Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - It's Tricky...

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

Denny Hamlin chats about his win on Sunday at Pocono and the controversy at the end with Kyle Larson. How did strategy come in to play? Austin Dillon throws his helmet at Tyler Reddick. Ryan Preece attempts to fight Corey Lajoie. Did NASCAR get it right with the caution at the end? Did Denny hit Alex Bowman. And, #DearDenny. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

But not necessarily related to the boost because Kyle Petty said after the race. Who gives a fuck what Kyle Petty says? Can I finish my question? Okay, go ahead. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to Actions Detrimental, the Tricky Edition. Oh, it's tricky. How do you feel right now, Jared?

Based on my new T-shirt. All right, those who can't see, Jared has taken a. Danny Hamlin 50 win t-shirt and he's cut it in half literally right down the middle and he's got a Kyle Larson shirt on the other half. They're like sewn together. Yeah. It's a half and half t-shirt. I'm showing my...

Are you prepared to be Kyle Larson's defender? I mean, to an extent. Okay. I'm going to play devil's advocate. That's absolutely. Jared, do you feel like this is like mom and dad fighting for you, like in front of you? No.

Can I be dad, please? I don't get into the on-track stuff, but it is a little awkward. I told your mom in the bus on that second to last restart. When you were on the bottom, I was like, I wish someone else was up top because I feel like Denny might come out of turn one here

and run Kyle a little high. Sort of like he did to Ross. And she's like, no, he won't do that. I was like, if he gets the chance to pass them. I think that might be what happens. It didn't happen on that second or last restart. Mostrodomis. It did, yeah. Wow. No, yeah, it didn't happen on that one for sure.

The 48 was not pushing. I think they probably have conversations in the team about don't push someone past a teammate, especially for a win, which the NBC actually played our audio and I was saying the same thing to Chris saying

you know if the 19 just wouldn't push the five on this restart we got a good chance to win this we could win this we're probably going to win this but he did and then on the next restart I pushed the five past the 19 I was like well

I mean well if if we would work something out earlier then we wouldn't add this problem but yeah it's so hard I was talking on the radio actually when we were stuck behind Kyle that under the green flag. I was like, you know, we could draft past them.

Like, as long as I know he's not going to try to pass me, like I'll slow down on corner exit. We can link up down the straightaway and get a huge draft and see if we can't get around them. But it's just so hard in those moments to play all that out and make it work right. But, yeah, we were both faster at the moment. And I did the same thing he did is that I realized pretty quickly

that okay i'm not going to pass him because he's you know arrowblocking he'd go up high and then you pull it down low this you know pretty standard mile and a half um arrow blocking men like we're not going to get around realistically unless he hits traffic or there's a late race restart there's just that's the only way and so i backed off and then i backed true x off with me to just like chill out and make another run maybe maybe later in the in the race uh but you know we were killing our front tires so bad that uh we uh we we just chilled and restart happened and all hell broke loose um so you want to you want to you want to just get right to it yeah mr let's let's dive right into what the people want to hear okay perfect well um as we

talked about uh the first restart there i was on the inside i really didn't love that position um you know i thought that maybe double stack in the outlet was probably the best idea, but it's so hard. You can't give up the front row, which we didn't. It's been a while since someone's giving up the front row to, you know, because you just never know which push could be the one that gets you by. And so I didn't really have a good restart there, and I got passed by a couple cars.

And, well, yeah, I got passed by a couple cars, and then I'm restarting the third. believe because I got back around the 48 yeah I got back around the 48 so I was third so was the third got to choose and I'm like well I'm definitely choosing the outside here this is where I was going to start when I was second and so I got a really really good push from the four and it looked like the inside line did not get going because the 47 was way off of the five on the restart I thought they would actually, yeah, the 47 was off the five who, you know, if you don't, it takes people three or four cars in line to really get a line going down the front straightaway. So I went into turn one and I, the key moment for me was getting clear of the 19, right before we get into turn one. So I shot

low. And next thing you know, I go in there and I feel like I go in there pretty deep and the five sails off in there and he just goes straight. And I'm like, oh, shit. Like in that moment, I'm like, oh, I got a shot. And I think I'm going to clear him at that point. So it's really, really tough because this happens in a matter of a half a second or one second, right? It's super quick. So I see him going up the racetrack and lose all of his momentum. I just gas it.

And I just am like, I'm going to clear him right here. We're not going to run side by side. But that moment, he says he's still there. He's still there. still there and again this is so bang bang it's really really quick happening i see where i'm out on the racetrack i'm in the middle and i'm like uh well i'm actually towards the straddling the low line and the middle line so i gas up and i get to the middle lane as quick as i possibly can thinking i'm going to clear him and once i realize i'm not going to clear him i'm like ah so i start lifting

and when that happens, I'm coming up. He's holding his line and I still contest we did not touch. I know it looks like it, but there's not a ding on the car, not a scratch on the car. No, we're on the right side. So from where I was sitting on the left, I mean, I could not. If it was contact, I certainly didn't feel it. It was so small that I certainly didn't feel it in the car. I saw the flaps go up, which happens whenever you get some low pressure,

I guess it's high pressure underneath the hood, which happens when you do get close to each other. So I throttle up there, but I got to make sure that I still leave the guy some room to race. He definitely had room up on the high side, but when we get that close to each other, it causes both cars to go extremely tight, which is why we're both lifting, which while we both lost momentum. But it just caused his car to go way tight when we got right next to each other. I was tight. He was tight. We were both lifting and he got into the outside wall.

You know, we still came off the corner side by side. And then, you know, the race was really kind of decided at that point by what happened behind us because there was the 19 and the four both were coming with a huge run. and I immediately go down to the bottom of the racetrack all the way to where I didn't want to go down where the cars, there's like a jump down where the drains are. So I kind of used that as my white line where I knew no one was going to go further left than that.

And so it kind of left the four in the 19, no choice really, but to follow me down there because Larson kind of had the high line covered at the moment. So, you know, we still came off side by side, which shouldn't be lost in all this. But yeah, it was the push down the back straightaway that I got that cleared me ultimately. But yeah, listen, I didn't, I wouldn't, let me think how to word this. I didn't love it because it's Kyle Larson, he's a good friend of mine.

But also, like, I wouldn't change anything. I really wouldn't because I think about the opportunity for me to get 50, 600 for Toyota, break the record at the track. There's just a lot of factors that goes into it. And you guys mentioned you and Travis that like a few weeks ago, you're like, what did I say? Last week. It was last week? Yeah, last Monday.

What I said, Travis? You were just talking about how you really wanted 50 and you're like, maybe I just have to start driving more aggressive. I'm just going to drive aggressive. And then you ended it with just ask Kyle Larson. No, I didn't. Yes, you did. Wow.

