Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Denny Hamlin's Reality Check for Anyone Who Thinks He's Got This

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

The Daytona regular-season finale left Denny Hamlin with a scoring dispute, a broken camera, and a front-row seat to one of the most brutal single-lap swings of the season. On this episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny breaks down the timing discrepancy he believes affected the official scoring. He pulls up his own in-car footage showing a green light on track when NASCAR’s timestamp says the caution had already come out, and explains why he believes there’s a sync issue between the trackside lights, NASCAR’s data, and what shows up on the TV broadcast. He also talks about racing most of Daytona without a usable rear camera. Denny estimates it cost him roughly 30% of what he needs to race competitively at a superspeedway, and explains why not being able to see behind him made him much more hesitant to make aggressive moves throughout the race. Then there’s the wild final lap. Ryan Preece put together what Denny calls one of the most impressive superspeedway runs of his Cup career to lock into the playoffs, while SVG spun through the grass almost at the exact same time and lost a spot he’d held for months. Denny breaks down how it all unfolded and just how quickly everything changed. He also weighs in on NASCAR’s new superspeedway aero package, a rare mid-season rule change, including why some drivers pushed back on it and why others liked it. Denny shares his own idea for fixing the stage-length issue that led to so much fuel-saving frustration, plus a Chase points rule he thinks unfairly limits how high a driver can finish if they miss the playoffs.  And with the ten-race Chase about to begin, Denny gives an honest look at what it’s actually like to carry the “favorite” label when everyone expects you to win. Plus, the Jimmie Johnson throwback paint scheme reveal, the multi-car wreck that shaped the final laps, and the story of how Denny’s team nearly ended up at the wrong airport to pick him up. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In my mind, I've got to take that body of work and make it just a little bit better. I've got to be a little bit better. I need to be the best that I can at all these racetracks. I can't just go to Darlington and Kansas and Charlotte and say, been great there. We're going to be great again. Nope. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

I believe that I've been in 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 a victory for Jared Allen he's got better luck the drink and drink to win I know you do two trophies missing from your collection of 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 hey guys welcome to actions detrimental after race 26 at Daytona International. The final of the

regular season. We're on to the chase now. Jared, that is a sweet t-shirt you got there. Wow. Wow. That looks good. Wow.

This is the attitude for the chase. Nice dart I got there too. Awesome. You put this in the that group. ordered it immediately. Yeah, I figured it's just like somebody that advertises something that's not actually made and then go make it.

Yeah, you can get one with Roger Federer. You can get one with Jesus. You can get one with just about anybody. Nice. Really? Jesus has one? Yeah, everyone. Every major celebrity's got one.

Awesome. Well, it's, we did it. I guess we knew we did it after last week. But, you know, good regular season for us. 26 races it was a you know we were very consistent very consistently good um throughout the whole thing and so really happy with that result and then Daytona itself you know we um it was honestly really tough for me to uh to race obviously with with no rear camera that you know it's just something we had gotten used to um you know we used to race without it and it was perfectly fine and the difference

then was that, you know, your mirrors are kind of more usable, you know, and certainly we just get trained over the last five years. It's just part of how we make moves and change lanes. And I use it mostly to see kind of what lanes are coming and when it's appropriate to switch lanes. And so kind of relying on the spotter only for that. Just, I don't know, maybe a little bit more hesitant, certainly. But I felt like we were in a really good position. That third stage just bided our time. I didn't want to get into any wrecks. I thought that the way the race is playing out, it was whoever could save fuel at the beginning of the third stage could then go get it in the third at the end. And we had planned for that. Just, yeah, just didn't quite have the

car handling that we needed to when I chose to push it. So we got to work on that. How was the new package? You know, I thought that it was better. From my standpoint, I could tell right away that the car had less grip. Certainly, I believe that handling was more of a factor this time around than what we've had in years past. And you saw that by simply, the pack will show you on TV if handling is a factor. If you notice, it would start three wide for about 10 to 15 laps of every run, and then the middle lane would go away. The middle lane would stop. Then the bottom lane then would actually hedge down the racetrack a little bit to give

themselves room and air. And the top lane would hedge up a little bit to give themselves room and air to go side to side. So when you see the car spacing out like that, That's how you can tell on TV that handling is starting to be a factor and people are wanting a little bit of extra space to move around. So I watched the race back from about halfway and I could definitely tell on TV that there was more space between the cars than what had been in years past, which is honestly what we were shooting for is that give us more space, make handling matter a little bit more. and I thought that that was definitely the case. And you saw those that wanted to make moves towards the front and be aggressive, they could. You weren't necessarily boxed in.

I definitely feel as though while fuel mileage was a thing, it was a thing for a different reason this time around. The reason that fuel mileage has been a thing in the past is that when you come out on your last pit stop on these super speedway, after your last pit stop, your car is full of fuel. If you come out in 15th or 20th, you will finish. Barring no wreck, that's where you're going to finish, is right in that range, because there's nowhere to go.

That's 3 by 3 or maybe it's 2 by 2, and you can't pull out of line. It's just, we talked about you need 10 cars to go with you to make that work. We were saving fuel just to get to the end of stages, get to the end of the race. So it was a different, it was a different reason to save fuel. It wasn't because we needed the track position.

