Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - The Restart & The Loose Wheel...How Martinsville Was Lost

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Denny Hamlin and Jared Allen sit down to unpack a frustrating day at Martinsville Speedway, where Denny came up just short, and walk through exactly how it slipped away. From a loose wheel in the final run to a tough restart that put him behind the eight ball, plus a pivotal moment battling Ryan Blaney that may have changed everything, nothing is off the table. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott ends up in victory lane for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevy, and the guys dig into whether his aggressive third-and-fifteen strategy call is getting the credit it deserves. They also get into the bigger conversations from the weekend, including the Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar incident, ongoing frustration with caution lengths and TV breaks, and Justin Allgaier’s O’Reilly Auto Parts win. Things heat up in a Hall of Fame debate as Denny makes the case that lower series success shouldn’t automatically punch a ticket to NASCAR’s highest honor, while Jared pushes back with a more balanced take. And in true Martinsville fashion, the weekend also somehow included 46,000 hot dogs being eaten by fans. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm just trying to make others happy, Travis. You know how at they're going to be in my mentions because their grandfather's uncle's brother worked on Joe Jerry's modified and he deserves to get in? I just don't believe in skipping the steps to go straight to the pinnacle. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

I believe that I've been in a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear it from me. 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, championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental after Martinsville Speedway race number seven of the 2026 cup season. I'm Denny Hamlin. Jared likes me to intro myself.

I don't... What if you got new listeners? True. Denny Hamlin drove the 11 Bob's discount furniture to go out of this weekend. I'm Jared Allen, red vest number 311, this weekend and every weekend. Until next year? No, not necessarily.

I had to turn in my vest this last year, and they just gave it back. They gave me 311. They're like, I think this one belongs to you. Okay. It'd be a lot of pressure for the next person. Yeah, I don't wish that on anybody. Well, we had, I can't even, I can't read what you wrote, Travis. Wait, here, let me edit it.

Let me edit it. I mean, you can say it. Just quote me. Yeah. We had Justin Algar win O'Reilly's. Hallfamer. Justin O'Gar. So we, we had Chase Elliott win the cup race.

So, for you. the record, I put at the top of our rundown who wins every race. And so. Oh, Jared just changed it. So we have a shared one note so we, I can see when they keep

banking changers. We have Hall of Fame Justin Algar winning the O'Reilly. We have Chase winning Cup series. We don't want to start. Let's start with the race. All right. That's just, that's the word of the day. Hey, press your button.

We've said it a million times. I don't know. It just seemed too easy, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's why I was texting people. I'm like, it's just something's going to happen. Yeah.

It was too easy. You were, were you just trying to sandbag us, though, at the beginning of the race with your comments? On TV? Yeah. No. because you made it sound like, this is exactly why you weren't as confident as Vegas, right? Because

I feel like Vegas you could control the race more even if you lost the lead. Nah, that's probably fair. But I thought there were some legitimate contenders. Listen, if you look at my practice times at like a Martinsville

or wherever, I just don't know really how relevant it is. Like, it's all about feel for me. And, And a lot of times it's just a bystandard or byproduct. If I can get both, that'd be great. But I thought that looking at a few other cars, I was like, oh, I mean, there's some strong cars.

I thought there was five really strong cars. I look up and they're the same. They're two, three, four, five, six. Like, you know, the strong cars were up front all day long. And I don't, I don't know how much passing there was. Didn't seem like a lot. I mean, they did. tell me that X moved in the third, X moved in the second. So maybe there were some movement

there. But again, for my seat, I didn't see much, but live cars. Yeah, how does practice even translate? Because we've heard it from Bubba that they practiced so well on Saturday. Had such a good vibe on Saturday and come race day. They're just kind of shit. I don't know. Practice Jesus. I don't have no idea. But like, does I, you know, it's what translates? What can you take from Saturday into Sunday when, you know, there's 40 cars out there now. No, I don't know. I'm joking about that, but it's, the track changes. Things change.

You get all the cars on the racetrack. Arrow changes. There's just lots of things that change at a racetrack. And again, it's when you have the field as close as the field is, right? And you took Chase L.A., who was a, I don't even know. I think I saw his average. Was he running about 10th all day? Somewhere in that range?

Yeah. Right. So you put a 10th place car out front. It's like, you know, they're able to win the race. There were some circumstances that led to that. But it was, but that just tells you how close the field is, right? Even as dominant as my car looked. And it was dominant.

It's still, the field is that close that, that, um, You know, if you overnight, remember I talked about that second 50%, if you unload perfect, you're 50. All right, you got a head start on getting your 100. I had a 97 car, which is rather exceptional. But, you know, you still got to do that other 50 overnight. you know and so um even when you think you you got to dialed there's just so much work to be done um and you know certainly my experience helps me understand where tracks are going to go where um you know what my car is going to do in traffic what what is it going to do restarts and things like

that just it's really helpful information that um sometimes it just takes a long time to figure out we come down here this morning and you know we just said oh it's too easy it was too easy it was too easy. Are you thinking that in the car yesterday? Halfway through the race. Ah, this is too easy. Something's going to happen here. No, I didn't, I wasn't like waiting on the shooter drop. But I noticed when the one stayed out, I was like, hmm, like, I'll be able to get around. I know I'm getting around them, but, you know, I'm now starting on the outside lane. I hadn't started there all day.

