Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Nobody Saw This Happening

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Fans and drivers have been asking Goodyear for a tire that wears, and that’s exactly what they got on Saturday night at Bristol. Denny Hamlin and his co-host Jared Allen unpack all the chaos from on the track and react to the drivers eliminated from the Playoffs and who is left. 7:00 Bristol got an 81% on Jeff Gluck’s “Good Race Poll”13:50 Why nobody predicted tire falloff after practice23:30 Denny never felt in control of his car30:30 Who is to blame for Chase Elliott wrecking34:00 11 team could be facing possible suspensions40:30 Brad Keselowski unable to move Christopher Bell for the win44:15 Driver mindset going into the Round of 1252:15 Who will not advance to the Round of 8Real fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimentalFanDuel Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's your predictions for this round? I gave them. You're four out? Mm-hmm. Who were they? I said one from the top five. Well, one from the top five is not a name. I thought I was deaf traps.

I thought I missed something. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. This spoils a victory for Jared Allen.

He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to Actions Detrimental Post-Bristle elimination race of the round of 16. We now move on to the round of 12. We are luckily part of that.

Um, who do we eliminate? We eliminated Cindric Ligano Chess. No. No. That's, that's not it. That's below the cut now, isn't it? Yeah. You just, you deleted.

He, he actually did delete. They're not in the playoffs. The fuck the here. I'm looking at it. I was like, damn, Lagano's out. Chastine sound. Um, when I got to Redick at the end, that's where I was like, oh, no, this is not the right list.

SVG, Bowman, Dylan, Barry. Man, Josh Berry. That's tough. That's a tough way to go. I don't know. Is it tougher to go that way, or is it tougher to be in it, in it, in it, and then out.

Probably that. Because if you're never in it to begin with, then like, you're just like, oh, I hope I, you know, you just don't expect to get through. Yeah, but it didn't take that many points to advance. Like, he, he,

have. So you're like, man, if I just had like one good race, I could like. Yeah, I mean, if you go back to last week or before last week. If you had one good race, you'd be Alex Bowman. And Alex Bowman, like, so if you had two decent race, like, I'm just saying like, it wasn't that hard to advance and you didn't even get a shot and it's not up to, like, it wasn't out of his control. Like, if he would have screwed up, I think it's easier to, like, like, like, well, the first one at Darlington, he did screw up, although I don't put that on him because it's, it's hard to control a car that only has three tires on the ground, and when he hit that bump, that's all it had.

And then, yeah, you got taken out, and then he just, was it just a fire to come out? Yeah. Mechanical issue, I guess. Sheesh. Yeah, I would agree. I'd just rather be out of it right from the beginning than, you know, have it swept away with like 10 laps to go in the elimination race. Letart was talking about it on his

show just how difficult it is to You know because Cindric had a similar issue If not the exact same issue that Barry had maybe But he stayed in the car How difficult it is when the heat is getting to you The smoke is filling up the cabin You're just stuck in this confined tight space To just get out, right?

Cindric was willing to die in there I mean Yeah he That was it was interesting. I couldn't believe they didn't pop the window out, but I guess,

I don't know, I don't know if there's a rule against that or not, but maybe there, I don't know, creates a fucking backdrop or something, and then it gets bigger out.

Wouldn't it, wouldn't it have even mattered? He was... There were so much smoke in Cendrick's car while he's on pit lane. I was thinking, just pop the window out,

pop the window out. Sure. But they also only have 30 seconds to get this thing figured out, right? Because he's going lapsed down and he's dropping points. Yeah.

hemorrhaging points. Yeah, they were lucky to get that fire out for sure. You've been in a Texas, you were on fire. What, like, what's it going through your mind when that? So there was some fire on the inside of the car. I don't know whether he had fire on the inside. I mean, there was tons of smoke. But the smoke is the most uncomfortable part, for sure.

What's the rubber that was catching on fire, right? Right. From all the tireware? That's right. And then it's catching other. components on fire. That's right. Yeah. Did I read there was like four or five of them. Yeah. Like fires, right? Yeah. Next gen, man. I think catches on fire all the time. We had, uh, uh, Lane Riggs. Yeah, Lane Riggs won the truck race. I didn't get to see a whole lot of that,

but, uh, sound like he kind of took control. I also did not see much of this race. However, was he the first caution in this? I saw he spun out early on. Yeah. Spin and win for Lane. Moving on now. They so want to educate me on where they're at in their playoffs.

I mean, I don't even know. They could be in the third round for all I know. Let's pull up at NASCAR.com here since none of us. Their cutoff is next week. Next week. I tell you what, you're quick on the trick. trigger. When we don't have an answer, you can find things pretty quickly. That's his job. But thank you. True. Listen, cell phones to me, I just work fast. All right, well, Lane Riggs wins.

