Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Sonoma: Who Is To Blame For Denny Wrecking?

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Sunday's race didn't end the way Denny Hamlin had wanted, but he still left as the points leader, so things are looking up. Splitter damage ruined Denny's day. Travis believes Jared jinxed him. Before talking in-depth about the crash, Denny discusses the prank they pulled on AP. Carson Hocevar was the car that spun out Denny...but is Hurricane Hocevar actually to blame? What would have happened if Ty Gibbs hadn't stayed out for stage points? Christopher Bell had an amazing performance with a broken wrist. SVG got another win, but is it enough to make The Chase? Who could we see challenge for the last couple spots? The Bracket Challenge moves to the next round, and Denny makes his predictions. NASCAR returns to Chicagoland, and Denny was one of the drivers who participated in the tire test, so he details what to expect. Big shoutout to Viking Motorsports for their performance on Saturday. And, how soon till Dodge returns to Cup? 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 Dirtymoe Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win.

I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship, and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yes. And I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental after the California swing. We now lead the points who thought we would be here.

Not me. Way to be honest. Me neither. We got fortunate, you know, at the end of the San Diego race, Reddick, you know, made a little mistake there got it into the wall cut a tire uh he goes from gaining on us to losing and then the um but then sonoma obviously had some mechanical issues there we were actually set up to be have a good day i you know i don't know how he was running before the issues but i he never he dropped to like 16th and just stayed there for the first stage you never went forward oh well yeah i mean i felt good

about it, you know, really on Saturday, kind of our practice, how things went, qualifying went okay. So, yeah, I thought we were set up for a good Sunday, but then obviously got wiped out there and finished in the 20s. And the damage of the car is if you couldn't see from home, but it just splitter gets knocked down and bent down. So then you lose all the flow of the underbody, which is where you make the downforce. And that thing was just an absolute wreck after that. You know, you prefaced that by saying that Reddick got unlucky, and yes, over the last two weeks, the 45 team has been unfortunate,

but I feel like that's- He got unlucky on Sunday. Which both days? Or just one day, you're saying? He's saying with the- Yeah, the car issue. Unlucky is a car issue. Yeah, I'm just saying that you prefaced it with that,

but I feel like that's doing yourself a disservice, because you were very pretty good in both in both events. Yeah, I thought that in San Diego, you know, our 14th place finished there was, I thought we were better than that. So, yeah, we got, they got lucky on the caution, we got unlucky on the caution, right, at San Diego. So I don't know, either way, still, you know,

we talked about our goals, trying to be, you know, within 50 at this point in time, and we exceeded that. Do you have a bitter taste in your mouth, though? Oh, definitely. Yeah, definitely. Because, you know, you like to take advantage of, you know, if a competition has an issue, you want to take full advantage of it, right?

Like, you know, Michigan was a great example where, you know, the 45, not of his doing, got caught up in something. We took full advantage and then we won the race. So, like, that was a double whammy. But, you know, it was only a single way of me. me at Snowa. But, you know, this was the things that I talked about early in the year. This is the law of averages.

Like when he had at one point of the season a 5.5 average finish, I'm sorry, but that's not realistic. It just is not. The numbers over time tell you what is realistic. And he just had not had the streak of bad luck and or mechanicals or wrecks that typically people have at this point of the season. and now it just seems like back-to-back weeks, it's, you know, it has caught up a little bit.

Are you more disappointed this weekend in losing out on points you could have gained from Reddick or just general that you lost what was probably going to be a good road course finish? I mean both is also an answer. Yeah, both is an answer. Both is an answer. Yeah, that's pretty much my answer. If you're looking for someone to blame, though, for the bad luck that you got, Denny, just look across the table. I am not at fault here. You've jinxed us.

Why are you all on the chat talking about, like, that's what we do. I know, but you can't. No, Jared took it to another level on Sunday. When Reddit goes three laps down at the beginning of the race, you can assume that the 11 cars probably. probably going to take the points lead just based on that reddick is not going to get those three last bike he's not going to get back on the lead lap and as long as the 11 car doesn't get taken out in a corner and then finishing five positions ahead of the 45 he was going to take the points lead yeah but we me texting that in the group chat does not jinx my text does not alter

reality of the you can't mess with the gods you basically split the poles you like you Oh, as Alex Presley would say, never split a pole. I mean, we were on a great run until then. What I said was going to happen. I actually happened, though. So. Is that so? Yeah. You are now the points leader.

Hmm. Okay. Another topic. Do we just want to talk about the West Coast swing? Yeah. Talk about this. Daniel. An unknown, an unknown executive. Yeah, so if you saw my Instagram post, Austin, known in the chat as the fixer, we just, we wanted to challenge Austin into, you know, can he, you know, if we give him a tough thing to work on, can he really deliver, right? And so we just came up with, hey, there's this guy that we met while watching the Mexico game at the hotel in San Diego. He went, the story was he actually went to his very first race in Mexico City, loved it,

and actually is going to go to L.A. for the USA game the same time I happen to be going. And he would love to go to Sonoma. And so I'm courting him as a potential sponsor. So, hey, Austin, he's going to fly with me. And, you know, we need these, we need all this set up. I'll work on the waivers with the pilots, whatnot. And, you know, but this gentleman has, he's bit high maintenance and he likes certain things. So one of the things that he likes is a mariachi band to welcome him at the airport.