I'm going to have to be, you know, I'm going to have to use my tires up a little bit more on the start of this run than I had been in restarts past. And so it just, yeah, you never know. But, you know, I think had my car been 100% on that last run, we still would have won the race. But unfortunately, we did have a loose wheel. And, you know, that takes enough grip out of the real. that, you know, if you don't have, if your tires aren't tracking, right, you know, you certainly have a lot less rear grip than what you have had previously. So the fact we're able to just still continue, I mean, it just is a testament to how fast we were and how fast our car was to be able to, you know, hang on there with that loose wheel. But does the, does the loose wheel have a role in that restart where you start outside Ross? Because if you could have cleared

on us there and retake the lead, does loose feel even matter? I probably don't pull. It was really just me and Chase that pulled away, though. We still pulled away, right? Right. So I'm saying if you had the clean air in the lead, it would have been a more uncomfortable run, but no, I don't think anyone was going to get around me because you could argue I was still the fastest car even with the we loose wheel. So is that where the race was lost? That restart with Ross? Yeah, I think that that was the defining moment. I mean, again, it's, I'm battling side by side with Chase. I think I probably can keep him pinned down enough to, to clear him. But I don't know, he was using a lot of racetrack up, trying to, trying to clear me. So who knows how that would have shook out.

what happened on the restart? Did you miss a shift? No, I didn't miss a shift. I just caught in a weird area on my gearing. And when I went to take off, just spun them, spun them hard. Couldn't get it to hook up. And then, you know, chastain was gone, and I was battling chase. We're side by side.

Caution comes out. His nose is slightly as. I was wondering how close it was because time of scoring had, I think, you for second and then it flipped. Yeah. Initially, when they called it out, they had me ahead of the nine and then like 30 seconds later, they're like switch with the nine. That was, yeah. Are you ever thinking, though, even in that position like, okay, now I'm on the bottom. If Ross holds Chase up them?

I just thought I'm in a tough spot now because Shirley Chase isn't going to get such a terrible restart that I did. He's probably going to be side by side with him. He's probably going to clear him. Now I got to figure out how to clear Ross, then get to Chase. And I thought I was just, I thought I was still okay on speed, which I was. I'm like, you know, it's not like Chase was a top five car all day. I was. Again, if the wheels not loose, my car certainly has more grip than what it had on that last run.

Did you burn up your stuff, Racing Blaney, trying to clear him? Yeah, certainly I was. was, again, I had to run harder than I did all day. And with Blaney, I thought that I thought I could get clear of him. And so I probably was up high, too high on the racetrack, probably midpoint of three and four. And at that point, I think he was right on the right rear corner of my car. And then I feel us connect.

And once we connected, you know, I just drove him right into the fence. That's just short track racing. No, not really. You can't say that one. But he got the in to that one. And I talked to him after the race. Just I said, I got high. And once we got connected, it was, I just got higher than I wanted to be.

I busted the rear tires loose, got me up the racetrack. And then once we made, you know, once we connected, just again, the right I go. And then he goes in the wall. Did that cause the loose wheel? Yeah. Like, where do we think that was at? on the pit road. They just didn't.

So it's different than the previous week or? I don't know. Yeah. I'm not sure. Last week, I mean, no, because on the radio, they said last week was a different deal. That's why. There's lessons to be learned from last week, you know, internally on our team. But this week, they said, no, all is.

good. But then I'm like, it ain't. I could feel. As soon as I hit the brakes, I could feel the tires moving. I could feel the rear end of the car moving. And so they checked it after the race. It was loose. Do you think, did you think at any moment in that final run that you could get around Chase? I did. I thought once we got to traffic that, you know, my car was very good all day in traffic. But I could feel that again we I felt the loose wheel probably about 20 laps into that run of that 80 lap run somewhere in that range I knew I did not have the grip that I had before but I was like you know what I'm just going to drive harder than I have all day I haven't driven very hard all day I didn't been just I mean autopilot mode you know from lap one or the restart get clear off a two and then boom I hit autopilot every time. And so I'm like, all right, I've got to go a little harder now. I know everything's going to get hotter, but I think the car's got enough capability in it. And it just, it just was enough to keep up. That was about it. But you made it, you made a run there

tour 30 to go, 20 to go. That looked like you may have had had a shot out. Now, who knows what he was I did. I did. But I think I just made, you know, when you make a hard push to make a pass on so on, and he don't do it, it just really heats up your stuff. And then I just at that point, I'm like, hanging, you know, doing everything I can just to stay close. Yeah. Yeah, fortunately, I guess for Chase, he never ran into two cars of lap traffic.

It was always just one and they would move up out of the lane. They were Chevys. Yeah, they were very convenient. The cars that he caught. Yeah. But there's a lot of them in the field. But it was like, you know, a lot were easier for him to pass and they were for me to pass.

Is there any solace in the fact that you can hang your hat on a good points day? F***a. F***a. A good point stay. Hit the button trap. Okay, good. I don't know. Yeah, not really.

Not at this point of my career. I mean, yes, in the grand scheme of things, right? Like the regular season, you try to win a title. You need to have a good regular season.

But at this point of my career, I'm just counting wins. That's all I want to do is count wins. You just didn't. sound too dejected after the race. Oh my gosh, I've seen it all. Think about my last 10 races. I mean, think about our conversation here last week. How many wins would you have if you add it to it? If the layups went in. There you go. How long ago was it when Jared mentioned you have entire issues? Do you remember that conversation, Jared? Travis, he won a race since then.