Irony. Yeah, I mean, I think that I try. It's very, very hard, guys, when it's one second. You have one second, half a second to one second to like make decisions on what you're going to do. But ultimately, I wanted to be aggressive. and so the aggressive part was I'm throttling up right here and I'm going to clear myself right away when he didn't get his bad of a

when he didn't bauble as much as I thought because listen I can't see him out on the right side when he shoots up in the middle of the racetrack for whatever reason either drove in too deep or didn't get his right side tires clean I'm thinking well he is going to be really slow here and I'm going to clear him I got to get to the top I don't want to get freight train

and this is the race for the win. When, again, when the spotter says you're not clear, not clear, he's out there. You know, it's my job at that point to leave him a racing lane, which I thought I did. So are you aware of his trajectory in the corner? No, I can't see it. Again, I can't see that. So what you see on TV is it looks simple because it's a bird's eye view or the camera angle. Is this any other?

but in the car, realize we don't see anything. So all I see is the line that I'm on, especially since he's behind me at the moment. So, you know, his nose is not equal, not beside, you know, he's, I think he's up to my door or so at that time. I don't see him. I don't feel him, nothing. So all I see is the line that I'm racing in.

Well, so I'm in the middle here, and I'm starting to drift up, and I'm like, it's okay. He's still got a lane over there. But the closer we get, the more the arrow just takes off of the race car and it makes you go dead right. As we've seen, right? We've seen it with Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace. Same scenario, me and Chase Elliott. It's happened, Ross and Noah, that's what caused that fist fight.

It's just a weird spot, arrow spot with these race cars that, you know, people, think that we made contact and it knocked him into the wall. That is not the case. It's sorry, it's not the case at all. I understand that that's probably the narrative that wants to be had, but it's not a true one. Grand Turismo, based on a true story, is a movie about a team of unlikely underdogs, a struggling working class gamer, a failed former race car driver, and an idealistic motorsports executive. Together, they risk it all and take on the most elite sport in the world. Directed by Neil Blomkamp, this movie features an incredible cast led by David Harbor, alongside Orlando Bloom, Jiamen Hansu,

Jerry Hollowell Horner, and Archie Medeque as Yan Martinboro. Some of the most famous racing competitions in the world are recreated through the use of actual Nissan GTs, drones, and practical effects. The racing sequences are so realistic that Jan Martinboro himself worked as a stunt driver on the movie. This movie needs to be seen on the big screen. It's inspiring, thrilling, action-packed movie. Brand Turismo based on a true story is exclusively in movie theaters August 11th. Get your tickets today rated PG-13. I'm curious when Kyle's driving in the corner is like can you put yourself in his shoes on the outside if you see that you're you know heading for the wall like like what could he have done differently in your eyes like I'm thinking I'm watching the replay is when you guys

get close. Can he not just turn left more and run you down the track? He can't because again I put him in an arrow spot where he can't turn his car. So you really have to make a decision at the point. Go ahead and lift and we're probably still going to be side by side because I'm going to get, I'm getting tight as well. He sees I'm starting to come up. But it's it's hard to explain because you've never driven a car. It's like, I can't tell you, I don't know what the numbers are, the amount of downforce that you lose in that particular arrow situation, but it is huge. I mean, you lose complete control of your car, which is why you see all the outside cars going dead straight when these, uh, when these situations happen. Was the way you passed him,

was that your plan initially on no, no. What was your, when, when they throw the green flag in your mind, how are you going to get around the leader? I'm not. Honestly, I didn't think we had a shot other than if he missed the corner. It's the only way. And at that track we saw throughout the day, but are you doing anything to...

There was no clean pass to be had. Someone was going to have to give way. So if someone wants to fight their position at Pocono, let's throw out any factors coming from behind, you know, draft and stuff. stuff like that. The outside person or whoever's in control can, you can make it probably impossible to pass unless you're willing to just say, like this guy's faster, got to let him go, or you use someone up. That's just, these next-gen cars are so draggy that when you get side by side, the outside guy

can just hold you, hold you, hold you, and you're not going anywhere. So I don't know that there was really a oh i'm just going to go down there turn left and clear him and pass him and race him down the back straight away like what's it going to happen i needed him to miss a corner for me to have a shot i'm asking because as you said you have a lot of factors in play here seven the record at polka no your 50th win 600 for toyota restarting second or on the second row surely in your mind you're thinking well what is my only chance to get around these guys my only chance was to get to second place and then hope he missed a corner, which Kyle's probably not going to miss a corner very often. The only chance is in turn one. After that, his tires are good, you know, even if he

overshoots it. If he's clear, there is no race to be had. There just isn't. It's just too impossible to pass. Do you think with fans and the crowd watching this replay that you lose a little bit the benefit of it out because of how you race Ross last year in the same situation? I don't, you know, I don't know about that for sure. While it might look similar, I had left Ross no choice in that situation. I mean, we didn't make contact either. But, yeah, I was up the racetrack quite a bit more with Ross. I definitely had the intent, as you could see, through where I entered the corner, to be much lower.

But no, it definitely wasn't... I mean, your question is, do you lose benefit of the doubt because it was the same? Yeah, yes and no. The outcome was not the same. Again, we have to figure out what is... What's acceptable? We're racing for a win, a significant win. win.

All these wins in the regular season matter for playoff points and whatnot. So, maybe, you know, probably lose benefit of the doubt if I had to guess, but I don't know that I really had any benefit of the doubt to begin with. I don't know, I don't know really that I've ever been looked at subjectively for whatever the end.

I mean, Jared, if you're worried about boo, I got booed after I got wrecked at Martinsville. I got wrecked. So it's, there's not subjectivity there. It's not the fans are right because they're booing. Like, no, they're, they just, they have a different lens because they're fans.

And if they're fans of someone or not fans of me, like you're going to have a reaction. I mean, listen to it. Like, fans are loyal. And NASCAR fans are more loyal than any. So I just take it with a grade of salt. Like the intros, I mean, I get booed like the most by far in intros. And before the race, I hadn't done anything. So what's everyone so upset about?

So I don't think it was funny at the end of the race. I guess Jeff Burton was insinuating that the crowd was booing because they threw that caution. And Dale Jr. Your boss said no. clarified real quickly. Jeff, I don't think that's what they're doing. I think they're booing for another reason. But not necessarily related to the boost because Kyle Petty said after the race.

Who gives a fuck what Kyle Petty says? Can I finish my question? Okay, go ahead. And then you can say that. For the fans just watching trying to understand the moment and how it happened, right? They see what happened last year with Ross, which is very evident. Oh, I got them back. Yeah.

Because I've been wrecked multiple times. I've been on the in way more than I've been on the giving in. And that's just a statistical fact. Correct. Of most incidences, yeah. But the outcome from last year and this year is kind of similar. I agree with that. I definitely can see that for sure.

But I can tell you there was no intent. The intent was not the same. I went into the corner thinking holy shit, this is my opportunity. And I've got a split second to hit the gas and clear him. That's what I'm thinking at the time. And when I realize I can't clear him,

I'd realize I need to leave a lane. I don't know how close he is to the right side of the car. I can't see him. So I don't know how tight he's about to get. All I know is that I'm going to go up here and I'm going to run wide and hopefully we end up side by side off this corner. It didn't work out that way.

But again, all factors, it's hard to put all the factors into play of why you make the decisions you make in a split second moment. I mean, I didn't go in there and clean them out. Like, you know, who did Ty Gibbs clean out at the, Brandon Jones at Martin Zill? Like, it's just different. like I will contest and we will show shots of the right side of my race card with not a nick not a scratch not a dent nothing so if we touched I mean I usually you put a hand on it it's going to leave a mark it's it's just I don't know I mean what do you guys want me to do I mean just should I leave them more than a lane should I

tell me what I should do. It's hard. I mean, you know, I'm just asking because at Darlington, Kyle Larson didn't deem it was, he didn't leave chastain a lane on the outside, which is what caused the chastain to then run in the corner and clean him out because he was like, well, I got cleared out here.

