Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Atlanta: "I Had FOMO"

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Denny Hamlin is back from Atlanta after he saw his race cut short after he found himself in the middle of a crash that involved 23 drivers. On this episode of Actions Detrimental with co-host Jared Allen, the duo covers: 3:00 Was Denny to blame for the big wreck?8:30 Why the crash made the end of the race exciting17:00 What it was like for Denny sitting in the car waiting for it to be fixed23:00 Ty Dillon mocks Denny after eliminating him in the bracket challenge32:00 Chase Elliott gets a big win in his home state39:00 Predictions for the rest of the bracket challenge48:00 Corey Heim almost had a perfect race51:00 Nick Sanchez makes a statement in the Xfinity Series55:00 Expectations for Denny with next week’s race being the Chicago street course 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.

I see people giving Ty Dillon a lot of flack. Good. Oh, it's hilarious. Ty Dillon, give him his moment, people. He beat me. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I believe that I've been a competitive view 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. The spoils a 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 actions. Detramental Post-Atlanta Motor Speedway. One of the best finishes we've had in the Cup series so far this year. Chase Elliott, your winner. What's our race reaction? We had plenty of time to watch it. Travis, did you continue to watch this race?

He was not excited about Chase winning, though. Why would I be? Chase winning doesn't help Denny. Fair enough. Fair enough. Y'all can see my co-host, Jared Allen. He is, I'm Kings to Wind Out. They didn't get all the value on Saturday night

that I think they were hoping for in the race, so I got to bring it to him here. Bring your, lean your laptop, close your laptop real fast so people can see what you're wearing. He's got his own custom. And the shirt, solid. Way to go, Jared. How was your King's Wine trip?

It was good. I mean, we got to have some King's Wine rolls right out of the oven, and I'm talking about right out the oven. They were in the process. They were doing the cooling process to them, and we got to match it with a stick of butter that's actually their ingredient butter. It's not like a retail butter.

It was mighty good. I got my car blowed for this. the day. So, yeah, you're right. We didn't, we didn't fulfill our end on Saturday night that we were hoping to. Although I did have a previous sponsor in Rockwell Automation that says if you don't win, Rec, that's our only ask. Why? Because then they're going to keep showing the replay. Yeah, and their logo is always going to be shown like up against the wall or, you know. Well, if Kings Hawaiian wanted that, you were... They said that's what they loved about Mike Bliss. Yeah, he didn't run that great, but he wrecked all the time.

That was good for us. Well, you were front and center of this wreck. It started with you, right? Not that it was your fault, but the wreck started with your car. Listen, I've watched the replay a few times. Maybe it was my fault. I know. I don't know if it's necessarily your fault.

Because I want to, I want to be fair and honest on this podcast. And I'm looking at it. And I thought at the very beginning, I was like, what the hell? Somebody in front of me zigged and zagged. And I said this on my interview, it's like, these guys were tail wagging. And I was just pushing as I normally do. Spotter tells me they're locked on in front. That tells me I'm able to continue to push.

Everything's kind of good to go. And, yeah, I was the end of the same. snake tail that lost control. But it's, but it looked like I knocked the 42 kind of out of control. I, maybe it's on me. I mean, what do you do in that situation? I think I remember Lambert starting to say stack in, stack in, stack in, like, what do you do in that? Yeah, so what's happening? He's, he's letting me know that the car. So I don't need him to spot the car in front of me, right? I can see that. what I like for Lambert to do is spot the couple cars ahead and that's what you know most spotters do is they spot because you want to know what is the gap to in front of that person and then that person

and then you know to allow to see is there space to continue this push or not and I think what I probably should have done was when he said you know locked on and in front known that okay they you know I think it's an important part of being the third or fourth car in line to keep your line moving. You lay back, you're going to drag the whole line back. So I'm trying to keep my line momentum going. But once I get the car in front of me to the car in front of him, then you let that be the momentum for your line. So I think that when he says locked on in front, I probably should have checked slightly to, you know, because then what happens is that the 42 is locked on in front and getting put in.

from the back, he doesn't have much load on his tires because, you know, I've got the back jacked up in the front. He's controlling with the car in front of him. So I think that it's, it's hard to get multiple cars linked altogether like that without the tail wagging the dog. Yeah, that's what it appears to look like here, is that the guy running second on the outside is, you know, on the bumper of the guy running third. And then John Hunter's in front of him. you and your own John Hunter and someone's someone's going around in that situation. Yeah, it certainly wish we had it to do all over again. We just got track position because we had pitted before that caution.

I thought that my car was coming to me. It wasn't the best handling car that I've had there, but we didn't have a whole lot of opportunities to work on it before we crash. So I don't know. It sucks. it wasn't handling well? No. He said he couldn't run the high line, right?

Yeah. I thought the whole plan on Friday was you're going to qualify like that because you're going have a good handling car. Well, we were going to have a car with plenty of grip. We had plenty of grip. We didn't have the handling to go with the grip. So you can't, if you have grip, that's great. But if you overload one axle more than another, then you're not optimizing the full

grip of your car. And we didn't have good handling. So we did not get to optimize the actual grip of the. car now more changes the temperatures were going to cool down so everyone's car was going to even out quite a bit um over time but i felt confident we would have gotten it much closer than what it was to start the race and then um been okay but never never got to see it is setting up a car for atlanta similar to talladega and detona in a way like are there similarities things you can no no they're totally different the Atlanta i would think if someone probably

took like their Talladega car and qualified at Atlanta. They probably qualify on the pole. Maybe that's what the Penske cards do. Just say screw the grip. We want to be out front. We want to qualify one, two, three, four, and then control the race from there. Maybe that's, you know,

