Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Did NASCAR Get It Right?

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

Denny and Jared talk about what to expect with the new Goodyear tires this weekend at New Hampshire. And, Denny is headed to Texas this week to do some testing for NASCAR. The race in Atlanta on Sunday was heating up and with rain in the forecast go even better. Sadly, the rain came and NASCAR had to call the race. Did NASCAR make the correct call in how they handled the weather? William Byron won his 4th race this year and is sitting good for the playoffs. Who will make the Final Four? And, what drivers will grab the final two playoff spots and which drivers will be left out? Plus, #DearDenny. And, what to expect this week as Denny races in the SRX race on ThursdayDraftKings State-Specific Problem Gambling Information: In Massachusetts, call [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org, In New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369). In Tennessee and Kansas, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). In West Virginia, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.1800gambler.net. All games regulated by the West Virginia Lottery. Please play responsibly. In partnership with Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

He's taking photos for Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson. I mean, he's practically an HMS fanboy. I don't take photos for Chase Elliott. He's probably got a burner account. Do you have a burner? No. Are you getting too big for your britches? You never know.

You never know. Are you breaking up with me? No, I'm not here anyway. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to Actions Detrimental episode 22, Hotlanta version. I agree. Nobody calls it Hotlanta.

I think I saw Brett Jukes from the Atlanta Falcons. What's part of the NASCAR group is like, nobody calls it Hotlanda down here. Agree. We have to have something to talk about. So I'm Dana Hamlin, driver of the number 11 Coca-Cola Toyota this weekend, and co-owner of the number 23 and 45 for Bubber Wallace and Tyler Reddick. And his co-host is Jared Allen, Purple Vest, number 560.

I agree, no one calls it Hotlanda, but it was fucking hot this weekend. Really hot. Yeah. How often, I mean, you're just famous now. I hear we're going to get you your own hero card. Apparently. That's what my PR guy says. He'll like to hear that if you listen to this episode.

Who is it? Tyler. Oh, yeah. But he also said he hasn't listened in a couple weeks. Okay. All right. Well, yep. People starting to yell at Jared's name all the time now.

I was actually, what was the first appearance I had? This week? Oh, no. It was somewhere. I forget where it was. But they were like, where's Jared at? We want to get our picture with him. Someone said that yesterday.

See, now, you were walking to the car or to the driver intros, and I did hear someone yell. I wasn't like right behind you right I was like off to the side and someone said oh you know where's Jared and I thought it was funny because I was just 10 yards back but trying not to to blend in all right well it was uh it was a hot one uh for sure I mean I wasn't I don't I spent most of the time in the motorhome to whom I to say I wouldn't sit down in the bleachers but um but yeah it was a interesting type of race because we had the Atlanta surface that is aging and with it aging it's starting to lose grip and with it starting to lose grip we have uh you know the the tire and the track combination starting to get very dicey which is why you

saw on qualifying cars spinning out and whatnot um it's uh the tires it's it's interesting because it it had more grip the more you ran and the more that you were in traffic actually Um, this guy gets back to the saturation number. So, um, basically if you take something, if it's super hard and you try to slide it across the surface, it'll slide nicely if there's no weight on it. But if you, um, but if you put weight on it, it grips and it digs in. So, um, I think the saturation number that it takes to make the tire actually make grip, um, has gone up in, in time, or I'm sorry.

yeah it's gone up and so while we're in traffic and we're running faster speeds it's it's actually got more grip than it did when it's out there by itself so um it'll be interested to see where that goes i think it it probably is due for a tire update um we we don't tires don't wear out there you could run them all race and and not have to change at all um so it's um yeah it's it's it's it's it's it It definitely, I thought, was a very exciting race. How long does it take? You mentioned that the track is already wearing. Yeah. This was repaved, what, three years ago now? It's only the fourth or three years. It's something about tracks in the southeast.

I mean, I guess it's probably because of the weather that's creating bad thunderstorms, hard rain, intense heat that's making the surfaces age quicker. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about, like, you can't see the age with your eye right so it's all very small uh it is small for sure i mean you can start to see it because starts the pavement itself goes from being black when it's laid to it starts getting lighter a shader a lighter shade of gray each and every time we go back it'd be interesting if there was maybe this wouldn't actually work but like a photo of the surface right when it's paved oh yeah and then a photo each it's a lot different each throughout yeah yeah and throughout the year

Darlington took no time. It was, man, in the course of probably three races, it went from being very, very dark as this table to bleached. It's crazy. Whatever the payment they used there, it changed a lot. But what were you going to say? Anything else on tires? No.

No. That needs to be a segment, Travis. tires something about tires I hate talking about I mean I love talking about tires but I hate talking about them because it means you know there's some improvement to be had we are speaking of tires NASCAR is working on a new splitter configuration it's called an up-down splitter where it creates lift for the front car and the idea behind that is that the front car is at a disadvantage so we keep trying to reel the front car in, basically. And then when you're in traffic, the car actually it doesn't have any lift anymore,

so it makes the second car have an ability to stay closer to the front car. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I like the logic behind it. I'm still not sold whether that will change much of anything.

