Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Let The Teams Decide? Denny's Not So Sure

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Denny gets into the wet-weather racing, NASCAR’s decision to throw the competition caution, and whether the teams should have just been left to figure out when to change tires. He also breaks down the Hocevar-Zilisch incident, Connor’s rough day, and why the move to Hendrick could be a really good thing for him in the long run. Then there’s Denny’s own race. He explains the late-race strategy, why he didn’t take two tires when it looked like that might be the move to win the race. The codewords make another appearance too, and Jared has decided they need a whole board game theme now. With Daytona up next, Denny thinks we could be in for a chaotic one. He also takes a look at the playoff picture, where things stand between SVG and Ryan Preece, and what’s going on with Byron and Bubba as the playoffs get closer. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I knew what the call was. The call was to stay. But then if you heard my radio, I says, I hear you, but be ready just in case. Because I knew this could be an opportunity where I get the advantage. 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 to drink and drink to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection of championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it.

Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental after race 25 this weekend, Loud New Hampshire. Hampshire, I guess. is it why do people up north not say they're ours their accents i don't know i know but in so why do boston people not say their ars so because i wonder this like in the schooling system they go through the alphabet right british influence okay during the 18th century upper class speakers in london made dropping the R fashionable and a sign of high status. I got it.

Okay. Okay. I dig that. So now, but now they sound like idiots. No, they, God.

They do. Right off the bat. It's a, it's just, it's a, it's a thing. It's their culture. I was just,

I was genuinely Curtis, curious about it. You just, you just come off the top rope. Did you say they sound like idiots? They do. Wow. You're really building your fan base.

How's it? Have you checked your Twitter mentions recently? I've lived up in Connecticut for almost eight years. I've had to hear too much. Okay. But genuinely, in school, do they teach them about the R or not? Or is it just, you know, that's one of the words we skip past. Does it, can you, can you teach them?

that? Can you teach accents? Well, okay, why in the South are we not teaching kids to pronounce other syllables? Like, I don't know. I don't know, but our listeners are just like dying right now. Okay. A school teacher, y'all at me and my mentions, like, do you teach the R up there or not? And if you do, do you say, hey, you really don't have to use it? You know what I mean? Here, do Northeast schools teach ours? All right. Well, we, we had a day in Loudoun. I told Jared before the race, I actually was looking forward to the wet.

I just was like, you know what, if there's any race, like, it's not a freebie race, but like it's a, you got a good cushion. and like if you're ever going to work on trying to get better at it, like this would be the one. And I actually thought I was okay in the wet. I really was. I was passing cars and I felt like I found something that was good for me. Now, I didn't get past the first lap because Tyler Reddick stepped on his little wee-wee. What's going on there?

I don't know. I asked him after the race. He's like, sorry about that. You know, just thanks for not cleaning. me out. I was like, you ever thought about just like easing into it? You're the leader. You're not chasing anyone. Like, so I was joking around with them, but good rebound by, you know, his team and our team, but, but overall just, yeah, he spun. So I saw it happening, right? And I had a couple options. One was slow down and I thought that he was going to leave enough room between the wall

and himself as he's spinning like I'm looking at his trajectory where he's at oh he's not going to be all the way up against wall so I'll go around the outside I don't want to turn left because I know surely there's someone you know because there was two distinct lanes one at the on the very bottom on the apron when it was wet and then there was one right above the the newer pavement in the corners so there's two distinct lanes and I'm thinking you know what if I just blindly turn left here I'm likely I could get, you know, door somebody, spend myself out, get damage. Like, there's nothing wrong. And when wrecks happen by just slowing down, slowing down.

And I, something that I hope Mr. Zilich listens to in this. Like, you're not gaining, when you see a car backing into the wall, caution's coming out. Like right then, you will gain nothing by just staying in your lane and slowing down. And so it's the loss art form of missing wrecks. It truly is. And everyone, I think, feels like they got to, oh, we got to get through there. You just, you know, let's daze the thunder this thing. And it's just not ideal.

So yes, I got caught in it because there was not enough room there. But initially, I thought that I didn't have contact. But obviously, I saw a video that clearly looks like right at the very end. I stopped right on his bumper or in his quarter panel there. So by the rule that that's in it. And so we were justified to go to the back there. So you're only saying this is justified because you touched. Right.

Make contact. Yeah. That's the intent of the law is that you can slow down for the wreck. But if like if you get like someone comes up just it, you're in it. That's kind of what they're, how they explained it to us, how it works. So I'm watching your onboard here. You just like can't stop any faster. It's wet, Jared.

