Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Was Darlington Everything We Wanted, or Just Overhyped?

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Denny Hamlin breaks down a chaotic day at Darlington and all the moments that led to things going sideways during the Goodyear 400. From tire falloff and fuel strategy to the split-second decisions teams have to make, he walks through how the race really played out and why drivers ended up in tough spots. Denny also shares his side of the contact with Erik Jones, what he saw from the driver’s seat, and how quickly it can unravel at a place like Darlington when you’re pushing it that hard. He gets into pit road situations too, and how timing, communication, and just being in the wrong place can turn into a bad day fast. Beyond the incidents, Denny zooms out and talks about how the weekend felt as a whole, including what went wrong for his team, how 23XI Racing approached things, and why some cars were able to charge forward while others stalled out. It’s a mix of honesty, frustration, and real insight into how these races actually unfold from inside the car. If you want to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, this is a good one to watch. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you buying a boat this week? Another boat? No, I'm just going to look. That's what they all say. No, I'm just looking. I'm going down to Florida. Yeah. You're buying a boat.

No, no, no, no, no. I don't have enough time for it to be used properly. And plus, I'm selling my Van Dutch. I'm in the market really for two. 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 the drink and drink 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 post race 6 of 2026 which is Darlington it was a good year 400 right it was yeah very fitting you needed a lot of good year tires on your car throughout that race you know didn't

you didn't have quite the fall off that you know was projected but however we don't run the fuel tank out you know so that's the difference is you know I think about now there could be four seconds of fall off.

That's from a full tank to an empty tank. And these teams just don't really go that far. So especially with the tire allotment that you have, you definitely wanted them. There was, there's opportunities for different strategies we saw play out through this race. So why does the, why does the, how much fuel in the tank matter, how much you running? Yeah. Because you're switching, you're changing tires when you can't, when you need to change tires.

So why does, Why does the fuel matter? Well, because at some race tracks, you'll run a set of tires from when your tank is full until when your tank is empty. And at Darlington, the tires wear out so quickly that you never run a full tank of gas. Right. You know, like run it out to where your tank is empty, essentially. So you're, you're, because it's time to pit for tires.

Right. Now, you could, like, we could all go 10, 15 laps longer than what we actually did, but it's just not optimal for breaking up the stage lengths and things like that. That makes any sense. So, I know it's hard to follow. It's just the team does a math equation during, let's say, stage one, stage two, stage three, that, okay, this stage is 90 laps. Then they'll fill. figure out, okay, with this big tire fall off, is it best for us to break it up into 30, 30, 30, or is it best to break it up into 45, 45? Right? What I'm saying is we actually could go far longer, but that just the math of the gap that the new tires will make up on you, remember stage one for me?

Like I went all the way back, had to, you know, ended up a net negative two on our, on our strategy there. It just was an education process for us to like, okay, well, Going super long was not that beneficial for us, but we didn't have a car like 45 either. What if NASCAR said you were giving you less sets of tires? I don't think we need to mess with kind of what we're at the highest form of auto racing in the U.S. I mean, shorting us tires, I don't think so. But does not make the driver then have to be better? Yes.

But then don't you take the team aspect of it out? a little bit, you know, because they're the ones coming up with the strategy of when to use their allotted set. And I guess they would do it with less sets, too. I see your point, but I don't know. We usually run out of tires at the end of these races anyway. So NASCAR keeps track of how many sets of tires we historically use at all these racetracks and try to keep it to where we don't have any excess tires. But because there weren't many cautions.

That's a great point, too. Had we had one or two other cautions, we would be out of tires at the end. So, you know what I mean? Yeah, you just, I mean, good and bad. I guess a good thing is you have a lot of clean driving, which shows the skills of your drivers. The bad thing is then you don't get these restarts and, you know, the stops. Yeah.

There's a lot of talk about was this race overhyped, but how did you feel as a driver in the car? Was this Darlington different than previous? Not a lot. it was some but but not a lot um i could uh like the arrow and the horsepower change were equal to me in what i felt different and it was a you know a very small change as it as it was the downforce is a bigger change than what the horsepower was but um it you know it wasn't that different uh still hard to pass still a very narrow racetrack where he can't get out of the wake of the

the cars around you. But I thought what was encouraging about it is very similar last week at Las Vegas. Good cars drove from the back to the front. And that's what we've been asking for, right? I mean, we shouldn't have a problem with what we saw. If you saw on the tear down, I guess that the crowd would say 68% on the good race polls. It looks like it's a little higher than that. good that that means that you know the overall vibe is more positive than not so he's seven right now

because that's that's this is what we wanted we knew that hey more horsepower less down force lots of tireware you're going to have cars dominate because somebody will hit that rubic's cube just right and 2311 did Jared I will I'll answer your question though and yes I think had Denny you and some other drivers not been as vocal of what, I think fans heard that and were like, we're going to get Bristol. And I think expectations were a little higher. Well, I'll tell you this.

