Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Dover Delivered, All-Star Format Missed

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Denny Hamlin gets his second win of the season…only this one doesn’t actually count since it was the All-Star Race. Denny won the pole after spinning out before his qualifying lap even counted. Like most of the weekend, qualifying was a tad confusing. On Sunday, there was immediate carnage only adding to the confusion. The drivers who paid the biggest price were those locked in to the All-Star race like Chase Elliott, who technically didn’t race in the All-Star race. Plus, Denny has a new location suggestion for the All-Star race next year Thanks to Goodyear there was plenty of tire wear. Plus, low downforce and added horsepower had lots of drivers having control issues. On the track, Denny and the 11 team had the best car. The one area where Denny continued to struggle was restarts. He explains what’s going on and why he is determined to figure it out. On Saturday, Corey Day made a statement and the rumors about his future are flying around. The guys get into whether or not he is ready for Cup racing. For more content head over to our YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The one area that you weren't like the absolute best at was some of these restarts. That's why we didn't win Texas. That's why we didn't. Not the absolute best, Travis. That's a stretch. What do you mean? It's like one for six. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. This spoils a victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck to drink and drink to win. I know, you do.

Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Welcome to a Sunday night, late night. It's going to be Monday for you all listening. We got two trophies, some dollar bills

make it rain and this who's got the fake check oh where is the fake check we don't have that I don't know where that is oh man hopefully the team's got that we need to I need to get that

oh man we need to get on that well I don't know where we want to unpack this thing obviously it was a really good weekend for the Denny Bros I told Jared It's my absolute

favorite thing to do on the plane is download the bros chat Though this one was a I know there was not much to it but there's some funny There's just some funny

tidbits in there right Yeah Just API We got this shit You know The internal optimist Yeah I don't know

we were just better than everyone else i don't know what to say i mean i kind of had a good inclination of it um i just you know on friday it had the feels you know had the feels surprisingly we get the poll i mean i've never even been close to the poll in that type of format um after spinning out yeah we um yeah gail told me that hey we're going to be down a set of of tires to start the race because he's like your scuffs are unusable. The right rear was flat spotted

pretty good. And I knew it. I mean, it was shaking the whole lap. The car's just not, da, da, da, da, nah. Qualifying lap? Yeah. Because it, you know, when you slide,

you see that, if you see smoke, there's a flat spot. So how do you still make time? How do you still go top of the board? What does Danny Stockman say? I don't know. What does he say? Put them on the dash.

So that was surprising. I mean, it's a, you know, pit crews, the large part of, you know, kind of your equation on the, on that type. I mean, how do we, we still like the qualifying format, right? Yeah, no qualms there?

Yeah. I just wish, you had no idea watching it. I don't know about on TV, but in person, I guess it was, but would have been the same thing because I'm watching it on the TV at the track. You had no idea, but where how the pit crew is actually performing in all of this.

So here's what I don't like. Yeah, go ahead. Can I just you can continue? I don't think any of our metrics should come into play for the pit crew time. Just take the fastest pit stop. Do you know they don't do that, right? They didn't do that. That's like it's your entry and your...

It's my entry into the box. It's my exit out of the box. So like I don't, I don't want to be held accountable for, like, I came into my box a little, like, shallow and not, you know, with not enough speed. And then, you know, the timing and my guys gets a little, they got to move. And so I'd rather just be, if it's going to be a pit crew competition, let it be the pick crew. Now, now, now, 3018 earned it because they were, that was, that was a clutch. I'm just saying I don't If it's going to be a pick crew challenge

Should be the pick crew challenge Not the driver and pick crew challenge Right and I want it to be I want it to be the same as when I'm watching on a weekend When you go into a normal race And you come out and they're like boom 8.3 Yeah you didn't know until I'd already driven away

No but it's not even the same thing I know Because it's a pit box And a pit box I don't want that I just want to I want to compare it To what you're doing in game On a normal debt race

