Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - New Motto: "A11 IN"

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Is NASCAR going away from the purple vest? If Denny can't win Daytona 500, who is his pick (5:00)? Expectations for Josh Berry's rookie season (7:50). Bubba to find victory lane in 2024 (8:46)? Chase Elliott looking to rebound after tough 2023 season (9:22). Make or break season for Daniel Suarez. Could Noah Gragson actually win in Daytona (13:20)? Will we see more or less winners than 2023 season (18:30)? Brad Keselowski to get his first win at RFK (24:00)? What to expect from Kyle Busch and RCR in year 2 (26:45).23XI exceeded expectations in 2023 and their goals aren't slowing down. Plus, what Denny likes most about the new 23XI shop (35:10).How will Legacy MC moving to Toyota help the other Toyotas at Daytona (44:00).Denny tells his favorite non-victorious Daytona 500 story. Hint...it involves Dale Jr (44:50).Plus, Denny and Jared talk about the new Apple Pro Vision goggles and what's next for technology (51:45). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're not an underdog. This is not an underdog team anymore, for sure. Padding ourselves on the back for running in the top 10, I don't mean to be the tough guy, but like that's very modest goals for our teams. I think that I expect them to contend for wins and top fives on a regular basis. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental preseason preview edition. I'm Denny Hammon.

I drive the number 11. car for Joe Gibbs Racing and I co-owned the 23 and 45 car for 2311 racing. And my esteemed co-host is Jared Allen purple vests. Well, not necessarily purple. We're getting new vest this year for people wondering about the whole vest thing. Hold on. They're no purple. I hear they're not purple and it will not be number 560.

Hold on. This is breaking news. There'll be new brand. How are people going to find you that? Well, yeah, they'll just have the old-fashioned way without the vest, I guess. Until, obviously, like, we're getting five weeks into this season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they will. Okay, they're not going to be black.

They're, I don't know. Just, so if you're in the stands. They will be for this Daytona race, they're the same old vest. So the purple vests I have number 512. And then come Atlanta, there'll be new branding. Everyone will have new vests, new colors, new numbers. Do you know why that is? Did they clue y'all in on that?

They've been talking about this for the last handful of years. Every year we hear, oh, there's going to be new vest this year. It's going to be new vest this year. And I think this is actually the year there's going to be new vests. Well, I mean, those old vests were expensive if you lost them, right? Weren't they like $500 to replace? $250. Or $2.50 if you want to replace it on Amazon.

Yeah. Yeah. So. I saw where someone said that Jared should have pushed for number 511 as his vest. I mean, we just got so accustomed. them to 5-16. I had 5-11, actually. In 2000, the year before this podcast started, had 5-11. And it was fitting because for obvious reasons.

Because you're two favorites? Something like that. Yeah, that's fair. And then it switched last year and then it took off. They give you the champions vest, 5-12, the past two champions. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. 5-12. Nice.

Well, so we don't have a big script for this episode. So we're going to kind of wing this a little bit, but we feel like there's plenty to talk about. We got the Dayton and 500 coming up this week. This was our last off week for quite a while in this season. So Super Bowl plans, Jared, you know, oh, well, I guess this episode isn't. Yeah, we can just let the people know. We're taping us on Friday.

We want to enjoy the Super Bowl. Yeah, yeah. So where did you watch the Super Bowl? I was in Raleigh this weekend. Visiting a friend. Okay. Who was your prediction to win the Super Bowl? And let's see if it came true.

The 49ers. Wow. Okay. Going against the grain. I'm torn. I am too. If it's Monday, right, and you're listening to this episode, I really hope that we saw just what it would be like to see Taylor Swift win a Super Bowl.

I really want to see that. Do you think the NFL wants that? 100%. Absolutely. But I also do not want Patrick Mahomes to win our Super Bowl because I like Tom Brady. Like Tom Brady's the goat. You're trying to uphold that legacy of the goat.

Right. And if Mahomes wins a third Super Bowl this young in his career, it's a tough conversation. Yeah. Oh, well, I can tell you this. Taylor was heavily invested on the 49ers winning because she has a homework pass at stake. here. So in her class, they gave the kids the option. But before the playoffs started,

here's the teams that are in it. Pick which team wins the Super Bowl. If you get the right answer, then you get a homework pass. So heavily invested is Taylor. Huh. Interesting. Yeah. There's a, there's a, before we move on with this, a prop bit I think I saw yesterday, well, not yesterday on Thursday, so a couple days ago. Um, 2.5 was the long, players to throw a touchdown pass or throw a pass not a touchdown pass throw a pass so obviously you're given a two over the two quarterback so there'd be a trick play or there'll be a quarterback out for a play or two that too yeah i would take over on that um we'll see if that came true anyway let's let's go to the present time present time okay um the tony five hundred it's coming up this

weekend. Let's start on our kind of our preview. What's your bold prediction on the 500? Again, this is imprompt. Jared didn't know these questions are coming. So I'm hitting them quick here. Who are we talking about one week from now that just won the Daytona 500? Bold prediction would be a new winner like we had last year in Ricky Sondhouse Jr. That would be the bold prediction. Who from this? It's not bold if it's happened like the last three years a row. All right. Well, then what's an example

of a bold prediction? I got one. You win in another? Is that bold? I'm not... I'm not saying me. I know I'm going to win, but if I don't,

I have a bold prediction. Kyle Busch wins his first Daytona, how is that bold? He's never won it. Okay, well, that's the same thing that I just said, a guy who's never won it. What's more likely Kyle Busch to win it or like... You're being so vague.

