Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Brickyard Finish: This Is Why People Gripe

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Denny Hamlin is back from a disappointing Sunday at the Brickyard 400. Denny and his co-host Jared Allen talk about what was needed to win the race and where he lost it (12:30). As predicted, the Next Gen car made it impossible to pass (14:00).Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski were penalized for “blend line violation” and weren’t happy. But NASCAR informed everyone the day before on what the rule was (23:46). Brad Keselowski running out of gas was exactly what Kyle Larson needed (27:30). On the flipside, it ruined Ryan Blaney’s day. How should NASCAR handle this situation going forward? And, did Larson jump the start? Denny pulls up the SMT data to find out.Did NASCAR get it wrong on the timing on the caution for Ryan Preece (37:00)?What exactly was on the notepad that Chase Elliott handed to Denny (49:20)?Plus, what did teams learn about the tires for Bristol? And, is the qualifying format dumb (56:00)?For more Actions Detrimental content 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.

This is the most fair way to do it. Stop complaining. Whoever your driver got screwed this week because of the A and the B, they reaped the benefits of that shit last week. You didn't say that then. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to action's detrimental. Ow!

That hurt Charlie! This is not going to be a rose-colored glasses show. Pleading with NASCAR, who I guarantee you is listening to this. It was warm, and then it was cold. but I kind of liked it. The 11, D.H. We're all in. We're going all the way

that's promising. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental after indie. I am the driver of the number 11 Sport Clips Toyota this past weekend and my co-host. Is photographer, red vest number 311,

Jared Allen. Which is a photographer now? Videographer. Team, driver. slash team slash driver that's what the vest says red team slash driver m gotcha all right well um well

I mean damn it I mean oh the pain the pain it pains me to come have to come these are the worst Mondays I get out of bed

and I'm like now I gotta go talk about this like it's just so painful because I just lived it it's like seeing a therapist now you get to just talk about it I know but you don't make me feel any better therapy is at least good for you

he's got to look at a Kyle Larson sticker on your computer that's tough where does this rank in just like tough ones oh gosh I don't know Is it worse than Texas this year? Is it worse than the previous brickyard?

No. Worse than the previous brickyard, no. But it's a really, really close second. It's like 1B. Simply from kind of our standpoint and where I was at, we felt really good about we were at leading into the third stage. We're leading the race. Everyone has to pit.

everyone has to fuel up one more time. We are leading the race. We have to fuel up one more time. So from our standpoint, it was pretty straightforward. Let's just go green. Once we go green, everyone then has to pit under green, and that's when we win the race. Because the goal was, even though I was going to have to take a little more fuel than others,

I was going to leg it out. I was going to stretch out such a lead that it didn't matter how long I was going to sit in the pit stall. You know, I think we had the fastest lap of the race by a sizable margin. I think we actually had the second, the third and the fourth fastest lap of the race, somewhere in there. Once we had the lead and was going to go green there, Yeah, what happens is that we were going to have to take probably two or three seconds more fuel than others. But the field spread that goes on in a race, and I thought that NBC did a great job of kind of quarterbacking all these different strategies that were going on throughout the day. We were going to drive out to a sizable lead over second, third.

whoever was going to be slow and we were racing cars in the same strategy as us that really I didn't think were in the same kind of zip code speedwise so the guys that had to take less fuel were back in 15th

they were going to be 10 15 seconds behind in a matter of laps when we then pit and then after that we would retain the lead inside the last fuel window and then I would have restarted

on the bottom every time and then been able to hold it hold it so i just uh yeah you're one caution away from this thing going just as planned and then we got one caution but then the second one was like now that puts us in a weird fuel window where we're short so we're going to have to save but others that were in the back of the pack like the five because he had his issue with 90 to go or something like that. He had fuel. So he then just kind of topped off. And then it just, it, it,

everything up. It really did. And so we spent the whole last run, um, having to save. And so it's frustrating because it was, um, very similar to like the super speedway races that we have had all year where I don't know this race.

I may have, the race is 160. laps. Is that right? That's right. I think I ran hard 25 25 of those laps. So it's just, I'm so

tired of running fuel model races where we're all running half throttle. I wish we could do something about it, but it's like, I don't know. It helps you sometimes. It hurts you sometimes, but I just think for the racing's sake,

man do we really want NBC to have to sit here and explain all these different things and fuel and all it's like don't you just want to see us out there racing and you know that hey that car out front he's he got to the league because he's the fastest car or whatever like he's like no don't even look at this guy look at the guy back in 12th that's the guy you should be paying attention to well he's doing a great job explaining what's happening but can we stop that from happening somehow where it's like fuel modges races um well before before we we dive into anything you know regarding that back to your race at what point did you feel like you lost the race that's what i'm curious about well when when kyle passed us that was it i mean really there were two moments there was one where we took the fuel under that caution with 48 to go and the 12 you know i came in first came out third or fourth um very similar to polka no where i came in with the lead didn't leave with the lead because it takes a little more fuel and then um yeah i just knew that if if chris is going to ask me to have to pass someone running 100 percent it was

going to be a non-starter so isn't that the moment that you lost this race probably i mean yeah if the The 12 makes it on fuel, which he was going to, obviously. Yeah, I mean, we lost the race because we didn't come out a pit road on lap 48 with the lead. Right. Because, I mean, we don't know how this would have ended if it finished reading Kyle did not wreck. But Larson and still yet to pass Blaney. So the difference was is that Blaney short pitted the stage in stage three. That's why he was able to take less fuel and jump you.

