Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - S*** Show with No Respect

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

Denny Hamlin chats about the lack of respect that was shown on Sunday at COTA and who all was to blame for the numerous wrecks . Would single file restarts fix the problems? Tyler Reddick was clearly the fastest and even with multiple overtime restarts he was able to hold off everyone and get the win. Kurt Busch gets emotional. Plus, #DearDenny. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I've never peed or done anything in my suit and my 18-year career. Never. Hand to God on that. Never done it. Hey guys. Welcome to Actions Detrimental Post Coda Circus of America's. I'm Denny Hamlin, driver the number 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing.

And owner, co-owner of 2311 of the race winner, Tyler Reddick, and Bubba Wall. So my co-host, Jared Allen. How are you doing today, Jared? I'm doing good. I am the purple vest guy, the one who follows Denny everywhere on the weekend. You post all those artsy photos on my social media. The ones you love. Yep. Yeah, we had a little discussion about that post-race, but fun week going into Austin. This is a very interesting town. I know you like to explore. It looks like, I mean, I've following social media you're exploring different parts of the city and places from you know famous movies and historical places did you find anywhere cool i really like um what's it called it's called it's abbreviated to soco um i can't know why south congress street okay that runs across the bridge

it's kind of like if people are familiar with charlotte it's the artsy district so it's like noda here in charlotte except much bigger in austin um i really like that street and just going up and down it's it's where all the granolas go exactly okay all right cool uh you know this week uh there was a lot of preparation from our side you know getting ready for the first road course of the season first one for the new uh short track package at short track package people who don't know what we're talking about new air dynamic package for the road courses for this year uh so did a little simulator time i actually sat in on tyler edict's uh simulator trying to learn everything I could.

My crew chief told me before this week started, he's like, you know, we're just going to lock, stop. Whatever the 45 does we're doing, so you need to just figure it out and kind of figure out what he's doing to be so good on road course racing in general. And yeah, I mean, I shadowed his session this week, and, you know, he got out of a simulator.

I got right back in, everything the same. and I'm looking at his times and I'm watching him. You know, we've got great at Toyota simulator. I can see, you know, how he is inside the car and, you know, kind of watch his demeanor as he's going around the track. And I'm like, wow, he's so in control. And, you know, I didn't think much of his times until I'm like, hey, well, what was Bell running? And I'm like, whoa, he's way faster than Bell.

And way faster than Ryan Truex, who does a lot of the sentester for JGR. and then I'm like, well, I'll surely go in there and kind of matches times or be close. And I wasn't close. And I was thinking post, my first message your team was like, man, that fast. Like, holy shit. Like, this can't be real that he's that much faster than I am. And then we show up on Friday and come to find out, it's real. Like, he's that much faster than all of us, not only in the Sim world, but, uh,

in real life. So crazy, crazy skill set that that kid's got. And obviously that's where we, we hired them. Yeah, I came into the bus on Friday after practice. And obviously Redick was super fast in practice, right? Set the track record. I said, hey, why, why is your 2311 cars, most notably Redick, so much faster in you? You're like, it's the same car. Or I said, do they have something different and you're like no it's the same setup i was like so he's just that much better than you yeah now again let me give a little credit to to the guys at 2311 Dave rogers the whole competition department to building fast cars like they also build very fast cars we saw last year that you know many times when we go to these speed type of racetracks the 2311 cars are very very legit and very fast and

um so again you know we we copy as much as we can but again, you know, we don't, we're not, at Joe Gibbs Racing, we're not in the shop with them, you know, while they build the cars and whatnot. So it's a shout out to them. They deserve a lot of credit. Team deserves a lot of credit for that performance. And so I thought we had a great weekend of racing. It started with a truck race that was going to be an awesome showdown. You know, there were some varying strategies there. I think if the Chastain's truck didn't have, some mechanical issues, we're going to see a great battle with him and Kyle Bush. If you notice, like, as soon as one would take the lead, they couldn't stretch it out,

and it seemed like the other was able to pace themselves off of each other. And really, you know, it was going to really size up for a great show. You know, and then I got to thinking, too, I was like, you know, when Kyle went and overrode his crew chief, I was like, man, that's a multitasker there. To be an owner, a driver, and a crew chief following race, like, that guy's multitasking. And so he saw Brian Patty getting pissed because he wanted to come in. You know, you heard Kyle's interview afterwards, and he's like, you know, well, you know, every time I pit early on other racetracks, I get burned by it.

But, like, that's where you've got to just let the crew chief, crew chief. And, you know, they've got a much bigger picture. He wasn't going to go to lap down. He wasn't, you know, the only guy he was battling essentially at the time was the 41 truck who was having mechanical failure. And so I was watching from in the bus seeing that the 41 truck was not running as fast as he should when he came out after he pitted. So I think they were trying to go along there to have the precious tires. But when you got the field beat, you don't have to have an tire advantage as well. So I think they kind of botched up the end of that.

