Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Should There Be a Penalty… Or Is Public Opinion Enough?

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Chase Elliott gets the win, but Denny Hamlin was right there with him. What looked like a simple P2 on paper was anything but, as Texas turned into a full-on track position battle where one restart could make or break your day. Denny breaks down how it slipped away. From getting buried in traffic to timing that final restart just about as perfectly as possible… and still coming up short. Was staying out the right call? Why did passing become nearly impossible late? And how close he actually was to clearing the 9 for the lead. Then it’s everything else from a chaotic Texas weekend. Strategy gambles, pit road madness, and plenty for Actions Detrimental to sort through. Denny weighs in on the Kyle Busch situation, Preece vs. Gibbs, and the restarts that had everyone on edge. Plus, strong runs from Bowman, Bubba charging back through the field, and Spire showing real speed. We also dive into the points picture, where Tyler Reddick is in a league of his own, and what it’ll take for SVG to make a push. A runner-up finish, a lot of what-ifs, and a race that was one move away from a very different ending. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pit Road was a mess. Lugano got a DNF from a pit road incident. Yeah. That is wild. That is wild. But when you look at his end car, if he hit somebody that was dead stopped. 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. you are not. The spoils a victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck

the drink and drink to win. I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection. The 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 after race number 11 at Texas Motor Speedway.

We had Carson host of our winning trucks, Larson, in the O'Reilly series. Chase Sillett and Cup. We got a Cup racers sweep for the weekend. Cup racers sweep. They dominated the lower series. I don't know if dominates the right word,

but they won the lower series races. Yeah, the truck race, there were some good, I thought that, like, Gio, Ruggiero had the best truck, but just didn't have the best restarts. I mean, you could just tell, like the cup experience,

You know, when they go down, that's the biggest thing is like they know the first couple corners how to how much speed it can take. You know, it's it almost seems like the regulars and other series, you know, go into the first corner after restart thinking, okay, I'm going to have the same grip that I had when I just finished. And it's like you just, the cup drivers you see just usually go around them and, you know, are able to maximize. that grip, you know, and use it to their advantage. That and Pitt Road, there's just a lot of little things that you learn over time, bracing on Sundays that help you when you go against the Friday and Saturday competition. There's been very few truck regular drivers full-time win this year. Yeah. Is there still a limit on the amount of times you can run or they upped it, right?

They upped it, right? It's like seven or something. I forget. but yeah i mean it's it's just as entertaining to watch for me so i agree i don't really care um yeah host of our one kyle finished second um i thought that yeah i thought the 17 was good the 11 was good the 34 lane rigs or is he the 38 i don't know he's 34 is he's 34 is he um I thought they were like really good. Carson was good, but once he got in traffic,

I didn't think he was as strong, but, you know, he just, I mean, he masterclassed him there at the end of the race. I knew when it came down that short restart and he had him versus those guys that he was just going to be at a tremendous advantage. And he took advantage of it. It was fun race to watch.

It really was. And then like O'Reilly series, Larson, Algear, battles to the finish there, Justin did a great job getting to him. But then like when he got to him, I kept thinking, just jam air on him. Like just pack it in on him. But he just couldn't quite get Larson loose enough or put himself in the right spot to do that. Was it that he couldn't or he decided to make a business decision?

I don't think so. Well, he was able to get to him by running just higher. Like he was really pushing the gray of the racetrack up. So he's pushing the groove up. He was finding that cleaner pavement that we're always searching for. So he was willing to take the risk because he's the chaser. And then, you know, Kyle was not willing to take that risk because he's out front. So he wants to run a little bit more conservative line.

And that just allows him to close. And then he just couldn't do anything with it. I was very surprised to see he couldn't. Because usually in that series with that car, you know, three, quarters of the battle is getting close enough once you get like within that car to two cars like the advantage now becomes yours you can you can really manipulate that front car but he just couldn't do it enough yeah i was wondering watching it if kyle was doing something to prevent Justin from getting him loose like we saw so many other drivers do and and get as one car comes up behind them yeah i mean

Kyle's a really good defender. He knows how to slow down and mirror drive in the corners to wherever you are. And he was doing that to a degree when Justin started moving around. But it looked like he wasn't really willing to go as high as Justin was in the corners. And I thought that's what allowed Justin to get there. But once he got there, I thought he just needed to run in on him, as hard as he could and take the grip away from Kyle's car. But it's, you know, I haven't run one of those cars on a big track in quite some time.

So it's easy for me to say. Yeah. So Larson wins. Move to Sunday in the cup race. Chase Elliott is your winner. Yeah, I don't think it's a huge surprise. This is, you know, here, Kansas is, he's won quite a bit, like those two tracks. these mile and a half tracks, I feel like it's his strong suit.

