Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Darlington: Very Ambitious Moves by Byron & Reddick

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

Denny Hamlin and co-host Jared Allen are in-studio to dive into all things Darlington and the latest in NASCAR news.Last week, the fan-favorite Denny Hamlin Bracket Challenge was announced for its second year. Denny and Jared also delve into the recent news about the Race Hub television show coming to an end (5:30). They discuss Michael McDowell's move to Spire and ponder if it's a lateral one (8:00). Additionally, they touch on Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s contract extension with JTG Daughtery (15:50). There's been a buzz about NASCAR possibly heading to Mexico and questions surrounding the future of the Clash (16:30). Denny shares his thoughts on whether Phoenix should continue hosting the NASCAR Championship event.Recapping the Darlington race, Denny explains why he couldn't make much headway during Sunday's race (30:30). He also shares his perspective on the exciting restart between Brad Keselowski and Tyler Reddick (41:00), as well as Chris Buescher's incident and the pit road discussion with Reddick post-race (46:00). Keselowski clinched his first win as an owner-driver (52:00), while Ryan Blaney again lost his cool after being wrecked (58:20).Also on the show, #DearDenny makes an appearance (1:10:50), and there's talk about the possibility of Denny spotting for his fiancée.For more Actions Detrimental content, head over to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental21+ and present in NC. First online real money wager only. $10 Deposit req. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Blaney lost the shit on the radio. I've never seen anyone so quiet in person and so wild on the radio. Never. He is the epitome of when you strap on the helmet, it cuts circulation off. 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.

I'm pleading with NASCAR. 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 Action is Detrimanal.

I'm Denny Hamlin. I drive the number 11 this weekend. Yahoo car. People said that they were confused. They thought I'll see Bell. I could see that. He runs that scheme more often than I do. More often than I do.

Who's my co-host? I'm Jared. People don't mistake me for anybody else. Wearer of the red vest with number 311 on it. I had this gentleman right as I'm walking to my car screaming at me saying, I got Jared. I got to have you sign this shirt. Come on, look, I got Jared. I believe it. I believe it. And I feel like I know who that is because I signed like two autographs this weekend. So it's one of two people. All right. We have a lot to cover. Jared, Travis, it's your job. Let me get off the rails today, okay? On it. On it. Okay. That's a big task. All right.

Where do we want to start? I think we should start with arguably the biggest off week, off week. Off track news of the week. In a while, for sure. In a while, which is Drummond. The Denny Hamlethack challenge is back. We're back, baby. We are back. It's going to, this bracket is going to open on May 28th.

We're going to lock in the top 32 in the standings. So that's after Charlotte, correct? That is correct. Good job. We're going to lock in the standing. So even though they're going to change through the bracket, it doesn't matter. We're going to lock them in after Charlotte. top 32, five weeks.

We're going to start at Gateway, June 2nd, and then we're going to Sonoma, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nashville for the final round. So where would I be now? You would be third. I'm third. Okay, so I'll be against 29. Daniel Hemrick.

Daniel Hemrick would be your first round of matchup right now. Okay. At Gateway? Correct. I'd like to tell a little D.H. Good luck. But you never know. We crash a little bit too. You also have a potential...

Here's the bad news, yeah. Were you about telling the bad news? You have a potential third round matchup against one Tyler Reddick. Oh, third round. I read that as second round. Iowa? Yeah, that'd be a tough head-to-head for sure. But I think one more points race, things are fluid.

Things could change. We'll see where that goes. So give us some more details when you know about that, Travis. Just so you can, the bracket will go live on the 28th. You can start filling it out. You'll have all week. You'll have through the, you know, but basically before the race, you have to have it done. Basically like kind of incidental league tournament style.

You have all week to figure it out. But they've got one week to sign up for it. Yeah, you have that one week. You know, once it starts, you're done. So if you don't fill it out, you're out. Okay, cool. All right. Well, we're looking forward to that.

That it'll be something cool to follow. A little birdie. A little birdie told me that Amazon is perhaps picking up this idea next year. I mean, it's smart. They have five races, right? It'd be fun, for sure. Hopefully there's a good incentive for it, you know, because that's what's going to get the drivers bought into it for sure.

You get a free prime account. Free prime account. That's good. I like this schedule, though. I don't remember exactly how it was laid out last year, but a second round at Sonoma, it seems interesting. Yeah, there were no road courses, right? No, there was, because I remember William Byron was going head to head with Kozlowski.

Yes. I think it was much later in the bracket, though. Yeah. So a second round matchup at Sonoma means there's, what, 16 drivers in at that point? that's a yeah it'll be yeah it's going to be competitive yeah and usually I mean the guys in the front are probably pretty good at road courses as well um but I think that it's uh there definitely is going to be some upsets um in this that you know we we saw it very first round last year there was there was quite a few upsets I like you also have a track no one's

raced on in the the split too at Iowa yeah that'd be big well we also had news that the race hub was ending after I think 15 years. That's disappointing because I feel like in the media this week there were a lot of questions. Well, maybe race hub's ending and it's just going to shift to something different, right? Because cable TV doesn't have the same viewership like it did 15 years ago when race up started that maybe. Maybe it'd be a YouTube show. Yeah. It doesn't sound like that based on what you're ready.

I know, but it's, it sure was convenient. to be on cable. I don't care. It's on a sports network. I mean, for me personally, right, I would always go into a restaurant or something, and it's casually on. El Toro Mexican restaurant right up the street here?

I mean, I'm serious. It would replay. They have it on FS1 constantly. So it just would replay throughout the week, even when it was not in its designated time slot. So I think trying to shift it to a YouTube platform, I'm not totally sold on that. I still think it'd be better to have something on cable. But I understand that there's some sports that don't have a daily show.

But I think it's certainly it was an asset to our sport to have for sure. Yeah, you say that jokingly and that it's on El Toro's TV. However, that's significant and that people who don't know, about NASCAR don't have NASCAR on their mind 24-7 or just casually looking around and they see NASCAR and then boom, now you have more people who are aware and that's what it's all about. You said though that they don't like some sports don't have their show

but I mean you think about it most have their own network though so for NASCAR to lose an hour show I think it's a big loss in the NFL network I mean there's a golf channel there's a tennis channel NASCAR doesn't have anything Yeah it's all good points for sure let's just say my intuition says it's going to get replaced with something whether it be NASCAR or maybe one of the new partners or something but again I don't love getting off of FS1 for an hour a week

that's I don't love it but it's you know it's not our decision right it's you know what I understood too is that you know that was a real money loss for Fox they spent quite a bit of money per year putting that on that it was a net negative so um you know yeah everyone's got a business to run michael mcdow signs a new deal he will leave front row motorsports and drive spires number 71 in 2025 hmm it seems like that's kind of been the reaction to others as well is that oh wow and not an oh wow like oh that's better or oh wow that's a terrible move it's just interesting interesting right i think and this is my opinion and it is only an opinion it is not a fact is that i think spire likely

