Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Make Kyle Larson Earn It

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Denny Hamlin got a top-five finish on Sunday, but it was Kyle Larson who got getting the win and almost having nearly had a perfect weekend. 1:00 Could Homestead-Miami host the NASCAR Championship race?5:50 Strategy behind pitting early or pitting late24:00 Breakdown of the best way to race at Homestead-Miami Speedway31:00 Racing Insights has new info to analyze how drivers performed37:15 Why it’s difficult to race with the lead40:15 Did Alex Bowman choke43:15 Final restart recap46:36 Kyle Larson had almost a perfect weekend49:47 Jared had issues driving in a police escort56:15 Looking ahead to Martinsville Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Actions Detrimental merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff. For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For 30 years of my life, I've been taught, don't drive on the sidewalk. Well, in a police escort, apparently that... You drive anywhere. I'm playing Grand Theft Auto in this police escort trying to get my 20... You ought to see this in the ditch, like, hitting, like, manhole, like, just crazy swells. Like, are... By right-side tires are on the sidewalk. Jordan's in the back about to give birth.

I mean, maybe he's about to shoot out at any moment. 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. This spoils of victory for Jared Allen.

He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, a 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 Axis Detrimendal, host Homestead, Miami Speedway.

I'm Denny Hamland driver of the number 11 progressive insurance. Toyota from this past weekend, we had Flo on board. She was on the back tail light. People were always wanting to see Flo. She was on the Pick Crews uniform, right? Yeah, the back of the pick crew. Yeah, that was cool. So that was race one of 17 more?

17 more. Yep. Going to have them on for this week at Martinsville as well. So two races back to back. Fans will love that. It's also easy to spot on the TV. Yeah. I think the paint scheme's very identifiable.

Like, no matter where it's at on the racetrack, Austin was having this argument with us on the plane, right? He's like, the P, it just looks weird, crossing over the front. No, imperfect is perfect Because that stripe Like lets you see it from a straight on point of view If it's all blue, it could be anyone's car

You know how many blue cars there are in the fields? Yeah, so... Yeah, it's clean, but it's unique at the same time And you can see it coming at you You know, like I was taking pictures and turn two It was very easy to see when your car was coming Because of that white stripe cutting down the nose Yeah

Well, we had three... Really good races this past weekend at Homestead. I think some of the talk was, will Homestead be, you know, in the last week? It was surely they're going to announce that this is going to be the championship race, hopefully one of three championship races in 26. Let's keep our fingers crossed to that. But at least be the finale finale for next year. But it seems like things got hung up a little bit.

And, you know, the town needs to chip in some money to make that happen. And it sounds like they're waffling a little bit. So I'm not sure. And Jordan Bianchi reported that the Phoenix is paying somewhere between $5 and $10 million to NASCAR for the right for the championship race. Yeah. So is the difference in whatever the million is that they might be. waffling over, is that worthwhile to have your race at a track that has less than racing to the other? Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

You know, it's NASCAR's money. It's not any of the team's money. They don't get any of that. But it's, I don't know. They're going to do what's financially feels like is best for them. And surely when weighing, the decision it's going to come down to, you know, finances and it's going to come down to hopefully, well, what, you know, what's, where should we be? What, what side of the country

should we be on? What race track should we be at? Who owns the track? All those things plays a factor in it. I do believe, though, that Phoenix, I don't know, the Phoenix atmosphere and infield is a little better than Homestead. So I just, you know, Homestead, I think it's time for some upgrades there to that facility. So is whoever's, if it's NASCAR show, are they willing to invest into the facility to make it, you know, up to date with championship venues of other sports or not?

You know, that's TBD. But Phoenix, regardless of what you think about, the racing there, it has all the things that it needs to be a championship weekend. It helps that it's smaller too. Like the atmosphere is always, I feel like going to feel better at a smaller, more compact venue than a mile and a half ratio. Very true. Very true. Yeah, that's the one thing that, you know, the Phoenix fans has always done as supported

that racetrack, spring, summer, whatever it is. they come out in great numbers. And so, yeah, I agree with that. You know, the fans just feel like they're closer. It is more intimate. I mean, it's up against, you know, you're surrounded by these mountains. It's just, you know, it's got everything. It just, if the racing could be a little better.

However, I think we found a tire there, right, this spring that certainly could end up being the X factor and making the racing better itself. Does that give you more hope that, you know, Penske won't automatically be the best car there. Could be in the fall. I mean, sure, it gives you hope, but you just never, I mean, you never know. You know, they're the champs until you beat them. That just seems like what Homestead is going for is that the drivers that are up front in this race are the cream of the crop, right?

And unless there's a bleat caution, I guess, that throws everything sideways, the best driver on the day. they most likely will win unless they maybe blow an engine. Yeah, that certainly was a factor. You know, probably Larson's biggest competition as far as like all-out speed at Homestead over the last few has been Ryan Blaney. And he had just passed me right before he blew up. And yeah, he was on his way towards the front.

Yeah, at the beginning of the race, Larson came out of the radio and asked Cliff Daniels like, so I guess the 12 is the car to beat today. And Cliff, you know, responded saying, oh, you got something for him. But this was early on. Yeah, I saw it pretty early. I got, you know, made it through the pack,

started 23rd, got up to P2. And then I kind of sized them up at that point. It was like, okay, let's try to run this and see where we stand. and it was like he was beating me a couple hundredths a lap, and then next to know it was a tenth a lap. So I just thought he was going to be really tough to beat, especially with track position. I think he was a little bit vulnerable on restarts.

