Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Best of 2023

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

Year 1 of Actions Detrimental is in the books. From Denny Hamlin wrecking Ross Chastain to Joe Gibbs' jet ski story and DH's mom being upset about the cussing...here is a look back on some of the memorable moments. Enjoy Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. What's up, actions, detrimental listeners. Jared Allen, Purple Vest 560 here. Year 1 of the podcast is in the books. Denny Hamlin, driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing number 11 and co-owner of 2311, isn't here today, but we wanted to give you a best-of podcast. We had a lot happen this past season. Denny fined by NASCAR.

NASCAR acknowledging Denny as one of the 75 greatest drivers. Chase Elliott Wrecking DH. Noah Gregson getting punched. Coach Gibbs crashed the pod to have Denny sign his contract extension and share a funny story about jet skis from back in the day. Michael McDowell stopped by after proven Denny wrong. William Byron stopped by after winning the actions detrimental bracket challenge. And even Denny's mom paid a visit to the podcast.

Plus plenty of Ross Chastain talk and a whole lot more. Enjoy. This is the kickoff for Fox. I think we made change on this podcast. We did. Come on. Someone at Fox, you've got to admit it. They got rid of my goatee.

They did. They went back to the less pronounced. They did. Softer look. I need to see, did they adjust everyone's, did they tone everyone's face down slightly? I think last year, I think the sketches were a little less pronounced. You didn't have a goatee. The skin tones were a little softer.

And I think that's what they went back to. I could be wrong, but I think they changed it for everybody, not just you. so elephant in the room i guess what people want to know yeah we i guess i guess you guys have hung on long enough so at the end of the race uh me and ross got into it um basically here's here's the thing right is that i got to the end of the race i saw he was on the outside of me uh i went into turn one with the mindset that I'm going to try to get the best finish that I can get. I'm on two tires and I go into turn one and while I even went shallow on speed, my car plowed. I mean, what it means is I turned the wheel and the front tires just were going straight and they

were calling the one car on the outside. So at that point I knew that I was screwed. I was about to go backwards. I had all the four tire cars on my ass. They were going to pass me, or more than likely, in the next corner, if they didn't. I mean, I know I had two fresh tire cars underneath of me anyway, where I was four wide. And I'm like, I'm going straight to the back. Because he's around you, he's going to get a better run. You're in the middle. And so at that point, I know that I'm going to fit, you know, my crew chief told me there was 18 cars on the lead lap. And at that point, I said, all right, well, I'm probably live looking at a picture. I'm probably running sixth or seventh. I'm about to get passed by everybody behind me who's on fresh tires. I'm going, I'm about to finish

in the mid-teens. And I said, you're coming with me, buddy. Really? I did. Wow, that's not what I thought. I wouldn't mistake. No, it wasn't a mistake. I unleashed, I let the wheel go and I I said he's coming with me. And so, you know, it's been interesting because I hear people say, well, you know, this for last year, this, for this, for that. It's not, you know, I got wrecked at the clash. I don't know that Ross sees it that way. I think he's still curious about what I thought about the clash. I don't know why he would wonder why I thought about the clash.

But, you know, I've said for a while. well you got to do something to get these guys attention whatever and I've said it and I think that Ross doesn't like it when I speak his name in the media and when I had this microphone but I told him oh I have a microphone and I'm going to call it like I see it and until you get a microphone you can then say whatever you want about me but the fact is is while I'm sitting here talking I'm going to call things the way I see it and sometimes I'm going to have to call myself out which I'm the dumb ass who lost just a as many spots as he did. But at the time, I says, well, I'm going to finish anyway, and I'm just

going to make sure that he finishes right here with me. So it's difficult because, you know, at times, you know, people want me to react right away, but I don't want to involve any other cars. I told you guys, you know, privately, my friends, like, it's difficult to be in a position where you can get back at a person and not involve an innocent buy. standard. That is it's really hard to do because then you've got other people pissed at you because you're you're doing something that affected their race when they had nothing to do with it and I never wanted to do that. At the time I'm like you know I'm going to finish in the mid teams anyway because my car's just plowing here I'm about to get ate up by all these new tires I just was like you know

if I'm going to get this guy a hard time this is going to be then and then so he bounced off the wall. So my, my ideal situation was going to kind of just knock him in the fence a little bit, and I was going to keep going. So you were going to finish 14th, 15th. Yeah, probably, probably. Somewhere in there. I mean, it's hard to assume anything, but, but I thought so. But, you know, he actually got the jump. He downshifted quicker, and then, you know, he brake checked me a few times. You saw that from the endboard down the backstretch. He hit the brakes a couple times, and I wouldn't let it off at all. it didn't matter to me. So I just, you know, I wanted to get back to racing, honestly, with him.

And I think that that's a lot of the conversation that we had afterwards. I'm going to say, what was the conversation after race? Because it was a long conversation. He came up to me and he says, I guess I deserved it. And I said, yeah, I think so. You know, I'm not going to sit here on this podcast and ever lie to you guys. and say, well, this is an accident when it's not. It wasn't an accident.

I meant to put them in the fence, but I didn't mean to screw my team in the process, which maybe I should get the DVC. What an idiot for cost of my own team, you know, 10 spots more than likely. We talked in, and I think that we are in a better place where I think we're willing to put the past behind us, and I think that we're going to judge each other

from this point forward. and I think that's the fairest way to do it. You know, as far as this season is concerned, you know, he got me and, you know, while it didn't cost him, it did cost me at the clash. It costs both of us here. But that's my executions, right? So that's not his fault. So I just think that, you know, we need to just race each other with better respect from this point forward.

And that's what I hope to get out of this. And he asked for truth. I ask for a truce and let's just let's just see how it goes from here. Like I'm, there's no promises, but also if you can, you know, I just said, you know, Chastain, I really need to get some respect. Clearly you don't respect me for whatever reason, right? And people have a right to not respect me. Maybe I've done them wrong in the past and something I'm not aware of, but tell me,

like tell me what it is and maybe I can give you an explanation or I can say, you know what, that's my fault and I need to do better. I was in the conversation practically begging him to just take accountability for the past. I had to kind of push him into taking that accountability, but I think that I heard what I wanted to hear, and now I'm ready to move on. And hopefully he's ready to move on, and we're going to race each other hard but clean in the future. And now we're going to move on from this. Are you ready for this?

because this let's just say if NASCAR could do this we don't need credit but just hear me out I have a fix are you about to you got out a pen and it looks like you're about to draw a tie I don't know why I don't know why like you can watch what I'm writing here I do I have a fix and this is something I've been thinking about for years and I actually brought it up to NASCAR uh probably a year and a half ago oh really But I do. I think during the summer months we should be kicking ass in the ratings. We should be, we're just competing against baseball for the most part, maybe some big PGA events when they come up.

I got a fix. Five week, five week fix where we are going to have more storylines than ever. The drivers are going to get amped up. This is it. This is going to be a game changer. And the investment NASCAR will have to, we'll need to put in this to make it happen, they will get a 10-fold return on that investment.