Had I known my car was going to drive the way that it drove, I would have not given those warnings. But obviously our simulation was a lot of. You know what I mean? when everyone was talking about and I think the RFK guys Chris Boucher was talking about it as well that man this thing is it's hard to make a lap and sim and sim I agreed I agreed with that it was it was wild but um yeah they teams figure it out they tweak it they get a little better drivers get used to driving it and next see you know we have a pretty normal Darlington race

other than I thought passing was a little better this time around. So does that mean that teams over-dunk themselves out of the race coming into the weekend? Could be. Could be. Because like you said that you guys were kind of off on Saturday. When is Denny Hamun ever off at Darlington? Well, it's, you know, we have such a good notebook there and I have such a feel of that track and knowing what I need. I knew on Saturday we do not have what I need.

This is not it. And to me, it's always, I try to explain it in our text. This is the 50-50 rule I have. The 50-50 rule is 50% of your success is going to be dictated by what the team brings to the racetrack. The other 50% is going to be dictated by what changes you make between Saturday and Sunday. and like 100% car that is a dominant nobody can touch it just absolutely you lead every lap you know you can win races pretty easily with a 95% car you typically win races with a 90% car 85% car 85% you start needing help like uh that's a top 5 car but it's it's fringe you know you start getting down to 80 70

that's barely in the top 10. And so we had, you know, where like I thought what we predicted was probably like a 38%. And that's a number that's fixed and we cannot change that. Right. So that number that you, the first 50% is unchangeable. So when we came to the racetrack, which is, you know, that percentage is far lower. And in the given weekend, like when we. here's a good end for instance at Vegas we unloaded with the entire 50% right so then it's like okay

as long as we tweak it and make the correct adjustments for tomorrow we can have another 45 50% and this thing will be a rocket and it was um so when you when you're boxed in a little bit by that 38 it's like all right now our ceiling's about 88 that's still win a bull, but like it's going to be tough because there's just some things that we wish we could go back and do a little bit different. I thought that we did a really good job overnight of getting our car, you know, certainly better. In practice, we were a 20-something place car. And we raced, you know, in the back half of the top 10 for most of the day, the best that we were was right after our crash. I think, I don't know what it knocked straight. It was unreal. It was unreal. I hit the right front so freaking hard.

My wheels clocked. I'm like, oh, man, we got toe damage. But that thing took off on that next restart. I'm like, okay, we're back in the game. So there's something to be learned there. But yeah, so I thought we had like a, I thought we had like an 84% car, which is a, that's a top five car as long as you execute correctly and it just was not going to run with the fastest of the fast because we you know again we just missed it a little bit on on the front side right but is that because of these different variables where it's like okay we got more horsepower less down force so what we did last time guys that's definitely not going to work yeah so all your all the experience and all that that i have and the feel it just i don't think

think anyone understood how much do we really believe sim when it says we're just spinning out all that like do we really believe that or are we going to have to really put our finger in the air and guess and it was and we all had an educated guess of where we need to be and i thought that we just you know the 11 car specifically and again i'm driving the ship so i'm i sent them in this direction that was not the right place to be on saturday if you can answer the but people are going to think 2311 you own how can 2311

unload fast and Denny Hamlin's car is not there like because you guys 2311 and Joe Gibbs are alliance yeah so so I don't look at like set up sheets

or anything like that that's yeah I mean again this is the the Rubik's cube of you know what colors in what place it's always different for every team certainly on any given week I don't have time to then

all right I've locked in my setup. Let me see what other people have come up with. I have done it post race before and said, okay, that person was successful with that. Let me run that. Let me see what that feels like. That probably will happen today. Better. But generally speaking, I just focus on what I need because at so many of these racetracks I have a really good understanding of the feel that I need in my car to go win and you know I just guessed in a wrong wrong direction

for for this weekend you I mean you and others because Joey Lugano I don't understand how it can be this far off I mean the balance is now somewhat drivable but it's freaking slow as I can feel Joe Ligano because I had a race like this in 2013 Michigan. I think this was the Jason Leffler car. I think this was 2013. I was last. I mean, when I say last, I might have been 33, 34, something like that. Very similar where Joey was. Lapsed down, just, I mean, could not drive the damn thing. And I mean, I was hearing ghost. I mean, I

really was. Every time I enter turn three, I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to wreck. I'm going to wreck. I got to slow down. And it's like, I don't know, it's just one of those weird weekends where you miss it. And when you miss it, you miss it horribly. I also had a weekend like this Martinsville. Man, was it? I'm trying to think it was the very first, like this. Like, the 2022 race the first time with next gen. But I... The cold night. It was cold.

