Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - I'm Ready To Move On

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Denny & Jared are back from the West Coast swing and are happy to be home. Denny chats about his kids wanting to play with the Gel Blaster guns. Meanwhile Jared lost his wallet. On the track, Hendrick has their Louvers removed, but still fast on Sunday as William Byron wins again. But, could NASCAR punish HMS (12:55)? Phoenix had a new short track package but still parity, creating little passing. Denny chats about what needs to be done with the cars (20:33). This week it's Kevin Harvick with the bad luck. And, happened at the end of the race between Denny and Ross Chastain (50:35)? Plus, #DearDenny (1:05:08) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. You want to start? You want me to start? By the way, ooh, spicy, salty. I'm not making believe that, like, oh, we're best friends now. You're really good with these tangents. Who's Jared Allen? Not the football player, obviously. In the Twitter video, you flip him off, right? I was just pointing to the cars below me.

Poor guys over there having a write down every single time that I threw out the bomb. My mom is not going to be happy hearing all these beeps. Hey guys, welcome to Actions Detrimental. We are here on a Monday morning, and I'm Denny Hamlin, driver the number 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owner of 2311 for Tyler Reddick and Boba Wallace. My co-host, Jared Allen, not the Jared Allen, but A, Jared Allen. Thanks, that's a great intro. Yeah, no problem.

Trying to do you good. Yeah, wow, what a weekend. Man, I'm glad to be home. I'm glad to be home. It's been two and a half weeks that I've been on the West Coast. I can tell you, when I came home to rainy and 40-degree weather here in Charlotte, I was not, I was thinking, can I go back? But, man, I'm happy to be home.

I haven't seen my dog in three weeks. Excited about that. The kids, all they cared about when they got out of the car to, we didn't get back in town to 1130. Goodness, this is their spring break. So they said they wanted to see the dog so bad. So they're still, it's about 10, 30 or so Monday morning, and they are still cuddled up with the dog in the bed,

both of them, all of them all asleep. Amazing. I mean, on the West Coast, they came out on when Thursday last week? Yep. And they're the first one's up every day. I mean, you hear them running around, Taylor, breakfast is here, breakfast is here, breakfast is here, breakfast. All the doors are closed.

Everyone's sleeping. No one cares. And they're just doing laps in the living room before anyone else is away. You know, what's great about my kids is that they typically let me be. Like in the mornings, they'll get up and do their thing and they'll let me be, which is fantastic. I mean, I don't know. I just, I love my kids because even on days that they go to school, I admit I'm a person that just is barely awake. I throw on something and I go.

But at, you know, if they got to be out the door by 7.30 or 750, I'm out of the bed at 730. And like, they know that when they're a dad's house, it is, you better get dressed on your own. You better brush your teeth, brush your hair, put it on your shoes, and get your breakfast started on your own. And now I'll handle the rest. So, you know, I make sure that I empower them to handle their own business for sure. I don't want to, I don't feel like I need to walk them through everything. Even yesterday when we were packing up, I'm like, pack up your stuff. Like, you know, I'm not your keeper.

You know, let's get this going. So they did a great job. And Taylor's starting to be at that age at 10 years old where she's starting to be super helpful. And she even said on the car ride home, hey, if you need anything before, bed, dad, I'm had to help you. I'm glad to help you. So I'm like, oh, that's very sweet of you. So shout out to Taylor. Yeah. They're still at that

age, right, where they get up in the morning and they want to go to school. Yeah, so. So you would say, if you don't get dressed, then you're not going to school. Yeah. So as a parent, you can't just continue to bluff, bluff, bluff, right? You know, I found that I eventually

have to pull the trigger and say, okay, well, here's, here's what happens when you don't listen. And, And it happened with Molly a few weeks ago. And I loved hearing on the Dale Jr. Download him talking about a morning that, you know, his daughter was just, you know, real pissy about breakfast or whatever it was. And he's like, you know, I just wanted to eat her damn breakfast. And I'm like, I hear you, brother.

But she, yeah, she just didn't get ready. And I'm like, you know, y'all know what time it is. You know how much time until we got to get ready. get out the door and if you're not ready you just don't go to school and so probably later on in life they're gonna start to play the well fine i won't go to school exactly 100% but but molly you know she was upset she had a bad day because she didn't get ready on time she didn't do what she had to do and so i said all right well you can you're coming in your pajamas we're gonna drop taylor off at school and you're gonna sit in the car with me and so we went back home and then she's like

I promise I'll get, I'll get ready now. I'm like, okay. So then I took her like, you know, an hour and a half later. But, but yeah, it's just, to me, I felt like parenting is definitely tough sometimes. Certainly, you know, being a girl dad with two girls, it's not easy because they have these emotions that I don't or will never understand. But, yeah, this is a fun time right now for sure. Yeah, they added a lot of life. to the house.

Yeah. Well, the first thing Taylor wanted to do is, you know it. It's the gel blasters. She wanted to get a hold of the gun and start shooting us. And so we had to impose a rule for Molly. You can't hit Molly. You know, they're the all-time defender of the flag for the little kids. That way they don't get shot at.

Yeah. They can shoot you. And Taylor and then obsessed, you know, obsessed about playing with these jail blasters before we, left Phoenix but we got a couple full guns and I told her that we would do it today so probably

after this show I'm willing to bet she's going to come down here in the middle of this show and wonder when we're playing jail blasters so yeah I wouldn't be surprised because yesterday she said dad Jared said we could he would play I'm like Taylor I didn't agree I said ask you

I'll do whatever okay I'll be happy to shoot you with the gun yeah that'll be great but I did not this is I did not come up with this idea. Taylor is one of those kids who you give her a maybe and that means yes to her or you know, hey, possibly and it's oh no, you promised me. I'm like, Taylor, what are you talking about? Maybe is like yes or no. Like I'm not, it's not necessarily going to happen. So they're back. I'm back. Good to be back. We're back in the studio. I miss this place. This is my, This is my happy place.

I got hella construction going on upstairs for the next. It's been going on for a month. I still got another month. I'm remodeling the first floor of the house. New furniture, new walls, new floors. So I'm surprised I can get woken up by jackhammers or something like I have been. But, you know, we were supposed to tape this show at 10 o'clock, and I didn't set an alarm. and I got up at exactly 10 o'clock.

So sorry for the delay, all the listeners. It's going to be a few hours behind, if not a day behind, when we've been coming out on the West Coast. But we had fun that, you know, we had a great house. I definitely, the internet was a little sketchy there, but other than that, it was just slow. Just slow. Jared, after we would shoot our podcast,

would have to go to a buddy's house and upload the audio for our podcast. So he had to go somewhere. and then somewhere do you think and jared lost his wallet i was hoping you weren't going to bring this up yeah so we took off from phoenix and and when the wheels hit off when they went off the ground we said jared i guess your wallet is officially lost now right and he he just you don't have it right it isn't it's not a joke i don't have it i mean normally i would like play a bad joke like that but jared looked all over phoenix for his wallet and he he's pretty sure he knows he had it at coldstone 100% 100% had it at coldstone and then between there and home you did not stop nope and somehow you tour that house apart and it's not

there it's not there so we think he lost it somewhere outside possibly coldstone in the parking lot but there was no charges so no still isn't they're just hanging on to Jared you know because you're a popular podcast for now. They're just hanging on to your ID as memorabilia. I guess. Yeah. And Jared. Because I don't know if you are, if people have lost something important. Like, I still wake up like this

morning. I woke up and I'm like, reached it in my backpack like, oh, it's going to be right here. And it's just not there. Like I can't, like it seems feels so weird that you don't have it. I don't have it. And I really, I when I lost it the first day, I didn't completely wrap my head around.

like how difficult it would be without it. Like I figured like I've lost the credit card before, so you just canceled a credit card that's seen a new one. But like, I want to go to Target and buy groceries this afternoon. I don't have a target card. So I'm like going to find cash I have laying around the house. You need a loan? No, I'm good.

