Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - First Loser

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

Denny Hamlin chats about what his week was like recovering from the wreck. NASCAR will return to Phoenix for the Championship Race in 2024. Is that a good thing? Chase Briscoe's team get handed massive penalty. Jeb Burton and Chandler Smith get in a "fight". Did Michael McDowell get Chastain'd? Lack of tire wear hurts race. Austin Dillon calls for NASCAR to suspend Austin Cindric. Internet issues impact on the race. 23XI taken out by broken brake rotors. Kyle Busch wins third race this season. And, #DearDenny Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's like taking a piece of duct tape and rolling it around your hand and trying to get the lint off your shirt. Man, we're making some serious progress on it. When you can relate the super technical racing to picking up the lint on your t-shirt, big time. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. What's up, guys? Welcome to the bridesmaid version of Actions Detrimental. I'm Denny Hamlin, driver of number 11, Toyota Camer for Joe Gibbs Racing, and co-owner of 2311 with Bubba Wallace and Taderoa Redd, the Break Roter Guys, this weekend.

My co-host, Jared Allen, Jared D. Allen, if you're looking them up. I mean, the guy is getting so much fanfare now. Jared, how are you feeling? I mean, I feel like you need your own hero cards now. I try to just lay low at the racetrack. Yeah, sure he doesn't. I don't need my own hero cards. Did you, are you hearing now, hey, purple v. Sky.

Yeah, it's the cheers or chance, whatever, are growing increasingly over the last couple weeks. It's good. People are tuning in. Nothing was as North Wilkesboro was, I mean, we need a security for that one. We can work on your own detail. We can. Yeah, we're coming off Gateway. What was supposed to be a hot, steamy weekend and Gateway, I didn't think it was very hot. was 100%. Wow.

Even remember when we walked in the bus on Saturday morning, I was just like, wow, this is not bad at all? And you're like, God, are you kidding me? It's so hot. Yeah. I don't know why. I just, I don't typically get bothered by heat as much as some people. It's just built different. Whatever.

Yeah. No, I mean, you know, just kind of recap in last week, that was a tough week for me physically, for sure. I was my trainer. He was my guardian of my recovery. He was making me get in sauna, 10 minutes, do a little quick workout, try to get stuff flowing, and then get back in the sauna, then go up in the ice plunge and hang out in there. So we did that for three straight days, starting on Wednesday. I didn't want to do any of that.

I had two massages. all that definitely helped. How long does it typically take to get over something like that when you're in a wreck? Well, I think that for me that it definitely reminded me, and I told Chase this, that like, who, that's a reminder how old I am. Like, I was like, I can't go through much more of that. Like, it was, it was massive. It really was.

And, you know, you never like to learn through real life being a, crash dummy, but, you know, there are some things that I noticed that we could do better on the safety side, too, that we worked on for Gateway. So, you know, I think it's water under the bridge, for sure. And I think we were ready to move on and go compete for a win at Gateway, which I thought after practice, we really were going to have a great shot at it. I thought when the track was sunny and hot, man, I just thought we had to feel covered in practice. And unfortunately, a little bit of temperature change and things change a lot with these cars. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, I guess for you then, if you're saying you had the field covered for sunny conditions, we had none of that. We had a

wreck on lap five and caused a caution and then immediately after, right? Under the same caution, we had a lightning hold that lasted for two hours and took this race into the nighttime. It was like a Coke 600, but 300 miles instead. Yeah, and I made a comment to you. I made a comment to you or you made a comment first after the race saying, well, man, that turned one of the shortest races, or maybe it was John or bus driver said, man, it took one of the shortest races into the longest race. And I was like, it's actually not that short because people think, oh, 300 miles, this is going to be a quick race? Well, you have to base it off of the mile per hour that you run at the racetrack. So when you think about it, in a 400 mile race that say Kansas, right, our average speeds probably in the high 170s, 180s here,

I don't know the numbers, but I'm going to guess 150-ish, somewhere in that range. So we're running 30 less miles per hour when we are running. So we're running 240 laps here at this racetrack where we're running 33, 34 seconds. Well, Kansas, we're running 30 seconds or maybe 31 seconds. And it's only 20 more laps. So it's kind of deceiving when you look at the, it's a 300-mile race and think, well, it's short. Well, it's not because, you know, like Richmond, 400 laps there. Oh, my gosh, because of the average pace and it's slow, it takes forever.

So how do they come up with the laps or the miles for each interval? I always thought it was relative where it's like, okay, we have a three-hour window. We want this race to fit in it. Boom, this is the math equation. Yeah, that's probably what they do. You know, TV has a window, which they like to see as far as, okay, well, they use the average speed. They say, all right, we bake in a few, you know, some cautions and stage breaks and whatnot,

and we think that the race will take X amount of time. Well, of course, that doesn't include rain delays. They don't plan on rain delays. You can't do that. But the thing is with these high straightaway speed, low speed corner tracks, once you get a caution inside 50 to go, you're going to just, it's just going to keep coming. It doesn't matter if it's Martinsville, Indy Road course, where, it could be, Walkins Glen. Now, on road courses, they tend to let things go a little bit more because you've got a minute to clean the track up before the leaders get back around. But yeah, cautions, definitely breed cautions at tracks like this.

Well, before we get to Gateway, let's go back a little bit because we had some midweek news before Gateway, the first of which is that NASCAR announced that the championship race is going back to Phoenix in 2024. So the next two seasons, obviously this one and the next one, championship will be decided at Phoenix. Um, yes. I mean, I, I, I, I like it because I like the venue. I mean, I'm partial to that area. Um, I like the racetrack. If we could fix the, the tire a little bit there. Um, I think that it gets a bad rap because I think it has a not so good tire at that racetrack. Um, and so I think, uh, it always sells out. Fans always come in a big, big way to that race. It's hard for me to, I mean, where else are you going to go in November, right? That's why fans obviously want this to move around. I think that's the, you know, the common, what they're looking for. But I think it's harder than that, right? Because again, what you just ask, where are you going to go in November? You don't have too, too many options.

You don't. I mean, when you look at the average temperature of the first week of November, I don't know. Anywhere kind of above North Carolina. I mean, you can have some cold, North Carolina. lot of early November's, but usually it's okay. You just want to have a good place. That's why Homestead Miami was such a great venue for the championship finale. It was always 80-some degrees, and it was beautiful. Same thing when you go to Phoenix during that time. It's beautiful weather, and again, you're getting fan support there. So why wouldn't you? But I get it from a competition

standpoint where, hey, you know, we're keep going back to the same place. The racing hasn't been spectacular there. I understand both sides of that argument. Yeah, if the racing was really good at Phoenix, I don't think we'd have any arguments about this. Agree, agree. But there's things we can do to fix that. I mean, if you look at, generally speaking,

the race and how it went, reminder to all the folks out there that what we raced here this weekend was the same tire we race it. Gateway, Richard. North Worksboro and Phoenix. This tire does not have a good record. And it just shows, I mean, think about this.

