Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Michael McDowell: "Thanks For Being Wrong"

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Michael McDowell joins Denny Hamlin and Jared Allen to chat about his victory on Sunday that clinched his spot in the NASCAR Playoffs. McDowell discussed why he was nervous after practice, his aggressive racing and praying for no caution. McDowell also talked about what it's like getting ready each week racing for a smaller team. The difference driver playoffs vs owner playoffs. Why McDowell was motivated by SVG and Denny's comments. How much pain is Alex Bowman in still with his injury? Plus, #DearDenny Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You guys executed the weekend to the fullest, and now you're going to get to race for a championship. So, congrats. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Thanks for being wrong, man. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey, guys, welcome to actions detrimental, the I Told You So episode. I want to thank our presenting sponsor, Birch Gold Group. This episode is presented by our sponsor, Birch Gold Group.

Get a free info kit on gold by texting code Denny to 9-8-9-9-8. Jared, you want to give it to me? This is, yeah, I was going to say, this is the Jared Allen, I told you so. I know. No, I'm saying, I, okay. It's the I told you so, but it ain't I. It sucks for you. It sucks for you.

You were always right for like 10 days. Hey, you're always right till you're wrong. We have a special guest, the winner of the Verizon 200 at Indy, Michael McDowell. Welcome, Michael. I love this because now. you can defend yourself in person and defend it with this nice beautiful trophy here in front of us. Man, how's that feel? Oh, it's amazing.

You know, not so worried about the defending myself, but to, you know, to have a car that good. You know, I don't think in my career in a cup series I've ever had a car that good. And so to go out there and do it and execute it and get it done is amazing. So it was a, you know, it's a day that we'll remember forever. it's yeah it's just what you dream of i mean to have a car that good and to have it at indy and to you know to kiss the brakes it's it's amazing so when you got out after practice and you looked at your lap times we're like oh boy we we're strong yeah for sure and honestly it made me super nervous that next day just because i was feeling it like i felt like i did have the car to beat

short run, long run, lap average, all the metrics is that we used. We were the top of it. And I was feeling it. Man, I woke up on Sunday morning. I'm like, I'm anxious, but in a good way. You know, not in a bad way, but in a good way, feeling like, all right, I got the car to beat. Now I've got to go do it.

And so, but once the race started, you get locked in, you know, that all goes away. You just get laser focused on what you have to do. And, you know, I knew that we needed to be aggressive early. that's one thing that I learned at Sonoma last year. You know, restart and third, I had a shot to get both Busher and Suarez on a restart. And I'm like, no, I'm going to let these guys battle it out

and wear out their tires. Next thing you know, you sit behind them. Next thing you know, you're two seconds behind them with five to go and you got no chance, right? Right. So you learn from those mistakes. And so I just knew that I wanted to try to get to the lead early, take control the race if we had the speed to do it, which we did.

And so, yeah, it was a well-executed race. on all fronts, pit stops, everything went great. And, you know, it's, it's not every weekend that you have an opportunity to do that. And so, for me, it was, it was a big day. I mean, it's awesome. I know from in the cockpit, in the way that I feel, I feel the same way. On races where I know I've got a race-winning car, that's when I'm the most nervous about, don't screw this up. Like, I've got the car, just make sure I do my job, execute great. I mean, you can hope and pray that things go right on pit road or, you know, cautions don't, you know, they fly your way,

but ultimately you're just locked in on, let me do my job, right? And it's so hard to just take a breath and do that. How much in the last, I don't know, let's call it 10 laps where you're just like, no cautions, please. You know, I was the opposite. I didn't want a caution, but I was planning on it. Mentally, I was planning on it because it just doesn't happen

where you get all the way to the end of the race with no caution, right? and not to say that NASCAR's trying to throw it, but people get sloppy, they get tired, you start locking brakes, you start making mistakes, you go into the gravel trap, which after the race, I saw AJ go to the gravel trap, and I was like, oh my goodness, that would have been bad. But I was planning on or anticipating a late race restart,

and so it was a tough deal because I was kind of trying to save my tires a little bit and drive real straight and manage the gap. but as I got into traffic he started closing that gap and I'm like how hard do I push I don't want to be in a bad spot if a caution does come out but it didn't have to worry about it

but I was preparing for it and I was thinking about it for sure I'm just curious I know I can't see you around a trophy I'm looking at this beautiful brick here I'm curious what was your plan for that caution because knowing what we've seen at

the Indy Road course in the past right now the restart zone was different but when you go into turn one it's just all hell breaks loose Yeah, I think that, you know, so much this year has changed for the better for us as a group. You know, not having stage breaks, that's a win for us because we've always pitted with two laps to go in the stage, try to get track position, because we're always in that must-win situation, and these are our best chances to win. So with that, no yellows, no cautions, no stage breaks, and moving that restart zone, I thought,

no matter what, we're going to be in a good spot because our car was that good. you know in years past i'd be third fourth go down and turn one and the guy 15th wipes us all out you know and there's nothing you can do about it it's Joey Lugano yeah he does a 22 oh yeah hey lap one did you see that locking the rear tires wiping out a couple guys but uh he was he had an eventful race he just he is looking forward to us going back to the oval at that track for sure but I'll tell you it's people don't understand a little bit about you know people think that it's just equipment right and and that well your equipment is you're the underdog because your equipment's not as good as a Hendrick car or a Gibbs car but maybe speak to you know the deficits that you as a driver

face against someone like myself um in you know information that you get some time like talk to us about what do the top drivers get versus what someone like you at front row gets as far as resources, like beyond just the race car? Yeah, so I think that, you know, I haven't been in your shoes, so I don't know. You'll have to tell me how much more you get. But most of the pre-race preparation as far as what to study, what to look at, restarts, who is the best, who is the worst, all that. I do that myself. I don't have an engineer that's bringing that to me and say, hey, I need you to look at the 99 this week because he was the best last year.

