Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Daytona 500 - Living in Fairytale Land

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Denny Hamlin is back for another season of Actions Detrimental, and kicks off the year by being caught up in multiple wrecks, but watched a car he owns win the Daytona 500. This episode covers:4:00 - Debating Denny's pit strategy 13:00 - Recapping how the finish played out20:00 - Riley Herbst criticism fair or foul?33:00 - Denny gives perspective on contact with Justin Allgaier42:00 - Can we push speeds back over 200mph?48:00 - Reaction to winning the Daytona 500 as an owner53:00 - What does this mean for 23XI?59:00 - Tyler Reddick snaps his winless streak1:03:00 - Weekend Takeaways1:09:00 - Denny racing in O'Reilly?1:19:00 - Atlanta Preview Real fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I am very confident in this. Here's my prediction for the year. Whoever the champion is is going to finish in the top three of the regular season. Top three. Top three. Wow. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years.

Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for J. Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do.

Two trophies missing from your collection, the championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental. I'm Denny Hamlin. Welcome back. Jared.

Jared got the vocals on now. Well, I woke up this morning and apparently I'm out of contacts. Are your eyes perfect? It's still perfect, yes. I think I'm making my way back into the 2020 world. What do you mean making your way back into it? I was a 2010 guy. Is that 20, is 2010 good?

Much better. So you were, you were, your eyes were so great. I can read, and now they're just going to go back. It means I can read everything except for like the last little bit of the bottom line on the eye chart. The, the bottom bottom. that's when I was at my best. I'm, I'm, I've moved up a row. Just the way you, the way you phrase that, I'm making my way back into the 2020 world.

Google says 2010 vision is exceptional, but the standard is 2020. So your vision was exceptional, but now you're, you're making your way back to. That's why I said that. Well, welcome back to the show. We were just talking before Travis hit record that, um, what was that? saying was the worst or someone was saying something was something was the word nothing was your teeth oh yeah because i was finishing up my food no actually that there's nothing worse than leaving daytona all week with eight points when he had four opportunities to score points i think you

might have caught more fish than points this weekend that's a fact man it just seems like i was always on the cusp like every time i i made a really concerned effort to just, I'm going to stay up front this race. Like I'm, I'm going to make sure that I keep myself in the top 10, the entire race, which we did for the most part, unless we were in dramatic fuel saving mode. That's a whole other conversation, but I was really happy with our performance. Start with the duel. Car was fine.

Driver was not. just I made, I got pinned on the bottom there at the end with the, I went for the lead, which was a mistake too early. I think it was, what about five laps to go, somewhere in that range. I made a move on Chase. That was not the right decision. I should just stayed behind Chase. We were working together the entire duel, working really well. And I've noticed that every time I have a line going, Chase always pulls up in front of me. I think he said a couple years ago, that was usually a one-way ticket straight to the front, and he's really taking that to heart.

And so we've worked extremely well together this whole speed weeks. And even during, as this race was starting to wind down, it was, we got linked up again towards the end. I'm like, okay, I think, you know, if we stick to. together here. Things are going to be fine. And then we pitted early on that last sequence. And I was just getting an explanation for my crew chief because I knew you were going to ask, why do we pit so early? Well, not early. You didn't pit with the other Toyotas. And then I think they said they thought, I think Gail said you thought, they thought there was going to be a group of four or whatever and a

couple couldn't get down or whatever is why you only pitted with two others on that last stop. Um, so in short, what he's telling me is, um, and not by the way, because I was questioning him, I just said, hey, I wonder why we pitted so early on the last stop. Just wondering for podcast reasons. Um, so we could make, we could make it, we could pit with the Fords, which has been a, a bigger group. He said, but those guys were pitted on either side of us. So the 38, the two guys that could pit on the same lap as us, were pitted one in front of us, one behind us. And he was like, that would have been just a mess on pit road. So he chose to pit with the couple of Toyotas that were on the same or close to the same lap as us.

The other Toyotas could go one lap longer than us. What about the group that went before you? What group was that? Bubba and Reddick and them. No, they were after. they were they were the last i think i think bubba came before it because you were plus three is what you were told on the radio but a group of four toyotas went before you i yeah because i thought that whole last run i was really really trying to save a lot of fuel um because i knew that last pit stop was coming

and i want to be on i wanted to be on the good end of whatever pit cycle was coming which is why i was surprised when we came considering yeah he you were told um dh we're plus three to our number we have a group of six that is plus three as well some of our teammates in front would not be able to make that with what where they've been yeah so he might at that time he might have um i'm not sure and then you were told we had a group of four that was going to come with us and couldn't get out that's what happened just the three of the yeah and so that that's the matters too right I'm telling you you guys wouldn't believe the communication that goes on on pit lane when these these teams are trying to coordinate who's going to pit with who you're not

only trying to figure out who can go to what number but you're also well who's in the bottom lane because because you might have five guys raise their hand and say oh I can make it to that lap well they're in the outside lane they can't get down So it's just a, it's a very interesting, um, to choreograph dance. Yeah. And certainly we did not come out or come in with the optimum amount of cars, but it was all going to work out. We were hauling the mail back to the front.

We were passing car, you know, we had to make up so much time that our speed was so much faster than the cars we were approaching that we were going to make it all the way back to the front. There was only one group that was able to block us. And the reason they were able to block us, it took us two laps to get there. We were so far behind. That was the Reddit group that actually was able to blend back in to us as we were coming. And so it all worked out. It was fine. It had no factor really in the finish. But yeah, it was, the whole field was broken up.

You know what I mean? Like even the Penske guys. It was all sprinkles of groups. It was never a big group. They went the furthest on fuel, but it was, that was the wrong strategy because they were way in the back. You know, those were one of the first cars that we passed coming off pit lane. So it just

with that many groups being broke up, it certainly made it very interesting. to where everyone started to come together right at that 10 to go mark. Yeah, the biggest group to come down pit road during that time was eight. So there was a bunch of like small groups. Yeah, just because, I mean, we think about it, that whole last run, what was at about 40, 50 laps or so, the whole field was saving fuel. That was one that was the three by three by three, you know, and we were, we slowed up all the way to like 51, 52 second lap.

times. So everyone was able to save a different amount of fuel. Obviously, the further back that you are, the more fuel you can save. And at that time, I was third or fourth car on the inside line. I was able to save a moderate amount to keep pace and keep our line, make sure it's moving where it should be. But if you're at the very tail end like a Michael McDow was, you can run, I mean, probably 25, 30% throttle. Well, they thought they were going to make it. They didn't pit on one of those last wrecks, and they thought that, but then they had to pit.

