Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Blaney is "Mr. Right Now"

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

Jared isn't sure if he will get Purple Vest 560 next year. Denny beat Jared in pickleball and is worried his mom will be mad with his cussing. The Truck Series championship was a s*** show. How can NASCAR fix this problem? Xfinity on the other hand was able to have a clean race. Should NASCAR not give such an advantage to the first pit stall? Is there a concern about the car issues Toyota had at the end of the year? Ross Chastain vs Ryan Blaney. Kevin Harvick retires. 23XI out performs Denny's expectations for them. Plus, #DearDenny Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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%.

The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to a season finale episode of Actions Detramental. I'm Denny Hamling, driver number 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing. And my co-host is Jared Allen 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 got to put in a call then Hmm Wonder who we got a call there Okay, well, if you're listening Jared's going to need his number back 560. That's his identity. It's like your face. We need the fans to tweet at NASCAR.

I'm like, we need the fans to take this lead for us. Yeah, 100%. I mean, they do, they yelled out. At NASCAR. A, 560. They do it all the time. Yeah, that's why I said if somebody else had that number next year, it would be a heck of a burden to carry.

Yeah. Well, off-track stuff, you know, we didn't have much. except for maybe a couple of pickleball matches this week. Yeah, we can just get into the truck stuff, right? Sure. I mean, we can if you want to skip it. It's just not my favor to talk about this. I got one arm, so I just figure this to be your best shot.

That's not true. You were way worse last year. Well, yes. I've gotten better over time, but I've... Right, but to say you have one arm is not fair. It is absolutely fair. It's not. Okay.

The performance at least does not show that. Well, it's luckily this game, elder people can play like myself, and we don't have to move around much. We don't have to swing hard. We can just kind of put it in spots where you can't get to it. Shouldn't you have gotten better over since last year too, Jared? Like, that's kind of how sports works. Like, you progress.

I just don't play that much and rely on a, a natural athletic ability to carry me through. That's a joke. I don't have a natural athletic ability. But anyway, what Denny's getting out here, he wants to say that he beat me

two games to zero in pickleball. This bet that we've had going for the majority of the season, he won. He beat me twice. Okay. And that's it. All right, thank you. That's all we need.

Moving on. The Trek Series, What a show that was. I mean, what a show. It was, it's fucking terrible. I don't even know how else to put it. I mean, it was just one of those things where, hey, are you hitting a button every time I cuss?

Yeah. Is it a marker button? Yeah. Nice. That's good observation by you. But if you put it again, But if you cuss and close to each other, I'm not going to try to separate it. I've been missing a few lately, so I've trying to be more.

Oh, yeah, we know. We know. Well, I've, all right, I know my mom's listening. I got to back her down. Okay. It was just not good. It wasn't a good look. And obviously, it's kind of old news now and people kind of forget about it.

But, man, what a terrible precedent that set just for how to race for a championship and whatnot. just generally speaking, just how guys drove each other anyway. I mean, I don't know why they thought that, well, it's the last race so I can just grind all my axes right here in this race. Like a lot of the wrecks weren't even some championship contender guys that are going forth. They're just a part-time guy wrecking a full-time guy or a full-time guy wrecking a part-time guy. It was just, I just don't get it.

They just lost. their brains and you know maybe they watched the extenity race from the previous week and and saw that it was okay and now we're doing this on the regular so yeah just not a good look um you know i worry you know i i worry about the long-term stuff of like you know when you do nothing about it and you saw my my tweet on x just basically saying you know this is what happens when you don't have rules or officiating and it's you know you get a messy product and and so i i definitely stand by that because i believe in the long term um you're not gaining any new fans by by allowing that to happen uh i believe now this is my just my opinion that you take the casuals that watch it and

say this isn't this isn't a real sport like they just knock each other other they just wreck each other it's like a demo derby i can watch that on saturday night at my local track like it's we're supposed to be professionals right so it's just in my opinion is a bad look and you know if you want to sit at the adults table for dinner you have to act like an adult and none of them acted like an adult and you know i saw where one of the owners is like you know i wouldn't hire any of those guys i agree i mean is it is the problem though really no rules or no officiating like is that really the answer is this come down to the people i believe so because racing the cars yeah so it's to me it's the same as the restart zone right we said hey this is getting out of hand and so what nasker did is

then they said okay we'll get involved so when they saw some bad restarts and guys laying back they then called it well i i looked at phoenix and the field is bunched up right i mean phoenix is a different racetrack anyway you don't the runs are a little different but it only takes a couple calls for them to say you know what we are going we're not going to put up with this circus you know you're not going to just keep sending us under caution every every 10 seconds like that's not good for us. To make a call and say, that was deliberate. We watched you not only hit the person, but then gas up and keep going.

Like, never give the person. You don't have to call the racing incidences. And I even, someone even mentioned, well, do you call, like for an instance, do you call the Carson Hosevar and Corey Hymrake? No. No, that was a racing incident. However, what we saw is bad driving on restarts where people jammed it and ran into someone's bumper and then just kept driving until they spun them out. Or the person who ran directly into, I think it was the 25 truck, just deliberately took them out into turn three.

Like that's, that is deliberate and it's just not a good look. So I think that it just takes you to make one deliberate call. There's going to be 10 of these instances at the clash. They could use the clash as an example to say, okay, if this gets out of hand, like the clash keeps getting more and more like that truck race in Phoenix. Every time we go there, it gets more and more like it, where people just are accepting of,

all right, I'm going to power drive you into the car in front of you and that guy will get either wrecked or spun and I'll move up a spot. Like that's what mentality is going on right now. You've got to stop it. If you stop it once or twice, you'll have the racing that we're supposed to see. I mean, can't you just have,

like to me this is just all a problem with the drivers in the truck series. You don't have this issue on Saturday and you don't have this issue. Because they have no discipline. Right. So to me, then this is way bigger than just creating a bunch of a couple rules

for the children's table. Like this is the problem with the people at the table. Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm saying, Jared. I don't know where the confusion is. Okay, but I'm saying is that you have three tables and one table is acting up all the time. Instead of creating rules just for that table, just don't have.

