Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Take Me To The Roundy Rounds

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Denny Hamlin and co-host Jared Allen are back from Sonoma, where Shane van Gisbergen delivered another dominant performance.  1:40 SVG’s win was more dominant than his Chicago win, and why he’s so much better than everyone else13:00 Denny has a surprise for Jared14:15 23XI and Front Row file an injunction and restraining order against NASCAR21:30 Lack of rear grip caused lots of problems25:25 Brad Keselowski’s pit crew not happy with Ty Gibbs32:00 Did NASCAR screw up not throwing a red flag?38:00 Ty Dillon pulls off another upset in the Bracket Challenge43:00 Denny will be broadcasting the Xfinity race at Dover48:00 Denny is getting really good at fishing, and Travis lost his chair Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Actions Detrimental merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental FanDuel Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You get good at something, and then I like to come in and perform better at you at that said thing. There's no such thing anymore. It happens all the time. But when you started chess, I beat him in chess like 20 straight games. What about now? Eventually, you come back around and you get better. But there's like a rummy cube. Two week.

I love Rummy Cube. We did that on the way. He loves Rummy Cube. You can get smoked too. Yeah, I mean, I've had a few stretches of bad games. You are Robin. I am Batman. 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. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to Actions Determental Post-Sonoma Race 20. I believe that's Race 20 of the regular season. Yeah, there's six more. Time flies.

We have another SVG dominating road course win. Just write it down, book it at this point. We talked about last week that, you know, what was his advantage going to be? at Sonoma versus the field. I thought, it'll be less. We got reps here. It was not less.

I could argue that it was greater than Chicago. That's crazy. It's wild to think, listening to the tear down last night, them talking about SVG and how guys like Kyle Larson have thousands of laps on this track. And SVG has hundreds now, right? But just how much.

practice and reps that you full-time Cup Series drivers have at this track over the last, however many years you've been in the series. It is pretty crazy. No doubt about it. Yeah, he's, and the advantage, it seems like, so it seems as though in road course racing itself, right, if the winning percentage, remember we talk about how if you have the best car, you're the best driver on any given day, you win probably like 25 to 35. percent of the time in the Cup series on ovals but on row courses that number is quite a bit higher because

you're not side by side you know there's not as many incidences when it comes to like you get caught up in someone else's blank right on a restart now it does happen we we saw some wrecks but not where he was running um you know when he's able to stretch it out um pit still come back and win his stage that's just unbelievably um amazing And I have to think, too, that there's just more variables at a road course. So there's more areas for him to be just like a little bit better than the competition. But if he's a little bit better than competition at every corner, well, then all of a sudden now he's three-tenths better over the course of a lap. Yeah, the reason I thought that at Sonoma, it would be less. The advantage would be less is because of the reps. You know, we understand how to approach the corners to get the most speed out of them. But he still invents new ways and has ways of being fast. year. Yeah, it's unique. I don't know how or who's going to catch up to him in the near future. So you might as well, I mean, can we just, you know, depending on how many road courses they put on the schedule, I mean, this guy could lead the series and wins year after year. You also have all of his data to work with. Every team in the garage has his data to work with. And you still are saying,

Mace Briscoe is saying that this guy is just late years better than the rest of us. And in control, too, it's not like he's pushing it when I'm watching him to where, you know, if I had to run that speed, I feel like I would be out of control. Well, what causes me to be out of control is my inputs are not as smooth as his or I'm not approaching it quite the same. So there's a lot to be studied, but, man, I don't know. You just, it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to keep him from.

not winning three to five races a year based off of what we have for a schedule. With the current format being with the playoffs, how many wins could he, like where could be at like to feel comfortable, have a chance to advance though? Or is he still kind of, like if he wants another race, do you think there's a chance he could advance? Through the first round, yeah. He could go through the first round just by not messing up. We've said this a million times. The first round, the four guys that, exit after round 16 are just usually they they have major issues in races could be mechanicals could be wrecks but they have those 30 plus worse finishes and so you avoid that especially

with him having I don't know how many bonus points he has now but the notepad 17 yeah so something like that yeah he could he could go by the first round and then he's at the roval in the second round. Wow. I still think the roval is the least. I mean, keep saying this about every road course we go to, but it's like the least likely of the road courses that he could win

just because it's the roval. Yeah. But maybe. Maybe, maybe not. And the other thing is like, you know, last year he was kind of just, you know, come in spot racing, but now he's getting more and more reps in the next gen card to understand

the control and everything. So it's, maybe he's going to widen his gap. I'm done trying to predict. I think, I think. Is he the Patrick Mahomes now? You just, until he loses, you're just going to pick him? Well, I think there are certainly a real discussion to be had on the best road course racer that NASCAR has seen. Like I saw Mike Joy mentioned, like Dan Gurney.