But after a few laps, once it's single-filed out, it was, you know, head-to-head, who would you pick him or the five? I probably would have took the 12, just simply because of what I saw. And again, it depends. Who am I taking on lap 30 or 45 of a run? I'm going to take the 5. I think he runs the wall better than anyone does, right?

But the 12 had, I think, enough speed lap 5 to 30 to probably stretch a little on the 5. And I think that would have been the difference. But it's some buts. Well, we saw this come to a head right in stage two with the strategy. The five car was on the same strategy that you were cutting the stage in half while Blaney short-pitted. And ultimately, the five did catch the 12. You both passed him.

Yeah. Yeah, we had seven lap pressure tires. We chose to go, you know, to what, you know, kind of split in the stage a little bit more evenly versus kind of undercutting, which is what the other teams did. And so us and the five did. And we, I didn't think we were going to have enough time. Like we were, when we came back out, again, I came in, let's just say running second. I was the leader, but it was because of the 12 pitted. I came in second.

I came out 10th. And at that point, you know, I've got six or seven lap pressure tires than most of the people I have to overtake. And it's, I'm just thinking, this is not enough tire advantage to get these guys. They said on the broadcast. And that's what I said. Yeah, it's because what I said on my radio. it's not enough. But you had some more clean air compared to what Blaney had, right, coming out?

Yeah, so that was certainly a big factor in stage two was, you know, a lot of it depends on where you come out. And just so happens for him, the run had went long enough where he caught a pack of lap cars that he was about to overtake. So he got held up and not only got held up, but he also used his stuff up trying to get around them and that allowed me in the five to close rapidly those last six or seven laps can you account for that in the data as to where you'll come out on track after you pit yeah the teams know pretty much where you'll come out um but you know things are fluid that's that's you're trying to estimate

if everyone has a normal pit stop if everyone's normal coming in off dirt road um where they currently at on the racetrack all those things but it's it's difficult to really nail it 100%, but they probably have a good idea. So you didn't think that you were going to get back to the position you pitted from? No, I didn't think so. I thought that I was going to get back to third or fourth, especially

with 10 to go. I mean, I think I'm probably 4th with 10 to go, somewhere in that range. And I didn't see Blaney at the time. And I thought that when we came out and we got, we were stuck behind the

nine for a little bit longer than I wanted to and I just when I was approaching them I was like I'm not catching them at a fast enough rate where passing is going to be easy like and no one's just going to kind of let you go um you know which is understandable but I just was thinking man this is not enough but then it really showed up late in the run can you explain the the pros and cons of each of these strategies like why you would want to cut the stage in half or if you're blaney why you want to pit early yeah so Blaney pitted more than likely as a reaction to the 24 and the 23 that pitted probably a lap sooner than what he did.

So at that point, the 12 doesn't want to run long. You know, what they feel like fits them the best is the shorter run. So what they're doing is that they're covering the at the time, the third and fourth place car that are probably a few seconds back. They pitted. And at that point, he has a decision make, either go all the way, cut this thing in half, but then I'm going to have to repass these guys. I don't want to have to do that. So let's just go ahead and pit. I'll come out with the lead and one lap fresher tires, which he did.

So he's just covering those guys that pitted. Now, he obviously saw that we made the decision, we're not pitting right now. We're going to wait a little bit longer in pit. So he's not worried about us in the short term, but what he does have to do is worry about us in the very long term. And again, if he's not stuck behind the lap cars in stage two, does he lose the stage? Who knows? I only saw him for the last three to four laps of the run. We caught him that quick, you know, but he was in a gaggle of cars that he couldn't get around. And he had to run longer, right?

So since he chose to pit earlier, that means that second stint that he was going to run was going to be longer. So the tires are going to be, have a lot less grip. And he's going to be trying to go around lap cars at the end of the run. So your car better be really, really exceptional at the end of the run to pit, you know, early. Or else you're going to bleed spots. But what you're banking on is that you'll gain enough time at the beginning of the run to where you can bleed a little bit to those who went long. And by the time they catch you, a caution is going to come out or end of a stage or whatever.

have you. So it's kind of a split of you're just trying to not lose positions where the strategy we take is that, okay, we're fine with losing positions, but we're going to be so much faster and have optimum lap time for the entire stage. That's pretty much the goal with it. So if you're going to pit early and that's probably your strategy, is that part of your car set up, knowing that on the back end, the tire's going to be worn and so your car can be set up? Is that something they do, or is that just, do you does I understand what I'm asking? I think so. Yeah, I mean, setup matters.

To me, someone asked, you know, what matters in the long run? Is it the car or the driver? And I said it was kind of 50-50. I think the driver has a responsibility to, you know, keep the tires on it. Also, the car that the setup choices that your team makes plays a big role in whether your car has longevity or not. and just over time, you know, for better for worse, I've sent my team down a road to be good in the long run, which is, and then add that to my skill set on the long run,

and I think that's why we always go long and my car is good in the long run is because I've sent them down that road. Now, it's bitten us a ton of times, but it's also worked a ton of times. So it's just a philosophy and mindset of what you want to go into the weekend with. Yeah, it doesn't seem, though, like this is, it seems like no matter the race, this is just about always a strategy that your team takes. I guess that's because of your driving ability and how you like the car to be, right? Yeah, it's just typically my driving style.