I mean, sure, I can hit the brakes harder. And you're sure. You ever hit the brakes hard in the ice? Yeah, you slide. You slide. So I just want to be controlled with it. It did look like you were like stopped and then you. Well, I was trying to keep my, again, I'm trying to.

to keep pace car speed just in case he leaves a room for me to go around between the wall and him then i'll get my spot back but if i come to a stop i think that it gives them a reason to say you're in the wreck even if you don't make contact which it appears that's what happened in 17 so i mean you qualify fourth and then on lap five i know right i'm thinking like come on man come on and like it was such a good opportunity for me to get reps up front in the wet, you know, instead of back there where, I mean, it's just, guys, you wouldn't believe it back there. 30th in the wet. How is it dog pound?

It's not fun. Not fun at all. And so, but listen, we got to the low 20s by the time that caution came out. So we were doing okay Let's backtrack to the decision to go with wet tires You go out there Then host of our does host of our things And they bring you in

Like Which part with the host far? Spinning before the race starts Yeah I mean he's just he's trying to test The grip level of of the track And we were all doing it You know you can kind of feel like okay Where's it slick?

Where's it not? What was interesting with him, though, is that he passed the pace car. So that's one of the things that, I don't know, I don't think you're ever supposed to pass the pace car unless they tell you to. So he was trying to test the grip level on the exit of turn four by accelerating fast. And, yeah, he's just, he spun out. Now, others have spun out. I think Kyle Bush did it last year.

or two years ago at New Hampshire. Remember, there was quite a few wrecks like spins while the caution was out. So it's not hard to do, but the fashion in which you did it was unique in like passing the pace car. And so, yeah, I don't know. It just, I think there was a short circuit there. Watching Joey's on board of him just gassing up, passing the base car and then spinning out. Like all of the above is like, what? Yeah.

What are you doing? Is that like a strategy if you're a driver who isn't too excited to race in the rain? Is that like a strategy to send NASCAR message? Like, oh, this is too wet. I don't know. It'd be pretty smart if they did. But I'm not going to give that much credit. This is checkers, not chess.

What they need to do, though, and you correct me if I'm wrong. Let the teams decide when they're going to pit and change the dry tires. Yeah, I mean, they should, yes. They probably should have just let that green flag sequence play out, right? Eventually, well, like, there would have needed to be green flag pit stops. Right about when they were throwing that caution, green flag pit stops were about to start. There was guys with right fronts burned off, right, rear's burned off. The track was starting to dry.

I mean, I had my own reservations. Listen, for me personally, it was best because I was like, I would not have felt comfortable in total dries out there on that racetrack. And they used that caution to buy them some time to let that bottom groove dry a little bit. And so when we went back racing, we saw normal racing. So I don't know. It's hard for me to just, I mean, I hate being on the bandwagon here. you know I don't mind disagreeing,

but I just didn't see anything that was wrong. Are you guys not professional drivers? Yes. Then figure it out. I hear you. I hear you. It's not what we do, though. Okay, okay.

All right. Here's another scenario. Pit Lane was wet, like genuinely, really, really wet. Okay. So we come in. And we just slide right into a crew member and take his legs out. Drive better. That's the biggest worry that NASCAR has.

No question. Yeah. You slide, you pinch a guy up against the back of another car that's from front of me. Come on, man. Like, what did you miss, Travis? Well, I miss SVG at a lead. And all of a sudden he has to go in there. And now everything's bundled back up.

Like, you're saying it's unfair to SVG. I want to see you guys compete. I want to see crew chiefs have to make decision. Am I going to keep my driver out on the wet tires? Am I going to bring them in and roll the dice? Are you professional sports where we handing out orange slices and caprice sons? Hmm. I want competition cautions.

Hmm. I agree that the coming down pit road in wet conditions that are uncertain is potentially dangerous. The question is, can you... I guess other series does it, though. right. Can you can you decrease the pit road speed on the fly? Uh-uh. No. Because you practice that pre-race with your light. But I will say this.

We have new, we do have new dashes that would allow you to run a page for wet conditions. So you could prep that beforehand. Yes, you could. You could. To reduce it by half or something? I don't know. That would have been interesting. Had like, you had the foresight to set that, beforehand and then your first pit stop, you decrease the speed to

20, 25 miles an hour, whatever you want to then lower the risk of cleaning out a crew guy and... Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I don't know. I'm either way on this, truthfully, I swear. I mean, I understand from the on-track

perspective, let it play out. Whoever decides to go to slicks early, maybe they get a reward, maybe they don't, whoever stays on wets longer, it's good for the short term, bad for long term like I get it that's that certainly um would be compelling i just again i i think if pit roads dry i think they do let this thing go but yeah they're trying to get the racing back going as quick as possible sorry sorry i mean it's okay that you're wrong okay

speaking of i saw one one fan with that t-shirt uh i haven't seen it very much but it's i'm always I'm always right. The Denny Ham on I'm always right t-shirt. Remember that quote? No, Kyle Larson said that. I never said that. You never said, he said you're always right? Kyle said he's always right.

