Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Loudon: Should NASCAR Let Teams Risk It?

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Denny Hamlin is back after an up-and-down weekend in New Hampshire. Denny won the second stage and was expecting the race to end once it started to rain (4:40). Why did the track widen when the cars went to their wet tires (9:45)? Denny had a helpless feeling when he couldn’t run the same line as Christopher Bell (14:00). Plus, Denny explains the difference between setting up the car for dry vs wet weather.Bubba Wallace didn’t have a great race and sits squarely on the playoff bubble. Is Denny happy with how 23XI has been racing lately (19:40)? Did NASACR make the right decision in how they handled the wet tires? Should there be non-competitive cautions? And why was every team allowed to fill up on fuel before the restart (23:30)?Michael McDowell went for broke once again (35:10). Kyle Larson’s spotter was not happy with how Kyle races around Denny (37:30). Is Christopher Bell the favorite to win the NASCAR Championship(42:30)?Tyler Reddick faces off against Chase Elliott for the Denny Hamlin Bracket Challenge Championship (45:30).Gene Haas isn’t leaving NASCAR. Christopher Bell slips up in a press conference about the No. 19 car. And what changes will we see to the 2025 NASCAR schedule (47:00)?Lastly, one final “pupdate”.For ore Actions Detrimental content, head over to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You should play my radio before we went green. When they told me that the 34 was on the front row with the 20, I literally said, uh-oh, I see this one coming. And then first corner, caution's out, 34. Saw that one coming. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to action's detrimental. Ow!

That hurt Charlie! This is not going to be a rose color glasses show. Pleading with NASCAR, I guarantee you is listening to this. It was warm and then it was cold. But I kind of liked it. The 11, D.H. We're all in. We're going all the way to promising.

Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental. I am Denny Hamlin driver of the Yahoo Camry this past weekend in Loudoun, New Hampshire. This is your cue. And your co-host is Jared Allen, Red Vest, number 311, who is actually not at the racetrack this weekend. It's my first race I wasn't there in 176. Where were you? I was doing some furniture shopping, furniture pickup for the new home, which is nearly complete. Awesome.

Must be great to have a week off in the middle of season. I'm jealous. You got two weeks off coming up, Jared. You couldn't finish until the break? That's different. That's different. Different week off. Yeah.

Well, you missed something. What was, I didn't miss any. I was still dialed in. Oh, yeah. You were working, you're in your home war room. I was, I was waiting it out just like everyone else was. Right. Well, we had Christopher Bell winning the Xfinity race. He didn't think, you didn't think he was going to win that thing until the very end. But what a great finish to the Xfinity race. You had a battle there, Sheldon Creed. Cole Custer and Christopher Bell all kind of have a three-wide coming to the white finish, and Bell ended up on the good end of that. And I thought it was interesting. You know, I text Steve LaTart when it came down to the last lap. And I'm thinking that Sheldon Cree is actually in a really good position to win this race.

But, you know, one thing they didn't say, and one thing that happens is the drivers is the seams are very, very, very, sensitive at New Hampshire and when Sheldon drove in there he was he had the preferred groove I thought this this is his race to lose but he drove in and he got his right front caught on the scene and when he got his right front caught on the seam that usually delays when you can get back into the throttle so that's when you saw Christopher Bell lunge off a turn two is the you know not only did it delayed when Sheldon got into the gas it also allowed cold custard to get into the back of them a little bit in one and two and that allowed

to Christopher Bell to set sail so it's just one of those small intricate things that happens on track that looks like nothing on TV and then you know but as a driver you're looking at it saying oh I've had I've done that before you know you just it's so easy to get hung on the seams there because they are so wide so a lot of racetracks like the old Fontana we used to have big seams like that where you had to be very sensitive to running across them or on them. And a lot of it is because they, you know, it literally, you know, if you zoomed in with a camera, it looked like a canyon. Just big open, you know, two, three, two inches or so between the two lanes of pavement and nothing

filling it in. And that's just a two inches of less tire. TRIP that the tire is on the track, right? Correct. Yep. And once it gets hung in there, I'm telling you, it's just, it's like a slot car. It's very hard to pull it out of it. there. So I thought it was a great race. The Xfinity race was, you know, Seabell remains undefeated there. And then he goes on to win the cup race and keep it a perfect weekend. Yeah, he sweeps the New Hampshire weekend. I mean, he's becoming a guy who every time you go New Hampshire, I mean, you got to bet on Sebo. Yeah. And not only New Hampshire, it seems like it's these short flat tracks, right? I mean, he's just, him and his team have got something figured out

there that fits his style and the way he drives the car, it all just equals good speed and success. Early on in this race, were you racing to the rain? Yes, we were. We definitely knew that rain was imminent. He told me that it was going to come around lap 245, 250, if things stayed green. Once stage two ended and we won stage two, it was he says all right where you're going to be back in traffic let's just say 8th or 10th what are you going to need I says I think I need to be freed up a little bit and he's like you know just so you know you got about 50 laps to do this and so and then we had another quick caution it was like I don't know probably the third cow bush caution maybe or something like that it was or LaJoy like seemed like

he was in a lot of them as well but then you know that number just keeps keeps going down, you know, because he's basing it off of time. Well, when cautions come out, well, now you're racing to lap maybe 220. And then another caution comes out, oh, now you're racing to 215. Like it's, it just was, you knew it was in him. And he kept telling me, he's like, all right, now I, now I can smell the rain. Like, it's here. And at the time, uh, we were all racing really, really hard for the race went. Like you could see drops on the windshield. And it's like, oh no like you knew it was coming really quickly which is why you saw us being all so aggressive there those those 10 laps or so that we got to race after stage two yeah because you win stage two

you pick up your playoff point then you take four tires did you think that you were going to be able to get back i did the front in the window that you had yeah i thought that you know our car was fast enough and it seems like you know i got a good first restart which gave me a couple spots went from, you know, eighth to fifth in the first lap. And then, you know, with the battling that was going on up front, I mean, I got to third really quickly. And at that point, my new tires are still cool and they're still really grippy.

