Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Kissing the Bricks and Questioning the Playoff Format

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Denny Hamlin and Jared Allen are back after an up-and-down weekend in Indy: 2:00 Can Denny win the regular season championship?7:00 What happened in qualifying?13:00 Was there any chance Denny could win?23:45 Choosing to triple stack the inside row vs the second line in the outside row25:00 Bubba Wallace wins Brickyard 40033:40 Katherine Legge continues to impress with a top-20 finish35:30 NASCAR is headed to San Diego38:00 Denny responds to Larry McReynolds and Danielle Trotta’s comments on the Playoff format51:00 Austin Hill right hooks Almirola Dirty Mo Media has a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Actions Detrimental merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental FanDuel Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Saturday is like 100% me. I can't think of any other percentage I could put on that. Just simply because I'm the one that didn't recognize maybe the moment of, okay, I knew I got through four good. I knew one and two, I killed it. So at that point, do I need to go continue to go balls out here? The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years.

opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection,

the championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yes. And I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental. After Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Brickyard 400 where Bubba Wallace was your winner in Cup. Connor Zillich, your winner in Xfinity and Lane Riggs, winner at IRP.

We have plenty of off-track stuff this past week. Y'all want to do a little of that first. I mean, it is at the top of the sheet. Yeah, let's start with your contract extension. You announced an additional two years at Joe Gibbs Racing this weekend. Yeah, it was good to kind of get that done. And certainly felt like it was a comfortable timeline for myself to feel like I can continue to do it at an elite level for at least two more years. You go anything beyond that, you just never know what can happen in that two-year period, three-year period.

And so I felt like that was the best option for me and obviously gives them some sort of runway to start planning. What happened? Because 15 years ago, you told Jeff Gluck that you'd probably only race until you were 30. and you were going to get bored of this. I know. Yeah, I did 12 questions with Jeff. And yeah, one of the questions or one of the, he just said to me, he was like, you know, you said 15 years ago that you were going to go 37, 38,

unless I had a year off and then could come back and then I said I would go to all I was 50. It's amazing what that Mexico break did for me. Yeah, it might cost you a spot on the top of the regular season standings. I know. I was looking. Is the 11 car leading the standings now? No, you're six-back. Oh. Damn, Truex didn't give me enough points then. Hmm. It's going to be close. I mean, it is what it is. I spotted these boys a race.

Can you do it? Yeah. I think it'll be difficult. Give me the tracks coming up. We got Iowa this weekend. Iowa, Daytona, Watkins Glen, what's the last one? Daytona's last one,

Richmond's before. Yeah, so those are the four. Iowa, Watkins Glen, Richmond, Daytona. Hmm. I need to hold serve at Watkins Glen. And see the checker flag at Daytona. Yeah. It's still, I mean, I'm behind, not ahead.

So I'm probably going to need a little bit of help. But, yeah, we'll see. I'll surprise Chase was. wasn't as big of a factor. I thought he ran really strong last year at this race. He started back there where I was, but I could tell pretty quickly that he didn't have a ton of speed. Byron obviously ran out.

Larsen ran up front. We ran up front. So we got about a one race gap on Bell now. A little bit of breathing room. I just need to execute. I need to not crash my phone. qualifying car that'll help that would have helped i thought i was thinking the whole time i know we were talking about all the track stuff but i thought that after practice i'm like this is my

this is going to be my easiest path to victory at this track just just got to nail it in qualifying if i can start up front i feel as though i'm looking at the cars that qualified up front i felt like in practice, I was better than all of them. The cars that were challengers, I thought to me, in race trim, didn't have good qualifying runs. And I was like, man, just get it. And then get that number one stall. And the path is going to be rather easy. So are you thinking all this while you're sitting in the car on pit road ready to go out for qualifying?

Yeah, when I'm sitting on pit road thinking about it. Yeah, watching everyone's lapsing, you know, who's qualifying where. you know, I have my small group of people that I'm thinking, okay, these are my challengers for the weekend. You know, a lot of things can happen to Indy where the strategy can get mixed up

and it flips the field, but we never really had that, right? So if you look at the cars, you know, like Bubba started up front, just stayed up front with Reddick as well. There was no real strategy to like flip things upside down. You know, the wildest strategy call

really was the Penske cars, I guess, when they stayed out on the first caution. They knew they couldn't make it on fuel. They didn't care because they were going to go ahead and flip it at the end of the stage anyway to then be up front. Why don't we see more teams that are lesser, like roll the fucking dice. What do you have to lose? It's amazing to me when I saw this and I'm at the time in the mid-20s.

I see the three Penske cars at front. I'm like, are they the only ones with ball? to do this? Like, what is the big deal? Like, just, you know, if everyone's like, all right, we're pitting now because it can take us to the end of the stage, well, then why wouldn't you stay out? You're going to be a handful of laps short to make it to the end stage. That's just like flipping it, right?

They're saying at that point, we plan on being up front within four seconds of the lead. We're going to pit, flip it, and when the stage is over and all you guys pit, we're going to be back up front again. So I don't know. They seem like they've been on it really with the strategy game. And they always hedge towards staying out. That's just a rule of thumb for Penske. They stay out.

Or they take less tires and everyone else. And they can make it longer on fuel. Yeah. Apparently. Yeah. What happened in qualifying? What led to that wreck? I felt very good about turn four, which is the, so the alternate start finish line.

is in between turns 3 and 4 for practice and qualifying. So it allows us to finish our lap and then versus coasting all the way around, taking another two minutes of your time before the next car can go. They move the alternate start finish line back to the middle of 3 and 4. So you cross the line,

you run your lap, you cross your line again to take the checker, then you can pull into the pits. I got through turn 4 pretty good. My car was on edge, but I'm thinking, okay, I nailed that corner pretty well. And then I went into turn one and, I mean, felt like it just had a ridiculous amount of grip.

I mean, it was just really, really fast. I think we got through there like five miles an hour or something crazy over the 19 car. The car that was going to be... You were two-tenths of a second faster, they said. Yeah, but the lap wasn't done. There was still more. Yeah. It was, I think it was. 26, 2,800s when we finally ended up crashing.