I go through that data and that SMT and that video and find who is the best restarter. And so because our guys are building shocks and trying to get to the racetrack, I don't have somebody dedicated to that. As far as the simulation goes, we have a great partnership of Ford Performance and we get DIL time

and we're on the driving simulator, but our session's Thursday. Cars already loaded up. That's right. It's on the hauler. It was in the indie parade when I was finishing up, you know? And so for us, we can learn, but there's only so much you can do at the track. You know, you might adjust a few heights.

You might do a few things, little tweaks, but building your model needs to happen several weeks before. And that's hard for us to do because we're just trying to keep our head above water. And so some of those things are a challenge, but at the same time, it's what's kept me super engaged. I don't have a choice. Like if I don't do it, it's not going to get done. And that's been good for me because it's kept me locked in, but it's also kept me a part of how to get better myself, you know, and how to look at it myself and make sure that I'm doing all the things that I need to do to execute at a high level. And, you know, it's like you said, it's not about just having great equipment. Yesterday I had great equipment. I think my car was better than yours, right? No question. And I believe that. But there's so much more that I need to do. do to be able to capitalize on that moment. And that's what I've always been super oppressed with, and I've talked to you about this before, is that guys that execute at a high level and do it week in, week out, it's so hard to do. I mean, you can have the best car, but to do what Ty Gibbs did

on Saturday, it's still hard to do. He had a dominant car, but you still got to execute. You still got to do everything right. And it's not as easy as it looks. So it was fun to be in that situation and kind of have that pressure on you to do it. And you prepare for it, but you don't know if you're going to buckle, right? You don't know if you're going to buckle under the pressure or not. Is Coke Zero Sugar the best Coke ever? I know that's a bold question, but it's got that irresistible taste to back it up. Well, one thing's for sure. When you've got an irresistible match like Zero Sugar and Zero Calories, something sensational is bound to happen. It's like when me and my co-host Jared team up to make a podcast. It's too bad you can't taste with your ears

because Coke zero sugar tastes so amazing. It's hard to put it into words. But hey, that's my job, at least on Mondays. You have to taste it for yourself. Coke zero sugar, the best Coke ever? Yeah, I mean, it is a challenge, and I think that's really where I had an advantage on the field. Now, this is the total guess,

but I think that I got into data and analytics on the driving side really, really early. And then it's, you know, all the big teams have it now, like you talked about, you know, you know, Chevy has their performance. program that they're teaching the drivers, you know, what to look for, what to, you know, where you're saying is that, man, I have to dig up all the day to myself and then I go through it and look at it and figure out where can I get better. And so, I mean, drivers are still the number one X factor, no matter how you break it down in the car's performance. And I know how it made me feel and it's got to make you feel very gratified to see the results from the work that you put in. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, it's fun. And it's fun to be a part of it. I mean, I have a great spot at front row because I get to be in most of the decision making, which is fun. I'm not an owner. I'm not a manager, but I have the freedom to do a lot of things in regards to development, in regards to people and who we put in place and what needs to happen. And I enjoy that aspect of it. It's been cool to build something and be a part of building it.

I got a question about that sim time you mentioned, that your sim times on Thursday. Does that mean that when you unload at the racetrack more often than not, you have more work to do than a guy that may be in Denny's shoes? Like, is the car not, like, we've talked about like Truex sometimes just unloads really well and it's just great all weekend. Does that typically mean that because your car is already loaded off to the track on Thursday that you might have more work to do than the next guy on Saturday with the hour practice? I don't think it's so much more work as it is maybe some of the gains that we think that we've found on the simulator that we're not able to apply to the car that week because the car is already there. So there's only certain things that you can do at the racetrack before you present your car in tech. So if you're out there, you can't change the geometry. You can't change the camera.

There's a lot of things you can't change before you roll through inspection there. But it just means that we have to be buttoned up. You know, we started ND two weeks ago. We started Walkins Glen last week. And so we're ahead of the game to make sure that we can utilize that time well. And so, yeah, there's just certain challenges, right? Like, there's so much I could go into. Like, we use a generic arrow model.

We use a generic tire model. It's not always right. And I don't have somebody there tuning that tire. And Denny knows what I'm talking about. there's sometimes you get to the simulator and you're like what in the world that's half the work this this thing doesn't even drive correct right and so there's a lot of races where um we're trying to you know make laps we can't even make laps because we don't have somebody to tweak the model you know so there's certain you know limitations that we have but we've learned how to maximize you know what

resources we have and and and we're constantly working on making that better and better so and for it is as well. For a lot of time there, the teams were doing a lot of it themselves. Now Ford's trying to rein that in and say, all right, let's work collectively on one tire. And if that happens, it's going to be great for us. But so far right now, we're just at the beginning stages of that. So you talked about that being really involved in the organization. How does it feel to be locked in, know what you're doing early? You know, before, you know, it's not last minute. You know, you finally, you're like, I know what I'm doing for the next few years and being locked into front row there and knowing you're going to be with the same team. Yeah, it's great. Normally it's like December before I know what I'm going to do.