paid them more i think um a multi-year deal that pays you more versus probably what he was paid over at front row at a year by year by year by year thing he just wanted some stability now if i were an agent however i would say it's okay to bet on yourself because let's just say that um let's just pretend because michael mcdow's been running better right he's been over the last few years he's He's done a really, really good job. And he's got the team in the playoffs last year, and he obviously had some really strong runs this year. Even if you're on a year-to-year deal,

which I understand is not ideal whatsoever, and it certainly is not ideal. You still are running good enough to where even if your team let you go, you would be able to get in another ride that is comparable to what you're in, even if you got caught off guard. So to me, he must view it as the 71 car

will be equal to what he's in. I don't necessarily think that's the case right in this one moment right now. Now, down the road, I don't know. I think that Dickerson and T.J. are obviously putting resources behind Spire. So they may have showed him things that they've got in the works over the next few years to become the next team that can compete. That very well might be the case. But in the current time we live in, I don't know that it is a better ride than what you're leaving.

because you know you've got the front row cars now that have Penske you know kind of tier one information which is you know the aerodynamics the more than likely the setups things like that really really important information for the for those teams to get that allows them to be competitive which is why you'll see them running right where the Penske cars are running for the most part when you average the Penske cars out so I just I don't know. I think I don't

fault the deal at all. I think Spire gets a really, really good driver. I think that they probably get the best end of the deal. It's the long or the short of it is where I'm going with it. But McDowell, I think it's a lateral

move, a lateral or ish mood, move. I just don't I just don't love it, but I don't hate it. and we might be talking about two years from now that it was a good move because obviously, you know, we're seeing through Carson Hostavar's performance that the team is on the rise. So I think that, you know, they're going to have a really good driver lineup over there for sure.

I think it inspires. So this is a team that probably will be contending for playoff, you know, the back end of the playoffs, spots, even if they don't win a race, they're going to be contending for the back end of the playoff spots here in the next year or two. When Michael McDowell gets behind the wheel of this 71 car next year, he'll be 40 years old. I didn't have any idea he was that old. Right.

So you said that you think Spire paid him more and now he has a multi-year deal on the books, right? He's guaranteed for, I'm guessing, at least two years. at 40 years old and a pay bump that seems like a that seems like a definite better move you know what realistically is he going to yeah absolutely

I think that all valid points for sure I think it's just and probably you know where he's been paid over the first 15 years of his career

you know he's a pay bump for him probably makes a big difference in his his family, for his family. So, yeah, I see, I can understand why it all happened for sure. I think if I were, if I were front row, I would have offered more to keep them. But I think that everyone's got to run a business. I'll say it again. Everyone has to run a business and try to arrives.

Also, last year he came on here, the podcast and talked about how, you know, front row didn't have a Hawkeye machine and talking about all the research he was having to do during the week for race. Does Spire have a bigger, you know, engineering department, whatever, that maybe can lessen his weekly load of things that he has to do for a race? Yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure. I've never been there. I believe they do have a Hawkeye.

So I think I'm not. really sure what resources they have, but obviously they have a lot more going on now than what they used to, you know, two years ago. And it's all trending in the right direction. Hey, fans, Carla Gevhart here. Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 23rd for Junior Motorsports Fan Day presented by Lionel Racing, where Dirtymo Media will have a full day of live shows featuring some of your favorite personalities. At 10 a.m. Andrew Curlin from the download and Jordan Bianchi from the Teardown will host the Dirty Mo game show. where you, the audience member, can compete for awesome prizes.

What's your name where you from? Heather and Virginia. Carolyn, Virginia. I love your sunglasses. Just to keep the bad vibes out. Bad vibes. Yeah. And we can't have any bad vibes here.

We have to discuss the elephant in the room. You look damn good, my friend. Oh, I'm so hard being Jeff Gluck. At 1115 AM door bumper clear will bring their humor and inside to the stage to preview all the races that weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Suck some toes? Why? He's definitely got white rocks at his metal box. I think that was the same guy that was shaving his wife's back last week.

145 on DJD Reloaded. I'm going to share the stage with Dirty Mo Media President, Mike Davis, and Dale Jr.'s long-time spotter, T.J. Majors, to celebrate the early years of the download and discuss what's around the corner for Dirty Mo Media. Junior with a 12-place finish at Sonoma, Mike. Did you see my man Dukes a hazard in it through the grass? The Dell Jr. download starts now.

Check Dirty Moe social channels for additional. information or sign up for our email newsletter at dirtymomedia.com. We'll see you there, May 23rd. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. re-signs. We'll stay with the 47 going forward. Well, a good move for JTG. I think, you know, I think that he's been doing them a very solid job over the last few years. And, you know, there's been some ups and downs for sure. But he just wanted you the Daytona 500, a year and a half ago. So I think, yeah, it's a great deal for Ricky. I think there's a multi-year deal there as well. So that's great for him. Other off-to-track news, we have some unofficial schedule changes coming in 2025 per our friends at the tear down. Jordan Bianchi for the

athletic highlighted a few likely changes for the 2025 NASCAR schedule, starting with Mexico city potentially replacing the Richmond spring date? Yeah, I hate that. Certainly hate that for certain bias reasons from my perspective. It's my home track. But you can't, you know, and I agree with them on the tear down, you can't really argue the fact that the fans haven't turned out. that Richmond is one of our highest rated markets when it comes to what market watched the NASCAR race this weekend. Richmond is always in the top five, but they will not drive down to LaBernam Avenue

and go watch the race. And NASCAR's made the proper updates to the track and fan experience. The fan experience there is really, really good. So did they do all the things that they did for Phoenix, probably not, but it's still, you know, I've seen bigger crowds at less nice tracks. And so I'm not really sure what it is that we've got to do to get them out there. But, you know, this is kind of what happens is that if people complain about your on-track product at Richmond, which they've been doing for quite some time, we've had some struggles with the short track package.

and then the fan turnout is mediocre, it's always going to be the first to get cut. I have a question. This doesn't relate to the schedule changes, but when fans complain about a track's on-track product, the track has their hands tied with that, right? Because they don't really factor. They don't have anything they can do

to better the racing at their own track. I mean, unless you're SMI, they try. They try to get involved in competition. just joking aside. They don't really, you know, their job is kind of to promote and do the best they can to promote

and make sure that everything's working and the facilities are nice and, you know, they've got quite a bit they have to do, but it's really on them to go, to go sell the tickets for sure. The clash will move to Bowman Gray, potentially? Um,

I don't know what to think. think of it. I mean, it's the track, it's probably going to be about the same size as the, um, the Coliseum. Like it's, it's probably, eh, maybe even bigger, actually, than the Coliseum. I just, I mean, we know. It'll be a show for sure. We're all going to just knock each other out of the way and whatnot. Um, obviously my concerns more is like the, uh, you know, the temperature. it's going to be absolutely freezing if you have a preseason up there. But, I mean, there's not that many seats to sell.