It's not just that series. We saw it in Xfinity. Same thing last week. I mean, the truck series. And then the cup, I just mentioned that we're going to, it's going to happen in the clash. unless the adult, which is NASCAR, and calling them the adult, says to the children, no.

That's not how you're supposed to do this. We're a professional stock car series. Act accordingly. Right. I just feel like this truck race on whatever it was Friday is way different than what we're going to see at the clash. It's way more egregious. Travis, tell him.

No fucking way. It was a mess. this past year. An absolute mess. Everyone just kept piling into each other until someone spun. But this truck race was way different. In my opinion. Okay.

I mean, you got a bunch of guys racing for the championship and you've got six cautions at the end. It wasn't six, but I'm just throwing the number out there. And you've got one with three laps to go is Corey Heim, you know, paying back Carson Hosephar with three to go. That alter is the ending of the truck race.

Like, that's just way different than the clash. circumstances are just completely different. Okay, what about the Xenity of the week before? I mean, it was never ending. It's the same thing. It's somebody in sixth was mad that somebody in fourth bumped them 30 laps ago. So they just plow into them on a restart and wreck them. I just feel like you're opening up a can of worms by having to make calls on all these things. It's not going to be a regular occurrence because when the driver understands, the repercussions is I have to go to the back and my race is over, they will stop it. It is self-policing in that way.

And instead, the old Bill France way, oh, well, it was self-police itself. That's what's happening out there. Someone is bumping someone, and then someone's taking it to the next level and wrecking the shit out of them. That's what's going on on the track. That's self-policing. That's what's going on. These guys aren't doing it for no.

reason it's because that person may have ran them slightly up the track a lot before so they're just crashing them well what about when the correct call isn't made like what happens when it it needs to be blatant and obvious i i don't understand there's there's many instances where it is blatant and obvious those are the ones that you make the call on okay okay it's a ball and strike here just like anything else it's i get it i just feel like the majority of those are coming from guys mid-pack anyway where the the the the uh the punishment it isn't going to be i like it's just not going to change anything i don't know i mean the cars tour they can officiate it do you think they have the infrastructure nascar does okay well

they're they're they're putting blatant wrecks to the back i will say to jared's defense i think there will be you say it's balls and strike well how many times is a a ball called a strike like there's going to be some incidents. So then how do you deal with that? I feel like you're solving a problem, but you're potentially creating another problem. I don't disagree. There's a cause and effect for everything.

But missing a call versus not doing anything is worse for the overall sport in the long run. This is not a joke of a series. Like, we're the top three series in motorsports in the U.S. officiate it accordingly. I don't understand why that's so hard. They used to park Dailer & Hart for a lap or two laps when he would, when he blatantly wrecked someone. That's been around for a ton for a long time.

And then what happened is NASCAR figured probably, well, that's actually kind of good for the sport. But then people are just taking it too far. they've taken the gap that they've given the rope that they've been given is they're just taking too much of it so you got to reel that back now

how many times you think it would take for the drivers to get the message a couple? A couple. Just a couple. That's fine. I mean it just a couple is fine. But anyway we were nearly right with Grant Infinger just out of the blue

winning the thing. He probably should have. And, you know, when you look at kind of how the last part of the race played out, you know, it was very disappointing to see Carson wrecked Corey Hime. Corey was raised him clean. He took his time getting around him. He was methodical to, you know, in the way that he passed him. And then the 42 of Carson attempted to hit him once. and he did and it didn't get him enough out of shape so then he attempted to hit him again and

then his crying tears that he wrecked him afterwards like what did you think it was going to happen like there's a very fine line between moving someone up to racetrack and then you know for instance like Larson did Blaney right he was trying to slow

he knew what was going to happen he was trying to delay when it was going to happen So he's trying to either get one more caution. If he can delay that pass for a handful more laps, then that gives him an opportunity to, if the race goes green, then there's less laps in the race. So he's going to finish less, you know, not as far in front of me,

and then maybe I'll have a shot later. Or I'll get a caution, stay my track position in front of them, and then you never know what can happen on another restart. So what we saw with the five and the 12 in the cup race, that was executed correctly. That was Larson trying to make an attempt to delay the inevitable with the 12 car that was faster in him and was going to pass him. The 42 just wiped them out and then was, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen. Yes, you did.

You meant to hit them and knock them out of shape. And the difference in the amount of force it takes to knock someone out of shape versus spin them out of shape is a very, very small margin, like entirely small, very, very small. So he noticed that he didn't get him out of shape enough the first time, so he was trying to do it again to, you know, you can argue whether he meant to knock him out of the way or wreck them or whatever. It doesn't matter. The result was the same that he spun the championship leader who had just passed him clean.

So it was, you know, obviously not a good look. you know, Tyler Reddick tweeted something. I retweeted it because I believe, I believe what he said. Martin Truex made some pointed comments about it. I believe what he said. I'll just agree with what those guys are saying and that he's got a long way to go for sure, especially racing on Sunday.

He's got a very, very long way to go. That tweet from Redick was, this dumb asshole never learn. Yeah. I mean, he will learn. It's just going to take a, it appears it's going to take a very, very long time because he doesn't learn very well.