That's all he did. And the other guys were not, they didn't run, but a couple of road course. versus a year. Like, these guys are all in the same cars now. Back then, anything, like, from 90s and earlier, the advantages you had with your car far exceeded anything talent level that you could bring to the racetrack. Like, I just feel like it's apples and oranges trying to compare, like, what someone

did 40 some years ago, because there was not that many competitive cars. and then yes, if you had someone that, you know, specific was in road racing, yeah, they could come out here and win Riverside, you know, five of nine times or whatever it might be, but not someone that's coming in with spec cars, more competitive drivers. I don't think the two are the same. When you, can you think back for a second to his first race at Chicago a few years ago and the whatever data you can. you can remember seeing from him like could you predict this then like i think there's just a lot of road course ringers that come into the sport do a one-off race finish ninth 10th right and then they like move on but spig had a great experience at chicago his first time wins then goes full-time and now he's like fully taking advantage of it could you could you see that back then not not the domination that

he had of course we thought that i think that the sentiment from everyone who talked about his first win back in 23. It was 23, wasn't it? Yeah. Was, well, it was a street course. That's his thing. That's his groove. We were on kind of a wet track

that he's got the most probably experienced doing that. And then things worked out perfectly, right? There were some timely cautions and whatnot. And so you're just trying to come up with all these reasons and justification as to why he won that race versus just, is just, oh, he's just better than everyone else. And that's what we're finding out now. I'm just curious

if he's truly like one of the best road course guys in the world or if like another road course guys come in the sport and practice it. Listen, F1 guys are extremely extremely good on road courses.

They're the top of the top. So now again, the difference is they would have to be adapting from their open wheel cars to a stock car that would be extremely extremely hard to do um he was going from a v8 supercar that was it had fenders on it you know it was heavier you know things like that so it's it's not the same so we're we're okay with saying now he's the best road course race or nascarus seen i'm i'm okay with it i think that it's factual at this point i don't know how we can

say otherwise because these races aren't close he's not they're not close if that makes any sense can you catch up to him can other drivers in this nascar field cup field catch up to him can you find another 10th two 10th to be on par with his it's not one or two 10th there's it's more than that i think you know when you look at probably average lap times and things like that it's it's it's significant. I can't say what it is over like the guy chasing him, but yeah, sure, it's probably two to three-tenths, but you're going to have to be, especially in next gen, you'd have to be a half a second faster than someone that you catch on a road course to pass them. And so you think someone's going to be a half a second faster? The only way is when the field had a caution with

12 laps to go, everyone behind them needed a pit and him stay out. That was the only shot. I think you could get him then that's where he's going to be vulnerable you're going to have to put him at a disadvantage on tires or strategy to to i believe overtake him if it's straight lap time i don't see anyone have it enough and the other thing is like half the time we're not even sure if he's pushing it all the way and he steps in the lead yeah well and that's why i'm confident in saying i don't i don't think you're going to beat them straight up um in a cup car right now um now you got to if you're kind of Zelich did he beat him in the same car you know same team same car same strategy you know he he was able to slay the dragon um but in people in the cup series right now

there's nobody that can run with him i think it's going to need to be someone younger that can spend considerable amount of time on it right yeah which is what is you know to speak about exfinity which is very you know to me very um impressive about what connor did is that you know i watched the very beginning of that race kind of from from the sweets and i was like like he's keeping straight pace with him like he's he's there um SVG never could get away uh Connor led for i felt like as much as as vg did and then you know SVG when he he it looked like he had some in reserve because he did get there there at the end of that race. So I still think on all-out straight speed, SVG still has the advantage even over Connor.

But Connor is good enough to where you put him in front of SVG, he will be difficult to get around because SVG's advantage is not, in my opinion, more than a half a second that it takes to pass. It'll be interesting to see SVG or walk-ins glen in a few weeks because you have to think that he probably feels like he let that one get away last year through the bus stop. Yeah, and remember he was with Colick. That's true. That's true. As well. So it, you know, everything is, you know, things are different. He's got more experience now. So, yeah. Do we want to continue with on-track stuff since we're in it, or do you want to switch to the off-track news that we had? We can do off-track. Today was a big day. Today was a big day. Do you want to get into the 23-11 front row of motorsports at NASCAR?

I'll keep, what are you doing over there? Oh, that kind of day. it's Jared's birthday I'm over here struggling I had no clue what you were doing I know I didn't I didn't peel the I didn't break off this part

so I'm sitting here just it's your birthday it's my birthday I am 31 today I tell you what it sounds it feels a lot this is the first birthday I've had where it just feels a lot less cool

welcome to the fucking club wow 31 huh Yeah. Any plans today? Well, outside of showing up late. I don't even say their name on the competitor to an old shipping company that used to

sponsored in. He was parked in the driveway. Had to walk for 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah. It's a long walk to get in here. Well, it is Jared's birthday. We thought you were out signing autographs or something. I was picking up my macha.