You're being so vague. Coil of Joy. I know, but, Jared's lumping everybody that's never won a Dayton and 500 into his bold prediction. That's not bold if you just say oh, somebody new.

Okay, well there's like 30 guys that have never won it that are probably going to be in this field. So you get what I'm saying? You got to be more specific if you're going to be bold. And mine is that Kyle Busch wins it for the first time.

All right. My bold prediction is it. 20 years of trying, 20 years of frustration. Kyle Bush. Yeah. All right. My bold prediction is that Jimmy Johnson makes the race and is up towards the front at the end.

All right. I'll go bolder. My prediction, Jimmy Johnson sits on the front row. Now is that bold? Now he makes the race. He sits on the front row. That's a pretty good sign for your Toyota's then. it's meant to be bold, not like predictable.

I mean, what's the chances? Probably not very good, but that's my bold prediction. Jimmy Johnson comes out of the gate. Boom, with a smoking fast lap. Okay, well, the chances are 1 in 41. Yeah, so it's bold. All right, what else are we want to hit on? So those are Daytona 500 predictions.

I do want to I do want to play a little game with you, okay? Let's think about this. This is my, this is predictions, and I'm going to ask both of you, and we're going to put this on the record, and we're going to revisit this later in the year. I'll ask you, Travis, first,

to pick a number between 1 and 36. 13. 13. Okay. All right. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is one. If it falls on a driver that is no longer driving, we're going to go off of the new driver of that car. 13th in the standings last year was Kevin Harvick in the four. Does Josh Berry go below or above that 13th finishing position in 2024? Average, running average, no, finish into the year standing below. Oh, below. So you're saying he finishes better than 13th? No, worse.

Below would be, you know, 12, 11, 10. Okay, higher. Okay, higher. We got Jared and Travis going higher. What are you doing there, Travis? Oh, just keep going. He says, all right, Jerry, give me another number. Ten.

I, too, I will take the above on Josh Berry over the 13. 10. Bobba Wallace. So the question is, will he finish below 10th in the standings? You can do better or worse. Better or worse? 10. Bubba Wallace.

Better. Probably close to, I would, that's tough. Yeah. My hope is better. As a friend of Boas, I hope better. Okay. I'm going to say better as well. Travis, give me a number.

17. Chase Elliott. Oh, easy. better. Easy says easy. Yeah, better. I too will go better. Okay, give me another number.

Well, now I know. Hold on a second, though, Jared. Jared, how many wins do you think he gets, Jared? Oh, more than zero? No, I mean... More than one and a half? Yeah, the biggest line's probably one and a half to two. There's probably two, right?

I would think. I mean, I don't know. But how many wins does he have? In the year. I'll say two. Two or three? Yeah, I'll say two. I was going to say two.

Okay. All right. Now I know how to play this game. Let me pick another number. Okay. Go ahead. 24. There you go.

Now we're getting into the fun ones. 24, Austin Cendrick. Better or worse than 24th this year coming up. Man, they struggle at the clash. I mean, for that hour, whatever it was. I'm going to say better, but not by much. I mean, you got to be better. You got to be better.

I hope it's better. That's fair. I mean, I think that I agree that he's got to be better than that, for sure. Obviously, I'm torn on better or worse. It's a, I mean, it is. You know, I hate to poo-poo, but like the expectations of that two car should not be 24th. New car, a little more experience. All right, I'll go better.

I'm going to go better. on Austin Cedric 24th. Travis? Well, I was just going to say you think about that team. They've had championships, but in the regular season, though, they haven't been blown people away. So it's hard to tell with that. I know.

I think he's going to do better, though, but not by much. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. Travis, give me a number. 19. This is another one. Daniel Suarez, 19th.

Better or worse than 2024? Is he improved? Does he get worse? Does he stay the same? I think he does worse. I think he's got a lot of pressure under him too. SVG is right there. If track goes doesn't expand or they're going to stay two.

Now is he going to have a seat? Go ahead. I'll go after you. Come on, Jared. I'm going to say worse, but not by much. Oh, gosh. I almost say the same. That's not an...

I said before, you could say better or worse or the same. I don't think so. It's his game. I like to make up rules as I go. Yeah, I don't know. This is a tough one for sure. Trackhouse has got a lot of stuff going on for sure, and they've got, obviously,

they've signed more seats than what they've got. Certainly. that the focus will be on the 99 to improve upon 19th. I think that the numbers I think the numbers pretty close to right

but I'll I'll say better I'll say better the only thing that worries me is him trying really really hard and making mistakes that's the only thing that worries me on the under but I'll

take the under. Let's do two more I got one. Are you looking at the standings? Yeah. All right, go ahead. 22. 22nd. Eric Amarola, now Noah Gregson.

How do you say, is it Gregson? Gregson. I'm shrugging my shoulders. I want to make sure that we say his name properly. Maybe we get some clarification from social media once this comes out. Travis, your thoughts? What was the number? Noah at 22.

God, these fall right on. I think, I'm going to say the same. Boy, that's an easy answer. Go ahead. I'm going to say worse. Man, I just don't know what to make of Noah because I know he's worked really, really hard. He's super motivated. It's a lot of, like, what does Stuart Haas do this year, right?