and let's give credit to Zane as well. He held them and checked the entire race as well. He was like 3.5 seconds back and stayed that distance from those two the entire time. So it's not like he lucked into it. So shout out to front row for putting a solid performance two years in a row for Zane and that team. Yeah, and kind of the same, more or less the same situation both years, right? Zane just putting himself in position there behind the leaders at the end. of, I guess this one wasn't at the end of the race, but putting yourself in position there that if

something happens with the leaders, you can capitalize. Yeah, and I mean, that's how you win races nowadays. The fastest truck doesn't, you know, it only wins, or fastest car or truck only wins about 35 to 40 percent of the time. It's pretty low. So this is where the execution comes into play. Would you make of the celebration afterwards? Oh, yeah. Car caught on fire. I thought it was kind of a perfect storm and you know the driver's chat lit up when the when the mud flaps went on yeah I love that we're calling them mud flaps now when they caught on fire I think it was kind of a perfect storm because the rubber was building up between the tire and the mud flap and it caught fire then you know it then caught the mud flap on fire but then caught the truck on fire so

anything we can do to get rid of those things maybe zane gave us a little extra fuel for that fire unintended. And then we had a fantastic Xfinity race. I mean, these guys never cease to amaze me. You know, they've had the same rules package for forever in the Xfinity race, and we just had a awesome battle between Creed, Dinger, Byron. These guys were mixing it up. Creed was just making it hard enough on those guys to try to pass them to, you know, kind of jumble up the field a little bit and then AJ I mean call it like it is he kind of just took out the two obviously it wasn't intentional but he just overdrew the corner and hit the two and spun them out but great battle between those guys in the in the closing lap so it just seems like those exfinity cars for whatever

reason just have a great balance of power and aerodynamics where the racing's always great yeah it doesn't matter what track it is the exfini race seems to always top the weekend or at least it's a highlight of the weekend. Of the race, of racing. We're always talking about how good the Xfinity racing was. Yep. Yeah, it was good for sure. And I think, you know, it was the first kind of moments where we saw,

hey, you know, what's it going to be like with no staged cautions? And I think that, you know, the social media was lighting up with, well, these series typically have a lot of natural cautions anyway, so you don't need them. So I think that there was something merited there. It's interesting, too. Two with the Xfinity series is that year after year, so many the top guys are going out, right? New guys are coming in, but the racing still stays. It is, yeah.

It's got a balance for sure. I mean, you know, I think the truck series specifically have probably 15 good trucks, the Xfinity series, probably a little less than that. There's probably 10 to, at the most, 12 really competitive cars or cars that are capable of winning week in, week out. and then you go to the Cup Series, it's like 25, you know, that can win. You know, the cars that are fast enough are capable enough to win. So, yeah, it was, I thought it was great racing at the racetrack this weekend with all three series.

I thought the crowd on Sunday was good. They certainly showed up. You saw them all over the grassy knolls, which is good. And, you know, there's plenty of places to sit and watch that race. So, you know, great, great atmosphere for sure. I love the facilities there. Circuit of America's is like one of the perfect road courses because it's got a lot of passing zones

and it's also got a lot of technical areas in it. So like between turns 13 and 16, that's like a very technical Sonoma sweeping corners type feel and then you've got like a mix of Road America along straightways at this racetrack as well. So that's what makes the difference in like great road courses like Coda and Road America versus like tracks like, let's just call it, you know, the parking lot at the Roval. Like it's just, that's not, it's just not a,

not a good mix there. But for fans too, Coda has a lot of amenities. Like there's, the facility is great, right? Yeah. I haven't, I don't get to, you know, check it out as much as probably you do. But I know that you like exploring around that racetrack. Yeah, they just have a lot of things that make the track unique. The tower for one. The pit road and garage facility is top notch. They have that carnival out beyond whatever it is turned 20. Just think there's a lot to do there and there's a lot of reasons for people to come to that race. If you're not just specifically interested in the racing. Yeah. That's fair. That's what makes for great racetracks, right? Is there something for you to do if you want to watch the race? Is there something for your

kids to do outside or is there's great view somewhere, right? So good facilities, all for that. But the race on Sunday, man, was just a clinic by Tyler Reddick and that team. They were just light years faster than everyone the entire weekend. He got some challenges here and there, but for the most part, it was a Tyler Reddick show for sure. You know, I had a bit of a rough day myself. I cut the Ss twice, one because I had a flat tire. and, you know, I'm trying out to stack up the field.

That was unfortunate for me. But I had one cutting the S's early. That was because I couldn't see shit. Like, you know, we're all going and we're too wide through the S's, and I can't see where the lines are in the racetrack are. So I guess I, you know, I'm confident in knowing that they made the right call because I couldn't see. I wonder, you know, just generally speaking, can we make some sort of,

because we're all just trying to navigate and not run into each other through the is no one's trying to gain, especially when you're too wide. Can we have a little bit of judgment, I don't know, a little bit of judgment that, hey, if you don't gain a spot or gain position on somebody, can we just kind of let each other in on the road? Can NASCAR let us just navigate getting through there without wrecking? And if we step over the out of bounds by a foot, like can we just say that no one gained an advantage there?

We're just trying to go through there without wrecking. So do you agree with the penalty for cutting yes as a pass-through? I do. I think that's a good call. You know, Michael Walter flew back with me yesterday and he says, you know, they just need to have rumbles there or something that deter you. And I'm like, Michael, it's better to have, you know, me personally, I'd rather just do a pass-through, not tear my car all to and my race not be over because I've damaged my car versus, you know, I think the penalty of. of doing a pass-through is a good penalty because, you know, it doesn't end your race. You know, I lost probably, I mean, where I was running, I only lost about eight spots anyway.

