Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - There’s A New Restart Merchant

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Fresh off another Michigan win, Denny Hamlin breaks down how a day spent fighting dirty air and running near 30th turned into a trip to Victory Lane. He explains the adjustments that changed everything, the Stage 2 run that put him back in contention, and why he knew he had the field covered before the final restart in the latest NASCAR Cup Series race. Then it's on to the chaos. Denny gives his take on the late-race wrecks, Carson Hocevar's aggressive driving style, and why "taking a chill pill" might actually make drivers faster. He also shares his thoughts on race craft, patience, and the challenge of balancing speed and survival when everything starts happening at once. Denny also reflects on career win No. 63, what it means to continue climbing NASCAR's all-time wins list, and why doubters throughout his career may have helped him more than they hurt him. Plus, Denny talks about staying up until midnight to rewatch his own win, dreams up a full-blown Denny Bros. campground takeover at Richmond, and shares plenty of stories and laughs from another memorable NASCAR weekend. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And I haven't watched the Larson double, but I hear both are really good. Don't watch the end of the Larson double. Why? Just trust me on it. Okay. I want to, though. I hear it's really good. When they cut the credits, just end it there.

There's a little extra. Just don't watch that part. Well, now I need to go back and watch it. It ends in Phoenix. Oh, fuck me. I'm trying to. God, that's brutal. 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 from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know, you do.

Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship, and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey guys, welcome to actions detrimental here on this wonderful Monday morning. Great Monday morning. Almost afternoon. I had to push back a little bit, but we made it.

I'm on very little sleep. Very little. I wonder where I'm at today. More than last week. I'm going to say, I'm going to do a blind guess of 18%. Wow. No. I'm 49.

Not bad. Do you feel 49%? Yeah. Clearly he feels worse. 4 a.m. to 8.20. It's not, I mean, you only live once. Yelo. What did you do?

We got home at midnight. What did you do from midnight to 4 a.m.? We watched a race back. Then the whole thing? Yeah, I went through it. I fast forwarded the red flag. Okay. Just to,

yeah, it's just part of the process, you know, while it's fresh in the mind, whatnot. And if I feel like I can't really go to sleep, then just got to get it over with. I was going to say,

how do you come off the high? Like, if I want a race, like, I feel like it'd be tough to just come home and go to sleep. I usually can. I've,

gosh, there's been times I think I've won and then slop on the plane. But that's pretty rare. Pretty rare that happens. Are you watching? Are you rewatching it because you're just interested in the race? Or are you like, I want to relive this?

A little bit of both. Yeah, a little bit of both. You know, I wanted to see kind of how the last few restarts played out, whether I made the right decisions and lanes I chose, you know, moves I made, things like that. And then, yeah, I didn't even see the front, you know, for three quarters of the race. So I had no idea what was going on up there. So rewatching it kind of educated me a little bit on that.

How much do you learn when you rewatch it? Because you have no context of what happened up front during the first stage because you're in the back. So like, how much do you learn from rewatching it? Or is there anything that you're like, oh, wow, I didn't know. I didn't realize that happened. Not really. You know, we under caution if, you know, if there is a wreck, usually I'm kind of chicken-necking, you know, through the wind of net, looking at the big screen, kind of see, like, what would happen, who's involved, things like that. But just wanted to see kind of who was strong at the beginning.

It really was, I couldn't really identify, like, the strong car at the beginning. It seemed like there was a few that were, you know, contenders up front. But yeah, it took a while to get there. Finally did, though. Where do you think your car was in the whole field? Do you think you had the best car yesterday once you hit clean air? Do you think you had a top five car?

Trive, you want to answer? There you go. Okay. I think it was pretty good. Okay, well, Travis is not going to like me, but we lost the 45, we lost the 20, we lost the 9. Right, right. All looked like race winning cars at some point during the race.

Right. Yeah, it certainly was a fact. in that, no doubt. And so, you know, I don't know. I just, what I, all I know is the feel of the race car, right? You know, speed is whatever. When the feel is right, the speed is there. And, you know, certainly on the last run, I just, I had, the feel was exactly as I would

have hoped at that race track. Had I drawn up an ideal, here's what I want my car to do at the, this point, that point, you know, on the racetrack, it did all those things, as it should. You know, you would mention that you were talking to tie before the race and saying how, you know, you have 40 something starts here, just significant more experience than other drivers in the field. Do you know that feel that you're going for? Or do you just have the feel that you have at the start of the race and then you just kind of work on it? And now all of a sudden it's like, oh, this is what I was looking for.

Like, do you know what the end goal is? How to get there? Do I know how to get there? No, that's really kind of what the team does, right? They're the scientists behind all the stuff, right? I'm just the general that says, here's what I need, find what will give me that. You know, so it's, I mean, it's truly a team collaborative effort, right, to have cars that you're capable of doing, you know, what we did yesterday.