I mean, when you think about it, it doesn't hold much. Travis can look to see how many much, what the capacity is. I'm going to guess 15,000 seats at Bowman Gray. So, I mean, I'm kind of indifferent. I certainly understand. I agree with the tear down guys also that, the um you know we're it's not like this is a big market for us um you know L.A. it was at least a market and it was um it had new fans you know when you looked in the stands you would say it's not your

typical NASCAR fan you know a lot of these folks that were buying tickets for the coliseum was the first time that they were going to a NASCAR race my guess is when we go to Bowman gray it'll be like 100% have been to a NASCAR race. I think it's deep rooted in our fan base for sure. So I don't think they'll have any issue there, but as far as like growing our sport, I have my doubts on that. 17,000.

Close. Also, why is it we make a big deal about the temperature? Other sports compete. I know. I'm not really sure. Our sport takes longer than other sports. I mean, yeah, you're going at Lambo, but you're going there, you know, you're going to freeze your ass off for two and a half hours. I mean, college football games are damn near close to four hours.

All right. No issues. I think you're worried about the Richmond track product and then forcing the fans to sit in 40 degree temperatures. You're like, well, yeah. Yes. Yes is the short answer. Is it possible, though, that this is, you know, maybe NASCAR's, fourth or fifth choice on where to put the clash league.

Maybe there just wasn't another. Yeah, I mean, more than likely, I think it might be just a placeholder for something else in the future, for sure, until they figure out where they can go. But can I just suggest we don't run the clash at all? I mean, to me, it's run its course. Like, for the team's sake, it is a money loser for us. So, you know, it doesn't be.

It doesn't pay anything hardly to go run it. Now, the only better thing for us is that we don't have to travel across the country, and it's better for the scheduling of our team. But as far as, like, it doesn't pay nearly what a normal week does. So it's just not a, it's run its course. I don't know why we're just, we're forcing it. We run, we race enough. We race enough.

We don't need anymore. Why not return it to Daytona then? If they're going to do it. yeah i mean certainly with us not having um practice much practice it that's a valid point um it maybe could could do it we could just you know we used to have clash practice and all that stuff so maybe you could just line us up and let us race it sounds expensive again because we're gonna wreck we are definitely going to wreck some for sure but i don't think nasca really cares about you know our cost when it comes down to it.

I think it's just, you know, where can they sell some tickets and make some money with TV? Phoenix to host the championship again in 2025. It sounds like to me that the, that Phoenix is paying NASCAR. I mean, we don't, we don't, we don't see any of that,

but it sounds like that Phoenix, the state or the city is, I know Phoenix is not a, it's not a state it's Arizona but I believe they're they're paying NASCAR for it to be there so that's kind of how that works in most championship events like Super Bowls and NBA All-Star games things like that the city will chip in to get you know to get the opportunity to host it because it makes an economic impact I mean they make it they for some it's a bidding it's not even chipping in it's a you have to bid for it yeah and so I think that um

you know that that's a source of revenue for NASCAR and so they don't they would certainly probably rather have a you know the the the money in their pockets versus going to somewhere that makes more sense from a competition standpoint but you also cannot argue the fact that Phoenix fans turn out they sell out in the spring in the fall it just they come out Phoenix people come out and so it gets rewarded through things like this. And so I can't fault it, you know, and certainly see all sides of it, for sure. It doesn't put on the best racing.

You know, that's, I think it's more of a tire thing than it is anything, and we're working on that this weekend. So we're trying to get it better for sure, because everyone wants a good race and everyone wants to put on the best show possible. Phoenix doesn't do that right now, but maybe we can hit on something this weekend that we could take to Phoenix that would change the game

and make people not so down on Phoenix because it has everything else. It's a great sports town. There's so much to do around the racetrack itself. And so add on the fact that they're probably getting millions from the state or the city makes perfect sense for NASCAR. So it's not a lost cause, this news? I mean, it's not a lost cause, no.

I mean, for God's sakes, anything can happen on a green-white checkered. I mean, really, it's, you know, all it takes is somebody running 31st to run around the apron, cause a caution, and change the whole, who's the champion of the year. Right.

Anything can happen. You can decide a champion on a green-white checker at a few years. That's it. That's what we want. No race on Easter? That's great news, finally. It just, it was really tough.

I mean, even this weekend, I hate to say it, the crowd was, it's tough. It's Mother's Day, man. I mean, hey, Mom, you want to go up to Darlington and sit in the bleachers with me for four hours? No, I'm good. I mean, you know what I mean? It's just, you're trying to race on these holidays, and it's just not, it's just difficult. Let's just say that. It's very, very difficult for those traditionalists.

that really like to spend time with their family on these types of holidays. But you're in the sporting industry. That's when like every sports they play on holidays, they play nights, they play weekends. I don't get this like anti-holiday thing. Travis is just different. Our fan base is different. I think this is more of a discussion because there's an argument to race less. and if you're going to race less,

then just take out the holidays, right? Yeah. I mean, we can forget the race less because, again, there's some stakeholders making a lot of money per event that gets put on. And so now that we opened up the door years and years ago to just build more mile and a half, put 150,000 seats in there, race more.

Like we just went overboard many, many decades ago and it's hard to back that train up now. Because not racing on Easter means that your race season will start the last week or the first week of February, the last week of January, the first week of February and probably end now the second week of November.

Yeah, we're back to where we started, right? You know, with kind of pushing the season back more into the NFL season. So listen, it's not ideal, But again, I mean, if you were starting a racing series from scratch, you would do a lot of things different than what we do today. But it's hard to back that up. Once people get used to, you know, the revenue that they make, it's hard to back them up 10, 20%. It's just you're not going to make it happen.

I mean, you look, the NFL's going to play on Christmas now. Like, that's just the way the world, the sports world's going. Because they want more. Yeah. They've got 16. They don't have 36. or 38. Like, that's the difference is that we dilute so much of our product because we race the entire year.

And so that makes it really tough. NASCAR fans, Fandul America's number one sports book is here. And right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet your first five bucks. Just go to fandul.com backslash Denny to sign up. Then you can bet on everything from individual race. Winners to prop bets to which driver is going to take home the championship, all on an app that's safe, secure, and super easy to use. Be sure to check out Dirty Mo Doe each week before placing your bets.

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Let's move on to the race this past weekend. Darlington. What did you make of this one? I thought it was a fantastic race at the end, for sure, when you saw the battles between Reddick and Kozlowski and Busher there. I thought it was watching it back, it looked like a great race to watch at the end. You were kind of on your edge of your seat of who was going to win it. You know, we can get into a ton of, you know, that part of it, but it just seems. like, you know, you want to get into the Redick battle or you want to cover the kind of the beginning stuff, Travis? Let's start with, I want to know, like, your car and your day, because it kind of just

seemed like you were just kind of there. I was just there. Like, was just the car just, what was going on? Yeah, just lackluster day. I'm not sure. we just weren't very strong in the extra long runs, which is typically our bread and butter. We didn't have any indication in practice.