I mean, think about this. When we go to the short tracks, aerodynamics is not that big of a deal. It never has been for a while. It's just been the lack of tire falloff that we've had on the short tracks. I had a good conversation with Dale Jr. on it was like, when we went to Richmond, it used to be double the fall off. Every short track, Phoenix, was more than doubled the fall off than what we have now. So not only the car is running the same speed because we build them all the same.

now and they're all part of the same parts and pieces. Do you also have a tire that is really, really hard, and we keep taking downforce off the car. And what down force does is where's the tire? So it pushes down. So on that cheese grater, we're talking about trying to get the tire rubber off the tire to make it slow down. If you're not pushing down on it as hard, it's just barely taking. anything off, right? But if you push down on it, it'll really take some. So you got to have down force to wear out a tire. Or you have to make the tire much, much softer. I mean,

huge chunks. Like the levels of downforce in which these cars have is the lowest it's been in since the 90s. And when they put this splitter on it, it's going to be lower than that. Well, I can assure you the tires were much softer way back in the 90s than what they were now. So we have to keep make sure that, and I know that Goodyear did a test at New Hampshire, and we're bringing a new tire this weekend that is more grip. So it's faster on the short end and it should fall off. I looked at the numbers. I mean, and it's a couple tense difference, which, hey, that's a different.

That's a start, certainly. But we've got to just continue to whatever that mixture and that chemical is, that the vials of things that they put in that batch to make a tire, got to just keep making it more aggressive until we have to pit because we're wearing out tires. That's for sure. That will create the lifetime variation to these cars can pass. What I'm hearing about this splitter is that's not necessarily going to solve that problem. It's going to lift the leader off the ground more, which is not going to lead to additional tire wear because the tires are going to be off.

Yeah, so the tires will wear less. So he's just going to run the same lifetimes. If he were out on an open track, which he will be until he reaches traffic. Yeah. He'll have less grip, but not because his tires are wearing because the car is off the ground. Yeah, he'll have less overall grip from lap one on. So again, you take off the aerodynamic grip and you need to add mechanical grip. It's the short track's the mechanical grip, not aerodynamic. You don't need to take away aerodynamic grip. You just got to add mechanical to make it to where setups matter.

And driver technique matters. If you don't, then you end up just having kind of a conveyor belt around the racetrack. Right. The leader's lap time will fall off the same. Yeah, you'll see it from. They'll catch the back of the pack and they'll just sit there and everyone's going to run the same time. So that's what we don't want for sure. I'm really excited to see about this new tire combination this weekend to see if they made a big enough step to work on the short tracks.

And if it works, please, please, please take it to Phoenix because that tires not very good. Is this what you're headed, where are you headed to Texas tonight to test? What are you testing? Tire. I don't know, tires. I was leaving at 10 o'clock tonight. I got a meeting at the new building at 9 p.m. that is important.

It's a night meeting for a reason. And holy cow, it's, yeah, going to leave it 10. On track at 6 a.m. tomorrow and Wednesday. So, yikes. 6 a.m. on track. Yeah, because you know you're leaving at 10 p.m. Eastern, not 10 p.m. Yeah, it's what's nine. Oh, true.

You're going back in hour. I'll be in bed by 12, good six hours sleep. And plus the test, I sleep in the car. Like, hopefully they have to make changes of the car because that's some of the best sleep you'll get is sitting in your race car. I don't care if it's 110 degrees. I mean, you can control. And I'm a sitter. I sit in the car as long as I can sit in the car.

So, yeah, come in, they jack it up. and that jacking is like rocking a baby. I'm just, I'm just like, okay, go ahead. Is this a long change? I'll take about 25, 30 minutes. Oh, perfect. Danny, how's the car? Oh, it's bad, Chris.

It's bad. It needs a lot of change. Yeah, but you know what the team does? Then they drop the jack really hard and quick, and it startles me and wakes me up. And then I literally crank it and then go 200 miles now. Well, we don't go 200 anymore. 190, let's say.

So, yeah, I'm going to get a lot of sleep during the test. Although with it being a good year test, we're probably just going to be cycling tires one right after another. Tires, tires, tires, tires. So, good year, yep. Hopefully they come with a new combination that's got more grip on the front end, less grip on the back end. And, yeah, yeah, we're going to run Texas.

They're doing it because it's like a billion degrees. we're basically on the sun there in Texas so on track at 6, done at 1 each day. Sounds like fun. I know. I got my oldest here, Taylor

in this year. She's in a hoodie. She's just coming live. She just woke up. Huh? She says she looks like you. Just woke up. I know.

Yeah. She just came from Disney and whatnot and yeah, she got a lot of stuff. She just can't wait to show me. I'll be done here shortly, hon, and we'll check it out.

Yeah, it was Atlanta, I thought, was a really exciting race to watch for my seat. I was the guy that was had a view of just about every wreck

that was in the field. I told, I was the Daniel Dye of in-car cameras yesterday, which, I mean, I hate to say it, but it's like if you got a view of every wreck, you're probably not running up front. You're probably in the back, and so all the wrecks happen in front of you.

But I, yeah, I had a good view of most of them. Didn't really get into any, except for the Bowman when he got loose under me, and we spun. But, yeah, I thought, you know, the, Corey, I watched Corey go up and clip wire. William Byron and I heard William Postrace he was like yeah that was my fault I'm like what like am I unwell you know like I just there was between my Twitter mentions you ran in everything according to Twitter I'm trying to figure out who I ran into I really couldn't figure it out but they I mean Harvick fans they were mad at me I'm like wait a man I didn't even see him he ran into the corner of me just like he did it Bristol when he misjudged that

and he misjudged that there was someone else earlier this year that he's, you know, misjudged the right front of his car. Was it the red car different? They were not used to seeing that. Oh, maybe. And they're confused. Was there another purple and orange one out there?