I think, you know, do they have a resurgence? Do they stay the same? I don't think they get worse. I'll, 22. I'm looking at the drivers is going to have to leapfrog. It's tough, but I'll probably say worse, but it's close.

It's close. Spending that much time out of the car, the cup car, do you think there's going to be an adjustment at the beginning of the year for him, or how do you think that'll go? I mean, he could win the Daytona 5. I mean, realistically speaking, nothing is a shock in the 500 anymore, right?

So, I mean, the last few winters we've had has been McDowell, no, Cindrick, McDowell, and Stenhouse. So you just never know. Like, this is actually counterintuitive of what my season-long bold prediction is. So I might be cutting my nose despite my face on this one. but I would say, I'd say the number's really, really close. I just don't know. I think that it would not surprise me if Noah goes out there and contends for a playoff spot.

It also would not shock me in the world if he's, you know, in the low 20s. So I'm not sure. I think it's just kind of dependent on organization and whether they take the step, which I think with a new car they probably should or would. Yeah, I think it's fascinating though looking at these stuff. and going down to, you know, 20th, 21st, 22nd, like all those guys above that, you could make a case that they're a playoff driver this year.

Like the competition is really good. Yeah, I mean, guys who didn't make the playoffs last year, Alex Bowman, Suarez, Ty Gibbs, Chase Elliott, how are you not penciling at least three or three, if not four of those guys, as playoff, they should make the playoffs. I mean, they're just, they're with organizations that should make the playoffs.

I mean, that is a very modest goal when you're driving one of these cars that they're driving. So, yeah, you're going to have to jump quite a few, and you're always going to have like the two drivers that win that you just don't plan for on a super speedway or, you know, McDowell at the road course, at Indy last year, like, you know, that just, they weren't going to make it in on points, but they did it that way, right?

So. But even still, like, McDowell was right there. So then that still leaves a big name out, right? So who, if you're, if you're going to go ahead and pencil in the Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs,

just because, oh, well, they're on a rides are coming. Alex Bowman, he's going to have a comeback season. Daniel Suarez, he's got, he's going to go forward,

you would think, I, who are you taking out? I guess the four car was in. We're saying it's going to be worse. So that that's one out. Prediction-wise, we just don't know, right? I mean, again, I hate, it's hard pressed to bet against Rodney Childers

because he's just, he finds speed or has found speed with Kevin Harvick for so many years. And it's like, well, we're probably going to find out, well, what's, this is like Belichick and Tom Brady. splitting up, right? You know, which, what was it? So that'll be interesting. I don't see any major names that I'm then taking out. So certainly there'll be at least a couple cars that you would expect to make the playoffs, not make it.

So it'll be fun to see how it all plays out. I got a question. 15 drivers won a race last year. Is that number higher, lower the same? Lower. I'm always a pessimist on the amount of drivers that win. What was it? Was it 17 last, the year before that, the first next junior, 16, 17?

It was definitely higher. It was higher, right? Because, like, Truex didn't make the playoffs. And he was second in points. Is that right? Or third in points? So, because he didn't win a race. that's the good that's the that's the that's the

yeah my it's like 14 and a half I feel like it's like 13 and a half I just think that I would choose over 13 and a half I know but the trend is is that these big teams figure things out and once they figure things out they have an advantage that just you're not going to be able to overcome the resources eventually catch up I think in my opinion the next gen car really opened it up in the first year

for the lower teams to like hit a setup and be really good and win a race. And that's why we saw so many winners the first year. And that number trended down in year two. I think it trends down again in year three. I know, but let's look at, let's look at the wind tallies from last year. There's four cars that won one race. The 22, the 34, the 47, and AJ Elmendinger. you would assume

Joey's not I'm not saying any of these guys are fluke wins but Joey's a proven winner season after season obviously so let's pretend that there's not a new winner at Daytona so you know Ricky doesn't have this win last year

and then let's pretend that McDowell doesn't have that win last year and then Allman Dinger does have that win so you take out three guys that didn't win a race last year Brad Kozlowski who ran up front quite a could easily have won. Bubba Wallace. I think we'd expect Bubba to win this year.

Chase Elliott didn't. Chase Elliott didn't win. Ty Gibbs didn't win. Ty Gibbs could easily win a race this year. Suarez didn't win. You can make a case for Suarez. She mentioned Bowman. This year, Bowman.

So, like, the number last year was 15. I get it. And there was only three or four guys. I know, but you also had William Byron get six. And if you kind of dig into those six, that just makes my case better is if you take three of those

and now offer three new opportunities for another guy to win one of those could be Ty or Bubba you're right I think that's what makes this season kind of compelling on what happens because even though it doesn't seem like

we were talking about like a ton of off-season news we were talking with Jordan Bianchi from the tear down although it seems like a low article off season of like big moves, it's still a fair amount of them.

Because there's manufacturers with new cars, do they improve? Do they get worse? You have a few drivers in new spots, an overhaul at Stuart Haas, right? So it is. It's pretty compelling. Will Brad finally get a win in an RFK car, right? Um, uh, Bisher, you know, had, didn't he have three in a row? Did he have three in a row? I think it was like three in five weeks. Oh, yeah, it was three straight ovals.

