Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Denny Hamlin: "You Have to Let Drivers Self-Police"

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

It was a tough week at the track for Denny, but you'd never guess it from where he sits in the standings.Gateway put a lot on him, and the conditions certainly didn't make it any easier. He talks about just how much the heat and humidity took out of him during the race, including some of the physical struggles he dealt with behind the wheel.Then there's the wreck everyone's been talking about: Sawalich vs. Day. Denny's got a pretty clear stance. He thinks NASCAR should stay out of it and let the drivers sort it out themselves. He walks through why, and doesn't hold back when it comes to who he thinks was actually in the wrong.The guys also dig into everything else from Sunday, including why there were so many cautions, what's behind the brake issues several teams dealt with, and Denny reviewing his contact with Larson on a restart. He walks through what he saw in the moment, then realizes his read on it might have changed after watching it back.And even after two tougher weeks on the track, Denny's still leading the Chase standings. He talks through why he's not worried about it, what he wants to fix before Bristol, and why he thinks winning races is going to matter more than anything else from here on out. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's a self-pleasing sport. If you let the driver self-police, you'll have less of it. You'll have less of, you know, these guys doing this. It's why, like, you can't promote the Brad and the Carson thing, and then, you know, in any way penalized Brad if he ends up wrecking him. Like, you got to just take it on the chin. And Carson, it appears he's willing to just go ahead and take it. And so, as he should.

The following is a production of Dirtymoe Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck.

The Rick and Drake don't win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, the championship, and the most podcast. 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 after Gateway, race number two of the chase. We had quite the race on Sunday. Lots of caution flags. Lots. Was that a record? No. 22, I believe, is the record. Wow.

And that was... I believe that was levigation Charlotte 2005. I was actually in that race. Levigation Charlotte? Mm-hmm.

What's levigation Charlotte mean? They ground the track. They called it levigating. So, essentially, they were trying to smooth the racetrack. Uh-huh. So by doing that, they imagine like a claw,

they just clawed the track and it chewed up the tires and there was a caution like, Lots and lots 2005 though Yeah I think I finished 8th that race

Wow I was in fifth grade Wow Probably maybe fourth Man I was a junior in high school Wow I'm old Apparently

Um Carl Carl Larson breaks his winless streak 51 51 races I don't know that it was a huge surprise.

I thought he's been one of the better cars there for the last two or three years. He's been really good. But big win for them. Obviously, it closed the gap, move up to second in points. Yeah, you would think, too, that there was a time where he pitted, I don't know which caution. There was a million of them. but never really got a bunch of long runs. I think maybe that 18-lap run.

It was right after you guys battled for the lead on that restart. The caution following that. Well, he stayed out. He pitted, right? I pitted. He stayed out along with... Before that. Before what?

Before... There was that sequence where you guys battled for the lead. Yep. He pit before that? No. Or after that? that well after that yeah yeah that's when i went back to seventh or so um then there was a okay shoot we're inside the fuel window i guess we got to come pit and the five and there was another car

i don't know who it was i just sent you boziesie has a graphic with larsen's pit strategy and so they stayed out and then finally, I think they just, they pitted. They bit the bullet because they weren't going to make it on fuel, which come to find out they probably would have made it on fuel with all the cautions. And then they, so I saw him, one other that was up front, and then some cars in the back pit. So he had to come back from quite a ways. But I think there was only that 18-lap run that he had to make up bulk of the positions,

which I think he did. yeah yeah good day for for larsen it eats a huge chunk out of the the chase standings i think that's yeah big points day uh 73 points i think that's the same as what see bell had last week correct larson entered uh sunday 49 back i mean frankly that's just going to be the result of winning a race right because you're going to take out you get 55 no matter what yeah and then the rest of stage points, but he was up front both stages as well. And I feel like that's kind of going to be the trend. Like whoever wins is not going to be someone that finishes 12th and one stage and

eighth. I feel like the winner is going to be up at the front, the entire race. Yeah. Yeah. And I think this chase is going to come down to just winning races. Mm-hmm. If you win three races, four races. Oh, I mean, come on, Jared.

You went three, four races. Yes, you're going to win. Right. Well, some of, Bell and Larson already have won. So, like, if they win two more. Is that it you're saying? Well, it depends on who else wins the other ones. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, I don't even know where you all want to start on this thing. I mean, it was a... Why so many cautions? I think that track really lends itself to mistakes. Because anywhere you have a high straightaway speed with a low corner speed, that creates breaking opportunities an opportunity to break hard into the corner so we see it at let's say Cota

first turn of Cota you got a long straightaway and then you got a tight corner well the front group has to slow down the back group is still not quite got to their breaking zone they jam it in there three four wide and that's when we get the record to turn one at Cota that we always get

right it's the same thing here Martinsville is not like this because of a couple of reasons. One, the straightaways aren't conducive to three wide. So, and you don't have long straightaways to build up speed to then slow down. So it's that combination. It's that ratio of corner speed to straightaway speed that I believe allows guys to jam it in on whoever's kind of in front of them. But you can run high here in the corners, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So why is everyone fighting for that bottom lane? Well, the top guy's not willingly going to run the fourth lane up. And a lot of times what happens is if you have a car dive late on the inside of turn one, like when I did with Barry and Larson, it forces them to make a late move. So it's probably a late move on my part, but it's like, man, it's any opportunity to get a clean air. And I, you know, one thing I was making sure of hold your line, no matter what. You can't make the move and slide up the racetrack.