You didn't get me one. No, yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys. Hey, this is Dale Jr. And for the latest actions detrimental gear, go to shop. Dot dirtimomedia.com. We've got plenty of options for you.

We're adding new stuff all the time. That's shop.durdymomedia.com. Today was big news in the lawsuit world. Yeah, we obviously filed a new preliminary injunction. And we also filed a restraining order. against NASCAR and the basis for the two are through discovery we have obviously revealed and again so much of this is redacted you know discovery is revealed like a series of monopolistic acts that that have occurred and so we believe that you know status quo of us having our charters should not be

disturbed until this is resolved on December 1st and in the courtroom the reason being right is that and to kind of explain the restraining order, we're seeking for them not to be able to take and then sell our charters because, you know, if we prevail in December, how do you go get that back? Like, you can't. So where does this, where does this go from here? You're scheduled to lose your charters on Wednesday. Is that correct? That is correct. Yeah, pending the results of this preliminary injunction, obviously the judge will see the, evidence, all the stuff that is redacted that you and I can't see, he's able to, and he'll make a decision hopefully by the week, by the end of this week on that. Okay, so the judge can see all of

the discovery. So there's many, many, many, many, many things that the judge can see that we cannot at the moment. And he's allowed, he can use that information to make a ruling on this preliminary injunction. That's right. And how long do you anticipate this process? Bean. We hope by the end of the week. Obviously, I believe that we've asked for NASCAR's response to this by tomorrow. They've asked for Wednesday. And so what you do is each side will, you give what their interpretation is of it. And then the judge will then make a ruling. So we submitted for the preliminary injunction today and restraining order. They'll get a response by the midweek. And then the judge will see the response. They'll see our injunction request, and then he'll make a decision. How does this all affect 2311 racing going forward, whether you're an open team or not an open team? We're going to race.

One thing is for sure is that we've always said that we were committed to racing this season, whether it be chartered or uncharted. But certainly there's been some evidence that has been revealed that warrants this preliminary injunction. Let's say that NASCAR gets what they want and you guys have races, open teams. How does that impact Tyler, Bubba, racing for playoffs and going forward? They can still... Yeah. Yeah, everything would be the same there as far as trying to race for the playoffs. Obviously, if you miss a race, it makes it harder because you miss out on those points.

And so hopefully it doesn't come to that. Let's move on to Sonoma this past weekend. And as we talked about, SVG wins the race. I don't know. What else is your takeaway from this race? I mean, not a whole lot of surprises, right? I feel as though the guys, it was certainly a track position race. If you noticed, like, the running order didn't change a whole lot up front from what I could see.

And I had to have a really good sight to see it. it was just you know it's just it's tough to pass we understand all that you know real courses one lane race tracks one lane tracks are not

great for next gen but it seemed like qualifying was the key to your finishing position unless you chose to do some different strategy stuff you know take stage points versus actually going

for the best overall finish that you could have what happened with your qualifying 16th I think at least I expected a better Or was it just? Yeah, it wasn't far off, truthfully.

You know, I was, you know, a tenth from being well inside the top 10. So it, we were close. We just didn't quite, you know, we picked up a lot from practice, like two seconds from practice. We just missed it on the 11 this week. I am definitely confident and it's been well documented that I've thought that I'm not, I'm not the elite road course guy. I believe that I'm serviceable on road courses. The last week at Chicago proved that,

not just from our finish, but throughout the race I was passing and passing multiple cars, good cars, through that race and was marching forward. But this week, I never had it. Like, from lap one on the racetrack, my car did not do the things that it was, that we,

expected it would. And so it left us scrambling, you know, Saturday to Sunday, trying to make a lot of adjustments. Again, it's very hard because you can't change a lot of things overnight, but you can change a few. I don't know. It's just until we kind of figured out that we, this is one of the very few weeks that I think the 11 cars missed a setup. Is there a part of this track where the field is specifically what's the word for it like there's the most variable in like is there a turn where it's like okay the best guy is this quick on it and there's this wide range of the difference like what part of the tracks what part of the track is that um i mean where secs very good is up the hill in one um i think a lot of his time is there but it's but it's everywhere it's not just one place it's it's

a combination when you have 11 turns think about it at a at a oval right there could be two tents between cars and there's only four turns we'll add that up you know double that now you're at a half a second now add a few more corners it's it's six seven tenths it just doesn't take much for you to be off a second on a row course just because of all the all the corners and so it's I wish it was one or two corners but it was a lot of corners and a lot of them as in like 80% of them that just we did not have the speed that others did you and others were dealing with lack of rear grip was that different from last year i don't know i only ran one lap last year blew up but what so what uh do that just make it

harder what was the yeah i don't know it you know this is a new you know This is a new tire for this track. This track had, they did some patchwork to it, which they did a good job, you know, smoothing out the patchwork. It's still, you know, it's quite a bit bumpy, but it's okay. You could see kind of new asphalt, old asphalt mixed in the corners.

