Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Atlanta: Here's Why I Laid Back

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

With only 13 of 15 teams signing NASCAR's charter agreement, one notable holdout was 23XI. Co-host Jared Allen asks Denny Hamlin to weigh in on the situation.On the track, it wasn’t a great day for Denny. Starting in 38th, the hope was for attrition but it didn’t come. It looked like Denny’s plan to avoid the big one was going to work and then a caution for debris on the track ruined that plan. Kyle Petty was critical of the plan to try and get 20 points and Denny responded with his reasoning behind it.Denny and Jared discuss why there was little chaos on Sunday and if it being the first round of the Playoffs had anything to do with it. While Denny is firmly on the bubble, he is confident they can perform the next two races and advance. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe had their own Playoff struggles. Larson stays 15 points ahead of the cutline, but Briscoe may be in a must-win situation. Denny only got 13 points on Sunday, but it could have been one less if not for BJ McLeod repaying Denny.There are two more races left in the first round and Denny talks about how many points he thinks it will take to advance. One driver not worried anymore is Joey Logano, who won on Sunday and punched his ticket to the next round.NASCAR is headed to Watkins Glen next weekend and 23XI has a third car racing with the return of Juan Pablo Montoya. Denny talks about what to expect from Montoya and why it might be harder for him than he thinks. Plus, why qualifying will be so important and what to expect with the tires. For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimentalFanDuel Disclaimer: 21+ and present in North Carolina. Opt in req. Wager requirements apply. Bonuses awarded as nonwithdrawable bonus bets or profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including bonus expiration. See terms and conditions at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm surprised we don't have any reviews talking about Lulu this week, Travis. Gosh. Lulu came running up to the door as I got out and I walked past Jeff and he said, I wonder if that dog's going to come up on the podcast today. I said, yeah, she's. I saw Lulu this morning and I'm, I'm, I'm going to show up and Lulu's not here. One of my listeners, if you don't mind, give me my average finish since St. Louis. Find that out.

Tweet at me and we'll then make an executive decision as parents whether we're going to keep this dog or not. The following is a production of Dirty Moe Media. Hey guys, welcome to Action's detrimental. Ow! That hurt Charlie! This is not going to be a rose-colored 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 that's promising. Hey, guys, welcome to Action's Determ, I'm Denny Hamletcher, and I'm Denny Hamun. Mavis tires and breaks Camry this weekend. Jared, I'll let you do an intro this week.

I am Jared. Red Vest 3-11 at the racetrack every week. I like your shirt. Thanks. Show and support? Yeah. After a somber day. Right.

Well, let's see. We don't have much off-track stuff to really talk about other than me beating the absolute piss out of Travis and pickleball. Hold on a second. What happened the last game we played on Friday? Oh, when you switched up your partners? I got a divorce with my partner. Who was your partner?

Lance. I thought you brought your own partner into this league in Marty Smith. That was not a good combo. No, no partner. But me and Opie just wiped, Denny. Opie was, is, I'm trying to nominate him as my, forever partner. But you don't treat him nice enough, so I'm trying to see if maybe I can bring him that's not true. On the court, you abuse him. That's absolutely not true. You wouldn't believe how

many times I try to lift him up. Damn it, O.P. I think I heard 10 times. Travis, does Denny still create these fictional ratings for each player? Like, I'm wondering what you would But I could now. I've got enough player info now. The other day, he goes, these two people are probably the top. Then there's a middle. And I don't think there was a messed up rating system so far.

You know who is the top of it? Steve Laletta. Oh, yeah. His hands. Dude. I think he certainly grew up in a country club, I believe. I mean, really quick hands. The guy gets to balls.

you think you just there's no way him and him and jordan pickled lance and i and that was like all right we need a divorce yeah fascinating stuff that's pickleball yeah our new uh uh where i live we have new courts so we're we're breaking those in this past week um rematch is coming tonight yeah you're coming right as long as i can get this podcast done everything all right better get to it then all right let's get all right pot's over um we had Austin Hill went an Xfinity race at Atlanta. Shocker. Copy and paste any comments

I've made from previous Atlanta races. You know, there was definitely some chatter about you know, Corey Hime, whether he should have pushed Chandler Smith or not. As just fans, what do you all

think of that? I'm interested to hear what your perspective is. I mean, it looked like Corey Hime had a chance to get the front. Yeah, I think if I had to sum it up, I think that he was making the best move he could for himself. If you say you're going to go down there and push Chandler off a turn four and go to the bottom, the top is obviously the preferred group, right? Chandler kind of got underneath Austin at a very weird place in the middle of three and four and at that time it's like he's not going to have enough

momentum to pass him so that's probably not going to work out very good but then all four are side by side you know as expected and it just i think very rarely if not none no times would the third place guy say there's no affiliation would choose the bottom car unless it was you know a direct teammate. Corey then went to the high side, pushed Austin past Chandler, then got right on the edge of getting beside the 40, or Austin Hill, and then, you know, he got into the wall, finished fifth. But I just thought that, you know, I try to think about, well, what would Toyota think? And I don't know. It's a really tough situation because I think that, you know, Corey doesn't have any alliance or allegiance to JGR.