There's a place called Tacos Garcia. Yeah. It just happened to be somewhere where we looked up. We looked up in Sonoma. No significance. No, none. So he wants tacos from Tacos Garcia, waiting for him for him as well. And then we also have some tequila shots as well.

So Austin delivered on this. Now, truth be known. Austin just contacted the West Coast Fixer. You know what I mean? But that's what a fixer does. True. As long as you have the contacts. That's how you essentially get it done.

But, yeah, we got to thank Nina from Carneros. She basically, with some help, she got it all. She delivered for Daniel. And by the way, Charlie was our Daniel, if you didn't notice. He was the one with the mustache, the hat. And what was funniest about it is that in the chat, it was the next day at one piece. that Austin says,

wait a minute, y'all didn't have a guy from Mexico on your plane. We're like, Austin, we FaceTimeed you with Charlie. He was like, yeah, but I didn't, it didn't, it didn't, he didn't recall

that that was Charlie. So, it was late. It was, it was, it was, it was late. It was two o'clock, it was two o'clock East Coast time, but he was still in his bed. with a hat on.

Why did he have a hat on? I had someone ask me, he was like, why was he in bed with a hat on? Maybe Austin sleeps with hat on. I think he does. I think he does. I think actually every time that I've seen him in his bed on a FaceTime,

like when we're doing like our golf guys, Calcutta or whatever, that he is in bed with a hat on. It's really weird. Because he goes hatless sometimes, but maybe that's his blanket. You know what I mean? It's got to be tough to sleep with a hat on.

But it was funny. It was one of those things where you just give your manager a bunch of random hoops to jump through and see how many they can clear. He cleared them all and then added some. This was not on the list of things to bring us. The pinata was not on the list,

but made it happen. It was fantastic. The guys were actually, the band was actually very, very good. I have other videos of them singing, and what I really loved about him is that it was all it was over our car was packed we were ready and they're still out there singing like the gig was up you know what I mean we revealed ha ha we were just kidding but they just kept on singing they probably got paid for the hour well they got paid

they got paid because when we were talking about what we were going to do and all this and we're like, we should have this and that. And I'm like, realize, guys, I'm going to have to pay for this. So let's keep it within like somewhat reasonable terms. But yeah, it's just wild. Wild that it was very funny. I think it was funnier in our world than it was to the public. But you guys didn't see, like Jared was trying to fit all this into a one minute.

video and like there's far more content. Yeah there's yeah yeah you call you call Austin from San Diego the first night that's a six minute conversation and then he calls back the next day calling Charlie asking if he knew about this that's another five minute conversation yeah so I had to trim it all down but it is funny that when stuff like that gets posted the majority of the comments are from like your inner circle yeah and not from the outside world yep so yeah it was it was very funny within within your group of friends. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean, I've had some time to look at the wreck. There's one other guy I need to look at here. But I think I... Tell me who I'm supposed to be mad at. I think it's just the field. And Sonoma Raceway. Well, to me personally,

it just seemed like, you know, the data's too messy to really lock in on one person. I know it's easy that there's got to be someone to blame. I hear you, but I think it's like 33, 33, 33 of the 77, the 6 and the 48. I just, they were all hitting each other. Nobody wanted to get off the bumper of the guy in front of you. And the guy way up there is the one that got spun. So it just never, what was disappointing is that they came from so far back. You know what I mean?

It's like, I'm four carlinks clear of these guys. What are they doing running to the back of me unless they just are ping ponging off of each other. And they just, they did. They just kept shoving. And unfortunately, I got the worst end of it. So, yeah, I mean, I think that it's always very easy to blame the car directly behind you. And yes, Carson could have done a better job. But I don't think that he came into the corner with reckless abandonment.

I don't. It didn't, if you really look at the, look at how the guys were driving, which I can look at, you know, usually you can tell intent. through data, right? You know, you can't say I didn't mean to hook them when your steering wheel turns towards them, right? You know what I mean? It usually doesn't lie, but it's just too messy. There's just all of them had somewhat of a role and not just, I got the bad end of it.