Now, he has some clunkers every now and then where, you know, he's not, he's at the back half of the top 10 or just outside of it. But for the most part, like when I go to Texas, I think about he's one of the top three to four that you're going to have to contend with every time. He just, he knows how to manage the race there. He knows how to execute the race there. And he gets a lot of speed out of the car. So I noticed really in the third stage at the third stage at the,

start of the third stage when I started up front after we did all that work in stage two to get the track position back from, you know, the different strategies that were getting called. It was, I was like, okay, I'll just hold these guys pretty close here in the short run, and then I'll get them after, you know, 20 laps on tires or so. And I started to run them back down after that 20, but, man, they, the clean air, like the nine made some really good time and was really fast to start stage three and it was all I could do just to keep up. I mean, I was I was pushing the entire time to to try to keep up because I wanted through the pit cycle to be close enough to allow the team to maybe undercut him,

try to do something to get in front of them and then make him past me. But I just never could close it enough to make that happen. And then actually they ended up putting before us. We pitted a lap later. So that added another second to the gap. And so it just, it's just not enough time. So you didn't short pit because you weren't close enough? I'm not sure.

Because that's what I was wondering is when you didn't short put, I was like, oh, we're probably going to go long here. That's what I thought. I thought we were going to just go ahead and go long. Because I thought right now we're just playing follow the lead or whatever. If we do the same thing, it's going to net zero. Yeah, I mean, he, um, I'm not really sure, but I mean, I trusted whatever they wanted to do.

Obviously, one lap newer tires is not going to be any kind of big deal or anything at that track. But maybe he was planning on going longer, and he saw something, you know, maybe I was about to come up on traffic that was going to slow me down. And it was, you know, if you're going to stay long, you got to really make some good time. and maybe there were some variables or he saw where they came out that was different and so then it's like all right well just cut your losses now go ahead and just go ahead and pit so yeah I mean either way

it's going to be really close at the end it was going to be close no doubt if like I mentioned to you last night after seeing Bell wreck right and then Briscoe have his issues it was like okay well so far it looks like the Toyos or the class of the field and you're the only Toyota left standing here at this point for the most part but then you had said that once chase got around

you in that cycle yes you recognized that that was the car to yeah they're you know just in that stage too it started in stage one right we all know it's it's like that didn't end under green checker you know that's stupid caution that caution flipped some cars that stayed out and took two and then the guys that took two stayed, and then to start stage two, there was a restart where, gosh, where was I? And then, oh, I know what it was. So then we all come in, right, I restarted seventh-ish, starts stage two. We run a few laps. We run a few laps. Caution comes out. He says, we're going to have to pit again, because now we can make it on fuel to go to the end of the stage. which is what the 67 no that was a different stage there was a handful of them that knew they couldn't

make it on fuel but it was just like we got out of the track position if we get a caution it's going to save us well then there was a caution early in stage two before before the everyone can make it caution i pitted with the everyone can make it caution the cars that pitted right before that says well we're just staying out we'll squeeze it on You know, I'm starting 16th or 17th on what I sit on the Rio. It just appears that we're straight up on strategy now when we're 16th or 17th. I mean, it was, and he was like, yeah, pretty much. And then that stage, we, we drove up to second.

I mean, we were, we were ripping that stage. That was when Boyer said on TV, Travis, right, that if you're going to beat the 11 today, you're going to need some sort of caution. Yeah. And you were like, oh, that's a great way to decide a winner or something. Yeah, that's like, I'm like, Boyer's like,

yeah, to beat the 11, you're going to need a caution or something. I'm like, what a way to decide the fucking winner is you need a yellow to come out. Well, it's the variables that there is,

you know? And so again, we would have pitted how we known there was going to be another caution that was in a fuel window. Like, it's just so hard to tell. But either way,

either way, I thought the deciding factor to get back to Jared's point earlier. And I said that the nine got us it was it was on in one of those early second stage cautions and the nine was like right around me somewhere and i got bottled up behind i think it was either almondinger or priest or somebody and like three of the guys that were on the exact same strategy same tires same strategy that i was racing all day they got around me and at that point i'm like those are going to be

spots to get back. Like, I can get back the spots that, you know, of the guys that I know I'm clearly much faster than that stay out and do all this other bullshit to try to get some stage points. But it's, it's those cars that are like pretty close on speed and, you know, guys that, you know, know, know how to win. And so it just, it just, I knew it. I saw and it was like, damn it. I think the 45 got ahead of us on a couple of those restarts, the nine. And it was like, I'm going to have to get those back at some point. I mean, there, there is no strategy to go to go back around them. And we're not going to call something just to hope and pray we get a caution. Like, we're too fast to not just play this thing straight up. And we were able to get back

through everyone else, but just those two, I never, well, one of the two I got back around, but just not enough time on the night. I definitely think we're a little better. I mean, speed-wise, I felt like we were the best, got through traffic well. It's just once he could set the pace on that stage three restart and I was running with my tongue hanging out trying to keep up, it was like, man, that's going to be, it'll be tough. But you knew before that? Because what I'm wondering with you is like you run the whole first stage and the only cars you're really looking at are your teammates. Yeah, but are you just going to think that the 45 is just going to throw up a stinker? I don't know, but like at what point in the race do you realize, oh, these cars that started 10 spots behind me are also as competitive as me.

Yeah, but you have to look at lap times and understand that during the races, the field gets tighter. So everyone comes to you. So while in the first stage, it looks like, holy crap, we're just half a second faster a lap. It's not that, whatever it is, maybe it's a 10th. that shrinks dramatically as the race goes on everyone whoever the fastest is i don't care who it is the field comes to you right the field comes to you so the longer the race goes the harder it is to get your track position back because the field just gets faster okay but even then when you pass 16 cars right and you get within two seconds of chase

i feel like the average fan is thinking okay denny's the best car here we get to the next stage he's going to. I thought so too. We got the 67 pitted. Chase, did he win the stage? He won the stage. Yeah, and I was second? No, because if Kasha came out.