It's, um, there's a lot of people that are, that are involved in it, right? I mean, there's people at the race shop. There's that, the, you'll never see. You'll never know their names, anything. But they, you know, everyone just has a little bit of a role in what happens on Sunday. And when it all comes together, that's when you see kind of the results that we, we've kind of been on right now. How far off are you in the beginning of the race?

way. I was, I mean, hanging on for dear life to run 30th. Just weren't good. We, you know, definitely back there with that dirty air, it was, it was a challenge to say the least. I knew, you know, obviously, the closer I get towards the front, my car is going to get better. It's going to get faster, things like that. But, you know, to the magnitude, it was, you know, You know, if you're, you know, let's just let's say Nashville, for example, if you're leading the race there versus running 30th. And let's do apples to apples here. You know, three, let's call it three laps after restart. The difference in time between, you know, the speeds that you're running at Nashville is like maybe a second or so between, you know,

And that's, that's probably a bigger gap though what it actually is. You know, Michigan, it can be two seconds. You know, Pocono will be the exact same way. The car out front will run miles faster than the car in 10th. Like just because the air means that much to the race car. So Michigan, man, back there it was. it was a handful. It really was. And certainly, you know, when we practice, we don't, our cars aren't set up. You know, we don't say, okay, well, we're going to start in the back. So we've got to make

sure we do this or that. You know, you just hope that you can band-aid the thing enough to get to the front and then let it eat from there. So, you know, it was a steady climb, but honestly, you know, there was one pit stop where, you know, Chris and the team just did a really good adjustment, got me where I was comfortable. And then it took a while. I know it probably looked like on a position basis like I still wasn't moving. But I was, I knew right away it was like, okay, we're good now. You know, it's just how much time we got left. You know what I mean? So at that point, it's just a race against time and strategy of whether you can get there or not. When you're running in the back in your car is handling so poorly, are the adjustments that you have to make to get it better

for that track position the same adjustments that are going to make it good when you get towards the front or do you kind of have to like go over here to get back to here right like i got to run better in this 15th place traffic before i can adjust my car to yeah i mean in cleaner yes you certainly need something different in traffic than what you do when it's in clean air so sometimes what you'll have to do is you'll have to undo uh that you know some changes that you that you made once you get further up towards the front. Obviously, these cars, when they have all the downforce, they turn a lot better. You know, they have more grip.

And so it's certainly, yeah, it's to run back there, you certainly need something different out of your race car, is balance-wise. And that's the same for all divisions, series, tracks that are on our schedule. Nice little trophy here. It is. And I got to, I appreciate the Fire Keepers Casino folks. They, they had me out on Saturday, signed some autographs for some VIPs and to the general public there. So I did a two-hour autograph session in Michigan on Saturday at their casino and then went to their suite on race day, which was, you know, boy, I mean, talk about a jackpot for them. On the defending race winner,

won last week and then I went again on Sunday. It was like we had a personal service deal with them. Credit, credits played 11. Hey, was that always like that? I don't know. I assume they put a sticker on there after you won because like I assume that it wouldn't say. I don't think so, Chad. Wow. Oh, is this the signs? Charlie would say the signs. You're going to need a bigger table because these trophies you've been bringing out. lately are pretty big. I know. That's a great problem to have.

God, I love filling up that thing. Like, Kansas is this little like paperweight and got these massive trophies. I love the big ones. When did you know on Sunday, okay, I'm in this race and I've got a shot? So I think the defining moment of our race was the end of stage two. We came in, took four tires. when all this was right after the wreck when we spun out all right come in take four tires we made a mat I looked

it was a um about a 20 lap run and we went from 25th to 8th that was the key that was the whole race for us right there I mean I don't know if it was the whole race but it was a big factor and now being part of the picture for stage three. And it's funny is because towards the end of there, Jared's like, he's going to get to P7. I'm like, there's no way he gets a P7. I wonder, Travis, if we were watching the race.

That was probably the more than likely when the competition was like, there's a carback intent that is fission hauling ass. Yeah. We were rolling. I said, Travis, they must not be showing Denny on TV. they weren't a lot and then like I put on second TV your in your onboard camera on HBO but problem is that's like a lap behind and so it's just kind of hard to monitor both you could just

see there was just there's that that packer cars in front of you was Zane Bubba and Kosafar was in it 22 and it was just like you're just fat clearly faster than this group of cars when we made that last charge I knew that that was like that told me me I had the speed. That now put me in a position to where, all right, we now are inside the top 10. We haven't known one pit stall. We're probably going to gain, you know, we got it full of fuel because we pitted during that wreck. So now we don't have to wait on gas. So we're probably going to pick up a couple positions. So now I'm go, let's just say, I'm thinking in my head, we're going to go from eighth to six. Sixth, oh, I can win from there in one stage, right? And so

that I just think that drive at the end of stage two was was the moment where it was that was the spot that put us in contention and then I think you know early on that final stage there was a couple restarts you're like okay those cars you've got it on the restarts in their short run too yeah yeah we were we were definitely good on the restarts um really second half of the race when the car was good um you know I could make you know good good time on restarts. There were, you know, there were some where I would get a little pinned on the bottom and, you know, a little bound up, but nothing that, you know, sometimes you have to choose down there. And, you know, the numbers just support it, you know, the gaining of the rows.