And? That's not enough, right? One race. He's won. He's won. And one race. He's won. And, two races with tire issues. I don't know. You made a deal and someone didn't deliver on your promise. I'm just saying, Jared. Jared got a victory though this weekend, so. He did? I didn't. He's a chase guy too. Yeah, I'm a pro sport guy. What are you, uh, Ross staying out. Is he just hoping for a quick call, like, caution? What's his strategy there? Well, he ran like ass all day. What, what else is he going to do? I mean, I guess, I mean, when you're, when you're, when you're struggling, when you're running not great, you're just trying to do everything you can.

What he's hoping for is that he can somehow get out there, control the race for a few laps. He knows he's not going to hold the lead. He's just hoping that we go 30 laps, caution comes out. We all pit, just like Chase. We all pit, bam, wherever he was at on that lap 30 from starting first, say it's fifth, boom, he's got, he just gained,

I don't know, 15, 20 positions for wherever he was. So he was either going to be at the tail of the lead lap, more than likely. He was because I was battling, I was trying to lap him under green. So he's going to be at the back half of the field. At best, if they have a good pit stop, he's going to restart 19th, something like that. He's probably thinking, well, we ain't gone anywhere all day. So let's just do this. see what happens.

And he ended up in the same net position, but if there was any caution between the point he stayed out in the end of the race, it was going to be a gain from where he was running. So it was, you know, good strategic move on their part. Hey, everybody, it's Dellenhart Jr. And there is no better way to support Denny Hamlin than wearing actions detrimental gear at the racetrack.

You can also flip him the bird or head on over to shop. DirtymoMedia.com to see what we have. Does Alan Gustafson deserve some praise for his call there to give Chase track position? Sure. I mean, Travis and I debate that Travis says,

3rd and 15. It's 3rd and 15, he threw the ball. No, shit. Like. Yeah. Yeah. It worked out. It worked out.

It likely was going to equal a worse finish. I believe, had it all shake, once it all shook out in the wash, because he was going to have to pit an extra time than everyone else. And if y'all don't know, you go, like, laps down. And so it worked out. Again, third and 15 is right. Third and 15, yeah, we're go routes.

And they caught it. But regardless, like, like Chase won it, right? I mean, he got around me on that restart and then held me off and ran lap traffic good, just executed, did well. Yeah, I mean, all in all, the call ended up giving the nine track position, but Chase still had to go out there and retake the lead from you. Yeah.

Did you see any brake rotor on the track? No, I didn't know that there was any. I just thought it was about that time in the race to put it out. I mean, to be fair, I'm surprised that Ty Dillon got to Pit Road without a caution coming out before that. So, yeah. I mean, yes, on TV, they showed a NASCAR official, whoever, scooping the brake rotor with a show. Where was he? On Pit Road.

inside the pit lane inside the pit lane oh okay clint boyer said there's definitely break road around the track if the tv talk them into it that's usually how it goes surely there's gotta be debris out there backs up the call no the tv starts it and they usually like you know when they really want a caution they'll they'll start to say man i don't know there's got to be debris Look at all that damage. There's stuff all over the racetrack. So Blaney's crew chief said, I ain't seen nothing,

but apparently a brake rotor on pit road. Blaney said they threw a caution for a break rotor on pit road, question mark. Crew chief, yep, Blaney. That's hilarious. Yeah. I, um, I,

you know, this is a, this is just, I'm not saying there wasn't debris. because I'm uninformed here on Monday. But there was a broken brake rotor. There was a broken brake rotor on pit lane. It more than likely happened on the racetrack.

So you would think it's on the racetrack somewhere. But typically you find it first. See it. Is it in the groove? And then you make the call. But just again. If there were many cautions through that race, you probably let that go. It's just, I'm telling you, that's just human nature, no matter who's pressing the button up there.

Races that are going long, lots of cautions, they're going to be more lenient to let it go in the end. Ones that don't have a whole lot of cautions, it's, if we can get a break, let's get a break. That's just, well, it's the way it's always been. It's been a lot better. I lose my damn band. It's better than it used to be, for sure. But I'm not de-legitimizing this yellow, but I just know when we think about strategy,

I always tell my team, pay attention to how the race is going. If the race is littered with cautions, by the end of the race, they're going to be sick of throwing cautions because they're going to be up against a TV window. They're probably not going to go throw a caution for someone scraping the wall.

If this thing goes green, like a motherfucker, and it's girt and be boring, and someone scrapes the wall, they're throwing a yellow. So it's just, that's the way it goes. And so be aware of that when you're doing your strategy. How would, would that have changed your strategy? Would that have changed your strategy yesterday? No, no. You're in the lead. You just continue to control the race. Yeah. The only thing it changes, right, is if Ross had more lapse on his tires. If, you know, Chase was, you know, about to throw major anchor, right, going back. But if it wasn't him, it was going to be someone else that got me on the restart because of how bad my restart was.

So I, there's no excuses on that. The race is lost on our door number, not, not because somebody else did something great. It was just, we didn't do a great job executing. obviously on the last pit stop. I did a horrible job on the restart. You had it all up. You got to be perfect in these races. And we weren't perfect.

We were close to it, just not exactly perfect. Is it a detriment leading the first 250 laps? Never being outside of the lead. Is that a detriment and that you don't necessarily know what your car needs when you need to pass somebody? I know what I think.

