Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Bowman Gray: More Than I Expected

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Denny Hamlin and the boys are back for year three of Actions Detrimental1:23 Denny & Travis recap OSU’s National Championship run15:00 NASCAR hits homerun at Bowman Gray  21:30 Drivers getting used to new crew chiefs30:50 Where should The Clash go next year?34:30 Denny has beef with FOX39:30 SVG has an impressive race41:00 Ty Gibbs frustrated in LCQ47:00 Chase Elliott’s perfect weekend55:00 Denny and Jordan expecting their third child For more Actions Detrimental head over to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I had to live with a buzz cut the entire year. Did they use a buzz cut in the production? They haven't changed it. They haven't changed it. Give me my hair back, Fox. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased.

You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, the championship and the most popular driver.

Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to Action's detrimental 2025. First episode. Welcome back. Friends. Welcome back. Hi.

Are you all excited or not? New season. Yeah, Travis just said when I walked in, he was like, man, you blinkin. The off-season's over. That was your first NASCAR off-season experience, wasn't it? No. That was the second year. I got a breath true.

I mean, year three. But this one just flew by. The off-season was just like, done. Yeah. I tell you, you know what makes things go really fast is riding five-week bandwagon all the way to the natties. They'll see that. um yeah i the channel to the uh the i think it's a shop where i'm from yep is that where it is yeah yeah yeah how did you guys have the t-shirts before the actual team did because when you're

a diehard fan like denny hamlin you get supplied beforehand what kind of question is that seems like bad juju you just wear the shirt or bring it underneath well there may or may not let's bring their own there may or may not be videos of us trying to take our shirts off in the third quarter and Travis is saying, no, no, you put it back on. You put it back. Because we had it underneath. So we're peeling our layers off because it was like, oh, this is game. And then Notre Dame goes on to score like 14 straight.

And it was like, uh, okay, we're still fine. Everything's fine. We knew after the first drive, even when Notre Dame scored, right? We were like, it's fine. They scored in, like, I'm, they had to grind for every year. I was like, we're good. It was an 18-plate drive. I'm like, if they want to do that, run their quarterback six times, like, we're good.

Did you already spill? Oh, the camera got that. Hey, grab at the napkins. I got the, everywhere. Oh. Rough start, rough start. All types of issues with that cup. No, no, it's a straw issue.

You know, I'm going to explain to you why. Because of the suction, it's so tight, there's no room for air to get in. So it creates this suction. So even when it's not full, it shoots the stuff to the top. Damn it. All right. Do you guys just forget? You said five-week bandwagon.

Do you forget about the game in November? Is that you guys just forget about that? I included that. No, so he's including the Indiana game. So technically it was a six game. But the Michigan game run that. forgetting about that? No.

No, no, no. It's fucking on there, Jared. Yeah, it's documented. And it's, it's Charlie's fault, though, that we lost the game. We've come to realize. Yeah, he wasn't here. He was in Florida. Yeah, or something like that.

You never know. Yeah, never know. So, Denny, how do you, now that it's done? Because the Indiana game was your first, like, foray into college football. Uh-huh. What do you make of, like, the sport, the fandom, everything? I'll be honest with you. When you jump on the bandwagon of the best team, it surely makes it easy and fun.

But just to me, the atmosphere was the biggest thing that I noticed being so different. You know, if I go to an NFL game, it's a Panthers game, and I'm not a Panthers fan by any means. you know, Charlotte fans are suspect at best when it comes to, like, their fandom. But it's, you know, so it's like, it's like going to a library, you know, you know, compared to like going to, when I went to the shoe and it was like,

unbelievable, like the crowd was so freaking loud. And so, um, at every play. So it's just, um, usually you can get the excitement at the beginning at the end, but like every play, you know, I mentioned, like, Travis hangs his whole life on every play that happens. Like, if it's first and 10 and they only get two yards, he's losing his mind. Just like, the offensive coordinator or, you know, stupid play or just, it's so wildly entertaining.

And there's 80,000 Travis's in that. Yes, exactly. Although when we were at these games, everyone behind us was always checking in on Travis's wellness. they were saying, is he okay? Is he okay? Because, you know, he would be just in complete, you know, disarray. Yeah, it's 7-7. To then the guys jumping over the railing.

The Cotton Bowl was great because the fans were tossing me drinks. Like, it became kind of my section. The Cotton Bowl was my favorite event I attended maybe ever. Maybe ever. It just, I don't know what it was. but it's just the whole experience is great. Are you just deep down, Travis? Are you like the Jets fireman guy, but for Ohio State?

No, I'm not fireman, Ed. I don't dress up. Like, because there's like, Ohio State has a few of those fans, and I actually don't like those, like super fans. He's like, adults shouldn't paint their face. Like, Travis has a very strict opinion on all this stuff. I'll give to any credit. The IU game, Jared, he showed up with Ohio State.

apparel on. Like, he jumped into this. What can I say? My iPhone listens to me and it starts feeding me all this gear. And so we do have a gift, Denny. Oh. From Ohio State, you jumped on the swagon and they wanted to extend and make you an official member of the team.

And they felt that you earned your Buckeye leaves. So we have. Oh, fantastic. No way. Yes. This is, and this is the real deal. From the Ohio State University.

How about that? Oh, man. So, so how does this work? I think, I think I won for each win. Like when I win, I need to put on a buck-out leaf on a helmet.