Everyone wanted to be on top, obviously, for options and the momentum that you get down the back stretch and front stretch. So, but yeah, I thought we made the best of it. Hey, everybody, it's Dellenhart Jr. and there is no better way to support Denny Hamlin. than wearing actions detrimental gear at the racetrack. You can also flip him the bird or head on over to shop.dirtymodemedia.com to see what we have. The key moment was obviously, a key moment in the race was obviously the nine and the 20 wreck,

but the pit stop before that were... Was that the key moment or the big wreck on the restart? Like the host for all. I think they're both for massive moments for you. I mean, I don't know how you spun out and didn't do anything like hit anything. Yeah, well, I knew, so I could see why I was spun backwards. I was about to back into the wall.

And so I turned the car the other way to just spin in front of traffic because I figured that wall can't move. The cars that are coming at me have had the ability to move. So my best option was to swerve where the cars were coming and then hope that everyone made evasive moves, which they did. One of them was Alston Dillon who swore. who swerved and miss me and then here's Reddick coming across the track. Yeah. Denny Bros. Curse?

No, that's not on us. That's not on the Denny Bros. The Denny Bros. put a fast car out there on Sunday. It was good. Yep. I don't know. Was that Reddick's first DNF of the season? And the only race he was carrying the Denny Bros.

On his name rail. I wonder... What do we have to do to find... Well, I wonder if it knocked the Buckeye I put it on the car off. You didn't put one on there. What do I do to get the name rail? Is there any chance?

Or they got to reuse that part? We know Rambo is an avid listener. Maybe he'll get that for you. Rambo. What's your pitch right now? Yeah. I mean, you got to offer him something. Call me Rambo.

All right. Okay, okay. What do you make of that restart wreck? I mean, you had kind of, you had a front seat to host of our, but, you know, Dale mentioned it could have been up front. Are we talking about the hosts for a one? Yeah, yeah. I mean.

And we heard your radio, too. I just was not shocked. I mean, I was starting right behind him. I knew what he was going to do. I didn't know he was going to make contact that early. Yeah, they mentioned that, I heard him mention that, over the lane checked up I'll have to look at that I

I didn't see anyone really checking up did the inside lane get a great restart no but I don't think anyone was checking up everyone from my standpoint appeared to be in the gas

wide open I thought Carson was just trying to get a run and stick go three wide bottom and misjudged is what I thought originally in the moment. Now, it could have been because the inside line was, there's a couple things,

right? He knows he can't pull out to the start, finish line. So he is trying to time a run to stick the 42, three wide, and pull out as soon as he can. So I think he had it, you know, in his mind, he was going to do that. And he knew he had to wait to after the start, finish line. So he didn't want to break momentum. So when he got to, you know, he got. to the start finish line he hangs the left but the road's not going fast enough like you have to check up like if your line checks up

you have to check up with it like it's not just oh sorry you guys checked up I'm choosing not to like that that's you didn't really give I think the guys in front of you much of a chance in that scenario

I just sent his onboard to our group check or group text yeah i mean i saw it you know he says he was trying to go left and um i i know he's trying to go left but like when the cars are not going the speed that you expect them to go you have to match that a little bit um and i just think that he was not willing to break his momentum and i think he was willing to say whatever happens happens that's my opinion you. Well, fortunately for you, you didn't get, you didn't get any damage. Well, yeah, I was weird because I slowed up and I looked. And even in my rear view, the seven checked up, but then it was like he gassed

and ran into the back of me and spun me out. I couldn't figure out with from Daniel. I was like, oh, he just must have been late to the brakes. And I looked. I was like, no, no, he was on the brakes. And then he wasn't. Um, there were, do you see that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Like I was there, so you can't go through me. But I don't know, man. It was wild. I thought we were fine. Just the field could avoid a lot more wrecks. If they stopped trying to like drive through it like Days of Thunder, there's nothing to be gained, folks. Like just hold your line and slow down. You'll miss more wrecks by doing that than saying, oh, I'm going to hit this. gap. Like, or I'm going to try to speed up and turn left before he gets, no, just slow down. Just, that's all you have to do. Slow down.

You're not gaining anything. So just chill. But man, some guys are like obsessed with like hitting a hole in the middle of a car is spinning out. And I don't know what they're doing. Counterpoint. All the cars that seemingly were in the back bumpers of other cars, cost them cleanly. Because because if you knock the guy in front of you, the way it clears a path.

What do you make of Hoseva? We saw a lot of drivers critical after the race. Like it seemed like he just was going for, like, even tested afterwards. Like, he's on kill at the beginning and then he has a hard time, like, turning it off and just racing. Well, I just see visually that it appears he gets very excited. and very emotional. Like, you know, when they show in cars from a truck race that he's running or something, and, like, you see his head and he'll start shaking and, like, you know, nodding.

And, like, it was like, whoa, this guy is really emotional. And so I think that, listen, it's not up to me to be his dad, but, like, he's just hurting himself truthfully. I think I'm fine with him. You know, Dale Jr. says, don't change. For TV people, we love it. We need chaos like this. I agree. TV would love it.