And what I saw a lot of is that guys did actually a pretty decent job of holding their line for the first three quarters of the corner. It's the exit. The exit at that track, I'm telling, if you look at it from an aerial view, it's the same width as the straightways. But it's just that bottom line is on a little bit flatter racetrack. and the angle is really bad, so it doesn't force. You have to let off if you're inside three wide on the bottom. But they don't because they're trying to get the good run off. It pushes them into the second, second into the third,

and then that's where a lot of the wrecks I saw happen was from the exit of turn to everyone coming together and not being able to hold their line. Do we have a tally, Travis, on how many of these cautions were caused by breaks versus how many were just aggressive driving? I don't. There were five rotors.

Five rotors. Yep. Before we get to the rotors, is it just me or does it seem like drivers are more aggressive now than last year in the old format? Well, I just think you couldn't, you really couldn't pass very much

after it gets strung out here. Exactly. Yep. Yeah, that's, it is, it's a characteristic of the racetrack where you know, once it gets, gets two, three laps, it's, man, you're, you're almost stuck. You're almost stuck, kind of where you're at, which is why the restarts were just so important. Everyone knew that. And so they try to get as much as they can in those first two corners. There's also an opportunity to

gain quite a few spots on restarts here. If you had a good restart, you'd gain four to five positions. Yeah, you could. You could. And then there's another restart five laps later, so you could really well i i think that that that was really what larsen did well after the 18 lap run that he gained most of the spots i think the rest of them were just two three corners at a time you know what i mean so and next thing you know you're you've got yourself up there there's a few of us then that pitted after and so um yeah he was he was really good on restarts which allowed him to continue to chip away at what that setback of pitting was. Have you seen all the cautions or what have caused the majority of them?

No way. I mean, lots of them were right in front of me. So, I mean, I saw lots of them. Is there any of that stood out to you? Is any of that you want to pick out and highlight individually? Ty Gibbs, Eric Jones, I think is one that is worth talking. about. Yeah, that one, it seemed like Ty got to the inside of the 43 of Eric inside turns three and four, but he was barely inside. And then the 43, like didn't give him a lot of room,

but the 54 also, like, said, I'm here. And, you know, if you look off of turn four, the 54, ran pretty hard over the Rumble Strip. So he was really, really low, really low. But I didn't think that was a, I didn't think Eric Jones did anything wrong by any means. He's got cars at the outside of him. It was a situation where I think Ty came in there, you know, to try to just get position on him.

All you're trying to do is get your nose in there in the middle of turns three and four. And then now you've got side, you got the side draft, You got all kinds of things that can help you finish that pass into turn one. So he jammed it in there and then didn't want to get out. And the 43 didn't want them to get in there because he's got someone on the outside. And so you saw all the way through three and four, they're just fender to quarter panel.

The 54 gets on the rumble strips off a turn four. And then the, so he gets a really bad runoff. So at that point, the 43 is still beside. it's irrelevant who he's beside, but he's beside somebody. And the 54 just went in there really deep and ran right in the back of the 43. I don't know how else to put it, but perhaps he thought Eric was going to run up the racetrack because, again, that the very bottom line was not great through one and two. maybe he's thinking that they run lanes two and three

but regardless that the 43 ended up getting spun there off the nose of the 54 so usually when you have a car accident it's the guy's behind's responsibility I mean the broadcast was called it right before it happened though he's going to he's going to move him here and boom just sent him off yeah it's it was Barry that was going around was on the outside it was Barry that was going around Jones Barry was He was quite

aggressive I don't know what's gotten into him lately But he's A new deal? Yeah, maybe We can make that official This week, right?

Yeah, Jared Here's your news, Jared There you go, there you go I noticed it on races That like he's got a top five To top ten car He's The aggression levels

Far more But Yeah, it just I don't know there was never really a hole for the for the 54 to get into i thought that it was just to yeah that was a misjudgment or a just went in there way too aggressively and got the 43 speaking of barry what what happened on that restart with you him larsson i i need to i need to see it but the five was door slamming me and i'm like i the 12 the 21

shoved me up the racetrack. Is that not true? I believe so. I mean, the 21 got inside both of you. He did, but there was plenty of room between me and the five. Like, I don't know why the five was upset at me. When were you getting door slammed in that sequence? All the way down the straightaway.