Yeah. Ooh, these are authentic. I can tell. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. So those,

you know, you probably, you probably saw us on ESPN a couple times. They did me dirty, man. You were definitely the sad Ohio State fan. Kudos to the director for showing me, but where was I after when we had the good plays? Again, I think your valleys are so low. They are.

That they, you know, they've got it, you know, it's just like bookwork. You see it happen at every, um, college game or NFL game like they show the ecstatic fans and then they show the disappointed fans yeah it's during the timeouts hey cameraman go find us and you know the director's like find me that guy find me that guy where's he at show hands in the face that's him that's him stay on it cut to six cut to six keep a camera on him during the cut bowl denny goes you're just on tv and i'm like what it's like you're on tv and i'm thinking he meant jumbotron and then i jerry We made that many times, by the way.

We were on the big jumbotron in Texas Stadium three or four times. It was a lot. I pulled my phone out and I just showed to Denny and it's just a flood of messages and phone calls. The best of someone text me or tweet and they go, Denny Hamlin just shouted you out on Twitter. I'm like, yeah, right next to him. But the thing is, you're on TV looking miserable. And I don't think there was one moment in this Ohio State run where they were like not going to win. Right.

Never a doubt, right, Jeff? I mean, I text you and Charlie before the Tennessee game. I said, we win this game. Watch out. Like your profile picture now is you looking. Yeah, I changed it to that. Yeah, but the score is seven to six. Yeah. That's just how I am.

So those who doesn't, when you saw us on. TV, we were holding the Ohio against the world flag. And what was our crowning moment at the championship game? Jack Sawyer, they came over and got the flag and gave it to Jack. They asked for our flag. Oh, you lost the flag. We lost the flag. We didn't lose it.

I mean, donated the flag. We gave it. Listen, it wasn't like, oh yeah, sure, it was a, you know, because that was our blankie as trust it. Like, you know, we had rode this thing all the way. to the Natty and we get to the end and we win

and this equipment manager comes over who's like Jack really wants to flag and we're like we tried to bargain yeah we're like can you promise you'll give it back he says I can't promise that

at least he was honest I can't promise he gave Charlie a towel I asked for the gloves so you know what they were doing you know these crazy nuts the next 12 hours finding all pictures

that players took with that flag And they're like, there's our flag. There's our flag. There's our flag. I mean, it was everywhere. And we even made it in the official Ohio State Recap video on Instagram. That was pretty cool. And it was my favorite song. Oh.

I did it my way. It was perfect. Oh, it's great. I got to figure out what to do with my confetti. Oh, he was stuffing. Okay. I swear people, we're going to get to racing here in a second. So the stringers were coming down and they're gold stringers and they're falling and he's grabbing him and he's just pulling him and he's just stuffing it in his pockets, right?

And then there's confetti and they were loading the confetti and they had a box and it said Notre Dame and I had a box at Ohio State. And me and Charlie are like, load it up, load it up, load up the Ohio State. And then so they spray it, but there's like a foot of confetti on the ground right in front of us. because we're right there in row one. And Travis is yelling at the guy, give me some confetti, give me some confetti. And the guy, like,

picks up a handful and throws it to him. He's like, don't throw it, you idiot. He's like, hand it to me. Yeah, they finally did. Denny's like, just give him the box. Yeah, and so I told him, just give him the box. But he was stuffing,

the guy had pockets full of confetti. And I just don't know what he did with it, though. So it's right now, it's sitting in my living room. There's still confetti in my car. Did I tell you I met Will Howard that morning? Oh, I saw the picture. So I'm with a couple of my friends.

You look like you hadn't slept. Yeah. Say that. It was like three in the morning. And I saw him over there and I go, I'm going to go talk to Will. And my friend's like, don't talk to Will. And I'm like, I'm going to talk to Will. And they're like, don't talk to Will.

And I'm like, I'm going over there. You know that's your second encounter with Will Howard. Yes. He doesn't remember. the first because I was, I'm surprised you remember the second. I was carrying him out of Mandrake. Literally carry, all right, Travis, it's bedtime.

I'm carrying him out and all the players and made their way to Mandrake and we're trying to get through them. Ain't nobody moving and we're like a foot shorter and all of them. And you got your championship. To all the people tweeting at me saying that High State's not going to win because Danny can't win a championship, we got it.

We got it. All right. Well, how about some race cars? I'm sure all of our listeners enjoyed all that. Yeah, so we had some racing this weekend. If you can see right here in front of us, we have a nice Lionel die cast of my car from this weekend. Oh, that's what that's from? What? You actually know that? When he drove the sport clip is what he's saying, Judge. Oh, okay. Well, I was in here inspecting this diecast for five minutes because it's marked up, but there's no confetti on it. It's clearly a race version of a car, but there's no confetti on it. So you couldn't have possibly won.

So I'm trying to figure out what guy cast. Maybe I was being facetious. I don't know. Is that the right word for it on like, I'm just saying that's the paints team, the sponsor of the car. But it could have been because it's marked up and it's a race version and you didn't win. And there's marks all over. They went and printed it last night, Jared. I feel like that.

that could be clash win from last year. Oh, maybe. There's no. I'm looking because the... You wouldn't have confetti on there's no victory lane. Right. And I'm looking at the tires, you know, they got the Goodyear rubbed off of them. And usually that only happens on a short track.

So that makes sense. Yeah. It's a clash car. Huh? The clash car. The clash car. Yep. Yeah.