The competitors, you know, yeah, it's very, very agitating. And again, you just never know when you think you got that opportunity to win, and it goes away because you get race a little hard and stuff like that. But if you're him. But, you know, he's just, he's really just hurting him. You know, I'm watching the racecraft. And like, if you had a bar of like, like, you were racing the NASCAR game and it's like, how good are you at short tracks, intermediate, super speedways, speed, qualifying, racecraft.

The racecraft bar is really low. It's really, really low. And what I'm seeing is that, you know, while it seems probably like in the, moment for him he's making the right moves it's he's just killing his own momentum he's just he's hurting himself um and i think he's costing himself far more spots than what he's actually gaining is he costing himself though because like oh yeah you guys talk like everyone says like they're not going to help and whatever but like i never seen anybody really no i'm not talking about costing himself like oh someone's going to wreck him i'm saying he is not optimizing his car's performance

i i believe that i believe i truly believe if he would just take a chill pill he would be way better off than what he is right now. Like you're saying he's overdriving it. Oh, a lot. I think that was the thing is he really wanted this race too. I understand it, but that's where you can't, if you were going to live on emotional drivers do not do well in the Cup series. That's a fact. But to my point though, so that makes sense, but like all these drivers say I'm like not helping him are like,

you're going to race harder when you're around him, but aren't you doing that anyway? So like until someone actually does something, like I feel like you guys are talking a big game. I'm not, not you specifically, but just the drivers in general. I have no issue. I have no issue because he's only hurting himself. Now, he hasn't run into me directly yet, right? If that happens, then, you know, we'll deal with that. You know, it always works itself out in the wash, you know, especially with me.

But, you know, I got no problems. I'm not going to interrupt the competition while they're making mistakes. All right. Well, still speaking of Hosevar because it transitioned to this next topic. Well, the only other Hosevar blip on your radio was right before that Elliott Bell incident. He shoved it in there or went. three wide with you and Larson. Man, that was the almost, that was the one where I was like, man, come on.

Like, there's a corner, right? If, you know, some of the moves, and SVG did it a couple times last week at Nashville, Harris-Svar as, you know, doing it quite a bit, if you have no intentions of holding the bottom, then you shouldn't make the move, right? That's, that's my stance on it, is that if you can't, if you can't make the corner, don't enter with that speed. Now, there's times where you're racing 1 v1, you're racing for a win, all those things, it happens.

But just generally speaking, it just puts your competition in a tough spot. And then in exchange, what you do is you're going to get put in tough spots, right? People will not be too shy about sticking you in a really tough spot on a restart when you're struggling and you're on two tires and you need a break and things like. that. But yeah, that one was a close one for me because I was, Larson got a bad run off the backstretch or off turn two. I went three wide, bought, you know, I tried to beat him to the bottom and it turned three. And then the 77 came from way back and jammed in there. And so I wanted, well, first I didn't want to get crashed. So I'm in the five's door and then boom,

that 9 and 20 wreck and was like, holy cow, man. That was just, that was for my seat, that's as bad as hard as you can hit. Yeah, yeah. Did you see Larson's onboard from that wreck? I did. With Bell's window. So did his windshield crack or something? Who?

Marston. On the right side? Larson. No, it took off his in. It took off the antenna and that's what killed the camera. Oh, I thought there was a piece of debris that went through his... No, it was just the window come flying and it hit his antenna. Okay.

I got you. It didn't hit the window. So did he have car damage from that wreck? A little bit on the roof, but nothing... Okay. Huh. I mean, it could have been... But enough of an impact that he knew I was just impacted with something, right?

It clearly didn't just clip the antenna. Yeah, you can feel stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, massive... massive impact. And unfortunately, Bell gets the worst of it here, right?

Yeah. And it was so unique and odd because usually in that position where the nine was at, usually that's a tight position and not a loose position aerodynamically with these cars. And so, you know,

there is a bump over there in three and four, maybe hit that bump and it upset the race car. But that was while we usually don't see someone really getting loose under someone in these next-shend cars. So that was just an odd, odd wreck. And then, boy, if you're Bell, how surprised are you? Right. You look at the end car. It's just out of nowhere.

And there's zero time to react, right? So, man. I imagine it's even difficult to get your hands off the wheel right before you make impact with the wall. And that's where most of the damage can get done. I mean, if you don't get your hands, that's why you see on when drivers know they're going to hit the wall, they usually tuck their arms in. People used to make fun of Danica Patrick for doing that, but it's the fucking smartest thing you can do. Because when the tires hit whatever they hit in your hands, you know, how you usually hold the wheel, your thumbs are in there. That wheel has no mercy. It's going to spin one way or another. And those spokes on those wheels,

will absolutely just kill a hand. So yeah, there's no, you got to think that there's just no time to react. And I certainly wouldn't have been able to react in the amount of time that C. Bell got hitting the door and then hitting the wall. Yeah, I mean, testament to NASCAR on all the safety improvements have made over the years. You look at Bell's car and it's like, it's like that same when you're in a fight. It's like you should see the other guy. Well, the other guy being the wall is just.