Although we were just singing his praises here a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Which is ironic. Yeah, I mean, I think because of the performance that he's had, winning races and whatnot, yeah, he went through definitely a phase in the middle of summer where he wasn't crashing people all the time. It stemmed from, remember Martin Zill,

he hooked right rear hooked somebody. Yeah, I mean, we've seen a little bit of the stuff happening in the cup race. I mentioned it when he wrecked Ty Gibbs for whatever reason last week. And then when I've been around him too, I've just seen him get on some people's nerves. Let's just say, leave it at that. and so you know it just takes time to learn and you're going to learn that these races are really long and you got you know it's give and take at times of the race and you know again he is he is young he will learn it just will take you know a fair amount of time to to for for him to get there

where do you stand on the the payback that we saw on track yeah i mean i'm so i'm so torn on it Only because I think what happened to Corey was so wrong, you know. I think in general, what Corey did was wrong. It wasn't wrong except for in that situation. It's the end of the race. You've got, Grant's got this thing in the bag. I think it was three laps to go or something. Yeah, it altered the race.

It obviously altered the championship. You know, I don't know. It's tough for me to be hard on him because I, I sympathize with him because the guy had it in the bag and he got it taken away from him. You know, it's the head-banging part of this sport of like he did everything he was supposed to do correctly. And he ended up crash because someone chose not to race him fairly. And so he gets to find on whether he won a championship because of somebody else's decision, not his. and I don't... I'm talking about Corey Heim.

Yeah. And so he's pissed off in the moment, right? And he's like, I'm not waiting until next year. Next year, my emotions ain't going to be what they are right now. And so I'm, you know, did he mean to bring out a caution? I don't know. But he definitely meant to run him up the racetrack. There's no doubt about that.

Right. It's funny because, you know, this situation may not have turned out the same. But if Corey Heim kept this car on the racetrack and didn't destroy his own truck, he could have had a chance to still win the championship. Yeah, I mean, with the way everything played out. Yeah, I was watching how it was going to play out and he was done. Yeah, he would have to pit.

It just, he was done. The other two been roads and if he didn't take the right side off his truck in that caution, is what I'm saying. Yeah. But he was going backwards. Like he wasn't able to keep up with any of those guys anyway. Like he was already the third guy in championship line. Right. just the way it turned out.

It's like if your truck was on the track, you had a chance. And this is his last chance to pay back Carson. Yeah. Ah, that's true too. I didn't think about that. Yeah,

because Carson's moving on, right? And he's not. Yeah. I don't know. That just seems like an off the track. Which that's backwards, by the way.

What? Nothing. It's just making comments. Yeah. So you had Ben Rhodes. Ben Rhodes is your truck series champion. I don't know who's, saw that coming.

With all due respect to Ben Rhodes, I didn't, he was invisible. He didn't have a whole lot going on this year. But he won the race that it mattered and he's the champion again. And we got the great, see the great Ben Rhodes pressed her after. What's interesting is they said he goes from being totally sober out of the truck to 10 minutes later, absolutely hammered in the media center. And so I guess that happens between the transport, transportation of been between the car and the media center?

When's it? The champagne and victory lane. Oh, he just kills it? They said they moved his barn appearance to after the press conference. So he knew that and just went all in on the champagne, the victory lane champagne. Before they did the barn and then? he they moved if i got this right they moved last year when he won the or two years ago we won the

truck championship he went to the barn first and then the media center which is why he was so hammered but this year they changed it to put the barn after his media center and he heard that they did that so he just got hammered in victory lane on the on the champagne gotcha you know it's so interesting i hear you saying the the barn like we're listening talking about the spots that we're going to watch the f1 race when we're in Vegas. Uh-huh. Could you imagine one of the,

hey, we can watch and turn four at the barn. Like, it's just, the lingo, it's just so different. And, you know, paddocks and it's just different. It's just different. But yeah, so that was interesting. It just, it goes to a bigger, wider question in my mind, because, you know, I don't want to jump too far ahead, but it was very similar to Blaney's in the sense of,

I mean, Blaney was more dominant in the round, of eight than say Ben Rhodes was where he was kind of more surviving and getting the best out of his day and then just win

you know well I guess he didn't win the race right no and then he ran well at Phoenix and he won championship same with Blaney

right it's you got to just be good at Phoenix now I mean is that the new riddle to winning a championship you got to be good the final

four races. You got to get to the round of eight and then just be good the final four races. It appears that riddle works. It's just focused on a couple races. Well, think about this. Ford this year won eight cups, five Xfinity, six trucks. They had all three championships. I don't know. I mean, I just think that it's why we were talking about Blaney is, he's going to be the fastest. It's just historically, that's been a really good Penske track and they did it. They did it. I mean, if you take them to, I don't know, somewhere else, I mean, maybe it's a different outcome, but he was, I mean, he was good at all the, he was good the last five races, like legit. Yeah, it was very fast. Like, out of the blue. And so it was,

it was a game changer when he showed up in the round of eight and really last couple of races of around 12, like he was starting to come on and the next thing, no, it's, whoa, where did he come from? You know, we even talked about on the show, I don't think he has the speed. I think he's, not him personally, I just, the cars had not shown any speed. And what's interesting is the 22 is not shown any speed. Like, there's usually not a gap between the two. So it's, he just either stepped up his game and got a lot better or the cars got better or whatever it was. The last five races won in the championship.

Yeah, listening to the tear-down this morning, I guess the last shout-out for that show this season was reminded that earlier in the playoffs, Joey had said, you know, we just want to hang around long enough until we figure it out. Yeah. I mean, whatever they figured out, they gained a ton in a very, very short,

amount of time. That's the goal, right? It's just hang around in the playoffs. Make it from advance through the rounds. And if you're not good in the round of 16, maybe you'll figure it out by the round of eight. So it's like what I was talking about with the 12 and the 5 and the 42 and the 11 in trucks. They're trying to delay the inevitable to maybe catch a break. And so that's what you're saying is what Joey was talking about is that we're just trying to hang around long enough for something good to happen. And it did. And it did.