You ready? Okay. Yep, go for it. We're going to have a bracket challenge. We're going to wait till 10 weeks into the year. So let's just say right now, this is week 10, Talladega. You have 10 weeks to get yourself in the top 32 in points. Okay, so leading into that, you could have the storyline of, let's say,

just a few weeks before this, start week eight, week seven. Now TV's talking about who's going to get in the top 32 to get in this bracket challenge, right? So then that's a storyline. Then for the next five weeks, and maybe you do it every other week, but I think you need to do it every week. Five weeks in a row where you have a head-to-head competition and you're seated based off of where you are in points at week 10. So the number one seat is whoever's first in points. They will be going up against the 32nd place guy in points this week. So on and so forth.

Second will play... 31. We'll go against 31. Third will go against 30. And so you have these 16 matchups for this week coming up at Dover. And certainly what that also does is creates now you have some betting lines. you'll probably have Vegas make odds on who the tournament winner will be. They'll probably have odds on the matchups this week.

So there'll be 16 key matchups that will go on this week in Dover. Whoever wins between the two moves on to the next week. I can tell you as the drivers are concerned, we would be wildly competitive for this. The reason is there's a big prize at the end. But not only that, but our egos. You want, like, this is a end season.

I really think that we could, this would create so many storylines, and you would have no idea how much the teams would change their strategies in the middle of the race to beat whoever they're up against that given week to move on to the next round. How much, I mean, content that would be created on two drivers head to head this week. Who's going to win?

Right. Just whoever finished is better. And like even Fox or NBC could have a ticker on the right side. Just put it on the far right or something of, okay, the five cars going against the seven car this week. Here's where, you know, the five and the seven. Here's where they're running right underneath. So you always can see where these head-to-head mashups are during the race. And you can see, oh, we got a head-to-head matchup. And they're running seventh and eighth.

I guarantee you those drivers are going to move each other out of the way to move on to the next round. because they know they're racing against one car that week. You actually didn't make it to the track till Sunday this week. I went to a wedding on Saturday. I love putting you on the spot. Yeah, so you went to a wedding? Were you in the wedding? No, no.

Were you just attending? I was. You keep digging. Oh, you want me to keep going? You're the host. You can ask whatever questions you want. Oh, wow. Okay, this is great.

So who'd you go with? Yeah, a friend invited me to this wedding. You were kind enough to oblige. It was the first practice. I'd really first any track activity I missed in five years. I know, a long time. Did you have to ask Larson for permission too? No, no, just Denny because he's my two and from from these races.

Oh, I got you. I'm just, you just use me for that. He's my transportation. So I got to try to make sure that I could get a ride back if I didn't get it right out there. Okay, well, that's good. I hope you had fun. We missed your photos of me on your iPhone 10.

Those you don't know, Jared's, you know, he does a lot of his work on this, on his camera phone. And, you know, I just got the upgrade. And for myself, I went from an 11 to a 15 plus. So big, big shift there. What's yours? It's a 12. 12.

But it'll soon be that 15. Pro Max. Yeah. Well, we missed you this weekend. It was hot as fuck out there. You're acting like I wasn't there. I showed up on Sunday. I know.

But I mean, I know. When you just show up for race day, it's like you're not really there. Plus, I missed your every, you know, Jared, Jared can't, so those you who don't know, Jared camps out at my bus. So every five minutes is, door open, door closed, push. I mean, I'm trying to like. like either sleep or concentrate on something. Here he comes in.

There he goes out. Okay, you have two choices. Would you rather me do that or just puch? And then you never hear it again because the door just stays open the rest of the day. What do you have to go in and out for you? Get things. I don't know.

Computer things. That's all. No, that's not true because that's in the little banquet area. I mean, you got your shit spread out from one in the bus to the other. So, I mean, it's all right there. Just be thankful when I did get there on Sunday. I had a 640 flight. We landed at like 8 o'clock central time. Tracks not open until 11. I did not enter the bus until you came out at 1130 to go to your first appearance. Did you tell Brad to lock the porta potty next time? Yeah, that was just a bad move on his part. I'm not going to talk about what I saw

but it was very interesting to see him with his helmet on in fire suit he was in a rush listen I felt the same thing he did by the way listen I I had to use the bathroom really really bad I had to pee like extremely bad and so like for the first time

I really don't use the bathroom that much before the like i i know that i need to pee before the race because i know as much fluids as i'm going to take in throughout the race like it starts it it gives me a stomachache at the end because i'm like holding it in and i tried to let it go at at at atlanta now i've never peed or done anything in my suit and my 18 year career never hand to god on that never done it but i was so uncomfortable at the end of atlanta that i i wanted to let me i wanted to let me do that i wanted to let it go. And I'm, I tried to relax. I'm like, just let it go. And I couldn't do it. The stage fright or whatever it was, just not wanting to make a mess in my suit and then to my seat,

I'm just like, I can't do it. There's only one more caution, hopefully, and we're going to get this thing over. So I jumped out of the car, and Brad must have hauled ass to the car because he he beat me to the John. And listen, it's not my job to knock on the door. Like, it's up to him. He Of a green handle. You see a green handle, you pull it. Do you knock on, have you ever knocked on? Never. No.

That's what the green red's for. That's right. So definitely rookie move by Brad. Shout out to the cameraman for capturing that content for me. Shout out. Is it kind of weird though? Why do you follow him? Well, I guess he probably could have thought that maybe he was going to approach another

driver or something. Yeah. But, I mean, keeping the camera on him for the entire time he was in the shot. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Do you want to get to this now? Get to what?

Why you're holding your chin up? Because my neck muscles aren't strong enough to do it. Sure. Let's go ahead. This is what everyone's tuning in for. So, I don't know, you can set the scene. I feel like you were in the car. I was.

I mean, we were, myself, Chase, and the 17 were on fresh tires. We were coming to the end of the state. There was about 15 laps left in the stage, and I felt pretty good about making some ground. The nine car was struggling. He didn't have a very good car all day. Obviously, I had time to kind of watch, go back and watch some of the race while I was sitting in the bus while the race was still going on. And yeah, I think, you know, I was in a position where I was trying to make a move on them. It's the same mistake that we see week in, week out on the day. these mile and a halfs where I mean again what I love about this is that it's the same people that

are like chastain said he left them just one lane well I mean there was a gap between me and the nine I didn't hit the nine he hit the wall I squeezed him up there no question about it you could see fire coming out of my car you can see telemetry I'm slamming on the brakes to try to stop and get off of him to make not make contact but ultimately He made contact with the wall because I forced him up there and then threw a hissy-fit. And, you know, he was having a day anyway, in his opinion. And he threw a little temper tantrum and decided to hook a left on us down the straightaway. And not only straightaway, but the f*** dog leg.

Like I hit head on, not sideways. Like, the worst part of the racetrack that I could possibly hit. So, I don't know. We've seen this. I've seen this with him in the past. You know, when you got pissed off, when Larson kind of drove him up in the fence of California, Larson's leading the race at the end, he intentionally caused a caution there trying to screw Larson over his teammate.