Northworksboro, the most abrasive surface we have on our schedule, and we ran the same tire there that we ran here at Gateway. That tire is so durable and wears so little at, you know, a track like North Worksboro, that it, then they put it on Gateway, it's, it's not going to wear it at all, which it didn't. Like the left side tires just did not have anywhere at all.

So it's also scheduled to be, it was scheduled to be our Loudoun, New Hampshire tire. I think they need to scrap this tire personally and just go with whatever the new development tire they have for New Hampshire. So they went up there and tested after Goodyear came to us and says, we get it, we know the tires are too hard, We were very conservative first week.

If you've heard the previous podcast, you've heard me say this before. But we've got a new short track tire now. Let's just go ahead and implement it at all those other racetracks because this tire is, it's not him. That's for sure. It's not him. Yeah, this is episode 18 or something. More tire woes, right?

Every episode seems like there's something about tires. So how do you, how does this conversation evolve? It's too good. Let's give good to your credit. These tires don't blow out. If they were on your street car, they would last about 25 years, or at least. So they build great tires for reliability, but it's just for competition standpoint. You're going to have to have more lot time fall off.

I was looking, I always come in after the bus. You see me, I go straight to the score and monitor to see how did my lap time stack up versus the field. I've got a nice graph. I got nice data and all inside my bus where, like when I watch Xfinity, race, watch a truck race. I can constantly monitor different lines on the racetrack and how that equates to lap time. And so I think that it really is telling when I look and the entire field is all in the same second bracket. Like even when you would say, let's just say the nine car was terrible, okay, running 20 something. He was still in the same band. He was still in the same band.

of lap times that all of us were, even the guys that were up front. But once it gets strung out, it's just everyone falls off at the same rate of speed because it's a tire heat thing, not a wear thing. So you just cool your tires right back off and then bam, you can make another run at it. So I do. I'd love to see Goodyear just scrap this tire and say, we're not going to run this tire anymore. It's not it for sure. And go with that new developmental tire. And I looked at it, It's a gain. Let's not, you know, oversell too much. I talked to Christopher Bell, who did the test,

and he was like, it runs faster on the short end, and it does fall off a little bit more on the back end. Not a ton, but it, you know, it's a couple tenths. Listen, a couple tents could go a long way in competition. So just hope we're continuing to work on the short track tire, because I don't think this entirely. This was the intermediate package, people. So this is not the short track package, which I'm good with that because this track has long straightaways.

You want to have the ability to draft up to the car in front of you. And it just didn't seem like the corners, you lose so much in the corners here that it takes the entire straightaway for you to suck back up and get to the car that's in front of you. And by the time you get there, bam, you got to take another corner. You lose all your time again. So that's what makes Indy car so great at Indy is because the straightways are. long they got super long drafts and then they make slingshot passes at the end of the straightaway because it's a timing thing and when they're on new tires they can run closer to each other in the corners which is why you see after a while things string out then it becomes passing becomes tougher

but let's do it good year let's let's put this new loud and tire on all of our short tracks from from here on out right because surely this is all predictable right if you have x tire this tire you just ran we're just going to call it X tire. You ran that North Wilkesboro, which is an abrasive surface, as you said. Any track going forward it's going to be less abrasive and it didn't work at North Wilkesboro.

Right. Just throw it out altogether. You're no racing scientist and it seems pretty simple to you, right? Yeah, it just can't be worse than what you just had. It's just, I mean, I look at the Gluck polls, right? Shout out to a boy Jeff Gluck and his polls because it's a pretty good telling story, right?

Gateway right now is at 63% was it a good race. Richmond was 80. I'm not sure why Richmond was 80. Kyle Larson won it, but I don't know how he won it. Maybe it was the end of the... I'm not really sure. Let's not crap on Richmond. Home track. Love it.

But let's average them out. You got 63% currently for Gateway, 80 for Richmond. North Forksboro, 49%. Phoenix, 44.8%. I don't know what Phoenix has been in other races as well, but... I can't imagine it's been very high. It can't imagine it's very high, right? So you average all that out?

It's 50-50. Yeah, it's low 60s, probably percentage-wise. That's not it. That's not it. We need to have more lap time variability. I'm going to keep saying it until we get it. But it just, you know, track position was a big deal. You saw it in the truck race as well.

Zane Smith, I was very intrigued to watch how that strategy played out. He stayed out on 50 lap lefts. He took right and I watched and he ran like 10 qualifying laps in a row once he got out front. So it's just a thing where they recognize there's just not enough tire wear to put on four tires. And we knew it. I knew I had my shot to win and that was my picker. gets me out front of the guys that pitted. Kyle Larson stayed out,

and he controlled the restart, so I had to take the inside lane. I ran right beside him down the front stretch, stayed beside him in the corner. I didn't clear him off the corner, and I'm like looking up, and there's the eight car pushing him. I'm like, God, dang it. Eight car gets around me now

because the five pulls down in front of us in turn three, and then the eight gets on the outside of him, and then I knew right there. I was like, race over. I mean, there just wasn't, going to be a pass for the lead and I don't know that there was after one lap on a restart. No, there was not.

At least not while Kyle Bush was leading. Hey, guys, I have some Phoenix polls from last year. The first race was 70% yes, they liked it. The second race was 28%. Oh, that was the championship race? Yes. Gosh, dang it. And then the previous year.

I mean, it's a great sports town. Phoenix 2 was 80%. The championship. I think a lot of... And Phoenix won was 63%. Yeah, so it's all over the board. So that tells you that a lot of times it comes down to who won the race. Was it a green-white checkered?

Like, because if it goes green, there ain't much. There ain't much there. There really isn't. Again, because if there's any lap time falloff, it comes from tire heat, not tire wear. It needs to come from tire wear. Yeah, that's interesting to hear. I just can't remember leaving Phoenix recently thinking, Man, that was a good race.

Yeah. But, I mean, let's think about it from the sports town. It's great. The track is great. The amenities are great. The, you know, it always, it's sold out even before it was a championship race. It's just, it's a great place. It's just, you know, it's not aerodynamics.