Trucks, Eric Amarola, wins the Xfinity race. Thought they had a good car. Justin looked pretty strong there at one point. Seems like he got behind on his adjustments. And then they just made a strategic call there at the end to stay out when others pitted. And Sheldon Cree gets his 15th second place finish. It's hard to do. Yeah, you talk about odds and that if I just win enough races and all, you know, things. just working out for you eventually hitting the ball right bat bat hitting the ball but this guy

is doing everything but hitting the ball if we're talking about wins that's right a lot of foul tips a lot of foul balls um he made a charge at the end gosh he had the tire advantage he had he just didn't get through the traffic quite quick enough um but eric uh wins moves that car on to the next round. The 19 car is in. I don't even know which car is out of the playoffs that's in with the driver, but I don't know. It's all gets so confusing. No one really cares.

The cup race got an 81% on the Gluck pole. So do you agree with that? I got asked on the played Ron Hove and what it would be. What is, what is, and I was like, this is, oh my gosh. while it could be all over the place. I don't know what the fans thought of it, right? And I said, but I think it's going to be 81%. And it turned out to be 81%.

And I think it's a fair number. I think that, you know, I think about Dave's pizza reviews, right? That's like that's an eight one, which is a really, really, really good pizza. But like to get into the, the nines. I mean, it's, you're going to have to have a unicorn type race. An all-timer. An all-timer, right? Nines are hard to get. Um, like you were saying before, you get four out of

five people to agree on something. That's pretty damn good. Um, I thought it was a fair number simply because, you know, it was, I'm guessing from a fan standpoint, it was wildly entertaining. Um, for the most part of the race, I had no idea whether I was four laps down or leading the race. that was a struggle I watched 20-something laps from the stands and seeing Austin Hill just blow by these cars, you know, sixth place, fifth place. It's like, holy shit. Austin Hill somehow has found himself in the top 10. It's like, oh, no, he's actually three laps down. So watching from the stands, I mean, the comers and goers were, that's underrated to say.

If they're going to have these types of races back at Bristol, they need to, reinsert the scoreboards that they took out there they used to have them over in turn three and turn one there was a we had scoreboards and then underneath that big old jumbo tron there was a scroll ticker of LED boards well they took those out too um I guess when things just fail or die they just take them out but it took them out and so now I mean even during the race I'm trying to look under caution trying to figure out who's running where and like you might get a full field scroll like every three minutes five minute like it was it was it was long um but i couldn't figure out who was where i mean after that how about this the first

caution at i don't know about 75ish i had just i had pitted a little bit before that i was about to have to pit again and the caution comes out. I'm like, oh, gosh, how many laps down are we? And they're like, you're six. I was like, oh, all right, well, things are okay then. It was just hard to keep up with, truthfully. I agree from my standpoint. It was, there was just so many pit stops. There were so many laps under caution. Holy cow. I saw where there was over two hours of runtime under caution. Is that true? I know I saw the same thing that you said There was like two hours of runtime under caution

And an hour and 45 of Yeah What do you mean? That's true Like is that true? Did we make this is a made up stat Austin? I don't know That seems

Really really really really really excessive We ran a lot of caution Two hours worth How many cautions were there? That's a long time How many cautions were there, trap? It was like 13 or 14 Okay

What's the average caution time? I don't know. no five to ten minutes five to ten no way way longer than that longer than five to nascar at bristol our cautions are chasions are chase elliott blew up and we beached the whole track are we counting or i guess you're i'm telling stage stage stage ends to this too that would be caution it's two hours it's like a fake caution though it's it's it's while the cars are running 45 miles per hour. I know, but it's like half time, you know?

It's like counting commercial breaks in a football game, including halftime. I don't know. Two hours seems really long, but then, yeah, when you break it down. That was, you know, kind of my only, it's not kind of my only. It's, it's one of my onlys,

was that just there was so much caution. There was so, so many yellow flags. It's hard to get in a rhythm, and then it just kept mixing up the tire strategy and then you would run out of tires and then it was like I don't know I just for the life of me could not figure out

like I was like my days oh it's gone horrible it's horrible it's horrible and it's like you're still 12th you're still 12th like it's it just was confusing even from the driver's seat but a lot of these cautions right they weren't just from a guy

blowing a tire and then no there were wrecks They were, yeah. There's contact. People were getting moved out of the way, moved up out of the groove. Oh, it was the most physical short track or race in general. I'd been in quite some time. So isn't that what you want?

Sure. Yeah, I'm down with it. I feel like... I mean, like if you were a little bit faster than the car in front of you, you just, everyone was just like, all right. Get out of the way. Yeah, knock you right. knock you right out of the way. Just because nobody wanted to run up the racetrack

because running the middle lane is what wore the tires really, really badly, which is what I found out in the very first run. Before I knew this was going to be a tire race, if you notice, I got hung on the outside for a few laps, and then all of a sudden I was like, what the hell is going on? Like, this is, I think I've courted my right front. And it was only like 15 laps into the race. So pretty quickly, I looked up at the top of the racetrack.