JGR doesn't have any alliance or legion to Corey. So he's going to do what he thinks he can do to win the race. And I thought he made the move, the best move to do that. If he goes behind Chandler, he has no momentum. He's not going anywhere. He's not going to pass those two cars in that final lap. So I think he was giving him myself a chance to be second and then to be second. That's probably it.

No, I mean, if you put your. it just seems like if you push Austin Hill at all in these races, he's going to win. Yeah, but he got past him nearly. I mean, if Austin doesn't kind of run them all the way up to the fence, you know, he has a shot, but you've got to think that that's probably going to happen. But yeah, it's tough. I kind of see both ways of it. I really do that, hey, it's your manufacturer.

But I just don't know that one has a connection with the other that would make me believe that he should show a. allegiance to that team. I think it's dumb. Like we had the Parker Retzloff stuff the other week, and now this, at the end of the race, you got to do its best for you. And I get if maybe you were direct teammates,

but even then, like, with Blaney, we'll get into it later, but like basically saying, like, here you go, Ligano. Like, when it's down to the end, you're your own team and you have to support, you know, your crew chief and the people that work on your car. Yeah, I agree with that. And I certainly think that,

had there were not been another, manufacturer that was, you know, any alliances whatsoever. And there is no alliance. I don't believe with SHR, which is Sam Hunt Racing and JGR. I think, if anything, they're pretty much independent. That could be wrong. But I would say that he made the correct move as the third place guy, and that is to stay on the high line and try to clear, which he did. He cleared Chandler. then he was the race was on for first at that point right it just seems like once austin hill gets out to lead in these speedway races his bumper's so big yeah getting around him so i think he went to his fourth Atlanta race um something like seven you know i i think i'd seen online where like all but three

of his wins have been on super speedways how does the driver be that dominant at just well i i think One, it's competition. I mean, you're with a really good team. They always qualify well. So you know their cars are really fast at RCR in the Xfinity series. So you're going to have an advantage there. He's got experience. And then the competition.

So all those things combined. Now, the driver spotter relationship is very important as well. He's got a good one in Derek. So I think those are all things that would equal lots of super speedway success. Other off-track news this week is that 13 Cup Series teams signed the charter agreement. Two did not, which are 2311 and Front Row Motorsports. I assume that you can't say anything on this, but we have to bring it up regardless. Yeah, I'm really not going to comment a whole lot further than what was said in my media availability, which is a whole lot of nothing.

You know, just because, you know, this is a serious situation, obviously, and, you know, I think the statement that 2311 put out kind of accurately summed it all up. And then, you know, I believe Curtis Polk had a few media members asking questions yesterday, which he answered that I would just kind of echo those statements. But, yeah, it's certainly an unfortunate situation, you know, with... you know, we were just put under a kind of a crazy timeline there and just thought that, you know, it was not appropriate and decided to kind of stand up and say this is not right. Atlanta. Did you race yesterday? I was in it.

Were you? Yeah, I mean, I was in it. I watched a lot of it. But I didn't race much. No, I didn't, you know, there was a, you know, I just, my mindset, and it's certainly on me, is that I was hoping for attrition. I was looking, you know, I, obviously I'm into numbers quite a bit, and I always try to play the odds, and I've just seen what my next gen super three-way results have been, and while not causing many,

Super Speedway incidences. I've been wrecked in nearly every single one of them. I think 23rd Atlanta, 37th Talladega, 38th Daytona. I mean, I had enough of it. And I couldn't afford another race with one or two points. And so, you know, I certainly said post-race that I wanted to get to 20. I thought that was a good number for me. that would put me somewhere around plus 15 or so around the cut line.

And I felt like Watkins Glen and Bristol were two tracks where I certainly should be able to hang on to a 15 point cushion. You know, this is about getting through the first round. It's not about anything else. And so, you know, Chris challenged me throughout the day to, you know, go up there. but I just, I felt in my heart of hearts that a big crash was about to come, and I thought it was right before the damn banner fell off the wall. And even if it didn't, there were five cars that were going to run out of gas. And so I'm looking at my position saying, you know, to get those points,

I probably need to finish about 15th. I can do that. And so it just, things got out of sorts, you know, and I saw that, I tried to race somewhere around the beginning of the second stage. I spent a couple laps saying, okay, let's be a little aggressive here, and my car couldn't take it. It was not ready to be racing aggressively quite yet.