You know what I also, you know, just if we're going to improve this, you know, there's, we're not, we're not doing on anything. I just, for improvement's sake, when we run our lap, and I think they used to do this, where does that rank in the field? Okay, what did my first lap rank? I call it third, fourth, fifth, whatever it is. Entry, boom, there's a time. Where does that rank? so you know as these little things start to add up it's like uh oh p3 p4 um p 11 on entry you know it could be like you start to add these up and you're like oh shit we're going to close instead they

had the ghost car which definitely allowed you to keep up with where you were but i just think for an excitement standpoint i'd love to see the live here was his last entry, you know, where does it rank? Where does it rank, you know, to the, to the, as of, as of right now? And so, you know, as your fan, oh boy, we're going to be close. You know, we're starting to rank P3, P4 in this metric, P6 in this metric, P8, that should be pretty good when they add all this up. Probably I'd rather them do that instead of the ghost car.

because I used to, I just remember watching, and I hate to be one. You know, I feel like I'm being one of those people that's on social media, but I'm not. Just trust me on this. Is that I used to love not knowing until someone got the pole until they crossed the line and it was like,

P1! And then the crowd went crazy. Same thing with like TV, I think we've definitely, falling in love with the live tracker and i think that's very very good for a lot of different reasons different things but in this thing i would like for it to be like a surprise no there is no surprise i want to see like i like the ghost car i want to see where you're at like because if i'm watching you're going fast i can't tell if it's yeah good or bad i don't know if you hit your

You do if your live metric comes up for each thing, which is your lap. You're in the pit. You're rolling. Your pit stop. Your exit. These are all five or six categories that, bam. So kind of like what F1 does. We're like a qualifying.

It's like, yeah. So it's like green, purple, whatever for other colors. But yeah, I could see that working. Just a thought. So it's not broken or anything like that. Just, just a thought. So where was your lap one? Where did you win the poll?

Because how does your pit crew rank fifth in your pit stop time? But I don't know. That's what your guess is as good as mine. I think I was somewhere in the top five for my lap. I think I was somewhere in the top five for my corner, for my pit entry. I was definitely, I heard Larry Mack, he was starting to say it before they did the pit crew intros. I was P1 on rolling on the pit road, like actual pit road speed and shit. Shocker, Denny's Fast on Pit Road.

Hey, by the way, anyway, so I knew that metric was good. So you add up all these, you know, you got 30-something cars, and you add up ranked 5, 2, 6, 4. You put all that together. It's P1 usually. It wasn't great in anything other than rolling.

I was first enrolling. My pit exit was horrible because I was so gun-shy from spinning out that, I mean, did you see how much the six made up on me on pit exit? It was like I was set to run a killer overall lap, but I just obviously was very gun-shy after spinning out. But still plenty good enough, right?

It wasn't two-tenths better than your overall time. It was not whatever. Anyway, so let's keep it moving. We had just got into qualifying. That was too long of a discussion for that. We're trying to make too long a weekend for the All-Star race. Yeah. I mean, are we going All-Star?

Are we starting from Friday? What do we do? I think we'll start today. Start today. Yeah, we were good. I'll say that. Car was fast. I felt like where we were strongest.

Now, where we were strongest is to start stage three. We, we, we, we, legged it out there quite a bit. You know, my goal was to try to get the biggest buffer I could. You know, I'm sorry, not to start to stage three. After the comp caution of stage three, that's when I tried to stretch it and we were able to stretch it. So our car was just really good in traffic. So even when we restarted way back there, like we, we were old pretty, pretty good. And it was quite interesting.

because, you know, it's something that we rarely or never do in NASCAR, right, is put the slowest cars in the front. And so it actually allowed for more passing because you were trying to navigate, okay, these are slower cars, and then all of a sudden we get on all the same strategy. Now we're all on equal tires, but they're slower cars. So it was, it challenged you. It really, really did challenge you. And I was very fortunate to be, Molly, can't.

Hey, we're trying to work here. Okay. By the way, I just want to know, hey, come here real quick. Let's just pretend you had a million dollars. What would you spend it on? I'm always interested to know what a horse. A what? No clue.

I thought you said a horse. Probably. Probably like some sort of. I don't know if you know this, but we don't have any place to keep a horse. Unless we convert the basketball gym. Make a barn. Oh, okay. Let's make that a barn.

That's not a bad idea. Molly, your dad's got... I'd love the smell of horseshs in our basement, licking up to the top. Your dad has friends, Molly. Certainly, you know, a place to keep a horse. Why do you have these all lined up? Because I... It's not OCD, honey, but it's just I like to, when I'm talking, I like to fidget with things.

