Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - How Denny Hamlin Would Fix Superspeedway Racing

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Denny Hamlin is back on Actions Detrimental, breaking down a chaotic NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway race weekend, diving into the strategy, execution, and decisions that shaped the outcome. From green flag pit stops to fuel-saving and track position battles, Denny explains what really decided the race and why NASCAR superspeedway racing often comes down to timing just as much as speed. He also gets into what looked different from inside the car versus what fans saw on TV, and where the race started to swing out of control. Plus, first-time NASCAR Cup Series winner Carson Hocevar makes a breakthrough moment that has everyone talking, young drivers continue to shake up the field, and Denny shares his perspective on the future of NASCAR and the current superspeedway rules package. From team communication to bigger questions about race strategy and how these events are being won, this episode covers everything behind the NASCAR Cup Series weekend. If you want the raw, inside look at what’s really happening on track, this is the one. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks, Jared. Thanks, God, I was getting through this episode. Fine. And then y'all ruin it. 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. The spoils of victory for Jared. Alan. He's got better luck to drink and drink to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection of championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah. And I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental. I sound a little different because I'm a little under the weather for the last week or so. So my voice sound different.

A little bit. Sounds deeper. A little raspy. Yeah. It was all that yelling yesterday. day. It surely didn't help. I didn't do a lot of yelling. But for you, you're like, Mr. like, don't say anything on the radio. I just was doing a lot of explaining. I think we should stay out.

Take the wave. Who cares if we got a pit in five or six laps? We get the lucky dog for free for seven laps. And then if a caution comes out, we're good. If not, I thought we were going to be right back where we were anyway. I just, I was, I was trying to be the strategist. That's not my specialty. But let the record show it would have worked.

Yeah, we, boy, I at least acknowledged yesterday, well, I got us into this mess. I mean, it's just, you can't break rule number one. and under green first stop, I mean, you just can't. And so, you know, my thought process is, is one of the things I needed to improve on on Super Speedways is my pit entry under green flag during the pit cycles. So I felt comfortable that I had a good mark, a correct mark.

Just didn't quite get it wowed up. apparently. It's not one of those where I was like, oh, I know I was speeding. You said that, oh, you thought it was obvious on TV, you know? Yeah. And so did a few Denny Bros. Everybody thought it was obvious on Twitter. Really? Yes. I didn't think it was, but it definitely was. How much was that over? It doesn't matter. I could have been over about 100, but I don't think

that I ever saw a number. Yeah. Yeah, it just can't, you cannot speed. these super speedway races these days i mean they're all about execution pit stops and execution that's why you see it's running around 30 percent throttle i was stunned because also you're being told to watch out for the weeper so i thought you're going to be like extra careful going in because of the water there well i knew where i knew where the water was and i you know being the leader allows you to be more aggressive because you have all the down force on your car to help slow you down

Like when you're in a pack, you don't have so much wind slowing you down. So I thought I could be a little bit more aggressive. I knew our strategy was going to be, you know, tough because, you know, we tried to pull away from the pack there. They still could kind of latch on to us. And so I thought I needed to have a really good pit cycle, but I didn't need to have that good of a pit cycle. Did you watch the stage one back last night? what was going on there with all those different strategies it was hard to follow on tv we're trying to keep those cars from making it on one stop so you try to push the pace to force them to have to

run more throttle that's that's the gist of it um and if you can pull away from the pack that's it's a bonus uh but in the end you know the thought process is if you run really hard and pit twice, it's actually faster than someone running really slow for the entirety of 100 laps. You would still catch up back, catch back up two of them, even with an extra pit stop. But the way the draft works and these cars are so raggy that it just lets you run 20% throttle and keep up with the pack.

Yeah, because like what does it mean to pull away from the pack? because you, you know, I feel like at the widest, you were coming off turn four. The end of the pack was maybe going through three. But then by the time you got to your pit stop, you guys were all bunched up again. I don't know. Again, I see it from, in my car,

I can't see all the shit that's going on. Yeah, it just didn't look like the difference in y'all's lap times for maybe five, what, a second? Yeah. We're running all out versus guys that are running half throttle. Yeah, it's just because they can use our draft to go to the, like, they don't have to run that throttle. Again, the air that gets punched by this car is so massive,

and they're so draggy that all it takes is a little bit. of a sniff and and you can just run half throttle right behind someone that's running all out yeah that's the that's part of the problem and then the other part is you cannot pull out of line because of the drag and that's why that's why these races have become um fuel mileage savings is because you saw it in the last stage even when everyone wanted to go 100 percent it's two by two by there's nowhere to go hell i'm battling for the lucky dog he's one row up he's just one row in front of me and and it's just like i'll never get there you will not you're not going to get there there's nothing you can do to go get that spot that's 25 feet in front of you

you can't do it because i tried going high i tried going low i tried going middle there's just nowhere to go You can't pull out of line. So you have to stay in this pocket of cars and just, I guess we just wait this thing out. That's why the teams have switched their mentality to. We are just shortest time on pit road. We want to make sure we cycle to the front because we know that that's where we're going to finish

as long as we don't wreck. That's the lack of ability to pull out. out of line in this car is what has caused fuel knowledge racing to happen yeah do you think the the changes to stage one made this any better just kind of this a little bit of the same with different i mean there were some different strategies right i'm you know i was utterly f***ing you know i knew i was in trouble but i didn't yeah even on the radio i says wait am i one down about to go two or yeah

leaders right behind you I knew that was a death sentence yeah I told you on the plane I said there were three strategies in stage one the one stop strategy the two stop strategy and the two stop strategy with a path through yeah there were enough cars there were a lot right yeah because there was cars all over the damn