I don't know if it's my ability, but it's my style. It's just, when I'm driving, I just do things that I feel like takes it easier on the tire. Now, it's not best for all-out speed. If you, you know, you have to understand and be aware of your situations of, you know, sometimes when it's coming down and it's 40 laps to go and it's, this could be the final restart. You don't have, you can't use my style of driving to make up positions. Like, you're going to have to push it more, right? So you have to be able to adapt.

But for the most part, the way I handle restarts is, all right, how can I maintain here? or maybe gain and keep the car and tires under me a little bit. That way I've got the speed in the long run to make up the positions because it will be easier once the tires start to fall off. Does one of these two strategies short-pitting or staying out long have more risk than the other? Hmm. Good question. I would say that our strategy has the most risk because if a caution flies,

at any point other than the very, you know, for the end of the stage, we didn't get back to our original position to what, three to go. Right. So any caution there. Now, there is a window, though, of that six to seven laps where if a caution falls, we're money. Because me and the five stay out. Everyone's, you know, except for maybe the top three or four, are a lap down.

Everyone still has to pit for tires anyway. It's a track that, you know, you can't just stay out, get the way around, come back, to the lead lap, you know, you're going to have to pit anyway. So it, there's a six to seven lap window where it would be a caution be great for us. And then there's like a 35 lap window where a caution would be really bad. When you're, so we play the riskier strategy, no question. But when you're employing the strategy, are you thinking about like, what is the end goal? Is the end goal we want to maintain our position on track or is it we want to do something that can pass the leader?

it depends on what you think right what we thought and which was an accurate thought by my crew chief was that okay we just sized the 12 up we're not better than he is he's a little faster than us how are we going to win this stage it ain't going to be pitting when he pits because that's we're going to come out you know right behind him and we're just going to watch him creep away creep away creep away so he's like let me come up with a different way to try to beat them. Right. It just seems like, I mean, it worked out. But it seems like when you're taking on that strategy,

we're running second in the middle of stage two here. We can either take on a strategy that could put us ahead of the 12 or there's a lot of risk involved where we now could end up eighth or ninth. It was risky. And trust me, for about 25 laps of that run, I was thinking, I said it in my head. I didn't press the button. I was like, we weren't going to be.

to 12 anyway. Why would we risk second place in the stage to do this? But they got a bigger picture up there. They're not in this cocoon of a race car that, you know, their confines and they can see more data, more information than what I can. And that's why I always trust the crew chief in their decisions. And, you know, sure you can second guess them after you got some more time to think about it, like maybe what we did at Vegas, right, pitting there. But in the moment, you know, it's really tough on these guys. Hey, this is Dale Jr. And for the latest actions detrimental gear, go to shop.durdymomedia.com.

We've got plenty of options for you. We're adding new stuff all the time. That's shop.dardomomedia.com. At the end of the stage, does your mindset go from offense to defense quickly when you see the five cars starting to catch you with two or three to go? I knew he was always there. when I came on the racetrack they told me the five had equal tires

he was probably 20, 25 back and so I knew he was always there so we just kind of followed each other through back to the front but I knew late in the run he was going to get the high line working and he did

but I just made sure that you know I run the wall if I run the wall then it forces him to have to move down and in one and two I tried, I half ass ran the wall. I didn't run it like I should have or want to, but I was making up so much time on the cars in front of me.

I didn't want to veer off from the line that I was making good time with. And so I kind of like half ass ran the wall and one and two. And it was like, ah, you know, and it usually takes probably three laps, four laps to really optimize how fast you can run up there because it takes, you know, you've got to figure out how deep. I can go, how much throttle I can give it now in the center, that I've got all the wheel out, all those things. But I just, I felt like I could hold them off with the line I was running.

My car was good enough. Three and four, we were both on the fence. And so I was like, he's going to have to pass me low. And I just don't think he's good enough to do that. And he nearly was. He pretty much was. When you say you half-ass run the wall, does that mean you're 12 inches off of it instead of six? I didn't use all the wall on entry. So what Kyle does extremely good at this racetrack is that people think he just gets closer to the wall. Now, he gets very close, but the entire field is right on the wall nowadays. If you go back just even six, seven years ago, there was a difference between Kyle Larson on the wall and everyone else. I think the field has tightened that gap to almost,

almost nothing. But I think, you know, he's willing to get into it, you know, quite a bit more. I've watched him probably hit the wall ten times throughout the day. But, you know, these cars are so durable. It's worth it, right? If you can just get that little bit of, you know, barely, that little bit of space between your car and the wall. But what Kyle does better than the rest is he's just higher on entry. So what he's doing is he's getting his, the steering wheel angle out of the car,

earlier to carry more middle speed, more exit speed. So when I say a half-ass rear in the wall, what happens is I'm cutting the entry off slightly, not wrapping the wall all the way around. So I'm getting to the wall late. Well, what that does is it means that my men speed is likely going to be slower than his because he's got his men's speed happening sooner in the corner to then have a faster exit speed. and what he's able to do is approach the corner with a maximum amount of throttle, maximum speed, and still be on the wall as he's turning into it.

So that's where I think he's still better than the field traditionally. And once he gets it going in one and two, he was the only guy that could get it, that I saw get it going in one and two. Everyone else, the field is very close in three and four. It's all one and two. And when you hit it right, you can make massive time. But again, I didn't have time to work on that in the middle of this run in stage two. And so I just think that I felt like I had a good going good in practice.