I saw the marbles and I was like, oh boy, we got one of these races. All right, let's go. Like, I was actually excited to see how this played out. But, yeah, just car was not built for this type of race or I couldn't drive it for this type of race. So how does that work? Because we talked on the show here last week and you said a friend of a friend of a friend told you that these tires were wearing like a cheese grater

and they were just disintegrating. And then we go to practice and nothing happens and the tires are perfectly fine. So now everyone's under the assumption that it's just going to be like the spring Bristol race and there's going to be Ryan Blaney or the fastest car is going to lead 480 laps. Right?

one expected this tire thing after we thought that maybe we were going to have this race before going into the weekend? Well, everyone was prepared for anything, but after practice and lap time seemed to level off, it was apparent that this not really much changed with the tire. but as the overnight happened and the track got cleaned off the reapply of the PJ1 I saw where Bozzi thought that that was a factor as well and not only that the PJ1 was applied differently this time around than it was previously

because as I understand it the machine couldn't handle the banking of the track so it kind of had to ride on the apron and shoot up. So it was narrower. The PJ1, the grip strip was narrower than it was before. So I think that that probably contributed to the tires wearing out maybe more and quicker, is that you couldn't really get your right front down there in the grip. So, I don't know, just we didn't predict it.

And when it came to it, and we, you know, because I thought it practiced on Saturday, we were very, very good, definitely a top three car, had all the fields that it kind of needed. From my standpoint, I'm thinking that, you know, here comes 60. But no, it just, there was nothing I could do to keep the right front on the car. It really didn't even matter how slow I went. there at that second to last run I don't even think I hit the gas hardly and still had cords after 40 laps

I think that if all the teams had planned for it you probably could everyone probably could go comfortably 55 maybe 60 laps and that's still saving like there was no one that went all out right from the beginning of the run

So when we looked at this race and said, okay, well, you know, it was a good race because the tires were out like we planned on them wearing out. I think, you know, we're nitpicking here. But it's, you never could actually go. I mean, you could, but it would, you'd have cords in 20 laps. Could you go last year? Not the spring last fall. No, last spring. No, no, that was Kyle Larson domination.

No. Was the last, the tire race? Spring of 24 was the tire shredding. That's when did he won. Yeah. Oh, shit, is that long ago? It was. Yes, yeah, you could go.

And again, we got the tires the last 60-some laps fairly easily going at a faster pace than what we did this time. this time you had to, or at least we did, had to slow down more and the tires were quicker. So a lot of the variables there, so I think it just maybe it's a little too much because, you know, you want it to wear out and it did. It's very grateful that they found what they can put in a tire to wear it out. Now put that at many other racetracks if you could, if you don't mind. I still don't understand why we can't get left side wear. It's all right side.

Like, there's such disparity with our tires to where, if they do wear, it's all right side, and there's nothing on the lefts. And it's like, man, if you give the lefts a little bit more grip to hold the car, it would, you could run the same right side tire because it's, It's using that energy to pull the car around the corner. You're not just relying on the right sides alone to carry the car around the corner. So just transferring some of that grip or load into the left sides,

I think would be a good change. But overall, you know, they delivered on what we wanted, and that was more tireware. If you knew that that was the race, you were going to get. Could the team set up the cars differently? You could. I don't know how big of a difference it would make. It probably would make some.

Maybe you add 15% more of whatever the tire life is. Maybe more, maybe more than that. Would you be able to go as you're saying? Well, that's what I'm saying is you want a tire to be able to go if you want it to go. I could never make it go. Like I could never, I knew if I went hard for two laps, I was toast the rest of the run.

Where you typically, you would want a tire that, you can go if you want, but you're going to pay a little bit on the backside. It was, no, you can't go at all. If you look at the lap times of all the cars, we all went at the very beginning of the race. We were, I think some of the fastest laps were like 15-5s. And if you look at every run after that,

that, everyone just started slowing down more and more and more and more to just try to conserve life. Even cars that were trying to push it couldn't even go that quick anymore. So yeah, I just, it's maybe a little aggressive. That's why I think that 81% is probably the right number on the pole, is that, you know, it's, it was very, very good, very compelling, lots of passing, lots of contact. Could you, could you make it better? Sure. It's a hard job to do But my advice would be to put more grip In the left side tires to take loads off the right

To give the rights a little bit of a break Hey this is Dale Jr. And for the latest actions detrimental gear Go to shop.durtymomedia.com We've got plenty of options for you We're adding new stuff all the time That's shop.durtymomedia.com So my question is now

When we go back to Bristol under similar conditions, does Goodyear just bring the same tire? And now it's on the teams, like, okay, teams, you guys know if we're under these conditions, then you're going to get this. So set your cars up accordingly. Or do we want Goodyear now to like tweak this some more?

And now we're going back to Bristol and kind of experimenting some more with like a different tire? You know what I found that was very interesting that I still don't have an answer for? is that where did they just come up with, and they were so confident, like we did no tire testing whatsoever. They said,

we're going to put something in this tire that's going to cause it to wear. And I'm like, where has that been for the last 20 years? Right? Like, where have you been hiding this potion? I'm wondering, did they not find something that was different in their process

that happened in the spring of 24, that they're like, oh, we added this chemical that was not supposed to change anything, and it turns out it changed everything. And then they just said, you know, they've done some tire testing, and they have. They've done tire testing at tracks where they've shredded tires in like 20 laps at other racetracks.