And I'm thinking at that point I'm going to get them. And then another caution came. We had restart. And then you got to start all over again. Like it takes time to build these runs up. So less cautions. Yeah, I needed less cautions for sure. Would you have been happy if the race just ended then?

Talking to you Monday morning, absolutely. I mean, what a swing that was. I go from one of the best cars in the field to just one of the worst. Just couldn't, I could not get the thing to work and, you know, I didn't do a very good job. Just, yeah, I certainly, if I could go back in time, I would say call this thing. the discussion Monday morning is all about the rain tires for for obvious reasons because this was one of those races where you raced on the slicks and then you had a rain delay and they were able to put the rain tires on to get this race in before it got too dark since there's no lights up in

new hampshire but do you think considering the track conditions you know everyone was doing interviews during the red flag without umbrellas out on the track there's just a drizzle a mist could you have thrown the rain tires on right away and done 20, 30 more laps? Well, if you could you have? Yes. Would it been risky? Extremely yes. Because we knew that heavy rain was coming. Like the drops, when we put on pit road and we stopped in our pit stalls, like there were big drops coming down. And we've already said that we cannot, we don't have windshield wipers.

Okay, that's fine. But we can't race during heavy rain. And so we've seen that that isn't good and visibility. We didn't have any mud flaps on the cars, you know, so we don't have anything to help with spray. So I think that generally speaking, they made the right call to just let's let this rain pass and then go after it after that. Why not have the mud flaps and the wipers on before the race starts when you know that rain is coming?

Yeah, because we still don't want to race in the rain. I just think that while they're called wet weather tires, they're more damp conditioned tires, you know, which is not as sexy of a name. It's just the wet weather, I'm telling you, it would just be too dangerous around that track. We were to start the race, I mean, we had two cars spin out, by the way,

under caution before we even went. Kyle Busch. Yeah, so, I mean, I just think that it was, It was probably the right time. When we went was probably the right time, but it was treacherous. I'm telling you for five, six laps before the tires, before the cars got enough heat in the track to start to create dry spots. Yeah, because you can't race with a spray coming up from behind the tires.

No. And if the track is fully wet and it is raining, it will create a spray. I'm curious, what makes these wet weather tires or why do the wet weather tires open up so much of the racetrack? because when we went back green, the racing was good. I mean, Jordan Bianchi joked on the teardown that they answered all your short track problems just put sprinklers down there.

That's such, I know. Such a dumb statement, though. But also, I know he's joking. I know he's joking, right? But it's, yeah, I mean, if we have to fix our short track racing by wetting the track, I mean, might as well just put dirt on them, too, because we've done that.

So, no, I don't know. Why does it widen out? Well, it's because we're trying to avoid things like paint. We're trying to avoid things like rubber underneath of the wet surface. That causes it to be slicker as well, which is why you saw kind of in the late race incident with McDowell. Like, yeah, everyone was fighting for that very top lane because that was the only remotely dry lane that we had. So I think, you know, we're searching for the driest pavement that we can find with the least amount of rubber in it and the least amount of paint in it. So that's why we're spreading all over the racetrack.

What were you guys doing under caution labs going through the water and some drivers going through the grass? What was the purpose of that? Yeah, so it cools the tire off. So the track was dry enough in spots where it was creating heat. And heat on the wet weather tires caused it to wear really quick. because it's very, very soft. That's what makes it have grip in the wet conditions. So we're using those puddles on the front stretch to,

it's almost like if you have something hot, you don't water on it and it creates the steam. Like it's just, it cools it off, gets it cooled off really, really quickly. And then so it doesn't blister when it gets back to racing. So is that also what drivers are looking for during the race?

Is that why there's all these different lines? because you still have the primary line around the track that's going to naturally be the fastest way around the track, right? But there's drivers going, you know, four wide in the corner and then some dropping below the apron. Yeah, again, we're all just trying to find the quickest line and it seemed like that really changed and evolved as those, you know, those 87 laps under wet happened.

So it seemed like the apron was working for a little while. Then it was the top lane. Then the top lane was completely dominant. you didn't want to be anywhere else. I personally was everywhere else, but the fast line. So it just is interesting because it does. It creates interesting racing and certainly racing like we hadn't seen at New Hampshire before

where everyone's just trying to search for what is that optimum line. What are you looking for? And why did it appear that some drivers, were better at that than others. Yeah, some people have more experience. Others are just, you know, good at finding where grip is. Those drivers, you know, or there's like four or five of them that just seem to be really good in these types of conditions.

You know, for whatever reason, they've got a technique that works for them and they trust the tire to have grip. You know, some of it too is setup based where, you know, certainly what is a good dry weather setup is not a good wet weather setup. If you had to completely race the whole weekend saying, all right, we're going to race in the wet, certainly Chris would do a lot of different things to the car to make it handle differently in those types of conditions. Now, you know, it seemed like when I watched Bell, for instance, when he took off right after the wet weather and gained like five spots in the first corner, I ran that same line he ran and I nearly knocked the fence down. I mean, the same

to the foot right where he was and my car took off dead straight would not go it just would not turn left and so there's just some set up differences that happens where you know sometimes and really you could you did see some cars that were not very good in the dry all of a sudden being really good in the wet it could have accommodated their setup a little better than others so the broadcast showed gay parts saying that you were lifting earlier than bell and you're asking how and gay part's like I don't know bro is that like a helpless feeling when like you're being told that the winner the leader's doing something and you just don't know how to match that yeah yeah it is i mean he's trying to give me all the information he can to to figure it out right and and i felt like i was in a decent place there but the the problem i had is that i could not run what was the fastest line i tried to and my car wouldn't do it it just flat out would not do it i turned the wheel it was unresponsive hit the gas and it just goes the other direction. So I was forced to have to run a line that would make my car make a

corner, but it was not the fastest line. And so everyone was just going around me. So it was a, yes, that part was a helpless feeling for sure. Does that change over the course of the race? Like when that fastest line, you know, like dries up and now there's no more water there. Now you've got to find some other water to cool the tires down? Yeah, it will change. Certainly. and it will widen out as as you run more on it. It certainly will, it will spread out a little to the left, a little to the right. You know, all those things are factors in, you know, where you want to run. But again, we're trying to avoid paint as well.

