushed it because I mean I don't like you've seen me like after the Indiana game.

I was fine. Like I'm worse. I think I drank less this weekend. I did the Indiana night and I feel worse here. So I don't know. Man. Bad alcohol. Did you switch things up or no?

Just beer and vodka and tequila. I don't think you're supposed to mix those. it's never been a big problem i don't know huh yeah Jared yeah my my weekend did not contain any alcohol it just was race cars from the moment i woke up on saturday to the moment i went to bed last night you had one victory

yeah yep yep yep thank goodness i i stuck around i asked you know yes i was watching the ex finney race from denny's bus he says what are you doing here? I'm like, I'm just waiting to see if Byron wins. And then he says, there's what, 40 laps to go? I said, you think Byron's going to win this? I think he was like 15th the time after his speed and penalty.

No chance. He said no fucking way. Yeah, it just had to be the perfect scenario at the end. The caution, you know, run a corner, get a caution. Run a corner, get a caution. Spinity guys. Martin's build this thing. at the end. What do you make of Algear was told to pit and I believe he said that he heard the order

and just didn't listen to it. Yeah, not good. Yeah, drivers are not crew chiefs. I've found that the most successful way to do things, just listen whatever the crew chief says. You can debate them. I think and sometimes maybe influence the crew chief, but they have a way bigger picture than you up on that pit box. And so, um, now, you know, to give Justin credit, I think if the race only had one of those restarts,

maybe two, I think maybe he still has a good shot at it, but like I said that they would run a corner, the guys with new tires would pick up two spots caution, pick up two spots caution, and it's just next to you know they were right on his ass and he had no shot.

Have you ever where you're like, you got an order and you're like, nope, not doing it? and was that like younger? Not that I can remember. Not that I can remember. I'm sure I did maybe early, early on my career.

I definitely never, you know, if they say it's your choice, we think we should pit sometimes I'll, if I feel stay, you know, then that tells me they think it's 50-50.

And so I'll just kind of look at and see who in front of me. me is pitting. You know, I'll look in my mirror to see, you know, who's coming behind me, all those things. So is the, you say the crew chief has a bigger picture. Is that bigger picture that the crew chief has obviously worth more than like what you're feeling in the car? Well, I think what Justin probably felt.

The only thing is, is that he had 30-some laps on his tires. Like, it wasn't like he had 10 or 15. and so you would think that they got some sort of wear to him and he's thinking well I'm still running a pretty good pace I looked at the lap times when they made that decision the from his fastest lap of that run to when the caution came out he had he had slowed down eight tenths he's probably thinking okay this caution I'm going to fire back off within two tenths of my fastest lap I'll get half of that back or maybe more from cooling the tires off but But, and he had a decent buffer, but just not enough with all those crazy cautions at the end. Yep. So William Byron wins that Xfinity race. His first Charlotte win, hometown win. This was, he felt like it was big for him because it was a Charlotte win being a hometown guy.

Can I call it whole shit on that? Like, he was like, oh, I'm going to remember this one forever. It was an Xfinity win. You're not, he's not, he's not remembering this win. Thanks, Traff. Chad was keeping a reel. You racing for Cup championships and you're remembering this? No, sorry.

That car won the race last year, I think, with Chase Elliott. You know, they're, yeah, I think you're expected to win. But still, you know, everyone has, certain wins have special meaning to them and for them that we don't understand. Let me ask you this, though, as just like a general driver perspective. When you go down to run next one year, it's like when you go down to run Darlington, do you feel like I should win this race? Like, I'm a full-time cup guy and then... Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like it... If I don't win this race, it's going to be a disappointment. It's an indictment on me. Right, yeah. Even though, though, it is a little more difficult, you know, because you are a little more difficult, you know, because you are switching cars, you don't have a whole lot of time to adapt back to it. You know, the cars do drive so differently,

but still it's like, I don't know, I just think the best drivers adapt and are able to adapt pretty quickly. Well, clearly he was good, obviously, in the Xfinny race, and then that did carry over into the Coke 600 because 24 car was pretty good last night too. It was. Did you feel like you were better than him?

I got it as good. We've been talking about on this show for the last three years, how you can't pass because dirty air, you can't pass because dirty air. Now you pass in dirty air, and now you can't hold the lead. How does that work? Yeah, so the next-gen car goes through, most of the transition with it is that it gets looser as you burn fuel in the back of the car starts to come up.

The car just generally gets looser. You don't load it as much. You can't drive in the car. corners deep. So you lose a lot of rear downforce as runs go on. Well, what can make that even worse is that if you get in clean air and you have nobody in front of you, you're not pushing the front tires to their capability. You can't drive in deep enough to push the front tires or the capability and then bias your wear to the front. So then next thing you know, you get loose and you get a lot loose.

