Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Michigan: Playoff Points & Pit Problems

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Denny Hamlin sounds off on the Hall of Fame voting. Chris Buescher goes back-to-back. Is RFK the best Ford team? Tyler Reddick's day ruined by another bad pit stop. What goes into 23XI building out their pit crew teams. Chase Elliott's dream of pointing his way into the playoffs is over. Bubba Wallace gets valuable points. Ty Gibbs continues to get better each week. Will there be a surprise winner in one of the next 3 races? SVG returns this weekend for Indy Road Course. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The headline leaving this weekend is Chase Elliott and how he officially cannot point his way into the playoffs. Oh, it's not official. Unofficial? All right, I'm off. I'm off the wagon. Yeah, he's not going to make it unless he wins, which he very well can win. We've mentioned it before.

But Chase on points is out. It's done. It's not a talking point anymore. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. What's up, guys, it's Denny. Welcome to Actions Detramental with my co-host, Jared Allen, Purple Vest, number 560. Pure Michigan episode, second half episode. Part two.

Yeah, we broke down the first half yesterday. Was it, no. Two days ago now. Yeah, two days. Wow, home. You know, after the, they called the race after lap 74, we broke it down, kind of talked about who we, saw his strong competition. They were all there at the end of the day.

It's funny, I was listening to the tear down as I do after every race. And Jeff reminded the listeners that you had mentioned that the 17 was fast. And at the time, when we recorded that, I don't remember where Busher was in the field, but he obviously didn't look as good as he did at the end of the race. Yeah, I mean, track position certainly. played a factor in that. There's a lot of things that played a factor in that, but he was strong. I noticed on restarts particularly. He was able to maneuver his car. But before we go into the last

part of the Michigan race, some off-the-track stuff, before we go into that, want to talk about our new presenting sponsor. This episode is presented by our new sponsor, Birch Gold. You can get a free Gold Kit by Texan Code Denny to 98-9-8-9-8 if you want to learn more about your investing in the future. Some off-the-track stuff that certainly want to talk about is the new Hall of Fame class. We got a great class coming in with Jimmy and Chad. Obviously, it's great that they get to go in together. Very deserving. And also Donnie Allison on the Pioneer ballot.

Um, obviously last week we, you know, we, I made, uh, kind of a big deal about, uh, Jimmy not getting in unanimous. Before, before you, for people who don't know, or don't follow you on Twitter, you had said, not unanimous. What a joke, a disgrace to one of the sports greatest ever. Make it public who said no and remove them from the voting panel. To be a panel is an honor that should be taken seriously. What four people did today is.

make a joke of that honor and for what? It can only be a couple reasons a person would not have give someone like Jimmy Johnson their vote. Number one, you don't like them. Number two, you weren't voted in unanimously and are repaying the favor. Number three, you feel as though they have other years to get in and want to vote for someone in their final year of eligibility. Number four, you voted for a buddy instead. And number five, you haven't watched a race in the last 20 years. I think it's possible that one of those reasons, if not multiple of them, is why someone didn't. You know, I understand early on the argument is that, well, Richard Petty wasn't unanimous to Ailer. Earnhardt wasn't unanimous. Yeah, but you had the entire history of NASCAR on the ballot.

Like, it was, you know, there were so many people to choose from and so many, you know, deserving people. but you can't you just cannot leave off again and you vote for two people so that means they voted two people over jimmy johnson that doesn't make any sense and and to me i believe NASCAR needs to be transparent that's a good point that's not something i thought about is that in order for jimmy not to be unanimous someone would have voted two people over Jimmy, not Jimmy and so-and-so. Which tells you it's all political. And it's not political on that.

I mean, this is someone, and I've heard from people that have been in that room that, you know, some of the guys that have been around a very long time will go around the table and politic for their friends to get on the Hall of Fame. instead of, you know, just, hey, what, you know, what do you think or this out and the other? They're just at lunchtime, they'll go around and they'll politic for the buddies. And so I don't like it for sure. It's not just for a champion like Jimmy. You know, it's just, it doesn't make any sense. And to me, you're not taking that responsibility seriously. because there's, I mean, I understand that there's other people that are deserving, right?

