Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - What Dad Didn't Lke About My Clash Win

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

NASCAR made the right call moving the start of The Clash. It's ok if some teams eliminated from The Clash (8:00). Denny was fast on short runs and restarts helped him a lot (15:00). Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano still beefing (23:17). Ricky Stenhouse Jr not happy with John Hunter Nemechek (34:45). Kyle Larson paid back Bubba Wallace (41:00). Why Denny liked restarting in front of Kyle Busch (43:35). What Denny's dad said about his post-race interview (48:00). What's next for The Clash (52:00)? And, a surprise guest (57:30)Actions Detrimental Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MQLvnXf40U Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There was cheers and I was feeling them, the vibes and everything. And then all of a sudden, she starts wrapping it up the interview. And then I just hear this. It was like a tsunami of booze. Like it just started just coming. And it just kept getting louder. And I'm like, oh, might need to remind these folks one more time. Denny has a limited shelf life, Travis.

The first 10 seconds are like, all right. And then he just keeps going on on. It's like, all right, this guy is to get him off the stage. Exactly. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to Actions Detrimental, the Clash version, the first official race of 2024 in L.A.

Something big happened this weekend. Well, first of all, we had a race. Like, when you hear this podcast out here on Monday morning, we would still be waiting to run that race if we did not run it on Saturday night. So hats off to NASCAR, Fox, and the stakeholders that got together and made this happen. There's always going to be a winner and a loser when it comes to situations like this. Obviously, there's a lot of fans that, you know, purchased tickets that, you know, didn't get to.

They couldn't get to the track. You know, maybe some did. You know, we're local in the area and got to, you know, go to the race for free. They didn't already purchase a ticket. But I was pretty confident. and it's going to be TBD, but I was pretty confident this race was never going to happen if it did not happen Saturday.

What do you know about this decision? Was this an easy decision for NASCAR to make? Just seeming that it was fairly unprecedented, right, to move it up. Like, it just so happened that they had the time slot on Fox. I'm just curious from your point of it because you tweeted out that this might get moved before it was officially announced.

I mean, we got a mole in the camp. you know we got uh we got the guy that moves mountains you know so um i'm sure it was not an easy decision for sure i mean certainly if you try to pull back the curtain on it more than likely nascar have been meeting on this probably and to try to come up with contingency plans all week right i mean they've got a lot to plan for they've got you know a half-time performance show and how does that pivot from one day to the next i mean i don't know there was just a lot of things that you know there was just a lot things and I think that the forecast just it just kept getting worse it really did right i mean if you were to ask on tuesday wednesday it's yeah it's a 70 80 percent chance of rain on sunday um and then

there was a portion of a week well as sunday doesn't look too bad now and then all of a sudden this i guess some storms come together and it you know it's just going to pour there for the next few days so um yeah i mean it was a it happened uh you know i can't you know i looked in Nobody really can come up with a time where a race had happened early, a day early, versus days late. But certainly this is the only opportunity to get this race in, it seems. So they made a tough decision, but in the end, you know, it was the only decision that could be made to watch a race. When were you given a heads up about this and did it change the way your Saturday went considering heat races were canceled? so the qualification system of getting into the race has now changed, right?

It's just going to be qualifying the fastest 23 cars are going to be in the race. Does it change the way your team approached the day? How did I know? I'm not going to reveal that part because then I won't get any, you know, information. But, you know, I only knew 20 minutes before. you know, everyone else knew. They kept it pretty tight-lipped. Obviously, they had some closed doors meetings when it came to this.

But it didn't really change. I don't think it changed a lot for our 11 team in particular. I mean, maybe some other teams, right, you know, that don't come off the truck really well. You know, they're going to be scrambling, right, to try to know that they've got to nail this third practice to even make the race itself. I'm trying to think other, so colleague, neither one of their cars made it, right? Was there any other organization that had no other cars? Everyone else had a car, right? RFK had both cars in the race?

No, no. There was a lot of teams. I think, am I wrong to say 2311 and Hendrick were the only two organizations, with all their cars. All the cars. I mean, other than JTG's a single car. Right, right. So multi-car teams.

Right, right. So I think those were the only ones, but I mean, yeah, C. Bill, C-bell missing it was a huge shock. He was fast in practice. You know, I think they made a decision as far as I understand it, to put on scuff tires. The tires were just so interesting at that track that it took its, It seemed like it took a few laps, when I say a few laps, like 10, 15 for them to get heat in them to run fast laps. It's very different than any other.

I don't know what the combination of the track and the tire was that took a long time to get going. Like any other racetrack, I mean, it's just we take off. We're going and we got about three corners to nail it perfect to run a fast lap. So that track is very interesting in that aspect. you see it's under caution just really keeping the tires warm as much as we can it's why you see some of the mayhem that you see on restarts is that the tires are cold and we're just sliding all over the place the lap times it's it's crazy it's it's a second difference at least a second for like the first 10 laps once we get going until something

hits the switch and gets grippy and the track starts taking heat so that makes for a lot of mayhem we did see a lot of mayhem you know other big names that missed it uh you got chris busher right josh berry and his new ride um i'm off the cuff here i don't have a list uh uh austin cindric austin dillon austin dylan randt uh second and third i think in the clash um the previous two years didn't make it this year um yeah but it's i mean even to note your former the not former, reigning Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney needed the provisional to make the original. Right.