I can hook you up from my Vegas trip. Yeah, yeah, I know. We gave Vegas a chance to get their money back. They did not. And in fact, they lost three times more. So that was fun. I'm coming back with something. 23rd place finish.

A pocket full of cash. Thank you. But yeah, it's great. There was a great trip. I definitely will look into getting that house again for when we go back there. So I've had probably seven or eight different houses. This was certainly my favorite. Most comfortable.

Had a lot of stuff to do for the kids out in the backyard. Had some chipping green. Had some great pickleball matches. I know there was conflicting reports. I mentioned this on TV about whether me and Larson won. Let me set the record straight. On I guess it was Saturday night. See, these guys have found Friday night.

Friday night. You guys have found what the formula is to beating me one-on-one. You wait until after I play five double matches, I sit down, and at 42 years old, a guy with two fake knees, a bummed shoulder, By the way, the shoulder that I use for the paddle, like I'm sitting here icing it all weekend because it hurts so bad because I need surgery. I sit down, you know I get cold, and then you want to play one-on-one right after. But you can't use, see, I wish I could have some sympathy for you. But I can't because when you win, you rub it in our faces like there's no...

The champ is here, you know? I mean... So when we win, it feels great. I know. I mean, I was doing some dances when me, we were partners. It was funny. Me and AP are the, well, who is the first? All right, so the doubles, doubles is really what pickleball is about. You guys love singles because you know I can't, I'm not as agile as you, young bucks. 100%. So the two-on-two pickleball, which is basically what the sport is built around. It's an old person's game. That's why, though.

Whatever. Whatever. It's the fastest growing sport in all of America. Look, I like it. I just enjoyed singles more. Yeah, because you're not a good teammate. It's like a less singles is like a less athletic version of tennis. Yeah, that's fair. And a little bit of ping pong.

A little bit of ping pong. Yeah. So me and Kyle Larson, he, he grabbed a paddle for the first time on Thursday or Friday. And we were partners. So we lost our very first match. you know he was he was kind of the weakling because i mean i've been playing a while you've been playing a while and um but after that we won out we won the tournament it was a double elimination tournament uh we won that one then on saturday night had another tournament y'all

gave me austin who played phenomenal like like an all-star and we won that tournament as well so i don't know i mean singles yes i did get beat but it was late at night after i i just played too many games. Y'all play me fresh. You're in trouble. Okay. Well, maybe we'll go back to it here in your basement and we can put that to the test. All right. Well, let's put that to bed. And I guess let's talk about racing. What do you think about racing? It wasn't that much, it wasn't that exciting over a weekend, at least on Sunday. Let's start with Friday with the big news that came out that NASCAR confiscated Hendricks Louvers. The Louvers, yeah. Yeah. So please explain what a louver is. A louver is what comes out of the hood. You see it. It looks like vents that are on top of the hood.

And basically the air comes into the radiator through the front of the car. You see underneath whatever label they have, the Chevrolet Ford Toyota, goes in through there, goes through the radiator, and then out these louvers. And they, that, those louvers then shoot the air either over the car or around the side of the car or whatever and you know i'm not fully educated i wish i would send out some texts last night but i i i didn't about you know i guess they're saying hendrick is saying or jeff gordon is saying that there was you know some fit issues or maybe the media saying that there's some there was some fit issues and that naskar says hey we recognize that there's issues with the fit of these. In the meantime, don't touch them. Um, what, you know, these are really,

really important pieces of the car. Again, let's, let's be honest, though. They could have put box stock louvers, which they probably did on their cars and they still were rocket fast, um, on Sunday. But this is a very, very important part of the car. Just like the front noses are, to be honest with you and we got a DQ first one in 60 some years at Pocono because not we did not alter a part we just

thicken the wrap over top of the part so we didn't even actually alter the part and we got a DQ so I think what you know I'm going to make complete assumptions because I do not have any facts is that

they probably were messing with the edges and the openings of those louvers because Because what happens is when you submit to NASCAR, your body style, right? It's, okay, this is the gold surface, and this is what they're going to make in production. Well, the manufacturers will then find, well, we can open this area or close this area to make it to where, so they'll choke it down for the submission to NASCAR, and then once they get out to the real deal, they'll play with it a little bit. my guess is they're probably

they messed with some edges or something like that and again this is all assumptions that NASCAR probably reached down there did not like what they felt and immediately pulled them off so I think um

I think they're screwed to be honest with you I mean I think you know they're they're in a bad spot I don't I don't see how NASCAR could certainly just say that well it's all good we checked them in it and everything seems to be fine. I mean, it's interesting they took ones from Colleg as well.

I don't know if that's too baseline or maybe Colleg's in trouble as well. I'm not really sure, but everyone's talking about the Hinder cars, but the Collier cars got some taken from them as well. And so, you know, I mentioned that, you know, Chevrolet, you know, has a body advantage over all the other cars. And that's something that's going to be very difficult for any of us to overcome through this entire year. We also mentioned, too, that, like, parity, right?

Like, there's not going to be 19 winners, and nothing changes, you know, we're going to see the same guys. I said last week. I said, I don't see much changing from week to week because there's no, you know, silver bullet that's just going to wake up and be better, although Harvick nearly proved that wrong. Yes. But I just think with these little. louvers and stuff it's a very sensitive area and if NASCAR informed the guys to we recognize that there's a quality control problem which there has been with some of these parts that we get on

the next gen that don't fit well they typically communicate to the teams and say hey you're allowed to shim this or shim that to get it to fit correctly right because these are these cars are made up of parts that aren't all made by the same manufacturer. They're made by hundreds of different manufacturers. And they all got to somehow, these Lego pieces have to fit together and they don't always fit well together. But I don't, it just seems odd. I don't know that this is really going to be a fit issue.

I think this is going to be a changing the contour of things issue. And if that's the case, that's going to be one of their hammers of, we told you not to fuck with it and don't with it. So, yeah, yeah. You know, the precedence is set. If so, it could be the all-time biggest fine in NASCAR by one team at one moment, if it's all four, right? I mean, you could have four crew chiefs gone. You could have four 100-point fines and money and playoff points.

Mr. H's got some, though. I don't think the money is going to mean as much as the points. And, you know, playoff points is a great point as well. Yeah, it's like taking. Brad last year and RFK were dock 10 playoff points. So if Hendrick and their cars are dock 10 playoff points, that wipes the 10 playoff points that, well, I guess William Byron has more than 10. Some stage, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Set him back to nearly zero. Yeah. That really is going to hurt my William Byron prediction in the final four, if you all tuned in early episodes. Told y'all, Willie B's tough. He was going to be tough this year.