We made some more adjustments, got it a little better, and then we get to the third stage, got it a little better, and then we had to stop with probably inside that last fuel, window where I felt, okay, this is good enough to race now. And at that time, it was about 40 or 50 to go. And I just had in my brain, you know, all the caution history from Atlanta, and it was just littered with yellow flags after the second stage. And I'm like, I've been here this long. I might as well just keep waiting and wait, you know, let's knock out seven eight cars and then I'll just, if I crash then, I'm at least going to finish in the low 20s.

And if I don't, I'm going to have a chance to finish in the top 10 and actually have a, you know, really good points day. But it just didn't work out that way. You know, I made a strategy call. It was on me, certainly not on the team to lay back. And we never got that big wreck until the very end. And I was in it. Was your car as bad as it was because of the way you unloaded? well yeah you could say that you know our balances everyone's balance was was not great to start the race but i just i was in the very back of the pack and certainly had a little bit cleaner air because i was hanging off the back of the pack a little bit just because we had a lot to crash last time here that wiped out a bunch of cars so i was making sure i wasn't in that and then you know my car was just extremely

extremely loose and then again I I tried to race to start this either the second or third stage and I ran a couple laps up high and nearly crashed I mean it was pretty much a crash but I got saved luckily by Tyler Redick who was behind me who checked up huge and at that point I'm like you know if I if I try to go to the front here I'm just going to I'm just going to crash calls a crash or spin by myself and damage this vehicle and I didn't want to do that so I just waited to the next stop I'll wait it to the next stop and finally we got it where I needed it but by then it was 40 to go and I thought the right thing to do was wait on another big one you said that Gabehart was encouraging you was this a decision you made once the race started or when in your

mind did you go this is my game plan and it was just it was before the day it was before the day I just looked at the numbers what it took to keep moving on and this is what this is about is just keep moving on you know and so it's it's a strategy call that certainly i felt i trusted my intuition and my gut that you know this is going to end a certain way just based off of history and off numbers and it it didn't and i think what really changed that was when the banner came off the wall um with 11 to go you know i was kind of right there hanging off the back of the pack, you know, and I could see that it was like, I mean, I could see smoke coming off of cars every lap from them, you know, tires up against each other.

And it just, you knew it was inevitable. It was about to happen. And then a caution came. And then, okay, now we got a five-lop dash. So that took out six laps of that really intense time that typically those wrecks happened. So, hey, it just didn't work out. And, you know, obviously we didn't get a great finish. You finished 24th and so is what it is. Had you not qualified where you did, would you have probably raced harder or because you start in the back, you might as well just. I mean, certainly if I qualified up front, I would have tried to stay up front, which it seems like with these speedways, it's becoming easier and easier to just, just qualify up there and then you can run up there. And we've seen, you know, so much success

from the forwards in qualifying at speedways and they're finishing off by winning the race. So they're just are really doing a good job of keeping their track position once they start up there. It wasn't impossible by any means, right? The 54 was leading there with a few laps to go. So as long as you're willing to risk it, it is possible. But, you know, excuse me if I'm a little jaded from some, you know, I'm traumatized by all the wrecks that I've been in. on super speedways that it's agitating as hell that, you know, it's not Rick's starting.

It's ones that I just get in that, you know, others start. So it's just, yeah, just probably, you know, didn't make the entirely right choice, but there's no guarantee I was going to go up there and get stage points at any point of the day and anything like that. Certainly the way I felt like my car was driving, there was just no opportunity for me to go up there and be as aggressive as I needed to to get to the front anyway. You've heard us talk a lot about Fandul, America's number one sports book. Well, we have something a little different for you.

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Gambling problem, call 877717-1-85543 or visit more than a game.nc.gov. There was a moment in this race where you were in the pack and you decided to, to exit the pack because you felt like the energy was getting a little wild. And Chris had come over the radio and said something along lines about, you know, I trust you and I trust your decisions. You're the driver. But it's going to feel like these guys are going to wreck for the next 170 laps.

When you implement this type of strategy and it ultimately doesn't work out and you end up getting in a crash on the last lap, do you feel any sort of remorse for the team that like you all went to the racetrack, putting all this work, building a car, and then you weren't really trying to be competitive? Yeah, I mean, what we all want to do is win a championship and win races, right? They're certainly, you know, employing this strategy is not going to win you the race, certainly. But again, there was a lot of different variables in this.