Oh my gosh, I can't say it enough. Let's stop fiddling with the aerodynamics on these racetracks and fix the rubber. 14 car hit with massive penalty this week, 120 driver and owner points, 25 playoff points, six-week suspension for crew chief John Klausmeier, and 250K fine for a counterfeit underwing part, and they will not appeal it. Yeah, and you heard Chase Briscoe say, man, we're fortunate, it's not worse than that. So I think you kind of have it there where, you know, more than likely, I think so. Someone probably knew it's hard to speculate because you're not in that building,

but somebody was sweating bullets when that car got tickets to R&D. They were just like, oh boy, you know, because they take a part. I mean, our 45 car when they took it was, I mean, they took a picture of it, and it's just a bunch of parts laying on a garage floor. It's like they go through everything. It is very thorough investigation, but it's what we need in our sport. You know, NASCAR needs to continue doing this for sure because it helps, it really helps the integrity of our sport stay true to what it's supposed to be. And that's everyone running legal.

And you just don't know when your number might get drawn. You know, they did say at the beginning of the year that every car will go to the R&D Center at some point. Now, I think that if you have cars that are dominant, maybe they need to go. multiple times. Make sure you get everyone at least once. But then, you know, you don't want to have, you know, let's just say the 11 team, well, we've already gone through there, so now we can start to push it, like, because we're not going to go back. Like, you always got to have a chance that you're going to go back there. That would keep, keep all of us in line for sure. Yeah, this seems super consistent so far this season, NASCAR issuing out these penalties, which makes me think,

what is there possibly to gain from something like this? Knowing that your car could go to R&D, it doesn't sound like this is very difficult to find. It seems dumb enough that maybe it was a error and on the team's part. Like it wasn't supposed to be on, I mean, I don't know, it just seems dumb enough to where you would think,

well, they wouldn't surely be that dumb. Like, they're, I think. But the car wasn't run very good to begin with. So. Yeah. I mean, there a lot goes into that. But, I mean, it makes their argument seem a little bit more legit to me that it was just a quality control era. But it doesn't matter from NASCAR standpoint. They're not there to manage your company.

They're just there to say, what's right and wrong? Right. Now, another question following up on that is that if NASCAR takes the 14 car and they find this or any car for that matter, they find something wrong with it. Is there a way or should they? be able to then go take the four car or the teammates' cars and look for that same part on those cars? Or is that just not possible? It's possible but not realistic. By the time they find that stuff on the 14 car, the four car is also in pieces or whatever, and it's on the race shop floor.

Like they immediately after they get it back from the racetrack, they'll rescale it, check all the points, make sure everything's still in line. they'll post it, which means that they'll check it over to see quality control, has everything stayed in place, check out their processes, see how they could get better there. And then they'll also back it up versus what NASCAR's data or scan of was of the car, and then they'll check it post-race to see has things moved or whatnot so they can help their processes and whatnot. But it's by then the car is in pieces and you'll never, if it was a 14, they'd be like, yeah the knacka you want to see that uh it's it's over there you know what i mean so it's it wouldn't

work like that and and you can't hold them um and say all right well we're checking the 14 y'all don't tear it apart or leave it frozen until we're done with the 14 right because like honestly is it just on the 14 car unlikely right usually it's whatever's on one's on multiple but that's that's speculation it's it's really hard to say uh but you would assume so, but you can't hold them because we need these cars and parts. We don't have the cars that we used to. We don't have 14 cars per car number. We have seven. And at some teams, they don't, you know, with wrecks and things like that, you're probably lucky to have six per car number. So you've got to turn that car around pretty quickly. If you had more cars, though, could you force teams to hold

a car until Wednesday before tearing it down? Sounds expensive. I'm out on that. I'm not buying more cars. How can they say it's a quality control if it's a counterfeit part? That's like spending money and they're like that's a counterfeit 20. You're like, oh, quality control. Oh, I didn't mean to have that in my wallet. Like how did you have the counterfeit part in the shop to begin with? Counterfeit could mean multiple things though, right? I mean, we haven't seen the part. We need to see it because did they attempt to put serial numbers on it? Official stickers. If they did, then, yikes. That's intent.

If it's a 3D printed part that they didn't attempt to make it look real, then maybe that's a quality control issue. So I think you don't know until you see the part. You got to see that they intend to deceive your eyes when you looked at it. Or was it just flat out someone picked up the wrong piece and put it on the car. It's hard, again, that's really hard to do, especially for a company like Stuart Haas,

but you just never know. It's hard to speculate. Is there anything to gain from, like, printing a fake part as, like a dummy piece? Like, oh, let's see what this looks like here. Then when we get the real part, we'll take it off. Sure. For a company like Stuart Haas,

it has a ton of CNC machines and whatnot, you could use it for various things. You got pick cars. They have, they just posted of pictures of their two-pick cars, where you don't want to spend, go out and spend a bunch of money off the shelf, you know, because if you want to build a legit next-gen car, it's going to cost you about $300,000 all in, where they can go manufacture all those parts for much cheaper within their own building, but it has to be used for off-track things, show cars, it could be a lot

of things. See, now that makes me think that, yeah, it was just a quality control issue. See, it could sway you either way. All right, moving on to this weekend and all the races. Let's start up in Portland, and you watch that race on TV. What did you think? Yeah. I mean, it's, it was interesting. Just an interesting course layout. Like, I never really paid attention to the first Portland race.

But I did this one because it just the timing worked out where I was, it wouldn't do anything. So I was watching on the bus to Portland race. And I was like, all right, well, this guy's, no one ever pulled away. Like the way the course kind of goes around, it seemed like whoever was leading was kind of holding up the next four cars in line. You thought the Creed had it, but it was like, eh, the 20 car looked the best, but just never could get the lead without contact. And then, you know, once he got the lead, it seemed like guys would run him down. And so it was an entertaining race from my standpoint, which is very methodical how some of the corners are.

it's just like you were always turning and bending, not many straightaways at that racetrack. So lots of contact it looked like. Parker Clearman, he was going for it there at the end. To give Parker to some credit, his car would not, as you saw it, if you watch it on TV, his car was leaning a lot. So it means like they had very little bar in the car

to keep it level. and probably very, very soft rear springs so that picks up the left front tire, picks up the right front tire, every corner, sharp corner. And you do that to keep forward bite in the car, which is forward bite means when you hit the gas, when the tires get old, hot, and slick,

your car launches a little bit better. The downside to that, though, is that it doesn't corner quite as good because you don't have all four tires on the racetrack. And in restart situations, you're more apt to lock up tires. And so while he was going for it, and I give him credit for that,

I don't know that he had a car to go for it. And at the time, he's not thinking about, well, my car's not really capable of this, and it's not been really strong on restarts all day. But he's telling an opportunity to charge the bottom. He wasn't going to lift until the car on the outside of him lift. But his car, as soon as you hit the brakes hard and you turn the wheel on a car that is that soft,

you're going to lock up a tire and that's what he did and kind of wiped out the first three there and then here comes Cole Custer like, hey, thank you. Third car on the inside line cleans it out. But maybe Custer had one of the best cars as well. He was pretty strong. He had to go to the back. He got spun. So it was an entertaining race. You know, usually always is when it comes to Xfinity. As the content person on this show, can you pull up Chandler Smith's Twitter there on your laptop? I don't know. Can I? I'll have to look it up. Here.