And these corners are filled with white dash marks all over them. So if you run over them, your car just takes off. And so, and personally, I think that that's probably what happened to Kyle when he crash under the caution. I think he was testing it to see like, okay, let me try to get up to speed, see how much grip this thing has, and looks like he just, you know, hit a slick spot and overcorrected. Naskar 101, is there a certain element of the car setup that makes it better in the wet versus the dry? Yeah, typically, I mean, you would have different cambers, things like that, would all be adjusted. Your ride heights all would be a lot different in the wet versus the dry.

when we run the dry, your car is going to travel more. So travel is basically how far your car from where it is riding on the, you know, sitting there static, just not moving, to when we actually put load on it in the corner, we drive into the corner. The car goes down a certain amount, right? Because we, and that creates load in the tire and then it pushes down on the car. Well, when we're running in the wet, your car, you can't drive in as deep. So it doesn't go down as far. So you would run your car lower. You would adjust the cambers and things like that. Wedge would all change. You know, stiffness of the springs all matter in wet weather conditions. So all that really matters. And certainly, you know, if you had something, you know, it seemed like Bell made the best of both work, right,

with what he had. So, and I think he's very good in the wet weather anyway. So he's going to be able, he's a good enough driver that he's going to cover up, maybe any deficiencies that his car might have in those type of conditions because he's just very, very good at it. You mentioned there's like four to five drivers that are good at that. Who are some of the, who are those four or five? I mean, I think that, you know, you've got, it seems like Larson, you know, briscoe has been good in these types of conditions. Seabell comes to mind. Chase Elliott, although I'm surprised he didn't run. better. I don't know if he had any damage or not. I just, you know, recall the race at Cota that they were having in the wet weather.

Kind of looking down the list here. Those are the ones that immediately draw my eye. I'm sure there, I mean, there's others for sure, but those just, it seems like those are always constantly the cars that drive to the first. front when there's these types of conditions. And, you know, we saw for for quite some time, the top 10 during the wet weather was, you know, a lot different than what the top 10 was when we were in the dry. So it's just, you know, some people, it fits their style and they, they can make it work. Knowing that there was rain and the forecast, it's a hindsight, but is

there anything differently you could have done to the setup to, no, you don't want to bank on it. You just, we're there to race in the dry and you want to build the fastest car that you possibly can for those conditions. And so, no, you would never sacrifice your dry weather set up for the chance of rain. Considering teams and crew chiefs don't have nearly as deep of a playbook for racing in the wet weather, when you do make adjustments to the car, is it just best educated guess? Like, hey, this is what we think we need to do. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, Yeah, we were making tons of adjustments on our 11 car. Nothing really was moving the needle a ton on it, but again, the conditions are all, you know, changing throughout the time as well. So,

yeah, the teams have generally what they would do to, you know, make it work, but it's different, you know, for everyone. And I just think that, yeah, you're making your best educated guests. And really the cruchees at that point are just telling them. the drivers do the best you can, which was my message from Chris all evening. Some drama in this. We had a wreck late in the race. Noah Gregson goes down below the apron, washes up, takes out Josh Barry and Bubba Wallace, obviously really hurting Bubba's playoff chances now below the cut line and out of the playoffs. Bubba not happy with Noah parked his car in front of his pit box.

Yeah, I don't know why that's a thing that, you know, some, folks are doing now. I don't know. If it makes you feel better, I guess. But yeah, you're looking at, you know, I'm looking at the points and it's, you know, the problem is if you have one more winner outside that gap, then the cut line moves, and then now you're over a race behind, you know, right? Because right now, Lugano's in, he's minus 190, Bubba's 203. But in front of Ligano is Busher at one hundred minus 153 so that's another that's one more race so yeah they're getting down to it to where they're going to need to perform really really well over the next you know eight weeks seven week weeks you know better than they have recently or really all year and then or win a race

that's just the two choices you got is there anything do you go to that team and talk to them or what's as the owner, what's kind of your mentality dealing with a team like this? Yeah, I mean, you try to, right? I mean, you just hope that they're doing everything they can, right? Certainly, I'm not overly joyed with the performance and speed at 2311 right now. I think that, you know, when there's definitely some JGR cars that were very, very strong in the dry and just for whatever reason just could not, they're not showing the speed that they were early in season. So yeah, they're working on it, trying to figure it out. But, you know, yeah,

they've got some good information that they can look at to get better. So, I mean, it hurts too when if you're looking at the point standing as a guy, if you're Bubba and a guy you're racing is Joey Logano. He also did not have the best day at New Hampshire. And it was an opportunity to pick up points on the cut line. Yeah. I mean, the only thing, though, is that that is if the cut were the cut line were to remain at the same place, right? And so my, you always have to count, especially at this time of the season, of one more frequenter that's outside the cut, in which case, then Busher becomes the next guy above the cut line. And he's substantially ahead of Legano above us. So that's where you have to look at it and say, okay, we have to not

get unlucky first and then we've got to go beat joey for the next seven eight weeks and so that's not going to be easy but it's i mean the way that legano's been running it's not crazy and unthinkable but you're you know you're going to have to be consistently better than him over the next seven eight weeks and that will be a tough task well the way you're talking about it sounds like you shouldn't necessarily bank on there not being another surprise winner which means that you need to be in we hey we just got to win a race. We need to go out there and put ourselves in the best position to win every week. Yep. Yeah. I mean, certainly it's not, there's no one week that defines whether you do or do not make the playoffs. There's, there's plenty of weeks to make up ground and plenty of weeks to