A, I tried at one point and nearly busted my ass, and so that's not going to work. So at that point, let's reset. Let me get this thing. to pit road, they'll make some adjustments and make it better. The minute I feel like I can be aggressive on super speedways, I do. I get really aggressive, but we never really got there until 40 to go. And at that point, everyone's tried to jam their way up towards the front. And so the track at that time was three, three by three, three wide, and you're just not going to go anywhere. So at that point, I'm trying to play the numbers game and realize that, you know, I know what the

history is here. I know what the history is on the super three ways. A big one is about to happen and it really got saved by that caution. Kyle Petty had some strong comments who goes into the playoffs saying, I want to get 20 points in the first race. I've never heard anything like that in all the history of when we had a playoff. So I'm more confused now than I was before I heard that. Yeah, I mean, I think teams are smarter now than what they used to be and certainly not saying that this was the right strategy, but it was the one that I wanted to employ on the day. 20 points, I don't know, the last time I scored 20 points on a Super Speedway race, it's been so long.

I'm trying to make it to the next round. I'm trying to get to some of these tracks where team, driver, all those things make a bigger difference and it's not a Russian roulette of, you know, whether you get caught up in a wreck or not. So data and analytics, while I understand it, it wasn't around back in his day. it is now and if you're not using it then you're you're a dinosaur so um i'm just trying to use the information at at at my disposal to make the best decision uh it doesn't mean that i'm always going to make the right decision and you could argue that certainly it was not the right

decision um but who's to say i mean harrison burton raced all day and got less points and finished worse than i did so it's it just happens happens to be that way. Are you comfortable being plus two above the cut line now? Am I comfortable? No, I mean, certainly because, you know, I know that still there's some, you know, things that can happen, certainly, but I feel like, you know, the next two tracks, you know, tires are going to be a big thing, right? And Watkins Glen, you know, we've got a new tire going there that's, you know, got seconds of fall off apparently. And if that's the case, then you could be on the good end or the bad end of that.

Then you got Bristol, we don't know whether we're going to have a race like the spring or the race like the fall. Either way, we won those two races. And so, you know, again, if I can just hold myself above water going to Bristol, I feel very confident we're going to go out there and perform well. Why didn't we see so much chaos at Atlanta this time around like you might have predicted? Yeah. So I think there was a couple factors.

one of them being that the cars the track had lost grip okay and everyone's car wasn't handling quite as good as it was that the pace was about eight six to eight tenths off the the leader's pace the pack the speed of the actual pack was about six to eight tenths off what it was in the spring so the track is a little slower that means cars are driving a little bit worse um and so with that I think that cars weren't able to get closer they weren't able to get as close to each other as they were in the spring so you saw lots of pushing lots of things like that going on and really when I was watching from the back they were pretty much just single file and two wide you know spread out actually in the first stage that's because everyone's car was handling really really bad I don't know that anyone expected the pace to be that far off to start start the race. And I just think that the reason we didn't have these massive pileups, really, is that you had to keep distance between you and the car in front of you or behind you because your car was just out of control. There's maybe some driver's timidness with this being the first

playoff race play a factor into that? You know, I don't know. I don't think so because I always feel like if anything, the fall races are always wilder. Because, yeah, why you've got 16 that, let's just say you got 16 that feel like, you know, I'm racing for the greater good. I need to have a good day. Well, four of those 16 are already below the cut. So they're going to be aggressive. Then you've got 20 others that have nothing to lose, right? They're not part of the playoffs. They're just trying to win. So that's 24 cars that are going to be pretty wild, right? And so I just think that, you know, from my standpoint, I don't really know that it's a timidness from a, from a playoff driver perspective, but it, I mean, it could be.

But don't the non-playoff drivers, they also don't want to be that driver that lap two and they cause a wreck. Oh, I don't think they care about that. They don't? No. Not at a super speedway, just because the way it lends itself out, you have to be aggressive and, you have to be aggressive and pushes and people, you know, you don't, you don't, there's more wrecks at super speedways than there are short tracks, but why is there fist fights after short tracks, right? Because it's, it's just accepted more on super speedways that, oh, that person hit that one, that's just speedway racing. At short tracks, it's like, no, you had control of your shit and he ran right into me. That's why we're fighting. So it's just, it's interesting how it's just become accepted that, uh, super speedway

wrecks happen. But don't you think with this being the first year of Atlanta being first race of the round of 16 in the playoffs, like drivers are going into this thinking, all right, let's just not put ourselves in a position where, you know, we have to win Watkins Glen or we have to do something special at Bristol. Like, let's just stay above water. Like your, like your thoughts. It just depends on how good do you think you are at those other racetracks, right and certainly I feel confident that you know as long as we control our own destiny in the sense of you know we don't get caught up in someone else's wreck or have a mechanical failure or things like that on performance I feel good enough about our 11 team over these next couple weeks that that will be fine

but that's different for everyone if you're Harrison Burton you're you're probably very nervous you're under the cut line and the speed hasn't been there to be able to overtake the others So you're hoping there's more attrition and more guys that have issues. Not the big one, but certainly a big one in terms of how it affects the playoffs was Kyle Larson's wreck and that thing snapping loose on him. That thing was big, yeah. And hitting the wall. And then Chase Briscoe, just not being able to see through the smoke.