Joey didn't make it, but the 12, I don't know why Joey didn't make it. I'm more than likely had a bad race or two, finish bad, but usually you can make it to the round of eight by still being just solid. You know what I mean? You don't have to be great in the round of 12

to make eight. You got to be just pretty solid. Yeah. You got to just not suck in the round of 12. of 16, be solid in the round of 12. Not have anything happen to you. You got to be great in the round of eight and then the final race. But, you know, it's apparent to me personally, and I hate to jump too far ahead.

But like, if people say, well, how are you going to win a championship next year? I'm like, I just, I got to run better at Phoenix. Yeah, I mean, you got to run better at the round of eight. You run good through the round of eight. We ran good enough. We ran good enough to make it. The mechanical failure kept us from making. Sure.

But then, I'm including that in this. But it doesn't matter unless me, the 11 team gets better at Phoenix. It doesn't matter. Again, we can win 35 races. It doesn't matter. If you're not really, really good at Phoenix, none of this matters, right? Correct. So do you up how much like Sim time and stuff on Phoenix and the office in the

off-season? Yeah, what's the recipe to getting better specifically of the Phoenix? I mean, you've got to figure it out. There's different ways you can work on it. But, I mean, like, I look in general, and I mean, Truex was somewhat up front, but it was, we just weren't that strong,

generally speaking. Like, even Seabelle didn't qualify his normal, you know, and in the race, he was okay. I was watching plenty of SMT and the 12 was still stronger, much stronger than he was in the long run. So it was going to be difficult.

So it's interesting. I mean, we knew this is the format. We've always known this format, but it was just, this is the first year that, in my opinion, the Ben Rhodes and the Ryan Blaney's were they just got good in the last couple of races and won the championship.

Like they got, I mean, when I say good, they got great. They didn't get good. They got great. And won. And so can you just hang around and get past some of these summer races and whatever and just win it in the end? It appears that mythology works. I don't know.

I mean, it's hard to count on that. but it worked for those guys and certainly, you know, I can't find the account, but there was a really good count on X that shows, like, the stat leaders in all these different categories. And you see, like, the general, like I saw the truck series, it's like Corey Heim leads most of this, and Carson Hosephar led a little bit of this category.

Like, you kind of see all of it, and then it's kind of you see who was really up front the entire year and like and you never saw Ben Roads on any of it which was crazy like it and I don't even remember how he

made it to the round of eight I think he didn't he have a different strategy or something at Homestead I think he had a different strategy yeah and then it worked out for him made it by a couple points if I remember correctly because they were they really weren't very good

on speed, but they just had a different strategy. They got in, and next thing you know, they survived that mess of a race and won the championship. So it's a head scratcher for me, for sure. I clearly have not figured out this riddle. And it all seems to bowl down to you got to have good luck at the end. You know, you can't have a bad race in the round of eight, and you've got to be great at Phoenix. And that's what made Blaney in our. eyes the favor going in there.

He's historically has been great there and Penske has and it showed up once again that it favored that one team. Yeah, Ben Rhodes squeaks into the championship for with strategic call at Homestead as the headline. And now

he's your champion. Just keep your day alive. I mean, that goes back. We'll be talking about this soon enough with Daytona, but that goes back to your philosophy on blocking, right? It's just keep your race alive. As long as possible, you don't know what could happen. Is Coke Zero Sugar the best Coke ever?

I know that's a bold question, but it's got that irresistible taste to back it up. Well, one thing's for sure. When you've got an irresistible match like Zero Sugar and Zero Calories, something sensational is bound to happen. It's like when me and my co-host Jared team up to make a podcast. It's too bad you can't taste with your ears because Coke Zero Sugar tastes so amazing. It's hard to put it into words. But hey, that's my job.

but at least on Mondays. You have to taste it for yourself. Coke zero sugar, the best Coke ever. We skipped over the Xfinity race. No, well, we didn't because I didn't really go into the cup race quite yet, but we're getting there. So, Cole Custer wins Xfinity. Hats off to all the Xfinity competitors. Way to finish that race.

Way to do a good job, racing it out. I thought that John Hunter was in a really good position to, win that race. I thought he just overdrove turn one, and that's why he went straight. I didn't see any flat tires or anything like that. I don't know. I wasn't in the car, so it's tough for me to say, but it looked like just went too deep, slid up the racetrack, and then he got in the loose stuff outside the groove and

lost some positions. But, you know, then you saw a great. eight, I think it was two or three wide into turn three. Everyone over drove the corner. Algeyer, he was in there. He overdrove the corner. He got up too high. Cole Custer overdrove the entry, but was able to pull it down on the exit. And, you know, you could argue the best car one. It was close between him and John Hunter, who had the fastest car. It looked like they were tit for tat pretty much the entire event. Then it was kind of. kind of just an Algeyer than it was Sam Mayer.

But Cole Custer, really happy for him. You know, he's a really good guy, and he tried to cut his teeth in the Cup series, and he had some success. I think he won in his rookie year, but it just kind of went downhill from there. I mean, you can, you know, it's really tough to say now in retrospect, now that we've had a little time, like, did he just, you know, wasn't it? him or not. I think he's going to get his

spot back in the Cup series sooner than later. Certainly his results in the Xfinity series as much as he's proving himself, I deserve. He probably deserves that. And so he gets to enjoy this Xfinity win, as he should.

Him and John Hunter, you feel like we're just the most consistent, I mean, just now Geyer was really strong as well. the second half of the year. But those three, you wanted to see one of those three really win the championship, just because I thought that they were the most dominant the entire year. And more than likely, if you saw this big old giant stat column,

of all these different stats of lap sled and driver ratings and top five, top tens, wins, they're going to take up the bulk of the page on that. And so it's good to see that that Cole was able to bring that home. And great to see Tony in there and how excited he was as well that Cole won it. And this kind of goes back to drivers where if it doesn't work out in the Cup Series on your first go-around, if you drop back down to a lower series and win races, right, and keep your name on the map, you'll likely get that second chance. We're going to see it with John Hunter.