I mean, maybe Eric Jones. He was a bumper car. Then you ran into everybody. What color was his car? Oh, teal and gold. Okay. His car was fast. He was committed to run the high line

and he said, whoever pulls up in front of me he's going to get it and they got it yeah and Kyle Larson he he's not going to let a line just go pass him on one of the side he's just going to pull up in front of you and Eric says all right you want to be in front of me welcome to the ride um now it was uh it was it was it was fun i thought that the race is entertaining we had some um some lead changes uh the track got better as the race went on it you know the track got darker blacker, you know, the rubber need to lay down. You didn't want to run where there wasn't rubber. You know, I think that we were in for probably a fantastic finish. It started, it just started

heating up when the rain came. And a lot of the, just got to start heating up came from a couple different factors. One was, we all knew the rain was coming. So everyone got told you know, pedal of the metal, get to the front. Yep. And the other was the track started cooling off. The tires started adhering to the track a little bit better. And everyone's car started getting more comfortable. So the very first run of the race, I mean, you could just see everyone's car was on complete edge.

We were all over the place. And you couldn't, we didn't really run too wide that much just because the cars were so unstable by themselves, you know, in the pack. But as it cooled off and as a track started to lay rubber, it started to get more grippy. And the more grippier it got, the more we were able to be aggressive running side by side, two and three wide. So it stinks because the race, like I said, it was just starting to get hot, starting to get good. But we had another rain short race, which is a bummer for sure. How much do you think the threat of rain factored into?

the intensity that we had throughout the entire race. Because it did seem like everyone's information on the rain was a little bit different. Well, my first question is like, screw the rain. Tell me where the lightning is. Because that's what we always stop for first, right? Yeah. Is the lightning. And then really when the caution, so when we didn't go back green, I mean, we were running

under caution. I was, I was like racing. I'm like, what are we doing? like we're just I and evidently Chris Gaypark comes on and it's like well evidently a few drivers are talking about drops on their windshield and he says well how is it I says Chris be honest with you I didn't even notice it to you said it like it was that small right I think you know the counter to that is well then you risk if you run then you run the risk of running a Daytona type incident where it was just a out of nowhere, bam. You go from zero rain to completely drenching the

racetrack. I don't know that that was the type of rain that we were going to see here. I think that Daytona, it was even evident from the radar that it was all going to be there at once. Like it was going to be nothing and then pouring. And we even saw it coming from overturns one and two at Daytona. Like you saw it four miles away, three miles away, two miles away,

and the spotter says, hey, it's right there, right? They could see it visibly because it was during the day. Atlanta,

it was going to drizzle before it rained and it did. But I think NASCAR is just going to err on the side of more caution

now because of that incident at Daytona. Right. The question is, is it worth it? Is it worth sending the drivers back out there

to run five to 10 laps, change a couple positions and then them get caught behind the eight ball in the rain and then you have a mess and then the whole night is kind of ruined because... Yeah, I mean, I don't know the answer to that either because like, should William have won the race?

I mean, I think it was just because he stayed out, right? Yeah. He was one of the cars that stayed out and there was a bunch of cars that were staying out. McDowell stayed out. He was about to run out of gas, I think. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

what's the right answer? Certainly we've had some finishes that, you know, the orders got mixed up because of rain, right? And so I'm not sure. I mean, William, if he had enough last minute, he probably would have drove up there. He was fast enough to do that. But yeah, it's not, there is no perfect answer to it. There were definitely drops falling when we pulled in for the red flag. So, yeah, I'm not sure how many laps they would have got in if they decided right from the get-go, we're going to do this.

One of the ones, I guess, was when I got spun, I think there was six or five or six laps left in the end of the stage. I don't know that there was any damage from either one of our cars, was there? Because why are we running? I mean, Bowman's tires went down, I believe after the context.

He had damage driving around the racetrack again. Okay, so he dropped debris on the track? I would think so. I would think so. You think so or he knows so? Well, I'm replaying the crash in my head, and when he's spinning through the infield, he doesn't have damage.

At least he didn't spin through the infield. I did. Yeah, but you both kind of... Okay. I don't know. He ran into you. You spin, and then he runs into you. He locks his tires up, runs into you,

and then they cut away, And then when they come back, he's dragging his car around the track. All right. Yeah, so there was damage. I thought on the plane, I was thinking, why were we under caution for so long that time? But I think they also just wanted to finish the stage. Okay.

So let's just extend it and say, all right, well, this is the end. I don't know. Threat of rain coming. They finish the stage under caution. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, if he had debris and they were picking up debris, that would take a little bit longer, especially if he goes all the way around the racetrack.

So, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, can we get races going quicker? I mean, probably, maybe a lap at the most. I mean, you wouldn't believe that all the communication that goes up there in the tower to coordinate safety vehicles, coordinate cleanup vehicles, all that stuff. It's not an easy task by any means. Well, you came on the radio and we're wondering, is Pitt Road open yet?

Right. You were having a conversation with Chris on the radio about Pitt Road not being open. That's right. And now that I remember, they were down in turns three and four on the apron doing something. I don't know if they were picking up pieces,

but yeah, pit road was not open because of that. I mean, I was actually debating and even thinking about it with Chris that should I, even after I spun, like I didn't think my tires were really hurt at all. I didn't have any vibration. I was like, just stay out. Even though I wrecked, like just to stay out, just to, and we had enough fuel. So that's where the strategies came from was that Byron and such, it was about 35 laps to go at the end of stage two.

There was a group of cars. I was the first to kind of, I saw the field coming, then I pulled down, came to pit road. There was about 18 to 20 of us that pitted that were able to make it past the end of stage two. So like we thought if you pit now, you're probably going to have rain before your fuel runs out, even though it was going to put you at an awkward time of pitting in stage three. We didn't care because we didn't think it was going to get to that point. And when I spun, he's like, is anything wrong? I said, out my wheels clocked a little bit to the left.

We had a little bit of toe damage to the left rear tire from where he hit that. but I thought you know this the strategy might be just to stay out here get our track position right back where we were but he wanted to change the tires because you know I did slide them for a certain amount of time through the asphalt there

so it put us back in the late 20s or 30s again and then we were only able to drive up to I don't know I don't even know where I finished do you know Travis? In the teens yeah in the teens Racing season is underway.