Yeah. I was like five or six laps down. Legit five or six laps down, right? Jesus. Yeah. I know. It's a good thing I wasn't on this train then. It was...

April 9th, 2022. Where'd I finish? 28th, started 25th. The right front trap would like go to chords and like 30 laps. It was just horrible. And I just remember watching like William Byron. Every time he'd lap me, lap somebody else, caution would come out. And I'd just get another lap down, another lap down, another lap down.

And finally it just added up. But it happens, you know, I'm sure they want to shrug this one off. So let me, let's go back to your setup versus 2311 setup. So you're the driver of the 11 car. You're the owner of the 45, 23. 35. At what point during the week of preparation leading into Darlington, do the ship's part? Do you go, okay, I've gone this way. And 2311 has gone in whatever direction they've gone in. I'm no longer privy to whatever they're doing. Well, no, we're always privy to what they're doing. Okay. At what point are you like, as well as they know what we're doing.

Okay. At what point do you go, all right, this is the way I think we go. It starts about a week and a half to two weeks in advance. the teams will start coming up with a baseline setup. Like, here's the general shock springs weights of the car that we think is correct. And then as they run sim and simulation models, it will continue to evolve. And as they get more information, it just, it starts to evolve.

and then the drivers send the team down a certain path of here's what I want my car to do. And so I think that we probably, I wasn't aware that they were in a different place, like a far different place, a far, far away from where we were until like the weekend. but again we're all guessing so maybe we're thinking these guys are crazy there's no way that that you know that's going to work so i i don't know but it just it just happens over time and really by the middle of the week uh that the teams have decided where they're going to end up and at that point then you're just all right we need track data to validate whether what we think is right or not, and until we get track data, we're all just guessing. As you said, you were really proud of 2311 this weekend, given all the circumstances and how

the race played out. Why is that? Why are you so proud of how that team operated? Well, given the resources, and again, it's not a poor us or anything, we definitely have an amazing group of people, but think about, you know, the big teams, right? The Hendrick Penske Gibbs all have more than 400 employees. So that's a lot of resources that they have digging into. Okay, we're all guessing, but we got more minds guessing than anyone else. You know what I mean? And so when our building with 140, I think now, 140, 150 people come up with the right answer, it's like very gratifying that man we've we've hired the right people we've got the right people and the right minds working on these cars and and clearly they weren't influenced by what jGR thought

right you know they they got to see that information for weeks and weeks and we're like no that's not what we think that's i think that's impressive thing is somebody was saying they're doing that but we're firm on what we believe and what is the answer for this race and stuck to it and not going well let's jr's doing that so let's lean a little more their way like they they stood their ground on you know what they thought right yeah i mean it's just it to me it's it's proud because it's it's very easy to just well the 11 cars had success at richmond we're just going to put in his setup and we'll figure out how to drive it and we'll fine tune it for ourselves it's when you have to come up with the answer yourself from the very from scratch that's that's like wow this team is really taking

the next step are you are you ever conflicted by that like i put this 150 person team together they got the answer right but now my team the 11 team that i'm working with thinks it's something else and they didn't get it right and it's like hey guys i think the guys that i like the 2311 we should go that direction not really i mean over the law what What was 2311 saying last week when I just smoked them? Yeah, same thing. Same thing, right? It's, um, that's why this partnership and alliance works with JGR and 2311 is that I think

that is a true, true alliance where information is going directly back and forth. And if you don't think that JGR values that, you know, while they, they value this alliance because now they've got a base they've got all the information right there's like clearly that that works and that's good you know we didn't know that so that that just helps them advance and so in our early years i mean we were heavy heavily heavily reliant on JGR to like guide the ship. That's probably not even fair. We did a lot of work right from the very beginning.

But it just was very easy to look back at notes of teams that have won the previous race and use that as your starting point. Now it just seems like the alliance is really as strong as it's ever been because when we get in the room today and we talk, as seven race teams, trust me, their ears are going to be perked up listening to say, man, what can we learn from them now? I mean, it's the perfect situation for you

because if you take a test and it's multiple choice and the answer is either A or B, and you choose A and your team 2311 chooses B, you kind of win anyway. Yeah, I mean, there's some weekends though, right, where C was the answer and none of us were really that great. And that's where we're... Well, we haven't gotten that. there yet because you've won five of six. So good point. But but but but think about it when if someone

does hit it it does make it really easier. What's even better is that if the answer is C and someone still none of us know what C is we now have seven teams working on C to figure out what C is if that makes any sense. Yep. Yeah. 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. You mentioned the big three. This has been a topic past couple weeks.