Larson used up Chase Elliott at Watkins Glen. That's his teammate. Same thing, ran him up high. So I don't know what are we being subjective like I really need a poll like are you mad about what I did or just me like I don't because what's acceptable right and I get it like it's a very very fine line for sure because I ran up the racetrack and didn't leave him a lot of options and especially in that scenario right he's thinking at all costs I've got to stay on the outside of them. And so I need to stay in the gas to make sure I stay on the outside of them. But unfortunately, with these race cars, in that arrow position, you're going to lose the complete grip of your car. And it's going to go dead right, which we've seen with everyone.

It makes me think back to the Cook 600 you won when you were racing Kyle Bush. The situation was similar, right? You had said, I'm going in here. I'm not letting off. Okay. Very similar. I didn't even think about that. So same scenario, right?

And I said after the Coke 600 in 2022, I says, if there was contact, I was going to be, that was going to be the result. Like I just, at that point, we're racing for the win. I think that I've been very naive at times thinking that, well, this is just old school racing. You've got to be a purist. and you can't, you know, you know, you got a, the art of passing is, is no longer an art.

People just clean each other out. I just don't put this in that category whatsoever. I used Arrow to my advantage, the same way that Kyle Arson uses Arrow to stay in front of me to his advantage when he's leading. So when is it okay for this person to use Arrow to his advantage, but not the other car? Like, it's just, I don't know. Just, again, am I warm and fuzzy and saying, you this is, you know, I went out and took that. No, but, you know, I earned a lot of them the very, very hard way.

And that was a hard way as well, restarting fourth and that final restart, or that second to last restart. But, I mean, again, I put all the factors into play, and I believe with the roles reversed, the outcome is the exact same. I understand that I won't get the benefit of the doubt. I understand that, you know, it looks similar to last year. The result was not the same as last year, but it was certainly not the intent. The intent was to go in there and when he bobbled and shot up the racetrack, I got to go right, I have to clear right now.

It's the only shot. Because if we come off, you know, side by side off the turn two, that once I conceded this, that he was not, I was not going to get clear that we were going to have to have to race down the backstretch. It was over. He was going to pinch me off and turn two. And again, someone, the only way a pass was going to be made for the lead, someone was going to get used up, or someone made a mistake.

That's the only chance that a pass happens for the lead. So just the aerodynamics of this car lead to that, that situation? It does, which is why we put each other in these situations all the time. We do. It's very, very common. Yeah, I mean, you can run right up to the, if you're the inside car, you can run up to someone's door on the outside. And it also makes their car push really bad. And that makes them have to lift on exit.

So if you think that they're going to get clear of you, just run up to the left side of their door. It just, it causes a huge tight moment, makes them lift. And then bam, you get to stay side by side. Well, I tell you what, I'm not opposed to the. the booze because a lot of booze lead to engagement and that uh instagram post has like 1,500 comments which 1500 comments yeah what give me a give me a number of positive to negative ratio just off the top of your head probably 60 40 negative oh route oh I thought it would be no it's got it's way more negative than that I'm going to take a sample of about 15 comments right

whatever whatever shows up here whatever shows up you're going to read yeah now Now, just keep in mind that whatever gets the most likes is populated at the top. So it's probably going to be the fucking you, Denny Hamlin. I'm going to scroll a little bit. You're a dirty veteran. All right. Kyle would never do that to you. I scrolled a little bit to get to the middle.

Hack, practice what you preach, you little bit. A bunch of trash can emojis, a bunch of clapping emojis. Absolute legend. Not even close to over. Still a lot to accomplish my man. here's one in Spanish. This is saying more or less you in Spanish.

I'd like to see him try to take this one away. Congrats, legend. Denny Hamlin, you're the best and so is your mom. So shout out to Mary Lou. And congratulations, congratulations.

Hell yeah, D.H. A couple goat emojis. All right, go back to the top again. Read that top one. Hey, Hamlin, I like your championships. Oh, no. Hey, that, that, This is the picture of you doing 50 with the Pokemon Trophy.

Here's one that says, how many championships do you have? Oh, yeah, look at your left hand. That's awesome. All right. No, the back to the one about hack, practice, which you preach, all this stuff. Yeah. Right. Can we address this really quickly?

What am I preaching? I'm confused about what am I preaching? again, if you switch the roles, there's no question that I get used up. I mean, that's just, that's what happens. Again, I use previous instances to say, well, what would, what would this person do to me? Right. And I understand Kyle's comments afterwards saying, well, he did that to Ross, which he deserved, which Ross deserved, but I haven't done anything to him

for him to race me that way. I agree with that. I mean, it's not completely true that we haven't had any situations where, you know, I feel like he's used me up in a few instances and I reached out to him to talk about those instances in the past, but I would say for the general,

Generally speaking, he's been very fair to me. I wouldn't say, I mean, we documented during the pre-incident at the dirt track. Like, I love Kyle, but he, you know, he's not afraid to put you to a decision when he comes and slides you. Okay, and another instance, he slid up, slide job, slide job! And not Kyle Wishing in the wall. I just, I feel as though rolls reverse, I get the same treatment. And so because I'm unpopular, should I not make that move? Should I not make the move the same move that would be done to me?

I don't, I guess I don't know, it's a hard decision to make, and it's really hard to make when it's a split second, and you see an opportunity to win a significant race. and I made a choice that the best word for it is that just I don't love it, but I wouldn't change it. I mean, that's what you said about Kansas too. It was the same. Yeah, I mean, you don't love the outcome.

I think me and, well, this is the first time that me and Kyle kind of have a difference of opinion on the ending. Kansas, we had the same opinion. Mine was like, well, we were just racing there and we made slight contact, racing for the lead. and that was that was it and Kyle said the same thing he's like yeah I mean I got I was loose I bounced off the wall he was right there he was trying to side draft that's racing I we had the same opinion from Kansas which is why neither one of us well certainly he was very

fair in his statements after the race I do think he's warranted to be upset I'll I'll certainly concede that roles reversed I'm like, really, dude? But I'll know in the back of my mind, though, that this is fucking new NASCAR. This is just, this is the world we live in that the best car just ain't going to go past the leader anymore. You have to put someone to a compromising position to pass them. And especially with three laps to go, they ain't letting you by. So it's just different now.

And certainly you could make a. an argument for the five team said, well, hey, we earned our spot in front of you. We played our strategy. We ran lap time. We earned that spot in front of you. You shouldn't be able to just go take it. I think if I ran into the square into the back of them and spun around and turn one, that's taking it. That's just not giving you an opportunity whatsoever to race and that's dumping somebody, which is completely unacceptable. Racing for the lead, I don't know. I just,

I get it. It's certainly a fine line. It's a, if Kyle thinks that he owes me one, I don't hold that against him whatsoever. I'm of the same opinion he is. I can separate our friendship off the racetrack to what we are competitors on the racetrack.