And in my day can go on, you know, it was just kind of a simple mistake of I can't see where I'm going. And then the second one was at the end of the race where I had a cut tire and I didn't want to jam up the field. When you go through that section, are you actively, like when you're heading through the SIS, are you actively thinking that, hey, I need to make sure I stay within the track limits here? Oh, yeah. You are thinking about that. Yeah, so there's a white line that I'm looking at, and I try to hit my tires on that white line.

Now, that's very close, but that's using up everything I can without putting all four tires inside the rumble strips. So, you know, it was a fairly clean race, pretty straightforward. I did find myself at one point, one of the stages, I think it was before the second stage where Chris had me pit, a lap before. And when I came out,

I was kind of just, I wasn't taking it easy, but I was making sure I wasn't burning up my tires because I'm like, well, caution's coming out. So we're going to reset and flip the field. And then I realized about three quarters of a lap later.

Oh, never mind. We're going green. There is no caution here. So it did kind of throw me for a loop there for about three quarters of a lot. Oh, then no stage breaks. Yeah.

I thought we were going to have a break, but we didn't. So, yeah, it confused me a little bit. But, we'll get used to it. I think it was the start of stage two,

or maybe the start, yeah, it had to have been the start of stage two, where they restarted, and the order for the stage was determined off of who crossed the line first. So depending on how you restarted, was worth a position or two. So William Byron led the field of the restart,

so he finished first in the stage, but the guys between sixth and ten, and 10th that whatever it was 500 feet because they restarted on correct wow they crossed the line was there a stack up was there like people pushing to get their row ahead I wonder there wasn't for this one but down the road now that you're aware of that you can gain one or two spots on this restart there may be a stack up yeah it's a start but it's also a finish correct dag on can you imagine if they had that in the middle of turn one.

Like the start, finish line just right after the turn? Yeah. I mean, we've already got shows, you know. The title for this, by the way, should be show with a happy ending. That's pretty much what it was. Right. Because what if Reddick didn't win this race? I mean, yeah, I know that Jeff was talking about on his podcast last night.

You listen to it. I usually try to listen to that to kind of, hit some tidbits of like what do I need to talk about on this show but yeah I mean certainly the narrative definitely gets driven off of what happens during these green white checkers right and luckily the fastest car one which which made it certainly a happy ending for for us probably the sport because you know it does get nasty at the end of these races and it's it's interesting because the beginning of the race is not like this. We're running two by two at the beginning of the race and we don't have 10 wide. Why do we have it at the end? And I think just everyone, someone gets used up

by someone else, some point during the race, and so they just lose their patience. And so we watched the race back together right before we aired this. And I'm going to do my best to call out the people who don't get enough attention for being dumb at the end of this race. The one idiot section of this show. Basically, right? Is that, listen, and I'm not picking on these guys for any particular reason other than what I saw, what I saw watching the race back. You know, I watched replay after replay. Let me see it again.

Of who is coming in to the pack with reckless abandon and not giving a shit about anybody else around them and willing to, crash other cars to gain positions. Now, whether their intention is to crash other cars or not, I don't think is necessarily their objective. I saw on a couple of these that they were perhaps trying to start something. And others were just, you know, and let me just say, I biased this. When I looked at the replays, I looked at cars that were coming in from late. They were mid or back of the pack and made a move and laid on the bumper of cars in front of them and there was no one pushing behind them. So they had the option to hit the brakes more and they didn't. They just used the car in front of them as bumper cars into hey, hopefully he hits this guy, this guy hits this guy.

And then we got a big pile up and boom, I've gained him spots. So we're removing intent from this discussion. I guess, I guess. But TV doesn't have time to break all this down. right i mean you know again i had to watch it multiple times to really see who i believe is at fault for the main cars wrecking so the card you see spin out who was the guys that triggered this and and so let's go into this right so at the end we had a one with and i've got notes here uh it just says call out so this is nine to go um I saw, from what I saw, is that the two car, and again, I'm going off notes and I'm not watching it back. So, so there was two main people that I thought were responsible for just the absolute chaos.

You had the two car shoving the middle, just pushing the 43. There's nobody behind the two pushing him. He just lays on the 43's bumper, shoves the 43, and I don't know if the 43, yeah. and then the 43 spins the one. So the 43 got shoved. He spins out the one car because he's getting shoved from the two. Then you got Harvick in the four.

He's on another lane. Again, comes in there smoking the tires way too deep. He lays into the 16 and then the 16 hits the three. So I'm going to hold the two car which is Austin Cendrick and the four car, Kevin Harvick,

responsible are my kind of my what a idiot's for that caution then we got another caution let's see seven to go the one so the one car spun there so he goes to the back chastain goes to the back and he's probably super pissed at the time so i watched him go from last essentially and he just drives in on the bottom and just ships it in on the bottom and he just starts pogoing cars from the bottom lane um so when that happened somebody hit somebody somebody then hit somebody and then somebody spun up front and that in my mind was from chastain shipping in on the bottom just saying i just got wrecked and we're going to we're going to cause some chaos here And hopefully it all worked out, which he gained a bunch of spots from.

