Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Thank You Fontana

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Denny Hamlin & Jared talk about dealing with the cold weather in California and why they didn't do well in bowling or at an escape room. There was no weeping at Fontana but visibility was an issue for drivers. Kyle Busch is victorious and fans are trying to take shots at JGR. Denny discusses what it's like when you see your teammates winning and you aren't racing well. What now for Fontana? The guys talk about the future of NASCAR in Southern California. #DearDenny makes it's official debut with Denny answering fan questions. Lastly, a preview of Las Vegas. 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. You want to start? You want to start? By the way, ooh, spicy. Salty. I'm not making believe that, like, oh, we're best friends now. You're really good with these tangents. Who is Jared Allen? Not the football player, obviously.

In the Twitter video, you flip them off, right? I was just pointing to the cars below me. Poor guys over there having to write down every single time that I threw out the bomb. My mom is not going to be happy hearing all these beats. Let's just buy cars for the whole family. Let's just have a fleet. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Action's Detrimental, Episode 4.

I'm Denny Hamlin, Drive the number 11, FedEx Camry, Sport Clips Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. And at my co-host, Jared Allen, not the Jared Allen. The second Jared Allen. The second Jared Allen. Mr. Social, Purple Vest guy. You see him around me all the time. He's taking pictures, doing all that cool shit on my Instagram and Twitter.

So making all those. I mean, how many great photo ops did you get with these mountains with snow on it and all that this weekend in California? A couple. This is Fontana is, I said it today. I think Fontana is the most picturesque track. Well, was the most picturesque track on the circuit. Because if you're standing, if you're in turn four, you know, you get you guys coming through three and four. And the mountains in the background.

And like you said, today they're covered in snow. It was awesome. Yeah, and the clouds opened up. It was good. I mean, supposedly, before the weekend started, they said that the mountains right on the other side of the track were supposed to get, like, 100 inches. So that's like 8.1 feet, something like that.

Yeah, 100 by 12. That's... Eight feet? Your crew guys, Ryan Bowers, I think they tried to go snowboarding, and they couldn't get up the mountain because all the roads were close. Yeah, I mean, that... I don't even know.

If you get eight feet in two days, That's unskiable snowboard weather anyway. Like if you get that much, that means you can't see two foot in front of you. I mean, forget the fact that you're going to take one step and go under. Yeah. But like, that's white out, blackout, can't see anything. So, yeah, it was cold, California. Yeah, we sat in the bus, well, I sat in the bus for greater part of two days.

I came out there early because we were unveiling Tala, Tyler Reddick's car and Monster. And so, yeah, I was out there. Not a good week to go early. It was freezing. It was so cold in rain all week. We didn't get any practice. You said before we even landed in Fontana, guys,

we got to figure out something to do because I can't sit in the bus for the next two days. So I go up to my pilots and I'm saying, okay, tell me where the nearest 70-degree weather is. Like, just in case this thing starts, you know, the downpour happens and there's no end in sight. Tell me what direction I need to turn this plane to go to 70 degree weather. And so the bad part is it was like an hour away. Like there was nowhere even remotely close.

The next, the best option actually was Mexico. They say we can go to Mexico down here or actually we can go back home. Because back home it was 70 degrees. Yeah, I mean, listen, I've done some crazy shit in my day. We'll get into this in later episodes and do some storytelling, but I'm not shy about leaving my current location during the race weekend and going somewhere better and then coming back and racing. I did it mostly when I was in my younger years and I was crazy.

But yeah, we'll talk about other episodes. That might be a good dear Denny question. Yeah. So if we can get into for this one, though, what did we do for Friday and Saturday? I want you to bring this in because I'm pretty proud of myself. I know where you're trying to go with this. So Jared is trying to gloat basically about beating me in bowling. And, you know, first of all, it doesn't count.

because it's not regulation. The lanes were not regulation. The balls had four pound chunks out of them and the lanes had no oil. So any decent bowler spins the ball, right? To hit the head pin at the correct angle to knock down all the pins. And by the way, here's how Bush League this place was.

The pins were held on by string on top. There was no machine. Like, I don't know if there's just some puppet master up there. Like, okay, well, they got three-pits. We never had a six-pin the whole time, by the way. Right, right. So it was bad. Our scores were terrible.

You know, for the record, during Valentine's Day, I took the kids to Frankie's Fun Park in Charlotte, bowled a 213, my last bowling. So I come in there with my chest up. I'm like, y'all want to bowl? All right, bring that shit. And then I bowl, like, 65-17. I can't spin it. And it's just, it's not regulation.

It doesn't count. And then the next night we're trying to find like a real legit league. And then they said, no, it's all full. We're actually shutting down the night for the night because we have too, too much going on. So we didn't do that. We did an escape room, myself, you, Austin, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson, Noah. Nico. Nico.