And like you said, it seems like it'll be inevitable for Cole Custer one of these days. Yeah, and that's what it's designed to do, right? and Xfinity is kind of the stepping stone to Cup. The cars don't relate as much as they used to for sure. Probably the truck series is a little bit more equal in how you drive them to what a next-gen car is. But yeah, it is considered the second tier series and Colcuster finally gets his championship there.

A cup series on Sunday, as I think Travis pointed out, word sweeps the weekend. Sweep it out of nowhere. Out of nowhere for sure. But I thought that the race kind of played out how it looked like practice was going. Even though we did have an extended practice that this weekend, the 12 car had the most speed. It seemed like then it was kind of the 20. And I thought that the 24 and the 5 were going to lack a little speed.

I think you had even seen in William Byron's comments or someone at Hendricks comments about the lower downforce package, they don't, they're not as good. You know, their cars aren't as good. They don't have as much speed, you know, just outright speed and long run speed. And I think that that kind of showed up on Sunday. I thought that the 12 was methodical making his way to the front. it was a matter of time before he got there. If he ever controlled the race, it was going to be a snoozer.

Because I think, I mean, challenging, I believe it was already challenging from what I hear passing for the lead. But I think that he was by far the best. The five car just really lack long run speed. That's kind of their Achilles heel, it seems like, is that they've got such fast speed at the beginning. of runs. This is just generally speaking, not just about Phoenix, that, you know, they struggle with long run speed. That's more than likely Larson pushing the car, you know, to its absolute capability, which makes them so lightning fast. But eventually something has to wear down and it's usually the tires that do that. But, you know, he put up a great effort, a valiant effort trying to

hold off what was the fastest car of the weekend, which is the 12 of Blaney. The 24 made it out on pit road. Didn't he take the lead like two or three times on pit road? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I guess I see this both ways, but there's such, there's a long gap between the camera at the end of pit road and then where the yellow line is, where they stop where pit road speed ends.

Do we have to give the number one pit box that big advantage? Like I'm wondering, you know, It's such a big race. Why do you, if we had another champion decided on pit road, is that really? I mean, I guess it is a team sport. So it is. So you want to give the pit crew guys a chance. And it's up to the driver and the team to keep putting themselves in position for the, for the pit crew to put them out first.

Right. But it is a considerable time difference in having the number one stall versus having. having, you know, the fifth stall. Right. Well, it's funny you say that, not that he had the first stall, but, but Larson had said, you know, he wanted more pit style. He wanted to, to pit more often because he knew his pit crew was so good that he could gain those spots he couldn't gain on track on pit road. However, ultimately, the guy who did come out on pit road first on the final caution was not the winner of the race. Right. Right. Which that's why we saw a great battle there, right? Is that, you know, we, I think

we kind of knew that the 12 team had definitely gotten better, but I just didn't think that they had the all-out speed that the 24 and the 5 had. The 5 had most top-end speed, I felt, I felt like. The 24 most solid, like fast and solid. And then, you know, then the 20 and the 12 after that. And it kind of played out that way. And, you know, like Larson's saying, that's why they love cautions, right they love cautions because they're going to gain spots on pit road and then it fits their cars handling characteristics as well which is to be fast on the short run so they're always going to want more cautions more cautions because it just fits kind of their emo of what their bread and butter is same with the 24 once he got out of the lead it it appeared he wasn't really that strong

but he just had the track position and was able to keep it. And his pick crew just kept giving more and more chances, which that really is how the regular season played out as well, is that he would just keep himself in the top five. And, you know, again, he let's let a lot of laps too. Let's not discredit that. He led, I believe, over a thousand laps this year. But then the pick crew would just put him out front,

and then boom, he'd check out and be gone. So it's definitely that number one stall is a huge, huge advantage, especially in today's next gen racing where it's very, very difficult to pass. So I'm wondering to level this thing out. They've leveled everything else out. Why not level out the camera on pit road to make it so where one car doesn't have that big of an advantage over the rest of the field rolling down pit road? Is there something to these mechanical failures that Toyota had?

down the stretch that kind of took away their championship hopes this year? I think it was more of a coincidence than anything, you know, because the two things don't even remotely relate with my searing issue. I'm throwing Truex's blowing engine in there, too. Yeah. Well, that's a good point. No, it is coincidence still because they're all different. But yeah, it's certainly played a role.

the in the last three races, right? So I think that it's certainly not ideal. You know, we don't know, I don't know personally, whether that was a setup issue with the 20 or a driver too much break issue. I don't know, but if it blows a rotor out, then it's too hot. So it got too hot somehow, some way.

what's usually the reason of brake rudder gets too hot? Usually it's you know the front of the car is taped off too much so they're not having enough air cooling it but I heard them mention that the 20 was wide open

on that I think even TV mentioned that the openings were wide open on the 20 car so then it could be what would be the next thing is that a lot of right front brake bias or something

I'm not who knows you know there's just could be a lot of different factors into it it could be set up it could be break package a lot of things but either way blown rotors come from too much heat um so you know there's not too much hidden there and so you know who it certainly was a bad break for for seabell he's doing everything that he can he's making his way towards the front he's kind of following the 12's footsteps a little bit through the field and well the 12 got around him i believe leave and then you know he was following him through there but you know i think the best car of the day won the race and well they didn't win the race when they they won the championship of the best five

i'm sorry the best four cars um and really for the first time since we did it in homestead we had a new winner when the race that didn't wasn't part of the final four in chastain so uh it's just yeah it speaks to the level of how equal these cars are. And if you get out front, you can arrow block. We saw Blaney and Chastain's comments after the race. Just kind of, you know, Blaney, you know, Blaney, he says a lot on the radio when he's racing. If things don't go his way, he certainly gets upset pretty quickly. But, you know, he's upset because he feels Chastain is.

backing him up to the five car, which is coming. So while Chastain's probably just doing whatever he can to maintain the lead and arrow blocking him, I mean, that's how much an advantage it is to be out front is Chastain is able to slow his car down enough to swerve through the corners. And the second place guy who runs the optimum line still cannot pass them, pass them. Because the minute he swerves into the wake and creates a wake for the 12, the 12 instantly loses so much grip that he backs him up. Right. Is that a 100% reality, though, because, I mean, Blaney drove around Larson, which looked, you know, fairly routine. So if Larson could do the same thing that Chastain did to keep Blaney behind him, then why wouldn't?