No, that's not true. It was after the Pocono thing and he was like, all the buddies know, Denny's always right. It was that. It wasn't, I never, I never would say that. Uh-uh. Anyway, it was cool to see on a T-shirt that I hadn't seen in a while. So, all right, that takes us to SVG.

He had a seven-second lead. I think so. Sheesh. What makes, you know, what makes one guy better on these wets than slicks? A lot of it is just confidence in the grip level. like over time like if the track stayed fully wet SVG wouldn't have that big of a gap

but listen we're all novices in this I mean he's been doing it in the rain for a while so I think that it would close but the conditions are constantly changing he now can see the dry better than everyone else and he's finding it and so

it's just during those adverse conditions, someone like him with lots of experience just knows where the grip level's at. While we're all trying, you know, while we spend 10, 15 laps feeling it out, and it's like, no, this guy's hauling ass. And he's got to figure it out already. Where did he finish stage one, Travis? Do you know? Oh, checked. He had a bad pit stop. I know that.

I don't think he finished stage one great. Ninth. nine so he he potentially missed on nine points if that was like a competitive stop he comes down regains the lead is out by five seconds whatever yeah wins the stage potentially potentially but even i mean again remember when they threw that caution the track was we had one lane of dry so if you didn't notice his car did not appear to be very good in the dry i know that's why yeah yeah JGR and I have really enjoyed Bobbs on the car this year. Bob's has everything you need to make your race days great,

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Yeah, you're telling me, I could have, I didn't attend camp, so I certainly could have Bob's camped and had a nice Bob's mattress in our camper. My Sunday morning, my Woop score was not very good. And I didn't party like Travis, but the one thing we had in comment was a mattress that was not from Bob's. And that's where our friends at Bob's discount furniture come in. Bob's has been helping people sleep better for 35 years, and the customer reviews speak for themselves. They've got a great selection of quality mattresses that are built for comfort without blowing up your budget. That's a combination everybody can appreciate.

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and Zillich thing. Yeah. Right? We're right around that time. It looked like, you know, the 77 one was trying to clear himself to what, and I heard him saying in his interview, trying to cover the bottom. So he had two cars. Evidently he was three wide. He then is almost clear, but wants to pull down in front of those two guys to then cover so no one gets back to his inside again entering turn one. The problem with that is you must make sure that you're clear before you can do that.

You've got all the momentum on the outside. It was awful early in the straightaway to be pulling down. Like you still had time to clear and then pull down before the corner. And so I think, you know, acknowledge that he spun himself out. Yeah, I mean, I think he acknowledged he spun himself out.

But then he also was jerking around with Connor during the race. Like, if you know you're at fault, why are you screwing with the guy that you turned your nose across? That's what I didn't get. And that's where it's like, all you have to do is say my bad and just going with your race. But then it's like he still finds a way to like create drama. He doesn't believe, yeah, does he not believe that? Or is he saying one thing and doing another?

Well, clearly he's saying one thing to do it. At what point does he acknowledge that he spun himself? At the end of the race. At the end of the race. So he's jerking off with Connor before he acknowledges that he spun himself. So maybe he in the moment he still thought. Well, then why isn't someone of the team saying, does anyone do that?

Does any spotter actually tell you you're wrong when, you're wrong? I mean, I felt like if I asked my spotter, was I clear there? If he would have said, no, I trust him. But, you know, I feel the majority of guys are not. Every time we hear these communications are always like just backing up their driver, even though they're driving. You didn't do anything wrong.

Yeah, yeah. I get it. Yeah, it just, I don't know. It just was not a very, very good CH day. That's for sure. Just not the best work. Did he fall on the points at all?

He didn't fall on the points. Like how he not? Because everybody just kind of held, serve. Everybody was very mediocre around him. Okay. All right. I mean, he has given up a lot of points in the last handful. of weeks. He's at a bad month or so.

Yeah. Because none of these guys that are right above him in points of they haven't been stellar either. You know? He was up there at 7.8th and he's falling a bit. Yeah. The best thing that's come out of that camp

in a month has been his girl's tutorial on makeup and racing. After Brickyard, he was fifth. For real. It was good. Man, that's a tough, that's a tough slide. But everyone goes through that, I guess. But these are just like mental things that are just definitely avoidable for sure. And you'll need to avoid them for 10 weeks.

No question about that. What's next? What do you make of Big Jim's son? Man, I don't know. It looks even worse when you hear his spotter just barking at them. Go low, go low. Again, I just, there's very, you'll get caught in very few wrecks if you just hit the brakes and hold the line you're in. That's my advice.