That's why my dollar bills are all lined up right here. What, their keys? Yeah, okay. Well, how about, go to bed now. Good night. I'm literally standing right there. I know. All right.

Well, bye. Bye-bye. Watch the cord. Where were we? Passing slow cars. So, I. I mean, am I biased? But it was one of the best over races from like a passing standpoint.

That's what Jared and I said before. Like the problem that stinks about this whole thing is everyone's caught up in the format and stuff. Yeah. The actual race like, it was good. It was. It was. I mean, we were running from the top. I didn't go all the way up there.

But there were some people that were willing to and they made some serious time when they did. I could make it the bottom work, the middle work. That was kind of best for me. But yeah, I thought it delivered on the racing front. I mean, that's what we care. I think people will want to complain. And they have a right to do so because, you know, the aura of the All-Star definitely is not the same.

in my opinion I don't know if I'm if I'm Steve O'Donnell CEO of NASCAR right now I'm contacting SMI and saying all right let's do whatever we got to do to run this in Nashville Fairgrounds on Saturday night next year

and I know what people want changes by the day I'm well aware and we could do that and you know there'll be gripes about that but I think the thing I'm hearing you know pretty loudly I hate we always have to answer the loud voices but but they're not wrong it needs to be at night I think it needs to be on a Saturday night and it needs to be on a shorter track doesn't have to be the shortest track you also bring in a new venue there I think SMI already has some sort of affiliation to the fairgrounds. Town.

That, I mean, come on now. We're starting to put a lot of really good pieces of the puzzle together to have a really fun weekend. Yeah, it just didn't, at least from on TV, it didn't feel different. And it seemed like some of the stuff was just forced. Listen, it's part of the challenges that, like, Ben Kennedy has, right? With, like, well, the people really wanted a North Worksboro points race. Really? Like, I don't, I think when we actually do it for a points race, it ain't going to be,

it ain't going to be better than the short sprints that we had of an all-star race in worksboro i'm not saying it should be there i'm just saying sometimes you want something and more of it is not better um so when you when you when you again you give worksboro the the points race something's got to be taken away it got dover which i hate it for the dover fans they are super passionate uh i heard gluck and those guys talking about the midway was just packed and i love that because the the people in that area, they freaking love racing, man. And they support that racetrack. They, they drew a bad, they got a bad draw this year. But I thought if you're just a racing fan and like seeing cars battling, I think they got their money's worth all four hours of it. But, I mean, yeah, it's just,

it's a different than what we expect from the All-Star weekend. Yeah, I think if it was labeled differently. It was labeled as a points race. It's pretty good to overrace. You had a lot of storylines in that in both first and second segments, but then also that 200 lap shootout. Eric Jones was a comer. Connor Zillich was a huge

comeer and then unfortunately a goer. But then I guess he finished fifth, so Connor. He drove back through the field. Yeah. He was fast. I mean, you know, best run of his cup career. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think just that we're going to get caught up in that it was supposed to be the All-Star Race. But I think the OnTrack product was pretty good. It just didn't need all these gimmicks and stuff. And that kind of ruined it, I think, for most people. I think it did need the gimmicks. You didn't need every driver out there. Oh, no, no, no, not that. I'm definitely in favor.

We already discussed this. I'm not going to, this horse is badly beaten. But yes, the open cars should not have been out there. Hold on. The All-Star cars shouldn't have been out there with the open cars when they were battling trying to get into the race. Because then you have guys actually qualified for the All-Star Race, not race on the All-Star Race.

That was a whole nother discussion in the Media Center. I asked the contingent of media members, or I actually asked Jennifer from NASCAR, when did the All-Star race actually start the 200 laps? It's so it started at lap 151. Whatever once. Because like when they print out the sheet of here's the finishing order of the All-Star Race. And the 26 All-Star Race is give me a name that crashed out.

Chase Elliott, right? Did Chase Elliott not run in the All-Star Race? Correct. We got that's, that's, it's f***ed up. Yeah. That's that's not right. All right. So, I mean, you have them, they'll fix that. And then like my thing is like theoretically they could have worked on their car, done some stuff, and then then you go out there and race. Yes. Let me tell you something. If there were any cars that were remotely fixable to 100%, once they went in the garage, they were capable of fixing their car to 110%. And if that car goes to. out there and wins the race after not running half the race?