And then when Harvick and him got into it, he came in, where's Harvick? I'm going to help my teammate out, blocked Harvick so Kyle Larson could win. Like, this is just this is bullshit. And so even when he got the Dawsonville pool room saying, oh boy, we need a substitute driver next week. you probably know you f*** up you know like there's no explanation that he could possibly give which he didn't of reason for hanging a left you know he obviously didn't want to admit it he did oh i can't hear you sorry and then uh sorry i can't hear what you're saying but yeah my car just couldn't drive it bulls the wheels were dead straight even after we crashed and like destroyed our

he goes down the back to the roadway and look at both tires front tires are pointed the correct direction. And I pointed out in the data that I tweeted that once he got into the wall, there was nothing wrong with this car. He's turned the wheel back straight like he was going down the straightaway. And you can tell by data whether you've got toe link damage or not. So you can tell that basically if your line is skewed one direction or another where you have to turn it left, turn it right, whether you've been a toe link or have done significant

damage. For God's sakes, Tyler Reddick pounded the wall twice. as hard as he did and didn't hurt his car. Everyone hits the wall. But he threw a hissie fit and he just hung a left on us and the most dangerous part of the racetrack that you possibly could. And it ended my day in his and in my opinion, he shouldn't be racing next weekend because NASCAR set a precedent last year on this. If you want to quote Steve O'Donnell, he says, when they asked, why did they suspend Bubba Wallace? He says, our actions are, were really specific to what took place on the racetrack,

and we look at it on how that incident occurred. In our minds, that was a dangerous act. We thought that it was an intentional and it put other competitors at risk. Jared, make a counter argument. No, I agree. I think both incidents, Bubba, hooking Larson in the Wall at Vegas,

and this one today are almost like that. And by the way, as the coroner of Bubba Wallace, that was bull to. I agreed with it. That's why I, look at all the comments. I said it was bullshit. Like, that is just so immature to right rear hook someone. It's just childish and it just pisses me off because, you know, you got to be better than that.

I don't have any major plans yet. I'm looking forward to Boone in North Carolina, the mountains creating some fake snow so I can go snowboard at least once a week. Oh, are you going to relocate up there? Or are you just going to travel back and forth? Just probably travel back and forth. You haven't found a van down by the river yet? I have not found a van yet. I'm waiting for you to get done with your sequoia out here.

So I can just take that and rip all the seats out and remodel it. So those who don't know, Jared is, he's really taking this granola thing quite far. For what it's worth. You're wanting to live out of your vehicle, right? I said I would like to have a vehicle where it's possible to live out of. Wow. And then I just want to, at some point in the next however many years, I just want to like drive around the west, the desert for like three, four weeks in time.

But you want to stay in the desert? Yeah, like go from like, I don't know, down in Arizona up to. That's cool. You're a traveler. Yeah. I just want to do that. that and live out of my vehicle. First of all, you save so much money on hotel costs. And you don't even need to buy soap, right? You just buy one. I'm just saying either shampoo or

body wash, either we'll get it done for you in this situation. All right. So would you rather, we had this debate? You said that you don't need body wash as long as you have shampoo. I just said, I think the whole shampoo body wash debate is a little for the marketing. Like, you don't need both. Sure, you know, both is good, but you can get away with one or the other. All right, so would you rather have shampoo on your body or body wash on your hair? Shampoo on my body, 100%. Yeah, I think so too.

Yeah. Jared, do you still have like the three and one? No, like I'm just saying that if you, in a situation where you're, you know, you're living out of a car and you need to consolidate space, a bottle of shampoo will do it for you for two weeks. It'll be all right. We talked about this last week. You said, I think we should have my mom on. I think you're watching a lot of episodes with Dale and his wife, right? And that's how that came to be. I got some advice on it for sure. But I'll say that, yeah, you really missed out. Really the content that was worth having was in the first 15 minutes of our car ride to Darlington today on Mother's Day. We carpooled all of us together, me, mom. mom, Jared, and the whole crew. So that was fun. It took a while for you to get the GoPro going,

but by the time you did, everything kind of died down. Yeah, so I didn't necessarily think that we would all be car pulling together. So I wasn't prepared for that. And I get in the car and, like you said, he'd start talking. And it's just a great conversation about things that she does. Well, we didn't get out of the driveway until I dropped a few hours. F bombs. Yeah, right?

And that's when you hear, guys, do you hear, mom, get up close to the microphone and so people can hear you sighing every time I drop an F bomb. I do, I do. She hates it. I hate it. There's no reason for it. Well, listen, I believe it's a way to express how very, very passive. I am about a particular thing that we're talking about.

Or, I mean, and it's also the only word that you can make a complete sentence out of by just saying that word. Yeah. We won't say it, of course. Good. But since this mother, yeah, so since this Mother's Day, my pact is for this show, I'm going to drop no F-bombs for this show. Thank you. Just in this segment while she's sitting here. Thank you very much.

Okay. Yeah. So she appreciates that. We had other players. My mom has a really loud ringer. And I tell her all the time. Mom, the ringer. The ringer.

I mean, she's got her flashlight blinking every time a text comes. That's what happens when you turn old. Mom thinks she's older than she really is. I have people in my basketball league that are older than you, Mom. Huh? Think about that. I have people older than you in my basketball league. Not much older.

Yeah, that part. That's probably true. But no, it's, you know, racing is what we did for forever. I think her really, her passion for racing came when she got to get in a go car herself in the Powder Puff race with a bunch of moms at a Million Motor Raceway. And she was excited when she got out of the car. But she's my biggest fan for sure. Runs my fan club that's been going for decades now.

And she's always the one whenever you send fan mail, please don't send fan mail. but she she gets it and then she sets it all out for me to sign and stuff here in the basement. So she's really in touch with my fans, you know, for sure. There's a lot of, you know, fans that have been fans of mine for such a long part of my career that she's got to know them personally. Ever since the beginning. I mean, for God, that sticks. There's only a handful of them at this point. So, you know, you know all my fans by first name.

I agree. I mean, they stick. With you through thick and thin. For sure. Through all those booze. Oh, speaking away. How do you, how do you feel about the booze? So you don't like the booze?

I don't. I mean, I know. I know why they're there. Why are they there? Because he's so outspoken. Agree. Agree. Yes.

I don't think it's what I do on the racetrack. But I don't think today was appropriate because they were. showing what's the word I'm looking for. Acknowledging the top 75 NASCAR drivers. Yeah, I mean, it was interesting. You would think for sure the fans would just acknowledge, you know, it doesn't matter whether you liked or just like those drivers back when they were around.

And like, you know, I'm standing front and behind all the legends like Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, you know, Jeff Bodine, and all these guys and everyone, I mean, it was an enormous boo. And I was just like, whoa, what do I do? I think I saw a picture of it where they all were turning, looking at you. They were, and they were like, the picture was on my computer. But you know what they all said, though? They said, that's a good thing.

Yeah. Jeff Bodine, he's like, hey, that's a good thing. Bill Elliott, you know, same thing. So it was like... And it's not like some of them haven't gone through. Yeah, for sure. I get it. I see your point, though.

You know, probably a little disrespectful in that setting, for sure. If it's driver intros, I think it's whatever, right? It's free game if you don't know. Right. But, I mean, for so long, Kyle Bush got tons and tons of booze. And all of a sudden, he switched over to R's over. Yeah, no, it switched to me. I mean, Joe Lugano's been the most for a while.

to him and Kyle back and forth, but I've clearly taken the crowd. Kyle's spot at GGR. Yeah, you know, listen, I think there's a certain amount of fans anyway that don't, you know, Tony Stewart, there's a lot of fans that did not like when we switched manufacturers back in 2008,

and then he switched back, and then, bam, they love him again. So that plays a factor, you know, getting into it with a few hundred guys, that'll certainly knock you down the favoritism list for sure. but yeah I always said you know that like the last thing you want

is claps like claps just means ooh-hoo all right next next guy right you know when you're booing or you're cheering

you have some sort of feeling about that person one way or another so I do think that a lot of it certainly comes from comments outspokenness I think that no one

likes an opinionated person And there have been many a time when I have called you up and said, did you really say this? She does. She says it all the time. But as soon as I hear you're part of it as to, instead of just the snippet of it that somebody on the radio might mention, they don't get the whole scope of the conversation. Yeah, I mean, you read headlines.