So this weekend, um, Exciting weekend. I thought my overall feelings is that it was a great overall executed weekend by NASCAR at Bowman Gray. And I thought that they did a really good job of taking, you know, a facility that, you know, probably needed some love to make it up to Cup standards. And I thought the on track, you know, when you walked into it. Now, you know, the garages were, you know, what the garages were. It was, you know, a parking lot, which that's not what you see on TV. So that's not what matters, right? matters what you see on TV. I thought the facility itself, when you stepped into it, felt like a cup track. Yeah, and the environment felt like a big cup race. Yeah. I think that, to me, that was the biggest takeaway is that the environment that Bowman Gray produced, the fans being so close to the drivers, it just felt like a big event.

Yeah, I agree. I thought that, you know, NASCAR productions or whoever, you know, kind of puts on, you know, the lights music introduction all that stuff i thought they did a really really good job of uh you know giving you that you know big main event type of feel before the before the race and then kind of parading us around the racetrack uh before um you know allowed the all the fans to you know cheer you on as you're as you're going by so it was it was fun was it everything you expected did you have preparations going in what were your thoughts You know, honestly, it exceeded my expectations from the production standpoint,

and it exceeded my expectations from the on-track standpoint. I think a lot of it comes from, again, we talk about them a lot, and we give them a lot of shit, but like the good year tires. I think that we finally got a really good short-track tire here that, you know, creates the ability to pass after they start to wear. So it's a signal that to create more passing in our series, let's get wear, right? It's not just heat that we got to get in the tire.

We've got to get the thing to wear. And this tire that they developed that started with Martinsville, being the first full race on it, it was an option tire at Richmond. It will be the option tire when we go to Phoenix. So I think this is It's a good tire And it's certainly helping short track racing With the next-gen car

Did that play into the ability To pass on the outside That was a big takeaway That you were able to pass for the lead on the outside Yeah I mean I just Kind of do what works Or what makes

Well I always try to manipulate my car the best I can The cars are never gonna be like perfect I mean they can be close to it and you can be better than everyone else, and I thought at that time my car was. But what I love about race car driving is the job of the driver to manipulate the car to do something that it's not designed to do,

taking different lines. That's what I love about Darlington, is that it's one of the racetracks where I feel like, depending on what my car, cars doing, I will change my line to change the balance. Um, and so, you know, a lot of the short tracks that I used to do back in the day, you know, it was, it was in low horsepower cars. And it was in tires that, you know, wore out. And so I had to protect the tires and I had to try to figure out how to get runs and, um, you know, make straightways longer. And, um, and so just kind of

using that. And, you know, and I know they talked on the broadcast, um, about the aerodynamics. and whatnot. And I know it's certainly not a popular thing. You know, fans don't want to hear about it and whatnot. But it is a thing. I mean, we definitely saw, you know, you get stuck behind somebody for just a small period of time, you know, call it five, ten laps. You can just feel your car losing grip, which is why I thought, like, Kevin

Hartford was doing a really good job of explaining, like, you can only sit back there behind someone for so long and then your car's going to hit a light switch and it's just going to start slowing down and and I thought that was kind of one of the pivotal things that happened to me once I lost the lead when Chase got around me is that I spent five laps really trying to get it back I should have in hindsight I was like I should have just kind of moved him out of the way like he moved me out of the way but I was like I don't know I just thought it's all right I'm good enough I'm good enough to get them the natural way, but I wasn't. And then once I sat back there, I just lost the grip in the car and those guys just pulled away.

If it was a points race, would you have operated differently? I don't think so. I mean, I think if there's any time to be aggressive, it's Bowman Gray. And you actually heard Chase in his post race was like, yeah, I was behind Denny, and I knocked him out of the way. and I knew that that was, I needed to get back control the race. And if he chose to knock me back out of the way, then I was going to be, I was going to have to live with that. But I just had to take my shot then.

And I was like, you know, I went into the next corner. I'm like, it's so cliche to just run back into them. I'm not going to do that. And so I didn't. And so I was like, I'm just going to work them. I'm going to work them for a little while. And I just didn't have it. I overheard him saying in victory lane, he was asked about the tires,

and he said he wasn't necessarily sure how much he should be saving throughout the race. Does that just come with the fact that none of you guys have raced 200 laps at Bowman Gray? Like you don't know what each lap is going to do after a while? Yeah, the car changes, certainly. It seems like, you know, again, to beat it at hordes, with this tire in particular, you get past about 25, 30 laps of Green Flag running on it, and you'll really start to see lap time drop off. off. And that, what was it about a 50 lap run at the end, ish, something like that, you know,

we dropped off about eight tenths of a second, which is pretty good on a track like that. You know, you always wish you had more. But overall, that's pretty much all you could ask for. If you looked at the two fastest cars at the end, the nine and the 12, I mean, they were able to pass lap cars. And again, they were letting them go because it was an important time of the race, but they still, you know, the 12 made his way from the back to the front methodically and because he had a good car and was able to pass. Yeah, Ryan Blaney went from the back to the front. Bubba Wallace made a lot of good moves to get up to the front. He started mid-pack. Is there anything to be said about drivers with new crew chiefs having success in this race

and it, you know, transpiring or continuing into the regular season? Well, it's a good warm up. I mean, I equated this to a preseason game. You know, it's bigger than a preseason game. You know, if you look at it from an audience standpoint, we usually, you know, pull a good number. It's bigger than a preseason. But it is a preseason for us in the sense of we just get reps, right? I would say probably half the field got a new seat insert this weekend. So what's happening is the teams are, all right, how is your interior car? What do we need to? to adjust, you know, before Daytona. How was your, can you reach all the switches? Do you need some adjustments here or there? And then they're working on their communication. And so I'm going through that now. I've got a new crew chief this year with Chris Gale. And so, yeah, it's, it's a good warm up for us. Even though, you know, you would argue the practice time we actually got probably as much or more than we get on a normal weekend, it's still felt like an abbreviated weekend.