because they had a gap from the next, like a tenth or so, and a tenth in speedway qualifying is quite a bit. They had a gap to the next group of cars. So, you know, to me that says that they sell out for all out. speed don't really worry about handling too much which we were going to see had had that wreck not happen do the Penske cars make their way back to the front because that's going to be the key it's always easy to lead you've got plenty of grip when you're leading it's once you get shuffled to fourth fifth six like uh-oh the air's getting a little worse cars handle a little

sketchy and then you put it back where they had to restart because they sold out for the stage points um it was going to be interesting to see if they made their way back back. I mean, that wreck cleared out half the field. Half the field was in it. 23 cars. Yeah. But let me tell you, that wreck was the best thing that happened to that race. There's no question about it whatsoever. Because what it did is it created space between the cars. We were not log jammed two by two by two by two by two. There was space. There was only 15 cars maybe that were not damaged. So if you look, all the passing that was done at that end of that race, and it was phenomenal race to watch.

I was in the bus watching with you. It was created through space of the cars, and that's what we used to have on Super Speedways is space to work, create a run, get the run, take the run, clear, move back up in line. The problem with Daytona and Taldega is there's no space. You can't pull out of line because you can't get back in line. and so we're all just log jammed in this two by two lane and we're stuck Atlanta cleared out the field to create the space to create great racing so you don't think you would have had that without taking out 10 cars

that's what you're saying I don't think that I don't think it would have been as good no I don't I think it was a perfect mix of because it was warm handling meant something not everything but it did mean something I could see that 45 was struggling with his balance at 54. You know, I'm looking at them specifically because I see what they got. They were struggling with their balance a little bit. There was other, like, I thought the nine was, in my opinion,

by far the best handling car. He could hold the bottom line and hold it wide open easier than anybody else could that I noticed. So he had what looked like the perfect balance, the perfect amount of grip, and he was able to capitalize. on it with a great move at the end. Do you enjoy racing this racetrack now?

I was FOMOed at the end of that race watching it with that much space and the guys creating the runs and having the ability to create the runs and like if they get shuffled to eighth, no problem, they're back in three laps. Like that was, I had FOMO there because I was like, damn it, this would be so fun to be a part of this.

And, you know, not the two by two because you're stuck. But this is what happens when you put the cars on edge of grip. And that's what Atlanta has. It's what we roll the tape from the previous Atlanta race. This is what we aspire Daytona and Talladega to be. It's where handling actually matters to then start spreading out the field of good handling cars and bad handling cars.

Give us space to work and work the lines and then the best car, best driver will come out on top. Now, unlike Daytona and Talladega, the track is creating that, right? Because of its size? Correct. Because of its size, because of the tight corners, it's creating the cars being more on edge of grip. Where the corners are so broad and wide and the banking is so high at Tal'Daga and Daytona, the car is never on edge of grip one way or another. So the best way to explain it is like the tires are under satchitaph,

at Talladega and Daytona to where, I mean, you really almost could push in the corners at those tracks because the cars just have plenty of grip and reserve because of how slow it's going, you know, how slow we've made the cars. Where Atlanta, it's, you can't see it on TV, but the cars are sliding all the way through the corner. And so you've got to, you can't run right behind somebody in the corner. You'll get arrow tight or loose. So you've got to. So you've got to, you've got to, to back off a little bit. Well, then that creates a gap. Somebody gets a run, boom, takes your gap.

So the fantastic racing was just a perfect combination of everything that had happened between the car, track, and then that wreck. Do you think I saw a few people on X saying this is now the best race we got on the Cup Series schedule? That's a stretch. Yeah, that's a stretch. I think people are caught in the moment. no question now I can tell you we're about to go to two road courses and they're probably

I think we're going to go through a cuffed up a week man I did this with Ricky Recky right I think that was already in slip though I know but I just I slipped the tongue sometimes we're gonna look back at this two weeks from now after watching two road course races with this car we're gonna say man take us back to it Atlanta. That's what we're going to be saying. But then we get back to more conventional tracks and whatnot. So I have a question about this full field wreck. How are drivers scored after you all get taken out in the same wreck? Yeah. Okay. Great question, Jared. I'm in the garage and they said, hey, you can pass the 24, the 22, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, on and on.

And I'm like, wait a minute, I was ahead of them when we all crashed. Like, we were all on the hook. We all rolled to DVP. So how were they scored ahead of me? It's why we spent, by the way, two hours fixing our cars to beat the cars that we were already ahead when we crashed. I guess I'm really not sure how that is. And maybe Mike Ford could help us out on this.

He has a lot of questions to get answered because he cheated Corey Heim out of his perfect race. And we'll get there. Yeah, I know we'll get there. I know it's not Mike Ford's fault, by the way, but it's just funny. I don't know how cars that are usually when you're, crash, if none of you cross the start finish line again, it's wherever you were scored

right before the crash. I think this is right. This is how I understand it, so it's probably wrong. It's wherever you were on the last loop, green flag, or it's to start finish. I can't recall a time that any of those cars, like they were all crashed behind me. Right. Like, let's just pretend I started this wreck. I'm at the front of the field. There is a lot. There is a lot of, at the back, I don't know how they ended up leapfrogging me, unless they got towed from the other direction and crossed the start finish line. That doesn't seem like it would make sense. It doesn't seem like it would make sense. Somebody needs to clarify for me. Mike Ford, please, send me a text and let me know how I was scored. I ended up going back out and repassing these guys.