And a fellow Final Four driver, Christopher Bell, didn't make it, right? I mean, you've got to think, you know, he's probably thinking surely the three guys that finished ahead of me in points, Ryan Blaney, you know, Kyle Larson and William Byron, they're fast enough, they'll be in the top 22 and no matter what I'm going to have a comfort place to fall back on. Certainly, I mean, from my perspective, I thought about it. during the week. I'm like, well, I mean, for one of those guys to not make the top something after heat races and last chance, like, surely I'll be able to get in no matter what. But yeah,

what I thought it did do is put a lot of pressure and build up to actual qualifying, right? I mean, we had guys watching this, watching this thing and getting bumped out, getting bumped in, oh, you're now on the bubble. And this is the bubble that is you cannot come back from. It's, you're going home after this. So I thought it had a lot of merit to, you know, not everyone has to make it. I mean, that's just, you know, my opinion. Now, maybe this race, I don't know,

I saw where Justin Marks tweeted, well, everyone should make the race, you know, if he had his way. I get that, especially in this type of deal where the teams, financially, this is not a good race for the teams whatsoever. If you notice the purse, is probably like a quarter of what a normal purse would be.

It still costs the race teams the same amount of money, if not more, to go out to L.A. so then it does any other points race. The strain, you know, other than the pit crews, which they're all salaried, so that doesn't matter anyway. It's just the travel of them. So, you know, the race pays a quarter of what other races do. That's why, you know, you're going to hear teams say,

man, we just spend all this money coming out here to put on a show for you guys and we're not even allowed to race. I'm of the opinion, though, that less is more. It's not having big names sometimes. I'm not saying not make races, but like all-star races should be for all-stars, right? I mean, the playoffs should be for the best. You know, if you just keep inviting everyone,

it's not that prestigious anymore, right? So I am definitely a fan of less is more. I thought it cleaned up the race. quite a bit having less cars on it. I'm not sure how many cars they had last year. About the same. No, it was less this year. Definitely less cars.

I'm going to say 28. Travis is on the buttons. I could have sworn it was the same number. No, I'm pretty sure it's not. I don't know the number. I'm looking up, but I can confirm it was less, though. I do know that. Yes, definitely less cars.

Because I think we talked about it last year. It was just, you know, You couldn't even get any real momentum in the race because there was just wrecks all over the place and the traffic was so bad that you didn't really see a whole lot of racing from that aspect. 27 drivers last year. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So they cut it by five, you know, four. Yeah. I don't, to me, this doesn't stick out because the All Star race is the same, same type of format, right? Not everyone makes the race. You got to race your way in unless you're guaranteed a spot. Yeah, but even over time they keep, it got delusely.

Right. Well, we got a fan vote now. Now we got, you know, we're going to invite the top two of Y manufacturer. Like, it just became diluted. And, you know, over time, like the clash itself used to be just poll winners. And so when you would win polls, it was, that was a, I remember in 2006, that was a really big deal to win a poll knowing that, bam, I got my ticket to a, I'm going to run in the clash. That's how I won the clash in 2006 in my rookie year is that I happened to win the pole at Phoenix in one of my tryout races for Joe Gibbs Racing's cup car. You know, just hit a lap, got on the pole, and I knew I was full-time the following season, but I was like, oh, shit, like this is, I'm in the clash now and ended up winning it. And so I think back then it was about 16, 18 cars per year, made the clash. that was about the number of poll winners that you had. But, you know, then, you know, teams were griped at, well, my sponsor's not getting shown.

And, you know, eventually NASCAR just kind of went in the direction of, you know, we're just going to invite more. It's more and more and more. But doesn't that make qualifying more sellable for the tele, for the networks than to do that? Sure does. Yeah, definitely makes, again, I felt comfortable where I was at, but I was very, very interested to see who is who's in who's out i'm in the hall or like oh this guy's out and then you know you always kind of knew blaney had a spot but then you know it was super intriguing i'm sitting there watching christopher bell i'm like he ain't gonna make it oh my gosh right and that's some that's a storyline that's you know while it's not good for them and that that that program and

sure it's a bummer for them but but damn i mean you got you got you got 50s you got 50 15 to 17 laps. The lights are on. Go get it done. No, I'm saying go back to the old format so that qualifying throughout the year for all these races has more reason for people to watch. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Because it's an all-star of the fastest poll winners.

It used to be, right? Now it's just the class is just if you got a charter, you can run it. You know, or this year, though, they cut it back and says, hey, we're going to, we're going to tighten up. the field a little bit. We're going to, we're going to create it. And I thought it was a good thing. I just, I see some pushback on social media. Of course, the pushback's going to come from guys that had cars not make it. That's, that's going to be obvious for obvious reasons. Saw Chris Rice was like, I don't like this. I don't like this. How Saturday ended up, well, no shit. Of course you didn't. But, you know, you had a chance. You almost had a chance to have a

great story, too, and Josh Williams making it. I mean, it was wrong. right there on the cusp. So it's one of those could have gone one way or the other for you, right? But it just didn't. And you got to remember too, is that in a perfect world, there's heat races, then there's a last chance qualifier.

So all these cars are getting track time. They're getting TV time under the normal format where they were going to race Saturday and then they were going to race Sunday. And because of the schedule, you know, some of these guys didn't make it. You weren't fast enough in qualifying. You didn't make the race. Yeah. And I think, I thought

about this a little more as well, is that by actually having this format where it was qualifying and then straight to the race, we already knew that there was only going to be 23 cars. The fact that you eliminated heat races and last chance, you know what really suck is tearing your car all to because you got crashed in a heat race for a last chance qualifier and didn't make the race. That really sucks. So at least, you know, no one left with a demolished car and it. And didn't make the race. Like that, there's at least a little bit there. And I'm sorry, if you can't get your car on the top 22,

and, you know, if the 11 car didn't make the top 22 and didn't race on Saturday night, we got to look ourselves in the mirror and say, we got to be better. So, I mean, not everyone gets invited to the prom. Well, speaking of adding value to winning the poll, you won the poll for this race, which meant you could watch some of the drama in your rearview for the first handful of laps. First few laps. Yeah. You know, on paper it was a perfect weekend, you know, having the fastest in practice,

the pole and then the race. But it certainly didn't play out that way. We obviously had a very fast car in the short run. And that was good. And, you know, I didn't, I had no indication that we were going to fight, you know, some of the handling stuff that we did in the race until the race actually. happened but yeah we we we were fast for the first 40 and then I kind of caught lap traffic and just dropped anchor and lost some spots and then once I lose one then it's I open up the door for

the second and then I've held up a line so long that other cars had filed in so now second third fourth fifth is all waiting in a line behind my slow ass so I've actually created a monster it actually been better for me to not fight when the first car caught me and just let them go. Because, you know, I would have lost less spots, less track position. But that's easy to say when you're in the moment and you're rewatching things, right? But yeah, that happens at the clash, is that we really got past twice and ended up seventh because, you know, once by Gibbs and then the second was Legano and then everyone that was following Legano. So, Um, we, we made some really, really fantastic adjustments at the half time break.