So, you know, wish they weren't so careless, but there's been many people that have gotten spun like I did in that race. So you just got to take it on the chin. I feel like if you're the one that starts it, you always end up on the better end. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. You usually want to be the one starting wrecks,

not the one who doesn't because, you know, you give a gap to the person in front of you. Usually you got somebody behind you that's pretty impatient or ready to go. But in the end, I'm very comfortable in saying that that wreck was a racing deal. Is that not what you all wanted to hear? I want to be able to put my, anger on somebody and now I just got to

well I listen I would I would love to also but then it just I think it would be grossly irresponsible oh I agree and then you're holding a grudge against somebody that like did they really go in there to wipe you out no I'm very confident in that so I just to me it's like listen here it is

late Monday like this is so low on the priority I had to look it up on the during the podcast not before it it just is not a priority to me, I move on. So I asked Chair, too, I was like, what kind of mood and it was like you weren't even, this was, you were past it, which I guess is a good thing. Yeah, I mean, certainly, you know,

had Redick had a better day, you know, I can without a doubt say that the sting would have hurt a lot more, right? But, you know, in the end, we're racing for points and the person that right now I'm in the battle with, you know, don't, let's not sleep on Ryan Blaney. He's only a hunter back now, and I close my gap in six races.

There's eight left. Now, he's going to have to go on a major run. And I think the tracks, I mean, he's got some super speedways where he could really pile up some points, some short tracks where he could pile up some points, but he's also going to need some help from us, like Redick helped us get back in it.

And to do that on two guys is more difficult. than one. But, you know, yeah, it's just sometimes it's, that's racing. That's the answer is that, that's racing. And I just feel like there's nothing we could have done to change the result from there. I just, I was the unlucky one that was part of the domino effect. I just assumed that you were most disappointed about losing out on what was going to be a good road course. You qualified well, you held your track position through stage one and two,

it just looked like a clean, good day. Yeah, I thought that we had a very good car. I thought we were very close in speed to Briscoe. Stage one, he was right there in front of me the entire time. I thought I was maybe a little better in the super long run, but it was close. He was very good. But then never got to see it through to stage three where the track then started speeding up. That seems like where the Gibbs cars in general were really strong was in stage three,

although you could argue Ty Gibbs, man, if they flip those stages, he might have had something for SVG. And I think if you listen to his interview, that's kind of where you get from him as well, where he's like, yeah, I don't understand our strategy. But then the team's like, dude, we got a 54 point day or whatever. Like, it was a massive day. Nothing is, you know, it's hard to assume that you're going to have the speed to go race SVG. when I look at lap times, I say that the 54 was likely the best suitor to go challenge them, even though the 19 was the one that challenged him in the end. Yeah, is hindsight 2020 on that?

Because I'm assuming that the team thinks, man, we're probably not going to beat SVG straight up here on the same strategy. Let's switch it up and try something different. They do finish third, and if a caution comes out with 15 to go, 10 to go, then it's maybe a different ballgame. Yeah, absolutely. Because I think the 54 ran down those guys from quite a ways back. And he always, he had restarting the teens pretty much every time that he didn't flip the stages. So, yeah, I think that's what he had. Well, I mean, you think about it.

Like, yeah, they could have flipped it. Gave a point. Same thing with you. If you would have stayed out. Like, it's very easy to second guess the strategy. But they got 3, 54 points. And, you know, you got to take that. Yeah.

I guess you do. It definitely is difficult when you know you have race-winning speed to just take the points. But, I mean, we've sort of done it before, not really on road courses. But, yeah, they're in a unique spot. Because to date, nobody's really outran SVG, right? Yeah.

So you're just going to make the assumption that you're going to be the first? Well, you would say that he's probably one of the best suitors to actually do it if someone's going to do it. So I get both sides of it. I definitely understand the team's choice and taking the points, but I also definitely understand Tye's feeling of like, hey, give me a shot. Give me a shot at him. I can beat him, you know, so you understand both sides.

I do appreciate his confidence, and like he believes that he can go get him. But you do look, now he's 26 points out of third. And with the speed that Briscoe had, you've got to believe that he had it too. He had it too. Has Ty officially turned the corner now? I mean, he's fourth in points halfway through the year. Yeah, I mean, is that breaking news? Or you're just saying like this year?

Just like this year in general. Yeah. Yeah, certainly. We didn't see this performance out of Ty last year. No, not the consistent performance, no. But certainly it seems that way that week in, week out, he's, you know, more, his, his, his, his, Finishing positions aren't as volatile as what they were in years past. And really years past, you had more bad finishes than good.

That definitely has changed this year to where there's more good than bad. And that has resulted in. And if you look at every stat online that you can possibly find on social media, it's like he's definitely the biggest gainer year over year in performance. Another Gibbs car that was very good, Christopher Bell, finished top five. Yeah. With a cast on his wrist. Really impressive.

Really impressive. I knew he was good when he got to, I don't know where I was in the middle stage one, fifth or sixth, and he got clear, he got close to me. I pulled back away a little bit in the long run, but he was, I knew he was good at that point, but I think that after I heard how much difficulty

he had at San Diego with shifting, steering, and all that stuff, like I had my doubts on, whether he was going to do it here at Sonoma, but, man, very, very, very impressive run by him and in his team. Another driver with a noteworthy finish, Connor Zillich, P7 career best finishing the Cup series. Yeah, about time, right? Yeah, I mean, that's what we expect from Connor.