Yeah, when they had the cameras timed and they were showing the N-Car of Larson and the N-car of Briscoe, like, you. Usually you're looking so far forward that, like, you see when smoke happens. And your spotter usually is on it pretty quickly when there's a car that hit the wall. But he stayed in the gas for, it felt like a couple seconds. And I know a couple seconds is a short amount of time in the real world. But on a racetrack, that's an eternity. And so I think by the time that he realized there's a wreck up there,

I saw a huge black streak of oil that was going across the racetrack. I think at that point he had hit the oil and he had no control. He had no ability to slow down at a rapid at enough pace or turn the steering wheel in a different direction. But certainly you can't argue that he was going way faster than everyone else around him at that time. Yeah, it's interesting because when you watch the, the replay of the wreck, there's like four Mississippies between when Kyle hits the wall and then when Chase

gets in the back room. Yeah, so that's what I'm trying to do is give him that grace of like, well, he's so far ahead that you're not going to you're not going to lift right when you see him hit the fence, but certainly right after that you see smoke and something, you know, everyone's starting to check up, but he he didn't check up for an additional second or two after. But when you watch his in-car camera, I feel like there's a complete.

different perspectives like whoa this happened a lot quicker than what the camera angle shows yeah in the broadcast i agree with that yeah yeah i think the broadcast camera shows and it's like oh my gosh this is arka breaks like just really really bad um but i i agree with you in the end car again a lot of it is because kyle was so far ahead of him that it you got to give a little bit of grace there that he just didn't see it until a certain amount of time but everyone around him did So that was either the spotter didn't call it or he was just trying to avoid it, you know, go at a higher speed and just steer around it. But certainly I thought more than likely what happened is by the time he wanted to react,

it was too late because he probably hit the oil that was going across the track. What's your initial reaction in the car when your spotter calls out that sort of record? I'm just trying to lift. Lift and keep my line. So are you looking in the rear view first? So if I lift you, am I going to get up from behind? I just hope that everyone does their job behind me. But yeah, I immediately lift off the gas as heavy on the brake as I can

without locking tires up and keeping the wheels straight as possible. So you're keeping your line unless told to move. That's right. Got it. Surprisingly, though, Kyle only drops to plus 15 in the points? He had a lot of bonus points. Yeah, he had, you know, was it, four race wins, a bunch of things. a bunch of stage victories.

So this is where you get your reward from having that good regular season. Yeah, I mean, he effectively didn't compete in this race either, scored one point. Right. So just the playoff points throughout the regular season carry him through a race like this. Some other guys, Chase Briscoe, he does not make out as well as Kyle's. He's now minus 21. Is that must-win territory? It's not must win really until the last

playoff race or the last cutoff race. Again, it kind of depends on kind of who you are. I mean, he could go out there and have a 45 point day at Watkins Glen and I bet you he's going to find himself like really close to the cut line. So I don't know. I don't think anyone is a must win yet. It's a must run well though.

Like really good. Truex. Now minus 19 also had some issues in this race? Yeah, just they've certainly not had the year that they have been hoping for by any means. So tough, yeah, tough. Tough on that 19 team. And I hate it for Martin because, you know, he's kind of getting caught up in some other people's things, which is a bummer in your last year.

But I think if you would probably ask him, he would say that goodwill, good written, Atlanta. He's done with that place. But is Martin still a guy that can go out here and win Watkins Glen? I mean, he used to Yes. Yeah, yeah. Certainly capable of that. I mean, it's historically been one of his best tracks. In the next gen era, hasn't been quite as

nice to him, but he's a threat. Absolutely a threat. Harrison Burton, like you said, raced the entire day. Yeah, got caught in the last one. Yeah, got caught in the last one just like I did. And he looked like he was going to get about a 15th place finish somewhere around there. I was somewhat right there with him. And yeah, he got turned. How close were you to getting through that crash?

Really close. Somebody came and clipped me in the right rear and it hooked me right in the fence. So I, yeah, I thought I was pretty much clear of it. And then the last second somebody up high was clip me in the right rear. What's your first reaction when it happens? You're like, son of a, I rode back here all day and get caught up in a wreck on the final corner of this race. Yes, and I was just really happy I could make it back to the start finish. That was another thing, too.