So it, I don't know, just seemed like we missed what we thought the tire would do at this track. It's the easiest way to say it or put it. it happens sometimes are road courses where teammates have completely different setups because like how does brisco yeah knock out of the park yeah um everyone's different yeah everyone is different and certainly it just depends on you know how much when you go back there this time are you using notes from the previous time you were there you know the 19 had you know true x you know a fair amount of um success with Truex at that racetrack.

Yeah, everyone tailors their setup to kind of what the driver has, you know, said or needs when he goes to that racetrack. And they've got a lot of notes and they fine-tune that setup each and every time. And then sometimes you go there with a whole new approach saying, you know what? We're going to try to find an advantage. Let's try something here to see if it works. and sometimes you have a rough day. How bad does that grip situation get when a guy goes through the dirt

or some dust is swept up onto the track? I spun in turn two. I guess somebody ran through the dirt over there and kicked it up. There was like two or three of it. I mean, the cameras didn't see it. They were zoomed into the 23 car and then all of a sudden you see me backing in.

She's like, yeah, there was like three of them. of us spun there, but they were so zoomed in, you couldn't see it. I never understand that the obsession was zooming into one car when like, you want to see the most action possible. Spread it out. Like, we're in the middle, the whole field is wrecking and you're zoomed into one car going backwards. I just don't understand that. This is a track too where I feel like it would really pay off to have a drone flying just get like a real wide shot of the grounds right like it's not always a great shot at ovals but here yeah i i don't know who went through the dirt but when the group of cars i was around went through it we all just spun out i mean it was like synchronized spinning we were all just

it was ice that corner is really slick anyway uh because your car's unloading off the turn two there but you throw a bunch of rocks and dirt on that it is it was uh tuff it was bad well the camera shot on bubba looked just like he a banana peel was dropped in front of him

and he just went around yeah you should have seen the rest of us it was quite entertaining uh chastain spun out s Juarez earlier in this race and we had a lot of guys this weekend making threats on the radio that had better not get back to him of course

um but yeah swarez bounced back to finish 14th but yeah it's not happy uh with chastain i wouldn't either it looked like ross just got in there deep, lost control of his car, and then Swerves was the cushion that helped him slow down. That pretty much would kind of look like. Obviously, wasn't intentional on Ross's part.

He just lost control of his car. Brad Kozlowski and Ty Gibbs on pit road. What do you make of this? Yeah. So was the incident with the 17? Was it before that pit road incident? It was. It was.

and but they two aren't a lot of submarine cars were they both spot because I've seen you know the conspiracy theorists is that oh well Ty was mad

and so he was just swiping at him on his way into his box right no Brad was in the castraal car okay Solomon plumbing not not the built submarines car

but what what outfits did the crew have on though. Castro. Oh, they did? Yes. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you could see where he came in one way, one time, came in another way, another

different time. But it is he is in front. So he has the right to use the pit box. It's just, it's, it's, it's, bad timing. It's the best I can explain it. Is that

whenever you're pitted in front of someone and then you're barely in front of them on track what happens is is that you have their tire carriers and their jackman kind of standing at the wall they've changed the rule recently over the last year to where they don't they don't want these guys jumping off the wall with like that's too much weight you'll you'll create injuries so they let them kind of get ready in their pit box well they're trying to get around to the right side of the car before it even stops. So Brad's team's trying to get their advantage,

which is, let me get to the right side as soon as possible. But they're not able to run out there until after the 54 passes, which that definitely does slow them down. So, you know, I didn't see the carrier move from his position, but I think Ty was trying to get the best angle into his box, which he's entitled to, and it just, the contact happened. You know, whose fault? I don't know.

Both sides were trying to gain advantage. As a driver, are you entering your pit box pretty much the same way every time at every track? Same angle? I try to. Yeah, I try to because I want to make it predictable for the pick crew guys to know, you know, angles. Here's what angle he's coming in. the rate in which he's coming in. Like, I try to be the same as consistent as I can.

But again, you don't know. The first time he came in at a shallower, yeah, in a shallower angle, maybe he ended up crooked in his box, so he was trying to straighten that out. We just, we don't know. There's just too much to uncover, and I don't really care to here on Monday morning. Yeah, NASCAR had said that Ty had done no wrong

in entering his box and there would be no penalties. They are looking into the pit crews, though. I don't know what that means. I mean, let the guys shove if they want to shove. So two things. One, if the driver wasn't Ty Gibbs, social media would not have the backlash that they're having. And also, should we look at the rule for allowing the pit crew members over the wall?