And then, after that, he was side drafting, I mean, grinding down the side of my car. later in the race. And I'm like, what, what are you doing? Just get off my car. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that was... I need to see it. So I don't know. I'm saying it before I see it, which is not right.

Yeah, there's not any videos, but I'm trying to find... I'll pull out here. I try to and I couldn't either. So... All I know is I got a text from somebody else during the race, not in the bro's chat. Dick moved by the 21 after... he probably was upset that I went three wide for the lead yeah

the restart but I held my line and again he made a late he he had to then make a late move I don't know if he got it into the five or not evidently not because the five came off the corner with the lead but I was beside him then the 21 jams it in on me in a turn three which is all fair and so I'm up the racetrack maybe the five I've thought that, hey, you're clear to the bottom. Why are you running up here? Like, I gave you plenty of room on the bottom, but the 21 was inside of me.

And then the 21, after going into turn three, then on the exit, just, I mean, just came right up into us. And puts me right into the door of the five, and the five just hangs left. What lap would it? It's going to cut both of our tires. I don't, it's just, I don't understand that. approximately what lap would that have been?

I, no idea. Eighth caution from the end. Something like that. I don't know. It would have been, it would have been after. Around 540 if that helps you. I found it.

I found it, but I'm getting an insane amount of advertisements for Roy Cooper. So on YouTube. Oh, yeah, those two guys are, I'll send it. It was an advertisement spanner. So, I mean, that's my side of that without seeing it, of course. I felt as though.

I just sent it to you both. Okay, yeah, I go three wide, 21 gets into the five. 21 is probably mad at that. Mad at you? Or mad that? Mad that I went there three wide. But does that really affect his line here going? He gets way up there, doesn't he?

Well, I mean, now that I look at it, I got close to the five on exit before the 21 got to me. Let me just look one more time. I'm up. 21's there. I get tight. And the five didn't get in the side of me on the straightaway as bad as I thought either. So I think overall it's just. one of those things

I mean I definitely got the end of it the next highlight is Barry getting into the side of the six I mean between Barry and SVG they were probably the two most aggressive drivers Riley had a bad day

Riley had a real bad day every time I looked up it was a caution it was a 35 something going on with the 35 but I didn't see what all happened there. So where it is? So yeah, I mean, after looking at it, my summary is that I probably had a decent hand in all the contact off of turn four. So yeah, I don't, I don't necessarily think either one of those

other two guys were much at fault there. So you just get tight here off of four? Yeah, so once the 21 gets to my left rear. He's now dumping air on my spoiler. And I'm getting tight. The five's out there. Now, again, we, I don't, I didn't think that like I was egregious getting into the five, but definitely made contact. And so it definitely looks different than I thought it played out in the car. But you had mentioned to Lambert afterwards that you needed to protect. Yes. We, yes. When we were side by side with the five, you got to cover the bottom there. You can't let the 21 get to the inside. Now you're in the middle.

Like, we just, we didn't do a good job of covering the bottom there. That was important. Yeah. Because, I mean, this restart really affects your day potentially, right? If you hang on to first or second here, then who knows how the rest of the afternoon shapes out. Our speed was okay after five laps. Yeah. But it was just horrendous.

Restart, restart, restart, restart, restart. If you're bad on restarts and you're going to have these runs, that are two, one, five, one, three, nine, three, four, four, four, like, yeah, you're going to have a tough day. Going to have a tough day. Is that just frustrating as a driver forget, like, where you're at? Just like, you're not really racing. Like, it's just like...

100%. Yeah, we're all just, who can be the biggest clown in turn one? You know what I mean? That's, and that's just... But the thing is, like, when I watch these wrecks, like, no. not a lot of them were like straight up, all this guy just wrecked this one. Most of the wrecks I'm telling you that I saw at the end of the race

were cars coming together, coming together on the exit of the corner. And that's just a merge problem. It wasn't like, you know, the ones, there was a couple with Bubble where he was, I mean, he dove it in there low on the 19, maybe others. They're bouncing off of each other. There's just not the tracks.

not super wide off the corner. And so someone has to give in that scenario. So it's just, and when they don't, and that's what happened with all these wrecks, no one gave. It's, you're going to have cars, they ricochet off each other, got one's monster truck and others, because they want to get through the wreck as quick as possible. That's just the way it is. And when you can't make up much ground in the long run, you got it.

Yeah. But if this race is, if you look last year, it had tons of cautions. I'm telling this is a racetrack thing where high speed, double down shift into the corner, that gives an opportunity for someone in the back to say, well, I don't want to slow down yet for the corner. Let me go down here or go through the middle. That's what they were doing late. So I just, I didn't see much egregious stuff happening. it just was Rex, you know, tight.