and so not a lot of adjustments you can do the car you know not you basically you practice a few laps you pull in they jack it up twist a few things here and there and you go back out so your your bed's pretty much made before you get to the racetrack on on your your major setup things and so but yeah the communication um you know i can only speak to ours but it was it was good you know Chris is a quiet guy, and I'm a quiet guy, but I think we were pretty straightforward and his questions that he asked and the feedback that I gave. So obviously it's a good start. I told him after the heat race that I was like, man, I think you might be the fourth crew chief in a row now that I've won my first race with. You know, you can count them however you might

want to count them through clashes or heat races or Daytona 500s or whatever, but early the season, you know, win with the new guys. But is that communication also tested before you get to the track, like whatever sessions you do in the SIM then leading into the track or leading into the race? So it's all about how you unload and how Chris brings the car to the racetrack. So much of it, yeah, so much of it happens during the week. You know, these guys, once they load up and head to the racetrack,

your major setup things, you know, you're locked into. You know, you can move, you can move some things around, certainly, but it's not an open, you know, there's some weekends where we have, you know, we're not locked in to our setup and we can change everything overnight. But most weekends, your baseline setup is pretty much set. And you can adjust slightly from there. So, yeah, the work you put in during the week, that kind of sets the tone for your weekend. How long do you think it takes for you guys to build that relationship where you feel like, okay, we're locked in and ready to go? And I understand him. And like, Gay Part would probably be able to read the tone of your voice and know what you're thinking. It's going to take time. Like, what's that timeline like? I think it's going to be different for everyone. And I still am going to need to figure out what makes Chris Gale tick, right? And, you know, I kind of knew, you know, the hot buttons for Gay Part. like he would, you know, he would start, he would prompt me with questions.

It would prompt an answer. And then so the next time that comes back around, I go ahead and give them the answer because I know the question's coming. So you, that's, that's the thing that I got to figure out is what is Gail looking for out of my information. So we'll just, we'll have to figure that out. And certainly, again, it's like we ease into the, season. So like the NASCAR schedule really promotes easing into those communication things. Like you're not,

you know, we've got, you know, a month until we're at a racetrack where, okay, you know, we're going to practice. We can make adjustments. You know, you got a long race. Like Daytona set up, yes, it matters, but it doesn't matter like it does on other racetrack. So we still got another warm up week coming with the Daytona 500. Are there any parts of this? relationship where you can tell already like okay we're going to be good at this but we need maybe need to work on this like is there different elements of the relationship of the driver crew chief dynamic that you can already tell like hmm not not yet not yet again it's still just kind of too new um again you you get used to a certain kind of way and i think that um you know my philosophy

When Gabe Hart came in was, you know, let him be the leader. I'm going to be the driver. I'm going to do my part. I'm going to do what I'm told. And, you know, I'm going to make sure I give them 110% every time I'm in the car. When I'm out of the car, give them everything they need. I always want to go to the racetrack prepared mentally, physically, whatever it might be. And so that is certainly an important part of it.

But overall, you know, I just got to figure out, you know, how it's going to go, you know, for the 11 car. And certainly I'm optimistic about it and Phil is that, you know, we've got some good things ahead. But, you know, Chris has got a different role and he's going to be there. And we debriefed after the race as well, talking about Gabe Hart. We, you know, talked about it. And it was like, man, this thing is an awful lot like Martinsville. So whatever we fix, you know, for Martinsville, it'll work here as well. So, you know, all good things.

Everyone's getting better and we got some new team members there with Chase Brisco. So, yeah, there's a lot of new crew chiefs. I forget the number, but it's a big number, right, that are coming in this year? Yeah. Moving around. And just thinking about Bob's article that he posted last week, I think, like, ranked the top 10. And then there were like six or seven honorable mentions. So, yeah.

Half the field. Yeah, I mean, at 2311, we're most excited about Charles DeNike. I didn't, you know, when he came in for his interview, we had on contact him, and he's like, do you remember me? I was like, man, he looked familiar. He's like, yeah, our team's gotten a fight a couple times in late models. I was the crew chief for Brandon Butler, which is a guy I used to race late models against. I was like, that's where I know you.

That's where I know you. But, you know, I was singing his praises all weekend, but we believe we found a rock star and Charles. I'm glad we found him. Dave Rogers did a great job, you know, recruiting him. And from the truck series, he was with a 19 truck. And so I think he's going to be a game changer for 2311 and Bobba Wallace. I think that those two have got could could really do something special this year.

So he's someone that you do not really have much of a prior relationship with. You've crossed paths and cross pass. But that's it. You know, he's coming in fresh. He was with a Chevy team, a truck team going to now a Toyota Cup team. So, you know, literally it couldn't have been a bigger transition for him. But I mean, from what I've seen and what I've heard, he's doing a fantastic job and we got daven there with Riley excited about what he brings to our team

I think Riley's going to run a lot better than people are expecting I think it's still going to be tough it's tough on Sundays there's going to be a transition there but I'm pretty excited about what those two other teams other than the 45 have got this year yeah I think that's why I ask about the confidence that running well in this race could bring to that that driver crew chief relationship because it seemed like on social Bubba was really excited about a P5 finish. He was excited about a top five. Yeah, he's been locked in all offseason. You know, I call it fatherhood, call it whatever you want to call it, but he's he's been locked in all offseason. And I think he understands that, you know, Charles is someone that that's going to, you know, command respect and he's going to

want to have his process and he wanted to make sure that relationship got off on the right foot and he's been doing his part. Where do we go with the clash from here? You come back to Bowman Gray next year, keep moving it? I think you probably got to keep moving it. You know, again, I think that that's what kind of, I think people tuned in to Bowman Gray because it's a track they had not seen before. I think they tuned in to L.A. the first year so much because it's a track they had not seen before.

