Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Will SVG Get a Second Win This Year?

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

With the birth of his third child, Denny Hamlin missed Sunday’s race and is spending time with his family. Instead, Jared Allen and producer Travis took a look at their preseason predictions and discuss if SVG will get another win, who’s been the biggest surprise, and who’s had the most disappointing season. Plus, they chat about how they think Denny will perform at Fanatics Fest on Friday.And for those who miss Denny, don’t worry, he will be back on Monday after Pocono. Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Actions Detrimental merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.For more Actions Detrimental content: https://www.youtube.com/@ActionsDetrimental FanDuel Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I believe that I've been a competitive for 20 years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win.

I know, you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that they're drinking. game is when I say for sure. Yeah, and I've already said it. What's up, everybody? Red Vest 311 here this week. Just Travis and I.

Denny is at home with some family. Travis and I are here in the Dirty Moe studio. We had a baby. The other two kids that already have a day job I've been told selling lemonade right now. So apparently rough life, baby comes on. They've got to get to work to earn their keep. We get a group text from Jordan saying that, Taylor and Molly are down off of

whatever road selling lemonade and Travis replies would you say is there vodka lemonade? Is that an option? If they're selling some elevated drinks then I'll swing by but if we're just doing regular lemonade I don't I don't know if the girl's gonna get my business.

I'm sure they're making a killing. They did that one time a few years ago at Charlottomler Speedway before the Coke 600 and they did a good job. They hold in some I don't know what you call. kids these days some some fun toy fund I know they're asking for the adults are asking for venmos and sending so they're probably doing well how was your weekend though it was good I

did you know that I didn't go down to I know that you weren't traveling yeah I also did not go to Mexico City although it looked like a great race everyone for the most part that I talked to really enjoyed it and I'm kind of bummed out that I didn't go I should have went do you like shooting road course races is a little different it's significantly harder because you you have to walk some more places or a golf cart and then if you're out there and you miss a shot you wait two minutes for the car to come back around so it's just it's different but i you know as denny asked me he's like oh i thought you were going to go because you like you know explore and the places we go and yeah that's what i i wish i wish i would have went i mean two of your drivers basically didn't race

so yeah you can even count three i mean larsson you're yeah you're saying larsson Larison was 39 laps down. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. Good day for William. Yeah. So here we are. We're going to talk about some mid-season predictions that we had.

Yeah, so early in the year, we talked about new drivers in the Cup Series and the drivers that were on the move and their predictions. And I figured it might be nice to look back and see how our predictions went. So the first thing that's on my mind, because you sent me the clip of the audio of our predictions, mostly Denny earlier in the year when we recorded one of the first episodes. And he had asked who I thought was going to perform better the 41 or the 21. Yeah. And I was like, oh, surely the 21. And Denny was like, yeah, I agree.

But it's close. And it ain't close. It's not close at all. I mean, the 21 has 321 points and the 41 has 204. Yeah, the 21 is won a race. So that says all you need. And it's been leading at times and had some bad luck, but, I mean, it's racing really well this year. Yeah, Josh Berry has really made that 21 car look like the fourth Penske car.

He's performed, I think he's exceeded expectations in that car. The interesting one, I think we said McDowell versus front row. And that's close as well. That's close as well. McDowell's 18th in points currently, and all the front row guys are right there. I guess, well, Zane Smith and Todd Gilland are neck and neck 26 and 27. Yeah. I'll Gregson's down in 33.

I thought, I took front row just because three versus one, I figured one driver might do. I'd have better odds with the three, but. Yeah. We also threw Zane Smith and Todd Gilland against each other. Correct. And ask who would perform better. And they are quite literally nearly tied on points 287 and 286. Yeah.

So I guess we'll roll. the audio and let people hear that our full conversation and we'll come back on the other side. New, you know, faces, places, you know, what do we expect? You got a list here for me. Let's start with 2311, your driver, new driver. Riley Herp's coming in. We're bringing in his Xfinity crew chief. They got great chemistry together. I, you know, they didn't make the main in the clash. They had a mechanical failure. That kind of is on us. But I really feel confident that Riley will outperform expectations this year. I think he's very hungry.