But I just, again, in the race, every time that I would try it, you know, I would have somebody. get to my inside, you know, because they're running such a shorter distance. And you'll see us at Homestead run, will run really low on entry and then wash up all the way to the three-quarter mark on the exit. Well, that space between running low on entry and running Kyle's line up high on entry of one is a ton of space. And you have to be running, let me just say, eight miles an hour faster to not lose ground. So you're always, Kyle will always lose ground into the center of one and two, but he gains huge speed on the exit and down the back straight away because of it. So my problem throughout the day is that I never, I didn't really have much of a gap throughout the day to

allow someone to get to my inside because what would have to get to the inside. They'd drag me down next thing you know where if I just chopped the corner, run the shorter distance, I was able to hold them off or continue to advance my position. So I think what he does better is just he runs better entry speed higher than everyone else. Why is the field so split on turns three and four versus one and two? What's different about one and two that's not the same in three and four? Cho, the radius of Homestead Miami is tighter in 3 and 4 than it is 1 and 2. 1 in 2, it's more of a sweeping corner. So with it being so wide and so sweeping, the distance is able to be used by running lower

in 1 and 2, where in 3 and 4, everyone runs right up against the wall because the radius is so short. In 3 and 4, if you run the bottom, it doesn't have near. merely the grip that the top does because you have to put so much more wheel into the car is what you do in three and four. So it's just the small nuances of the track that it looks the same from the sky cam, but it drives absolutely totally different. Yeah, so to the human eye watching it, you'd think the corners are identical. Yeah, it's not close. It's like driving two different racetracks. Is there more time made up running closer to the wall or not necessarily? Like, Is there a distance that you want to be from the wall when you're doing that, when you're running the wall?

I mean, yes, there is. What that perfect distance is. I don't know. I mean, it's right on it. I mean, when you can hit it just right, it's, I mean, you can feel the right rear just kind of just bouncing off of it. You know, and you've got the gap at the front of your car to allow air to, to, to, to, to, keep the thing turning and give yourself a little bit of drag and air packing on your spoiler to to make the cargo faster it's it's it's really small it's just really really small and it's hard to say

with the perfect distances perfect distance probably is one inch you know is it is it is it as impressive impressive driving it as it looks watching it yeah i from the outside it is very impressive. Masking a magician, you know, like, is his trick really that great? You know, that's what I feel. Well, we should get Larson in here then. Well, that's, yeah, that's, it is true because I told you, when I sit in the stands of Bristol and watch the Xfinity race, I'm like, in awe of like, holy crap, look how good these guys

are. are taking, like, it's amazing. They're not running into each other. And it's like, wait a minute, I do this on Sunday. Like, you know, it just, it is. people don't appreciate how good the drivers really, really are. And certainly it is impressive when you look at it from the outside. And even from our standpoint, that's why you saw us hit the wall a bunch of ties.

It's really, really difficult because we're all just searching for that little bit of gap that's going to make the difference. At the end of stage one, everyone pit with 70 laps in the race. There was a caution on like lap 71. everyone came down for four tires. Carson Hosevar then restarted that restart after the caution and then drove five, six seconds off the pace for the remainder of the stage,

which was seven, eight laps, then restarted stage two at the front and then only lost maybe eight, nine spots. Yep. I have wondered why people don't do this more often. Like, in the Exfinity race, This was a prime example. They were going to restart with like three to go.

And I was like, why wouldn't you just pit and then run the absolute slowest you could to not get lapped? You know, because the drivers are out there and they're like, you know, their mentality is already. I've got new tires. I'm just going to go here. But you know you're about to have a caution and you know you're about to be at a tire deficit to those who are going to pit at the end of the stage. So I didn't realize. So Carson, he ran at the back of the pack really slow. Yeah.

six seconds off the pace. It looked like he was driving with a caution. That's the right. Yeah, it was the right thing for him to do. I don't know where he was running, but at the time, so they said he leveled off around six or seventh place. Is that true? Yeah. After things got going. Yeah. So that's the right call. And I wonder why people don't do that more often. It's just go really slow. Don't get lapped. Then you will jump ahead of all the people that hit pit road. So if you just run significantly off the pace, your tires don't wear. Don't wear. Yeah. Not nearly as much. So the wear comes from the load and the speed that you put in the tire.

So, you know, again, if I just take a cheese grater and don't put any pressure on it and slide it across cheese versus putting pressure on it and pushing down on it, is there more cheese going to come off then? Yeah. Okay. That's a really good way to explain it. I mean, this seems like the strategy that you guys put forth, you know, at, you know, at, you know, the going, putting short or going long, right? It's like, what's going to net us more positions? If we go hard on this restart, are we going to gain four spots?

Or do we do this weird, stay out and run off the pace? And it's what's got us second-guessing, you know, kind of maybe our adjustments and whatnot, the last stop. And, you know, again, I, it's, I, I lead there thinking, man, should I just have been told him what I needed to go. faster for five laps right you know if I come out second or third on the restart then maybe you know I can make something happen in the long run with my technique maybe the car won't be there because I've abused it but but with technique I can be good enough in the long run and then at that point I've got

track position over those others and then now they're going to have to pass me but instead like I was I was so hung up on trying to get my car better in the long run that I just feel like we gave up some in the short and it hurt us quite a bit. And then at that point, I mean, it's so hard to pass, you know, because everyone's optimized their car at the end of the day. Passing is way harder at the end of races than it is at the midpoint or beginning. Because if you look at the disparity of time between the fastest cars and the slowest, it just gets tighter and tighter and tighter as the day goes on. Because teams are making their car better. Exactly. Travis, you sent us a little document here on some NASCAR insights.