Like, how are these guys going to navigate it? How are they going to adapt to it? I think if you go back in consecutive years, I think there's a little bit of a, okay, there's not a wow or a shock factor. Now the racing could be better. We could end up with a great side-by-side finish. You never know, but I just think there's not fatigue, but there's just, there's a known to it versus the unknown that you have when you go to somewhere new for the first time. What if, though, fans see what this was this year. So we're going to return for one more year and then we're going to go. So then next year, there's anticipation of what we saw and it could be a little better and do two years and then leave. And then other people like saw what this was, maybe go there.

like you can grow off of this because if you go to a new location are you going to be able to carry fans over fans watching or fans at the track fans watching and going yeah yeah i think fans watching it doesn't you you can put them wherever you can put them in portland oregon they're going to watch because it's hey we've never seen cup cars there let's see how it turns out right and so that that's my point is that you know people tune in to see the unknown um Once they know it and see it, if you just keep fitting them more of it, eventually they'll get tired of it. So it's just that that's the ebbs and flows of sports. I wonder if you could eventually next year make North Wilkesboro a points race in some capacity and then move this race, move Bowman Gray to the All-Star race.

I hate to see the sport lose the atmosphere that Bowman Gray brought. and I feel like it could probably only be heightened in year two. How are you going to heighten that? It was sold out. How do you heighten the atmosphere? I mean, I heard Travis who watched on TV, it didn't sound like you could really sense that watching on TV.

Like the viewership maybe not of. Well, I think that's more of a nat sound. Right. Yeah, that was the comments I saw. You know, we're always one to critique TV and,

and all that stuff. But yeah, what I've seen on social is that they didn't pipe in the crowd sound. So they were telling you how loud the crowd was, but you couldn't actually hear them when there was a lead change. And you hear it. Sometimes I noticed some races, they do do that when there's a, if you remember everyone's seen a million. Daler and Hart takes the lead at Talladega.

It's like the crowd didn't overcome. the car noise. They just had a microphone somewhere near the crowd and they turned it on. Like you couldn't, so, like when Ricky spun out, Bert Myers, you couldn't tell. Apparently fans cheered when you got past, shocker. Like, you couldn't tell. Yeah.

Like, but that's more of a broadcast thing than I don't know how Bowman Gray does it bigger. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think overall, you know, TV did a good job. I, you know, the convenient thing about

driving is I was able to then watch it right back on my way home. I thought everything was good, except for I have one major, major beef with Fox. Major beef. You know what it is? No.

I was so excited, actually excited to go to the production day this year because I'm like, you know what, I'm finally going to lose the buzz cut. You know, because whatever you look like

on January 15th is what you look like for the entire year. Right? And so when I had that little clipper mishap last year I had to live with a buzz cut the entire year did they use a buzz cut in the production

they haven't changed it they haven't changed it give me my hair back Fox I've got new photos I got new I've got a sport clips car got to show it off and hurry up before it gets gray uh so

Yeah, I need my updated. Jacob Ollman, I saw you before the race. Get my hair back. I got it back. It took a year to get it back, but I got it. No, but it was fun. Fun weekend. I mean, I see notes here about, well, what about this?

What about that? I mean, you had Hosevar and Bell. That was kind of the 22 kind of came, you know, into Bell. and it looked when I originally saw that incident I was like oh bell yikes he really got him but you know and it looked like hars whosovo knew it was coming so he actually slowed down entering the corner like to try to keep his car on the bottom and it just caused a chain reaction because within the 20 he checked up early he was like whoa he's slow and then the 22's like well I'm that's not where you let off entering the corner so you know I think it was just kind of a domic effect there that made it look pretty bad. Were you guys more respectful this year? It seemed like that. The main event was like this last year.

I just feel like there was more complaining about cars wrecking each other. It's always that way in heat races and last chance races because it's go or go home. I mentioned it on the radio before the race started is that, you know, why would you wrecked for eighth place. I mean, we still did, but why would you wreck for eighth place in the main? Like, there's no, hey, I got to get to fifth or else I'm not racing. Right. Right. You're already in the main. You're just at that point trying to methodically make your way up. Sometimes not methodically, you're like, I can get one here, bounce him out of the way. But in the, in the LCQ and the heat races, it's, there's the do or die feel that I've got to get to this position or else.