You had cautions back to back. Yeah. Eric Jones won the first stage. Chase won the second. Yeah. So, anyway, we got to where Chase was two seconds up, coming to the end of second stage. Mm-hmm.

Right? And I'm running them. And I'd restarted 17th. And he restarted up front because he did a much better job on the restarts than I did and getting through the slower cars. And so I see him and I see I'm closing. And so, yes, I thought at that point I've still got a pretty good, legit chance. But if we don't pass him on pit road, it will be hard on racetrack to pass them.

It will be hard. Not impossible, just hard. and then when I realized when we start stage three, when he took off and ran, I mean, I looked at my dash, we were all running really fast lifetimes and he was still kind of pulling away a little bit. It's like, it's fast.

I mean, it was going to be tough. It's just, I mean, the reason I was able to get, you know, closer to him to at the end of the race and run him down is, you know, he was getting held up in traffic. But I felt like that's where my strong suit was, is, you know, I could get through lap, cars really quickly.

Hey everybody, it's Dellenhart Jr., and there is no better way to support Denny Hamlin than wearing actions detrimental gear at the racetrack. You can also flip him the bird or head on over to shop.dirtymodemedia.com to see what we have. So do you feel like your car got better throughout the day? I thought the end of the race was the best we had been. Did Chase get better more than you throughout the day? Probably.

Yeah, you just, you have more more room to gain, right? When your, when your car's the best at the very beginning, yeah, we can make it better. And we did, but the gap to the field is going to shrink because the others see, oh, my gosh, we're three-tenths off. We've got to make big changes here. Or the driver's like, all right, I got to put the gas down more. It's just a natural evolution of stock car racing. as races go on, the field gets tighter and tighter and tighter, which makes passing harder. At the end of this race, it looked like you potentially got the best restart you could have got.

I don't know. You were out front coming to the line, right? I know. I timed it like perfectly, the launch, the launch portion of it. And I actually got a good push, but my push came a little too early. If you look with the 9, the 48 got to him right before they were getting into the corner. And that lunge, just that last little lunge that he pushed him, was able to change his mile per hour to be slightly faster than mine. And now I'm running the further distance around. I'm trying to hold him as close as I can to try to drag him back. But, you know, I think I think the inside lane,

starting P1 on the bottom is like 93%. It's just you're really going against the odds to try to beat that inside car. It's just the number show that they just beat you through one and two just about every time. And so it was as close as I felt like that I could have gotten. Did you have a game plan going into that restart? Like if I'm going to win this? Yes, I knew I had to do blank. Yes.

And you did blank and it just didn't matter? It just didn't matter. It just didn't quite matter. matter. You mentioned that if you did anything else, you probably would have wrecked him and probably yourself. You said that, right? Yeah. So, yeah, he was starting to come up. And, and I was trying to hold him, you know, as tight as I could. And so it's just, had I just kept it in there, right? I could have kept the throttle down. But I likely would have bounced off the wall and then probably back into him.

And I just, do you bounce off the wall enough to have been a tow link and crash? Or do you bounce off the wall and just ricochet off of it and keep going? It's just, if I kept it

on his right rear on the exit of turn two with the trajectory that he was having coming off the corner, we, yeah, he would have driven me up.

Hard to answer this, but do you make this decision under the old format? Was this a format decision or just a racing? Just a racing thing. yeah it's just you over time you understand what happens with these cars and these aeros situations and I know the closer I get to his door I'm gonna make him tighter and

tighter and he probably wants to use a lot of racetrack through one and two anyway um on me so I think that it's just you gotta you gotta live to run another run another corner and you almost got the caution too to do it again yeah yeah yeah you seem content with second yesterday? Was the nine just the best car given the circumstance? It's just, I thought they executed a better race than us. Yeah. I mean, so it's like, it's not like Kansas where it's like, yeah, you're a few hundred yards away from the start finish line. It's, you know, we had to come back. I thought once we got the stage two and had to restart that 17th, I thought if we get back to the top three or four, it's going to be good.

but, you know, we, we got through that traffic really well. And that drive to the end of stage two was, you know, gave me some hope that we still had a shop. But it's just, that's as close as we could come. There just wasn't enough time left, enough, you know, restarts, pit stops left in the day. You know, we just didn't have all the little things. Those are the small details. It's like that one restart where I lose three or four spots that I shouldn't because I get stuck behind somebody. versus getting through that.

That's the race. That's how close it is these days. Does this new points format and the bigger picture of it all, you know, you wanting to be top three at the end of the regular season, outweigh the opportunity at like another win? I mean, you're foolish if you don't. For you, right?