Yeah, same thing. And we didn't get out, right? I mean, we would not have got out without help, first of all, but we were five minutes late on the clock. You got one hour to get out of there. We spent too long on the intro part of the weekend, right? Like, we did escape. We've done escape rooms before, like this group.

So this was definitely one of the nicer escape rooms. It was in Rancho, Cucabunga. The coolest town name in, in the United States. Yeah, and it's amazing, like, how much stuff has grown up around that racetrack. To me, it's like Kansas, like, all these new restaurants and everything. The old Habachi place I've been going to for the last 15 years, we're sitting there. There's nobody in sight.

This place is surely not going to be a business by the time we got back, but they were like, we're not coming back anyway, Denny. So it's officially retired. So I'm like, good, we're never coming back here. They've got great restaurants, good shopping around the racetrack, which is probably why it's worth half a billy. Anyway, it was a fun weekend. I was so happy that we got the race in today.

By the way, it's tonight, people. It's 9.30. We are in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is not the studio. I feel like people watching on YouTube probably already figured that out. But if you're not watching on YouTube and you're listening to Monday. Right.

So, oh, so we're not live, right? No. We're not live. No. Okay, good. But people are going to hear this Sunday night. to give me time for edits. They're going to hear this probably by the time before we wake up tomorrow.

Yeah, so for those who are listening, we have a nice fire behind us. We have a fern. It's two guys between one fern. So, yeah, we got a little relaxed set here. I'm on location in Scottsdale, plan on being here for the next two weeks. It's, I came out here thinking, well, the weather is going to be 80 degrees like it normally should be. and so I just want to take some time and play golf and relax and the season's starting to get into swing. So like just chill out.

But yeah, it's freezing here too. So I don't know what's going on. The weather's been terrible. North Carolina is actually pretty nice, I hear. But we did get the race in today. So happy about that. I did not want to be in rainy, cold, Ontario any longer. I've been there for four days to begin with.

but really surprised that the track had no weepers. And those people that do not know what weepers are, that is the track is basically crying. So it fills up with water, and the track has cracks in it, right? So all the water goes down in those cracks, and it gets underneath the asphalt, and it goes to the place of least resistance when it's done raining, which is back up.

So we've seen a lot of racetracks where there's tons of pressure that builds under the racetracks when it gets a lot of rain. and I know that they were taking saws to the surface, you know, for the last two days, trying to get all the water out of it. But the crew did an amazing job. The track crew did an amazing job getting that track ready. Like there was no slipping and sliding whatsoever.

Like they had that track ready, prepped, and we were on time. So that was cool. What was your overall reaction of the race? For Fontana race, I feel like it was very calm for the most part. Other than, I mean, ironically, I say it was calm, but it did have the largest wreck in track history. Oh, really? Yeah. The restart wreck?

The restart wreck. Yeah. Yeah, there were some games going on in the front row. I probably jumped a little early on Joey because he, I need to look at the data, but I think he's one of those guys that, like, will hit the throttle, like, to make a noise, but it won't go anywhere, and he'll get you to go. and then as soon as you start slowing down, he'll then jump. So he was in control of the restart,

so let's just blame him for this one. He did get blamed on TV. Oh, he did. But not that it was his fault, right? Yeah, I mean, the whole line came up behind him and then before you know they're out of space. Yeah, this year, the restart zone has been expanded to double the size to give the leader more of an advantage

because I don't know that really any of the drivers were complaining, about it, but that's what NASCAR said is that we were complaining about it, but I really don't know that we were complaining about it, but it's longer now. And so he just said, hey, I went later in the zone, and people behind me were anticipating I was going, and I just wasn't going because I was waiting on them to not anticipate. So he has the right to do that, and so it was a wreck. It took out the 45. That stunk. Reddix had a bad go of it the last two weeks between Xfinity. I saw he got into, he got squeezed in the wall there here just a few hours ago and then the cup race he got, he went through the grass, tore up his car. I noticed after the race there was a ton of tore up splitters. And I think both the 2311 cars had splitter problems.

But I saw a lot of cars. My car had splitter torn up. I think the further you were back in the pack, the more your front end was absolutely sandblasted. And it sandblasted the front noses so much that the splitter started to separate, the leading edge of it started to separate. And I saw a picture of Bubba's car where the bottom splitter had fallen down to the ground. So, I mean, that's obviously such a detriment of performance.

He was running well, and then all of a sudden he just disappeared. Yeah, and I didn't know what went on. But, yeah, the track was a mess. to get going, to say the least. It was, you know, they did the best they could. But the problem is this racetrack hasn't been paved in like 30 years and will never be paved again. But so when they're drying the track,

they've got all these jet dryers and all this stuff that is blowing hot air, like a hair dryer, really hard. Well, this track has a lot of rocks in it. The asphalt itself has got a big rock mixture in it. New asphalt that gets paved in today's tracks have a lot of polymers and plastics and all that stuff in it. It doesn't wear tires as nearly as bad, which is why you can buy like 50,000-mile tires nowadays.