No, I think that that's fair. But if you look that there is a orange dash, in the corner of the box. So what that is, is it's trying to keep the front changers and carriers protected. So if the 6th team was already in their pit box, Ty cannot clip that orange box while he's in there. He would be entering a portion of their box while they're servicing the car. That line is only there if the 6 is there first.

with the 54 ahead he has the ultimate right away and so you know but but still i didn't i didn't think that the six carrier was egregious in where he was standing either so again that's why i'm not really i don't see a whole lot of fault because both were doing what they were supposed to do and naskar is right that by the letter of the law there's nothing that's against the rules here. Right. Just a racing incident. There you go.

Moving on here, Ryan Blaney was ran off track by Chris Busher, another guy who thought there might have been some hell to pay after this. Same situation, same time that you and the 23 had spun around. Did you see this out of your windshield? I saw him beach. I saw him up on the hill. It was just very interesting.

to see how did he get there. But I think, I don't think that that had anything to do with the dirt being on the track. Somebody else must have ran off the track and then kicked the dirt up. So I'm not really sure how we got there, but we did. But yeah, the 12 didn't do anything wrong. The 17 just got kind of, I guess, loose underneath of them and ran into them right at a horrible time on the racetrack there in turn one and it shoved blaney off the racetrack and unfortunately derailed his day does going off the track here hurt the car in any way when you after you get it back on track like

does it do any damage to the underbody not a significant mount at a track like this um it's more you know when you have flat tires on asphalt that's where you kind of get you know you start scraping things where it's dirt. You don't have a whole lot of flat tires very often. Not really. But again, I don't know. Now, he was beach to where it probably pulled the underbody up or down or something like that. So there's no telling his scenario,

but usually running off track itself is not a huge detriment to your car. We had a caution with 11 to go. I thought this was when Chase Briscoe was going to have a good shot at getting around SVG. just with how many cautions come at the end of these races and the amount of restarts. But a caution with 11 ago and then a caution with 7 to go that stayed yellow instead of going red with Ricky Stenhouse. Yeah, I guess what took time is them repairing the wall.

Yeah, the tire barrier. The tire barrier. Yeah. Yeah, because he just kept digging, right? Like, he bounced off of him and then kept going. I didn't see him sitting there. when we came back around. So I'm assuming he got going again.

Yeah. But yeah, they needed to repair the tires there and put them back into a safe spot because that is a very vulnerable part of the racetrack where there are every year you see wrecks where people are trying to merge from being too wide and nobody wants to give. That pretty much is what happened here.

But, yeah, caution versus red. I don't know. I probably would have been fine with both. To me, it was a non-talking issue on whether they should have red flag it or not. I'm sure people that wanted to see the most racing action, red flag this thing, let's get the guys with tires chances to come back. Reds don't get thrown often. Let's just say that.

I originally on Twitter wanted red and voiced my opinion, shocker. But then thinking about it, if this would have happened on. lap three, would it have been a red flag? No. Probably not. So then it shouldn't be because I always, in football games or whatever, it's like just call it the same way the entire time. And so I think NASCAR probably did the right thing.

Did you issue a public apology? I'll issue a statement here in a little bit. And to be fair, when it comes to fans getting more racing, they got plenty of racing at the end of this thing. You got two additional chances to see someone steal this race from SVG. Yeah. Are you not getting enough of the 88, 88 out front and it broke worse? Yeah, at that point, I'm like, let's just get this thing over with. My God. I had gone up in the stands late in this thing before those last two cautions and a fan had turned around.

He's like, do you know much about NASCAR? And I was like, do you say no? Do you know who I am, he said? I said, I guess. He's like, who's like the best? I was like, well, the guy who's leading is probably going to win, the guy in the 88. but on anything other than a road course see the guy on the other side of the racetrack over there

he asked me he's like how long ago did Dale Jr. retire I haven't watched since then I was like oh it's it's been at least a decade wow so he's getting back into it yeah that's good question for you Danny you have a day like yesterday where it's a struggle

what's it like in the car are you just like just trying to get through it just get a finish I yeah any way possible which we did top 20 let's go um I don't know it's just I feel helpless because I when I ran my fastest slap of the race I mean my team had the nerve to say well he just ran eight-tenths faster and I'm I'm I said that is it that was max peak I nailed all my points and and I know when I hit my points and I pushed the inch tree as far as I can push it. I'm getting all I can on the exit. I know when that is.