But, you know, it would have been less. To make the corner, it would have been less. I tried to go into turn two, and I felt the grip on corner entry, felt fine, but I just got back to it. And anyone that had seen kind of my traces and how I drive and how I use the throttle, I gave it one of those big stabs right in the middle of the corner of two, and it got me off line. I got up in the stuff and then it put me in the wall.

Did you immediately know, oh, this is it? I'm hitting this outside wall and then I'm... I knew about a second beforehand. You know, like literally count one Mississippi. Like that much ahead of time. Corner entry, I had no indication, nothing. Not until I, you know, I was still part throttle. I get one of those quick stabs to get the men's speed going.

and just couldn't, couldn't finish it. Your backup car seemed a lot better than what you were telling me it would have been before the race. Yeah, I mean, I think it was Chris Gaphart says, it's a trailer rat. It's one that, you know, has been hauled around for quite some time. It certainly did not have the time and attention that everyone else's, primary head primarily we can speak about mine so yeah I mean it's more of a basic

car it's got four tires it rolls and then you try to do your best to put that setup in there it you know I believe that you know they didn't have a whole lot of chassis work to do it was already set up you know based off the 11 car like geometry and stuff but set up you got to put all that in you got to wrap it you got to put my interior in. There's a lot of work that has to be done. You've got to put an engine in. A lot of work. A lot of work that's got to be done. And certainly, you know, these teams spend weeks getting the details right of like this and that and where do you want the underbody and all this stuff. And I knew that certainly if this chassis was a backup, it was not one of the best

28 in the fleet of Joe Gibbs racing. So it is what it is. And it was my fault that I put us in that position and went out there with a knife a little less sharp than the one that I had. This is all very foreign to me. So it's a different chassis, but wouldn't all the chassis be made?

Why is this one so much different than why don't they make the chassis the same? It's just a quality. control thing. We don't build the chassis. I mean, it comes from a technique. It's just, you know, there's quality control that, you know, some chassis are, you know, pair up better than others. I mean, for all I know, it could have been a wreck chassis, you know, one that, you know, just got crashed. It fell out of tolerances of what a team would deem acceptable. And so they just put it as a backup car. knowing that you entered the weekend with such a rocket ship and how confident you were after practice

how do you not let all of that eat at you all through saturday and then into the race on sunday i just changed my expectations i mean i honestly felt like that the chances or the probability of winning this race was one percent or less um just because of you know let's just pretend the car was going to be fast enough and capable went up turns out it was, by the way. I would have needed complete chaos up front. Like just lots of wrecks, lots of weird different strategy that would allow me to get on my own strategy, flip the field, then control the race.

It was just going to be really difficult to pass 38 cars during the course of 160 laps at that track. It's just, if you don't get it on the restarts, it's just, as you saw you, they you just sat there for a long time. If you look at the graphs of changing positions at Indy, it all happens within about two to three laps, and then everyone just sits in their position until the next stop. There's just not much passing going on.

And it's always been that way at Indy, but this car in particular, as we've documented, is the worst in traffic that we've ever designed. Do you feel like by the end of the stage two, it all kind of netted out even though and then all of a sudden you were in a position to win the race well i still was behind the five right so the five uh 24 and those guys and so i still thought i mean there was no i don't think there was a green flag pass for the lead it's not like i'm i'm trying to pass the 30th fastest car at that point i've now got a backup going against cow larsen in his

primary and william byrman his primary i i was still going to need something to happen different. Like I need to beat him on a pit cycle. I need to, something else has to happen. Even though it looks like we're right there, we're so close, we might as well been a mile away.

I just, there's still needed to be a lot of things go our way for us to leapfrog them. And then to start the stage three, I'm up front. I know we only have to make one more stop. The five only has to make one more. I'm pushing him because I'm trying to get him to go. It looked like he was fighting his car a little

bit at the time because I knew and they'd let me know that car A, B, C, and D can take less fuel than you. We need you to leg it out. And that's when you heard me on the radio. I said, well, tell Kyle to go. I'm ready to go. Let's, you know, he's holding me up here. Let's, we got to get, we got to get a gap going. And then that's when you saw the Luganos, Bubba's and those guys, Tyler, they leapfrogged us on that pit sequence because we didn't get a big enough gap. You know, they had more fuel in the tank so they had to they could take less fuel us we needed slightly more fuel but we were banking on our sorry we're going to be up front we're going to haul ass we're going to pull away and then the difference in time between when we come in and the extra fuel we're going to take we're still going to

be ahead of the guys to take less fuel but we just we couldn't get Kyle to go it's interesting because I believe Cliff told him yeah he was trying he was trying um I look like he was fighting his car being free at the moment, which is very easy to do it at Indy. The balance that you have between your car being out and clean air and then traffic is too vastly different things. You need a lot different things out of your car. So more than likely, they hedge more towards,

here's a setup that's going to run really well in traffic. You're going to be able to pass, but you're probably going to be free when you get out front. And so once he got that clean air, it looked like he was fighting it. So even with all that, you weren't. capable of of passing him for the lead when you're running behind him. I was capable of pushing him as in like getting right to him, but I, no, not passing him. That's wild because watching this race, you'd think, wow, the 11 car's really strong. He's hanging with the five here. He could

probably go around him if you wanted to. I'd go, I would have gone faster than him. No question about that. He was holding us up, but he at a normal track, just pick a track. Just pick a track. Richmond. Richmond. All right. Richmond, in order to pass someone, you need to be probably, you need to hit your line. They need to miss it slightly. But let's just say a tenth and a half faster than the car in front of you. Maybe two tents. So your car needs to have outright speed when you're catching them.