It's stressful, man. Can we get Bob Jenkins? Bob, can we get some decision making for me a little sooner for Michael here? You know, it's a tough situation. I mean, our team's different than most, right? And I have so much respect for Bob because he's spending his own money to do it. He's not making any money doing this. He's spending millions of dollars a year to fund this team and keep it going at a high level for us. And so I understand why he waits till December because if there's a Austin Hill out there with six million dollars and he's a driver, that's tough not to pull me out. And so he's got to make sure he's making the best decisions for all the people there at front row. But it's nice to have Todd and I both locked in. It's nice to have even a teammate that is the same and consistent. That's been

super tough. I feel like I've been a one-man band there for a long time because every year I'm getting a new rookie driver that is just figuring it out and you never build anything. You're just on your own island and you can't really, I hate to say it, trust what their feedback is, trust the direction that they're going with the car. So then you just feel like it's the 34 carrying the weight of all of it, but now it doesn't feel like that. It's up to you. It's up to you to send the team in a direction, right? Because, I mean, ultimately, you know Todd can he could be a great driver and run top five every week but still it's you're the veteran driver that is going to send that team in a direction hey we need to work on X for next time

we come back here. I I love to see that Bob pulled the trigger on keeping both of you guys. I think that Todd has absolutely proven that he's capable. I love I'm a huge fan of Todd and I mention them a lot on this podcast and you about how well y'all are doing at front row and continue to get better and it's good to see y'all've got that stability and it's great that Todd um while he's bounced around he struggled at the beginning when he was at kbm in the trucks he's really came into his own in the cup series and very worthy of keeping that 38 car so really happy for Todd and happy for you. Winning the Daytona 500, you know, just a few years ago.

Now here you are with the Indy brick. I wouldn't know I've never won this race at Indy. It's the one that chaps me the most in my career, actually. So I'm very jealous of that. But it's, you know, when we talked about for the last few weeks, what, you know, who's going to get in? You know, I come in, you see this sheet of paper. Travis writes down and it's got the bubble and here's who's in contention and whatnot.

That's where we saw on social media. the debate between me and Jared on who's going to get it. Oh, I know you just can't wait. I know you can't wait. So let's just say, I am a numbers person. Yes, you are. I love percentages knowing my odds at all times. And so I like to put myself in the most favorable odds situation,

which is why I said, what, Chase Elliott can't make up points? You guys have got to be kidding me, right? The only reason I respond, because you see, I love it. I'm not very active on social media. The only reason I respond is because I know you're a numbers guy, right? And we've talked about this before, like with Daytona, is if you're not a student of the sport and you're not paying attention, you're not going to win at this level. Like, you've got to do the work, right? So I'm a numbers guy too and statistic guy, and I'm like, hey, maybe he just doesn't know the numbers.

Like, we're crushing it in the next gen era of road courses. So, you know, I knew Chase Elliott is the best road course racer there is in our sport. You can't deny that he's got like seven wins in the last five years, right? So statistically, he is the best, and I know that. He could win any given weekend. He could have won this weekend. I know that too. Could win next.

He could win the next one. And so it was not that. It was like, if he wins, I'm still going to run fifth. He's not going to get 40 points on me. He might get 15. He might get 20, but there's no way he's going to get 40. What I was including was Michigan. Yeah.

Now, Talladega, I'm going to give you the nod on that one. I mean, I mean, Daytona, you're in my mind. You're a top five super speedway racer. You're just, you're really good. It's not a, it's not by having stance that you always put yourself in the right position at the right time where, you know, they, you know, Dale Jr. says it, when you, if you don't win the race, when they take the picture of the checkered flagman throne, your car is in the picture, right? And that's what matters.

put yourself some positions for that. And so I was basing it off of, well, we got Michigan. And I did know that historically it's not been, you know, I saw that top 20th was the best finish that y'all have had there. And then I remember when the rain came, I saw you get out and look at the front of your car. I'm like, oh, boy, he's got damage. That's not good. So luckily, you know, you guys were able to come out of there and then come out swinging here

at Indy Roadcourse. So I try to put myself in the statistical. basically the best, make the best decision to say which two guys would make it. However, however, this is why people defy the odds. Michael McDowell defied the odds and put himself in the playoff picture. What people don't know is that knocked my 23 car out of the owner's playoffs. Now, Bubba's in it, but we're not in 2311. And so I actually talked a little bit with the contractor who's building our building. And he says, wait a minute, I'm trying to figure this out.

So how are you X amount of points behind in owners and X amount and drivers? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm only 30 behind in the owner's championship for the regular season. But I'm 55, 60 behind in drivers. And he's like, I said, because I got a penalty because of my podcast earlier this year. So there is a opportunity where I win the championship for the 11 team, and I don't win a championship again. Like, you know, it would just be poetic and perfect. So what people don't know is the nine car is actually in right now on the owner's side. I'm trying to get pulled up here.

This is all very interesting because I feel like this conversation. He wanted me to explain. He's like, I don't understand who's in, who's out. Like, it's not really being talked about that much. So Bubba is, okay, I'm going to try to do it on the fly here. Bubba is in on drivers, currently, out on owners. The nine car is out on drivers, in on owners. And then what's different?

What's different? What's different? What am I missing? The 48's closer to being in on owners than they are on drivers. He's got it. But you're still ahead of them. Correct. Yeah, it's still, you know, I think he's got probably 30, man, that's uneducated,

but 30 or so on the 48 team, maybe less after this week. And at the top, get closer to TrueX for the regular season championship on owners than. Yeah, so we could end up with, you know, best case scenario, if I gained 30 on Truex over the next two weeks, then we could end up with more bonus points on the owner side than I have on the driver's side. so that was a scenario that actually played out for the first time last year with the hendrick team where Kyle larsons car if i remember right yeah Kyle larsson's car was eligible for the owner's championship at phoenix last year so he was still racing for and by the way

that's how we get paid as as ownership is by the owner's points because it makes it to where if michael gets sick or something like that or has an injury or yeah he he's able to that team doesn't get penalized monetarily because of that. So that's the right way to do it. The drivers, of course, get all the fame. But as the owners, I'm going, oh, no, ouch. So we got to get Bubba in. He needs to win or gain a bunch of points on one of those guys.