Because there's only going to be so many more races that you can win. Right? And a second place finish feels like, just missed another one, but you're also still second in points. You're setting yourself up for it. It's 50-50. Yeah. I mean, I was driving really so hard stage two and stage three that like I was driving like, okay, this might be my only shot. Like it's, it's, it was all ad. There was nothing left. Do you look at these points Monday morning? Think like, okay, I'm second here. A lot of the great cars that I'll, be competing with are burying themselves chris for bell you know unlucky day for him uh briscoe another guy struggled larsson struggled yeah i mean we're in a good spot um we're on pate like any other season

this is we're we've scored more points than the point leader at this point in the season but there's an anomaly there's that 45 anomaly i mean seriously when you look at the graph to see what is the projected points leader at you know at each race um we're we're right above that graph we're above it but there's one that line that's way way up there and so it's just sometimes you just or up against it and it's like you know at least you own the car yeah that's the good part um you've mentioned restarts a few times what the hell. Do you not push down hard enough? No, I got jammed up.

It's because the cars that stay out, I always happen to get behind the one that can't get through the corner. So like when you're picking and it's, okay, it's 50-50 and you're choosing, okay, which car am I going to start behind? I'll start behind this one. And it's like, they can't get through the corner so I can't go anywhere.

so then everyone's freight training on the outside but then i get to the outside and says okay enough of that i'm just going to rip around the outside well then i go high person in front of me goes up has a horrible corner has to check up hit the brakes off the turn two i got to check up with them and then here goes everybody on the inside it's just it was it was 75% bad luck okay so not a car set up issue no no i mean i think that i i think that I could have made a few better decisions, but the first couple corners is where you net out on restarts most of the time. And I just happen to get, think about it.

I'm the first car on the tires, right? So who am I starting right behind? The worst car on the tires. See what I'm saying? Yeah. So they're the last of the cars that stayed out, or they're the last of the cars that were on two tires. That's why the advantage now becomes to the person behind you.

So now they get to react to, they see what's going on with the car in front of you. They can back up and get a massive run and just go right by you. Where I'm trying to just get around this moving chicane. And it's really, really hard. It's not easy. Trust me. Yeah, going back to this points thing, I was just while Travis was talking, I was looking at your finishes this year versus Reddix.

and your average finish outside of Daytona. Well, I've had bad races. The 45 has had zero. But by your finishing position, you would say you haven't had any bad races. The worst finish out. The worst finish outside of Daytona is 50. You can't.

I know that's what. I understand. But aside from that, it's top 10 every week. Well, we were 100 behind after three races. we're still 100 hundred hundred behind it still we're running on we're running on par

but we're running on par to the anomaly yeah I mean we're really running extremely well and we're getting a lot of points that's what I'm trying to point out yeah we're running really well we are I'm very happy with our performance do I wish we had more wins 100%

did we get out of a couple probably but that's the breaks we got we just keep the speed up. Week in week out. We're fine. At the end of the race, I think as far as I'm aware of, this felt like the first time that

you kind of pushed back on a decision and were like, I think Gail wanted to pit and you were like, I want the track position in the front row. And I think you made the call kind of. It felt like it was the first time that I feel like you've done this in a while. Yeah, I try to not get too involved in the strategy because they can just see the much bigger picture.

I just knew that the only way I was going to guarantee starting on the front row is to not pit. It's the only way I could guarantee. If I pit, you know, and what got mentioned by a media member afterwards is that, well, if you pit, maybe you drag a handful more cars down. Let's just say three or four more cars do pit.

I'm still restarting fifth on two tires. I'm not winning in three laps from fit. How many tires did Redick take? Two. Two. I mean, he moved how many spots? Six, seven spots? Started 10th?

Yes, he got around. So he got around the cars on the worst tires. He got around that first few buffer of cars. It was the lap times we were running at the end of that race. was 2940s. The fastest that we ran after we came out on brand new tires in that third stage

and that Green Flag run was 2920s. It just, the math doesn't math. You're not going to get around, you know, while it seemed like oh, Reddick just needed a couple more laps, no way. He wasn't going to get around us.

Us, the nine, too fast. This pace was too quick for his tires were not going to make that different. difference up. It makes a difference the first few corners when you're going against the guys that are in dirty air. But when you have to pass the cars in clean air, I just, no. It wasn't going to have it. That wasn't, I mean, what did it net out for him? He lost one, right? Because he came in third. But when was third? You're talking about where he was before? No, yeah. He was third at the caution. So he finished four. But I just knew what my strengths were. And it's put me on the front row.

and then let's just figure it out from there. And Reddick, it's worth it because he's got all his wins so they can try it. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I just felt like these things are going to cool down and I'll be able to go get, you know, I'll go get the speed that I need to. But nine was good. We were good. Just, I thought, you know, staying out was in the end the right call for me. did the you know the restarts before that also were you thinking about those like off i get stuck in one of these again i'm just going backwards yeah just let me take my second at worst that's what i'm saying you're it's what happens to the car that stayed out like redick had to start right behind someone that stayed out on 40 lap tires and is in dirty air you just you got to time it perfectly

You got to go three wide. Hopefully nobody pulls up right in front of you. Just too many variables. No way. I'll take the front. It feels like just about everybody in this field had some sort of drama associated with them yesterday. I'm just going to run through the running order

and pick out a few names who had either a noteworthy finish or drama. Okay, go ahead. All right. Alex Bowman. This is a strong finish for him after being out of the car for a handful of weeks. How was he running during the day? I mean, I didn't see him all day, but I assume they said, you know, pace-wise,

it looked like he was good, no? I don't really feel like I heard his name a whole lot, but I don't. I didn't either, but I, you know, again, I was where I was. But yes, very good finish. The Spire Cars, 6th and 7th. Mm-hmm. They were strong.

