Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Emergency Podcast: Michigan

Episode Date: August 6, 2023

With NASCAR's race in Michigan postponed until Monday, Denny and Jared decided to chat about what's happened so far in the race and what to expect tomorrow. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirtymoe media. All right, Jared. Emergency episode. It's not really an emergency. It's more like a end game. Yeah, it's a rain delay. What should we do? We're here for the next day and a half.

Yeah, so. Let's record a podcast. You think so? You think this is a no-go for tomorrow? Today. Yeah, obviously it's bad. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, when it comes out, right?

Yeah, this will come out on Monday. Morning. And yeah, I think it's a no-go for Monday. I don't think you're going to race today. I think that there's going to be pockets of available time, and we're going to get this thing in on today, this afternoon. In sporadic moments. But, you know, we do have some exciting new news, just FYI.

Before we get into this. You know we have a new sponsor, a new presenting sponsor, that we're really happy to welcome aboard Birch Gold Group. You can get a free info kit on gold by texting Denny to 9-8-9-8-9-8 if you want to find out more about them. You can. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Birch.

Well, looking forward to working with you guys, and we're, I'd like to have some gold. You know what I think's gold? My car. I think my car is gold. I haven't hit the loud pedal yet. I haven't pushed it. I've been taking some calculated. risk i really haven't taken many risks so far during this race i've kind of seen i've been

seeing these guys get loose under each other get tight under each other what do you know that that's a product of this race car that we tried to explain after polka no but it's uh it's just interesting that it the racing is more cutthroat today than any other michigan race i've been in so far i mean And everyone's fighting to, for every inch, cutting each other off, holding each other tight, shoving each other up. Track position is a premium right now. What do you think that's a product of? Like, why are we seeing that? I think the cars are all just so dagon equal.

The closer you get to the front, the faster your car is, the better it handles. The better it is in traffic. It's just, everything gets so much better. the further you get to the front. But what's happened is every crew chief and driver strategy going into yesterday is backwards. I guarantee you last night all the crew chiefs reworked their strategy to figure out, okay, the race is starting now at lap 74. Like how do we get to 200 in the most efficient way now?

So I think that it's going to be interesting to see. It's really going to be, this is going to be a crew chief game. It really is because passing is difficult unless you get strung out, then you can make some moves if someone's willing to let you go. If not, you know, we've seen a couple guys get loose under Blaney. It's because he hasn't really been that fast. And if you look at his teammates, like, you know, we have right here in front of us. We've got the TV right in front of me and Jared.

and we're actually got the race playing, so if we see anything pop up, we'll comment on it. And then we have the scoring monitor right here left of me, so I can see kind of the lap times of the key people that I continue to watch week and week out. What jumps off the page at me is like Harvick and the 22s lap times are not good. Now, they might have had poor track position so far this race and not had an opportunity towards the front, which is understandable that your lap times would be off. But, I mean, it's almost close to a second,

six to seven-tenths pretty consistently. So, you know, maybe Blaney's fighting, you know, knows that he's, I don't know, maybe he likes his car, but it looks like he goes to get past, and he's trying his damnedest to hold everyone off. Because, you know, if you let one go, then here comes another, here comes another, next thing you know, your track position's not good.

And it seems like with him challenging his position as much as he is, that's what's causing these guys to make mistakes underneath them. Yeah, you actually said that midweek. We recorded a piece for Logitech in their sim, and you had mentioned that so much of this race is momentum-based. And if you come off a corner and you don't have that momentum, you're just going to get freight train. Yeah, there's been many times, and you see it all through the field

that guys will get runs. and any other racetrack, they would take that run and try to pass. But here at Michigan, with the straightaways and the draft being so big, you have to weigh your risk of like, can I clear that person or not? If I can't, I can't make this move.

Not until it gets strung out. On restarts, you see us all lined up, and if you just, you can't get in and get to the top lane, you can lose five, six spots like it's nothing. And it will take you, if the race goes green, to get those five or six spots back, at least a full fuel run. So that's why everyone's so panicked about giving up a spot.