So it's like, I think they've been experimenting with this, and all of a sudden said, we're putting it in at Bristol. and they felt very confident of it without even testing it and it turned out to be accurate. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it did just what you said. I'm just surprised that you didn't see any hints of that in practice. No, just like, I mean, there was a couple things for sure.

You know, Xfinity cars just had practice. You know, they really wore in the racetrack. We didn't have that, we didn't have the new application of PJ1 put on right before our practice. I don't know. Just all those things combined. It's just, there's something in that formula that made it, you know, once it got cooler and the track cleaned off, it wore the tires. If you, last week you said you wanted the chaos. And I think if you asked me, like, if there was chaos, I would assume that this is where you were going to be able to excel.

And if everyone wasn't able to really go because of courting, why weren't you able to perform where I think a lot of people thought you would with tire conservation? Yeah, the difference between this race and the spring of 24 is that I felt in control of the tires kind of at all times. This time, I felt like I was a passenger to the car wearing out the tires. I don't know how else to put it. Like there was, if I tried to make one push to go around someone, instantly I could feel the tires cheese grating and starting the cord. So I just didn't have that. I did not have that in 24.

And this time I definitely felt hamstrung with kind of, this is as fast as I can go. This is as long as I can go. and unfortunately at the rate we were wearing tires, we were going to be out of tires. So it just kind of put us in a hell of a spot. I was always, always, every restart, the last of the cars on my tire strategy

and those who would put on rights or four tires were right behind me, and they would shuffle me. And then all of a sudden, I'm off the bottom now, getting passed by all these cars with three lap fresher tires, and I'm up in the middle lane just killing my because I can't get back down. It was just a bad combination of where I restarted, how I restarted. It just was all bad. And then the amount of times I had to pit,

then the time that we were at a spot where it was like, we can't pit, we don't have the tires, is when I started first and just, I mean, I had no chance. 20-some lap tires against fresh tires. I'm actually happy I started on the top to just get the hell out of everyone's way because I knew if I went to the bottom, which is probably going to be the best, I was going to get pummeled into the corner and then who knows what happens after that. So I don't know, just it was a miserable night from my standpoint.

I'm sure my fans, it was a miserable night, considering that we weren't a factor really at all. Not what we expected, but I wish we could go back and do it tomorrow. That makes any sense. Yeah, I feel like from your standpoint, it took at least a quarter of the race to realize, like, okay, maybe the 11 doesn't have what's needed to win here. Because, you know, the first part of stage one was what it was. but then when that caution came out and you caught a break and were able to pit and restart eighth with fresh tires on the more or less the same strategy

as everybody else, it was like, okay, maybe now we've got something. Everyone now has figured out that this is the type of race we're going to have. Charlie was very confident, like, okay. Now, I mean, I was too, but now you know what you got. Who can manage just the best? Yeah, I had opportunities. just never could make anything of them. You know, there were times I had two or three lap fresher tires.

I couldn't make any hay. You know, the minute, I'm telling you, if I tried to push at all, I would instantly cord the tires. So it's just, yeah, not what we were thinking. Why didn't we see some teams roll the dice and set up their car for this. Maybe some did.

We don't know. It seems like nobody did, though. Well, you had a few cars that were... Yeah, but what I said is that if you had a chance to actually set up your car for this, you're going to make it last 15, 20% longer. That's only 10 laps. You know what I mean?

So there were some cars that went 50. Yeah, the 54 was. one of them. Yeah. There were some that could go that long. I think 56 laps is the longest that anyone ran. So there were some that had a little bit longer fuse

than others. But it certainly was shorter than what it was the spring Bristol race by 10, 15 laps. It was shorter yet. So did driver's skill

play into? to this? Yeah, of course. I think that, you know, driver skill does play into it. I said before that I thought that driver skill and then car setup was kind of 50-50 of tire management. Both have equal responsibility. But I think, you know, all the drivers get smarter too. They, they understand, you know, they've had now a race of doing this. And so they understand kind of how to manage the tires. And then do you have a car that is able to manage tires? You know, I wouldn't put Ty Gibbs at the list of the best tire savers.

He's not at the other 35 tracks that were, you know, 35 other races. It could be track position. It could be a whole host of things. But he found a way to go longer than most, which kept him up front. Right. So in this race,

he figured out a way to to save tires. He may not be a tire saver. Yeah, he figured out a way and or the car had a longer fuse, just had the ability to go longer. You know, because it was the inverse of this in the spring of 2024.

The 11 went far longer than what the 54 was able to go. So, I don't know, what changed between those? In this format, for you, did Saturday night, like, kind of suck because you're already advanced, so like, you're not going to win, so it's just like, like, what's going through your mind out there? Yeah, it sucked.

It really did because I never got to push the gas down. I mean, that was, that's why it's, this pizza is not a 90. Because I never could go. And at some point, you want to be able to just, okay, well, let me see what kind of speed I've got. Never, never did I have that. His caution with the 42 and the 9, did you play any role in this? No. I hit the 42 after he ping ponged off the 9.