I knew it. He's on it. Great win for him. He's dominated really. Well, I guess Kyle dominated the race, right? Yeah, it's interesting. I heard this on Jeff Gluck's podcast last night that just a couple of late race restarts

really define how we're talking about the season, right? If Larson wins, Kyle Larson's back with a vengeance, you know, after 10-win season, he's already up to two, but now it's instead William Byron is capitalizing. He's got over the hump. he's finishing races because two early wins now ties his career best in a single season. And you have to think that he's going to win another this year, at least.

Breaking news, their cars are fast. And so I would just go ahead and jot them down for more wins. They, at this pace and rate, they have a chance to break. I don't know what the season record is for wins in a season by a team. I know Joe Gibbs won 18 or 19. a few years ago, but they got a chance to beat it because they're, they're ultra, ultra fast, especially when Chase Elliott comes back, when he comes back. So Chase Elliott, we're out there. We're still thinking about you. Hope you get well, man. I know he hates not being

out there racing each week. And so we're going to, we're going to keep rooting for Chase to get back just as soon as possible. So, yeah, I mean, I understand. Let's talk about, there a new arrow package as well. I tried in the media center to get everyone to just pump their brakes a little bit on like, oh my gosh, this arrow package is going to fix everything. It's going to change everything on the short tracks. And I said very specifically that temper expectations here because, you know, this, this is still, this is just the first go at it. The people at the test said, While this was a step in the right direction, as far as making the cars harder to drive and whatnot,

the racing was still difficult. The passing was still difficult. I think, in my opinion, that the racetrack needs to be held most accountable for this one. Actually, there's 50-50 shared responsibility for the race not being just great, right? and there's a bigger issue as well. Let me go back to parity. We talk about parity. Here's the problem. What we're seeing

what we saw Sunday is what is wrong with parity. Parity means that most all the cars are very similar, the same and they that the team in 25th the 25th place speed has a chance to win

just as much as the first place guy. Well that means that he's running the same times. And in fact, I look at our timing and scoring on the way back home, and I looked in like one through 20 something is running within a tenth of each other. So passing will always, always be difficult when everyone runs the same damn speed because the car in front always has a dramatic, a dramatic advantage arrow-wise. So he's taken up all the air that the back car needs. that air to be pushing down on his car to give him grip.

So I saw where Harvick said that, yeah, that's why they need to mix up the packages and surprise us week in, week out. He's saying that because he wants there to be a difference between the fast cars and the slow cars. And unfortunately, this is what you get when you get parity. That's when all the cars are exactly the same. The only difference

is the crew chiefs set up, the driver, the engine, and the body. So, and all the drivers, you know, from first to 20th, I mean, there's a difference. There's, in my mind, like, eight to nine elite drivers, like elite. They can carry the car a little bit more. They can take a car that's not quite as good and still be super fast with it. and then there's the other pack of, you know, 12 to 15 guys that you give them all a fast car, they're going to run up front as well. And so it is, this is the only problem with parity is that passing will be reduced.

And so I think, and I'm going to go back to what I said last year, the shifting, the shifting, the shifting, the shifting. And I, this isn't all, this is not on. NASCAR as much as from what I hear it's it's on the OEMs in the manufacturers they keep suppressing our maximum RPM so this year they took it down another notch to where I think at 9,000 RPMs is when the limiter comes in on the engine which we were hitting it down the backstretch um so why why is that so they keep reducing the RPM because they want to reduce engine cost they want to reduce what it costs for

B.J. McLeod or Rickware Racing or front row or whoever it might be who has to pay for their engines. So to make it affordable for all more affordable yes I get yes I think they want to get the cost of having an engine program down so it makes gives those guys maybe more money to work on getting faster through engineering. But you said this is something that the manufacturers are also on board with. Yeah, I mean, listen, a lot of times, you know, we see NASCAR and OEMs at times kind of do the old point finger.

It's, it's, it's, they said it. You know, they wanted it this way. No, they wanted it this way. I don't know if this is a direction from NASCAR to the OEMs to say, hey, how can you reduce costs? and they're going to say, we'll reduce RPM, and we can run the engines more races, and therefore we will reduce costs. I think that that's probably a factor for sure, but we've reduced the maximum RPM down to 9,000.

We, again, I follow so many old nostalgic Instagrams because I love hearing the cars whizzing. I mean, they sound like F1 cars at the end of the straightways. It just sounds great. But again, teams were spending a ton of money. on those engines during that time. So I totally get that. But what has happened is costing our racing product. It is we're starting to be detrimental to our racing product.

And so this is where the cutting of the cost is come, you know, the competition is coming. You know, basically the cost of cutting is starting to cut our racing product. And so. Show on the track. It is. So what happens is, let me try to explain this. So since they reduce the RPMs, the maximum RPMs,

we're running such low RPMs in the middle of the corners now. We have to shift. So we shift. And so I got back to this. Every single driver will say this, and no question they're not going to object to this at all. You can miss corners now and just grab a gear, shift, and bam, you've got your momentum right back.

So that's what makes the passing difficult is that we're shifting. Add on top of that at Phoenix, where we have some leftover resin and residue and PJ1 from years past, and we all were running right up against the wall. Except Harvard. I was going to get to it. With all this said, except Harvard. I think if the race was on the bottom, you would have seen a tremendous amount of passing.

But since we have that, since the PJ1 was still way up at the racetrack, it had so much more grip than the bottom that everyone just ran in a freight train around the top again. And so this, you know, it's a combination of shifting is still an issue on the short tracks. I mean, we're shifting in California.

This is a two-mile track. What are we doing shifting there? I know NASCAR has really, really tried to get the OEMs to come up with some sort of drop gear, which basically means, you know, the difference between third gear and fourth gear, fourth gear and fifth gear to be such a big spread where they can't shift. But I plead with NASCAR please if they get rid of the shifting,

the racing will be better. We will see more passing than we will ever have. Now, the problem with that is if we don't shift and we don't raise our maximum chip RPM, then we're going to be running such low RPM in the middle of the corner. We're not going to wear tires out. There'll be no tire fall off. that will then hurt competition.

There's always an action reaction, right, that people don't plan for, but the PJ1 hopefully can get worn off of that track at Phoenix. Hopefully they can run some petty cars or something or something up there. They're not going to run up there, but maybe we can power wash that track and get that crap off the track because it certainly hurt the racing, at least where I was, right?

I mean, I know that Harvick made his passes on the bottom. He was super fast. He would have won that race and should have won that race. But where I was, I ran exactly wherever I was placed. If I lost two spots on pit road, which we did in stage two, I ran in that spot until the next pit stop. And then Green flag stopped. I got jumped by one other car. Blaney pitted one lap before me, jumped in front of me, and then I sat on his back bumper for the next 60 laps.

It's just passing is so difficult because we have to run the line of the car in front of us. Now, at tracks where there's multiple grooves, I think that you do see more passing. But, and while Phoenix had somewhat multiple grooves, the fastest line is pretty much the bottom of three and four, and it was the top of one and two. Harvick is excluded from that. So go ahead. I know you got questions. Yeah, under these current circumstances, you just outlined, is there any hope for a better race in November at Phoenix? Because the last couple of years, Phoenix has stunk.