Two more tenths of speed than the car in front to then work them over. Go ahead and get around them. Do you know what the speed differential you have to have at Indianapolis to pass a car? Probably a lot more. at least at least one second at least it's not it's probably more than that so a car that can run a second slower than you can keep you from passing just because of the timing of the dirty air how long it takes you to get back to him down the straightaway um it's a second and i'm sorry but this i was not going to be a second faster than Kyle at that time. So it just was a monumental task to pass out there. And

that's the way it is. So is there any point in this race where you thought, I think I could get this one? At the end, when they said that the 23 and 24 were short on fuel, or not short, they were right on the number. They can barely make it. Then it was me and the five. And they said, we think we're slightly better than the five on fuel. I thought my only shot was more green white checkers and those guys run out. That was my ticket. That's wild to think about because watching you in the race, you would have thought that you had a car strong enough to... We did. It was strong, but again, it doesn't matter if you're racing for first or 20th

to have a difference in car speed of one second. I get it. It's just fascinating the difference in what a fan is watching on TV and what the driver and what you guys are feeling in the car and what you know about these cars. So at Pocono it's not that big. Because this front straightaway is so much, you know, it is so long, you've got the time to draft up

and then pull the, you know, kind of the slingshot into turn one. So the number at a Pocono probably is, you know, I mean, I was held up bad by Chase at the end of that race, probably three quarters of a second that you can be slower and still keep someone from passing you, the number is by far the highest when we go to Indy. When I say a second, I think that's probably generous.

I think you can be 1.2 slower and still, or faster and still not pass. So at the end of this race, when you see the 23 leading, do you just become a cheerleader at that point? Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking at the time, you know, I'm thinking about what's my path. I see that, okay, we're going to need fuel mileage to, worked this out. He pulls away from the pack because

I forget, I think Tyler Redick at the time was kind of log jamming the field. He had issues with his tire, he felt vibration or something, and so that's why he was falling back. Yeah. So he, it allowed a gap for the 23, and then so I thought he was set sail. The 23 was going to win this kind of going away anyway. But yeah, at that time, I'm hoping he hangs on, you know,

because the alternative is if he runs out or he has an issue, It's not like I get to capitalize. It's going to be the five. And I don't want him having the bonus points. So, yeah, at that point, yeah, rooting for the 23. How does the rain caution play into this with everyone's fuel strategy? Are they making more time on fuel? Are they losing time?

Because now we're running around the track under caution. How did that play into it? Yeah, I was actually surprised that after the red flag, we ran under caution a lot. Like, it felt like. a lot. It was it on TV? It felt like a lot and I'm like, what do we do? If the track, if it was deemed okay to start this thing and put us under caution, like, be ready. Quickie caution, choose green. But it was like, caution, caution, pit, choose green. And I was, it put, they needed the track, they needed it to go green sooner than later, the 23 and the 24 did. 24 didn't have enough anyway.

but if they didn't run that extra pace lap 24 probably makes it what was your mindset though so obviously you wanted it at that point to before to go green but so at the restart though now are you thinking i want are you rooting for green white are you rooting for caution or are you rooting for your driver to get this w like what how do you manage that as a driver your mindset after where we started i was content with our finish i thought that fourth was a terrible place for me to be simply because it put me in that position to where, and if you notice, I triple stack the bottom of the track. Usually you won't give up a row when you're that close to the front,

but I just felt in my heart of hearts, regardless of what the number said, if there's trouble, they're going to be going up the racetrack, not down. And I don't want to be log jammed behind them and then just get freight trained by all these cars running low. So I just kind of defied the numbers a little bit there at the end. It was the safer play to get a really good finish. And I didn't see any path to actually winning from fourth, second row outside.

You're at a, you know, it's tough enough to run the outside at that racetrack anyway, but much less when you have a car in front of you taking away air, I mean, your car just doesn't handle well. I don't know what it is about Indy. is it I'm asking this out loud like is it that the rubber that the lane that we run you know when we run other tracks

and it's one lane it's because we're all in the bottom and it's kicking up these little bits of dust and rubber and it's kicking it into the next lane up like is that why the top is so freaking bad at that track if you visually look at it It doesn't look much different than the bottom lane.

Like, does it have less banking? There's something that is so off when you're in the second lane at that racetrack. And I can't even explain how off it is. It's just really bad. Hey, Denny, didn't you just reveal a new paint scheme? Yeah, we're at the grand opening of Bob's discount furniture in Winston-Salem just a couple weeks ago. We were debuting our paint scheme that we're going to have in Iowa this weekend. You know, of course, I'm biased.

but this car is going to show up. You're going to know where it's at. It's going to be one of the best-looking cars on the racetrack. I agree. There's no other car in the field that has the colors of this car. Bob's is all about great quality at a great price. Yeah, I mean, they've got a huge selection. They've got mattresses, bedroom sets, entertainment centers.

And it's all, you know, the prices itself is going to surprise you enough, much less the quality of the product. I'm personally still furnishing a house to this day, a year later. Yep. So if you're looking for a new power recliner with cup holders or wireless, charging of the perfect game day or race day set up. They've got it. Yeah, 100%. I mean, you can get race day ready at Bobbs. You bring the drinks and the snacks, Bobbs will handle the rest. They've got everything that you need. It's comfortable. It's got great style and it's great

convenience all in one place. I'm sold. Where can folks check it out? You can go to mybobs.com or visit one of their stores nationwide. They're growing rapidly. I'm sure you're going to see them when you're going to these racetracks. And you can be sure to check out the number 11 car sporting the Bob's discount furniture paint scheme this weekend in Iowa. So fast delivery, winning styles, it's Bob's discount furniture, always in your corner. Was there a part of you when you were choosing which lane you were going to restart there and you chose the bottom of the third row? If you were to start outside behind the five, your chances of winning at that point, I don't know, may have been like 1%. You could push him and it may increase your chance to 10%,

but now you're increasing his chance to win significantly, which would take away a win from your team. Yeah, I mean, that played somewhat of a factor. I was more taking the play that, okay, my best avenue to winning was let me choose third row inside and that the leaders have an issue. Say the 23 gets up into the 5, then the 24 is going to have a path low,

I'm going to have a path low. That takes me to P2. Another caution comes out, I can win from there. You know what I mean? And so I just felt like there's no path by starting fourth to winning the race. I just don't see a scenario of where am I going to? The only way I can get around the front to is I need them to bobble and make a mistake. Where they're going to bobble right in front of me.