I'm looking, we're watching the race on TV, as you said. We're on lap 12 of 200. Chase Elliott is running seventh currently. But then you look up at your scoring monitor, and Chase Elliott is not on the monitor. No, because it only went to 30 second, unfortunately, for him. this is the beginning of the race we yeah it's time i i might have to jump off i'm not to jump off the wagon might he yeah it just yeah he just couldn't afford a wreck and and he he had a wreck

obviously i'm not his doing he blew a right rear there and yeah the uh he's going to have to win a race i i really thought that he you know could get he could gain six to 12 playoff points on McDowell. Next thing you know, now he's down to minus 28. Finish. I mean, it's not like McDowell's been very good. I actually listened to Dirty Modo, and they said that McDowell's never finished better than 20th here.

Yeah, and McDowell was on pit road. He's 27th. I saw him looking at the front of his car. When we got out, he was on the inside lane. I saw him looking at damage on it. So, man, Chase had an eye. opportunity, but again, it's not on him, but it's just super unfortunate that blew a tire there. We've seen a bunch of guys spin out so far today, Chase being one of them. Kyle spun out,

Kyle Spun Out, Kyle Busch spun out, as you mentioned. Christopher Bell spent out in front of you. Are all these linked in a way? It's weird. William Byron got loose as well and is out of the race. Yeah, it was, that was coming to the checker flag of stage one. I went three wide on him and might have been Corey LaJoy. It was him and Corey LaJoy. He was side by side with Corey. He, you know, I got side by side with Corey and he's, he just so, he pushed Corey back by me. And I'm like, well, okay.

You know, obviously we're battling for the regular season championship with Martin Truex, me, him, and Byron. So, and then I got a huge run on the white flag lap of the stage one. And so I shot to the bottom, uh, down the backstretch past him and LaJoy. And then next thing you know, I'll look up my mirror and Byron's in the wall. So it looked like he got loose and then he got up in the, the territory of the resident that you don't want to be in. And more than likely, Benito Link, right?

Kyle Busch just wrecked live on our screen here, obviously 12 hours after it actually happened. But I was right behind this as well. what he thought here I'm looking at it he drove in with the anticipation that probably he was far enough ahead of the 12 that if he drives in deep enough

he's going to clear himself and again the 12 I just got done putting pressure on him I couldn't get around him because he was kind of holding me a little tight there and then again Blaine's just fighting for his position but he doesn't want to give it up

and the 8 gets loose under him It's just really weird that these cars are getting loose, though. This is the first time I've seen that. Steve Lattart mentioned here on the broadcast that if Blaney was not on the outside of Kyle here, he probably could have hung on to this. But because Blaney's there or just another car in general is there, there's just no grip? So they made contact, then he got loose.

Yeah, I mean, it looks like he just gets loose, but they make contact, then he got loose. Do they make contact? They do. similar amount of contact that you and Kyle Larson have. Oh, give me a break. You see tire smoke on this. Do I need to rewind this for you? You can go, Nico.

Where's all the critical people out there? Oh, you touched, you touched. What about all these people today are running each other up the racetrack? Is that fine? By the way, it's stage one. Not for when. Yeah, you see the smoke?

Yeah, they hit, then Kyle gets loose. There's only one good news for Kyle over like Christopher Bell Kyle's going home and he don't have to wait this rain out and poor C. Bell has got a damaged car and he might be here a while

with a car that's damaged. I had that happen to me it was my rookie season and the season after at California. I wrecked early in the race. Rain came two days later I'm still in California because my team wants me to finish the race.

I gained no spot. Casey Mears is the only person I beat. He finished 43rd. I was 42nd. And I just remember it was the most miserable day ever because you're waiting days for it to stop raining. And you know you're going nowhere. You're half, you know, off the pace. How are you with you racing Truett coming into the face, you're minus 39 behind Truex for the regular season championship?

Now I'm more, right? Did he win the stage? He did. He won the first stage. I was eighth. Okay. So you're additional seven points back? Yeah, 46 then?