I'm in a dire situation. So I think that it's typically the main does calm down simply from the fact of, you know, you've made the show. And then now you're trying to figure out how to get it to lap 200. So it's just a different mentality. You watched it? OCQ from the stands? Yeah, I went up on the hill right there in turn three,

right above the Sonoco banner. there was some fireworks yeah it was i thought um it was super aggressive early like when he had tie dillon up there and whatnot it was in eric jones they were going at it and you know it was just it was super messy early um i thought larsson did a great job holding the bottom he had some really good fortune of when cars would bounce themselves up out of the group like he would he'd pass a couple and he made it up through there and i thought he had the best car and won the lcq he did win the lcq right yeah and i was surprised he didn't run better in the main um i thought when i looked at his car in that race you know i just thought generally speaking there wasn't anyone really close to him

on on on speed um and so i'm like well he'll you know he's got enough laps he'll be able to do something in the main, but it's just, I don't know, I saw him spun out a couple times. Too much damage to his car maybe? Yeah, you wouldn't think so. I mean, his car was destroyed and still had the speed at the end of the LCQ. So, I mean, while Arrow matters, it's still when you're out, when you're out front, you still have a bigger advantage with a destroyed car than you do being a second car without damage. So it's just, yeah, surprising to see he didn't make more headway. Shane Van Gisbergen finished ninth?

I thought he had a good weekend. I thought he did. He saw it all around. You didn't hear much from him. That's a good thing, right? And he went to a tight oval, something that he's probably not completely used to. However, I think about, you know, this is probably a good transition. track for him, and he's run ovals, right? He's got some oval experience now. But as far as like

understanding how to make short speed on short tracks, I can see where there's been many corners he's probably approached in supercars that have been like Bowman Gray corners. Tight, you know, how do you handle this tight radius corner? You got a couple ways to do it, right? You can do the higher entry like I was doing and other guys were doing. Do you chop it? Do you diamond it? Do you straight roll the bottom? There's many ways to approach it. And depending on what your car is doing. And I think that, you know, this probably fits into Shane's wheelhouse of,

oh, it's a corner, it's a tight corner, it's a hairpin. How do I get around it the best way? And I think that, you know, this is typically a track I think he would shine at. Right. And he did. Once you start, I don't know, getting into the corner, it all becomes comes back to you as far as how to get around it yeah and and you know every he's he's learning right it's going to take some time and you definitely going to have to temper your expectations um on you know mile and a halfs and things like that um it just will take some time to to get fully up

to speed we make of tie gibbs um yeah i didn't love it you know obviously um it seemed like he had a good attitude after the races you know i i was a little worried about we were sharing hollers so after after his race is over he had to unchange i had to change it was like you know i'm going to give him a minute in there by himself um but he he was fine um yeah it's just some of the things that you you know it's so hard to be mentally tough in the moments that you get bounced around and you feel like, yeah, you get shoved around here and there and then you feel like, well, I'm not going to, I got a show I'm not going to take it, so I'm going to do something back. And then what, it's almost like the NFL where the personal foul, it's someone shoves you. Next thing you know,

you push them in the face and you get the, and you get the flag, right? It's, it's, you know, maybe find a different way to, you know, get back out of it. them. Certainly, you know, didn't love it, didn't look great. Hey, it just happened to be really weird how the tires rolled over each other, which made his car launch there. But it, it looked worse than it actually was. I was right there when it happened. He didn't have a whole lot of speed. I think it's just the tires rolled right over each other and it caused the launch. But still, it's something that, you know, NASCAR isn't going to love or anything like that. But again, it's just a, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's expecting to take that next step and be a race winner and a playoff guy and, you know, you just,

these moments, it's really hard to not let things, not let things get to you. And, you know, he's still a really young guy and he's trying to find his way and, you know, he'll figure it out. Do you talk to him? Like, what's the dynamic? Like, because your teammates, but you're not really, like, it's not like a football team where, like, if you're the vet and you take him aside or something. Like, what's, do you talk to him at all? I do. Yeah. Yeah, we talk, you know, again, we shared a holler this weekend, so we had a lot of dialogue on our cars and things like that. And, you know, it was actually, was it his heat? Yeah, I think it was before his heat.

And I just said, they were, they were, he was leaving the hauler. And I said, all right, don't lose your shit. And he's like, what do you mean? The car of my head, I said, your head. like just you're you know trying to warn that you're you're going to get bounced around right you can't let that just you know lock you lock your brain up and say all right i'm i'm out to get blood at this moment right you just that is the racetrack right and and certainly he didn't deserve to get spun or anything you know he got he got spun out a few times that that was undeserving and so

it's hard not to feel like you were done wrong there um And I think he would have been fine with just kind of getting bumped, but I think he got wiped out a few times where he shouldn't have. And it's hard to let that go. Even me, it would be hard to let that go. I mean, in a way, that's the challenge that NASCAR is creating for you drivers, right? We're going to take you to a track where it's going to be very easy for you to lose your head. Yep.

How do they deal with that? That's right. That's right. That's what they want. They want to put us to that decision, no doubt. I'm just curious with this track. I'm watching a few replays here. And there's a different strip of asphalt on the inside between the track and the grass that has like those bumps on it.

That would be concrete. Concrete. It's all hard stuff that you drive on. Anyway, does that create, does that have more grip? Like, were you trying to put tires on that? It had more but less. Come again? I know.

More but less. Um, so it was, um, I don't know, let's just say it's 10 inches. About five inches in the middle was these bumps, right? So if you could somehow peel your, get your tire just kind of on the top four inches, or, you know, I guess the math that's not that's not up there, about the top two and a half inches to where you're not over the bumps, but you're on the concrete. Yeah, it did. Or maybe you could get on the,

the other side of it, be on the inside of the bumps. But it's actually pretty cool because it is an option to use, but it is not an advantage. So it's very unique in that sense that you could run on it and you could run very similar lap times with it. Maybe you just want to be a little lower than the person in front of you, but you didn't, it didn't give you the, okay, this is concrete and it's got more grip. It wasn't like that. It didn't feel that way. just because your car is skipping over these bumps so it's constantly losing contact right but what if you don't touch the bumps what if you're like right above the bump that's what i'm saying but it's only it's such a small strip that's you know again it's it's only about two and a half inches inward of actual flat concrete before you get to the bump so there's all you again trying to hit that two and a half inches all way around the corner's extremely difficult and not optimal got it yeah watching the race i I was wondering if you were trying to, trying to hit that or not or used it. I tried.