No one wants to give Rex. Well, fortunately for you, you avoided all of these. Very fortunate. Your onboard camera was pretty fascinating because a lot of them were right there. Yeah. What do you make of your day all in all, ninth place finish? I mean, I didn't like our day. Obviously, I just thought that it was super frustrating because I felt like we were actually

a good car and really the only time we were up front we were at actually a tire disadvantage do you know what I mean so it was like I felt like my speed

was still top five capable even though I was on older lefts than like the 22 and the 5 I mean those were they were better than I was but it's if you can't go on the restart

I just you know I was just holding up traffic you know and so that part is really really frustrating because because as a driver what you have to do and and I was fighting a tight condition is that well I can't run behind the car in front of me all right so now I have to go get clean air well now I got to go a longer distance around the racetrack and then here comes all the cars that are running well just roll around on the bottom on you and so it just puts you in a really really tough spot and and again if the race just goes green at some point

we're okay but yeah it just not not very good um you know i thought that actually our overnight adjustments were good um it was good for the racing part of it but not the restarts part of it right so you your car was set up to race to go many many many many laps when you see the way the race is trending like this with caution caution caution caution caution caution is there a point in time where you're like, we just need to shift the way this car drives? Yeah, I tried to relay that to the team really before our last pit stop. I think I was on the radio quite a bit talking about this is killing me. Like, we got to make a decent change.

And I don't know what they did, but it didn't change anything. Certainly did not change anything for the last part. for my last set of tires. Yeah. Break failures. What would cause this? Heat, man. We talked about before the race that, you know,

the braking energy that the brakes were going to take at this track was going to be anywhere from 20 to 35% more. Energy, which energy is that that's those pads clamping down on the rotors, right? The rotors are now going a faster rate of speed. when you try to slow those things down that's a certain amount of energy so we all knew that

the lower down force package that the higher horsepower was going to test the brakes and so you certainly could not come back to this racetrack with the same cooling package that you did last year they were going to run entirely too hot and we saw it during practice that temperatures

were up which is to be expected but but really it what I think hurt was the cautions. I believe if the races just stay green, I don't know that you have as many. I mean, you probably do, because some of those brake rotor failures happen

during, I think Zanes was an extended green flag period. But when the reason that cautions or red flags are bad for the brakes when it comes to heat, you would think, oh, it's going to cool down. It actually soaks. It gets hotter. You have no airflow. You have no airflow coming in.

So, I mean, I could just feel when we were sitting there stopped down the back straight away. I mean, I could just feel the whole interior of the car is just getting way hotter, way hotter than what it was when we were actually underway. So I think that's some of it. And then the other is just not enough cooling. that is the general problem. If NASCAR says, no one can run tape, you probably don't have as much of an issue,

but everyone's trying to get the best performance out of the race car and putting tape on your front nose gives it more down force. Harts the cooling of the brakes. There's been talk on social media after the race that does NASCAR need to do something about the brake issues because of safety.

Yeah, I don't think so. I think it's, you know, everyone's trying to get all the performance they can out of their car. They put tape on the front nose to, you know, because there's a fine line between brake fade. Break fade comes is where your pedal goes super long.

You hear your driver talking about, man, I got a lot of fade. That means they're hot. The other is break shake. Break shake is you press the pedal. It's pretty hard. Sometimes it gets spongy, but then it's pulsating.

That's typically because the brakes are due cold. So we try to find the strike the balance of the too cold, too hot, you want to be right in the middle, but the conditions are always different. The traffic that you're in is different. When you're 20th in line, your brakes are going to run hotter than the guy out there leading the race. So I think it's more of a team decisions that lead to the brake failures.

And all that is decided by how much tape, you put on the... Well, there's a certain amount of openings that are built into the design of the car. Right. Let me use this. This is not the Toyota. We have our brakes right here.

Yep. So you see that grill right there? It's... The nose is designed to where it's all the way open. Like, the teams have the option to have it all the way open. But they never keep it. all the way open. They tape it down to create more heat

so the brakes won't shake really, really bad. So you'll usually see it right underneath the headlights of each car. Correct me of wrong. You'll see sometimes someone come out there and slap a piece of tape. No, you're not allowed to do that. Okay.

You used to? On the brakes, I don't believe you're ever allowed to put tape on the nose of a next-gen car anymore. Okay. They used to, They used to. So you're just trying to find the balance.