destroyed. We drove by there leaving the track and I'd like driven up there just like look at it a little bit and it was I mean it's just like concaved in it's not it's wild it is absolutely wild and so yeah I mean you got to give props to NASCAR on and I've always felt so blessed to get in the sport when I did right it was right after the Hans and the safer barriers and things like that and you know talk to you're listening to some of the guys like Michael Walter who's like yeah man these walls used to be concrete freaking hurt you know and I just could not imagine hitting concrete walls like those guys did back in the days and now again what's a little bit different um is that their cars had a little bit

more crush in it versus what the next gen car has you know that was one of the biggest scripes that the drivers had at the beginning of the next gen was, man, these thing, the car doesn't crush, the walls barely crushed. So what crushes? We're the weakest link in this thing. So NASCAR made a bunch of changes to the chassis. They cut it all up to make it crush, which actually defeats the whole purpose of the model of the next gen. So, but it's, but yeah, You thank your lucky stars, and there's been some big next-gen crashes that hasn't resulted in injuries or significant injuries that we're all definitely very lucky to be a part of this era of the series that is as safe as it's ever been. I'm still amazed how you guys, you know, you have this red flag. And then you know, though, when the green flag drops, you guys are all just going to send it into turn one as if that never happened.

You guys' ability to just not like think and worry about that. Yeah, you just, it's just the racer mentality. It's, you know, the next corner is the most important one. Dirtymo Media has a new show coming out, This Cowboy Life. It's featuring Tiffany and Jerome Davis. They are the PBR's royal couple, and you won't want to miss it. Here's the trailer. Bring the energy.

Wake up. I can tell that through all these stories, you know, your world championship, I know that in your head you've always said, I'm going to be a podcast for one. You know, I hope that at the end of the day, that it'll bring somebody that hasn't really been around this life that we live, and it brings them to a whole new world. And somebody will say, dang, maybe them cowboys ate so bad after all. I think if you can bring some smiles. I love to hear Jerome's stories and just how he carries himself. So I'm all about if people can get a grin out of it, if they can smile a little bit.

What's it going to be like Jerome to have Tiffany as a co-host to a podcast? Whoa, man. See, this gift of gab I have, maybe it'll come in a little handy on this deal. If I'd keep Tiffany quiet every now and then, so she'll let me talk, we'll be in good shape. The only bad thing is I'm going to have to hear your stories that I've heard. A hundred million times I'm going to have to hear them another time. And they just get better every time. Yeah, they do get a little more added into them every time.

I don't know why she puts up to me and why she helps living this life that we go through, but she does and she's awesome. As far as 14th, 1998, from when you open the gate to when you get hit, what do you remember from that? The bull I had that night was knocking out John, and I'd been on him before, and he had hit me in the face in Vegas one time. So I knew that I had to really stay over the front end and try not to lay him hit me in the face. As it worked that night, he got me rock back and hit me in the face and knocked me out. When he did, I dove in the ground, broke my neck. Went from being at the top of my game to the worst part of my life.

You know, all happened within a gate opening at a bull riding. I was as mad at God because I was like, why, did you do this to Drone? He's a good guy. You needed him on your team out here. We were supposed to be getting married in May. Right after I got hurt, I was at the hospital, and I told T.F, I said, I don't think this is going to work.

you need to, we need to regroup. This is not the trail you need to be going down. And if she would have left that day, I wouldn't blame her. You know what I mean? And I never would have said a bad word about her. I never gave thought about leaving. That wasn't an option because I still had drum. I couldn't talk her into it.

So I was kind of glad she hung around. I'll be honest. I lived through it and it just made me tougher. And I was able to make a pretty good living at the sport. It's been good to me. When I look around and see, you know, everything that's here today, it all comes from the love of the sport. I mean, everything I wanted to do had to do with being a cowboy.

What is going on with your birds over there? You just messed this whole shot. I'm going to redo it, but I could the birds miss the whole shot up. Not me. I thought we'd get rid of get attacked. You're like that dog. I thought the birds was coming after us. There were so many of them.

Just stay focused. it's going to really bring a new light to what this cowboy life's really about. I think the stat that I thought was crazy to hurt is this is your 50th race with Gail and your ninth win. Yeah, great win percentage. We can keep that up. Everything would be great. Everything would be great. It's certainly one of the best runs we've ever been on. If you keep that win percentage up, you may be racing past 2027. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't think that this is quite sustainable for the long haul. I think we better enjoy it in the short run. Back to win number 63, though. Have you had any more time to reflect on this number in the moments after leaving the track? Yes. I mean, certainly it moves you up the totem pole, just another one position. right? You know, this is where it's going to end. You know, I'll end up ninth on the list when it's all said and done. But it's just significant because, you know, for all of my

cup career, it was like, Calbush wins, Cowbush wins, Cowbush wins, Cowbush wins. And then it's like, wow, I was able to win that much, you know. And so the longevity of it certainly helps. You know, this is almost, you know, this weekend will be, it was almost, what, four days from being 20 years apart from my first win. So, you know, that's probably to me that the proudest accomplishment is just being able to honestly say in year 20 something, I think 21 or so, that it's as good as I've ever been. So that's that's to me the most proud I am. I mean, I'll never forget. Everyone on social media wanted me fired in 2018. They thought it was washed up eight years ago.