And so I certainly, I was always able to keep pace with Byron and really be right on his ass the entire second half of the race, but it's where my car was best. Now, he did a good job, kind of error blocking at times. But I felt like, okay, when we worked him over and finally got to the lead, my balance instantly shifted quite a bit. and next thing, no, I was loose. I was fighting the same thing that he was fighting

when I was right behind him. So it just was a interesting, that's what made it such a good and compelling and close race is that the advantage actually belonged to the second place guy. Not as much as Xfinity, but like, I'm sorry, the leader was disadvantaged more than it typically is. He still had the advantage.

advantage as far as being able to arrow block. We saw it a bunch of times where like Byron would come down, take my line and it would just make my car just shoot up the racetrack. That, you know, that is still a major, major issue. But it didn't allow you to get away. Once you got out front, in the long run, typically somebody was coming and catching you because your balance would go loose. Is that a Charlotte thing? It's most intermediates, but Sharma, Charlotte seems to be a little bit worse. Just simply because you got a little bit more lap time drop off from early and run to end of run. So the car goes through, you know, the bigger lap time drop off, the bigger transition, it will go with balance. Got it. Yeah, that was very glaring to me watching the race. I'm thinking it the whole time, like, okay, well, if you can hang with the 24 car and you're behind him, that surely once you pass him, then you're going to be able to set sail.

Yeah, and we did for a minute. Like for there for a while after we passed and we 10th fast or two 10th fast just going. The next thing you know, oh my car is getting loose again. You know, and so it's just it's one of those weird things that it made that's what made that racing so close that second half. Hated it for you, but it's fun to see you not be able to just hold on to, like the first place driver to hold on to the lead. Well, this is what you get when you get lifetime drop off and fall off. the tire, you'll get this type of racing. That's what we've been asking for is that if we're all just in the mat,

you know, our on throttle time from the beginning of the run to the end of the run throughout the course of the corner, let's just pretend it's 100%. It's not. You know, let's just say it's 70% on throttle through the corner on new tires. It's maybe 40, 50%, on older tires, that is what allows me to make moves and drive in there deep enough to get next to them and then manipulate the error that he has.

So that's the key and the riddle to making good racing. Had you been able to comfortably take the lead and then there have been a caution or a pit stop of some sort, can you then compensate for the car? Be like, okay, now we have the lead. Now we're going to shift it so his balance is better and ideally we're just going to control the rest of this race. Yeah, that pretty much is exactly the case.

And it's why it's really hard to kind of think about what you need to tell the team when you're back in 20th. Like the air is so bad and your car handles so badly that sometimes what happens is teams over-adjust. Drivers over-tell the story of what they've got because it's of the air conditions that they're in. And as they get further and further towards the front, they need to start changing their balance to accommodate. So did you have a plan with 60 to go on how you were going to potentially win this race? Yeah, 60 to, do you know where I was at? It was 60 to go.

You were second or third. Yeah, I was second. Yep. This is right before a pit stop. At that time, I was right behind Byron. I think we had switched the lead back and forth. a few times. And at that point, we're 10 laps away from a pit stop.

And so I knew a lot was going to come down to when, whenever who chose the pit, when did they choose to pit, and then how did we do executing the on and off and the pit stop itself? We came on pit road pretty much identical. We came the same lap, but the gap was the same. Rolling, I'm not really sure. But the pit stop looked like we beat them slightly. maybe, you know, a car length worth on the pit stop,

and then on corner exit, you know, I'm beside them, but he has a fender out front. And you can't tell on TV and people are wondering about my pit exit is that there is not room for two cars on the, so let's just say the apron itself has zero degrees banking. Then there's a transition before the racetrack where it's, It's one lane wide, and let's just pretend it's got 15, 18 degrees of banking. And then the racetrack's got, let's just say, 25.

So the only way to make that corner with any kind of speed is you need to be in that transition. You can't go on the racetrack, obviously. So you need to be in that transition. It's only one car wide. And so versus trying to race Byron on this one lane, 18 degree of banking, apron and probably shoving both of us up onto the racetrack in an inopportune time, I thought that he had the right-of-way. Truthfully, he was a fender ahead, and I knew that

Chastain was close enough to where we can't lose a whole lot of time dicking around here on pit exit. Like, I feel good enough about my chances with 50 to go that I've been within one car length of them for 150 laps here. Surely I'm going to get another chance at this. And so when we came back out, my balance was a little tight. And, you know, when you don't get enough fuel in it, it also makes it tighter. And so we tried to compensate for kind of the air that we were going to have, all those things, but we didn't compensate for the four to five gallons of fuel that we were missing. And that that made my car even tighter.

But even still, you know, Byron pulled out a little bit because of my balance to about 10 links. And then we started reeling him back in. And then as we're reeling him back in, they say, we're not going to make him fuel. So at that point, I'm, okay, now I'm going to manage my risk somewhat. I'm still going to try to go get him in case that caution falls. But then they had that Reddick thing where he bobbled. I, you know, lifted off the gas for that. Chastain came past me.