I mean, it's why we started this podcast, really, right? Is it Dale Jr. thought the same thing. He says, well, I think you're misunderstood. And if you just get the whole word out there, then I think that people will understand you better. But I'm not here to try to be the most popular driver or anything like that. I'm not trying to win any fans over the year. Like me or you don't. But I certainly, you know, my poor mom, guys, think about that when you boo me.

It's my mom is sitting back there just hands. head just shaking her head. And, you know, me and mom had a good heart to heart a few months ago about, you know, my outspokenness. And I was just like, Mom, this is who I am. Like, I hate to. He got it from. Who did he get it from?

His dad. Not for me. Because I'm the type of person that I want to keep everything calm. So I'd rather just go along with the flow. Mom is not the confrontational type. Yes. Yeah, right? If the steak is not cooked properly at the restaurant, you're just going to eat it anyway, right?

Exactly. Well, I can tell you, I finally found a way to deal with him when he was my neighbor. I put Pat, my wife on him. And believe me, she was after him all the time. Music's too loud. Quit parking the cars and my drive. I think it took her about 18 months to run the any out of the neighborhood. He was gone.

We had weekly parties at the house. house, you know, listen, I bought the house because Joe was still at Washington. He was still coaching and I'm like, well, he won't be back anytime soon and I'll be out of here by the time he comes back to the racing team. Oh, no, well, he came back one year later and next to you know, we're truly neighbors. So, you know, when I have people over, you know, they happen to fill up the street and they block his entrance to his house and, you know, I get, you know, I get his wife Pat writing notes on these windshield saying, don't park here, don't park there. turn the music down.

We would have late night basketball games with a few of the Charlotte Bobcat players. Raymond Felton came and a bunch of different guys. They'd come over and play every now and then. But we would play late into the night. But yeah, it was an interesting dynamic we had as neighbors, but I sure am glad I moved out that street. Okay, my favorite story on that. I got one more story. So they had a big party.

I knew it was. Saturday night. Stuff's going all night long and everything. Saturday night. Yeah, and so I come out the next morning, and my jet ski was messed up. So I'm out there with a jet ski, and it's messed up. And so all of a sudden I hear a bunch of them around the pool, okay?

So I'm focused on the jet ski, and all of a sudden I heard this splashing of people coming towards me. And I turned around like this, and there were two girls. I swear to you, they were half dressed. okay and here they come towards me and I'm kind of going I'm looking what is this and so they come over and they go hey hey coach I went yeah they said hey I left my purse on the other side of the lake can you take me over there on the jet ski okay now Pat is on the back porch I'm looking up it paddle the backcourt.

So I got this girl is asking me, and I turned around, I said, not on your life. I said, and then I looked and they're all standing back at the pool and everything. I said, there's your group. Go get those guys that take you across the way. Could you imagine seeing Joe with these two chicks on the back of his jet ski, taking them? Because we lived right across in the sandbar where everybody would kind of boat together. And so, yeah, they asked Joe.

I mean, why they didn't ask me. I'm not sure, but they just, they saw someone tinkering with a jet ski out my neighbor, and they're just like, hey, come give us a ride. They didn't know he was my boss or anything like that. So very awkward morning that day. It was. Anyway, we got him out of the neighborhood. That was it.

I like the context clues in this, though. You said Saturday night jet ski, so it must be fairly warm. So it's not November through January. It's an off weekend. Okay. Yeah. Okay. We're going to argue here on actions detrimental.

That is because of the bracket. The bracket is really what fueled these guys fire, and that's what caused this incident. Noah wanted to be the first 32 seed to upset a one. In the history. In the history. Of the Denny Hamlin bracket. That's right.

He had an opportunity to make history, and Ross didn't cut him any slack. So that's the story and narrative we're going to go with here on this show. Anyway, it fueled Noah somehow, some way to go and approach them, which I respect. like get mad props to Noah to like hey I'm going to be a man and at least go confront him because others myself included haven't confronted Chastain when they felt wrong by him right we just get off in the media and spout off about them and and say how big of a he is and like you know but Noah's

like well no I'm going to go over there I'm going to do what these other drivers have not well I think Chastain was willing to talk and Chastain's been very level-headed in these conversations. Again, I've had multiple with him after the race, but he's been very level-headed. He'll talk to you and talk it through. Now, maybe Noah didn't get the response that he was looking for in that moment. So Noah grabbed him with his left hand. And at that time, Chastain made a just a total pro move and grabbed. grab so he has both of his hands free he then grabs noah's right wrist with his left hand

wrist control risk control is such a oh my gosh such an important part of a fight he then so he crosses he's got he's backing up he grabs chest he grabs noah's right wrist so immediately he knows that noah's probably stronger he's going to lead with that lead with the right so i'm going to know when he starts to bow up with the right because I've got control of his wrist and I'm holding it down so he knows that Noah really can't force a punch on him unless he's going to go jab so he's got control of his wrists and all of a sudden chastain backs up as far as he's willing to and he's telling Noah stop and he told him twice stop stop and he didn't stop and then so chastain then while holding the right wrist comes with the right hand with a solid. I mean, you could hear it right to the jaw,

right? Connects. Noah was about to come with a counter. Gold shirt comes in there, breaks it up. So it's like, oh, man, we just was about to see a counter and it got broken up. So it sucks that that happened. I wish it just kind of would have. Let it go hockey style. Let it go, right? You let them go until it gets to the floor and then you then you then you come up but noah got his counter intercepted by security so chastain once again gets a huge w yeah with with you know got him on the track got them off the track and nothing happened but my favorite part is once security comes in and pulls and is breaking it up chastine it's like i don't want no trouble i don't want no trouble I mean, I'll say this about Noah.

The guy can take a fucking punch, though. I appreciate the guy's jaw. You want to just get right to it? Yeah. Mr. Let's dive right into what the people want to hear. Okay, perfect. Well, as we talked about, the first restart there,

I was on the inside. I really didn't love that position. You know, I thought that maybe double stack on the outside was probably the best idea, but it's so hard. You can't give up the front row, which we didn't. Nobody, it's been a while since someone's given up the front road to, you know, because you just never know which push could be the one that gets you by. And so, um, I didn't really

have a good restart there and I got passed, um, by a couple cars. And, well, yeah, I got passed by a couple cars and then I'm restarting third, I believe, because I got back around the 48. Yeah, I got back around the 48 so I was third so was the third got to choose and I'm like well I'm definitely choosing the outside here this is where I was going to start when I was second and so I got a really really good push from the four and it looked like the inside line did not get going because the 47 was way off of the five on the restart I thought they would actually yeah the 47 was off the five who you know if you don't it takes people three or four cars in line to really get the line going down the front straightaway so i went into turn one and i the key moment for me was getting

clear of the 19 uh right before we get into turn one so i i shot low and next thing no i go in there and i feel like i go in there pretty deep and the five sails off in there and he just goes straight and i'm like oh oh i like in that moment i'm like oh i got a shot and i think i'm going to clear him at that point. So it's really, really tough because this happens in a matter of a half a second or one second, right? It's super quick. So I see him going up the racetrack and lose all of his momentum. I just gas it. And I, and I just am like, I'm going to clear him right here. We're not going to run side by side. At that moment, he says he's still there. He's still there. Still there. And again, this is so bang, bang. It's really, really quick happening. I see where I'm at on the racetrack.