Do you want to preface this? No, it's just racing insights doing a little more research to explain how a race was won or lost. Because he was, Russell was talking about how, like, everyone's like, oh, Lars had the best car or whatever. And so you can take a deeper dive into his. Denny, I think, can explain it slightly better than me? We'll talk to the magician. Yeah, Russell sent me this this morning and he's been doing a great job. and I've been working with him a little bit on, you know,

kind of how to define some metrics and whatnot. But he does a great job. He's stats guy. Is he the Fox stats guy? He's just NASCAR. Like he's in the booth for NBC, yeah. All, all Fox or NASCAR doesn't matter. Yeah, so he'll be in there for like Prime and all those.

Great. Yeah, Russell's fantastic when it comes to this kind of stuff. And so to give you some insights on on NASCAR insights, Kyle Larson was ranked number two in passing, number two in defense, number two in speed, number 24 on restarts. So what's that tell you, right? That he was really fast in the long run because obviously on restarts, he wasn't making up positions. He was actually losing positions. So is that a car thing or is it Kyle saying, okay, I'm going to get you in the long run.

I'm going to make sure I don't abuse my shit now because I'm going to rip this fence later on and pass you like he did for the win. Does this restart stat here take into account for positions that could be gained versus positions that could be lost? Like if you restart on the front row for every restart, you could only really lose spots. I'm just wondering Let's see I'm looking around If you've Yeah I'm not sure of the exact

Algorithm for it But like So Austin Dillon was number two on restart Maintaining is also Goes into it though Can you just like? Yeah I was number five Which makes sense

I had some good restarts Like You know especially when I was mid-pack I was making up a lot of positions Who was number one on restarts? AJ Almondinger A.J. Almendinger and number one on defense.

He was number one on defense and restarts. And defense is defined by when you have somebody within a certain proximity of the back of your car, do you keep them from passing you? Yes or no. So what this could mean, could mean, and we can dig into this another time, but AJ could have been holding up a line. He could. Maybe his car wasn't.

I didn't see AJ that much, so I'm just talking here. That a lot of times what happens, if you have somebody or a group of cars right on your ass and nobody's able to pass you, you're going to rank really high on defense, really high on defense. So maybe he was probably getting the most out of his car. He was ranked 10th on speed, not bad,

passing 28, A.J. was. So it sounded like he just did, really good on restarts, number one. And hold him up. And he held him up. That was AJ's key to running well today. But he's run well at Homestead for, you know, last four or five years. You know, they've talked about it.

So that's an interesting thing to look at, right, when it comes down to it. And we've got some full season stats right now who kind of stands out to me. I think Alex Bowman stands out because Bowman's 10th, 10th, 5th, and 13th. Byron's pretty damn good. Yeah, that was looking at Byron. Well, Byron's 8th,

he's the points leader. I know, but being the points leader and actually being like the fastest is two different things. Like, people have been talking and, you know, no one really notices Alex Bowman, but he's

finishing top 10. They're saying the same about Chris Busher at this point in the season. Well, no one's really saying anything about Chris Busher. He's just doing a great job finishing better than he's running. What stands out to me about Byron is he's, you know, on restarts one, speed one, defense one, passing eight, probably not passing because he's probably up front. But it shows that he's he's number one in points for a reason because he's, you know, You know, he's got the speed. He's keeping people from passing, and he's really good on restarts, and that's a hard thing to be.

And he's probably got a pretty decent pick crew as well. So all those things combined is why you see high ranks here. The thing that also stands out to me is just the Hendrick drivers themselves, the rank really high. Just Hendrick cars right now, I think, are a class above, and then I'd put the 12-euvre. in with them. Mine is Chase on restarts, which is a glaring 24th for the season. Yeah. For like, I'm looking at the restarts and which drivers are really good there.

Is that something that's looked at when you're about to choose? I do know it's so fast you don't really have it, but do you like sometimes have an idea of who's in front of you and where you might go? Which lane? Yeah, we're always taking into account where certain cars are. So, for instance, when Carson Hosevar chose the inside line, right? So that changes my number of whether I want to bias myself to the inside line or outside line of a restart. Because I don't want to get stuck behind him, right, if he happens to jam up the bottom lane.

So all that plays a factor. And then certainly as you start to line up and you know who's in front of you, you look and see who's behind you, see who's beside you, you know the characteristics of that person. You know, we race against each other enough and you have enough restart. around these same guys that you know, okay, this guy's most likely going to try to go three wide high here on me. So I need to protect high or I need to protect middle. You just know people's characteristics over time. Let's talk about the end of this race. Kyle Larson ultimately wins the race, but he forces Bowman into a late mistake there, cause him to hit the wall.

Yeah, I mean, Bowman will trust him at his word. He said that, you know, he, He got forced into it by, you know, he messed up because he, you know, the guy was pressuring him. I think that that's very valid. It's a valid reason, no doubt about it. It's very hard because you know that the five is closing in. My, you know, the only Monday morning quarterback you could do, right, is that we'll make them earn it, right? make him have to pass you on the bottom in three and four, that would have been really, really tough.

And so it's the tough part about being a leader and sometimes in the races. Remember I talked about that it's so much easier to chase someone than it is to be chased? Because when you're being chased, you're like, okay, I need to be a little conservative here because I don't want to give him. I've said this many times when I'm leading. I don't want to give anyone the lead. I'm going to make them earn it. Now, they might have to earn it.