It's like I see all these cars sitting here, not getting there, and I'm trying to limp my car to the start finish. Did you say BJ McLeod also limp into the finish? And you're like, had to pass them? didn't. B.J. gave me a solid lift off the gas. Oh, he did. Yes. I have, you know, this is where I talked about many years ago that there's deposits and withdrawals that you have with your competitors, and I definitely ended up getting a withdrawal from B.J because he actually pulled me aside after practice. We were walking back to the motor home. And he said, hey, man, I don't know if I, you know,

I haven't talked to you a whole lot, but just one thank you for what you do for me on these super speedways. You know, you pushed me to the lead at Tal Daga a few years back and, or I think it was last year. And he's like, you know, that's a big deal for me and my team. And then there was one time where he was kind of getting strung off the back of the pack. And instead of like passing him like we all would and then he just falls off and goes laps down, I just got behind him, pushed him back up to the back of the pack. and he's like, you know, I just want to say thank you and appreciate that. And, you know, if there's anything I can ever do for you, just let me know.

I'm like, I appreciate it. And as I'm sitting there, like a three-legged dog trying to make it to the start finish line, BJ passes me, and then I hear him go, bo. And I'm like, thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you. Your car get to the finish line was looking like a drunk walking out of a bar. It was a struggle.

I know, it was bad. But then, you know, because I guess BJ slowed down, I thought, Denny just stepped on the gas or something. No, it looked like you just like sped up past him. No, not really. If I went any faster, I was going to spin out. That's funny. So deposits to the BJ McLeod Bank years and years and years ago.

Yeah. Pay off here instead of a 20, about no, fifth place finish, you finish 24th. Yeah. Every point matters. Every point matters. Certainly. How many points do you need at Watkins Glen then? you were fine with 20 here.

Well, I mean, you need to get to like 75 in the first round. I start with 15, right? So essentially I need to get 60 points. That's 20 points per event over the next three events. I only got 13 this time. So I need to get 47 over the next two. To, like, historically, that's the upper echelon of making. it like you're you're going to make it if you get there um so i don't know um i need to have just

i need to have a good day i need to go out there and perform well um certainly i think if we can get any stage points you know it just really depends on what does this tire do are tires really going to matter so much that you need to pit more often if that's the case then you might not see people flipping stages or yeah they might not be flipping stages as much as they would normally so i don't know it's it's it's a tough question to answer but it really depends on what the competition does i'm just going to try to get the best day that i possibly can i'm certainly not going to be in reserve when we go to uh to uh to walk in to glen i'm going to go all out try to qualify well stay up front and have a really good day You go from the regular season trying to win all these races, right?

I assume that's your mindset to now in this first round, you're just trying to accumulate a certain number of points. Yeah. Yeah, it's because, I mean, I'm just trying to work the format, the best of my ability, right? So, again, if I had my penalty points back on plus 17, 18, we're not even talking about this, right? I'm right in the middle with everyone else.

but I just with that penalty I knew that I could not afford a one point day a two point day and so I tried to make sure I got as many as I could and certainly didn't up with many many I think it was 13 points but yeah it's I'm trying to try to get through this thing as best I can before we move on to Watkins Glen and talk a bit more about that Joey Ligano wins Atlanta. He's now into the round of 12. He gets a nice push there from Blaney at the end, and Chastain and Suarez weren't able to compete. Chastain wasn't able to stay to back bumper of Suarez to push him to the victory. Yeah, I mean, one thing you can say about it is that, you know, Lugano and Penske and all, they just do a great job working with each other. You know, one thing about

Atlanta as well is when you look at the first two rows and you had the 99 and the one, on the top, you had, you know, the fords there on the bottom, it, you know, this wasn't by accident. These guys run up front at Atlanta every single time, right? It's not by accident. So, they clearly got a great skill set there, great setup there. And yeah, it was going to be interesting to see how it all played out. But, you know, Lugano just has been really good on Speedways, his entire career. And then, you know, certainly capitalized on a good restart there, a good push, able to get clear. And Blaney had the option there on the front stretch,

and I heard him say that maybe I go three wide and try to win it, but I just, he said, I knew I had a good point to take going, and I didn't want to screw that up. So he certainly getting in that Chris Buescher wreck, he was thinking that, man, my car is going to be damaged. I'm not going to be able to run as aggressively as I did before. But I watched him. He was in the back with me,

I mean, he took some risk. He went through the middle a few times. It was like, yikes, but he made it work, got himself back to the front and in contention. And I think he made the right move is to push his teammate there and get him a good solid day. And do you take issue with the fact that a Walmart sign caused a caution late in this race and ultimately affected the outcome of a playoff race? It's not ideal. We saw this happen at the Roval as well. Just a few years ago, there was a cruise. caution to happen from a sign falling down. Yeah, but, you know, I certainly wish we had better standards for that stuff, but, you know, I think I saw a video of them sliding this in this, in this contraption, but did it get anchored after it got slid in there? We don't know, but the cars certainly cause a lot of buffering, a lot of air gets moved around. So it's, it's unfortunate.