I think it's probably the nine car that's the next ahead of him on owners. So it is very difficult sometimes to understand. I think sometimes we get guilty of kind of getting too inside baseball here where we just talk about something that we expect the fans to understand, but don't, so we need to break it down. But we'll update that over the next two weeks. It's fascinating because last year, this discussion came up with the Kurt Bush situation, right? That he was going to miss the playoffs or he was going to be out for the playoffs,

but the car was still in. So you had Bubba drive the 45 for a handful of races. And it was like, well, this doesn't really ever happen. We don't ever have a guy that's not in the driver's championship racing for the owner's championship. And now this year with all the penalties and people out of the race cars. Yeah, it's been wild. And like Denny said, it's the same. Even though it's the driver's championship, I don't get paid because the owners don't get paid if you don't

make the owner's championship. And so the drivers is what's highlighted, but the owners is what matters for the historical, for years moving on and the value of it. So yesterday was a big win for us in that regard, because even if I had appointed my way in on the driver's side, we weren't going to point our way in on the owner's side. It was too big of a gap. Yeah, it's a good point. So it was a big plus for us and for being a smaller team. Like what it does for you for the next few years by making the playoffs is super important.

Yeah, because Bob's just going to reinvest whatever that gain is in either your year-in point fund or wherever his charter ends up netting out. at the end of the season, these guys, they reinvest. They don't just put, they don't, these team owners don't put money in their pockets, I can assure you that.

If I do my job well, we'll have a Hawkeye before the end of the year. If I do it well, that's the plan, that's the goal. He'll be here with Wednesday, so I'm gonna wear him out.

So I'll, I'll take it down to sixth grade level. He just said, we'll have a hawk eye by the end of the year. The fact that y'all don't have a hawkye is amazing. It's absolutely amazing.

It's, a hawk eye is the same. essentially the device that scans the car, and it makes sure that the outer body of the car and the underbody of the car is legal. So it's just versus you saw back in Days of Thunder when they put the old aluminum plate on top of the car and it fit the template. Everywhere that that piece wasn't touching, the teams would twist or move and gain an arrow advantage. You have to have a hawk eye to get all the advantages out of your car. car. It's just a fact. I mean, the last thing, one of the last things they do before they load in a

hauler is run it right back through the Hawkeye after they set up the car. How does it, you know, fit the hawk eye. It's such an important part. And not only that is the teams have to offset what their Hawkeye says versus what NASCAR Hawkeye says. So it really is amazing that y'all are doing what you're doing, again, with the resources. And let's not downplay anything too. They do have a great team at front road. They've got good people there and you know you don't continue to overachieve. Eventually you just got to recognize this team is actually pretty good for sure. And it's not like we don't have access to a Hawkeye. I don't want to paint that picture. We can use NASCAR's Hawkeye which is tough because it's a schedule, Xfinity guys. There's a lot of people that are

trying to get in there. But we also have our alliance with Rosh Fenway Keselowski racing, right? And so we have a time slot there to run both cars through the Hawkeye, which is great. And we have to to be at this level you got to do it the thing that's tough is is that we don't get to fine tune and tweak go back through fine tune and tweak go back through because it's not in our shop's not in our building so our guys are doing a great job but if they had two days and they could just go back and forth in and out in and out we'd be able to maximize it so much more and we'd probably get through tech the first time instead of having to go through two or three times like we do now because like Denny said, it doesn't always correlate from the track to the shop. So it's a process.

So I'm looking on NASCAR.com on their app, actually. And it's actually even incorrect. So it's having the, right now it's showing who's in. If I click on owners, it says the, uh, the 23 car is 15th. The front row 34, 16th. The JTG Doherty is 17th. Well, that's not true because the 47 has won a race. So they're actually, they're in. And so the closest we are to someone, he's probably, he's going to have to win. Yeah, he's going to have to win because he's probably about, he's 51 away from the nine car with two races to go.

So the 47s in, on our heels is the trackhouse 99, is actually closer to us than the Hendrick Motorsports 48. And if you get into the playoffs, 16th is the worst. that you can be ranked on the year. So that's why you see these teams fighting for it so much. Michael, I'm curious if you think back to this time last week after Michigan, you went from being above the cut line to then below it. What was the emotion, what was going on in your head

and the team around the shop going into this next weekend? Well, the last two weeks have been rough. I mean, they just have been. You know, Richmond, we actually had a good car running in the top 10. And, you know, Travis has done a great job calling races, is super aggressive going for it. And we have stole, literally stole, more top tens this year than we deserve

because of his aggression on the box. But his aggression on the box at Richmond was not the right play and cost us a lot of track position. And, you know, we took a 10th place car and finished 20-something with it, which, you know, where we were at in the points that was a bad day for us.

And then Michigan having that damage early, you know, we worked hard to get it out. It kept popping in, popping in, popping in. But the only saving grace that we had is the guys that we are around minus the 99 didn't have great days. AJ didn't have a great day. Chase obviously crashed early. And so there was a lot of factors there that kind of kept us in the game. So leave in Michigan, we were disappointed the last two weeks that we gave up so many points, but we were only minus three. And I felt like minus three, we got a good shot going to the road courses, going to Daytona.

I felt like you want to be plus 20 going to Daytona because anything could happen to not be in that last lap. This is where it's going to all come apart or come together. But yeah, it's been a process of just figuring out what we can do to maximize just our finish. Not what everybody else can do. We knew Bubba was going to go to Pocono, Michigan, those places, have a shot at the pole and have a shot at winning stages and went in the race. We knew that we would have a shot at winning stages and went in the race these three weeks coming up. And so we knew it was going to ebb and flow. And, you know, Bubba did a great job executing those three weeks.

And I mean, he was like 50 some points ahead, right? And we're like, oh, man, we are going to have to kill it. We're going to have to crush it to make that up. So the win definitely helps eliminate a lot of that stress because I think it still would be a challenge. Yeah, it's it is, it's shaping up to be pretty awesome to see. I think it's going to be, you know, now you've got two stress-free weeks when normally, I mean, these would be the two most pressure situation weeks that you would have in your career. I mean, it really would be. But now, you know, you guys get to focus on the round of 16. How do you feel like the beginning of the playoffs is going to shape up for you all? Well, you know, I think that throw out more statistics, if last year we'd have made it to the next round just based on how we ran those races. So I feel like we have a good baseline. You know, last year doesn't always apply to this year, but I feel like we have enough speed to execute and put ourselves at least in a fighting position. What's really interesting is the next round. Throw Talladega and Oroval in. Right. We're going to really make people upset if we go two rounds, right? And so, I mean, we know who we are.