I mean. They might have gotten lucky if had it stayed green. I apologize to our listeners, but I'm going to have to do some work during this podcast. First of all, I want to see what happened on the last lap. Second, I want to see how much throttle the 71 was running to quote unquote make it. Because so...

I mean, it's a simple... It's not a simple, but it's a math equation. If I, let's say, averaged 50% throttle that run and he averaged 25, I can see where he could make it. Travis Peterson tweeted, yes, we would have made it on fuel post numbers confirmed. He was on the other side of that. the track. Is that correct? I think so.

During the pit cycle? Huh? During the pit cycle? When the caution came out from my, for my eight to go wreck. Yeah, McDowell was on the other side of the track. I think we still would have ran them down. The field was flying at that time. So when I say they're flying, let's just say they're running 47 flats. McDow couldn't be running, but now, is he saying he could make it running wide open those last 10 laps?

I don't think so. I think maybe at the whatever throttle percentage he was holding, I'll be able to see it in a second. But yeah, that's fair to say. I still find it hard to believe they would have won the race because he would have either had to run wide open to run a pace remotely in the ballpark or he would have run out of gas.

I don't see how that would have been, him something to investigate had he made it on fuel and been wide open those last 10 laps. So he was a half, half lap ahead. So are they saying that they would have not been caught by this train of every car in the field? That's what I'm saying. I don't know if people were taking that into account that if he's 20, 24 seconds ahead of the pack, there's eight to go. Yeah. We're catching them three or four seconds a lap that the math doesn't work for them right so they're going to get swallowed up in this pack whether they can make it or not make it on fuel right that that's what i'm saying is it is it likely had to save so much i don't know i want to see how much throttle

he was right i just don't see a world in which he was going to be able to run fast enough to not get caught without running out of fuel that makes any sense um And then on the last lap I want to see it visually, you know, if I'm calling the race or I'm commenting the race, I'm looking at that run in turns three and four. And I'm wondering, wow, how did the 45 get that massive of a run through three and four? I want to see if Chase lifted off a turn four, not off of turn four, in turn four. because usually instinctively what your spotter tells you is that don't get too far out there well what he's essentially saying is back off try to back up to the car behind you and while the

38 pushed the 9 into turn 3 once they separated the 38 then is looking in his mirror to see okay i need to back up to the 45 and get a run well did the i i i don't know i want to know did the nine back up with the 38 which made the 45s run bigger than it should have been that's what I'd love to see um like Dowell is running 49 30s he's got a small draft he runs wide open on the straightaways he's running 60 a little over 60 percent throttle Yeah, he's running about 65% throttle. That's a really respectable lap time considering, I mean, think about it. The pole was a 49 flat.

He's running 4940. He's running 65% throttle. That's surprising. What is the field running at that point? Who's up front? This is with a dozen laps to go. What lap are we on here? Yeah, this is right before the caution.

Okay, we're running mid-46s. So two and a half seconds, we would have been on him, probably on the last lap. It would have been close, and closer than I thought. Maybe he makes it, but gosh, it would have been really close.

That would have been something. Awesome to see. yeah you would have think on the last lap he would mad it right screw it you know because he sees he's going to get caught he's but i don't know how much faster he's going to actually run um that extra 37% throttle you know he's not going to run faster than pole speed um so very interesting see how that played out but you know i was i was in a decent spot it looks like here right before a wrecked. I was one, two, three, four, five, eighth or so. I'm in the top line. I'm happy with that. I'm actually six now. Were you aware that John Hunter had nose damage? They told me, but he had somebody in

front of him, so I really didn't, uh, it didn't really concern me that much. But not, not when you wrecked, when the wreck, he was the lead. He was, I know, because the 45, he's out in front of us right here. he pulled into another line or John Herman went three wide middle or three wide top. That's why we were on our own line there. I don't know. I mean, he got tight off a turn four. That's the same reason why I got wrecked for the final time. The 67 got into us, but I didn't leave him a whole lot of choice because I checked up off the corner from being tight.

I had damage from obviously the first wreck. I mentioned it on the radio that this is, I'm having to turn the wheel, you know, an extra five degrees, I feel like, to make the same corner that I was pre-rek. And so it just eventually took its toll on the front tires. They got hot. And then those last few laps when you're pushing as hard as you can push, I just, you know, really got tight off turn four. It happened to me the lap before. I was in line. I think I had bubble behind me.

He shucked me. He went middle because I went up to the walls so wide because I couldn't hold my line. And then the very next lap I did the same thing. And then the 67 got into the back of us. So finished us off. It just looked like watching on the broadcast in this moment that your top line couldn't keep up with the bottom two lines. And you were just getting stacked up behind John Hunter because. Yeah.

The nose damage was directing. Yeah, and it's usually really, really hard to get that top line really going when everyone's going all-out speed. But I just at the time, I felt like I had a decent enough momentum with the 42, and I was pushing them enough that we could maybe make something happen. I mean, you also really don't have a choice, right? If I try to pass them, I kill the line momentum. Yeah. I just, it was just not a great spot to be in. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, with this many laps to go to, you're trying not to lose too many positions because you're not going to make it up from the tailed field. Right. Chase Sella did not lift. Wow. I swear it looked like it when he saw the 38 come detached. It just was a great job by the 45.

keeping the run going. I preach us to those guys all the time, man. When you get a run, just find a way to keep it going. That's what, man, I learned so much from Dale Jr. Back in the day watching him and racing with him on the ability to create the run and then keep that run going for like two laps, two, three laps, like just constantly using the other guys to find pockets of air to, to make the thing, keep the thing. Keep. going. And sometimes it's not about keeping your run going, but yet slowing them down. So then you're able to get back in line. You're keeping the same speed going. Now you've bounced off, now you're coming up to another car. You can drag him down. It's really what worked in 2016 for me

down that backstretch is you saw me kind of go down. Side draft pull off, side draft pull off. and that just it just creates you know pockets of air off that right side of the car that you can use to make your car go forward make them pull back and Tyler just really did a great job that that final lap of getting the run and it really kind of started when he got the shove from Riley down the backstretch and just kept it kept it rolling. what do you make of Brad and people being critical of Riley at the end

I mean have you looked at Riley's end car I bet he thought he was legitimately going to win the race I agree I mean he had such a run I think he would have been really really close to winning the race at that time you can see so Riley had essentially three decisions

so when he Push the 45. Let me go back here. This makes it easier when I can follow along with my computer. It comes off turn four. He's really close to the 45. 45 gets to run. He now, the 45 makes a move.