I think he's very focused and very underrated in the talent side of things. So I'm expecting good things from him. I'm very, very careful with expectations. But I think he's going to be a person that will contend inside the top 20 on most weeks. Do you have expectations or is this a guy where, your expectation is to see growth from race one to race 36. Well, that's what I'm saying. It's growth, right? I mean, like, you know, my expectations of Tyler, of Bubba continue. They change year after year after year because I expect them to keep

getting better. Right. The minute you see a plateau, then it's a, uh, all right, how far can they really take this, take us, right? And so I've seen everything I need to see as far as growth from those, those two so far. And so for Riley, You have to be realistic with the expectations of a rookie coming in, new team. And I just feel as though I believe he's going to continue to get better and better as the year goes on. And my expectation is what I've said before. Right. But your expectations for Bubba and Tyler are to make the playoffs and then advance in the playoffs.

That's right. I can't imagine your expectations for Riley are to make the playoffs. Therefore, statistically. expectation to make it. I think that would be very lofty. I think that it's hard. It's hard and it's tough out there. But as a rookie, he's just going to be up against it when it comes to, you know,

we've all got those who are not rookies have three or four years of next gen experience now and know what makes these cars run fast at each particular racetrack. And he's going to be learning that week after week like, oh, I can't emphasize how much an advantage having experience and knowing how to make speed at next gen on certain tracks will matter versus a rookie. It will definitely play a factor. Yeah.

Do you want to see him finish in the top 20 of owner points? Top 25? Doesn't matter. There's just not one number I'm looking at and saying it's a success or failure. Right. Show me that you're capable first, which we believe he is.

That's why we hired him. and then see a progression of speed and performance and results, results being the big one throughout the year. You have a new teammate in the 19 car, Chase Briscoe? Yeah, I think Chase will be good. I certainly think that he's going with a really solid team and James Small there. I think just a fantastic team, and I think they're going to be obviously playoff guys that can go as deep as,

I mean, deep as they want. I mean, there's certainly, I don't think anything holding Chase or that team back from being a Final Four contender. AJ Almondanger returns to the 16 and Ty Dillon will drive the 10 car. Yeah, I think that AJ could be kind of a backdoor playoff team driver. Like, you know, one of these races that SVG or, you know, there's been other cars, you know, normal, you know, you're William Byron, you're Kyle Larson's that are good on the road courses. There'll be a race where they kind of stub their toes, and I think AJ is solid enough that he always knows how to get himself in position at road courses,

that he could sneak in and get a road course win and put that team in the playoffs. Wood Brothers. Josh. It's possible. I'm not saying it's probable. It's possible. Josh Barry driving a 21 car for the Wood Brothers? I think I like Josh. This was a playoff team last year. I know. I understand. I just, I only worry because I don't know the specifics,

but it just feels like to me, right, that, you know, it's a development Penske team, right? So when they're developing, they're developing mechanics. they're developing pit crew members, they're developing crew chiefs, they're developing engineers, and you start on the 21, and then you work your way into a house car.

So if you, and I don't know this is fact, so please, if you're on the team, don't take this the wrong way. I don't know that do they have all the pieces to be like legit contenders? I don't know, right? I mean, surely if you're within the Penske organization, you're going to be very competent and capable,

but it's more than likely you're probably, have either been with a team for a really, really long time, or you're just now starting and you're getting developed. Now, this goes with pit crew members as well. Like, are they, I've never seen on a statistic that the 21 pit crew has been really fast at any point. but they eventually transition a few of the members onto the house cars. So is this a development team, straight development team for Penske? I don't know, which makes me apprehensive to give them a high expectation. Right.

I was saying the playoff team a bit facetiously, right, because they made the playoffs on Harrison Burton's Daytona win. I get it. I wasn't going to jump off the – He didn't take the base. He didn't take it. I did it. No.

Yeah. Noah Gregson, driving the four car for front row as well as Zane Smith and the 38 car. Just real quick, I think front row's got an excellent young stable of drivers. I believe in their future and certainly think that they've got a fantastic lineup of drivers there. But can they contend inside the top five, top 10 regularly? They're going to have to step up their performance a little bit more than what I've seen so far. This is interesting that all these guys... Which is possible, by the way. They have a new investment from Bob Jenkins. They're part of this Penske Alliance. I think they switched it from RFK to Penske last year.