We know what we can and can't do, right? And we're pushing to be a top team. But to sit here and say, yeah, we're going to go championship four. We're going to win this whole deal. It'd be ludicrous. I'm just not wired like that. But I think that we can get through the first round and probably the second, depending on how Talladega goes.

Yeah, you know the first round is, okay, don't bear ourselves. That is just the mantra of the first round. You always see a contender go out very early. there's always one or two guys that get knocked out in the first round that no one's all coming just because this is a three race season. If you have one and a half bad races, so you crash out of one or you have a detrimental day, and next thing you know, you finish 18th and the other, you're below the cut line with one race to go.

So it's a complete new season. I think the way the tracks lay out for each individual team plays a huge role and who moves on and who doesn't. but yeah especially with you guys have got to be thinking get past the first round don't beat ourselves and we literally can make some noise here in the second round so it's going to be exciting to see for sure um i'm as a race fan i'm excited to see it no doubt do you have a bulletin board in the shop that you had denny's tweets no like i said i mean i'm not super active on social media um i just liked engaging in this one particularly, and I'll be honest with you, like, there's certain things that

get me fired up. You don't see it a lot. You don't hear it a lot. But two things that fired me up or last month, month and a half is SVG kicking our butts at Chicago, that frustrated me, man. That should never happen. And that made me mad enough to go to work. Like, I'm going to figure it out. Like, I've got to be better. This is unacceptable. Not taking away what he did. What he did was nothing short of miraculous. I mean, unbelievable, but it shouldn't happen. And so that fired me up.

And then this was just a little extra fuel to the fire, right? Like, man, you're not paying attention. I'm going to wax them as what I felt like saying, right? But that's just not me personally, but that's what I feel inside. Yeah, so it's, I'm just glad that it all worked out, man, because you can, you can want it all you want, but if you don't have the stuff to do it,

if you don't have the car to do it, if you don't have the pit stops to do it, it's just talk, right? And so I think speed-wise, we felt good that we were going to be in contention, but execution-wise is something that we've had to get better at. And myself included, man, so many times I've given up good finishes, speeding on pit road, speed and getting to pit road, or whatever, you know, over the wall too soon, just dumb stuff, pit lane violation, like all those things.

You just can't have it in these races and recover. from it. And so it was fun to execute. It's a good segue. What did y'all make of the road course ringers yesterday? The one-off guys. I think it went a little bit more back to what we thought. I mean, that's kind of what we, you know, again, we talked about it Jared many times on this. I think that Chicago thing and not to poo-poo on it at all, it just lined up perfectly for SVG. The things, you know, it just lined up perfectly. He was at a street course where he's, you know, again, I talked about where he was fastest versus the field is where all the walls were the tightest,

right? And it's because he was in his element at that point. We were all a little more careful, right? We're probably paranoid a little bit more about bidding a toe link than what he is, right? So, I mean, so it just, there's little things there. And then you had the mix of the, it's wet. Okay, now it's starting to dry out. And again, that's where I struggled personally the most.

It's like, if it's full wet, I think I'm okay. Like, you know, competitive wise. If it's full dry, I felt very fast at Chicago. But when it starts to get the in-between phase, I typically am way off from the field because I am like, do I push it? What if I had a slick spot? And I'd barrel this thing off into a corner. So I think that that's where I need to improve the most.

But I think that's where SVG really excelled as well is when that, the track started to transition there and then things just happened you had the stack up in turn 11 that it was him the 54 and someone else they were able to sweep by everyone else was parked so it was just

a lot of things that played into that but he still goes out and his competitive runs in the top 10 we got SVG was 10th which shouldn't be overlooked no I mean it's overlooked because of how lights out he was at Chicago. I think we're like,

that's an amazing day. I mean, that's what I... I think people were thinking, that's a letdown. I'm like, dude, it's still a second start. Like, he's still driving on the opposite side of the race car. So it is. It was pretty damn impressive.

Was he going the right way, though, this time? Oh, yeah, because Chicago... No, I guess it was the same. Same. Yeah. Yeah. What's the only track? One of the tracks we run, the

roll. The roval we run. And Cota. And Cota. Okay. Hmm. And Sonoma. I wonder why I'm not better at those.

Got to think about that. Well, I mean, I don't know who saw it coming, but we, you know, the narrative has been four struggling, four struggling, four struggling, but now they've got three in a row. And not only that, they, hey, They also won the truck opener with Ty Majeski. Man, I don't know what they've figured out on the short tracks. But I mean, listen, he's a great short track racer anyway, but I believe he deserves his due that, you know, just a fabulous performance.