So each car is opening for the brakes is different. You're saying a little bit. It's a team decision. How you design the airflow from the nose is more of an OEM decision of like, here's how we want our cars to look. Hey, teams, how much breaking, how much opening do you want us to build into the nose? and then the teams then cut it down from there. Yeah.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Speaking of the heat, you don't wear a cool suit and you rarely, I think, complain about the heat, but yesterday you're asking for an ice pack. Your voice is still kind of rough. Like, how are you just feeling? I'm actually still eight pounds down right now from what I was. Yesterday this time?

yesterday. And think about all the waters I've taken in. Yeah. So, I mean, my guess, rough guess is I probably lost 13. So you weigh yourself beforehand? How does that? Yeah, I mean, I just have a general knowledge of where I'm at. I mean, I have a scale that, same scale.

Yeah. And this morning it read 8.1 low. So if I'm 8-1 low now, I mean, My guess is I more than likely lost well, well over 15 to 16 pounds of sweat. So how to... Now, based that off of when ESPN did the sports science thing, you know, I lost 13 pounds of sweat during the Coke 600 that year. But my weight was not nearly as low as what it is today.

So I just think that I, and I told you on the plane, right? Like, I couldn't move. without whatever part of my body I moved, cramped instantly. That's how I fell out at Richmond. Calf, foot. If I moved my arm up, my shoulder would cramp. Like, I must have just been severely dehydrated. I didn't feel bad in the car.

I truthfully did not feel bad at all. Even when I got out, I mean, I'm wet, but I'm not. And that's one thing too, is that humidity. Humidity is the one thing that gets me more than temperatures. Not the temp. It's humidity because the humidity makes me sweat far more than what I'm accustomed to sweating. Because you'll see me after some races, right? I'm perfectly dry.

No sweat. Not yesterday. Not yesterday. I've like bumped into you accidentally and was like, oh. Gross. Do I need to come by JGR and teach? So I, you know, go by the end of the day is get this thing down. to like down four pounds down five yeah so like how does that how does that affect your your next day

i could see it in my face or look like i had holes in my cheeks my mom was concerned about you she sent a text about really how you sounded and she's like he he looks really skinny in the face too yeah i was like a skeletor i didn't i admit i didn't look well for sure thing don't let it still i mean like i was like kind of sick to my stomach as well it's just like and my guess is that was that was just the loading of the electrolytes on a empty stomach and just, I mean, I emptied my camelback system on the car. They had to give me another water, you know, for more water. So I asked for the ice pack because we were under caution for so much. I'm like, if we're going to sit here, I'm at least trying to cool my core a little bit.

Do you come teach them how to put an ice bag together? No. I should have just, it. was so big I couldn't fit it you know I'm trying to stuff it inside of my suit but that thing would have I don't know if I would fit it between my stomach and my my suit so they got it right the second time for sure um you called for changes to pit road after the race what was that about you know I just think that when there's an opportunity to to make it safer for the competitors not just the drivers but the competitors as is in the pit crew members we should do that and I was looking at the infrastructure of the track when I was walking down pit lane.

I don't believe that there's any legit reason that the pit wall itself, that concrete wall can't move in 10 feet, 12 feet. It is so dangerous. I'm telling you these pit crew members that have their legs out, changing tires, as cars are trying to merge into each other, leaving the pit stalls, I'd rather than just do something before someone gets hurt versus after. And this is one where I think we should have a standards of pit lane. Like surely other series have minimum standards of wits and links and things like that.

And I just feel as though you can't let money get, in the way of safety. So I have a screenshot here. So yeah, so if you're too wide, right, and someone's changing their tires, there's just not a lot of room. And it looks far wider on that than it does. I mean, this doesn't look very wide.

This is why I'm pointing it out. I mean, look at- Oh, I know. Look at the guys that are running out to the right side. Look at Lagano's crew. Yeah, so if Chase Elliott is, if you see him, he's on the, if he keeps driving,

he's going to be right, I mean, right on him. So you want to take this inside wall and go back with it to create a wider. Yeah, now hold on. Let me look. Is that light post or something? I mean, I would rather them, if it's easier for them to move the outside wall closer to the track, I'd be in favor of that as well. But we need another 10 feet because we saw the O'Reilly race and how scary that was. Holy smokes.

I'm telling you that it's not, it is a close call every time we come to pit on pit lane at Gateway. Now, Indy is the other comp of like it's, it's very comparable to Indy as far as width is concerned. Indy's a scary pit road too. We saw, I think Bubba got turned by somebody on pit lane running into crew members. Like, there's got to be, I feel like there just should be some sort of standard. of like you should easily be able to run too wide and not roll over someone's ankles as you're merging out of your pit stall. Is that a, is that like a major change or that's like pretty easy to move a wall back? I can't answer that. I mean, I'm looking at it now. I'm like, well,

they could easily move that pit wall in the one where the pit crew jump off up. But now I'm looking and I'm like, oh, I think there's light poles there. Yeah. So you might have to, I mean, the front stretch is plenty wide anyway. So it would not be much of a task, I don't think, to move the front stretch wall out. Do we want to touch on this Xfinney race real quick, or do you want to go to the Chase standings? Yeah, I mean, we can go Chase standings.