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resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance, eligibility, wagering, and deposit restrictions apply terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com slash auto racing terms. I'm at least looking forward to going some of these tracks where it's, you know, it's not, it's more just the conventional ovals that we're going to go to, the Michigan's, the Richmond's, New Hampshire's, not speedways and road courses, and hopefully rain. Let's stay away from rain for a few weeks. We kind of got bitten by that. When the team tells you,

or when Chris tells you that there's rain coming, does that change the way you make moves and race the race? Yeah, I mean, he told me you got to go. Like, we might get in a wreck, but you got to go. And typically on speedways, well, in years past, I used to just kind of hang back and wait on some of the wrecks to happen, thin out the field a little bit, get rid of some of the manufacturer alliances to where, you know,

there's not 80 Ford's and, you know, 60 Chevy's out on the track and then have more of a level playing field, then I go race with them. Speedware racing in general is just a lot different than that now because you can only, you know, Daytona Taldega, you're running too wide most of the time and it's just logjam where you can't go anywhere. So you have to run up front all day or at least, attempt to that's for sure so we um when i go to atlanta it's it's a battle for track position it's the same thing the track is so narrow that you can't you can't just lay in the back and think you're going to make it to the front at any you know whenever you want to not not like the past so i i was battling for track position all day but he just wanted me to amp that up so is it more of a helpless feeling then

if you can't move to the front as easily. Like, hey, there's rain coming. Okay. And now I got maybe five to ten laps, but I can't really do anything. Well, yes and no. I mean, you can, but you have to take more risk to do it. You have to put yourself in some three wide situations that are, you're putting yourself or your competition probably at a higher risk of wrecking.

But other drivers are certainly. Which is why I went three wide. If you look, like the C. Bell went up the racetrack up to the third lane. and I was the field was running in the middle the bulk of the cars and so I was just running middle that's where I wanted to be my car up high was not good at all I was so loose I didn't want to go up there with him and so Alex was down the bottom and you know I'm running and I'm trying to stay with the 20 and he shoots up high and I'm like well I can't go I can't go up there I'm gonna a I'm going to open up the door for everyone behind me and you know be I I I'm running I I

just the middle lane is where I want to be. And so when he did that, I shot through the middle. And then that's when the 48, you know, got loose under us. He was actually really fast. But he needed to be by himself. Like he, his car was super unstable. And, you know, just needed to be tighter in general. Do you, last last one about racing when the rain is coming,

knowing that other, so you may not be the one that wants to take. the chances, right? But knowing that other drivers are going to take chances and open up doors for you, um, um, she should get Taylor or Mike. Your hands were fidgeting. So that's where she gets it from. She got me a fidget toy to a little,

a little stress ball here. You were wrapping the court around your finger. I was. Oh yeah. I guess. All right. Taylor has more, uh, fidget toys than anyone I know.

All right. Almost done. Almost done. What I was getting at was that even though you may not be the driver that wants to put yourself in in precarious situations, knowing that other guys will and you account for that.

Okay, I know that this guy is going to do this now. Yeah, now sometimes you end up in a three wide middle situation because the person in front of you just wants to go. And they're going to take any avenue and if the field, when I say the field, the leaders set the lines, right?

If they're running the middle of the racetrack, which primarily that was the line they were choosing, to go forward, you're either going to have to go low, put yourself at risk of not having a whole lot of drafting help and trying to make moves that way, or you go to the outside of them and then push them to the bottom lane. So take that middle lane, you're pushing them down to the bottom, and that's when they usually, that's the better deal for you if you want to mitigate risk. it's getting to the outside of someone in the middle lane because it puts then the guy you're on the outside of now then they're forced to run the bottom lane where nobody else is at so and now you've just basically taken the top lane and says oh I'm now coming down to the middle because I'm the top car you're the bottom car so it's an interesting way of you know kind of playing that game so

William Byron wins the race. That's now four victories on the season for him. Tying his, he had four coming into the year, career wins, and now another four this year. Yeah, we saw this coming. I definitely saw it coming. You saw it coming, right, because you called it. Well, I'm just, let's go back to episode one. I said the guy's going to make the final four.

I actually had him as one of the best Restrictor plate racers that was very underrated. yeah i just uh break out year he was due for it i mean i think he was he just had a steady progression of getting better and you know mixed that with uh you know he came on and was a guest of our show we know you come to dirty moe you win races he embraced he embraced the bracket challenge too right right yeah bracket challenge winner too this would be a monster year if that was a real thing for William Byron. If it was a real thing. It was.

It just, you know, won anything. Yeah, I mean, I think the team in general, that 24 team, they've got some of the most speed of anyone on the racetrack. I think, you know, Larson gets a lot of the fanfare for being, you know, the fastest. If you, you know, just a stereotype. Who's the fastest of Hendrick Motorsports? I think 90% of the people that you talk to is going to say, oh, Kyle Larson. And that's probably the right answer if you weren't watching, you know, the races every week.