And I would, I would love one of the X stats people or maybe Bozzy who did a great job analyzing fuel summary from the previous race to this race. The field spread was far more than what it was in the past. So in other words, from the lead car to, the 25th or 30th place car was far more spread out. And that tells you that we were not really worried about, you know, having the fastest pit stop.

It was just, we got to get to the end of the race. That's why we're back here saving fuel. So I think they just make some very small tweaks to the stages. Honestly, what NASCAR would do, or if I were in charge of it, would be to make the stages in five laps before full fuel run. That way, everyone can run all out, the entire stages, and who cares if the last stage is a little bit longer or maybe a little bit shorter because of the, you're moving the stage numbers,

but that's going to give you, that's going to give you racing the entire time. And I just don't see people saving a lot of fuel if fuel is not a factor to get you, to the end of a stage and or part of the race. Now, there will be some that are saying, you know what, my car's not handling great. I'm happy that I'm in the line that I'm in. I'm just going to save fuel here. And I did that for some of the race as well,

where it was just like, yeah, I'm happy where I'm at. I don't need to make a push to the front. I don't want to go to the front right this second. So I'm going to save fuel where I'm at. The pace never slowed more than about a second. and a half off of like fast pace. So it wasn't like the three or four seconds that we had been doing in in previous races. So I think without a doubt, it was better visually from my seat. I felt like if I wanted to make a push to the front, if I had the car handling, I could because

there was enough space to go do so. I would have just shot middle. So yeah, I thought it was a step in the right direction and the fans in the need to know as well is that this is all we could change in this amount of time you know this is unprecedented for NASCAR to say you know what you don't we don't like it you don't like it we agree and we're going to do something about it right now we're not going to wait till next year typically with this they would just wait to another year but they had the balls enough to say you know what we know this is unproven but let's just try something different. And they were willing to get with the engine manufacturers, get with the teams, and they says, okay, engine guys, what can you give us? What can you give us here? All right,

we can give you that much and feel comfortable. All right, we'll take it. Then they went to the teams and says, how much are you willing to change? And they says, you know what? If it's just a spoiler or bolt on part, all good. We're in. So it takes more alignment than the fans realize to make changes happen and then you know honestly that the drivers as well being willing to you know you know this is a big race right this is one that had some big implications for them to you know sign off on it and say okay we're we're willing to try something different as well do you want to see a smaller change for talladega or keep this and try it a different race um i i think that this is a super speedway package that I could live with going forward, but could, you know, could we do more? Absolutely. And would it make it

even better? Probably. Is there more you can do with this car without, is this the most that you could change without making any significant changes to the car? No, there were some other spoiler options, you know, that, you know, NASCAR tested, they went with the conservative approach of like, okay, let's not jump all the way into the deep end here. Let's just, let's go just to her neck, you know, so I think that there's options there, but it's going to be incremental of how much it's really going to change. And I mean, even in qualifying, right? And that's why it's, it's, Sometimes you've got to see it on the racetrack because, you know, if you would have asked NASCAR, they would have said, okay, we think the qualifying is going to be at least a half a second faster than what it was previously. And it was only like a couple of tents.

So it didn't have the big change that we necessarily thought it would single car. So I think that tells us, hey, we got even more room that we can go. because I didn't think the pace of the actual field was that much faster, if anything, maybe a little bit from what the fast pace was with the big spoiler and big drag. So yeah, I think that there's things that can be done. And certainly I would still love to see these things be a little bit faster yet in single core qualifying. Why do you think the reviews for this new package among the drivers were sort of mixed? Like there were some drivers that weren't a fan of it, some that said that it,

was just the same as what it was. I think it depends on did they have to pit in the final stage or not. So I think that some probably got frustrated that they had to save fuel to make it to the end of the race. You know, so what happens is usually we never, we don't have to save fuel to make it to the end of the race. Usually it's a, the fuel mileage went from us running, let's say, 40 laps on a tank of fuel to now in the mid-50s with this new package.

So what we used to have to do is pit. Remember, we used to have the green flag stopped in third stage that always had to happen. And so everyone pitched. So everyone knew they were going to make it to the end of the race. It's just a matter of how much fuel they were going to have to take when they got to pit lane. Well, then when they dropped the green for the third stage, and they tell me, if you save a lot, we can make it. Well, I mean, I'm not going to race then, right?

Because I don't want to have to pit. Like, that's a whole last. or live extra time. So I think that some were chapped by the fact that, you know, in the third stage, if they did not have track position, they couldn't go get it because they weren't going to have enough fuel to make it to the end. And that's a rightful reason to not like it. But that's a stage problem.

That's not necessarily a car. Like I don't think objectively, if you're a race car driver in the Cup series, you drove that car and say it felt the same. Like your body tells you when your car is sliding a millimeter, you're telling me you can't tell when there's 20% less down force? I mean, that's not realistic.

So if you were to change the stage lengths, make them like stage one a little shorter, stage two a little shorter, and then the last one's kind of long where everyone has to green flag pit, is that the idea? Or you push the first one back. So the first one was at lap 35.

Yeah. My suggestion was just say make that 45. Now everybody's good by at least five laps. So you're going to run it out. Then everyone's going to come in, take four tires. You don't even care about fuel because you're going to have to take two cans of fuel

anyway. So it's not about time on pit road as much. Okay? So 45 should be the first stage. Then go another 45 in the second and that would leave you about 50 left.