Something like that. How are you racing this race now going forward? Are you worried about that? Is Coke Zero Sugar the best Coke ever? I know that's a bold question, but it's got that irresistible taste to back it up. And one thing's for sure, when you've got an irresistible match like zero sugar and zero calories,

something sensational is bound to happen. It's like when me and my co-host Jared team up to make a podcast. But it's too bad you can't taste with your ears because Coke Zero Sugar tastes so amazing, it's hard to put it in a words. But that is my job. Well, at least it is on Monday. You'll have to take the taste for yourself. Coke Zero Sugar.

Best Coke ever? Well, my crew chief's going to make a call because we know our car is good. We're going to make, I believe we're probably going to make calls to try to win the race. Right. And I think that's the most important thing, right? is you can chase points all you want. And I think Chase Elliott brought up great points in the media center this week about you start, you know, you don't need to chase points. Chase the win and the points will be there.

I think it's a very, very true statement. I don't know that others call it that way, but we definitely gave up some track position. You know, we could have made the first stage on fuel. The guys that chose to make it, try to make it on fuel, what they did, everyone could make it. Others are just trying to set themselves up for later in the race. Now, it's, you know, Truex made back up for it. So it's not like, I think this race track, if your car is really fast, which we're looking at the last time, Truax is here below everyone,

but he's leading. Like, if you're as fast as him, you're probably, you're going to get a lot of stage points and you're going to contend for a win. Are you racing for points or racing for the win if you're, no, not true actually. Let me finish my sentence. If you're Ty Gibbs or Bubba Wallace. Oh, these guys are points racing.

No question. They're points racing. They're trying to get every stage point that they can, which is why you saw 54 in the first stage, staying out every caution. Like, screw that. He ain't going to give up his track position. You know, it's so hard to pass. And so I think that him, now the 23 has come through the field twice.

I watched him at the beginning of the race. he started right in front of me he methodically made his way up to almost the top five then he went back and then drove back up towards the front again at the end of stage one so I I think the 23 is very fast

the 19's very fast um you know Eric Jones looks fast um now I got around him is he race winning fast probably not

not Chris Busher was really fast. He's getting really strong runs off the corner and he's really strong into turn three. So like I've noticed many times on restarts, I'm not hedging far enough left. I'm trying to set myself up for a really good exit and Chris Busher is driving in there and getting up beside me and slowing my momentum because he's getting way up further. He's getting beside me when I'm really not planning on him to be. So I've got to start hedging a little bit lower on some of these restarts, I think. It's just, there's some cars that are fast. I thought the 17's pretty fast.

So you got the 19, 23, 17. I really haven't seen much from the 6th, but he kind of looked pedestrian when he was out there. I think that we are fast. I think I've showed one lap of my cars. capability so far. You know, most of the time you got a fast car, it's a really good thing. But sometimes at Michigan, if you have a fast car, you're so much faster than these guys in the corners that it puts you in a bad spot down the straightaway.

And then you lose more spots. When I was talking about I was trying to pass Ryan Blaney. Well, I tried to pass him and then lost two spots. Right. If you don't complete the pass, you're going backwards. Yeah. So it's, you know, it's going to be a game of track position. and fast cars,

but I think the ones that I listed are the ones that stood out to me that were quick. What do you mean that when you say we haven't shown our full capability? Like obviously you're going around the track. The pedal's on the floor, right? Like, what do you mean you haven't shown?

Almost. I mean, you know, we're not wide open. I've been in traffic. And then when I have got track position, bam, a caution came out. You know, when I was running right behind the Christopher Bell in Alex Bowman wreck

then the caution came you know we just we were there battling for the lead and then Acacia comes out and Chris calls me in for another pit stop so it's like we haven't been able to sustain our track position up front where some of these guys are selling out to just screw it if I run out of gas

I'll just come whenever I run out of gas I'm not pitting not giving up my track position where we're trying to you know open up some options and hopefully you know Chris has got plans towards getting me my track position at the end of the day. That's the way this works is what we're trying to win. We can pick up off that piss up because, yes, you came in, you took four tires. A handful of other guys, including the likes of Truex and Bowman, took no tires or two tires?