Yeah, we don't want, you know, lines coming up on our court, you know, that we're playing on and causes a crucial timeout at the end, right? But that's what happened. And, you know, I think it's just become more accepted in NASCAR that we have these freakish things happen. Entertainment cautions. Oh, yeah. It's great. Everyone, everyone loves it.

One thing that people may have forgot about Watkins Glen coming up is that Juan Pablo Montoya is racing for 2311. Yeah, that'll be exciting. You know, excited to see how he does. He got to go test at VIR that we talked about here a few weeks ago. And so I think he's excited to go back and it'll be cool to see how he does. I think he's going to have a little bit of rust to start the day. I really do. But I think he's going to show speed by the end of practice more than likely.

And I think we have an extended practice there. Does his experience help you prepare for a race like this? in the sim or is it kind of irrelevant? I don't know. I don't know how much sim he's running or going to run. If I know Juan very well, he's probably going to be like, ah, simulation, whatever. Like, I'm just going to go out there and run.

I think that, and we said this a few weeks ago, I think he's probably underestimating how good and fast the cup field has gotten over the last decade since he ran last. But it'll be entertaining nonetheless. less. With Watkins Glen, with you needing a big, you need a good day, is there anything different you do the week prior to prepare for this? Or do you kind of stay status quo? Like, I know athletes, you know, after a bad basketball game, they're in the gym getting more shots or whatever. Like, as a race car driver, though, what, what are you doing this week that might be different to get in?

Yeah, I'll just try to get more reps. That'll be kind of, you know, we have a schedule of, that I have throughout the week on, you know, doing 11 car things and, you know, I'll just make myself more available for more reps throughout the week. Does it help you, your mindset, knowing what you did last time at Watkins Glen, knowing that like, okay, I need a good result. I've done this last year. I can do it again. What did I do last year? You finished second. Second. Yeah. Man, passing was impossible that day. We knew the first few laps of that race. like it was all going to be between who who can lead lap one if you can lead lap one you got a great chance to lead in the rest of the race passing was just non-existent a lot of it was because it's it's a high

speed very narrow racetrack so these next-gen cars we know they cannot run in the wake of another car so it's just yeah it's it's really really hard to pass in these things uh at that racetrack and so hopefully with this new tire that we've got that has a bunch of fall off, you're going to start to see hopefully comers and goers on lap time, depending on how someone's wearing out tires or not. So, yeah, I mean, we had speed there last year. I think I ran an extra lap.

After I got the pole, I ran another lap, and it was still fast enough for the pole. So I know how to make speed there. It's just, can I make it here with the new tire, hopefully? But, yeah, certainly qualifying day will be an important one for us. Your stats at Watkins Glen are actually kind of interesting. Between 2010 and 2015, you couldn't buy a top 25. And from 2016 to now, you've only finished outside the top five twice. Wow. I didn't know that. Well, good. It's one of my favorite row courses. You know,

it's got a handful of, you know, passing zones. It just, it's certainly qualified. it's just really, really important there. I can't have to assess how important qualifying is because of the speeds that we run and aerodynamics meaning so much and really the one lane track that it is, it just you got to qualify well. That's going to be the key.

Is it harder on road courses to qualify well? Because I'm guessing mathematically you get less laps around a road course than you do. You do, but you have, you know, Watkins Glen with the tire that we did have, there was no detriment to running multiple times. Now, this will be the X factor is that with this new tire, if it truly does wear out as quick as they're talking about,

you're going to have one shot at it. Because if you have to go out and rerun again, the lap time likely is just going to be so far off. So I remember last year that the more times that you ran on the tire, the more cycles you put on it, It just kept getting faster. But this one doesn't sound like it's going to be like that. Right, because you're going to have an allotted amount of time.

And in a pass, you'd go out and run a lap. Then if you didn't like it, run it again. Right. This one, you're not changing the tire. So you're going to go out. That's going to be your best chance to run a lap when you come back in. Yeah. When everything's cool, that's your best opportunity to go out and maximize a lap.

It's just very, very hard to do that. in that moment. Now it is a little bit easier. Is our practice Friday or Saturday? Saturday. So it is a short session, but it's extended, right? Yeah. So what for me, personally, what was really difficult on road courses is that when we

were practice Friday and then have to just cold turkey, then go run a lap on Saturday morning, that was always really tough because you stop and then you go to sleep and then you wake up and it's like okay how can i tweak this at the other you're not in a rhythm and you know if you're a road course pro you can just hammer right back to it i'm a person that needs repetitions i'm a person that needs run me back you know i'm just keep getting faster as i go so this this type of um format i think suits me a little better is it got is your you know the way you react to certain corners or whatever are going to change. You're going to start practice on fresh tires, right?