I pitted. Then they had their battle there, the last 10. Yeah, it looked like coming off Pitrow, they were showing it on TV that he kind of, like you said, may have just had the right away, but he kind of like cuts in front of you and you have to lift off the gas and fall in line behind. Yeah, I lifted simply because if I stay in there in his door,

again, this is, when I say it's one lane wide, it is one lane wide. You maybe have four feet of extra room, maybe on both side. Like, it's just not enough. It's not enough to fit two cars through there, especially that are trying to race competitively off a pit lane exit. And again, I didn't feel the sense of urgency simply because I felt like I was a little better than him

in that last 100 laps, as a whole. I mean, we were equal. I mean, he had his strengths. I had my strengths. And that's why he kept seeing us go back and forth. Like, it was, we were very equal. And so I thought that, you know, this is not, I don't need to risk my race in crashing

here on the apron, you know, when, when I think I'm going to get another shot. Yeah. How did Chastain make up all this ground and then ultimately pass Byron for the win? So I knew that my balance was not where it needed to be on the car on that last run. and still was catching Biring in the long run. So I thought that just Chastain nailed his balance. I thought that the 22 and the 45

was holding up the 24 just enough to give him some dirty air. And yeah, they just reeled him in. I looked at the end of the race and I knew that I saw Lugano with lots of laps to go and Byron actually never ended up passing him. So I guess, you know, he just lost the balance of his car. Is there an advantage?

when you're chastain i imagine when you're the leader and you lead 300 laps this race like it's way easier to chase than to be chased you just can't screw it up like let's stay within what what we got going here and you know if you're testing yeah and that's what i talked about with you on why i thought it was easier for me to chase than to be chase is that you know when i get out front you know unless it's like a short track intermediates we are on the ragged edge i know you can't see it on TV and sometimes you show it they show where we're kind of getting bobbled or out of shape but i mean we're we're one tire slip away from spinning out one way or another and so when i get to the lead i i crank it down to 90 percent right and then what happens then is the person behind it's like

okay well i'm going to a hunter i'm chasing now and so it just always is going back and forth in that kind of way. And so it's, that's why you saw the race staying as tight as it was. And so for Byron, he's trying to get around these lap cars. And that's something that he hadn't. It's almost like Darlington. Do you remember Darlington? He dominated the race. But there was no lap traffic. And until he got to lap traffic, that's where it was like, okay, he's vulnerable. He couldn't move around as good is he he needed to like i when i watched him he had two lanes that he could go and and so luckily and fortunate for me the one lane he was leaving open is where i was best so that's that made for really really good racing because he was never really in my way or in my lane and i never really

was in his so um we both got to utilize our strength yeah i noticed that i watched the hbo your in-car HBO Max Cam for two significant stints of this race. The first one being earlier in the day when you were running seventh or eighth trying to pass Almonddinger and he was he could run all over the race track. I was so frustrated. Yeah. Yeah. But then when you, so I've noticed that, right? He can run all over the track. He was running all over the track because he was staring in his mirror. Yeah. But his car could do that, right? Whereas when you But he was slowing down to do it like. Okay. Yeah. When you get to Byron, it seemed like William was very consistent in the line that he was running and you could do what you wanted to do. Yeah, I felt pretty versatile.

I felt as though I was, you know, I was best in the middle of the racetrack. He was best all the way at the top. But I could run the top. When I needed to, like I could do it. It's not like I relied on it. And so it, you know, it seemed like Chastain was really good on the top. Um, he was able to make the, actually the bottom work a few times in three and four as well. Um, but yeah, it was, it was strength on strength.

When you're trying to set up, like, you're trying to chase down Byron. Are you showing, running a line that maybe isn't your strength to get him to block that so then like set him up to make that move with a line that you know is going to work for you? Yeah. So every time I would catch him, he would, he would move down to, to, to my lane. He was willing to sacrifice overall lap time to just, to just, to just, lock. And that's typically kind of how it normally goes in the Cup series now is that everyone just plays defense versus running minimum lap time. And so I, yeah, you just, you got to have a car that's versatile. You can't have one that just, it makes speed as long as I've got this one line. Like, I really focus on making sure I can run the same lap time and multiple lanes. It's like

option A, option B, option C. like I know when I see them dart one way or another I've got like three tenths of a second to then make up my mind where am I going and and I know in my head I've got three options the three I know what the three fastest lanes are for my car on any given day and based off of where they go then I'll then I'll choose what option I'm going to take I thought Amazon did a good job of they were showing Byron's eyes like they were like watch right now he's going to look down because he's looking at his mirror and like i thought it was

interesting to see you guys trying to you know go after each other yeah they showed your eyes too i mean you'd win certainly no one's beating you in a staring contest when you're in a race car no i i i felt it last night i had to put like 20 drops in each eye like my eyes were so freaking dry and when i when i look at the clips on social media of me just i mean i've done this my whole career i remember bristol they had an in-car and i had a clear visor and i think i went gosh, I think it was like six or seven straight laps with not one blink, no blink. And it's just, I don't know, that's just always the way I've, it's not intentional. I do a lot of weird fucked up things, but, you know, I don't, it's just, it's, just have it.

I've always wondered why drivers wear glasses, because I hate my wear context, but it makes sense. Like, if you wear contacts, those things are going to get so dry and like, you, you can't, afford that. Yeah, mine were like welded shut, I mean, or welded open, just yikes. I mean, even today I feel it. So I know that there's, I can feel when I am staring and not blinking after races. Like there's some races that I do it, you know, everything feels fine afterwards, but there's some races where the intensity's up, I just, I just don't blink. Can you like not afford to blink? I don't know what it is. I think it's just focus.