Even if you would have told me, we worked on our car through the entire race. There's not one run where I'm like, we're good, don't touch it. We, we cranked on our car throughout the race, even as strong as we were. Because I knew that tracks are going to do through a change. There's liable to be more competition coming up here that's going to challenge me to force me to run harder. What am I going to need? We made the adjustments throughout the day for the end.

of race scenarios. But, you know, again, I can't, it's very hard to overcome when one of the wheels is loose. Do some of these tracks like Martinsville versus Las Vegas have a smaller margin for error that like one mistake on a restart could derail your entire day? Yeah, typically the wider, the wider the racetrack, the more room for error that you have. Does that make any sense? the narrower the track, the track position means more than anything. And so you go to Michigan, come out fourth on a pit stop. Life's not over. You still got a great shot. Kansas, a little harder, but still, you can do it. Like, Indy, come out second? No, you're done. You're done. so it just it's it every track it's a little different have you watched this incident the replay of

the bubba carson oswar incident i did what did you make of that uh i made of it that bubba wrecked himself trying to uh knock carson out of the way it just didn't let up and just kept kept driving in there and eventually it caused him a wreck himself and others. That's what I, that's my take from watching it. And an untimely caution. Untimely caution for us, yes. Yeah. Is that just frustration boiling?

Yeah. Yeah. It, um, it, it, it seemed like he was frustrating and wasn't running as good as he was expecting to run. Um, he mentioned it, you know, compared to where he was on Saturday, you know, why all of a sudden is Sunday not going as planned. That and then, you know, let's say, it's typically a move.

If you, if everyone's restarting into turn one on a restart, everyone's got to check up for the corner, right? And if you're in row eight, you're checking up for the entry of one sooner than you normally would for, well, it's like on a it's like going into turn one quota or someone just

all right, I'm just going to go left and if you guys are going to check up I'm just going to jam it on in there. Carson says I'm going to go three wide on a restarted Martin'sville to the bottom. It's not illegal. It's just a d'i-move. You know what I mean? And so he was trying to take advantage of the guys that were

checking up for like the corner and Bubba didn't like it. So he says, I'm going to run into your ass and he ran into his ass and wrecked himself. Is that Bubba not thinking about the big picture, especially with a new format that like, yeah, things aren't going well, but just get out of here with a decent day and move on. Instead, you you fuck yourself over too. Well, I mean, I think if he had to do it all over again, right? And if he knew the result, then sure.

He's thinking the result. He's just going to knock the 77 up to fucking race track. get them back and and keep going. But the problem was he, once he got them up, he just kept going. And yeah, it was just a huge pile of. There weren't many cautions, but when we did have cautions,

it seemed like we were under yellow for a while. Did you think that in the car? Yes. He thought that watching Xfinity on Saturday, too. I couldn't believe it. We started a one-hour appearance with 30 laps left in the Xfinity race, and I left on a green-white checkered. No, you left with 11 laps to go.

Oh, that's right. Yeah. I thought it was green-white checkered. I'm like, oh, it's over, and they're like, you said, no, there's 10 to go. I'm like, oh, that was crazy. Yes. We're, all right, here's my recommendation to NASCAR and Fox. Apparently what's happening is Fox feels they need to see the pit stops.

So the end of the stage break happens. Green checker, boom. Okay, under caution, Pace Car gets us out. They catch us. We're going to commercial. We're going to get our commercials in. They get their commercials in. all five minutes of it.

It seems like a while. Then they open pit road. We do that. And then it's a reset and we got to then line up and do it. I couldn't believe it. It was so long. Can we get a side by side for the pit stops maybe? Or just do when you come back from your commercials,

just give a recap because it's, we're running too long under caution. We have to find a way to just shorten them up. But we won't shorten them up as long as we're doing what we're doing in the sense of, oh, well, TV has to catch the pit stops live. Okay, well, then you've got to shorten your commercials or something. So it's just a, we're under caution too much. On Saturday. Too long, too long.

On Saturday, 14 cautions for 96 yellow flag laps. Out of 250? Yeah, so 96 slabs. Yeah, it's a lot. Average speed was 55 miles an hour. Yeah, and some of these are like, I watched them, Xfinity especially, I just, I'm telling you my experience as a watcher.

It was a single car wreck. Like, no, there's not debris on the track. There's no cleanup to be had. And it is just yellow, yellow, yellow. And I'm like, choose already. So I don't know. Maybe we've got to get, everyone's got to run a business, okay? Everyone has a boss.

I will say that. If Fox feels like this is what they got to do to get the return on investment, sorry, we got to run our hour of commercials and it's happening at some point, then we've got what we got. But just as a watcher, and again, that's Xfinity or O'Reilly's CW, so it's different. again these companies are paying big money to NASCAR to broadcast these they're they're going to make sure they get a proper return on investment in order to get that they need to have commercials got to have people buying those commercials so so it's it's hurting the to me it's hurting the

watching experience because i just yeah i i just you know i'm i'm bouncing between basketball and exfinity or god dang it O'Reilly's that's going to take a while. And it's just, I find myself, it's hard for me to stay on the NASCAR channel. You know what I mean? Yeah. We get it. Speaking of networks, I got an HBO complaint then too.