I'm in the middle and I'm like, well, I'm actually towards the straddling the low line and the middle line. So I gas up and I get to the middle lane as quick as I possibly can thinking I'm going to clear him. And once I realize I'm not going to clear him, I'm like, ah, so I start lifting. And when that happens, I'm coming up. He's holding his line and I still contest we did not touch. I know it looks like it, but there's not a ding on the car, not a scratch on the car, nowhere on the right side. So from where I was sitting on the left, I mean, I could not. If it was contact, I certainly didn't feel it.

It was so small that I certainly didn't feel it in the car. I saw the flaps go up, which happens whenever you get some low pressure, I guess it's high pressure underneath the hood, which happens when you do get close to each other. So I throttle up there, but I got to make sure that I've still leave the guy some room to race. He definitely had room up on the high side, but when we get that close to each other, it causes both cars to go extremely tight, which is why we're both lifting, which while we both lost momentum. But it just caused his car to go way tight when we got right next to each other. I was tight. He was tight. we were both lifting and there you know he got into the outside wall um you know we still came off the

corner side by side and then you know the race was really kind of decided um at that point by what happened behind us because there was the 19 and the four both were coming with a huge run and i immediately go down to the bottom of the racetrack all the way to where i didn't want to go down where the cars there's like a jump down where the drains are so i kind of used that as my white line where I knew no one was going to go further left than that. And so it kind of left the four in the 19, no choice really, but to follow me down there because Larson kind of had the high line covered at the moment. So, you know, we still came off side by side, which shouldn't be lost in all this. But, but yeah, it was the push down the back straightaway

that I got that that cleared me ultimately. But yeah, listen, I didn't, I wouldn't, let me think how to word this. I didn't love it because it's Kyle Larson, he's a good friend of mine, but also like I wouldn't change anything. I really wouldn't because I think about the opportunity for me to get 50,

600 for Toyota break the record at the track there's just a lot of factors that goes into it and you guys mentioned you and Travis that like a few weeks ago you're like what I say?

It was last week? Yeah last Monday. What'd I say Travis? You were just talking about how you really wanted 50 and you're like maybe I just have to start driving more aggressive. I'm just going to drive aggressive. And then you ended it with just ask Kyle Larson. No, I didn't.

Yes, you did. Wow. Irony. Yeah, I mean, I think that I try. It's very, very hard, guys, when it's one second. You have one second, half a second to one second to like make decisions on what you're going to do. But ultimately, I wanted to be aggressive. And so the aggressive part was, I'm throttling up right here and I'm going to clear myself right away.

When he didn't get as bad of a, when he didn't. bobble as much as I thought because, listen, I can't see him out on the right side. When he shoots up in the middle of the racetrack, for whatever reason, either drove in too deep or didn't get his right side tires clean, I'm thinking, well, he is going to be really slow here, and I'm going to clear him. I've got to get to the top. I don't want to get freight train, and this is the race for the win. When, again, when the spotter says you're not clear, not clear, he's out there. You know, it's my job at that point. to leave him a racing lane which i thought i did we have william byron here because he is our winner

of our bracket challenge uh and thank you william yeah i told you it was very important for me for you to win this because you helped me win my golf guys pool um i it's good i i i backdoor covered these guys i was in middle of the pack the whole time and then i was the only one to had you winning the whole thing. Cool. And anyone who would listen, you know, early on, I've been very high on you all year talking about, you know, he's in my final four. I just think this was going to be a breakout year for William.

So cool to have you on. And, yeah, just talking about kind of the race this weekend. And so what did, with the bracket challenge, obviously, you know, you leaned into it a little bit and you started an own thing in the, in the, uh, cook. Key Series, right? Yeah, with Logitech? With the I-Racing series, yeah. So we're doing a bracket there as well.

So, I mean, it'd be cool. Those guys are competitive and it'll be nice to see those little battles. But yeah, it was, I enjoyed it. I mean, I thought I listened to you guys, you know, not every show, but some. And I saw the bracket come out and I was like, man, this is the way we're running. I think this is a great opportunity to make some moves. So it was cool. Like not every matchup I looked at, but certainly the Reddick won at Darlington.

and he lined up in front of me on the second last restart. Oh, really? Yeah. And he went in that big wreck and like literally just like he got hooked right. Oh. And I was like, oh, okay, here we go. So you knew that you were up against Reddick. Yeah.

Yeah, that one I did because I thought that one was tough. I mean, he's good at Darlington and I thought we'd be running right around each other. So, so yeah, it was cool. I got wiped, I got cleaned out in the Bowman Berry team as we, as we called in the The Rale-a-Bohman-Berry team. Dynamic duo. Which William beat. Yeah, they beat me, right?

Yeah. At the Coke 600 when I finished it last. But yeah, it was just, you know, this weekend was cool at Nashville. Obviously, always a good vibe there. He had a cell out crowd again. Well, wait, hold up. Before we move on from the bracket, I was just curious of like, as a whole, since you won this, right, what would if the prize was three million dollars if NASCAR eventually take this over like

what would you think about yeah when you when you won like were you thinking about like man this would have been a big payday if this was yeah it would have been really cool if there's some money on the line but i think um yeah one year too soon maybe but i i feel like it it's a really good idea because i i think there's there is that kind of summer lull with NASCAR that you know people either tune in or they're on the you know on the lake or doing whatever So I feel like it's nice to have those battles. I know my high school buddies, like, they loved watching it. They were tuned in.

So they're somewhat betters themselves. So they like to look at those matchups and kind of figure out which tracks better for each guy. Yeah. So you had people texting your brother bracket. Like, hey, I give you to. Yeah, a couple guys for sure. And my crew chief at the end, he was like, all right, let's make sure we lock this thing up here. Well, I mean, you kind of took what should have been.

I mean, not should have been. know, Brad in the final at Sonoma, next thing you know you guys are qualifying 24th and 26th or something like that. It was just like, what are they doing back there? So. And at the end of the race, we talked about it that they were. Two spots. Fourteenth and 16th. I was like, I can't give up a spot. I was in the infield care center. By the way, getting my vitals checked. And I'm watching the monitor. And I'm looking to see where's the story? Well, where's my cars, first of all? Okay. I see Tyler Reddick on the wrong way on the racetrack so I know he's not going to win. And then I check out the William Byron and Brad Kozlowski battle. I'm like, oh, they're only within a second of each other. I'm like,

Brad's trying to chase him down so hard. I know it. But yeah, appreciate you guys agreeing to come on. It started by, by the way, Dale Jr. owes you some sun drop apparently. Oh, yeah, that's right. So we're going to have to make sure he pays up on that. It was funny because Brad tweeted, Brad started this, right? He said, I'll come on if I win. Yep. And then you were like, I'll be there. Yeah. Well, I was like, I was in the sim and I'm reading that as I'm between runs and I'm like, okay. This is a deal. So yeah, it was good. This is the part of the, a new segment called Not Too Late to Say I'm Sorry, Spotser by No One. So let's hash it out from Texas 2020 playoff race. Basically,

I did to you what I did to chase. So I don't know whether I should be thanking you that you didn't just destroy me down the straightaway. Well, I ran you down the racetrack. I just, yeah. So these race cars, we were talking about how you can manipulate the person beside you. You're good at that.