Right. I think it's just focus. Yeah, it looked like your head was also bouncing around. Yeah. They showed that quite a bit. And we tried to fix it overnight because I had it real bad in practice. And it's just a weird situation where the track is so bumpy at Charlotte and turns three and four that I try. You know, we have a minimum.

left side headrest, minimum right side. And so I have this small gap that's in between. Well, as I'm going over these bumps, you know, I noticed in practice, like my head was just ping ponging off of both sides. And it, you know, it's almost like if you dropped a ping pong ball on this table, you know how it gets the rebound and then it just keeps going and keeps going. That's why I felt like it just wouldn't stop. Even after I was done with the bumps, the thing is still rattling back and forth. So we tried to open the gap a little bit for Sunday, and it might have made it a little bit better, but it's something we got to look into because, I mean, I told him, I'm going to be concussed after this race. I am just getting my head knocked side to side every lap.

Were other drivers having this issue? I don't know. I mean, I would think everyone's, you know, I'm wondering if it's more of a next-gen issue that they need to look at. two versus you. Were there any camera, other head cameras? Yeah, I don't remember. Yours was obviously certainly the one that stood out. You said you saw Byron staring. Yeah, yeah. So he had one. I'll check. There were other

cameras of people's heads. Right. Their eyes. But yours seemed to be the only one that stood out is this guy's all over the place. But are those bumps in the track not, like, do they not affect the car? You know, you're bump at Texas and I don't know what's 10 people

spin out, but bump at Charlotte and No one. So I call the bumps at Charlotte more of a high frequency bump. So they're not as deep, but there's more of them. Think of it like this. You know those sound bumps that you have on the side of the highway when you go off? Like it's similar. Like the track is like that, but obviously they're not as close together.

So it's more of a high frequency bump versus a speed bump. Like a swell. Yeah. Got it. And so Texas challenges the rear of the car in a sense of like it bottoms out the back of the car, which causes those cars to spin out. This one just, the tires just kind of chatter across these less deep bumps. Hey, it's Dale Jr.

Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our Star Stripes and Bears Collection available now? We've got tanks, teas, beach towels, and more just in time for summer. Check it all out at shop. Do you know what happened with your car with the fueling situation at the end of the race? It looked like just none of the second can fuel got plugged in. Obviously we saw it running down onto the ground. So to me, I haven't talked to anyone, but it seems as though when I look at it, the plug, he just didn't get it plugged correctly.

So like if you don't have this, the head of your fuel can perfectly straightened in line when it goes to plug in, it won't dispatch the fuel into the car. Instead, it'll open up the valve in the fuel can, but it will just run out onto the ground. And that's what happened. It looks, that's what looks like what happened. So this is not something that they've figured out immediately. Like you said, you ran 10 laps or so before Gail came across the radio and said, hey, FYI. Yeah. So what will happen, a little NASCAR 101, on how they know how far our fuel mileage can go,

is that they know how much a full fuel can weighs. And they weigh it before the pit stop. And then after the pit stop, after they put the fuel in, they'll reweigh the can. And they'll know how much lighter it is, how many. gallons got in the car, you know, and they'll watch video to see, well, how much do we have to count for spillage? How much do, you know? And so usually there's not a whole lot of spillage, um, but when they probably reweighed the can and the can wade similar to what it did before the pit stop, and we needed to get some of that second can, not, not enough to, to slow the pit stop down,

but just enough to hit it for a second, right? Um, um, more than likely when they reweight it and then watch the video to see how much went on the ground, at that time they said, they don't think anything from that second can actually got in the car. Now, strategy-wise, you guys think it was in stage three, weighted on fuel on a green flag stop as well as a handful of the other Toyota's. It didn't seem like Byron did the same because you came in behind two. Well, he was going to have to at some point.

It just was hidden in the weeds where you didn't see it. Right, because it didn't seem like that affected him at all during this race. He always came out. Yeah, so it could have came. He could have added more fuel at the start of stage four, the final stage, which is maybe why we came off pit road first. You know what I mean? You're right, right, right.

He came off third. Yep, you're right. So what he was probably banking on is that let me top off my fuel now. That way I only need one. when we come under green, where we said, let me get the track position now, and I'd rather wait that one second under green

versus waiting that one second under caution, because one second under caution will lose you more spots than that one second under green will. Is there any way that the fueler can know that he didn't hit it? Is there anything that could have been done where he's like, hold on, let me,

and so you stay a little longer, make sure you get the fuel? Is there anything like that? No, because the crew chief had already, notified me to go on the jack so you know he he typically will tell me um to either wait on fuel wait on a head nod from the fuel guy or just go on the jack when the pit stop's done we're we're getting out of here and where i got a little confused was that he told me um to at the start the stage four that we're borderline just need one can like it was going to be close and so at that point

I'm thinking, great, I don't have to wait. I didn't have to wait at the beginning of the stage, and I'm not going to have to wait under the Green Flag pit stop either. But usually on a normal four-tire pit stop, that's nine and a half seconds, you can get one can in, and then you'll get a second, maybe, of a second can. Maybe two seconds of a second can. So typically, you know, if you need more than that, you're going to have to wait, and then, you know, who knows where you come out.