racetrack yeah and typically spreading out your 38 car in a 40 car field on a 200 or two and a half mile track that you know it can get quite spread um yeah it just a different tragedy it just was interesting that i know what i know why they did what they did but it just caused us to really feel save the field you know those especially the third of the field that wanted to do it on one stop for a hundred straight laps they are they are not racing they don't care anything about racing now we tried i mean the 11 the to yoreiros there's a few others we at least tried to buck the trend say f*** this man we're just gonna go and maybe we can pull

away and force these guys to come with us they came with us but with less throttle than what we anticipated yeah yeah it's the fuel savings just a scapegoat for the dragging us up the car right The fuel savings is not the issue. It's the drag in the car. Absolutely correct. That's exactly correct. I think the changing the stage breaks around the lengths was just rearranging chairs in the Titanic.

Like it just, yeah, the end was nonstop, but there was no passing. So what's it really matter? Like I don't think changing it did anything better for the race. No, I think we fuel saved the same amount that, you know, was. before. I appreciate them trying to change it though. Like I, you know, no, it did not work. At least they tried. But they tried. And I hope next time they'd try something different. My first,

my first recommendation is please cut the spoiler off this car. Please do whatever it takes. If we got to run 210, we'll run 210. It's fine. Like, I just, please get some drag out of this car. It's got hundreds of counts more than our Gen 6 car. Hundreds of counts more drag. It's just, if you let us pull out of line and know that we can come out of our pit stop

in 10th and still have a chance to win because we're going to pull out of line and make runs and shit, we won't care about the fuel savings. I promise you that. You said you're fine with going to 10. Does adding 10 miles an hour

to the speed of these cars increase the danger or yeah i mean they're more apt to lift off which that's not good for anyone i don't think anyone wants that and so you got to make some engine compromises with with the drag that comes out can you add more flaps to the card keep them on the ground i don't know man we got we got flaps everywhere um you know we're running hundreds more horsepower feels like maybe 150, I don't know. Then what they used to, the cars go slower today, but have more horsepower than they've had on super speedways.

It's just because they're the drag in this way these cars are designed. It's not, this is, this car is not designed to be super speedway racing. Yeah, I'm just asking all these questions because we had this conversation on the flight home last night. And it just feels like all the things that would be. make the racing better, there's a caveat as to why a party in the sport wouldn't want to do that. A hundred percent, right? It's, if NASCAR said, you know what, we, we agree. First, it's going to, first it's going to take them to, to agree, agree that we want, we want to see somebody, we want to see Dale Earnhardt being able to go from 17th to first in eight laps

that would never exist today. They would have to agree that they want to do something about it. Then they would have to go to the stakeholders. And the number one primary stakeholders that would have issue with this would be the engine builders because they would have to go to them and say, we need to cut the horsepower down. Now, the reason the manufacturers would have an issue with that is that they've spent lots and lots of money developing their super speedway engines at these horsepower, right? Would I, if I just had a wish and I didn't have to answer to anyone, I would say, okay, well, go to all three OEMs and say to them, we're going to put, we're going to choke these, we're going to put.

the spacer on these engines right here, down 150 horsepower because we're going to take some drag out of the cars to improve the racing. Let's just run them on the dino and see, are they close, are they still close to each other? Because right now, all three manufacturers engines on Super Speedways are within

a couple of horsepower of each other. They're very, very close. NASCAR likes that, the OEMs like that. So in order to to reduce the horsepower, you've got to put the spacer on, within that dramatic, that could dramatically affect one manufacturer or another of their horsepower curves at a lower horsepower versus where it is now. So my thing is like, let's just do it and run it on the dino and say,

are they all still within a couple? If they are, let's just ship it. Let's just say, fine. That works. It's good. Someone's got one or two horsepower. It's fine. Like, it's worth it to improve the Super Speedway racing, in my opinion. And there's just never, it's never too late to make a right decision.

You also mentioned that you could add the spacer, the tapered spacer, to the engines you currently got, but it would decrease the reliability of the motor. Yeah, yeah. And that also would be a concern for the manufacturers is that I don't know. Maybe if you choke down the horsepower a little bit, you know, you're starving the thing of more airs. I don't know. There likely could be other repercussions to doing that to the current engine. And maybe, yes, they would have to make some other changes. to the engine to accommodate the smaller spacer.

But if we talk about, and I heard Steve O'Donnell say, you know, where we want the sport to be in five years, I can tell you right now, I don't want to do this for another five years. Like, rewind the podcast from how long have I been doing this? Year four? Is it? For the last three years, I've said, please let's not neglect that we have a Super Speedway racing issue.

you can't pull out of line in these cars, not without a train of people behind you. So we've been saying it for years, and it's like, I just wanted to change. And I'm impatient, and I know there's tons of stakeholders that would say, pump the brakes. It's not that easy,

and I totally get that. But I want us to start on it right now, not tomorrow. Well, Steve O'Donnell's got a golden opportunity in front of him, is that he can, he's the new CEO, right? he can now say, I want to change this. And fans would be, drivers would be all behind him. And it feels like it could be one of those things that, I don't know,

changes the narrative. And again, he's going to be at the mercy, you know, as he probably knows, and we'll find out in this position of your major stakeholders. And if he has all three OEM saying, absolutely not, there ain't nothing he can do about that. there's no well i'm we are going to do it because he needs those manufacturers in the sport needs them to be happy you know we're we're we're not in a fragile place but we're not in a but surely though in an iron fist era but surely these manufacturers aren't watching this thinking

that was awesome you know like oh we we're loving what we're seeing they they too have to know that it's not amazing and that we kind of need to do something about we're at the we have the power yeah i mean and it's i'm at driver intros and and i hear this group talking that group talking i'm talking to a few people here and there and it's like every every driver's saying the same thing He's like, I got to run to what they, as fast as they tell me to run. You know, oh, too much throttle. Nope, not enough throttle. Like, it just, this is not what, this isn't what it was designed to be.