I think you were scored 37th at first and you got to 31st, right? That's right. We passed six cars. Shout out to the 11 team for getting me back out. Way to work. Brandon, the whole team, fantastic job. We actually would have been out quite a bit sooner, but even though visually you could see nothing wrong with my rear bumper on the body, they said it was too crushed in. The metal part underneath was too crushed in. And so for safety reasons, like if I were to ever back in the wall. They didn't want that crush stone gone. So we had to take the body rear bumper off, spoiler, all that stuff, replace the

rear bumper, and then put the body back on. So actually we were in there. That was probably, it took twice the time to repair. Probably about a solid hour of repairs. Yeah. I mean, there was a traffic jam of tow trucks trying to get into the garage. I know. And I didn't know this, but the crews can't start working on the car until the tow tuck driver successfully...

The toe tuck? See? See? It's hard. The tow truck driver successfully backs the car into the pit stall. And by the way... Not the pit stall. The garage stall.

Which they never completed with you, by the way. Because these doors were like... You got like one foot on each side of the car to get this thing in. I'm amazed that the driver did as well as he did to get me as close to the... the entry of the garage stall. I mean, it was, I mean, we could have had a party back there with all the wrecked cars. The driver just got out and just wait on, you know, wait on your number to be called. Your car's ready. All right, let me get back in here. The driver waiting room. Yeah. What was it like just sitting there? Well, I told Tyler, grab me my phone.

Give me my phone, Tyler. He grabbed my phone so I could watch, I wanted to watch the race. I went on social media to see what was up, whether they were blaming me for the wreck or not. And then I need to see a few replays. And I was like, maybe, maybe. Do you get hungry, Thursday? Like, sitting like... My ass hurt. I mentioned that afterwards,

but I didn't realize how uncomfortable my ass gets when I don't have racing to distract me. I was wondering... And I'm just sitting in the car, right? You're just... It's not like a comfortable. It's a comfortable seat. It's fairly comfortable.

I've gotten the best snoozes ever in a driver's seat. But you can't move. I know, but it's... Think about a baby being swaddled. I don't know. I can't recall experiencing that. I walk upstairs. I'm just saying it, you know, it...

Like a little cocoon. Yeah. So it's good. And it's warm. It's fine, but the bottom of the seat is hard. and it's right on my butt bone. And I realized when I got out, it was like, dang, man, when you don't have the racing to distract you,

it's more uncomfortable than I thought. And you're not moving, so it's the same pressure points that it's hitting. Yeah, I never loosened up nothing. Like, I didn't want to give NASCAR any excuse to not me out of this race. So, yeah, I stayed buckled in, which is such a weird thing. I guess the protocol is,

is because I didn't go back and make minimum speed, I then had to go check in at the infield care center to make sure I was well. However, if I went out and I ran minimum speed, 140, 50, whatever it is, then I would not have had to go to the care center to check my wellness. So they told me, they said, hey, we're not trying to make minimum speed. We're just trying to go out there and run three laps and pass these six cars

and then bring it to it to it. us because we got nothing to gain. And so I did, but at that point I was like, damn, I should just try to make minimum speed so I didn't have to go check in. How was that hit? It was fine. Really, honestly, it wasn't bad at all. The two car had arka brakes, though.

What's that mean? It means no brakes. He just barreled on in there, like, you know, he was going to try to hit a gap. and I think he said on the radio though he had no brakes I mean to be fair to syndric here watching this replay the seas do open and if he's going to escape this wreck he's going to escape it through that hole

yeah but my philosophy is usually and in my advice to drivers that are coming up is that you it's unlikely you're going to hit those gaps sometimes sometimes the C's part just perfectly but if you actually just hold the wheel straight and slow down, the impact to your car will be less

and you won't get taken fully out. Like at the two started just checking up, he wouldn't have destroyed the front of his car because he was coming at me 150 miles an hour saying, I'm driving through it, Harry. Flipped his glasses down, went into sport mode. He did. He did. You said that you had you met minimum speed,

you wouldn't have to go to the care center. Do drivers like not like going to the care center? What do you do when you get in there? How do they check to make sure you're a okay? I don't know. I don't know if I'm legally allowed to say? Probably. I always err on the side of Sharemore, not less.

I would say, so they check your, can you, you know, touch your nose, touch your, look at this, look at that, follow my, you know, basically a, basically a DUI stop. you know well he's sober it's what it feels like it is and then you got to read off all the numbers on the iPad and in the speed so you set your baseline before the year starts you read all these numbers and they're like spaced out right but they're in rows and there's like five numbers per row and it's like five two seven nine four six six four three four eight nine six but you know so you're reading it and at the beginning of the year you're you create a baseline of how fast you can read it.

And then they check you after you bump your head and see, can you do it as fast or not within a certain tolerance? Makes sense. Why are you laughing? Because that's just like, I can't feel good if you go in there midway through the season and, you know, you just get like a T-bone or something on the racetrack. And then you're slower.

It's like, like, man, 44 years old is really catching up on it. Can I just tell you this? You know how competitive I am? every time I go in there and I read that, those numbers, I want them to be so impressed with how fast I can see and read numbers. I mean, I'm telling you, I'm rattling off these numbers so freaking fast that they're like, he's, I think he's smarter than he was before he got in Iraq. That's what I'm saying.

I mean, I really try to set the bar high. Yeah, but accuracy does matter. You can't just rattle off numbers. Like, they have to match. Well, duh. It's pretty basic. They check your, you know, your heart rate, your CO2 levels. You're in and out of there, 10 minutes, in and out.