We ran 30 laps in practice, but it really was, you know, 35, 40 on. We really, really struggled quite a bit. And so on top of that, we just, it was really hard to pass for a very long time because all the cars were running so equal, clean air mattered. again this is not a multi-lane racetrack for the most part there's kind of there is two lanes put cars right

side by side but the clear fastest lane is up against the wall and that's where everyone runs so if you do try to get clean air you have to move down one lane well now let's just pretend you give up three four percent of grip and three four and three to four percent of grip is a big big deal as far as lap time is concerned so if you take away the 3% of the grip because you've moved down off the wall, then you've slowed your car down to where it's no longer faster than the guy in front of you. So then you just got to all kind of run around the wall and kind of a yo-yo effect. And so it really, really was difficult to pass for quite a while until we got to lap traffic. I saw Kyle Larson in his interview after the race.

he said that and I'm paraphrasing that the it's hard to pass all the cars were really close in speed and the only time you could pass was when we caught lap cars

so you'd have to sit behind somebody for about 30 to 35 laps until we caught the back of the pack and I know my crew chief was giving me information saying all right the leaders are about to catch traffic they're about to come right back to you and that's what happened at Darlington

as well the leaders catch and then all of a sudden everyone just accordions right towards the front because it's hard to pass the lap cars. And then he says, so then you got about seven to ten laps to make passes. Then you had to pit. And then we're on new tires and then you get stuck in traffic again because we're all on new tires. And he says, and then I think passes become a little easier because we're now all in traffic and not just, you know, the guy's second place on.

So I agree with that statement 100%. That's kind of the way that I saw it from my seat is that I just was stuck. And, you know, that kind of seventh to 10th place for the latter half of the race. And that's just kind of where I was. Yeah, the cars were all, you know, as we run these tracks and people get their setups

and why I said parity is tough. because, you know, we're all just going to, the parity is going to get bigger because we're going to just keep getting our setups closer and closer and closer and closer. But then the passing will become harder and harder and harder. So then it's really going to rely on pick crews, qualifying, things like that that are really going to designate kind of where you run that day. So I think, you know, it was tough, but we saw a fantastic kind of restart there with 30 something to go with, you know it looked like kislauski was trying his damnedest to try to stay beside the 45 and he just kind of fenced um the 45 pretty bad off of four there um and surprisingly there was not more damage to both cars from that because they hit hard enough to where you know when you look at the contact

between the 45 and the 6 versus the 45 and the 17 i would argue that the 45 and the 6 hit hit harder than what the 17 and 45 did but it's just where they were at when they were beside each other if you're offset just a little one car's maybe slightly in front of another then your fenders go and they cut the other cars tires down so but if you hit flush then you usually can get away with it so um i think that they were lucky the first time that there wasn't flat tires with kuzlowski and running into the 45 but then you had the 45 make a very ambitious move on the 17 and it didn't work. They made contact in both their days. Before we get into the last 20 laps and all that you were talking about right there,

I want to go back a little bit because the eye test for the first 250 laps of this race told me that it was not a good race. It was, like you said, cars couldn't pass each other. and typically, even in the next-gen area, Darlington has been, per Jeff Gluck's, was a good race pole, has been one of the best races of the year. I think it will be again. I think that people, again, if you can have what we saw,

those last 25, 30 laps, I think that that skews the pole. But does that happen if it's not Brad on the front row? A guy who's desperately trying to win his first race in the car that he owns for the playoffs? Like if that's, I don't know, William Byron or anybody else, do they race Tyler Redick as hard as they do for so many laps to create that finish? I don't know. I think it probably was a factor for sure.

I think that certainly Brad's highly motivated to win. It's, you know, when they qualified up front, I mean, that was not a fluke. They all ran up front the entire race. The sixth car was very fast. 17 was fast. He was kind of, 17 once. he lost a little bit of track position. He was a, we were all about the same when you look at kind of like fifth through tenth.

But then they just chipped away, had had, you know, on pit road, they chipped away here and there. And then found themselves in third place with, you know, with that time going. And then here we got the contact and then bam, he capitalizes. So that's what you got to do is just keep yourself in the game. But yeah, I agree with you. It seemed harder to pass. than previous years. And I think what played a factor in that is the length of the stages.

Because we normally are running 500 miles around that racetrack, so the stages are a little bit longer. And so I believe they're a little bit longer. And just the way they played out this time, it didn't force us to run very long on our tires. We could only, we ran like 40-some laps and then we would pit. where normally we would run 50 to 60 laps on tires and then pit. So the key moment to passing is in that 40 to 60 lap window when cars like mine

the bed. Like I got passed by everyone at the end of Green Flag Runs yesterday. I was really, really slow. So that is the key time and why it's key on these tire wear. racetracks to have the stages play out to where it forces us to make longer runs, that's when you're going to get the passing, is in that when cars really start in the bed. And that happens late in runs as the tires start wearing out.

Yeah, that's... And so what I'm saying is that since the race is only 400 miles, it shortened up everything, and then it allowed us to, oh, we're starting to lose speed, pit, because it breaks up the stage evenly. That's kind of goes hand in hand in what Larson said, right? is that it took 35 to 40 laps to catch traffic, which is when you'd start seeing some comers and goers.

But then you're only, that's only happening for seven to 10 laps before you're pitting and new tires and boom. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're saying the same thing. I'm just explaining it a little bit more in detail. So, yeah, we're all saying the same thing there. But I don't know how you fix it.

I mean, I think the tire, if you made us, if the runs were longer, the tires were wearing out. We had a very good tire. This is the same tire we run at Kansas. It's a very, very good intermediate tire on tracks that have, you know, high wear. On tracks that are, you know, got the aggregate. They showed it on the Fox broadcast during practice. I think it was practice for qualifying.

They showed like the surface and how, you know, where it falls in, in the realm of other tracks surfaces as far as like how rough it is. and it's down there pretty high, you know, with Kansas and others. So I think this tire is the perfect match for Kansas Darlington. We just need to, on tracks that have less aggregate surfaces, we need to have a more aggressive tire to wear out like these because it does put on good racing once it starts wearing out. You said you don't know how to fix it.