So does another year of that relationship start to show fruit? Certainly their driver lineup I'm impressed with. I don't know how the inner workings of teams go, drivers working together, but I think it's interesting that their drivers all grew up together. Zane grew up with Noah. They all came up through the ranks together, all the relatively the same age. That dynamic is interesting. It is. Haas in the 41 car? Cole Custer. Give your opinion. I don't know, can't be, the expectations can't be higher than what SHR was last year. Yeah, you nailed it there. Yeah, I agree.

let's just pretend that it was everyone from SHR was still there and it's just one single SHR car now is your expectation really for them to make the playoffs probably not even if it was straight it may I mean if it was like a all-star cast right you still yeah there you go that would be cool but it's not it's probably not however there's probably some pretty loyal people that have worked for Tony and Gene that stayed on there with Joe Custer and said, you know, we're going to help support Cole here.

I just, the only issue I see is kind of, they're not doing it on their own. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. Like, they have an alliance now, right? So they're going to get secondhand information from I think it's RFK.

So again, I kind of temper expectations a little bit. I got one for you. Who runs better? 21 or 41. Yeah, that's one of the thing. I like doing the little matchup here.

21 or 41. I would put my money on the 21. It's close, but I'm going to go 21. Are you given the edge? Here's the question, though. Now, are you given the edge to driver ability? It's an in-house car from Penske where I just think that the Haas team

is a little bit on an island. Okay, so you think the equipment for the 21 is just going to be a little bit better than the equipment for the 41? A little bit, yeah. Okay, who runs better than 4 or 38? Ooh, that's tough. And that's Noah versus Zane, right? Yep. I say Zane.

Zane by hair. That's a good over-rinder. Does Todd Gillen outperform all of them? Based on his numbers last year, I would say, yes. I'd say so, too. Just a little bit. It's close. That three, two.

teamed on it. That might be the closest three team like who's going to be the best lead be the lead dog at the team. That would be fun to watch. Right. I like this game of like who we think is going to be better. All right. Cody, we're in the 51 car. Nothing really new there. This was talked about to be Coral Ljoi's car. I know this episode's running along, but you're good. This is what we had, you know, we're trying to get the people some, I don't know what you all are doing, like, you know, whether you're placing bets with your friends or not, we're trying to give you some insight here.

Cody, where in the 51, the guy averaged like a 20-second place finish at the end of last year. He ran better than people expected, and I thought I was pretty impressed personally with, you know, how he ran in the last half of the season. So I expect, Probably they'll run the same. Maybe, yeah, the same.

Moving on. Michael McDowell in the 71. I think a lot of people have high expectations of this. I think people have high expectations of Spire in general. Okay. I got one for you. Michael McDowell or the best running front row car. McDowell.

I'll take the best running front row. I'll take the odds. I'll take the best running. Not on any given day. cars. I'm just, as friends, we say, okay, you know, you take this, I'll take that. When it comes to the end of the year, I'll take the best front road car over McDowell in the 71. That's just, that's my prediction. It doesn't mean McDowell's not going to go out there and win a race. Maybe the best front row car does as well, but that's just my, I think it's going to be close.

But I see, I don't see this move for McDowell. I think he did it for the road. right reasons for himself, which he absolutely should have. He got offered more stability, probably more money. I think it's a, it's a lateral move. But as far as performance in the short term, I think he's probably thinking, and which would be a correct thing to think, that spires on the rise, so I'm going to bank on them in the long term. Which is probably the right thing to think. Does having Rodney Childers in the building for Spire elevate the 70s? one car? You like to think so, but I heard an interview with Rodney Childers on Sirius, and he said, he just keeps to himself. They asked him, they said, so how are you getting

along with other crew chiefs and all this other stuff? He's like, yeah, I'll answer a question if they got one, but I just keep to myself. I worry about my own team. I was like, oh, all right, interesting. So you like to think so that more than likely whatever one person, finds that is good for them, that everyone's going to see it. So certainly have a talent like Childers in the building. It's never a bad thing. Ryan Preece in the 60 car for RFK. I have no idea what to expect here.

That was my one, if I had to put a star next to a driver and say, what am I going to get? This one's hard to, this one's going to be hard. hard to predict. Just simply because is this a better, is this a better situation than what he had at SHR? Yes or no. Anyone else have an opinion on that? Yes.

You say yes. I would say yes. Why? Just based on that RFK is won races in the past few years. And what Brad's built there. Yeah. They're on the ride. I got you.

You're convinced to me. Okay. So what you guys are saying then is that RFK was slightly better speed, execution, whatever it is better than SHR over the last two years, RFK has been better. Yeah, I believe it. Okay. You convince me then. I saw it as like, man, I don't know. Is it?