And so I understand it was a little bit, he had a little bit of a blind moment where the three car, I believe, was in front of him. and like so you see the smoke, right? I mean, and to me, I don't have to see the wreck to trust that a caution is coming out. So when I see the smoke, it's no different at Super Speedway, okay? This weekend, right before the cars turn around backwards and get sideways when we are wrecking, there's going to be smoke. You should lift when you see the smoke. That's how you avoid.

You don't actually have to physically see. a car spun right in front of your hoodpins for you to say, oh, okay, there's a wreck. I'm going to slow down. The minute you see smoke, trust me, there's about to be a wreck. And this is your way to avoid it. It's just slow down. And Connor just didn't slow down enough and then got caught similar to how I did like in this position of, oh, I can't turn left now. Now I'm out of control because once he gets up to the like four, lane. So I try to count the amount of lanes. The third lane is kind of the new pavement. Then there's a fourth lane that's not. And then there's a fifth lane all the way by the wall. Well, the Riley's car is sitting in the fifth lane up against the wall. Once he gets to the fourth

lane, he's he's got all over his tires and he's chasing his car. Now he's out of control because he's going too fast and he's in the marbles. And he just drives right into it. Archer breaks. I mean, there's not much you can say or do to justify it. It's just, that's just, yeah, sometimes you learn the hard way. And these are, if there's any year to have life lessons, I mean, he's got nothing to gain this year, right? Right. Just, this is chalked this up as one of those lessons that's going to make you better in the long run.

I'm just watching his on board here. It's just not good. He's following Austin through. And that's why. And that's why. I know that the narrative really got caught up with Connor early in the year of like, oh, bad luck, bad luck. A lot of those wrecks he was in was avoidable.

And he just didn't avoid him. Or he put himself in a spot that he shouldn't have. And so I don't know. There's just, this is the lessons you learn when you're really, really young and coming to the Cup series at this age. it's, you know, it's not like he's got a ton of oval NASCAR racing experience. And these are some of the growing pains that you're going to have to go through. And the great news for Rick Hendrick is he's going to get him years to sit in.

Trackhouse did all the development, paid all the money, and he's going to get the best of him. Also, is this just the growing pains of the dog pound? Like in Xfinity, he's not racing in the dog pound. True. True. True. They're fighting for every spot, right? And maybe they're thinking, oh, well, when that smoke, when others lift, I'm going through it. We might as well have said it. Maybe. I don't know. It could be a thought. We might as well sit it now since you mentioned it, Zillich to HMS after next year. What do you make of the move?

I mean, I think it's the best career move for Connor. Right? I mean, you're talking about one of the top three to four organizations in the sport, and you're clearly struggling where you're at. I don't put all of his struggles on trackhouse. I think that, again, we just talked about. I think he's responsible for at least half of the struggles, just due to inexperience. But I think it's a great buy-low opportunity for Hendrick, and they took advantage.

No question about it. Someone Commentary on Twitter When we go When they go low We go high Conor's Oach Do we have

A little beef brewing With you and Blaney No No Coincidental Back to back weeks Coincidental He's frustrated

Because his pick crew Put him back where we were at and he feels like he doesn't have any time to screw around. So anybody that's, you know, my question to Ryan would be, well, I'm, you know, a car length in front. Sure, I'm running the lane that you would prefer to run in, but like, just go to a different lane.

You know, there's a whole other, there's like four lanes of track to the outside. Like, just go, just go around. but his strength was in the very bottom lane where nobody else was at. It's where I was able to be pretty good on some restarts, and he just wanted to get me out of the way as quick as possible because I think he understood the urgency of getting back to the front, and the restarts is when he was going to make the most hey. And he wasn't going to win the race until that caution came out where he took two tires.

And I knew, I knew the whole time. I'm like, 12 is taking two or staying out. That's just, that's their way. And they have enough speed that they can be at a tire deficit and still win the race. Now, okay, you probably want to ask, well, why didn't you take two? Is that a question you have? At some point, yes. Okay.

Well, because I'm three cars behind Blaney. Look at all the other cars that took two. Who held their ground? Nobody. Nobody. So I know that I'm going to restart in the second row with two tires, four tires on my ass, and then below me. I'm going to get shocked immediately. If I'm controlling the race up front, absolutely. If I know I'm going on the front row, absolutely. Put me on two. Let's go. I'm confident in that. I'm not confident in taking two when I'm the tail end of the two tires. It's just not enough. I am. Absolutely confident. If I restart that race with 60 to go on two tires and fourth, I finish worse than seventh.

Got me? Yeah, I'm tracking. Where the 12 knew he was going to restart likely on the front row with his two tires. And his car was strong enough. And again, my car wasn't as strong as is either. So he knew his car was strong enough. You give him track position.