Then we got one here from, then we go into overtime. Okay, so then there was a debris caution from the three car. It's interesting, as long as those laps are, you had a suggestion for this for debris. I did. What was your suggestion? NASCAR needs the people like in tennis, the kids that run out, grab the loose ball, and run back to the corner. When we've got Daniel Suarez's tire carcass laying on the backstretch, and the cars aren't going to come around for two more minutes.

Just send a guy out there, grab the tire, and get off the fucking track. Then we don't have to call another caution. Jared, what if there's a car that came off pit road that's a second behind the field? Hey, we got a car coming. You've got 45 seconds to pick up the tire. Hurry up. I don't know. Have you watched some of our...

It's probably a dumb idea. By the way, this is a thankless job that these guys have that are our cleanup personnel, But I just don't trust that anyone is going to go out there and pick up that tire carcass within 45 seconds. I didn't say it was a good idea. I'm just watching the race. You're just saying it's an idea. Someone go pick up the fucking tire so we can get this race over with. Yeah.

I mean, we'll talk about this at the end after I'm done calling out some of these wrecks on what we can do to fix this because it is kind of a bad look. But, all right, let me go to the first overtime caution. the 22 car then shipped it into the middle that caused that so this was the priest wreck the one that he got absolutely pissed about and called everyone a bunch of hacks i'm super proud of priests and these drivers starting to embrace my quotes that i've said over the years um and i couldn't agree with him more so the reason he got wrecked honestly came from the 22 car who him and the 20 had a pissing match I think throughout the final restarts. Interesting enough, he offered Austin, Peyton, my guy that you also see around,

he offered Austin a ride back to the bus slot. And Austin said that Joey was just going off on the golf card about, you know, this is fucking ridiculous. And like, I finished off the 20 car. Well, maybe he finished me off. I'm really not sure. But like, just guys that are just pissed and going at each other. And Walltrip had said, Joey doesn't swear.

And Austin swore by it. He was like, no, he did. He was swearing. But the 22, and thanks Joey for giving Austin a ride. But the 22, I'm going to have to hold him accountable here. And again, these are my opinions of what I saw. 22 shipped it into the middle, laid into the bumper of someone. He had nobody behind him.

And he essentially caused this major wreck that the 41 spun. and I don't know, I think the 38 spun. There's a bunch of cars that spun, but it all started from the guys who came into the middle with reckless abandon. 22's fault on this one. Second overtime. Okay, I think this is where the Bowman

and the chastain and the Suarez anger started. You saw at the end of the race, the 99 car knocked the one out of the way on pit lane, then hit the 48 on pit lane. And there was official there. Interesting to see how that goes. But he was really pissed. And then I think the 48 got out of the car and says,

hey, you better go talk to your teammate who started all this. And so I tried to break it down. I tried to look at it and figure out who was really at fault in this deal. Because Daniel obviously got the shit in the stick. it's it's close it's really close the bowman shipped it in there on the bottom i you know it was going to be very hard for him to make the corner but he did attempt to slow down like he didn't lay into the 99 he didn't make contact with the 99 until the one who again did this a few laps before chastain he shipped it in again on the bottom

And you can see where he's trying to slow down, but he didn't really attempt to slow down a whole lot. He hit the 48. The 48 then starts, you can see him like trying to slow down. But then here comes the 14 of Briscoe. He's shipping it on the bottom. Nobody behind Briscoe. I watched there was nobody. He had the option to slow down more.

He didn't. Then the one and the 14 tag team and hit the 48. of Bowman into Suarez, Swares spins out. So I'm going to call this a, most of the blame goes to Chastain and Briscoe on the 99 spinning. The one was the initial contact into Bowman,

which knocked him in Suarez, but then the 14 then was shoving. I think he saw that they were starting to make contact up there, and he was just like, hey, let me join this party. You guys were all hitting each other, so I think it's okay. So he kept going and kept pushing from behind. So watching this replay back, I have to defend Bowman a little bit because on this restart, you see Chastain's behind him.

Chastain pulls down below him to pass on the side. Bowman's what comes over. So he sees him in his rear view, coming over to block him. And then Chastain pulls down again into the red on Pitt Road. And Bowman comes down again. Yeah. So Bowman basically is playing defense. Yeah.

trying to keep the one from shooting the bottom on him, right? So everyone just keep pulling further left. And, you know, I thought that it was just a, it was avoidable but unavoidable because everyone, the people that are coming from three lanes back shooting the gap on the bottom. Like they know they have nowhere to go other than to hit the car in front of them

and they just say, so, um, Bowman afterwards called it an embarrassment. If you want to race clean, you'll get used up. I agree with that statement. I mean, I try my best not to be on this list of responsible for these wrecks. But honestly, I'm the one that gets the shit into the stick.