Not that the tires are that much better, which they are, but the roads are a lot better than what they used to be. So I saw that the track just had a bunch of dust and like I couldn't see after five laps. And I'm running 10th and I couldn't see anything because of all the dust that you saw earlier in the road. race. So that was a mess, but at least we had no weepers. We didn't have practice again. We're yet to have a practice session in 2023. That was a factor, I guess. I mean, maybe Kyle

Larson's team would have found, or, you know, electrical issue would have came to them sooner. We saw in qualifying at Daytona 500 that some guys had trouble qualifying, you know, because they hadn't hit the racetrack yet. So it is paying its price to those. They're not totally prepared, but then again, I don't know that many sports have no practice, no testing or anything like that before they go try to put it on a show. This practice, though, is not to the fault of NASCAR, right? No, uh-uh. You lose Friday, you lose Saturday.

I mean, could you really practice this morning? I mean, I don't know. I mean, you really can't fix it, to be honest with you. Not when it's raining. I mean, I couldn't believe we got on the racetrack. I mean, we have a TV window. make that. It's on the big fox. So that's an important window. So we did what we came here to do. Put on a show 400 miles. It felt like a really long time, by the way. It did. It did. I remember thinking

in stage one, I was outside the track taking photos of those mountains that you talked about. And a couple cautions thinking, like, are we still in stage one? It's like, yeah, we're still in stage one. Yeah. It took a while for sure. And then there were some quick rest. and whatnot. But Kyle Bush won and boy I tell you the old fans are having a heyday with the JGR Twitter right now. See we told you you know I mean I just I have to just people have to understand that Joe Gibbs wanted to sign Kyle Bush they really tried and they gave him a very, very good offer, but he did not want to take it and ended up taking probably a lot less because he had ran out options at RCR. But he's doing all the

right things right now. That's for sure. I mean, listen, Rick Hendrick did not let go of Kyle Bush because he didn't think he was talented, right? There was some baggage and he did some things that rubbed Mr. H wrong, and they moved on. And I think that, you know, Kyle Busch fans should be grateful of Joe Gibbs racing. You know, they got Kyle 50-some of his wins, right? And they provided them great equipment. But that relationship just had run its course, unfortunately. You know, when they always say that, like, winning makes everything easy, right?

It covers up things. and when you do win, I think that teams are willing to put up with a whole lot of other stuff. But, you know, when it got to the point where it wasn't winning as much, there was not a person in the garage that thought that it was, you know,

well, Kyle Busch is just not the driver he once was. We all know he is, especially a motivated Kyle Busch, which that's, there's two very different things. Like just the ticked off Kyle Busch, and the one that's kind of angry with people and he's frustrated and then the one that's motivated is two totally different guys and you really kind of can see that on the racetrack as well and I think he's ultra-motivated right now.

I think this is a reset for him and he's resetting with a team that's very good as we're seeing, right? That eight team, Randall and that team, they're fast. They were the fastest car last year and they definitely had the fastest car this year. that's for sure. I mean, I thought that the one for the first part of the race probably showed the most strength, especially on the short run, but the H has kind of ran them down. And he runs that track so well. It's amazing. But yeah, I mean, I see y'all are dragging JGR and I wish, you know, even if I'm unbiased here, like,

you know, this is just, this was a tough situation where, you know, I think that it was a situation where, you know, they wanted them back, they lost a ton, you know, that company would cease to exist if they had to pay Kyle what he was demanding, especially after losing, you know, Mars. Like, it just would be impossible. You know, it would, it would be a detriment to all the JGR teams. If, if, if he had to say, all right, well, you have to pay me this, which is what he said, or else I'm leaving, they had to make a business decision to stay in business, right? And so it's unfortunate. Kyle was a great teammate.

I mentioned it last week on the pod that, you know, he is such a fair racer on the racetrack. You know, he just, he's fast and he's extremely skilled as we know and we see. I mean, he's starting to put himself in my mind, in the top, in my mind, in the top five consideration for greatest of all time. I mean, I just feel like 61 wins, I think he has now, in today's age where there's more than five cars in the lead lap than what it used to be. It's harder to win now than it was back in the day.

And for him to have 60 wins, I'm telling you, that's like 160 wins from 1960 wins from 1960 to 1990. It really is. So he's accomplishing a lot. He's done it now. Two races into this relationship with RCR. You know, we always talk about too, and this has been said for many times about, is this a new Kyle Busch? People say that because it's not really an endearing thing like, is this a new Kyle because, you know, at times, you know, he is difficult to work with when things aren't going well. I think when things are going well, like they have the last three weeks, you're going to get the best Kyle Busch that you've ever seen. He's out doing things with his team guys it looks like. You know, they're very, you know, they're showing that off. That's great. I mean, I know that RCR group in

general, ever since I've been in the sport, that's been a very tight-knit group because they're, they are, they're in a different place than Charlotte, right? I mean, they're an hour and a half north, so they don't really pull from the same mechanics that what the other teams do in the Charlotte area. So everyone that kind of works at RCR is probably based somewhat up there in Welcome. So they do a lot together anyway.