Is there a line when you get in there with it? They asked, do you remember what happened? I said, yeah, somebody calls a wreck and I got caught in it. They're like, uh-oh, he's not well. That's what they ask you in the care center. They're just giving you practice for your interview when you come outside. I know. I know. All right.

I don't know. Let's move on. 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.dirtymomedia.com. You were upset by Ty Dillon in the bracket.

it. I was upset by... You can take that two different ways. I was upset like... No, it would be Ty Dillon upset Deney Hamman. Deney Hamman upset. Yes, yes. I see people giving Ty Dillon a lot of flack. Good.

Oh, it's hilarious. Ty Dillon... Give him his moment, people. He beat me. Travis, God, you are... you were I mean you were my brother man you're gonna have my back I mean you're almost as loyal as Austin he did he yet he finished ahead of you did he beat like he was ahead of me the whole fucking race Travis I was 33rd he wasn't ahead of you the entire race though he crashed he avoided the crash

because he had a pit penalty I hear you but just let him have his moment he texted me he's like hey I was just playing around like bro I loved it like Like, if you people think that you are going to hurt my feelings by coming in my mentions and saying, ha ha, tie Dylan beat you. Like, you're never going to make fun of me more than I'm going to make fun of myself. Ever. Ever. You're not going to offend me.

I have really, really, really, really thick skin. To your defense, you talk trash. You know that it's going to get thrown back at you. Of course. Of course. You open yourself up when you do that to the moments you fail, they're going to give it to you. But you got to be a big boy and take it. And I am going to take it from Ty Dillon.

Might be really, I don't really have that much with him. It's a Fox's NASCAR account that can sit this one out. The Ty Dillon against the world. Oh, no, they didn't. You mother, I said no idea what Denny was doing with the love against the world all time you had the races this year. Now you want to tweet about it? No. Wow, this is an all-time episode.

I'm just saying let him If he wants to talk his trash That's fine Fox sit this one out Yeah You know Here's the thing though The guy had two hours to think about

His acceptance speech You know what I mean Like you're in the car You know he's thinking He sees me on the record He's like I sure hope they interview me After this race

Dude he had that probably on Monday morning Last week ready No Yes No I was 5 and O against him at this track. And that's, hey, and you know how bad I've been in Atlanta. Still was 5 and oh. But listen, this is the unpredictability of putting us on a speedway race. It's why I'm so against

it being in the playoffs. It's why I'm so against it, you know, being like the start of our bracket. They knocked out seven of the top eight guys and points. How about this? Here's a fun fact. There are no winners. There's one. There's. No winners except for Chase Elliott left in the bracket. Zero winners. So do you think that ruins the bracket? I think it's probably not a good strategy. If you had to pick,

if NASCAR's like, how do we get people engaged, whatnot? It's probably not a good strategy to knock out all your top guys. Because not only that, you're probably people that fill out brackets. All right, think about it like NCAA. When your bracket is absolutely,

smashed after round one. Do you really care about round two and three, four, five? No. So you're going to be less interested in the second round, third round, because your bracket's already trashed. You want like two or three upsets? Yes, ideally. Not 13.

Now listen, this isn't WWE. So you can't just write a script. But I'm saying like it's probably not a good idea next year to start this thing, head at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Just don't cause a wreck, Danny and this wouldn't have happened. Oh, if I didn't, I've been part of this.

If I don't cause it, someone else is, and I'm going to be in it. So I've always found that the best strategy is actually to start the wreck. I've said this before. Start the wreck. Usually you won't get in it. But unfortunately, I was,

I'm not conceding that I started the wreck. I think the wreck started in front of me, and then I think I contributed to it by I gave you a simple instruction before the race. Avoid the wreck. It's, don't be, let them be done.

You know, truthfully, I was going to be fine until Austin Cendrick's arc of breaks. I was going to be fine. I had no other suspension damage other than the right front where he, I mean, drilled me. Left front, both rear tires,

all got, we were good. We were fine. So you just would have went and pitted and made a quick little fixes and yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, honestly, with how many cars there were?

How many cars do you say were in? I think we're involved. 23 and only six were knocked out? Maybe less than six? Yeah, because it's, you know, under this new DVP policy, which I applauded, it's, you know, they asked me post-race, you know, what's DVP, how was it? Did it work? I thought it worked well.

I thought it's a really good test of team. You know, we're racing to get out there quicker than others and, you know, everyone's damage is a little different, but it's not, it doesn't just knock you. out. Now, would I have like to go home a little earlier? Absolutely. But we had an opportunity because our car wasn't

destroyed to go out there, let the team, let the mechanics go to work, let them shine. My team just did a great job getting me back out there and let me gain those six spots. Whether they matter or not, we don't know. We won't know for another seven, eight weeks.

Other JGR crew members allowed to work on your car or is it just 11 team? Good question. I think anyone can. Because that's one thing I would like changed. At the end of it, I don't know. You think that it's just only your team? I think it should be just your team.

Hmm. I mean, to be fair, this was a hard situation. I think that's an issue that's not an issue. However, I saw James Small in one of the head NASCAR officials nose to nose when they told him he was done. They had been working on that car, that 19 car, for an hour. And then he must have told James that they were done

because something was bent that is not replaceable. Is that right? After they fixed, I don't know the details, but after they replaced, they brought out a carcass or whatever, the inside of the car, you know, took the bumper, the front bumper off for the 19 and then took the rear bumper off for your car.

They had fixed and replaced the front. on the 19 and then we were told you're done. When I pulled in, the NASCAR officials were kind of all over the car because they're looking for is the chassis damage to where, listen, we'll save you the time. Don't start repairing because we're not going to let you back on the track

because of X, Y, or Z damage anyway. So maybe they missed it on the initial checkup of the 19, but they worked for a solid hour before they were told, no, you're done. And James Small was pissed. I mean, pissed.