There's nowhere else to go at that track. So I just felt like that was the best path for me. It would have nothing to do with I can't aid the five and beating the 23 here. Not really. No, not really. Bubba does get the win as we talked about and you get to kiss the bricks as an owner Yeah

I thank him for that You know certainly I never know if that I'm only going to have a couple more opportunities And that's what I was thinking I told you guys that Immediately when I crashed And qualifying and I'm sitting in the car waiting You know I'm taking the wininet down

I'm taking my shit off I'm thinking well I only got two more chances to win this thing. You know, that's, I've always thought in my mind when I go back to these racetracks, it could be Daytona 500 or whatever, like, how many more chances? And it's like, you know, now that we announce this, it's like, I got two more shots, two more shots to win this damn race. And I maybe just blew our best chance at it.

Is this one going to eat at you? Yes and no. I mean, I'm still very happy with the, the result. But the team gave me everything they needed to. There was, you know, 2020, obviously leading with six to go, blowing the right front. That one, that one stings actually more than any other of them. In 2019, crazy fast. I think that one of the years, my hood blew up and destroyed the roof of the car. That was one of them. This thing was, though, because it's like you still had a whole race

so who knows what could have happened. Sure, sure. I was shocked though that you did kiss the bricks because I was like as a current driver still, is that like touching the staling? Yeah, not really. I don't think so. I don't think you should have.

Well, I don't know. I just didn't, I'm not, I'm into superstition a little bit, but not that much. Not that much. Not to where I'm going to keep myself from enjoying the moment as a team owner. You know what I mean? I don't want to, you know, well, I don't want because I'm still driving.

I might have a chance. Like, well, I don't know if my team will have another, another opportunity to win that either. So I just, I'm going to take the advantage when I can get it. So what was it like to have that moment with Bubba? It was good. I mean, I obviously wish we were doing, I was doing it with my 11 team, but very happy to do it with everyone at the 23 team. And really all 2311, they were just so happy. They had so many people there. Obviously, you saw the huge, activation that we did downtown with intersect right by gamebridge center you know our team activated huge outside that racetrack and so we were very um you could just see how happy everyone was and so that made me happy and it's all about them does the mistake on Saturday is it is it

something where it's like that just happened out of the blue or do you think back like if I would have done this differently. Like, how much of it do you put on your shoulders versus, like, blowing a tire a few years ago? Like, that just happened, right? Yeah. Saturday is, like, 100% me. I can't think of any other percentage I could put on that. Just simply because I'm the one that, you know, didn't recognize maybe the moment of,

okay, I knew I got through four good. I knew one and two, I killed it. I knew I killed that. So at that point, do I need to go continue to go balls out here every single corner? Like, I needed a couple good solid corners. So I just, I don't know, I misjudged. And what's painful about it is I watch other guys do the same thing. Right?

I had 38 other cars to watch and see that one out of every four had issues off a turn two. So clearly there was a change in the track there. and conditions that made that happen. And so I just wasn't, I wasn't aware. I was just hyped up. 23 winning this race now puts them in the playoffs. So you've got two cars at 2311 locked in the playoffs. And unlike previous year, we have one locked in.

But yeah. Tyler could miss it. Right. I guess so. I'm with you. I'm with you. Highly unlikely, but yeah, you don't want an early call too much. But yeah, the most likely scenario

is, you know, we've got two cars in there. And then hopefully if we can get Riley to go win Daytona or something, you know, which is possible he runs up front there. You never know. It might just pull a magic trick on the 11th hour. I think in my head I'm just still surprised it. I'm just thinking Tyler has won this year, you know, like the 45 has won. They haven't.

They've not had, I don't think they've had the speed that they had last year. and then the execution's not been as good. I mean, certainly I saw they pitted and then got caught up in that wreck on that green, white checkered. You know, that was kind of a microcosm of their year. Yeah, I don't know if there's been one race where they haven't had something, whether, you know, they have a pit stop or they have, I feel like there just hasn't been that one complete race.

Yep, I agree. What do you make, though, what this win for Bubba, long drought, like, what can this do do for him? because I feel like this could just like release him to now just the pressure is off, just go out there and race and, you know, who knows what he can achieve. Yeah, I mean, he's been working really hard. His crew chief is definitely doing a great job of giving him what he needs, giving him the information he needs, asking the right questions to Bubba,

holding him accountable on the work side of things. I think that's the key. And so what I hope to get. that Bubba gets out of this is seeing that his hard work that he's putting in is paying off. You know, my toughest part, right? And it's very hard to compare other drivers to myself and, like, how I prepare and, you know, the work that I do is that you never can make someone want it. They have to want it.

That has to come from within. And, you know, how bad do you want it? do you want to be elite? Do you want to be good? Do you want to be just another driver? Like what? That's a question every driver needs to ask themselves and then ask, well, what are you willing to do to be at that level?

And I think that, you know, over the last year, Bubba's committed more to, you know, putting the work in. And I feel as though he's matured emotionally. Certainly not, you know, everyone has peaks and valleys. I think that his valleys are higher now than what they were. You know, you can relate it to, you know, having his son or whatever it might be. But it seems like over the last year, performance has gotten better in the 23 for various reasons. And I think a lot of that can be contributed to Bubba himself.

This is the first crown jewel race win for 2311, isn't it? It is. Does that hit differently? Yes, it's not your average race. I mean, this race has always brought the best drivers, teams, engine department, error department. It's always brought the best out of everyone. Now, it's a little different nowadays, obviously, because of the next-gen car and they're all more similar than what they used to be. So it's not a total showcase of that.