gather points to not put yourself in this type of position, but frankly, they just haven't had the results to, uh, to warrant anything but the position that they're in. Late in this race, NASCAR, are mandated that all teams come down and change tires, but keep wet weather tires on. Are you in agreement with that? Do you think teams should have the choice at the end of this to choose whether they want to stay on the reins, go to the slicks, not change tires at all? Yeah, I mean, I know on the 11, we wanted to go to the dry tires. Even if it was a little bit damp, like it just, we could not make the wet weather tires work on our car for what we had that day. I certainly thought, you know, while it would have been, you know, we wouldn't have had a ton of

laps on the dries, I thought the track had a dry enough area in it to, to warrant, you know, giving us that option. But again, they just, they want to hold our hands through this while they're still learning and figuring out what the limit is. Why, though? Why do they want to hold your hands? Because it can be a dangerous situation. If you allow us to put wet dries on, which we know will be faster if the track is indeed dry. Loudoun New Hampshire is one of those tracks that's very, very difficult to see whether it is dry or not because the corners are so very black, it looks like it's wet all the time even when it's dry.

So I don't think that there was a clear defined dry line that NASCAR could see that would, or at least multiple grooves of it to allow more than one racing line in the dry. So they wanted to keep it, they knew that we could race wet, whether or tires in the dry, but not dry tires in the wet. Like, you know what I mean? So, you know that while it may not be optimum to run wet tires in the dry, you still can do it. But again, the repercussions of putting dry tires on in the wet is that your car just goes in the corner, slams into the wall because it, the track is still wet. Were we not already seeing that, though? What's that? I mean, we were seeing Rex with the wet tires on. I know, but you're just putting,

more people in danger of doing that, which really, to me, I cannot stand social media saying, well, now we should explore this on bigger tracks. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's as fast as we need to be going in the wet weather tired. These walls hurt people. Okay. So, you know, putting us on a bigger track, we're already, you know, it's different on short tracks. I try to explain to people that we can feel the edge of the car on short tracks. We're only running, I don't know, 90, at the, you know, 90 miles an hour or so in the corner at New Hampshire. But, you know, so we can feel the car when it starts to slip and then we correct it. On a bigger track, if you run 140 mile an hour corner speeds, the minute you slip and lose grip, you're going to

do what Kyle Bush did. You'll correct, bam, nose straight into the wall head on. Like, absolutely not. We do not need to be doing this on any bigger racetrack than what we did right there. Or not just in size, but any track that has a faster

corner speed than that, I am totally against it. But back to the decision yesterday, like, isn't that just a, you know the risk reward of putting slicks on in that situation? It could work for you and you're going to go faster than the cars who aren't on slick tires, but it would also backfire. And you could end up

in the wall and finished 30th for the day. Like, isn't that just the driver teams knowing the risk reward? Like, why does NASCAR have to get involved with that? I agree with you in the sense of that. I do think that eventually they need to let go of the reins and let us handle it. But I am empathetic to the fact that they're with, they were apprehensive to even put us back on the track as quick as they were. I mean, that, that's, that's factual. So, um, and, and trust me, that is as wet as we wanted to run it because we were all over the place for those first 10 laps after the, you know, when we went back green. So that was the, in my mind, the limit of where we, we could go. On the non-competitive pit stop front, could you lower pit road speeds to make the, the pit stop?

stops competitive? I don't think so because how would drivers gauge where they are on speeds? Like we set our dashes to the current pit road speed limit and if they said, okay, we're going to knock 10 miles an hour off. Now, the crew chief could give you an RPM number, but I would say that not everyone has an RPM number on their dash. You know, some of them just have lights. And so they don't actually have the RPM stated on their dash. So then I don't think that that would work. I don't think you can change the pit road speed limit on the fly. Well, how do you set your pit road speed limit going into the race?

Because everyone rolls. Well, it has a sensor that reads the RPM, but that doesn't mean it that teams choose to put the actual RPM on the dash. So in order to reduce the pit road speed limit, they would come across and say, okay, instead of in second gear, for an example, it's $3,600 at your normal, you're going to make it at 3,000. Okay, well, I would need my team, I'll be trusting that they have the actual RPM on the dash so I can look at it and say, okay, I'm at 3,000, not 3,100, not 3,000, but 3,000.

But some people's dash do not have that RPM, so they couldn't throw that wrench in there in the last second because some teams would not be able to gauge their pit roads. So you couldn't roll, you couldn't do a lap roll. pulling pit road beforehand to readjust. Yeah, okay, you would be driving blind. You would just be guessing. Do you know what I mean?

Because you don't actually have, so if they lowered the speed limit, all of our lights that we have for pit road speed would be gone because they're way too high. So we would lower it down and now our dash would show no lights and no RPMs. So now I have my RPS. RPMs on the dash. So I'm not speaking about myself. But I would say that there's no guarantee that

everyone does. So I just don't think that that works. And not only that, you've got pit road members there. And it's hard. It's one of the slickest pit roads anyway, Loud New Hampshire is you just can't risk a car going in there and sandwiching a person in between two cars because it is extremely slick. So with that said, now I'll say this. I don't, that's, this. This, this is, this. This This was the whole beef I had a little bit is that you had cars stay out like the 45 and you had a bunch of them, take two tires or whatever. They were all short on fuel. And then when we went back racing, they says, okay, we're going to have a non-competitive pit stop. So they restarted the race over when we went back with weather racing and just says, all right, everyone, you got to run these tires and go ahead and fill up your gas tank.

And it was like, what the hell? Right. You know, that sucked because, you know, we were good on fuel. everyone around us was not or most of them were not so i didn't that's you know i think tv did a good job of explaining that i think letart and burton were kind of debating it on tv saying yeah but you know if they do this then here's the unintended consequences right is that you've just changed strategy that these teams have been doing for the entire first 200 laps and so certainly there was some beef to be had to saying that, okay, now we're all going to mandate that you have to do this.