Oh, Jordan clarified that. Okay, okay, okay. Um, and again, I mean, I don't know. I mean, if you dig into each one of these wins, there's like, man, did he dominate three races or did that, you know, was there a caution that helped that really, but he kept putting himself in position to then win the race. And he got on really hot street there because he kept top. being in the top five, and then all of a sudden, if you keep doing that, a caution is going to fall your way, and you are going to get a win, right? And you capitalize. So, it's, uh, execution is such a big part of this. And it's, um, it's, it's just going to be pretty compelling. So I think this season's kind of wide open as to, you know, I think it's really easy always to put like the same four to five guys in the final four every single year just because. Do I think that, that that's unreasonable to do this

year? No, because again, I believe that the super organizations continue to just get a little better. I think pit crews continue to get a little bit more consistent year after year with the next gen car. This will be now the third year with these single lug pit stops. So if you look at kind of the blowups that pick crews have had, it was a big number in year one. Everyone's just getting used to it. Look how many loose wheels. It was just like every single week where someone was losing a wheel. then it was quite a bit less last year. I think it'll be quite a bit less this year. So it's just people get acclimated and that's when you start getting into the,

man, this is starting to be little itty-bitty advantages here and there that just make a big difference as to whether you're dominant or not. And I think that the big teams will always just have that because of the resources. So you're not going to get them to unlearn, these engineers to unlearn what they know. and I think that that's why it's easy to pick, you know, chalk guys. And when people say, well, you know,

my bold pick is like a Chris Busher or Brad Kizowski to get to the Final Four, it is somewhat bold. Now, you wouldn't think so, but Brad still hasn't won over there. It's been a couple years now that he's gone winless. Brad, I think, in my opinion, is just, he probably doesn't get enough,

credit for how good he is behind the wheel. He's just really, really good. It just may have not have shown in the win column the last couple of years. So when you're building an organization or you're trying to help the technical side of things or competition side of things, it's a process. I can understand that firsthand, how tough it is for a two-car organization or three-car organization to go out there and win. So I think that we still haven't seen. seen and by the numbers Brad's probably getting right to his prime, which is almost that 40 number. Is he like 38, 39? I'm not really sure. So he's getting into that really sweet spot where statistically he's going to be in his prime. So I think that's 39. Yeah. So we haven't, have we even

seen the best Brad yet? That's that's kind of what disappoints me in a way because I know a lot of people who have gotten into NASCAR over the last couple years because of, you know, outside things like the Netflix series and things like that. And they don't necessarily know how good Brad is. Like, Brad was really good. Yeah. Yeah, at Penske. He was just, yeah, he was a guy that you could just mark down for three to four wins a

year. Yeah. I think, man, I don't know. I'm trying to rack my brain here, but I feel like there was a street there of like three or four years in a row. He had three wins or more. I mean, that is no easy task. and I don't care what your organization is.

If it's good, then you've got good teammates. It's got the same as you, so it makes it even harder. Brad went from 2016 to 2022, winning at least three races. That's six years in a row. And if we go from 2011 to 2020, he won three races a year, excluding two years, 2013 and 2015. Yeah. well I mean that's interesting for sure and so you know if you're looking for a bold pick to you know make it to the final four

Brad might be it I don't know you know if that if that organization continues on the trend that they have been on one interesting you know I'm trying to kind of go through the list here and like how Bush I just don't I don't know know what to do with Kyle Bush. I'm sitting here. I mean, look what I wrote down here. I said, Bush wins Daytona.

That's just a gut thing and I write it down. But then I also say, what, what does this season look like? Because, like, he had the most unassuming three wins of all last year, right? One happened early, and then another one. You had Fontana, right?

Yeah. And then I know he won St. Louis. I don't even know the third one. But I just feel like I don't know what to make of it. What should our expectations be for Kyle Busch? This is one of the, I mean, the guys right now, he's got 60-some wins. It's hard for me to not put him in the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR drivers. Now there's others coming down the line, the Kyle Larson's, what happens with Joey from now to the end of his career, how many wins does he rack up?

Like, there's others coming that could potentially get a big win total, but there ain't many, if any, that's going to catch Kyle Bush. So what should our, what should are we tempering our expectations of Kyle because he's with RCR? Do we just have a tainted feeling? why? They're a Chevy P1 team. They get all the same information that the Hendrick teams get. Well, historically, they have not won nearly as many races as the Hendrik teams. Yeah, I mean, they're a two-car team, right? They've won at least three races two or three years in a row.

I mean, I think Redick had three in 2022, all road courses, right? I don't know. It's so tough because I look at these guys and all I see is like they're upside. And I'm like, oh, that driver's great and he's going to win a lot. But there's only so many wins to go around. And so somebody's going to have a year that falls below expectations. And so that's what confuses me about Kyle is that, you know, as a talent, he is a guy that I believe

to me it's like Kyle Larson like you just say oh he's going to win four races a year that's just because of his talent he's going to win four races a year but he didn't he had a real bad playoffs last year and I mean we were talking more about him driving backwards than we were him driving forward

like you know that was just kind of his highlight reel the second half of the season and even he'll admit It's just, they, they just kind of lost it. So, like, what would your expectation? It's your realistic expectations for Kyle. You, you, you mentioned RCR, we temporary expectations because of RCR. And outside of Tyler Reddick's three-win season in 2022, prior to that, RCR hadn't had a multi-win season in almost.

a decade if I'm not reading this racing reference wrong. So, like, to me, that's the, that's why that is, right? Because you think Kyle's driving an RCR car. Obviously, Kyle's super talented, but he's driving an RCR car. So our expectation are tempered because what is RCR going to bring to the table for Kyle? Yeah. If they bring at least last year's, if they come to the track each weekend this year, equivalent to what they did last year,

then I think the expectations for Kyle are a one-two-win season. I can argue with you, and I don't know why, because I know Kyle's talented, but I can't pinpoint anything that RCR doesn't have that can't make him successful. I think they've got really strong pit crews. I mean, they've got a good organization. They have.