But look at the guys that were battling up front, right? it was the five the 24 the 11 um 45 the 45 was up there like stop me if you heard this before it's the same it's the same four to five every single week so um it certainly it regardless of how hard it is to pass it still is you know one that brings the best out and so yeah it makes you feel good that the 23 team was able to bring a car fast enough for Bubba to drive it as well as he did and

certainly execute the restarts, all those things. It's just a very gratifying win. Some other noteworthy finishes here. Catherine Legg finished 17th in yesterday's race. Very noteworthy. I mean, I just feel as

though, wow, she is getting a lot out of that car. Now, in practice, I would have said, whoa, holy cow, danger, danger, you know, 78 car. But, you know, they don't have any testing, probably no data or anything like that. So they're, when they hit the racetrack for the very first time, who knows where their travels are at? Like, are they hitting the track? Are they not? You know, they're, you know, one of those teams that, you know, puts their thumb in the air and it's like,

I think we need to probably be here this weekend, right? And so that's a hell of a way to put it. Well, you think about it, Jared. Like, how many people worked on Denny's backup car? More than they have employees. Yeah. Far, far more. I feel like that's just tough to understand sometimes.

So when you put it that way, it puts into perspective. And so it's just, I can't be stated how impressive she's been. I mean, staying on the, it's not like she's getting five lucky dogs and getting back on the lead lap and squeaking up. out. Like she's staying on the lead lap at these racetracks and, and battling some of, some of our better drivers for teens finishing position. That's with a, with a car that is clearly not up to snuff compared to what she's racing up against. So that's what I always think about. You always say, like if you have a 20th place car, can you finish 15th? She didn't have a 17th place car yesterday, but that's what she got. Yeah. She optimized her day. Yeah. And for the team, it's all,

about performing right not making mistakes you can't finish there without making a mistake exactly right you want to shift back to some off-track topics sure NASCAR announced this week that it'll be running the Sandy Ego

course next year which will be on the the naval base out there and they did it with quite the production there was a hell of a video I thought it was good yeah really good it's good to see them you know you know spend the time

spend the money to promote that thing right it certainly was a great job and um i'm excited to go to san diego um certainly if we were going to you know stay on the street somewhere i i've advocated that i'd like chicago i think we should stay at chicago they're going to work out you know whatever deal they've got with the city there um and you know maybe hopefully i wouldn't count on it um i think it was more of a soft breakup than anything. San Diego is a good alternative. You know, when you think about cities and, okay, now we're back in Southern California again. You know, that should be good for, you know, hopefully our sponsors and, you know, do some activation out there.

Obviously, I don't know the layout. You kind of see, like, somewhat what it could be. They said close to a three-mile track. I mean, that's a really long track. So we'll see. I'm going to stay positive about it because it looks like it's going to be very cool. And certainly the city's one that is a great place to go.

Don't have much else other than that. I mean, with these opportunities, right, it's all about making a splash. The bigger splash that NASCAR can make, the more worthwhile it is for your sponsors, I imagine. I mean, maybe the racing probably takes a backseat here. Yeah, probably, probably.

But I mean, I'm sure that they'll have something really cool with the military. Like, yeah, it has a chance to be definitely bigger than the actual race itself. There was a discussion about the playoff format on social media this week. It was a discussion? I don't know. We can call it whatever you want to call it. But NASCAR Radio, where was this on? Serious X-Sty.

Charlie. Yep. Larry Mack and Danielle Trotta were talking about how I guess I'll just read it, quote-for-quote here. Daniel Trada co-host suggested a racer on the current playoff committee. Badly wants to go back to the pre-2004 ways of doing the point system. which was the Winston Cup system. Larry Mack had replied, I bet it's a driver that's not won a championship.

And then Larry, everyone assumed that he was talking about Mark Martin. Later, Larry tweeted that he was not talking about Mark Martin and perhaps he was talking about you. Because it makes it better if it wasn't. Because he said it was an actual driver. Like that makes it better. It's okay to hate on Danny.

Everyone's okay with that. I think my opinion, Danielle was definitely talking about Mark. She even referenced Mark in a tweet. afterwards. And then Larry was probably referencing me. I don't think they were on the same page. I'm serious.

And then I guess Larry said, if you would listen closely, it's a driver that's active on the council. He never said that. We listened closely, and Larry never said that. He was backtracking. Yeah, I mean, this is just our gossip section of the week.

You've never advocated for this Winston Cup system in the first place. I have not. That is correct. So, you know, here's, let me just tell you my problem with mainly the characters on, not just this show, but there's others, but it's mainly this one, is that I've never seen another sport that continues to question what their star athletes say, than this one here. Like if a NFL player says,

the NFL really needs to look in these low blow hits, I can't contemplate in my head another NFL show that says, who's that got to say that? He doesn't have the credentials to be saying that. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And that's what the people on, that channel typically do time and time out is that they'll take what someone says if they might

even use this week. Danny Hamill said it was hard to pass. He must not have been in that car when he was driving from the back to the front. He had no what he's talking about. That's what they'll say. They continually question the people that actually have the credentials to give an opinion. That's my problem with that channel. and it's not just this show, it's primarily this show, but this is others that can, you know, continually bash down the people that give them the content

and the sound bites for them to, it's supposed to, it's supposed to store a discussion, not an attack on them personally. Does that make any sense? Yeah, like if Larry doesn't like the idea, you can take that idea apart in all the ways.

Yeah, tell me why that idea is wrong. But you had a personal attack and it was, well, he doesn't have a championship, so he's not allowed to have the opinion is what it came across. Am I missing something? Does Larry have one? No. Okay.

So should we not listen? That's what I... It doesn't make sense. It's just a way for them to stick their nose in the air and act smarter than they actually are. Hey, this is Dale Jr. And for the latest actions detrimental gear, go to shop.

DirtymoMedia.com. We've got plenty of options for you. We're adding new stuff all the time. That's shop.durtymomedia.com. This was carried on on the teardown last night, and Jeff was talking about his involvement in the playoff committee, in the playoff subcommittee. And he had mentioned that it's unlikely that there will be any changes because the committee's just so far apart on this, and we're just so late in the season now that next year will probably continue with this one- And he admitted. Yeah, that's the tough part, right? And I think he said enough to where I can expand on it is that.