And it's just a byproduct of the car has too much drag. You fix the drag, you fix the fuel mileage. You'll still have people saving fuel, but not. it's not going to be like it is now where once you come out 10th on that final stop you're cooked you will not you're not going to contend all you can do is just push your line forward hopefully maybe there's a little bit of a dust up you don't lift during the dust up and somehow can get through there like there's just that's the only way um it's just very very hard 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.dirtymodemedia.com to see what we have. I mean, we were all very optimistic in the, in the Denny Bros chat that you were going to get your lap back and then slice your way through the field. I don't think anyone was a slice.

I was hoping for cautions and then he could just get close enough and get like a top five or something. You know what was funny? I'll tell you what was funny. Is the last four people that I was battling for the Lucky Dog were at the tail end. When I finally got to the lead lap, I'm like,

oh, he got the Lucky Dog three cautions ago, two cautions ago, one ago. Nobody went anywhere. Yeah. They were just at the back. Just where am I got to go? Also, it was funny that that last green flag run, you were the only car.

our lap down. And then Lambert comes down. I know. The 42 blending. And then the 42 blends in the pack and is ahead of you for you know, a handful of laps. You're racing him side by side. It's just... I'm not taking blame for the speeding though, Jared.

No, that's on me. Yeah, Jared trying to blame me for that. Well, I... You weren't manifesting. You weren't manifesting. What was he supposed to manifest? Yeah, what... It's just... boo-hooing, you know, like,

Ron's in the chat. We're all supposed to be positive. Jared, I boo-hooed my way to a national championship. I can, I don't need to manifest. Ron does, Ron's pretty, no show during the race. We have to, we have to think about the big picture here. Okay. Let's just

think, let's, let's just think about us for right now. Okay. Our path, our path to the prize, we're still on schedule. Yeah. We had to, we had to, you know, ease the bleeding on road courses and super speedways. That's where we had to ease the bleeding, right?

To keep us in the top three in the regular season, we're on pace. You only lost five points from going into this week. Redick only extended by five points against you. By the way, that might be the most, the best race team at fixing shit that I've ever seen. His car was destroyed. Still finished 14th.

Right in front of me. And by the way, he couldn't go more than about 10 laps before he blow another tire. He was dragging so much shit. Like, I could just see, you know, the sparks. Oh, that's right. He was a solo caution too. I know. Yeah, yeah.

I forgot about that. Andy stayed on the lead lap with that. He couldn't run more than about 10 laps. And so the race just played out perfectly for them to limp this thing home. It was amazing. And stretch his point lead. The real MVP for the 11 team, I think, was Lambert yesterday. Yeah.

Yeah, it was really good. And he's good about navigating and stuff. And I found just the best thing that works for me is just stay where I'm at, try to slow down as quick as possible. No bobbing, no weaving. You know, if you get run into by somebody coming down on the track, that's fine. It's just, yeah, it's.

It's, um, he did a really good job. I couldn't see anything. I don't know how Lambert saw anything. He's, he's spotting you over the radio. Like he sees the whole picture down the lane, down the lane, up lane. I would love to see his perspective. His POV of that wreck and tell me what you really saw. Are you just saying stuff to?

Because you got to realize it's over a mile away for him. And he's on binoculars. And there's smoke and there's dirt. was he lambert were you just fudging it what else here we got first time winter in and carson hose bar two first two first no well three three if you want to count arco yeah let's just start with the cup race was squirrel mcnutt they won i wish no um what we starting with the cup race carson hosovar

I tell you, I was really happy for him. I still am. Really, really am. I just, you know, the two winners of the weekend, Corey Day and Carson, Carson Hosevar, are probably the two that get the most flack in their respective series. God, my voice sounds terrible. But you would argue now,

you know, remove a few months ago. Now, to this point, maybe the two that have the highest ceiling in the respective series. So I just, I think we thought that Carson could win. I think the speedways is still his best opportunity to win, but he's starting to show it on all the other racetracks as well. I just think that, you know, this could be a moment in where he's now tasted victory.

He understands it. You're not pressured by when are you going to do it? And now I think that it gives him the ability to have the confidence if you ever even liked any. I don't think he lacked any. But it could unleash like even more speed out of them, more. more bold moves. You just, you never know. But I think that it's a fantastic win for him in the sport.

I think, you know, the way he celebrated was fantastic. It really got the crowd involved. I don't have anything negative to say at all. I just think that it was a great win for him. And certainly I thought a great win for the sport because you got some new blood in there. You've been pumping these young guys that you want to promote us, the new face of the sport. And I think that he's going to be part of that short list that carry the sport for quite some time.

Yeah, he's a race, he's a race winner now. And all, you know, it feels like all the criticism against him over however, however long it's been, has been like, oh, well, he's doing this and this. And he hasn't won. He hasn't won. But now he's, he's a race winner. And, you know, you're just starting to see a little bit of evolution on the racetrack. And I see it.

I'm on the racetrack with him. There were times at Bristol when we were racing, and I was very nervous that he was just going to run right into me. He's on the bottom lane. You know, coming up, I'm on the top, and I'm like, every time we get to the corner exit, it's like we get here. And it's like, I just knew.