That's correct. he was back back there. So he was going to have to take less fuel than us under green. Like if we just go green with,

you know, we don't even need to go green in the entire distance. We just need it to go green for 10, 15 laps right after lap 110. Like just go green for a couple laps here.

Everyone then starts to pit under green and we've got such a sizable lead. It doesn't matter how much fuel we take because we've got such a spread. So really it's the, It's the second caution there at the start of stage two where you lost it. It's not necessarily that your crew was slower on pit road.

Yeah, no, it wasn't that. We had to wait on fuel anyway. And we took four tires. And I really don't think we waited on fuel hardly much at all. I was, you know, it's my job. He tells me, you know, go on Kenneth. And what I do is I'm looking to see when his head's nodding. Oh, Kenneth.

I was having a conversation with your mom on the bus. I was like, they keep saying go on tennis, go on tennis, go on tennis. go on tennis. Go, go, go, go, go. And he never says tennis. Kenneth. That makes sense now. Yeah, yeah.

I'm looking, I'm watching my fuel guy. And when he gives me the head nod, I take off. So, yeah, I mean, all the above, right? Lost that, lost the lead. And that was it. And then we just, he never really let me go on that last stage to run hard. So then I'm trying to. 14 to go is when you.

you were told that you can go. I never heard that. Really? I'm pretty sure there was, yeah. I mean, did it matter at the end of the day? Would it matter? Yeah, 14. Because you had to go once the five is starting to roll through the field.

You got to either resign to finish in fifth or you just push it because if he passes you, then it's over. Yeah. Yeah, the issue was, is we had cars in front of us that were going to run out as well. We knew the 31 was not going to make it. We knew the 6thers not going to make it. So Bob Packers tweeted, Hamlin told, quote, I don't want you to shift, but you can go.

That's 14 laps to go. And you told Chris, I can't go without shifting, I think. Exactly. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't work like that. I wish I could just not do that. But the way the cars are and how bad they are in traffic,

you need to shift. to get good runs off the corner and then extend them down the straightaway. So, yeah, I do remember that at that point. I was like, if I can't shift, then I can't go. Yeah, so just a tough one for sure. And not only just a tough one, you know, not winning the race, but then, you know, we're finishing 32nd again. I knew.

We were coming to the green on that caution where I was restarting 21st, and I knew right away. I said, I'm going to get crashed. I'm right where you get crashed, and I got crashed. Why did you guys pit there? Because you guys run the same as Blaney. I'm not sure. There must have been something that told them that we were going to run out.

Well, it's just like, you know, if there's two cautions, if there's a caution for priests, priests, was a priest at the end? If there's a caution for priests at the end, all those other guys then are probably going to have to, pit and then you are back to seventh or something whereas now they're back like blaney's back to 20th i mean for me i at this point i'd rather just run out cause caution cause a wreck and read the benefits of all the cars that a carnage like those are the people who works out the best for it sucks um it sucks yeah blaney was nearly part of that uh wreck with 22 oh yeah

I saw that. He was dead sideways and I think it was Hosevar that kind of jammed middle there and he tried to get an extra row of middle and they had reached the corner and you got to merge, right? And we talked about this at Pocono. Like eventually you've got to make a decision there to say, okay, I've got a couple cars here. I'm not going to get a couple more because the turn is here. We got to make a turn. So it, yeah, that caused a chain reaction, took out, I think three cars. Is there any, you know, does it make you feel any better that, you know, maybe you realize that the race is out of your, but, you know, like.

This is an awful therapy session, Jared. Just trying to get it all out. Like when there's 50 laps to go and you're running behind the 71 and the 12, like, it's at that moment where you're like, damn it, I don't know if I'm going to get back ahead of them versus where Blaney feels like he has a chance to win. And all of a sudden, Brad peels off. And it's like, well, now, well, now. Well, I'm thinking at that moment, there's still hope in my mind, right?

Because I'm like, I know I'm saving. I know I'm saving. The 12 is up there kind of pushing the six a little bit. We know that he's saving, but like maybe I'm doing a little better job of saving than he is because he's further up. So there's still hope that they run out. And I don't because, you know, Chris kept telling me, you know, we're really, really close. We're kind of right there. and so I don't know.