Where's 2311 at? Are you knock on the door? Are you in the neighborhood? We're in the neighborhood. We're in the neighborhood. We've got the framing up. Foundation is built. the sticks are going up walls roof is soon to follow what does it take to be a part of it in your mind

long term sustained success with multiple drivers that's the simplest and easiest definition i can give you yeah because on the tear down they were talking about it and jeff's not ready to rank 2311 above i forget what penske penske or Hendrick I mean if you're talking about just this year then he's wrong if he's talking about over the course of the first six

he's right you know because we've been around for six Penske's won more races I think they've won more races they've won a couple of championships at least so Jeff is right

if we're talking about since our inception. If we're talking about 2026, then he's wrong. Another team that looked good this weekend, RFK, Roush Fenway, Kazowski. They looked like they hit it as they had, you know, one, two, three going there at one point. Yeah, I mentioned we were on our way to the track and I mentioned a tie who's like, you know,

who you think's going to be good? And I was like, I'd look out for the RFK cars. This is typically, you know, the high tireware tracks, slick tracks, Darling in particular, they've always had kind of a really good baseline there. I knew they'd be strong.

And really, you would argue, stronger than predicted. This was kind of the heights of where they were a couple years ago when Brad and Chris were, you know, battling up front. So they were all right there. And yeah, it just unfortunately ran into a buzzsaw

with that 45. So was Tyler, a 100% car, whereas the RFK Brad was more like a 90? Like, how would you assess that? No, I would think that they're probably 5% off. When I think of, and again, this is my scale and my brain that, you know, I have weird numbers, but, you know, 5% is a decent little amount. I mean, I knew when Tyler ran that 29-0 in qualifying, I was,

like, I don't know how long it's been since I've said, no chance I can get there. Like, no, no, I don't have that capability for my car to go that fast. And so that's when you kind of knew that they had something that was like, you know, really, really working in their car. And it's just they found a way to make all the tires work better than all the rest. How demoralizing is that, though, when you go, I can't do that. as a driver. Yeah, it's, it's tough, but you always have optimism of like, yeah, but we're going to get that,

we're going to get that 50% overnight. He's only going to get 40. We're going to be right there. You just hope for one little thing. Yeah. I mean, and then, and then you need them to have an alternator issues and somehow not make it back to the front. I mean, unreal to stop. You get to put a battery in there and, yeah.

Yeah, were you aware of that the struggles that he had? I was aware that both the 2311 cars had issues. But you caused some of them. I did? Yeah, we'll get there. Oh. I'm just going to play dumb and see how long it works. I just knew that I saw Bubba when I was leaving the pit stall one time,

somewhere around 6th or 7th, and he was, I knew he was in front of me, but he was still sitting in his pit stall. I was like, oh, they've got issues. And then the 45, I wasn't aware of his, to the totality of his issues. I didn't know if he was on the lead lap or not. But surprisingly, I wasn't around the 45 much. Like, we were always like going in opposite directions when we were near each other. Yeah.

Yeah, that's why our car is so good. We'll just come down pit road, change batteries, and we'll get back up front. big deal. Yeah. Let's get into this, this contact with Eric Jones here. What did you see from your, I saw his back bumper. So Eric had a moment off a turn two, and he had just passed me. I had let him go, like, no need to fight. So I let him go, and then he had a big moment off turn two. Well, and I had, I put together a pretty good lap, and I was like, okay, maybe if I just drive this damn thing, right, like I'll have some speed. out of it. Well, Eric, he had a pretty big moment off to, I'm coming down the back stretch with a

run. And I'm like, all right, I'm going to go low and then try to jump in there low and hard. Entries that were my strongest suit of the weekend is charging entry. Well, everyone's preferred line was the wall in three and four. So everyone was running up. And even the lap before he had run up the racetrack. And I'm like, okay, I'm just going to go in really hard. really low and try to get beside him. Well, he went low, which he had all the right to because he's in front of me. So he dictates where to run. And I just flat out, drove in so hard that then I locked my brakes up.

And if you hear the engine stall, it's because my rear tires were off the ground trying to stop. And when I did, it just, it shot me dead ass into them. You know, I just, I told him, I was like, bro, I just, up and overdrove the corner. That's all I can tell you is that I thought you were going high. I thought you were going to go high, so I was going to go low. And then when you were right there low with me, I just, I drove in way too deep for a car to be right there in front of me. And so certainly my fault on that one.

The Bubba fans are not happy with you. So I'm confused. Bubba ran in the back of me. After I hit him, he ran into me. so did he get in the wall same as I did I didn't again I didn't see because I was in the wall yes but again it didn't look like I don't know what was what was Bubba's final issue there Travis because again I would have thought you had you had gotten the most most damage I hit the wall hard I just know that immediately came to pit road so well I hit when I hit Eric and got

up I thought I was like, all right, I'll be okay. And then Bubba came in there late and got in the back of me. Yeah. But again, he probably had the same issue where he was like trying to stop for this wreck that's happening and probably locked him up. But he must have known that something was broken or something was wrong. Yeah. To go from the wall after. Yeah. The middle of turn three there, right to pit road. You've got to know immediately that you've got an issue, right? Yeah. Yeah. His steering wheel must have been far off in one direction or another, so they were just trying to get as much time to diagnose it. I just sent you the video.