So the 45 removes himself from the front of the 35. So he pulls down, goes to the inside of the 9. Now Riley finds himself with the 9 in his, on his hoodpins. And he's like, I don't, I can't, I don't want to push him.

And he's, and the run he's got is so big. He's probably thinking, let me just go high real quick and have this three wide finish at the line, which I'm telling you, his room was so massive. Um, oh man. He just barely hit the break right before he pulled out of line.

he was, gosh, I wish y'all could see it. It was 100 pounds of pressure. But coming to the line, Riley's coming really fast up to the nine. And instead of hitting him and probably then shooting him past the 45, he hits the break to not hit him. And so he says, I don't want to touch him. So I'm going to go high. And that slowing in the momentum allowed the six to get there. Um, the six was not getting there. I, I, I, we're living in fairy tale land. If, if people think that the six was actually going to get all the way there, um, I, I, I don't think so. There's just, there has to be a, uh, a man.

He's got a huge run too, though. Okay. We'll let the really smart people figure this out. Think about this. Okay, I'm going to go to the six right here, right now. The six is running one ninety two. miles per hour the 45

is running 188 and a half okay at the same point on the racetrack he's probably if you look at it I know you can't look at what I'm looking at

when you have a little screen sharing thing he's probably at this time one two three four car links behind that's probably right four car links behind with 200 yards to go.

Somewhere in there there's a math equation. If someone could figure it out, let's say he's four miles per hour faster and there's 600 feet to go. Do you get there in, well, you've got to have the amount of time that it takes, I think, to figure it out. Well, isn't that also an easy math equation?

If there's 600 feet left, how many feet are in the total track? which gives you, I think he would have gotten beside the nine, but like right there where the nine was. But he wasn't going to get all the way there. So going back to Riley, I think that he essentially found himself about to push the nine right before the line. He hit the break. And at that time, he had a decision. and he thought he was going to go for the lead,

but I just think touched in the break right before getting to that nine, slowed him and up enough to where now the six is on your outside. And again, it's a game of inches and split seconds, and it just didn't work. It would have been close. Man, if Riley did not get clipped by the six or didn't come up into the six, you would have had a really close three-wide finish.

Brad said this was a this was a dumb move obviously that he's saying that because he's upset right I understand but should should Riley like when a car is is this close to being clear at this point in the race when he has this run to win should he even like is he even concerned if there's a car no way right yeah you're not you're just I mean you see the star finish line it's like I say 600 feet in front of you, you're thinking, I've got to run and I see clear open track to the right. The time it takes him to process either looking in his mirror or his camera or listening to the spotter, say, clear high. The race is over by that time. You just make an instinctive move.

And he was clear for a second when he started to move up. But when he touched the break, it just that allowed enough slowing. of the momentum for now that the six is out there. It's close. Yes. It was a great finish. I didn't get to see it. I was on the other side of the racetrack,

just trying to get my car at a minimum speed in case there was another crash. Maybe I gained a few spots, but they told me the 45 and 1. I had no idea what shape or fashion. I went through the turn 1 wreck. I mentioned it in the media center that, you know, what did I think about them not throwing that caution in turn one?

When I drove through there, again, about 30 seconds later, after the wreck happened, there was nobody left on the racetrack. Everybody had washed down to the bottom, either to the grass or the apron. So there was nothing. There was, I was the only car really coming. me and maybe the two were left to have to go through the crash scene. But again, by the time we were there, they were already gone. So I think NASCAR looked at it holistically and said there's no immediate danger of somebody

sitting broadside in the middle of the racetrack. So good call by NASCAR letting this. Well, it was a consistent call from what we saw on Friday. Yeah, all week and long they were very consistent with how they handled it. Yeah. And I think that the fans. are going to be fine with whatever is consistent. It's the where they're going to nitpick you is when it's different one day to the next,

which, you know, the way NASCAR is officiated and has different people pressing buttons and making calls for that, it's opening yourself up to being interpreted differently, but the two different people that did it called it the same. Yeah, I was going to say we did have confirmation that the race director was not the same for all three races. So this was across, across two people. people. What else we got here? You and Al Geyer. Oh, damn dirty Mo. Trave was awfully quiet. Yeah, the Denny Bros. coming at me. Like, what? I don't drive the

40. Yeah, but you, you hitched yourself to the wagon earlier on in the weekend and the Denny Bros. Oh, he was on the 40. Wait, what do you mean I hitched my wagon? I mean, let me scroll back here. Hold on. Yeah. Pull some receipts here. Whoa, Trave. Nobody rides for Denny more than I have one driver. Jared got another victory this weekend. AP's celebrating probably too. Charlie definitely celebrated. I did see in the chat that Jared's claiming he's one ring away from LeBron or Jordan. Hold on. Hold on. Austin claimed it first. I just had to put him in his place. He's like, I'm only two away. I was like, Austin, if you're going to do it that way, I'm only, I have more. How many Daytona 500s do you have? Uh, two. I'm,

Two with you. Two with Byron. Two with Byron. One with Reddick and I could count one for Ricky. No, that doesn't count. Just because you know somebody. I mean, that doesn't count. You have to actually, that's a car that you work on.

Okay. Okay, five. One away. Show me these receipts. I'm scrolling up. I'm scrolling up. You said something about, okay, we got the 11 and the 40 in the race or something like, that because during qualifying, I was happy he got in. I didn't hitch my wagon to it. It sounded like it. We got the 11 and the 40 in the race. You got two horses in the race. He said we. Travis, who's we? You think any of the bros are rooting for the 40? I'm speaking on behalf of Dirty Moe. But we know who my, I wrote for one driver. Well, I tell you what, when you do the Dale Jr. download, can you get some answers for them what they were, what, what happened? I want to know because in my opinion. I know what. I know what

happened, but I don't know why he was that aggressive in that stage because you're not racing for stage points. You're racing for your finish. And Joey, the spotter was called outside, outside, outside. I just, I don't know if it was too late for the call. Like, yeah, you heard, you heard some communication with the spotter and the crew chief kind of post wreck and they were like, he says, I told him. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll take 20. I'll take 20 of it because it was an aggressive move. But it's coming to the end stage. He's got to know I'm going to be, like I'm going to take every run I'm going to get at the end of a stage because stage points do matter to me.