They're lucky I wasn't around. I don't know. You might not have been around, Trave. There wasn't much there were for it. There weren't many bros around 2018 when I wasn't winning or didn't win a race. Yeah. So that's why you can't let those folks get to, What I love the most, they have no idea what they're doing.

When I look and just, that damn car is cheated up, there's no way. On a lawsuit, that's why the car so fast. It's, it's, y'all are making me believe that I'm doing things that you think are impossible. That is awesome. And it, you're just, it's making me more confident. So I love it. But what's crazy, though, is that, like, Jimmy's still got, like, 20 more wins. Where the hell was your comments back then?

Like, oh, that car ain't cheated. Like, there's eight more guys on the list that have more wins. Was there a shit up all the time? I don't know. When it was much easier to. It just, I think they've got fatigue. I get it. I totally get it.

But just looking back on the last five weeks, right, Texas, you finish second to Elliott. You had a chance to win that one. Then we go to a road course, might as well have been an off week. And then Coke 600. Should have won. If they hold the caution for three more seconds, you probably win that in the rain delay. Be three in a row. Right.

All-star race. I forgot that one. Actually, four in a row. Four in a row. All-star race. Nashville. And heck, Pocono next week. I don't know what to tell you, bud.

You know what's on the line next week if you win. What's that? Do you remember our agreement? Nope. Denny Burr's sticker goes on my car. Oh. No, I thought if we win this week. No, it was to win three in a row.

Check the tape. I don't think so. I think if we won this weekend. I thought it was three in a row. Jared was, they were, Nico and him are recording. If it was recorded, then the report, then the tape. We need to roll the tape on that. I think if he's, if I won this weekend, I, I think it was.

I don't, yeah, I don't think it was three in a row. I thought it was three in a row. Be prepared. Clean the Kia. Back to your 63 and you keep talking about the next spot is Dale senior at 76, but it's like you, if you, just not enough time. Okay, but why worry about 76 and not make the goal 70? You keep talking about 76. Like, you can still get higher up.

I mean, God, dang, that seems like such a far-fetched number, but I get it. Not as not the way things are going. I don't know. I just, this has got to end at some point. Does it? Nope. I think he's hedging.

Maybe I just get better. I think the thing is, though, is you are a little, like, superstitious and that you don't want to jinx yourself because you kept saying you can't catch Redick, but people can catch you. And that's what it is. That's exactly it drives. I like to under promise and over deliver.

That is my mantra. So you mentioned, you said no mercy earlier talking about something else, but you're the restart at the end. What's going through your mind there where you have Swares and Hosevar? Restart merchant. Huh?

The restart merchant. Me? Yeah. these last one and a half weeks. I know. Yeah. Feels good. I'll be honest with it. It feels real good. So what I'm thinking is I, if you look, I go into turn three. On the high side, I'm, I got someone to my bottom. Maybe Byron. Yeah. Right. Biron. He's taken up the bottom. The leaders are side by side entering turn three. I knew these guys were, would, would,

we're going to stay side by side. So what I tried to do is you got to think corners ahead, straightaways ahead, especially on tracks like this. So I just wanted to back up my entry. I thought that if I got a good run off, I could clear the 24. And it's just they got bogged down. So if you remember last week when me and Bell, now we were kind of stuck together off the turn four.

when Briscoe got that huge run. I was trying to do the same thing that like Briscoe was doing, which was, hey, these guys are going to just slow each other down. Let me work on getting the best run off that I possibly can. So I didn't think the run would be that big.

So I backed the corner up. I get to the gas quick, clear Byron, and at that point, they're still side by side. I'm like, okay, I'm probably going to be about five miles an hour faster than them

coming off the corner. At this point, I'm just going to push the seven by the 77, and then I'll fight the seven, because I didn't want to get stuck on the bottom. But when I started catching them, I'm like, I'm running fast enough. I might, might be able to clear them. And if I don't, I'll give it another run. I have 40 laps to give this thing another shot. Like it's not like the do or die moment. You know, worse comes to worse. I get stuck three wide bottom. They both go back on the outside. Maybe Byron goes back by me. Maybe. But I just, I wasn't worried about it because I knew the car had had the speed. And I knew there

was enough time on the clock left. So it's just when I come off the corner, I'm looking and I'm like, I'm running fast enough. If they stay close to each other down the front straightaway, I could clear. And it just, it just was barely enough. When you're in third and you see the 77 and the seven battling for the lead? Are you kind of just like licking your chops? Like, oh, yeah, I'm getting both. Knowing how hard they're going to race each other for that position. Not really. I think anyone, I didn't see where they really raced each other that hard. I truly don't. I mean, especially you're inside the last fuel window and you're racing for a win. I mean, was it harder than me and Seabell were racing each other? I don't think so. So I know Carson

mention that, you know, the seven was really tough on them, but like everyone's trying to get to the lead and they know whoever can get to the lead has, has, you know, the big speed advantage. So I didn't think any, either one of them did anything wrong. Were you always going to go below Hostfire once you made it? Because it looked like you might try to shoot the gap and then Hostvar kind of came up. Or is that just as natural? I thought if there was any, there was one chance of wrecking and that was trying to go in the middle of those two guys. I was not going to come better.