Bad look. Bad look. It just, listen, sometimes you have to do something to realize where you need to fix it. You know what I mean? I don't think anyone, none of us had that thought in our mind until there was a wreck on lap too. And it's like, oh, you mean these guys can work,

they can watch the next 150 laps, work on their car and then start the race like on the same lap as us we didn't think of that right and it's hard to think of everything when you change a format this kind of way but it's something to learn from hey everybody it's Dellenhart Jr

and there is no better way to support Denny Hamlin than wearing actions detrimental gear at the racetrack you can also flip him the bird or head on over to shop.com. dirtymobmedia.com to see what we have. Was it just a coincidence that we had like this much drama and carnage in this race? Or was it because it was an all-star race that maybe you guys were a little looser? I think the field is looser because it's an all-star race and you know that every position matters.

Now, I will say this. And if you look, the wreck happened in like the last six cars. the Latt Turek happened at the way back of the pack. Well, those were the guys that have really good speed, but had maybe a bad pit stop or whatever during the all-star qualifying, right? So you had a bunch of penalties. And so they're all thinking, we can't be having this. Well, first of all, well, I guess they do advance no matter what.

But there's no invert. So if they don't get in the top 26, they're not going to be part of the invert. And by the way, it is not a. a given, even if you're a fast car, I think ours is probably an exception, that you were going to go from 36 to 26 and 75 laps. Listen, if your car is a top five car, you're going to, but there were a lot of really good cars back there. They were all going to be fighting to get in the invert. So I think that they were racing much more aggressively than they normally would all that too. Which is what led to that probably. Yes. Yes. Yeah, because that that made

that made it interesting right off the bat with all these guys in out are they going to get back in the race how many have damage that are they're just done for the day now what was the they kept meant talking about the down force and cars spinning out what was going on there well we have more horsepower we have less down force than what we had last year so you know although the result was the same car setups were dramatically different than than what they were last year so it's not just a copy and paste from that standpoint so you know anytime you have less down force you and more horsepower you enter the corner with more speed and then you have less grip once you get into the corner so that typically means more off throttle time which also

means that the cars are more on edge and so you know when we were battling at the end of some of these segments and whatnot like every me and everyone I was racing around was we were sliding all over the place. And that is because of this new short track package on the higher speed track. Now, does it make you, maybe you weren't even worried about it, but there's been a couple races where new horsepower and stuff and you guys have kind of missed the setup. Does it make you feel, you crushed it this time? So does it make you feel better that like there's a new track that you guys had to change

and you found it this time? We learned. I mean, we definitely learned. from Darlington was one, Bristol was another, where we went from one to the other. I forgot how did Bristol go? We were pretty good, not great, right? Yeah. So, you just, you learn.

You know, you find out, okay, the deltas between where you were, now there's not as many unknowns, like when we all were panicked about, Darlington member, oh my gosh, we're out of control. Then we actually run it and we're like, ah, it's, I think the computers were all wrong on its prediction. And so I just think that you fine-tuned it over time and

after we got our setup, you know, where I wanted it, it just didn't feel much different. Other than, like I said, you're off-throttle a little bit more, using a little more break with this package versus what you had last. year. Does this count as a three p? Oh, for sure. Why is it not? Well, I don't know. You said this wind doesn't count. The great people of Delaware ain't seen a different winter since 2023. That's fair. But it doesn't feel

the same. I got to thinking about that. I'm on the right home. Would I rather have, and I know my answer, would I rather have the money, which is cool, I don't even know if I get any of this money truthfully. Would I rather have that or points win and then it actually count in the stat book? I would rather it count in the stat book and make far less. Yeah, especially the way that this race played out with here, the other guys at the top.

Yeah, I don't care about that. I just, you know, me, I'm just trying to stack as many add to that. win total as much as I possibly can. It's like microcosm in my career. Like I win all this really doesn't matter. So is it less sweet? No. It's satisfying. But it's like it's satisfying. That's that's about it. I mean you get two trophies. That's that part's cool. Two trophies for your table. I know. That's cool. It'll help fill it up. And we got to find that check. Tyler found it. It's on the hauler. but you have to answer his text as soon as this podcast is over.