I know, I know. I get it. But, you know, I like to tweet that Jeff Burton put out. He's like, you know, let's give our sanction body some props for being willing to change. And, you know, race morning. they're taking wipers off the car thank god right like if the oEMs really care about the looks of their car being close to the production car well they don't have big ass wipers sitting right in the middle of the windshield we're in the middle of the desert mud flaps there's no rain flaps they got to go

like that's just silly that we're running that um i think that if if it if it starts raining what are we going to do nasker's going to mandatory make us come down pit road well then that's fine spend five minutes put the damn wiper on put the mud flaps on and let's Let's go race. But we shouldn't have, like, that just makes our car look silly. I'm glad that NASCAR made that decision on race day. Not only that, it's impeding our vision. My crew chief was talking about, hey, by the way,

we're probably going to have to split your tear off. So you're only going to have half a clean windshield for the race because we can't afford to lift the wiper up and take the damn tear off off. So thanks and applaud to NASCAR for that. So I think, yes, that we will have more test. during this year and the short track package is going to continue to evolve, which it should. I think we need to be working towards 2024 right now. What can we like what parts can we change to make the short track package better? What package, how can we improve the super speedways?

I don't want that to get lost. We really got to work on the super speedways with no three wide racing anymore. That's tough. Like the skill set. that it takes to be going on Super Spreeways now, it's, it's no. I mean, I just sit in a pack and I know that I'm not allowed to get out of line. I have to just stay in line. The Dayle and Hard days of going from 18th, the first of Talladega, we keep playing those replays on social media. Those days are done unless we change the aerodynamic package, but it takes time, right? We went through a lot of changes in the offseason. I'm on a rant. Let me go. Go ahead. We went through a lot of changes in the off season. We had to take all of our chassises and

send them away to get better for safety. That's great because safety first, right? But now we've got to start to work on the racing product. And I think that the sanctioned body is willing to make changes because they want to see us put on a great race. That has been our call. That has been what we've been about for decades is the best forms of race. You don't see closer racing than you do in NASCAR. You don't see contact like you do a NASCAR. It's the best form of racing out there. So I, I think that we will, there is optimism for the future. Now, is it going to be for Martinsville coming up? Probably not.

Will we still be shifting? Probably. Is it one lane? Yes. Let's temper our expectations. Let's just not throw everyone under the bus right now. This package is better. It is better.

No question. It is more in the driver's hands, but the passing is still difficult. So, I'm done. Realistically, just real quick, realistically, how long does it take for these changes to come about? Because it just seems like every year, it's always something, right? Like you said, every action, there's a reaction. But it seems like we're always in the same, we're always talking about the same thing, more or less. We are, right?

And the changes never happen. Yep. And we've been through this, right? We've gone from high down force to low down force, whatever, right? and then everyone was panicked because, all right, so back in 2017, we cut the spoilers off, we took all the downforce away on the bigger racetracks. Well, that, unfortunately, from a TV standpoint, looks like because sometimes somebody hits the setup and they just kick everyone's ass.

And what you look at is that probably the best racing we had a mile and a half was the 550 package. And that's, there is no secret sauce behind that. that is a very simple equation. They put enough downforce on the car to where almost everyone was able to run a lot of gas. So running, you know, no break, no nothing, you're running almost wide open. And so that's why we see truck racing

so phenomenal on mile and a half tracks. They're in the gas most of the time. So it's a hybrid speedway race, right? Where for a few laps, everyone's running wide open and then it starts to file out, but then there's such a big wake down the straightaway that there's a big draft.

I personally think that while we did that test in December at Charlotte and all the drivers are going to fucking hate me for this, but they took almost too much grip away and now it's causing our field to get spread back out. So if I

were president, I would say, okay, we're going to raise the maximum limiter up to 9,300. By the way, this will never happen because, again, Again, the engine manufacturers won't have it. And we're going to get rid of shifting on the short tracks.

And then we're going to add two inches of blade back on the mile and a halfs to make the wake bigger for straightaway suck up so where you can see some big slingshot moves. And then the cars will run closer in a pack to less dirty air. No, the dirty air will be more. The dirty, see, gosh, man. This could take, I mean, we could spend hours talking about this. But what they did to make the short track package better or attempt to make it better was they cut the spoiler down two inches.

Well, think about this. I don't know what the square inches of the back of the car is, but width and height total from the spoiler down to the bottom of the bumper and then one quarter panel on the back to the other. Whatever that size is, they only took a couple of. inches off of the very top. So it was a very marginal change on what the second car sees for aerodynamics, right? You're still following a school bus down the highway. It's still a big billboard of air that is keeping, that is hitting their car, that is not hitting your car, right? We really saw it for the first time during the car tomorrow. If you look at the size, and ever since then, the back bumpers of our cars have been humongous.

They're wide and they're tall. You can take the spoiler completely off and we're still going to have crazy dirty air because the back of the car is so big and square that that pocket of air is what is not touching the front of our cars. If you look at bumpers from the 1990s and you can see it like Lancaster's barbecue or whatever, like they're half as wide.

and half is tall. And there's way more space between the ground. There you go. There you go. And there's more air getting from underneath the side, both the quarter panels are not as long, all of that. So I think we have to get the square inches or feet or whatever of the back bumper and reduce that. We've got to narrow up the back of the cars to allow the air to wrap around the sides and then go to the car that's behind. That will make it to where the second place car won't be as big of a disadvantage.

But that's going to be a complete redo. Won't see that happening for years, even if they started working on that today. So I would just say, though, that, you know, Adam Stern tweeted or text me, the trending topic about the F1 race last week, it was boring. The word boring was what was training.

Again, people love F1. They're singing its praises right now, right? about how great it is and whatever, whatever, our racing is still better. It's still better, right? But at least we have a sanctioned body that is willing to make adjustments to give us the best racing product that they possibly can.

But at times, the tail wags the dog. And they need to say, you need to have the old Bill France Senior, well, this is my way. Now, I'm against that in many ways when it comes to NASCAR. car but when it comes to competition they need to say this is you know this is what we're doing this is what we're doing and you you people better adapt so do you want to talk about the race yeah i was to say rant over i'm done i want to get to a reason why there's probably a lot of denny hamlin haters and fans listening to this episode which is what happened on the final restart um that sent you from

six place to 23rd and it is and involved the one car. I'm going to defer because we're going to talk about the beginning of the race before that. Okay. Not the beginning, but let's talk about like, you know, the two cars that dominated the previous week on a total different track, dominated again, the 24 and the 5. Now, I got a front row seat again. I was running third for most of the race or some of the race, at least the beginning portion.

We lost a few spots here and there on pit road, which then, like I said, that's where we just kind of sat for the rest of the day. Holy shit. They're so fast. I can't, I mean, we see it on the stopwatch in practice,

and I don't believe it. You know, I'm like, well, we're four tenths off to start the run. We close it in. We're about only a tenth off

after 20 laps. These guys are going to come back to me. And I was joking around with Kyle. Yeah. Like, you know, I just need to hold you accountable and close for about 30 laps.

And then you're, you're going to get so sideways, I'm going to go right around you. And I was joking with them the night before and the day of. Yeah, because they were talking about your qualifying, right, going back and forth and the ball saying, well, it's fine. He can take P1 to qualify. But I'll see him in 15 laps. Yeah.