How, when we go back racing here, how is that going to... The tires don't matter. This is a... The fans don't realize, I think this is like our Atlanta tire, our Daytona tire. Like, this is a super speedway right-side tire. it doesn't wear like at all. So it's a tire heat issue. You know, if you fall off in lap times,

it's because the tire's hot. So I think that your track position means more than tires. However, we did have tires and we went from 15th to 10th pretty quick there right before this rain happened. So overall, do you think that that's going to make a difference getting back to the front end your track position or it's going to have to come in another way? I think we're fast enough. If we just get a long enough run,

we need this tag on race to not stop every four laps. Once the field gets strung out, I think my car has tremendous speed. And then are there any teams that are going to benefit from the potential weather difference? You're racing yesterday on Sunday. It's overcast. Rain's coming in and out, right?

That's the weather. What I hope is when we race, it's sunny. I want it to be super slick. Then the good cars will really see them start to show through the ones that are handling well. That's kind of what I'm getting at. Because if you don't race today on Monday, you race tomorrow on Tuesday, the sun comes out, a completely different track. Absolutely.

Everything changes. Yep. Yeah. And it's interesting that Michigan historically has the biggest shifts in solar radiation of the tracks. Like it never is sunny throughout. It's never shaded throughout. It just always have ebbs and flows of like sunlight. And it's more about the sun than it is the actual temperature outside.

So when the sun comes out, that track temperature shoots way up. Even though the temperature might be the same, that the sun on the asphalt is what jacks up the temperature, makes it slicker, and then you're going to really start to see who's got, you know, the cars that are handling the best. And what I'm saying is when I look at the 19, the 17 and those guys, their cars are handling really well. That's what jumps off at the page. Everyone looks fast down the straightaway when they get a run or get a draft.

It's which ones are fast in the corners. Those are the ones that have stuck out to me. Looking up at this scoring monitor, Tyler Reddick is at the top of the board. Yeah. You kind of mentioned how he regained or didn't regain the lead, but gained the lead off the restart. Yeah, they did the different strategy. They stayed out before that rain where us and others pitted. But then he took the lead on the restart from the bottom lane.

And what I've noticed actually is that this is a top, it has historically been a top lane dominant track, but man, he's, you know, not just him. Others have made the bottom work pretty good on these restart. So it would be interesting to see, do we, make adjustments for that and even i'm telling you you know i need to start to hedge lower on some of these restarts because i'm you know i feel like the what my car needs i'm not giving it to it quite yet oh cori lejoy just drove in three wide bottom rickie stint house and a j almondinger oh that is a

uh exciting trio that'll be three wide um man the runs are just so big and i mean you're you're you're seeing these guys racing and we're watching them right now and it's like the racing like it's the last stage with 20 to go and that's just the different type of racing we've gotten I'm personally really excited to get this race back going again because I think we got a great shot and it looks like I think the fans going to get a great great show when when they get this thing going another guy we see on TV right here Kevin Harvick who's been the king of Michigan the last handful of years yeah I know that But, man, so much is different. I mean, it really is.

The cars are so much different. Yes, he won in next gen last year. There were a lot of factors that played into that, you know, track position. I think that, you know, the SHR cars were stronger last year than what they are this year. Yeah, I mean, for now, he looks pedestrian. But they are the absolute. king of optimizing their day. They don't make mistakes.

That four team just does a phenomenal job every week of finishing where they're supposed to finish. You know, they have, you know, Kevin's race craft and Rodney's chemistry between the two of them, you know, even when they don't have the fastest car, they find a way to put themselves in the picture at the end. If you're a mom's phone, she's got like a, you know, alarm clock. Do we need a guess? Mary Lou, you have anything you would like to say? How's the... She's just over here to make sure I don't cuss. Yeah, how's your radio chatter been so far today?

Clean? Very clean. Very clean. Very calm, clean. I'm the quarterback. Chris is the head coach. Tell me what to do. Pit. Don't pit. Fine.