I was not the the vehicle is not capable of running eight-tenths faster. I'm very confident of that. Sure, put SVG in my car. He probably gets some or most of it, but not all of it. No. When you're in the back half of the field and we get these late cautions and late restarts, are you nervous or are you like licking your chops like oh i had nothing to lose i was dead last before that those caution those cautions came out like i was trying to run as long as i possibly i wanted to just run this thing out of gas like we were close to making it on fuel i wanted to just stay out do like the 71 did just don't pit until the caution comes out if the caution doesn't come out oh we were going to run last anyway so i was like

Just let's just stay. Wherever we fall, you know, the cars that were pitting were starting to merge back right there where I'm at. So I merged into what would have been had everyone pitted second place, second to third. Well, so I fall back to 10th or 12th. I was thinking, well, then people are going to have so many laps on their tires. They know tires are important. They're going to pit. I'm going to be on the front end of that strategy.

luckily it kind of worked out for us anyway we would have probably netted out you know probably close to the same spot I don't know you would we restarted about the same spot but been on fresh tires not old tires that's that's the difference but we're trying I mean it is it is a help you think my job's helpless asking Chris Gale and my team to come up with something to help us finish better than what we're running is a task in itself, especially, you know, with our lack of ability to pass on that day yesterday. It feels like a roll of the dice sometimes.

It is. It is. And sometimes it works out good for you. Sometimes it didn't. Listen, I've a couple weeks now that we're done with these tracks for at least a few weeks. I guess we've got another one in four weeks. But like, take me to the roundy rounds. Though, I mean, you averaged a 12th place finish in these two road courses, so...

That's a good average. The bracket challenge. Tye Dillon, the unstoppable force. I saw it. Moves on again. I had a front row seat. Oh, yeah, it was right in front of you. Right in front of me.

And I think I said something on the radio before it happened. It's like, watch this. You know, because I just, I could see it coming. And, you know, poor Alex Bowman. I think he outran them for most of the race. But, you know, next thing you know, some strategies come into play, some restarts. Ty was motivated, and he got him in the last corner. And it wasn't crazy or egregious either.

Like he didn't wreck him or anything like that. He just got to the bumper, shoved them up off the bottom. You know, it looked just like Tony Stewart, me and Tony back in the day. And then once he gets beside him, then kind of gives him the door on the exit to make sure he gets fully clear. it was great execution of a bump and run. Yeah, they just swapped positions. Ty was running 23rd. Bowman was running 22nd.

Tye said, no, I'll take 22nd. You can have 23rd. Yeah. And I saw a tweet that said that you pull up alongside Ty and gave him a little thumbs up or something, acknowledgement. Yeah. It just was entertaining to watch from where I was at.

I didn't really have anyone pressuring me on that final lap, so I just kind of had a front row seat to these cars that were, I don't know, probably five or six length. in front of me. I was like, wow, this is going to be good. I mean, you got to be rooting for the guy that knocked you out, right? He's still hot. Are you entertained by this bracket challenge still? Of course. But just, you know, because, you know, if we still got one guy in it with Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs, Gibson has Ty Gibbs still in it. So, yeah, it's entertaining. You got to think, man, whoever wins that matchup between Reddick and Gibbs racing has Ty Gibbs still in it. So, yeah, it's entertaining. You got to think, man,

whoever wins that matchup between Reddick and Gibbs this weekend is going to be a heavy favorite at Indy. Just the reason is Indy is not a, I mean, that is a driver car means a ton at that racetrack. And you're just not going to have, I don't know, I'm sitting here, I guarantee it's going to be just a complete show. But it's pretty straightforward. There's not a lot of passing there. So it's, I think whoever comes out of the. the Toyota matchup

is probably going to be your heavy favorite going in Andy. Was this part of the goal do you think

of the bracket challenge? We have Ty Dillon and John Hunter going against each other in the next round.

Those are two cars who are running 20th to 30 on the average day right? But now they're racing for a

million dollars. They happen to be going up against guys that can't finish races or not finish them well.

So, you know, it's not like their finishes have been just, wow, they've really stepped it up over these last four weeks.

They just, you know, in a way they have, but they also, you know, it's just, it's the luck of the draw of making sure you get somebody that has bad days. That's helpful. That is, I think, did John Hunter win by finishing 27th? Like, yeah, that's usually not going to be good enough, but it's, you know, just, just happen to be. I just mean for like Ty Dillon's team, right? The bracket challenge means enough to that team and the million dollars means enough to

that team to move Bowman out of the way at the end and say like, hey, this is, of course. You know, these next two weeks, this is the biggest thing that we're, we're racing for in a single season for the most part. All right, it is. No question, because, like, short of, like, even a super speedway, like, where's their opportunity to make the playoffs, right? It's, they're, they're, they're just clicking off races until they get to the Daytona. You know what I mean?

Now, give them their due, they still have performed better than a, you. expected this year, in my opinion, than what all of us expected. So you got to give them their due there, and then this is their rallying cry for that team right now. It's that we're still in it, down to the final four, and we're still in it. So, yeah, it's hard not to root for that.