I essentially put William to a decision off the corner because I wanted to get, I was trying to get up and I knew the closer I got to his, left side of his car. It was going to make him tighter. I didn't anticipate at the time my car taking off with his. And so usually when you do that, their car gets tight and then you can just kind of pull back down. Well, I went up there tight with him and caused them to door the fence. And I didn't tear up your car, by the way. I didn't tear up Chase's either. But I got him into the wall. And will he be the introverted child from his young,

days turned into Hulk and says, I'm going to get this guy and spins me out under caution. He's bad. I don't think I've ever seen you retaliate. I was, you know, I told you on the phone. I was, yeah, I think when I got to you under caution, I definitely meant to send a message. But when you went spinning through the infield, I was like, oh, that's not good. Did you think that NASCAR was going to penalize you in the moment? You know what? I thought, I thought so, yeah. And then I thought, I thought maybe they didn't see it or maybe it just was an awkward circumstance where I hit him. Because I did hit you off center a little bit and, I mean, it hit you hard.

Yeah. But I, yeah, I was, I think, you know, a little bit more red mist than I probably anticipated. And yeah, like I said, after and said to you, I meant to, you know, deliver a message. But when you went spinning, I'm like, oh, no, no. Yeah, that's not good. I mean, I took away his chance to win. You lined up, I was on fire. You probably don't remember you lined up behind me the next restart.

I was like, we were like 20th. We, because we both pitted. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we both pitted and they're like, yeah, 11's, you know, chose behind you. I'm like, okay, let's see how this goes. We're either going to wreck big or. No, I wasn't going to do that for sure, especially, you know, playoff race. I understood that.

Yeah. But I remember early in your career, who was it that was trying to get you to, wreck somebody. Chad. Chad, right? He was like, if you don't do something. I ran Kyle Titan one in term one. Was this at Watkins Glen? Yeah, he was faster but it was like lap two or three

and I just kind of pinched you know, through the middle of the corner so he'd have to kind of pinch his, you know, and he just I guess he hit me in the door and spun and he got back to me and sent me through the grass through the bus stop and

you know, Chad's like, if you don't do something, then I'm, you know, we're going to have an issue after the race. And then you destroy the front of your car. Yeah, I just, I was an idiot. He was, uh, yeah, it wasn't his fault. It was just my fault for being, being an idiot. But, uh, man, live and learn. Live and learn, right?

But yeah. Well, I, I tell you, uh, I, I appreciate you, you're coming on because this is, uh, it's been enlightening for sure. And, um, Jared, do you have any others you want to? Well, following up on that, do you have any tips for, Daniel on how to win an appeal for race manipulation. Oh, well. Oh, God.

Oh, God. Oh, Jared. Off to top rope. There is a cherry on top to all this. Obviously, great race. Good for you and that you won. We had the fight on pit road. But Chastain throws his right hook,

knocks no in the face, and then five minutes later, comes to victory lane to congratulate you. You know, hats off to him. he's finding a warm place in my heart chastain is he really is so i just uh feel like yeah i mean since phoenix which you know which is what's supposed to happen is is you get into it you talk it out um you're very rational which we were we said listen we're going to judge each other from this

point forward and there were specific moments in that race where chastain either could have continue to run side by side with me or let me go and he let me go multiple times and i i told him when he came up so you know to let people know he said he just said to me he was like awesome drive man i never thought you were going to get back to him congrats uh i said to him hey i recognize what you what you did early in the race you'll get that back yeah and so um that's that's the kind of the respect that you want to have between drivers is that you know i wanted him to know that that, hey, I recognized you cut me a couple of breaks this race. So I want you know it is in my piggy bank that, you know, when the rolls are reversed

and you're faster, I probably need to let him go a couple times as well. So that's how I think it's supposed to be done. And, you know, thank you for him for coming up. He was, that was mainly of him. Yeah, I think we've reached a point in this relationship where he could come on here and now laugh about all the bulls that you guys. Hey, you never know. I mean, as you know, Ross is not shy about it doesn't matter what happened last week.

He's willing to be the bulldog next week as well. So, yeah, it's starting to warm up to him for sure. Yeah, his tweet was good too. Oh, I love it. I told you on the plane, I saw his tweet. It was just like he said, uneventful day in Kansas looking forward to next week. And I'm just like, he's trolling us, right? You know, he's definitely trolling us.

So that was awesome by either him. It was probably a social team for sure. He gained a lot of fans yesterday. Yeah. And then obviously I got the call on Thursday from Jim France. And I told some of the media members this past weekend, I was like, I remember heading. I forget where I was going. But I was in my car, got to notified Jim France is calling.

I'm like, here we go again. What are they mad about now? like, you know, something I said or whatever. And it was just a huge honor to get that call to be part of the NASCAR 75. And of course, you know, I got asked, what did you ever think about whether you be on it or not? Of course, right? Every driver. There's not a driver in the field.

It's not like, hmm, I wonder if my credentials are good enough to get in there. But, and I knew mine was, but still, until you get the call, like, that's when it makes it real. so I was super honored to get that call and very appreciative. You know, and he said, you know, this is, this came from media members, your peers, things like that, who all vote on this. So it's a big honor. And again, it's, for my standpoint, there's only one next, big one next, right? And that's the Hall of Fame. So this is the closest thing you can get to that before you get to the Hall of Fame.

So I think, you know, it's cool. that, you know, my mom said to me, she says, you know, would you ever imagine, you know, when you were racing at Southside or Langley that, you know, your life would have taken a turn like this, right? We were on the cusp of not racing anymore. We were to our final race and you got a lucky break and got seen at the right time and your career just took off down this path that, you know, look at where you're at now compared to where you're at now compared to where you started, not just, I think Malecki starts every day that I'm able to compete, but then to have the accomplishments in NASCAR that I've had. It's just definitely humbling, for sure.

Isn't that also something that I know you've talked about where it's like when you retire, you want other drivers you race against to think, man, I'd race against that guy every week. Yeah. Yeah, certainly. I think that, you know, NASCAR always kind of gets the driver. together and ask, you know, who's the best at this or who's the best at that? Who, you know, who's, and they don't list it by winners, right? They just know who's my toughest competition. And it could be past drivers, current drivers, whatever. And you just want to be in the forefront of their mind of like someone that they have to beat. And, and I always said, this, I said this 15 years ago, if I was just the guy who was at Southside Speedway and, and I,

went out on the racetrack to run practice laps. If my competition grabbed their stopwatch to, hey, what's he running? Like, that's, that was enough for me. I was fine being a Friday night superstar at my local short track, being the guy that people think, oh, man, he's going to be tough to beat tonight, you know, to get my competition's attention that, you know, if they're going to win, they're going to have to come through me. I thought we were all in agreement that this is great. the regular season finale finished in Daytona was one of the best things

NASCAR has done. Yeah, I mean, it just gave everyone, right? 25 races to point your way in. And if you just ain't going to get there on points, you got that one race at the end. Everyone has a chance.