Yeah. I mean, he was pissed from the start because that's when I realized, oh, they're going to let him start working on it. I think he wakes up pissed. He was, I love his attitude, personally. He's,

he's awesome. But they didn't, they didn't like, I didn't, and I looked at the 19 car, I was very surprised to see him towed into the garage. It looked fine to me.

me. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what all they had damage, but it was something that was catastrophic, apparently. Chase Elliott wins this thing, and gosh, what a new Chase Elliott, celebrating with the fans and the stands. Man, he was emotional. Was he? I didn't see that part.

It seemed like it from his, well, I mean, he's in his home state. You know, he had a special paint scheme on there with. with Raylan. Raylan designed the paint scheme. Designed the design to drive program. Yeah. So, you know, it's definitely special for all those reasons. And then on top of that, he makes the last lap pass.

Like, yeah, if I was in his shoes, I certainly would, you know, have some feels. I mean, how long was it his last win? 44 races. Yeah. Like, does that get to you? I think I've gone through one, a. I can't remember for I've gone that long.

Surely I have. Yeah, I mean, I think that I think he's been over the course of the season kind of labeled as the third Hendrick guy. I mean, you can argue over 1-1A, but then it was like Chase and then Alex.

And, you know, I'm just regurgitating what the fan sentiment is. I think that, yes, it's a Speedway race, but I thought the best car, best driver won. Like, when I'm visually watching the race, like, I thought that the nine was just better than everyone else. You know, he could make moves and clear when others couldn't. He had better handling.

and that seemed to really matter. He should be proud of this race. It wasn't because while Atlanta is a speedway type race, it's not a roll of the dice speedway race like Daytona and Talladega, where the winner of those races are going to be completely random. They will be random, and they have been random, because of the style of Next Gen Super Speedway Racing we have. Atlanta is a hybrid that the driver's skill and the car that is under you matters.

And it was good to see that that mattered at the end of that race. So I put this more in the book of not really a super speedway win, but more of a mile and a half win. So to me, they valued more. I valued the mile and a half wins more simply because it's more driver's skill involved. Is there anything Alex Bowman could have done? to help himself without screwing? No. No.

Alex did exactly what he was supposed to do. You know, the six obviously is going to try to back up to 48, and the 48's going to say, no way. Like, I'm not going to, you know, because the runs are so massive at Atlanta. Because the track is narrow, the air gets disturbed more than what it would say at Talladega, where you've got a lot of distance for the air to escape.

So the runs are massive at that track. And so any kind of push that you get the six down that backstretch, he would carry that run all the way to the start finish and would have a legit shot of getting back at the nine. So the 48 did the right thing, which is, you know, the minute the six went low, he went high or vice versa. And he just wanted to do whatever he could to get beside him and slow that run down. It was fascinating to watch those last few laps because it felt like either you made the right decision or your opponents made the wrong decision, which would allow you to make another decision that could propel you for it. Like we watched Redick, right?

And I was asking you up until two to go. Like he just needs to stay here, not take a run. This is where he wants to be. But then he had an opportunity to take a run. He didn't take it. And then it was all over. Yeah. Yeah.

It's so easy to sit on the, couch and quarterback it. Ideally, where do you want to be going into the last lap? You want to be second. I think that's the, you can get the biggest run at that point. Now, that is assuming that the third place person is you're going to be able to back up to them and get the run. I thought he got a good enough run at two to go, cross the line, two to go, to make

a move on the six. Go down to the bottom, clear him, then take the lead. So you're now in the lead on the backstretch coming to one to go. I think that was the right move to do, which to just take the lead from the six at that point, and then cross your fingers that either you only get passed by one car, the next lap that you can repass, or what happens is what happened on the last lap with the 48 and the 6th,

is that you get to the lead, the people in second and third are arguing over who's going to be second, they start battling and then you are able to cruise to a victory. So I think I believe, and I haven't talked to and we haven't had our meeting yet, I believe the mentality was second is the place to be. And I agree with that. However, at Atlanta, I think you got to take every run you can get. I just don't think third place is going to let you sit there.

because third place knows I need to be in second. I'm not going to let you sit there in the catbird seat. I need to be in that position. And what happened is when the 45 didn't take the run on the 6th, the 9 did, nine ended up winning in the race. Well, he had multiple runs. He had two or three opportunities to make a pass or make a run in the last handful of laps. It wasn't until the last.

I don't know that he had that many opportunities. I think that was the only one he had. Now, he got shuffled early. Be honest with you, I didn't think his car looked as strong as the 6th, the 48, or the 9. I thought he was a little bit of a deficit car-wise. And it looked like handling. It looked like he just would get tight. I'm not really sure, but he would lose corner speed to those guys.

So he needed things to work out just perfectly for him. but I don't know I mean second guessing you just you probably take that run if you have to do it all over again yeah you just don't know when the last opportunity for that run is going to be um

trav do you want to talk about the the bracket and the matchups and now who are the matchups going forward no let's touch on them okay so if I had to so now these racetracks start to get a little more predictable

um the Chicago next Yeah, it's a road course, unproductive, blah, blah, blah. Like, we haven't even had a dry race at Chicago yet. But again, I think these are a little more predictable. Ty Dillon versus Kozlowski. This is going to be a closer matchup than what is people were thinking. I'm a ride with Ty on this. You have to.