Yeah, I had just no idea. Eric wanted to run low. I thought that, because I thought he was going to run the line, he did the previous lap. I mean, you hear, I immediately panicked. That's what caused the engine to stop. Because when I saw that he went low, I hit the brakes and the brakes were very, very sensitive to locking up if you got it into the

corner too hard. And yeah, I just cleaned his ass out. It's wild that contact that what looks like that small. Yeah, and I'm looking at Bubba too. He was just reacting to this wreck and he most likely just could not get it wowed up. You can't just, you don't have unlimited grip. I mean, we're barely sliding on, we're sliding on the track as it is. So if you try to hit the brakes to their maximum capability, all it's going to do is just make you slide more. And it looked like he got it in the wall after he made contact with the back of my car. So, I mean, I hit the damn wall hard,

but I'm telling you, whatever it straightened, it straightened it correctly. That's fascinating too, that you and Eric both rebounded. When he finished 10th, he finished 11th. Yeah, he probably would have had a little bit better day. He thought that he had like a fringe top five car. He was strong in the long run. But, yeah, I told him, it's like, man, I'm glad it didn't totally screw your day up. Yeah, some other contact here we had during the race.

Chris Busher hit the wall for his final pit stop because Reddick got into the back of him. I guess he was just coming to pit road late there. Yeah, so. And they didn't wave or any kind. Yeah, so that's on the pitting team. if you want to call someone in late and it's unfortunate because the actual the break where you break to go into pit road here at Darlington is it's on the racetrack so you're you know it's not like you got like Vegas where there's five lanes above that that you know there's options to go

I just don't see how you can blame Redick when the six when the 17 just stops right in front of them and he didn't give any wave any indication again he's trying to do this that to prevent the 45 from knowing he's pitting, but you can't get surprised when you get hit when you stop again right in front of the 45. So how much does a team, so let's say if they said it a lot before saying, you're like, how much is the 45 team, like getting an advantage all of that? If Bushers team says it. Two or three seconds, whatever that one lap is. I mean, I went from fifth pre-caution. Remember, he had me, he finally started pitting me early at the end of the race.

And what I'd jump up to? Well, I think I came out right next to the six and the 17. They passed me after a lap. So I actually cycled to the lead trap. I was third or fourth. All I did was pit one or two laps sooner. And I cycled all the way to the lead. Now, I couldn't hold it because of the tire advantage.

But it was, that's, That's how much it means. And so what he's afraid of is that if he, he's got the 45 right behind him. He is trying to cover the 45. So what cover means is that he wants to make sure that he doesn't get short pitted by the 45 because of the 45 pits one lap sooner than the 17. He's going to be three seconds in front of them.

And then he's going to have to chase him down on just one lap newer tires. And it's still difficult to pass even with one lap newer tires. So he's trying to make sure we pit first and that we had the advantage and we're not going to have to repass you at any point. So it's just a game they play, but it's just Darlington is a very, very tough track to pit late and not signal people because, I mean, I saw one time when I was pitting, I was down near the apron and I see cars coming. I'm like, don't get cleaned out. like I just there was a host of cars coming and it's just such a narrow narrow window of racetrack that you have to slow down and then pull down but that when I looked at it it was like what do you expect the 45 to do I mean you he backed off way early which he has to to hit the pit road

you just don't leave you know if you're not going to give the 45 a heads up then yeah you're going to have to deal with whatever consequences come that's part of it you always put We put the blame on Ty Dillon, didn't we, when he didn't signal? What's different? Nothing. We talked about Joe Lugano and how rough of a day he has on a rough of a day he had. But on the flip side of that, Carson Hosefar went from, I guess, last. Do you qualify?

Where do you start, Travis? Back of the field for sure, but rallied to a top five finish. Great run. I mean, just, it's, I think. I think I heard Harvick said that he went through multiple toe links before the weekend, you know, before the race started. If you finished in the top five, he kept it all together. So great run by them to go from the back to the front like that. Same with Gibbs from the back, you know, started 28th, finished 6th. Yeah, there was some good, good rallies toward the front. I mean, Chase Briscoe, I mean, he had a lot of issues, but was up front late, started 23rd.