Try. Yes. Right? And then you got the bubble people like, holy shit, I hope someone new doesn't win. And now, I don't know. I just can't make sense of the change of not just moving it out from the regular,

but moving it one week. I guess what explanation, you know, again, I'm just using Ben Kennedy's media availability here to try to rationale with the thinking of this, is that, well, Labor Day weekend at Darlington means a lot. Who gets a f*** about that? I don't get it. They're putting emphasis on, like, that people really care about, I, well, I'm going to Darlington because it's Labor Day weekend. No, you're going to Darlington because you live in the area and you like NASCAR racing. Right.

Yeah, I'll say as a, like, a new fan. However. I don't care that Labor Day and Darlington go to, like, it doesn't bother me as a new fan. I don't give anything about it. However, could I say this? Yeah. Are you going to be devil's advocate? Because I need it because I don't keep.

People with normal jobs have off on that following Monday, right? Okay. And this race at 6 o'clock and ends at midnight. Okay. I see your point. I see your point. Yeah, I mean, I think about it. My kids get to go to that race, and I'm wondering,

and I usually stay the night after the race because it's so late. And I guess you're right. They don't have school the next day. And this weekly schedule is kind of f***ed up because of the Olympics. So stupid question Why not just running Saturday night then? Why does it have to be Sunday? It doesn't fall on the same date every year.

It's just Labor Day weekend. Yeah, you could. Okay. So messed up the Xfinity scheduling? I don't know. It's just I scratch my head and I bang my head against the wall sometimes

because I think that NASCAR makes decisions to, you know, make a very small crowd that maybe it seems loud on social media or something. I don't even know. That ain't this. That ain't this problem. But they just adhere. It was like, yeah, we're going to make changes because our fans want blank. Like, what fans are you hearing or seeing? I don't. Let me throw out another one. Saturday night for NBC would be college football that weekend where the NFL probably hasn't started yet so they want that Sunday night. Okay.

Well, it has become abundantly clear to me then. We have too many races. To wrap up this Richmond conversation, we might not have too much moving on the track, but we did have some movement in the standings. Bubba on the playoff cut line now plus 54 after yesterday. Michael McDowell plus 18. He's in 16th. Ty Gibbs in 17th minus 18.

followed by AJ Almondinger minus 22, Suarez minus 34, and Chase Elliott now minus 40. Okay, let me update this. My Suarez picked to make the final, the playoffs, that's dead. It's a dead bet. They're heading in the wrong direction.

I haven't really seen the speed out of the track house cars that we saw earlier in the year. But breaking news, Chase Elliott is going to make it. and he's going to make it on points. Stop shaking your head. He's going to make it on points.

You want to know how I know? Yes, please. Okay. Enlighten us. Someone tell me where Bubba Wallace was four weeks ago. How many races we got left? He was around the cut line. You're not listening to me.

Four. How many races are left? Four. Four. Okay. Show me the points from four weeks ago. Bubba Wallace was like zero to the cut line. now he's plus 54

and where has his finish has been low teens during that four week stretch now he's gotten some stage points but the low teens low teens as in around the top time so he went from about the cut line zero and just call it zero I think he was plus minus three whatever

to now plus 54 Chase Ellie is minus 40 minus 40 with four races ago you're telling me he can't make up 40 points and four races he's racing that guy that you're talking about who's had a couple good weeks. He's racing that guy and Michael McDowell for that cut line, though.

He's not racing... Two of them are in. Not one. I understand, but Chase has to... The 17, 18, and 19 guy does not really matter for Chase. He's racing the cut line, right? So he's racing McDowell and Bubba. So you're saying that Chase Elliott can't make up 40 points on McDowell in the next four races.

I'm not saying he can't. But McDowell's three strongest tracks, or, you know, a road... two road courses and a super speedway are coming up in this final race. Breaking news. Chase Elliott's good on fucking road courses. What are you talking about? He's going to point them and he's going to get in on points. You want to give it to me? This is, yeah, I was going to say this is the Jared Allen I told you so.

I know. No, I'm saying I. Okay. It's the I told you so, but it ain't I. It sucks for you. It sucks for you. It sucks for you. You were always right for like 10 days.

Hey, you're always right till you're wrong. We have a special guest, the winner of the Verizon 200 at Indy, Michael McDowell. Welcome, Michael. I love this because now you can defend yourself in person and defend it with this nice, beautiful trophy here in front of us. Man, how's that feel? Oh, it's amazing. I'm not so worried about the defending myself, but to have a car that good. I don't think in my career in a cup series I've ever had.

a car that good. And so to go out there and do it and execute it and get it done is amazing. So it was a, you know, it's a day that we'll remember forever. It's, yeah, it's just what you dream of. Winning the Daytona 500, you know, just a few years ago, now here you are with the indie brick. I wouldn't know I've never won this race at indie. It's the one that chaps me the most in my career actually. So I'm very jealous of that. But it's, you know, when we talked about for the last few weeks, what, you know, who's going to get in? You know, I come in, you see this sheet of paper, Travis writes down, and it's got the bubble and here's, who's in contention and whatnot. That's where we saw on social media, the debate between me and Jared on who's going to get in,

oh, I know you just can't wait. I know you can't wait. So let's just say, I am a numbers person. Yes, you are. I love, I love percentages, knowing my odds. at all times. And so I like to put myself in the most favorable odd situation, which is why I said, what, Chase Elliott can't make up points? You guys have gotta be kidding me, right? The only reason I respond, because you see, I love it. I'm not very active on social media.

The only reason I respond is because I know you're a numbers guy, right? And we've talked about this before, like with Daytona, is if you're not a student of the sport and you're not paying attention, you're not gonna win at this level. at this level. Like you gotta do the work, right? So I'm a numbers guy too and statistic guy. And I'm like, hey, maybe he just doesn't know the numbers. Like we're crushing it in the next-gen era of road courses.

So, you know, I knew Chase Elliott is the best road course racer. There is in our sport. You can't deny that he's got like seven wins in the last five years, right? So statistically, he is the best and I know that. He could win any given weekend. He could have won this weekend. I know that too.

He could win next. He could win the next one. And so it was not that. It was like, if he wins, I'm still going to run fifth. He's not going to get 40 points on me. He might get 15. He might get 20, but there's no way he's going to get 40. But what I was including was Michigan.

Yeah. Now, Talladega, I'm going to give you the nod on that one. I mean, Daytona. You're in my mind, you're a top five super speedway racer. You're just, you're really good. Do you have a bulletin board in the shop that you had Denny's tweets? No, like I said, I mean, I'm not super active on social media. I just like engaging in this one particularly, and I'll be honest with you.

Like, there's certain things that get me fired up. You don't see it a lot. You don't hear it a lot. But two things that fired me up were the last month, month and a half is SVG kicking our butts at Chicago. That frustrated me, man. That should never happen. And that made me mad enough to go to work.

like I'm going to figure it out like I got to be better this is unacceptable not taking away what he did what he did was nothing short of miraculous I mean unbelievable but it shouldn't happen and so that fired me up and then this was just a little extra fuel to the fire right like man you're not paying attention I'm gonna wax them is what I felt like saying right but that's just not me personally but that's what I feel inside yeah so it's I'm just glad that it all worked out man because you You can want it all you want, but if you don't have the stuff to do it, if you don't have the car to do it,

if you don't have the pit stops to do it, it's just talk, right? And so I think speed-wise, we felt good that we were going to be in contention, but execution-wise is something that we've had to get better at. And myself included, man, so many times I've given up good finishes, speeding on pit road, speed and getting to pit road,

or whatever, you know, over the wall too soon, just dumb stuff. pit lane violation, like all those things. You just can't have it in these races and recover from it. And so it was fun to execute. We have a guest, surprise appearance. What are you doing here? This is detrimental.