You have not seen this yet. Man, we knew that was going to happen. Gosh, darn it. Said it before the show. Don't spill the coffee. I'll look it up here. Just spilled my coffee all over the place. Those who don't know, too.

I'm a new coffee guy. Not till 2023 did I have my very first cup of coffee. And now, of course, I'm, I'm stuck. What did I tell you when you hit your head on the chandelier? Twice, by the way. I did. I've had a bad morning.

Leave me alone. I said, don't spill your coffee. It's fine. It's fine, people. All right, Chandler Smith. Do you want to move that over a little more now? Are you going to put it back in the same spot? I'm trying to keep it out of the camera.

Leave me alone. All right. Gosh. Chandler Smith follows me. I'm going to, let me give him a follow back. Oh, boy. Great. So good.

Video. Oh, Chandler. Big dub. Big dub on the video. Oh, that's great. I don't know who helped them on the social side because, you know, it's not easy doing this. That's why you're hired. But, oh, great content there.

That's fantastic. You can see. of trying to do the old hammer. Yeah. Just make any contact. Anything. Like, you're trying because the crew guys got it in the middle of it. Next you know, when you're wrapped up, it's like, you know, you just try to get any kind of

gavel punch that you possibly can on someone. But that was awesome. I saw, you know, I can't stop thinking about the video. Let's see that in an instant replay. I watched it from the beginning of when Jeb said that Chandler got into him. I saw it in the final turn. You saw Jeb run them down, then Chandler got into him again. They're both crossed up, and then Chandler finished them off and turned through.

I see Jeb's point. I do about, you know, how many times did you attempt to wreck me, and you finally just make sure you got it done. So I empathize a little bit with Jeb there, but the Chandler's video kind of makes me not really care. Yeah, he wins. He wins the weekend on the video. Yeah, for sure.

And Jeb was having a great weekend, too. Like, he was good during practice, and he kind of run the top 12 most of the day. So, you know, it sucks for a team like his who's, like, grinding so hard. you sure it was a hard grind just for them to get out to Portland on time and for them to have a good solid day kind of taken away at the end. God, that's racing and that sucks so bad when that happens. Yeah, you just mentioned there getting out to Portland. I think it was, was it Jordan, no, because Jeb races for Jordan Anderson's team. Someone's team, two haulers didn't make it out to Portland.

Tommy Joe. Tommy Joe Martins. Yeah, yeah. And so you was kind of watching, he said that, you know, NASCAR was helping facilitate getting his haulers there to the track. And you saw him pull up on pit lane and everyone else's team has got like their pit boxes set up and everything and he's just rolling his cars in there so um yeah it's it's tough it's tough on those teams for sure and especially with the short week i mean ultra short week for them to have to go from a monday race to a monday night race of all things um and then haul ass to portland right after all right down to st louis for the cup race um as we mentioned earlier got five laps in had a had a weather delay um two-hour lightning hold, and during that lightning hold, your front tire changer lost a tooth.

A tooth, a lip, just about everything. I was sitting on top of the pit box, just kind of chilling, you know, shooting the shit with Gabe Hart, and you just hear a loud, puch, you was like, whoa, and then you hear him instantly say, I was like, uh-oh, and I guess the regulator bust, they were working on it, and even though it's turned off, you still got pressure in the line. So when it disconnected or a bust or whatever happened, it flew out, hit him right in the face and took out a tooth. And his upper lip was just kind of dangling there for a second. And I mean, it was the blood was profuse.

Travis is just not doing well with it. And so I'm like thinking, oh my gosh. Like, I'm, this is terrible for him. First of all, but then, like, I'm cursed. Like, under red, we now lose a crew guy, but AJ, the man, he, he, he sucked it up, and they gave me their best weekend on pit road to date. So shout out to my 11 team for a great day on pit road. And I guess he's got to go to a plastic surgeon today to get the stitches out and then kind of redo his upper lip there.

Can you explain that to me like I'm six? Because I have no idea what a regulator bust is. Okay. The regulator is basically on top of the air bottles that are inside the pit cart. So the pit car, so how you get air to the guns that change the tire is there's big bottles that are in the pit box. On top of that, there's a regulator. So you see you regulate how much pressure basically comes through the line. Yeah.

Okay. So it's like a brass piece that you'll see. Okay. And so if they're turning on it or whatever, it could bust and break, and the next thing you know, the hose that's connected to the top of the regulator can fly off. And it's like, I don't know. You ever seen a... So it's like a hose is not connected.

Yes. Yes. It's just, you know, flipping around. Yeah. Like, it does that. So at the end of the hose has a piece of metal on it. And that thing is, it whips around, hits you in the face. Okay.

Got it. Yeah. So you paint the picture now? A little better? You got to turn off that before you... And then you got to hit the trigger on the gun to get all the pressure out of the line. Got it. So it's like a water hose, right?

You got to get the water out before you. Got it. Yeah. Yeah, you got to... We're learning. Hit the gun to get the water out on a garden hose and you got to hit the gun to get the air out, which is why at the end of the race, you'll hear them go... It's just they're getting all the air out of the pressure.

Got it. See, now I can relate to that. Now I get it. Okay. So basically, a wild hose. came and smacked him in the face, took out his tooth and upper lip. Got it, got it. Okay, well, he stayed in the race and they did a good job on pit road. Yeah, and also shout out to Michael Hicks, the 20 team, the 54 team, 19 team.