I was all, you know, I went from running lefts right near the grass to running a car width and a half high. Just trying to get my car to do something that it wasn't doing well at the time. So I was just trying to change stuff up. But anyway, I mean, we did have a winner. Chase Elliott. Chase Elliott. First time that Napa car has been to victory lane in at least two years. Really?

Yeah. What did he win in last year? The Hooters car? Yeah. I thought it was just kind of a complete weekend for Chase. He was fast in practice. He obviously was fast in qualifying. P1.

and he won the race. You would think open and shut case. He led 171 laps, the most in clash history. Pretty straightforward. I thought at the end of the first stage, when we got around him, I was watching his car, and I said, okay, he's vulnerable at this point of the track, so I'm going to attack that. and so

they just did a really good job with adjustments truthfully because where I thought he was weak in the first half they definitely seemed to have improved it in the second and he mentioned that that they made some really good adjustments and I was optimistic that once we got to leave

it was like man we got such an advantage here and I mentioned that I made a mistake I was doing some things with my breaks under caution. I didn't get it back for the, you know, I didn't get it back. I mean, still didn't. I got knocked out of the way, but it's, again, I let the competition get too close by messing up some adjustments on my end. And, but I thought that, you know, when they made those adjustments second half,

they took off and Chase just, he drove masterfully through traffic. held Blaney off really well. Maitre he held his line and kept Blaney and dirty air at all times, and he adapted his line when he needed to. So I think it's certainly a great start to the season for them. What did you say to him when he was driving to Victory Lane and you were standing there doing some media? Yeah, it's just great job.

Yeah, it's just a congratulations and great job. I wasn't upset about anything happened on track. I think that's just that's part of it. And you got to just when you, if you're leading by quarter car length, prepare for contact in the middle or on corner entry. That's, that's what you're going to have. And the people behind you are not going to be patient knowing that they can't sit behind you but for so long. So I thought it was all fair game. And yeah, it was a solid, solid weekend for that 19.

Anything else? Nothing else. Super Bowl next week. Got any predictions? Anybody you're betting on? I'm going to have to look to see kind of where the public's at on this thing. But I rarely bet on the Chiefs, but there was nothing better in my life than betting on them over the last couple weeks

and seeing that the best game quarterback, was carrying around my money. Like, it was like, oh yeah, we tie game two minutes ago, cash his ticket. And he's going to go down. And I heard an interesting stat. Trey Wingo said it.

You see so much sports on your feet. I'm sure you probably saw it. But in game time, in clutch game situations, right? This is, you've got to go down and score to either take the lead or tie the lead.

some of the best quarterbacks in history accomplished this at about a 45% rate. Like, they've got the ball, go down, score to win the game, or score to tie the game in force overtime. Some of the best, like Drew Brees was like four for eight or something like that. He was one of the best, whatever.

Peyton Manning, others were like three for seven. Patrick Mahomes is seven for seven. seven for seven and so i'm like why would i let why would i put my money in someone else's hands i'm going to put in the guy that if it's Vegas is calling it a tight game they say it's going to be close i'll take the guy that's seven for seven on game winning drives and that's probably what i'll do again i'm not a chase cheese cheese fan i'm not on that bandwagon my great great gregg fernelly what dude so before the high state game, I was like, you know, supporting the chiefs a little bit because he was supporting high state. But after his lack of support during the national championship game,

I feel like I don't need to support the chiefs in the Super Bowl. You hear that, Greg, for Nellie? We invited him to the national championship and the guy was in the concourse 60%. He's talking about his knee hurt and he can't play pickleball. Well, yeah, because you fucking walk the concourse for a national championship game for 60 minutes. Greg, where he at? Oh, I had to go. Anybody in those, Greg? Oh, I had to go meet Carl and her boyfriend. Then I had to go, oh, I met Sacco, and I'm like, dude, there's a game going on. I mean, there's a game going on. We got front row tickets.

He missed, I think he missed the passenger. I meant to seal the game. He comes down and what happened. No, remember he said he saw it from the Pister. Yeah. He's like, oh, yeah, I saw it. I was taking a leak. Come on, Greg.

It's not built like you, Travis. No, Travis knows how to time his, his, his bathroom breaks. I think in two games I took like two bathroom breaks during the game. Like you got a... He'll stop drinking.

He'll stop drinking during... Well, you'll drink some, but you'll know your limit. Yeah. That way you never, ever have to take a bathroom break during a live play. Yeah. I mean, you should have seen him

when we were at the Indiana game. We were in a suite. We went up there for halftime and meet a couple people. And like the second half was like, getting ready to kick off and you could see Travis was kind of getting nervous right because he just

doesn't miss a play he's like I'm going to head back down to the seats and literally as we as me and Charlie are walking down the concourse I hear the crowd and I'm like uh oh so I think he's taking it to the house

and we looked at the TV there's Caleb Downs taking it all the way but Travis made it back to his seat on time just will not miss a play. And Greg Fernelli, on the other hand. Yikes. Jared, how was your off season? Do anything? Yeah. What about you? People want to hear about you.