Well, before you expand upon it, so he admitted he was on it, said you can't out whoever else is on it. Okay. Yes, I am on it. Proceed. Those on Channel 90, clearly they would like my opinion. Clearly, y'all are not on it. So they don't want to hear your opinion. I will say that most of the.

room, if not all of the room's general opinion, is that the one race thing needs to go. There is, when you ask about what do you think of the current, no one ever tries to throw mud on anyone that is won a championship under this format, but there is a large concern of the legitimacy of it, which is very valid. One race is just not the way to do it. And stop comparing it to the Super Bowl because that's a one-verse-one. The other 30 teams are not on the field, you know, tripping you and tying your shoe laces together trying to keep you from winning. Like, it's not the same. Stop, stop. I love these people. They'd love to compare us to other sports when it's convenient to their narrative. And then totally ignore the fact that,

We work as drivers as when we get younger to make it to the top level. And all these teams do is spend tremendous resources week in, week out, to build the best and the fastest car as possible, and they hire the best and the fastest drivers that are possible to go out there and get the best result. But you must create a larger sample size to crown your champion because in one race, anything can happen. Anything could happen.

So everything that I work for can get. get taken away by someone else that has nothing to do with this championship battles, his mistake? Listen, I would love if David Starr would have not hit the wall at the end of Phoenix a few years ago. But that's what happens in races. You know, it affected my chances of winning a championship. Kyle Larson loved him because he went from being the worst car at Phoenix on that day to winning

a championship a few hours later because of that one caution moment. we crowned a champion that was going to be fourth, he's now the champion because of this pit cycle. Like it, that's just not the right way. Not in racing. That's why other motorsports series have not adopted this because I believe you need to legitimize your sport first, the people will tune in.

Do I love that NBC has the biggest voice in what our championship format is? Absolutely not. I didn't get the impression they wanted to have that big of a voice, but NASCAR came back to us and says, we need to have a long discussion with them. They're the ones that, you know, should weigh in on this. And then we can't meet with you guys again until we meet with them,

and that's going to take a little while. So, yes, I hate that the schedule, you know, the schedules now were pressured to put the schedule out, but we don't even have a format yet. Guys, we started this nine months ago. Eight months ago. What do we, let's, I don't think it's that hard, truthfully. And now, there's a lot of different formats that are better than what we have.

Now, can you just take, you know, as a Band-Aid, do you just take the current and you up all the bonus points? So that, you know, that's. It doesn't feel like a Band-Aid's the right solution. It's not. But these guys are now behind the schedule. schedule again. We were supposed to have some sort of change this year. We didn't. And as a person that now only has a couple years left, I told Jeff Gluck after I was like, if they get a legit

format down, I might go longer because I feel my chances would be better on a more typical sample side. The one race, I don't know. My chances are 25%. If you go to 36 races, I think my chances are better than that. Can you imagine if we had a full season this year right now? it's a barn burner and it's again it's with the best freaking teams there's no question about it there's no legitimizing those final four look at the look at the numbers these are the best four and so it's just it's it's it sucks that we've gotten behind the clock somehow and gotten behind the schedule but i don't i shouldn't be surprised yeah i mean honestly if anything in this next gen era the Winston Cup point system is the next gen's best friend because there's no one team

developing a car that's significantly better than the rest. You're exactly right. Yeah, you look at short of like Chase Elliott, who's got, you know, I think two or three points better average finish than the rest of us. We're all like 12. You know what I mean? We're all the same. It's because of the days like yesterday where William Byron's running up front, but he just

had, you know, ran out of fuel. So he ended up finishing worse. See Bell, he was up front and then he crashed twice at Dover. Like we end up making it closer just by being things naturally happen. We fight for the wind and then we next we know we step on it. And what I don't, what is wrong about the narrative of, if you go to a larger sample size, people will care more about points than they will win.

False. False. False. False. False. what we care about the most is our name being the one that's talked about all single week as the best driver on that day. We care about winning. We care about the trophy. We care about the bonuses that we get from winning. You're not going to de-incentivize us to win because of a season-long points format. Listen, whether you know what not the 25 or the 24, the 5, the 11, 45, 20, the 9, we're all points racing right.

now. Can you tell? You can't tell. We are. I mean, you get the most points by winning the race. Yes. Now, it's not enough. They definitely need to make, winning needs to be more than five points over second. Like, we got to reward the winning. We got to record, we've got to make the bonus point, the playoff bonus points more to give the teams that collect all those points, like a bigger advantage to the start the playoffs than what they currently have. Yeah. And that seems that feels like something you could mess with year over year. Like you'd switch it okay we're going to give the winner 10 points and that wasn't enough then you can like alter it but if the system's not changing it's not making a big difference. So how often do you guys beat to talk about possible playoff formats? There's only been a

couple and then and eight months and then there's been some surveys and stuff that we've gotten sent. Do you send this to NASCAR? Does someone from NASCAR come and talk to you guys? Because Jeff said that this isn't like a committee that is going to make the decision. You guys are just coming up with ideas and talking it out. But like what's the communication like between this playoff committee and NASCAR? Do you know? Not really.

I don't know. Again, it's a large group. You know, I thought it was very, very productive when we did them, you know, kind of in person there, talked it over. I thought they were all productive because you get to hear people's point of view. I can only imagine the discussion that happens during a Hall of Fame inductee type thing. It feels like that's what it would be.

Well, this is better. No, and here's why this person might be better. I feel like that's what it kind of is, but there's not a person in that room that I could point to that says, keep what we have. So in my opinion, whether the schedule comes out or not, there's not, it's never too late to make a right decision.

And the right decision is do something different than what we're doing right now. If you guys need just an average crazy fan on the committee, let me know. I'm available. I can only imagine. One more topic of discussion. Okay. Austin Hill. I mean, it didn't look good, but golly, would he really be that egregious?

the only thing I can think of, right, I'm looking at it. I try to, I try to give benefit of the doubt, right? I think Austin Hill, because the fans generally don't like them, is not going to get the benefit of the doubt. I think, you know, I've seen some Martinsville races where it's like, I ain't given that guy the benefit of the doubt either. Like, just, you know, bullying his way through. but I'm thinking about being in his position

and he gets turned sideways and you're trying to hold on to it I'll say this that sometimes and actually most times when I'm correcting that big of emotion I'm usually letting the wheel slide in my hands because you know you can't

it's hard to full go this way full go you can't do it quick enough so it's best to just let it go on one side, catch it with the other, and that's how you correct. That's how I've done it a few times. The only thing I can think of that made his car go sharp left into the 19 is that the wheel was not done spinning in his hands.