And I mean, that's it's interesting because I said man I race my friends harder I do and hopefully the fans would want that like do the fans want oh these guys are buddies they're not going to race each other hard for the win well that's not good for your entertainment

like you want us to be able to put that aside for a moment and then be competitors like a football game They want to, you know, knock the shit out of each other. And they get out, you know, they come at middle field and then they're like dabbing each other. Like that's just they can separate competition from friendship. And he said, hey, you know, I think Jeff Gluck said,

Larson said, well, he would golf with him Wednesday if he asked. I'd the same way. Now, I'd probably have some explaining to do. But I still would, you know, you can't let your friendship. trickle into competition because you're just not doing your team justice. I mean, you know, every team works so hard. I get it. My team I'm very, very close with.

I've been with them for a long time. My relationship with Chris and those, you know, my engineers, I've had them a very long time. Man, if I just go through turns one and two and I lift and I'm conceding that, all right, well we're just going to run side by side here A, I'm not winning. That's a fact. And I just, it's hard to meet for me to say to them

I gave 100% when I know that there was another move to be had. There was a, I'm, I could be more aggressive here. You know, you heard it and Chris, you know, this, right before that restart, right? And he's saying seven,

50, 600. Find a way. find a way. And so he says that entering turn three as we're about to restart. So, I mean, he got my blood going. And when I saw the five cars shoot up the racetrack

in turn one and two, I'm like, I got it. I'm taking it right now. And, you know, we, we got close. We got close. So, listen, I do hate it for Kyle and his team.

Certainly they were deserving and getting a better finish. I'm not sure why they fell at the end. I don't know because it looked like the speed of his car was fine through turns two. Again, he didn't have a great car. I mean, he was running pretty good lap time to me. He was out front, but I certainly thought we were faster. The 19 were certainly faster.

But I didn't know if he just, once he got in traffic, he had two tires. He was then going up against four tire cars. Did he drop that reason? Or did he have damage? Not sure. He mentioned his car was destroyed in the, in his interview. Okay.

So, for what it's worth. Yeah, it might have been for sure. That, that's, that's, that's for sure.

Um, now was it, was it destroyed from the wall when he, ran over the last side under caution. I'm not sure. Because both were pretty significant hits. Uh, so it was,

I, I thought he would come up and like rev his engine or something, but I, I didn't think he would like, just, flat, in the left side of the cars. But I don't know.

I understand his frustration. I get it. I would have the same reaction. We're both competitors. We both won it bad. I see the way like Harvick's driving this year and like I haven't got there yet. I'm not nearly there where you can tell like he's just done letting people go. He's he's not afraid to just kind of wash up and put you a decision where you got a lift.

like he's his give a shit is definitely meter is is pegged on low um with everyone um but Kyle's gonna win he's gonna be in this sport a long time the next I don't know how old is how old is Kyle I think he turns 30 this week listen as a fan of his you should know this 31 31 31 so he's a big present this year's 31 okay so yeah it's he's got another 13 14 years of career. I've certainly got less than that. It's just, man, you got every, from my perspective, you know, it's every opportunity I don't take to try to win is one less win column, one less tick in the win column, right? It's just, it's, it's very tough when you see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't know when that is, by the way. I'm not

suggesting that I'll be done at the end of this year or the following or the, or the following. Joe says he's, I'm not leaving for another 10. I don't know about that. But yeah, it's like I said, I wanted 50 really bad. And what did I say, Travis? Just ask Kyle Larson. That's not, I said I got to start being more aggressive. Oh, more aggressive. Yeah. More aggressive. If people just listen to the podcast, they would have seen this coming. Also, shout out to Kyle Larson. Thank you. Gave an action, such a mental. drop during his interview. Yep.

I think what you should do, by the way, is say, all right, here's the take, and then just say, you know, like, just bleep it out.

No sounds to make the people listen to the whole pod instead of watching the highlights. Because a lot of people watch the highlights. They don't, and they comment on the highlights and you're like, wait a minute,

you don't understand what we're talking about. The clickbait stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Chase, let's hold hands. Well, perhaps, I still want to hold hands with them.

They do not want to hold hands on them. No, they don't. Perhaps I gave you an idea on how to address this elephant in the room, because, yes, Kyle's birthday is this coming weekend. It is? Next Monday. So you have a couple days to prepare for this. You know what would be a good birthday present?

Running second to me at Richmond. That would be good. I would enjoy that. That'd be a great social post. That'd be perfect. That'd be perfect. You had. Amazing.

I ruined your perfect scenario, didn't I? Which was what? Denny and Kyle running one-two or Kyle Denny, however you... Cleanly, yeah, cleanly, yeah. Or without any drama. I should say that. Maybe not cleanly, without any drama. All right.

Have you spoken to Kyle's sensor, will you reach out to him? How does that go when something like this goes down? He's going to say happy birthday this week. I don't know. I think this is probably a conversation to have in person. I think. I mean, our paths cross.

we have same mutual friends it's funny because you know his my friend is my friend first by the JP works for Kyle and he's like

he's the Austin for Kyle and JP's mouthing off at Austin's like Austin should tell him shut the fuck up like I'm not driving the car like they want to argue with Austin like come argue with me

like anyway I get it everyone's passion it because you know you live and breathe that person's life and you travel with them like i i always say you know austin is the like try it and true he is ride or die die ride or die and at times like i say no austin i i'm like there like i'll tell him like no and he'll try to defend me to me. And I'm like, Austin, don't know. It's,

it's okay. I know I made a mistake there. It's okay to admit it. Well, you know, I just think it was just a messed up scenario. So, you know, JP is that guy for Kyle. And I love JP because you know, you love loyal

people and that's why we're all friends. All these guys are loyal. They could separate, you know, work from play. We all have a good time and um again well i don't i don't uh i don't you know condemn them for you know having a reaction to it that's for sure it's always interesting when things like this happened to see which person in the group chat is the one to break the ice and and kind of bring everything back to normal again yeah because kyle's still in our golf guys chat he's not in the golf guys

and there's no story to be had there. He moved away. He moved to Phoenix, so he can't participate in all the events, but he's still in the chat. So you definitely, like even after Kansas, it took a while for someone to be like, usually it lights up.

If either me or Kyle or Ricky win, like the chat lights up. Well, that's what's funny, because after Kansas, Ricky had posted a giff in the chat of something, and he thought it was hilarious. and no one responded. And then like two weeks later, he was like, I thought that was funny.

I was trying to break the ice. You're right. No one said anything. Yeah. Ricky, Ricky's another great one. Just total loyal guy. He's awesome. But really it, it, it was a fantastic race at Pocono.

To be honest, but all the races were really exciting. The, you know, we spent so much time on the finish. we've got so much other stuff to cover here but first i feel like we should say shout out to all the polka friends hey by the way there was a picture of a lot of people giving me the finger but there's one guy in a fedex shirt with me when naskar says congrats 50 or something you know you see boo and then you see fingers and then there's one guy in a fetic shirt just hallelujah this guy is cheering i'm like i i did it it for you, that guy, that one guy right there. I will say this though. I think I have more fans than

I've ever had. I just think I had no fans before. Now I have people. Surely, yeah, there's this group of people that did not give a fuck about Denny Hamlin. And now either they really don't care. Right. No, they don't like or they really like you. Like you, you've taken this group of people. I had a fan club and that was the entire group of my fans and there was about 30 or 40 of them. It was small. Your mom knew everyone by name. No question.