I went snowboarding a bunch. Moral of the story of that is that I didn't hurt myself. Other people around me got hurt often, but I didn't hurt myself. That's kind of it. Yeah. Went home. ironically all these places that I went snowboarding were all NASCAR tracks in the winter so I saw more NASCAR tracks in the winter than I'd ever seen before my life. New Hampshire had snow on it. Pocono had snow on it. Wow. Yeah. You traveled. I traveled a bit. Well, I got something upstairs for you that might be fun for your traveling. Okay. I forgot you texted me right after Christmas. They said, when you're going to be back, I got. I got something I got to give you.

Got something for you, yeah. And Denny, you had some exciting news in the all season. How's home front? I did. I did. I can't say, right? She'll get mad at me. Not yet.

Yeah, I can't say. We're working on social videos. Okay. Jordan and I, so you can't say, yeah. Okay, well, yeah, I got another one coming. I'm three for three. another baby we are really really excited do June 1st-ish

so right around Charlotte weekend hopefully if we can get that thing popped out somewhere around then that'd be great so it's always the question in sports is will the athlete be there will you be there if it's if she goes into labor on Sunday yeah of course there's a new rule though right there is you can miss a race for a birth and not lose your

playoff points or have to get a waiver correct yeah I need I'm gonna need the clip notes on all the new rule stuff and we'll go over that next week but yeah that's good news yeah I mean it seems like nowadays though that they can pretty much time

whenever it happens yeah like they can make that make it come out whenever I mean yeah you can prep nine months ahead of time. Yeah.

That too. Was Taylor and Molly born on a weekend? I don't remember. I'm not sure. I remember I had a golf guys event the day after. Oh, you can't miss that. There's no waivers for the golf guys event. Oh, no, I made it.

I played. Howard Taylor and Molly handling. What could I do? I guess. I mean, once the baby's had, it's like, you know, I can be your comfort companion, be there to feed you applesauce or something, but, no, she was great. Listen, she's great. She's very, very accommodating.

It was. Now, listen, I'm not the only one, folks. There's been others in the NASCAR community that's in my golf league that had a child and then took a break for four hours, played in the event. came back to the hospital. So, yeah, it, we have some under understanding women in our lives. Great supporters. That's, that's a tough job in itself for us NASCAR drivers.

How's Taylor and Molly handling? Are they excited? They are. Taylor is most excited that Molly would no longer be the youngest and be the baby of the family. She's like, ha, ha, you're not going to be the baby anymore. So Taylor's excited about that. And then Molly's excited to have, you know, a younger that she can take care of. You know, what was very interesting is on Molly's Christmas list this year.

Number one on her Christmas list was a baby sister. I guess we can't say if she's going to get that or not just yet. Not yet. Not yet. So gender reveals come is what it sounds like. Yeah. We did it over Christmas. It was fun because we had someone wrap some Jordans as a Christmas gift. It was the last gift we opened.

And then what color are the shoes? Nice. Yep. So excited for that. And when are we doing that, Jerry? When are y'all doing that? Is Jordan here? I'll go talk to her right after this.

Okay. Yeah. Well, we'll let you know soon enough, but... Did you remodel your office yet? Going to... After Molly, you... I moved my office. I'm in 2311 now. Okay. We finally got that done, which is exciting. I love my office at 2311. There's many days I'd like to just go there and get out of this house because there's so many women in this house. There's five to six on a daily basis between my sister.

You got housekeeper, you got Jordan to girl. Like, it just never stops. It's just girl after girl after girl after girl after girl after girl. I just, I need some space at times. So, yeah, so we're there. But then, so Jordan had her office move to what was the baby's room. And now we've got to change that back over to a baby's room again because it's closest to our room. I guess one thing, Travis, about my offseason,

I did keep red vest number 311. People are asking me. People are asking me what my vest number is. It is still 311. That thing went into my backpack on November 7th or whatever day Phoenix ended, and that's where it's been since. And it just came out.

It looked rather wrinkled like you had just bawled it up and put it in there. I felt bad because everyone else, you're supposed to turn them back in after the season and they give you new ones. You just said. So everyone else got reissued new vest and they're, you know, bright red and the white's clean and then mine's still filthy. I think that's you.

That's what granola's do. Right. You guys don't shower. You don't. Yeah. If they do, it's organic soap. All right. Well, appreciate you guys.

Next week, we will be here next Monday. We do deep dive on the season. Yeah, we're going to do some deep dive on all season news. expectations for a bunch of drivers. What are our expectations for this year? We got a lot to talk about. I think next week there's a lot to dive into for sure. And we'll preview the Daytona 500 coming up.

So you guys have a great week. Appreciate you tuned in. We'll see you next one. Got a review here from Badger. Last season was my first. You're going to have to split. You're going to have to flip that. We can leave it then.

Oh, okay. Review here from. from Badger. Last season of my first following NASCAR and actions detrimental has been the perfect companion to the race each week. Denny Brinks Experience Hubble, level-headed insight every week, and his crew are the perfect compliment. Thank you for a great season worth of episodes and cheers to another great season.

All right. Appreciate it, Badger. Thanks for the review. Make sure you guys leave us a review on wherever you get your podcast. Yep. And a reminder, full YouTube video goes up on Monday's also. So check it out. Hit the subscribe button.

You're going to want to see us in the flesh. And the fact that I just destroyed my coffee within the first 30 seconds of air in the show. So appreciate you guys. Tune in. See you next week.