So, you know, Harvick usually is not this guy, but I think I called him out on the first caution. I mean, that's on him. Maybe he just doesn't, he's like, if I'm not going to get. get the guy, I'm not going to be the guy getting used up. I'm going to be the one using up. And this is what we got. And so I personally think it's a bad look. I think that, you know, do we want our NASCAR fans? You know, I know, I know, I've got a clock on my dash on, you know, just like the no time of day, you know, for time, you know, debriefing with my team and whatnot on when the track changed, but I mean, it shouldn't take an hour to run the last two laps of the race,

Green flag laps of the race. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, maybe we should explore single file restarts at the end. Jared, we, we, listen, don't act like, don't act like our series is not afraid to change the rules in the middle of the race. They did it during the dirt race a couple years ago. It did. Maybe after four green white checkers that you learned. look into that, but immediately? I get it, but this, we can't be trusted, clearly.

We can't, you know, we can't be trusted. I mean, Kimi Reikiden at the airport says, it's stupid. We bump our cause. It's ridiculous. Like, that's what he said, you know, so I just, he's like, you know, it's not good. You know, Jordan Taylor, I watched him. that guy hit everything but the lottery every car he got around he was laying into him now i didn't see

what happened early in the race maybe he got used up and was like oh fine this is how y'all do this but i know the the nine car for sure and jordan like he he ran in me so many times that i finally was like man if i get back to him i'm just going to have to move him out of the way as well and so it's just this is what we were doing nowadays and it's it's just i don't like it um we thought that it was just an indie road course problem. It's not. It's wherever we have a restart zone that is close,

you know, an extended distance from turn one where you're coming into a stop. Because you don't see this at Watkins Glen. No? And you don't see this at Sonoma. No. What if,

okay, well then let's move the zone. Because maybe the zone needs be between turn 19 and 20 so we can take off, slow down, and then go down the front straightaway, not be all jamming in there.

That's why I think single file might be the best resort. Now, I know there, it's just, what does NASCAR want, right? If they're happy, then they're going to keep this. But I just think that there's something we need to do for the road courses on these restarts because, you know, more than likely if you're listening to this, your driver probably got spun erect at the end of that race and you're probably tired of it as well. So I just think taking an hour to run to the last few laps is just ridiculous. And how can we avoid it? You have to help the drivers help themselves. And that's spreading us out a little bit.

So do the drivers have an individual responsibility to? Yes. We all do. We all have a responsibility to have respect for each other. But we don't. We just don't. And there's just a few. That's why I called them out as I saw it this weekend because they don't get enough attention. Do we hear about any of these guys that were responsible for these cautions? No, all we hear on TV is that oh, well, it's a stack up and this guy

got the shit in. Normally when it's someone making contact one verse one and it's the middle of a green flag run, the person has the embarrassment of seeing it on TV in the field and everyone watching the scene, oh, that guy's at fault. When we all get stacked up here,

they don't get credit for the wreck. So I'm trying to give the people that I believe deserves credit for the wreck here on the show today. And there'll be points where I'm probably going to be responsible down the road because clearly you cannot be clean

like Alex Spoma says. You know, just can't get away from it. For what it's worth, Chastain gets spun on that first caution, goes back to, I don't know, the last car on the lead lap. By the end of this race, he's back into the top five by doing that exact same aggressive move.

So, I know. For what it's worth, it works. They get rewarded for it. So I don't know. I just think that at what point does NASCAR make changes? They either can make changes by telling these guys that was unavoidable and you're responsible and you're going to the back. That would stop it.

That would stop it. Or you just say, okay, well, we don't want to get into those balls and strikes. calls. We're just going to move the restart line to somewhere else. I like that idea better than single file restarts. Okay. Well, because the road course is where you have a softer corner, Watkins Glen, Sonoma.

This doesn't happen. As much. As much. But it, I mean, it has happened for a while, but not to this magnitude. It's like people see a opening and they think, oh, if I jam it in there, then I'm there. No, that's not. that's not racing you are playing bumper cars that is that is what we're doing and so we have a

list of guys that that that cause cautions and it's unfortunate but it's screwing up the end of the race because we had such great races going and we yeah i mean very easily could have had a you know a show at the front and in next thing you know somebody that had no business winning winning I mean, that's what we've had many, many times. But luckily, you know, we had a happy inning with the fastest car winning. Besides these new guys, Jordan Taylor, getting into everybody and whatnot, how was it racing with them? I mean, it was cool. I thought that Jensen Button was probably the cleanest of all of them.

There was actually a quote from him. I don't know if I have it here. but he was like, you know, man, I feel like we can do better than this. He's like, you know, he says, I remember seeing this. He says, I appreciated the ability to retaliate against someone that knocked him out of the way. He's like, I like being able to hit them back. He said, but he's like, we, these field of guys should be able to do better than what they're doing. Yeah, he also noted that he'd never gone through so many corners to why.

before. Yeah, that's a great point. And listen, I mean, contact is what our sport was built on for many, many years, but we're just taking it to another level, and it's getting to the not good look level. So it's interesting. Kemi obviously didn't like it. You know, he called a bumper cars. Jensen said, you know, this is kind of out of, this is not what really I thought it was going to be. And then you got Jordan Taylor saying like, you know, what the hell? I, you know, I just, I hit everyone because they hit me. So it's, uh, it was, it was crazy to watch for sure. What did you make of Jordan Taylor's qualifying time? He's fast. And that stuff when they're an open track. Yeah. I, I talked to Jordan a little bit before the, uh, the race started. I was like, you know, what did you think? Is everything? He's like, man, it just,