Go ahead and fill your gas tank up. I think if they, people didn't have fuel in the car, you shouldn't let them put fuel in the car. They should just, you know, if you just change your tires, that's it. Yes. Yes. I don't agree with letting everyone fill up their tank when they were nearly out. The only reason they were up front is because they were nearly out. Right. So then are, then of those cars, if they're going to run out, are they allowed to come down pit road at speed under green or whatever and add fuel. Or caution. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Allow people to take fuel under caution. You know, the minute the first caution came out, say, okay, if you want to pit down put fuel in it, go ahead and, you know, but it definitely changed the complexion a little bit

when you allow cars to who were not going to make it on fuel, just now make it on fuel. Right. Because you reset the race. Yeah, the wet weather tires were a success in completing this race and running all the laps and getting it in. But like you said, there was unintended consequence of that. Right. There always was, and it wasn't going to be perfect for everyone by any means, but I think that it, you know, it worked itself out and we learned from all these different things, and I'm sure next time around, they'll do things slightly different, or maybe they won't. They'll do it the same. So either way, it's, we got it all 301 laps in and that was it. I get that it's not safe to have competitive cautions, but how do you feel about, like, I feel like

you just should delay the race until you can because you're taking a component out of the sport. And in football, they're going to say no kicking field goals because it's not safe. Yeah. So I do agree with that. That's a great point, Travis, is that if pit road is not safe, which that's why we had non-competitive pit stop, then you shouldn't restart the race until pit road is safe. So do whatever drying you need to do to pit lane and make that safe. So I agree with you 100% in that. And I think that, you know, maybe that should be the priority when they go back to drying the facility, you know, because they made a lap of the air tightens and jet dryers or whatever to just try to get the big water off the track. Maybe you work on pit lane first. Now, the difficulty with that is there was cars sitting on pit lane while they were trying to dry it.

So you'd have to move the cars. But I agree with you that, you know, perhaps pit lane probably should have been more of an emphasis. It seems like that's always the pit road seems there's always the last thing to be dry. Yeah, because they get the track dry, put the cars on the track, but pit road's also part of the track, but not. Correct. Yeah, it probably should treat it a little bit more like it's the actual racing surface because, you know, certainly, well, one, we pay these crew guys a lot of money and for them to be useless for that last hundred laps. It's not ideal, but, you know, you certainly want to protect them and their safety, which is why, you know, I think that NASCAR. Church just felt a lot of pressure from, you know, the media on X and whatever else, you know, they read it.

And so when people are like, well, why do you have wet, well, the tires, we're not going to run in the wet. You know, that stuff gets to them and they react. Also, it's not easy at this particular track without lights, right? Like, you have such a small window to get this thing in. They spent another half hour drying the track. Then you probably don't get the entire race in it. Because it's too dark. Exactly right.

Yeah, I think that they were up. against the clock, no question in many different ways. At the end of the race, I mean, it was dark. I mean, I know you can't see it on TV because of the filters they have on the cameras, but it was very, very dark, no doubt. Was it beginning to be difficult to see? Like if we had gone another 10 minutes, it would have been too dark, but we ended, you know, it ended at the right time.

late in this race, McDowell gets loose, takes out Ryan Blaney, and Blaney says over the radio, I know exactly what happened. He bombed it in there like a moron. Travis and I were talking before the show. This seems to have been the case a few times with McDowell this season, whereas if he just takes his third place, second place finish, also happening at Talladega making that block to win the race. If he just takes his second, third place finish,

is he in the position where he must win? you know? I don't know. Is it that mentality that's causing the must win? You should play my radio before we went green. When they told me that the 34 was on the front row with the 20, I literally said, uh-oh. I see this one coming.

And then first corner, cautious out, 34. So, oh, saw that one coming. Yeah. I mean, the only thing is he didn't crash. actually with the 20. I thought if he was going to crash, it was going to be because he drove in on the 20. And then the explanation to me, though, of,

well, I got to do everything I can because I'm in this situation. You're not going to do it from third place, though. You're not going to win the race from third. So you've got to get around Blaney cleanly and then go ahead and if you want to make a bonsai move on the 20, go right ahead. but you know Ryan I side with Ryan on this one very low percentage move and it was a wasn't the move

to win the race it was for second place you got to get the second before you can before you can make a crazy move so I don't know it's like it's like someone saying running seventh you know oh I just had to do it because you know I needed a win like yeah yeah but you're seventh you're you're not it's not for the win second place is not for the one second place is not for the in. Respect the move. Friend of the program, Michael McDowell. Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, it didn't work, but I knew sparks were going to fly once they gave me the front row lineup. We'll see if I can find that audio. Another great audio, this one will not be difficult to find because it's all over X is Kyle Larsson Spotter. He runs you like that all the time. You know why

because you let it happen and then Kyle replied with a subtle shut the fuck up about you running Kyle I agree with Kyle Larson Tyler should shut the fuck up because does he does he say that when Kyle squeezes guys up high probably not you know that's the thing about spotters is that you know they are so biased to their guy and and that's what they you know need to be at times right but we're racing for a win. There's drops on our windshield. And the reason that me and Kyle raced so closely at times

because we're usually, A, racing for a win, racing for a win, and neither will give each other an inch, right? So I didn't quite understand, first of all, while we were smoking tires down the front stretch, I got to the inside of them off of turn four, and all of a sudden,