And hopefully that's, you know, turning a new leaf with Kyle and he's seeing that like, you know, when you really embrace this family atmosphere. More camaraderie with this team Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, I'm not saying he didn't have it before. But again, it's when you're winning, it's easy to do those things, right? When you're struggling, it's easy to just, you know, mother-h-hitting everyone, right? So I just think that, you know, hopefully this is a, him turning the page for sure. I think that RCR got a great talent, like I said, maybe top five of all time. And just a great move by them.

Chevroletes dominated I don't think that that's you know too much of a surprise so with that said are you surprised that Kyle is off to this start with this new team? Surprise no no I mean I think if you talk to people within the sport RCR has

one of the best probably I'm going to say probably the best engine in the series over Hendrick I mean it's it's very many many times they go on a dino

RCR is P1. Like their engine department is right. They're on time. So you mix a really good car with a good team and a great engine and a great driver. Guess what? You're going to win. And that's what they're doing right now. So, you know, props to them.

You know, he dominated the last part of the race. I mean, he was probably. 10, 15 car links in front of me when he pitted on the last stop. I was running fourth. We chose to go long on that strategy. I don't know if that was right or wrong. We lost by 13 seconds. Is that what your play call was over the radio?

Yeah, those are code words. So, you know, like bass or... Bass. He was mentioning, like, Mexican food. Like, those are all code words for either we're going to pit or we're going to stay. I would say, you know, I don't know that really anyone really cares what we're doing, but all the teams kind of have code words like that. But yeah, it's cool. This is, this isn't, I saw Chase Elliott mentioned after the race in an interview that like to Fox.

He's like, are you surprised? Like, why are you guys surprised that he's got instant success? Like, he's a great driver. We all knew he was a great driver, right? I think it's the overall pre-nex-gen car, right? RCR was getting one, maybe two wins a year as a team. Last year, Reddick won a handful. So I think just the question mark was, you know,

how is RCR going to perform as a whole with Kyle in the car now? I think that question's, I think that question has been answered. It's fair, but I think that everybody thought that he was going to, he's going to bring something to the table and he's going to make them better, right? For sure. He's going to make him better, 100%. Yeah, but how much better. A team that was already good, by the way, he's going to make them better.

So I think, again, you pair a great driver with those things I just talked about, and you're going to have a potent combination. So, no, it's good for them. It's, you know, in the long haul, you know, I think likely JGR has someone that they're going to be happy with for the next 10 to 15 years as well in Ty Gibb. So we saw Hendrick Motorsports go through a reset. I think people were kind of down on them probably four to five years ago, ish. The veterans left.

The Dale Jr.'s retired. The Jeff Gordon's retired. The Jimmy Johnson's retired. And they brought in a young group. And that group didn't have instant success. I think they went through about a year of like struggles. For Hendrick Motorsports, struggles, right? but in the long term it paid off for them

and those drivers became you know good great competitors are a sport and guys that win races so I don't think anyone would argue that they've got one of the best lineups but that's the same lineup that people were questioning just a few years ago

so it was it was cool I mean I wonder I wonder like where's AD at is he going to put a spotlight on AD. You would think, right? I mean, I'm just, let me just think out loud here. The last four wins at RCR with a two-car team has been your teammate. And that teammate has changed, right? So,

um, I, you've got to think that this has got to be a measuring stick for AD to, to like, you know, here's, here's what the team's capable of. Here's is what I need to get out of myself. And surely he's going to learn some things. Yeah. Top 10 finish. for Austin, by the way. Yeah. He finished ninth. Listen, the Cape can grind himself to top tens. He does really, really good at that.

I mean, the only person better at that is probably Kevin Harvick. That I've seen that even on their bad days, they find a way to finish in the top 10. I think I saw a crazy stat with Harvick that was like, you know, just his consistency of always running well. He didn't always have a fast car, but he found a way to make it really good or finish the best he could with it. But, yeah, you've got to think AD's kind of, you know, he's putting on a smile.

You know, I see him in the interview. I'm happy for him. I'm happy for him. Exactly. I was going to push him to the win. I was going to push him to the win. Yeah, yeah. That shit won't last long.

I mean, there's not one competitor on the racetrack that is happy that their teammate outruns them. There's just, I mean, you can't beat because. Oh my gosh. And I see, I must read Twitter too much. People think that like, oh, you guys gave Kyle's the equipment last year. Like, what are you talking about? The car that he raced in Dover was probably the car that we raced three weeks beforehand. The car I won this track with, the one he probably finished 20th with, you know, the week before.