Or when he grabbed it, right, when he's turning it, correcting it, he lets go he catches it and gets correct but then he holds the wheel and now the wheel's not he's not holding the wheel in his normal 10 and 2

if you if the car was going straight he's now actually holding it in a different position I know his hands right here but he's you got to understand what I'm saying is that the wheel

has clocked because he let it spin on his hands so this is not straight up anymore this could be the front wheels are turned that way I'm just coming up with a theory.

That's all. It looked like he right rear-hooked the 19. I'm just saying there's no way he can be that dumb. Have you met some of these drivers, Denny? I just... When you guys put these helmets on... I hear you.

And it feels like, you know, if there's anyone that would kind of fly off the rails because someone ran into him, it's probably him. But I just feel like there's an opportunity that he let the wheel spin in his hands to try to correct quickly, which he did an amazing job of, and then when he grabbed onto the wheel, the wheel was no longer straight up.

It was turned to the left. That's my theory. Another thing to benefit Austin Hill, unless he is just really dumb in this situation. But he didn't get wrecked. He hung on to the car, right? If he hangs onto it, he loses one, two, spots. That's right. He ends his race

by left hooking Eric here. I agree which that's why I'm like surely he's not this dumb. He knows he's going to get caught in it. It looked like he had it straight though and his right hand is up higher and that's that's my point.

That's my point is that when you let the wheels as you're correcting sometimes you let the wheel spin and then you then you grab onto it. I think when he, if I'm Austin Hills attorney, I'm saying that he let the wheel spin in his hands to correct it. And when he finally grabbed onto it, the wheels were actually turned this way. He's no longer holding the wheel in his straight up position.

So when his hands are here, you can see his white gloves through the windshield. When his hands are here, the wheel is not, he's not grabbing onto the wheel necessarily. it's still may spinning and then when he grabs onto it the wheels are pointing the other direction and it's too late that's right that's right because you can see his gloves you can only see his gloves you can't see like what the wheel may be doing that's right in his hands and austin i don't know if i'd used any as your attorney but go for it if you want but now smt's not available right for exfinity it is it is but again what is it going to show you is that's my only question is that if he is holding on the wheel and he thinks that that is straight up and it's actually not because the wheel has spun in his hands

it'll be very very hard unless it shows that wherever the wheel was at that time he then turned like made an abrupt movement turning to the left it's inconclusive

I think it's just going to be too tough to really tell So what do you do with an inconclusive evidence like this? If I'm NASCAR, what do I do? You took his race away. He finished 30-something. He was probably going to finish there because of the wreck anyway. So he's somewhat paid for his own mistake.

I don't know. I think you... And remember, he loses all play-off points. Yeah. I think you fine them. and maybe take a few regular season points away. Then what are we doing with the rule? I've seen, I know this is crazy, I know I'm crazy.

I've seen more egregious right rear hooks. It's just not apparent to me. There's no way he saves that car by just doing this. No, no, he had to have let, that or, I don't know, I just see a, I see a scenario where when he, tightened his hands back on the wheel the wheel was not straight

it was pointing to the left when he's sliding him through the corner you can clearly see his hand leave view in his in his windshield here so he clearly takes his hands off the wheel and the wheel is doing its thing the gloves

don't help here the white glove doesn't but yeah I'm not looking at that is that I mean do you see him turn left I mean, right before he makes contact with Eric, his right hand is here, and then it's here. Yeah, well, but again, how could you're not, you, you didn't total the car,

you're not in the wall, you're going to lose whatever position they're racing for here, and then maybe one or two more. And I'm trying to, you know, be the judge here, and I just don't know all the facts. I'm not in the car. I don't know where was his mental state at the time. Like, I have no idea, right? you ask all these questions if you got enough time. But that's why I say he couldn't be this stupid.

It seems too unhinged. It seems too unhinged to not be an actual accident. But you know what I mean? So I don't know. I'm trying. I just, if it was, if it wasn't the scenario that I just gave you, then it was 100% on purpose and unhinged and he needs to set. but it just seems like that would be the dumbest thing I've seen them do.

And that's really saying something. I think if you don't punish him, then you need to just get rid of this rule. Yeah, maybe. So I asked about SMT. Bozzi tweeted on this, like, if you don't have steering angle sensors.

Oh, they don't. They do have SMT. So it'd be based on positional data. Yeah, you won't tell anything from there then. I don't know. We shall... Next week, we got... Hold on. Conner Zilch wins three in a row.

I thought you already talked about that. I did? Well, you said... We just mentioned him off the top. I just said the next. Okay, go ahead. You know, three in a row, I mean, he's out driving these guys right now. I don't know, right from practice, it was like, well, it didn't take them long to kind of adapt.

to this track. Yeah, he's doing extremely well right now. Great battle for stage two, side by side at the finish. I was actually, we were at the garage watching the guys work on the car.

No, I did not work on the car. They don't let me touch it. That's for the betterment of everyone. I love how they always show drivers. I look at them helping. I'm like, if I'm the team, I'm like, get away from it. This is what we do.

Like, I love it that you want to help, but like back off. Yeah, I would just have been a body in the way. Those days are done for me, unfortunately. I worked at my dad's trail shop for so many years, and I loved that part of it, but I stay in my lane at this point. Drive the car.

So Zilich, I don't know, just so impressive. Third win in a row, different type of track. He's killing it right now. He is on a roll. How close are they in the points? He is 21 back. Oh, he's there. How many more they got?