Well, I couldn't see him in 15, 20 laps. Those guys are so fast. It's more of a question to me of why the other 200 cars. Well, you got Josh Barry the rookie, but like they're so fast that like you see with Gibbs when, or the Toyotos, when they're fast, like, they're all up front. Like, they're all in the top six or seven. Like, you can just tell. But there's two hinter cars that are just dramatically faster than the field right now.

So they dominated the race. But I told my crew chief after practice, I said, this is a Harvick type of race. He says, what do you mean? I says, it's getting back to whoever can roll that line the best. So if you look, we're all trying to run the line and turns one and two at that racetrack because it has paint on it. Well, once hop rubber gets laid down on that paint, it gains grip. So you can almost use your left front as like a pivoting point around the corner.

So you hang your left front and there's a, you know, there are variants of banking there. And there's the sticky paint. So it pulls your car around the corner. just like the old Atlanta did, which Harvick was extremely. It's a very fine line. Oh, my gosh. To hit it, it is so hard. You almost have to overslow your car on entry and then throttle up when you should be decelerating typically.

Like it's a very unorthodox way to run, but it's what made Harvick fantastic at Atlanta. It would make some great at Phoenix. Did he have nine wins there? Was he going for 10? I think he was going for 10 because I saw the graphic. Poor, poor Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, got cartoons. I saw that. Dag on it.

You know, fans were calling Dale Jr. You got to do something about this. You got to step in here. Yeah, yeah. Fox, I know you're listening. Don't do that to the old legends. You can cartoon us up, but don't do it to the old legends. But, yeah, so Harvick was going to go for his 10th win.

probably should have won it. I hate it for his team. I know my team and his team have been really close. Me and Harvick are friends and we talk quite a bit. Our crew chiefs are pretty close. So hate it for those guys. They definitely were deserving. But again, we do talk about kind of the finish, right? It's always the finish that controls the narrative of what we're going to be talk about. But really, you know, or maybe from a media standpoint, right? That's William Byron. very little articles you'll see this week is about Kevin Harvick, right? But man, he drove to the front. He did it in a line different than the rest of us. It's his Harvick line right around the bottom.

He actually was running below the line at time. So he was running his right front on the paint and hooking his car that way around there. So it's crazy how it works. And if you haven't done it, it's hard to explain. But the old Harvicking line was kicking ass. And so I told my crew chief, like I said, at practice. man, I get off here and I come back home. But he asked that, yeah, this is a Harvick-type race

where it's going to reward the guy that can get back to the gas through the middle pretty aggressively and hold that line. Harvick's great at it, and it showed up again on Sunday. So he took what was, you know, you put him in a hinder car. He probably would lap the field. But his technique made the difference in him getting to the front there. And he looked like he was on his, way and poor Delane, I think they showed pictures of her, you know, up in arms, just, you know, hoping

he could get it done. It would have been his 61st victory. I just, man, I am so envious of Kevin Harvick because he's at his age, he's 46 or 47. 47? Man, he's still good. I mean, he is so good. It's, I understand the reason of stepping away, but the guy is still got it. He's carrying that SHR team. I mean, without him, like that is a, their performance is mediocre at best. He just, I don't think I've seen one person carry a team as much as he has for his entire second half of his career. Ten years, last ten years, right? He's just been the guy. And, and I guess he's just that good because, I mean, you know, Chase Briscoe, he's good. He's a very good driver. and he at times

Kevin Harvick makes all of his teammates look just absolutely silly so man we're going to miss Harvick on the track but let's enjoy them which brings me another rant is that why didn't we do a five wide with Harvick in front at California I got to thinking about that

I was like you know we paid homage to Jimmy Johnson we had them there in the front of the pack when we're doing the five wide but like I haven't seen any bank use to Kevin Harvick. Not yet. Not yet. I guess maybe when we go back to tracks for the second time or for the last time, but

man, this guy has done so much for our sport. Bakersfield's not too close to L.A. is it? Yeah, I guess kind of. We're in the same state. I know, but okay, you can do it at Sonoma. You don't think they call Kevin Harvick,

the hometown guy when we go to Fontana? I don't know. Well, they should. They should. So Harvick, it's still a badass at 47. That gives me hope that I can get to my 60 wins

by the time. Yeah, if you're running like him when you're 47, I think you have to show you have no problem. Yeah, you're going to have to pry me out of the car if I'm running that well. But that's how, you know, I'm sure, you know,

Kevin is one of those guys who that's how he wants to go out. He wants to go out knowing he can win his final race. I told Dale Jr., I want to win my last race. He said, okay, you're right. Yeah. You know, because usually when it's over,

it's over. only Jeff Gordon who won his like second to last or third to last. Kevin Harvick, he's got a chance this year. I think he's as strong as anyone. Even when the Fords were like very blah, this West Coast swing, he's the guy. He's the guy. So I don't know if it's the, you know, a lot of this is the driver,

crew chief combination between him and Rodney Chilters. They're just, ever since they were together, they just, they're really, really good. and they just that that combination doesn't come around too often. So, but I will say this, I'm going to love Harvick in the booth. I think he's going to do Fox a great job and hopefully, you know, get some things organized around there that are going to be good. He did a great job.

Him and Joey did a great job during the Xfinity race. So, you know, it does. The last couple weeks now have come down to Green White Checkers. it's almost disappointing the way you put it right and the way harvick ran that race it's like that guy is deserving of winning the race he should be the one who wins based on his performance throughout the entire race but it comes down to a green white checkered and pick calls and strategy at the end yeah i mean so many times it comes down to really honestly it's whoever comes out to the lead because they have such an advantage but i don't know um on that two tire stop who came out ahead

Kyle Larson or William Byron? Kyle Larson. Okay, so William beat him on the second. On the second Greenwide Checker. So Kyle led, I should know this because they were right in front of me, but I was focused on trying to gain all the spots I could. So he just beat him on the second Green White Checker starting from the outside.

Correct. Kyle was checked out on the first one. Yeah, so, man, heartbreak for Kyle two weeks in a row. I mean, I guess that he kind of got. a second life by getting that caution anyway. But, you know, when they're looking to win with a few laps to go and then get another caution. But, yeah, William won the race by getting a huge push from the 45, who was on new tires, and down the back straight away. But he, you know, it seemed like these races are coming down to these green white checkers,

and we're deciding the winner on that. my joys even kind of you know trolling a quick caution wow that was quick caution but boyer no i think it was boyer that said it but he's the one who i hear him basically asking for a caution at the end of these races like well you know if we get a caution if we get a caution you know we're probably going to get a caution like you can tell like they're they're wanting it to be a caution and typically at the end of these races they got their hand right on it especially if it's a strung out race, but let's be honest, that was going to be a caution anyway. While the 21 did get going, the tire was tearing apart on the track.

Well, the caution had it already thrown. Right. But I'm saying, if it had it been thrown yet, it was going to be. It was going to be. Yes. But there was no debris until the tire actually came apart. So goodness for NASCAR, it did come apart. and so it would have been a caution anyway,

but they were, I mean, they are trigger-happy. Of course, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it definitely can change the narrative. It seems like that's what these races are coming down to. Pit crews are more important than ever. The execution is more important than ever. But Harvick loses out.

Byron wins two in a row. HMS continues to dominate. Not much to say there. So that stat, by the way, JGR has the most wins in a single season. 2019 was 19. Hendrick had 17 last year and then they had 18 in 2017. So the record is Toyota.