He's like, I'm going, I'm going to go. from having a rocket ship to a pretty damn good car with track position. So that's the winning formula. And I saw that win coming from the minute he lost his track position. All it took was that one yellow to, all right, others, I know that y'all are taking four. I'm not. No way. I got to get it back.

And when you're that strong, you can do it at a tire deficit. We can all agree, though, that you need to take some sort of tires, right? Two, four, you got to take tires. Oh, God, yes. Yeah. Can't just be a fuel only. No, no. And we just weren't strong enough to do that.

Like if we were really, really good, like, I get it, like, take the chance on it. But we just, that's a race where when you're average like we were and you have to go to the rear at the beginning, you have a pit stop where my pit crew is eating ice cream. That's what I'm referring to. It's the you can't feel. You can't do that. Only. Oh, I got you.

It's, that's, you're going to finish seventh, and that's what happened. Can we talk about code words for a second? How do you, number, how do you guys come up with these? And why? I joked. Easy. Turn it down. Turn the mic down before we take it away.

I joked at Richmond about code words and I think you guys might need my fucking help. The code word. were heard loud and clear. Apparently not. Yes, it was. It's only up for me to, well, I guess the pit crew needs to understand them. But I knew what the call was.

The call was to stay. But then if you heard my radio, I says, I hear you, but be ready just in case. Because I knew this could be an opportunity where I get the advantage. I wanted to be the first guy that peels down there. I'm going to drag some with me, which we did.

Unfortunately, the cars we dragged with us were the ones that went that passed us on pit lane because we weren't ready. So it was just a, me and Gail got it. He understood it. The spotter knew it because he's like, we're coming, we're coming. Gail knew it because he called me into the pit box. But the pit crew, yeah, they weren't ready. But, I mean, damn, Trab. they've had like 100 pit stops, I feel like.

Yeah, I'm going to give them a buy on this one. Trave, you did them wrong in the Denny Bros. Why did I do? What did you do? How to do them wrong? Somebody get a message to the pit crew. This was a shit race, lock it up.

They're lucky D.H. built this massive lead. Come on, man. We built the massive lead. It's not just, it's not just me. I agree, but they. I've got like a really good pick crew. Let's just, let's just not rock.

vote. I just don't know how they, like how it happens. I honestly want to ask them. Because they think we're staying. How many times have I audibled out of Chris Gale's call? Very little. Very little. If at all.

So it probably caught them off guard when I showed up in their pit box. And by the way, it looked like it too. I'm looking at my in car and parked in there. And I think it was Dylan. I think he was just kind of looking off. somewhere and it was like oh there's a car here it was they they were definitely surprised to see me sitting there yeah and and and like how often do we pit way back in turn four not often right like if i was pitted towards the end of turn one they would have seen me coming down pit road for like 20 seconds

yeah you're in like the fourth pit stall i know it just was all it's it's fine what would api say we're fine and I get that but you just want us to be in form right now I don't want to be limping in to the chase and listen I I'm not concerned I'm not concerned but yes we have not led to many laps here lately we've not had great stages we've not qualified like ourselves lately take this weekend you know we've had we had a few uh few subpar weekends, but look at our results still. Like, it's still good even when we're not great. So like, let's just keep executing, doing what we have to do to get the day we need.

And again, this was never part of the strong part of the schedule for me. We know this. It was midsummer and then it's the chase, right? And so let's make hay where we need to make hay in these final tent. And, you know, did you ever think we were going to take the lead after Sonoma in San Diego? Like, come on, man. Like, we're on house money for sure. We got to just be grateful.

Let's be grateful. All right. Pit crew, I'm sorry. There you go. Needed that. Yep, we needed that. And Gail, I'm sorry because I was critical of the two verse four. So I'll take that back to.

Thank you. Thank you. I understood why, listen, I know my team loves to put me on. four tires. They love a four tire stop. But at no time, I just knew when we lost the track position, when we came in and weren't ready, that set us back those six or seven spots. I now was at the tail end of the guys that were going to take two. That was just not a good spot for me to be in. Can we just take a second, though, and talk about how these code words Or, you know, you come up.

You come up with them. Like, I got Switzerland last week. Switzerland stay out. Let's not get involved in other stuff. I got that way. No, it has nothing to do it. How does enchiladas mean stay out? It said Mexican food.

You need everything. Enchalas have everything. So each week is just a theme. Yes. It has no rhyme or reason of, like, cowboys wouldn't be like, we're going to be, rebels here and stay out. There's no connection to the word

to the actual action. It's just themes. Okay. Well, here's my request to Gale since Daytona doesn't... You want it to be themed? Yeah, I want the themes to be board games.

How about this? Shoot some letters. Here's what I'll do. Chess. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll try to do this each week. Okay. I'm going to text you all my code words in our group chat.