You could pass. If your car was good, you could pass. What do you make of Chevy's performance? Hendrick really didn't have. I saw them acknowledge for the first time that, you know, they're trying to figure it out. You know, I can just tell you that the change is not like major. This is not, I don't know. that this is a major overhaul to their body by the numbers. Now, I don't know about percentages

like front, rear, side force, things like that. It's interesting that they're acknowledging that they're trying to figure it out, but yet I didn't see anything numbers-wise that would alert me that this was going to be a learning curve type of moment. I mean, we're talking we're talking this is less of a downforce and drag change than what you have over the course of a race you know from where your car starts when it's in pristine condition to where it ends when you got all the crap you know sandblast of the front nose your underbody's got a little damage to it that is far more of a change than what the chevi's experienced in just a body change year to year but if it was a body change

like Hosevar had a fourth place finish he has the same body right so is this more just Hendrick maybe missing kind of like other teams did than the actual body being the issue yeah it could be yeah I mean I thought the five was strong till later he faded

and we got into the wall I saw that I saw he got in the wall 24 wasn't as good as he normally is here the 9 was pedestrian. I was around him early in the race.

You know, he was, I think his track position was better than his pace. So, where do he end up? 15th? Yeah, that tracks to me.

I mean, I don't know that he was 15th on actual pace, but I didn't think at the beginning of the race, he was 6th, I was 8th, there were one or two spots, but I could see him. And he always had a gap to in front of him. So like for the Chase Elliott fans,

just FYI, his speed was masked by his track position early in the race. And once you lose a little bit of that track position, your pace is going to continue to deteriorate. So it's just, I think he ended up probably where he was on pace. or pretty close. So, yeah, at that point, you just, you got to have your strategy right to make sure you don't,

you don't lose your track position. But they just, they always had a gap in front of them. I just noticed on restarts after a few laps, Chase always just had a gap, which means he couldn't keep pace with the cars in front. There was always a few cars kind of right on his bumper. That's like a sign indication that your track position is better than your pace. What was wrong with your tire?

I was texting with the Bozzi this morning. He thinks something got in the tire because he's reviewing the video and he said it looks like the tire was on. Not sure. It just, it came loose, obviously very late in that run. I thought something broke because, again, the car just did some crazy on corner entries. As long as I was loaded to the left, or I guess loaded to the right because I'm going left, it was fine. So I think it's because, you know, the wheels probably, I guess it's, pressing out on the detent, the left rear wheel.

But when I decelerated, I guess the slop that it had in it, it would, I mean, my car was, I thought I'd like physically broken a toe link. Or back in the old days when you would break your track bar and your rear end would be sliding back and forth. And so I know we were trying to figure out what it was, but it was a loose wheel happened late in that run. I don't know whether it was just loose or something got caught in it, but looking at the video that he posted, it looked like there was no hesitation from the changer because he did. He was backing up.

But it, you know, this sounds like there might have been concerned. Where do you think you would have netted out at the end of the day had you not had that issue and you could have kept running? Top five. Yeah, I thought we were pretty good. our damage, we were, I thought we were top five. You know, we were able to drive up to there. And to have a couple lap tires than the six and the 17 that were around me. And I was able to keep kind of on the same straightaway with them. I thought, man, we're not bad. And again,

I hadn't seen the 45 yet. But I'm not saying we were a race-winning car. I thought that we were just a back half of the top five to six, seventh in that range. Some other noteworthy finishers from yesterday, aside from Logano, Team Penske, Ryan Blaney finished third, Austin Sindrick finished fifth. Workman's day for Blaney, nothing are shattering there. And his pit crew, just letting him down left and right. Yeah, yep. Thank goodness for the rest of us.

Keep it up. As we already mentioned with Hosevar, kind of a good day. for the Spire Boys, Daniel Suarez, also finished seventh, top 10 finish. Yeah, Suarez was another one

that he just executed a good day. I didn't think his speed was great. I raced around him early. He had some good short run speed. Well, I take that back. He had some good

medium run speed. I thought the short run, he struggled a little bit. He was good in the middle, not good not great late but he just he executed a good day no blowups anything like that

so it just you know if you can qualify well at Darlington and again when your when your pace is a little slower just execute a good day you're going to have a good finish and some some drivers not on the good end of this one RCR again Kyle Bush 21st

Austin Dillon 25th struggles continue for for Kyle yeah I mean, it is noteworthy, like last year, or I'm sorry, last week that Austin Dillon was not as bad as Calhublish, right? It's not just, I think we really got to, you know, put everything in perspective. And yes, the organization is probably not where they want it to be. But, you know, if one of them is running last and the other one's running C,

Austin Dillon was 12th last week. Like that's, if Kyle is great, like we all believe he is, then he should be eighth. But he wasn't, right? So I think he's searching right now. I think he's, in just my opinion, just trying to figure something out. And just it's not, I don't know. I just, I can't put it all on RCR that like, it's just, yeah, they're not race winning teams right now. They don't have that pace, but they don't have 30th place pace.