Okay. The one area that you weren't like the absolute best at was some of these restarts. That's why we didn't win Texas. That's why we didn't. Not the absolute best, Travis? That's a stretch. What do you mean? It was like one for six.

It was pretty bad. Well, hold on. Negative Nancy. When I was in the back, the restarts were phenomenal. Okay. Well, no one's watching that. Well, in order to win a race, in order to win a race in case you don't know, because I know you don't know, is that all restarts matter. Now, some matter more than others, but when you're counting average finish and all that, like, you've got to, the one in the back, I thought meant as much as any of them, unless there was like a green white checker finish or something like that.

that, of course, would be the most important one. But, yeah, it's just, I don't know. You know, I really got to dig into it. It is the only gaping whole of our game right now. It's like, it's like our free throw shooting's not great, right? Like everything else is good, just we've got to get better shooting free throws. And it's not free throws, resorts are much harder than free throws. It's just an analogy to, we've got to get better on special teams.

It's like Shaquille O'Neill. He has to work on free throw. But how do you work on restarts when you, like, football players, basketball, you can go to the gym and get shots up? Like, is it just sim time? But does that really carry over? No. So how do you fix this?

If I knew, then I wouldn't have lost the lead three times. Okay. But I'm going to work. I'm going to investigate it with certainty. And I will do my best to get better. But I will say this. Sometimes when you're exceptional on a long run, you can't have both.

You know what I mean? It's very difficult to have the fastest car for one lap on a restart and have the fastest car on a long run. That is almost impossible to achieve. It's not impossible, but it's almost. It's very difficult. So sometimes it's the direction I think that I lead the team. And it's not always great for having to go balls out in the first corner.

Does it worry you when we get a lot of caution at the end of the race, though? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So you're saying that this may be more on the car than your execution? No. I'm saying it's a factor that sometimes, sometimes it's hard to get both. It's really hard to get both. To be good, like, lights out on the short run

and then lights out in the long run. But dude, the long run, we were, there was just, we were really, really good. I know. Austin didn't, we knew. We knew that it didn't matter. When I lost the lead. Yeah.

Yeah. But, like, can you look at those and be like, oh, on this one? I just didn't get up to the gears well. Absolutely. There was one time in particular. I know I did. I short shifted getting into turn one

because I didn't want to leave it in fourth gear. And the minute I shifted, boom, bam, clear. So those are the little things I've got to, I've got to work on because we all know championships are made and broke on green white checkers. Ain't that the truth.

We had a bunch of tire issues. Maybe not, issues probably not the right word. There's a lot of tire wear. Good. Did the, did the... Good. You burn them up, you pay for it. You start courting.

Did the position of the comp yellows play a factor into like... Like, Ty Gibbs, I believe, came down pit road twice with 10 laps remaining in... before the competition yellow for tires. Like, did you have to extend your run? Yeah. Did he go laps down? I don't, I don't know. Well, I mean, it's just the track.

So I don't know where, well, I do. I was watching, Ty Gibbs was way up the racetrack one time. That's the thing, right? Is you go way up there. If you're looking for clean track, guess what? Clean track, where's tires out? How long do tires last in a run here at Dover? Who are you?

Depends on how hard you drive. Just give me an average. Give me an average. Let's say 60 laps, 65 laps. Okay, so we got a competition caution at lap 75. It's not going to be great for you if you have to come in on lap 65 and pit, right? When your competition caution is at lap 75. Right?

Yes, that would be a problem. So therefore, you're going to need to make those tires last 75 laps. That's right. That's your responsibility. Yeah, I think that we saw a little bit of that today. Some drivers couldn't make it last 75 laps. I did it. You know, I lost the segment one win because my right front was courted.

I had nothing left. I pushed it too hard. I didn't, you know, I took for granted that I could just go ahead and go hard here. We stretched out a lead, I think, four seconds, five seconds, something like that. caution comes out well we're staying out and i'm like who which is the right call by the way but but i had no right front i you know so i abused it and that's what i got so i i am good ears on a great path just with their tires in general i did a tire test uh chicago land they were working on some left side some stuff reddick just said he left iowa

And they had a tire. Their control tire, when they say control tire, that's the tire that they ran last year before. No fall off at all. And they had another tire. They had two seconds to fall off. And he's like, yeah, well, you know, after 50 laps, it was courting. First couple times we did it. And I says, great.