I established very early. I wanted to be in the top. You know, it's why once I cleared the bottom, in the bottom lane, I moved right to the top. That's where I wanted to be to end the stage. And so, and I was coming with such a massive run. I figured as well that, so I made up my mind probably, you know, a hundred yards or so before I actually went high. I said, I'm going to the outside no matter what,

because I knew where he had run on the top before that. So I knew there would be enough space, but it just was not quite, It was enough space. I mean, obviously, if he didn't move up, I would have, you know, I had outside position. But it probably happened so quickly that it caught him off guard. And so for me, I think my 20% is that he probably didn't have a whole lot of time to react or see that that was coming. Therefore, was late to react to it. I get points or stage points are more important.

and this year. But on your end, why be so aggressive for someone that always says, like, you just got to get to the end? Like, you're in a good spot, like, keep pushing him and that run's going to keep going. Yeah. That's what I would have done differently. Had I had to do it all over again, I certainly would have just, you know, stayed on the 40. What I was saying, though, is that we were running like 10 miles an hour faster than him at that time because of the push that I got. So I just, if I go into the tri-oval and then check up for him, I mean, does the 12 just plow into the back of me? I don't know. Probably not because he's got a good spot or he's a good driver, so they can know and plan for that kind of stuff. But I just, it would have caused a huge domino effect had I just checked up and not taking it.

Or I could have just gone to the bottom and probably cleared them with the speed differential that I had. I probably just could have passed them, then gotten right back up to the top. But yeah, I agree that, again, doing it all over again, had I known what the result was going to be, I would have just stayed in line there for a few more laps. So you guys come off turn four, Algar's in the bottom lane. When you successfully come off turn four, he then slides up to the top lane. You're coming with this large run, right? you it appears that you just stick to the top lane

our guy are shades a little bit to the middle left and then comes back up so he's just taking his line through the tri-oval at this point he's not actually moving down to let this run go by i agree i think that's accurate is that he's probably not on alert and just running what he believes to be the top in in the trival and i'm saying oh no There's a window. I'm taking that. You know, you say that the track position matters so much, but at the same time, we say, oh, just get to the end of the race.

If you get to the end of the race, Jared, you will finish good. To win the race, you need to be up front. You know what I mean? It's, you can finish really well by just surviving. But it's just the ones that win it. And we've, there's been outliers. been ones that have been 20th with 10 laps to go that win, but it usually is because of circumstances of wrecks. But I felt like going into this one, I just wanted to stay as far up front as I possibly

could give the team an opportunity with the fuel mileage to pit me with the right cars. And that was going to give me my best shot. And I felt like in that third stage, I fell back a little further than I wanted to right before we pitted. Like when we were pitted, we were at the tail end, pretty much of that bottom line. A lot of it is that bottom line just would not keep going and stop the top cars from coming in. So it just kept pushing us back and back and back. So when we pitted, we were probably a second or so off the lead. Cycle happens.

We pit with fewer cars. It's just me and Eric Jones leaving pit road. It's just, you know, next thing you know, we're. two and a half seconds behind. So now we're having to chase back up. But I thought as fast as we were going through all those trains of cars, I'm like, I'm still going to have a great shot. Again, I got up to like sixth, six or seventh before the crash there. So, but at the pace we were running, my car just would not hold it. I had too much, I guess it was underbody damage that, that hurt the handling of the car. So it was difficult for me to hold the speeds that I needed to

to maneuver how I needed to win. Can you talk more about the strategy that it appeared that Toyota's used, staying up front, slowing the lanes down? Well, when you're out front, you typically have to run more throttle than, like I talked about the guys that are in the middle of the pack

or the back of the pack. So they're just trying to, what they're doing is leveling the playing field and saying, well, I'm going to run 50%. And so, what's interesting is you still are at a disadvantage because whatever percent you're running out front. The guys behind you are running less than that. Less, right? If you're 100, they can run the same pace at 60. If you're running 50, they can probably do it at 20. Like, it's just the offset is still there.

So it's just slowing the pace up, generally speaking, to make it to where you're, you're, you're, your last stop is as short as possible. But when you think about it, the Delta feels like it would be about the same. Yeah, because overall, if you're short stopper and everyone else is short, everyone else's stop is also shorter. Mm-hmm. Right. So what can we do?

I think they said that you mentioned something, press conference, an idea of how to fix this? It's just an opinion. The opinion is mine and Dale Juniors. We had a discussion over the weekend about, you know, what we could do to kind of fix the fuel mileage stuff. In our opinion is you're going to have to make handling more of a factor than what it is right now. So you're going to have to create a little more field spread.

So in order to create field spread, you're going to have to make the cars drive a little worse than what they are right now. That's interesting. Rich coming for me, considering that I wrecked because of a poor handling car, but it was damage that we had. generally speaking these cars are just too planted into the racetrack the um they have entirely entirely too much drag the reason they have so much drag is we have one of the biggest spoilers we've ever had in history on these super speedway cars the reason that we have these big spoilers is because we're running the more horsepower than we've ever run on super speedways the reason we're running more horsepower on the super speedways is the engine builders wanted to create more common engine

packages. This is part of the cost stuff that we've been talking about over the years. So it's my opinion. We have to take the horsepower down a little bit, but me and Dale Jr. feel as though the drag is what is killing the racing. And when we're saying killing the racing, it's not allowing for you to bust through these pack of cars. You've got to make it to where handling matters. You've got to

lift into the corners. That creates now a spread in the field of good handling cars, bad handling cars, great super speedway racers versus those that are just good at staying in line. That will help alleviate the fuel mileage stuff.

Because right now when first to last is separated by one second or 1.5 seconds. That's why you're able to save fuel. You know that if I can save 20% more throttle, that will, I can go from last to first on that pit cycle just by saving more fuel.

You don't even care about passing on the racetrack anymore. You're trying to pass on pit lane. We don't want that. We want it to be where, oh, we want, instead of me going out there and fishing in final practice, We want us out there working on our setup to try to make it handle right and go good. But it's just that the cars are just so planted because we got these big spoilers on it.

They got tons of down force, tons of drag. We got to get the drag out. That will allow people to pull out of line. If you remember a couple years ago, people were talking about Kyle Bush, why wouldn't he pull out of line to win the Daytona 5? It was maybe two years ago. And he says, what do you want me to do? Every time I pulled out a line, I went straight to the back. It's because the cars have so much drag that even when you get a run and pull out of your line,

the parachute of that rear spoiler just drags you down so quickly you never can complete an actual pass. Unless, like you saw at the end of this race, the field got spread out. There was room to move, right? That's how Reddick was able to make these. moves is that he wasn't boxed in by a two by two by two by two you can't do anything at that point now you're just pushing the guys in front of you to try to get your lane moving when the field has spread you get the finishes like like you had at the end of the race yesterday um we got to have space we got to have some elbow room to create runs and then use those runs and right now with everyone

just locked down uh with the dranginess of these cars it's all a fuel mileage game because you just know the easiest passing you're going to make is on pit lane not on the racetrack yeah so you're saying we had the spread at the end of the race because there were just less cars on the track yeah and also too the the less drag that you have in the car the better the fuel mileage will naturally get and again it's going to get better for everyone but it's still I think that I'm confident the drag is the problem I never will we'll forget getting this next gen car for the very first time I had a test at Daytona. You know, what year of the next gen are we in?