I thought that we talked about Connor, was it in between seasons where I was like, yeah, he's not going to run with SVG right now in the Cup series. I think give it a couple of years. I think he could be a suitor to beat him. But I thought it was going to be a tall task for him to do it in the Cup series right now. And he fell right in line with where you would think he would run. And that's inside the top five. So, yeah, you know, he didn't have any, you know, negative restarts, pit strategies,

wrecks, things like that. So he finally got the finish he deserved. I think people forget sometimes Shane's a grown adult that's been doing this for years Like Connor's a kid And so like there's a lot of things That he's still trying to figure out

Absolutely Yeah, he's half his age basically So Is there anything new to say about SVG Winning this race? He looked human Or like less than super He wasn't like Superman out there

I would say Yeah I mean I don't know I started within a row of him Which is fantastic because I could kind of watch a little bit. And it still looked rather impressive to me. You know, was it the big gap over the field that we've seen at other tracks? No.

But I think what the field is starting to figure out is his approaches to speed in certain corners. I think that that's where he'll struggle to maintain the big advantage that he has over the field, is that when I watch him approach, you know, 11 corners at Sonoma, there's a few where it's like, wow, I never thought to approach that corner that way. And so I think the field sees that and eventually they close it. You know, is his really acute awareness of what he needs out of his car, his techniques and all that stuff, is that able to be replicated?

That's likely a tougher discussion. But I do think the field can close. And if on a given day, it seems like the, you know, the Gibbs cars definitely were the next best cars or next best in speed to him, sure, you could beat them. But it, you know, you're,

you still got to put in the back of your mind that, you know, the track house cars still have not been great this year. So he's probably not driving the fastest car, but he's driving it the fastest. You know, the car he's got the fastest. So, you know, so maybe he gets that advantage back when his cars get a little bit faster. So he makes you have to be perfect, though. Yes. Yes, because he's just not going to make that many mistakes.

You know, the, you know, this is crazy to say, like the worst driving I've ever seen him do was actually when he was racing Connor at Watkins Glen last year, or not Watkins Glen, Sonoma, when they were racing head-to-head, like you would see SVG miss corners, and you'd see him lock up tires, and it was like, whoa, okay, he doesn't run just every lap perfectly. Now, but that was the first time that we saw him really have to push it. You need someone behind him to keep him honest. Yeah, you got to keep him honest, right? So, but that's just as long as he's got this little gap on the field he's got, he can run it at 95% and still, you know, keep his pace and distance.

We made some predictions two weeks ago as to how many points above the cut line he would be out of these two road course races. I think I said 60. He ain't 64. Mm-hmm. I know he's not 64, Travis. No, I'm just saying that like... Had he... By the way, take where he was running

versus where his position was at San Diego and he's like 70 up. But he's not. Right? You know, this is... That's racing. Wrong place, wrong time. And, you know, so...

How do we feel about his chance for the chase? That's what I'm getting at. Hmm. It's got to. B. Jones, Kuzlowski. Joey's 20th. I mean, holy cow.

I mean, AJ, with colleague having no support or anything, is ahead of Joey at Penske. That's just wild to wrap your head around, but they just, you could just see that

there's just not much speed there. And if you mix in a few bad finishes, you know, you get these wrecks and things that happen. and especially where he's running, you're more prone to get in those things. I think, man,

can he avoid the 30th place finishes? You know, he just has some weeks where it's like SVG is out to lunch and he's spinning and spinning and crashing multiple times per race. It's like, if you can avoid that over the next eight weeks, I think he can out, I think he can hold that over a, Cendrick Jones Kislauski

because it's not like those guys were having 50 point days right? I mean what would you say can you tell me can you tell me

the last has priests had a 50 has any of those guys had a 50 point day I don't think so without researching I'm going to say no right I'm gonna

me neither let's save ourselves the time I just don't think they have so he can bleed a little bit would you be worried about like Eric Jones who's

of late has been racing really well. Yeah, but I still think there's some chinks in that armor. I think that do they have the short track speed? Like we're going to a few short tracks too, right? So their bigger track program has clearly gotten better, but what about the other tracks? And this little stretch of eight races, is there like one mile and a half?

We've got Chicago, Atlanta, North Wilkes, Indy, Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire, Daytona. So where legacy is seemed to take in the jump, there's Chicago, Indy, right? I think SVG, he's going to have to be tidy. Tidy with his weekends. I mean, I think this just comes down to, can he average a 16th, 17th, 18th place finish from?

on your own out. And that seems like a challenge. That seems like an uphill battle. Because again, like you said, one of those 30th. Yeah, it depends on how you approach it. Yeah, it depends on how you approach it, right? Do you want to be the guy that's going all out on kill, on restart, trying to get every spot?