You know, but, but I, not as deserving as a seven-time 80-win champion. You know, I hear all the time, well, that this guy was a 15-time modified champion. Well, that's great, but that's modified. you know and I understand that that was a huge series back in the day but it still never was cup and you know if Jimmy Johnson ran modified he'd have 30 championships probably so I you know I don't know I just I can't make sense of it other than someone's just being very petty do you have an issue with the eligibility how do you say it the the years needed to be retired from the sport to be eligible because for that guy like jimmy right he retired a handful of years ago but it's still racing in the series

is is running x amount of races each year does that taint uh you know an eligibility for some for for some voters no he's eligible he's on the ballot it's not for for for for you to be the policeman of whether he should or should not be on the ballot. He is on the ballot. So then your job is to be the juror. Is he, should he be in? Yes or no. And there's absolutely zero reason that Jimmy Johnson should be left off anyone's ballot. And I just would like to see NASCAR revamp how they do it going forward because, you know, while it's, Jimmy, Jimmy will never tell you he's displeased with not being unanimous. He won't. He's just, he's just that kind of guy. And, but he deserves to have people fighting for him and fighting for what's right. And,

And it just seems like there's people in that room that shouldn't be in that room. And you know what? More than likely, if NASCAR was transparent and showed who didn't vote, there'd be some big names that would tarnish their own legacy if it wasn't unanimous. Because they, you know, they're big names in our sport, obviously, if they're in that room. and I can guarantee you they don't want to make a public because if it was public they wouldn't have left them off the ballot. They did it because it was anonymous and they could hide behind it.

If you were Jimmy, would you feel slated by this that you weren't a unanimous selection? Of course, absolutely. I mean, if I accomplished what he did, absolutely. You know, it's just, it's not even close. It's like Dailer and Hart not being, unanimous, but again, Dalyarnhart was on a ballot with Richard Petty and everyone else, right? It's just very different when you have the pool of, okay, the entire history versus,

here's the guys that are on the ballot this year. It's a very small number. So it's still, you know, great honor for Jimmy and Chad. You know, Chad, obviously, you know, that was a deadly combination for such a long time. I had to race against him. I always said I was so unfortunate to race in the Jimmy Johnson era because he was just, man, he was a killer. And he was a killer in the most polite way. He never talked trash. He never, you know, he never, you know, wrecked you or got into you. He just was fast. And him and Chad found ways to beat you. Even when they didn't have a car as fast as yours, they found a way to beat you. So, uh, you. So, uh, you. And, You know, Chad had all but 11 ballots for him, which is, you know, good.

And I heard him say that, you know, he probably pissed off some, some, those 11 guys at some point in his career. I can understand that. But I think that it's great that they're going in together. And it's great that, you know, they're getting recognized for what they accomplished because winning five in a row, you know, listen, NASCAR keeps getting harder. like you know it what they accomplish Haiti wins in the era in which they did it is just unbelievable winning five championships with different cars different formats all that they were tough you know maybe maybe the greatest that this sport has seen that's certainly debatable and you could have a long skipping Shannon debate on on the greatest but

But they certainly, I can tell you by, you know, I competed against Jeff Gordon and all these, you know, all these guys early in my career, Tony Stewart, Jimmy and Chad, just, whew, they were tough. They were a tough combination and, you know, really, really proud of them for getting in. And Donnie Allison, I want to talk to him as well. He was a big part of the Allison Legacy Series. Obviously, you saw him with his 10 cup wins and, you know, really successful in the Daytona races especially. But, you know, happy for the Allison family to get another guy into as well. So congrats all of our Hall of Fame inductees. And, you know, wish you continued success. It's Richard Sherman is now taking over for Shannon, though.

So it'll be Richard and Skip going forward to. Yeah, that would be interesting. I've seen Richard on TV and I think he's going to be a good fit for that show. Yeah, he can talk. Yeah, that's what you need. Yeah. No doubt. Although he needs to bring a, if they're going to have the goat debate, he needs to bring the goat mask on.