They all came down and tried to help out our team, you know, get all that fixed. Which for me, I was like, we need another lightning strike because, like, we needed to buy time because we had to go get another part and retrofit it and whatnot. So, you know, they definitely, you know, we needed all the minutes we did of that rain delay or lightning delay. This race was the one-year anniversary of you and Chastain's mix up last year. Kind of had a little, another one, not nearly as TV-worthy, you know. But him and Michael McDowell. Michael McDowell had said, I guess this is what it means to get chestained because he got run up the track a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, listen, of all the people on pit road, I've said multiple times the person I'd least like to be in a scuffle with is Michael McDowell for sheer size. And, you know, when he put Suarez on the hood of his car, like he's probably got some country strong to him. so um but yeah you know i looked at the wreck um i guess you you definitely could label it as a racing deal for sure right i mean i think that you know chastain made a three wide move into turn one contact is inevitable at that point so the the 34 car while he did not give the the one a lot of room he had no choice it's either he either goes up and makes contact with joey who's on three wide on the outside, to give chastain room,

or he just pinches chastain and says, you really should be lifting here. So what happens is when you go down the straightaway and someone makes a last-minute dive bomb into, to three-wide on the bottom, it's not a bad move, but you're putting the two outside guys in a very, very tough position

where contact is almost inevitable because the middle guy cannot react enough too. Oh, I got to give you room and then, well, sorry whoever's on the outside. Like, if you really put the middle guy in a spot where it's just two last minute, contact's going to happen, usually the middle guy is going to get the crap into the stick because he's either going to get spun by the inside guy like what happened here or he's going to go up and his right front is going to get in the 22's door and he either gets spun that way. So while it's technically not Chastain's fault because, hey, I'm on the inside, I'm here.

The late dive just makes it very difficult for the two outside parties to not get the crap into the stick. Yeah, you kind of saw something similar at North Wilkesboro also with Michael McDowell in the open race. Yes, yes, yes, yeah, yeah, same kind of thing there. It's just a, I get it because it's the desperation of like, oh, I see an opportunity to get a row worth of cars here on a restart. And because they know once we get two laps in, it's done.

There is no more passing. So, I mean, NASCAR took more gear out of the cars again at this racetrack, which forced us to shift one more extra time per lap. We were running fourth only through three and four. But since they took more gear out this time around, we, I mean, it was one, two, three, How many shifts is that? Eight shifts per lap or is that 16 shifts for lap? I don't know. Either way, it's a lot. It's a lot of shifts per lap,

which is why passing also is difficult because I get a run on somebody coming off the corner and bam, they grab a gear. Bam, I lost my run. So it's just, man, if we can fix the tire and the shifting, we're going to be a much better place on these short tracks, but it's difficult when we keep dropping the gear out of the car because it's forcing us. It makes us have to shift to make laptop. Is that why I was watching the race and remember here, I don't have all the technical knowledge of being a race car driver.

But watching before the cameras went down, watching your in-car camera when you were running third behind Blaney earlier in the race, is that you could see you gaining on Blaney into the corner? It's like, oh, well, he just got a really good run on him. And then Blaney's just gone on the backstress. Yeah. Is that kind of what? It is because eventually I get in their wake.

Eventually I have to run the same line as them. And then the gain that we make down the straightaway because of the draft just doesn't. It's interesting as draggy as the cars are, which means by themselves, the straightaway speed that they have is so low. You would think we'd be able to suck up down the straightaway and get bigger runs, but we just don't for some reason with this intermediate package. Maybe the spoiler is not big enough or whatever, but it is. It's just eventually we all have to run. Like, we're all searching around. You saw the track actually widened out.

The reason the track widened out is because this tire just lays down greasy rubber. And so we're trying to find the least amount of grease. And as the tires get hotter, the rubber lays down. And then we search for cleaner pavement, which is why we're chasing the racetrack up. While we're going up, the later the run gets the higher it goes. But the problem is, is that under caution, we clean up all the rubber that's on the racetrack. If you look, the track will get really dark after a 30-lap run. Then watch it a couple laps during caution.

It looks brand new and shiny and gray again. We've seen it many years at Dover, but now this racetrack, it does it right off, you know, it does it and it's a tire thing that it lays down rubber, but it lays down rubber that gets picked back up. So it's not, it's just, it's just greasy. Is it getting picked back up because cars are running? Yeah, so your hot tires. Yeah, yes.

So instead of us going through the corners, sliding and continuing to lay down more rubber, I don't know that we're laying down that much rubber because they're not wearing. But anyway, our tires then are hot. So then it's like a, it's like taking a piece of duct tape and rolling it around your hand and trying to get the lint off your shirt.

So we're doing that, but with the track surface. We're constantly rolling and it's picking up all that hot, greasy rubber and putting it back on the tire, which then is why you see us swerving so much to get all that back off of our tires. Because if we didn't clean our tires, we'd go in to turn one on a restart and just go dead straight. Yeah, man, we're making some serious progress. When you can relate the super technical racing to picking up the blint on your t-shirt, big time. All right. Thanks, Jared.

So that was Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain. That was beef number one. Not that big of a deal. But beef number two, Austin Cindrick and Austin Dillon. And before the show started, you were really digging into this. Well, only because some big accusations were thrown out there, right? From Austin Dillon. And again, I'm in the race car.

I have no idea what's going on. guys were racing for 13th and 14th. But I ran down here because I'm like, I got to get my car, I got to keep my computer charged because I want to see this on SMT. SMT is the day that I tweeted out last week. And I looked at it on SMT because AD has said publicly that it's the same as what happened. I mean, the easiest way to just kind of look at the two car from previous laps. Like, they're going down the straightaway, right? So he should be holding a steady wheel straight. And first thing I looked at, before I looked at the steering, and it was like, the two car, I was like, whoa, where's he going?

Like, through the middle, like, there was no room really between the three and the 47. Like, I didn't know where he was going anyway, even if he wasn't mad at the three. But then I went back a few laps. I'm like, why is he? if it was intentional, why was he piss? And then you look back several laps before. I think it's six laps before. It was during the quick cautions that we had.

The three car, like, he pulled a slider, but it wasn't even a slider. He gave the two actually a fair amount of room. And then you saw the two go down the back straightaway and just kind of like rub up against the three's door. and it was like, oh wow, you were mad at that, I guess. And then he tried to put it in a hole that was not there. And then he turned left.

Now, was it as much as chases or Bubba's? No, but down the straightaway, he turned left on the three. Now, it looks different and it definitely does not look as egregious because of 47 cars there. So this 47 car caught the 3 car. It would have been a head-on impact if the 47 car wasn't there. The 47 said after the race that he thought he didn't quite understand why the two hooked the right rear of the 3 car. And you go back and you look at it and it's like, oh man, like that doesn't look good.

Is it as egregious? No. But there's no reason to be turning left there. I mean, especially you're one week after the whole chase thing. You know NASCAR is on a heightened alert. Like, what do you? That's just a lapse in judgment by Cindrick. What are you doing?