But I guess I see your point, right? I mean, the 17 car... One race last year could have won multiple. The 6 won a race. Probably could have won multiple. Yeah, see your point. So what's Ryan Priest going to do? Is he going to perform better?

Okay. Is he going to perform better or worse than the 6 and the 17? Oh, not better. No, yeah, zero chance. Not better. But it'll be interesting to see if he can put himself in the same ballpark as those guys. guys. I think those two drivers. So I think he runs good, but does he run significantly better than he did last year?

I don't know about that. You know, you are, you know, listen, I can attest from my standpoint on, you know, when you start a new team, right, you're getting different people. They're all meshing together. It's pre-s finished 26th in points last year. Yeah. Yeah, I can see it being a little better than that. I think it has to be better than that because your teammates have already proven that their threat.

Let's just say that that's our prediction. He's going to be, or you guys are saying yes, he's in a better situation. I agree with you based off the arguments that you said, we're going to take under 26 for Ryan Priest this year. If he doesn't finish better, I think Brad Kozlowski in an honest moment would say he didn't meet expectations. Yeah. Well, it's a good opportunity for Ryan and good to see him that, you know, get into a new team there. and when there was a lot of questions on where the SHR driver's going to go, you know, all of them landing on their feet was good. And then lastly, SVG and the 88 car for trackhouse. I mean, I think the expectation is he's in there because they think he can win a race,

and that's probably true. Does he win more than one race? No, I don't think so. How many road course races are there? Is it six? Five or six. six. I think others are getting better. He's still, in my opinion, the best. I think the gap between him and the field will lessen slightly. I think the field learns and they find ways to get better.

he's with a new team I don't know that that really matters much I think he I think he's going to get speed out of whatever car he drives so my expectation is the same I think he wins a race I don't think multiple it's very possible it's absolutely very possible

let's talk about more about I think I think everyone across the board would have the same opinion he's going to win a race, therefore he'll get himself in the playoffs. I just want to know that race win. Real quick, what's happening quicker? The pace at which the rest of the field is catching up to his ability, the rest of the field is getting better at road course racing, catching up to his ability to road course

race, or is he getting more comfortable in a cup car, which is field's getting better? So the gap is not getting wider. It's getting smaller. I believe it will get smaller. I don't see him I'm really comfortable with the next year I know how to make speed out or not the guy can make unbelievable speed

he made unbelievable speed his very first time there wasn't that much left on the table so generally speaking you would bet on the field to learn from that well how's he making that speed hmm all right well let me try this because that's what I see him doing I think the gap tightens up

therefore him going out and dominating a road course race is less likely is less likely time after time and time again, but I still think he does do it. The question for me is, what are we going to expect out of the 88 on ovals? Mid-pack car. So if you're going to say mid-pack, you're saying 18th?

Anywhere from 18th to 22nd? I mean, that's where Suarez was at last year. Is he bunk? Okay. I love this game. Here we go. Who runs better on Oval's then? If that's the case, SVG or Swaritz?

Oh, it's got to be Suarez. Okay, then. Yeah, I guess when you put it that way, you realize that the top 16 drivers is a really competitive feel. And that 18 through 22 is still fairly competitive. Like, you know, there's only a handful of guys behind those drivers. I think, see, this is where the tables now flip,

where SVG has more to. gain on the ovals than the field. You got me? Because he's going to get more track time. So I think the expectations should be lower on the ovals. I think he did a phenomenal job at the clash. I mean, you didn't hear from him much other than when TV was giving him praise, which was 100% deserved because he ran in the top 10, 12, all day. Got a great finish.

Like, he ran really well. He is an exceptional talent that will adapt. So I'm going to give my prediction that SVG runs 23rd to 28th on ovals to start the season. I'm just saying as an average running position. He could finish better than that. There's going to be Rex. We could better finish. Average 23rd to 28th.

And by the end of the year, that moves 18th. to 22nd, which is a significant jump, significant jump. Yeah. Yeah, if you finish this year running 18 to 22nd and you make a bit of progress next year, all of a sudden you're a legitimate playoff threat contender. Yeah. He already is, right, because he's going to have a handful of races that we talked about, that he's going to be the favorite.