If you lose to a driver, you've got a route for him to continue. Because at least you lost to the champion. I'm going to I'm going to go tie Dylan over Brad Kozlowski the next one boman bubba another barn burner this is going to be this is going to be close um I'm going to go bubba although boman is really just I'm a homer I'm going bobba but booman is really good at chicago people just mark that on your card nemochek Elliott um I'm going to go chalk here and go elliott just, you know, his record on, while he hasn't won a next gen road course race, he's been, you know, the next in line pretty much every time. So, and he was really strong at Mexico.

He came on strong there at the end. I'm going to go Elliot. So Dylan, Bubba, Elliot, Jones, and Stenhouse, I think just Ricky finds a way to finish better than he, then he races. but legacy's been legacy has stepped up we have not given legacy enough flowers on their improved performance year to year but this is your

five seconds good job I'm gonna go Ricky just because I think he just finds a way I think Ricky finds away so we're going to go the underdog there

Gregson versus Priese I'm gonna go prece on this one I think his car is a little better. That's my reasoning. Hosevar Reddick. Hosevar, no,

Reddick, yes, and that is not a Homer pick. Almondinger versus Gibbs. That's going to be a good one. Oh, boy. It's a close one. They're both, I mean,

I'll go, I'll go Gibbs. I say that reluctantly, but I'll go Gibbs. I think he's I think he's on the edge on these road courses of being kind of like right behind the best. He was right behind the best at Mexico. Almondinger's

not like he's been good but I mean I don't know if this is factual or not but his road course finishes has not backed up his talent level over the last few years. It's just you know they had a lot of issues so that's why I'm going to go Gibbs

on this one. Zane Smith Chris Busher. I mean, I'm going to go Chris Busher because the guy finished just freaking 10th at every single road course. Eighth to 10th, every road course. Book it.

I mean, he won Watkins Glen last year, but I think there's an unbelievable stat of him finishing like eight straight road courses or some in the top 10. And so, Busher's the safe play on that one. Who do you think wins this thing now? Looking at this bracket

in the road that each driver would have if they were to advance. If I have to pick a winner right now, after this is Sonoma, right? Yeah. This thing is setting up really nice for Chase Elliott. I think it's going to be a Chase versus Reddick. It just Chase has not had the bad days

that every other person has. He'll go invisible a few races where he'll finish 15th and it's like just not even close, but he still finishes 15th. And then people like me and Larsen and others just finish dead last because we'll crash. So the final four is going to be,

there's going to be two 2311 cars. Bubba and Elliot. And then it's going to be Reddick and Busher. And yeah, it's, God, the Reddick Busher one at Dover, right? Yeah. I'll give Reddick the nod there, just barely. Bubba Bubba is going to give Elliot

All he wants at Dover But Elliot's good at Dover But Elliot I think y'all are right We're looking at a Redick Elliot indie And Reddick ends up winning I know y'all are going to say

I'm such a homer But I'm using my brain here Reddick won the bracket challenge last year Really? Yeah I just think the tracks set up Good for them I mean there was different tracks

Obviously when we did it But He's going to have to get more speed on the road courses than what he's shown so far. I think, you know, Mexico, they were definitely off. I think that either, I think Bubba or Riley, it was actually our best car. Riley had the best track position all day of all of our cars. But I don't know. We'll see. That's my pick. Reddick beats Elliott with the final four being Bubba, Elliot, Busher, and Reddick. And that's only saying that the next three races

go as predictable as we think, right? Yeah, good luck. Good luck with that. Real quick, before we move on from Atlanta, we got Haim at Lime Rock, right? I know, but Chase Elliott now, second in points. You and Larson seem surprised by that. What a quiet second.

I mean, we, when I say we, I'm talking about the 24, the 5, and the 11, just absolutely shi-in the bed when it comes. to these regular season points and the nine is just steady steady and found himself now second in points only 30th you know byron had a sizable lead at one point but he's had a couple bad weeks in a row ellate's now second in points i'm back to fourth i think that's right yeah um up to second in points i don't know i had regular season especially is Like, as crazy as this sounds, this is crazy, but it's true.

The 24, I thought, was a full-blown lock to win this regular season championship, just because I think he's been running as good, if not actually, a little better than the five here lately on speed and a few other things, execution-wise, certainly. I think he should be more worried about Chase Elliott than Kyle Larson. If the two had the exact same amount of points with five races to go, I think the nine is more dangerous because he's not going to have the bad finishes that we have.

He just doesn't D&F. He just quite, he's like Chris Busher, but slightly better results. Does that make any sense? Yeah, he's just consistent. Yeah. And he's going to have a fast car. Yeah.

I would, if I'm Byron, I'm sweating now that the nine is the next in line. just because I think he's steady and fast enough to really have to keep the 24 honest to not have really bad days. I'll tell you what, those bubble drivers are happy that Chase won because Chase and Tyler were the only two really left out there. Yeah, absolutely. As an owner of a cars near it, I was like, yeah,

let's go Chase. It feels just like this win now, people are starting to put a little more respect on Chase Elliott's season. Yeah, they should. I mean, they should. If you look at his results, like he's got some top fives in there. I don't know how many he's got,

but I think over the last five races, I feel like he's got three of them or so. Yeah, but he hadn't won, and so I think when you drive for Hendrik as a fan, that's a team that you expect should be winning, and if you're not winning, then you're not holding up your end of the deal. He expects it too, though.

But Jared's saying that, like, you know, fans are kind of like, well, that's... Right, like, oh, is this Alan, Gustaf and Chase Elliott pairing run its course. It needs to be changed, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what happens when you're... Can't listen to these people. They have no idea.