How they, you know, ended up messing up Richmond. I have no idea. I mean, I've never seen a truck that much faster than the field. I don't think I've seen a car that much faster in the field in over 10 years. Now, it used to be when we had trick cars, spindles, bodies, all that stuff. You would see a car. I remember my cart Richmond when we let all the laps until we blew a tire with 13 to go. That was one that was super dominant. But I'm watching the lap times. I'm like, there's no one even remotely in the ballpark with this guy. So. And he came

through the field. Came through the field. He was running three, four tenths faster in the field when he's in traffic. Yeah. So it was like, holy cow. So Ty and, you know, that team switching over to Ford this year is really doing a great job. And I'm a huge fan in Ty. I think it's about time people start knocking on his door on some opportunities and just a great. I mean, he wins, by the way, short track races, big short track races when all the guys are in it, when Chase Elliott or William Byron go run a super late model, he still goes and beats them. So he's a very good driver for sure. You know, you definitely, it's, you know, Josh Barry is a, late model stock guy. Ty Majesky is a late model stock and super late model guy. So he's,

you know, I know he's very involved in what the team does there. He's, he works in the shop. He helps build shocks for all the teams. So I want to give him a shout out for a great performance this weekend. Looking at that race yesterday, what are your guys' thoughts about racing and a race that goes for green as long as it does like that? So I was going to ask Michael about this because, you know, we talk a lot and I'd say probably me and Mike were the most vocal when it comes to the drivers and what do we need to work on for the future and you know with Jeff Burton and that whole council you know I think that it's certainly it's it's what it's a good thing because in my mind because this is what road course racing is right I mean I think that if you have stage breaks it's

from me explain. I think the fans got a little spoiled at times because we got so many green, white checkers on these road courses, and they're like, this is the way it should be, and this is what we come to expect. And then when a more natural race comes about, like an indie road course where, oh, crap, so we don't throw stage breaks, and this is what could happen, I think there'll be more reservations than probably will be a talking point with the media this week. But I personally believe that you should have stuff like this in our schedule. This is part of being a well-rounded team, well-rounded driver. We have enough of the fabricated stuff and other racetracks. So let's keep it to a purist, at least, you know, any opportunity we can. I agree. And I could see both sides.

I mean, I know for the fans is way more fun to see us five wide and stacking up into turn one. And having that happen over and over and over again, it creates some drama. It creates, you know, guys that were running 10th now have a shot. at it. But the purest side of it is like if you have the best car and you're executing all day, you should have an opportunity to win a race and not just get wiped out because of a, you know, a stage break or, you know, a green white checkered. But I think organically, a lot of times it takes care of itself. Like Sonoma was playing out that way, but there was a late race caution there and got the field bunch back up. I'm surprised that there wasn't, you know, a caution. I mean,

we saw the potential for a caution, right, with AJ, obviously, and a few other guys. But, you know, a lot of it is, is these racetracks now, which is great. There's so much runoff, right? And there's a lot of runoff, like turn one. You're not at Watkins Glen. You're not burying it into gravel trap anymore. There's a lot of runoff. If you make a mistake, you know, there's some forgiveness, which is good because it's safer

for the drivers and better for the team owners because you're not having to replace center sections and clips. But at the same time, it's taking away some of those. opportunities for us to get you know all back together and and have some excitement but i like it this is how i grew up racing you know is that if you were the fastest guy and you didn't make any mistakes you won the race and the road courses have been difficult for me in the past in particular because i'm just not wired to shove it in there five wide and wipe somebody out if i'm not actually trying to like pass them i'm just i can't do it i can't even when i get to the point where i get tired of getting

and run over. I still can't say, well, I'll just take these four guys, even though they didn't do anything, right? Like, if you run into me, it's completely different. But just to go in there and send it in there, knowing that there's no chance if they weren't in front of you, you're going to make the corner. I just don't feel like is racing. I feel like that's indoor carding. I can do that with my buddies just down the road, right? And so I do like what we had yesterday. And I think it's different, too. You look at Formula One, right? Formula One, you know before you get there, Red Bull is going to win, and Max is going to have a 30-second lead. I was driving my guts out to maintain a 1.9 second lead yesterday.

And at any point, I lock a tire and make a mistake, Chase and I are racing for that win. And I think that that's still good racing. And I think that having to push hard and execute and not make mistakes is good racing, there wasn't as much side-by-side and there wasn't as chaotic restarts. But I feel like the best cars were up front and the best cars had an opportunity to win the race, and that's how it should be. I watched the race back last night before I went to bed. I actually got home quite a bit earlier than you. When you run 19th, you get home a little bit quicker, but I mean, it was still daylight. So I watched it back,

and I was compelled. I really was because I knew that, I knew the outcome, but I'm watching, I'm like, oh, wow, he's got a legit chance to catch him. And, you know, there was a lot of mixing and matching, like, through the pit sequence, where who's going to come out ahead, right? I think that it's certainly, well, it just depends on what is your flavor of racing for sure. If you love the bumper cars, then you probably hate it, right? If you love racing and good racing and you still are at the edge of your seat trying to figure out, is this guy going to catch him? And you know the implications. Whatever one wins this race is going to the playoffs, that is going to keep me watching and keeps me compelled. So I'd love to see it. I mean,

look at the guys that are in the top five, four of them are our bubble drivers, right? So it's, it was really, everyone that needed to step up, did step up. I, you know, Alex Bowman, great top five for him. I think that's a big run. I mean, the Hendrick cars are obviously fast at road courses they have been, but Alex in particular, I would have put him in the Bubba category of if he ran 15th, it's going to be a good day, but maybe I haven't been paying attention either because he was a top five legitimate in practice, qualifying. Even that second round, he made a few mistakes there, but he actually would have had a shot at the pole

if he had to put that lap together. So I was pretty impressed with the speed that he had and execution that they had because it usually isn't a strength for them. I had in my notes to mention Alex Bowman's injury because I went through the same injury in 2013, and I was not the same when I came back. You know, as you know, how do we,

we feel the car through essentially our ass, right? We're feeling, you know, the car on edge and whatnot. And when you have a chronic back issue, and I did all through 2013 after, you know, I had the vertebrae problem, Alex had the same issue. And I'm wondering, is he recovering from that? Because, you know, if you can't feel,

I mean, you have to feel the edge of the car from your underside. And if you have back problems and you're continuing to be locked down and tense, it inhibits your ability to feel the edge of the car. And are we not talking about this guy is coming off an injury that is significant and it is significant to what we do? So I remember 2013. I didn't win a race to the very last race of the season. I got hurt early on.