But I think the 24 car has been, I'm looking at the, thinking of the metrics I've seen, it's been the fastest car all year. So, and he's wheeling it well, that's for sure. Well, he now leads the points. And if he was to win the points, he currently has 37 playoff points, which more or less pencils him into at least. round of eight round of eight

yep yeah unless you make some big big and that's despite being penalized 60 points and an additional five playoff points

earlier in the year well yeah the penalty was more than that the first time around yes okay it was a hundred

he'd still be in good shape though trust trust us on that yeah he'd be what 40 behind what are you what do you what because it was 100 I think it was 100

original yeah but he'd be an additional 40 up yeah but I tell you they um they've been fast they've been I think the gold standard most weeks I mean they have some off weeks they certainly definitely have some off weeks but they've been the gold standard on speed and so I think that's rightfully our point leader right now um what else's got what I'm curious is that if we're for penciling William in for the round of eight let's just for the sake of argument let's say

he makes the final four. The rest of the standings are still relatively even from two down to seven, eight. Who else do you think makes that final four? Who are you looking at in the field other than yourself as this is a competition? Well, I'm going to make it because that's what we do is we make final fours, and I always get better as years ago. Stats don't lie. All right, so next in line in the regular season, you got Martin Truex.

definitely could he's he's running extremely well uh Kyle Bush I I don't understand Kyle Bush um I didn't think he ran that well yesterday and I look up and he finished fifth um again most of the guys that finished up front was part of that stay out strategy so you know I'm not sure I'm not sure about Kyle I'm going to say I'm probably going to pass on the final four there. Christopher Bell. Iffy. I don't know how, let me say I'm a playoff point. Christopher, I'm looking at it, I'll switch it now.

Kyle's actually got the second most playoff points because he's got the wins, the three wins, right? Only two stage victories. I'm still going to pass. Still going to pass there. I'll say the tracks that we have, And that is such a big factor in who does what. But I'm going to say the final four is going to be the 24-19.

There's the 11-5-1. Who am I kicking out? It's really close. man it's really it's a toss up I'm gonna sure I'll kick the one out I don't know this really close though 2419 5-1

or 5 oh messed up there 5 and 11 but it's close it's gonna be close it's just a lot of it is track layout execution those last two three races I just I think the tracks lay out

well for us in general. They typically have. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. But I do think that William makes it to the final four. He's just too solid at too many racetracks now. No weaknesses. Let's shift to the bottom of these standings now right around the playoff bubble,

because that's really what's getting hot as we get late into this regular season. Seven to go. Seven to go. And about what, seven, eight guys fighting for? two spots as of right now? Yeah, I mean... We had this debate before we turned the mics on

and it was... I said, well, L.A.'s a lock. And you're like, he's 60 back. Like, and... Like, he scores stage points. These other guys don't consistently score stage points. Like, they might finish well because, you know,

of different reasons or they just run well. But they're not... They're not up front every week contenders. So you have McDowell and Suarez are tied for 16th. Then you got Bubba's three back. Olmdinger's 13 back. I just don't think they have enough speed. I mean, not with the racetracks that are left.

I think that they've made some hay here on the road courses the last few weeks. They got one more left. Is that right before the playoffs? Two. Two. Warkinsklin and Indian course. Ooh. So that'll be close then.

So, I mean, let's just say he finishes top five in those. I don't know. He hasn't even really been as fast on the road courses as I've seen in the past. Is it other guys are getting better? Maybe. Is his car not as good? Maybe. Each time we go to a road course, the competition is going to be better.

You would think. You would think. But you just, he's still. for a while there he was just in the top three you just penciled him into a top three finish because he you know was that fat he had the speed to do it like it i thought the chicago road course i was like ooh he wasn't nearly as fast as what you would expect um and maybe that was just a street course thing i'm not really sure so you got these guys one two three four six seven going for two spots.

Almondinger, no. Bowman minus 42. My gut tells me no, but this is another team that could qualify well, get state, I'm looking at the tracks, qualify well, get stage points, and chip away at this. Like, people are so panicked with, oh my gosh, minus 60 or oh my gosh, minus 42 with seven races to go. That is a long, long way to go.

How many checker flags are in that? 21. 21 checker flags in the next seven weeks. Is the math right there? Three checkers? With stage. Yeah. There's a ton of opportunities to get points.

And so there's I don't think there's a panic moment for any of them. Elliot runs the best of all of them. he's going to get the most stage points and he's minus 60 for seven to go and he's got to beat

Swares McDowell that you know that amount he can do that and I don't even think it's going to be a sweat well for the for the Chase Elliott fans he's only finished in races he's ran this year he's only finished outside the top 13 now he hasn't

twice. I know, but he hasn't run that well. He's not, that's a stat in favor of. I get it. I get it. I'm being, you know, stats are real, but stats, generally speaking, the I test, he's not been as fast and he will immediately say I'm not running as fast as I was before for whatever reason, right? Right. But he's finishing well and he's getting stage points. Now, sometimes it's at the Chicago Road course where it's a gift, right? And, and, you, You go from running wherever you're running to, bam, top three. But I think these racetracks suit him.

He's got two road courses where he's not really falling off. Results are still good. Is he dominating on the road courses? Not, again, like AJ, not as much as he was for sure. But he's still going to get a very, very good result for you and probably score stage points. And then the Michigan's, he's going to be strong. the richmond's he'll be strong i mean all these tracks kind of fit

what i think chase elliott i mean he's good everywhere so that's it's really hard to say there's i mean maybe the speedways super speedways he's not as good but i would still put them almost right there on the edge of one of the top five guys on super speedways as well so elliott's in i i don't care how you mix this thing up with seven to go racing against these guys He's faster. He's got better results and he's going to get more stage points. So I'm going to put Elliot in. That leaves one spot between McDowell, Suarez, Gibbs, Bowman, Bubba, and Almondinger, and Allmendinger.

And that's not an order. In the order, it's McDowell and Suarez are tied for 16th. Bubba's minus 3, almond dinger minus 13. Then you got Gibbs minus 36, Bowman minus 42. Gibbs is an interesting take because he's finishing well. Is he running that well? I don't know that he's getting a ton of stage. I think it's going to come down to stage points.