They just have underachieved a little bit, as far as what you would expect them too. But there's also weekends where, like, it seems like, last year I didn't feel it as much for RCR, where there was weekends where, oh, the RCR cars are fast. But I feel like the years prior to that, there would have been just, there seems like there was weekends, I don't know, maybe a Richmond comes to my mind pretty quickly

where, like, Austin Dillon is really fast, and then his teammate, who was his teammate at the time. But it just, they didn't have that show up and they're the fastest organization. And then I think every other team had that last year where, oh, both of their cars

or that organization is fast this weekend. RCR just never had that. It was either Kyle or it just wasn't happening. So, I mean, in that breath, I mean, certainly Austin Dillon needs to perform better. you know 29th that's that's got to improve i think there's that's the easiest probably layup of of all that is going to improve it's got to um so you know i i think one eric jones i'm just looking at the standard he was 27th last year that might be actually that might be the easiest one that i think

goes forward i think eric jones well that's team had a penalty too, right? Yeah. Was it 100 points? I think it was a lot to put Eric Jones at 27. So what, he's, give him 100 points, he's 22nd. So it's just, I mean, Austin Dillon had the same thing. I think they had a big penalty after Martinsville as well.

But again, you give him 100 points and you're just not gaining that much. It's 23rd points. So it was 60, it was 60 points. Oh, okay, 60. So, yeah, he's not gaining that much. He's still 26th in points, even without that penalty. So, I mean, I think, you know, you've got the Cendricks, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, those guys that need to step up.

There's no doubt that they're expecting more from themselves than what the results have shown, no doubt about it. You know, I think I heard where kind of Penske believes that you need three years of experience to really evaluate. someone. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think that within a year or two, you definitely need to show flashes of being able to run in the top five. Not every week, but I think that the really good guys, like even Chase Elliott, even though he didn't win right, you know, the first couple years of his career, he had

flashes of like oh he can win and i think now tie gives he's going to do his second season we're all penciling him oh he's going to win right and so i think that they're being a little bit more patient which is is totally um understandable i think you have less practice which is is a factor right these guys can't go and test like they used to back in the day um so it's probably the right strategy to uh to give these guys more seat time more of an opportunity to perform but eventually you know, you have to be able to perform at least, you know, to your teammates' abilities on a consistent basis. So all those guys, you know, got to perform this year or else they'll be on a microscope. I think that I don't know what you call it hot seat, no hot seat. I don't

know, but there's going to be more of a scrutiny to it if the performance isn't there for another year. Yeah. What's your expectations for 2311 this year? New building. A lot of new around 2311. Where are we going this year? I mean, our expectations is to continue to get better, and that's a very vague statement. You know, just two cars in the playoffs, that is way too modest for what we have going on there.

So my goal would be to have both cars, at least both cars in the in the final eight so that is my goal that continues to move us to that trajectory of having a car in the final four within five years so um what uh what changes this year to get you to that goal uh there's been a few changes um we've just added some more resources here and there um i think obviously being in a new building there's a lot of to gain with that. I think I've said many times that this building was built for the employees.

It's very employee friendly. We added, you know, just people, some, some engineering staff, you know, got some great tools and stuff that we're working on towards the future. So I just

think that they've got everything that they need to go out there and compete for race wins every single week. I'd say that whatever the expectations are of a Joe Gibbs racing car, I don't understand why we would move our goals any lower than that. I know it bugged me a little bit. When I watch the Netflix thing and Bubba, he's always got this chip on his shoulder.

And he says, we're not supposed to be here. I was like, yeah, you are. I expect you to be here. I mean, there might be, you know, are you, just because a few fans don't think you're good enough personally to get there, you absolutely have everything that it takes to be, you know, a top 10 point guy. And then you figure out how to get a little bit better every single year and then you start chipping away. Okay, I'm going to make the final eight this year. Then I'm going to figure out, okay, where's my weaknesses?

Let's go work on that. And then I'm going to get my way into the final four. So it's just, it's a slow and steady progression for sure. But as a team owner, I expect my guys to compete for race wins each and every week because I believe that we give them the resources to do that. That's why like Booty on Netflix said, we're not the little engine that could. Like he kind of had like the opposite mentality. Yeah, we're not an underdog.

This is not an underdog team anymore for sure. And so we patting ourselves on the back for running in the top 10, you know, I don't mean to be the tough guy, but like that's very modest goals for our teams. I think that I expect them to contend for wins and top fives on a regular basis, not just be happy with running, you know, 10 to 12. that's that's that's that's that's too those that bar is just too low yeah i mean when you started this too high i should say when you started low i'm backwards i'm thinking if you're doing the

limbo the bar is too low that means it's too hard but the bar is higher it's easier right this is how i feel about the the number game like are they higher or below yeah when you started 2311 you said your your goal was a five-year plan um to be a championship contending team I mean, you're close to that. We're in year four. Yeah. Again, it's last year, I think that they barely exceeded the expectations that I set for them. Obviously, I'm publicly kind of setting expectations here now.