I'm like, he's going to f***ge this. Eventually he's going to misjudge it, and he's going to hook me right in the inside wall. And he never did. He just kept in control of his car at all times. And I told him after that race, it's like, man, that's some good driving. Like you made, you know, really good runs in the long run there on the Bristol at the bottom. Like, he's, he's really, he's really impressed with me, no doubt.

Yeah, one hell of a celebration. That was. Yeah, that was good. And it was exciting. Have you ever thought of a celebration? Like, that? No. It's just, no.

No. I mean, very creative, though. Like, I'd be interested to know from him is, like, had he planned on, like, that's how I'm going to do it? Or did he win and then say, okay, let me think about what I'm going to do now. Like, I'd be interested to know, was that, was that plan to be half in, half out of the car and stuff? He said, he referenced a deal. He's got long enough legs that still touch the pedals. Right.

That's what I say I think I can touch the pedal and get out and see the fans at the same time. Yeah. And I heard him say that, you know, the, they get to see the crowd, but the crowd never gets to see them. Celebrate, right, when they're doing it. Right. So smart. I mean, I'm envious. It was really good. Really, really good. What else we got from? Have you talked with the 20 team yet? Will you, or do you think Gail will? Or what will the, what will the meeting, competition meeting be like? because they stayed out? Yeah. It's just a lack of awareness, I think,

and it could be a lack of communication that created the lack of awareness. I just, all I know is how 2311 operates in their war rooms and communications to both teams, when they're trying to get one of their cars back on the lead lap to, again, have another bullet in the gun. They surely would make sure that one of their cars is not the one car that's not the one car

that stays out. Like, that was where I was definitely surprised to see that the only car that stayed out. I guess the argument for them would be, well, we want track position. My counter to that, he was already in the top three or four. He had his track position. You know, maybe he's thinking like we're saying on this podcast, well, ain't nobody going to pass. So if I start in the front row, I'm going to finish. one, two, in the stage.

Maybe that was their thought process because they did, you finished second. But is it worth, to me I was confused, I was like, yeah, but your other three cars are one lap down. You're forcing all of us to battle each other to get back on the lead lap

where you can get one back on the lead lap now for free. Then your other two can battle to get back on the lead lap. Now you got three on the lead lap, the next caution. Instead, you still got one. I couldn't understand that one, but you can't be too critical of,

I don't know that the 20 team is keen on what the hell the 11's doing or anything like that. But that's up to someone in the higher positions has to make everyone aware what's going on. Hey, the 11 is staying here hoping to get the wave around. Make sure none of our cars are the ones that stay. That's just a general. you got to come over the command center and say that. Is that normal though? Because why should the 20 team care that the 11 or the 19 are a lap down?

Like they made mistakes on pit road. They're a lap down because of themselves. Why should I make any calls in this race that aren't advantageous to me to let them back in it? Yes, they're my teammate. But like... Yeah, just because of the teammate thing, I mean, you've hopefully given enough deposits with your teammates throughout the, year enough wave bys to say come on by do this you know that that that you get that back that's why

and it says on the wall one team at jr and as as a team i'm just saying as a team owner 2311 i don't know again i'm not as keen on jgr i know that there is no way as a team owner i won as many bullets in the gun as possible if i got i have the choice of having one car on the lead lap or a multi-term cars on the lead lap, do what you got to do to get the multiple, as long as it's not crazy adverse to you. Mm-hmm. You know, I thought that if Bell was going from, he's going to stay out because he's going to go from 20th to first by staying out. I see that. I do because it is very, very tough to pass.

And that was going to be his moment to get the track position and, you know, change. change his race, but I thought he was already up front. Yeah, I guess too. I'm thinking selfishly, right? Because I just feel like, oh, man, come on, that was an easy one to let us back on the lead lap. I mean, if you're going to let anyone back on the lead lap, you let your teammate back. Because at the end of the race, guess what, guess who you need is people pushing you, teammates. Yeah, well, one time that you could have gotten back on the lead lap, the four team did not let you back on the

And Travis and I went back and looked at the radio before this started. They intentionally, well, the radio communication was like, hey, if we stay out here, we can keep some cars from taking the wave around. Really? Yeah. And this is the same front row team that I let back on the last lap, let back on the lead lap last week. This was the four team. So technically not. No, I said the same organization.

but yeah really yeah the same one that i threw a bag of king's hawaiian coconut ube rolls too before the race too okay i wasn't appreciated well when it comes back around when i go to lap no at one of these races i'll make sure i have no mercy then i mean that's just make sure we show denny the the transcript traves because i don't i mean that's just yeah whatever it's it's whatever it's that's the crew chief's decision. No, it didn't make that decision. Group you did.

Right. Yeah. But it's, you know, it all comes around. You know, it, again,

it's, you try to do the little favors here and there to try to, you know, respectfully get those back and because you'll need it at some point. And, you know, you just, you remember.

Meanwhile, NASCAR just allowed Todd Gillen to get the wave around when they shouldn't have and admitted that they just. Todd Gillen's been getting some nice ones. How does that happen? though. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't.