Surely they love that one, right? Eh, they're a little worried about it. Once we get all the damn cars out there, tire wear. goes away a lot. And so if you have, if you don't have a tire that cords after lap 40 at a tire test, you got way too hard of a tire. So hopefully,

you know, announcement to NASCAR and good of your politic in here. Go with the tire that actually has falloff. Because Iowa, you want to talk about a track position race. Yikes. You could not pass there hardly at all. There were a few cars that could,

but man, yeah, give us to fall off, all the fall off. That's part of the driver's responsibility. Keep the tires on it. Yeah, I just thought that was an interesting part of the race that you were really able to tell who was able to keep tires on the car and who wasn't.

And I think the competition caution where the brake was played a role into that because it was like right outside the range, right, of your average length of a tire. Well, I mean, there might have been a car or two that had to pit before 75, but I mean most of the field was going to make it 75 I mean that's everything that competition called it we didn't need it we had great racing up there too is it when it was you just got to first yeah it was that the brisco reddick battle yeah yeah but you know that it tightened up because we knew the caution was coming right like so just everyone just I know you don't like the break and in the action and whatnot um but it tightened up because everyone knows oh my god i only got less you take the lead or you got five to go and i'm like hurry let's just get this thing to finish here they come making a charge back because they're like i want to get the lead back before the end the caution's coming

i'm taking i'm trying to take a breath everyone who took the lead was like then slowed up once they took the lead because you're just trying to get the thing home not make a mistake and then you got second and third pushing because they know the end is near. So that's, that's, that's, that's a little bit why we all came into a bunch at the end of lap 75. We saw a heck of a battle with Reddick, Briscoe, and Daniel Suarez. What do you want me say? And not that I just wanted to point it out. Yeah, it's probably, Daniel probably should have just heated despite, yeah, I don't, this is a, kind of a winner take-all thing like you know i don't know where he was battling in position i mean he was going to be a lap down yeah i i think you got to just uh let the leaders go and he's got a car

that's hurt like yeah you know you're not you're just there's no path to winning also how he even got in was confusing he got the fan vote but he wasn't actually the number one fan vote the other people in front of him got in so he then got the fan vote he then got the fan vote he then got the fan They got in or we're completely out of the race. We got a few things to tidy up on this weekend here. The point of entry for an average fan on this race was... That's good. I mean, when you have people that follow sport every day are confused, like...

Wait a minute. He's the fan vote, but he was fifth in fan... He wasn't in the top five. Like earlier this week for the voting. Perfect. Let's move on. Let's give Corey Day. his flowers.

Corey Day completely f*** up the weekend. This is going to be an old guy's weekend. Al-Gyre,

if he pulls out, if he finishes that deal off, Kyle Busch, Justin Al-Gyre and me? I mean,

that's like a hundred and 20 years old worth of racing. No, I bet you it's more than that. Yeah.

Yeah. So, thanks a lot, Corey Day, screwing up everything. Uh, Traff, we had it, uh, speaking of the old guys, we had an appearance today with Kyle Bush. Okay. And? I think they buried the hatchet.

We didn't have anything to bury. I, yeah, I don't, I'm not getting in it. Yeah. He, he, he gave me, um, well, he said it in the back. He said it, he said it, he said it backstage. And then he said it again on the stage. You know, his, his little, this comment of I guess I still know how to do it you know and I'm like yeah it's awesome job man it's good job so I got I mean

I don't know what you say I said you're on Mount Rushmore of NASCAR drivers I mean I think it's awesome listen we need to go back to Kyle Bush talking in the third person

that's when you know his confidence is back when I heard him in the media center talking about Kyle Bush, calling himself Kyle Bush, that's the Kyle Bush we need. That's the one we like to see. That's the guy that's got the confidence. And he's always been this way in my whole career is that it's not, he feeds off those Friday and Saturday races.

It really, I believe true of my hearts to hearts that, you know, it's, he's not going down there bushwhacking, you know, trying to beat up on the young kids. I think it's really good for him for the track time and I think it's good for him on the mental state. I just, I'm very confident in that only because I was teammates with him during the heyday of it. So I think, you know, if this puts him on the track back on the track of being competitive, I am for Kyle Busch running every Friday and Saturday race. We completely skipped over. Corey Day. I was just making fun of them because you know, you mess that up.