I just think that he's got tons of room to improve on. ovals and he's going to. Right. I just mean if you're, because I've seen it in Xfin. If by the end of this year he's running in the 18 range at ovals, that next year, if he improves on that, he's no longer just a guy who they're thrown in there to win a road course race because now if he can compete a little better than 18 at the Oval's, then he's in the picture. There you have it. SVG has that one win and he's still got a handful of road courses to go this season. The interesting thing is I think some people thought that because this new track that he would win, but I think

you know, some people, I think, thought the field might be getting closer to him. And the track was a flat track, so it might be, you know, they might have been able to get him. But for him to get it here, I think it sets him up for the rest of the season. Yeah, I think that's the key part is that we went to a track that none of the drivers had been to and at least a lot of years, right? Certainly in the next-gen car. And I think that's an element that we may have forgotten or just overlooked a bit. since we didn't have that situation last year

just kind of forgetting that oh yeah when we go to a road course a new road course for the first time the SVG is going to have that advantage just because it didn't it looked like like as you said the field had had gotten closer to him since he's been in the cups

I'm a little upset that we didn't get a sea of Ty Gibbs had a chance to get him that he had a chance to pit and he just didn't get the pin in before the penalty and then SVGs drove off they're telling him to slow down and he's like just leave me alone and let me keep driving and he just expanded the lead it was just he put on a show

again yeah that was certainly disappointing for tie i was watching it and uh we were we were watching lap times all throughout the race and it looked like tie was the fastest car on track and was certainly going to have a chance to get to him um just disappointing the way the cautions fell and and their strategy and that kind of took him took him out of the race so does svg get a second win we got the thing is we still have a good chunk of road courses coming up. So what do we have left? We have Chicago. We have Watkins Glen. Yep. The Roval. Correct. I think there's one more. And Sonoma. Sonoma. Yeah. Chicago and Sonoma are back to back. Yeah. I think his best chance is going to come at Chicago. I don't think he will win Watkins Glen or Sonoma or the Roval. I think the Roval is just too chaotic, as Denny would say, if he was here. It's just a parking lot.

And then these cup guys are so good at Watkins Glen and Sonoma, right? They've raced that track for as long as they've been in the series. I don't think SVG is going to necessarily have all that much of advantage on the field. At those two places, I think Chicago, I think he could certainly be one of the best there again. Yeah, it's his to lose it. I mean, Bowman won it, but it was... Where did he finish last year? Last year, unfortunately, Rex, that's not his doing.

Do you think he wins? I'm putting you on the record. Another race this year. He can be out eliminated from the playoffs. No, I don't think so. I don't think he wins those three road courses that I specifically brought up. And I think my odds are just better to pick the field versus him at Chicago. Correct.

There's enough drivers that something's going to happen. So he's not here so we can talk about him. Speaking of drivers and how many more they win this year, Denny's sitting on three. Yeah, he definitely wins more. I think he's got a realistic chance. He'll say otherwise, but I think he's got a good shot at getting to 60 wins this season. I think so too, because I think he can get at least one more before the playoffs start. And then with the playoffs, like...

Yeah, yeah. And if you're 11 fan and you're hopeful of a championship, he's going to have to get to 60 wins, I think. Yeah, I think to win a championship, you have to win at minimum two in the playoffs, if not three. Right. Technically, I guess, no, you don't, right? You could go through the entire playoffs without winning a race. You could point your way through each round and then finish second in the championship and then never win a race in the playoffs and still win the big trophy. But I think, yeah, realistically thinking you need to probably win at least twice. Yeah, it'd be one thing if he was going to win the regular season, then you'd be like, okay, he doesn't need to win here and he's got the 15 bonus points, but he's not going to win the regular season. He missed out on points last week. So we know he's going to finish play that. third to fifth range so most likely yeah i would say three wins maybe if not four and i'm excited to see him at polka no this weekend and go for the all-time polka no record yeah it's a it's a track that he's really good at you know we'll see you know and my parents are going to be there

polka is where i'm from so and uh i think they are like six for eight six for nine maybe and races that they attend and Denny wins. So they're trying to lobby that, you know, if he wins again this weekend and they're at the race, like, hey, you're going to need to bring us to Phoenix. He needs to start picking up on the plane and bringing him out. Right. Yeah, their record is pretty, pretty good. I mean, I'm 0-2 with the blown engine. Yeah, I would leave you at home. Yeah, I'm nowhere. I'm nowhere. I'm curious what you think about other drivers. Like, who do you think can find their way into the playoffs with the win.