Whoever gets the most stage points is going to get into the playoffs. Whoever does not will not. So this is going to be a battle of qualifying. I think Suarez probably gets the, the other. other spot. He's already in. McDowell, again, runs, he finishes really well. He's, he's overachieving, no question. I mean, you say overachieving. Todd Gillen's taken a huge step this year, shout to Todd, because of how well he's doing this year. I think, you know, people are starting to write him off, but he's showing that he's clearly capable of running up front and being a

contender. So the front row's got their cars better. So McDowell's going to have a shot. But I just think when you, you got to put the whole perspective in a picture here, right? Suarez has the best pick crew. Consistently. Nogives got a great pick crew.

L.A.'s got a great pit crew. Bowman's got a great pit crew. Bubba's pit crew is pretty good as well. But I put, you know, if I had two, tier them in a certain tier on performance, you look at what has performed over the entire season. Swarza's team is the top. It is. It's just the top. And he's not at a deficit. And he runs fifth to 12th most weeks. You know, just performance-wise, that jumps at the page of me. Pit crew, he's got the edge points.

He's got the edge. Elliot and Suarez get the final two spots. If we don't have another winner, I guess we do still have Daytona, right? Yep, yep. That is, forget Daytona. I know we can't forget it's a part of it. But I'm saying if we do not have a new winner

by Daytona. By Daytona or after Daytona. Well, then we'll be in the playoffs. I know that, Jared. I'm saying Suarez and Elliot, Suarez being zero to the cut, Elliott minus 60 are your two guys in. That was long explanation,

but it's why I reasoned that way. You know, and I looked at forward of these guys, the McDowell-Swarres group, there's no one really up there that is looking to drop. Like, no one's, I don't think anyone's going to free fall from, you know, Tyler Reddick, Brad Kuzowski, Chris Busher. They're solid enough to wear it.

They don't even really need to score that many stage points. They need to just keep chipping away running 12th, whatever it might be. Wherever they finish, you know, 8th, 7th, week in, week out, they'll be fine. Bubbitt's just, they're in it. They're in the picture. Minus 3. They can do it. ask. Dear Denny, we need answers and we need him fast. We tried to ask Junior, but his answers were lame.

And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now we're caught on you because you're our own hope. This ain't the race track, so maybe you won't choke. Dear Denny, how much can you learn about a track from the Xfinity Race? Well, speaking of the Xfinity Race, do you want to talk about that? Because there was a kind of a finish that was un you know we thought that that race played out pretty single file and i'll get back to dear denny dear denny um that race played out you know a little differently those cars were low on grip there was more single file racing um but the end of it is what was the um interesting part because colig is really kind of stamped their brand on we are going to

push our teammates to victory at Super Speedways. That's our MO. That's our team slogan. And they were doing that with 10 to go, 15 to go. Yeah. And I think that's where Daniel Hemrick got a little upset there. It was like, you know, I was doing my part for the whole race. And then you're behind me and you didn't push.

Definitely see his frustration there. Haley said he pulled out of line because he was running out of gas. He was sputtering. but he was sputtering and got beside the 11. That didn't make sense to me. Ultimately, it cost them a victory. I mean, a chance of victory, I should say. I mean, they had no, once they got side of the side and Nemechek,

especially with those cars, the runs aren't as big as what they're on the cup cars. Certainly it took away their opportunity to race for the win. I think that they probably would have had a great. shot to overtake the 20 had they stayed in line but um they didn't yeah so another fascinating uh point to the end of that race was how little help austin hill got from anybody in the field yeah i i saw him mention that in his uh interviews for sure but i mean yeah i mean if you're going to be a tough guy to beat then you're probably not i mean but different this it's just it's different than in cup because in cup you just if you think someone's good you want to follow them because they're

going to take you to the promised land which is to the front right right right either because they're behind you or because they're in front of you um yeah it's uh i don't know there's there's a lot of inexperience in infinity um so yeah it's just maybe it's a mindset thing that you know the younger guys just like well he's hard to beat so why am i why would i stay behind him i'm going to try to pass him. Right. Maybe it's just a matter of I'm going to follow, if I follow Austin Hill, I'm going to go to the front, but then I'm not going to be able to get around him. Yeah, but the smart thing to do is take that out, take that chance. Go to second. Yeah, you go to second. So, yeah, it's part of it. I think that at times when, you know, in some, maybe sometimes

Austin Hill made a move that whoever was behind him just didn't approve of. They just didn't, they're like, that's not the move. That's not the move to make right now. And so that's the thing too is that when you are the person that constantly makes moves on Super Speedways, you put yourself very vulnerable spot to, you're putting the competition at a decision, the person behind you. They have a decision. Do I think that that is the right move or not? And really, a lot of what I learned on Super Speedways is I'm not that guy as much.

I was early in my career, but later in my career, I just push guys. and then I let them make a decision and then I have time to analyze that decision. Is that move? Does it have enough momentum to keep going and I'm going to follow you? Or is that a dead proposition and I just need to stay in line here? So that's usually what I found to be the better way for me personally. But Austin Hill, I mean, you can't argue with his results in Xfinity on Super Speedways. He clearly knows how to get up to the front. He knows how to use the draft and it's got a fast car.