I don't know if that math adds up. Yes and no, it doesn't add up. But it still breaks the race up to where when you pit for your stages, you're good. You're good to go to the end. That's going to make it to where everyone, I assure you, everyone will go all out. Everyone in the top 20 that wants the race to get to the front will go race to the front for the entire. stages and the race. I guess, though, this will be, next time we come back here, it will be the 500.

So the math equation will be a little different, right? Because now you're running 500 miles versus 400. Yeah, so, yeah, you just have to make it to where definitely everyone's going to have to green flag stop or definitely everyone's not going to need to, not the in-between. And that was the issues. We had the in-between where if you really wanted to save, you could make it. And that just forced the hand of everybody else. So was that just a missed detail in leading up to this race?

Well, I think that the fuel mileage was slightly different than what was projected as well. So I can understand why that would be missed just slightly. Gotcha. But overall, net positive, no additional changes you think headed into the next Daytona race. I would think that they more than likely tweak stages, not car on the next one. yeah onto your camera situation how does that how does that happen is it used for anything like do you do you position it in a way that you have an additional angle correct so what i do is i make sure that i i just want it to see off my right rear quarter panel when i say it's not usable it's it's not

usable for the same purpose that the digital that is correct that is correct so it's mounted in a vastly different spot so i i put it in a spot to where i want it to to be my secondary protocol for when I clear myself off my right recorder. Yeah, not the backup for the main. That's correct. So in order for them to move the thing back to where, okay, it's now my standard camera, or it's my standard mirror, it takes a different bracket. Like we had maxed out where I can move the bracket, essentially.

So it just wasn't as usable for that reason. And it's, yeah, I've never had a camera fail. It's been, like, five years of this thing. I've never had a camera feel. Yeah. If this happened next weekend at Darlington, is this not as big of an issue? Not a big, no, definitely not.

No, no issue really at all. You can, you know, it's just. Because like LaTart City thought that you drivers basically clear yourself nowadays with these cameras versus the spotter. That's correct, because it's quicker. It's quicker. And sometimes the information, you know,

we don't come on the radio and say to the spotter, tell me if I'm clear high. We just listen to that information. So I don't ask for the information. I just go ahead and look real quick and then make the move. And then as I'm moving up, he'll say clear high. So you don't always get all the information that you want right when you need it. So you just, yes, you use that camera to make decisions.

What's that, bud? Come here. We have a guest. Big Walker now. Oh, he's a mover. And he loves shoes on. Man, if he's got shoes on, he's off to the races. Oh, boy.

That's a good one. We can take a break if you need to go change his diaper. No, I'm good. Just going to let him sit there with it. Oh, yeah. Basque. You know, be honest. Back to the mirror.

How much would you have raced differently, like, if the mirror worked? or the camera. I knew that was going to happen. Grab me a paper towel. I would have been more aggressive earlier on, is the simple answer to that. I don't know. I just, by the end of the race, though,

Traff, like, I felt okay with it. Like, I, you know what I mean? I'm like, screw it. I don't care. And, like, if we wreck, whatever. I just didn't want to cause a wreck. You know, understand? understand that like you know how hard that is to explain to a competitor that man I'm sorry I'd

cut in front of you I didn't I didn't have a mirror they would have said hey idiot don't freaking race then if you don't have a you know if you don't have a mirror you don't have a way to see don't clear yourself up so I don't want to have to I ain't trying to make no enemies right now it seemed like to I think early in the first stage or maybe late in the first stage you started go up and then you're like I can't see anybody and that's when I think you did you bail then I did. That was at the end, really, end of both stages. I bailed with a few laps to go because I'm like, you know what, let's just go up there, try to get some stage points. And then I find myself in a position where it's, you know, R-A-R-8 is three-wide. I also noticed as well that my car handling wasn't good. Like I tried to make some moves, some aggressive ones, and it was like, oh, no, no, no, no, we're not ready for that. And so I wanted them to work on the car a little bit more. weren't they did and even still at the end of the race we had like long way to go so it was a learning experience for us i mean we definitely learned something about our balance that that we can take to

taldega and improve on what percentage of the mirror like if you had a had an equation that added up to 100% what percentage of the mirror is you know part of your making moves and being yeah yeah just like oh i have no mirror so i'm like at 70% at best here like that's an important piece. That's probably a fair number. That's 30% of what I need to run competitively at this track. Versus guys that have it. Yes. You know what I mean? If no one has it, then I think it's all level. Right. No problem, which is the way it used to be. But, and I, you know, if we just want to run with straight mirrors, that, okay, let's do that too. So I, um, it's just, it's a, it's a huge disadvantage versus the, the competition for sure. Aside from the,

the major wreck at the end here. The only other cars crashing we saw was at the end of stage one coming to the I just want to let the viewers know as well. This is not my computer before it gets too late. Not that I, not that I disapprove. I thought you got a new computer. It looks not,

it looks good. Y'all know whose computer this is. This is Travis's. I mean, what would you do to earn these Buckeyes, by the way? You win races. I mean, there is That's smart.

I mean, I did hear that you were thrown out OHS earlier this week, so I mean. Yeah, at the sponsor summit. Yeah. That's right. Proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Right in front of Esty, Portnoy, as well.