We didn't get the interview, though. That's a bummer. Yeah, TV needs to make sure they're covering that. What's interesting is they even pulled them up to the front of pit road to get interviewed. So when we pull into pit road, those who don't know, when we pull into pit road after the race, those people with interesting storylines

or part of a points battle or something, they always waive to go to the front of pit road because that's where media is at. So they wave them up to then go up there to, essentially it's like the media bullpen after the race. but yeah they didn't get interviewed that was that was a shocker who do you like in this next round john hunter or tie dillon at dover i like john hunter you gotta rock the hot hand i mean technically they're both hot yeah but but this is the first true who's got speed who's like

this is the first conventional track we've had in this series and i'm just this is where you got to go chalk and John Hunter should be favorite here. Reddick or Ty Gibbs? Reddick. I think he's a little faster on the ovals. But we'll see. Well, you'll be in the booth next week at Dover calling the Xfinity race. I am. I forgot about that.

Yeah. Jared doesn't even remember the last time he called a race. This will be interesting. It's been a few years. Do you remember the last one? either Daytona or Talladega It was A couple years ago

Yeah 22 maybe Okay 23 Well look forward to it Working with the old CW folks Adam Alexander will be fun I believe he was calling The Xfinity race when I was doing it back then as well So he's such a pro

Do you do any prep for this or I'm sure they will I'm sure I'll have to be on some calls and I'll get my pre-race prep stuff. So yeah. But like as far as what to look for, I'm going to rely heavily on their statistician, their information people to feed me,

race histories, who's been good here, blah, blah, blah. Paging racing insights. All that stuff will be really important to being knowledgeable about what you're talking about. I guess all the Xfinity. watchers and Denny fans can look forward to hearing more of your voice on their broadcast this weekend. That they can't wait. Off track, do you do anything exciting this weekend?

Not really. Stayed at a new resort. It was nice. Oh, speaking of Sonoma spiders. Yeah, I saw a tarantula walking into the track yesterday. You did? I did. A real tarantula.

Surely you got a picture. I do, yeah. Send that to me. Wow. That would have freaked me out. But you had, so I was, well, I'm, we had just a big spider in our room. And you wouldn't let them kill it?

No. Why not? I'm not a killer. I, my mom has taught me to gently put the, you know, animal in a bag or something, pick up, and then put him outside. But he was, he was, he was, he was, he was feisty. So did you do that? Yes.

Okay. Charlie wanted to kill him. it. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't want spider guts all over the floor. I will say you have to be careful. I once had a family ever kill a spider. They were in Texas and it was a mom spider. And when they stepped on it, all the eggs opened up and little spiders went everywhere. Oh, gross. Yeah. So I do see your side, but I still would have killed it. Look at your phone. What would you do if that spider was the one that was in your your resort. Are you still trying to put a

Tupperware container over over and move it out the house? I'm asking for a new room. That thing is no way. Yeah. I was walking into the track and I looked down and I was like, oh, someone left a fake little plastic tarantula

on the ground. And then I stepped over it and then it's like, oh, that's not a, that's not a fake one. That's a real one. That's a real one. No doubt. Yeah. I was saying that if that if I could never I don't think I could ever live on the west coast or out west for that reason because if I found one of those in my house on accident you know I'm just like going about my day and spotted tarantula I think I'm moving out and that thing now lives there yeah but you go on your little out west trips and camp and stuff I figure you're like one with the

nature no well I mean sure but I'm still not a fan of snakes and spiders same How's the fishing going? Doing well. You got to hang out with us one night. You still owe me my chair back, my fishing chair. It was really windy, and Travis was basically holding down the chair, drinking beer while me and Charlie were fishing. It was way too windy to catch a fish. By the way, I sent you a video.

There's a guy, they caught a damn fish. We got a patrol that better. Yeah, they're hitting my hunting. hole over here. But anyway, we caught three the day before we left. We're on, we're getting better. We're starting to understand sport more. You do. I feel like I'm a year from really being pro. The lingo, but Jared, we were on the one dock and we moved over and it was windy and I

didn't think anything and so the chair was just sitting there and come back and I'm like, where's the chair? No, no, he said, where's my beer? Because the beer was in the chair. You know what else I think is in that chair? The TV remote. And was there a Roku remote in the side pouch? I only know that there was a beer in the cup holder. We can get you a new Roku remote. Those things are. Are they universal?

Yeah. It's just, it's not programmed to that TV. So Charlie has also lost the net, apparently. Yes. I think we need to like a dive off. I like that. Y'all need to go in there. Don't scare the fish, though.

So we'll do it after the kids. I did get a little portable sonar, and you can see the chair. You can see the chair at the bottom of it. It's only 12 feet, 10 to 12 feet right there where the chair is sitting. So after the kids go swimming one day, when the fish are all scared off, then we have a dive off of who can. They say objects, though, like you want to have stuff in the water. It creates, like, protection and stuff and shade. So.