I go to your in-car and I just, I see your visor. It's just the onboard camera was just of you. It wasn't what you're seeing. Oh, it should be the camera that's going out the front windshield, no? Not with 50 to go, it wasn't. No. Chasing down, chasing, I just see your FISA.

Really? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if they have guys actively switching those cameras. Do they switch, like, their perspective? If you go to meet, they do. HBO, if you want me to control Denny's going forward, let me now. Take the job. I think most people, I don't know that anyone's tuning in to see the driver driving.

You tune in to see the end car of, the track, right? Or your perspective, yeah. Yeah, what I'm saying is, you're not tuning into my end car to watch me turn that steering wheel. You're there to watch the front of my hood. Yeah, certainly not for more than two laps.

Yeah. All right, so note to directors. Keep it on the car. Yeah. Back to this caution thing, though. We got a normal stage break. Normal stage break caution. What is, like, the procedure? Do you do two laps?

and they open pit road and you come down. Like what is the... But depends on the track, right? Because two laps at Kansas is different than two laps at Martinsville. But I just told you what it is. You throw the caution. They watch us gather up. They go to commercial for a while.

So commercial is dictating how many laps you're doing. It's not. We need one lap to clean off the track. Pit road open. Not for stages. For regular cautions, I think it's more a little more buttoned up. They're not... But it's still the same.

They're still not, I don't know that there's a huge sense of urgencies on regular cautions too, because again, TV is banking on, we, listen, they heard us when we talk, when the fans complained about all these commercials during green flag, they're like, all right, well, we're going to do it during yellow. Well, the time, the running time of the commercials has to remain whatever it is. So they're just going to have to extend the yellows if you want them to tune in the green. So what would you rather them have? Longer yellows or have some commercials during green?

Trap, what's your opinion of that? If they had to run one hour of commercials every race, I'm throwing it. I have no idea what the number is. Would you rather it be for extended yellows? Would you rather be extended yellows or take away a little green flag? Can we do the extended yellows but freeze the lap count? Oh, God, no. The races would be six hours.

I think I would still, I think I would rather take the yellow. Longer yellow? Yeah. The hard thing is like yesterday would have been great to go during some green ones, but it's like you can't decide it. It's tough. I think you take a little green away.

Maybe just... You know why? Because we're just... I feel like we're in a world of you got it. We got to get that dopamine hit every couple of minutes. And I'm telling you, a 15 minute caution can really drag down your feeling. And next thing you know, now I've switched over to basketball. And now it's a close game.

I'm like, I don't want to... This is great. I don't want to change from this. I flip back real quick, still under yellow. let me go back to the game and then I just find myself getting caught in the game. I will say though that like showing the pit stops I do think helps build the race up. I agree with you. That's why I maybe a happy medium just mix.

If there was an easy fix, then NASCAR would have done it all. There is no easy fix. We're trying again, we're trying to make it all work and feed all the mouths that that are NASCAR. So it's a tough, tough thing, but TV's got to get their commercials in. It's the only way that the series gets the money that it does that supports this whole thing. But it feels long in the car. I'm telling you, we were running lots of caution. Let's talk about the race winner from the cup race.

First race win for Chevy this season. First race win for Chase since, what, Atlanta last year? He had a couple wins last year, right? Atlanta is one of them. Kansas? I don't remember. You won Kansas? I don't remember.

That's another one. That track. I, we're fast there. Just, God, I can't get it to the finish line. There's always a caution late. Yeah, he won Kansas. How do you win Kansas? Well, he got first.

I wonder how he won that. I'm not being. was it facetious and Atlanta Chase Elliott Kansas September 28th dramatic double overtime charge from Oh I know how you want it

I know how you want it I bet there is I know how you want it I got it No mind let's move on I bet my I bet the listeners are like we know we know what you did

I keep thinking. If there's a Kansas race winner, I'm always thinking, how did I not win? I'm serious. That's what I think every time I go there. How did I not win? How did you not win? That was a new way.

That was a new way. All right, moving on. Well, yeah, all right. No, his first race, let's talk Chase here. first race win of the year for Chevy, first for Hendrick, first for Chase, earliest in the season that he's won a race. Sounds like all good things, right?

He was fast on Saturday. I thought he was going to be one of the guys in the top five all day. I mean, he had a really good practice. He was actually the fastest in practice by the way we, measure practice. He was really good. So I didn't think it was a surprise. I don't think you would have been surprised

if you didn't watch the race and just saw the box score. But obviously the circumstances dictated it. But I think this is, you know, they talked about is, you know, the format really favoring people like Chase. It does. Because, I mean, he doesn't make a lot of mistakes in the car. he gets the most out of his car most weeks he's going to be there

every year he's just a perennial inside the top five point guy they find ways on third and 15 they found a way you know what I mean yeah that doesn't seem like the format favors chase it feels like just chase

just chase is good and not not in the regular season I think the regular season everything is basically the same race. I think the chase favors the chase. Got it. Got it. I think that when it comes out

of those last 10 races, I think that he will be, I don't see a world in which they're not top five, like a lock for a top five points. And a lock without like stuff that is out of his control takes him out. Because he's just that consistent. And you know he's going to have a fast car.