But, you know, it's not just as easy as numbers on a page either. You know, certain stats, stat columns, it's hard to pin your success or failure based off of what happens in the stack column, right? So I think that, let me think about Kevin Harvick, for instance. Was that 2021, 10 races, but didn't make the final four? For whatever reason, it could be, yeah, I think there was a wreck of Texas,

a few other things like, you give me a 10 race win season and not make the final four? Probably going to say, all right, I'm good for that. Well, yeah, it gets you to 60 wins. You would say yes. You know what I'm saying? So are the championships the same? No, they're not.

Wins, man. Wins, wins, wins. Those are the guys that you're talking about. I mean, poor Blaney got cut out of the damn New York Knicks photo. Right? It's like, they didn't care about who is a champion, right? It's just like, so it's just different, right? And so I think that show that you can be a contender every single week.

And that's going to be your elite group, for sure. Are we going to get a tour of the 2311 building sometime soon? We are. I don't know when we'll open to the public. We're trying to finish up a few final touches before we do that. It certainly will be open before Charlotte Week, I would imagine. But yeah, there's just some final touches and things that we want to live in there for a little bit as well, for a little while kind of understand where everything's at,

kind of understand the flow, before we open it up to the public. But there'll be, you know, like three different viewing areas that you'll be able to see the shop floor on. A great interactive screen that people will be able to check out. There's actually more in viewing areas, five.

So you'll be able to look in, like, to our engine room where they're putting the engines together. You'll be able to see into all kinds of different rooms that you've never been able to see at a race shop. for. So very, very cool that, you know, how it's all laid out and excited for the people to see it, but we're just not ready to show the inside quite yet. Do you have a favorite part of the building? Probably as apartment office. That's not done yet. Yeah, me and Michael's, uh, ownership lounge, I guess you could say. Uh, it's not, that's, that part's not done yet. That'll be a couple months.

They're about to start on it. Um, we didn't need, we didn't need that to build cars. So we made sure all the shop floor, engineering, business wing, all that stuff was done first. Probably my favorite part is the cafe slash game room, if I had a guess. Like that, just the feel of it. A lot of greenery. I spent a lot of time on ladders putting up greenery in that area. I enjoyed being hands-on in the process. So actually one of our employees, Michael Russo, he says,

I'm not calling you Denny Downer anymore. I'm calling you Detail Denny. He says you just walk through here and start picking apart things that like neat. You know, you want to tweak or want to, you know, this, that, and the other. I'm like, I know. I wish I could let go of some things and just kind of say it's good enough, but it's just not in my blood. Yeah, that was a neat perspective to see a view in the Netflix show is when they filmed you in the, you know. Yeah, yeah.

It's, again, it's just hard to explain. And when you get to see the inside, you understand. how much detail is in there. It's, uh, it is, it's just amazing. I'm so happy with the way it turned out, uh, employees are ecstatic with it. Uh, I love that. Just, you know, getting the, man, I, I, I, I appreciate this. You know, this is, this is amazing.

I feel like I'm working at a five star hotel. Like that to me makes that so rewarding, knowing how much time I've put into, into that facility. So I love it for the employee. and hopefully we get a return on the investment by the results that we see on the racetrack. Yeah, so everyone wanting to want a view of this, I'm going to pressure Denny on a Cribs episode here in the future. I know of a media company that can help you out, Denny, if you... I understand. I understand. Before we wrap up, I got a few more questions I want to ask you.

Toyota has two more cars to work with this year at Daytona. Is two cars enough to notice a difference? Yeah, I think what it will allow us to do is, kind of set our own strategy. Like we, we just had to latch on to whatever group pit it either first or last, whatever we wanted to do. We never could set our own strategy of when we decided to pit.

We always had to pit with others. So this hopefully will give us enough car count to be able to do that. That's what, that's the biggest change I think that the Toyotas will finally see, is to have enough cars to set their own strategy instead of latching onto someone else's. I guess it would be three if, if Jimmy qualifies.

Yep. Front row. Right. Bold prediction. Bold prediction. I'm curious, outside of your Daytona race wins, which is typically the answer to this question you usually have, is there any, like, moment throughout your storied career at Daytona that really sticks out to you? I mean, just, I would say the 2004 Daytona 500, the one that Dale Jr. won.

It's just a great memory because of how the whole weekend played out. like that to me was that's the one you ended in victory lane with him with right correct the one that you saw the picture on on our social media about where i'm in victory lane i'm actually standing next to my future bus driver that has been working with me now for the last 10 plus years or so so if you look just to the right of me is uh he was uh john a Atkins he was the uh the bus driver for DEI at the time. And so I was standing next to him. I don't even think I said a word to him in Victory Lane that day, which just happened to be in the same photo op. And then I look and it's funny because I got a text. Gosh, I can't remember the name. But he's like, hey, I got a, I got a picture

here and that was framed in my office. He works at RCR now in comms. And he's like, I looked at that picture and it's been in my office for forever. He's like, it was the Victory Lane picture. He's like, he looked up and he says, what the hell is Danny Hamill doing in that picture? And it was the picture of him and me and John and Dale Jr. all, and Josh

Snyder and all those guys in Victory Lane. He's like, what the hell was he in that picture for? And so I just, you know, that was the moment where that weekend I was actually on eye racing. It was NASCAR 2003 back then. And Dale Jr. was just like, hey, what are you doing this?

weekend. I'm like, not much. He's like, do you want to come down Daytona? I'm like, sure, drove nine and a half hours down there. He's like, I got a place for you to stay. I'm like, all right, well, where do I stay? He's like, well, if you don't stay with me on the bus, then we'll just, I got a spot for you at this little rental house. I'm like, okay, so go to the rental house, and I'm staying with Martin Truex and somebody else and somebody else. And he just basically had all of his dirty mo buddies in this house. It's crazy. And that's the true story, right?