Because it looked like it just from the vanus point, and then you just went below. I wanted to push Daniel, but I realized pretty quickly my run is so big I have a chance here if I just make the move. And so I just thought it was worth the risk, and obviously it was just enough to clear. And then as soon as I went in to turn one and went through that corner, I knew, oh boy, they're in trouble. I think TV said it too. And I watch, you're like, oh boy.

So it's just we're, you know, we out front into these races, we were fast. Well, TV, I think they were wondering what your car would do on the long run because they haven't seen it. But then Dale starts reading off the times and it's like nobody's even close to you on lap times. Yeah. And again, I mentioned it about Pocono that the leader has a tremendous advantage at this racetrack just like a Pocono. The difference in Pocono is there's only one lane. So that the advantage of the leader is far magnified at Pocono than what it is at Michigan. So at that point, all I'm trying to do is get a big enough gap.

So if you look, I took the lead. Then I'm like, I just hold that lead for a minute. And I just thought, you know, my car is good. if I let him if I let him think he can get there he don't need to have that kind of confidence you know just just pull out and sometimes the competition will just wave the flag

saying I ain't getting there you know there's no way and so you just it's a mental game of once you can once you stretch out the guy who then gets the second It's like, all right, I need just hold second because I can't catch that one. You know what I mean? So there's just that's part of it.

And I wanted to take advantage of that. Plus, you're getting out, you're not giving them a draft anymore if you pull away. So there's lots of different reasons for it. What else? What else from Michigan? What else did you take away from midnight to 4 a.m.? One of my takeaways is Richard Childress is still pretty. damn witty.

Who in this room's eyes are closest together? Yeah. Who's this closer mine are his? I get, see, it's not fair because I have a really tiny head. What do you mean? It's not fair.

My, well, I guess the whole point of the eyes are close is that you have a small brain. Right. Yeah. And that's what Richard's saying is that. And I guess if you look this up,

it it is it does say something about if your eyes are close it it could be a sign of underdeveloped i do love that rc's got an open mic it's just the guy has got liners like that i dream about you know i i always love a punchline or a jab here and there but rc nobody can do it like that guy it's just amazing it's still at his age he's got them well you have a Open mic. Does it say? Does it say anything about eyes that are closed underdeveloped brain? Clinical indicator of underlying neurodevelopmental anomalies. Oh, and by the way, the tear down with Jeff and Jordan, yes, Jeff, your eyes are definitely further apart than Jordans. Jordans are closer together than yours. You can see that. But it's probably me. I mean, I've got a narrow nose. what do you think people my my underdeveloped? Well, the fans are definitely going to say yes.

I would agree with you. I have one last question. You are now 51 points back. Can you catch him? Oh, man. We got, was it four road course and super speedways left? I get super speedways that it could go either way. I mean, if we win every race that turns left, then yeah, we can get there.

But, I mean, he had bad, you know, it was the worst case for him. Yeah. You know, he's last and I'm first, right? I see one stage one. Yeah. Could be worse. Right, right. I mean, is it possible?

Yes. I still say it's unlikely given, given the tracks that are left. Let's reassess after Chicago. But talk about a swing. Massive. 97? No, it's a 50-point swing. If I would go from, you know, if we believe that, you know, the 45 will be one of the toughest competitors

because he's going to start with a head start, right? He's got a 25-point buffer. Flip that, right? Now you're 25 ahead, not 25 behind. It's a big, big swing. But I think he's probably going to have to get more unlucky. and I'm going to have to get, I'm going to have to do,

pull something out of my ass at San Diego and Sonoma. But maybe Sonoma's not completely awash, right? Like you've, you've driven Sonoma 40 times. It hasn't mattered. Yeah, we just don't know. Again, if,

truthfully, if you would say, I'll give you 15th both races, I certainly would take it and just move on and try to make hay other places. But that's the downside of being a Dennybro. You guys are going to have to take a few weeks off. Speaking of the Denny Bros, do we want to mention what we're working on here for Richmond? Oh, yeah.

You booked that campsite yet? Not yet. Richmond people listen to this. Richmond people. Yeah. You need a, you need a couple campsites. Yeah,

we, we, yeah, we need the folks, we need Lori, uh, track president at, uh,

Richmond to get us a couple campsites. Um, in the fan area. Yeah, yeah, we want to be in the heart of it. Absolutely. And we're gonna,

we'll get the RV all that, you know, I don't, don't, don't be thinking you're going to be in, you know, a provost, nice motorhome.

Well, that's fine. You're, If we're talking about, you're going to be living in the elements. That's fine. I might even shut the hot water off. But what we're thinking is that the Dennybro should have a campsite at Richmond. Yes.

And Jared should shoot the content to see what we got. Me, Ronnie and Scotty. Yeah. Alex. You know what you, you know, I got an idea. Charlie? I got an idea. What?

Okay. Travis has a table set-offs. You know the guy with the coffee mug? Debate me? Dennie is the greatest. What does he say? Prove me wrong. And people can come up and have a one-on-one debate with Traff.