But sometimes having a fast car, you know, you're going to have to modulate your throttle more than you want to because, you know, you can't always be the guy to go make the bold moves, especially when there's a line of cars. Back to the dear Denny. How much can you learn from watching an ex-finney race the night before? You know, I learn a little bit for sure. I mean, certainly it spurred a conversation between me and my team on Memphis. messaging afterwards just kind of looking and hearing the comments from what the extended guys were saying about the racetrack. I mean, we wanted to know about the racetrack, right? Did it have less grip? Why was it more strung out this time around than what it

was last time? What was the handling characteristics that they were fighting versus practice? They didn't have practice but versus qualifying. But normal weeks were verifying where did the track go. And so it certainly spurred some interesting conversation up with our team about, you know, does this track have the grip that we thought it was going to have? What do we need out of our balance to start the day? So, yeah, there's, there is some things that I learned from Xfinity. You've seen in my bus, I've got a giant scoring monitor right there on the, you know, right beside the couch, which is now right beside the TV. So as I'm watching Trinity races and you watch someone

run a new line, say on a mile and half track, someone's running up at the wall or someone's running right on the white line and they start moving forward, I'll see that on the lap time saying, okay, well look where he's running and look, he's a fastest guy on the track now. So that's something that TV doesn't always

cover it because they got a lot to cover and they're covering battles. I'm more interested in what lines are are going and what's taking off right now. For those who don't know, you're running the SRX race this Thursday, first SRX race of the season.

Yeah, we're up at Stafford. This is Mike Wheels, who works for 2311, his stomping ground that he was, you know, he won a ton of track championships up there, I believe, with Ronnie Silk. So, yeah, I'm going to go up there

and battle those guys. Harvick, who's the full-time guys that are, I think Brad and Harvick are both full-time. I'll go through the list of all the drivers. Who's my competition? We've got you. Clint Boyer, Kevin Harvick, Tony Kanan, Brad Kozlowski, Haley Deegan, Bobby Lubani, Ryan Newman, Paul Tracy, Ryan Hunter Ray, Marco Andretti, Tony Stewart. That's a strong feel. They've up their talent pool for sure.

yeah it's it i've never driven those cars they did have an open test i know cow bush went to the open test kevin harrick went to the open test i think brad did as well at the careway i did not um and they say like they limit your your practice that you're going to get when you get there to like just five laps that way everyone has the same amount of tire uh wear on their tires to start the day so um it's just a new machine i'll adapt to it you know, the brakes and all that stuff and figure it out. But it'll take probably half the race to get my bearings under me and figure out, you know, how these cars make speed.

And then the strategy that goes on to try to win it. So we'll see. It's on ESPN. They got a new partner ESPN. So it's Thursday night thunder for SRX this week. I'm excited for that. That's just one of the reasons I signed up for it. You plan on using the bumper a little bit?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, those things look nice and rigid and tough, especially I don't have to pay for it. Yeah, so watch out, Don Hawk. Other than that, we talked about tire testing in Texas. This is a big week. I know. Such a busy week for me. Leaving here, I got to go to the competition meeting for 2311, just to go through my Mondays, folks.

I yeah 10 a.m. ish we found out I'm down here right big big on the ish yeah I just got the time zones mixed up last week the so 10 we're down here shooting we try to do it on Sunday nights when I get home at a reasonable time I think I'm more awake on Sunday nights you probably get some of the better podcasts that we have happen on Sunday night yeah these primetime races are screwing up our schedule NBC needs to consult with us going forward. And a lot

of it too is there, it's easier for them to have a primetime slot on USA Network versus NBC. NBC, it's going to be super tough, but so yeah, come down here, podcast this thing for

a few hours, go straight to 2311 is for their meetings here shortly at 12 o'clock. Then you've got JGR meeting at 2 o'clock. Then I'll, you know,

sometimes I'll go run static simulator or something to verify some stuff. I mean, that's it. It just depends on the week. But Mondays are full. Then tonight I got a meeting at 9 o'clock at the new building

to go over some lighting stuff. And then off to the tire test. 10 p.m. tonight. go to Texas, roast my ass off for two days there in the heat, making laps for good year, and then come back on Wednesday afternoon, and then up to SRX Thursday to Stafford, run that till 11 o'clock, go back to Charlotte after Stafford, spend a day in Charlotte, then back up to New Hampshire for NASCAR weekend. Yep. Last thing I wanted to ask because you brought it up is how is the new 2311 shop coming?

It looks pretty significant. It might be a nice word to use when you're driving down 77 and it's off there to the left. It's coming together. They're working. I think they're probably a few weeks behind, but now that it's got a roof over it and they're not going to be affected by rain, I think that they probably can make that time up pretty easily. but I'm excited about it. I'm excited for people to see like, I mean, the interior is certainly very nice. I mean, it's, it will be, in my opinion, it's going to rival any F1 shop that you go to. But I think the exterior, like,

I know you see what you see, but there's way more to it that you don't see that will be coming together here shortly that I'm excited. Yeah, I mean, you're just teasing the windows, right? you're like 23 degree angle. Yeah. Yeah, but it's there. And that kind of tells you enough, right?

If you're in the details that much about the window degree. There's a ton of details. I love design. I just, I designed my house here seven years ago. Like I just kind of took little things from hotels that I visited all over the country and just like, hey, I like that pool or I like this sitting area and just took all those things and put it then do, you know, into a house.

And so same thing with the shop. I just, I really did a ton of research on design and, and tried to figure out how I like things. And, yeah, it's going to be amazing when it's done. And I know you see it and it looks like it's years from being finished, but January 1st, we're operating out there. We're building cars out of January 1st. Yeah.

I mean, I'm excited for it only because it's, I mean, you feel like you started this project. We were still in COVID. And you said, oh, end of the year. Yeah. End of the year. End of the year. Now we're finally reached the end of the year, I think.

Hey, I'm confident. And that's what they, that's what my boys, John Dutis and Tucker keep telling me. I trust them. So excited. You'll see that. When you're going down 77 south, you'll see it right there on the left-hand side. Right before you get to 485. And if you're coming north on 77,

Right when you pass 485, look to your right. You'll see a giant concrete contraption. So, yep, excited about it. And then next week, we are post-Loud New Hampshire. Hopefully I'm holding the lobster for my 50th. I really wanted it to happen this week. I wanted it to happen every weekend, but I'm starting to get impatient for my 50th.