It might be easier for them to earn it because I'm not going to run a line that is going to be on a razor's edge of, it's the fastest line, but I'm likely to fuck up here. Right. It's going to be, I'm going to come off the wall just a little bit because there's no amount of air that you're going to give the five car if you run three inches off the wall. he's not going to gain on you enough for it to matter. So I would have come off the wall slightly more and then force the five to make the pass only in turn one and two. And the downside to that, right, the counter to that as well,

you don't want him getting so close in three and four to where then he can run a slider on you in one and two. And at that time, Kyle was really getting the top line going in one and two. and so I don't know. I just feel like there's an opportunity there to make him earn it. But again, I'm not in that seat. And it's so hard to Monday morning quarterback because you saw the result of what happened. But Alex was doing everything he could to hold him off.

And, you know, it would have been, I think it would have been TBD on whether the five got around him. He was going to be there. I just didn't know if he was actually going to get around him if the 40. didn't make a mistake. Is it safe to assume that this mistake from Alex came because he felt like he had more to get out of the car late? You know, like here comes Kyle, like, oh, I can get a little bit more out of this and then just push it too far.

Maybe. Yeah, maybe. It's a possibility for sure. But I don't know. I just think that passing is difficult. Passing is difficult. So I would just try to make. sure that the other car had you know was going to have to work me over not me worked myself over but it again it's this is not criticism the whole field's running inches off of the wall it is so

easy for us to get sucked up into the wall i bet you i hit it three times trying to hang on to fifth i must have it three times in the last two laps like it's so easy to do and so not criticism at all. Really, it's more, you know, look at the 48 and his ability to take the lead there from Bubba with, I don't know how many laps to go, but, I mean, track them down, pass them. Like, that was all really impressive. And it was more speed than I saw really out of the 48, certainly all weekend. I think that during practice, I thought the 48 was not good at all. But between qualifying on the pole and race day adjustments, they nailed it. And certainly at the end of the race, I think that that was the best that they were all day.

Also, maybe unlike the rest of the field, you're just different. You're just unfazed when the blue five is behind you. Yeah, I don't know about that. You always, as a driver, whether you think so or not, you always, you know who's behind you. You know what they're willing to risk to pass you. And so certainly, I would think you do things a little different. differently based off of who's behind you and their aggression level, you know, the five probably wasn't even part of their radar with 15, 20 to go. And then all of a sudden they're

saying, uh, the five's coming. And at that point, you're like, oh, shit, like, I got to get on the horse here or else he's just going to blow by me. But I don't know that he was going to blow by him, but it's a tough deal. You know, it's certainly they wanted to win and kind of lock themselves in. but you would think, you know, Hinder Carr, they're going to be fine on points even if they don't win, which is unlikely. So I thought it was a great showing really for the 48 team. The 23 team deserves a shout out as well. Bubba's performance throughout the day, they continue to just get better and better, like we've been saying for the last few years. You know, between Charles and leading that team and Bubba, they've just really step.

stepped up this year and are running great. What happened on the final restart? You trying to hold off Bowman and... I was trying to slide Bowman in the worst slider in history. No, I was just in a spot where I was like I really wanted to get the second behind Bubba really, really badly because I thought I was going to be better in the long run, which I had been. So you knew that this was if you didn't get the pass here? I knew it was do or die.

I knew it was just do or die. and I couldn't make the bottom work as good as others could in three and four. So at that time, we had gotten clear of the five. I cleared him through three and four on the bottom, the previous lap. I stayed beside the 48 through one and two. And at that time, I'm like, whoever gets the second here has got a shot in this long run to get Bubba. and I just, I tried to go in there and I carried a little bit too much speed on entry. And I got off the line in three and four.

And at that time, immediately what happens in my head is I get off the line and I'm looking and see, can I just slide up and clear? Can I gas it slide up and clear? And at the time, I'm clear. Well, as I'm coming up the track, I'm losing time because I'm cranking the wheel left. I'm running about half throttle. and the 48 just got to the you know he was there i had to check up i tried to squeeze up in front of the five and he was like no i've got to run here and there's not a rough room and so luckily uh i didn't

get crashed there did you think that you had a chance in that so you fell back you would look like you had a chance to pass larsen had you been able to get that do you think you could have gone on to winner no i don't think so i don't think i was good enough in the long run to to do what he did for certain. The evidence shows that as I was hanging on to fifth while he was driving up towards the lead. No, I didn't think so. I just thought that the last run was kind of the least best run that we had had of the two previous. And so, no, I didn't think so.

I thought that the five just took a long time to come in, and his line really comes in as other pace starts to slow down. And, you know, we hadn't got to that slower pace yet where his super high line was going to start to be effective. This was Kyle Larson's first win of the season, second here at Homestead, and a near perfect weekend for him he won two of the three. Yeah, I mean, it seemed like really the most dominant one is the one he didn't win, right? I mean, the Xfinity race was funny to watch.

I mean, literally funny. I'm driving the Coral Gables and we're watching it on our phone. And I told him at driver interest, says, you know, if you lapped up the second, you wouldn't have had that problem on the final restart. You know, if you just put your foot down and lapped all of them, then no big deal. But, no, he was really dominant in the Xfinity. That was the biggest disparity of speed he had to the field. Trucks, Corey Hime, was just on it.