but Byron put himself, it appears, that or they had a slow pit stop, one of the two. But everyone had to wait on fuel at some point of the day. It just was hidden in all the mess. Are you always on an, at every racetrack, are you always on a knife's edge when it comes to these fueling situations and just don't really know it until it goes wrong? Well, it's just a lot of it depends on where,

how long the stage links are and with each stage being an equal length it just put us always in that you know let's think about this it's if you if you only wait for your pit stop only every time you're rarely ever going to get your full your gas tank back to full unless you have like a lot of cautions that are back to back to back and you're pitting, you know, every 30 laps, then you can keep your tank pretty much topped off the whole time. But when you have long green flag runs, typically it's like, you know, they'll say pay me now or pay me later. You can, you can wait on fuel now or you can wait on fuel later. You pick which one. And so it actually makes for an interesting twist in the strategy of like, when do you decide to wait that little

bit of extra time. And I think I did it during, yeah, the green flag stop. Stage two or three. Like it was where I was somewhat close to Byron again. Yeah, you were three seconds back maybe and then you come off pit road. You're nine. Nine seconds back. Right. Yeah, because we waited an extra three or four seconds on fuel because we felt like we would lose less positions waiting three or four seconds for fuel under green, which at that time we lost, I think, three spots. If I wait three or four second time or yellow. I mean, think about when you see the cars crossing that timing line for pit out. I mean, that's eight spots and you just don't want to do that. Yeah, it just seems like there's so little margin for error when it comes to this fuel stuff, right? Because as you said,

they know how much they got in it by weighing it before and after. But then how much fuel didn't actually get in the car, how much went on the ground. You know, like there's so many variables to know if you actually have enough. And maybe it's just listening to your radio so much, but it seems like it's happened a handful of times in the last handful of years. I'm PTSD. Where it's like there's always some sort of fueling issue.

We come out. Not enough fuel. I just, that's why I'm just utterly frustrated is that in the last three or four years, I mean, I had to pit on the white flag lap of Pocono while leading. Right. Like, me, man. So we sing, I know you won't say a whole lot here because you don't want to throw them on a bus, but we sing like Pit crews are a big thing nowadays where everyone's talking about them.

They're these former athletes and, you know, how important they are. Do you talk to them afterwards or what's the dynamic like because, you know, when you win, you teams, that's the team's place. I'm the driver. It's not my. You're the quarterback, though. I know, but it's not my job to yell at the offensive. of lineman. Like, I get it that the quarterback does sometimes, but I just, they're trying. It's not like they're trying to screw up, but it's a, it happens. It happens sometimes. I have an issue because

I, I only know what has happened to me. I don't know what has happened to anyone else. Maybe others have got bad beats, but I just know over the last few years, the lack of fuel that I have at the end of the race is a lot. It is a lot. And I just, it drives me crazy because it happens so often. Do you talk to your crew chief and see, find out like why this happening or if it's an issue? Yeah.

I mean, I know, you know, Talladega was the last time that it happened. That wasn't that long ago. You know, we were using the iPad. I was going on the iPad. But if you look and they replayed it on TV, TV, it was like a stutter plug, like in the sense of like, try to hit it. It didn't go in. And then he got it in.

So that extra four-tenths of fuel that we didn't get was not enough fuel for me to go hammer down on the last, at the last part of the race. Indy, I was in a fantastic shot to win. Indy, that was a little different. But, you know, I had to play fuel-saving the whole end of that run. There's just been so many. I just, you know, I need a day or two more to just get over it. But I am super frustrated. But, you know, if we want to talk about the pit crew,

we can talk about also how they picked me up seven spots on the first pit stop. I think they picked me up three or four on the next. Like, you know, I got half, I started 20th. They got me half the spots. I can tell you that. Yeah. The last question. have when it comes to the fueling thing. It's just in general, when this does happen, is it because of

like a human error, like a tire guy doesn't get the tire tight? You know, is it a human error or is it like, oh, we just kind of messed up the strategy here and how much we thought we needed? Sometimes it can be a mix of both. Sometimes you can not get the fuel mileage that you thought you were get. Maybe I'm not doing a good job out on the racetrack of saving fuel as good as others. Everyone has a role in it, right? I certainly have my roles as well. But in these types of situations, you know, we decided to,

you know, pay our debts later, you know, having to get that extra, we had to get a splash of that second can. And then, so you're relying on just the timing has to be just absolutely perfect. And, you know, percentage wise, usually it is. But it always seems to be when you're in contention

that it just doesn't, it doesn't really pan out like you expected. Ross Chastain wins the World 600, and if you look at Trackhouse, he's really overachieving when you compare him to his teammates. Yeah, I mean, new week, same slogan. You always compare yourself versus your teammates, and he is consistently the top guy over there.

But we need to give credit to Trackhouse this weekend. We've been pretty hard on them in their lack of speed, lack of everything to start the year. But they absolutely showed up. The one was the fastest car in practice by a chunk, not a little bit. And when he wrecked, you look at the left rear tire and they're like, they just were, they were doing,

they were being a little aggressive on something. And that's where the speed was coming from. but I think that they proved by driving towards the front over the course of, and you heard Ross say, it took the entire race to get there, him starting dead last. They had the real speed that the 88 showed it,

the 99, not so much, but is it by having stance that the one, I mean, I was looking at the rankings, and I think Chastain's been like the 17th fastest, car on intermediates this year. I mean, just not. This was out of the blue. This was absolutely out of the blue. But it wasn't just him. It was Shane as well. Shane is run 30th in most races. And he got a great finish of 14th. And I mean, man, so is it, did him and Ross just happen to show up on the same weekend? I don't believe so. I believe that they hit on something.