No, but that's what happens in sports when a good team is not winning. Is it the coach? Is it the coordinator? Right. I hear you. Hopefully that this win changes that tune for a little while.

Truck series went to Lime Rock Park this weekend, and Coreyheim, like you said, raced nearly a perfect race. led 900. So what could he have done different to have a perfect race? Led the last lap. No, he led the second to last lap. He led 99 of 100 laps.

How did this work out? So-and-so passed to start the finish line before him? So because NASCAR wants to create exciting restarts, they let the second place guy line up right beside the leader. Well, when they got the push on the restart, the 34 must have been like a cat's ass hair or fucking ahead of them. I don't know.

And they said that now the 34 is the leader. And Corey got cheated. I don't know. That's just wacky. I think that somehow you got to, after the choose or whatever, like you need to lock in wherever they're at. Like that, man, talk about false advertisement. It's just, you know, the fact that that,

actually count that as a lap lead is just that's what it should be you shouldn't count it until they come back around that's right when you come back around that's common sense but we're not we got to create stats we got to support our narrative through stats that's what we've been biching about for forever to be but it's just listen doesn't really matter corey hym dominated the race he just kicked their ass and so what does it matter uh you know is he's he's he's he's he going to care about a perfect race five years from not no he's now 144 points ahead he should be thankful that his truck didn't end up beached outside turn one like some of the other cars in the field as i told you as we're watching that race i said jesus christ i'd be so pissed if i was out here in my car

for two and a half hours trying hard and at the end of this thing i'm jordan uh what's his name jordan anderson yeah right got just knocked into the yeah not jordan henderson taylor jordan taylor and you just get knocked out into the field. That's what's frustrating about our sport, right? Is that, you know, in the name of excitement, we line them up double file, we have green white checkers, overtime, another overtime, another overtime, and the next thing you know,

somebody that was running eighth wins the race. It didn't happen in this instance. But it's, that's, it's all for the sake of entertainment, but it's the crazy tight, tight rope that we walk every single week. And that's why we pray that we, don't get these because the drivers would love for it to just end like it's supposed to end like where was I running that's where I want to finish that's where I deserve to finish I don't deserve to get knocked out of the way by somebody that you know I had licked the entire race so that's another

thing I appreciate about sorry night is you had all those passes and runs at the end but it was done clean yeah yeah that was great it was it was enjoyable to see no doubt uh we're headed to Chicago hey bro this weekend bro what Sanchez Nick Sanchez Give him some love Come on man McSfinney race

Nick Sanchez Nick Sanchez First Did he did he Did he win in trucks God I hate We don't know this I'm sorry Nick Sanchez

I feel like he did win I don't He had two wins He's got two wins He did He did Wow how did you get that So quick

Wikipedia Oh Congrats to Nick Sanchez Now is one in the truck series And now the Xfinity series he won Atlanta great job great driving by him and a great win for that 48 team they've had some really good drivers over the last few years Parker Cleggerman I'm a huge Parker

clearman fan by the way not just as a commentator I think he's actually a really really really good driver that just doesn't happen to have a ton of funding behind him like other people do but just man awesome for that 48 team Scott Porchetta I believe the owns that team. Yep. It's just a great win. That race really got opened up when the 21 car had his issues. And then he was mad about, what was he mad about after the race?

I don't know. I think somebody gave him the bird. Oh, yeah. And he told him that'll be the last time or something. He'd do that. I wouldn't give Austin Hill the bird. Just, no. You're going to have to let that one slide.

Yeah, I mean, just Nick Sanchez, I think, is, you know, he had a lot of hype a few years ago coming in the truck series. I think he came through the, is it the diversity program? The rev racing diversity program? See, now I'm sounding like an idiot, but I think that's right. and so he was like one of the prospects in my mind that I looked at it was like wow he's actually quite good um he ran well in in arca when he ran um and now he's performing really at every level that they've he's gone to so now like you got to start taking notice of nick sanchise and his ability and one of the key stats i saw from one of the stack guys on on x was

you know he's the leading restart guy in the xfinity series that's hard to do It really is, especially when you're going up a car, in my opinion, he's going up against probably eight or nine cards that are better than his. Like, it's hard to, you know, be the leader of the restart, you know, stat. And now he's, you know, put himself in the playoffs. I think he was right kind of on that edge anyway. I don't know. I think he can do pretty good things.

And certainly think that this win. hopefully is that springboard to that team taking the next step. I think they have an RCR alliance. So they're kind of the next step behind the 21 and the two car. Great win for Nick. Really happy for him. You'd be correct about the Drive for Diversity program. Okay.

Also, this was the second win in the team's history for Big Machine. It was. Do you know who had the other only win? Tyler Reddick. Yep, you're right. Mm-hmm. All right. Well, I think we covered that.

What else we got? Chicago. 55% chance of rain on Sunday. Okay. We'll see if Jordan can't have another baby. Hey, rain almost helped you out on Friday with qualifying. Oh, it was so close, right, Jared? We were in the bus.

And I was like, this is going to be the biggest discrepancy between where I started. rain or no rain like it's and it turned out to be either first or pretty much last um yeah it's fine you know what i actually was strong in if there's no rain at chicago i feel like i've been strong i've been strong there i've been strong there in inaugural year and was and then the sky we went and had a hurricane we had a hurricane remember it was swirling around Chicago. And so I never got to run a lap of dry in that race. Actually, I did at the very end of the first one and I finished 11th.

I think that's right because I was battling Bush or for go figure P10. I'm going to be ready for any conditions. I really am. I feel like I'm learning something. When the Mexico City race was going on and it was wet, I was like, man, I kind of wish I was trying it. Like, I want to get better at it. And I had some long, I had a long text. I actually messaged Christopher Bell says, hey, man, Denny Hamlin here, your teammate.