So what it looked like happened is the 9 tried to get in a hole and he was running significantly slower than the cars that were on the freight train running the bottom. And John Hunter didn't see it coming or didn't check up in time. He hit him. and when he hit him, he stopped in front of me, so I then hit him. So, no, the contact was from the nine, pulling down into a lane running quite a bit faster, and then we ping pong from there. So shut it, haters coming after me saying Denny did that. I don't know what they're talking about.

I mean, on track, it looked like, ooh, maybe the 11 had something to do with it. You watched this replay, it's pretty clear. I was the second guy in contact. Yeah, yeah. So unfortunate night for Chase Elliott. I was surprised he didn't, in his interview afterwards, he had assumed that his season was over, I guess not knowing the points situation,

but he advances, obviously. Travis, you ripped off the pages from the previous weeks. Oh, he's got him there. How much was he? Where was he going into this? race. Chase was plus 28. So he assumed, but yeah, I guess he just cares that he's probably going to finish last

and get no points, but like Austin Dillon wasn't doing anything. He was plus 28 to Austin Dillon, who was having a miserable race of his own. The only way it was if, yeah, he wasn't going to miss. Bowman winning, obviously, or Bowman getting second and finding way to get the fastest slop, I think, the only way that he could have been eliminated. Gotcha. Which somehow the fastest lap was like on the third lap of the night. Yeah, because we all didn't know that we had a tire safe.

I mean, you should see the lap times. We just keep going slower and slower trying to make these things last. We just, we got to lengthen the fuse. We got to make it a little bit. more. I think you just soften the left side tire up. You don't have to change anything with the right side.

It wears, it's good, everything's fine there. I've got to put grip back in the left side tires of this next gen car. It helps passing. It helps everything. So that is my message to them. And I wear their hat because they did a good job giving us tire wear.

Yeah, and credit to good year is that we've been talking about this for years now and they it seems like now know what they did to to give us what the fans wanted what we've been asking for yeah it's um it's just a little extreme right i think that we found the line of like that was it was a bit extreme that's that's all speaking of tires um it's best to have four tires on your car so what happened there with you um i do not know all i know is i went into turn three. Well, I felt something kind of weird off of turn two where I felt like, yeah, I turned the wheel

and the thing was hanging, and I was like, what the hell? Like, am I having another major tight moment? Did I cord a tire already? You know, it was only a couple laps into that run. And then, yeah, I just went and turned three. The car went straight, wiped out AJ. I don't know who else got in it,

but then I was riding on three tires, which is interesting, because every time I hit the wall, my car actually handled a little bit better. I mean, I hit the wall three, four times throughout the day. Steering wheels stayed straight for the most part the whole time, and it just, nothing really changed. Why is the car handle better after hitting the wall?

What bends on it that is now more? Yeah, sometimes toe links been in a favorable manner, So maybe if your car is tight, it'll, you know, you could hit the right rear toe link and it'll bend the right rear out, which helps the car turn. Maybe if your car is loose, you hit the wall just right and it bends the right rear in or the right front. It bends it somewhere or another. So it just usually compensates sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. At Darlington, it was for the worst. When we hit the wall there, I was already.

a little bit free. Next thing, I hit the, hit, you know, me and Chase hip tires on a restart. I'm now loose

for the rest of the day because we can't fix it. So it can go both ways. Are we expecting a punishment two crew members being removed from next race? I think so. Yeah,

I think so. Which, I mean, it's super unfortunate because we were the only guys on pit road during that time. So there was no indication, no heads up or anything if it was loose leaving the pit stall. But I'm not sure.

I don't know if, yeah, I don't have an answer of how or why, but more than likely. How will that affect the 11 car in these next two races? I have no idea who's sitting on the bench, who's ready, and it's not even my concern. I mean, why isn't it your concern? Because that's the crew chief. He manages the people. There's nothing I can do about it. You know what I mean? My concern needs to be on the things that I can control.

Worried about, oh my gosh, well, I hope the fill-ins or this or that or, you know, are they young, are they old, are they good, or they bad, or they, you're just wasting my energy at that point. So it's not my concern because I just feel as though that's someone else's department to be concerned over. I'm going to do my job to the best of my ability and we'll try to win with whoever we got. I think that, you know, JGR has got a very deep pit stop team and crew. And so we'll see what they come up with. But they'll put their best options out there.

I get that this is how you operate. but to me it's like odd. Like if it was me, I'd want to know like who am I, who's been my replacements? Like, how good are they like? I'd want to know like. Okay. What if they told you? Yeah, these guys are, well, we don't have anyone.

So we just rehired these two guys off the street to do it. You would lose your mind. Like, I don't know. I just, I find it odd. I mean, that's not what they're doing. I'm just saying. That's consuming your brain with stuff that doesn't matter. And all that matters is you doing your job to the best of your ability.