I just saw it on the internet that he got lapsed back when he shouldn't. And then for them to come up like, yeah, we did it. Our bad. Keep racing. I mean, you know, beyond that, which absolutely, you know, while I'm going ahead and, you know, getting fired up that, that y'all said they did it intentionally. How fucking stupid of it of them knowing you can't pass. anyone to just say, all right, fine, we're going to take our penalty and pit under when the

pit lanes closed and start behind all the lap cars and stuff. You can't pass anyone. It's just stupid call. What else from this to take a race? A hell of pile up that was near, near the most cars ever caught a car. You just didn't think, you didn't think it was like, I didn't when when Ross came and pushed Bubba I just I didn't see that one coming you know what I mean now I will say where he got to him was that part of the track where it's very very bumpy there's a there's a tunnel back there is that where the haulers well it's where the haulers cross and and there's a tunnel no that's the turn two no it is it's the haulers, tunnels turn two. So turn three, there's a big bump, and there's a patch where they patched the racetrack,

and it's quite bumpy there. And you always have to be very aware not to push once when someone starts going over that, because again, their car's starting to go up and down. And when you're pushing it, it really could call something. And it looked like he got to him right where that bump is in three and four, because it didn't look very egregious from a, you know, eyeball. standpoint, but it, I mean, it turned them quickly. Yeah, I'm trying to see exactly

where this is on the track. It's not a wide enough camera angle. No, no kidding. That's another thing. We zoom into the headlights again. That was another issue that fans had with yesterday was the broadcast. Yeah, I might as well settle in for the long haul. It's almost, what do you mean? We're almost to the point where we're switching TV?

providers. Yeah, I'm just saying that there's, yeah, nothing's changing much there. They still love to zoom in to, I'm not really sure. But yeah, usually the water camera angles can give you some more options when it comes to that stuff. Anything else on the cup race at Talladega? The cup race? No. I mean, I just, I usually come in the bus and kind of look at the time and scoring afterwards and I saw like, you know, all the names that, you know, I have highlighted on my time in scoring, you know, these are the guys that, you know, constantly week in, week out, I'm looking, I want to see what third lifetimes are, how do I compare it to them? They were all at the bottom of the sheet, like the, the monitors, you know, vertical. And at the very bottom

are all the people that I have highlighted on a weekly basis. And I'm like, damn, they all got in that big wreck. I did take out a lot of the big ones. Yeah. I guess the only, the only thing I'll say about the Carson Hosefar win is that my question now going forward will aspire be able to keep the speed that they've shown that's put Carson Hosefar in these winning types of positions because you saw a similar trajectory with Ross a few years ago right he comes on the scene he's very brash very aggressive he wins he's smashing watermelons on the front stretch fan popularity goes through the roof but now track house is not performing well and Ross is kind of an afterthought.

Will Hosevar have a similar trajectory that where Spire will fall off and Hosevar will start running mid-pack in the 20s again and then his popularity will dwindle or the spire going to continue to keep their speed and Carson will continue to climb in popularity and NASCAR will reap the benefits. Well, you hope it's the latter. You hope that this is the start of something that, you know, this is the start of something that you know, really could, you know, he gets a lot of engagement, right? I mean, he gets a lot of views, lots of engagement. So, you know, he's, he's, he's not Cleves to McFarland, but he's, you know, he's as close as you can get popularity wise on social media, right? So if you can have someone

that's winning and has a really strong following, then that's, that's your star power right there. So, you know, he's got, he's got a head star. of it now if the performance follows then that's where you can really get someone that that can help elevate the sport yeah uh Corey day Corey day wins the Xfinity race on on Saturday I got to admit I didn't I didn't I didn't see one corner one lap okay apologies well Corey didn't put a steering wheel wrong coming to the checker just yeah I got to see some highlights but But yeah, this is a fantastic win for Corey and just what an improvement he's made. I mean, we're only one week removed from when you said, you said.

Nara, was it you? What did I say? I said, oh, caution's out. All I, because I can see in my bus. Oh, no, it wasn't me. It was Charlie. Cautions out. It was Charlie.

and someone in the bus said, I bet Corey Day wrecks somebody. And the TV's about 15 seconds behind. And here it comes. It's like, oh, my God. What if he did? We're only one week away removed from that. But let's just...

I mean, we're only five weeks away from when everyone was saying it. But, but, Jared, what I'm saying is, is that I've started to see enough glimpse. of other things that is making me turn the corner saying, okay, I'm starting to see something here, right? So I think he's still going to have those moments, certainly, where he's going to have a steep learning curve. I think he still has some moments that he's going to have to learn when it comes to kind of the racecraft,

when to push, when to not, the relationship that you have with your competitors, there's got some stuff to learn there. But as far as getting speed out of the car, I'm liking what I'm seeing. What do you... I'm liking what I'm seeing there. What do you use to judge a young driver,

like a Corey Day, that you know that he's in superior equipment? Yeah. So, like, how do you judge and, like, okay, this kid has it versus he might be good, but I know that he's in the... the best equipment to like to equate if he's going to be a good cup driver it's very very hard to tell nowadays i mean you know if we're being honest about the lower series there's i don't know 60% of the drivers that are paying for the rides maybe more it's a big big big number

which scares me about the long term of the cup series because it's like where's you're where you're going to get your talent from. So that scares me a little bit, but there's just things, Travis, that you can see. There's just moves that drivers make that as a driver I know, that's really hard to do. That's where you can kind of identify, you know, where Corey Day is at, where he was

versus where he's at now. and I'm saying, he's making moves that is very difficult and he's pulling them off. That's where you're starting to see that the head tilt of, hmm, okay. I'm starting to believe you

where before it was, where there was lots of wrecking and no performance. I think we've taken care of one of those. The wrecking himself is reduced. Okay. The wrecking of others, it's reduced. But that can all get cleaned up. I think certainly I've seen enough from Corey to say that he's peak in my interest, no doubt about it. And I think that I think anyone in the Cup series or anyone in NASCAR would be foolish to think this is kind of

one-off thing. I think this is going to be the, you know, he's, by the end of the year, I suspect he'll be one of the favorites, week and him, week out. Do you think we could see him move up next year? Next year? Yeah. Oh, man, that would be quick. I wouldn't advise that, but, um, I mean, you never know. You didn't see it because you didn't watch a single lap of the ex-finney race, but there was a moment. I It was like 40 to go. It was after a pit cycle. Where Algae, one of your J.R.M cars, Travis.