You've seen Shannon. Yeah. Yeah. 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. 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. So Michigan, you know, kind of putting a button on Richmond, or Richmond, I'm looking at the standings after Richmond.

after Michigan Chris Busher knocks down his second win in a row Jared, do you see this coming? I did not. I did not. I watched the whole race and said this is Shurex's race to win. It just again looked like the class of the field

when that guy's fast. He's so fast. Yeah, he's considerably faster than the field when he is when he's dominant for sure. So yeah, I mean, someone asked me after the race, are you surprised?

that Chris Bushers just won two in a row and I'm like, I don't know how to answer that because on talent, no, he's been very capable. We know he is all capable as a race car driver. Do we think in a year where Ford's been off just slightly? I mean, you can argue they're starting to get better for sure. Did we see RFK, the combination of RFCK, of RFK, Chris Busher, and Ford winning two in a row? No, I don't think anyone saw that coming for sure.

But it's been a slow, steady climb for that organization. And it just seems like the 17th just got a little bit over the six right now. But the two of them together are very strong. And you would argue, you know, the best forwards right now. Yeah, I don't know how you could say they're not the best four team right now. The last handful of weeks, they're the team that shows up. And again, they're the most

synchronized team on the grid, it seems like. Chris Busher wins yesterday, and then Brad finishes fourth. Yep. Yeah, when they, one has speed, they both have speed.

When one's bad, they're both bad. So it just tells you that, you know, they're working closely together, probably on setups and stuff like that. And, you know, they're fairly close on talent.

So it seems like they've got some, a good future there in Busher. And certainly, man, he probably never would have saw this coming himself, right? But they executed perfectly. They had a fast car. They held off Truex when no one else could. You know, there's a lot to say about that. And they executed. I mean, they just flat out executed.

And even though they didn't have a very good final pit stop. I mean, you saw the 45 leapfrog them, you know, but the 45 came back in because he had a tire falling off again. But like even with the 45, he had a slow pit stop. Remember they kind of stopped on the right side and like, okay, do we fix this or not? And then he still comes out ahead of the 17. It's like, oh, man, that's even more of a crushing blow to the 45 is like, you've had time to fix it, you know? and sheesh, that's a head scratcher for sure for those guys. They did it again.

It's basically the Nashville is the same thing where we, you know, the 45 was kind of a dominant car or one that was a top two car. And, you know, he was just pressuring Busher there for the lead when they pitted and had another right rear tire fall off. So they got to fix that. Certainly there's a fixing to do there, short and long term. But yeah, it was one of those races where Martin Truex was just dominant. You know, he got through traffic better than others. I thought my car was very strong. I just thought that Martin was just a scosh better.

Man, we ran down the lead from a long way back. You know, I don't know how many seconds we were. back, but it had to be six plus seconds. I know you were at least five behind Truex. Yeah, he was like maybe a second at that point behind Busher. You cut it to three and a half at your closest margin in those last handful of laps. Well, we ended

one point. No, he got, I was going to say when they were battling, he got it to under three when Turex was going for that pass. One point eight, guys, I keep telling you. It's 1.8. We finish behind. I'm just talking about in the middle, like in that final stretch though, where you're like going to go. Yeah. Now Truix got held up though. I mean the 17 he was fat. I was looking at the laptops. He was very fast at the beginning. When he came back out of the pits, he ran some really fast lifetimes. Then he started hitting traffic and he started falling off. That's when we really started gaining the bulk of our time. But, um, But man, it was, it was shaping up, and it really was. It was a very good race. Michigan and this car really matched well. Even though it does get strung out if it goes along Green Flag runs, like nobody really gets away. Like, you know, maybe a true exit is out front. He probably, and maybe would have.

But the draft just keeps everyone so close together. It makes for an exciting race, which is why we saw, you know, Martin closing there in the final laps. On the Chris Busher front, before we move off that, what is your outlook for that team now entering the playoffs? Because two weeks ago, they're pointing themselves in. Now they have two wins, 11 playoff points. I mean, is this a deep playoff run for the 17 team? I think it depends on schedule setup for them. I would have certainly said that this is a team that certainly is consistent enough to make the top 12. The round of eight would be a stretch.