Yes, certainly when I knew if he was going to have to ask me to pass anyone in that final stage, it was just not going to happen. It's just physics. I think Chase Elliott went off during the course of the race. He's like, you know, if you can give me a physics button, you know, that'd be great, you know, because if you can figure out how to pass, then it'll be game on. He's like, yeah, no shit. it's just the we're just in a weird spot where the leader just has such an advantage on that track because he's got the clean air you can run so much faster when you have the clean air and we all know these next-gen cars are terrible in traffic they're the worst cars in NASCAR in traffic so um when we designed them

we designed a car that is worse than it's ever been in traffic I asked him three times. Three times I asked John Probes before this car came out. Are you sure it's right? Because you haven't put it around any other cars during these preseason testing. And then finally in December before they launched the car, they put it on track with another car and they see that it's, oh, we got a problem.

Well, no kidding. You had two years to figure this out. God, it's frustrating as hell. Should we go back to the road course? Hell no. I mean, you know, the race was at least, compelling because of the strategies, right? It certainly was compelling. And when I watched it back, I was like, okay, and I kind of warned the folks listening on this last week that this was going to

prepare, strap up your boots because this is what you're going to see this weekend is you're going to have to just embrace the strategy part of it. Jeff Glock talked about it last night on the tear down. It's just, this is what it is. It's never put on a great race, but you then watch the Xfinity race. And it's like you watch them, they're able to pass. If a good car is able to pass, then they are able to manipulate the car in front of them instead of getting manipulated by the car in front of them. That is the big difference been Xfinity and Cup. Is that cup, the closer you get to them, your car takes off. You lose all down force. It's done. The closer you get to the car in front of you in Xfinity and what we saw Riley Herbs and many

the others do is that as soon as you get to the close to the rear of the car they start losing rear downforce and then they get off the bottom and they and you shuck them and that's what we used to do with the gen four car and five car is that we could always get the guy in front of us loose now you can't do that because they're not making any overbody aerodynamics and it's all underbody so you're not able to take air off their spoiler because there's not hardly an air going to on the spoiler in the first place. So it's, we've got a physics problem.

It's, I wish, I wish they would just let us come up with our own package for that track just one time and let us decide what we're going to run. But we're just, we've been in this zone for a while now

where we either need to slow way down more or we need to speed up to allow handling to really matter. And the reason we also had these fuel mileage races is because the tires are outlasting the gas tank. The gas tank, the tires need to go out before the gas tank does. So, I mean, really, you could have, I don't know how many laps you could have run on set of tires, but I guess it would be a ton, a ton of laps. It was all about track position, track position, track position, track position.

And while there were passes from the five car in stage three to the to the to the to the end, he was racing against everyone running half throttle. So it, it just, it's not as it seems. You know, had everyone been running all out, passing was just not good, not good at all. I mean, that's why it would have been interesting to see if this thing went green at the end, to see if he would have passed Blaney, assuming, Brad runs out of fuel and pulls off. Yeah, I don't think, I think if Brad,

or if Blaney's running 100%, I don't think that Larson passes them. I don't think so. So then his only hope would have been that Blaney also would have ran out of fuel because Blaney's obviously going to run 100% if Kyle's on his bumper and that's the only way to win the race.

Yep. But it's some butts. Right. Joey was also not happy with this package for what it's worth because Bubba put a big block on him midway through the race. behind it. Yeah.

So that's the only chance he gets. That's bullshy right there. I mean, it's what everyone did all day long. It was so agitating. It's, you get a run on the guy and they just drive left. And I did it. I had to do it as well because it was like, this is the way you defend. And, you know, what are you going to do?

You want to go to the top? Yeah, right. That's another thing that I think gets overlooked in indie races is that I believe this is my theory, that when they diamond cut that racetrack, it made it one, one lane. It's always been around the bottom type racetrack, but if you look at races in previous, you could run up a little bit

before they diamond cut it. So what I think is happening is that while the cars are running, and we noticed it a lot during the test, when you just had three cars there, so we're all running the very bottom. That's where we want to run, just right up against the curb,

as close as we can get. So if you go out of that about two or three, like, let's just say two foot. I think what's happening is what dust is coming off the tires or marbles is filling in the cracks. And so on the racetrack. So the diamond cutting is shredding this tire into dust.

And that dust is then going up to the lane that's right above the actual racing line. So on any other racetrack that we go to, that's just like a smooth track, like India is a very smooth track. We want to chase whatever to get out of the rubber. We want to get new fresh pavement. So we start going wide.

You saw it at the end of Pocono. How wide I was going up and turned to. I just think that this thing is cheese-grating the tires into dust. and that dust is then settling in that second lane. And I think it's because of the diamond cut that they did to the racetrack. That's my theory on it. Otherwise, I can't really understand

why it is so one lane dependent. And it just doesn't make sense to me that we have other one lane tracks in their circuit. Well, none of them are truly one one lane. Like even Martinsville, you can hedge up a little bit, right? if you want to make a pass. But I just think that that diamond cutting is doing something to the tires

that's causing it to fill in dust in the cracks of that second lane and it is treacherous to say the least. But at the end of the day, does any of that even matter? Because the racing organizations still get what they wanted out of this racetrack. Like the Indy 500 is kind of similar. It's a fuel saving race.