I did see that. And Jesse Love, I think, is just weaving in and out down the backstretch. I'm glad NASCAR made that call. And we've always said that, like, even when it comes to, like, rough driving or something, remember when like a Bowman Gray, when we were just flat,

people would just go in there and wreck each other. It was like, man, if you just call it once, just call it once. It sucks for whoever that is that did it. But just call it once. It'll get the attention of everyone else. And it will then police itself. It certainly got the attention of the cup drivers when they made that call.

And Elton addressed it during the driver's meetings. Like, you know, get to turn three. Go wherever you want to go. But not down the backstretch. The speed is just a bad spot. the speed difference between the cars coming off a pit road and the ones that are already on the track. It's just too great when you're on the backstretch. So he's saying, come off, turn two, keep it low, or whatever lane you're in, you've got to just stay in a lane. Don't weave. And

Justin and the one definitely was weaving and try to block when cars were going 15 miles an hour quicker than them. That's absolutely an unsafe condition. So right call. Are we going to talk about Yorker race? If you want, sure. I don't know. I didn't see a, like you, I didn't see a lap of the New Yorker race. I saw the final few. I mean, Cletus was just one solid move away from actually winning.

He had all the help behind him, but he was so concerned with the car that was on the inside of the trialable that, you know, it was like the, it was like the, the me and Joe Lagan thing at at uh california to their and then cowbush remember when me and him wreck and cow was just blew by us both on the outside it's basically what happened is he had all the help behind him and he probably hears or sees that car he goes down he's trying to block it meanwhile the guy that was about to push him just goes on by about on the outside and wins the race so um he's getting closer I mean, certainly it looks like he's more in control of his car now than he's ever been. I think the track time is doing him well. And I think the Arca series is doing him well.

So it's working. I'd say just keep on that train and keep running Arca as much as you can at all types of racetracks. And yeah, I thought it was a fun race to watch just simply because, you know, from my standpoint. He was in it and could you could you possibly see this amateur driver go out there and win this race? ARCA, man, anything's possible.

I should be the new slogan. You signed Tyler Reddick to an extension. That deal's done. Yeah. Happy to get that done. He's, you know, be here for a very long time and I said for a long time. He deserves everything he gets. You know, he's he's performing at a

very, very high level. He's got 100. point lead in the cup series. He's just kicking ass. And we're very happy that he's going to be in that 45 for some time. How's this work? So I know like in football, bass, whatever,

there's a gym and the owner kind of up. Like, are you in these, like who's in these negotiations with a driver in their representation? I was in charge of this one. So it was just you and Tyler's agent? Mm-hmm. That's right.

Okay. I'm just curious. Yeah. What are a unique situation? Yes. but hey my man got the bag i look out for my guys just one brings truck backed up or multiple he's buying dinners i can assure you that um are nasker drivers athletes some summer athletes what do you can did you hear stephen a smith i i heard enough um jerry

go on your little get i know youtube sports science no no no No. What is an athlete? Give me the definition of an athlete. Because what we, I think what we're saying is, is an athlete able to do athletic things, athletic being sports, track and field? Athlete is a person proficient in sports games or forms of physical exercise that require to a varying degree strengths, agility, or stamina. That's a long definition. Okay. Under that definition, I say yes, NASCAR drivers are athletes.

I have seen many NASCAR drivers do very unathletic things outside of a race car, but that's not what their bodies are trained to do. When you train for specific sport for most of your life, your body gets trained to be able to do that. and what you know why i say what we do is athletic is that there's jared or you or not you would never be able to go sit in that car this weekend in talladega that is the least physically demanding racetrack we go to by i'll buy quite a ways you would not be able to sit in that car and do what we do turn that wheel sit in that heat maintain the g-forces you just your bodies are not trained to do that um so we're athletes in that sense but it does not mean that we are necessarily athletic so i don't totally disagree. By definition, I think we, that you just said, it was the stamina, it was, what is it?

Degrees of strength, agility or stamina. Strength, agility, stamina. The strength and the stamina is the part that no casual person would be able to do our jobs. And that's, so if you're going to use that part of the definition, we are absolutely athletes and he's incorrect. But I think what's happened is that people have equated the big four sports, the hockey, baseball, football, basketball. That's athletic. Track and field.

That's athletic. Run, jump, throw. That's right. And so I think that if you're, if, if, if, that's what your mindset is that you have to be able to do those things to be athletic. then no, I don't, I think that there are some in NASCAR, like at the ARCA level that are, you know, I've seen them. They're athletic. They can run.

They can jump. They can do a lot of shit that my body can't f*** you. I don't know that I'm, I don't think I'm athletic. But nobody can run around that racetrack as fast as I can. Well, Chad GBT is on your. your side. NASCAR drivers absolutely qualify as athletes. They just compete in a different kind of sport where physical endurance, precision, and mental toughness are combined with high-speed engineering. Yeah. So I, but I'm not going to, I will not be the person that pounds like

gets up in arms on social media because of Stephen A saying this. Like, the guy has hot takes every day. Like, you know, we don't have to agree with them. Right. But we don't all. so I have to be the one like gasping. Oh my God, I can't believe he said that. That's why I found funny. Some people were like, I don't know who he is. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Are you offended? Stop being some fended.