But, but they are getting better. And so you can't discount, you can't just put aside, you know, the eight most popular drivers that historically have made the top eight and just say, well, that's your final eight right there. So much can happen. And as we've seen years in, year out, you always have one or two real contenders drop out early because of trouble. So certainly that leaves a big hole there for the 17.

possibly six to fit in. Yeah, we still have three regular season races left, but at least on the points I test, this has been a closer overall playoff battle than when I remember in recent years. You usually have a guy who wins a handful of races, and they've got 30 to 40 playoff points going into the playoffs. William has 22 right now, and that's the highest,

and then, you know, Busher has 11. What is true accent? 20, not including if he was the window like this season. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But add, you know, he'll have 35. Byron will have 31 if he finishes for.

Yeah, it'll be close. We'll have, it's going to be close. Yeah, 24, 23, 24 if we, no one else, none of the three of us went any more stages. However, you know, the way that, you know, it's going, then I would say someone is. Yeah, it's going to be, it won't. be as top-heavy is what you're saying is that the points are spread out a little more across the field so yeah I think it is shaping up to be a really good playoffs from that standpoint um also with with rfk I saw you after the race you finished third Brad finished fourth and you just had mentioned to Brad

hey hey good job um from an owner's perspective I'm curious what what it means or what you think it it means to Brad that, you know, his team probably is the best for a team right now to to come in and revitalize that whole RFK organization and now to top Penske and top SHR. Yeah, I just feel like that's a big deal. It is. And, you know, it's one of those things where I understand the feeling. When he gets out of that car, I know exactly what he's feeling.

Now, the only difference is he's driving for the team that he's a part owner of. where I on Sunday directly compete against the team that me and Michael owns. So I think that I understand the conflicting probably feelings he has in the inside of, damn, the car I just am driving one. You know, he's won two weeks in a row. I've been right there with him. what do we need to do to execute better or get better track position or whatever it might be to win? Because I know Brad still got the fire in him to want to win.

But then, you know, 20 minutes later, he's probably very, very excited for his race team. So I think that, yeah, I certainly respect, you know, the work that that team has put in to get better. I heard NBC talking during, I believe it was practice, saying, you know, that the next step and how you get better is more manufacturer support. And I believe that as well is that then you can use that to, you know, make, you know, financial decisions on resources of how you need to take the next step. So I certainly think that they're doing a fantastic job and, you know, it's, you know, we know that they hired. David Smith early on. It was actually one of the first things that I remember one of the first hires that they had when Brad came over there. He was a big stats in the analytics guy.

Surely that's paying some fruit now for them. So it's a process. I mean, you know, when I talked about, you know, building 2311, I said it was going to take a five-year plan to make us a championship contending organization. You know, we're in year three now. I still believe that that's a trajectory. Obviously, we know where we've got to get better. We've got fast enough cars, but we know where we have to get better. But it's a process.

You know, you can't just, you know, pick crew guys right off the couch because if they were good, then they'd have a job somewhere, right? And, you know, the process then of, you know, fixing if someone's got, you know, a health issue and it just isn't 100% as a pick crew guy. or they need to hone their skills and get more reps. Like, that is a process. Like, it's just weighing like, well, what is this person's ceiling versus what are they at? Where are they at now?

Like, you know, when you're building a pit crew department, and this is the first year that 2311's had their own pit crews, we understand it's a process. And we're going to, you know, we started very early this one. Because, you know, at 9 a.m., we've got a long discussion on what our long-term pit crew planning is, right? Do we expand? Do we get more personnel? Do we hire more to then have three pick crews? And then we'll outsource one to another team to let us continue to build our roster and hone our stuff.

We figured at Gibbs that, you know, we would probably get the fifth and sixth best team. That just made sense for Gibbs, but it didn't make sense for us because we feel like we have race-winning cars. But it is a process. It takes time. Tyler Redick has absolutely 100% the right to be as angry and frustrated as he is. We have let him down more times than we have brought him up. And we've got to do a better job of that.