But I don't know if y'all looking at the rumor mill, but he's starting to make things a little interesting. I love that article that came out. You think it's legitimate? I don't know. I don't know. I truthfully

don't know. I'm not just blowing smoke to not get in the middle of it, but I don't know. He's very young, man. It would be a the leap from Saturday to Sunday is a big one. And, you know, sometimes there's something to be said about just, sooner you rip off the Band-Aid,

the quicker you'll get to the result that you're wanting. Yeah, you're going to struggle for a little while, but you either struggle now or you struggle later. But you all struggle. you know when it's your first year so i don't know i can tell you this though and and i said this uh after his uh after his win tall dega win because i was you know even he was like ah i really wanted to win on a different type of track we have just seen this right that like he started the year off and we were we were the critics saying man i just don't know about this

experiment it just doesn't seem like he's getting it he's not fast and he's wrecking that's too you can't can't do both and then we have something clicked something clicked and it seems as though and i and it's interesting didn't he have a sit down or something hendrick i think there was one i think there was a sit down with rick hendrick and i could be wrong but it seemed like from that point on he's performing like somebody that's aspiring to race

on Sunday. And he's doing a hell of a job, an absolute hell of the job. Yes, Rick did have a conversation with him. Yeah. And you know he's going to be in a missile every week. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. He's going to have a really, really fast car.

But he's you know, again, as a driver, analyst, you know, I can see enough when I watch in person, when I watch on TV. He's able to make moves that I know is very difficult. That's how you know that, yeah, that the ceiling is there. Let's pretend there's truth to this rumor, and there is a chance that he could be racing on Sundays next year. What would he have to do in the next seven months? to be the most prepared he could possibly be to make that jump.

Nothing. The cars don't relate. It's just continuing to work on your craft, managing races, understanding down and distance every restart. Those things. Just those things. There's not a result.

There's not any kind of result that it's like, yes, he won Phoenix, so he is ready. No, it's all. the little intangibles that you've got to have for Sunday that and it's not results and it's you know I can't emphasize that enough but the results is one piece of it but it's just to prepare yourself for Sunday it's having those green white checker restarts at the end and you get it done and you know those high pressure situations um understanding sometimes when you're three wide

the best move is not to be the one that drives in the deepest like just those little things and I think with age and experience those things come eventually to everyone but as a young person it's just you know he's he's got a lot in front of them so just keep on the path of whatever he's doing I have a question like in other sports if a player's

under contract, another team can't talk with that person. We saw in this article that Bianchi put out that another driver that could be rumored to be going to Hendrick was Connor Zilch, but he's under contract. How does, are there any, like, rules on teams reaching out to other drivers? How does that go? Shout out the big gym. Yes, there are definitely rules on that. I think every, every contract yeah she's going to sleep what she said

you just called her show boring Molly yeah this this isn't those 15 second YouTube shorts that you watch every driver contract is probably different but usually all of them have some sort of clause of like an exclusive negotiating window

gotcha because I saw that and that I was like whoa yeah that was that was a surprise but yeah if you're track house yeah i'm not really sure and when it comes to like those driver negotiations right there's good timing and there's timing that could not be any worse right i guy i get it i get it i don't yeah i don't know some of some of the speculation was surprising to see some that's some not. I don't know. I just, it's, it's definitely, there's definitely going to be some shuffling seats

after this year, probably more, I mean, there's not much of anything this year. I mean, Parker said there was, I think, like 20 drivers contracts were up this year. Yeah, but something's going to be new, but it's, I mean, whittle that down. It's really like 10. But still, I think it's good if we have some movement. Yeah, me too. Me too. I think it spices things up. Shout out to a friend of the show, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He's not going anywhere. Shout out Ricky. Absolutely. Yeah, let's go Ricky.

A friend of the show. Mm-hmm. We love Ricky. Big Ricky fans. Yep. Big Rick gets to keep his Sunday ride for the foreseeable future, which is well-deserved. Doing a ton with, I don't know what they got, but they can't have much for, you know, help and resources. I mean, this is an independent team if there ever was one.