I'm assuming you know what you're doing, and I'm out here to execute the play. So it's going well. And, you know, again, you watch the rate... I'm looking at the race and I'm like, wow, we look so very unassuming. But I just... I can see, like, I feel in the car that it's got what it takes to contend by the end of the day.

I'm curious, does this, doing this, like, this podcast help? Like, can you go out there, run 75 laps and then, like, think about everything that has happened so far that you can learn and then apply it? Oh, Kyle Larson just got loose. Sorry, folks. Again, we're on lap 31. Oh. You're behind it. You give him a nice little push here.

Yeah, he, you know. They actually say he deserved that because of the way you've treated him last handful of races. Oh my gosh. Let it go, NBC. No, he got really loose underneath Christopher Bell. Yeah, Christopher Bell almost watered both of them up. Wow, that was close. But, yeah, I helped him get his momentum going back there.

Yeah. Is this getting out of the car having 12 hours to process it? Everyone's doing it. you know, everyone will go back and watch SMT tonight and think about what they need to tell their crew chief to make their car better. I think the crew chiefs will rework their strategy, knowing that, you know, we've got to reset here, you've got time to think about it. You know, there could be someone that's in the weeds that you don't see coming that is one adjustment away from making their car a race-winning car, and you don't see it until this thing gets strung out. So we'll see how it goes.

Well, we got 126 to go. I don't know. What should we be, fans are watching at home on TV. What should they be looking for? I'll be interested to see, and a lot of it is going to depend on the conditions. Like I said, is it a sunny race? Are we just fighting rain showers today on Monday after?

If we're fighting rain showers, the track's going to be faster. The track position will be the biggest factor. If it goes sun, I think one of those guys that I listed, if not all of them, will be battling for the race win. Are crew chiefs building strategies for both situations? Because if you race, let's say it's Monday, you're out here today later in the day. you're battling rain showers. If you get to 100 laps, that could be at the end of the race.

So if you're a few chief, are you building a strategy for that situation, but also the situation that you could run the full race on Tuesday? I hope NASCAR, let's, you know, we're staying here. We stayed here another night.

Let's, I hope we have a window that we can get this whole race in. You know, it's, there's a lot on the line, certainly, you know, with these playoff spots. Alex Bowman's,

uh, was up front for a little while. I think he was kind of holding the field off at bay when he was leading, but still, you never know what can happen, especially, you know, I think these restarts are going to continue to get crazier and crazier. So I think, oh, Chase just blew a tire. I mean, that's just so out of the blue.

I think that they're preparing for everything. They're preparing for all different conditions. Where's the wind go? Does it shift from them? this side to this side. I mean, that changes a lot, you know, with the characteristics, the handling of your car. So the cruities, you know, they're not just going back in their hotel tonight and kicking their feet up like we are right now. And just, you know, their faces are in the computer and they're trying to get all the information they can to come up with the best strategy.

Or the fixes for their car. Right. Well, I guess, I don't know, tune in the rest of the race today. Yep. We're tomorrow. Yep. At noon today on USA, tune in, and hopefully we're green flag racing. Yeah, Chase just wrecked.

That's a bummer. There goes my... Just right there. Right there, like, damn it, it's got to win now. Yeah. I mean, we'll talk about this on the full episode because that's still planned after this race is completed. But if you're Michael McDowell's team here, right, you see this and it's kind of, you know, it's relieving a bit.

But also you've got Ty Gibbs and your other competitors that are racing around that cut line who have now surpassed you based on their current running position. Good point. Good point. Ty Gibbs. Where did he finish in the first stage? Top three, right? He scored a lot of stage. Austin. Hey, Mom, he just got to hit the button. It's all good.

Third. So he was 18 behind. Yep. So now he's like 11. Yeah, he's there. So, and still running in. While you get a blessing, while you get a blessing with Chase Elliott,

there's others. There's others that are coming like Ty Gives. So we'll see. I'm excited to get this race going. Obviously, Toyota's look good. You know, I think we're in for a good one. So let's get this race going. And I appreciate y'all tuning in to the Emergency In Race

episode. We'll see y'all in a couple days. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.