It just seems like that Chastain was probably just a little faster than Blaney. or Blaney wasn't fast enough that he was going to just roll around him easily. Well, I was watching the lap times. He was easily two to three tenths faster than him. And in short track terms, let me break this down elementary. In short track terms and Phoenix races like a short track, two or three tenths is a mile faster. And still you can't get around.

Like you're not going to get a half a second fast. It's impossible. The cars are too equal. I don't care if you put the left front spring in the right front. You're not going to... So then why could Larson not keep Blaney behind him? Because Larson made a mistake.

Steering left. He first opened up the bottom. Well, he ran the bottom of turns three and four. Blaney gets run on the top. So Blaney's got to run. Larson sees that, oh, he's coming with the run. I'm going to cut low and cut distance here to not let him get beside me.

Well, in doing that, he let the 12 get beside him on the outside because Larson himself, while steering abruptly, off of turn four, got himself loose, and then it lost him momentum to allow the 12 to get to his outside. And then it was blouses after that. The dad even shows Bozzy tweeted out of graphic. Blaney was the fastest car on the track for much of the last 30 laps. Well, the previous 30, and then the final 10,

they were all kind of even then yeah well once once he had caught you know once they all get within a certain distance of another car all the times level out um you know a j it was interesting in practice i i got caught behind a j in the first run of practice and he might have been the 30th worst car and i i couldn't pass them i was just stuck for the entire first run behind him and man it it's just the wake it's not the wake it's the tire horsepower race all that stuff that is making for the passing to be so difficult, which is why we saw Chastain, who was really fast in the short run. He had some good long run speed, too,

but was able to hold off Blaney for as long as he did during the middle stages of that race. What Ross did, is that in your mind fair racing? Yeah, I think he's racing for a win. I think it is fair. It's unfortunate because it could play a role in the five catching the 12 because inevitably if you are the leader and you're holding up traffic Right. Everyone's going to come to you.

And what it then allows is that the 12 is going to burn up his stuff trying to get around the one and then the five will creep his way in the back end of the picture and then could put a move on them if his stuff is cooler. because he's been in an open track while he's been catching him. So, but, you know, you got to think of this from Chastain's perspective. He's had a rough, an exception of one race, you know, up until this point in Nashville, it just is, he's not been the rawst that we've come to know, right? And then so he finds himself up front because of, you know, they were fast on practice.

They qualified well and they drove to the front. and he's like, well, I could win the finale. This is a big deal. Right. You're not going to pull over. No, no way. He's pulling over, which is why he arrow-blocked as hard as he did. And so it went on the race.

So how can you possibly say that that move was wrong? You can't. It's just, if the final four are going to continue to be out there with other cars, you've got to deal with this. And this is part of it. That's why you don't have four cars out there racing at once. You know, the other cars play a factor. and sometimes who wins.

I think it also helps make this race more exciting too. Because you had, I mean, you had Harvick up there. So it's not just those four race and there's a little more to it. Right. Yeah. I mean, it usually is one of the final four guys that wins the race. There's a lot that goes into that. Sometimes it's because the teammates of those final four cars just let people go, let their teammates go.

That always makes for it to be. quite a bit easier to find the final four in there. And then, you know, the final four cars for a long time were, you know, a little different than what their regular season cars were. A little different. They were just a little different. They were just, you know, quarter panels were a little longer. Spoilers are a little higher.

You know, it just, there was just a lot of work that got done to them back when we had Gen 6 cars. But not with this car. As we've seen, it's all equal. Everyone's got an equal shot to win this final race. and we had a non-playoff guy do it. What do you make of Chastain's attitude after the race, just kind of owning it that I don't care if he's mad?

You know, I was racing for a win. Yeah, I agree with what he said. Yeah, I would, I'd probably say the same thing. I mean, it's not my job to care about your championship. You know, they put me on the track today to go win a race. And so I did my job. That's probably the right attitude to have. As you mentioned, Kevin Harvick's last race?

Yeah. Yeah, bittersweet because, you know, it's hard for me to not get emotional about this as well because I see how much it means to Harvick and when he has his family around and everything. They do the tribute videos. I mean, you just can't help but, like, know that how much this means to this particular person, right? and, you know, Kevin to be as competitive as he was when his team was having somewhat of an off year, Stuart Haas did not win any races this year,

to still be as competitive as he was in his final year at age 48 is absolutely amazing. He is a unicorn driver to sustain the level of performance that he had for over... Kevin's only 47. He's only 47. He's about to... turn 48 then because I remember his contract went through till he's 48th yeah his birthday is December 8th so okay in a month from now he'll be 48 okay he's basically 48 years old it's just

unbelievable he to I mean you can't list all of his accomplishments it's just you know he was a team owner he was a guy that if he raced on Saturday in the Xfinity series he was gonna win he you know had a truck team. It's just, he gave so much back to the sport on and off the racetrack. And he gave a lot to the drivers and was a great leader for the drivers. I mean, I think it'll be a substantial loss again for the series. I mean, is it going to be, you know, a loss like the Dale Jr. or Jeff Gordon had? I don't know.

I mean, there's a lot of Harvick fans out there. So, I don't know. You just hope that they latch on to someone new. But he's one of the last Winston Cup guys. He is the last Winston Cup guy that we had in our series. Kurt Busch, it was him and Kurt Busch that was won one and two. And so, yeah, just want to say, happy retirement. He's still going to give back to the sport by being part of the TV.