And there's a Coors light can. Bush light. Bush light. Real classy. Travis, how'd your date go? Oh, Travis,

your third date. Tell us more. Tell us more. Man, now I'm like, do I need to hold it for bless your heart? Because that's where it got brought up.

But you may have a fourth before then. Maybe. Well, you got to look at my schedule. You went, Popeye. We went to, yeah,

it was good. though I can't believe you went to Charlotte. I always joke. I don't go south of Huntersville. We were a little worried that you're going to go to this. Yeah. Not so great course. You know the kind of the dumpy place off exit 28 behind the U-Haul?

Yeah. No, I don't. You don't know about that, Puppet? No. It's actually not, it's not horrible, but it's not a third date material. We were worried that since it was close to your house, like that's where you we're going to go we're just thinking oh no Travis don't take her to exit 28 pup put no because well she lives down in that area so I have to venture south of huntersville

went well game huh then we went to uh sycamore brewing afterwards a couple more drinks so how does she feel about your drinking I didn't have more than her I stayed I think that was the that was the now there was times where I'd like I'm sitting there without a drink for a little bit That's unusual. Usually it's just keep them coming. Once you get the wheels turning, it's hard to hit the brakes. I can stop if I want to. I know, but it's just you choose not to because you don't have to. Yeah. Listen, if the service is good and they keep coming by, who am I to tell them no? I like your attitude. But their date went well, though. I hadn't told my family. I just keep my life rather close, but. So your family doesn't listen to podcast? Well, so I brought it up. So you're not willing to give us her at right now?

I don't follow her yet. Oh, that was going to be my next thing. I was going to be my next thing. I was going to see your latest followers. Because that's how I knew. Because Charlie was already asking. But my aunt listens to bless your heart and then his text and then my mom's text. And they're like, wait, you share it with Dale and Amy, but not us. I'm like, yep. You know what, though?

I bet I could look at your followers. I don't think she follows me. This is like a celebrity relationship. You know, they can't. Yeah. They don't want to. Oh, you're looking to see if she does? Yeah, I don't think so.

Okay. All right. Well, we have, we're going to Dover, going to the roundy round. Woo-hoo. You're a fan of this track now. I like this track, yeah. Studied the best there, Jimmy Johnson, for quite a few years and learned something, and something just clicked for me.

I spotted Jimmy this weekend. I was out shooting on practice day. And I don't know what turns each of these are up above turn two, turn three. And Jimmy rolled up with a, with a 20, 24 ounce bud light in his hand or bush light whatever there's sell there this weekend yeah on saturday oh cool i know that uh sonoma there's two different courses so the turns can we just have a short course and long course and like the short one the number still go in order turn three turn three a four turn seven like yeah i don't know why they have three and three i think it's because when

they're close together it's yeah i don't i'm making something up i'm not really sure You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's like 3.3A. It's just what we know now. No, that's what we know. I don't like it. We are on, what's P&Q Saturday, 130 on True.

Race Sunday on TNT at 2 p.m. TNT. TNT. What else do you got? Anything? Got a review? We got a review here from Brendan Basinger. Love listening to this pod each week post-race

Den, you give great insight to the sport. You can't hear anywhere else. The crew around him does a great job keeping the podcast energetic. Best Driver-made podcast in racing. We appreciate that. Brennan, had a few, quite a few avid listeners say hello to me this past weekend. Appreciate you guys doing that. Yeah, you got anything else?

I don't have anything. How about it? No. I'm trying to put my name at the top of that fishing list. you got out there. I don't fish. I know nothing about fishing. Neither do we.

But I feel like five pounds is not that hard to beat. A five pound bass? Off the dock? I don't know. It's really fucking hard. Five pounds? That's a lot?

Yes. That is a... On this lake, I think the record on this lake is a nine pound. What? Yes. All right.

Well, I like to challenge. I will be over here at some point later this week to attempt to... And when I caught him, him. It was the first, it wasn't the first pass I caught him. But I must have hit him right in the head with my bait when I cast it. The immediately when I hit the water, it hit him. And so I think I just happened to cast it on top of his head. He was just sitting there on the rocks. It was quite

amazing. It was the funnest, real time I had. I've let some, I've let some pretty decent ones get off the line too. My line wasn't strong enough on the Barbie pole. Well, you know me. I feel like you, you get good at something and then I like to come in and perform better at you at that said thing. And then you- There's no such thing anymore. What's one thing that you've got? Happens all the time. It happens all the time. But when you started chess, I beat him in chess like 20 straight games. What about now? Eventually, you, you come back around and you get better. But there's like a rummy cube, two-week. I'd love Rummy Cube. we did that on the way he loves rummy cube you can get smoke too yeah i mean i've had a few

stretches of bad games you got but there was a moment in phoenix where like i just won four straight you know those days are done so i hope that happens in fishing for like one or two days it's just you are robin i am batman don't forget that all right guys We're going to see you next week.