It's like year four or five. And I was like, oh my God, I can't. I remember getting a run, like a massive run like I'd gotten in years past. And I went to pull out of line and my RPM just went, it just stopped. I'm like, I can't pull out of line in this car. You can't make those amazing. moves like you used to, it just you have to stay in line unless something crazy happens like that last lap where there's a jumbling of cars next thing you know, oh, there's just a handful

out there racing. If the field was only 10 cars, I think the racing would actually be fantastic, but it's just with all those cars two and three wide, it's just no room. But Alan Gustafson, you know, a few other cruciers are asked the same question. And they, say that you just can't unlearn something like that. Yeah, so I think what Alan's probably assuming too is that they won't let us go 200. We're saying let us go 200. Let's just see what happens. I showed a chart to Dale Jr.

about we used to qualify at 196 single car. and then when we looked at the fast laps of the race, they were like 210. Well, I don't know what the fast lap was this weekend, but we were qualifying now at 180, and the top speed is still 205. So it's, what are we talking about? Let's just let these things run by themselves, less drag.

I'm telling you it will really, really help with this fuel mileage situation. There won't be, there'll still be some, people wanting to save everyone will save a little bit but it's just you're going to want the track position over the fuel saving because the field will be a little more spread because of good handling cars and bad handling cars does increasing these speeds back to where they were raised too many safety concerns is that why yeah it's a factor i i think that you know there's there's liftoff speeds and stuff that nascar wants to monitor and they certainly want to keep

these cars on the ground. So yeah, the faster you go, the more risk you have of these things turning over. I don't know that that's a huge concern, but again, like I talked about in the pack, that we're not running that much faster, or I'm sorry, slower than what we were years ago when the cars were qualifying 20 miles an hour faster. We're running the same speeds now. It's just we have to create a big-ass group of cars. to get the drag off the cars to make them go that fast.

Right. So if the cars can just go that fast by themselves. There won't be as giant of a pickup when there's multiple cars, when there's tons and tons of cars out there. So you won't go an additional 10 miles an hour when? No, it's not a, I don't believe it's a one-to-one trade-off. You know, the dragier it is.

Like the trucks are a great example. Those things are, I mean, dead-ass slow and qualifying. But you get them in a pack, get them in a train, those things pick up. five seconds something i mean a crazy number are you hopeful that that's something we could see in the near future yeah i mean it would i would love to you know this is a wish it's not hey we're talking

about doing this i i saw that on social media which is not true it's this is just a suggestion of let's go down to detona for the clash next year with those x amount of cars it's no advantage for us being on the racetrack running a race that others are not with the completely experimental drafting package. Let a few of us work on it and say this, you know, let the teams figure out here's the best way about taking out drag without maybe increasing drafting speeds. This would make handling more important.

That's really the only way. I just as long as we're running, as slow as we're running, I don't see a way around this fuel mileage thing. imagine seeing without stopping every 30 laps NASCAR would have to throw a caution every 30 laps to stop the fuel saving stuff and I don't think anyone wants to see that we're under caution enough

yeah imagine going down there next year and seeing an amazing clash and then back to this for the 500 I mean at least you would learn something but I mean it wouldn't be a Dale Jr wants to take the rear spoilers off and I was like

I think that's a gross exaggeration to what needs to happen. I don't think the cars would make the corner at 100 if the spree spoilers were gone. But, you know, something like more of an intermediate spoiler or short track or something, just something less to where we would be hanging on. That would be interesting to watch. I'm not saying it would be a better show. I don't know if it'd be a better show. but it would be something different that I think perhaps would stop the fuel mileage stuff.

Does that naturally slow the speeds down if you guys just can't handle the car that you just... It would. Yeah. Yeah, because then you're letting off for the corners. Well, I mean, then it takes you time to build that speed back up. So, yeah, I think the lap times, and we've seen it over time, and I've been part of the sport for such a long time that I've been around for a lot of these NASCAR tests, and especially the ones where when we had 900-40s, horsepower and they kept cutting during the test down to, all right, here's 800, here's 700.

And we're like, oh, my gosh, the speeds aren't that different. All you're doing is raising our corner speeds dramatically. So our straightaway speeds are slower, but our corner speeds are so high on the lower horsepower. So I think that, I think it's something worth trying. Well, you're a three-time Daytona-five champion as a driver. and now a Daytona 500 champion as an owner. How does that feel?

It's great. It certainly makes up for the sting of the race. The day was more good than bad. I certainly was very disappointed with the result that we had. I mean, my results on these super speedways have been atrocious in the next-gen era. But I just, I don't know. What's the deal? It just can't get to the finish.

I feel like I've put myself in really good positions. I know where to be. I know when to push and all that stuff. Just circumstances have been crazy. Stages, I can't remember the last time I had a freaking stage point. I'm always 11th. I thought in stage one, I was battling for the stage win. And he says, oh, 10 cars made it on fuel.

I was like, really? Those Ford decided to stay out. I was 12. Just, damn it. What are you learning from each race in this next generation? Like, what did you take with you into this race that you learned from the previous one? Like, what adjustments did you make going into this one?

Some of that is stuff I got to keep to myself. But there's just certain things you've seen in how the end of these races are playing out. How late or how patient. you can be, like we talked about, Travis at the end of that stage, too, it was something that I feel like, man, I probably could have just hung on there and stayed in line there for a couple more laps. So just, I mean, live and learn from all these things, but some of this is so circumstantial. I can't tell you that it's really hard, and I'm a data junkie, but if you, if you, watch and like I have just the last six to seven super spewery races how every stage ends,

how every finish ends, trying to predict what is the right line is nearly impossible because it all plays out differently every single time. And it's a lot of it is depending on who's in what line and where they choose to go. Do they choose to stay in line? Do they choose to Pilate line, hard to predict, which is why these races are hard to predict. Yeah, I think that's what I'm wondering, is that you're just so analytical. Are you still able to look at these races and, you know, and see something? It'd be like, oh, well, maybe if I didn't do that, or are you just kind of at this point where you throw your hands up and say, well, that's just what happened, you know?