She was talking about how Michigan was the best school, football, basketball, all the things. Best at cheat. Anyway, let's move on. Rec at the end of stage one. This was really only... carnage we saw outside of what happened

coming to the checker which which wreck are we talking about the end of stage one the it was the RFK yeah busher gets in the wall

Larson goes through the grass Priest also is a part of this yeah priest got spun yeah he I couldn't tell but he was the one that spun through the grass right

him and Larson spun but then they came back and he still got stage points right Mm-hmm. I thought for sure that when I was watching it from... I know. I know. He wants his daddy. I know, buddy. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

When I saw this and I saw the SVG won the stage, I'm like, that's it. That's it. That'll do it right there. But, but yeah, I guess it's not loading all that great for me here. But yeah, that took out, that ruined Bushers Day. Yeah, for sure. And, yeah, priest got in. He got to think that, man, he was in, he was up front the entire time. And just, where did he finish in that stage?

Like, fifth? 10th, I think, right? He got points. So. Yeah. But, I mean, what a crushing, like, a morose. morale crusher for him to see as he's spinning through the grass, you look up and SVG is now won the first stage.

It's got to be like such a tough one. Eighth. This is a good way to kind of segue into like how impressive Ryan Priest's run was. I mean, 67 points on a speedway is got to be one of the all-time highest point days that there's ever been. to call your win, say, I'm going to win. He didn't call his win. He didn't?

No. I thought he did. He basically was like, we're going to go out there and do everything. He didn't go as far as calling it. Okay. Well, I think that it's still such a awesome performance to drive the way he did, finish it the way he did.

Like, I don't know. It just was, that was really, really impressive. Especially on the speedway. It's like if you go and you take, I don't know, me at Kansas and I say, oh, I'm going to do everything I can to win. And we just go out there and we run top three

in all stages when the race, it's okay. That's a little bit more predictable because you can decide your destiny a little bit better on those types of tracks. We're super speedways. It's really tough. And you can get shuffled, really, really easily.

But they just, I mean, that was a great performance. It was by far his best performance in his cup career. Even after stage one, he was like positive. He was like, all right, we'll get back up there. Like, they never like got down. Yeah. And I mean, he's that kind of guy.

He's a bulldog in that kind of way, like competitiveness. And so I just really admired the performance. his whole team put together for this weekend and then him finishing the deal by making all the right moves at the right time to win this race. Yeah, if he doesn't go sliding through the grass here at the end of stage one, he's looking at a 70 plus point A, which is, it's unheard of what he needed to get to, right, get into the chase. I mean, crushing for SVG, right? I mean, he had been in the top 16 for the last, I felt like months. Basically the entire.

Well, since, I think it was since he won last. Because remember, he was like 20 or 30 out going into a road course, and he left there 20 or 30 to the good. It would have been Sonoma, right? Probably. Possibly. After not scoring much of any points at San Diego. Yeah.

And I think he never looked back from there. He was inside the top group. from that point on. So crushing, I mean, he did his best in his interviews to just, I could tell he was upset about it, but he didn't let it show. You know, he stayed very stoic and he's like, you know, it just didn't work out. But, man, that's a, it's tougher track house, too. That was the only car that you were going to have representing you in the playoffs.

I'm going to say playoffs until Chase finally catches on, similar to the O'Reilly's and the Xfinity thing. You have to feel good for priest, though, because, you know, the 25-point penalty that he had. That would have sucked. That would have, that would have not felt right for him to miss based off of that penalty, in my opinion. Agree. I think most people agree. Okay. There was no other surprises that got in or out.

It was just those two that switched, and I mean, the switch just in the final race. It just shows that like you don't need all this other manufactured drama and gimmicks and stuff, right, to have like that big moment. And it's cool when it's authentic, right? Over 26 races, it then came down to the last one. And he had to win. Yeah, it was a proper winning in. He had to get those extra points from winning the race to jump SBG. Yep.

yeah it's uh that that that's awesome yeah i mean you you touched on it but it's you can't you didn't manufacture this moment in any way right before it was it's easy to manufacture a great finish if you throw a caution with three laps to go like you know i'm that's not that's not what happens but i'm saying you can always have a great finish every week if you just say all right we're going to end every race in a green white checker but it's that but eventually the sports fans and the authentic racers know that that's not that's not real that you can't just load the bases up in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and say all right you can pick any hitter you know that's eventually they won't tune in because they're like yeah sure they someone had

a walk off of course they had a walk off you set them up for the walk off so um that's that's what you know that's the purest that's why I think this season is really a lot of good things are happening in my opinion this year because we are getting back in a lot of ways to the purest type of racing let's take a look here at this uh cars nosvare wreck that sent us into overtime do we still know do we not know he got loose he got loose just got loose just got loose yeah I think he runs his cars pretty free anyway. On the speedways, it's what it looks like for my seat. And yeah, so what he did is he went up, so he pulled out of line to go low.