And you heard him, I think I saw on social that he says, I don't want to be known as the guy that's consistent. I want to be known as the guy that wins a lot. I feel that. You know, as a driver, it consists of he's good, as long as you're consistently winning. You know, so he wants to be known as a guy that wins a lot. And he used to win, you know, all those road courses,

but he was winning a lot every season. and last year he had multiple wins season. I would say him winning early this season sets himself up great to win multiple races. Certainly he's got the speed to do it. It's not from a lack of speed. And it just, I don't know, it just seems like they don't lead a ton of laps compared to maybe their teammates, which leads to more wins for them than Chase. but I don't know if you had to give me one guy for 10 races at Hendrick I'm going to pick Chase

it's all close it's all very close it's not like oh I'm definitely picking Chase but it's he's he'd be my guy for 10 weeks is this a season two where you could just see Chase go like this because as as each race goes on Hendrick is going to figure out this car more and more this body more yeah if Chase is as he is right now it seems like he's only going to get more then you're yes he's liable to to go on a run absolutely tough guy to race you want to touch on uh or ily you were uh texting dale during the race with lee watching lee race yeah i saw his first restart hey rich coming from me right after the cup restart yeah um heed your own advice no doubt um i just was why i just was why i was why i

watching Lee and I knew that, you know, the inexperience of not knowing that he knows what to do on restarts and whatnot, but just like what those cars need to get good restarts and stuff, I was just telling them needs to keep scrubbing. Scrub until, scrub until he feels the crap coming off of his tires. Keep the brakes warm. You know, those things take a few laps to kind of get your bearings about you and usually your fast lap after restart is lap three, four, somewhere in that range. Like, you got to keep the heat in it, especially at that track. And he's not used to good your tires. Yeah. Yeah, radial tires. It's a little different. But I thought, you know, lead made some mistakes, obviously, as to be expected. But, I mean, he found himself leading

the race with, like, 30 to go. So, You know, he needed that race to go green at the end. Yep. Yeah, needed that race to go green. Just with that tire deficit that he had, that he had to have because he had issues, did they have a penalty or something? Yeah, they had a loose tire. Yeah, loose tire.

So that put him behind on that strategy so that really the only choice to put him back up front his team had was to keep him out, like do the raw strategy, which is the right thing to do. it just he had one bad restart there caused a big one but um i thought he did a good job really represented the the local short track guys really really well and and i just i love i can't i can't heart it enough like what dale does for the local short track community right i mean just naskar in general um but just giving these guys opportunities from the local asphalt short track ranks.

You know, it's where Josh got his, his opportunity. Carson got his opportunity. It's really good to see. Before we move on from any on-track activity, if you guys in the cup race that had notable finishes here, another top five for Ty Gibbs. Yeah. Running well, his pick crew was on fire yesterday.

I noticed, you know, every time we came in, I always kind of look at, all right, where are we at when the caution falls? Where are we at when we're about to go green? He was always moving up every pit stop. So, you know, yeah, you keep your track position up there, which his team's doing. He's doing a great job, not making any mistakes. And he's cleaning up a lot of stuff that that you would see in years past that, you know, once he gets derailed a little bit, gets past a few times, you know, things start heading south. And certainly is, clean some of that up. And then another guy here just missed the top 10 SVG at Martinsville. Yeah, and he's out running his teammates. Right? Like, that's the bigger. That's the bigger story. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. And he was on the Chase Elliott plan, I believe. He pitted a couple laps after Chase did. Yeah. You had to pass him to regain the lead there. I, when I came out, when I passed them, I thought that they just hadn't pitted yet. They pitted early. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I mean, was he running in the top? I mean, he qualified, though. He did. Okay. Yeah. It wasn't like he lucked into this. Okay.

No. But when the caution fell, um, that the one that helped chase, it helped SVG as well, right? I mean, it had to have. Yes. Yeah.

He gained. Yeah. So, um, I think the bigger. I mean, He qualified fifth? I know all that. Yeah. I'm saying where was he running, though, is my question.

Competitively. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Either way, he's finishing much better on the Oval's. Running really well. And I agree with Travis. The story is more that he's outrunning. He outran Ross. And he's been one of the latest, you know, track house cars.

Now, track house is not on fire. right now. Not not, not great, but he's making the most of it. Are you just able, are you, you know, through, through studying practice and whatnot, are you able to like see his development? Not really. I don't have time to do that, but not really. But I mean, obviously he's doing a great job continuing to develop and he appears getting the most out of those race cars. Anything else from on track? Nope. Okay, Travis, do you want to ask Denny's opinion on this topic?

What? Hall of Fame. Oh. I said I agreed with Kenny Wallace. What does that mean? He agreed with you. Right? Yeah.

I believe that most of the people that have. adamant arguments for the lower series guys, they have a connection to them somehow. They're their friends. They grew up watching them or something. So they have an emotional connection to those people. Certainly. There's also an emotional connection. Well, I want my guy in. He's my guy. He deserves to be in. I think it just depends on what you want the Hall of Fame to be. Now, I see that folks are making the statements that it's the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Well, go ask anyone, anyone that is a casual, when I say casual, very casual, as in they know the NASCAR name.

They're not watching. Do they know that there's like six series of NASCAR? No. they know of Dale Earnhardt Jeff Gordon and Richard Petty that's Sunday they don't know about all

the steps right so people are using the well it's the NASCAR they don't say it's the NASCAR cup so now they're trying to make a point saying here's why everyone should get in

because they didn't say it's the NASCAR cup It's the all NASCAR. I hear you. I hear you. But to me, and this is my opinion, it's not right. It's just my opinion, is that there's steps to this, right? There's steps to your accomplishment in the sport. It's winning at the grassroots.