Like, if you're mad at them, just go in the next corner and bump into the back of them. Like, you don't have to wreck them, but, like, just bump them. By the way, you've already shown your displeasure before. You've already done it once. And now he just took it. get to another level and it's just I don't know why these guys aren't learning that NASCAR has drawn a line in the sand

so what are you doing this for? Why are you even making it close? It just doesn't look good. I just don't like it for sure. Can you see Austin Dillon's traces is he staying straight down the straight away there? Because in the replay in the video right? Because people don't have access

to this SMT data. In the video, there's a brief, very brief moment. It looks like Austin, I guess both people are called Austin, named Austin, so Cindrick, the two car, cuts down to the left, very briefly.

But also it looks like AD is just drifting up the track ever so slightly, which I think leads to Clint Boyer arguing that, you know, this looked like a racing deal. Yes. And I see both sides.

of it. I do. But if you didn't know, you would say it's a racing deal. But the two cars clearly miffed at the three car. So, and he, you shouldn't be turning left on the straightaway. I just, I don't, I don't agree with that. And trust me, I'm, I'm just sensitive to it because I know that if the three hits head on there, it hurts. It's not a, it's not a good thing. And he would have, right entering turn one there if the 47 car wasn't there. So will NASCAR look at, you know, they said they're going to look at it? Do they take the severity of the incident in the factor? I'm sure they will.

But certainly, there was some intent behind it. Now, I don't know that he was like, all right, I'm going to right rear hook the three into the fence here. But that was the result. Well, what does the eye test say? What is your gut on how NASCAR responds to this? Because as you said, there is a line in the sand, but this incident seems way closer to that line than the previous two incidents.

I wish I had a better answer for you. I don't know. This would be one of those, it would be one of those where it's like, I see what you're doing here. I see what you were trying to do. But the result was the same. so is while it may not be as egregious and the in the wreck was not as severe,

the intent was there. So it's a tough spot. It is a tough spot. I don't know. My gut says they won't do anything. But is that right? I don't know that that's right. Is there room to make officiating calls on this during the race

since you have that SMT data? They could, but man... Is that better than... I mean, I'm sitting here, Jared, 24 hours later, and, like, I'm still like, I don't know, right? I mean, you just don't know. And then, you know, they're trying to get this race going. It's running way over time anyway.

They're just trying to do the best they can to get this show on the road. like we're you can't hold up the race and just have run us under caution because you're you're trying to officiate this now if you had a designated person to it first of all you're gonna they're gonna say oh well that's just a racing deal right but then you've got to hear AD saying wait a minute no that's bullshit oh so that means I need to look into this like it's just it that takes a time and it's process which is why NASCAR doesn't hand out penalties till a day or two after because they they got to take all the factors in play Well, speaking of SMT data, teams did not have it for a portion of this race as we lost power mid-race. They were under caution for quite a while. When you're in the car, obviously Chris Gapart tells you, hey, I have no data on the pitbox. I need you to give me as much information as possible. How does that change racing for you or does it? It doesn't change it a lot for me, but it definitely changed it for the teams.

I saw where NASCAR or someone posted that this was a first. fiber issue that was outside the racing track. I know that Gateway actually had the lights blow out a few years ago, and so you're like immediately thinking, oh, they got a grid problem or something, but it sounds like there was something outside of their control. It changes it for the race teams a lot, though. So like when you're making strategy calls, I saw Rodney Childers' comments, you know listen I don't he's like I didn't have any SMT no no lapse on tires or fuel so he's trying to make a strategy call now again we're all in the same boat but a lot of times when he make strategy calls it's because you're looking at the list of well who's got tires when's the last time they pitted

how many tires did they take how many laps on fuel can they go and you take all that information and you put it in a pot and you stir it up and you say all right here's the best move for me And so when you're riding blind like that, you really don't know who's in front of you and what strategy they're on. So it doesn't, it won't make your, uh, your call as informed as what it would be normally. Now hear me out. I'm reading Rodney's tweet right now. And all these things he's, he's mentioned in no timing and scoring, no SMT, no lapse on fuel or tires, no communication with engineers at the shop. All of that was extremely frustrating. Would racing be better if you'd, didn't have that on a regular basis? No. I don't think so. You can't go backwards, right? That's like saying, man, if we didn't have

our cars so low to the ground and all the cars running the same speed, we'd have great racing. Well, what do you want us to say, all right, let's forget all the knowledge that we've learned? You know, the communication back at the shop and engineers, so likely they're on some sort of intercom system with the shop. They each, you know, a lot of the big teams have war rooms where they're looking at the race, they've got data and information, and they can give Rodney a heads up of, hey, the data shows or the simulation shows that we probably should pit here or not pit here, or take two or fuel only. They give him an outsider's perspective, because if you ask any crew chief that's ever been suspended, they say, man, when you take me away from the

racetrack, I've got so much more information. So they really rely on the guys that are not in the bubble of the racetrack to give them level-headed information. I mean, F-1, they have it, race teams have it. That's hard to make us go back on and say, well, we shouldn't be communicating because telling people that they... Well, maybe not communicating, but if you had less data to go by, wouldn't teams be further apart in what they're doing? Yes, but you're telling us to now to not have data?

I'm just hypothetically. obviously this is never going to happen they're never going to take your computers away at the track and say here go race but if they did it's not going to make that big of a difference it really won't because it shows even with the data that we do have teams think strategies are different for them

like the five cars stayed out he was the only one that stayed out and took two tires on that pit stop he wasn't the only there was others but they got mixed into the field. We never took two tires throughout the day. We just didn't think it was right for us. So, I mean, it's just, everyone's got a different answer to the same equation.

Break rotors. This was another hot topic yesterday. Carson Hosevar, we'll get to that eventually. Carson Hosevar lost a brake rotor. Both of your 2311 cars lost a brake rotor. And there's one other guy in the field that lost one throughout the day. But what is the cause of this? it depends i mean sometimes it can be too hot sometimes it can be too cold you would think in the 2311s

uh boat it's hard to speculate i mean we don't i've got my competition meeting there 45 minutes i got to get going um it's it's it's tough to say theirs was right you know the 23s was right after restart so you wouldn't think it'd be too hot uh but was it after a red you all know right so i think every driver's process or each team's process to either keeping their brakes hot or cold under caution is different. We just got to digest it. I don't know what their strategy was with tape for the breaks, whether they were too hot, too cold. I don't know. It's really hard for me to say because I'm not informed right here in the moment, but a lot of things could cause them to to blow out. You would think down the long straightaways they would cool back off. So we saw it with the four car.