Talk about that. You're nine ahead. Thank you, Travis, for that. I don't think much changed inside the top eight, right? Only three drivers. Ligano changed because he was... Do you have the old sheet? I have it over here.

Yeah. He was... Remember we were saying last week, it's the top seven. He was eighth. Yep. It was the top seven because then there was a gap to eight, right? No, him and Elliot were both 72 back, and then Bubbo's 81 back. but Lugano now put himself now in the 50s, right?

So I would argue now that, yeah, that the top eight feels, I think the top eight still feels pretty good about the chances. Oh, I see what we were saying. Yes, Larson was ahead of Lugano at 49 back. That's what you're asking. Right, there was a jump there. Yeah, yeah. Yep.

So I think that this was a good race for Lugano in the sense of that he put himself back in the picture of this conversation. And so he was one of three drivers that made up ground on his. you and that was it was him larson and then host of our made up one point gotcha um yeah i mean what they do they do we just we just have to get better you know what i mean uh we we got to have mistake-free races uh i got to do a better job on the restarts um just got to execute a day you know we're it's just been tough going back where we've gone back at that time of the race

and not having enough time to really claw it back. And so it's, you know, I feel very fortunate. I said that I felt blessed to still have the lead. I believe that. But I feel like our notebook is very solid from here on out.

It's all tracks that we ran mostly in the spring, got that information, take it, learn from it, should be better. If you had 10 races, if you had to like rank them on like, you know, confidence, where would you have put these first two races at in that? Not super high. Because Darlington, I told you, we struggled the last couple of years at Darlington. I think we answered, we were better. We were definitely better at Darlington than what we had been over the last two years.

And then here, obviously not as good as last year, but we also kept our track position last year. You know, when you keep your track position, and the races seem a lot, a lot easier. And with all those cautions, I mean, I think the cautions is really what kind of screwed Lugano and not winning this race, right? Is that eventually got caught by the guy

that took tires four cautions ago. Yeah. So it sounds like you're not all that concerned with the car that's being brought to the racetrack every weekend. It's just an execution thing? Like, where? Well, I think execution is far what's hindering us the most on not having better days.

I really truly believe that we would have contended for the win at Darlington. But obviously that we were not a contending car here. However, after five laps, we were actually pretty good. I know it probably didn't look like it. We probably looked like an absolute non-factor. Trust me, that's how it felt in the car. So, but, but if you look at the lap times,

we're actually, we were okay. It's not like we were, you know, horrible. We just, things just, it was execution. It was restarts. Those two things. We fix those two things. We'll be okay. So we're not panicking because one fan in this room is panicking.

No, you know how lucky we are? to be in this position? Right, but that's not necessarily a good thing, right? Yeah, it is. If you have your races early and you're still leading and you haven't even hit your stride yet. Basically, they had two Mulligans. Yeah, I think you feel good about that.

I feel good about that. There's a reason I was celebrating so much. It wasn't because we were able to avoid some massive. Traff. What? that it's a little much that's my if you want to think it in your head that's fine but that that's aggressive dude that's aggressive listen i i hear you but i mean listen if people followed you and saw all of your ohio state play-by-play tweets they would understand like they would understand but that one that one

so not capitalize maybe what do you mean maybe just like delete one of the words and uncapitalized yeah yeah and then maybe delete the second word and then just the whole tweet we don't want to we don't

yeah we don't want to be those guys and I agree and I agreed with Charlie as well like let's let's stop rooting against other people and just root for us that's what we should do is focus on us running better.

It's not everyone else's fault that we are not at our peak right in the moment. But if you can't have... I know, I know. Matt, it's the same, right? The plus minus is the same regardless. Yeah.

But just just give a... Just give yourself a fist pump or something. I mean, that's truly what it's gonna come down to in this case. So is like, you know, going forward, it doesn't need to be said, but winning races is very important. Yeah.

You know, we've had a 35-point day, a 33-point day. We've had a wreck and horrible execution and horrible restarts. And still 33 and 35, I think we take this and say onward. Yeah, someone pointed out on Twitter that said credit to 11 team, because these last two weeks should have been a DNF and a 25th place finish. Without a question. But instead it's a... Make something out of it.

Yeah. You want to go through the rest of these? Chase Standings and just talk about each driver. Yeah. Okay. Larson, obviously, big jump there. Man, they got to be feeling really good because even though the mile and a half and I'm going to try to be short. I'll just get the top eight because I just feel like that's...

There's a little gap there. back to host for our night. Larson, I think they're feeling themselves right now. They're probably ultra-confident as they should be. They're running well. Darlington, they were contenders. Everything, I bet they're feeling good. Bell, I think he feels pretty good.