It's winning a championship at the grassroots. It's then winning at the regional level. winning a championship at the regional level. It's then winning races at your Xfinity. I'm going to keep saying it. O'Reilly's and Trucks, winning at championships in those series, winning a race in the cup,

then it's winning a championship in cup, then it's the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is the Pinnacle. So my issue is, why is your multiple accomplishments at the grassroots? How does that allow you to just jump right to the pinnacle? So that's just my opinion. Let's say, let's, I'm going to try to use use an example. And I don't want anyone to get offended if you're fans of these folks or whatever. That's what I hated is.

I felt bad that Justin was the... Right. That's just... And that's what happens in sports debates, though. The name has to be used. We have to get... Eric Jones, unfortunately, will probably never make it into the Hall of Fame. But if he ran O'Reilly's or trucks

for 25 years like Matt Crafton, the guy would win 15. team championships. I mean, he's better. And it's not even close. So why does someone that just stays in a lower level get the right to just jump this whole stair step of cup? I don't, because the Hall of Fame is the pinnacle.

I don't care what you accomplish in your career. If you get into the Hall of Fame, it is the pinnacle of your career. For Jimmy Johnson, it's the pinnacle for Richard Petty. It is a pet. It gets no higher. There is no higher accomplishment in your place of work than reaching the Hall of Fame. And in my opinion, it's only my opinion. In the lower series, I don't, if you stay there for whatever reason, okay, well, that person

didn't get an opportunity. Well, maybe Eric Jones didn't have an opportunity to. just stay in a top truck and win 25 championships. That's not, we can't do the ifs and butts without going the other way. And you can put the top 28 in cup in the lower series and they're going to win championships in a ton of races, a ton of races. So I just don't think you can judge them the same. And I feel as though when people make.

arguments for the guys in the lower series. Listen, more so today. I will say this. The difference between Cup and Modifieds like Ray Hendrick, when he won all his modified championship, the disparity wasn't that different. Like it wasn't, Cup was not far in a way bigger than Modified like it is today.

But like, are we going to, Ronnie Silk is in Modified. It's just, it's a name. Justin Bonson, New York, right? It's like chicken ass and, are these, are we going to talk about them in the Hall of Fame? Because that's where they've, that's where they've had all their accomplishments.

Are they just going to skip the winning in trucks, winning in the championship, going to O'Reilly's, winning a race, winning the championship? Do you just skip all of it? and just go right to the pinnacle, I don't, I don't know. I think if, to over simplify this,

I think it's okay if everyone they're talking about gets in, but it certainly should be a tiered system. If not, it's just like a NASCAR museum at this point. That, yes, that's fair. And if you want to tell the NASCAR story and the racing story, that's fine. But then it, what Hall of Fames are, then you lose some of that. Yeah, I just think that it, it diminishes the greats, in my opinion. That, you know, the, I mean, for crying out loud,

Bill Belichick didn't get in the NFL Hall of Fame on the first try. That was wrong, but it's, yeah, it's too much, like, I'm more of in favor of maybe some years zero get in, right? For a sport that there's not that many. There's just not that many people. I don't know why it has to be a certain amount every time. We're going to run out of people. And that's when we're going to start, well, I mean, I think in the next 15 years, think about this.

I think someone with 10 cup wins, we're going to be talking about Hall of Fame. I'm serious because you're just going to run out of people. Or you're going to just lower the standards and say, okay, all right, well, let's now look at, let's look at someone that's won one Xenity championship in 15 races. Yeah. You know, it's just, you're going to start to continue. It's why they reduced the amount before. Wasn't it five that they got in every year for a while?

Something like that. It's just we don't have that many people in the sport. In the NBA, you got a roster full of people and you got 30 teams. Well, and theirs is just the Basketball Hall of Fame. What's that? Basketball. It's not the NBA. It's the basketball.

So it's inducting college. But like NFL, Pro Football Hall of Fame, I think they had four people last year. Four players. I mean, sometimes at baseball Hall of Fame, nobody gets in.

Yeah. And that's okay. And it's there. Yeah. And it's, and there's, you don't get in unless you reach a certain amount. 75% of the votes.

Okay. So maybe, okay. All right, how about this? Let's, let's, we live in a world.

Everyone's got to get a medal, right? So, you know, we don't want to upset anyone. We don't want people offended. I know everyone gets offended. Why don't we just have a tear to where if you reach 75% of the vote, your premier hall of fame. But, you know what I mean?

Like, just, I know, I'm just trying to make others happy, Travis. You know how at they're going to be in my mentions? Because, you know, their grandfather's uncle's brother worked on Joe Jerry's modified and he deserves to get in. I get it. It's just my opinion. I just think that it diminishes Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace and the Thaler hearts and like, come on, man.