I feel them grinding on the right rear, and I'm like, whoa, did I not, leave enough room there and I look back and I watched the replay and it was like yeah I gave enough room what the hell were we doing you know you know door banging each other down the front straightaway so on the initial contact and so at that point I'm like damn what the hell and I'm on four tires right I'm obviously faster than he is I was faster than him all day long and then he's on two tires which is a deficit but he's trying to run he was trying down to run outrun the 45 and he couldn't quite get that pass finish but I was coming quickly right

right so the ability of him to be able to hold me off in those scenario that scenario was going to be little to no percentage um so the reason that we make contact is because i'm like i don't have time to be screwing with you here like i got to get clear you're not going to hold me off which means you're not going to win the race so we just won't give each other an inch to clear and then you know off the turn for the next lap like yeah i run them up because i'm like this dude i gotta i gotta go i can't keep dicking with you here um i got to run down this 45 we got water on the windshield and so um he's trying to hold me off he's not you know doing anything wrong but it's just there's two guys that are racing hard for the race win and so i it doesn't didn't bother

me and if he did the same thing to me then then so be it i understand why it's because he's coming on new tires, and if I'm hanging on his right rear, I probably should expect getting moved up the racetrack so he can get clear. But it's just the difference that, you know, from what spectators see to actually what's going on on the actual racetrack. So that's all I have to say about it. This is also the ongoing Denny Hamlin- Kyle Arson rivalry. It's not a rivalry.

How was it not a rivalry? What do you mean? It's at least a playful rivalry at the very least. It's two guys racing each other hard for the win. And that, you know, now at Iowa, that was not racing for a win. I was a lap down and miscalculated the middle of the corner. I screwed up. You know, what can I say?

But, you know, this week was unintended contact to start. I didn't know where the first one started. I definitely left them enough room off of turn four. but, you know, nor here nor there, but I'm trying to get clear and he's hanging on the right rear and it's like, I mean, I need three inches to clear here. But he's trying to hang on. I get it. And so he's trying to get the best finish.

But unfortunately, the crappy part about it is by him trying to hang on the right rear right there, it did cost him more spots in that one moment because at that point I'm done screwing around with, you know, a car that I can't see. They're barely hanging on back there. and when I drive in deep, he drives in deep to stay on the right rear, to not let me clear. And it's like, okay, we're just holding each other up here. It's, you know, I'd love to sit here and, you know, play grab ass with you, but it's, I can. It's time to go.

So it's just two drivers that are not giving each other an inch. And one inch would let the other clear, and there would be no contact at that point. Sounds like a rivalry. It's not. I like Kyle. And listen, you can like someone and still be a rivalry though.

I know, I know, but it's, you know, just watch the race, and we all do this to each other all the time. I don't know why there's an emphasis. Is it because we're up front all the time? Maybe that's it. But like the five and the 12 got in, they ran each other up that's racetrack.

It's just, it's racing. It's short track racing. Get over it. I just wonder if the five team thinks it's a rivalry. I don't care whether they do or don't. Christopher Bell wins the race sweeps the weekend as we

as we talked about is Christopher now if he wasn't already a championship favorite oh god here we go again why is that is always the reaction

and by the way we're gonna hear we'll tune in a serious XM this week and that'll be an entire day of conversation oh now C Bell's a championship favorite

we're such a long way from Phoenix and all And so, yes, I said at the beginning, he's, he's very good at these tracks. He's obviously good at Phoenix. He won there earlier. He's proven now on these three quarter mile, one mile tracks, especially the flat ones, that he's got something working really well.

So yes, to answer your question. I just hate the, let's overreact Monday. I can't wait for the headline. Denny Hamlin says C Bell, favorite. Well, I mean, you guys make the headline. So, you know, whatever you choose. But I just feel as though, like, let's talk about championship favorites once we get into the playoffs. Like, who knows?

Did you see Ryan Blaine coming last year? No. At this point, last season, we were talking about no finish better than ninth over like a 15-week span. That's right. Then maybe the question is, is he a favorite to get to Phoenix? I think the championship favorite question is. Playoff points. He's been there the last two years, though, Jaredi has to be.

Well, the entire discussion about favorite, to me, is just completely number basis. Who has the most playoff points? Because that's going to give you a better chance to make it to Phoenix. Right? So, like, you win Phoenix. No, I said a championship favorite. To win a championship, you must win Phoenix.

Right, but you also have to get there first. Well, he's got the second. most playoff points. That's the new reality today on Monday is that he now has the second most playoff points. So yeah, he would be one of the four favorites to get to Phoenix. Is that simple enough?

I mean, yeah, it answers the question. Okay, all right, yeah. Listen, he's certainly very,

very good and he's very good, a lot of racetracks, but it just seems like in particular these style tracks, he's got something going on that's really, really good. So he needs to just keep doing that. And he'll go through the process of the playoffs. Again, the playoffs are a little bit more sketchy this year.

With the first round having tracks like Atlanta in it and some other things, I think we've got two super speedways really in the playoffs this year, two road courses. You don't really worry about Cbell on road courses, but you just never know what can happen. So it is. It's, you know, this year kind of sets up for there being a more unexpected, final four than what we've had in years past because of all the wild card tracks that they've got in it. All right. Great answer. I got another favorite question for you. Who's your favorite this weekend, Chase Elliott or Tyler Redick, in the Brackettich in the Brackett challenge finale? Oh, that's right.

So we were down to the final Tyler Redick or Chase Elliott. I'm going to go with Tyler Redick on this one because I thought that I thought he had probably the best car last year. with the next gen at Nashville. Chase was strong, though. I do remember Chase being pretty strong that race, so I think it's going to come down to the very end of the race.

I'm going to say Reddick finishes third or fourth and wins. Chase is going to be fifth or sixth. Do either of these drivers know that there's a media obligation that if they win the bracket challenge they have to appear on this podcast?

I'm not sure that they've been made aware of that. Made aware of that. I'm not really sure. Well, I don't know. Chase doesn't do a ton of media that he doesn't have to do. So that might be a challenge. Well, William Byron did it last year. It seems like you have to do it if you win.

I don't know. Maybe we should ask that question. I think I've heard through the grapevine that, that Chase Elliott said, if he went on actions detrimental, it would be actions detrimental. Off track news. Storehouse Racing gives an update that Gene Haas will retain one cup charter under the team Haas Factory team, and then we'll continue to have two Xfinity teams. So the Haas part of storehouse racing is not going anywhere.