That's, that's something that driver team, individual team has a role in. Jeff, Jeff Glock, quote, tweeted this graphic of the average finishes per driver in 2026. Tyler's, you know, got a 4.2 average finish to no one's surprise. Handful of guys under that are at 10, 11, 12. That's not the point, though, is that if this new point system didn't reward an extra 15 points for winning, Tyler would only have a 35 point lead in the standings. That's criminal. Which is crazy.

That is criminal. There just wasn't enough points for winning. Now there is. So he's got a big lead. He deserves it. Yeah. what do we we really haven't talked about his performance on Sunday like what do you make of it I mean he had the fast car but fight through the battery and get up there and now this is

fourth I think he's mentally tougher than he was before I think he's got a lot of you know maturity that he's done over the last few years that just uh his racecraft everything has just gotten better. You know, this is, this is what we saw on them is that, you know, someone that had a lot of speed, but like, how does, he needs to work on managing races and he needs to work on, you know, when adversity hits him, how does he respond to that? And it just seems like there's a poise to him now that that he didn't have before. And a lot of that comes, um, from just time and maturity and age and things like that. But, um, he's, he's taken. fast cars and

winning with them. As a competitor against him, so now Dennyham with 11, how scary is going up against this, Tyler Redick, who's this good, can do it on all kinds of racetracks, trying to go out there and beat him? It'll be tough, but

does it change my perception of like our strength? Not really. Not really. But we'll see where we're at. 20 weeks from now. I mean, I think that that's all that really matters, right? Is that 10 race stretch. And I think the tracks line up really nicely for us and certainly is for him as well. And it's hard

to keep the gap that he's got. You've got to think that the speed is going to close to the field. Are you at MJ backing up the brink truck yet for him? Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. That'll be done soon. He deserves everything he gets. He's just done a phenomenal job. Run out of wall space at 2311. No, we're not. We'll build more walls.

Can never be too many wins, right? Yep. Anything else we missed? We're going on. Heim on Friday. Touchdown from the cup race? From the cup race? No, cup race, I think I'm good.

No. Good on the cup. Okay. Go to Corian. Sheesh. if you heard him saying that yeah I didn't know I was running this thing to a couple weeks ago

it's because I declined that ride damn it you wanted to go to dinner instead I just no I I don't know I just it wasn't good timing

for me but it was it was awesome to see the speed that they had David Gillen that whole team Tricon's just doing a great job and you know for that team to he go out there and went in that five truck you know which probably has

put together most likely the people last you know you've got all your full-time drivers and truck trucks the 11 team is established probably been put together by scott zippaelli for quite some time um you know when you when you have like an a quote unquote like an all-star type truck um it actually has, you know, they're pulling together people within the shop to probably go do it. I mean, I know that when we do the 67 car at 2311, it's, most of it is we're pulling people within the shop that don't normally go on the road to go do it. Now, I think the five, I think it runs full time. I'm not really sure. But again, they, they were putting that program together. pretty late before the season.

And so I just kind of wanted them to work all those kinks out, and it appears Corey's worked out those kinks. But hell of a drive. Don't only have five lap fresher tires. I mean, it looked like a lot more than that. The reason it did is because the tires were cool. So what happens is if you had 10 lap tires, okay, you run, there's a caution. So then it starts heat soaking.

Now, the tires start to cool off, but it's still a lot of heat built up in a vehicle under caution. So those tires that are on, say, Ross Chastain's truck, I'm just throwing numbers out, that he's got 10-lap tires. If someone were to come in and put on 10-lap scuffs, those 10-laps scuffs will be significantly faster for a few laps just because of the temperature, and they want to be running at a colder temperature, not a hotter temperature. I mean there's nobody better to to take this five truck to victory lane than Corey, right? Like he knows if anyone knows how to make that team a winning team.

Yeah. It's him, right? He's going to get the most of it. You just know that if he's, if he can't win in it, then that truck's, it ain't good enough on that weekend. Yeah. You know, he's going to get the most out of the speed of the vehicle he's in. And just awesome to see,

awesome to see him do that. collect a little money in the process. And, yeah, we're really proud of him. Justin Allgaier. He won on Saturday. Ho-hum day? I don't know, Trav. Tell me it.

It seemed like a ho-hum day for him. When I talked to him pre-race before the cup race, I was like, you know, great job yesterday. He was like, yeah, you know, just we hung around. Just hung around. I was at the bar Saturday. I don't know. Yeah.