They blew one last year. I think they blew a right rear and he hit hard in turn three. But man, when you're jammed up behind people and you use, you know, you got to think about that we're going so fast down the straightaway and we're using so much break that it's something that's causing these rotors to explode. And also remember, sometimes these teams are using different break packages. So it's not a uniform break package that we have to run at Gateway. You have a, I don't know, a lighter weight intermediate version or you have a short track version. And one weighs more than another. So as a team, you're kind of debating, well, do I want to have good breaking performance or do I want to have less weight and be able to put the weight where I want it? So there's a lot

of different options there for the race teams. And you just don't know what leads into the failures that we had. Yeah, you mentioned after a red, there's a clip of Kyle Larson on Twitter slowly rolling forward during a red. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's pretty common. We do that, all the cars in the front, we would do that, about probably every couple of minutes. So you just don't want the brake pads to lock into the rotors themselves. So the pad is that clamps down on the rotor that is spinning around on the wheel. If it sits there in one place, it doesn't happen that often, but sometimes it'll seat itself to that rotor. And then when you go back green, if you didn't

slowly move, then you could have pad buildup on the rotor itself, and the next thing you know, you have a vibration. So every few minutes, all of us in the top ten, we were all doing the same thing. We would just creep forward a little bit after a few minutes, creep forward a little bit more just to keep it moving. Corey Lajoy filled in for Chase Elliott this week in the nine car.

Carson Hosevar ran Corey's seven car, who Carson was running around the top 15 until he lost the brake rotor. What do you make of those guys? They're different days and their situations. I thought Carson did a great job, a good opportunity for him. And, you know, it definitely, you know, he's got a lot of good upside. He's definitely starting to run better in the trucks. And I saw he made some really good self-aware comments about himself this past week.

And again, I think he's a very, very. very high talent, high ceiling type of driver. He really is. And not having any next-gen experience or anything like that going out there and running competitively is good. And it shows, too, that that seven car is pretty good. As far as I'm aware, and from the information I've been given, the 7,77 and 477 are all on the same plan with Chevy. So I think that those three all get the same information. So technically you would think that all three of those should run the same.

Now the 47's running better than all of them. But they probably have slightly more funding. Maybe they have a few more engineers or something that help make the data that they do get a little bit better. But I think they're all on the same engine plan from Hendrick. And they also get technical information as well. So there you have it. It's not like the seven's been awful. They've definitely taken a step forward this year for sure,

but the 47's taken the biggest jump. And he had another great run going this weekend where he was going to finish in the top 10. And then Corey Lejoy's day in the nine car? Obviously not a great day for him. Yeah, I feel bad for Corey because when you think about it, he probably had super high expectations. for himself and I think that it's not fair to judge based off of one race.

That's just my opinion. I think that, listen, when I watched his car in during practice, that thing was a handful. It's not like, you know, that any of the hindered cars were a ball of fire by any means. Now, the five, you know, got better throughout the race. The 48, I think probably was running about 12th, 10th, somewhere in that range throughout the race. that's what he was capable of and then the 24 had good track position

and he was up front and the top five for the most of the race the outlier would be the nine but the nine practice was really bad and even in qualifying it was really bad and you look at like just how their car was

running down the straightaway it was just like man he's got his hands full for sure so it's um I didn't think it was a super strong track for Hendrick to begin with um so not the

best, you know, sample for Corey. But also, if you would ask Corey, he probably would say, hey, these guys are really good. Let's, you know, let's give them credit that, you know, these are really good professional race car drivers out here. And, you know, like I said for a long time, it's, these guys are pros and it's hard to do run up front, week in, week out. That's, that is just a challenge because everyone is so good.

But I know that, you know, certainly it, it was. It was humbling for Corey, but I don't think that we should put too much stock into it because it was a very tough situation. And I think that, you know, Corey still deserves to have another shot. And hopefully, you know, he'll get that shot soon. How difficult is it both as a driver and a crew chief of a car when you're like, okay, you're the crew chief. You're going to have this new driver this week. You got a couple of days to figure it out. Yeah, I mean, I guess as a crew chief, you're probably just going to lean on any your teammates' information from previous races.

Now, again, Hendrick wasn't very good there last year either. So they didn't probably have a great notebook to lean off of. Then it relies on simulation, right? Then they've got to go in the simulator and try to improve on their setup. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. And as a crew chief, you know, it's tough. I think that that teams had four different drivers in their car through the first 14 races or 15 races.

Right, that camaraderie between the driver and crew. Sure, yeah, it definitely matters for sure. Yeah. And then Kyle Busch wins his third race of the year. It holds off on a five or so restarts at the end of this thing. It's having a good year. He is. He is and he isn't, but he is.

You know, like it's like we were talking about after the race. It was just like, wow, he's got three wins. Like that's very, like, I don't know why it just sticks in my head, you know, kind of the poor runs that they've had. But when they're fast, he wins and he finishes really well. And so, Cal's just, you know, again, he's probably needs to be on the Mount Rushmore of greatest drivers. Just, you know, the numbers back it up. He is a great elite, exceptional race car driver. and I'm noticing a trend though with that RCR and 18 anywhere that Tyler Reddick run had ran well last year

they're fast anywhere that they struggled they're not good so there's something going on there that it's when Tyler ran up front Kyle's going to be good you could just bookmark it and so maybe it's you know it could be a sim thing it could be a lot of different variables but talking about Kyle's performance this weekend it was first-class elite I mean he qualified on the pole and even when he got put back in traffic he could make up a couple spots and and make speed and then on the final you know with that restart that was so crucial for me when I was the first car off pit road he was the next car off pit road it put him on the outside lane with Larson and it was so I knew the whole race came down to can I clear Larson off a turn two if I can't

I'm and I was because I didn't clear the five and the eight's back there pushing them so the five cleared me and it was game over after that and so he just was exceptional he put himself in the right spot and he just drove the wheels off of it so I'm happy for Kyle I think that he's I think this is a good Rear Reset for Kyle, even though that, like, you know, the last few years of JGR was some down years when you look at his expectations and what you expect him to do. But I think that, you know, he's, you know, he's a good dude and a great dad. And obviously he's, you know, doing a lot of racing with Brexton now, which I'm sure is, you know, great for him and Samantha. They're loving life right now and winning races. So it's great for them. And, you know, just envious of, of, of, of, you know, of. you know, what he's able to do with no matter what car he's in, he's going out there and

performing. Here's Kyle's finishes, starting with Daytona. 19th, first, 14th, 8th, 10th, 2nd, 14th, 32nd, 21st, 1st, 21st, 21st, 35th, 7th, 22, 6th. I saw a chart like that, but it was Kyle Larson's Fox was doing it. They up, down, up down, because that's what all I remember, right, is he there is content and you know what be interesting to overlay somebody all along did overlay it with uh reddick's how well he ran in the previous year at those tracks like Kyle's running really good at redick run tracks last year and when he's when whenever their setups were off it's like they didn't they're they're having trouble correcting them uh for Kyle this year so um but man they got three wins first 14 races 15 rate how

14 or 15. Anyway, hats off to them. They're building playoff points. He's solid, man. He's making that organization better, and they're going to be tough to beat when it comes down to the end of the year.