Like, we all, there is no, you know, here's Kyle's car and here's Denny's cars. Like, they go in a pool and we just scound. matter them all around and we somehow just here's your car and here's that person's car. They're all the same. The only different with cars nowadays is what does the driver tell the crew chief information-wise to make them put a better setup under it that fits their style. And I've driven a lot of Kyle's cars during test at JGR and I can't believe how tight he runs a race car.

Now I run mine on the tighter side as well. There's that are novices here. Tight means the front end won't turn. So you go into a corner. If you're driving too fast, your front end will hit the wall first. If the car is too loose, the back end hits the wall first. So his car is planted in the back. Like he has a lot, his cars are very, very tight,

and he finds a way to make tons of speed with him. So another best person that did that was Jeff Gordon. He ran a really tight race car, and he won a boatload of races. So they're making it work. When your teammate is performing really well, right? And what does that, in what way does it motivate you like to run better? Are you wanting them to perform less so that they come down to your level? No.

Or like how, I don't know. You just want to beat them. You want to beat them. They're in the same equipment you're in. So like, I can tell you this, the JGR's four car team. if I wasn't the top JGR car at least, now this is my expectations, right? You know, because I believe in myself, right?

If I'm not the highest finishing JGR car, at least 10 of those 36 races, then I need to look in the mirror and say, like, you got, you got to get better. Right. Are you studying more? Like if my teammate wins nine races and I win one, that's a me problem.

problem, you know. And it's happened. I mean, it's happened. I've had years where I've been probably four wins away from the highest teammate. But it did force me to look at myself and say, well, how can I get better? What are they doing in the same exact equipment that is, that is better. And it's more similar, the equipment is more similar than it's ever been. So even back in the day, you had crew chiefs that would set up their, not only set up their cars different, they would build the body's different on their cars because that's just what they wanted to do. You know, my crew chiefs says, well, I want my C-post cut this way or that way. And the other one says, well, I like my car built this way.

You know, and that's not around nowadays. Everyone's car is the same. Sir, you just end this and more, studying more, to overcome that? Yeah, but I think it's, I'm more looking at my teammates' data to see, like, Because I know that we're, we have the same engine, we have the same body. And there's three things that are different, right? The big components, the engine, the body, the driver. And so those are the things that, you know, the driver's the only thing that's different

between me and my teammates. So I need, that's where I can get the most useful information is from them. Got it. What happens with Auto Club now, right? The track's been, or part of the track's been sold. There's no plans to come back here. will it be reconfigured to a short track potentially? I think it's done.

It's just a guess. I have no facts for that thought, but I feel like we're done there. By the way, I want to give a huge shout out to the fans. Sold out. Final race, they sold out. And for the last few races there, the fans have come out in huge numbers.

can tell you this. I love racing, but there is no way I would sit my ass in those grandstands in 40-degree weather for four hours and watch. But they did. And it just, it's a great thing to see Southern California come out and support that racetrack like they have, especially the last few years. So shout out to all the fans in California. But it says that they, you know, sold 80% of the land or something like that or, you know, for $544 million. Congratulations, NASCAR. I mean, guys, we can't fault them for making a really good business deal. I guess there's a balance there of like this is a market that you said is important to you.

So why are you leaving it? Hopefully that money gets just used to reinvesting into other racetracks. I mean, that's what we hope. Well, surely the goal is not to leave the L.A. market altogether, right? You've got to find a solution to that somewhere. We can't run that Coliseum in a points race. So then what do you do? I don't know.

Irwindale got sold too, I think, which is near L.A., even closer to L.A. It's just the land is just so valuable. I just don't know what you do. You know, we go to Sonoma. That doesn't count. That's not Southern California. Are you running like a track in San Diego? Don't say Long Beach.

We don't need another stupid-ass road course. No, we've got enough of those. So we're done with that. You got to find a solution elsewhere. You would think. You would think that they're going to find some sort of solution. I just hope it's not running the Coliseum as a points race because it's just, I just don't think that that's a feasible option.

But I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully we do come back. I think it is an important market for sure. You know, when the deal got, when this track originally got purchased from Roger Penske, I think it was like for $600 million, but they got Nazareth, they got Homestead, they got Michigan and California. You said Rockingham was in there. Oh yeah, and Rockingham.

Yeah. So NASCAR basically got their money back and got three tracks for free. But they got all the tracks, right? They got all these tracks and they sold 70% of 80% of the land of this one track. Yeah. So I will say this on the, let's be optimistic for a second. They did say that when people said, oh, there's only 89 acres. You can't.