It's going to get challenged. It's going to get challenged. Even with Chase Out, it's going to get challenged. So elephant in the room, I guess. It's what people want to know. Yeah, I guess you guys have hung on along enough. So at the end of the race, me and Ross got into it. Basically, here's the thing, right, is that I got to the end of the race. I saw he was on the outside of me. I went into turn one

with the mindset that I'm going to try to get the best finish that I can get. I'm on two tires and I go into turn one and while I even went shallow on speed my car plowed. I mean, what it means is I turned the wheel and the front tires just were going straight. And they were calling the one car on the outside. So at that point I knew that I was screwed. I was about to go backwards. I had all the four tire cars on my ass. They were going to pass me or more than like that.

likely in the next corner if they didn't i mean i know i had two fresh tire cars underneath me anyway or i was four wide and i'm like i'm i'm going straight to the back because he's around you he's going to get a better run you're in the middle and and so at that point i know that i'm gonna you know my crew chief told me there was 18 cars on the lead lap and at that point i said uh all right Well, I'm probably live looking at a picture. I'm probably running sixth or seventh. I'm about to get passed by everybody behind me who's on fresh tires. I'm about to finish in the mid-teens. And I said, you're coming with me, buddy. Really? I did. Wow, that's not what I thought. I wouldn't mistake. No, it wasn't a mistake. I unleashed, I let the wheel go. And I said he's coming with me. And so, you know it's been interesting because I hear people say well you know this for last year this for this for that it's not you know I got wrecked at the clash I don't know that Ross sees it that way I think he's still curious about what I thought about the clash I don't know why he would wonder why I

thought about the clash but you know I've said for a while well you got to do something to get these attention, whatever, and I've said it, and I think that Ross doesn't like it when I speak his name in the media and when I had this microphone. But I told him, well, I have a microphone, and I'm going to call it like I see it. And until you get a microphone, you can then say whatever you want about me. But the fact is, is while I'm sitting here talking, I'm going to call things the way I see it. And sometimes I'm going to have to call myself out, which I'm the dumb ass who lost just as many spots as he did. But At the time, I says, well, I'm going to finish anyway, and I'm just going to make sure that he finishes right here with me.

So it's difficult because, you know, at times, you know, people want me to react right away, but I don't want to involve any other cars. I told you guys, you know, privately, my friends, like, it's difficult to be in a position where you can get back at a person and not involve an innocent bystander. That is, it's really hard to do because then you've got other people pissed at you because you're doing something that affected their race when they had nothing to do with it. And I never wanted to do that, right? The Pocono, unfortunately, someone got caught up in that when Ross bounced back off the wall.

But here, you know, we, I saw that we were the only people up top. So I said, I'm going to send them in the fence and door them. Now, my dumb ass, you know, got. caught up in it because I got pinned. You know, he was between me and the wall. And then so I got all screwed up. And then I lost a bunch of positions for my team, which was stupid. But at the time, I'm like, you know, I'm going to finish in the mid teams anyway.

Because my car's just plowing here. I'm about to get ate up by all these new tires. I just was like, you know, if I'm going to, you know, get this guy a hard time, this is going to be then. And then so he bounced off the wall. So my ideal situation was going to kind of just knock him in the fence a little bit and I was going to keep going. So you were going to finish 14th, 15th.

Yeah, probably, probably somewhere in there. I mean, it's hard to assume anything, but I thought so. But, you know, he actually got the jumpy, downshifted quicker. And then, you know, he brake checked me a few times. You saw that from the endboard down the backstretch. He hit the brakes a couple times and I wouldn't let him off at all. it didn't matter to me. And then after the break checks,

then I went to the next corner and tried. I'll be honest with it, the motherfucker is hard to spend. I mean, when he knows it's coming, he is the hardest guy to wreck on the planet. But I just, you know, I wanted to get back to racing, honestly, with him.

And I think that that's a lot of the conversation that we had afterwards. I'm going to say, what was the conversation after race? Because it was a long conversation. He came up to me and he says, I guess I deserve it. And he says, and I said, yeah, I think so. You know, I'm not going to sit here on this podcast and ever lie to you guys and say,

well, this is an accident when it's not. It wasn't an accident. I meant to put them in the fence, but I didn't mean to screw my team in the process, which maybe I should get the DVC. What an idiot for cost of my own team, you know, 10 spots more unlikely. but at the time when you're seeing red, that's all that really matters, right? I saw an opportunity to not involve anyone else.

I was about to go to the back, and I wanted to take him with me. So we talked, and I think that we are in a better place where I think we're willing to put the past behind us, and I think that we're going to judge each other from this point forward. And I think that's the fairest way to do it. you know as far as this season is concerned you know he got me and you know while it didn't cost him

it did cost me at the clash it costs both of us here but that's that's my executions right so that's not his fault so uh i just think that you know we need to just race each other with better respect from this point forward and that's what i hope to to get out of this and um you know he asked for a truth. I ask for a truce. And let's just, let's just see how it goes from here. Like, I'm, there's no promises, but also if you can, you know, I just said, you know, Chase, or Chase, Chase, uh, chastain, I really need to get some respect. Clearly, you, you don't respect me for whatever reason, right? And people have a right to not respect me. Maybe I've done them wrong in the past and something I'm not aware of, but tell me, like, tell me what it is.

And maybe I can give you an explanation or I can say, you know what, that's my fault. and I need to do better. I was in the conversation, practically begging him to just take accountability for the past. I had to kind of push him into taking that accountability, but I think that I heard what I wanted to hear, and now I'm ready to move on. And hopefully he's ready to move on,

and we're going to race each other hard but clean in the future. And now we're going to move on from this. So in a few weeks, when we're at Martinsville and Ross is leading, and you're on his bumper with two to go, what happens then? I'm going to race him just like I would. Anybody else? I mean, going for a win. Now, again, it's hard for me to say as I'm looking at a picture of me spinning Chase Elliott out right above your head.

I don't, that's not my MO. I did it once. That was not on purpose either, by the way. I just flat out made a mistake. I drove in. he checked up super early and I just got into his bumper and I didn't let go. I thought I would just slide him up the racetrack instead it was too much. It was an invulnerable spot and he spun out.

That's not on him. That's on me. That was my fault. I even in my post race with Chase I took accountability. He says, of course he didn't make the corner. I had his back wheels up off the ground, right? But we all make mistakes and we all can do better. I just feel.

like, you know, I'm not afraid to take accountability, and a lot of people will show times in the last 18 years where I didn't. Of course, there were times where I didn't, but from this point on, I'm going to try to be accountable for myself. I made a dumb mistake for my team messing them up this weekend, not getting the finish we deserve. But again, I just want to restart. Let's restart. Let's go racing and move on. But if it comes to. down to the end of the race, I won't treat him any differently than I would any other competitor when going for a win. But it is never, ever going to be my intention to take someone out for a win. I just think that takes absolutely no skill whatsoever. I hate it when we get to these short tracks

and these young kids saying, well, you know, it's, it's, I'm going for the win. Well, that win meant just so much to the guy that you wrecked it did you. So, you know, you're just being a selfish at that point. So, well, I was kind of hoping that it was going to all this Ross beef was going to end. Logitech was going to send us a third mic. We were going to set up right here. He would come in and you, y'all would end it right here on the show. It's interesting because, you know, for the people that don't know from last year, like we went to breakfast after the gateway incident. He invited me, hey, let's, I'd like to meet you in person versus over the phone. Let's talk about this.