But I, at the racetrack, now I see way more 11 gear than I've ever seen. For sure. Would you agree with that? Yeah. Yeah. Since 2019 or since I could, I started. Yeah. Yeah.

So those of you that, you know, continue to cheer when others boo, I'm doing this for you. I did this for you. I thought you were bringing up the picture of just the Pocono crowd. The crowd from the crowd was just amazing. It was fucking amazing. They did a phenomenal job. I don't know what it was. I don't know whether they promoted more in the market or what they did.

But camping full. I mean, I just, that place is revived. I don't know if it's the promotion, the racing, whatever it is at Pocono. but that track is absolutely revived. The infield slam-packed. They are spending money in the infield to make the fan experience better. Awesome job, and the stands were packed sold out.

I mean, just well done by Pocono this weekend. And this is a track that drivers, other people in industry, would always be, oh, we got Pocono this weekend, right? Didn't necessarily look forward to going to. Probably more so because of the amenities in the area. Yeah, there's just not much for sure. The racing, or at least the way the race ends, it has always been, since I can remember, exciting, especially in recent years. Yeah.

So much of it, you know, the ticket sales and whatnot, you know, it goes into the promotion of it, right? Is how are they promoting? And whatever they did, if it's a grassroots campaign like, you know, Chris Farley did in Black Sheep, you know, posting on every tree around the area. Like, whatever they did, do that again and help educate other tracks to do whatever they did to promote because it was fantastic. Yeah. I mean, one date I feel like helps too. You can put all your... It does.

Especially for a job like this. That certainly is a factor. Getting into the racing, Pocono has always been a strategy race. I'm curious... Strategy and fuel, yep. I'm curious what goes into a crew chief's decision on how to create that strategy before the race start. well there's a lot of factors in it one of them is going to be how close are you to the leader because you can't pit you can't pit and then you know before the end of the stage if you're not

within i think the number used to be 12 seconds of the leader with the pit stops being faster now that number's probably uh i thought i heard him say 15 seconds yesterday i was going to say 15 Yeah. Yeah, so 15 seconds or so. So it's just you need to stay close to the lead to really give yourself tons of options for strategy. To be honest with you, I didn't quite understand our strategy for most of the race, but I just kind of trusted in they got to figure it out up there. They're looking at numbers and shit I don't see. They see when other guys are pitting. A lot of what Chris will do at times will just look at, well, who are we racing? Who do we think has the same amount of speed as us?

And those are the guys we got to out strategize or figure out how to get ahead of in track position. And so traditionally when it comes down to the strategy and stuff, and especially at Pocono, I understand the assignment. That's kind of all I'll say about that. But I know what he's trying to do and what he needs me to do when I'm a out there. Like, I understand the assignment and I pit whenever he says pit. Um, so it's, this is more of a track position race than it's ever been. It's never been more difficult to pass at that racetrack. Um, new tires. Again, Truex had four on us. We had two. And I think we even had

older left side tires than that, than most. And still like, the, the times when I came out on two tires, I ran my fastest lap of the day. It's just, it's so difficult to pass. The tires don't fall off. So it's a strategy race. It really reminds me it's as close to an F1 race as it possibly can get only the competition's better and closer. Yeah, I mean, when you look at it, before the last two cautions, you had the top

three cars were on a different strategy. Yeah. Kyle, who had spun out earlier in the race. So he's on a completely different strategy, right? I'm assuming. You had yourself who was on a different strategy than Martin, who was behind you. So top three cars, completely different ways of running this race, but all found themselves battling for the lead.

Yeah. You know, a lot of it is because they, again, there's a lot of ways to skin the cat to put yourself up front at the end. But you got to have, first thing you got to have is a fast car. And then, you know, you've got to have. the strategy work out. You have to have cautions not screw you. There's sometimes a caution can just completely throw your strategy upside down. So there's a lot of factors in it for sure. But, you know, I think that many of my wins at Pocono, I wouldn't say many of them. A few of them have come

because my team has just killed it on the strategy side of things. I think one of them being the race last year, which I guess didn't count. But even the year, I don't know, 2019, or 20 one of those years that we won. That was a strategy call where we were racing Kyle Bush and Kevin Harvick and we were all pretty close on speed but we just, we beat them with strategy.

We had a better strategy call. Yeah, and you've also had the races here where you've run out of fuel on the last lap but the strategy just didn't quite play out. No doubt. One of the most dominating cars I thought I ever had there was probably in 2000, gosh, It was right after 2010.

I won one of those races in 2010, but the following year, just I had the field by like three quarters of a second, a lap in practice, and then the car broke when I took the green flag. I think the fuel pump or something broke on it and never got a shot. But you always remember the ones you didn't win.

Like, even though, you know, if this is a big one, we got 50, like I'm like, I feel like I should have 40 more just because of crazy shit that has happened. but everyone has that story in their resume. On our show sheet here, we have just so much drama. Suarez Lugano and then Joey and his tow truck driver.

Austin Dillon thrown his helmet. What do you want to start? I don't know. Where do we start? I mean, the first thing when I walked in the studio, Travis. You look like you want to laugh. So let's start with Joey and the tow truck driver.

To truck driver. I, let's just say this I'm not going to play the audio because again his sponsors might have you know words to say or his team and you know

it's just not a great look so I won't play it but there is in-car audio out there if you really really want to investigate that's fucking hilarious I mean I mean, it's, it's hilarious because it's not me.

I understand in his moment, he's like, there's nothing wrong with my car. Just hook me to the tow truck. And he starts getting pushed and he loses his brain and starts yelling at the official to hook up the fucking tow truck. And then, I guess, as the officials are walking away, he's just, he's mumbling. screaming to himself about the official. And it's just, it's funny because it's not me. But I,

I can, I can empathize with his position because, now I think he ended up did having significant left side damage. But I looked at his car. I'm like, well, and I asked over the radio, I said, Chris,

why is he not just driving? And he's like, I think he's beached. I think he has all four flat and he can't move. So I heard Joey talk about at the end of the race that, or at the end of his day, you know, we've got to come up with something different. I agree with that. I think that it's certainly we've seen it multiple times. And really the problem is it's making the caution so long.

Like the cautions are getting super long. They felt long yesterday. And a lot of it is because, you know, NASCAR is trying to do the teams and the drivers a favor by not just. dragging your car at 80 miles an hour to the pit lane. Like that would destroy the bottom side. It's getting destroyed anyway, so you might as well try to do it as fast as you can. But they're trying not to destroy this expensive piece of carbon fiber on the bottom of the car.

But I'm wondering if like, I even said like, should we just F1 style lift these? Can you pick it up like that? Is it too heavy? Well, you would need a special piece of machinery to pick up that heavy-ass car. That F-1 car weighs far less than what? this cup car does. So I don't know the right strategy to do it.