At another point in your career, would you have consumed yourself with that? Probably. But, I mean, yeah, more than likely. But it's the so what, now what? I mean, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't go back. Trust me, I wish I could redo that entire. race let's run it back today um but it's unfortunate like if it was me i'd be going to

gale coach kibs or whoever and be like make sure like whoever's on tye's pit crew like if they're like i need the like the best available here like i want to be you know reassured that what i'm getting is good right well that's what you hope the decisions that they make are is that they just if they've got an available what do you laugh at Travis, just the difference in you two? If it's me, I'm calling up Gail, I'm calling up coach, I'm saying whoever's on Ties pit crew, you give me there to, like, I just can't imagine you doing that. No.

But I'm going to assume that if they have two guys that are very, very good that they're comfortable with, they're going to put them on my car. if they happen to be on someone else's team, then they happen to be on someone else's team that is not racing for a championship, but that's not a decision for me. It's a decision for them. Does JGR lease out pit crews to anybody else?

Gosh, I don't even know. I think they do. Because we saw the 48 team make a change. Yeah, they do. And I think that that the 48 team actually outperformed when they switched the pit stops got slower which usually

you know those guys got something to prove so that when the 48 team gets taken off the 48 and you go to the 77 now you're like all right yeah you want to take us off we'll show you you know whether there's any correlation of that or not

but it's simply from a mind standpoint surely there's highly motivated to show them at the end of this race Bell sneaks through and then holds off Kozlowski for the win. He did. I thought as hard as Brad hit him, I thought he wrecked him.

I could not believe he had the balls to hit him that heart because that easily could have been just like a, not a bump and run, but like a dump. Like, first, Bell missed turns one and two. That's what allowed them to even get close. I was like, oh my God, no, Christopher Bell missed the corner. He missed the corner and missed the bottom and it allowed Brad to get right to him. And I bet at that point, C. Bell was like, oh, no, I let him get close enough to hit me. How he held on, I don't know. It's just this next-gen car, man.

That just tells you the advantage that the leader's got. When second place hits you that hard and it doesn't even move your car hardly, yikes. Is that move by Brad a clean racing move? Not if he would have spun out. No, that would have been not good. Well, he admitted that he was trying to do that, right? Yeah, but I think Brad even admitted he was like, when I, he says, when I hit him, I was like, oh, no, I did not mean to hit him that hard. So, that was as hard as I've seen someone get hit on corner entry and not spin out.

when you know it's coming because i assume bell knew it was coming can you you can slow down you can slow down well they said that bionke and gluck talked about how he was expecting and kind of was ready for it yeah you can you can generally just slow down that gets your car more in the racetrack um you know if you drive into the to the tires full capability you're essentially and you don't see it. You don't see it on TV. You don't see it while you're in the stands. But these cars are always sliding.

They're always sliding on the surface. Now, if you slow down, it's not sliding anymore. It's stuck to the surface. So if you slow down, it allows you to just, you know, it's how we can bump draft on the straightaways at super speedways, but we can't do it in the corners. So, yeah, the main defense is just slowing down, I don't think anyone expected hit that hard.

A sweep for a JGR. Yeah, first round playoff sweep for JGR. By all three of their playoff drivers. It certainly is impressive. Which only means now people, JGR are definitely the team to beat for the championship. It's only like intensifying. But we reset every round.

We reset every round, guys. We reset every round. And so that was the first. thing Pocrys asked me after the race, oh, well, this, surely at JGR, the championship runs through JGR is like, championship runs through Phoenix. It doesn't run through JGR, runs through Phoenix. It's one race and anything can happen, anything at all. So we've seen someone not talked about all year win the race, win the championship. It's, it's, it's, that's what, that's where it is. And so I understand it's a great narrative.

And I'm very, very happy for JGR that, you know, our cards are clearly capable. They're very fast right now. But in one race, who knows? You've got to get there first. And these next two rounds got some bumpy racetracks in them. Yeah, you're plus 26 up, Bell's plus 20. But the 19, who's been phenomenal recently, is only plus 10. And for whatever reason, they go to New Hampshire and don't have a great day.

Then all of a sudden, you're on the cut line and you're right in the thick of things. Yeah, I saw where the 19 has scored 133 points this round. They took them all away. They keep resetting the scoreboard for the guys. They do. If you're behind, don't worry. We're going to bring these leaders right back to you. That's what I don't like about the format more than anything is the constant reset.

You get a lead, they take it back. You get a lead, they take it back. Well, I think it would have made the race on Saturday more entertaining because if you carry the points over, then where you guys are performing is still impacting going forward. But you already won. It didn't really matter for you. True. Outside of winning Saturday night, the race meant nothing for you. That's right.

You are correct. And, you know, that's kind of what I proposed in this whole playoff committee council thing, is that, stop the resets. Like just cut off the bottom. If you want to do eliminations, just keep cutting off the bottom four after every three races or so. Why do you got to keep resetting?