Well, Larson was really, really good. Didn't have a great pit stop. on the last stop and lost a race because of the pit stop, really. I mean, not much else you can really say about it. I thought that Brandon Jones had a great opportunity to win this thing. He just didn't drive the thing hard enough in one and two on the restart. And I knew that that was going to be like,

man, Algeier's going to be in the gas through one and two. And I just think that Brandon is not going to be able to stay beside him and he couldn't. But I thought that Brandon, you know, this is probably his best racetrack. He knows how to find speed there. But it's just that first corner when he's racing Algeyer, just was like, yeah, he's on the bottom. I don't know. Just didn't quite have enough gas to stay with him. And another strong day for Corey Day.

Great day. Battled up in the top five, incident free. This is looking good. Looking good. Hey, I was asked a question last week. Bowman, by the way. We got a... Oh, boom.

Yeah, it's just... What a bummer for him. I mean, you know that he wants to be in the car, hates watching his car. He's out another three weeks, right? Well, two weeks from now, or three weeks in addition. Yeah, that's just tough. There's a break also, so...

I don't know. It's certainly unfortunate. And it seems, you know, from what I hear like this vertigo, there's just not really anything you can do about it. You just wait on it to go away. How's you all his brackets doing? I didn't make one. First one, first time ever, never did one.

Treve? Take away my man card. My bets didn't go really well. Florida really screwed me last night. Not the ones I gave you. No, you gave one winner this weekend. Okay. I think I only gave you one pick.

And well, I'll blame the loss Charlie, I think, started it, so I'll give it to blame to Charlie, not you. All right, fair. I got a question last week, Denny, after the podcast, TSC texted me this. And since you brought up your Michigan race from 15 years ago, clearly you don't forget. But he asked, he said, asked Denny if how many wins he thinks he would have if you took out the ones that you lucked into versus the ones you should. of one. This is not a exaggeration. 61.

I'd have 75. 75 exactly? Yes. I far lost more than I lucked into. He totaled, he said, wins, he remembers you lucking into. 2011, Michigan? Sure. 2012, Atlanta, Coke 600, a Darlington here and there.

Sure. Wins lost. Early Richmond with a flat tire. Bristol with water in the fuel tank. Brutal. Phoenix, Mike Ford, fuel miscalculation. Brutal. Martinsville Master Switch.

Sonoma final turn. Auto Club broken back. Indie times three. Oh, Indy has crushed me. The hack race. I mean, can we... How about Phoenix 2025? What are we trying to do for a guy here, Jared?

I have no doubts. I have no doubt we would have far more wins on the layup winds that were right there that just got ripped away. Pocono failing inspection. If it helps you... Oh, Pocono. It's a piece of tape.

Then if it helped me... I made a deal with Exfinity racing last week that Reddick and the Xfinity car would win Darlington, but you get the next two weeks. So if NASCAR scripts it like they always do with their races, you've got this victory coming. Well, I mean, you never know. I mean, NASCAR's given 23,

11 all the winds and the fast cars right now. Yeah, thanks to the lawsuit. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's how you know you're doing things right. It's when those wild conspiracies come out, it's like, oh, man. That's fantastic because you've got them concentrating on everything except for what actually matters.

You've officially broken the fans. Yes. Speaking of conspiracies, happy birthday to our boy AP. He still won Arizona AP. Anyway. I got a review here. I don't have a name. But my fiance got into NASCAR around this time last year

and have been hooked ever since with our top drivers, all of 2311 and Denny. I listen every week, either YouTube or Spotify, to keep up, and I learn something new every time. We were lucky enough to attend the race win in Vegas and watch the 11 team get it done. Got to meet Bubba as well. Great podcast. And look forward to you getting more wins and finish your career. Well, appreciate that review. That was very nice of you. Appreciate you listening. Yeah, I don't have anything from else from this week.

So I got to get one of the next three, right? One of the next three. That's the deal? Just win this weekend and we'll go from there. All right. Are you buying a boat this week? Another boat? No, I'm just going to look. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just having. No, I'm just, I'm just looking. Nobody, I'm going down to Florida. Yeah.

You're buying a boat. No, no, no, no, no. No, I, I don't have, I don't have enough time for it to be used properly right now. This is just kicking tires. That's all. And plus, I'm, I'm selling my, my van dutch

it's down there oh yeah yeah yeah oh it's down there at the boat show yeah already no it's it's but it's down there being sold oh okay yeah I'm in the market really for two two boats where are you gonna put them right

you don't have a place for the the bass boat where are you gonna put them Lake Norman said you gotta can't have that dog I know I'm just the kids want something that can they can be pulled on I need something like for that. Can you got a bass boat and a boat to pull the kids on?

Can you get like a jet ski that can pull them on? Let's not start any fake news now. I just, I want to go enjoy some warm sun. That's it. I'm just going to go down and check things out. This is a birthday gift to AP. He's had a good show. He got a happy birthday shout out and he hears that Denny's look in the market for two more

boats. All right. Well, let's wrap it up. I appreciate you guys listening. We'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymoe Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.