Are you willing to take the risk to do that to get a better finish and then maybe put yourself in a bad spot? I don't know. I truthfully don't know. and I think it's going to be very close, and this whole thing is going to be very interesting to watch out because all of those guys, I'd say that on a regular basis,

priest runs the best out of all of them, week to week, okay? I feel safest by saying he'll get in. So then that leaves two for these three or four spots. It's not on the list. Where's Chastain? I swear to God. Chastain's 22nd.

How far back? He's got 363. He's... All you have is minus. He's about 50 back. Every week I tried to beat this drum that I think he's got enough in him to get it. You're like the president of his fan club at this point.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm just... You're a Chastain, bro. I just feel as though he is... he is too good to get beat by some of these other guys that are in equal-ish equipment. Do you think the Chevys could start to find some speed and that'll help him out? We're seeing some of the Hendrick cars could Ross benefit too when they start to figure this out? Could.

And maybe we've seen the worst of it from the speed perspective. but it ain't you know Michigan wasn't that long ago where Chastain was dead ass last during a run I forgot how he was at Pocono he finished 8th but presumably no stage points

because he only scored 34 on the day wow how do you have that at your fingertips because I'm looking at Ross Chastain yeah I don't know I still think he can make a run then it's Joey it's gonna be so entertaining it is gonna be wildly entertaining

like Joey is with a team that you would think that is going to get better and he's going to get better. So it's close. It's too close to call. I'm not calling who with five races to go. You can ask me for my who's in, who's out, but I can't do it with eight to go. I mean, you got this, the battle up front now with you, but then there's also the guys behind you and Redick Lake. what the chase has done to the season and how people view it has just made it so much better to watch getting rid of the win and you're in oh just maybe the biggest best change ever because now we know

someone can't just get lucky and pop one off from 24th in points and that's not the priority for any team no they they they you got 26 races to prove yourself right and so one good or bad week should not be the indicator of whether you're in or out. Like it's, no, you got a big old sample size. So, you know, somebody from 30th is not going to just get in and take your spot that you've been running 16th, you know, for, for 25 weeks. And then on the 26th week, somebody 30th and points just knocks you out. Like that, that doesn't seem fair to me. And it's not.

Redic would have been leaving Sonoma going on. Oh, well, if it was the old format. But now he's probably mad because of it. Like the losses hurt more. We all care. I can tell you, without a doubt, we all care about our standings now more than ever. And even the person in 11th who were we at.

Briscoe, Bell, they know every spot they gain is closer to where they need to be to actually contend for a championship. Yeah, I think we forget about that too, is that this battle for fourth, fifth, sixth, than points is considerable, right? Because all the data that NASCAR ran about where the champion would come from, guys outside of that top six were not likely.

I mean, it was a 15. So you have, if you're outside the top six for the listeners, you know, they've run thousands of models in NASCAR on this. And the champion under this format typically would come from inside the top six of points. I think the top three is like a, you know, a high percentage as well. But it's not, it wouldn't be unheard of because it's a 15% chance. That's still, you know, it's, it's not 50, 50, but you're not like 5%. So someone still can be 8th, 9th and do this. Now, I would love to see like, it's 10th place like 3%. That's what I probably

think it is. It's hard for someone to really truly go on that kind of run. But yeah, all these guys know that it's, over that 10 week period,

you've got to start with as many points as you possibly can. I think the format, they did just a great job with it. Let's move on and talk about

the in-season bracket challenge. Yes. Not a ton of upsets. Like, it was in Atlanta from last year.

Holy moly, that knocked out like five of your lowest seeds. Again, it's the speedway, so we expect that. So I don't know, Chicago, I think it's going to be chalk again, right? I mean, are you really going to see a lot of surprises at Chicago? Maybe, because no one's been there, that you could find somebody beat the other. but I think mile and a half, you're taking chalk here. Which of these matchups at Chicago

is the most enticing to you? Hmm. I mean, quickly, it's the Byron Larson. That's the most enticing, right? Like of two heavyweights. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be like an even money one. Yep. And then

I know, I know that 99 out of 100 people would say Blaney is an easy layup over Shane but that that mile and a half program at Penske has just not been good there's no secret there and that type of track is what Shane will excel on I was just about to ask you that because Bozzi tweeted I think that Shane will make the chase with Sonoma a great launching point forward because we'll have a great qualifying draw for Chicago and since the track is Warren will be right in his wheelhouse of tire management.

Yeah, and I did the tire test there, and it's amazing it didn't wear out tires more than what it actually did. We talked about it last week that they could have chose a tire that wears out a little bit more, but they feel very comfortable with this intermediate tire they've got. But it's just, it's one where I could see an upset, and it wouldn't be like crazy, shocking, off of speed. It's one thing to have an upset because somebody had a failure.

It's another to have an upset when the guy just outruns you. And I'm just saying that the Shane over Blaney has it has some of the ingredients. Doesn't mean it's going to get mixed, but it has some of the ingredients that you would see. But I'm talking all this

and I just remember Blaney did the tire test there with me. they're not going to forget everything else. Forget it all. Throw the ingredients out. No, I don't think so. So apologies for giving the Shane fans or maybe the Blaney fans, you know, gasping for air. You're fine.