We've cut the rub blocks in half from what they used to be. There's actually no left rear rub block, but they get beach. And again, those rub blocks are there to protect the underside of the car because frankly, the teams could not afford to keep buying underwings every single week. So they're there for a reason. They're not there for looks. I don't know the right answer to it,

but it's like there certainly should be a better scenario than what we've got. I just don't know exactly what it is. Should there also be like a push-to-talk button on the steering wheel maybe in the future? So Joey's not in this situation again? So on the tear down, they were speculating that they think it was the camera and it picked up the audience. Yes. It wasn't like he didn't have like the team key to anything. Yes.

Got it. He was, he was, he did the right thing. He was screaming to himself. But yes, there is a tiny microphone in, in the, in the, which is where we heard the priests. Yep. And Corey thing. Every car has one. Every car has an in car camera.

Yeah. So the, the mic on that picked it up. Got it. Listen, it's for our listening pleasure. It's not their pleasure. They, they had a. day. They got tore up and obviously he was probably thinking at the time.

He didn't know he had left rear damage, toiling damage that, listen, if I just put four tires on this thing, I could go back to the pad area and, you know, still be on the lead lap or get my lap back at some point. I'm just curious, have you, I think for a lot of fans, no one's ever seen or heard Joey like this? And you've had your run-ins with Joey.

Have you heard this side of him before? So this is a thing, right? This is, this, it finally comes through. Like, people don't understand, well, how can he be so one way on the track and different in person? And like, yeah, you've never, not think anyone's ever seen or heard this side of Joey. We, we know it's there. It's on the inside. We've seen little hints of it, but not like this for sure.

But it's, I mean, damn, you got a mic inside of a, inside of an athlete's helmet. when he just had something bad happened. Like it's, you usually don't get that kind of access in other sports. Yeah, or you got to pay for it. This was 100% free. Yeah.

What, what's, I mean, there's so many. Austin, Dillon, you got to connect with the helmet. You got to fucking connect.

I saw, some people were saying that throw was weak. Throw was weak. Also, did you see Reddick? Like, I'm not sure if he was clean his tires or just swerved at the right time. He kind of do,

It looked like it. So I didn't see it. Carry me through the next minute while I look at this. His problem. He's going to pull up his note here and click on a link that's going to bring him to a Twitter video. 80's problem was, I don't know if he's ever, he's not, like, he's gone hunting before. He aimed for the, you got to aim forward. The car is moving.

That's correct. It's a movie target. Oh, and he bounced it in. Yeah, he's trying to throw a bounce pass. I don't know how he threw, like how he, it was bad. Listen, helmet's... Helmets kind of heavy, though. Yeah, and if you're carrying it by the...

God, that's expensive. I mean, pop, pop, and going to like that helmet bill. You're effectively taking a wad of five grand, right? And throwing it at Tyler Reddick, essentially. Yeah. Paint scheme, all included, for sure. Yeah, but I mean, at the time,

he's probably so hot, he don't really give his shit. That's why I took my Hans off when I chucked it at Harvick at Bristol after he wrecked me there. I was like, helmet, no, let me unhook this thing real quick. And it, you know, it's way easier. It's like a boomerang.

Just kind of, the helmet, a little heavier. Yeah, not a great, not a great throw, but it's an awkward object to try to throw. I disagree with the weak throw. I mean, he bounced it in, but it had velocity on it. So I'm going to give him, you know, he's got a baseball background. I think he was part of the Little League World Series at one time.

He clearly didn't play shortstop. But yeah, in that wreck, I'm looking at the wreck, too. I don't know. People are going to think I'm such a homer, right? I mean, because I'm sticking up for Tyler here, but it's like, the three came down. from what I can see unless there's an angle that's kind of messed up here

I mean clearly Dylan was so upset that he thought he just got ran over so if it helps you the broadcast defended Tyler too you're not like

it looks weird to me I'm like well wait a minute why is he going so low but it's really hard to say because that is the worst spot for the spoters to try to spot

is into turn one they're guessing. Spotters are guessing. They're telling you shit, but they don't have any idea going into turn one. All they see is the back of the cars, and they don't know if you're clear or not. Like, if it's close, it's on you.

You've got to use your mirrors for sure into turn one, which sometimes is why the restarts are so crazy like they were, which is why you saw the Suarez-Legano wreck. You know, it happened because people were changing lanes, and they didn't know that someone was. was there. So it just, that, that happens at that racetrack. We saw that too in the Xfinney race, right? Josh Barry coming back up the track, not knowing how close, whoever was there, and

they made contact. The other incident we had was Ryan Priest and Corey LaJoy, apparently. Again, that's another one I did not see. Like, all I saw from that was the, I'm sure it's going to be, I mean, there'll be video. NASCAR has all. these in-car cameras. So they're going to post the dash cam from Corey probably today. If they haven't already. Yeah, but Priest was hot. I mean, he was hot at LaJoy. So there must have been something that he thought was egregious. Speaking of egregious, did Ty Dillon just flat out dump the 14 of Brisco? it looked

um not not great but again we didn't tv is so hard to go back and well hey let's go back two laps and figure out where where this all stem from they got a lot of going on um by the way man i know i'm bouncing around but mbc's production is so freaking good like they even laid out the strategy on like a

on a diagram and says Well, here's how the crew chiefs are playing this. So NBC does such a fabulous job of telling the stories of what's going on in the race. You can't give them enough credit for what they do and how they call races and breaking it all down for everyone. But the priest thing, I mean, I think he's still a little miffed. It seems like ever since the Larson kind of crowded him. at Bristol and he's like screw this I'm gonna stick up maybe it started at Coda remember he had a

post race interview he's just like I'm done like I'm so done with this and getting run over like I'm and since then he got you know he got the Bristol incident then whatever happened here and there's just been a few and the Stuart Hoss cars have been struggling mightily except for the four it's just been a tough season for him and I think that that all plays a factor in reactions after races and when you get when you get spun out but I you know we'll get a we'll get a look at it later today I'm sure to see how egregious it was but whatever it was he was pissed at at at Lajoy I saw Lajoy's crew members come and pull them off which yeah I mean I don't know I guess if it's

It's my team. They should do that. But I know that NASCAR frowns upon the team going to the car too quickly. Well, yeah. Well, people are always saying, oh, NASCAR knows these things are happening. How do they have that guy there ready? They did not know. They did not know.

They did not know. Oh, I was going to say, I thought you were going to tell me that gold shirt security man was on the scene. No, I'm watching the video here. There's nowhere to be seen. No. The only gold I see is Corey Selman when he gets out of the car. Speaking of that accident, though, Denny,

what did you know of that wreck happening when you were getting ready to take the white and then waiting to throw the caution? All they tell me is that there's a spin. Still green, still green, still green. Yeah, you must have the radio on. Yeah.

Yeah, he just says, keep coming. We're staying green, staying green. And at that point, I see the flag go up in the air and I thought it was yellow. And I was like, God, damn it. And I'm like, oh no, that's white. That's white.

That's baluses. This is over. I think the flagman reached for the yellow initially and then grabbed the white. Yeah. And I see NASCAR's getting a lot of criticism for this call, but I think it's been very consistent. Now, it just depends on the race. I get it. But at the end of races, now mostly it's happened on the white flag lap where they

have held the caution to as late as possible until we get around there. I haven't seen them hold a caution with two to go. Usually, I'm not going to say they want it, but they want more green, white checkers. They want, you know, that action. I think they had already seen enough at that point in the action category. I could be wrong. I think they were running late. they were that the broadcast was already when i looked at post race it was there were still

laps left in a race so i think they were running up against a tv window stage one looked like a truck race you have to understand that these are factors okay these are factors in in it like it like it or not i know you might not like it but sometimes races get called based off of how how are we doing on time and that's that's i think this may have been a fact where were flat out at a time here and we need to, you know, there was no immediate danger. The 41 did not hit anything.