Why not just go 500 miles? Wouldn't that? We don't want to do that. it's it the race is long enough for sure yeah that's an interesting proposition though Travis is that you have this race figured out for the southern 500 when it's going from day to night all these other factors right but then the spring race it's shorter I'm assuming the being raced in the day plays a play yeah you would think though yes yes and no I mean I think that nighttime wears out tires a little bit more because it's you run harder speeds it's cooler

it just wears out the tires but the daytime is slicker if that makes any sense so the speed is not as fast on the front end but it's faster on the back end so yeah the yo-yo of time the delta was a little less this time around

yeah I was just surprised as all watching this race going into it I thought for sure Darlington always delivers this is going to be a great race and for the first 250 laps I didn't think that well one thing is we had probably some of the strongest cars up front. The 45 was very strong. The 6 was very strong. And so they were up front. So it's going to be hard to pass cars that qualify well that are actually very fast and race for him as well. Back to that Kozowski and Reddick battle. Watching the replay, are you surprised that Brad was

able to hang on so long on the inside the way he did? I wasn't. A lot of it is because It's hard for me to explain this because those listening on your podcast platforms, you can't see my hands. But basically, these cars are affected so much by the side draft. They slow each other down a ton, which is why you saw a busher. You got to run off the corner, cleared those guys before they even got going. You don't want to be running side by side down the straightaway in these cars. It is a parachute. slow each other down. The cars have so much drag anyway that you just don't want to be side by side

with someone. You're slowing them down. They're slowing you down because of the air that comes off the front of their cars dumps on. So you have the air coming off your front dumping on your spoiler. They are beside you. Their air that's hitting the front of their car is dumping on their spoiler and your spoiler. So it just drags you both down. And so what happened and what you saw was is that they're slowing each other down down the straightway right? Well in the corners you ask

well how did they stay side by side for so long and this is what this car is really really good at when it comes to what you're watching on TV is that the moment that the 45 car gets ahead in a corner he's on the top line the sixth car is right next to him so the cars are affected so much

by the air that dumps on the spoiler so when this 45 car bust ahead, the six cars nose now is closer to the rear spoiler of that 45 car and now it causes him to slow down even more in the corners than it was when they were side by side straight up even. So it's just a yo-yo effect that goes back and forth because whatever car has an advantage, you know, in distance that they're further ahead, they have a larger disadvantage aerodynamically from the car that is barely hanging on to the side of them. So it just goes back and forth like that until someone has a big enough run that they break free. Okay.

Basically, the closer your nose is to that car you're racing spoiler, the more you're going to drag them down. Right. But Reddick has the advantage on the top, I'm guessing, because if you keep running, and the Reddick's eventually going to clear. Yes, because eventually the speed will slow down and the cars enough to where then Reddick has the preferred lane and that bottom lane that gets cleaned off during restart. So Brad was also able to hang on because during the caution flag, we were picking up the old rubber and throwing it down to the apron or up at the wall or whatever it might be, right?

We pick up the old rubber when we slow down, cleans off the track, and then we go racing again on fresh shires, it allows the bottom to work pretty good for a few laps. So that like three to four percent grip you talked about earlier was less. It's not, it's now even. That's right. It's more even for sure. Is there a way though that that second car on the bottom can beat the car on top? Because it seemed like Brad was doing his damnedest to beat right to the point where it was going to be hard for him to clear. It would have been very, very, very hard for him. to actually clear. And I think maybe that's what he was trying to do off a fore,

just trying to gas it up to clear himself. I mean, he never even got close, but more than likely what happened is they both got in an aerotight scenario that caused them to crank the wheel left and not turn. And they both probably were out of steering wheel and out of racetrack off the corner. Boucher even hit Kozlowski and it seemed like it didn't really help him too much. I thought that might be the push he needed to get past. Yeah.

Why did that work? Yeah, saw it down the front straightaway. I'm not sure. You would think, you know, he came at him at a speed. I would be very uncomfortable hitting anyone down the straightaway that fast. But he did. And it didn't hardly do anything. So, again, it's just an interesting aerodynamic spot that they really slow each other down.

And you can really manipulate the car beside you, depending on, where you put your car. Do you think that contact that Brad made with Reddick kind of opened the door for Reddick to race a bit harder? I think it certainly put him on tilt. I think that it definitely probably played a factor in his give a damn being busted. Yeah, more than likely. And then Busser just happened to be the innocent bystander, I guess. Now, I don't think he went in there to fence him. I think he went in there legitimately thinking that he was going to

slide up in front of him. And I think he legitimately realized halfway through the corner entry that I am screwed and I'm not going to make it. Because you saw him get loose well before they made contact and you could see that he tried to slow down but it was

way too late. You know, there was, there's no grip in the middle of the racetrack there and he just, you know, he overcooked it. I think, you know, when you look at it, you'd say, did it do it too soon? That's a question I had written down here to ask you. The answer is yes and no, because these cars are tough in traffic. We just explained for a very long time that it's really hard to pass someone. And at the time, there's probably 20 laps on tires at this time. So no one's really falling off huge. Like it's, we haven't had that light

which as Kevin Harvick talks about, about, you know, the tire's falling off. But you started to see the 17 start to struggle at the time. But if I'm, if I put myself in Tyler Redick's shoes, I'm thinking this is as close as I'm going to get to him. Why, though? Why is that the closest you're going to get? Because once the 17 starts ripping the fence,

it's really going to be hard because the bottom's going to just keep getting worse and worse. Wasn't he ripping the fence the previous five laps? No, he kind of, if you look, the reason that he got the run is Busher went into turn one low, allowed Reddick to run up high, get a huge run through the middle of the corner and on exit. And so Tyler was probably thinking, and again, this is opinion-based show. My opinion is he was thinking, this is as close as I'm going to get, and I've got to make my move now. Now, I think the move was very ambitious.

I think that it was a very low percentage move because if you're going to slide someone at Darlington, you're going to probably need to be up beside them. It's, you know, at least a fender underneath their left rear. Like, you've got a chance there. But him being, I think he was kind of like, kind of like one to half a car length back, that's going to be really, really hard to clear.

at the men's speed point of the corner. It's hard to run in there deep enough without sliding up. And you're really making a calculated risk that by the time I carry this speed into the corner on the low side and drive all the way to the fence, I'm banking that I am going to be ahead of him when I get there.

Because if not, we're going to make contact. I tried this during an Xfinity race and went way too far. It was with me and Ross, way back in the day and they showed a lot of highlights this weekend. I went to try to slide them, but dummy me, I went way too deep. I could have slowed way down. I ended up going so deep. I hit the wall.

Then he ran into me. I could have slowed my entry up a little more, but it was because I was beside them. I already had, you know, a distance advantage when I started to do the slide. So I think trying to do it when you're not beside them was. really low percentage and obviously did not work out and ended both their days. Yeah. Hindsight's obviously 20-20-day, but Busher did get in the wall first before. Yeah, I mean, I think he got in the wall because he was trying to probably gas up early. I don't, I think it was a direct correlation to he was reacting to Tyler charging in there and he didn't want him to clear.

So he gassed up to make sure he didn't get clear. Got it. Had Tyler not made that move, Busher doesn't hit the wall. because I think he runs his normal line. But it's a race to the men's speed point. That's what a slider is. Is you're racing, how fast can I drive into the men's speed point? Can I take over the preferred line before we get there?