There's no way you can do a track. and parking. I think Adam Stern or somebody or Bob Packers put out the picture of they plan on if they build the track, leasing the parking lot from the people that they sold the

land to. So they can do it. I think they have drawings for it, certainly. It's just a matter of pulling the trigger. Pull the trigger. So you know, yeah,

certainly you know, sad to see that racetrack go. It was just getting to its prime. It had fun races. The next-gen car raced perfectly around that racetrack because it had so much drag down the straightaways that you could draft pretty big and then you could spread out all over the corners

in different lines. You know, but I think that, you know, we start a new chapter and you never know where this leads, right? I mean, this is now a date that is wide open. So maybe we end up going to somewhere that we always hoped we would go, right? And maybe that we invest in another racetrack and put money into it that needs fixing up. So, you know, don't get too, you know, been out of shape about this.

I'm sure NASCAR's got a plan for sure. Yeah. I got a feeling it's Coliseum Points Race. I got a feeling your clash next year is elsewhere, and the L.A. Coliseum is part of this. West Coast swing, at least in the meantime. That's just a... Well, just a thought.

Yeah, that really drags me down, but... Well, this will drag you up. We're starting a new segment. Dear Danning, we've got some questions that we want to ask. Dear Danning. We need answers and we need them fast. We tried to ask Junior,

but his answers were lame. And with DBC, it was more of the same. Now, we're caught on you, because you're our only hope. This ain't the raged track, so maybe you want to choke. Danes. Fan saying questions on Twitter and Instagram to ask you. So we'll get into it.

Yeah, so the Dear Denny started from basically a guy making a song dragging me when I was on Doorbumpur clear and basically just insulted me for two straight minutes in a song. And I thought it was fantastic. And so what do you got? for me. First one, have you ever been offered to drive for another team? If so, who and what was the offer and when? Oh, what was the offer? The answer is yes. So since I, I don't know how many people know this, but I signed with JGR in 2004. This was about the time that me and Dale Jr. started a friendship from racing online together. And I actually went to the Daytona 500 in 2004 to be a

guest to his. And he had me staying with Martin Truex, oddly enough, in a little townhouse and with Josh Snyder, a few of his other buddies. And, you know, and I signed my development deal with JGR that weekend. And so 2004, nothing really happened other than a ran a couple truck races. And then I ran a Darlington and Xfinity race after begging JGR to like put me in something. And so they did. That got me my ride in 2005. 2005, I run probably four to five months into that season. Dale Jr. brings me over to his house and he says, you know, you really need to get out of that 20 car. I'm like, why is that? He's like, well, just no one's really run good in that because at the time Mike Bliss had run it

and this was before the 20 car in Xfinity really was winning a lot of races. You know, that didn't happen until years down the road. And so like, you know, I think there's better opportunities out there. It's like, okay, he's like, you know, I think you should come drive for us at DEI

in the 15 Napa car. Hmm. Yeah. And so that was Michael-W. This is 2004. This is 2004. That's correct. And so I think that they were looking to make a move there.

And so I remember telling Dale that, you know, I'm not ready for Cup. I know, you know, I appreciate the flattery. Again, in today's day and age, I couldn't got in that car fast enough. Like, everyone's taking every opportunity they can. But back then, there was well-funded rides, and there was teams that had sponsors, and they were looking for the best drivers possible, right? And so I told him, I said, I'm not ready. to make it in the Cups series.

I barely can run top five in Xfinity right now. Like I just came out of a late model, you know, six months ago. So I just, I'm in over my head to begin with. I need to get my feet under me. Let me run a year of Xfinity. See how I do. Let me run one more year. And then I'll be ready for a cup.

Give me two years in Xfinity and give me the same offer again. It's like, well, yeah, I don't know if we can wait that long. And so I go on and I progress another two months and I start running a little bit better. We were in Richmond, Virginia, gosh, I had a bar somewhere. And Elliot Sadler cornered me. And he says, hey, what's your deal with JGR? I says, well, I'm under contract running this 6thinity deal. And, you know, right now that's all got.

and nothing's really, you know, I want to run Accunity for two years and then run CUP. He's like, well, we're looking for somebody for the 88 car to take over for Dale Jarrett. I'm like, well, Elliot, I just had this conversation with Dale Jr. I'm not ready yet. Like, I just don't feel ready yet. And he says, all right, well, you know, I'm telling you, he told me a number offer. he says, they'll pay you this, and at the time, it was a lot of money. That seems hard to pass up for someone.

I know. I know. What were you 20? But at the time, I couldn't do, you know, listen, I was under contract with JGR anyway. But I just, I guess I was confident enough that, like, I was going to get my shot at JGR in due time. Well, fast forward about a month later, I read online, basically that Leffler got fired and that me and JJ Yaley are going to share the 11. Cup car from September to November, so for the last 14 races. Well, I just told these two other guys and teams that, like, I was not ready for Cup

and coming to find out, I'm about to make my very first start three weeks from now. And so I just was, like, super nervous about it. I didn't think that I was ready, but there was something about the high horsepower of those cars and the cup cars that just, it suited me. I was better in Cup than I was in Xfinity. Now, given, JGR at the time, they had hit on like a cool bound setup. A cool bound means basically they got their nose lower to the ground than any other of the race teams. And Tony Stewart was kicking everyone's ass like 2004, 2005.