He started to get going, which is why they held it as well. So it ain't like a guy hit the fence with two to go and they just didn't throw a caution. Like, I don't think they deserve, you know, the criticism they're getting for that by any means. But they absolutely, like Jeff Burton said, they had to throw the caution once,

got to almost turn two and he was sitting at the exit of turn two halfway between or really halfway between each wall so they had no choice then but certainly the crowd didn't like it they were booing they just did not like that call yeah they really didn't like how the race ended they wanted to see you cross the finish line i know what what else you got i got a couple dear dennies for you so hey i mean i had on here you guys put down Bowman Rex and says Denny just fucking fucking wrecked us. Well, that ain't true either, as we found out. I got a big runoff of turn two.

I mentioned this in post race, but I got a big runoff too, and I'm like, I even showed nose low. Like I told him at that point, here I'm coming with my run and I'm showing you what line I'm coming to. well when I got close to him he just dived low and got loose like you know it seems like that they're getting loose a lot but certainly when I got up close to him he started shaking the rear tires and you start them getting sideways and at that point I'm just on the brakes like like try not to run into them trying not to make things worse and at that point I'm thinking

the 45's going around me he lifting but um again i was i tried to give him some a minute there to to get it all gathered but uh it didn't but you know again that's a scenario where he thinks we made contact i knew we didn't make contact and and that's that's why i'm disputing the the the the larsen thing because again i they're show me an overhead shot or something because you can't see in the angles that they show, but not to get in that rabbit hole, but that tells you inside the car

how you can have two totally different perspectives on whether there was contact or not, and unless you have conclusive video evidence, it's up for debate. So certainly did not get into them. Let's see, I'm trying to keep count of our wrecks. He's got me twice. I think I got him at Chicago.

So I wasn't, you know, I talked to him after Atlanta, and he came up to me and said that, you know, oh, man, screw up. I'm like, it's no big deal. I knew it was inadvertent and you just made a mistake. And I just happened to be there. It had nothing to do with the previous week. So we were all good there and which, why we raced each other pretty fairly, day long and he just got loose there.

Since 2021, you're now even two-two. He had Martin'sville. You had Chicago. He had Atlanta. Now you have Pocono. Jared, what the fuck is wrong with you? I didn't touch him. Okay, says it doesn't count.

No, it doesn't fucking count. He lost it. It only counts when there's contact mate. Okay, so you have one in your back pocket then still. You know, if you need it, you know, in reserve. Are you

you were going to count this against me? I mean, I don't know. You're like all those other darts. Jared is a Hendrik fanboy. Yeah, yeah. It's just ironic how well it played out in your favor. That's all. I'm sorry.

I didn't set up his race car. I mean, I didn't go in the corner sideways. I was just trying to make a pass. And next thing you know, this guy is going back. in front of me. So it was coincidence. It was not anything but coincidence. We also have on here, Battle with Harvick,

you weren't happy with him. So, all right. Man, this is going to be a record long episode. TV fans, TV's job is to produce drama.

When they say that Denny is up, he is really mad at Kevin Hart Harvick. Do you know what I said on my radio? I'm like, we just held each other up and now we're both going to get past. That's literally the words. I mean, I might be skewing a word or two here and there because I can't remember exactly, but at no point was like, fucking motherfucking Harvick, God, drive me like a... You're going to have a lot of bleeps on that one. you're going to spend a long time editing um no it was just i just ran you down but like quickly

and you know he again i talked about he he's not letting anyone go this here so he's just i the only way i'm going to pass him i'm going to have to use him up slide him up the racetrack or he's going to have to concede okay i'm sick of you hounding me go ahead like that's the only way that a pass gets made. And so he was in a position where he wasn't willing to give up that track position. And so you can make the person's job impossible to pass there if you want to. And he was. He knew I was faster, but he didn't care. And he wanted to keep his track. You know, he wanted, you know, every spot matters when it comes to these last restarts. And so, I mean, God, yeah, he was just hanging on the right rear, hanging on the right rear. And I, you know, I needed a foot to

clear. But at the time, it's not the end of the race. I didn't slide him up the racetrack and say all right well i'm sick of you holding both of us up here which i i probably should have done i should just kind of moved them up and said screw this like i ain't got time to play games with you in this scenario but you know it all worked itself out in the end yeah and if anything he apologized by the push he gave you on the last restart hey can't hate it dear danning we've got some questions that we want to ask dare danny we need a 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 own hope. This ain't the raced track, so maybe you won't choke. Dear Denny. A couple of Dear Denny's. First one I got for you is, how did you celebrate your 50th win? Um, well, we, we flew home and then I got a champagne shower outside the plane. You can see that on my Instagram at Denny Hamlin.

In the pouring rain. In the pouring rain. So everyone was waiting. They said, oh, it's pouring out here. And nobody was, you know, when they opened up the door of the plane, everyone's kind of waiting there. I'm like, man, it must be really raining bad. because I just kind of sit in the back until all the luggage is unloaded.

You know, I don't have any luggage, but whoever's flying with me at the time. And so the bus is waiting to take me the hangar, and next thing you know, I just get champagne shower from all the buddies, and they had the shirts ready, the DHR 50, the hats ready. Ronnie Hats, shout out to you for the awesome Denny Hamlin, 50 win hat. Appreciate him and he organizing the friends to come over and have some fun. And what do we do?

We just, we went in the media room. We came back to my house and then I proceeded to go downstairs and beat the shit out of you in pickleball. Come on. You didn't beat the shit out of. I was in control the whole game. It was 119 game. It was 119 because I let you come back.

Did you ever have the lead, Jared? Nope. Yes. I was up 1-0. Oh, were you? I don't think so. Oh, big collapse then, I guess. Exactly.

And then, well, before that, Jared, you lost a three-point contest to Jay motherfucking white. Yeah. How did you do that? That was not good. He didn't hit the rim for each person got 10 shots. 10 shot. And I knew Jared, Jared, the rock climber now.

you know he's he's all strong and buff he's hanging on rocks on his fingertips now um i i said the jared's first shot is going to go over the backboard like he's he's so he's got springing his legs j white was the exact opposite he couldn't hit the rim eight times he didn't hit the rim and a couple times he he threw it 10 foot short no legs no strength now he had had a few beast in him at the time. But, man, it was not pretty. However, the two shots that Jay White hit the rim, it went in, and you only made one out of ten. You lost. It was truly embarrassing. You watched Jay White took the first shot and fuck, it was 10 feet short. It's like, okay, I just got to make one and this thing's over. And then like about the fifth shot, I hit it and think

it's over. And then Jay White sinks one, ties the game. And then, And then... Big boy! Yeah, the 9 or 10th shot. He went to... The big boy took you out. The big boy. You had a bad night.