You got to save fuel, right? It's a fuel-saving race. and the last two lapser, like the last two lapses, the last 500 were exhilarating, the last couple laps of the Xenia race were exhilarating, the last couple laps of this race were great. So the difference in Indy in our cars, though, is that if the leader is running 100%, good luck passing him.

There were no passes for the lead under Green yesterday. Okay? In Indy, there are passes for the lead constantly under Green. It's because they have enough downforce for the second car to remain somewhat close in the corners. So then they get a huge draft down the straightaway and then boom, they pull out and they pass. For our cars, the leader gaps the second place so much in the corner

that it takes the entire straightaway to get back to them. And then that's when you see that late move down to the bottom to try to pass. Is that you've got to let the cars stay closer together in the corners to then get that slingshot pass down the streetway. So it's just, I mean, it is, it's better than the road course. So let's keep it there on the Oval. And it's still a big race. It's just a different kind of race that you've got to have an open mind when you watch it,

that, okay, this is not going to be a side-by-side type race. I'm going to need to keep up with strategies. And hopefully the TV does a good job of that. Right. I'm just saying you still get, no matter what, no matter how the racing is for the first 140 laps, 150 laps. You still got that exciting finish. Here's a guy who might have more fuel there.

You got an exciting finish because of the wrecks on the restarts, right? And does fuel strategy in the way it all played out? But had there been not the wrecks, then Denny stays out in front and it's not exciting. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, or Brad, it stays single file. Like, it was down to two to go, right? Brad was leading. Then it was Blaney and it was Larson.

and Larson made his a few shots at Blaney. It wasn't going to work. What was going to happen was the 6th was going to run out. He was going to peel off. And the 12 was going to go to victory. There were still going to be no green passes for the lead. Right. But you still got to see.

In a 400-mile race, no passes for the lead under green. Sure. But you still ended up getting to see one car who had more fuel than the rest drive through the field. And that was what people were going to remember or what they would have remembered. this race for. Well, I mean, 50% of the people said it's a good race. Before we get into the end of this race, another incident that you were behind had a firsthand view of

Chase Elliott blending into the racetrack and then coming back down off a pit road, this email from NASCAR had said swing wide beyond the white line on the acceleration lane between turn one and two, but stay off the racing surface. Yep. Was that clear to you? The racing surface is always defined by a yellow line.

We have it at Daytona. We have it everywhere. Even on mile and a half, if you're on the bottom lane on a restart, they do not let you go to the apron. They consider the racing surface anything above that line. So I thought it was pretty clear. I don't know why everyone would. I mean, it was only happened twice,

so it had to be pretty clear. I feel like more drivers would have. yeah certainly i mean there's an advantage there to swinging out wide now the advantage gained was two hundreds of a second like it's not that much but they don't want you going out there let's just pretend there was a car two lanes wide so the wider you swing that the better angle you'll have so if you let people go above that white line they're going to go way above that white line so i think you know they're trying to keep you off the racing surface um and to me the racing surface has always been defined as anything above the bottom white line.

When you were riding behind him, did you see that and being like, oh, that's going to cost him? I did not. I was, I think I was in between one and two at the time. I was on the racetrack. But it didn't, I didn't look down at him. I was focused on hauling ass in that moment. What do you make of Larson not getting, a lot of people are saying. Yeah, he was on the line. He wasn't above it, though. So I didn't see anything wrong with Kyle's merge there onto the surface. So I think that, yeah, the tie kind of goes to the runner in that instance.

And so I think that on the line's fine, above it, obviously, but it's not. Do they supply like a video or anything of like a ghost car? It's like, if you do this, this is a penalty? No, you must stay. And I see, so why? The uproar, right, is because what is the, people got confused on the definition of racing surface. I see racing surface as the pavement above the white line. That is the surface.

It's not the racing line. They didn't say the racing line. They said the racing surface. And that surface is large. So I think that people just got confused on the definition of racing surface. Right. but I feel like that shouldn't be the case. This should be laid out very clear.

Racing surface means this. There shouldn't be people getting confused on what racing surfaces. Yeah, I mean, in retrospect, I think if you could go back and do this all over again, maybe, you know, if you're NASCAR, you say you can cross the first white line, you cannot cross the second. Right. That'd be pretty easy cut and dry, right? Yeah. At the end of this race, coming to second to last.

green flag, Brad Kozowski pulls off the racing surface when he realizes that his car is presumably not going to fire. It, what a break. The 5 got a break, the 12 got an awful break because the 12 was in control

to win the race. I didn't care whether they went green, whether we had cautions or whatever. The 12 was in position to win the race. And then he, obviously lost his when he saw that the five pulled up and then not only pulled up but you know they left the same timeish and then the five cleared him into turn one you know it was unhinged moment which was so deservingly so like this is one where you got to give blania a buy on this one

because you know he goes from controlling the race to not only not controlling the race you know when it comes to, I say controlling, let's define that. Controlling the race means that you are the leader, you're dictating the pace, you're dictating strategy, things like that. He goes from not only not controlling the race when the six pulls off to then relinquishing the spot that he had, which is, you know, he goes from second to now, still second, and now we've got a new player in the game. So it was very unfortunate for the 12 that the 5 got to.

the inside lane there. I mean, what do you do about it? I'm not sure. I mean, I think that the six could have not pulled off in a worse time. I don't know how the six thought they were going to make it anyway. Again, if we wouldn't have these stupid fuel mileage races, we wouldn't have this problem. But I guess that could happen any time during that lap. of caution with one to go.