Well, I'm going to try to learn from any race that happens. and I felt like I applied what I've learned into this Daytona 500, and I thought it was as far upfront consistently as I was in any speedway racing in some time. Not because of choice. Like when I'm running at the back of the pack at Talldega, maybe last year or whatever, that was by design. That's where I wanted to be at that time. But I just had a little different approach to this.

this one. It still netted the same result, which is I ended up getting wrecked. So I don't know. It's almost to throw your hands up and say, I'll just try it again next time. Yeah, it's hard to take any. It's hard. It's really hard. But there's a little moments where I would, like I say, try. I'd do something different. Back to the win for Redick in 2311. Like, what's this mean? Obviously, we saw everything that. First, when did you, when did you realize that that your car, your car won. They told me

when we cross the line. Usually anytime a 2311 car wins, they'll tell me right when the line, right when they cross the line. So you just wrecked and then they said,

oh, 45, when you're like, yeah. I'm like, and the first thing I was thinking was, wonder how that happened. And then, you know, I come across

and I'm always kind of looking at the, we look at those video boards in the infield more often than you think, like they're in cautions and stuff where I was kind of watching back the replays. Who caused this? Who did that? Who's in it? Who's not?

And so I'm crossing the line for the checkers and I'm limping across the line. I'm not racing anyone. And I'm trying to see if they'll do a replay real quick. And they started the replay right as I was leaving the zone where I could see. And so I had to wait until I got back on Pit Lane to see it. Did he do some Denny Hamlin? He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, created a run. He created a run. And I looked at how he got that run through three and four. And I was

very proud. I was very, very proud. How happy are you? Like last year, everything that 201311 was dealing with also Redick had his own stuff for him to get this victory to start the season. So like it just seems like now like everything for 2311 is focused on on track and winning and just doing what you guys have, you know, were meant to do. Yeah, I think that, you know, I can't really speak to the guys in the shop and how last year maybe affected them or not. I just know that they did their jobs. They were very supportive of us. Our staff stuck with us, even with all the uncertainty. We did our best, you know, last year to give everyone the security that no matter what, we're, you know, you're going to be here. Everyone that didn't have a work contract, we gave a contract to

in the middle of last year to secure them for at least 12 months, you know, past the lawsuit. So we did our best to make sure everyone was taken care of. And, you know, they stuck it out with us and we're very supportive. But now certainly, I'm sure a weight is lifted off of them. They know this race team's going to be around for the long haul. And when you have results like this, it certainly makes things a lot easier from our standpoint. How was Michael?

Just very excited. You know, very excited. I was actually getting there as he was leaving. Again, I do my debrief with my team. Go back to the bus. I'll shower, change real quick, then head out there. But he had already had his celebration with the team, which I got to see just like everyone else.

And, yeah, I mean, this is, it's just great to see how excited that he gets. and I reminded the race team a few weeks ago. It's like, you know, think back to what happened at Talladega. And when he was celebrating there on Pit Lane, when Tyler won Talladega, you know, look at the joy that you brought him in. And to know that you're able to have that power to bring Michael Joy to that level, that's a big responsibility. And hopefully you take that seriously that you have the ability.

to bring joy to him. And this is his competition now. This is where he competes. It's on the racetrack. Not physically himself, but through the things that we talk about, the direction that we have for our race team, we talk about how we want it to go.

This is us feeding our competitive juices well beyond when he's on a basketball court and when I'm driving. I know it's not. out of the norm for teammates to come congratulate other teammates in victory lane, especially with a Daytona win. However, there was a moment where every 2311 driver was in victory lane at the same time. Yeah, that was awesome to see. And, you know, from my standpoint, I'm looking, you know, I'm wrecked at that time. I'm done. It's going into a, you know, essentially kind of a green,

white checker type of finish. And I look up, I'm like, man, I still got four horse. horses in this race. That was a great feeling, knowing that we still got a really good shot of winning this thing. And so everyone was competitive. Everyone ran up front at some time, shape, or form. So, yeah, it was, they didn't qualify very good. We were not very happy with our single car speed other than the 67. But those cars really raced well. Bobba's got a great racecraft that always puts himself up front on these super speedways. Tyler has now won multiple Super Speedway races. Corey learned a lot, I felt like, from the duels to Sunday. And Riley, this is his best form of racing. Even before he became a 2311 driver, I think was back when he was running

Rick Ware cars or maybe somewhere else. He was up front on Super Speedways in the cup cars. So I think we certainly owe a lot to Riley for pushing and committing to that 45 on that last lap. And now the second Crown Jewel win for 2311 in a short time, you guys are really stacking them on lately. Yeah, it's good. We as a team certainly last year did not win the amount of races we want or expect. We shouldn't even say one, but that's just what we expect. We expect lots of wins every year.

We know that we give our team the resources to do that. And last year was an underperforming year. It's hard to say that when you got two drivers right there at the top 10 in a field where the big three takes up 12 cars, you know, or 11 cars. but we were just felt like we were like the next team like the next we're the next elite team we're we're done with that we're trying to infiltrate that the old guard um that that is you know taken over the sport over the last few decades from you know their commitment obviously uh their heritage of you know knowing their winning predigree they've got the best people

great drivers. It's hard. Really, really hard to overtake those guys. But we want to be one of the teams that can challenge that week in, week out. We don't want to go to the racetrack thinking, well, our expectations should be 10th to 12th because surely all the Gibbs and Hendrick and Penske cars are going to be 1 through 10 on speed. That. Like, we build fast cars, and I think that that shows up. Tyler was winless last year, wins the Daytona 500 yesterday.