I had no idea how much these cars were going to slide around versus like the, the garage 56 car that has so much more power so much more down force he said but it's fun he's like i had such a fun time and that's where you see like if i can improve as a driver it's like how am i going to get better finishes and stop being in the middle of all this it's like i need to qualify better and then put myself up there with the cars that don't run into each other as much um that's where i have to get better i mean those guys are able to get all out speed so much better than what i am man it's it's crazy that they can get in a machine that they have not been in before and just go qualify in the top 10 that's just crazy were you exhausted after the race there's a lot of guys getting out of the car you know sitting on the

ground immediately reddick there's a video of his celebration he was sitting on the ground yeah i got out of the car and i went and talked to my team and everybody i had had got out of the car in front of me was all laying on the ground and just sweating and exhausted and i was just like I mean, I honestly felt as good after that race as I felt in any race that I've had. It was the first race that I ran a cool shirt. I don't usually run cool shirts, you know, but my crew chief is adamant that, you know, he wants me if it's over 85 degrees, he wants to be wearing it. So I was pretty fresh.

I felt good. Shoulder actually felt pretty good after the race. So, yeah, I don't know what it is. I think just some these cars gas guys harder than others is it taking more out of you

all the restarts at the end left right left right and just doing that over and over again while getting running in the back yeah I mean certainly with all the shifting again we're running into each other so you know maybe there's more CO coming in the car

but again I felt fine but maybe that's maybe I'm just not driving hard enough I say that, but I spun a few times trying to drive hard. So I don't know. It's just everyone, it's different. You know, you never know, did they hydrate enough? Did they eat the right things before the race to keep fluids in them? You just never know how everyone prepares.

Reddick's heart rate was up there like 180 beats per minute at some points during the race. Wow. That's high. Yeah. I mean, the pressure of keeping all those cars behind you for so many laps. Yeah. I mean, the poise that he had was. just amazing. It reminded me of watching the indie road course race last year where he got past

on one of the restarts, but then just methodically just you saw him weaving and just, I forget who he beat there, but he just, I mean, just put on a clinic. God, the kid is so poised behind the wheel. You talked about him a little bit earlier when we opened up this section of the show, but what makes him so much better of a road course racer than some of the competition? I don't know. I mean, I know where he's better than me. Like, where's he better than you? Well, I mean, I don't want to say that on air because, you know, the competition listens, people listen. They'll, you know, if they have their debrief on Tuesday, I guarantee you that they'll say, well, Denny said this, Denny said that.

And they'll take some of that and say, all right, well, we need to work in these areas. I mean, we always listen. As competition, we always listen to what other drivers say. and can we use any of that information to get better? All teams listen to each other. If you look, the crew chiefs have got eight radios around their belt. It's because they're listening to everyone. They're listening to NASCAR, their teammates, every other car on the racetrack,

trying to gather any information they can to make their program better. So I know where I need to work, certainly. I think I need to have more reps to do it. But I saw light at the end. into the tunnel. I believe that I was an open racetrack faster in the race than I was here last year. So I'm pretty optimistic. But is Reddick, is he breaking better than others? Is he just hitting the margins and the passes. The passes he made, that's what it looked like is he could just outbreak guys into the corner. So, um, but he sets himself up for the corner really well. So he just does everything

well. And he's able to run that car on an edge that not many people can, can drive. It was cool that he was able to get the win after, I mean, he earned it multiple times over. And it was cool hearing Kurt on the last lap too get choked up for him because of his involvement in the team's stuff. Yeah, I mean, I wanted to hear that because I saw social media really, you know, I don't know what their reaction was, but a lot of engagement on Kurt's last lap call, right? and you know as he's just such a great person beyond anything right he's a great teammate he helped us build that 45 team and you know his it was his relationship with monster energy that that came over to 2311 and you know i know i had a a conversation with monster energy at the grove at michael's place and said you know this i believe in this kid and you know if you want to stick around you

know, I think that you could be part of something great with him. And they did, thankfully, and to get them a win was great. And then, you know, this was all facilitated by Kurt Busch. And this team was built around Kurt Busch. And when you hear him talking about, you know, I really wanted to be in this car, he does. He, he still loves racing. And you see him how active he is, you know, going and being on pit lane during practices and qualifying, you know, just giving any of our drivers a little bit of information that they might

be able to use to be better, given our crew chiefs information of things that he sees that maybe they're not looking at. Such a valuable part of our team and such a great teammate. He is, he's just the best. He is the best dude. And like last year, you know, he took my kids to go get ice cream one day. He's just Uncle Kurt. I know, right?

He's just such a great dude. And can you ask for anybody to have gone through such a transition in their life from, you know, decade to decade like Kurt Bush, just a huge transition as a person and, you know, proud to have him as a teammate 2311. Yeah, I got to respect his, just his involvement in the team. So, right? Because you'd have to think that a guy whose career ends like that, you know, maybe or full-time racing career, full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing career, ended the way it did last year,

would not necessarily want to still be as involved as he is, right? It's just got to be hard for him to be on pit road with the team and not be in the seat of the car. Yeah, I mean, I experienced it when I, you know, broke my back in 2013 having to watch my car go around the racetrack for a couple months. It was like, it's tough. It really was tough. and I just I can only imagine, right? I mean, what I loved about Kurt's career, though, is that he went out going for the pole.