You're fine. He was good in the test. How important is? Take a look at the top left corner of this bracket. That's a big old question mark. Cendrick Bowman, who can finish 15? No, I mean, really. Yeah, I know.

I think whoever can run 15th in that group will win that bracket. But the four drivers. Bowman, Cedric, Gillen, Hussava. One of those guys is going to the semifinals. Bowman won the last race here. 2019. And he was a rocket. Like I was looking at practice last times.

He was fast the whole weekend. Does that translate, though? Nope. Just talking. How much, though, does tire testing in a track, no one's been to help? How much what? How much does being there for the tire test

at a track that you haven't been to help? It will help. You know, if it was a standard 25, 25 practice session, then it probably would be a bigger advantage, but they're going to have a 50 minute on Friday. So, So I don't, it'll be an advantage for half of the practice because we're going to, the only difference for us though is that this track is going to widen out and the test, it never widened out.

So it's very much like Iowa where the guys that test there, everyone that goes to Iowa and tests says, yeah, the line was one car wide right around the bottom. You couldn't get out of it. You get in the loose stuff and it takes off. By the time the race happens, practice happens. the group gets pushed up and they're like, man, this is a total different racetrack. So Chicago has the ability to be a total different racetrack from what we practice because we were pinned to the bottom, especially in turns three and four. It felt basically like it did years ago.

It is rough. It is abrasive. But, you know, these guys, the 10. teams, the drivers, they're so good. They figure it out. You give them 10 laps on the racetrack that they know where to make speed pretty quickly. So it will be an advantage for the very beginning of practice. I don't see that staying in advantage for very long. Where does the data come from for your old, y'all simulations when it comes to a track like this that you haven't been to in half a decade?

You haven't been here with this car besides the tire test. So we have the tire test, but then the wheel force test. That's really where they're. teams get the data from that's where that will get distributed to all the so Ford Chevy Toyota then followed up the tire test with a wheel force test and they give the that data to the teams so how how reliable is that it's it's it's it's it's reliable as it gets it's kind of how you base all your input information so you feel you feel just as good about going to attract like this where you have less data than the average yeah oval yeah

Yep. It equates enough. There's plenty of other places that you can draw comparisons to. It's not like a track that far out and left field. Like San Diego was a track way out and left field from what we had experienced or had in the past. Like Chicago, while a street course was not nearly as rough is what San Diego was. It wasn't nearly. nearly as long as what's saying it is so it's fine i want to i want to let's let's put myself on record here for my picks for the end season we want to give it it to do i'm of course taking me are you just going through this the second round here well no he's starting with the first round yes of course yeah i just thought he's just saying i'm picking me for the whole thing no that's not what i'm saying no let me stop at start at the top right top left bowman syndrick we're going to go Bowman. Just because I don't have a ton of faith in Penske's mile and a half program yet.

But that's my reason why. Even though Blaney was there for the test? Blaney has been an outlier for that organization. Gotcha. Gillen Hosavar, I'm going to take Carson. Briscoe Gibbs. That is a really good one. Wow, we got some really good matchups.

Briscoe, Gibbs. Oh, I'm going to go. Give me Gibbs. Maybe Briscoe. Gibbs is, I don't know if we were talked about today. We're not sure he was born the last time we raced there. So Briscoe, just for that reason. McDowell, Elliott.

McDowell Elliott Chase. You're taking yourself into the Hamlin Jones matchup? Yep. Christopher Bell and Chris Busher, Battle of the Christophers. Busher Bell, Bell. Byron Larson.

Although he's going to have to finish eighth or better. So like when I said Bowman, Cendrick, you know, First Man to 15 wins. Yeah. I think it's the first man to seven or eight.

Like that's what it's going to take to win that one. You know what to me? Right, right, right. Yeah. What do you think it is in your matchup? First Manda. I don't know.

It's, come on Jared um Byron Larson Larson Larson tested there and Larson's been looking good lately and he he runs the top so well at that track

I'm picking all the fan favorites they should love this podcast uh and then Blaney over Shane so I'm pretty much going chalk there's no surprises I bet you whatever the Vegas odds are it's

these are the favorites other than the Gibbs Briscoe is probably a pick-um. Bowman-Cendrick probably is close. Everything else I think is shocked. Okay, that's it. It's my final picks. We'll revisit this next week. Make sure we keep this paper.

What else from the Cup race, right? I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of incidences. There was only one caution, and it was for debris. I was hoping that there was. I thought it was phantom debris, but there was a piece of the car on the track. It was right before year. That was the one where I didn't want that cost.