Could you please tell me what you do in the wet? Said wrong number? He gave me, no, he gave me a long text. And so, I don't know, I just, I'm ready for it. Let's do it. What number qualifying will you be happy with? If it's dry? Yeah.

Inside the top 10. That's what I expect. for myself. I don't, you know, I, I'm really down on myself on road courses, but I, I wasn't that guy. Before the next gen car, I actually had like the second or third best average finish on road courses. I was the next, I was the third place guy every week. I was the Chase Elliott of now next gen in pre-next-gen.

This is true, Travis. This is, this is a true story. Behind True X and Chase. Denny was in the mix. Yes. But the next gym came. And you've done well in qualifying, so it's like now can you just get the full race? Yeah.

I just, listen, at my age, I have to think about how I spend my resources and where do I choose to get better at. I can't just, I can't go all out at every track, at every type. I try to really work on places where I'm right on the edge of being the best driver at that track. What can get me over that edge? In order to get better at generally road course racing or generally in the wet, it would take so much time that I just, I feel like it would hurt me in my energy level at the races that I can and should win. make any sense.

Yeah, makes perfect sense. And so I just, does the championship run through ROR courses? No. You know, we got one, we got the Roval. If you do your job, the Roval shouldn't be. Yeah, and I'm serviceable enough at the Roval to get you a top 10 to 15. Like, that's on speed. That's where I'm at.

Now, we haven't necessarily finished there because we've had to run strategy to chase points because this freaking cutoff that recently. sets every three races. It's like, oh, well, we got to get our stage points. So it'll lock us into the next round. Well, then I got to start in the back of stage two, every roval. And it's, you know, our result looks terrible because of that. But I'm faster than that. So, yeah, it's just, it's about managing the time and energy on the tracks that I should win at this point of my life. But also with these road courses that aren't Sonoma and walking scone if you just run an average race you will probably come away with a respectable finish as long if

you flip stages yes you will absolutely come away with a good finish however my team 11 team has taken stage points the few that we can get and we end up starting in the back pretty much at the start of stage three every time and so then my results look horrible because that's the strategy we take it's to take a take the few points that we can get and then maybe there's calamity that gets me a good finish and now I've got stage points and a decent finish but it just hasn't happened that often well let's hope for a dry track a strong qualifying session the fans deserve a dry track it's how they do you right I mean they deserve a dry track it's just especially if this might be the last one it's been unlucky yeah I'm going and early.

Do a little shopping. It's July 4th on Friday. I know. Is there a firework somewhere? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I don't know where, but there's certainly fire. Probably over the lake.

Yeah. We got to find that. All right. What else you got? Just some times. Practice Saturday at noon. The qualifying following. Can I just say?

I was looking for practicing qualifying this week in Atlanta, and I could not find it. and I realized, oh, it's not on Prime. It's on TNT. No, it was on True. True. Oh, just this. Check the family networks.

Oh my gosh. It's not that hard, guys. It's really not. You say it's not, but I'm in the freaking sport and I couldn't find practicing qualifying. Have you not heard? I thought all of practicing qualifying was on Prime for the whole year. No. Okay, so when we, okay.

Let's do a public service announcement then. Is after these four. five races with T&T over? Does it go back to Prime? Well, then it's NBC. I know, but... I don't know, but you know how you find out? I can check the app.

You don't know, exactly. That's the whole one. But I can check the app and figure it out. They're putting a lot of faith that people were going to go check this. Well, then if you don't check, then you can't... Okay. I can't take these fans bitting about.

I can't find it. Travis, I drive in the NASCAR Cup series, and I, for 20 minutes, not fine practice and qualified. Did you try checking the

guide? Do you check the app? No. Practice and qualifying has been on prime the entire year. I didn't know

that once we switched to TNT it now is going to be on true TV. That is difficult. I don't care who you, like...

We literally said on the podcast last week what it was going to be. I didn't listen. Well, hold on, Travis. I'm now checking

not the app but the website. to try and educate myself on where qualifying will be. Can't do it. You've got to follow Bob Pockris. You got to, well, no, if you go to the website and you check each individual race,

we have the whole schedule here. By the way, that whole, what you're on right now is not user-friendly. I can tell you that, and it works half the time. I'm telling you, we've got to do better. I have to show up. All right. All right. Well, what's it on? Practice. TVD. Go look it up. The race will be on TNT on Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern.

I got a review here from Corbett, Corby, from Spotify. Denny, you're my reason for liking NASCAR. My buddy has been trying to get me into it, and I'm a Buckeye guy for life. Travis chose this one. So I choose you as my driver, and you've made the first season awesome, bought a lot of merch already. there's a lot of merch I'm telling you we're doing well on on the merch stuff they need to have more stuff though I feel like you know

maybe it's time 2311 and JGR have like separate trailers because like it really limits the amount of merch that they can carry what do you mean so like the popular guys have their own trailer right

and so they have Kyle Larson, for instance, probably has 20 different shirts you can choose from. Well, when you share trailers with, I think all of JGR and all 2311 share trailers. So,

a trailer. And so there's only so much they can There's almost some space. So much space. And so there might be two shirts of each driver. I don't know. It's not much. It's really, really hard.

And so I'm voting E2 for you guys to split 2311 and JGR so we can spread our wings

of course we're not in the top five of of souvenir sales we'll have two items let us spread our wings let this dog hunt E2 is going to send you a bill for a second trailer

all right well we'll see you guys after Chicago that'll do it see ya