I told him I needed some major adjustments, uh, with the car. And it was better. It was no doubt better. Um, now we, we definitely got fortunate with some restarts. We, uh, got fortunate on the choose a few times where some guys chose the inside. Okay. I gained one spot by going to the outside. Usually that's a net zero or a negative.

after three, four laps. But I would get a good jump, boom, a caution would come back out. I got scored in front of the car that I just jumped on the restart. So that was beneficial, like, I think twice. And then, you know,

we just had that long green flag run that went all the way up to 10 laps ago where I worked my way up to third. That was a key moment. Caul Kyle Bush was running, you know, I hate to say I was running down the 54 and 22. They were in traffic,

but I was catching them, but I knew I was never going to get there. And so then I watched that, the wreck that happened with the one and 34, and we'll get into all the who wrecked who, who's mad at who. We'll get to that here in a minute. But I watched that wreck go down and it was with 10 to go and I'm like, oh, you know, usually in these situations, it's like, you know, I think I've maxed out what my car's potential is. I thought that the 22 and the 12 looked really, really good in the long run. 54 was good in the short run, long run.

Really didn't matter. He was good all around. But at that time, I'm just thinking, well, we've maxed out where we're at. And then, you know, what's going to happen? More than likely, this is going to be total chaos, which it was. And, you know, really, the door just opened up for me when the 54 and the 22 got together on that 10-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 restart. Does the fact that this race plays out more like a sprint than a marathon of the regular season races with 500 miles and whatnot, this race is 150 laps, does that add to this drama that we're about to talk about between the handful of drivers? Because there's just more urgency.

You have less time to make up spots, make moves on people. Yeah, I mean, you do, but I mean, let's not, they're all just competitors. And it doesn't matter. and you hear them say after the race that, you know, I don't understand why this person was knocking me out of the way for sixth place with three laps to go. Like, we're not going to win. It's we're battling over six.

But in the moment, you're like, oh, I just, I want to get a top five. It doesn't mean shit, but like, it's just, you know, we're just so much smarter after we take off the helmet, you know, in the sense of like, hey, probably shouldn't have done that or whatever. it might have been, but we just are always battling for every spot because we think that one spot matters. And in the clash, it really doesn't. Are you sure, though? Because what if you're, what if you're in sixth and you're battling guy for fifth, maybe fourth, and you get those two positions and then someone spins out behind you and now you're fourth, now you're on the second row of a restart.

So really, those two positions that you were battling with for fifth and six really could make a difference. Well, sure, you're asking for an apocalypse of situations to work out in your favorite because you think you still got a shot. I understand that thinking. Yeah. But I think that most people were thinking that they just want to get that one extra spot or, you know, maybe that guy bumped them out of the way, so they're going to, they're going to up the stakes and bump them just a little bit harder. And it gets towards the end of the race. And that's just, that's, that's, that's the way they think. And that's what causes these pileups that just never really go away. So I'm just asking in terms of, you know, a discussion throughout last year and the last couple of years has been, is it, our race is better if they were shortened?

Our race is too long. Is that this is a short race. Yeah. Do you see just, you know, it plays out a little bit different. Well, the track, the track layout plays a factor as well, right? I mean, it doesn't matter. If we had a 30-lap race at, let's say, Vegas, we, you know, we're going to get strong no matter what. It's just, that's the layout of the track, right?

we're not going to get so strong at a track like the Coliseum. So, you know, it's just, it's, it's the track. If you look at how the tracks layout, it's actually laid out perfectly for these just dive bomb plow into a guy because you have, anytime you have heavy braking, it gives an opportunity for the second, the person behind to charge in deeper and then use the front or the rear bumper of the car in front of them to slow down. And it stops their momentum of the car in front, and then you can kind of make a move. So a lot of it is track layout.

Some of it is the format itself. I think we landed on a good format for the clash. You know, with these qualifying, you know, if you had the full schedule, the heat races, the last chance, whatever. I do think it should be more economically beneficial for the teams. I think it should pay what a regular race should. I mean, it's hard to hype this up as a, this is a big race. It's a big race for NASCAR and the TV partners, but, you know, for us, it's not. I think if you're going to put your car at risk of tearing it up, going all the way

to the West Coast, you certainly need to reward, you got to reward the guys that the teams who invest the money to put on the show for you. And I think that that's the one thing that, in my opinion, needs to be cranked back up. Were you surprised how long it stayed green at the start, though? Because I think you went 70 laps. So, I mean, yes and no, just simply because I knew that less cars, while it was only four, five less cars, it just cleans it up a little bit. Like, if there was four more cars on the track, I would have got to lap traffic at lap 25 instead of lap 40. It just, so no, I really wasn't surprised.

I think I saw where the first half of the race only took 18 minutes. I mean, that's, that's quick. Yeah. That was fast. So it's certainly the second. And then the first 10 laps of the second point. Yeah, it also took 18 minutes. For sure.

Yeah, it's, I thought it was, I mean, everyone's going to yell by us, but I thought it was fine. I thought that everyone did as good as they could, considering the circumstances, we had to throw a race together in five hours. I mean, that's, that's a really, really tough thing to ask, but it happened. Let's get into some of this drama that played out last night or Saturday night at the clash. Let's start with what I think is the most noteworthy, at least on social media, and that's the beef between Ty Gibbs and Joey Lagano.