No, because you had settled in. I know, I know. Yep. I'd settled in where I was. I felt good about being able to beat at least three or four of them in front of me that were in front of me in the long run. So like I was in a good spot. If you actually, if they don't have an end car of me,

they only do on tracks that I run well. The TV is very smart about when to put the cameras in. but like when that caution came out I actually gave it an old steering wheel a little old oh really? Yeah because I was like yes I got through the first lap

where I wanted to be I didn't lose anything now I'm gonna go race these guys and then because I knew that that's in a very important stretch to the end of the race and just didn't get to see that through that sucked

um anybody else with a I don't think there was anything of like no no so i mean that was the cup race um we talked about points we talked about in season o'reilly SVG he he had him he had him pretty much the whole time there it was we were uh went fishing on saturday afternoon and like with no service i call three fish charlie called zero okay Yep.

Just like you would expect. Oh, Germany lost. Oh, that sucks. Sorry about your bet. Sorry. It's just, you know, I had no service. So I was watching the race until I couldn't. Like, there was no service where I was at.

And I looked at the final, like, an hour after the race. I'm like, hey, Charlie, give me the top. Who do you think the top three were finishing at O'Reilly's? Ding, ding, ding. Yeah, I was like, yep, they finished exactly how you thought they were with Connor second and Brent third. So that was a, you know, we do have to give proper accolades and appreciation to Viking Motorsports. Two cars in the top five, right? Alfredo and Retzloff.

They're just, they're doing a fantastic. job for a relatively new organization. Great accomplishments. They should really be proud of what they're accomplished and they're outrunning, you know, on a weekly basis, that Viking has got at least one driver beating at least one or two of the Gibbs or Junior Martyrsports cars. I feel like it's finishing like five and ten spots ahead of where it should be.

Yeah, and we don't know. what they're spending with you know we don't know any of that we don't know their infrastructure but it just from the outside perspective you're like okay if there's four Gibbs cars that's four that should be ahead of them if there's five Juniper's cars that's five that should be in front them so now at best they should finish 10th and now you have RCR out there like RCR okay that's two more that's two more now your best finish should be 12 12th so that that's why we come to the conclusion that they're way out kicking their coverage week and week out and out And they are.

They deserve the recognition. Parker Retzelff is above three of the four Gibbs cars and points in the next Finney series. It's above Sam Mayer. He's above a handful of noteworthy names. Yeah, I mean, Haskars or K, they should finish 15. Also, if you're going to talk about resources and expectations, they should finish 15. And was Corey Day out there? Yep. I know. I know. 16th.

Yep. So, yeah, they're doing a great job, so I want to give them their flowers. I don't really have anything else from O'Reilly's either. I mean, again, I watched half the race, and it was enough for me. I knew what was, I could see where that one was going. What's next? Chicago, looking forward to it, man, back on a mile and a half. See how this thing goes. No more right turns. Yes. As you touched on Friday practice, 6 p.m. Eastern on True TV, Saturday qualifying 3 p.m. Eastern on True TV, and then race Sunday. 6 p.m. Eastern? Yeah, it's a long weekend for you. One thing that I, we should, you know, that the rumors are starting to swirl a little bit about the dodging cup.

Have I mentioned, while we would love another manufacturer, they are struggling. they're struggling around 15th in trucks. So I don't know that that's, I know they want to get in there. I don't know how much of that is like just a marketing play versus like you really, really truly want to compete. But, you know, it's starting to heat up that they're really making a push

trying to get into the Daytona 500. And I know that's something that they mentioned before they got into the trucks this year. is like, you know, what's your aspirations for Cup? They're like, oh, well, the quick aspirations is 2027 Daytona 500. Does that mean they're just going to run Daytona or the whole year? Because it's talk about going to be on the struggle bus. That would, that would be a major, major struggle.

Unless the goal is just, let's get our name out there. Let's get our activation. like we want it, have a presence at the track. I don't know what the motivation is behind it, but like you still got to get your simulation. They still got to get. Chris, how do you, maybe this is a topic. This is a major undertaking.

Chris Rice was on DBC and talked a little bit about it today. I saw a few clips from it. Yeah, the biggest thing obviously being the engine. Yeah, and again, that is another significant investment that all the other manufacturers have made. he mentioned that the reason that Dodge just got out in the first place is that Penske was the engine builder for Dodge when they switched to Ford that left no no one building the Dodge engine so are they going to do it themselves or are they

going to outsource that like I like clock is ticking so I don't I don't know but I just my concern is that it you know they're really really struggling in the truck series and again, they're all running the same motors, I believe, in the trucks. Listen, I hear, I hear you, Corey LaJoy and many others. You don't have the simulation that the others have. But you're, it's still a cup team. Like, you still have smart enough people that you're still with a cup organization. So it's, to me, it's wildly, it was, they're underperforming from what even I thought they would.