So you know before the race what each one is. Because there's a graph. And it says, okay, Tundra. Okay, that's Toyota Cars right side. You know what I mean? And by the way, it gets mixed up every week. Tundra might be stay out the next week. You know, we constantly mix it up.

But this week, since, listen, we're racing for the victory, I think we allow Jared to pick some code words. I think board games is a good one. All right. I just want to hear one time on the radio. The call is chess. And you stay out. You know,

I don't know. I'm going to get you with Gail. I want you to come up with our code words for this weekend, okay? Okay. Done. Done. All right. Speaking of this weekend, I mean, we get to,

is a feat going to be kicked up, Traff? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Me too. Me too. Well, no. What do you mean? No.

You're still racing for a win. I am, but let me ask you this. I think this weekend has a... I'm not trying to oversell. Don't dirty-mo media, trying to use this clip, for God's sakes. I think this weekend has potential to be absolute fucking chaos.

Denny Hamlin media might use that clip. Just from the words, what I'm getting, and the data I'm seeing on this new package, I think that, the cars could be far more out of control when they're trying to push each other, which could cause smoke. And when there's smoke, there's a wreck coming.

Go high. Or go low. Go the opposite of the wherever Connor's going. Go the other way. Do you feel... So I think, listen, I have had many, many date. So before we had next gen. Super Speedway racing.

I used to not care about stages, and I would just ride and ride, and then I would, they would be big old wrecks, I'd miss them, and then I'd go race, and we go win. Do you want me to go all out and fight to stay up front and all that shit, or do you want me to just get it to the end and then try to win it? Get it to the end and try to win it. Really? I see my fans, I catch a lot of flack about, man, for 70% of this race, you're putting around in the back and trying to miss Rex.

And I'm like, yeah, but I think that's the best strategy for me. And I think especially this week, it could be a good strategy because I do think the ability to go from the back to the front will be easier than years past. And points don't matter for you. And points don't matter. Stages don't matter. Is that refreshing? It's going to matter to three cars, right?

Well, it's going to matter to all the other guys that are trying to position themselves in the top 16 as well. So maybe there's, I'm telling me, you always see in these Super Spewery races three to four laps to go in the end of a stage. I mean, the bumps start getting heavy. And I think that someone's going to get, I think lots of someone's is going to get caught off guard by how unstable these cars are when they're getting. shoved around. Yeah. Is there also just anything to you not wanting to put yourself in a wreck? But I want to have fun too.

And it's not fun for me to hang in the back. So like, should I just say, fuck it and just like, if I wreck on lap three, who gets to shit? I mean, kind of. Yeah. I don't know. I need to see, honestly, you'll know. How many?

Within lap five, you'll see me. I'm either going to stay where I'm at, where I qualify, or you'll see me pull the apron, go to the back. I think if it is absolutely going to be a wreck fest, you're going to see me pull left, down the back stretch, go to the back, and then hang up. Okay, so can you put a, we're not getting practice in this, this weekend, it's just qualifying.

That's going to be scared. I mean, I, I'm not a practice proponent, but this is one where I would not mind NASCAR saying, you know what, let's just 20 minutes, guys. All we need to do is just get out. out there with three or four cars, get close to each other to figure out what we got. But I think sometimes that element of surprise, I think it's twofold. Like if you're trying to grow the sport, like, hey, there's some storylines that can come

from practice. You now get sound bites from the drivers. What do you think? Like, or is it just a total surprise of race day? Nobody knows. You better tune in. So can you give the listeners a sign that if the 11 car drops to the back on lap 10, that means the changes that were made to the car are improving the racing because now it's just

a little more chaotic. Will you know? Yeah, I'll know early. You'll definitely know early that what kind of stability. Somebody's going to miss this setup too. I'm telling you, setup is going to matter. Someone's going to miss it and they're going to be out of freaking control. That's what I think. It's my feeling. Daytona 2 always is a handling more of a handling race than Daytona 1 is anyway, just from the temperature standpoint. So if you drop to the back on lap 10, that means that... I think it's going to be chaos. It does not feel stable in here.

Exactly right. Exactly right. Is the team able to focus on Darlington kind of like you would at the end of the old format? with you guys not really caring about this race in terms of sim and folk, you're not, you're not doing that stuff. Yeah, hopefully.

Yep. Yeah. And like my record of Darlington is really, really good. It's elite. But it feels like Loudoun over the last few years, right? It's just like, we're fringe top 10.

Mm-hmm. We've just not been great. And I want to be. great at that track because I love Darlington. I want to be great there. So I'll go to work on that. Yeah, Darlington feels like just looking at it now with this points reset, it feels like the most important race of the chase.

It's not. It's not. But a poor result there could really change the way anyone feels about the chase. It will change your feeling. It ain't going to change anything other than your mental. and you're feeling. Yes. Absolutely. I want to be playing with a 14-point lead.