It was the third or fourth race of the season. And, you know, I'd gotten used to winning multiple times every year. And it took all the way to the last race of the year homestead for me to win. And it was because I finally got to feel the car towards the end of the season. So I'm wondering if we aren't talking about, you know, enough about, and Alex probably isn't going to make excuses, right? So I think that I think this might be a good indication that he's getting healthier and he's starting to get in a better place. What went into your decision yesterday to stay out and collect that playoff point in stage two? I'm going to tell you, Jared.

I was coming. I was coming. No doubt. I was never so pleased to run 19th as I was yesterday. I don't think I've ever been as happy to run 19th. Now, I hate it because I feel like, you know, I'm better than that. You know, I should run wherever the 45 is. that's kind of my

datum line of wherever he's at that's what my car is capable of doing on the road courses but we saw that we didn't have the speed and the team says how can we get out of here with the most points possible you know if we finish 27th and risk it to try to win a stage well who cares we're going to finish 18th

16th anyway and for us we're only racing the 19 car from here until the playoff start you know for the regular season championship. So, I mean, Truex, I never saw him all day, and we finished two points behind him on the weekend. So it's like, Chris and the team just did a fabulous job of getting us that stage win. And again, we just went long and didn't pit until the end of the second stage. I thought I was just battling. Now, listen, if they had a camera on 19th place, me and Brad Kuzowski fought all day long. we never were separated more than five car lengths,

and whoever would get in front failed to pull away. Like it was just the next person, you know, we were just, we clearly needed rabbits to be, to be fast. And I looked, you know,

at the lap times after the race, and I'm looking, I'm seeing, I'm like, man, my car is capable because I've dropped down and run some really good laps, but it just tells you how much I have to work at my craft to bring those,

high laps up, down, you know, So my car is clearly capable, but me and Brad had a hell of a battle for, was this race two hours, nine minutes? I think it was. For two hours and nine minutes, me and Brad Kozowski were five car links apart, and we must exchange positions five or six times. So it was a hell of a battle. I got out of the car, and the first thing I did is I turned around Adam and I says, get away from me.

I was just stalking me the whole day. And then when he'd get up front, then I'd be stalking him. So it was just, it was a lot of fun. I'm sure you never, you did not see it on TV because no one gives a crap about where we were running. So it was really a lot of fun. But to have a day where we leave the track with a point, like one point that it just feels like a win for us. I'm not really sure why I feel so good about it, but it just does. Because one point matters in a few weeks.

I mean, for the last few years, I mean, the wall ride at Martinsville, the chastain, I mean, I missed it by a couple points. So it does. It always seems to matter in the last, you know, round or so. So it's cool that, you know, that happened and we were able to get a stage win and some stage points. But my team was just, you know, it's one of the benefits, Jared, of running badly. You've got nothing to lose. ran bad enough to where Chris Gavehart says, well, we're not worried about William Byron today. I'm just, what can I do to just take a risk and it paid off finally?

Dear Danning, we've got some questions that we want to ask. Dare Danning. We need answers and we need them fast. We tried to ask Junior, but his answers were lame. And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now, we're caught on you because you're our own hope. This ain't the race track, so maybe you won't choke. I got a couple Dear Denny's and Dear Michaels here for you all.

Love it. First one is, how do teams go about setting up the car for a road course? Do you pick the most important turns and optimize the car for those corners and forget the rest, or do you find a balance between them? I think now you can't really give anything away, but you do focus on the corners that lead to passing zones or you focus on corners where you think there's going to be the most amount of time. So it's a tough balance because there's race tracks where, let's just take Walkins Glen, for example, the most amount of time lost and gain is going to be up the S's. It just is. But you're not

passing up the S's. Right. So what do you want to focus on? Well, I want to focus being good off 11 because I need to be able to pass into one. And so you have to prioritize, you know, what you think's going to be most important. I think the next-gen car is a little bit different for that. The old car was more tricky because how soft you could run and arrow platform versus grip, where this next-gen cars is a little bit more straightforward, but definitely, for me, the focus this weekend at Indy was getting off of 14, which we were dynamite. And that's what helped us be able to take the lead. That's what helped us to defend passes. Now, we struggled in 13 because of it.

But I knew that 13 wasn't an issue. It was all about 14. So you do think about it that way, but you can't just be terrible anywhere because if you have a weakness, you're going to get exposed. And so, yeah, it's a balance for sure. Yeah, especially with the old car,

like you talked about, if you want to gain time to qualify best at Watkins Glen used to be back in the day, yeah, you gain through the ESS. Well, likely if you get your platform right, through the S's, it hurts your braking capability in the high breaking zones, such as, you know, into the bus stop there and then into turn one. But it is a little bit better with the next gen for sure. But, you know, I agree with Michael that you definitely have to realize where's the

greatest amount of passes done. And what, where's, what's the corner before that? Because you need to be good there because you're going to have to defend. And you're also, you know, if you're going to make a pass, you have to be able to carry it in deeper than the next, the guy in front of you. So I agree with that. This one's for Denny. Would it be plausible for trackhouse to move SVG straight into the Cups series without a third charter, disregarding his inexperience on ovals? What's the definition of plausible?

I mean, I guess that's up for you to decide. Is it the smart thing to do? No. I think that he certainly needs more oval experience. He's certainly a very capable race car driver. And when we go to these road courses, he's going to put himself in the conversation to be a contender. But, you know, I think that it's no secret. And he'll even say that I've got a long way to go on the road courses.

So, or I'm sorry, on the Oval. So, and that is the bulk of our schedule. So I think the plan probably is to run him in various series to get him some experience. You know, I know Trackhouse has a relationship with Nice over there. So more than likely, question. a bit of truck races, maybe an Xfinity race here and there, and then probably some 91 car stuff. I guess I was kind of taking it as financially plausible. No.