So the rule is the six chooses the bottom and then in turn one he runs out so they still got to go all the way around the racetrack. Blaney could at least had it time to gripe. He would have not gotten anywhere because the rule says that the lane just slides up but damn he would have

he would have chosen the bottom for sure. Could you imagine how unhinged he would have been if he had to go the entire cool down, you know, the entire yellow flag, one little go, seeing the five assigned knowing that he's done. And I love that Blaney, you know, told Jonathan, he's like, hey, they're like, hey, it's not done. We've got to keep fighting here.

He's like, what are you talking about? I'm running the top. Can't one from the top. Dead true. Not in the next gen area anyway. So it was, holy cow, what a change of events. it was uh you know blaney was definitely going to win the race to Kyle won uh when he got to slide up from third to first there maybe this isn't the right word but is that like borderline

unsportsman like from Brad to do that like come on did did you really think that you were going to take the green with your fuel situation like why not just pit under yellow yeah everyone else pits I yeah I don't love it for sure that's what I'm saying it almost benefits you to just run out in front of the field or just run your car out of gas because it wreaks havoc on everything else and then at least you don't get wrecked. So I don't know.

Is that not race manipulation? I mean, there was no physics of math that would have said that he would have made it that I understand. But I don't know. I mean, we never thought Joey was going to make it, but when you look at where Joey was running, he was running 15th at Nashville.

The pace he was running was significantly slower than leaders. Brad was the leader and stretched it to an unknown amount. And so it does. It certainly changed the outcome of the race. It was very unfortunate. The only thing is that what do you do about it, though? because if you throw a caution and say, hey, hold on, hold on on, Blaney, you're the leader now. You know, you get to, you get to choose.

The only, maybe just let Blaney start on his own row. Right. Why does the row have to move up? Why can't, if Brad peels off, like Blaney is the only car on the front row. Yeah. Why does the row have to move up? That seems unfair. Yeah. Say it. I want you to say it. It seems unfair.

Okay. Or at the very least, don't throw green and have them go and re-rack it. Well, then you're extending the caution and you're going to have more cars running out. Well, that's not NASCAR's fault. I agree. It's not their problem. But they clearly, I mean, you don't think they made calls different at the end of this race than what they do under normal cautions? Oh, they absolutely did. I mean, they threw a red flag to help people not run out. Right. I think they listened to a podcast where we said maybe you should do that.

I mean, you know what I mean? Normally, we just ran under caution there at the end of that race, but they knew people were tight on gas, so they stopped the race. It's all heightened because this was at the end of the race and the ramifications of this were so big, right? if this happens at the middle of stage two. Yeah, but what the NASCAR fan is really asking for is just give me some damn consistency, somehow, some way.

Well, I guess it's not a judgment call. If the rule in the rule book is that if a car pulls off or whatever, the lane gets to move up. Yes, that is right. That is right. What we're saying is that was not fair to Blaney. But it's by the rules. That lost Blaney the race. Right.

But they followed the rules. So it's not really a judgment call. Right. Let me ask you this. Did Larson jump the start? I'd have to look into it. I'm not sure. Is there a time on the radio that would not happen? It looked close, but I don't know. I'll try to get you something by the end of this podcast. I'll look up some stuff. Are drivers aware? But I think it's who cares at this point? He won. I think it's

It was just a bad scenario all around at the end of that race There were so many things that just were not Didn't work out well for a lot of people And it was some of the calls I thought were just Super questionable when it comes to You know Whether they throw that caution at the end or not Is the driver on the outside row there Blaney in this situation

Are you all aware that when that happens, you become the car that fires first? Like, was Blaney in the know that he was the car that could fire first there? Yes. Yes. So then isn't it on him, like to not, like, if Kyle jumped the start a little bit, isn't that more on Blaney to not fire right away? It just seems like there's a gray area there. Yeah, but it's still, it's still better to go.

early than it is to go late. But again, I don't know. I think that you probably, Blaney was just in a tough spot. The outside lane just was not going to work. It didn't matter if he was cleared them by all but two inches. The bottom was going to be so significantly faster. And so the 12 was done when the five slid up there. So it didn't matter. So I just think in that situation, in the front row, maybe we just let the loan car left on the front row stay there. No sliding up. Maybe that's more fair, right? That seemed like a more reasonable thing because it definitely changed the outcome of this race without a doubt.

Now, I mean, anything could happen, right? You've got, you know, if, I don't know, the most likely scenario, is that the six, if he didn't run out, he was going to run out on the track, bottleneck the five up and cause a huge crash. The five was likely going to be in it. Well, they were discussing would Larson potentially go behind Blaney worried that Kozlowski was going to run out of gas? And that was a whole issue.