He then went up to the door of the car that he was trying to pass to try to side draft them and then pull down. Well, if you, so that's an arrow spot anyway for the, for Carson's. car and then if you tug the wheel left to then try to get away from them while you're trying to corner it's that's a pretty loose moment that's that's going to be a one where your car better be really tight and it wasn't and he lost control of it how much of this is to blame for the new package do you think that like how he raced in the car set up well i mean certainly the old package had so much more grip than that yes you probably can get away with that and again it's a

learning experience for everyone that that you're gonna you'll see things as a competitor i see these things and i'm like all right i need to store that away you know put that in memory bank Daytona 26 race two um be careful with side drafting in the corner and then trying to pull low that's that's that's going to that's asking a lot of your the rear grip of your car anyway you on a mile and a half that's a lot to ask of your car um but here uh certainly with the less down force i think it played a factor and poor eric jones watching his onboard is just brutal zero time to zero react yeah and and he had a car right in front of him so again just totally blind the car moves and then oh he's in your lap so that that that's that

stunk and that i mean how how ironic was it that jimmy posted about carson when that was before the race right yeah and then it he's like yeah well i don't like that you know the whole tearing up the cars thing he got one of his cars but i thought that was just funny what did you think of that uh that reveal while we're on the topic jimmy johnson the 48 you were watching it when you were Climbing in your car, you saw it on the big monitor. I thought it was cool. I do. It's got a flavor of new and it's got a flavor of old.

So, yeah, I'm in favor of it. Very cool. That 48 neon, that thing pops, though. Holy cow. Especially with a mute color, you know, the dark gray, dark blue. Like that neon 48 pops. It looks like a Hendrik car. And it's like, wait a man.

That's a Toyota. it's very different I didn't ever I didn't even think of that yeah yeah what did you think of the the wreck at the end of the race

which one there's multiple let's start with the first one okay first one Zane was trying to cover all possibilities it seemed as though when I saw it

and again I don't I can't do you play by play play right here but it seems like Zane was trying to cover one side, the bottom. Reddick says, all right, no, I'm going to go high. He then tried to move up to cover high.

And all while his spotter's probably telling him where the 45's at. He's probably looking in his mirror to say, man, it's close, but it's the final lap. You're willing to make those kind of decisions on the last lap to cover spots. Because you know if the 45 gets beside you one way or another, it's probably game over. You never know. You're saying if he's put three wide middle, it's game over?

Yeah, unless you got somebody that's willing to come get you really, really quickly. Yeah. So it was going to be a tough spot. So he figures the best way it's just that you got to keep the 45 on my rear bumper that entire last lap. And so, you know, everyone's going to be selfish in that instance. And it's really hard to bank on someone doing that. but sometimes the good part about being on the yellow line low or the wall high is that you eliminate options for your competitors to pass you.

So if you're up against the wall, you know they only got one choice and that's to go low. And so it acts as protection for you, same as that yellow line is for the cars on the inside. That's their protection. So when he saw the 45 go that, that way he's hedging low, hedging low. and then here you go, the 45 is like, now, oh, you left room high. I'm going there, and they made contact, 45 spun them, and then Hull kind of broke loose from there from kind of the ricochets. And then on the other one, Blaney got hooked down the back straight away by the 47.

you know, you have to do more investigative work to make it not look like really weird. But as you kind of look at all the angles from all the other people as well, it seems like the 47 and the three made contact slightly before the 47 got into the back of the 12. but I also think the 47 was probably trying to side draft as well. And I'm telling you in those instances, these are split second decisions. And I guarantee Ricky's only looking forward, looking at the side of the 12 saying,

I'm going to side draft him, and doesn't know that there's a three car right, barely hanging on his quarter panel. So if he goes low, he's going to make contact. So I think it was initiated by the move of the 47 moving down the racetrack into the three that is coming up, you know, having, he had just avoided a wreck. He's got to come back on the racetrack. He's there.

And then the 12 just running his straight line. And the 12 being an innocent bystandard of all of it. Going back to this 38 and 45 wreck, I just keep watching this replay, is there, a point here where the 45 goes high that he's just stuck to the 38th bumper. Like in this situation, the 38 is obviously not going to allow the 45 to get to his outside no matter what, right? Because then that's game over for three wide middle. Is there any responsibility of the car in second here is trying to make that move? Just be like, okay, he's not giving me this. I'll just lay up a little bit. They're not going to. Not at the end, last lap of the speedway. No one's going to lift. That's why.

Because if you crash, then neither of you win. That you're led me right to my point of like, I don't think any block is absolutely 100% necessary unless it's the last corner of the last lap. Because then there's not enough time. You know, where I think that, okay, if you try, if you make a block that is questionable, or the car is there, you're just hoping that when you move down,

into them they lift you at least that that's going to be tough for your competitors the competitors aren't going to give you that 98% of them are it's just not going to lift so so then your options are you're probably going to get turned where I believe that you know what if he gets to the outside of me or the inside of me maybe I get help maybe the guy behind him goes with me instead and now we we essentially will shuck him in a about 300 yards. So that's why I think that there's still a lot of racing left between turn two and the start finish line

to where, yeah, it's an aggressive block, but it's one that him and his team probably think they need to make. And it just didn't work out. Sometimes you can get hooked like that and you actually don't lose it. You know, you just get squirly and you don't end up wrecking, but, you know, obviously this one turned into a wreck.

Would the better move have just been the 38 pinning himself to the bottom? Just, I'm taking the bottom lane here. Can you, in fact, can you really block both lanes for a lap and a half for three quarters of a lap? No, it's very difficult. Very difficult. And the bottom lane is the lane you want to have, right?