I think anyone right around this cut line, we've got the standings here right in front of us. We've got the 10 drivers who've won already highlighted in yellow. The six guys above the cut line currently who are not highlighted in yellow, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Boba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, and Chris Busher. I think any of those guys can win a race

any given weekend for the most part. about guys from below though let's start there okay well guys from below tie gibbs has clearly shown that he's capable of winning a race just like he did this this last weekend yeah i feel like lately he's getting solid finishes i think he's still i think he's gonna have to win his way in but at least he's he's seeing the lead he's getting those top five finishes and i you know i think uh he's got a lot of pressure on himself but if he just needs you know one little break to go his way yeah he's the first name that when i look below this cut line that stood out to me as someone who I think is on the door of winning their way in.

Some other guys down here, Michael McDowell is always a threat for the most part on road courses. Brian Priest could easily go get him a win. The question I'm seeing all over X these days is have we seen Kyle Bush's last Cup Series win? Man, I tend to believe I would... say yes unfortunately and i think it's a shame because the sport needs something you know i think he's good for the sport if he could win but

i feel like when he does have a good car there's some bad luck and it's just he's not there routinely and i feel like to get wins you've just got to be up there a lot and things will go your way yeah yeah that's why i think that some of those names i rattled off have you know the best chances of winning their way their way into the playoffs this What about the guy that has a target on his back? Carson Hosevar. I think Carson Hosevar can also win. He'd be like, if you're like who's going to win that hasn't, that's below the cut line,

I think he'd be the guy. Yeah, I don't think he's going to win this weekend in Pocan. I think he's going to need to make sure he knows where the 47 is at all times on track. But after that going forward, I think if they can continue to bring the speed that they've had the last handful of weeks to the racetrack that they're going to be really competitive, at least at my own a half. I'm curious if Ricky does something.

Now, he hasn't threatened to wreck him. He's starting to kick his ass. I don't think he's just going to punch him. The only time you punch a guy is when you're just, you're seeing red. And unfortunately, he didn't punch him last weekend. Now he's probably coming back down, cooling off.

Carson's going to have to do something dumb to get punched. But now, Ricky can make his life miserable. Yeah, I don't think, I certainly don't think that Ricky's going to physically assault him at the racetrack, unless Carson does something in the car again, you know, I don't think Ricky's going to get out of the car post-race and do anything unless there was something that happened on track that would lead to that. But honestly, I think that just putting him in the wall or ending his day in some sort of way might be worse than getting a black eye or something.

Just because you're a guy that's below the cut line. Like, yes, you need to win to get in most likely, but still every point matters. And, you know. See, that's why I don't think Ricky's going to do a whole lot. Because it depends on where he's at because he needs to race smart for the points. But he at least needs to show up wearing the shorts that he wore when he punched Kyle. Like, play along.

Let's WWE this. up a little bit and let's have some fun with it you know I you know I've already seen that some sports books are having you can bet on Carson or Ricky in a match up like the conflict sells yeah well I've heard from behind the scenes that Ricky is a man of his word and if Ricky says he's going to do something you better believe he's going to do it I'm curious Denny said when the Kyle Bush incident went down that there was a text thread and And some of the people were basically like go and Ricky to do it. I'd love to be in that thread to see what those drivers are saying to him.

If it's the same thread that I think he's referring to, there hasn't been any goading going on thus far. Right now, who would you say is overperformed the most? Or who's been like a surprise to you? Overperform the most, Josh Barry? I think, yeah, that's the... That's easy one. Austin Cindrick has also had, I think, has had the best season. he's had in the cup car yet despite you know he won the Daytona 500 a few years ago but I think

overall performance he's been uh an overperform remember he got docked 50 points yep yeah yeah oh that that's he could have been significant he could have lost his playoff points right right yes but he's so he's got 300 if he wasn't docked then he'd be Right around, I mean, maybe not. Maybe he's just performing just as he, as expected. Give him those 50 points back. Josh Bear would be mine, and I think it's interesting. You know, now it's all sudden it's the Penske fourth car.

It's no longer the Wood Brothers when it performs well, but, you know, it works for them. Underperforming, I think this one's pretty easy. It's Brad. Absolutely. I also would say Noah Gregson. Just based on that clip that we ran earlier, we were asking ourselves who was going to run the best of the front row cars. And I was,

I'd listened to that clip earlier in the day and then I looked up the standings to see where all these guys were at. And then I had to do a Google search to see if the four car was penalized this year because I didn't think that Noah was actually 33rd in points. Yeah, but I mean,

where did we realistically think Noah was going to finish? I think it was probably going to be the high 20s, right? Just the fact that his teammates, Zane and Todd are 26th and 27th, I just would expect Noah. it to be at least in that same vicinity. And then Brad, I don't know what's, you know, I don't, nobody thought Ryan Priest was going to be more than 100 points ahead of Brad.