You were winless in 2018, then win the 500 in 2019. How does that, can you put yourself in Tyler's shoes at all, like what you might have been going through at the time, what he is going through coming into this season, you know, wanting to win, needing to win, and what now checking off this first one does? Yeah, I think hopefully what it does is it takes a lot of weight off shoulders because I knew that last year he became very frustrated by not winning and not getting

the results that he wanted or expected. But certainly when you win the Daytona 500, golly, it can let you race free, you know, not because of playoff implications or anything like that, but your seasons just started off really, really good. You're not chasing anything. You're not in a hole. And so I think that, you know, what I saw in Tyler five years ago or so when I first knew that I wanted, I wanted them, I saw someone that would just let it hang loose and just drove free. Now, I knew he needed some racecraft to go with that. But it's been my job to help him with the racecraft over these last few years on, okay, you got the speed. Well, how are you going to get it to the finish? How are you going to get it to the finish? How are you?

you going to execute these final restarts to where you turn what was going for it and wrecking into now you're putting yourself in position to win on the last lap and he's just really grown tremendously and we're certainly proud that he's he's you know he's been the man he is the father he is now and the race car driver that he is now he went through a lot last year obviously with rookie this is what we saw in them many years ago is just the guy that can make it happen and and he certainly did this this last lap I mean I think a lot of people forget that two years ago he won the regular season championship yeah like this is who Tyler a lot of people expect to be every week absolutely and it's what we expect right and so when last year don't win a race it's like

I get it there might have been a couple circumstances where like you should have won but didn't but if you didn't win any, that means you didn't give yourself enough opportunities to win. You know, you're only going to win 25, 35% of the races you should. The only way to win more is to give yourself more opportunities, which is be fast enough, be good enough to do it. And they just didn't have enough races like that last year. I think that this year they can turn that around. these uh 2026 Dayton 500 rings are pretty nice

they keep getting nicer it appears because it's certainly uh it's got a lot of bling in it um I don't know what that stone color is that blue stone um not really sure can't see it I don't know you're uh hold show it hold it up can this be seen Travis sort of not really maybe zoom in anyway

I don't know Sapphire maybe maybe I think you might be right yeah it's a nice ring I was I had just done a few media things and they said we need you on the stage

for the ring presentation and I was like oh I forgot yes I get a ring the driver the crew chief and the owner get a ring that probably would fit Michael's finger

he says he's size 13 I can assure you I'm not size 13 but he's going to have to order his own because I'm keeping that one what else do you take away from this weekend from this Daytona 500 win great atmosphere

I pre-race I thought NASCAR production whoever kind of did the planning of the event Frank, the track president there, did a fantastic job. The driver's meeting room looked great, professional. The stage for pre-race, great. The party on Saturday night, the Burt Kreisler party,

they said was like Super Bowl-esque, you know, type of pre-party. That's what we need. We need more stuff like that. That's certainly what I like to see. And so I thought the whole production of the weekend was fantastic. And you felt it in the atmosphere. You know, as a driver, I've seen 21 of these things now.

And this was right up there towards the top. Fox cartoon characters are gone. I know. We're making all kinds of progress, right? Four years in the making. Right? We're doing great. As I say, the cartoon characters are gone.

I know. I know. We're making changes. The final four is gone. How much of that stuff do you think we've influenced? I'm taking all credit. Hey, it's the fans, if the fans are behind it, I'm behind it. I, uh, there's nobody wants the sports to succeed more than I do.

I'm well invested in this sport as a driver and certainly more as an owner. So we want to see this thing take off and grow. And I thought that this weekend was a great step. And certainly we had some fantastic finishes, truck race. Wow, what a finish that was. Xfinity or God dang it. I'm going to keep saying Xfinity because they're... I mean, some people call it the Bush Series stuff.

Well, they're an awesome partner of 2311. and they were so excited in Victory Lane with Tyler. But the O'Reilly series, O'Reilly's now, Austin Hill wins that one, dominates it. You know, I was really close to getting an exfinity. God, the amount of people tweeted me. Get Denny in the Xfinity. I'm like, I don't, guys, I don't. They text me in the offseason and says, are you sure you want to run it?

Yes. Okay, we're working on a sponsor. Two weeks later. Now, sponsor fell through. can't get a ride. I can't get a ride. Do you want to ride more now that Austin Hills done it again? Listen, it's frustrating watching it on TV,

but I think it would be more difficult than what we're leading it on to be because, and I don't, the competition is facing really some uphill battles. for one, they sat on the pole every race. Their cars are the fastest. There's no, there's no disputing that. They've got less drag. They certainly have more horsepower.

I've heard that the horsepower number that they've done from the O'Reilly's testing engine dynos, that the RCR is crushing everyone on the super speedways. So it's going to be hard to pass the fastest car, with the least amount of drag, and then a driver that is really, really good at his craft. And Austin Hill is very, very good at his craft. Like, he made two strategic blocks on that last lap that if he didn't make both, if he only made one,

he would have, someone would have got beside him. I don't know if they would have beat him or not, but they would have gotten beside him, but he was able to shut those off. So you got to give him credit that he's taking the fastest car and winning with it. And it's, you just, you don't have enough people or experience in that series to understand how to overcome the speed of his car. And that is that you've got to work two by two to overtake that one.

You can't fight amongst yourselves and try to pass the, you know, to pass the leader, second, third, and fourth have to all commit to, we're zinging and zagging together until we pass him and no one is going to push him. And the problem is... Then you can fight it out amongst yourself, amongst your slower cars. They need to do it, but you're never going to pass the fastest car if you're trying to do a one-on-one battle.

That's just not going to work. And the better driver. We've got to keep making sure we hammer that home that he is the best... I'm going to keep saying it. He is the best O'Reilly series. drafting driver by a long margin. The problem, though, is, like, the fourth place and the fifth place driver are going to go,

well, I don't like where I'm at, let me get behind him and see if I can then do something. So, like, there's always going to be someone that's going to get behind him and help him. The Chase Elliott strategy. Which is why, you know, they think that, well, if I just get behind him, then I'll at least be second. You know what I mean? That's their mentality. Yeah. But it's hard.

Listen, it's not as easy as we're letting it on to be to just, I'll go get in an O'Reilly's car and just go there and beat Austin Hill. No, no, I would, he would be the favorite by a margin. So it's going to be difficult. We're going to go to Atlanta. Don't think that much is going to change. I will say that handling is a little bit more of a factor at Atlanta, depending on the temperatures this weekend,

I did see a little kink in the armor from the RCR guys when the track is slick because they have less drag and probably not as much downforce, they do get a little squirly at Atlanta when the track it's hot. So if the temperatures are going to be up at all and the races during the day,

I think the competition will have a shot. Do you have any thoughts on this place? out format going back to the chase so we haven't touched on that yeah i mean i'm happy about the change um you know we've been preaching on this podcast for years now that the sample size was just entirely too small i november burned uh for me personally um it that didn't have anything to do with the format but it was just a microcosm of of our playoff format right If that makes any sense, it was, oh, wait a minute, this doesn't feel right. You should not leave the championship event in racing or baseball or football saying,

I don't know. Something didn't seem right about that. And it did. Now, with the chase, it's not, it still might come down to the last restart, but it won't be all about the last restart, if that makes any sense. Does that make any sense? Yeah, because it also didn't even come down, it came down to the finish, not the points for that actual race itself, too. Right, yeah, because we actually scored more points to Kyle Arson in that event. Well, I mean, you know, what I couldn't believe when I saw it was that

the race is 312 laps or something like that. The race was scheduled to be 312. We're in front of him for 312 laps. Not one lap was he ahead of us until the overtime finish. Yeah. That would be a guess. God, damn. It already is a gift.