William Byron recovered after a solo spin. He finished 8th. Oh, Byron spun. Byron spun. Oh, off turn forward, didn't hit anything, right? I believe he didn't do anything. yeah okay uh bubba wallis rallied from the back of the pack to ninth yeah he he got backup car yeah he got to the teens pretty quickly and then um kind of petered out right there around 10th but very good

comeback for them uh Riley herps 11th place day strongest day I've seen as far as like performance wise he was up in the top 10 most of the day strongest performance no doubt uh Ryan preese had some issues with tie Gibbs Um, it's our first drama driver. Yeah. I'm gonna have to see more. I don't, what was pre-sup said about? Do we know? Like I saw like a replay of like, the one was in front of the 60.

The 54 is underneath the 60. The one pulls down to block the 54 and then that shuts the air off to the 54. And I think he goes up. Did he make contact with the 60? I didn't see contact with that night. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not educated on this incident. But it's still, I can't, did he hit the 54 going into the corner?

Priest says he never touched him. It looks like he did. And usually you can't make a car super loose like that in next gen era. but it is somewhat, it's a very vulnerable part of the track where your car is pretty light right as you start to enter turn three. It also doesn't help when before that priest said, all right, when I get to the 54, I'm done with him. Fibu Kitt, that car is so f***-ass pisses me off.

I can't stand when idiots like him have fast cars where they can do stupid shit and get away with it. End of rant. And there was a witness. SVG said he saw him commit murder. um yeah i don't i don't know um exactly what got i'm so upset but i mean priest is usually pretty chill person that's where i wore my chill hat i think a lot of guys need some of this today no nobody needs a chill keep it going a lot of men need this um yeah so i i really i don't know

but in the end Ty got you know he racked and that was the end of that tough one not really sure but Texas man Texas is like

almost like a wild card race that it's just so many guys have issues every time we come here it's just it's a treacherous track you either have grip or you do not like every time we come here

it's you feel grip you've got it you've got it and then all of a sudden you'll break traction and this thing will loop around on you in two seconds SVG finished 17th but looking at the points here he's only 30-ish 20-ish so how do we feel about like is he going to be able to gain enough on road courses to get in there i think well each i feel like we're all going to walk in sclin assuming that SVG is going to run top three right yeah you might as well budget a three three three three day, right?

So that's 17, 18 points, you know, between 16 and 18 points. And then a good finish. That probably, well, it depends when are the caution is going to fall? If he wants to win the race, he's, he might have to flip. Let's be honest. It doesn't, for him, it doesn't matter where the caution's fall. Yes, it does. Yes, it does.

It does. If the caution comes out with three laps to go before the end of state, he has. has to flip. And there is going to be a host of cars that stays out. You're saying in three laps is just going to blow right by them all? Like, no. I don't think so. The odds of the...

Over the course of the race. Wasn't he, like, significantly faster last year? Well, last year, I think what happened was, didn't he pit when he came back out, still drove back to the lead? Yeah. Yeah. But that's because, just so you know, that's because all the people within a certain distance of him pitted to flip and then it was the guy that was in 15th

38 seconds back that says all right i'll be the i'll take the stage win i'll stay out and then the person behind them stay out and so that gap SVG was able to pit come out oh i'm five seconds behind i'll just you know he goes up there and he rewins the stage so it it it does have to play out somewhat perfectly for him to really have a 70-some point day. It does have to play out nicely. I wonder what the team thinks or what the analytics say, you know, how many points are needed for SVG at a non-oval track or non-roadcourse track from here to the playoffs. How many points he needs assuming that they're going to get near max points at a road course? I mean, the issue is, is there's still some really strong guys around him.

Yeah. Like who's going to fall out? You know, you got, I mean, you got, you got some perennial bubble guys, right? Like that every year you're talking about bubble. Suarez, Cindrick. So if I put a question mark there, question mark there. I think it's realistic for us.

Reese is like so just, he's solid. He won't have. have a lot of dnfs but he also is not going to smoke it in stage points legano's out jesus um briscoe's on the cut and SVG's right behind that right yeah right behind chastain one point i think he still needs some help i even if he has a awesome day i still think he needs help. I just think these drivers above 14th here, the only person that I confidently will say is going up is brisco. Right. He's going to store, yes, I would agree with that. And that's even the non-biased side of it says, well, it's because he's going to score a lot of

stage points. He's going to finish where he should eventually. Yeah. Like, yes, you would say that one's going up. Let's just assume SVG wins two of the next three road courses in the regular season. Is there three more in the regular season? Warkinsk, Glen, Sonoma, San Diego? That's three. Yeah. Let's just assume he wins two of them. That's 30 points alone, right? 15 for each win. 15. It's going to be close. That puts him at two. It's going to be close. It's going to be close. It's going to be close. So that's what I'm saying. What is the average amount of points you need at a non, road course race to I don't know

keep yourself around that 16th spot yeah he'll be close we'll see you know we'll probably definitely have a closer picture after this one I think we'll have a better understanding whether he's got a shot to make it or not

I mean my guess is how far is he back from the cut right now can all look that up 20 to 30 he's got 215 brisco's got 2.42 so what's the math on that okay so 27 there you know he's probably gonna my guess is you know he'll probably come we're gonna be talking him seven days from now he's 10 points above the cut maybe 15 but gosh it's just you're running out

of he's holding on bullets you're running out of bullets yeah yeah um you're going to go through it would be something if no track off car has made the playoffs i still think chastain finds away. But who's he going to take away? Who spot he taken? I don't know. It's going to be interesting. We'll see. I just still feel like even in this new format, wins are very important. They are. Wins are very important. And I don't see any of these guys winning more than two races. They could get one. They could get what guys?