I mean, I took... Evidently, I took Kyle Larson out. That probably put you in a bad mood. Then you lost to Jay White. That's humiliating. Yeah. And then you got smoked on the pickleball court. So not a great night for you.

Smoke's not the right word. I mean, you were so upset. You cut my shirt in half. Yeah. I hope Austin can get me in. another one of these. Okay. Thanks.

Shout out to Jordan Greg, by the way, of the Jordan brand for these shirts. You the man. Appreciate you. And Rachel, Austin's wife for putting this together. We talked about Austin dropped me off at home last night at about three o'clock, I think it was. So that's what time, all this ended. And I said, man, it'd be funny if I could get like a half and half shirt. And Austin's like, oh, I'll ask Rachel in the morning.

I'll send her a text now. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, thanks, Rachel. Appreciate that. This morning before coming over here, I stopped over there, cut this Larson's shirt in half and cut your shirt in half and she stitched it up and I don't know, it looks pretty good. It does look pretty good. Maybe you should wear it sometime at a racetrack.

The funniest part is the Jordan shirt. They're both mediums, by the way, but the Jordan shirt is way. Way longer. Yeah. Yeah. He gave me the NBA version, the extra tall. That's the one football players put over their shoulder pads. That's right. That's right.

So, well, that was Pocono. Where are we going this weekend? Richmond. Richmond. I got one more, I got one more, Dear Denny. How did your kids like the Barbie movie? So I saw some of the outrage from my comment that Barbie movie was the worst movie ever made. That's why I said, how did your kids like it?

Taylor. Okay, Molly, no chance. She even remotely understood it. Like it wasn't, I don't know that it's super kid friendly. I was thinking it would be more of a kid movie. Like a kid movie but with some adult humor. You know what I mean? That's kind of what I was expecting.

One of those that parents could take their kids to and parents could still enjoy. It just, it just, I didn't, the plot was non-existent. It just wasn't good. Taylor was like, it wasn't very good, dad. So even my kids were like, mm-mm. So not a hit for me, for sure. Definitely won't be checking that out when it comes out on digital again. I don't know, just maybe just too much build up for it for the letdown.

But I honestly don't believe I've seen a worst movie. in the theater for sure and certainly if i've seen it a worst movie at home on the tv i turned it off instantly i just did not have that option i could not leave the theater but fact though there was probably eight people leave the movie early i did see them grab their shit and like leave and they weren't going to the bathroom because they never came back it just i i think this is it's not going to be the big hit that we thought. For what it's worth, I do know a couple of people that also went to see it, and I won't mention their names to save their identity. Okay. Because you took some hate on Twitter, but they also did not stay till the end of the movie. It may have been

because they went to see it at like 1130 at night, and this was now 1 o'clock when they left, but regardless. They weren't compelled. If it was compelling, they would have stayed. Yeah. So I think I know who you're talking about, and they made the right choice. Yeah, I think you follow them on Instagram. All right. Richmond this weekend. Richmond, looking forward to it. We've had a race-winning car there for the last few years.

Will you be driving aggressive this week, Denny? Absolutely. 100%. No question. 51. Big landmark. Do you get anxious now, like, as each race passes since you want to hit 60? Like does each one?

I mean, what is it? I guess in the grander. in the scheme of things. What does it really matter? Like 50 to 60, but it's just a personal goal. I really haven't set many goals for myself personally when it comes to statistics other than that win number. So if I felt like I was starting to lose my edge as far as competition-wise or I wasn't running as good, listen, Father Time eventually is going to, I'm going to go over a hill here and it's going to happen quickly. But I just don't, it's not on the horizon.

I feel like I've really got some good, good years left. And I feel like I'm as good as I've been as far as my race craft is concerned. The speed is there. I've still got really, really good speed. So no, I'm not panicked. I still think 10 wins to the end of my career. Like I, I'm thinking bigger. 75.

All right, let's not kid ourselves here. Let's not kid ourselves. Yeah, so I guess since, you know, the biggest thing would be 60 for me personally. For the crowd, it would be winning a championship. But let me ask you, subjectively. Take me out of the picture. A driver with 21 wins.

I don't know who this. A driver with 21 wins in a championship or someone with 50 and none. Probably, if you know anything about the sport, I think you would go with 50 and none. Would you rather be like the Detroit Pistons of that won or like Ben Wallace has won or Charles Barkley? That was great, but didn't win? It's just so difficult in team sports, especially basketball or football or whatever, right? It's great players sometimes aren't on great teams. Right.

I do think our sport is more of a team sport now than ever. That's for sure. You don't have huge car advantages anymore. Just the way the championship plays out with this one race and caution at the end could either make or break you. And certainly it broke Carl Edwards in 2000, whatever. I don't know. You just can't compare it to sticking ballsports.

You don't count wins in sticking ball sports. Tom Brady, you don't say LeBron James has won 1,500 games. No, you either have a championship or you don't. It's one of the other. Right.

No, I get it, for sure. I think what we probably correlate the most to is golf. Would that be fair? How many majors do you have? How many PGA Tour wins do you have? Right? I feel like it's

as hard to win a NASCAR race as it is a PGA tour event. Now, there's more players. I get it in the PGA tour. So I don't know. I think that NASCAR and PGA has the most relation to, what is your top 5 percentage, top 10 percentage? How many wins do you have?

That really kind of solidifies where you stand in the sport. But, I mean, this is a guy with no championships talking. So I'm going to see it through my lens. Yeah. You like the guy with 50 wins and no. championships. I mean, I wouldn't trade my career for someone with one and half the wins. No way. I got way more trophies. Way more. It's interesting though, is that for the most part, over the last 20 years, right, the guys who do have championships also have a lot of wins.

Yeah, somewhat. Somewhat. When Kyle Orson or Chase Elliott won their championships, they didn't have they're in the teams i'm projecting by the end of their career right oh yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yeah i mean someone like larsson or lagano um i mean they're they'll surpass the 50 i mean they'll be they'll be in the 60s for sure that that'll be a given i think for for them how much runway they have in their careers yeah well let's Let's wrap up with this. I got a review here from T-dubjp. And he says, I'm an HMS fan and I've loved the podcast from episode one.

Keep up the great work. I don't know if he left this review this morning. This was left before Sunday. Yeah, definitely. But there's been a few of those. Since this morning? No, no. Since the podcast where HMS fans have said that they've become a ditty fan.

I want to hold hands with them. I do. I love. love them, they just don't love me back. I love all fans. I love passionate fans. I really do. When my name gets announced for driver intros, make a noise. I don't care what noise it is. Just make some kind of noise. Just don't clap. Clapping is, uh, go ahead. We'll move to the next guy. Next guy. Um, what else? Is that it? That's a wrap. That's it. Leave us a review. Follow on social Denny Hamlin at Dirtymo Media.

If you want, you can follow me at Jared D. Allen. But besides that, hey, also need to remind the people to get their tickets for the Dirty Mo experience at Bristol coming up for the Bristol Night Race. That's a big race. And these things always typically sell out, well, they always have sold out. So make sure you get your tickets. Where are you getting their tickets at, Travis? Dirtymohmedia.com slash ultimate experience.

He just said it. I'm not going to redo it. So get your tickets there. Go see the DBC guys. Maybe we can get Jared to make a pop in number 560. And we'll see you guys next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.