Um, they weren't going to catch him. Uh, the, you know, I was, I kind of admired Kyle not using his line until like the last run of the truck race. Like he's like, nope, I'm going to do this legit. I'm going to show all you guys. I can win this without running the wall. Any, any, any, any, committed to that strategy. And for all of the race until he realized in the truck race, well, I'm not going to win it, you know,

where I'm at. So I'm just going to go to it, and that's when he started hauling ass towards the front. But still, I was in the bus looking at times. Him and his times on the wall were the same as what Corey Himes was off the wall and, you know, when his truck wasn't shutting off. So it was, he wasn't going to catch him, but he was definitely going to get to second. So I appreciate Kyle giving us a show there, at least allowing it to look fair than it probably really was.

in the Xfinity race that that last restart should NASCAR re-rack restarts no unfortunately not I mean I heard them talking about it on the tear down or somewhere right yeah tear down but I don't think so I can't just call off a restart because you don't like the way it looks sometimes driver errors what makes restarts great and driver errors what caused obviously the 17 and Kyle to not get the restart he needed. And, you know, he was critical of Sam Mayor, but Sam Mayor to give him credit was, you know, critical of himself.

He's like, man, I wish I had to do it all over again. I got to him too soon. I was trying to time it. So Sam's doing everything he can to try to roll on him and then, you know, right, he's trying to predict when the 17 is going to take off so he can give him a push or, you know, give him a push, stay attached, and as soon as they get to start finish line, pull out of line and try to go three wide. And that's where I thought the 17 was most vulnerable to the 41 was going to be on a restart.

So I thought that mayor was the only real challenger to Larson on Saturday. And it turned out to be the only challenge to him winning the race. Well, you said before that if you're the leader, you've earned the right to dictate the restart, right? Well, what if the guy, second line, is lifting your back tires off the ground before you can... It sounds like it's a good strategy. If maybe you've got a teammate on the outside and your third, maybe you just run into the leader and make it so he can't take off and then boom, teammate wins. Yeah. You have to keep an eye out for that.

Yeah, it's a good strategy. I like that. Race next week, Martinsville. Hold on a second. Before we go to Martinsville, we should talk about leaving Miami. I knew you're going to get to this. apparently Jared doesn't know how to stay on a bumper. Go ahead.

Say what you want to say. You're a terrible driver. I'm not, but. We didn't even leave. We did not leave the infield before I said, Jared, easy on the break. You don't have to stab it. Yeah, so this whole thing is your fault.

Because before we even get out of the parking lot, you're already, you know, on the guy. That's what a crew chief does. He gives orders before the race starts. to remind him. I mean, that message told me, is like, okay, Danny doesn't want me hard on the break, so I'll just, like, keep a nice distance here

to the car in front of me so I can ease in on it. Everybody that's listening. He doesn't like being jostled in the passenger seat. Yes, because I'm trying to eat, for one. And so I'm sitting here and, you know, gas break, gas break, gas break. It's just, Jared, easy. But we're part of a Joe Gibbs Racing police escort. and Jared is the tail end of this escort.

Worst car to be, by the way, worst place to be in this escort. It's not ideal. The easiest place to be in a police escort is up front because you don't have to ride the bumper of the police car, right? Everyone's going to move over for the police car and then you can go on through. Now what happens, though, in these situations

is that if you leave gaps to the car in front of you and there were five, was there four or five? There were five. Five cars in our police escort. If you leave a gap, what happens is people try to jump in to the police escort. So the cars on the highway, they start to move out of the way. And as they see a gap, they're like, uh-huh, I'll put my flashers on and jump right in. Well, Jared kept leaving this ridiculous gap in front of him.

and people would fill in. Well, what do those people not understand? You got to be tight on your gaps. So they leave a space. Somebody jumps in front of them. Next thing I know, we're 20 car links back from our police escort. And not by people that are trying to join the escort.

He's just lost the draft. Okay? Let me tell you how important it is to not lose the draft. Richard Childress, okay? Richard Childress was not part of this escort. He was part of the vehicles that needed to move out. The police got him to move out of the way. Well, somebody within Joe Gibbs Racing didn't leave a gap.

And Richard says, well, I'm joining this escort. And whether you guys like it or not, and he forced his way in. well this employee says no you can't just join in like and just so he pulled up beside him what did richard childers do he hung a left destroyed the side of the car he did he turned left i witnessed we were right behind it i'm like oh my god did he just he did and i was like jared pull up pull up to the car the right side of the july the july of the july JGR car was destroyed and Richard's just, he just stayed, he just stayed in the gas. I mean, hung a left on him and, and just doored the shit out of, out of our car.

I couldn't believe it. I didn't expect that. Yeah. So, well, he, he wanted in and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. We're, um, I've, I've, I've written with you a couple times, Denny, and we had Nate and Charlie driving in a power ranking where, dude, where was Jared with those two? because we know how bad Charlie is. I volunteer Charlie to drive in the police escort next time we leave a track.

It's so hard. This is like comparing grapes and raisins. I just, Charlie is bad. But Jared brought up a great point. He said, yeah, Denny, but you said he sucks at regular driving. It's easy to suck in a police escort. Right? Because you're telling me, don't gas break the gas break, but yet stay on the person in front of you's bumper. So I get it. The task I... And Travis, for 30 years of my life, I'm 30 years old. For 30 years of my life, I've been taught, don't drive on the sidewalk. Well, in a police escort, apparently that...

You drive anywhere. You can just do that. You go anywhere. You just follow the cop. I'm playing Grand Theft Auto in this police escort trying to get my 20 car. You ought to see this in the ditch. Like, hitting like manhole like just crazy swells like are my right side tires are on the jordan's in the back about to give birth i mean it just maybe he's about to shoot out at any moment uh it was it was painful but we caught up i just told him i says got to go here you got to go there and luckily i mean we had a police car behind us You got to be thinking at that point when we were 20 back and lost the tail of escort and the police car was behind us. People probably were thinking that we were just running from the cops at that point.