Why do you got to keep resetting? If you want to reset, do it, you know, with your four race playoff or whatever it might be. You reset it once there and that's it. But you should just keep cutting off the bottom for as many eliminations as you want and stop penalizing the guys that, you know, perform well like the 19 car did all three playoff races some more ideas for future restructuring

of the NASCAR playoffs some other drivers in this race that had a heck of a day zane smith ran top 10 all day all day all day uh Corey heim 67 yep came home with the top 10 that's right um he got up there towards the end he was battling for the lucky dog sometime within the that last 100 laps or so. Apparently got it back or got the wave around. And yeah, they rallied for a nice six place finish there. Yeah, we had Kozlowski, Smith, Blaney, Legano. So good run there for the Fords, right?

Four out of the five. I don't know if there's any correlation to that. Or was it just coincidence? You know, seemed like, you know, Zane or his car did a really good job saving or both because he was up front pretty much the entire night. Yeah, what does that say about a driver, whether it's Zane or whether it's Thai, but just to stay up front in this type of race for as long as those guys did? Yeah, it's a good, you know, good motivation for them. I mean, you know, certainly one of the best runs, if not the best run that they've had. all year. So it's just a good morale booster for the team, you know, especially this late

in the season. It's a grind right now, especially if you're not part of the playoffs. I mean, you're just, man, you're probably just counting down at this point. You know, how many more we got to go? Let's get to a reset back to zero next year. Your four drivers that you predicted would be eliminated in this first round. You've got two of the four. You predicted Austin Cedric, Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, Austin Dillon, we lost Svig, but then we lost Alex Bowman. And who's the last one, Travis? Josh Barry.

Josh Barry. Couldn't predict Barry's finishing last three times in a row. And then Alex Bowman obviously had some tremendous pick crew issues first couple races. So, yeah, I don't, but, you know, nothing, there wasn't a big favor. it. This is the round where you're going to have someone at the top. Let's see.

One, two, three, four. Yeah. Someone at the top five. Yeah, I will say someone in the top five points won't make it out of this round. Yeah, the first round is always, it's like an appetizer. It's a, don't fuck up. Right, because you've got guys that win one race that are, you know, back in the pack when it comes the point standings, they're more or less

penciled in to get knocked out in the first round just based on points in their average running position. The second round now is where it gets tighter and one little mistake can cost you. It's New Hampshire, Roval and what? Kansas. Kansas?

Yeah. New Hampshire, Kansas, then the Roval in that order. I mean, off of speed, you know, just raw speed, I think this is where Cindrick and probably Lugano is going to need some help. Chastain also is borderline when it comes to speed.

I just can't ever tell. They're not, they're just not running in the top five very often. Now, they did at Darlington, for the most part of the race there, they were up in the top five, but they just haven't shown me very much speed in those cars. So I think those three are going to have. have to either execute really well, good strategy, good fortune, or those, you know, you're going to need some of these others to, to mess up, I think. So, I don't know, it's going to be hard to, I think. I think if it's just based off of speed, it's Cendrick Lagano and Chastain, and then one of one of us

in the top five, just because it's NASCAR racing. How do teams approach the playoffs? If you're, are you trying to consistently get better and find something so that if you do make it to Phoenix, you can come there with the best car? Or are you looking at these three races being like, okay, you know, we're the one team. If we just bring top 10 speed around a top 10 car to the track every weekend and execute, that's what could move us on to the next round. then we'll battle whatever situation we face in the next round. Or are you looking at the season as a whole? I think certainly for the first two races of every round, it's go all out, do everything

you can to win the race, have the speed, and then when you get to the third race, you have to evaluate where you are. you know if you find yourself plus 10 plus 15 plus 5 going into that last race you you have to treat it differently you'd be foolish to not treat the race a little bit differently and and a lot of times you perform a little bit worse because of that because you don't take the risk to go three wide middle on a restart knowing that if I screw up here this is I'm going to get

a bad finish and give the the person didn't outrun me I screwed up and gave it to them so I think it's just for me personally it's you go all out the first two and then you figure out the third what the agenda is

what's your predictions for this round I gave them your four out who were they I said one from the top five. Well, one from the top five is not a name. I thought I was deaf traps. I thought I missed something.

I didn't hear any names. I have a weird feeling about Blaney. He runs really, really good at Kansas. New Hampshire, I'm not sure. It's a flat track. He should be pretty good. The Roval, I don't know. He's not, he's not, he's not,

he's not been very good on the road courses, who am I to say? But it's just, it's not his strong suit either. And then Cendric Legano and Chesting. I just think that he's, you know, been prone,

that the numbers would say he's prone to either feast or famine. And I think that if you have one famine race and then a subpar race, you could find yourself below. Jared, who's your four? Who's my four?

Yeah. Man, I got a lot of friends left in this. I know. We're going to see who you're rooting for. I think Lugano goes out. I think Cynchric goes out, although I've become a big Austin Cynchric fan. I mean, going up there on stage and proclaiming

that he's a goofy goober for the second year in a row is hilarious and coming out to the SpongeBob song. I don't love Chase. I feel like the 9 team has just been okay and if they're just okay in this round they could get bounced so i'm gonna go lagano cindrick elliot and uh chastain the only reason i'm not i'm not

throwing these other 211 tuitas out is because bubba's been fast and bubba's been great that's what that's one guy that this whole playoff system sucks for is that when you run good when you're on the cut line, right? And you have a handful of playoff points, and you run good in each round. You just get taken back to the cut line and start the next round.