And, you know, all the teams certainly will be checking things out and investigating to figure out, you know, where the speed came from overnight. How much of a... And it didn't happen overnight, right? They could be working on something that, you know, some sort of new setup or something like that that, you know, they just now could get in the car. I don't know. What's the next race that you could maybe you would expect them to race well off of this race? Well, you could use kind of Nashville as another. kind of baseline to it.

While it's not as fast as Charlotte, um, that the setups will have some similar characteristics to it. So you could, you could say that, you know, is it just a Charlotte thing or is it a car speed thing that they found? We'll know that this weekend.

How much of a disadvantage were they, uh, go into a backup car? Yeah. I mean, you know, that's what kind of leads you into, you know, a setup slash tire thing. because they did it with a backup car.

Now, they did have the ability to work on it at the shop. So maybe if the backup car didn't have as many updates to it as what his primary did, more than likely if they were able to go to their shop, they were able to fine-tune it more so back into being a primary. So I don't think he was as big of a disadvantage that most people who rec in practice have not being at home. much different is the backup car from the primary car, like an average fan like me, like, I assume that like why aren't the cars basically the same? They're not a whole lot different.

The parts and pieces are the same, but, you know, there's constantly little updates that the teams will, you know, implement in the cars that, you know, that happen. And sometimes the backup car just, you know, through the processes and time that it takes to do it, it doesn't get put in the backup car. Now, they'll, they'll do that. They'll probably work on the backup car every, I'm throwing it out every month, every four to five races and get it a little more up to date. You know what I mean? So you're not going to unload a car that, oh, we haven't done anything to it since Daytona, right? It's, and it's probably, you know, maybe it's a primary somewhere else. But most of these backup cars are truly backup cars, and that's what they're assigned to do.

This was the debut for the Prime broadcast. Have you gone back and watched it at all yet? I haven't. But from social media, they seem to really, really like it. I did get to watch the post-race show. I thought that was fantastic. Yeah, nothing but, you know, I just kind of go off of, you know, their on-air talent is super smart with their analysis.

They hired all the right people. so I think it's going to be you know Adam Alexander is a great play-by-play guy I mean you got Dale and Steve LaTart and they talk about Steve LaTart and how much yeah he he talks he talks he talks but he's just he is elite at what he does you know he's he's very knowledgeable he breaks things down to me in a very simple way so it's just I'm excited to go back and see how they presented the race Yeah, and I didn't realize that it's perfect. This five-ray stretch is perfect because if you don't have Prime, you can just sign up for the free trial, the free month trial of Prime,

and then boom, you've got your Prime NASCAR races. Also, who doesn't have, like, everyone shops on Amazon. I feel like Prime's the easiest thing to streaming device to have service. Like, everyone shops on Amazon, therefore, like, you pretty much probably already have Prime to begin with. Like, we've got to stop crying about this. I don't have Prime Drives. Do you not shop on Amazon? I don't shop that much.

I don't spend too much money. I mean, my mom's the biggest race fan ever, but I don't know that she has it. I mean, you know, or would figure out without my help. Right. That's the thing. That's the key.

Right. Without my help, her understanding how to go get prime is probably the barrier. Yeah. And NASCAR is probably dealing with that problem more than any other sport, right? Because of the fan. That's right.

Yeah. But yeah, I thought they did good. I thought the post ratio was great, just the fact that that has been brought back into NASCAR was cool. But just so you know, if you have a real gut-wrenching second place finish, you're going to be expected to go up there and talk for 10 minutes. Yeah. I saw, I saw Byron have to go up there and do that. But yeah, you're going to get the rawest emotions in that moment. Yeah.

Yeah. Anything else on this race? Not really. I only kind of saw it from my seat. We got to give flowers to Colleg Racing, A.J. Almondinger, ran in the top five, or I'm sorry, ran in the top five to ten all day long.

I asked Kyle Bush, you know, what, you know, why, like, the 10 and the 16 were running better this year. And he thought, he said, you know, the RCR and Colleg are working closer together, but Colleges outrunning them. Like the 16 and A.J. Amendinger, many races this year has been the best car out of the, you know, four to five cars that come out of welcome.

I mean, they're doing a fantastic job. AJ, I think he's in his low 40s, right? Yeah. He's not far behind me. doing a phenomenal job. I mean, just absolutely a great job. We need to give him credit for what they're doing over there. 17th and points, AJ.

Yeah, he climbed from 25th, I think, to 17th, like eight spots. Because, you know, all the stages, and he ran up front all day. And, you know, that was a big weekend for him. Yeah, maybe they've given him a faster motor. Maybe. Maybe. Some off-track stuff, you're wearing your Smokeboys championship hat. I am a champion, people.