Yeah. Man, this is a, this thing is got Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain's written all over it, right? I mean, it's just brewing and it just keeps going, and the two just keep going at it. I don't know. It's my job here to be as unbiased as I can, right? And I feel like I give all drivers fair shakes. It's a little bit different with Ty because, you know, he is a teammate.

He's someone that travels with me weekly. But also, I'm not, I will not be afraid. to call a spade a spade if I see Tide doing something that is blatantly wrong. Where I can find, you know, where's a little bit different in this is that I don't know all the facts. Like I talked to Joey after the Martinsville incident, right? I talked to you guys on this show about, you know, I couldn't understand what the hell Joey was doing. He crashed Thai for what my, it would look like no apparent reason. you know and he says well it's because he did this to me at homestead and then before that week

it was something else and then i asked tie about it and he's like yeah i did but it's because he was trying to bully me around on the track back at kansas i don't know i'm making up a track here i don't know it was and it seemed like this has just been brewing for a while and they just can't get on the same page to call it, you know, call it good, right? I mean, and I understand that, right? I mean, me and Chastain went on for quite a while where we just could not see eye to eye. But, you know, this is just a unique situation for sure. And, you know, my unbiased opinion of what I know and the facts that I know is that I feel like how last season ended, Joey had the upper, you know, the scales were tipped in Joey's favor in the sense that the

last person that got wrecked was Ty. Ty got crashed at Martinsville, right? So, you know, he was running third, minding his own business. I didn't see anything that Ty did it. at Martinsville that deserved him being punted into the corner and spun out and then got, you know, it crashed four or five cars pretty heavily in that. And Joey calls that. I mean, we can't argue that point whatsoever.

And then going into this race, I tried to break down and I actually asked you guys to help me as well, like, help me find some footage of like, when are these guys near each other? Like, what instigated Joey's, this reaction? anger and reaction afterwards to make it feel like he needed to go to tie's holler and confront him on this right and so i look at it from an unbiased perspective let me take the car out let me take my teammate out and everything and i'm and i'm going to say that tie didn't give joey very much space you know he ran him up the racetrack on that tend to go restart the one where I was able to take the lead because of it.

Now, I definitely feel, is it very unbiased, that Ty did not intentionally do it? Ty is just trying to win his very first race. Right. And what we have seen in the past is that cars that overshoot the corner just a slight bit lock up a tire and they slot up the racetrack. I can guarantee you had I been in Ty's position, I couldn't keep the front tires on when I wasn't beside,

anybody. I would have slid up into Joey or whoever it was on the outside as well. I just, for summary, I had locked up the tires once and that was it. It just kept going and kept getting worse. So I think this was an absolutely inadvertent mistake on Ty's part. When I say mistake, he tried to turn, he tried to hold it low. I did see Joey crowd him.

Joey left him no room on the actual racing surface. He made Ty, who is the control car. It is Ty's race to start and control. He left him no room on the entry of the corner. So when Ty goes in there on cold tires nonetheless, and it's 10, 15 laps before these things actually get up to speed, he didn't leave the young guy very much room for error, in my opinion. And when you, there's an old saying in eye racing saying,

if you pinch you pay. And I'm not saying Joey pinched him because I think that Joey was trying to crowd him and leave him no space whatsoever. And likely Joey's thought was that if he bangs up against my door, I'm still good. He loses rear traction.

I'm going to clear him into turn three. That's a good strategic thing that Joey is trying to do. But the negative to that is that when he did do that and then Ty makes a mistake and he slides up slightly, shoves Joey up, boom, here comes the 12 car. The 12 car hits the 22 and knocks him up further out of the lane,

and now the 22's lost the race because he's out. You know, he's just got knocked back. So many positions, it's pretty much done at that point. So while the 54 definitely had its faults in this incident, this particular incident, I then go back and I looked at what happened previously in the race. And I saw on a restart the 22 shoved the 54 up the racetrack, not as far. Let's be factual, not nearly as far as what the 54 shoved the 22. Again, this was middle of the race, so of course it's not going to be as far.

But he definitely didn't hold his line either. And the 54 held the 22 as low in the corner as the 22 held him later that. He would have slid up further anyway. because again, when you force someone to run on the rumble strips, you're asking for trouble. You just are. You're asking for contact. And I think he wanted contact because it was going to break the momentum of the 54.

He just didn't think that it was going to affect him as much as it did. And when the 54 ran him up, here comes the 12, 12 bumps from from behind. He lost not only front traction, but rear traction as well. So I thought that the 54, absolutely was, you know, 80% at fault for the restart incident. Was it egregious? Absolutely not. He did not go on there and clean out the 22, in my opinion.

Right. Well, certainly, Ty would have rather that not happened because that opened the door for you to ultimately pass him. No question, right? He was trying to hold the lowest line he could because it did. It opened up the lane for me. and so you know

then this boils into you know Joey wants to confront him afterwards and you know he came over to the 54 I actually applaud the crew guys on the 54 to just let them talk like they didn't try to break it up they didn't try to pull Joey away

like they let them have their moment and you saw where Ty was you know saying hey come on come on in the hall Let's do this privately, and Joey did not want to do it. He wanted to do it right there on the lift gate. And so that opened it up a little bit more. So do I think this was kind of a, you know, I'm trying to scare you tactic?

Yeah, probably. I just think that Ty wasn't going to take any shit. And you kind of heard it from his reaction that like, so what? Go for it. Like, and that's just a dangerous game to play on both sides, right? because the season hasn't even started, and you've got two guys that are angry at each other. And again, when both of them are just fine wrecking each other, that's not going to be good for either one. So they've got to get it worked out somehow.