Yeah, I don't know why this became such a shock to everyone. I mean, you know what? you know there was kind of rumors of three charters being sold and the fourth one they didn't know what they were going to do with um but i i i had i had heard for a while that they were going to keep one so i don't i guess it's you know i'm on the inside so i don't know it wasn't a shock to me but i guess to the outside there was you know it was a shock that oh wow jean hoss is going to stay in the cup series with one car um you know what that manufacturer is is all TBD, driver TBD, whatnot, you've got to assume it's going to be Cole Custer.

I would assume it's Cole Custer. Simply the relationship that Gene Hoss has with Joe Custer, which is Cole's father, who essentially kind of runs Stewart Hoss now on that kind of day-to-day. So they've got a long-standing relationship there, which is good. I think Cole has earned his right to, you know, if he gets the opportunity back in the cup car, I think he's earned that right through performance. I think he's your regular season point leader and Xfinity right now.

He's up front and solid every single week and sometimes it's good to get a reset. And I think Cole got that reset and it's certainly warranted to be back in the Cup series on Sunday. This weekend, Christopher Bell slipped up in a press conference when talking about the 19 car saying

whenever Chase comes into the car and now there's tons of speculation on whether Chase Elliott or Chase Briscoe will be driving the 19 next year. Well, if we get, you know, If Chase Elliott wins the bracket, maybe we get him on here and ask him firsthand. Yeah. Yeah.

What's it going to be like to be teammates with myself and others? But no, it's, it was tough for Christopher. I don't know if it's tough or not. I mean, I think that everyone had assumed that a certain driver would be announced in the 19. But, you know, JGR is not always the quickest to, you know, put out their own news. Like, it just stirs. long enough where it just comes out naturally. This is why back in the day it was very important for us to announce Tyler Redick coming

to 2311 two years in advance because I didn't want these types of rumors and stuff getting out there. Like you just announce it and then you deal with whatever you got to deal with after that. So I think, you know, yeah, JGR is usually, you know, a week or so behind of, you know, the breaking news and then they'll kind of confirm it. you know, with Ty Gibbs, they didn't announce that to like close to Daytona that he would be replacing Kyle Busch. So I don't know.

I think they're just a little sensitive and stuff like that. But it's fine and we'll know tomorrow the official word from the official parties. Have you ever been on the stand or at a press conference somewhere in public where you had information? You just had to tell yourself, all right, don't say this, don't say this, don't say this. yeah i mean probably this podcast a lot every week sorry every time we talk about charters i know uh yeah i mean listen i've had some on-camera flubs for sure in my moments um you know back when i was auditioning for this 11 car ride back in 2005 uh i just remember you know it was a big deal from the PR agency

um they always used kind of dale jarrit as kind of the one to look at like here's how he conducts his interviews and he was kind of the model citizen to here's how we want you to speak to the media right and and it just stuck in my head because they says you know just think Dale Jarrett thinks UPS Dale Jarrett thinks UPS and and so I just it got stuck in my head and I'm doing this interview and and it was after Martinsville and I says, you know, I just want to thank all the employees at UPS, FedEx, you know, and I was like, oh, crap, I can't believe I did that.

But, I mean, it's one thing if you forget them, but to name their competitor in that instance was just not ideal, but luckily I was good enough on track where they forgave me. And they allowed me to get that ride for the 2006 season. Perjordan Bianchi and the athletic, races being moved out of the playoffs next year. Atlanta, Watkins, Glenn, and perhaps the most surprising one, Homestead, Darlington to be back in the playoffs, New Hampshire also moving back in the playoffs, and then Jordan also mentioned Gateway as a potential, but didn't know

the third. Hmm. Interesting. Was Homestead not putting together a bid to... Gateway, that's still an independently owned track, is it not? It's interesting that they would put an independently owned track in the playoffs. I know it's, I mean, it's not unprecedented. We used to run Dover when it was independent. But it makes me wonder, is NASCAR about to buy St. Louis? Like, I just, because name the tracks that are coming out. Name the tracks that are coming.

Atlanta, Watkins Glen. Okay, hold on. Atlanta, S. go ahead. Watkins Glen. NASCAR. Homestead. NASCAR.

Moving back in. Darlington. NASCAR. New Hampshire. SMI. Perhaps Gateway. Perhaps NASCAR. So I'm just doing the math and I'm like,

NASCAR's willing to take a date from itself? People look at the tracks and that's the easy knee-jerk reaction is to, let's just talk about the tracks and why won or should or shouldn't I'm more look at the business like hmm they're going to take a date from themselves and give it to an independent track look for some paperwork to be filed

what do you make of like a homestead which everyone wants it to be the finale were they not putting together a bid to take the championship back apparently I mean the team owners are not privy to this information but Phoenix pays NASCAR

the city or the state or somebody pays NASCAR for the final race to be there. Right. We don't see any of that money, but they do. And apparently Homestead was putting together some scrounging up some change to throw their name in the hat

to be back part of the championship weekend. So if you're wondering why Phoenix always keeps getting these dates, I think it could be because, you know, there's money being exchanged. So Phoenix may be the championship for the foreseeable future past 2024. I think they... Because if you take homestead out of the playoffs, now you're limiting where you're going to race a championship race in November.

Yeah. Yeah, certainly if you want the weather to be good, yes. But I think it depends on who you talk to whether it, you know, the weather being good matters or not. I think it probably should be. We are, you know, we've got one of the biggest spectator sports out there. So, you know, I just don't know, you know, when we go race like at Bowman Gray in February, it's going to be freezing.

It is going to be freezing, right? So, but we're still going to turn out in big numbers that will be sold out. And a lot of the reasons it's sold out is not many seats, right? So I think the Colise. still would sell more seat tickets than what Bowman Gray does because Bowman Gray just doesn't hold that many. So it will be a sold out crowd, but the number will just be reduced. So I think that it is interesting.