Has some thick skin. Yeah. We know plenty of people with hot takes. Huh? I said, we know plenty of people with hot takes. Right? Yeah. You go Stephen A. Steve O'Donnell. It's the new CEO of NASCAR with Jim.

friend stepping down yeah it's um we we thank jim for his service and now we move forward um you know jim uh came in under some different uh difficult circumstances and with brian and um you know tried to balance the emsus thing and you know a lot of a lot of where we're at is was was jim's vision and what he wanted and um now we see you know with odonnell in charge now and you know i still don't exactly know i mean we know in December we found out like you have these people in charge it was the steve phelps and all but in the end they had to always go to the board to to to get things approved and whatnot. And if Jim's still the chairman of the board, you know, I don't know how much he's willing

to relinquish. That'd be, you know, a question that will probably get answered over a long period of time. But, you know, we thank Jim for all the things that he did to, you know, to help the sport. And obviously he was, did a lot of things that, that the garage 56 thing, that, you know, were things that he wanted to do to help kind of get NASCAR in that Lamar race. And there's there's been positives and negatives to everyone's leadership. And I certainly, you know, I certainly, you know, had issues with some of it.

You know, the charter negotiations and the way that, you know, that got handled was not in my mind correct, which is why we went as far as we did. But, you know, I think that Steve will do a very good job. I think he's very receptive. And I hope that I hope it's not just a title for him. I definitely hope that the France and Kennedy family really give Steve the autonomy to run it as he sees fit. And if, you know, you want to, you want to, you know, get rewarded or, fail on your own terms, right? You don't want to have to do it, you know, say that, well,

what I, this thing I try to do failed because they wouldn't let me do it. Like you want to, you want to be able to have the autonomy to steer the ship in the right direction. And I think Steve has some good ideas and he's definitely willing to get feedback from others on how to get the sport growing in a positive light. And so, you know, again, I talked about we're not in a fragile state, but we're not in a powerful state right now. We, we've got to, we've got to get this thing turned around. I thought the crowd this weekend was very good, right? I looked in the stance.

Very good crowd. We just got to keep some positive momentum. Carson hosts for our winning, I think it's positive momentum. We'll see where it goes. I'm very optimistic. It's a positive change, nonetheless. I think so. Another positive change here, some late breaking news.

Andy Street will assume crew chief responsibilities for the number eight Chevrolet. Oh, shi. Really? Yeah. Oh, Jesus. Jim Pullman moving into a leadership role with an RCR's competition department.

Has Andy Street been on that car? I feel like these guys are on and they're off and on and they're off. Now, wait a minute. I can't keep up. That was a unique reaction you had, though. Oh, shit. You serious?

I didn't think it was that groundbreaking news. Struggling car gets new crew chief. Whatever. I know, but this is like, it's got to be like the 12th or 15th crew chiefs. Like RCR, they, they, they make lots of crew chief changes. Yeah, I mean, what else do you, what else do you do? And you just brought Jim in. Like, this is, this is not even a midseason change.

I just, I can't remember, but I, that he was, uh, Xfinity series from 20 to 24, showing this is what, Andy Street. Yeah. 11 Xfinity wins Okay So he was on their O'Reilly program Yeah

Okay Okay Yeah I got You're right Gotta do something And so Might as well

Bite the bullet I guess How much does a Crew Chief change Fix though I feel like it's a Not sure It's a move to

Say you did something As Kyle Bush would say I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Because I just don't know. I don't know the inner workings of their team or, you know, where the weak spots are or anything like that. I'm not sure. And so we've said they're searching and they're going to search on top of the pit box right now.

And that might be it. I don't know. Next week we head to Texas. No horns down. Just go out there and just right. No bad karma. Texas has been not friendly. Don't do anything to...

Finishing-wise. I run like a bad out of hell there, but just finishing has been horrible. You have two top tens, and then you've had two bad races. Top ten. Travis... Well, one was fifth.

Top ten. I should be able to run in reverse a blindfold on and run top ten. That's my expectation. What happened in 2024? You finished 30th? Blew up. the 2025 blew up

what happened in 2024 leading the race gonna win in the bag somebody scraped when I say scraped they scraped the wall

off the turn two with seven to go caution caution we restart I go in there oh I remember this Chase Elliott

is a whisker ahead. There's another caution. Now he's the leader. Is this Master Sunday? I don't know. He's a whisker ahead. Okay?

Because I think I started on the inside. No, the outside line. It was a preferred line. Like, we get to turn three. Oh, Yahoo. Your thumb, I just looked up on YouTube, 2004, NASCAR, Texas. The highlights, you're the thumbnail

backed into the wall. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. He now controls the restart. I go in. Oh, God, this is painful. These losses. We were so fast.

So how'd you back into the wall? What happened? I went into turn three faster than I should have because I was so God-forsaken pissed that I had lost the lead on that restart exchange. and it was a green-white checker and I knew the only way the only way to win this race is I have to stay beside him through three and four and I went I charged in to turn three in a bad arrow spot where I'm right off his right rear corner my car didn't want to be on that line anyway didn't race good up there that's it thanks Jared thanks see God I was getting through the episode, fine. And then you all ruin it. That's how I, that's how I finished something. I was

battling for the lead on the green, white checker, a lead that was mine to begin with. Man, you and Chase Elliott have a lot of these like, oh, he's a whisker ahead. He's a whisker ahead when the caution comes out and you swap, swap first and second. He's gotten the better end to me. I doubt. Anyway, I got the better end of him once, though. We got practice and qualifying starting at 1230 on Prime, and the race Sunday at 3.30, Eastern FS1, stage lengths 80, 85, 102. Where's the good race pole standing right now?