He was probably going to get the poll at Pocono when he got in that wreck. And so in my mind, he went out on top. He had, you know, just put that team where it was running top three, top four every single week, and he built that team to what it is. We've got some questions that we want to ask. Dare, Danny.

We need answers and we need him fast. We tried to ask Junior, but his answers were lame. And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now we're caught on you because you're our only hope. This ain't the race track, so maybe you won't choke. Dare, Dan. First question. Why are driver contracts earnings less visible to fans versus other major sports?

well I think that that a lot of that reason is because we have no salary cap so it doesn't have to be public information other sports it's publicized this you know this wide receiver got a four-year 120 million dollar contract whatever it might be a lot of that is because it's it's public information because they have to monitor what the team spend they you know around NASCAR they always keep the money a little more secretive. You know, they stopped posting what our winnings were. I think Bob Pockris each week posts like with the charter

and historical money and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The purse for this weekend is blank, right? But it's not really broken down. So I'm not sure. We'll have to ask NASCAR really why the money is hidden so much. I know that people used to really like seeing what their drivers made on any given weekend.

I think when they started changing where they put the money, so they used to all be in the race purse. And then five, six years ago, when the charters came around, they started putting it in different buckets. The teams were like, hey, we need more guaranteed revenue. So they said, okay, each team that has a charter will get X amount. And then however you have finished in the point standings for the last three years, that's a fund as well.

So first to 36th, and obviously first gets a bigger share of the pie. So that's what we're essentially racing for. And then we have our actual race purse, which we make on a weekly basis. That is, of course, ranked as well from first to 36. But the difference is like, you know, we talk about this all the time with our 2311 team

is like, if we go spend like a few more million, to go run 10 spots better, the return's not really not there. There's not enough discrepancy between, you know, going to, and being the top versus being mediocre

or being towards the back. Like it's, the line is not very vertical. Right? Vertical? Yeah. It's more horizontal. So it's just,

you know, I think that that's something that, you know the teams will talk about in the next negotiations of like how can you entice some of these bottom teams to to spend more money to be competitive right because right now you know some of the most probably the most profitable teams are at the very back of the field um because you know they they spend what it takes to put their car on the racetrack every week and sometimes that's that's all they're trying to do is get to the racetrack and i'm not saying they're doing it to just go collect a check but they're looking at the business model saying,

well, it doesn't make sense to spend more money to go faster because if I gain one or two spots in the standings, it's not worth what I have to spend to get there. They're playing with what they're given. Yep. With the rise of sim racing, what are your thoughts on these types of drivers entering the sport in some capacity?

Like sim drivers? Sim drivers? Like I racing? Correct. Yep. Like your E NASCAR Coca-Cola series. Yeah. I listen, I've worked with Kegan Leahy, our ir racing pro series driver for 2311 for a couple of years now. And we just recently hired him at our team to work with us.

And I know that him and Tyler worked together quite a bit in preparation for Kota. I was actually there and I was surprised. I walked into the Sim and I'm like, oh, hey, Kegan, what's up? What's you doing here? He's like, I'm moving here in a month. You know, he's from Canada, so they're working on the visa there. But I think that it's very important. Those guys have a great skill set in the world of simulation that we live in nowadays.

Those guys have a skill set that can be an asset to race teams. And I know that I worked with them on road courses quite a bit. Koto being one of them. Now, again, I'm probably not a great case study because I haven't taken the big jump that I need to. but I know I worked with them at the Daytona Road course, and I led early on in the Daytona Road course because of the preparation that I put in with him in the team. So I think that it's a very valuable tool for sure.

And, you know, I think you look at, I think one of the, you know, you're seeing a lot of the pro drivers or former pro drivers. I think I just saw Seattle, Vincent, Cialis or something like that. Salas win at Hickory on a green-white checkered. So a lot of these guys are starting

to get into real racing now and actually having pretty good success. William Byron came from iRacing. I mean, that's where he got his start and race for the first time. Honeycutt in the truck series, I believe he is a pro racing driver as well online and he's now in the truck series.

So they're starting to get opportunities, which is very cool to see. For the hardcore Denny Hamlin fans, you remember Kegan Leahy was Denny's crew chief during the glory days of your televised sim racing a few years back. I know. On our street on our Twitch streams. I know. It's funny because that's like you driving and me being your spotter. Yeah.

A pro ride race, right? He's probably like, man, this guy is such a clown. He has no idea what he's doing. He's terrible. But yeah, those guys, they just have a specific skill set. They've been running thousands of laps on ira racing for so long that when we go, when we try to do it, we're less competitive. We're definitely less fast than what they are.

So, yeah, I think that you'll see in the future that, you know, these guys are going to have positions or be assets to some of these teams. Did you tell Brad to lock the porta potty next time? Yeah, that was just a bad move on his part. I'm not going to talk about what I saw. but it was very interesting to see him with his helmet on in fire suit. Yeah, it was, he was in a rush. Listen, I felt the same thing he did, by the way. Listen, I had to use the bathroom really, really bad.