And my advice, I actually said to Ty, and I said this on the podcast last year, my advice to tie was that be the first one to extend the olive branch. If he doesn't If he doesn't pay back that, then it's free game, right? If you're the first one, if he comes and he catches you at the next race and you don't let him go

and you just race the crap at them, you better expect you're going to get knocked around because you guys haven't settled it and you haven't given him the opportunity, you haven't shown him that you're willing to give it a truce. But if you do do that and you do extend the olive branch and you do are the first one to make a i'm not going to hold you up here i'm going to go ahead and let you go and that that should be a token of okay you owe that back to me you know i was the first to do

it now it's your turn um that just hasn't happened between the two yet and it probably needs to happen for them to get in a better place um i just think that they don't they're not going to see eye to eye on this because I think from Ty's perspective he feels like Joey is trying to bully him around and he's not going to he's he's just not going to take it so um and Joey sees it as I don't know it's it's it's going to be it's hard for me to see it how Joey sees it um I heard Joey's perspective when when I talked to him last year and I understood his perspective I'm not saying that Joey's totally in the wrong here because you know Ty acknowledged to me that he did some not great things to Joey for a couple races because of what Joey did to him previously.

So they got to get it worked out, certainly. But certainly, if you look at the incident itself on the track, I personally put 80% blame on Ty, 20 on Joey for pulling him down there. And then, you know, again, I think Joey was trying to play a little bit too much blame on his result on the 54, where a little bit of blame could have been put on the 12 that knocked them fully out of the groove after the contact was made. So I don't know. It's just everyone's going to have a different opinion of it.

Joey has his own microphone, and later this week we'll hear what he has to say about it. And, you know, I think everyone should just kind of, you know, listen to it and hear what each side has to say about it. I think we know where Ty stands on it. You know, Joey, he did his interview as well. So they're both just upset with each other. They can't, they can't, they're going to race around each other quite a bit going forward.

So they certainly got to work it out. I hope they don't settle it. I know. This is the stuff we need. Yeah. This is the clash doing its job too. Reigniting some storylines from last year that we forgot about. A couple others from Saturday night.

We had Ricky Stenhouse and John Hunter Nematrek and then Ricky Stenhouse and Michael McDowell. Yeah. So I actually saw on social media that there were four actual big. like wrecks or spins or intentional spins or crashing each other after and then but only fox only showed one of them um actual on on tv so i'm looking at this collage of all these like incidences and people getting mad at each other that people were taking with their cell phones or it was a secondary camera that took it but it never actually made the broadcast i didn't realize the you know, until when you follow people like Bob Hockris and Jordan and Jeff and those guys,

you know, they've always got these secondhand, you know, videos that you're saying, oh, that's got, why are they mad? Like, someone showed me the video. Like, why are they pissed? And so evidently, Ricky got out of his car at halftime and pulled the winning net down on John Hunter. And it looked like he shook his, shook the nose of his helmet. because I was looking and his body's kind of blocking it a little bit. But you could see John Hunter's helmet like shaking pretty big.

And Ricky's hand was definitely in there. So it's, I don't know. I mean, I don't think we were supposed to get out of our cars during halftime. But Ricky felt like it was time to do it. What's the unwritten rule on taking another driver's net down? I'm not sure. I don't, I've never done that.

I've had it done to me. You've had your window net taken down by another competitor? Yeah, Kyle Petty. It's over, right? We're in the garage. He's, you know, he comes over to me.

That's where he slaps my advisor down. And then Joey Legano. That was after Bristol. Remember he's trying to come in my car. I acknowledge him. And then I just keep going. I keep taking my shit off. I'm like, well, I'll surely talk to him

as soon as I get out of the car. and he's wanting to talk to me as I'm strapped in helmet on and all that I'm like well if we're going to fight I got to get out of the car right so I don't know if there's an unwritten rule but certainly it's not a it's not fair and you're not really a tough guy if you go up to someone and punch them or while they're in strapped into the car like that's just that's just not I mean I've been in scuffles before where um

one of the parties was held down and you can't you can't throw a punch on someone when someone else is holding them like that's just that's just not a that some people say there's no rules when it comes to fighting but i i say that that's off limits like if you can't go one one v one and you got to have a buddy helping you know that's where i kind of drew issue you to, you know, when me and Lugano had that deal at Martinsville,

where one of his crew guys came from behind me and, like, did the old wrap around my neck with the leg out and pulled me backwards and threw me to the ground. Like, you know, it's just, that's not, that's not like a real, real fight. Like, you should, you should always be face to face, in my opinion, which was, which I thought, like, the Noah Gregson Rouse Chastain, like, that was a real, that was a real, that was a real fight, right? Because they're face to face and, you know, now Noah didn't see it coming,

but, you know, and unfortunately he didn't get the counter before the other went drop came in, but I'm not sure of the unwritten rule, but certainly it's not a tough guy move to, to go, you know, to someone's car when they're strapped in. But I don't think that Ricky was really planning on John Hunter getting out, and I don't even know what they're mad about. So I can, can't speak to the on-track incident because I don't know. I mean, John Hunter was really one of the last cars on the track that had made the main all race long. I didn't know how much progress they really made.