And I got to really know his upbringing and why, you know, why he races the way he races versus the way I race because I find it very interesting. Like, you know, we all get brought up very different ways and we start in different series. And he's got a very interesting story that I think he should tell to the people of, I would love it. He needs to come on and tell the people his story because I found it actually very interesting. interesting and it made a lot of sense to me why he's as aggressive as he is um you know they always said you know that you don't get your values at a thin air right you do it you get your values from your parents and the people that you surround yourself around as a kid and when you're getting brought up and it was very apparent to me that you know he got pushed around a little bit and the people

that he was racing with um in in the early series that's what they did to get wins they just knocked each other out of the way and spun each other. And that's what he saw. And that just kind of kept going. So he's got a great story and hopefully he'll tell it one day. But yeah, well, there you go, Ross. If you're listening, you want to come on. We need to fill this space right here. So Logitech will send us the third mic. You can sit right here. If you don't want to talk to Denny. Like, are you formally inviting him to be our first guest? Yeah, I am. Are you sure we're ready for guests? Yeah. Well, we just need the third mic, but yeah, I think we're ready. Yeah, well, we haven't had guests so far because we're trying to get our wheels under us here.

But yeah, I would welcome Ross for a conversation for sure. And that'd be great. But, you know, hopefully let's move on from it. We're going to go racing in Atlanta this weekend. I'm excited about it. I think that racetrack does provide some great racing. One thing for sure, I mean, while the Hinder cars, they were really strong at Atlanta. last year, they will be again.

We saw that it was kind of an equalizer with the drafting. So Atlanta, this is another opportunity for the Coyla Joys and those guys to make, you know, come up, sneak and get a win, maybe a front row guy. Michael McDowell is good on Super Speedways. He's got a chance. This brings a lot of the field back into play. I just wonder how much that track has aged. and will we still see tight pack racing like we've had,

or is it going to be like start to string out because we're starting to have to lift? I just wonder what we're going to see there. Are you excited for this weekend? I am, yeah, yeah. Do you like the new Atlanta? You know, I like every weekend. I mean, I hate to say it, but I do.

our sport has such momentum right now. We've sold out three of the first four races. What NASCAR is doing behind the scenes to help grow our sport, the crowd looks more diverse, the teams look more diverse. Like we're really starting to reach a different audience that we've had in the past. While trying to stay true to our core fan as well,

you know, it seems like we're really trending in the right direction. The crowds have been great. Even the one race that didn't sell out, Las Vegas, it looks damn near sold out to me. That crowd looked great, better than we've seen there in the past. So Atlanta, that crowd's always been a little finicky, yeah. You get to the old, eh. It probably will be. But I think that the sports still got some great momentum.

And I think that we're going to see another, we'll probably see one of the best races we've had all year this week in Atlanta. Are there still plans, not to go down to the rabbit hole? Are there still plans to rejuvenate that area? I remember a couple of years ago they had, they wanted to put a casino in. Yeah, SMI wanted to put like this whole carnival and casino and all that. I mean, it would be great if they did. Obviously, these racetracks are worth a ton of money. The land they're on anyway.

So it's, you know, hopefully anything they can do to improve the fan experience, I am all for. Dear Denny, we've got some questions that we want to ask. Dear Denny. We need answers and we need him fast. We tried to ask Junior, but his answers were lame. And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now we're caught on you because you're our only hope. This ain't the raged track, so maybe you won't choke.

With that, let's move on to Dear Denny. And for those wondering, this is now a reoccurring segment. So if you have questions, you want to ask Denny, submit them using hashtag Dear Denny on Twitter. And we'll pick a few each week. So first one up this week. And we kind of talked about this briefly earlier in the show is what lessons can NASCAR learn from F1's Rise stateside in the last few years? Well, this goes right back to kind of what I was just saying. I think that is it really the racing?

I don't think so. Yeah. You're quick on the trigger on that. one buddy i mean they had a netflix show that hit it the right time yeah uh netflix show they hit at the right time yeah because right now in f1 you know that there's about well there's one and a half cars that has a chance to win each given week um if something happens to him it it opens up the field to maybe three to three cars four cards maybe that can win but something has to happen to max on any given week for for there not to be another winner so

People know, you know, and I want to, I want to go on social media and to be, to understand the race fans' pulse. I want to say, in one word, describe F1. In one word describe NASCAR, just to see what are the people's gut reaction to that series, right? I know that Toyota made a big change. If you notice about 10 years ago, they started getting really aggressive with the styling of their cars because there's been so many focus groups

and all that say, okay, when you hear Toyota, what do you think? And the number one answer was dependable. Those cars are dependable. Well, that's not very sexy, is it? No. They've got dependability, but they want to be known as, you know, stylish, you know, sexy, those things that like the people want.

And so then they started getting more and more aggressive with their body styling. And they've already got the dependability from decades of heritage. And, you know, they made a serious investment in what their North America plants. I think, you know, these Toyota Camerys nowadays, by the way, people are more American. than just about any car that you can possibly drive. That's a fact. So I just want to know, where is the people's pulse on F1? And why do they love it so much?

For me, I think of F1, and I don't, I guess I don't watch it as much to see, like, who will win, but I like to see it because, well, what are the race teams doing? I love the announcers and how technical they make everything so freaking exciting I mean at times I just find us in a very ho-hum on TV talking about the race well that watch out you know here here comes that guy and oh great run by this person wow what a fast lap and literally that that's the reaction wow what a fast lap where you hear Lee diffi and those guys like holy cow they make every lap seem exciting and then when we do the

the MRN broadcast of the road courses. Like those guys do such a great job of painting an exciting picture for the people that can't see it live, right? Yeah. It's fascinating when you listen to MRI and compare it with a broadcast. Like the picture they paint is way more exciting than what's actually happening on the track. And I think a lot of that too is their cohesiveness. One knows when one is done talking, bam, the next one picks right up. where I think a lot of times we get talking over and stuff like that,

which it's very, very hard. I've done the booth for Fox a few times. It's so hard to do know when whose spot is this and whose spot is that. But yeah, I just, for me, I watch it because of this technology. I love seeing when the TV shows here, Mercedes, they come out with something new on their car. I think it was a few years ago, they pushed the steering wheel in or they pulled it out down the straightaway.

And their front tires started, they pointed straight. Like, it was like, oh, wow, that's smart to get straightaway speed. Like, what is making the Red Bull car so fast? Like, I want to know those things because it's very interesting. And I think that generally speaking, F1 fans would say that NASCAR is just, you're all the same. There's no technology involved in it. And, you know, it's not about the racing.

It's just, it is what it is, right? it's just not, it doesn't stimulate me technologically. Yeah. So I wonder, you know, what that answer will be. I'll maybe do that this week to maybe give an update to that answer. But I think that we're already doing, I get really long-winded when I do these, dear Denny. I think we just, I think we're already on our way to doing what F1's doing. And that is making it more about the event and not as much about the actual race.