And so I got in those cars and I was fast in them because they had one of the fastest cars. And I just, I excelled, right? I got a poll, finishing the top 10, and it got me my ride in 2000. You know, Joe told me, yeah, you're going to run full-time 2006 after the audition. So the rest was history. But that was the only, to answer your question, very long-witted, storytelling here, but that was the only time I entertained other offers, which I really didn't entertain them, I guess. I just, I was flattered by him, but, you know, looking back on it, was just like, wow, well, those two companies,

are no longer in business and my I've won 48 races at JGR so I think it's been the right decision with the exact same sponsor second question this one comes from Matt Boussa and actually Matt Busa the

Coca-Cola E-racing that's correct that's correct this one kind of segues into or the last question kind of segues into this one is how much have drivers tried to push NASCAR behind the scenes to give back the high horsepower

every single one of them, but they need to give up the ghosts. Every driver stop asking NASCAR for more. They're not going to give it to you. This is not the direction NASCAR wants to go. From the top down, they don't want more horsepower because it costs more money. Because this is the cost cutting that goes into, and it's the balance that we really need to think about,

whether this is the right thing or not. but we will not go back to higher horsepower. If anything, they will go the other way and make the engines even less powerful because they want to run them even more races, maybe three races, because that cuts the engine bill down for the teams that pay for engines,

and by NASCAR's eyes, well, that cuts your cost. So that's good. So it will never happen. I think we're going to continue to just suppress the horsepower down and down and down. I'm not saying that's the right thing by any means because I'm on the same side as the drivers that we need horsepower back to make these cars a little more uncontrollable. We've got a water tire and less horsepower than we've ever had. But unfortunately, everyone online, on Twitter, on Instagram, give it up.

We will never see big horsepower back again unless there's some sort of hybrid technology that gives us. extra horsepower, but it won't be from the combustion engine. They're going to want to keep the cost down and keep pushing that down. So that's where we're going with it. I have heard rumors, however, that NASCAR is exploring grooved tires. Grooved tires. So that is a way, it's actually a, it's actually pretty smart. I mean, I know that Formula One went down this route at one point,

but it is a way to make us be a little bit more out of control. And if you want to, I remember talking to Christopher Bell at our JGR meeting. He says, you know, he's asking Andy a TRD, hey, is there any way after we did this, you know, short track package where taking down forces right? Is there any way we can add power? And I'm like, Christopher, stop asking. Andy, tell him the truth. He'll never get it.

He's like, not going to get it. So I said the only way to make it to where it feels like more horsepower is to take grip away. So you either have to take a bunch of downforce off or you have to take tire off the racetrack. And I think the wheels are starting to turn in motion to test groove tires to take some of that contact patch off the road. So, I mean, trust me, if we were on bicycle tires, it would feel like these 650 horsepower engines were like 2000 because we couldn't touch the gas, we couldn't get the power down. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out

because it might be an alternative to get us back out of control. Looking ahead to Las Vegas, a track that you used to hate? I did. I used to hate that racetrack because I was so bad at it. But Chris Gabehart and my team have found something that has

tickled my fancy at that racetrack, and we've been super strong there. However, I have PTSD looking back at that race from one year ago because I had a very, very fast cart, and I miss shift because I forgot that it's not an H pattern anymore. So I remember coming off pit road and going from second to first, because I thought I had to go up to go to third. And it was over. So, and it was over. So, So, yeah, Vegas has been a good one for us. You know, I think that this is going to be a racetrack where you're probably going to see the same cast of characters from California, run well at Vegas.

I mean, looking at this weekend, like, the trackhouse cars were so fast. I mean, Daniel put together one of his best races, for sure, even though he had a, I think he had a speeding penalty or some sort of penalty, like he was fast enough that he got back through the pack. I think he pitted one time, had fresher tires, and kind of got his track position back that way,

but he still, his car was super fast. We saw how fast the one was, went in the stages. And I just think that, you know, you're going to see the same guys up front. Oh, which reminds me, need to give a shout out to Corey La Jory. Mr. Penny ran really, really well.

I think he finished like 10th or 14th in the first two stages and then finished in the teens, mid-teens, that's really, really good for them and that team. I mean, I can't state that enough. He's, you know, Daytona, I mean, he's been getting the most out of that car for sure. And a lot of times, you know, we hear him. I think Corey at times has a little bit of the poor me, you know, a story that he'll tell you, but it is warranted a lot of times.