Yeah. And I think they asked, it was a very heads-up position for Cliff Daniels when he asked the official says, hey, just FYI, if they do run out, we can pull out before. before the start finish line, right? So they were on it right from the get-go because they knew that the six was in dire straits. And so that was a heads-up call by them to prepare Kyle to say, hey, if you see him stumble at all, go ahead and you can go ahead and pull out. You got to say one of the best cars won the race. It's hard to argue that. It still worked out to where, you know, one of the best cars and drivers won the race. You know, they had to drive from the back in that final

stage to do it. So, I don't know, maybe it might be a situation where NASCAR is kind of happy with the way this whole thing played out. Ryan Priest's caution judgment call. I was watching in the bus. Trust me, I was there. And I was like, there's going to be a caution. There's a caution. Because he stopped. One thing I just don't understand now is that I'm watching on TV. I have, do not have the technology that NASCAR has at their fingertips. When Elton Sawyer says, well, by the time that we saw that the 41 was not able to move, we had already crossed the start finish line. Wrong.

That's not true. He was not moving when they were coming off turn four. He had resigned to sitting there. You watched him in the middle of three and four. He was spinning his wheels, not going anywhere. He only had three, by the way. Yeah. And then through turns four, he stops. He just says, all right, I'm, I'm not going to go anywhere. So they had roughly eight seconds to make a call there, and they didn't. So it's just, I mean, Austin Cendrick spun through the infield of Nashville. Gathered it up, too. Gathered up, kept going. And that was instantly a caution.

This is what we're talking about, NASCAR. This is your inconsistencies that people gripe about. And they have a right to gripe because it is so inconsistent. You can't decide whether you want the caution or you don't want the caution. And so that's the agitating part of it. Yeah, I thought when he hit the inside wall, that would have been the caution. Driver hits the inside wall. Yep.

Caution. so that happened when the leaders were halfway down the backstretch. So they had that much time to sit there and watch him go nowhere. And then decided to throw it when they came back around one minute later. Should it matter to them that half the field is going to have to pit for gas? You just said it's not their problem. They didn't care at Nashville, right? I mean, we just had caution after caution after caution.

So, you know, this is what we've created. We have created a car that it's about fuel mileage now on these big tracks. We run half throttle. And so this is the kind of stuff you're going to see is you're going to see people push fuel mileage and run half throttle and not be able to pass. And it's just, this is the outcome. You're going to have these end of races just be completely. complete havoc and then it's going to save the day. Have you had a chance to talk to Kyle Busch about the caution that started all of this?

No, but damn. Damn it, Kyle. Trust me, I did not want a caution, so I made sure I gave him plenty of room getting in the corner, but I think he just carried a little too much speed in there and got up the racetrack and got in the side of us and spun out. At least he tried to, you know, he made an effort to, you know, not spin us out. You know, he knew he was going up the track and he turned the wheel to try to stay off of us, but it ended up wrecking himself.

But, yeah, just, I don't know, at that point, I think that you just finished the race. He hadn't finished in a while. The six was going to run out of gas. He was going to get a tie. I saw it in his, whoever, tweeted for him at the end of the race. They were like, hey, he was going for top five. You were going to get a top five

because the six was going to run out of gas. So, I don't know. I just, I think I radioed for a while there. It was like, I don't know, within like five to go. It was like, hey, we're all saving here. We're all just trying

to get to the finish. And we didn't get to the finish. So that sucks. It's tough not to not to bring up Lulu Bad luck Have you seen that episode of the Brady Bunch where they go to Hawaii

and they find the totem and then all hell breaks loose? That's kind of Lulu. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, we've had one good finish since she's been on board. I'm looking at this restart right now. they fire absolutely at the same time,

at the same exact time. You couldn't have found two cars that fired more similar. It was, it is line over line. Now, the only difference though, this is a big difference. Are you looking at SMT, Dan? Yeah. So at the time of firing, here we go, Kyle Larson's running 64 miles an hour, the 12 cars running 62.

So he's rolling, he's kind of rolling on him there. And then, you know, any two miles an hour that you gain at the start, you have all the way. Isn't that another thing that benefits the second line, or at least the inside line there, that Brad pulls off? and now Kyle is inching up as we get to the start. It's what you talk about like backing off, lagging off, right? Is that the same result? Yeah, it actually, well, sort of. I just, when you said that, I went back and looked.

He actually got up, he went and gassed it up to get even with the 12 right away. Then he backed off. Then he rolled a little bit of speed. When I say a little bit, it's like a mile per hour the entire time. He was just kept creeping, creeping, creeping, creeping. And then they fired at the same time. And then what happens is since they fired at the same time, Kyle's got that one mile per hour advantage the whole time.