I'm curious to what fans think, because watching the races now, when Kyle wins, it just doesn't feel the same. You know, when the Eminem's car was winning, it just, that was Kyle Bush. And now when he wins a race, it just, I don't know, it's just a different feeling.

He doesn't feel as dominant. I guess the stats are showing that because it's not every week that he's up front, but I don't know. It's just interesting. It doesn't, right? It's the most undominent three win in the first handful of races that you've ever felt.

And that's what it feels like to me. But it's, he's finishing him off. Like it was one win Dega, Super Speedway? So, I mean, you know, that's different in itself. That was when I think he was supposed to come in and pit. He didn't and won. So, I don't know.

And then he had the other, then he had the dominating last run at California, where you remember Reddick was super fast at California. So, yeah, it's, it is. It's Jekyll and Hyde for sure, but it's different. It just takes a little getting used to, certainly with him and the eight car versus the 18.

We've got some questions that we want to ask We're 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 only hope

This ain't the race track So maybe you won't choke We have one dear Denny this week And this is what the majority of fans Wanted to know yesterday Is what do you and other drivers do during delays, lightning delays, rain delays, whatever kind of delay, maybe. You know, it was interesting this week because we'd only run one green flag lab.

So there was not a whole lot to talk about with the team. You try to just, you know, look around and figure out, well, let me see the restart. Let me see how it went. I felt pretty good about my car at the time because it was hotter. My car was like, oh, I think I'm going to be pretty good here. And then as soon as it cooled off and everybody was able to run so much gas, it was like, I just love it off the playing field. But what I usually do is that it usually happens after a certain amount of time in the race.

I'll just go back and I'll watch SMT like every other driver will. And I'll just kind of figure out what I need to do better as a driver and what I need more out of my car to do the things that I think I need to do. So I'll do that. But then this week it was not much. I was watching the end of the golf tournament, watching Indy car. And that was it. What about the situations where you can't get out of the car?

You're staying in the car. Well, I said on the radio during the red flag because they were like, we're not sure if it's an actual 30-minute hole or are we just sitting here for the lightning? I said, man, at my age, it's easier just to sit in here and roast than it is to get in and out of a car. Like, especially as kind of sore as I've been. Like, I'd rather just sit in there and bake versus getting in and out. But when they said, well, it's going to be 30 minutes. I'm like, all right, I guess I'll do it.

Like back in the day when we used to test all the time, I'd be the guy that would, I'll sit in there for eight hours. I mean, I didn't like it in and out of the car. I'll just sit in there, take a little naps in between changes and stuff, which,

gosh, I'm glad we don't have those days now. You're worried you wouldn't wake up? Like, you miss your alarm? I don't have to wake you up? While I'm in the car? Yeah.

No, because they drop the jack. And next thing you know, like, hey, it's time to go. Okay. But it's interesting. I would go from, like napping. I mean, I, I fall asleep in the middle of a test and they drop the jack and they're

like, you know, they're all right, let's go. I'm like, I wake up and next thing you know, I'm going into the corner 160 and I'm like, all right, let's go. And it's just, we can turn it on that quick. I noticed you had a signed IndyCar helmet upstairs. Marco. Marco gave me his. So I'm going to have to send him, not have to, but I'm going to send him one of my FedEx helmets. So yeah, the first piece of the puzzle has been delivered. Is that your first? Have you done a helmet? So I was someone before?

Yeah, Tony. Where do you keep them? In his retirement year. They're spread out. I think most of the exchange helmets I have are down near the walkway before you get to the basketball court. I thought those were just all yours. Nope. Danny, why don't you ask Jared how he didn't realize who's helmet that was?

Ask him about the conversation we had this one. I walk past it. I was printing out these sheets and I walked past it. I was like, oh, oh, there's Connor Daley's helmet. I was like, oh, no. That signature actually looks kind of like Chase Elliott's signature. No, it's an Indy car helmet, though. And it's like, oh, it says Marco on the side.

That must be Conradale's sponsor from the Indy 500. Then I walked down here and I told Travis, I was like, oh, Denny, you must have got ConnerDaley's helmet. Signature didn't really look like his, though. But it said Marco on the side. So I guess that's his sponsor or something? Hey, Jared. Andretti?

Were you part of this podcast last week when I said I had to give Marco Helms? It all clicked. But after a couple minutes. He didn't say this entire time. Like maybe Mark Andretti seems like, well, it did say Mark on the side. I'm like, yeah. Wow.

I thought it was a sponsor. Oh, sheesh. All right. I got work to do. So let's wrap this up. That's it. We're going to Sonoma next week. Oh, the bracket challenge.

We got the finals. Kislauski versus Byron in the finals. My friends in my golf league, everyone has everyone out except for me. I'm not winning in our little side league that we set up, but I'm the only one that had Byron going the whole way. So I have a chance to take the title if Byron beats Kazowski this week. So they made it to the finals of the bracket challenge.

Kazowski beat Bubba this week. Oh, my gosh. What a backdoor cover that was. ski multiple laps down. Seven cylinders. Bubba blows a rotor with six to go. Oh, man. Heartbreaker.

And then the dream team of Bowman-Berrie is out. Yeah, Bowman, Byron beat Bowman. Bowman-Berry. The Bowman-Ber. All right. You're going to give Barry the credit for the first week, right? The first two weeks. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

First two weeks, Barry carried the torch. So, all right. Who do you think? When's that? Kazowski versus on Byron? It's hard to bet against William Byron. I agree, especially road course. I mean, Kazowski's really good,

but you would just think that Byron typically qualifies pretty good and then it's going to be tough to pass there. So, yeah, looking forward to it, Sonoma. I'm going to go work on my road course skills this week and see if I can't close the gap to where I need to. But all right, got a busy week. Make sure you give us a follow. Like, like, follow, subscribe, rate a review at Dirtymo Media, at Denny Hamlin, at Jared Diy Allen.

That's it. That's all I got. That's it. We'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymoe Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.