Yeah, Brad has not had a great season thus far. But another guy that can show up at any given week if RFK brings a car and he has a few things go his way can easily win himself into these playoffs. So I saw someone mention this. I forget who on Twitter. everyone's talking about SVG getting in these 30 third points now he's in the playoffs and does that need to be fixed.

If Brad Kozlowski gets a win somewhere, are we going to see the same backlash? I don't. I think that's over. I think you just, that's just the system. That's just the way this format is. It is what it is. It is what it is. Yeah.

Winning is everything. Yeah. So, well, that's all I got for you. People have been asking what the pot is. We're trying to figure out what we're going to do. We'll be back next weekend though. Yeah, I miss having Denny across from the table. I wish he was here for this discussion.

There's a lot of things that I know that he would probably disagree with and have a few hot button comments on. He's going to be chomping at the bit. I think he's enjoying it, but he's not getting to talk and air out what he's thinking. Right. We are going to, this will be out before Friday. Yeah. Right. So we are going to Fanatics Fest.

Oh, yeah. In New York City on Friday, it is, as far as I know, it's just him and William Byron. And we talked about this a little bit on last week's episode. But we've been training. I think that's what we can call it, training a little bit. So this Fanatics Fest, I have to lay it out there. It's a, I don't know specifically what it exactly is. I think it's a trading card, sports card show of some sort, but it's a Michael Rubin put on production.

and, you know, all the top athletes are there. Tom Brady, you name it. But this year, they are doing the fanatics games. So all these athletes that are there, if you pull up Fanatics Fest on your phone and scroll down a little bit, there's a list of all the athletes that will be there. Denny and William are among those. But there's eight different sports challenges that all these athletes will compete in.

Baseball, basketball, soccer, striking, which is UFC. They have to do a WWE walkout of their choosing. I'm missing two. Did you say the hockey? Hockey, and then there's one more. Closest to the pin. Closest to the pin.

That's the one I was missing. So we haven't trained any closest to the pin. I don't think... If he doesn't finish in, like, I don't know, top 10 there, he needs to go home. Right. Yeah. No, we had, there's been no practice. of closest to the pin.

So I think he feels pretty confident in that and I think he's pretty confident in his basketball three-point shooting abilities. I mean, C.D. Liam Zennett, Joe Burrow, Charlotte Flair, Michael Chandler, Travis Hunter, Tom Brady, Travis Scott, Cody Rhodes,

Kevin Hart, Jaden Daniels, Kevin Durant, Alex Rodriguez, Rob Gankowski. Yeah, the who's who of the sports world. And Denny and William carrying the torch for the NASCAR community.

So, Denny's been dead set on, you know, not embarrassing himself and finishing at least in the top half of all these challenges. I mean, it's going to be tough

just because, like, there's like some world-class athletes. Right. And for him, speaking of Denny, he has a, he doesn't have the best shoulders

in the world. Yeah, if it was podcasting golf and pickleball, he could win. Yeah, but we're going to have to throw strikes from, you know, the 60 feet. He claims he's a, remember he said that he was a fighter. Yep, yep.

I think that's, I think that's one of the challenges that he said he might just like, so you do all these challenges and you get to drop your two worse scores. So just having shoulder issues, the fighting one, the striking challenge, is graded on your force. So like you really got to wind up, which feels like if you're going to just put one to the side and drop a score, that's maybe the one you want to drop. Now the superstar entrance, if we knew that HMS fans were going to be there, I think that he could actually excel there.

Now this one he has a plan for. There's a detailed plan for this entrance. So I'm not concerned about that. Who's been helping with this plan? Do we have names? We have a whole, there's a Fanatics Fest group chat. Okay. So Charlie, for one, and Austin have been arranging.

And our buddy Nate is helping. train for the other sports. Yeah. So if Denny gets a moment, he's practicing. Gotcha. I can't wait to see the video from this. It'll be, yeah, it'll be entertaining to say the least.

All right, so Fanatics Fest Friday, Pocono on the weekend. We'll be back Monday morning as usual. Yep.