Yeah, it's frustrating. trust me from my standpoint I saw him and I'm driving the car and I'm thinking okay I'm going to come out here fourth and he says all right when this cycles you're going to be third and I look and I can see the

17 I see the 19 I'm like I'm just where's the 45 you know it's just man hate it for Billy in that whole team and Tyler they just they deserve better than what they're getting right now but

you know I can assure you the guys are probably at the shop working on it, trying to figure out how they can get better. Can you give a deeper explanation of what that pit crew department looks like now and then what potentially it could look like in the future based on what you just said there? Yeah. I mean, so our alliance with JGR, you know, we use their facilities, basically, but we, you know, we've hired our own coach. We've got really 10 guys. We don't have any reserves. What we did is, You know, we, a part of our alliance, we have access to reserves on JGR's rosters. So where did those 10 guys come from?

They were already in the sport, I'm assuming. Yeah, some of them were already on 2311's cars, but they were JGR employees. I would say most of them came from other teams. Just, you know, other pit crew members' contracts are up. And they come talk to Shippie and say, hey, I'm not. interested in coming over to 2311. So, so then are you

and then we take, then we take and we have all the, you know, all the information to, you know, try these guys out or, you know, look at their history and say, is this somebody we want to hire or not? And so, again, it's a huge

expense for 2311 to then, you know, hire another pit crew that is not for one of our cars, but it's like, is the investment worth it. It seems like it needs to be at this point. Is there a major learning curve for new pit crew members coming into sport? Like say you found some kid out of Arizona State, which is a hell of a football player, right? And they didn't get drafted. Is there, what is the learning curve for a new athlete coming into NASCAR? Man, this is probably a better question for the JGR coaches. I'm not

really sure how long it takes them to take someone that is completely raw, never done a pit. stop before but is a hell of an athlete to making it to cup my guess is it's it's got to be it's got to be a year and a half two years i would say but they'll what they do is they'll get on you know alliance team so i think that the um i can't remember i think it's the legacy cars are jGR pick crews Legacy or front row One of the two Are JGR Pick crew So they'll probably get in the game

In a year or less But then making it to one of the house cars You're probably looking at it a couple years So the overall goal really is to For 2311 is to expand your roster Expand your bench Have more resources Yep

Yep Yep So if you're good, come see us. We're looking right away. Will the new shop have its own area for pickers to train? That's not on our radar right at the moment. We had the space for it, of course, but the JGR facilities are working well for us.

You know, we have our allotted time that we work out of there. It works well for us. I think it's a good partnership we have with JGR. And, you know, again, why would I? I just think about the resources, right? Should I go spend a million or $2 on, you know, pick crew facilities to practice in-house or, you know, build the same thing that JGR has two miles down the road? Or should I just take that money and resource it somewhere else?

To me, as long as JGR continues us to have a alliance with JGR, it seems like it makes sense for us. Our guys just to go two miles down the road and do it. We had some major movement down at the playoff bubble and the cut line. The headline leaving this weekend is Chase Elliott and how he officially cannot point his way into the playoffs. Well, it's not official. Unificial? All right, I'm off. I'm off the wagon.

Yeah, he's not going to make it unless he wins. Which he very well can win. We've mentioned it before. But Chase on points is out. out it's done it's not a talking point anymore and he'll tell you i mean you could tell he's so he's over it he is so over it his interviews he's just he's short and he doesn't want to talk about it he's sick of talking about it and he's like you know i told you all from the very beginning i had to win and nothing's changed yeah i think deep down inside he probably thought he could point his way

in. I believe he could point his way in, but it was going to take, you know, a Herculean effort of not, you know, not wrecking, not having any bad weeks. His good weeks weren't good enough to allow him to have a week like this. You know what I mean? He wasn't top three, top three, finish top five. He was finishing the back half of the top 10 or, you know, maybe sometimes top five in a stage and finished 12th. Like that just wasn't enough to allow him to have, you know, the wreck that he had this week. Yeah, well, the opportunity was there with the way the 34 team ran. Oh, the door was wide open. Yep. And some guys took that. Ty Gibbs being one of them, Daniel Suarez, too, both those guys now. Ty Gibbs took over the 16th spot. Michael McDowell is now three points out and Daniel Suarez is five

points out. Yeah, I mean, we're going to have a heck of a finish to the regular season here for that playoff spot. Again, if there's not a new winner, if it is, then it moves to Bubba, and he's 55 ahead of Gibbs. So I think that this was the weekend that Suarez needed, no question. The stage points really helped him this week, and he finished in the top six or seven, I believe it was. I think so. Certainly in the top 10. And then Gibbs had, again, stage points.