They mentioned him looking at the standings after the race. He was like, oh, it's not as bad as I thought. Oddly enough, that's been my reaction the last two weeks in a row. Stage points. Yeah. Yeah, so he's running up front. One last week, I think Bell's feeling pretty good as well. Blaney, I thought it was interesting.

Darlington, I thought, man, at the beginning of the race, he was super strong. When the track is super slick, super sunny, Blaney is a ball of fire. It seems like when the track cools off, they weren't quite as good at Darlington, and then obviously had a mechanical here, but they were strong. The 12 car was a top three car. No questions about it. How do they feel 33 out? Missed opportunities, but could be worse, is what I think.

Reddick, man, I'm not really sure. You could probably replay this from race 15 of the year, and you're like, I'm not really sure. As he said, when's last time that he has a race that you're like? they haven't been like up up front a lot and then i see him on restarts he's really making moves to to try to get there um i just have a i don't know with tyler redick on in what's what what's going on there just not clean races is the you know and i don't know if it's execution or what you know what exactly it is but just they they have not had a clean race and what it feels like has been three months.

Ty Gibbs, not so good because, I mean, they got to feel good leaving Darlington. They were not the strongest Toyota at Darlington, but yet finished second. Like they just kind of plugged away, got on the right strategy there at the end. I feel like, so they probably left Darlington like that. This is a good day. We didn't have the best car, but we came away with a P2. That's pretty strong. And then you come here, he probably wasn't that good.

And they had a mistake. What was the mistake? They didn't pit. I think they got code words messed up or something, and he stayed out when they wanted him to come in, I believe. Yeah, dropped 10, 15. And then had, you know, a couple of incidences in one where he, I saw him down to turn to the infield. But it was, you know, he's, he's, he's. He's fine on speed, but it's just the wreck got him.

And minus 51. I don't know what he was. What was he last week? 39. I think he's feeling okay with that then. I said this before. We're going to say the same thing about everyone. I think everyone in the top eight feels okay about their chances.

Ligano, double-edged sword. He's closed the gap to the lead. We're going to maybe not his best. tracks, but there's still some really strong ones at the end. So I think he's thinking, if we can just keep the wheels on the bus here, I think he feels better. If you would ask him two months ago, his honest heart to heart, there's no way he's thinking he's got a shot.

He was out of the playoff conversation. So I think he's feeling pretty good. He's very much in it. Yeah, he's in it. He's in the top of eight that has that big cutoff. Brisco I don't think yesterday was that great for him right

I mean Well he got He got taken out And the Chase Elliott But even before that He wasn't Yeah Super strong

Probably doesn't love The fact that he's almost 60 down Had a wreck Not of his doing I think if you're Chase You're probably feeling pretty down Like

man we're better than what our points position is, which I would agree. But again, sometimes you get caught up and you're the unlucky guy. You know, so, and he looked like he was going to make something of his day where it looked like his car wasn't all that great. Yeah. All right, Trave, before we move on to next Finney race, do you want to do the honors? It's an O'Reilly race.

O'Reilly race. Do you want to do the honors and? Oh, yeah. How'd your conversation go with Carson? it was fine did you guys say anything you just say no hi that's it

no I didn't say hi but I um I don't know we just we just had a conversation I think he he listened and yeah I got nothing

nothing bad to say no negative say I just wanted to put a few things out there and you know I think we've, we've raced pretty well together, you know, around each other all year. And my goal was to try to keep it that way. By the way, Brad Keselowski was having a great day yesterday. Great day.

Yeah, great day. I didn't say how he lost the lead, but, but yeah, they made something their day. And again, a lot of his, the track position, man, if you can just keep it. I mean, I don't know. If you put Brad in 20th yesterday, you think he charged to the front? No. Probably not. Right?

It's just they executed a really, really good day until the very, very end. He was on the oldest tires, got shuffled a few times on the restart, and finished 12th. A lot of cautions, a lot of opportunities to lose track position. Yep. Or gain it if you were good. Exfinity race. Jesse Love is your winner. O'Reilly's race.

O'Reilly race. Jesse Love is your winner. Just bleep that. Great performance by Jesse. First win since Phoenix of last year. Look like this one meant a lot to him and just a great performance. He was strong all day.

Looked like the winless drought for him, he was feeling it. And so that was a great job by Danny, giving him a fast car. And Jesse, driving the wheels off of it. Just did a great job. Executed really well in the restarts

and had the speed really when it mattered. And your points leader right now is Sheldon Creed. You know, I meant to say something about Sheldon because I think that, I mean, he's started the first two races off, the strongest. You know, he's been contending. It seems like his performance has stepped up slightly or the team's performance has stepped up slightly

from where they were in the regular season. season. They were always kind of a fringe top five running car throughout the race to now he's top three, right? And so that's how you're going to get the point lead, especially after reset. William Sowallich and Corey Day. NASCAR needs to let this one go. And my opinion on this is pretty strong that this has been a self-policing garage for a long time. You have to to let drivers police. And when you look at penalties and things like that, you can't look at the result.