Maybe this is just a one-year change and then because I think they've already announced, right, that Phoenix is going to be the championship race next year anyway, right? Haven't they announced? They already announced that. Yeah. So maybe this is just a one-year thing. because they put Atlanta in for just one year, which is this year. It's already, according to Jordan, being taken back out.

Watkins Glen was put in this year. It's being taken back out. Travis, not sure if you heard but Denny adopted this week. I saw a post. Yeah, Lulu River Hamlin. Yeah, that's what the girls named her. Yeah, I guess it was official, and it became official when Jordan brought in a basket, look like an Easter bunny basket

full of dog toys, food, and a collar with her name on it. And I said, well, what is this? She's like, we're keeping the puppy. Okay. I don't guess I have a say here, do I? You lost that, say, the second they found the dog,

though. You never had a vote, I don't think. But remember when you said that the 10-year-old girls might fall out of love with the dog? That aged real well. I do. I think unfortunately Jordan fell more in love with the dog. But I can't complain because when the puppy's making noise early in the morning,

well beyond when I want to get up, she gets up and takes the puppy out in the morning. So let her have it. They've demonstrated they're willing to take the puppy out, take care of it enough to where, yes, it's now a permanent fixture in our family. we did get the results, by the way, of the DNA tests. It is a 32% Australian Cattle Dog. It is 31 or 2% American Bulldog. It is 17% super mutt.

What? Yeah. Which means a little bit of everything. A little bit of everything. and 11. something percent Great Dane. So no Mastiff. No Mastiff.

But 11% massive. The great, it's got the Great Dane pause. It's big. And it was funny because I had chat, GBT, I said, I took the screenshot

of the DNA results and I says, tell me what this dog will look like. And it produced like an AI image. And I was like, okay. All right. Well, I guess that's what I got. So, yeah, she's been good. One thing about it is she's made Milo, my main dog, much better. My main dog, my main dog, my main dog. You have a main child?

No, I love them equally. So, yeah, he's been better. Like, he's got a buddy now. So he's, you know, and a lot of it is because it's just a puppy and she's a lot smaller than he is. But they're always just playing all the time. Get the energy out. Yes, it gets their energy out. So when they're done, they're done. So I agree. It's somewhat of a positive in that aspect.

And you might get lucky. Lulu may not outgrow Milo, which I think was one of the bigger concerns. Oh, that 100% it's going to outgrow Milo. I mean... The pause are gigantic. gigantic. And so she is the age right now that Milo was when we got him and Milo was nowhere near this size. Sure, but these DNA tests are, to me, they're surprising. None of these dogs scream bigger than Milo. An Australian cattle dog. What about that? Not bigger than Milo.

Great Dane part. Well, that's only 11% chance. Yeah, and what's in the super might? You know what I mean? Yeah, that could be like 10% mastiff in there. Exactly. We just don't know. And it's got the like the droopy eyes like a Mastiff would have. Well, time will tell. Yeah. Time will tell. Anything else you want to add before we wrap up? I do not.

I wish it would have downpored and we never went back racing yesterday. Just the, I mean, we're thinking we're going to win the race. And then not only did we not win the race, everybody that was way far behind us, at the time of the caution for the rain that we were battling and points was behind us and by good ways and then it flipped we went to the back they went to the front and then such a confidence killer because it was like man we're just we were good we're heading in some really good tracks for us and we're going to start with a good solid finish here at new hampshire even if it wasn't a win and then instead we finish in the 20s.

How do you feel about next week then? I feel very good about Nashville. I think that we should be pretty good. I don't know. I mean, my friends ask me that all the time. I said, I don't know. How are you going to do it this week? I don't know.

We'll contend for a win like we do most weeks. I don't know what to do. There's nothing else to say. Have you been watching the races lately? or if they've been watching the races lately lately you ain't going to win stack and pennies well if you watch the race to sonoma you didn't see me because i was they were copperfield i was there and then i disappeared so uh and then the other one what was the other one we're to where to finish bad last week oh yeah now that one that was a not good race it was going to turn

into a good race and then oh not a not a good race again so uh uh Yeah, we're in a little bit of a slide here, but it's not due to a ton of performance. Most of them are just kind of freak accidents. The first two were, and then this one just the bed and the rain. I got a review here from Sueb, 229, and they say, I'm sorry you had a bad race, but so happy you're keeping Lulu. She is none of my business, but I was worried. Okay, well, yeah, she's, she hit the deal.

jackpot found the right family for sure uh we're going to take good care of her went from homeless to lake norman yeah i got a lot of questions i did a uh uh q and a with brad gilly um before the race started uh for the racetrack and um you know that was one of the main topics from the fans they wanted to know about the puppy and so i didn't have jordan or the kids at the racetrack this weekend so um like well what am i going to do with her like i can't leave her in the bus like with all my shit, you know, she'll be eating my race shoes and whatnot. So I'm like, all right, well, she's got to come with us. And then, you know, of course, when they asked about her, I was like, yeah, she's right over there in the golf cart. And so then they brought her out. And then, of course,

everyone was more concerned about petting the puppy than this might be able to boost your, like, fan vote. You bring dog around more. Like, I think fans, you might get any more fans of carrying a dog around more often. Listen, as long as I keep touching one of the Hendrick drivers, I'm never going to be popular so let's just get that straight make sure to rate review and follow wherever you get your podcast be also be sure to also subscribe to actions detrimental

on YouTube where you can find the video of this full episode yeah well appreciate you all tuning in let's um where do we race after home after Nashville Chicago all right how about after that

Pocono how about after that Indy wow you know this right off top of your head huh I know the whole schedule Well, you sat at home this weekend. You had no other choice. Where were you scouting out your next weekend off?

Yeah, right after Indy. July. Okay. Olympics. We need a dub. It's about time. We need a dub over these next four or five weeks. So.

Well, you got a couple of good tracks coming up. We need to go get it. I'm not going to say what you think I'm going to say, but we need a dub. Time to go get it.