What an electric game that was, though, by the way. I got my first hoop group championship in, I think, six years. Wow. It's been quite a long time. And you carried the team in the championship game. That's argued. That was the first time that I had seen Charlie vulnerable. Like he

It just He didn't look right The moment was getting to him I thought so too I mean you were what Four or five from three Yeah One for one from two

One for one from the line Ron was in attendance I wasn't sure who he was rooting for Oh I know who he's rooting for Not us I mean Good Lord I know

He's he roots for He's got a dog in every team He's like Jared with NASCAR I know They were the same. They are the same. Did you all get along in the bus while I was racing? He did.

He's saying blah, blah, blah, blah. But he got along just fine. I helped him into the bus. He got him a seat, you know? Like, he forgets all that. Speaking of, speaking of forgetting, Molly forgot his name. He has an Instagram video, and Molly just doesn't know his name. Oh, man.

So my week was, I'm telling you, I was primed for like the best week. ever. I won G G GigiT on Tuesday, our golf guys tour, a golf tournament, shot 78, went birdie, Bertie par finish to win that event, won the hoop group title on Thursday, and I'm like, was it you? You were like, they come in threes. Like, well, 600, have a baby. Like, listen. This could be the best week ever, ever. It's okay. Championships come in threes. This is number two for you. The year just saying well how is how is uh how are you doing jordan and baby on the way how are you guys doing just ready she's ready i can tell you that she's had enough she i feel as though and and again it's i don't have a human growing in my belly but i feel as though she she got through the first

six now probably seven months pretty good the This last few weeks have she's had enough. She's had enough. I think she's ready to get this boy out. Yeah, I mean, it's any day now, right? June 1st is the official due date? I think it's this Sunday. This Sunday, Nashville.

She can't be having it on Sunday. So we may not have a podcast on Monday potentially then, right? That's correct. So just CBD. Because if it's on Monday, then. We'll just move it to on location. Yeah, we just do it outside the room. That'd be good.

idea. She'd love that. Speaking of kids, Taylor National Anthem. She did. She sang the National Anthem for the Better Half Dash. That was exciting. She did an amazing job. Holy cow.

I mean, so proud of her. You know, and so proud of Molly, too. As soon as she got done singing, she ran up there, gave her big hug, and she was her biggest supporter. That's really tough, like, no matter what your age is, but to do as a kid to put yourself out there and seeing the national anthem is tough. I would have been able to handle that. No.

No way. Yeah. And then do you watch the Indy 500 at all? I got to watch a little bit of it. You know, with my schedule and all the appearances and whatnot that I had, meet and greets, I didn't get to watch a lot of it. I got to watch the first 60 or 70. And then I didn't get to see, but the last 30. So missed the action in between, unfortunately.

It didn't, you know, fortunately or unfortunately missed the Kyle Larson wreck. It's just such an odd wreck because it wasn't, appeared they weren't up to speed yet. Like, if you look at how fast he was going when he crashed, it was, I don't know, I'm going to estimate 160? It was after a restart going. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't. it was not, they were not up to speed yet, but I guess he just hit a weird pocket of air there or something and the thing just swapped ends.

That race was, it was like crazy. Everything you could think of happened happened. Yeah, so I was wondering that like the instability that came from that new hybrid, like they had to race with that too, right, that the extra weight in the back. So is that what made things so sketchy? Were you educating yourself while you're there?

I have no, I just taking pictures. Just taking pictures. Okay. Well, he said, Scott McLaughlin wrecked. It was, the track was cold and his tires were cold. And he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, listen to the throttle, he's weaving. And then he, you know, to try to get some heat in the rears. But he wasn't dead straight when he did it.

Usually when you're goose in your car, you want to have the wheels straight and your car going straight. Easy for me to say, I've never driven one of those things. but you know I'm just telling you in a race car like when I go to spin my rear tires getting ready for a restart I'm never doing it when I'm swerving and he was swerving and he just gave it a little gas to like get some heat going and the fucking thing just spun out on him it was crazy watching it I thought what had happened because it just rained and it was like drizzling right and they're obviously trying to like get this race going I thought that maybe the track wasn't completely dry I was like oh my gosh gosh, they just had a situation where this favorite to win the race, you know, totals it under yellow. Maybe the track wasn't dry. I guess that wasn't. They didn't talk about that at all.

Did you speak with Austin at all? Maybe he's just rubbing off on me. That's not good. I need to check myself. He came in the bus and is as serious as he could be. He's like, what do you think about that? That kind of looked kind of suspicious, don't you think? Oh, he said this too.

That was awesome. A conspiracy therapist. Oh. That's not good for me. That's not good. He's getting into my head. You were rubbing it too? I wasn't thinking it's suspicious, but I'm like, oh, I don't know if the track was dry or like,

yeah, that's what I was too green. The track was wet until I watched the replay and I was like, oh, no, I think he just, I think he gused it at a wrong spot. But he was like, yeah, you know, they're trying to screw Larson. I'm like. No, that's what he said. That's what he said. And he was so serious.