The guys around the bubble. They could win one, but two in the regular season? God, it's nice to have the win in your end out. It's so refreshing. But it's still so important for the win. That's what I think is awesome about this. Right. Is, you know, SVGs potentially looking at going from minus 20, which is 20 spots on how you finish,

except for if he wins, now it's another 15. He could make a big, big jump this week. But I think he needs to race to play out to where he gets, the stage points also gets the stage wins also or you know top through two or three yeah okay back to the the rundown here at texas um i'm gonna lump these drivers together because they finished 20th and 21st Kyle bush and john hunter and even a check you pleading the fifth on this one um i mean god bless derrick neelan his spotter i thought he's just doing a great job of like trying to just put some chill in his life.

I don't know. It just seems like everyone's going at everyone over there right now. But as far as the incident, I didn't see anything. No matter who's at fault for what down the back straight away. Like what happened in turn three was certainly unacceptable. Um, it should be viewed that way as unacceptable. Um, but I just, you know, I heard Kyle say, well, the 42 had two foot to the wall. And I was judging my left side tires by the hash marks down the back. And I, I'm like, hash marks down the back. And so I looked at it. I was like,

oh, I mean, I don't even, it's weird. I didn't even know those hash marks. existed. But I mean, Kyle is a very marks dependent person. Like when it comes to short tracks, things like that, he's really good about finding like breaking marks and things like that. So it appears that he says when I'm running the inside line on the back straightaway, I want to put my lefts on the hash mark. That's interesting. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it's just interesting. You know, from my standpoint, what I do is I just, I just run as close as what the car is on the outside.

Like if they're lower, then I run lower. If they're higher, I run higher. I just gauge off of kind of where they're at. And what's interesting, though, is that from an aerodynamic standpoint, Kyle, you're not going to want to be up close to the outside cars. the 42 being that he's still outside the spotter is still calling he's out there

he's at your quarter panel you don't want to crowd them that's just going to dump air on your spoiler make you go slower down the straightaway so if anything if I if we were to switch cars I would not have been running in the hash marks down the back straightaway

it was I would have pulled down to be in a better aerodynamic position. So I just, I don't, I didn't quite understand why he was wanting to go so high. He mentioned that it was a blind spot. I mean, that the spotter was calling outside. So I don't know. Now, John Hunter, could he have been higher? Absolutely. He could have been higher. But it's still just cutting it too close. Like if you just just put two cars side by side above the hash marks

because it sounded like Kyle wanted his lefts on the hash marks, the dotted lines, the strips, the airport strips that you see down the back straightaway, that's just, that's two cars very close to each other down the back straightway. Like there's room, but that's just

not very much room. And I just didn't think that with a car coming on your outside, you don't want to be near, you don't want to let his nose get near your spoiler. You got to get away. You got to get far to the left to avoid getting drug back.

So it just was not in a very good position no matter what. And then, yeah, I mean, he lost his shit going in turn three, clearly. Yeah, Kyle didn't seem happy at all. He was the one that was pretty lively on the radio all day. You said it's unacceptable. Is this a call the hauler and say knock it off? Is this a fine? Is this like, or is this boys figure it out what's move on?

I don't know. Does NASCAR just kind of use their common sense judgment? Or do they say, well, there's just not enough evidence? You know, when I said that I washed chastain up into the wall, you know, I got a point fine and things like that. But, you know, in the end it was because I said it. I don't know that Kyle's refuting it, but he's also not saying that, yeah, I took, I don't know. He did. So many words he is.

That was the interesting thing is he defended the move, the original, but then says no, you're messing with, but never discusses it. Yeah, you started it and then left the ending unsaid. Yeah. Which, but I mean, I hate to say it, it's a super sport if you just depend on like what people say to make, you know, official calls, like that's silly. You should just use common sense usually, usually, but it was not a good situation. That, yeah, the, this track is fast. And, yeah, just not, not ideal. That was not recommended. As a fan, I think he probably, there should be some sort of punishment, but I don't want it, like, or I should say there

should be, but as a fan, I don't want that to happen. I want the stuff to be handled on the track. I think the court of public opinion towards Kyle is enough punishment right now. I think you're probably right. Because I feel like up to this point, there's been a lot of people like RCR's just not good, get Kyle out of there. So like here's the thing. Because because of what I said a few weeks ago, like my algorithm now is feeding me like how Bush stuff. You know, it is. And so like I'm seeing his like fan account. and like they're they're pretty the pretty down right now on him you know and kind of what happened so i think you're probably right that like the court of public opinions probably a harsh enough