Was it like 52%? Let me check. I told Jeff Gluck and Bianchi. Were you the anonymous driver? 54% guy? Yeah. It's at 52. I told him that on Saturday, by the way.

before the race even I just knew that I don't think you're going to love it so it's at 52 yeah wow how about that blind before the race even though I don't I don't know what's going on Twitter there's very few votes but a lot of views I don't know what's going on with but 52% yeah the algorithms really they don't like polls right now Jared are you keeping up with all this

these algorithm changes they don't like polls it's an easy engagement thing but Instagram does it well because Instagram you can put a poll up and does not boost your engagement like Twitter does. So you're saying they're stopping the engagement? Why would they want to stop engagement? Well, I personally, how's that good for X to stop engagement? They're just cheating with. They don't want people cheating with engagement hacks. Like there's like engagement hacks.

It's like Instagram with the with trial. reel. They've stopped that where you can't just spam the same reel over and over again as a trial reel and boost your engagement. They want that so that when companies come in and pay, they want true engagement numbers. Exactly. Exactly. Oh. So it's probably companies going to X. I didn't. I didn't see Jeff's poll between last night and this morning. It's just scrolling through Twitter. I never saw. I only saw because somebody replied to it. Yeah. Yeah. He addressed this on a recent episode. Voting is way down. You know what I voted.

No? Yes? No. No. It was a bad race. Yeah. Well, it looks like Bianchi probably going to win that poll then. I got a review here from Tiffany Samuelson.

We were there at Kansas for the first time. It was a great race until the very end. We were bummed you didn't win. Always reading for Denny. Shout out to Jared, me, for taking a photo of our 11 against the world sign. Do you sign it too? Did I sign it? Yeah, I signed a couple this week, this weekend.

There's a bunch of flags going around there, Trad. That's one thing I noticed when I was... It's not red, though. That's okay. Penn State, sort of. No, they're dark. But that's fine. It's the progressive color.

I'm good with it. Jared's a big fan favorite at these races. Progressive back next week. Oh, first progressive race? Back in the blue? Oh. Ooh. Ooh.

I like where we're going here. I do too. Okay. All right. May 22nd, J.R.M. Fanday. Dirty Moe will have live shows

starting at 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. That's Charlotte Week. It's Charlotte Week. 11 to 12 is Dirty Mo Live with Mike Davis, Kenny Wallace, and Friends. Then Bless Your Heart with Dale and Amy 12th to 1. DBC from 1 to 2.

live shows all day. Wow. It should be fun. Mike Davis going back on the mic. Him and Kenny Wallace together. What is it going to be like, what's the name of the show or is it just, hey, during more live and they'll just. Okay.

And then they might have some guests come up. Now, we'll be what people will be able to see this on YouTube or now. I don't know. Or is it just, it'll be live. It'll be live on Sirius XM. So if you can listen on. there or you just come there while the stage and speakers and are you uh are you producing this uh i will be producing bless your heart okay speaking of bless your heart that's if my instagram reels feeding me

anything it's bless your heart clips that's a good show and it's doing it i guess because i'm staying on it right yeah once you like one it's like it's just going to start feeding you it's been good by the way Travis you got you got to you got to get some shit on your wall you got to put something above of your TV. This video looked terrible. Which one? He tweeted a video of your in car. I'm acting fast. Half the frame is a blank

white wall. Did the fans get what they did? Did the fans get what they needed? I can't tell if it's a split screen post or not. Travis. I acted fast to get the video up for your fans. The Danny Bros. needed to know what happened. That doesn't

excuse the fact that you got nothing on your wall here. Who cares? It's an apartment. You and Mary Lou got to go shopping together. Why don't torture like that? Why do I need to put something above my TV? It's an apartment.

That's the worst take you've ever had. Why I got to put something above my TV? I just live here every day. I'm not going to live here permanently. You never live anywhere permanently. It's like the worst. If you own a house. You guys, break it up.

to Denny Bros. Chat. Sometimes when the race is going so poorly, Denny, my goal is just, like, give you something fun to read at the end of the race. That's your role. That's your role then. On crappy weekends where you know I'm going to, you know, come in a foul mood, like, yes, that's Jared's role. He's like, you know what?

This is not going well. Let me give him some funny stuff to read. That will change his mood. because I mean you guys were like we're good, we're great. Oh no, we're still f***. This is horrible. It was also so confusing. Yeah. Speaking of

Denny Bros. Real quick before we end this. When was this clip? Special Special Special Special demon. Jesus, Ron. I don't know when that was.

I don't know. Where did you see it from? Oh, it's on our chair. Yeah, yeah. Special is right. Special is right. Our hoop group team last week was down 24 points, came all the way back to force overtime with a shot with three seconds to go,

and then we lost it overtime. We didn't see it through. Were you playing Tom's team? I'm on Tom's team. Oh, you're on Tom's team. What's that like to be on his team? It's an experience. it's an experience.

I am shooting horribly, as I should, because I have not touched basketball since, like, last season. So truly practice. Yeah, what are you doing playing basketball right now? I'm running to get calories. I'm just going running up to one side,

running back, running up, running back, getting a sweat in. That's all I'm doing, because I'm not contributing whatsoever to that team. It's bad. but I think we're two and two or something like that. Playoffs coming up.

At least Charlie's not in the league anymore. Is the league just seem like more fun this year with Charlie gone without like? Oh, it's so much better. It's just there's not, you know, there's not. Manipulation. Manipulation. Yeah, all that stuff, you know. Just he doesn't want to fight fair.

He wants, he's one of those that likes to kick in the nuts to be his first punch. All right. I think that's all we got. We'll see y'all next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.