I got an action that's detrimental. Joe, Joe Gibbs just walked in. Hi, Joe. What's happening? I think I'm going to take a seat. I'm going to slide over here, Coach. You're going to take this. where you got for me this stuff I was in this morning well oddly

it's just handing me some pit stop data you'll see that the 11 was really yeah I was I was happy honestly I thought my team did great all day long you know afterwards I mentioned that you know this is just a game of millimeters you know thousands of an inch and if things don't just go on perfectly these guys have muscle memory that i hit the lug for a certain amount of time and and if if there's just a little hitch or whatever it's it's not tight but it's yeah i was our pick crew i thought did a phenomenal job all all race long they they they were on it no doubt about it um this is actually the very first loose wheel that i've had in next gen so surely you didn't just pop in the door here to talk about

a bad pit stop no i kind of want to talk about the future okay so it seems like uh we've been pretty good for each other for a long period of the time now i go all the way back i think it's one of the great sports stories and i always tell a little story when i'm talking about denny uh i walked out of a restaurant in manassas virginia roughly 20 years ago and there's a kid staying there Look like he's about 11 or 12, and he goes, hey, coach, can you sign this autograph? So he said, coach, I figured he's a football fan. And I took his hat, signed it, and his dad took a picture, and we still got the picture. And I handed it back to him.

And when I turned to leave, he goes, I'm going to drive for you someday. He goes just like that. You know, a kid say that to you because you've got a race team and everything. He said, I pat him on the head. I'd turn around and leave, and it was Denny Hamlin. And when I tell that story, and Denny's around, I always tell him, you didn't tell me I was going to have to pay you a million dollars to drive for me. So that's my story. I tell that all the time in our hospitalities, but people get a kick out of it.

But it's true, and it's kind of interesting how that all took place. J.D. goes up, wanting to buy some late model stuff. you, put you in a test, put you in a truck, put you in a X-Fedity and says, let's sign Denny. And gosh, it's been great for us. And really, you've helped us build our race team. Yeah. Well, I appreciate it.

It's, well, you've been right more times than not. Every time you give advice, you usually give sound advice when I started this race team a long time ago, you know, a few years ago, you're like, are you sure? Because the driver sure get the best end of this deal. and I've quickly realized, yes, the drivers definitely get the best end of this deal. But yeah, it's been a great relationship. I see a contract here in front of me. I'm going to sign that contract that will keep me in that 11 Camry for years to come.

So thank you for everything that you do. For me, obviously it was belief that you had in myself and JD and the belief that he had in myself to keep this going. So certainly the relationship between us has been really, really strong. You guys kind of took over when my dad, you know, there's a great poster out there in my garage. And it's me and J.D. sitting on a wall for my very first Daytona 500. My dad's in the foreground. And that was kind of the passing of the torch, right?

And J.D.'s like, you know, I got them from here. So my parents really were a big part of making huge sacrifices for me to get, to this point, but then now it's on Joe Gibbs racing, and they kind of took over as my on-track family. The post-race reaction from the fans, would you, your video seemed to go pretty viral this past 24 hours. Would you make of that? Yeah, Jared did a good job with that edit for sure.

He did great. You know, this just goes right into my wheelhouse. I don't think people knew that, I love banter. I love talking shit. I do. And now I'm just running well enough where I can back it up. So I,

you know, this, I'm feeding off of it. It's great because I get to capitalize on that. Yeah. I'm feeding off of it because I, I'm proving so many people wrong. And it's like,

all I want to do at this point is, you know, if you root against me, I just want to make these next seven weeks a living hell for you. I do. I just, I just, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I've got some that, uh, our team is running well. And, you know, it just seems like now, you know,

Jared has done some work on social media that's fed these people and the booze and like you just keep the they're getting louder and they're getting more but we're also getting more cheers than ever. So it's like it's been a fun case study because these pictures of you doing a burnout or anything on the front stretch and then the fans behind right it's cool to see their reaction and the last two weeks the darling tin Xfinney win and then the polka no win middle fingers galore. Right. But there's not that at Bristol. There's more like woohoo Denny one or I acknowledge that Denny won and just kicked everyone's ass. Well, what I've noticed on social media is that many people that I see in the comments are like, I just boo because the person next to me is doing it. So that's what my theory is you don't have any more haters. The haters are just more loud, but you are bringing in more fans of you. Yeah.

I just think you're taking that neutral crowd that really didn't care. and you're either pulling more of those way or you're pushing more than that way and doesn't matter which way you're pushing and pulling them, it's good. This is from the bottom of my heart truth is that I'm not trying to get more fans but I love the back and forth.

I mean, you've been around me, anybody that plays in my basketball league or golf league, I love talking shit to people. I just do. It's fun for me. And to me, there's a mental aspect of it that I'm just self-motivating myself through doing it. And it's and it continues to just make me better, right? And so, um, I don't know. I'm just in a good spot right now.

And, uh, it's, it's been fun. This whole thing's been fun. And certainly this kind of all started, um, around kind of the, the Pocono thing with Larson, but it's just, it's taken on a mind of its own at this point and, you know, we're just having fun with it. Hopefully we can just keep it going, right? Because obviously, you know, the first thing, someone that, you know, isn't rooting for you to do, they're just waiting for one week to, like, for you to not do well. See, I told you, I told you, you suck. And, you know, but, you know, you don't, where are you at? I don't see you this week. Like, they've got that tweet. They've got that tweet saved in their drafts. I know, Ready, ready to present.

But hey, I deserve it because I'm not afraid to tell them off too, right? So it's, Travis, I'm, it's fun. I'm rooting for a championship so hard. Just the, like, the social ideas that are out there of what can be done would be so much fun. Jared, there's so much work to be done. I, it's, you know. Not for me. I know.

I'm just long for the ride. That, you know, that's what actually adds more pressure because as well as were running like well hey you know i can't jump towards phoenix and start thinking about how i'm going to win this championship at phoenix like i got six weeks of work left like there's a lot of this process that is still yet to be done and but again i've said many times this year in the press in the media before this playoff this year just feels different i'm denny hamlin driving number 11 for joe gibbs racing and my co-host is jared allen um purple vest 560 however I anticipate that changing for next year really yeah we got to send them back and I

assume I'll probably get a new number I feel bad for whoever has to wear 560 that's a hell of a burden to carry well we have to change that we have to put in a call that you have to get the same number all right well you're going to put in a call then hmm wonder who we got a call there okay well if you're listening uh Jared's gonna need his number back 560 that's his identity it's like your face. We need the fans to tweet at NASCAR and like we need the fans to take this lead for us. Yeah, 100%.

I mean, they do, they yelled out. At NASCAR. 8-560. They do it all the time. Yeah. That's why I said that if somebody else had that number next year, it would be a heck of a burden to carry. Yeah. Thanks again for everyone who listened this year. Please rate, review, and follow

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