And so I remember sitting there and I'm going to the track. And that actual weekend, I signed my deal, my development deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. So I remember at the end of the race, I was a guest of Dale Jr. So I'm in his bus watching the race. But the day before I just signed my deal with Joe Gibbs Racing, but I didn't really feel comfortable like hanging out with them or piggybacking off them. So it was a battle between Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. that day. And I remember walking, it was 20 laps to go. And I'm thinking like, what pit box do I kind of hang out behind?

Do I do? I'll just go to Dale Juniors. And I remember when I'm walking behind the pit boxes, I hear the crowd. And I look up and that's when he made the move on the backstitch to pass Tony. And then, yeah, I just hung out the rest of the time in Victory Lane and then carried that trophy after we did all the photo op. to the bus forum. So it's, that was just, it was a cool memory because I'd never been to Daytona before. And so that was a great memory for me to go through the tunnel for the first time,

experience the Daytona 500 for the first time. And again, I didn't know what my pathway was to actually competing in the Daytona 500. I didn't know two years later that I was going to be competing in it. I was still just racing late models at the time. I didn't have any job. so other than working at my dad's trailer shop. So crazy that two years later, I competed in and actually won the shootout.

Two years later. Actually, now I'll think about it to the day. So, and beat, this is crazy. Now I'm thinking about it. And beat Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. If you look at the photo op from the 2006 Daytona, the shootout, they tied for second, and I won the race. That's crazy, right?

Crazy stuff. So that was my favorite Daytona memory, besides winning of course. That was a great answer. Dear Denny, now that you've been in the new Camry, what are your thoughts on it? It's too early to tell, but I mean, it drives like the old Camry. I don't know what to say. I can't tell the difference from the driver's seat, not in the current time and period. We haven't been out of track that's got enough speed in it to really know any of the characteristics.

but, you know, for those who don't know, like when we have a new car, like the new Camry XSC this year, everything else is the same. So when I strap in, all I can see is my dash, all the roll bars, everything around me. And that's exactly the same as it was last year. So I don't feel any difference yet. Again, I don't know if I need to drive it differently on a bigger track. Will you feel difference, like, in the draft potentially this weekend? Yeah, I mean, you definitely, you know, it would be interesting.

interested, you know, I've got to learn how it drafts. That's one thing that'll be crucial for us this weekend is to understand, you know, the air certainly is not going to be coming off the front nose the same as the old Camry. So what do I need to then find these pockets of air that's going to make my cargo forward? So I'm going to have to play around with that a little bit in practice to understand where the new holes are in this draft. So I think it'll take some learning. We're going to, you know, certainly in practice, I would imagine we're probably going to connect bumpers to see, is this thing stable or not? You know, how aggressive can I be pushing teammates?

How hard can I hit them without getting them out of shape? That's all going to have to be kind of a trial and error. And it's going to be the same for the Ford guys as well, right? We don't know how our bumper is going to connect to the fords and the Chevy. So we're going to learn it all on the fly. So trial and error in the duels on Thursday? Probably. I would think so because usually these practices amount to your

going out there with your manufacturer teammates. Not many people mix it up anymore in practice because of the strain it puts if you wreck on your team. So yeah, I would imagine that it's going to be the duels is where we're going to start to play around with that. I mean, that seems pretty significant if you're going to have to learn this. It is. In the first race. But a lot of people are. Yeah, except for the Chevy guys, right? No, because they're connecting to a different bumper as well. Fair. From front and back, right? So everyone is. Um, any other racing things you want to talk about? I got one more question on here, but it's not racing related.

No, I think we pretty much covered it. Uh, through a few bold predictions out there. There were a few over-unders on drivers. Uh, yeah, I'm ready to get 2024 going. The new VR goggles, they're not in VR goggles. I'm not, can't even call them that. The new Applevision Pro. Yeah.

Uh, that was a game changer. I, game changer, it might be a stretch. but no i'd say that's an understatement really yeah i feel like there's not enough apps now that support it to really make it something that i i must wear like it's i mean yes i can still have all the apps i have from my phone on there but to really experience like oh wow i just put myself on the moon right that part there's there's not a whole lot of apps yet they're coming but like just the dinosaur experience was just crazy. Like, we just went in there and I was able to put an F1 car in my, in my living room,

and then I sat in it and I could pick apart, like, body parts and see what's under it. That was incredible. Yeah. To me, it's just, it's fascinating because I feel like over the last handful of years, as just humans, we've always been like, oh, you know, like, we have this iPhone now or these smartphones, like, what's the next step? And now there's like something tangible where It's like this Apple vision is the worst it's ever going to be. The moment they figure out how to condense that down to like sunglasses or something. Yeah, that like this is now going to be, this interface on your phone is going to be a part of your actual vision in 25, 50 years.

Yeah. Yeah. So you think the actual hard device of carrying it around will go away and we're all just going to wear glasses? I mean, I would hope it's just glasses. I hope I'm not alive for the, I mean, You never know. In 100 years, you could be having surgery on your actual eyes, right? And that... I don't want to be wearing glasses 24-7, though. Well, it would be like a 9-5 thing.