You have to look at the action. He doored him down the straightaway. He very easily could have just doored him and moved on. He would end up had an tire rub and the 17 would have had nothing. But I just don't understand. and all the clips that you're going to see on social media is once they get to turn two, you'll see the 17 and 18 banging doors.

What is the 17 thinking, knowing the guy is mad at you, you run into him into turn one, you then run into him in the middle of turns one and two, and then you can't get off of them off of turn two because the 17's right on your bumper. He addressed in his interview, oh the 17 had me or the seven had me all jacked up what about the first two times you hit him

like i i text kyle and was like just no awareness whatsoever and it says nothing to do with j i i've never spoken 10 words to william swall just like i got no bias i do not care but that is that is the 17 is lacking awareness in a big way of like what his role is and all this and if you look at all the highlights from who's wrecking who earlier in the year, it's all the 17. And drivers can only take so much. They need to send a message back. And just because he nosed it in on the lower wall down the backstretch, well, what are you doing? That's just, to me, total lack of awareness on Corday's part, understanding you got to give the guy that's pissed at you, some more room, not less.

Like, he got himself wrecked for being an idiot. Yeah, and I mean, I would consider that this is now done. Like, there's, Corey Day is not going to retaliate again next week. He's already dropped three spots in the... If the front stretch doesn't register and the middle of the corner don't register, I wouldn't put it past them to not, nothing register. Well, one of these two drivers in the chase and the other isn't. So one has a lot more to lose than the other.

Yeah, and I heard someone talking about while the penalties for non, I think it was Jordan and Jeff talking about, well, NASCAR really frowns upon non-chacers, reckon chasers. Who gives a shit about that? Like, it's, it's a self-pleasing sport.

If you let the driver self-police, you'll have less of it. You'll have less of, you know, these guys doing this. It's why, like, you can't promote the Brad and the Carson thing, and then, you know, in any way penalized Brad if he ends up wrecking him. Like, you got to just take it on the chin. And Carson, it appears he's willing to just go ahead and take it. And so, as he should.

Credit to Carson, he gave Brad room. It appeared when. But that's the awareness that I don't understand with Corey Day whatsoever. It was entertaining. Yeah. We had to Bristol next week. I'm looking forward to it. I feel like we were average there in the spring,

and I'm confident we can make the proper adjustments to make it good when we come back. Do you think this is a race that you could see someone dominating for, 400 laps. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know who they are? Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney. Throw Ty Gibbs in there because his results have been really, really good. And the 11 car? Or? No, I'm just saying, of course. Of course. I never think that I can't win. He needs to clarify sometimes. Yeah. So, like, that's the best at that racetrack. It's just the top three, four, five.

guys are all like really good at that track and don't be surprised to see him one through five um trav you got bristol practice qualifying schedule there uh on you let me see if pocgris has put it out yet just so we can let the viewers know where to watch yeah sure uh let's see here whoa does bob not have it out yet some better check Anyway, we know it's going to be on USA. The race is Saturday night. Yep, Saturday night. You want to do the review?

Yeah, I got a review here from Venetius, Jesus, 3-413. Danny, tough luck last weekend, hoping for a good finish this week. Best of luck. Love the attitude about the position on the chase standings. Stage points are crazily important. That is true. Yeah. That and winning. Two very important things that you need.

So appreciate that. Yeah, well, let's circle the wagons here and have ourselves a day next Saturday night. First stage here at Bristol's 125 laps. Okay. How do you know that? Well, it's just 125, 125, 125, 250, 500 laps. I just noticed that this last week The gateway the first stage was 35 laps Which is 45 45 which feels like

Where you qualified is Where you're finishing Is there more room to move up and down here At Bristol in 125 laps? Yeah I think so Qualifying is still important though Yeah

You know So Well at least have a decent draw Our draw was decent last week It was not I mean, we were a poll at the time, but let me tell you, that was the worst, that was the worst qualifying lap I had in quite some time. Really?

Yeah, you were mad getting out of the car. I mean, it was horrible, Jared. Really bad. But still 10th. So like, what do you? Still half second off. What was the ceiling then? I thought I should have or could have ran a teen, which puts us right around that,

that puts you. right in the top five. But yeah, we'll try to get everything going this weekend. Try to execute a good race. It's going to be lots of pit stops, fought her and laps. Starts on qualifying. Got to get this thing right in practice. Lots of keys to it.

But I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a heavy, heavy, heavy weight battle for the race win at that track. Thanks a good way to do it. All right. See you next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.