Got it. So Bush's car necessarily was not, he wasn't losing grip or anything. No, no. He was just gassing up to keep the 45 from clearing. Nonetheless, both those guys finish outside the top 30. Reddick finished P 32 and then Bischer 30th, which obviously hurts and stings a lot more. Yeah. Considering the days they were having.

Yeah, no doubt about it for sure. Now, at Busher finished second, he probably doesn't have the reaction that he had. But it's understandable. He's had, you know, a couple weeks now where he's been thinking he's going to have a shot to win and it didn't work out. And instead, you know, it puts him kind of back in that bubble position. again. So there's obviously a lot of emotion based off of the result. Some of his reasoning for why he was so upset post-race was that he doesn't have the wind sticker above his door. Should drivers think about that when they're a race and other guys?

Like, hey, this guy, this win means a lot to him. I shouldn't do something that might take them out of the race. Yeah, I don't know how to take that or think of that. But I understand for sure because what a wind does right he doesn't have to sweat the points anymore and even though his performance you know when i say he's now in a bubble spot it's like oh wow really like you would think he's been running better than that but we only as as fans see we only zoom in right we didn't realize that oh well they didn't have a great start to the season and they had a few dns and then yes over the last few weeks he's been running up front but you know, we get caught, we zoom in too much at times.

And so I think, um, what he's, what he's saying there is, you know, that you're locked in to the playoffs and I'm not. I think that's what paraphrasing. I, I think that's what he was trying to say is that, you know, this win meant more to him and his team than the extra win for you and your team. He's only 15 points above the playoff cut line now. So yeah, that adds to as well. A guy who's no longer.

worried about points on the cut line is is obviously Brad Kozlowski with this win his first win as a owner of RFK and the first time the six car has been to victory lane in a long time yeah i i think um without it out this is a a huge win for the organization for brad um you know he's he's you know getting it getting towards my era of age and so you know you're you're going to want to continue to stack up the winds and I think that this was uh this was their best opportunity on speed in a race since Richmond of whenever Busher won Richmond I think that was last year we've been saying he's been close and I know he has finished second uh quite a few times between then and now but this was by far in my opinion the

best race-winning speed that that that six team has shown. I just feel as though in my gut that they took advantage of this opportunity. And while they had some better, you know, had some good finishes between Richmond of last year and now, I just, I never really saw them as a big threats to win the race until they showed the speed that they did this weekend. And so now you would say, man, these could be guys that contend on more, on a more regular basis for wins because they've figured something out to get a little bit better. I know a lot of the talk in the garage is that, you know, they've gotten some engine upgrades. And that has, has helped things. You know, I think that there's, there was a few fords that caught my eye that, that seemed to

be stronger. But they executed. They stayed up front the entire. race pick crew kept him up there when they needed to to let the driver do his job and race for the win and ended with just an amazing big win for that whole 16. Can you relate to this moment at all for Brad? I thought it was interesting. I don't remember who it was, but in his post-race press conference, someone just asked about how the car he was driving, the two cars. I'd won the Daytona 500 and then two other Penske cars have won a championship in previous years.

He hasn't been there. Just to give up that opportunity to go have an ownership stake in an RFK and drive the 6th car and try and bring those guys back to the level that they once were. You know, just how much this race means them. Can you relate to that at all in an ownership sense? I know you don't drive for your own team, but yeah, it's different for sure. and, you know, everyone's ownership is different for sure. But I just feel like, you know, things were going on over there at Penske.

You know, I think that they had a loss of sponsorship over there. And, you know, they probably made him an offer he wasn't overjoyed with. And then he started looking at his other options. And I think that this was his best option on the table. and I just feel like, generally speaking, you know, this is one that he feels like, probably like me, that, hey, this is something, this is an opportunity for me to not only, you know, be part of a team, but, you know, my racing days are, you know, I've done the bulk of them in the past versus the future. And this is a way for me to stay in the sport beyond my driving days.

And so I think that this was obviously a good move for him. He was able to make an impact on the competition, which he desperately wanted. You know, even more at Penske, he wanted more influence on the competition side of things. So it was a win for both parties. RFK at the time, well, they weren't RFK. Ross Fenway, they didn't have much to lose. Like, they weren't really relevant anymore. You know, not since kind of Carl Edwards.

Greg Biffel days were they kind of, you know, the threats. And so they made the change. And then now they're back to, you know, one of the better two core organizations that we've got in our field. Yep. Both those guys, too, Chris Bisher and Brad, I took note of that they're both seem very excited for the Coke 600 here in two weeks. Yeah.

I mean, I didn't see that or see the comments. but I think, yeah, why wouldn't they be? I mean, it's typically, I think, been a track that they run really strong at. And obviously, this gives them the momentum to believe that, hey, on a intermediate-style track, we're right there. We're, you know, Busher was in contention to win Kansas. And, you know, that race is probably similar to Charlotte. And then now Brad gets us win.

Both their cars being in the top three with 30 to go, you got to lock your chances each week. heading into the All-Star break. Kyle Larson is the top of the points. Why do they call it the R-Star break? Hold on. I want to get a break. I want to get into Ryan Blaney and his accident. Right. We missed that. Yeah. Can I sum it up?

William Byron went three wide bottom, didn't hold his line, and shoved the 19 into the 12th. The end. Blaney lost his shit on the radio. That's a shocker. I think you need some therapy. No, I do not change, right? Like I want, yes, like that's like that wreck, the finish with Reddick and Bushert, like, I've never seen anyone so quiet in person and so wild on the radio.

Never. He is the epitome of when you strap on the helmet, it cuts circulation off. To add some context to this. quote on quote, I'm going to kill both those motherfuckers is what I'm going to do. That's what he said. Did you see what he did then before he exited the track when he kind of went up and kind of... Oh, yeah, I saw. I was far enough back that I got a good view of it.

Yeah, I think he had a tow link break or something and he said he ran over some stuff and He was like, I almost, I wasn't going to hit him, but almost damn near did. He took it. It was close. He was close to swiping at him. But yeah, I mean, it's interesting because you almost call these racing deals, but they're not. Because the 24, in my opinion, clearly made a mistake by running up the racetrack, which, by the lane he was running. there's a reason people don't run down there folks is that it makes it impossible for you to exit

the corner without washing up into the wall. I did that my very first time in my very first Xfinity test, I went to Darlington and I ran the low line in turns one and two. And I mean, I'd never seen the track before. There was no irising back then. There was no simulator. and I pounded the fence off a turn two because you run out of track. That's why we run up the racetrack in one and two

is because you need it for the angle to actually get off the corner. Well, William made an ambitious move to run to the bottom, which is great. It's a clean racetrack down there. There's lots of grip. But if you don't clear the cars on top of you, it is, you're going to run into them. And if you don't, you're at least going to cause a wreck and that's exactly what happened.