punishment but but it doesn't it doesn't work like that in sports you know there there's there's fouls to get called and there's some fouls that don't so it's i don't know where they go with this i don't think it really matters can consider where he is and points and stuff like the money who cares about that like you just do it to make yourself feel good you know like like if you're rooting for a penalty for like for what it doesn't change anything like yeah it's well you you you made made a rule and you stuck to it so i feel good that they are consistent but it in the end it doesn't it's not going to affect anything it's not going to affect the playoff runs you know he's got enough of a wallet to where whatever the

define is like it's not a big deal to him um and him doing that it's just it just to me it just was a not a great look i mean he punished himself by doing that and he ruined a good day yeah i think he lost what was about four or five more spots yeah i should have i don't know it's tough to tough to defend that one for sure yeah uh continuing through these this this he's finishing this finishing order here Chase Brisco Fast car

but tough day What happened to Briscoe Travis He had I asked you guys In the group chat Oh Was it

Pit Road? There's a Pit Road But then there was something after that too Right Pit Road was a mess There was like

Three Holy cow When you had the Ligano got a DNF from a pit road incident Yeah

That is wild That is wild But when you look at his end car if he hit somebody that was dead stopped. And in Joey's defense, like, there's a lot of shit going on when you're leaving your pit stall. He's got somebody to the outside of him.

Cole's trying to just get, I mean, Cole's trying to just get out of the way. He's trying to not block in whoever's leaving their stall. It's just Texas is a track where lots of lots of cars stay on the lead lap. So anytime lots of cars stay on the lead lap, what you have is the difference between the leader crossing the pit in line and then the 25th place hitting the pit in line is about 15 seconds. So when you got guys to take two tires, now you got people leaving early, people leaving late or getting there late. It was just, it was a mess. This is all on the same sequence, by the way.

it was a mess and so I'll defend everyone on this one like Zillage messaged me after the race he's like man sorry about I was like dude do you see pit road it was a mess for everyone like all good I'm fine it was it's just a narrow pit road

for as big of a track as it is it's just not super wide it's it was it was a mess It just was bad timing that you've got mixed strategies and many, many cars on the lead lap. You're going to have this kind of mess. I think Larson had an issue on pit road too? Like it was just, I just, you know, I rubberneck during the cautions. You know, I'm always looking at the big screen seeing like what's going on.

So, yeah, I'll look on the big screen as we go by and I'm usually seeing like three or four cars getting worked on on pit lane. I was like, when was that wreck? and, you know, I didn't see till later. It was all on pit road. It was wild. I mean, a blessing for you. You went from just having an opening to or an out to an opening and an out because Joey was behind you.

Of course, Joey was. Well, it's, um, while you, why you hate that, it's a term of endearment. Because he knows he's behind you, because he knows, oh, you're going to run well. You're probably going to run better than we are. so you just you try to pick so that will be his opening out yeah yeah yeah but it is somewhat of a pain when they grind out a day and they're you know do something with strategy and now they're right behind you at that point you're just like well if you get boxed in that you made that choice buddy and then lastly here Christopher bell that was one of those things well

what do you do when the light turns yellow do you gas it the brakes he says I'm going through this baby and I said no there's a cop right over there

I'm gonna hit the brakes on this one that's just what that's what it was it was like a very in between yellow light and I just I just felt like I'm just gonna slow down

if I get hit it's gonna be at a slower speed but it was I can see why he made the decision he did because the way he was was spinning, usually it's pretty predictable.

You know, we know over time when a car gets sideways, he gets loose, he goes up the racetrack for a period of a time, and then he comes back down. Todd barely went up and then was coming down faster than normal. And so I think Christopher, obviously, he thought that he had enough time to squeeze through the bottom and just didn't. it just was wrong place, wrong time. I mean, by a couple feet. Yeah.

Yeah, it looked like he had the strongest car at that point in the day and obviously took him out of contention. What else from Texas? Good run for Corey Heim, despite that caution at the end? Very good, yes. What was their strategy? Just go along and... So if you think about it, if there was any caution,

in that third stage up until when he got past, what was it, 25, 28 to go? Any caution in there. He's money. He's now up front. So I think they were probably mired

wherever they were. I know I'm talking off Mike. I think they were mired wherever they were in the day. And then they were just one of the groups of cars that stayed out or took two or something like that.

Control the pace. pulled away from Elliot by three seconds. Like, that's, that was pretty good. I need to look at the last, I would be interested. I think he was holding it too. Like it was, yeah, he was rolling. And then, so they're, you know, that's their Hail Mary. It's just that they weren't going to win from where they were at.

They're running part-time care nothing about points, right? So any, seriously, any caution in that third stage, they're controlling the race. Do you tell it, 67, team, they're out to racing that like be aggressive with your calls and try things because it's you're not racing for points or do you just let them do their uh however i you let them do whatever they think gives them the best shot to win as long as it's not like as long as you're not going to completely screw your day and like take yourself from finishing 10th to 25th now i don't know we were where he was going to finish um he had to pit he was one of the first cars the last

down. So he's probably going to finish in the mid-20s because he didn't get that caution. But I don't know how well he was, where he was at before that. So I think, I think it was a good call for them. You had some fun with Cooper Flagg. Man of your word. I said, I'll get you. His parents requested it. Oh, is that who? Yeah. But you were like, I'm on the second row, you know, like, I'm going to have to go out of my way here. I said, man, I said, had I, I was just a couple spots in qualifying away from being able to get you. And his parents were like, well, can't you just go around there and said, all right, I got you. I thought you were just kidding. Like, oh, yeah, yeah, whatever. Conversation over. No, I made sure getting in the business.