Even I knew they'd have some struggles. Like, I didn't think that anyone envisioned that them struggling like they are right now in the, in the truck series with, you know, lots of common things in the truck series. But I get it. My guess is do they turn the corner and when they go back to some of these tracks and have some more data and stuff? man wanting instantly after the year they've started with in trucks to say

we got to get the cup I don't know I worry about that from a competitive standpoint not necessarily what it would mean for their brand so that take it with a grand salt but is just is having Dodge in NASCAR just

better no matter what no matter how they perform necessarily is it better for the sport as a whole? I think the more manufacturers that you have, the better it is for the sport. Yeah, I certainly think that it alleviates a little bit of pressure from probably Chevrolet

having to support a, you know, not that they support them, but like, there's a certain amount of infrastructure you still got to have for, you know, when you have four cars versus 14 cars. And so, yeah, if you can spread that out amongst, you know, more manufacturers than, yeah, I think that everyone, it's good for everyone. And then certainly from a footprint perspective and adding to the fan zone, things like that,

yeah, that's definitely all good. And you want them to believe that NASCAR is a good platform for them to sell their vehicles in, right? But you don't want them to rush it, though, right? Because then if they come in, it goes bad, there's a chance of their like. Yeah, you don't want them to have a bad experience. And that's, you know, I think it could be very easy. And again, I'm very ignorant in this conversation because I don't, I'm not having the conversations with the executives of that manufacturer to know what is, why is getting

the cup so quickly your objective? Is it, yeah, we're coming there to win. If you're coming there to win, like I think that that process is a, a. long, long, long runway. Now, maybe they're thinking, well, you just got to get there first. Once you get there, then you can work on getting competitive.

So it'll be very interesting to see over the next few months. I know they're making a big push, big push to do it, but it sounds like the engines might be the hang up. Yeah. Well, it seems more promising now than it's ever been. So I guess that's good news. It is, yeah.

It certainly, you know, they got in the, truck series. For a long time, we didn't, we had heard about the Dodge thing, but it's like, is it really real? You know, they made it real enough, you know, to make it happen this year. And then let's see what they do in the future. It's all we got this week.

Yeah. What was that? I think it's my laptop. Are you a big World Cup guy now? That game was fun. It was severely, it was actually like going to my very first, uh, NBA experience where it's like you see it on TV. Yeah, it's pretty exciting.

But then until you feel the energy of the arena, that's when it's like, wow. I feel like you're doing a disservice compared to an NBA game. Like World Cup atmosphere would be more college. I thought you're going to say the Ohio State game. What? Mm-mm.

The arena is three times the size. So you go to, have you not been to an NBA game that sold out 15,000 people around a tiny court. Yeah, it feels that... I just thought you were going to compare it to college football with the atmosphere. Oh, geez.

I would go as far to say that a proper World Cup game where something's on the line, right? Unfortunately, nothing was on the line for the U.S. and nothing was online for Turkey. Right, I'm a little bit... It's a friendly... Yes.

It's a friendly at that point. I would argue that that's probably the most electric atmosphere in all of sports. I never been... doubt it. I don't doubt that. That's why I said, I'd love to go to a non-USA World Cup where you know the fans are passionate because I mean, there's a lot of pop-in circumstance with the USA game. There's what? A lot of like pompom circumstance where like if you go to like

a Spain game like it's just as much. I think we got to take Travis to a soccer game. We will. We will. We'll work it out on the schedule. They'll be near soon. And you picked it up quick. I mean, you called that second goal. You knew exactly what was going to happen. You were just trying to set me. You were trying to take me there for the last few miles, aren't you? I was. I was.

You're setting it up. Guys, we're not going to get into the social media stuff, but I'm just telling you, my social media guys didn't do it good. At that game, it was Charlie who was in charge of the videos. Which is shocking because he records everything we always do when we don't want it. He's TMZ. We say it. The guy loves to have his camera up, you know, trying to get some stuff on you so he can, you know, post that meme later.

Yeah. So, yeah, I sit, it was the very first corner kick. And I was like, oh, corner kick. I said, you know what I'm feeling? Header, ricochet goal. Header, ricochet goal. That's how this is going to go. And I wish I would have posted the actual clip from the game because you can't see because Charlie's shaking the camera all of.

around. But it went corner kick, header, ricochet, boom, goal. Now, it was off sides. But it's still... But it went exactly like

exactly like I thought. It was fun. It was fun game. Also, shout out to the gentleman beside me who I did not realize was a very, very prominent executive.

A real executive. Not Daniel. Not a fake, not a fake executive. No, no. I could tell you chat me up a little bit and I was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he sent me his name and number. I'm like, when I look him up, I'm like, oh, yeah, he's with Apple and he's way up there. So that was you just never know. And then we had Zed right in front of us, the DJ.

that's who it was. I had no idea. Yeah, he's very popular DJ. So, yeah, we were out there and Jen Pop just living it up, you know. It was fun, fun experience. I'd like to go to another one. We got to, we got to find one. I mean, they have them in Atlanta, right? Yeah. Mercedes-Benz. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll go see. We'll go check it out. Maybe we get a USA game if they can continue. They play on Wednesday. I don't like their chance. Their favorites, though. I don't like their chance. Yeah, but they just find a way to just... I guess we'll see.

We can go to a game that's not USA. Yeah, we will. All right, well, appreciate y'all tuning in, and we'll see you after Chicago.