With the pits, with the yellows that we had, it just jumbled up the field so much. It really gave the opportunity to the people that needed stage points to continue to stay out and sell out for stage points on Sunday. I kind of wish we did as the 11 car that we just got, stage points and then, you know, left me in a position where, I mean, I wouldn't have restarted that much different, I don't think. But yeah, it's just one of those things where I think it's always hindsight's 2020, but you just never know when cautions are going to fall and

trying to plan on a caution and make, you know, knowing you're short on gas is just very hard. But for Gibbs, McDowell, Bubba, Suarez, they don't care. If they'll just come pit early, like they're they're conceding okay we're not good enough to win so we just want to go out here and get all the stage points we can and we'll make we'll we'll make up where finished we can at the end now in bubba's instance he finished 18th he certainly should have finished better than 8 he should be able to come through the field better than that but uh it looked like you know i read his debrief this morning he um he was super loose and and obviously when he got in traffic he couldn't go anywhere the last part of the race.

Well, hindsight's always 20-20. Bubba did have a good points day. He did. But he was a car earlier in the race that showed glimpses of winning speed. Yeah, I just, that's what befuddled me of, you know, when I saw the finishing position of the 23, I'm like, wait a minute, their car was way faster than that.

I don't know, just lost the handle, I guess, but they faded. But strategy-wise, they stayed out to get the stage points in stage two, you know. Yeah. They had to. I mean, they're trying to build a buffer here. Right.

How I'm saying, though, is you finish fourth in stage two and then you finish 18th at the end of race. Could you have set yourself up to finish fifth in the race and give up those stage two stage points? Because you had race. Well, they were probably thinking that, I mean, because he had started that deep before. and drove back up to the top 10 easily,

that they should be able to do that again, and they should have been able to do that again. So they didn't either keep up with a track or something. But, you know, Richmond and Michigan, they faded. You know, it just bled at the end of the race spots. So I need to figure that one out for sure, because, you know, when you got a fast car, it's, you typically got a fast car for the whole race.

but plus 58 is still you're holding serve like you're you're doing what you got to do and you control your destiny yeah and and we mentioned weeks and weeks ago that like it's whoever gets the most stage points is going to get in that's the person that's going to get in it's not going to be the finishing person it's the stage person that's going to get in and right now that's where the 23 team is killing it over everyone else they're they're driving to the front at the beginning of the race getting stage points while these other guys are you know McDow you know if you were to listen to Dirty Modo they you know they they mentioned McDowell's never finished better 20th at Michigan there's various reasons that that happens and this week he had damage

um and finished 24th I believe but um that team that team in general I don't know if you can use a whole lot of past precedence with Michael McDowell in the 34 team because this year they outperforming all of their past performances. It's very similar to Ricky Stenhouse. Now, Ricky, not this week. But for most weeks, he's outperforming any of the historical data that you might be able to throw at him. So I still think now that I'm off, I'm hopping off the chase train. I'm officially off.

I'm sorry. He might win a race and get in. Two road courses and a super speedway. it's going to be a dog fight it's going to be so close and it's setting up to where the fastest guys on the road course are below the cut line

Super Speedway you would give the edge to McDowell Super Speedway I'm not disrespecting McDowell at all on the road courses I understand he has scored the most stage points of any other driver thank you I know the

data on that. However, things, you know, it is a little different now that there are no stage breaks. So it's wherever you're running, you're going to get points for where before you typically have most of the top 10 peel off. But I still think he's in a really good spot. I like McDowell's chances now significantly more than I did before. Gibbs, he's got the fastest car of all these guys. It's just a matter, you know, he's just inexperienced, but he's driving like a vet. He's not getting in any trouble, right? We're not talking about Gibbs any week, right? He's just chipping away, chipping away.