I'm going to have to get more aggressive to start running over more people. I've run over them apparently on Twitter. They already blame me for it anyways. You might as well do it. Might as well. Might as well do it. Just, you know, I think the competition will understand. Hey, going for 50.

Yeah. Sorry, I'm going to have to ease you up here. So keep that of mind. I'm running right behind you on the last lap. Ask Larson. Make sure to follow Dirty Moe on social at Dirty Mo Media. Travis, is Dirty Mo Media on threads now? We are on threads.

So at Dirty Mo Media on there too. All right. Just the last thing when it comes to that. I'm noticing people, whatever they're posting on Twitter, they're posting on threads. Oh, really? See, I have people,

they're differentiating everything that they post. And then, hey, another, I got another bone to pick. Before we get off air, people think the funny stuff is coming from you. That's good. Somebody did post comment on the tweet that you had.

late last night, someone did say this is Denny definitely not Jared posting it. So someone did give you credit for that one, Denny. Yeah. I'll take the credit. No, when I said that, hey, perfect, another platform I can read, I don't have any championships.

Like, you woke up to that. Yeah, well, I sent you a text that, hey, there's this new social app. I don't know if it's going to take off. So you downloaded it. I downloaded it. So Jared, Jared did the dirty work. but he's not posting for me.

People, stop giving him the credit. That's true. I merged the account over. I said, hey, there's a new app that's not thread. So what should we do with it? That's my question. Like, you know, we got a fair amount of followers pretty quick. Like, yeah, I mean, that's the beauty of the...

But I feel like we owe the people some different content, right? You don't want to have copy and paste for, from one to the other. Well, there you go. Here's what we'll do. Because why would they, why would you switch? Here's what we'll do.

I'm not saying you should switch anyway, by the way. And I saw Brad taking a bold statement, this bold stance this weekend. I helped set Twitter up, you know, right? I had it. Hold on. He didn't say he helped. He had a big role. It's what he said.

So I had a big role in building this app or building this platform. And I was just like, that's a bold statement. And then the bold statement, too, of like, well, I'm not going to pay for Twitter. Hey, I did notice there's a, you are one of the very few drivers who does pay for Twitter Blue. And what does it do different?

But what does it do different? Well, hold that. Let me go back. You were paying for Twitter Blue before any of this. Yeah, I paid my fair share. Right. What is it? To edit tweets and all that.

Is it $100 a year? It's less than that, I think. I think, if you, if you, sign up on the desktop. Do you think I would, let me, I think about this in a sense of like Rod. Like, he would say, what makes good business sense? Is it, is the return on investment to give my sponsors proper publicity or like $96 a year? What do we do?

Brad, are we really saying it ain't worth $96 to, you know, make sure that you're at the top of the list when things, pop up like it i mean would you possibly risk missing out on a sponsor or something like because you're you just don't want to pay 96 dollars you just don't think it's right like that i'm coming for i'm coming for peacock fs one i help build that damn platform you do wait until i send my bill with them yeah you get a free subscription i do no it's more about the the the you know it's more about You know, like, you know, Twitter was free for 15 years. I know. I'm not paying out.

It's like the Wall Street Journal. You're, I, we use it for news source. It's such a fabulous place for news. Yes, it's got bots and trolls and evidently some darts out there as well. But, but man, it's, it's still such a great news source. I mean, that's how I find out what's going on with the world. You know, as soon as I, it's no doubt for me, you tell me you got to get rid of Instagram or Twitter and it's Instagram for me out. Like I just feel, because it's just a picture thing, right?

Like, I mean, if we want to get more followers, just put me in a bathing suit evidently. That works. We might lose followers. Hey, you never know. They might be into the dad, Bob. Here's what we'll do, though, for threads. because threads is exclusive to Instagram. It's the same company, right?

That's what's nice about threads. It's setting up the account. You don't have to do anything. You just download the app, open the app, and it merges everything. Do you work for them? It sounds like you work for them. No. Are you getting paid?

Do you have another side hustle? I would love to get paid by that. That'd be great. If all I got to do is promote it on this podcast and they'll send me a check. I'm in. I'm in. Travis, I feel like the most compelling conversation we had today is coming in the last five

minutes. So maybe we'll put that, we'll get a clip and put that only on threads. I was going to say, we'll just ask the people, for anyone listen to this podcast, exclusive, this isn't an exclusive. Go to your Instagram at Denny Hamman, which is also your thread. I'll put up a question thing. And whatever you want to see on threads, okay. Put it in that box. And then I'll bring all the ideas. The next post will be from Jared. Yes. Because it's going to be a question. It's going to be a question. See, I'm pretty sure with Jared's fame that he's going to do less work for you anyways, Denny.

I feel like you've got to do more going forward. Like the fame's going to start to get to him. Well, I mean, I split this guy. I mean, he's taking photos for Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson. I mean, he's practically an HMS fan boy. I don't take photos for Chase Elliott. He's probably got a burner account. Oh, do you have a burner?

No. No? Just remember. Just remember Stephen A and Skip did split. And I think Steve, or Skip and, uh, what's his name? What are you telling me, Jared? I don't know. Are you getting too big for your britches?

You never know. You never know. It sounds like it. Are you breaking up with me? No, I'm not here anyway. Yeah, all right. So Jared's going to post something. Yep.

On what they want to see, right? Yep. What do you want to see on threads? On the exclusives. It'll listen to this. It'll be right. And I'll bring you a list of ideas. Yeah.

make it happen. All right. Sounds good. I like it. You got anything else? All right. Well, we'll see y'all after New Hampshire. Peace out. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.