So more than likely, you know, these guys were fighting for 20th or so when they were probably punting each other. So I'm not really sure. We had Ricky Stenhouse then and Michael McDow. Didn't, again, didn't see that one either. You know, we need. to someone in the in the truck just finding out where these incidents came from and i and i watched the race back and all you saw was these two guys hitting each other under caution you i didn't see

what happened in the race but you heard macdow say was it macdow yeah macdow said that yeah we we talked or maybe that was ross mcdall and ross i'm not sure there was a lot of incidents that we got a list here there's an on board of sthenhouse It looks like he just gets moved up the track by McDowell, but then when you get into the replay, when it comes back to Ricky, McDowell's on the inside of him, but then Bubba's on the inside of McDowell. So you never know if these altercations start from, you know,

carer-lengths back. Yeah. It's not necessarily the guy behind you. Great point. Great point. And that's why it's so hard to retaliate against someone, because, I mean, who's to say it came from the car behind you, right? It's, you know, Clint Boyer nailed it on TV.

you're like more than likely if someone gets spun it's the guy from third row back that's that did it like and that's what makes it so easy to do is because you can when you're the second guy line you're just like I'm the middle person it's not my fault but I'm gonna stay on the gas like I'm not I ain't gonna help you I don't mind that car spinning out you don't help you don't check the lineup you just are like I'm an innocent bystander but I ain't I ain't gonna help you out here so that's where that's what's hard for me to understand a little bit of the guys that get really pissed at each other because they got spun out by this person. And you almost always can see that there's somebody else on that guy's bumper pushing them.

So, I mean, go down the list, right? Then you saw the Larson and Bubba. And I watched Larson's interview and he's like, well, you know, Bubba used me up multiple times. He says that was the third time. And he's like, I just reached the point where I'm like, you know, I don't want, I don't want to leave, I don't want to go home mad. So I'm just going to make sure I take care of this right here on the white flag lap.

So he spun out Bubba, right? So, and it didn't, I didn't see Bubba comment on it. But, you know, it seems like he was just resigned to the fact that, well, I got to the five and he had enough. So he took care of me. So I think that they, that part of it's fine. Larson got out of it what he needed to. and Bubba probably understood why, right? And then, yeah, Reddick and Chastain, I guess,

but Reddick had a conversation with Ty Norris that, you know, somebody was just kind of hiding behind, and I'm not sure. I can't keep up with it all. I watched the Chastain and Michael McDowell one because they were racing. I was running third. This was what caused the 10 lap to go.

crash and Chastain came off the corner and gunned it hit the gas literally tank slapped hit the wall and then when he came off the wall

he just turned right into the right rear of McDowell and I said on my radio like what the hell was that like that it looked worse than probably it meant to be but Chastain was just trying to chase his car

and poor McDow got the crap into that McDowell said I could hear him buzzing the tire of something. Yeah. I don't think he was just trying to chase his car. who's trying to get us, I think you just made a mistake there.

Yeah, you'll take McDowell's word for it on that, right? I mean, I was four foot from it. I saw the same thing as McDowell did. Chastain hit the gas way too hard, right reared it off the wall. But instead of keeping it up on the wall, he just pulled it down and got into McDowell's right rear. So I don't know. Everybody's mad at everybody, I guess.

Yeah, job, job well done for the clash. If you can put on a 150 lap exhibition race, you know, the win is just a win, right? It doesn't mean anything. It's not a points race. And then leave with four or five altercations like this. Storylines heading into the regular season. The clash did its job.

Are you surprised that the final restart when you were in the lead went as clean as it did? I was surprised. But I wasn't surprised. And I mentioned this in a few other interviews that, I mean, honestly, if I had anyone to choose to be behind me on a green white checker as much as he wore the black hat

for many many years like Kyle Bush has been probably the most fair to me I mean other than like a Martin Truex who never really gets into it much with anyone who's probably the ultimate fair guy but Kyle Bush is just very fair

when it comes to racing for wins in my opinion and so the reason we got into that place is you know Kyle let me by on that long green flag run leading up to that 10 Laptiger restart. We had ran him down from a distance back. And so if I had anyone to choose to be behind me, it would be Kyle.

I mean, it really would because I just felt like, yeah, while I may get shoved by him, I don't think it would be an unfair shove. Like, I think he would try to win the race, but he is, I felt confident. he wasn't going to take me out. Like he was going to at least give me a fighting chance to race it out. So, but the key to the restart, honestly, was the launch I got. I think that that was the key factor because obviously I couldn't hold a straight. I couldn't keep the car on the racetrack with the left front that I'd roasted.

When I took the lead on that 10 lap to go deal, the first corner I went in was turn three. and I lit up the left front. It's so funny because Ty kept saying, man, you just, you couldn't hit a mark. He was like, you were smoking the left front. I'm like, Ty, I never saw any smoke, to be honest with you. I thought I felt lock up, but it didn't affect me that much. And they even mentioned it on TV.

They're like, I mean, he's roasting it, but it's not really affecting much. It didn't. Like, it changed a little bit of my trajectory when I tried to hit the apex. of the corner, but it just didn't affect them. I'm just happy that air stayed in the tire and I didn't blow all the way through it. But yeah, the key was the launch that I got. The gap that I got allowed me to not get punted by the eight, who was more than likely going to get shoved in the corner by whoever was behind him. 22. Oh, yeah. So that was that was that's why I'm asking it. Are you surprised that it was exclaimed? Maybe it's not about Kyle not moving you, but the fact that

you didn't get moved by another guy getting into Kyle. Yep. Yeah, I mean, that was all, yeah, all fair to say. I think the situation really just kind of worked out in our favor, you know, for once. We didn't have the anvil drop on our head and we actually capitalized on a race that we weren't likely to win when it was 10 laps to go. So, but glad it did. Glad it worked out for us. And what a great way to start for our team.

So, you know, I said, that there was really only one winner leaving this track, right? And even if you're second, you know, I saw Kyle's kind of on the podium. He's just like, yeah, whatever. I was here last year. It's just the clash doesn't mean much as far as correlating to other racetracks. The only thing it does is give momentum as far as feel good momentum to the team that wins it. And that's what it did for us.

And you now have a trophy sitting at your front door after you just clean the table off 12 hours prior. Right. Yeah. Yeah, so I mentioned it on TV. But yeah, my motivation every year is just to, I have an entryway of the house. I've got this just big old table. And I like to put the trophies that I win that year on that table. So when the new year starts, you know, any of the old accomplishments, the SRX trophy, the three cup wins, the pole trophies that I got in 2023, wiped it clean. And, you know, so that table just sits there empty with nothing on it until I go out and I accomplish something. So, yes, it's very cool to be able to put something on it that's going to be there for the next year. Right off the bat. Were you excited, eager, just curious to how the fans were going to treat you when you got out of the car? It was really good to start. I felt like there was a lot of cheers on the initial.