Do you not take any, like, are you not upset by that considering you took damage in this as an innocent bystander? I mean, William wasn't going in there saying, I'm going to clean out these folks here. Well, according to Blaney, it sounds like that should be,

like that's the responsibility of the car. It is. It was William's responsibility to keep his car low. And if that means that he had to lift, then he should have lifted. but again he made just a very low percentage move it just has a very low success rate of going down there and clearing and when you're not don't clear it's going to cause a huge stack up off the corner and if if it wasn't the 19 and the 12 that was going to wreck it was going to be us the guys

behind because i think i was right behind the 17 hit the 19 i hit the 17 i hit the 17 It just, yeah, it caused a lot of damage for our 11 car for sure. And our car was definitely not the same afterwards. I blame some of our performance on that, the second half of the race. But it's, you know, it's just a racing thing. The 24 was definitely the one at fault. But it's not like he ran into someone and caused them to race. He just made a move that was.

inevitably going to end in a wreck. Who should be more worried about payback, Byron from Blaney or Reddick from Busser? I don't know. Paybacks, I don't know. A lot of these drivers talk and they don't really do much in the long run. I mean, Blaney will probably just race him hard, probably. They'll go to Charlotte and he'll just run on his door and make sure he doesn't clear. And you can just make someone's job a little bit harder for sure i feel like for for busher this isn't in a way it's like hey welcome to being a contender up front every week yeah yeah it's it seems that way um yeah i mean you can just hope you know they're hoping that they can just take this momentum and and and chris was right when he

said hey you know we just if we keep putting ourselves in this position we'll get ours and so uh i think he's correct in that is that you keep running up front you will get yours yes you've got the you know you didn't get it for two straight weeks here um the first week was probably a little bit more on his control than than this one for sure uh but but hey it the law of averages it all works itself out i love how he's yelling at redick reddick's got his helmet on and he's got his headphones still in so like reddick's probably not even understanding like what he's even saying at him just like i'm just going to apologize just that's all i can do right now yeah he definitely did and he came up to his car as Redick is undressing his head.

It's not like Reddick kept his helmet on just to keep from getting punched. I think Busher would be probably the last person I'd be afraid of that from, just because he's, in my opinion, not that kind of guy. But, you know, I think that, you know, he gave him a little shove there just to let him know, but he quickly calmed down. Like, Busher quickly put his emotions back in check. And sure,

he was still upset in his interview post and whatnot. But he still, he wasn't completely, he didn't completely lose his mind. He's, I don't think he's one of the most likely to punch, but he's one of the people

that I wouldn't be punched by, though. Oh, I agree. Big country. It was a very, very professional altercation. It was. The way Bushry came across, he was just very thoughtful

and like, yeah, he's got a point. You know? It was. It was a very respectful, angry shouting session. But it was, yeah, I don't know how to explain it.

It was, I need you to do better. I mean, it was, I appreciate it. It was good. I think he gave him the tongue lashing he needed to give him. No doubt about it. Yeah. Redick really, that's all he could do. I'm sorry, man. And if you're Redick, that's what else can you do, right? He's like, I don't care about my car. I don't care about my car in that I crashed my car. I'm, I screwed your day up, you know, I apologize. I made a mistake. I know I did. I realized I did. It was too late. So, but, and that, that deescalates the situation usually as well when you're in those. face-to-face altercations is it's you're you want to de-escalate it and so that's why i i definitely want to encourage the the younger groups to not don't don't always push back just like hear the people

out that you just crash right and you need to like you just need to even with the chase out elliott thing down the back stretch right in 2017 i'll bring it up for all the chase fan if you read my lips I say I know I know I know you got to hear the person out you got to hear them out because that that's the only thing

that will get them to simmer down and take a breath is that they need to hear that their words are spoken and that's good because if he would have got punched then that mustache lives forever like Noah's haircut so it's good thing you didn't get punched

because then everyone sees it over and over again yeah and not only that his height it would have been a perfect Yeah, it's just a straightforward punch. Rock them, sock them robots. All right. Well, I've got a... I mean, we didn't talk about the winners in trucks.

We can do it really quick. Ross Chastain wins in truck. Corey Heim dominated. Dean Thompson made a move that did not... He didn't make a bad move. He just got loose. off of turn two and it crashed a ton of trucks a lot of contending trucks and that pretty much left ross chastain and tie majeschi up front mjewski was cruising to a victory and then um got that

caution green white checkered and ross just out uh out out restarted them and set sales so and kyle bush last place right yeah kyle same thing just got loose under turn in turn two uh there's a big ass bump off a turn two that you've got to be careful of if you're running on the bottom. And it bit Kyle, who was non-existent yesterday. Holy shit. He was bad, right? He's bad all day. And so it's just, yeah, it was, you had Chastain winning the truck race.

He was super excited. Man, it was like he won the cup race. He was really excited. And, you know, anytime you can win any race, especially at a historic track like Darlington, you're always going to be excited. And so especially winning for that smaller team in Nice Motorsports, you know, it's a big accomplishment. Xfinity, yeah, just an Allgaier, not much there. He dominated the race.

He didn't face too much adversity, really. He just kind of dominated the whole thing. it kind of ran as is it was it was interesting to me that i know that the jr cars you know they just didn't run that well um i expected a little bit more out of them eric amarola ran kind of the best out of uh out of all the jr cars uh but he was kind of a third place car it seemed like austin hill was the only one that would kind of somewhat challenge algeyer um in the short runs but in the long run run just would pull away big time so any any takeaways from those races or they're all pretty

straightforward right just the the the cup guys that that dropped down to the lower levels both had issues early on and were unexistice i didn't see what happened to byron early i i i tuned in he was three laps down or two laps down he got into the wall early on oh he did yeah and he had to pit under green and you know what i wonder if he did what i did which i ran an exfinity car for the very first time. This was probably four years ago, five years ago. And versus a cup car they had just back then, they had, you know, way less down force. And so I drove into turn three like I normally would drive in and I pancake the wall and I did not get to run any practice because the first lap up to speed I hit the wall because it was like, holy this X-90 car drives way different than the

cup car and i you know being that there was all their practice in qualifying got rained out you know if he hit the wall more than likely it was a just getting acclimated to the car dear danny we've got some questions that we want to dare answers and we need him 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 hope this ain't the race track so maybe you won't choke what does it mean mean when your spotter Chris Lambert says your number and a restart is a soft three do other drivers have this same conversation with their spotter um I think that he's saying that it's my option if I see something you know you know they're trying to count the numbers to me and they're

saying that all right I'm telling you how many cars are picking the bottom lane and if that many cars goes to the bottom the number three and they'll count them off one car two three that means I need to go to the top because that's what you know they feel like is the better and preferred lane um

and when it's a soft three he's basically just saying that it's my option at that point if three cars take the bottom then it's my option to either take the top or the bottom based off of what I see are other drivers having the same I think everyone does it differently

for sure um you know I don't know I don't know what other team's processes are, except for 2311 and JGR. How fast is that coming through with him counting in like the decision? It's pretty easy. Yeah, they make it pretty easy because, I mean,

I'm watching while he's counting. And, I mean, unless you're 25th and your number's 12, I mean, it's not a big deal. If there's, you know, I'm going to count to three. Once I count to three, you're going to take the top lane. It's pretty easy. Yeah. headed the All-Star break this week.