I couldn't tell. There was 10 minutes into this police escort. I couldn't tell if the cop behind me every time it was going, whoop, whoop, whoop, was telling people to get out of the way or telling me to get going. Both. He probably thought you jumped in and didn't belong. Both. It was horrible. It was horrible driving.

And he took it, he took it on the chin, but that's okay. We pulled into the airport right behind Christopher Bell. So we technically did not lose, lose our escort. We got to the airport the exact same time, mission accomplished. All right. Well, we did. I don't know. Charlie's just really bad at parking.

He's really a heavy gas, heavy brake person as well, which is. I mean, he got his car. Let me ask you a question. Do you use one foot or two foot? One. Okay, yeah, that's right way on the street car. Does Charlie's do? I don't know, but it feels like it.

It feels like he's like doing this all the time. He couldn't even, like, he got his car like swiped the day after a national championship game like in his parking lot. Like, he's not good. Sorry, two weeks ago. He backed out into the street. Yeah. Somebody, by the way. Martinsville this weekend, man, we're really on a string of playoff tracks, right?

Like important tracks, we just had Phoenix, Vegas, Homestead. Now, Martinsville, like, this is essentially. the last four races of the season. Maybe Talladega is thrown in there somewhere now. So this is an important stretch to, you know, what happens at the end of the year. Hopefully we can get just a little better kind of looking at ranks and things like that. Like, man, I'm stuck in this third to fifth range at Martinsville over the last handful of races. And so we just got to get a little better.

We're always like the next, it's the 12. there's like 200 cars and then us every time when we go there so we got to get just a little better and hopefully we can come to the racetrack with something for them this weekend don't stab the brakes be smooth that's true that part is true martinsville 3 p.m. on fs one this weekend practicing qualifying is Saturday at 2 p.m and you can catch that on prime uh Travis put in here so I'll read it you have 38 starts, five wins, 20 top fives, and 26 top 10. Yeah, but we ain't won there. You want the number?

I don't think we won there since I've had kids. 3,654 days. What was the year, though? 2014 or 16. One of the two. Doesn't matter. It's 10 years in one day. It's so bad.

We were on such a role there when we had big tire wear, gen 5, gin 6 cars. just us jimmy and and jeff gordon you could just put it down one two three that's that's how it was going to end up and so it's difficult it's you know it's it's kind of like that now only it's like blaney chase i don't know bairn no biren no true x that's good he was a guy that was very yeah he lost a little bit at the end um lost a little bit of the kind of the magic that they had at Martinsville. But yeah, yeah, all those guys are going to be tough to be for sure. We've got an Apple review here from Tim.

While I started listening for Denny, Jared and Travis are what make the podcast great. Great review this week, Travis. It's also made me like Denny Moore. It provides awesome insight on the sport and also as a fellow business owner. I've taken a few things from him even though I'm just a landscaper in Western New York. Speaking a landscaper. Oh, yeah. That was wonderful.

I mean, if y'all saw my Instagram story last week, my yard was on fire. No, it was not a controlled burn. I thought this was a progressive stunt. It would have made sense. You can bundle your home in auto. But no. I noticed, I'm telling you, I was outside. I'd got home, and the landscaper just got here and was, he cranked it up.

And when he cranked it up, I was like, ooh, sounds like a raucous stuck the blades or something like it was loud. Well evidently he just kept on digging until finally something got hot enough where it caught the lawnmower on fire, lawnmower then caught the yard on fire. And you can understand, and on a serious note, how out of control like the LA fires,

how quickly it spread because of the wind, just, you know, this is on a much smaller scale, but the wind was carrying that fire. Like it would jump across my lawn to another part and catch it on fire, like, really quickly. And it was like 20 miles an hour wind, not like 80 that they were having out there. So, man, it's just, it was scary for a moment.

I didn't know anything was wrong until I saw my maintenance guy running through the living room. I'm like, what's up? It's like, damn yards on fire. And I'm like, oh. So I went outside and I was like, oh, wow, that's, it looks pretty bad. Hopefully they put it out.

I'm joking. I went out there, grabbed a hose and was trying to get this thing. But luckily, the Cornelius Fire Department did a great job, putting that thing out. It just must feel bad, though, right? You come back from Vegas with a couple hundred thousand in winnings, and you're immediately got to pay for grass. Like, no one wants to be. Yeah, I think this grass is probably going to be about, you know, 126,000 or something.

What? I'm joking. I'm making a little tax joke. now it yeah the luck definitely ran out there but it was I'll take the casino

versus the little we're just gonna let the seat you know Ross told me that the burns good for it it's like that's what that's what people thought it was told but yeah I burned my Bermuda grass all the time comes back better

yeah and it is Bermuda so it you know it suppose I'll send you on an update of how it ends up turning out so last thing last thing is the their sweater's not lucky, just ugly, because your mom tried to use it in the casino Friday night.

It didn't work. Well, she won a little bit, but my mom doesn't know when to cash out, so she'll just keep playing until she gives it all back. So my mom, yeah, my mom wore the, it's not ugly sweater. That is a beautiful sweater. And I got so many compliments on it. So she tried to wear the sweater to the casino somewhere in Florida,

one of those places and yeah she didn't win any money poor thing she's for her mom yeah she's blessed though everything's gonna be all right that's it for this week all right well we'll see y'all next week