Travis is not in his head. like the initial ovation was cheers and i was like heck yeah all right for making it's new 2020 for me it's a new year and then as i started talking it got you started as you open your mouth right i know it's understandable um it just it got a little worse and i didn't say anything to incite them i was just talking about the race or something like that or just thankful to my team or sponsors or something like that. And then I think it just happens to where it just takes a little group to boo kind of loudly. And then the other's like, hell yeah, we're getting in on that too. And then it just gets, it just builds, right? So it's either that or I'm like, was there a fight on

the screen that I didn't see? You know, was what are they doing? And I'm like, wait a minute, they had a change of heart. In 20 seconds, they had to change your heart on me. And so, you know, I gave him the, you know, all, you know, beat your favorite drivers again and whatnot, which, breaking news, you know, I always say that at least once in every podcast. I'm going to have to retire it. I'm going to retire the, I beat all your favorite drivers because I got a text and those of you saw the Netflix special with my dad. He sent me a text.

He says, son, you got to stop. he said son you got to stop that i don't like it it's just too cocky blah blah blah and and i'm going to listen to dad on this one so we're going to retire it that's the last time i think you know jokes are always funnier the first time you say it not the second or third or whatever anyway so we'll come up with something new um next time around but i beat your favorite driver all of them is officially going to go down in the history books. It's done. When did you know that you were going to,

because you pulled Jamie to, when did it just click? I was fine. I thought I was me and the fans. We were tight. There was cheers and I was feeling them, the vibes and everything. And then all of a sudden,

she starts wrapping it up, the interview. And then I just hear this, it was like a tsunami of booze. Like it just, it started just coming. And it just kept getting loud. and I'm like, oh, might need to remind these folks one more time.

Denny has a limited shelf life, Travis. The first 10 seconds are like, all right. And then he just keeps going on on. It's like, all right, this guy is getting him off the stage. Exactly. That's fair to say. Obviously, your shoulder was feeling fine. Yep.

Yeah, it's good. I got to ask that question a billion times. I don't want to ever be asked it again. It hurts today. It does. It's just fatigued. It's just like anything else. So you go to the gym and you do 100 pushups,

your chest is probably going to be sore the next day. Same thing with the shoulder. You know, you're working, we work muscles in our body that just don't get worked. You can't work them in the gym. It's just, it's not, it's probably possible, but it's just, so some of it is just first race back soreness as well. But yeah, I feel good. I feel as though we're going to kind of get eased into the season.

Daytona will not be a real tough one on the shoulder. There's not a whole lot of movement. If you looked at the end car cameras, I mean, guys are really turning the wheel, tonnet at the clash. So that was a little concerned. But, you know, when the adrenaline gets going in the car, I feel like we handled it fine. And certainly, you know, the result was there.

So I didn't, we're ready to move on from it. And this is going to be a year. Hopefully we stay healthy. And if I do, I'll feel really good about it. Some speculation that the NASCAR in L.A., at the Coliseum, has run its course. It's been three years. This was the year three.

If it moves on from L.A. next year, the Coliseum, what's next for the clash, in your opinion? I don't know. I mean, certainly I think that that's the chatter today, right? Is that everyone's just kind of moved on from what happened yesterday and what now, right? They want to know what now. I don't know what now. Honestly, I gave my opinion on the financials. I think it should pay as much as a normal race.

that would make me more open to go anywhere as far as that's concerned. I don't know. We mentioned on the podcast last week, right? When you took it from Daytona, it took away from the storylines a little bit. There was always a correlation of the person that wins a clash or someone that looks strong or bleeds the clash at Daytona. They are going to be the ones to beat for the Daytona 500. now we do not know until qualifying like whose cars can be fast and with the lack of practice that we have now for the 500 it makes even more sense to be at Daytona but do I want to go there's no way

I want to go tear up multiple cars at 2311 financially you know the old model just doesn't work you know the show it just costs too much money for us to to go tear up a bunch of cars if it was back at Daytona. I don't know the answer. I saw the popular suggestion is invest in the infrastructure of the short tracks. So, you know, say you went to a short track, you know, NASCAR go spend some money on it, making sure the facility is a little bit nicer. That facility gets to reap the benefits of that infrastructure upgrade for that race

for many, many years after that, and then you get to highlight some local short tracks. That's great in theory, but there's just financials there that I think NASCAR is going to be apprehensive to just spend money to help someone else out and not reap benefits from it. So I don't know whether that will work.

I mean, ideally, I don't know. I don't know what the right answer is. I wish there was an easier answer to it. I would probably vote that we did not have the clash, and we run more practice before the 500. I think that's a better use of resources. I think that is a better buildup for the Daytona 500. Now, the negative to it is you're losing a race in an event on TV

that has had two or three million viewers. So I don't know how you make up for that. And the opportunity to take your sport to a new city or a new demographic that you probably won't be able to do in the regular season. Yeah. I mean, other than the All-Star race, right? I mean, you could turn North Worksboro

into a points-paying event and to make this the All-Star. You know, the clash is the all-star. in essence. I don't know. I haven't had enough time to really think about it. I'm interested to see kind of where social media takes this thing in the future, but surely NASCAR is not just twiddling their thumbs on it. I know Ben Kennedy's really working hard to try to get a schedule together sooner than later. They've already got, you know, probably ideas of what they do with this event next. But regardless, I think everyone needs to look at L.A. and, you know, both thank L.A. for welcoming us to come there. I mean,

we take a stadium and we tear it apart for weeks and then they build it back. I thought it was a huge success no matter what to our TV audience. It was a big bump in that. And so whatever the next chapter is, if there is a next chapter, we'll just see what it is. This review comes from Cubby's 34. Actions Determental feels like a real and honest take on NASCAR. Combined that with Dennis Charisma and you have one of the best podcast out there. The show has helped me become a bigger NASCAR and specifically Denny fan than I

already was. Well, appreciate that, Cubbies. Thank you for leaving us a review. All those reviews, we do try to get out here on this podcast. So appreciate you tuning in. Yeah, I mean, this is what we love to do. We'd love to get this to you here. We're going to get this to you early Monday. So when you hear this, it's going to be Monday morning. We'll get it out tonight. Oh, true. Travis, Sunday night, late night. Yeah, we're taping early enough. We can get this out Sunday night. All right on.