So what do I do? Do I have a phone then when I'm not? No, you wouldn't have a phone. This is your new phone. Yeah, it's... It basically... Travis, I'm looking at everything around here, but I can just prompt my apps to pop up here in the air and I can click on it. instead of me staring down at my phone, I'm just, now I'm still don't, you still wouldn't have my attention,

even though you're right there because I've got to click on it, but it's definitely, it's different. I agree that this certainly, you sent me the kind of the review that said, well, this is,

I wouldn't buy them yet because it's just going to keep getting better. I agree with that, right? They're heavy. This is, at the moment, this is nothing more than like a cool product to have.

But it, it's sure. I agree that like, whoa, we got a lot of potential with where the world is going, right? I can paste notes on the fridge and go back and see them, you know, weeks from now. Don't forget to buy this or whatever. So it's pretty crazy. Yeah, you won't need TVs. If you don't want to buy a TV, you can put a TV in every different room of your house.

That's an interesting thought. Maybe people should probably take their stock out of TV companies now. I'm just saying if you spend $1,500 on a TV, you've got to think the cost of this will also go down. I mean, I spent nearly five grand on these things. After you buy the travel case and the extra battery, it was quite a bit. But I didn't want to be left out.

It just was like, what is all the hype about? You're not left out. You're one of the few people's in. Yeah. So how it started is actually I was walking in the Apple store, like trying to check out the trees in the Apple store because they had live trees. and they had a mirrored ceiling,

which I didn't realize it's just vinyl stretched. And I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. I'm like, oh, what's this thing? They're like, oh, you got to try it. So you need to demo it. It's unbelievable.

I'm like, okay, let me demo it. They said, we got a spot in eight hours. I'm like, can I just buy it and figure it out? They're like, uh, sure. I said, all right, well, you just got your easiest sale of the day. Wow. So that's what happened. That's how I ended up with them.

But I'm glad I did. That's what's interesting, right? Is that instead of you having to put a $1,500 TV in every room, you're able to make the biggest TV you could imagine and put it in every room. And it, click it, it'll stay there. I remember, so I was laying in my bed the other day, I had them on, and I stretched the TV to be the entire size of the wall in my bedroom. It had to be 150 to 200 inches.

I went around the back to the bathroom and I could see the TV through the bathroom wall. So I was brushing my teeth. I saw myself in the mirror and I saw the TV through the wall. Yeah. Incredible. That's like we're just upstairs and Molly was like playing a game with the headset on and you're like Molly you got to go brush your teeth.

You got to go get ready for the day. That's the challenge. It's like Molly, just go and brush your teeth and watch TV. Yeah. It's a little scary as a parent because I'm like, oh, this, is a rabbit hole. I don't want these things hanging off my kids' face all the time. No. But I can tell you this. Would it be helpful on a flight? Absolutely. You don't have to really worry about sitting coach anymore because you can just immerse yourself in a completely different place. Yeah. It also just goes to

show how smart your kids or at least how Molly is. I was here four days ago and you couldn't get her to figure out how to like unlock it, right? So she could play with the dinosaur thing on her own. And now I come back in here and she's she's moving around she's moving around telling me get out of the way awesome well i appreciate you all tuning in uh jared you got anything else this review comes from andy four two four eight and they say i've listened to this podcast and episode one hated you for a long time and he's even worse once you started the beef with ross chastain this podcast has changed my view on you you're an honest down-to-earth guy and a great father and i really appreciate that man that is one of the nicest reviews I've gotten.

They all start with hated you for a long time, though. But I love that they take a turn there. So, Andy, thank you for that review. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's the kind of reviews we love to see. So Andy 4248, thank you. Make sure you guys continue to rate and review and follow us wherever you get your podcast. We also, by the way, have a brand new YouTube page.

Make sure you subscribe to it. So go to YouTube to search actions detrimental, and you will find it. And we'll post this thing here on Monday. Real quick, can we confirm or deny? I was curious this week the reaction to the video of you saying that you're retiring, the I beat your favorite driver line. That does not mean that the era of heel, Denny, is over. Just that line is...

Well, I hope the fans have tuned in because we nearly... let this one slip right past. So if you tuned in, this was not on purpose. You, you get the new rallying cry. So I'm going to shed this hoodie, and this is going to be,

is it, is our hashtag? Yeah, it's a hashtag. It's the team rallying. And this will, this will be, when you hear this, Jared will post a link

where you can buy this shirt. And I want to see this shirt all over the racetrack. every week, okay? Here we go. I'm taking them. Take them all. Okay. We've shed it.

Your computer's in the way. If you see us, move your computer down. Up. There we go. Here we are. He's all in. We're all in. And just so you know, we're all in because we've had a lot of failures.

Check out the back. Check out the back. Hold on. It's our freaking year, DH. No. Didn't work. Let's freaking go, DH. No.

We did it. Nope. Beat your favorite driver. All of them? No. It's our year? No. None of that.

We're all in this year. The 11. D.H. We're all in. We're going all the way the promise land. Tons of wins. Championship.

Let's go. Pre-order now. All right. Well, we'll see you all after Daytona 500. And we'll wrap up what we saw. And hopefully we're going to be, hopefully we have to put.

this episode back because we won the Daytona 500. We'll have to push back Tuesday or something. Or we'll have to do a live on location. Yeah. But either way, you'll be able to tune into the teardown right after the day 200 and then we'll be shortly after that. So we'll see y'all next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.