It's a dagger right to the heart. Do you take any, I mean, I think this, this, our playoff format, you know, the changes long. To go back, it's like, now I there is, I think, I am very,

confident in this. Here's my prediction for the year. Whoever the champion is is going to be is going to finish in the top three of the regular season. Top three. Top three. Wow. Yes. Yeah. That's who the champion will be the top three. I mean, yeah, based on the the point structure, it's going to be really difficult to make up. They're giving the they're going to give the regular season champion a head start as they should as they should. He earned it. Whoever it is, they earned it. If they clinch a week early,

they fucking earned it. Leave them alone. Let them enjoy that race. Right? If you clinch after nine races of a 10 race playoff, you're the best. So let's just give the best their flowers

and move on. All people care about week in, week out, is whether their favorite driver wins or not. They don't care about the points as much as maybe the insiders do. All they care about, let the record show, show in NASCAR's surveys that people care about week and week out is seeing how their favorite

driver does. It's not about the championships and the whatever. It's just they're tuning in to see how did driver X do this weekend. Does he have a shot to win or not? And so you're still going to have a legitimate last week of racing that you're going to see. And so nothing will be different. It's, I hope, I hope that it comes down to the very end of the last race, but if it doesn't, that's okay. Because nobody was gifted it. They earned it, whoever it is. In this next gen era, it's going to be close. It's going to be hard.

Exactly right. With the parody we've seen, the average finishes for the next gen car are up for everyone. Now, over the last few years, the top five in average finish has moved down like, from 12 and a half to now like 11. It's trending back down to where you're starting to see the, you know, the average finish creep down. But it's not like it was when we ended with the Gen 6 car where, I mean, it was a 9.0 average finishes.

Like that was really low. It's because it's just you could build some speed in your car and you could dominate races and we didn't have toe link issues. You know, it's just, there's just more. parity and track position means more today than what it used to. So, you know, if you have a bad pit stop, well, you're not going to see that guy for the rest of the day because the passing's harder, which means your average finish now goes up. So it's, I don't think we're going to see anyone clinch early, but if we do, we need to just celebrate it. At what point in the season,

our driver's going to be looking at the standings and going, I'm in a bad spot? Five to six races in. Five or six in? Yeah, I think that that's probably the right number. Now, one thing, one of my favorite things that they did is increase the win to 55 points to where it's not winning your in. It's a win in, oh, that really jumped me up. You know, it's, again, it's 15 points, not a ton, but it is significant. It's a significant jump now. So if you do win two or three races, like, that's like, that's like,

finishing, think about this, three wins is worth four second place finishes. So like it, or maybe five seconds. I don't know. Anyway, it means more. It does mean more. So winning still means a lot. I love the winning your in is out. No one race should just take you right to the playoffs. I think that was a great move. I support all the changes. I think we're, I think that the NASCAR made at least five or six big changes in the all season that I'm thumbs up to. Yesterday it was the focus was on about winning the 500 not punching your ticket. Yes. Not one discussion about the playoffs. It wasn't, oh, Zane Smith won the first stage. Could he somehow pull off the win and punch his ticket? No. Yep. Yeah. Where do you think that when we get to the

to the chase in the final 10 races, what is that number in the standings? Are you thinking, okay, I can win from here. Is it fifth? Is it six? Like, what is the... What does I just tell you? He said third.

Third. Now, the question is how far back could you... You said a winner will be from first to third, but can you, do you think it's realistic to win from seventh? If you enter the playoffs in seventh, sixth? Or... Let's see, seventh is going to be how far behind? Well, the question is how many points back do you think you could do?

Is it five? No more than that. It's 25 from first to second. then it's 10 and then five five five um can you win from seventh yes you can i don't think you will but i think because it's just going to be you're going to have to just be red f f*** hot and you're i think you'll need if you're seventh and the regular season you will need to win at least two two races and the playoffs. And are we done calling it to the playoffs?

Is it just Chase now? Sure. It's still the playoffs. Yeah. I think so. You'll need to win two races and be just really finishing well week and week out. You won't be able to have multiple bad weeks. Maybe one.

Maybe one. It's possible. I just don't think that it's likely because I think it's likely whoever's than top three of the regular season. That's 26 races that you got a sample size. Ain't nobody getting hot from 10th place. If they were 10th after the regular season, they were probably decently good, but they ain't getting hot for the last 10. No way.

And not enough to make up a race and a half worth of points. I don't see that. And remember back in the old chase, there wasn't such a disparity between first, second, like it was like five point increments or something like that. It was much lower. It was almost essentially a reset of all points. This is at least really contributing a lot of your regular season work

in letting you start those playoffs with that head start as you should. first race is in the books yep we're back 2026 is here off to Atlanta Atlanta this weekend qualifying Saturday at 11 a.m. on prime

and then we got our race on Sunday 3 p.m. on Fox we're on Fox again we're on Fox right on yeah really also the Fox

the one thing the um we got a big win with the characters gone but also uh i like their graphics package better now do you notice like the the name right where you're from age all that stuff like they can take they fix their little hiccup the first night yeah it looked good uh yeah where all the manufacturers were wrong yeah i mean it's early and also the broadcast i thought Mike Joy crushed it. Like I thought yesterday was a really good start to the season. Yeah.

I think the more that those other guys let Mike Joy just go ahead and take that final lap, the better off it is. Again, the play-by-play people are gifted in what they do. So, you know, let those guys certainly call the, and down the stretch they come. You know, you've got to have one. I think personally you have to have one person going ahead and whoever that is. It could be whoever, but usually the play-by-play guy calls the stretch to the finish line.

It certainly makes it a lot cleaner and certainly I thought that Fox did a really good job this weekend. I'm a big fan of their graphics package. I think that it was a big upgrade from what we had in the past. The names, if you notice, are bigger, more clear. the font is more easy to read. Like when they pull up a driver, you know, say they go to the car, then they pull up the driver graphic package that's underneath them. It's very clean, easy to read.

So certainly feel like we made some big gains there. That's good. Mike Joy hyped it up in the offseason on Twitter, so I'm glad it delivered. Yeah. Remember to leave a five-star review on Apple if you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment, and then on YouTube hit that subscribe button and leave a comment below. And we might read it on the show.

All right. Well, appreciate y'all tuning in for the first episode of 2026 and we'll see you all next week. Check out DirtyMo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.