I tell you, he could really improve that Fox booth a ton. I think he will push them to be better. From what we've seen, NBC, the Fox, the big variation in the production that the two have and how much one is really into the nuts and bolts and explaining everything, whereas the other just kind of talking about some stuff. it's just like there's a lot to be gained there in the Fox booth and I think that Kevin will will push everyone to do that and be better so I'm excited to see how that turns out for sure you got a great base there and so I think that you know there's there's going to be something

good that's really going to happen from that it's going to be kind of like Tony Romo I know he's kind of polarizing with fans but he went straight from like playing to the booth so Kevin's the first next-gen driver to be an analyst. Yeah, that'll be helpful. So he'll be able to provide a perspective that's not there. Yeah, that'll be helpful. Again, I think, you know, Fox definitely could be more technical and kind of their explaining of stuff.

But he will help with that. He, no doubt, will help with that. And I think he's going to push Boyer and those guys all to be better. Mike Joy, he's a great anchor for that, for that program. So it's, yeah, they're certainly, you know, he's not. not he's not gone he's not going to disappear from your TV but we're certainly going to miss him on the racetrack he was a tough guy I mean he he certainly didn't you know give you anything he took more than he gave that's for sure but that's what made him Kevin Harvick and and he was just

just a great great guy great guy I got to know him a little bit when I was kind of vetting Kurt Bush and kind of debating on hiring him at the time. I had lunch with Harvick and asked about him. And Harvick, we guys were talking about some different stuff and certainly gained a lot of respect for him. And we had some run-ins earlier in our career. They were both before we both had kids. And I think that we both changed a little bit after we had kids. But it was fun.

It was fun to compete against them. The 4-11 team for the longest time had this. you know, friendly rivalry. I mean, yeah, too. I mean, there's a handful of Harvick things up on the wall here, right? I don't think so. You got the pie behind you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You got the Hans. Yeah, good point. Good point. Yeah, so it's, we definitely got a tip our hat to Kevin. Thank you for all you've done. And we'll be seeing you soon. And, yeah, good luck to the four team. They got Josh Berry coming over there, and there's going to be a lot of changes over there in that organization that hopefully get them going back on the right track.

2311 ends their season, and both cars finish inside the top 10? Yeah, we had two drivers in the top 10, which is a big deal for us. I mean, that's certainly, we wish it was on the owners as well with the 23 car, but, you know, Bubba for the second season in a row drove a car to the top 10. in the playoff system. So, yeah, great job. They continue to get better. I mean, that's another thing, right? Is that just, you know, that doesn't happen

unless Bubba makes the playoffs, right? Driving to the 10th spot? Yeah, he was in the, like, 14th, 15th, and the driver points anyway, before the reset for the playoffs. Right. But we had winners, like, I don't know, where Ricky was or who else made the playoffs

McDowell you know they were further back in the points than then then Bubba was but they they had a with the winning and you're in it's you don't have to you just got to win right you got 26 chances to win to put yourself in the playoffs I mean Bubba finished ahead of Turex and points in the playoffs yeah I mean Turex had a rough one I just mean it's one of those things right like you just until you stay around until you get hot and then you had a good final 10 weeks this season.

I think he had a solid 10 weeks. I think he ran about like he did during the regular season, honestly, where he, you know, have some top fives and some top tens. And that's kind of what they were for the most part of the whole year. And he just continued that through the playoffs. So it's really a good thing that, you know, how they performed. They were very consistent. That team got better on pit road this year. Still got some improvement to make. I think both of our teams for our first endeavors as having our own pit crews, you know, that was we didn't lose any ground.

You know, we still got room to improve and get better and get faster. But we thought that we eliminated a lot of mistakes, big mistakes this year. Still had some with the 45 car that kept him from Victory Lane. few times, but it's part of the growing process. It's why this takes five years and not three. So I'm really happy with the strides that 2311 is made. We're two months away from being in our new headquarters. You've probably seen it off I-77. We're 485 meets that you can't miss it. Yeah, I'm excited for the future of that team and what it can accomplish. still rooting for it to finish second every week to me.

But one thing to highlight here with Bubba's final 10 race is that he only qualified outside the top 10 once after Daytona. Nine weeks in a row, I think he said. Yeah, I think I heard. Only time they qualified outside the top 10 was Darlington. They were 19th. But after that, they were in the top 10 every race. They had just tremendous speed off the truck. Both cars did.

When they were going to practice, they were like P1, P3, every single week. So they were definitely on kill. It seemed like they struggled to keep up with the racetrack as weekends go on just a little bit. And, you know, this is just from a kind of a dumb outside perspective of like without digging in the numbers and really seeing what's what. Like it just appeared that, you know, the field caught up throughout the weekend. sometimes but man they're they got fast cars they're they're driving them fast and super happy with that whole team and what they're what they're doing over there so man they're gonna have great place to work here in a couple months and we'll see what we'll see what happens we can't end this

show without a final hot button topic which is going to be NASCAR unlikely to finalize charter agreement until new TV deal is complete yeah I mean I don't know. I mean, I think that there's progression being made on that. There's some things I don't necessarily agree with. I mean, the TV media deal is likely to fall in a very general range. Why we can't get a deal done before that, I'm not sure because it's just one part of gross revenue. I don't know. It just seems like it shouldn't have taken this long. We try to. for 18 months to get this ball rolling much sooner, but we just really couldn't get anywhere.

But it seems like, you know, things are starting to move in a direction now a little bit better. But certainly it's late in the deal and probably we'll have to, it'll probably go into next year, I would guess. Because I think the exclusive time to renew is like December 31st.

If we don't renew by then, then the charters expire, or we get some sort of an extension to have a longer negotiating period. So you would race next season and the charters would not be permanent? Potentially? Oh, they're not,

we don't have permanent charters now. What I'm saying is that they would expire at the end of this year, then we would have to race next year and then lose them the five. following. Got it. It's like a lame duck year.