Wasn't the 60 down there? The 60 at the bottom. Yes, but taking the white flag, Zane is the only car out front. So going into turn one, he's on the bottom lane and then you're saying well just pin yourself to the bottom i don't i don't think that's the winning move either simply because i think you would rather if someone's going to pass you you would rather than pass low than high that's what i'm asking yeah well excited work out

yeah what place did you come in didn't he they said 11 i'm i'll have a discussion because I disagree. I think there's a sinking issue between when they think they, the timestamp they have, but they said, okay, we press the button here, that's the timestamp. And then we go to all the in-car cameras. And they're going to walk me through the process because I, and again, 10th, 11th, my points is the same going into this weekend. I just want to make sure for future references, there is no discrepancies on what is

right and wrong because I told them, sir, I can tell you for a fact when the green light was on, the 21 was behind me and certainly way behind the 41. I says, if you look at the aerial camera, you know, what they showed you on TV was that, hey, let's look at the race for the lead. Remember they put the lights in a little box in the corner? And they says, okay, the lights come on here, bam.

So there's a camera on those lights. So I'm saying, I'm telling you, sir, that the lights were green and we were past the 21 car. But he's like in front of the 41 and me. And so I says, I think you have a timing issue. And so what I'm saying is that when the lights are green, so I think when they said they pressed the button, bam, timestamp, now let's go look at everyone's let's look at all the cameras of either in-car or available cameras. I don't think those lights were yellow. And I backed this up where I showed them a photo of,

here's the end car of the 21 car. He's passing by a solid green light. And the 41 is two car lengths in front. And I'm, I'm ahead. I'm beside them, but ahead. And I was like, so something is not jiving with when you say you pressed it and when the green light, when the green light went off. And again, there's a transition from, I think a green, nothing yellow. I don't think it goes directly from green to yellow.

Do they go back to the previous scoring mark? No, they freeze it. They actually freeze it and use all video. I think you're right about the one second of no light. It's so short. It's really short. Yeah. Because you can see in this replay,

not that it's a good judge of anything, but the caution does come up on the TV before it comes up on the track. What do you mean? Caution comes up on the TV before the track. Well, we're in yellow right now, according to TV, but the lights aren't on yet. They will be in... No.

That, that, right. So how did TV... How did... Okay. That's a little bit clarifying. So there's a delay then of when we actually, when the competitor see it, and that's a decent delay there.

You know what I mean? The banner on the graphic, on the TV showed yellow way before the yellow lights. Yeah, and when you say way, it's like a second. That's all, you know how far a car can travel in a second? I'm just clarifying. Yeah.

I don't know the answer. I'm just clarifying. So that, I mean, that clearly backs up. I think what NASCAR and Elton is saying is that, no, we pressed it here. And I'm saying, you know, no, no, I saw green lights. What are you talking about? You pressed it. And there's that gap that I think that there's a sink issue.

And they need to fix this because. Well, they're explaining on TV. They're going off of the caution light. They're showing a box. of the caution line. Yeah. And so you got fans wondering. So, so you're, the visual sometimes, they have a potential to where their time stamp

will show one winner and the visual would show another. Do you understand? Oh, I could. Yeah. Because there's that one sec. You've got a car side by side. In one second, one will show ahead versus the other. So I think that they got to fix that.

I agree. That's what I'm saying. It's like you don't want fans thinking something. happened or and also especially now with gambling. So what will happen is yes, is that TV will convince the fans, look, the yellow light came on here. Freeze it.

Who's ahead? But the potential of NASCAR saying, no, no, we pressed that button a second ago. And so then we use that video evidence. So you could have a discrepancy there. So I'd like to see them. I don't know how.

I mean, there's always going to be a delay, I would think. I mean, because when you press the button in that studio that they're in up in the suite, for it to get all the way back to the, you know, a mile away, surely there's going to be some sort of delay. But it seems excessive. I would like to see, is there an onboard out there of SVG on this last lap? Because when the caution comes out on TV, he's still in the, he's in the chase.

Prizes minus two. Yeah, but his problem is he ended up spinning. so he didn't maintain pace car speed. So that means wherever then you merge back into the field. Right. What was his experience? What I want to know is his experience on this last lap? Where do you get caught in it?

He's trying to go through the, you know, because they kept it green. Through that first. He's like, I got to have these spots. So he's trying to go through that wreck as fast as possible. He's like, Daniel die. And I think he made an aggressive, he had, I think there was no way for him. to avoid it in the sense of that he either plows into the car in front of him or when you try to slow down in these cars you can't be turning the wheel abruptly with it so a lot of times you'll see

secondary wrecks from those that are hitting the brakes and turning the wheel like you can't change directions very quickly especially on super speedways so he is trying to go fast through the wreck because his man is saying the light hits still green it is still green he's trying to get all the spots that he can, they spin right in front of him. He has to avoid him. So he has to turn the wheel quickly, and that spins himself out. Just, there's just no way. And man, it ain't like he missed it by a couple too. I mean, with priests win and that extra bonus point, like, missed it by a chunk. Yeah. So now, one thing I need clarification on is that I know it matters because you're not in the chase.

But isn't... SVG can go still all the way up in points as far as it takes them. On the owner side? Now, I believe that once the season is over, they re-rack the points. Oh. To say, okay, there wasn't a chase.