You know? In football terms. I was like, what are you talking about? In football terms, I want to feel like, okay, we got a touchdown to give here. I want the backups then. Yeah. You're not playing with a...

Yeah, it's not going to work that way. Everyone steps up in the chase. We know that. Everyone's going to... Let's look at the chase point standings here. One through four is pretty much locked up, right? Pretty much. Yep, I would say so.

But there's a lot of movement there between five and nine, five and ten, five and eleven? No, movement between five and eight. Five and eight. Five and eight. And then there's movement between nine and eleven. You're chicken scratch. 12th is horrible 12th through 14 yeah so like you see a you know few spots that can change hands here and there um Bubba could go up to 12 yeah he could go up to 12th baron is backslid man

hard to believe Byron's not going to be much better than and I love their 12th they're going to be missing some crew members to start the chase yeah and and shout out to the 23 team by the way They were really good this weekend. Good in practice. Obviously not good. Good in qualifying. And by the way, man, I need to get with the PR team over there. Bobud needs to stop doing media after qualifying.

Go in there before qualifying. Why? Because he qualifies poorly and then the mood is down? Yeah, it's just sour after that. And I need to tell them, no more post-qualifying VR, please. Please go before. What'd you make of him trying to chase down Ryan and then looks like he just locked up? I mean, he's trying to get there.

I mean, you know, he's at a little bit of a tire advantage there. But, you know, they were the fastest Toyota on the weekend. In practice, they were really good. Had a good strong run there. Didn't qualify great, but I don't know how they got up front. My guess is they just worked their way up front. He's typically good in the wet conditions. I don't know if he gained spots there.

I just haven't had time to kind of look at it. it, you know, I'll see in an hour when I had head there and debrief. But, but they had the speed, right? And I saw them battling the 21, who I thought the 21 was very good this weekend. Like, they were back and forth with him. So he clearly had good speed. And, you know, I hear him talk about how bad the car is driving and stuff. That's, I mean, that's New Hampshire. There, there is no good driving cars at New Hampshire that are remotely fast. So that's just the racetrack, the characteristics of the racetrack. So it's a great run.

They needed it too to kind of, you know, that obviously locked them into the chase. But beyond that, just now they put themselves in a spot where they can claw their way back maybe to the top 12. You mentioned the 21. That boy, he got the most aggressive driver over the day, I think. Who? Josh Barry. Yeah, well, see, he got to lose. That's a neat basis said like, you know, I don't want to drive this aggressive, but I got to do what I got to do.

And he's wanting to take advantage of the few weeks that he's going to have a shot to win it. And it's on these short flat tracks that they've been elite. So he knows that this is the chance right here and right now. Yeah, that was a hell of a battle there for two laps where he moved Bubba up a lane. And then they go in to turn one and Josh dove real. Yeah, he's trying to avoid the bump back. Yeah. Just go real low.

But then you get obviously a horrible run on the exit, which Boba got. He lost two spots then. Back to these points here. Yep. The cut line. Well, how important is it, do you think, for these guys between five and eight to be someone who finishes fifth versus to be someone who finishes eighth? Like we know.

What is that about 20 points? Yes. a 20 point difference. 5.5. So, I mean, it's 20 points over 10 weeks. You just never know. I mean, we see right now with Ryan Priest how much there's 25 points that he got penalized matter, right? Yeah.

I mean, ouch. Talk about a kick in the nuts. He'd be six points out. Yes. What a kick in the nuts. So do we think SVG holds on? I do. I do.

because it depends on the stages. It depends on what happens in the stages. If priests can get, let's try to be realistic. I know he can get 20. But like, let's say he gets 10 stage points and SVG gets none. He's now 21 back. That's 21 spots he's got to be ahead of SVG. It's just a tough.

It's tough. You know what I mean? On an unpredictable track, I think you're really counting on SBG getting in a wreck and you not. And that's a hard thing to kind of bank on. Yeah. It's a tough strategy. But all he can do, if you're Ryan Priest, just do the best you can.

And whatever the SVG does, he does. And he's just going to have to live with that result. But put your best foot forward and give it your best effort. Try your best, you know, set a legitimate goal, say, you know what, I need 45. I need 45 points this week. And then if I do that, that forces him then to run somewhere in the top. Finish the race.

Yeah. Top 20, two or three. Like, that's doable. We can do that. You know, it's really nice. Not going to have to deal with if this person wins the race. They're in. Amen.

I know it. Yeah, that'd be tough. But it's a good. point that's why it's a good points format i don't like the resets good lord holy shit look a 10th place is going to gain 300 and some points on me fuck me i could have set out the rest of the year and finish top 10 of points damn it yeah you locked up the one seat how does that how does that feel awesome where's my trophy doesn't exist that's just bull I'm adamant. That's a cost-cutting measure.