But again, this doesn't matter at all. The 12 could have been all ahead of them entering turn one, and the five was going to blow his doors off since he had the bottom. So it's just one of the only racetracks that we have that were at the bottom is just significantly at an advantage. But yeah, the five just, Went back, rolled a half car back, and then just crept rolling that one mile per hour

all the way until they both fired at the same time. Let's kind of recap the Xenity race because I thought it was impressive. It was a fun race to watch. Man, holy shit, it was good. Because you saw the strong cars were the 98, the double zero. Seven was pretty good. You had a few other.

one's kind of in the mix. I thought the nine was actually pretty good. I mean, you had Amarillo go from third to first. Yeah. Like, they were just great passing. Yeah. Yeah. And so a lot of that is because their corner speeds and their straightaway speeds were not that much different. Where we were running probably like 160 in the corner and 195 down the straightaway, like a 35 mile per hour delta. what that means is that it will allow for big slingshot runs to happen down the straightaways, which we saw in Xfinity. And then when, like, when you couldn't slingshot down the straightaway, you could at least jam up right behind that car in front of you, get them loose, get them out of the way, and make passes.

It was a heck of a compelling race. You know, this is one of the wins, I guess you could say, for, you know, kind of the NASCAR, Arrow, R&D, or whatever, you know, they were talking about who came up with this past. package or whatever. It was basically the intermediate aerodynamic package, but the Super Speedway engine. If you would have had just the intermediate all the way around, it certainly wouldn't have been as compelling. You would have seen a more spread out field. What I liked about the extenity race is it was spread out, but the faster cars could pass. And it made for great racing in the corners.

You could see guys running really close to each other in the corners. It was just a fantastic race. And watching it, Riley had an opportunity. I thought he had an opportunity. He took it. Then he lost the lead again. And then it was like he had to retake the lead like twice in the last lap. And I thought he just kept his composure great and was able to get this thing done.

He passed the double zero who, you know, same equipment there. He passed him under green with setting sale, caution comes out, loses the lead on the restart, and then has to fight back. And he does. He gets there late in the race, repasses them again. Here comes the 20, passes them both. He's got to now repass the 20 on the last lap. And then did you see him like drifting through turn four coming to the lead?

going it was it was awesome to watch and it was obviously just super impressive i thought the whole race was impressive riley was did an impressive job um you know keeping his composure and winning that race with you know what looked like the fastest car that day he had to save the car at least three times i think the thing was sideways at least three times yeah i think some of his dad's you know dirt background in the baha and whatnot might might have played a factor in uh his being able to save those cars. So it was a great show. I got to enjoy it.

Certainly, I was on the edge of my seat the entire Xfinity race because I thought it was super compelling. Yeah, we got one of those rare Denny Hamlin tweets where you just tweet one or two words and only people that know

what you're talking about are the ones also watching the exact same thing. Yeah. That's like half of my tweets. Yours are all about. I know, if it's obviously, you understand, you're like,

what is he talking about? Who's that coordinator you want to fire? or you wanted some you kept calling for someone's head last year oh parker fleming fire parker fleming for the record he got fired he did yeah thank god you got him fired that bum okay are y'all are gonna win it all this year right you got everyone yeah it's a wrap it's a lock right that's what i thought that's what charlie thinks too charlie's right yep um the truck race where do we go with that one. We had

Ty Majeski win. I thought he had the best truck throughout the night. I guess the only controversy out of that came with Corey Heim and Christian Echis. They had a very civil discussion

where I think Corey felt like Christian kind of crowded him off a two. Christian said, yeah, I did. I didn't think it was crazy egregious, which I somewhat agree with that. He didn't run them all the way up into the fence, but what Corey was saying is that, listen, had I run, I would have been in the fence to avoid contact with you. So instead, I ended up

having contact with you, cut my tire, ruined my day. So these are the two top teams right now. It seems like in the truck series that battle for race wins week and week out. So it could be something worth watching to see how these guys race each other, you know, do they race each other harder in the future or not. Dear Danny, we've got some questions that we want to ask. Dear Danning. We need answers and we need them fast. We tried to ask Junior, but his answers were lame.

And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now we're caught on you because you're our only hope. This ain't the race track, so maybe you won't choke. Dear Denny What was on the piece of paper That Chase picked up and gave to you? A bunch of words and numbers A bunch of words

So it was important information You know this disclose what But it was important stuff Yes Yes Was it? He could have easily That was useful to him

Put it right there in his pocket And handed it to his crew chief And engineers and said Here's what the 45's doing You all keep that information on a little piece of paper that could easily be dropped on pit road? Well, it was

the Carcheath's notepad. So there's a whole notepad. It wasn't just a piece of paper. Yeah, it had pages. Oh, it looked like just like one like no, no, it wasn't. It had pages. I heard they were given a hala about dropping it.

Chase is a better person. I would have pocketed that thing and taken it to my team. Well, you hate to you would hate to steal something you didn't steal finders skippers it's on the ground it's not like they went to your their hauler and well you would hate to why yeah it's not stealing you would hate to take something and then it'd be turned out to be like useless and then you would feel bad you're like i should just gave this to him but i mean listen it's it's it was enough stuff to where i was like i don't know i don't truly know what it means he he likely would

know what it means, but somebody would know what it means. Hendrick would have had a whole team back in North Carolina work in overnight. It's not, it wasn't our setup. Like our setups are on there. It's just like, you know, probably practice adjustments or something like that. I don't know. Well, it made for a good little piece of social content at the release. Yeah.