Where would you have ended up? Except for the champion, of course. so you're saying that i thought that this was part of the changes is that just because you don't make the chase doesn't mean the 17th is the best you can finish in points i believe that you can now he can still advance himself if not that that would that blows but i thought it was it was one of the things i advocated for is like man dude it's like it used to be the win in in, you know, someone that was 30th in points, wins, locks themselves in the top 16 because of one race. Like, that's crazy talk. And I believe part of the changes that is that you can still

advance up in the points. But how do they do that? How do they show that? Other than let the season play out and then re-rack them. But how he's... What do you mean? How? He's just saying the chase doesn't exist for them. They take away the bonus. They take away the bonus. I've got to text out to wrestle to see if we get an answer. Okay. If not, Mike Ford can answer it. I know they don't want two sets of points. Yeah, on the rebuttal, they can answer it.

I'm just saying that it was one of the selling points that I was like, okay, I'm good with this because you can go all the way back. You know, if the guy in 17th in points who just barely misses the chase goes on a great run the last 10, he deserves to be in the top 10 if that's where it took them. So theoretically, SVG could finish second on the season. That's the way I understand it. Hopefully we can answer. Yeah.

The way the money is given out to you teams behind the scenes is not based on the chase standings that we see as fans. That's right. But I don't know how they show those two, unless it's just... I don't think there's a need to show... No, we don't want to do that.

Russell's saying no 17th would be the best he can do. That is bullshit. I've got notes saying they were, changing that. He's saying because it's just points and there's no way for him to get to 2000. That's a killer. That's a killer. We talked about that when NASCAR is that locking these guys out of being able to advance their position is that that's unfair.

Well, I mean, you can't advance. You just can't advance to 16th. If you're 20th, you can get to 17th. Dude, he misses, he missed it by a handful of points. You're telling me the next 10 races. he's maxed out. Well, yeah, you didn't make the chase. Sorry, buddy.

I know, but if you take all 36 races into account, he could be way higher. I don't know why we need to bump these guys up to two. I don't know why we've got to give an arbitrary 2,000 point number to you if you get into the chase. Why can you just take the 16, move them over, here's our chase drivers, whoever has the most points at the end of these 10 races

between you 16 guys. wins it all. Why do we have to give an arbitrary 2,000 points? It could be 3,000, 4,000, 5,000. Who doesn't matter? I bet you I have it in my note somewhere. But let's just keep the show going. At the end of the race, I heard on your radio you told Gail that you wanted to meet with the pit crew and everyone on the team at the car. I like to believe this was a, okay, the regular season's over. Let's fire them up or whatever. Kind of talk. am I overthinking this or what was what did you want to talk to them about? I mean, I won't say it on air because it's that was it was my speech to them and I don't want

anyone else, any other teams to fire themselves up in the same way. So I just, you know, I just put things in perspective and let them know kind of what what we needed to do these last 10. That was a summary. Are you, positive? Are you glad? Like, the Chase is hearing you now, you can, like, turn your focus on to this? Like, what's your feelings right now?

Hmm. I mean, I'm ready to go. I mean, it's, this is, this is a tough part of our season. It's just, we've been doing this for 26 weeks. Like, it's, this is the grind, man.

The dog days, it's still hot as shit outside. Like, dog days of our season. summer. It's right here. But now it's like, oh, well, now you got to go be your best when you're the most tired. So it's what pushes you. So that's where you got to find the extra gear. But all the other sports is the same way. You have that long, you have 17 weeks of the NFL regular season, no break. We're going right to the playoffs, right? MLB, 100 and how many games? 62? Yeah. Yep. Still got playoffs. So. your buy week was Daytona.

Right. Sort of. Sort of. Yeah. So, yeah, this is part of it. This is what,

this is sports. We got to go do it. A lot of, nothing's given. And other sports, you know, the players, you know,

they say they don't listen to this or listen to that, read the headlines. Obviously, we know you do. You're doing a damn podcast. How do you handle the,

pressure everyone's saying you know this is danny hamilton's year you're the one seed like how do you silence all that and just focus i mean we've found every way possible to to fail in it right so i mean you know there's races i wish i could take back i there's things that you know are out of our control that i wish would change there's things that was in our control that i wish we had changed. And just you realize over time that, you know, you have to, it's, nothing is given. This sport is weak, too weak, too weak. And favorites matter, but they do not matter in the sense of that no one, if I don't go out

there this week and prepare like I need to do the work I need to do and execute at the level that I need to execute, none of that other stuff matters. It's people put you as a favorite or something like that because of how you got there. It's not arbitrary in the sense of that someone just made it up and picked your name out of a hat. It's because of the body of work that you've shown them over time. Now, in my mind, I've got to take that body of work and make it just a little bit better. I've got to be a little bit better. I need to be the best that I can at all these racetracks.

I can't just go to Darlington and Kansas and Charlotte and say, it's been great there. We're going to be great again. Nope. Everything's different. Things are different. Tire changes, arrow changes.

There could be temperature changes. All kinds of different things that would make it this different this time around. And on top of that, those who you did beat the first time around, you think they're just sitting around saying, well, we were sucked in. We're going to suck now. Nope. They're going to come with new ideas. And you better find something that can answer those new ideas. Does the process change at all going into each race weekend now that we're in the chase?

And for the most part, your competition is your teammates. No, nothing changes that I'm aware of it. It's all going to stay the same. and you're going to share just as much information with the 20 and the 19 as you would any other week. That's what makes it work. I mean, the minute you start to put yourself in a silo and say, I'm going to hold everything right here,

well, that's, when your teammate then does that, you're now missing out on information that's going to help you. So I just think that it's not the way to be. I'm okay being teammates for that six days of the week and going to race on the seven. What's going to separate these?