I had to pee, like, extremely bad. And so, like, for the first time, I really don't use the bathroom that much before the, like, I know that I need to pee before the race because I know, as much fluids as I'm going to take in throughout the race. Like it gives me a stomach ache at the end because I'm like holding it in. And I tried to let it go at Atlanta. Now, I've never peed or done anything in my suit

in my 18-year career. Never. Hand to God on that. Never done it. But I was so uncomfortable at the end of Atlanta that I wanted to let it go. And I'm, I tried to relax. I'm like, just.

let it go and I couldn't do it the stage fright or whatever it was just not wanting to make a mess in my suit and then to my seat I'm just like I can't do it there's only one more caution hopefully and we're going to get this thing over so I jumped out of the car and Brad

must have hauled ass to the car because he he beat me to the John and listen it's not my job to knock on the door like it's up to him he has to have a green handle you see a green handle you pull it yeah do you knock on Have you never knocked on?

Never. No. That's what the green reds for. That's right. So definitely rookie move by Brad. Shout out to the cameraman for capturing that content for me on the rest of the tour. Is it kind of weird though? Why do you follow him?

Well, I guess he probably could have thought that maybe he was going to approach another driver or something. Yeah. But, I mean, keeping the camera on him for the entire time he was in the John. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

A little weird. I don't think you filled out. Did you fill out of March? Madness bracket this year? I didn't fill out a March Madness bracket, but I did fill out an action's detrimental bracket. People, you're going to want to see this. It's going to come out on YouTube this week, but I filled out a bracket about my most detrimental moments of my career. Now, we only had an eight team bracket, eight teams, eight teams, right, of different incidents. What I deemed the most eight detrimental things that have happened in my career or to my career or my

reputation or whatever it might be come to find out when we were filling this out we needed way more brackets than eight but tune in that's going to be coming in later this week watch out for that it will be entertaining for sure should we give people a hint um for the bracket so they can go follow your social media at denny hamlin and dirty mo who run through the uh the seeds of what you seeded yeah each of these things. Yeah, so you guys remember? Because I'm looking at it over in the corner over there. No, I mean, I don't want to give away too much for sure, but you guys help put that,

you put a list on my, my note here on my phone of like what y'all thought were the most detrimental and then I added to it and then we kind of narrowed it down from there. And then when I was filling it out, I kind of put the seeds where I thought it was going to be. but there were some upsets. As I talked through it and informed people of why I thought they were detrimental, I started to change my mind on what I thought was more detrimental to others. So there were some upsets. Yeah, we had one.

I'm going to go with this one. Actually, no, I'm going with the upset. Nope, I'm going with the. Yeah, there was some mind-changing going on. Yeah. So for people listening, you can find that later this week on Denny's social media at Denny Hamlin, Dirty Moe social media. at Dirty Mo Media and then the full video, the full 9 to 10 minute video will be on the Dirty

Mo Media YouTube page. Yeah. Be on the lookout for that. Richmond this weekend. Anything you want to add about this? Yeah, I mean, excited for Richmond, hometown, home cooking. We won the race last year there. My kind of racetrack.

I love it. I think we should be pretty strong. I really do. I think it's not always a fan favorite from an ad. actions perspective because it's it's very similar to Atlanta where the race can get strung out now it's a three quarters of a mile track so we're not going to it's one of those race the racetrack type of tracks so you know there's not a lot of beating and banging even though it's less than a mile race track but it's a the best cars win there on a higher percentage than any other

races. And so Martin Truex always historically very good at that racetrack. We were really good both races last year. So I don't know. I think that's one of the

racetracks. I think Blaney struggles historically at that track for whatever reason. He usually qualifies well, runs up front for the first little bit, and then has a bad pit stop or something, and then just drops an anchor, but some tracks just fit some driver's styles better than others.

And I just feel like Richmond is that one where I can make up a little bit of difference of what my car may or may not have. But I've also had races there where I've run 15th and just been like, what the hell is going on? Do you have any plans for Saturday? You'll be done at the track about probably 1230 since qualifying in the morning. And this is your hometown. A couple of years ago, you went to a bonfire or barn with your old buddies?

Yeah. Yeah, that was an adventure. Yeah, they, you know, they text me and said, hey, we're all hanging out at the barn in Amelia. So I took about a 45-minute drive and went out in the middle of absolutely nowhere and hung out in their barn with them the night before the race. And then we won.

So it was fun. I have great seeing all my old friends from high school. And, yeah, I don't get to see them that much. We used to hang out all the time. But since they're in Virginia, I'm in North Carolina. It's just a lot different. and, you know, so it's cool because I, you know, giving them kind of memorabilia and maybe some fenders or doors of my car over time.

So you see them all hanging up in the barn there. So it's cool. And it's crazy to see everyone's family now. Like I brought my kids, you know, and, you know, they're hanging out with all their kids. And it's just fun. Well, that'll do it for another episode of actions detrimental. Yep.

We'll see you guys next week. But first. Oh, social media plugs. We always forget to do this. Dirty Mo Media. At Dirty Mo Media. Follow Mr. Jared Allen over there at Jared D. Allen, and I'm at Denny Hamlin. So tune in.

You're going to want to check out that bracket. That action is detrimental bracket. I guarantee you you're going to find a laugh out of that. Like, follow, subscribe. We'll see you next week. See you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.