Okay. So there's, but there's, you still get money from them next year? Yeah. They would have to, yeah, they'd have those obligations for sure, but we would also have the obligation to come race and to get, to get that. Yeah, it's just, it's certainly later in the game than it needed to be. I, I think that, uh, the framework. set to kind of keep these talks going in the off season and hopefully we come to something soon.

Dear Denny, what do you have planned for the off season and do you get a little time to yourself? I do get some time to myself. I'm going to take more vacation time. This year, by far, the most busy year that I've had with the podcast and the race team and I got family. I've got a drive. I've got just so much on my plate, week in, week out. I will be taking time off. I'm going to go somewhere for Christmas

instead of having everyone here. And, you know, just going to try to get away a little bit. I've got some recovery to do physically. I've got to get, I've got to get some stuff fixed. It's just part of normal maintenance for me on the off season. Like, what surgery we have?

You know, it's like pretty, pretty on the regular at this point. But once we get that stuff fixed, I think I'll certainly be better and ready to get going for 24. People ask this weekend, I think in a Q&A, you know, what do you do during the off-season or do you like to do, you know, some people like to go race, right? You might be going race in a late model or something like that. I just learned for me personally a long time ago, you know, my best way to get rejuvenated to keep doing this. 20 years into this

is to not race. I have no connection to racing in the offseason. It doesn't mean I don't like to watch the Snowball Derby, which will be on Racing America, by the way. I like watching the Snowball Derby, you've got the Fall Broad Hickory.

Yeah, I just like late-mile stock stuff that I tune into. And so, yeah, for me, it's not seeing any race cars Is there anything for a while is what I need? What are you going to do? 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 up. all the seats out and remodel it. So those who don't know, Jared is, he's really taking this granola thing quite far. 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 Seattle or something. Yeah, I just want to do 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, I'm just saying that if you, in the 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. All right.

Well, good luck. Yeah, it's, we need to get Jared like a little mini TV series then. He travels out west for three weeks, get a little camera crew to follow them around. Yeah, a little little. blog. Oh, he's already thought about this. Let me guess you're planning your NBC Olympic two-week break to go out there. Well, see, that's why I don't like that break. I actually do not like that break whatsoever because there's no way, I just don't think there's any way you could check, you could go away and check out for two weeks. So I would like to, again, you're still in season. You're still in season.

There's still work to do. Yeah. It's just not, I just don't think it's possible to do that. But you'd rather have a longer off season. Correct. I would like, in the same way. I would like, the one week in the in the in June or whatever to go do a trip wherever and then I want an additional week in this winter break yep I'm with you I'm a my perfect world our schedule would have probably 30 races um maybe not I mean not even 30 28 to 30 we're beginning of February and then probably mid-September yeah I mean yeah don't get me wrong I would love to shrink the schedule. But if it is what it is,

I'd rather one extra week in the winter and just have that one week in the, in June or whatever, July. Well, good luck. Holler if you need anything. Anything else? To wrap up this season of Axis, our very first season.

What episode is this? Like 42, 43? I think it's 41, I think. I don't keep track of the numbers. I'll take the over on that. I was only supposed to do 40. Well, you had an extra one because you had an appeal to... Yeah, we also did...

A couple had a few emergencies. We did one in Michigan, too, when it rained. That was an additional episode. Well, maybe this all-season, we'll get back in here, cover some off-season news. That wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe once every other month. Well, then, bam, we're back into racing season then.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure come the banquet and all that in Nashville, we'll have something to talk about. Yeah. I got a review here before we finish up. The first rate, this is from a house divided. That is the username. The first race ever watched was the 2019 Daytona 500.

I instantly became a huge Toyota and Denny Hamlin fan, now also a 2311 fan. Travis, this reviews says 23XL. I don't know if that's a mistake on your part. It's not XI, just for the fan. Just letting you know when you say it, it's 2311. It's not XI. I know there's some confusion.

Go ahead. After a year later, my wife started to like Chase Elliott. She doesn't really like racing so she won't watch the race with me, but she always likes to know where Chase finishes. However, she loves your podcast, and we always listen together. We have listened to every single episode together since the first week. Thank you for giving us something we can bond over. So look at that, Denny Hamlin bringing people together.

I brought people together before. Remember when we had Denny Hamlin's seats? you get Denny Hamillian seats every weekend. There was a guy and there was a girl. They were both solo. Their seats were together and they got married. Bringing people together. That is most amazing.

I didn't know that. That was amazing. Yeah. I used to have a kind of a sweepstakes, you know, when Denny Hamlin seats. And yeah, there were two. We used to give away two seats and there was two individuals that wanted a seat and they just happened to both be single.

Met, fell in love. had a kid, got married. Happy ending. He also signed a marriage certificate at Martin's though. I did. I did. They were so excited and I'm happy for them. I made sure I did ask them multiple times,

are you sure before I signed this? But yeah, they had their marriage certificate and had me be their witness. It was awesome, right? Thank you. It was a great 11 fans. I want to say thank you to all the 11 fans this year. You guys have been awesome.

You know, N-Y-O I don't know We need a new hat That's just NYU New hat I don't know

More letters Yeah Another letter Next year it's our F-U-D-H Another letter for another year I don't know

We're working on it So thank you all for tuning in this entire season Look out for some special emergency episodes during this off-season and me, I'll try to grab Jared from his granola adventures.

Can you fly him back from out west? It's going to be, it might be hard. Will you have reception? Like how we get a lot of you? To do one little check-in of like what's going on. Let's talk about some who's moving where. You know, there'll be a little news here and there. But thank you all for tuning in each and every week.

You know, it's just been getting more and more popular with you guys. We're hearing it every weekend about people loving. in the podcast. So keep tuning in. We'll see y'all next season. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.