And I think he's getting a little better each week. It's like, but what about, you know, surely the pressure. I know that kid. He feels a lot of pressure on himself. Like, does it get the best of you at some point? Do you start chasing if you're at the Indy Road course this week and McDowell's 10 spots ahead of you? Do you panic or do you just take a breath and let this thing play out? So it's going to be close, but it's, I don't know, it's so hard to give an edge.

Who makes it for you? Let me hear what you said. I'd say. Bubba. Okay. At the 15th spot. Okay. if there's not another new winner.

It's tough. I feel like I have to, you know, I said I like Michael McDowell last week just because these next three races are in his wheelhouse, two road courses and a super speedway. He's good at all three. You're not wrong. But again, I did not see Daniel Suarez cutting the gap

to where it is now. And Ty again is not. He's great on road courses too. I think it comes down to if Ty, if tie can be consistent for the next three races, can McDowell just be better? If Ty's finishing right around that top 10, the next handful of races maybe cheap and off the few.

It's whoever gets the most stage points. Gibbs, McDowell, Svarez, Almondanger, whoever gets the first one that gets, let's see, we've got two road courses, over these next two weeks, the first one to get 20 total stage points is your

is your guy that makes it Well then you really need to pay attention to qualify in the next three weeks Maybe not Daytona. Yeah, that's a good point. You do. Yeah, I don't know the stats check out Dirty Modo for that

on who's typically been the fast qualifiers. I'd say McDowell. Almondinger. Amendinger. is usually pretty stout on Saturdays. It's going to be close. Tune in.

Tune in. It's going to be a great battle. Just real quick, yes or no question. On the guys below Suarez, Almond, Dinger, Bowman, and Cindrick, do you have any hope for them? No. No.

They're minus 44, 53, and Elliott's 55 now. Nope. No hope. Unless they win. Yeah. They can win. What about the top of this board? Regular season championship.

Denny ham win regular season champion? Man. We're 57 back. It's like it's a two horse race. Byron's too far back. He's two races back basically with three to go. We're one plus back. Yeah, we needed more stage one.

points this week. But if Truex continues to run like he's running, then I think it'll be, it's going to be tough for us to make up 57 points. So it's possible. We just have to go out and qualify on the pole and win both stages. And then we're going to give ourselves a shot. I think that it's certainly possible, especially with the Super Speedway. Martin said, you know, very tough time finishing super speedway races um 99% of not his doing um he just always gets caught up in it but uh he's looking good he's looking good there uh we're second byron's third and then there's another big drop to fourth so we're all spread out um you know there was it got tight but then um true x got hot he got he's he's white hot i guess we are kind of too right right

it's close we're not as white hot as he is he's i mean he's been exceptional your teal blue hot in this mavis car that's for sure ha good point for sure um yeah so you know that's that's kind of what the playoffs is looking like um you know martin actually also you know just very casually uh announced his return to jockeys racing in the media center the you know one of the one of the of those, he's just one of those guys who's, you know, very quiet. And at times, he probably hates going to the media center, but he's just like, gets tired of getting asked, are you coming back, or are you coming back? And he's just like, hey, guys, I'm coming back. Okay. Sounds good. So it's, he's returning, which is great for the organization. And I know Joe and all of us, we,

we love to have Martin back because he's such a valuable asset to our race team. But I'll tell you, I think that we're shaping up for a great regular season. We've got three races left. Two road courses, one super speedway. Do we have a surprise winner in those three races? That is not in the currently here. Well, if you're going to see one, you're going to see it at these three types of tracks. No, you're not.

You're not going to see it in the next two. Indy Roadcourses is a crapshoot as much as any race. No, it is not. especially now that they moved the restart zone we haven't seen it based I can just tell you my professional opinion of this is that they moved the restart zone where the

restarts are not going to be demolition cars. Joey's not dive bomb in the field this year. That's what you're saying? Well he ain't going to be able to pull the shit he pulled last year that's for sure. Ross ain't cut in the corner. He still yeah he said during our driver's being he's like

it's still a better option to go there and park and then take off versus getting wrecked if you go into turn one. I just don't think we're going to be jammed up quite as much as we were which is a better change.