It's also just the most Denny Hilling thing ever. God dang it, man. Come on. I know. What the heck? Everyone knows this is the regular season. I just want something. We got a graphic on NASCAR. They're on their social channels. That's cool. It feels good. I mean, listen, if you would ask me in February, you'd be already being the number one sequel into the chase. After the all season I've had and way Phoenix was last year,

I would have said, wow, that's a pretty strong rebound, right? So we'll take it. You mentioned that this kind of is the area where you knew, you know, was going to be your quote-unquote down part. Are you, like, when you go through this period where you haven't won, is it easy to just kind of like where are you at are you just ready to go like you're just chomping at the bit to like really ramp it up and go? I'm a little tired.

I'm definitely a little tired. But this is there's always a set like I guarantee after Daytona you get your second wind. It's like you know when you're on your 20th beer you start you're like you're like you're getting but then you power through and then you get to 30. It's not until he was at 63 that we were like, I know how you feel because I think I'm going to take about 12 days off. My bodies. Did you really do another 40 this weekend?

Probably 40. I didn't keep track and, yeah, my body's. How's your cancals? I had no cancals this weekend, but all of a sudden like, my throat, like my tonsils feel swollen. Like, I'm just like. You're doing a number to your body, bud. You know this is permanent damage.

No, it's not. But, you know, I've got, I think it's 12 days till Ohio State. So I'm going to just, we're going to take this week and then next week off. And then we'll, so Darlington's when we rant back up. I understand your tiredness, Denny. I'm tired. I'm the same way. I am.

I'm tired. I truly am. But I never sleep when you're dead. Like, I know there's only so much time left. Got to got to get. have done now. No, no, sleep in December on that yacht in Italy. Man, that'd feel good. It would. It would. Come on. We've got, we've got Darlington, Bristol, Kansas, Vegas, Charlotte Oval. Yum. Yummy.

Hey, Trave, I got to have your back on something. You're right with Dale Jr. this past week. Dale Jr. saying that he don't really think about when his drivers are up. You should have text Kelly Earnhardt says, do you know when your driver's up? Because I guarantee she'd say, uh, hell yeah,

I do. Thank you. Like, I felt like I was like talking, like, what is he talking about? As an owner, you don't really think about that.

Is, is he, he was kidding. No. He had to be kidding. Come on, man. For real. I thought I was sucking crazy pills.

You were definitely right. Definitely right on that one. So I just got to publicly have your back on that one. Thank you. Yeah. It's a great place to end. I bet you Kelly knows. Yeah.

She's probably going to deal. What are you doing here? That's all I got, boys. Y'all got anything? No. No. Anything off, any off track news? any, do you recover from the fish you lost?

Yeah, I mean, I need to kind of fully explain that. This is where people will go click. I didn't have my thumb in his mouth, by the way. I drug him in. I mean, this is a big fish. And I saw, once I got him right to the edge and I start leaning over that the hook is like, when I say it's hanging on by a thread, it's a thread. And I reached out.

he shakes and as he shakes I have my my thumb touches him he shakes he's gone so it wasn't like oh I had him by the mouth and and he got off like I I touched him but that was about it but it made up for it because I got you know I appreciate by the way Johnny Morris Bass Pro Shops JP his son thank you so much we all took the boys to

Big Seeler Lodge and Branson, it was so awesome. Such a cool experience. Anybody out there that loves golfing, loves the outdoors, definitely go there. The experience was second and on. That was one that we were really looking forward to on our golf guys. We went out there, did a two-day golf trip. Our couple other buddies, they stayed for a third day. They liked it so much.

So it was an awesome experience. and so got to see the cannons go off there and the Ozarks just, man, it's good for families, good for the buddies. They got something for everyone. So thanks to Johnny and his whole family and Bassboro for that. So thank you. But they let me fish in their private ponds. And they, trust me, they had all their employees questioning me being there.

like sir you're not allowed to fit sir it's okay it's okay I spoke with someone so everyone was definitely guarded of their fishing out there in the private ponds but it was fun yeah all the fish looked massive they were big yeah I think that that's it let's kick the feet up this week Daytona I got to go down to Florida early got a little sponsor Summit for 2311. And then, yeah, we'll have some fun this weekend, Trav. Wouldn't it be cool to get such an unexpected victory like Daytona? Be dope.

That'd be awesome. Travis, do you have a whoop? I don't. Could you imagine how much he's in the red? Dennybro David here says he has a whoop and wants to start Denny Bro's team to share whoop scores, which would be cool, especially if Travis was in it. Trave, can we buy you one? Would you wear it?

Yeah. You would? Yeah. all right okay i'm down all right all right we'll see y'all next week