Yeah, it did. It worked out well. Chase was like trying to identify who it came from and then he saw the 45 guys running towards the car after their qualifying lap so I think he just saw me and he was like there's the closest 2311 person that I know so who is it that recently tested at Bristol

said the tire results are more or less the same as they were in the spring? I saw Justin Haley, Chris Busher and I'm not sure who there's more to that story though i just think that yes while the temperature the tires may have still been wearing out we still did not have exfinity rubber on the racetrack so now the only variable left is it's not track temperature or whatever but we did not have the exfinity series there rubbering in the track before we then raced we had that in the fall of last year's

year. We had no tire wear issues. We did not have it in the spring. We had tire wear issues. We did not have it at the test. We had tire wear issues. So I think that there's some sort of combination of, I think if you put all the series there on a weekend, the track is going to rubber up, and I think the tire wear issues will go away. Not maybe completely, but I think it will get better. do you want them to go away? No. No. Fuel tank should.

The tires should not outrun the fuel tank. So if you go back to Bristol, you want more or less the exact same result, right? Sure. Yeah, that race was great. Yeah. And the teams will have figured it out by them. Again, we all make adjustments to make our cars a little bit different to make the tires last longer. We can make them last longer if we know that we're going to have tire issues going into it.

We can do things with the setup. the drivers can do things to make them last longer, but I don't think we're going to have tire issues when we go back. That's just my general opinion. It'll also be at night, right? So temperature will be different as well. It will be, but I think there's an Xenity race before us, and they're going to get the thing going.

So I just, yeah, I'm pretty sure that we won't. But at least they crossed it off the list. They know that it's not temperature related now, not track temperature related to the wear. I got a review here from Tom's hairpiece. And they say, I'm assuming Denny. I'm assuming Denny is a very good public speaker, but my goodness, he has to stop saying right after every sentence.

At least it's not for sure. Right? Yeah, at least it's not for sure. Hmm. Well, I do have a habit of saying the same things over and over and over. For sure. right oh yeah i guess i do say that for sure or right both i think i do say that yes you do listen i'm just new into this whole microphone on a weekly basis type of thing so i don't know i'm doing

the best i can so but thank you for listening and noticing you know what was funny from this weekend it was in qualifying uh you would qualify you had the fastest lap and then uh chase went out I think after you. And if you weren't watching the screens, there was a big roar from the crowd. And my initial reaction was like, oh my gosh, someone got into the wall. Like someone was crashed.

And I realized, no, it was just the fans cheering because Chase beat you. I hate qualifying, though. Maybe they were just cheering because Chase like got the pole at the time. Why is it? Because he beat me. Because he knocked you off the pole. He knocked you off the pole.

Yeah, I guess it's the way you look at it. You're right. I think they probably would have had it. They probably would have. cheered regardless if you were knocked anyone off the pole right yeah probably you're just trying to you're just trying to fuel fire here probably yeah what do you think about qualifying this new qualifying uh i hate it because chase beats you and then you're still first row thought this is what the drivers wanted or so it is this is the most fair way to do it stop complaining by the way

whoever your driver got screwed this week because of the the A and the B they reaped the benefits of that last week you weren't you weren't you didn't say then what you mean they reap the benefits last week what I'm saying is it works out all the drivers would rather I'm telling you they would rather do it this way to only race the cars in their group because the conditions are the same if we go to Richmond and you did not have the A on the outside the B on the inside it's going to be

all A cars in the top five and all the B are going to be six through ten because it's just it's such an advantage to have your tires cooler and it's just I'm telling you the way they're doing it now is the most fair way to do it it just looks wonky on TV I think the only way they could make it maybe different is the A should be on the inside and the B on the outside because it would look better on a graphic on TV because right now, like the fast qualifier of A is always on the pole position. So he's on this column.

And then all the rest of the A are in this column. So it looks messed up. If they just put them all over here and say, all right, A is going out. They're all on the inside lane. It's going to look right on TV. And then if someone in B sets the fastest time, put him, slide him over slide him over to that A spot

everyone else just moves down I think it just looks it looks funky up on TV it looks funky on TV I don't have a problem it's fine it's the most fair way to do it I promise you in this A and B world that we got that's correct

and sometimes I guarantee you that your favorite driver is going to reap the benefits of being A or B on any given day and they're going to get a better starting spot than what they should have gotten with this format.

It all works itself out in the wash. Are any plans for the off week? I do. Off week? I'm getting the hell out of here. I'm so done. Where are you going? I'm going away.

I don't know. I'm just going to go somewhere else. Once last time you had a true vacation? December? What did I do in December? You went to Mexico. Yeah. Yeah.

That was for Christmas. I mean, anybody with a family knows that Christmas is no vacation. But, yeah, I don't get to have many vacations, but I am this time going to go away. I don't know. Find some water, find a boat, find another country, and go explore a little bit. Get out of here for a little while. well we will see you guys later appreciate you tuned in we'll see after the break