No, not unless he's bringing some significant money, just simply because the non-charter cars just don't get, aren't allowed to get in the prize pool that the charter cars get into, which is why it's so valuable to have a charter is because you, you, you, you, It gives you access to a pool of funds that others do not become a part of. Got it. And now this one specifically for Michael, first is a two-part question. Where is this trophy going to go? And then secondly, are you sad now to see us go back to the Indy Oval next year?

Not sure where the trophy is going to go yet. You know, I am sad about not being on the road course because selfishly, road courses are good for us, right? For our team and points and everything, not just because we won, but because there are strength. but at the same time i totally get why everybody wants to go back to the oval and just the prestige of the brickyard the historical value of it the coolness of it the road course is is not that it's just not you can you can cut it up any way you want to but it's just different

to me it's special because i always being a road racer like to me to not went on a road course would feel terrible. Like I feel like that's something that should have been checked a long time ago. That box should have been checked. So, but I hope that it's not just a replacement. I hope we still have as many road courses as we do now. And I think it's a good mix right now. But going back to Indioval with this next-gen car,

there's a good chance it'll be a decent race. And it'll be better than what we've had in years past. But everybody knows that it's not going to be a two-wide. the entire race, lots of passing. It's still going to be the best car out front. It's going to be a challenge to pass at times. But I think that this car deserves a shot at it. And I think that for the sport, it's good to mix it up.

I don't think we should do the same thing over and over and over for 10, 20, 30 years. We could keep mixing it up. Daytona Road course was a great mix. I thought that was a fun track. I thought it was a fun race. Put on a good show. That's actually one of my very favorite road courses.

I don't know why. but maybe because it was somewhat basic, but the Daytona Road course, I really like that track. It creates a lot of opportunity. You got banking and you get the draft and you can, I mean, it's just a fun, tight technical in some spots,

high speed and others. You know, Chicago Street course I thought was awesome. It was a lot of fun. And, you know, it fits this car well. Our old car would be impossible to even get around that track, let alone put on a good race. So I think that, the sports doing a good job of mixing it up.

And I'm not terribly upset that we're going to go back to the Oval. It's a special place and we should be racing there. Where do you have your Harley J. Earl trophy out? Yeah, so right when you walk in the front door, there's a little like four-year spot there that it sits, it's a perfect spot for it. Well, now it's one of two trophies in my house. It's got a brother. Yeah, so I have not kept any racing stuff my entire career.

Now, I know fans are going to be like, yeah, you've only won two races, but I've won hundreds of throughout my career, just not in a cup series. But I've just never kept anything. Like my brother has a lot of it, my dad has a lot of it, friends, family, sponsors. So you go into my house, you know, now there's only two trophies. But yeah, that one I'm going to keep on display for sure. Well, if Netflix has proven anything, is that you don't have to win to have a trophy room because Kirk Cousins has got himself in an elaborate trophy room.

I'm catching up on it. I'm on episode six or so right before they lose the playoff. So don't spoil it for me. Well, appreciate you taking the invite to come here. Congratulations to you and your team. It's just a huge accomplishment. Great job wheeling the car, man. I mean, no mistakes.

You guys executed the weekend to the fullest, and now you're going to get to race for a championship. So congrats. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Thanks for being wrong, man. I love it. Hey, I'll be wrong as long as the underdog wins. So great job.

It's awesome, thanks. Hey, before we finish up, do you go into Watkins Glen now, I mean, balls to the wall just win the race because you need playoff points? Yes, yeah. But really, I went into this weekend like that. It didn't really change. You know, that's one of the things I was worried about for Sunday is Saturday I unloaded on kill.

I mean, I did. Ten lapses, I was huffing and puffing like, oh, man, I'm going to need to breathe. I mean, I did ten qualifying laps. And I was like, ah, if these guys have pace and they were just running 90%, I might not be as good as I think I am, you know. but I feel like this car is like that. You just have to stay on it. You can't really ride.

You've got to push the brake zones every lap. But one thing for Walkins Glen, Travis Peterson and I will have a good conversation tomorrow is we have been wanting to try a different setup for quite some time for Walkins Glen in particular. And we've joked all year long, hey, if we win Indy and we're locked in, we are going to try this.

I'm going to be hard pressed to change a whole lot from Indy going to Walkins Glen, knowing that we got, you know, had a dominant car. So it'll be a fun conversation tomorrow. But yeah, you know, we need to go score stage points if we can. A win would be awesome. But at the same time, it's going to be, I can push it a little bit harder and challenge myself to maybe get a little bit better in some of the areas that I feel like I'm still weak at and not feel that pressure if you make a mistake, you're going to look stupid. Awesome. Well, good luck to you. And congratulations. again and very envious to this beautiful trophy that we had. Thank you for bringing it and yourself as well.

So thank you. Make sure you guys tune in next week after Watkins Glenn and we'll see you then. And remember, leave us a review. This nice review came from Shay Wash Bird. I've been a NASCAR fan since I was a kid. My favorite driver was Jeff Gordon since you retired. I haven't followed a driver until this year. 11's up. Must listen every Monday. We'll be in Phoenix and hopefully get that championship. And if you don't know, you can follow Michael McDow on social media at Mick underscore Driver. There was a debate a few weeks ago that, like, someone had said, like, oh, no one calls, like, was it? It was a debate about your nickname. I think Jeff Gluck was having it with somebody.

Oh, yeah, yeah. McDizzles is what it was about, yeah, which it was all true what Jeff Gluck said. He was right. Does nobody believe him. I, um, it seems like we're getting a. a lot of Hendrick fans that are, you know, a lot of these reviews come from the Hendrick fans, right? And my next question is when it says 11's up, is it thumbs? Are they giving me the thumbs up or the, you know what? The two birds. Two birds. Yeah. All right. So, well, that's like your thing,

though. All right. Well, thank you all. Make sure you leave a review for us and we'll try to get them read here on the air. So thank you. And we'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Thank you.