So look at the point standings here and the chase. After all the simulations that NASCAR has run, a driver from the top six was the one that went on to win the championship. Well, five of the six. Most of the time. Most of the time. Five of the six are Toyota. They're all strong.

Like what's going to be the difference maker between that bunch? Tough to say. It's week to week. It could be qualifying. It could be state. stage points, could be execution, it could be pick crew.

Fewest mistakes, I feel like. Yeah, it's just, there's always a defining moment in your race. It's just, what is it,

you know, if you could put them all together, then usually you have a good solid race no matter how your car is on speed. So it's all the little things. Darlington's up next. 4 p.m.

practice and qualifying on Saturday. I'm assuming that's Peacock? No. No idea. I believe it's true TV. I'll double check that. One person I know has no idea is my mom. Trying to keep up with what's on what channel this week and practice is something

or different qualifying. True TV. It's on true TV. Right after law and order. Or right before. And right before table talk. Yeah. And then the race Sunday 5 p.m. Southern 500.

Your last five starts here. Finished 11th, 7th, 1st, 7th, 4th. That's not 7th, 5th, that's just Darlington. Last 5 starts at Darlington. 117174. It's good. It's not great. We need a low, low, low, low, single digit finish here.

don't need it, but it's, it's what I want. It's what we're aiming for. What's the point? We're going to win. Okay. Do you just answer it then? We're going to win. No.

We're going to the race track to win. We're going there to win. That's right. We're not saying that we're going to win. Yeah. Um, what was your question? I was going to say how many points,

but I think what you want to leave with, you answered. Yeah. Um, it's week, it's 10 weeks. Can't not, there's not one week that's going to define one way or another. It will after week 10. But again, there's plenty. There's lots of lots of racing left.

Just it's almost, I mean, it's almost a third of a season. So like, we got to just, everyone just take a breath and relax. I can't do that. I know. And do you think that all 10 races are going to be needed in this chase? I don't think that anyone goes mistake free. for 10 straight weeks. It's just way too hard in our sport.

Jared, you're asking, does anybody... I'm saying, do you think, based on the sample size of 10 races, is there a scenario where we could go to Homestead and someone is up 76 points? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. We just didn't really see it.

I mean, you barely locked up the number one seed going into Daytona, and that's a 26 race sample size. This is now just 10. Right. You know? it's possible all takes is a couple wins and i mean points can inflate huge we saw it at the beginning of the year when tyler redick went on that run it was like holy shit like yeah if i'm ever gonna get there if a driver wins the first four races of this chase that's he's really gonna put a damper on the rest

that's right yeah um before we wrap denny what's the qualifications for handling travel for denny handling because i feel like any bum can do the job lately how dare you talk about osseating like that no i'm talking about jared this time jared i was fortunately i was just handling travel for charlie and i guess corey but what happened they went to the wrong airport went to the wrong airport yeah i put in we were leaving the hotel we were supposed to denny was down in fort lauderdale where was the summit at jupiter jupiter so the airport we flew into was 30 minutes north of jupiter that was in Stewart. And I just put in, I was looking for an Uber. I think I just put in Atlantic aviation or

whatever. And it took you to Palm Beach. Palm Beach. And like the distance was the same. So I really didn't think twice. However, there was a moment where I was like, I'm 99% sure that we came from the north. And this Uber is taking us south. And I kind of just like quickly put it to the back of my mind. I was like, no, no. And then so, okay. So there's. So there's. Stuart, Jupiter, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale. Okay. They then realized, oh, shit, we don't have time to go back up to Stewart. So they just kept on going south and they had to go all the way down to Fort Lauderdale.

But it was funny, though, because I'm the, you know, I'm the person who's arranging the Uber, right? I'm kind of leading the brigade here. So we pull up to the gate. The Uber driver is driving us. Keith tells us, pull right up to the gate, tell them the tail number, they'll let you through it. Right? The Uber driver's probably like, what the fuck?

I've never driven on to a tarmac before. So he pulls up to the gate. The security guy comes out and roll down my window in the back seat. Yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, the tail number. Look over at Charlie. He's filming. Of course he's filming. Of course he's filming.

Team Z. Give him a thumbs up. Like, no problem. Austin, we got this. Like, I can handle getting this to the airport without you here. And then the guy comes back. He was like, are you sure that plane's here? And I was like, yeah, it's here.

It's here? Yeah, absolutely. And if he makes us get out, go into the FBI, and then a moment we're walking there. I was like, uh, Charlie, I think I got up. I think we're at the wrong airport. So thankfully, thankfully, um, it was 30 minutes in the right direction. We were actually going 30 minutes where we, towards where we were trying to go, just not by car, trying to go there by plane.

trying to go there by plane. Nice. Well, I was where I was... Denny wasn't late. Denny, we still waited 30 minutes for you, so you were not late at all. Yeah, no, no, everything was on time. From my standpoint, I just didn't know what you all had to go through. For what it's worth, Travis, this would be a very different conversation if

Denny was at the airport already waiting for us and we had gone to the wrong one. I don't think he wouldn't wait. Probably. Probably not. I would have said it's a four-hour drive-up to Daytona. See you all there. All right, guys, appreciate it. Let's go get it now.

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