They deserve to be at the pinnacle of their sport and the pinnacle is the Hall of Fame. I just don't believe in skipping the steps to go straight to the pinnacle. And I feel like there's ways, too, to make everyone happy. We're going to make comparisons. One of my favorite baseball players of all time has a single season saves record in the major leagues. His accomplishments are recognized in the baseball Hall of Fame, but he does not have a plaque on the wall. He's not memorialized with his face in copper or whatever it is. You could have, you know, you can recognize these guys at different levels in the Hall of Fame, but they're not, they don't have a plaque.

that idea. It's not a bad idea. Have a championship wall. You show wins. And here's our greatest of all time. But also, these guys are a huge store sport and they should be recognized in here as well. Yes. But they're not alongside Dale Earnhardt and

whoever else is in the thing. Right. Right. That's a good point. I mean, yeah, it's I'm trying to think how I'm going to get commented. Well, these, I'm I'm just trying to answer some of the,

so I don't have to do it on social media because I'm not going to address this. I'm going to say what I'm going to say here and then I'm done with it. Is that, well, those guys didn't get the opportunity because our sport's different. They're going to say, our sport is different. They didn't have money.

And they didn't have the money to make it to the next level. I get it. But I can't pretend that I would be a seven-time champion and if I was driving Daler and Hart's cars. We can't play pretend world. It sucks and it's unfortunate that maybe some of the greats

never got the opportunity at the next level, but we can't do the hypotheticals. We can't say they were great and they accomplished all this at the lower level and they would have been great had they got an opportunity. You can't say that. You can't say that when it comes to Hall of,

Fames. You have to just go by what is, not what could have been. Because we can't play it the other way. We can't say that, sorry, I keep bringing, we can't say that Eric Jones definitely would have been the Hall Fame for you, which just stayed in the truck series. That's just hypothetical. And you can't do it that way. I hate it when they're like, well, this person didn't get in a fast car. Like, that's the same thing. Like, you don't. You can, you can recognize as many people as you want in the Hall of Fame. And I think that's the beauty of it. Like people our age may go to the Hall of Fame one day with their kids. And Eric Jones may not have a plaque on the wall, but he'll be memorialized in the Hall of Fame as a two-time or maybe three-time

Darlington winner at some point. And then a guy older will tell his kid, that guy Eric Jones right there, he was really good. But he just never had the opportunities. I like that. Jared, I think that you've really reached a good compromise there. Yep. I agree. I just think that it would be good because, listen, I can't speak to the people that were far before me, like even before I started watching. I have no idea of the impact Fireball Roberts had on the sport. I don't know. I am uneducated, uninformed on that. No idea. So I rely on the historians of our sport to tell that story. But I love the idea of what you're saying is that, yeah, there are people in the lower ranks. Like when I think of truck series, I do think of Jack Sprague. I think I saw him on the,

he was a nominee. Do I think he's a Hall of Fame? Again, jumping. He did have, he was in Cup. Ron Hornady was in Cup. No, I think there's a story to be told there. I think they should be in the Hall of Fame, but it should be, let's just use your idea. I think it was just a great idea. and all I'm doing is sitting here saying that I agree with your idea. Cool. So I'll take the heat on social media if it's not a good idea. I'm taking all. Don't worry.

I got that. Just to end this show on a lighthearted note, apparently 46,000 hot dogs were eating at Martin's Hill this weekend. Do we believe that number? That's a lot of hot dogs. Do we believe 46,000? I mean, also Jordan Bianchi apparently has five. How many people are in the stands there?

I don't think it's that. 45,000? And you can buy them by like six? Like, I don't think that's a... Yeah, I don't think that's crazy, actually. It's probably not crazy. I think it is crazy that many people are consuming hot dogs, but I don't think the number's crazy.

Especially someone like you with your diet. Yeah, come on. Jared, have you ever had a Martinsville hot dog? No. No way. He would never. I think next time go back content, Jared has to try one.

I don't think so, Travis. For content, Jared. That's so gross. Funny story about the Martin's Hot Dog. My parents are similar to me. I mean, I've got some of my values through them. They came to Martinsville last year, the race you won. And they were just happened to be standing by the hot dog stand.

When TV came through and was doing like their piece on it, and they're like, get in here. We need people. And they handed them hot dogs. And they were like, oh, I can't believe we have to eat this on camera. Oh, man. Oh, man. Yeah.

I've had, it's been a few years since I've had it. I think it's more of a, what is it where it's like the thought of it or the, it's, yeah, or as it's the same thing as like the actual thing. Some of the food at like Augusta. It's not like this extravagant like a pomeo cheese sandwich. It's pomeo cheese and bread, but it's, you're eating it there. Same thing as the hot dog at Martin's Bill. Okay, yeah.

Okay. Good analogy. Good job, guys. on your analogies and stuff. That's what we're here for. Nailed it. All right, I got a review here from J. Forbes 923. I first started listening to this show after seeing it season one of full speed.

The podcast is solely responsible for me making, for making me a NASCAR fan and teach me more about the sport each week. It's made me a Denny fan for life as well as my two-year-old son. He has tons of cars to play with, but is always picking up the Orange 11 King's Hawaiian car. We live down the street from Airspeed and can't wait to bring him when he's a bit older. Awesome. Appreciate that review. Appreciate you listening in each and every week. So I'm actually going to go back down to Florida. Oh, do we buy a boat?

He's about to buy a boat. He just gave it away. You're not going back to Florida without buying a boat. I'm not buying a boat. You're buying a boat. Can I share some maybe inside? What? You had the plans that you had for airspeed for the last 10 years that you were always doodling on in your bus. had one in the shape of a boat. For the record, there was no doodling on those plans. I just was wanting to look at the guts of it. Okay, well, I see guts of a boat. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. I need to retire first. Once I retire. It checks out. You had those plans two, three years before airspeed was put up. Yeah. All right. Well, enough of that.

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