Like I know how that team kind of operates. They're trying to make it. They're grinders. And a lot of times he's got the handcuffs on him. And they're like, hey, we just need, you can't wreck this weekend. So, you know, don't finish last, but just don't wreck. That's all we care about, right? Is they're trying to build that program up.

And sometimes you just, you can't afford to wreck cars to build it up. And so many races, like when we get those super speedways, they let them go. And he's proven at Atlanta that, you know, he was a contender to win there last year before Elliott pulled the block on him. And then I remember at Daytona, I mean, I got a bunch of pushes from him. He drove, he was carrying the inside line for a while. So Corey's doing a great job. And, yeah, just want to give him a thumbs up for this weekend.

Great run. Anything you're looking forward to about Vegas? on or off the racetrack because you got some friends coming in this weekend. I do. Yep. Got Ronnie Hats. My buddy, if you followed my Instagram from Nashville,

Ronnie and Charlie are going to come out this weekend. We have fun. You know, go out there. We're going to stay at Resorts World. That was a change for us last year. It was the first time I stayed there. I liked it.

It was very cool. It's big. It's got great restaurants there. Yeah, so, you know, I don't know. We'll probably just go to some shows, maybe Celine Dion and be in bed by 30 most nights. Got it, got it. Well, that doesn't sound like it'll be a very fun social media experience. I mean, last year.

By the way, every time a great show is in town, they're like, oh, he's performing on Saturday night in Vegas. It's like, why are you telling me? He's not going to go on until 3.40 in the morning. Yeah, yeah. Waiting for Travis Scott to come on. last year Drake a few years before that I mean the worst

Those are some late nights man The worst was 50 cent At oh that was the worst I think was Yeah we went to watch something It Dreys Dres yeah he came on He must have played

Four songs Not many He had 45 or 50 minutes on his clock Because we were the first Boother To the left of the stage So you could see his time clock on the stage So he knows how long

he's scheduled to play for her. I think it might have been 45, 50 minutes. He went off stage with 30 minutes left, and the clock just continued to tick, and he never came back. No. This is like they get three in the morning, after we already waited four hours to see him.

Yeah, I think those guys demand a duffel bag full of cash, and once you give them that, you're going to give what you get. No, it's cool. I love Vegas. I mean, I'm not afraid to hit the tables there. That's fun. I never gamble enough to where I get emotional, though.

I just, you know, if you are, if you go to Vegas or you, you know, you do sports betting, whatever you might do, if you lose your bet and then you're going to go and pout and be in a bad mood and just like salt, like you've bet too much money. You should not bet that much. So I don't get emotionally attached to the money because I know it's easy come, easy go. I've seen it come in, I've seen it go out. So hopefully we're going to win though. We want a big run there at Resorts World last year. The tables were good to me, which is probably why I'm going back. So we're going to spend the week here in Scottsdale.

Hopefully I'm going to get some golf in. Hopefully this weather heats up a little more. Got a great house. I like this house. It's got a pickleball court. It's got a lot of stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, so we're on location for this week, and next week we'll be here as well before we head back home.

Right? That's correct. Yes. This week here to Las Vegas this weekend, Phoenix the following weekend, and then head home. You know, I just realized this podcast is going to give you potentially a heck of an out if you do win because you won Vegas in, what was it, 20, 21, and Ron and Charlie came out. And Ron gave you the whole spiel. I don't know how many more days I'm going to be here. We got to stay the night.

We got to go to a nightclub, blah, blah, blah. So now if you do win and you don't want to stay, you're like, Ron, I got this podcast to do. We have to get back to Scottsdale. What's the initials on Ron's new hat? Because those you don't know, you've seen the LFG, DH. LFG, DH, we wrote those for a few years, right? That's let's go, DH.

This year, he's like, you know, it's funny in Nashville he had a bottle of tequila that he was going to somehow why he was trying to smuggle it on a private plane I have no idea but he put it in his suitcase the ball of tequila busted

and it soaked all of his clothes and he's going through his clothes and he he sees a hat and it's the let's go D.H. hat right? And he's like well this guy he can't win a championship

but we got a lot of great hats You know, so this year. Ronnie Hats was born. Yeah, so this year he's got a new one and it's, give me the initials. But basically it says, wait, no, the initials is it's because it's a mouthful. I-O-F-Y-D-H. I-O-F-Y-D-H. It's our fucking year DH.

Right? Barely fits on the front of the hat. All right. Well, so if you see us hanging out with the hat that just got a, bunch of letters on it. You'll know what it's about. So tune in next week. We'll give you the post from Vegas.

See you. Before closing, Oh, Dirty Mo reads. If you want more race reaction, door bumper clear comes out on late Monday night. You got Dirty Mo Doe later in the week for all your sports betting and NASCAR betting needs. And for this podcast, always be sure to rate, review, and follow. Please rate and review. us people.

I'll sign your hat when I see you at the racetrack next. There you go. Five stars, no problem. See you later. Check out Dirtymoe Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.