Probably two or three, more races, somewhere in that range. So they've got Iowa Walkins Glen Daytona Portland Two road courses Worldwide like But SVG I believe is racing

Walkins Glen correct It doesn't matter He's racing the 7 Yeah For the regular season He's there If you're Justin Jaws music cue it

Trucks Lane Riggs Man that was dominant Dominant You could tell right away that who Dylan had him

a rocket ship of a truck that thing was smoking fast I didn't really think he had any any real contenders

throughout that race what do we think about the IRP track like I was out there for the truck race and you were

yeah the crowd turnout was great it seems like just a really good venue this weekend for a truck race yeah

yeah I actually got my very first truck start there in 2004. I actually was seeing highlights of it on on X and it was like

it was when Chad Chaffin and somebody else were all battling for the race. It might have been Carl Edwards. And I was like, oh, I remember that's my very first start. I was battling I remember beating Kyle Bush for 10th place,

which was the best finish that truck team had ever gotten. I remember rubbing doors with Kyle Busch on the last lap. I finished 10th. I think he was 11th. And then after the race, he just, like, door slammed the shit out of me because he's like, you know, punk.

And so that was one of my favorite moments, is getting a race finally in a NASCAR race. That was my very first NASCAR race. So, but I look him back at it. I'm like, oh, my God, I competed in this race. I am so fucking old. I mean, mark it. Travis. You didn't mark it.

Okay. man it seems like so long ago speaking of long ago Jared yeah I received well you I don't know if he knows that I have this but I received a resume at the racetrack this weekend you did I did I feel like you know what it is now since Travis poorly set it up but um yeah this is a resume of a young race car driver

okay that uh won their first race at age seven okay keep going in the last year the one that this resume was made it was the first season in the grand stock division a limited participation at three tracks 25 races three top fives 17 top tens god look listen how terrible those stats i'm trying to pick terrible stats okay are you yeah give me that is that my resume yeah it's your your mom's uh i don't even know what you want to call it here cover letter and sponsor sponsorship pitch for young Denny Hamlin.

You know what? That just proves that I have very limited natural talent. I mean, so in my final year of writing this, my first season in the Grand Stock Division, I had 25 races and only three top fives. Jesus. In the Grand Stock Division. There's also some media clippings with it.

And I like this one here, front page has Langley champions. There's six Langley champions, five of whom are adults, you know. Hold on. I got to, I have to read this. Okay, go ahead. Here's my qualifications. Who found this? Your mom.

She didn't show you on me. Oh, my gosh. The hoarder. Okay. Okay, here's my qualifications. It's hard for me to say it without laughing out loud. I combine excellent driving skills with a thorough understanding of car setup to ensure the delivery of maximum performance from both man and machines. This is a GPT RIN?

I don't know. I set and achieve goals. A strong drive to succeed has produced a competitor who challenges the best. Number three, an enthusiastic team player who supports and supports and. cooperates with crew members to ensure quality results. Number four, high level of awareness. I have an excellent ability to think fast and take advantage of opportunities created by others, by other drivers while racing.

Wow, my mom, does she kind of forecast? I feel like these are my traits now. And the last one is I persistently promote sponsors during media exposure, personal appearances, and promotional events. here's Denny Hamlin Langley champion occupation high school I attended Manchester high school 12th grade I was employed at Chesfield Trailer and Hitch I support cystic fibrosis foundation

and if any references I have many VHS tapes of races available upon request fantastic this is my Carl Edwards business card moment no here it is right here Oh, man. Time flies. Driver.

Had we yet, did, we never could have imagined, right? Holy cow. Just awesome. Yeah, that makes you appreciate all, you know, all the stuff that my mom keeps. I mean, she's still got my subway shirt, and I'm a sandwich artist from when I worked to subway. She, let me tell you what prompted this. My mom lost her shit as she should.

We had somebody reach out. to us and say um we just bought a storage unit and because someone didn't pay their bills and it turns out it looks like it's yours and it has all your personal belongings in it and we're like what and he's like yeah you might you might want to check this out and he sent a bunch of pictures over i'm like holy crap I got to call my mom so I called my mom I was like hey this guy's got a lot of our old photos and albums and all this and she immediately lost it she was like oh my god like how did this happen is that the credit card that it was reoccurring just expired I thought they would have reached out to us I never got a call no one you know whoever's in charge didn't get a call so they just sold it and it had like all my old go-car part stuff, mini stock stuff, personal belongings, personal photos. Were you able to? He was really nice.

He got most of it. He's like, listen, I sold some of it. I didn't before, you know, he's like, I sold some of it, some of the stuff that I had. And then I started digging through like, he was like, oh, this is their personal garage. Like, this isn't like just a fan garage. Yeah. He thought it was just like a fan thing. And then he was like, no.

But thank you to whoever that gentleman was that bought that and then returned the items. The last little anecdote about your mom, because she's a badass, and she was saying yesterday in regards to these sponsorship pitches, that the marketer, whoever would have been at one of the tracks when you were younger, came to her and said, Mary Lou, you can't sell billboards at our track? Like, I sell billboards to sponsors. And she said, no, no, no, I'm going to buy the billboard from you. and then sell it to another sponsor.

So you'll get your five grand, but I'm going to get six grand, and then a thousand's going to go into your car. Right there. Mama, she knows best. What is that? Is that picture of my team?

Yeah, these are your media exposure, but we won't go through it on this podcast. Media exposure and your sponsorship pitches. Wow. Okay. While Denny is looking at that, next week,

Cup Series is at Iowa Speedway, practicing qualifying is Saturday at 1.30 p.m. on True TV and then race Sunday at 3.30 on the USA Network. HBO Max will have in core cameras and audio. That's right. This is the first. We're making the switch folks. We're making the switch. It's the first race on on NBC on the NBC broadcast channels. So we'll get Lee Diffy, Latart, and Burton right? Yeah, Lee Diffy. That'll be exciting. And then I got a review here from Bo, Roe. roper on Spotify. I hate to say it, but the longer I'm a fan, the more Denny somewhat wins me over. Probably won't be my favorite driver, but I'm beginning to at least like the guy.

That's all he can ask. And remember, I'll leave a five-star review. You can, as I told Travis, I saw a tweet at me that said, how come you don't read reviews? Happily read anything you want to say to Denny, but you have to leave a five-star review with it. So go ahead, do that on Apple, listen on Spotify, leave a comment, and then on YouTube, hit subscribe. Appreciate you taking that away, Jared. I'm done. I got nothing else. I'll see you guys after Iowa.