I personally don't care about the. how much a driver makes being public. But man, I would like to, if just the lengths were public, like, come on. You know, if you have a court case, it can become public. You caught a big fish this weekend. You had all McGill's pub on their feet. I did. That felt good.

Pulled them out on a big swim bait, too. I guess they're spawning or post-spawning up in that neck of the woods because, you know, that happened like a month ago here and where we live. But, you know, think about the weather's, the water's colder up there. Oh, yeah. So it happens later. So I throw the old swim bait out on the rocks and caught me a toad. It felt good.

Charlie was so jealous. He thought it was AI again. Up next, we're home here for a week. Coke 600 next Sunday. Hallelujah. On Friday is the Strike Group. Challenge brought to you by America's Navy Forged by the Sea. Find out what job is right for you at Navy.com. And on Friday, it's going to take some serious teamwork. It's actions detrimental versus

door bumper clear. Whoa, what? Competing in an amazing race style challenge at the strike group display at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Each team will receive one clue at a time that will give you a mission action to perform with eight clues in total. So it's me and Travis versus who from D. Freddie and their producer Dalton. Freddie's an idiot, so y'all should definitely win this.

And I think if you like mess up, there's physical challenges, so I think we should be good there too. I hope so. You saw Jared carry this monster in here. You know. You got it. I mean, one thing, I'll tell you this, folks. We don't edit

much, but we had to edit something last week. And one of the things we edited that old Jared here, when he takes his shirt off, he takes the fucking whirl by storm. Like, Jared, we can't lose this. He's got someone's got to carry this this monster trophy three years in a row, you know?

You're the man for it. Get it from the stage. I did my work on the track. It's not as heavy as you think, though. Oh, come on. It's just like awkward. Yeah, I mean, it's not that's not steel. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, we can't lose this, Jared. No. No. I can't lose to Freddy. Come on. We can't lose physical challenges to Freddie Craft and Absolutely. And Dalton.

Yeah. You're just way too fit. And I don't know about y'all's smarts, but you're just way too fit to lose this competition. This Friday, Traff. We need to, we need to. I'm sure there's got to be some sort of trophy involved, and we need our trophy.

Yes. We need to bring something back to the. video. Okay. We talk all the time about drivers winning races, but anybody in this sport knows it's bigger than just the person behind the wheel. You've got pit crews, mechanics, engineers, trainers, everybody behind the scenes helping make it happen. And honestly, that's a lot like America's Navy. Everybody has a role and every role matters to the mission, whether that's flying fighter jets, operating aircraft carriers or running high-speed missions on the water. It takes serious skill and

teamwork. It's about being part of something bigger than yourself. America's Navy, forged by the sea, start your journey at Navy.com. I got a review here from no name, but shout out to one of our, shout out to one of our big, oh, Jim. Our biggest fans, Jim. We love Big Jim. That's right. So we do have a name. His name is Jim. Maybe our number one listener. Heard he watches a show every week. That's it. That's the review. That was my inside source. Maybe from his son. I'm not really sure. O'Reilly broadcast. Oh, I'm doing O'Reilly's. Yeah.

Wait, this week? Yeah, so I'll be on the CW. You better be good because I don't hold back. It's not. I'm just saying. That's not my forte. But listen, I got to hold you to the same. I'm just saying, don't screw up.

What makes for a good broadcaster or analyst? One, don't say that someone's in the champ for this year. Well, I mean, come on. It's a lot to try to remember. you know. All right, well, I'll do my best. I will be in the, is there a booth?

Or am I going to be in studio? I know fans. Guys, please, stop caring about that that just doesn't matter. It does not change your viewing experience for wherever the broadcasters are. It does not change your experience.

As long as they do a good job, who cares? Stop it. I, I, you could, I hear you. You could argue that they could do a better job. Maybe. Do you know their studio?

They have like so many different cameras that, listen, I've been in booths before and you can't see. All you do is look at the monitor the whole time. You're calling the race off of the monitor. Because by the way, you don't want to be talking about something that's not on TV for the people to see.

It's like when they said, look here, we're running three wide. and you only see two cars. Or like last week. Oh, there's definitely going to be a caution. What for? Well, we found out a day later,

Cody We're nearly died and turned seven. We better end this quickly. Someone's got to put Molly to bed. Yep, it is time. All right. Well, that's it for this week, and we'll see y'all after the 600. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram,

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