He was so serious. I said, Austin, dude, come on, man. I just, I can't anymore. I just, he's like, no, I'm just wondering. I'm just wondering. I'm just saying, listen, that ain't going to be the car that does it, if that's the case. No. You can't make him walk the plank, though,

because I tell you what, there's no bigger supporter of you. No, I agree. You're going these cup cars from our chat. If I had, I told him, if I had a nickel for every time he told me, we're good, bud, we're good, bud. I'd have, you'd have, like, three race wins, and I'd have, like, 50 bucks. Did you see where you had the car catch on fire, and then dudes were gone fire,

and then also the pit crew got hit by the car, too, in the 500. Do you see those? Nope. Duke just came in hot and I'm surprised the dude didn't like break his leg. I don't know what the injury was, but just took him out. Like I wouldn't be shocked if they changed the rule on when they get over the wall because they're already over the wall when they come in and he smoked them. Damn. It was shorts.

Shortsman. Yeah. And then VK, I think his car caught on fire and a couple dudes also caught on fire because of it. They were spraying them down. Wow. it's interesting to see how those lap cars played into the end of the 500 because i thought it was not similar but somewhat similar to the end of the cup race you know because you had legano up there and you had reddick and they're fighting to stay on the lead lap it's given byron dirty air

but it was a detriment in the cup race it was an advantage for the leader in the indy because in indy the reason that you see so many passes is at the end of the straightaway is because of the drag of the cars and the straightaways are so long that there's an opportunity for while you can't run close to each other in the corners at Indy, the straightaways are long enough that you see the toe, the draft. That's what they say. Well, with lap cars that were right in front of the leaders, it was giving the leader a toe down the straightaway. So they were going faster down the straightaway than what they normally would be,

which didn't enable the cars behind to have enough. draft to pass them. So, man, I wish that, I wish they would have got out of the way and let it play out because we probably would have saw a bunch of passes back and forth for the lead at the end of that race. But I think, you know, Alex Pillow is just smoking them right now, right? Holy cow, five of the first six races. What a dream start.

Did he not pour the milk on himself? No, he didn't. He didn't. What do we? He sold, I guess, not to. I was watched his. Are you supposed to? I watched his post-race press conference,

and Jenna Fryer asked him that question as to why he didn't. He drank it, though, right? He drank it. And he said, like, his crew chief, or he had been told, like, don't pour the milk on yourself for whatever reason. You know, if I win the 500, you can't tell me anything.

I'm dumping that thing. Travis, you'll dump a fucking tequila spright on your head after three drinks. I don't do tequila spry, tequila soda. Yes, you will do anything. If you won a championship, Come on. I got a comment here, review from Tyler Robinson.

I haven't missed an episode yet. I'm an HMS fan, but this show turned me into a DH fan. He's my favorite non-HMS driver, and I find myself pulling from every race. Glad I finally got Denny's autograph at Kansas. Thanks for the autograph, and good luck the rest of the season. I hope you get your championship. Speaking of HMS fanboys,

I am getting some mentions that I was responsible for Byron losing. Yeah, I saw that on Twitter. What the fuck are people watching? I was behind him when he stepped on his... There's just a clip of you next to Byron and Chastain. As I'm passing him. This was after you pitted. Right, I was behind him.

Yeah. He got stuck behind the 22, got loose in 3 and 4. The one came with a massive run because he got loose behind the 22, and I went by both of them. And by the way, I lifted into turn one to let them race. If you look, when I got beside the 24 and here comes the one and they go three wide, I lifted into one because I'm like, I'm not, I ain't getting in the middle of this. I'll pass them off a turn two.

What are these people watching? Yeah, here, Denny Hamelin just held up William Byron and gave Ross Chastain the chance he needed. What does that say? Denny Hamlin just held up William Byron and he gave. How can I hold him up when I'm behind him? Listen, irrational fan You can't blame your guy for losing But how can people be that dumb?

If you said that, you're an idiot I've made many excuses for my team's losing So I mean, that is just assinine Joey and Denny were both factors At that point I just pitted with 10 laps to go Trying to get back on a lead lap In case of caution comes

Then maybe I stay out because I got right side tires And I squeeze some sort of finish out of this freaking day. Andrew says Joey and Denny were both factors, but since Denny had to pit out of the top five, that is stupid. That is stupid. I was not a factor.

I was the least person in the way of anyone on the racetrack. I held my line really, really low. I didn't side draft anyone, nothing. Byron stepped on his, off a turn four, and the one came with a run, and he passed him. Why don't we lead with this? God, we just lost all our HMS fans. No, I mean, I,

They're not all like, they can't all be this stupid. It's just the one or two that was in the mentions. Not all of you guys. I respect most of you. For what it's worth, the person who did post that, um, Stephen Toronto. Any of a reporter? He's like a, apparently. What is he watching?

It's even worse. Anyway, move on. That's all. Next week, we're at Nashville. The race is at 7 p.m. Eastern on prime night race, uh, Sunday night. Okay. Well, we're going to give it another go. Nashville, more PTSD.

Nine overtime finishes as we're dominating that race. Ran down Ross, passed them with, I don't know, handful of laps to go. Austin Cendrick plays grab ass with somebody down the backstretch. Spins, doesn't touch anything. Spins does it with 360. He keeps going. They throw the caution, and then nine overtimes later, I had to pit after like the fifth overtime, maybe sixth and cursed.

Well, you got to feel good that you were good at Nashville last year. Oh, it feels phenomenal. I think I finished 12th. Anything else? That's all I got. All right. Good. Let's go enjoy the rest of our day.

We'll see you guys next week.