I'm here for it. Oh, that would be so good. So good. head. So, Lori, if you can make that happen, get us a campsite. A couple campsite. We got to need like a, we need a little compound. And I want to say, we need a compound.

If I'm staying there, I need, I need a, I need a, I'm staying there too. I need a, I told Jared he had to stay there. If he's going to be, you can't just shoot content when it's convenient for you in the middle of the day. Yeah. The nights where the things are going to get exciting. Yeah. I just need like, I just need an adjacent tent space because no, you sleep in a tent in the

middle of a desert. Right. I got no problems with that. I just want it not next to not in the same RV as when it's 3 a.m. You want your own RV? No, no, no, tent spot. I want to set up my tent next to their RV. Oh, you want to have a tent. Yes, yes. Oh, hell yes. Done. I want my own room. I don't want to be bunking with Trav and Ronnie and Scotty. It's the only request. Oh, it's going to be awesome. We got to make it happen. Uh, Corey Heim. He, wins the truck race rather exciting. Caden Honeycutt made a strong run that last couple laps, but that was a fun race to watch.

It's just like if I had a truck race that I think I might sign up for, it would be like Michigan because it just really looks fun and really momentum-based and drafting and when do you pull out a line and make the move when you think you can clear. pretty much dominated by Sebel, Hosevar they were working together for a while trying to pull away from the pack

it looked like along with Corey and Seabell and Lane Riggs. He was really fast again as well so exciting truck race. Cory Homb wins another one. Get thicker skin, Caden Honeycutt.

That's what he says. I didn't hear what So I must not have heard what Caden said. He must have said it in the media scrum, not on TV. Because I didn't hear anything that Caden said on TV that would have made me think he was mad at Corey, but I think he must have said it during the scrum. When they were digging into the,

when they were journalists were digging in there, like, do you think that's okay? You know, they find a way to get, you to say what they really want you to say. And so he must have said something. And then what do those media members do? They run right to Corey says, he said this.

We think about that. You know, that's journalism 101. You know, who would be a really good media member? Charlie. Oh, no doubt. The puppet master. He'd be an amazing. Yeah, because he'll go to one person and say,

you know what this guy said about you? Yeah, he started the whole 45. thing. I know. He acts like he's, you know, just an observer. Oh, no, no, no. He knows how to stoke both fires. Yes. And then get the fires to fight each other. And then he backs out. Yeah. Oh, I'm just, just, you know, just watching guys. Just watching. San Diego on Friday, June 19th, check out Dirty Mo Live, presented by the U.S. Navy at the NASCAR experience stage 1045 a.m. local time. Ryan Blaney is headlining. Ryan Blaney, he's a TV frontman on Prime.

You should watch the NASCAR thing? I haven't watched it yet. I haven't watched that and I haven't watched the Larson Double, but I hear both are really good. Don't watch the end of the Larson Double. Why? Just trust me on it. Okay.

I want to, though. I hear it's really good. When they cut the credits just end it there. little extra just don't watch that part. Well, now, now I need to go back and watch it. It ends in Phoenix. Oh,

I'm trying to. God, that's brutal. Ryan Blaney is headlining. It's going to be awesome. And on Saturday, June 20th, the Dale Jr. down there presented by Arby's and the U.S. Navy will be live from NASCAR Victory Lane Stage 5.30 p.m.

local, two shows, one weekend. San Diego, get there, or check it out from home on Dirty Mo's YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts. On the Pokemon. Review here from Get Motivated, 1994.

Congrats on the win. So Dale Jr. is going to double the purse, right? You know, actually, I had an interesting, not interesting, but I had a message with O'Donnell after Nashville. and I'm like, it would be, it would be cool to offer, like, 10 extra points.

If you start last, like, I'm wondering, would you... No owner would ever say yes to their driver doing it. You don't think? For 10 extra points? Would you let one of your drivers do it? I guess here's what you're thinking, though. Man, I'm going to lose that in the stages alone. Yeah.

You have to make it more. Right. You would have to make it a little more. Yeah. I mean, it's already 15, right? More than it was last year. Yeah. I would say if you... I think it just depends on the track.

Like, what we're talking about, folks, I know you... Is that, like, offering the poll sitter or maybe the front row, the first two cars offer them every week, hey, if you choose to go to the rear, put on a show for us, you win this race. It's a bonus. and some of some sort. And if it's not monetary, then it's, you know,

points. Like you, and then it's, that would be a interesting storyline to follow throughout the entire race of the march back. What if they were chase points? So you take, you don't lose those when it reset.

So if you're going to start with 2075 and you did this, you got. No. 10 chase points. They don't want alternate standings. I'll tell you that. No. They want one.

set of standings make it really simple. It needs to be more than because 10 ain't going to... Yeah, it's just you're going to lose that in the first stage alone. You know, most likely. Yeah, usually your pollster scores a significant amount of first stage point. So, yeah, I don't know. You have to get creative, but it certainly... It's enticing.

It's enticing. It is enticing. How about this week? We just start up. And it ain't as easy as it looks, people. But when you have a car is illegal and cheated up as mine, it's so easy. Let's leave him with that. We'll see you next week.

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