And that lap's going to feel like something. But then your six or seventh lap is going to feel different. But then when you go to qualify on... It's going to be a lot more grip. Yeah. It's going to be back to where it was. Right. So is that going to be hard to adjust to?

I don't think so. I don't think so. It's not as much as stopping and then running the next day. I see your point that, hey, you could be running three seconds off. and then you have to go out there and run a three-second lap faster, right? But it's just more difficult to stop, get out of the car, and then come back the next day and have to do it right there on the first lap. For me, not for everyone, but for me.

I guess we'll see how these other drivers react to that. It's interesting. It's interesting that that's going to be a factor in this year's qualifying session is that the tire is. We think, we think, supposedly. allegedly. Well, that's what everyone's saying. Yeah. I mean, certainly the guys that ran the tire test said, yeah, this is, this is a big change. I think, was it Austin Syndrick, Tyler Reddick? Christopher Bell. Did you mean Christopher Bell run it? I don't think so. I think Redick was the only Toyota. But anyway. Well, he seems to be your best friend at these Red Course qualifying efforts. Certainly he,

he creates the barometer for success, yes. So if you don't know what the tire is going to do, can you even simulate that going into the race? Yes, yes. Redick, Swares, and Cendrick. There you go. Three playoff drivers. I suggest calling Tyler, talking to him.

Yep. We'll do. All right. What else we got? We got a review here from Jake 117. What up, Jake? I saw you in Daytona at driver interest and told you, told you even thought I was wearing all

even though our producer's not very good at typing apparently. Even though I was wearing all Ross Chastain gear. I love your podcast this every week. I love the information you bring. I never thought I would say this but since Ross isn't in the playoffs I'm pulling for Denny to get this championship all in. Well thank you Jake. I believe

I remember you. There might have been a die cast that he had me sign. I can't remember but I'm pretty sure I was on stage there and I saw you, Jake. So appreciate that review. Make sure you guys give us a review and you subscribe to our podcast. I didn't expect to get a good review from a Ross Chastain fan. We've made some ground since the start of this show. We've come a long way.

We've been doing this now for almost two years. I'm curious, when you sign autographs for fans who are openly wearing other driver's gear, Do you ever think, like, why do you want me to sign this? Not really. I think that you can have fandom towards one person but still want other driver's autographs. I mean, you know, I think about when I was a kid, I was always a Bill Elliott fan. I always wore his stuff, but I'd love to have Davey Allison's autograph or Alan Kowicki's autograph.

Like, I, you know, my mom would tour me around all the different driver appearances whenever, whenever they would come in town. So that's how I met Joe Gibbs when I was 12 years old. We're at a car dealership, and he was there with Dale Jarrett. And that's when I told him, hey, I'll want to drive for you one day. And then 12 years later, it actually happened. Anything else? No, sir.

Time to get back on that horse. I'm surprised we don't have any reviews talking about Lulu this week, Travis. Gosh. When I walked in here, Jeff, out at Lulu obviously I pulled in parked Lulu came running up to the door as I got out and I walked past Jeff and he said I wonder if that dog's gonna come up on the podcast today

I said yeah I saw Lou this morning and I was pretty bad luck I'm like man I'm worried that one of these monies I'm gonna show up and Lulu's not here one of my listeners if you don't mind give me my average finish since St. Louis when we picked this damn dog dog up by the river

so find that out tweet tweet at me and will they make an executive decision as parents whether we're going to keep this dog or not? At least for the next nine weeks. Yeah, it hasn't been good. You go to your stats here. There's a lot of double-digit numbers.

Read them off. All right. Sonoma, 38th. Iowa 24th, New Hampshire 24th, Nashville 12th, Chicago 30th. Nashville 12th. What a joke that was. Pocono second, Indie, 30th.

32nd, Richmond 2nd, Michigan 9th, Daytona, 38th, Darlington, 7th, and then Atlanta 24th. If we don't crash, we're up front. I mean, that's what those results say, but man, we're getting caught up in so many crashes. It's ridiculous. All right. Hey, one thing to note real quick, was it last week you called that you were going to win the race at Darlington? Everyone was wondering, hey, what happened with that? I said I was going to win the race at Darlington.

that we're going to go there and dominate. I don't think he called it. I think you said, I think he alluded to the fact that they were going to win. I did not say the words, we are going to win at Darlington. I said, we're going to go there and hopefully dominate. Well, that's,

it's giving yourself an out. Well, I'm very, I'm very keen with my words and how I use them. If I say, we are going to win blank, then we are going to win blank. but I didn't say that. I told you, I saved these for really special moments that I feel it.

That's when I go after it. I'll let you know when the next time is. What do you feel this weekend? Dominate? No, it feels 25 points. Shut up. All right. See you.