Perfect. So we'll be the second out. The teardown is usually the first right after the race, and it's us. You'll hear DBC to follow us. Dale Jr. download, Dirty Moad Doe on Thursdays. So make sure you're tuning into all the Dirty Moab podcast. And also be sure you rate, review, and follow wherever you get your podcast. We also have a brand new YouTube page, which Taylor,

We have a YouTube page. Will you tune into us? Yes. You will? Okay, because you tune into a lot of other YouTube pages. So Action is Determental has its own YouTube page now. So. Yeah.

So, yeah, Taylor wanted to make a little cameo this evening. So make sure you go to that YouTube page. We're going to have the full video, right, Travis? Yep, that'll be up Monday. Okay, awesome. And make sure you subscribe to it. and you'll obviously see highlights from it, shorts from it, and full podcast. So we will be back next week to preview Daytona.

Quite a few topics on our list. We push to the side that we'll talk about next week. Last year, I don't think we had an episode pre-Datona this year. We will be back next week to discuss a handful of things going into Daytona. Taylor's going to make her cameo now. Yeah, I mean. Oh, okay. Okay.

So next week, like you talked about, we want to do some like predictions. Maybe we throw out some preseason predictions, put the three of us together. We'll come up with our predictions and maybe we'll have some sort of competition who's the most right. I probably have a little bit more of an insider track than what you guys do. But racing is as about unpredictable as it possibly can be, right? So if you had to guess, all right, Taylor, tell me your 24, 24, 24, 24th, 4 champion. This is a preview to next week's preview. You can't say my name. You can't say my name, though. Who wins the championship next year if you had to predict? As in next year? As in this upcoming

NASCAR season. Phoenix was? Or just? Yes, they have to be part of the Final 4 and then they win that race in the championship. Who is it? I don't know why, but I'm just getting some Christopher Bell moments right now. Okay, well, there's a guy who's been in the Final 4 back-to-back years. I'm thinking he's like, I think he'll have a good year this year. I think he will. I feel like this is deja vu. Did we... Did this not happen last week?

She hasn't been on the podcast before. I know, but didn't... I felt like... Man, maybe it's just... I just had a deja vu moment. I'm like, I feel like Taylor said before that she's on the Christopher Bell train. No, I said it was on the Kurt Busch train.

Well, that train left the station a few years ago. So it's okay though. All right. And goodness for Christopher Bell, is that? Taylor's going. Or Joey Legano? Yeah, I mean, listen, hey, it probably wasn't, Joey probably didn't love this podcast, but I gave him props last week.

I do believe this is a, this could be a big Joey Legano resurgence year. I mean, he was in contention to win or, you know, had a chance to win. He wasn't, wasn't the best car that 54 was. but I am. I'm going to be fair and I believe that Joey's in for a big year. Okay. Anything else you want to say before we wrap it up?

Are you excited for school tomorrow? No. I'm not either. I don't want to go to school. All right. Well, Mondays are good days for me because I have some of my favorite classes. Okay.

Well, tell everyone to tune in next week. Tune in next week, y'all. You'll see you. You'll see me on these YouTube shorts just like. I don't know. Taylor wants her own podcast called. Oh, oh, I got some ideas. Okay, hold up.

Sorry. We've been trying to land this plane, folks, for about a few minutes now, but we're going to. I got a note. Yeah, speaking on the mic. Oh, I got notes. So I have, like, I'm sorry, I wrote, like, a lot of pages. So, like, I was thinking NASCAR kids, like, the moment or, like, backstage, like, kids or something. And, like, my first idea was the moment, and it was going to be, like, what is going on at the moment,

like Chavs Kelsey, Taylor Swift, stuff like that. But then, but it would be NASCAR edition. But it would be NASCAR edition. But we don't have a Taylor Swift. Someone asked me that. They says, does NASCAR have a Taylor Swift? That says, um, no. I have a Taurus.

We could use one. We could use one, but there's only one Taylor Swift. Wait, but here's my second thing about for backstage. I like backstage a lot better, but because it says it would be about what happens at a race, like behind the scenes, like what happens on the. the bus like kind of like interviewing like Owen Larson stuff like that I got you so maybe you interview I get to interview driver's kids yes and I get to tell them like what do they do in the free time like what do they do like at the bus during the track stuff like that which I like a lot better so yeah

okay well we'll see if we can put that together from what I heard is she came into this podcast studio earlier with all these ideas about her making a cameo on this podcast and Travis told her, get your own podcast. Well, she said she was going to tape down here and I said, you got to get your own studio. You can't just use action detrimental.

Her and Molly were auditioning. I wish I was recording it. They were talking for like 20 minutes. I mean, credit to her. She came down here to create her own podcast. Travis said, get your own podcast. And 30 minutes later, she came up with a bunch of ideas. No, no.

Taylor, who gave you the idea of interviewing kids? you. You're welcome. All right. There we go. And Molly was like, because we were on the headphones, Molly was like, we were remaking the thing of the sugar thing. You know, with Lacey Caroline, she's like, Coca-Cola, sugar.

Like, something like that. We were remaking it. Okay. Lay on the plane. Okay. Tune in y'all next week. We'll see you. See you.

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