Does NASCAR say something to you? Like, I, no. I didn't know if they'd be worked. Like, what are you doing, Denny? Like, just put on a show. I mean, I liked that. I just didn't know that, like, you could do that. Sure, you can. People do it all the time. time. Yeah, Boyer laughed about it. He thought it was funny. So, mm-hmm. Um, what else from Texas? What else we got? Hmm. Nothing. I think, um, I think we pretty much covered it. We ended the 30th or worst, um, streak you had going, so that's good. 30th. The past, last two races at Texas were bad for him. Oh, really? The finish. Oh, the place not yeah well that one was yeah chase elliot on a green white checkered i wrecked into turn

three trying to stay beside them and then your engine then the engine yeah yeah i mean at least we're getting like we're we're finishing good at the tracks we're running good at like it's what hurts and and we have to right on the 11 we know we're going to this weekend you know sorry to my fans but like you get to have a lot of fun 30 weeks of the year. So just have some chill. Kick the feet up, everybody. Right. Like, you know, let's get out of there with,

is the goal a decent finish? Yeah, what's the, for qualifying? What's the plan? How about 26 points? 27 points. So what does that equate to? I don't, fuck, I know.

It's probably like 15th with a couple stage points. I'll take 15th. somewhere in that call NASCAR take 15th we don't have to go out there really you would I think we have more upside than that

what's the what's the key I like to undersell over deliver but but what I'm in the end what I'm saying is that we're doing what we need to do on all the tracks yeah that we need to do it

because we know we come to these it's like you're gonna have a mid 20s point day so you got to you got to rack up these 40 point days, 50 point days on these other tracks, you know? What's the key to the best day for the 11? On Sunday. Qualify well.

Qualify. Man, it's going to be hard to pass. It's just a narrow road course. I mean, all road course are narrow. That's a very stupid statement. But it's just, it's a high speed narrow road course. where aerodynamics, like, really, really does matter. So qualifying will be a big key.

I mean, you've won the poll here before in the next day car, right? Won a race here before. Oh, obviously. Oh, obviously. Well, that's years ago. Yes, like 10. Yeah, no doubt. Hey, you just never know.

I ran third here two or three years ago. So do it again. I know. Like, that'd be like a win for us, right? Yeah. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Going a party. Yeah.

All right. Well, I don't know. Well, I'm optimistic. We're going to go out there. We're going to do the best we can. Trust me on that. We're going to do the best we can. Just real quick at Watkins Glen, just because I pulled up your career, Watkins, Glenn. It ain't bad.

No, well, you had a stretch from 2010 to 2014 where it wasn't good. But then all of a sudden, first, fourth, 13, third, fifth. and then the next-gen car, 20th, 2nd, 23rd, 25th. So, like, hot and cold, why is that? Well, if you remember the first year or two of next gen, Toyota's were all horrible on the road courses. I mean, we were in the 20s, like, all of our cars.

So, like, we had some aerodynamic issues on road courses, and then we've gotten that better. What happened, though, between 15 and 16? because you went from not even qualifying well pre-2015 to 2016, now you're qualifying in the top five at Watkins Glen every year. I don't know, Jared, but the stuff just changes. Maybe I found something at that track, you know, a way to approach it. Next to you know, I've gained a tenth in this corner,

and it gained me two tenths in that corner, and it just, it all adds up. Stage racing was also introduced at that same time. Okay. Got a review? I do. Review here is from Lee Serber on YouTube. This channel is exactly what sports needs to push changes. As an old-timer modified owner slash crew chief, Denny is always spot on with his insights.

Awesome content. Keep it up. Thank you, Lee Serber for that review via YouTube. Those of all that don't know, we also don't forget on May 24, First, we got J.R.M's fan day. Dirty MoMobini is going to have some live shows there. It's at J.R.M. Right? Yep. Yep. It's going to be from 9 a.m. to 11 on Sirius XM on track. The show on track on Sirius XM. And then from 11 to 12, Dirty Mo Live with Mike Davis, Kenny Wals and Friends. That should be quite entertaining. Buckle in for that one. Yeah. And then they're going to have, bless your heart with Dale and Amy from 12 to 1.

and then DBC from one to two. Man, they got a full, this is like a festival. Yep. I mean, they really is. It's like a podcast festival. The amount of things that they have got,

I mean, there's food vendors and drink vendors. You can have a good time and it's all on Sirius XM. And Dale will stick around and sign everyone's autograph, right? I hope he doesn't sign everybody. That's like it's crazy. So don't forget that.

It's May 21st. That's probably Charlotte Week, right? Yep, but that Thursday, serious x-em if you can't make it out there also we'll post the podcast perfect all right we can see you guys next week check out dirty mo media on instagram facebook x and ticot