NASCAR moving that to make it not calamity corners certainly a better idea because it was a show last year. A few off-track things before we wrap this pot up. I got a very random email late last night

from a Josh P let me pull it up here on my computer so you can I can read it properly. Well, One of the things too, hell, we have the return of Shane Van Gisbergen, right? And we talked about off the record, like, what are our expectations for him and his first asphalt oval at IRP?

I will set the over under, and this is an entire guess, of his finishing position at in the truck race, thinking about the truck. trucks. Trucks are tougher, man. Trucks are tough. I'll set his finishing position at 15.5. I would have said 14 and a half. Really? Yeah, I was about to jump in and say 14 and a half. Okay. And then how about let's do an over under for finishing position on the cup race? 9.5. 9.5. I'm going to say 7.5. 7.5 for me. Put it on record. 9 and a half for Jared. on the cup and 15.5 for the trucks for me, 14 and a half for the trucks for Jared. Top 10 in a cup race just sounds good for me.

I don't care if it's 7th or 9th. Yeah, he's going to be fast. He knows how to road race, obviously, but will he have the big advantage of the street race? Probably not. The conditions between wet and dry kind of played a big factor as well. so we'll see how it all turns out. I think he's still going to perform well.

Camui, Kobayashi, is going to be running our third entry at 2311 this week. Excited to see what he can do. I heard he's been doing well in the simulator. He did well during the test. They went to VIR and let him run some laps there. And, you know, Tyler thought he was extremely fast there as well. So we'll see how he does. Yeah.

What is this our... Is this our second or third race is 67? I'm not really sure. Pasturana. And that's it, right? Yeah, that's it. So second time. So we're excited about that.

Eric Phillips will be on the box for him. And yeah, we're excited. He's here all week and he's ready to get on the racetrack. so and you know Jensen Button is also returning right I believe to the Indy Roadcourse so we've got a lot of

got a lot of ringers yeah a lot of ringers yeah you definitely certainly some very talented road course racers I don't know you would call them ringers I thought that's what a ringer meant

talented road course guy you're probably right you're probably right on that yeah I just the history for years and years and years up until Shane won was that they just didn't win. But gosh, who knows what to expect now, right? It's, uh, anything can happen, especially they qualify up front.

SVG will also be a guest on the Dale Jr. down though this week, which is now just what I'm calling him from here on out, SVG. I'm tired of getting chirped on Twitter. I'm pronouncing his name wrong all the time. I understand. Because you said, because you said, Gisbergen or Ginson Bergen. Ginson Bergen. Yeah, yeah. million different ways. But it's Gisbergen. Yeah.

I got it now. A couple booze and Jared's already like pulling back. Come on, Jared. SVG. Hey, you got to get more haters. Haters are just admirers that have lost their way. That's all it is. Learning from the best.

All right. So this email, real quick, this email came in late last night from a Josh P. He says, were you the photographer that did? Denny was kicking water on before the race at MIS. Just curious. We got a huge kick out of it with the subject titled MIS water incident. Is there, are you sticking a claim or something? No, I remember walking, walking to the grid.

There was this puddle. Yeah, and you're trying to get a very photo, you know. Oh, this could be cool. Yeah, you try to get a reflection. Yeah. And I just, as I walk up to that puddle that you're trying to put your camera in front of to get a reflection, just kick the water right at you.

But I remember doing like a very, probably very unathletic, like skip, like try to dodge the water droplets and apparently someone saw it. Assault, assault. Well, hopefully you get over it. I'm over it. I was hoping you would get the droplets like coming towards the lens. I thought that would be cool. Well, I mean, now I know if I'm.

taking a picture in a water puddle just hang out there a little longer and you just have to take it to the face i will happily take it if you do that all right never expected that before all right well uh we'll see how indie row course goes uh i'm excited for it hopefully get our third pull in a row on a row course who saw that coming who had it on their bingo card nobody um our our performance has been getting better on row courses i told you it's going to be a process but we are getting better So I'm excited to go and see if we can't get another win. We really want five more playoff points before we get this playoff going. But either way, we're going to have more than what we had last year for sure.

So tune in next week and we'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.