Because F1, if you know, one thing I would love to see us do is that have more pre-race parties and stuff. Like what we did for Daytona, you know, while that was kind of an industry party, you know, have something to where it brings a little more black tie to the weekend versus, you know, what we currently have is we just kind of show up and we race and we have a couple, you know, quick minutes of practice and it's over and there's really not much to talk about. Honestly, I'd like to see us create more of a Super Bowl type of event. I know that F1 is saying the Vegas race will be their biggest race in the history of F1. They also said that about Miami, which I think it was when they were here last year or a couple of years ago. So they can continue to grow their product in the states, but it's not about the product, it appears, right? It's just about everything else, you know. you know, Chicago event that's coming up.

If you look, it's going to have a very F1 field to it. There's going to be nice hospitality areas. Now, again, they're going to be super expensive. So it's going to be hard for our core fan to be able to afford that and experience it. But I think that they're trying to reach some of the F1 group of fans that are possibly in that area that want to come experience NASCAR and have concierge service. That's something that we haven't had in years past. So I think that that's maybe their push to, again,

gain more of an audience and a different type of audience. So hopefully that works. And I think that with three of the first four races being a sellout, it's hard for me to argue that anything that NASCAR is doing right now is in the wrong direction. What else you got? is the most underrated driver in the garage? Man, it's so hard to tell about underrated drivers because the equipment does matter.

It certainly does matter. I mean, I don't want to sit here and give you the easy answer saying William Byron because he's just won two in a row. But I said it before Daytona, that he's going to be my pick to be in the final four. Now if he gets hit with 100 points this week and 10 playoff points, that'll be a little harder task. But, you know, people know I've been higher on Byron all season long before he won. But I'm going to say that I'd like to see Corey LaJoy in a fast car.

I think he gets a lot out of the equipment that he's in. Just to, you know, it's interesting, though, if you get that opportunity, oh my gosh you better perform because you know he's got me sold on the fact that he gets the most out of his equipment and he you know if if he gets in the same ride that I'm in he can go just as fast and he's been saying it for many years but man it's a lot of pressure when he finally do get that opportunity and hopefully he does get that opportunity I you know I don't want it to take away from Barry because I think that he deserves that ride and and when he's I know that we have John Hunter as our kind of a reserve driver.

We've hired him as kind of our reserve guy after last year when we had five different drivers. Like you need to have that. And Barry is that for Hendrick. So I don't want Barry to lose his races because I think he's such a great talent. But it takes time. Ty Gibbs, while people were going to judge him off of these few weeks of not running well, he is a kid. He is a kid.

And I had a long conversation with him this week. weekend and he was just so upset with his performance. I'm like, Ty, you know, these guys are good. I mean, I can't emphasize enough that these guys are so good. Chase Elliott didn't do much for his first few years in Cup. Joey Legano didn't do much. They were all with top tier teams, but when they hit it and it clicked for him, they took off. And, you know, he's like, you know, just frustrated because I think he holds himself to an unrealistic standard that it's just not realistic. He needs to just set real goals and the best advice I was given by my Ford, my rookie season, you better find happiness than something other than winning because you're going to lose a lot.

You know, Hall of Famers win about 8% of the time, 7 to 8% of the time. So that's 93% of banging your head against the wall. So I'm going to give Corey this underrated award. but it it comes with a lot of responsibility. If you do get that ride, you better haul ass. But hopefully he gets that opportunity at some point. I honestly believe the business model will have to change for the teams for him to get that opportunity because I don't know that he brings a lot of funding with him, maybe some, but not a lot.

But to get a top tier ride, you're going to have to, I say you're going to bring a lot. of money right now. So everyone seems pretty happy and locked in with what they got. But I'd like to see Corey. I just think that at times he really gets to harnesses pulled back on him with that team because they're trying to build and they can't do it if they wreck cars. So they really kind of manage his aggressiveness at times. But when he gets the reins taken off of him, probably like this weekend at Atlanta, you'll see him probably towards the front. So Corey LaJoy is going to be my guy. I got one more and this one's coming from me, so I didn't use hashtag deer Danny. I'm kind of cheating a little bit. But I thought about it after our conversation last week when you said you think drivers should be

able to do extracurricular things out of the car. I forgot that you're also an owner now. So I was just curious if looking at it from that perspective, if Tyler Reddick or Bubba did something outside the car to injure themselves for a handful of weeks, how would you feel about it as an owner versus as a driver? I mean, I would hate it for my team. I would. As an owner, I I couldn't help but say, damn it. You know, I felt it last year. You know, hurt was out. But that was a racing incident.

It was. And then you had the Bubba thing, right? Yeah. That he got taken out. Also on, yeah. So it's just, it sucks for the race team, right? It really does. But with the charter system and us racing for owner's points,

and that's how you kind of get into the money. really when it comes to the point standings is through the car and not the driver that's the security we need as owners right if it was tied to the driver I guarantee you Rick every team would have a you better be at your house

and your living room sitting on the couch because the financial implications of us tying what we get paid out on the charter to the driver would be it's just too much of risk we wouldn't take it. You're still paying Chase Elliott right to race your car and naturally not saying

Josh Barry's not good but he's not Chase Elliott right otherwise he'd have Chase's ride you're having you're having yeah this is full speculation but I don't think Chase is getting paid his salary or his race winnings

I'm not sure about salary but you know if I know his management team which I do he has some sort of policy in place that's covering him financially right now not that again not that he needs it by any means right but it's that's his security blanket is that he's got but if you're rick you're losing points in the owner's points standings no because josh barry is

but if he doesn't finish as well as chase yes you could yes you argue that yes right but with our point system all chase needs to do is come in and win a race and bam he's in he's going to be in the top 16 by the end of the year and then that those points get reset so this first 26 races i hate to if you're going to get injured or be out of the car, this is kind of the time to do it. Yeah. So your opinion doesn't change that much. It doesn't. I mean, I can't be the pot calling the kettle black. I do a lot of things. I could have easily busted a knee playing pickleball this weekend. Kyle Larson could have too, but that is what we do to keep our sanity in this sport. Like mental health is a big deal

for me personally. I know when I went through some things in 2010 through 2011 where I went from 10 races to one race and I had to just get away from racing. That was the best thing I learned about myself was like, wow, I get rejuvenated by taking a step away from the sport during the week at times. Now, again, I'm enamored with it now by owning a race team, but I still find time for basketball night. Once a week I try to go play golf. Like those are my things to get a way that allows me to still be competitive and keep that fuel burning, but yet not burn me out on the sport that I've been a part of. Gotcha.

Anything else you want to add? No, just, we need to get this thing out. So we got to wrap it up. I know, I know. We had a long one probably today. I haven't kept track of the time. But, wow, it looks like a long one. So I just want to thank you all for tuning in.

Obviously, we're back in studio now for the foreseeable future. and make sure you follow us on Instagram. I noticed we got a good bump this week at Denny Hamlin on Instagram and Twitter from our machine gun wars, basically, and our content with Charlie and Ron. But that was a lot of fun. Make sure you tune in and all that. Who else you got to tag?

We've got to tag you. So you can follow Denny at Denny Hamlin. You can tag me. You can follow me at Jared D. Allen. and then of course, Dirty Mo at Dirty Mo on all social, Dirty Mo Media on all socials. And then like, follow, subscribe to this podcast. There's a lot we got to tag here at the end.

Yeah. Well, listen, I've always told people that if they want really good social content, they're going to need to wait until I retire. But you might as well go ahead and follow now to get that special content ahead of the game. So when I retire and don't have many bosses, then you'll see the real stuff come out. We'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.