But the Kansas and the Toyota's, I mean, historically. Reddick is vulnerable. If he has his kind of ups and downs of execution, obviously they're the ones that need a make-up points. Three points is not a lot.

It's three spots in one stage. we've got nine stages in this round. I think it'll be fine. But he's in a spot where he can't afford a bad, bad race, I don't think. Yeah, and it doesn't feel like they've really gotten into the groove this year, the 45 team. I would agree. When you say avoid a bad race for playoff drivers, are we talking you got to be inside top 15? 28th or worse?

Okay. 28th or worst. I think the top four, the top five guys can afford one 28th place finish, but the rest of them better be good. Yeah. Yep. All right. Well, what else? Walkout music.

Walked out to the SVU Law and Order theme song in case. people miss that. I did. That was Tyler Rover Street. Yeah, I didn't I thought we could have done it better. What? Yeah, I thought that, like,

oh, that was so fitting. I thought, you know, with all aboard, there could have done something, I don't know. That felt like low-hanging fruit. And then you said him in the microphone. Oh, gosh. A few people in Denny's camp that also aren't a fan of that,

Travis, or just don't understand. I just, you know, I don't know. Who are you? I'm him. Yeah. I wasn't, I wasn't on Saturday night. I was not. That's the other thing is, listen, we, we saw what he did in Texas from the walkout.

And like, let's, you know, not do it before the race. After? Yeah. Yeah. All right, so, Travis, if you were to set up Denny's walkout, how would you have, how would you have staged this? I would have I know I would have

got a better song I think I think the law and order was low hanging we could have done better I liked it I mean a lot of people did so I'm not saying like listen people liked it

but I just thought we could done better yeah now if you wanted to dance absolutely there was better songs out there but you know it's supposed to personify you

right? Yeah is that a two question two part question are these Bristol intro is uncomfortable for you?

No. Do you think they're uncomfortable for a lot of guys in the field? Probably. Probably. I don't know. They just, they never make you introduce yourself.

I don't, I don't think they should, I don't know. I think someone should still introduce you. Yes. I don't like the old you have to introduce yourself. That's kind of Bush League.

Yeah, you think of the cool. We're a professional. sport. I got to say your name. Yeah, you think like basketball, you have the PA and you can't fucking hear anyone, hear anything anyone's saying. Like, let's keep it professional. Yeah. Yeah, because if you don't, I mean, guys come out there. Austin Cendrick's up here. Justin Haley's down here. The mics are getting adjusted. If you don't fix the mic before you go out, and then it's just all over the place. Hi, I'm Justin Haley. Hi, I'm Austin. I'm Carson Hosevar. Yeah.

I mean, I agree. What else? I mean, that was pretty much it. New Hampshire. Like your chances? I always like my chances. So is Roval the cutoff? Yeah.

Roval's the cutoff. Okay. So go perform the first two. Yeah, let's get a hot start here. Yeah, I, New Hampshire, the 20 did the test there. I think we have a new tire again. Yeah. It's supposed to be more wear.

It's not Bristol, but it's supposed to be more wear than what we typically have had there, which is good. Yeah, I feel confident. Another mile flat track, absolutely. Sign me up. Kansas, it's one of my best tracks. So hopefully that plays out nicely. I got a review here from Git.

motivated in 1994. I've been an HMS fan all my life, but the more I listen to your podcast and hear your interviews, I find myself rooting for you. Keep it up, and I hope you get your chip and 70 wins all aboard. 70. That's going to be really difficult.

If 60 was to come at any of these next two tracks, would you be... I still have to be really hot my last couple years. No, no, I'm not talking about 70. Would you be excited? like a New Hampshire can. And you said that if 60 were to come in Bristol, that would be great. 60 at Martinsville would be great.

But if it was to come at New Hampshire, Kansas. We'll take it. We'll take it. We'll take it wherever we can get it. I'm going to say, would you be excited? I don't know. You know, I'd be okay. Come on, Jared.

Yeah, any track, bro. Any track. 60. Even the roval. You're just further from the fans. The celebration. That's all I'm all I'm alluding to. Even at the Charlotte, I'd be happy.

You're not winning the road. calm the down. You never know what could happen. You want to bet? Maybe I've been practicing

these last two months for this track for that track. Okay. And you're good on like two corners of it. The one on the banking? The two on the banking.

I think I'm marginal even at those. All right. Well, appreciate that review there. Get Motivated. Ninety-94.

Wonder for you is born 94. HMS fan Thank you for listening in I have all your guys That are in making the round These guys think Chase Elliott's gonna go out So I didn't say that

I did But I do Who's your four out again? I will go Cendrick Ross Chase Bubba

Which chase Elliot So you do have one going out Yeah but I didn't say it Yeah, now I did. Okay. All right. Well, that's our predictions.

We'll see how this all turns out. And we'll see you all after New Hampshire.