It's not a break. Not a mushroom. It's not a break. Stop calling an All-Star break. It's not a break. It's a break from points racing. We don't, like, we don't do anything different. The teams still work the same amount.

There is no break. So I always laugh at that. But I guess for me, we won't start counting points for two weeks. That's it. So, yeah, excited for the All-Star race. I'm disappointed. I didn't get Chris two. wins when he asked for one between the Dover, Darlington, Kansas.

Certainly felt like Kansas we had the best car. Didn't win there. We did not have the best car this weekend, but salvage the top five. Do you feel better, though, at least top five, and you actually made up ground in the point standings? Does that help, like, kind of less than the blow? Yeah, I mean, it wasn't to do, because of us, right? because Kyle made a mistake there and ended up spinning out.

But, yeah, it helped us for sure to gain points on a day where, I mean, that's, I mean, honestly, it's probably as bad as we run at Darlington in quite some time. So when our bad is finishing fourth and running in the back half of the top 10, then you can take that. You know what? I made sure, I didn't write it down, but I kept sitting in my head last night. that I need to give props to Justin Haley and Todd Gillen. Where did Todd Gillen finish?

Can someone look that up? I don't know where he finished, but he had legit top five speed. He passed you a few times. And never got to show it because they kept losing spots on pit road. He finished 15th. Yeah, big injustice. If only you were to look down to your piece of paper.

Yeah, you're right. big injustice you know but that's just part of it like i mean it's it's hard to for everyone had a great pick crew but um i thought just off a speed uh todd gillen did an amazing job he's been doing an amazing job um so you want to give him props great day for front row yeah where to why mcdow was 10th oh it's interesting i really didn't see mcdow all day but he must he must jumped them in the pits because i think that todd had a tough tough pit road day but then justin haley just first rickware top 10 on a non super speedway or drafting track and it was legit he drove up there and by the way their pit crew did a good job as well like i jumped him in the pits on the last stop

he was ninth I was 10th coming into into the that last pit road sequence and he came out right behind me like it wasn't you're thinking well they're going to lose three four spots

on pit road but they didn't they held serve nicely I don't know who did their pit crew but they did a great job but Justin Haley is continuing to drive that car further forward than it's ever been driven before. So, you know, people like Todd Gillen and Justin Haley, if they are not catching

the eye of other bigger teams, and I'm not saying they should be poached, but I'm just saying that they're, they are really, really, really doing a great job with the resources that they have and deserves to, you know, be talked about. Have you, has it changed how you view drivers being a co-owner now in that perspective of like what other drivers are doing and kind of where they're at? Yeah, I'm always watching. Always watching. I mean, it's, you know, it's, I'm seeing things in them, you know, like it's just different with Tyler Redd because he was up, you know, he was up front and running, running well when he was at RCR. And that's a team that, yeah, they run well, but they don't run up front on a regular basis. not as often as they used to for sure. But when you can see a driver taking a team to where it's never gone to before,

that is what I see. And I'm like, they are a difference maker. They're making a difference. They're making that team better. If you unplug them, put someone else in, they will not run as good. And so that's what they're doing right now is those two guys, I believe, is they're making their teams better.

They are the biggest asset that that team has. If we're giving out kudos bars real quick, a hard charger award goes to Josh Barry, who started 33rd and finished third. Yeah, I mean, this is just proving that, you know, now they're not doing it every week. They're not always the flagship team every week like they were before, but it's obviously showing, you know,

the strength of Rodney Childers, that whole 11, that whole 4 team, how good they are and developing Josh. And he's, you know, he legit ran there. He was very, very fast. And so, yeah, you've got to give them props as well for their performance and starting towards the back. And he started like last, right? Or close to it. 33rd. Yeah. And it just chipped away all the way up to to the top three. And some of that probably happens in the pits, and then Josh continues to drive forward. And so it looked like his car was pretty strong in the long runs,

and that's where he made his passes in bread and butter. But generally speaking, you know, you've got tracks like Richmond and here, where Josh is starting to show the glimmer of speed that he needs to compete in the Cup series. And so I think Rodney is a big factor in that. having so much experience with someone like Kevin Harvick that he can help mentor Josh into this and be the driver that he is right now in his rookie season.

One last thing I have for you before we sign off here. Are you going to help coach your better half for the dash in the coming weeks? I guess so. I mean, I guess Jordan signed up for the better half dash. So I don't know. think I have to spot. That's good news. I think I saw on her thing that spot or Denny Hamlin, like, I ain't spot no go-kart

race. What is this? Explain that. They don't listen anyway. It's a go-car race, Travis, they have out at, I guess now, the track house. Yeah. It's at the go-kart track up in Moorsville. And they, so yeah, at least they're not running Bandolero cars.

That was a whole ordeal for sure. It was on the little track at Charlotte, but now it's at the trackhouse motorplex. And so, yeah, they're going to get in go-carts run 14 laps. I think she's going to fall out of seat. When he says they, Travis, it's the significant others of the race car drivers. I thought you already explained.

I understood that part, but thank you. So Jordan's making her reappearance into the better half dash. Now, she's actually been a very good go-kart racer, like when we've gone to other go-kart tracks, she holds her own pretty well, so I think she'll do pretty good, but she's not going to need my help for sure. We'll go out there.

We're going to try to practice sometime this week, just kind of generally show her the line around, but then you almost just got to throw the baby in the water, let him figure out how to swim. You know what I mean? So I'll be excited to see how she does. We'll have everyone out there rooting for her. It would be good.

I get to see her in a fire suit. I might turn me on, not really sure. All right. We got to go. All right. Quick review from high and tight. Hurry up. Get me all fair.

High and tight. Considering I booed and threw up the 11s at the 500 earlier this year, I presume I have a debt to pay. As a Chase Elliott and HMS fan, Denny and the JGR boys have always been enemy number one for me, but I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to action, detrimental every week and appreciate hearing a driver's perspective each week. Oh, and long live purple vests 560. Yes. Yes. It lives forever. Where do you have it now? It's like, hold on. If I

imagine right now it is wherever you're living, I'm not sure if you're living in your car or not, but I think that it's probably on the floor laid up against the wall somewhere. Oh, you're right. You're absolutely right. Okay. It's just waiting. Everything is just waiting to, find its new home. It's new permanent home. Okay. And for the record, unfortunately, I'm not living out of my car. All right. Good. All right. Well, thank you all for tuning in and we'll see you next week.