Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin - Wish I Had My 25 Points Back
Episode Date: August 21, 2023Austin Hill re-signs with RCR, leaving some surprised. Denny talks about his contract talks with JGR. Was Sam Mayer's move on Ty Gibbs on Saturday dirty? Why it was hard to pass on Sunday at Watkins G...len. Do they need to bring back stage breaks for road courses? How did the 9 team screw up the math on how much gas they had? Kyle Larson vs Austin Dillon. And, playoff bubble talk as only one week remains in the regular season.DraftKings State-Specific Problem Gambling Information:In Massachusetts, call (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org, In New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369). In Tennessee and Kansas, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). In West Virginia, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.1800gambler.net. All games regulated by the West Virginia Lottery. Please play responsibly. In partnership with Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
scrolling through Twitter here. Ross said that he's going to do everything to push Suarez to a win.
Yeah. Watch out. That's a dangerous pusher.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media.
What's up guys? Welcome to Actions Detrimental New York, upstate New York pizza style.
We hit the one by that for the ride home. We didn't talk about it, though.
Yeah, it was very hard to find a good day.
reviews pizza.
You know, me and Jared are trying to
try to hit these hot spots whenever we can.
But it wasn't a whole lot of choices to choose from.
Where did this pizza come from?
This wasn't corning.
Which we were limited to our selections, right?
It had to be within 20 miles of the airport.
And there's only a handful of ratings above 7.0 in that area.
Well, this episode is presented to you
by our new sponsor, Birch Gold.
get a free gold kit by texting Denny to 98, 98, 98.
Yeah, we had a, I think it was about a mid-7 on the one by that.
I think you're the only one who had it on the plane right home.
I didn't have a slice.
What?
I didn't have a slice.
Why?
I don't know.
I just wasn't feeling it.
I don't know.
It didn't look good, did it?
Well, I thought it looked very.
It was just okay.
Yeah.
It was just,
Okay. I mean, it had decent flavor. It wasn't Dave's review. It wasn't a big spot.
We are kind of in the middle of nowhere, upstate New York. So, yeah, it was all right. For sure. It makes me appreciate Zazazaz in Chicago even more, for sure, where we housed five pizzas.
We have one, two, three, four, five cameras in this room right now. Well, breaking news.
We know I love to say breaking news.
Netflix is in the room.
Is that okay?
We can say that?
I think we do whatever we want to.
It's your podcast.
Good point.
We'll see if NASCAR makes edits later.
Yeah, you can't afford to lose any more points.
I know.
All right, so let's hit up some off-track stuff.
Austin Hill resigns with RCR.
I noticed when he announced it,
the only tweet that popped up, you know, because I usually go the, on X, do you do the following or
for me?
I am too, which drives me insane sometimes because I like the for me because it gives you the
relevant news that you might miss, but also shows me tweets from people I do not want to see.
Well, it's because you've stopped on them.
Yeah, I stop on it.
I don't want to see this.
Why do I keep seeing this?
As soon as you say their name,
you see their name.
You need to just really quick scroll up.
Yeah.
Get out of my algorithm.
Yeah.
But this tweet,
the one they were talking about,
is one that I wanted to see.
So I'm glad I saw it.
Okay.
So Austin Hill resigns with RCR.
He says next year we will definitely be Xenity for sure.
Going forward, that all depends.
If things open up,
let's just say RCR acquires a third charter,
something like that,
So it sounds like he's going to be in Xfinity for a while.
I mean, I don't know how else.
I mean, you know, maybe they are in the, you know,
looking for another charter or what have you.
But one thing that popped up was Chris Rice saying,
wait, what?
And so it made me believe that like,
did Austin Hill have talks going on with colleague about going to
cup with them and then all of a sudden out of the blue
Austin Hill announces he's staying at RCR without
notifying colleague I don't know but it seemed like
the folks that colleague were surprised by this announcement
is that the tweet that you saw yeah yeah yeah yeah that's how I saw
that Austin Hill was resigning thanks to Chris Rice's tweet right but I didn't know
I had to do a little digging I I did not know why Chris Rice said that right
Yeah. I mean, I assume that there were probably talks ongoing, but I had not heard of anything prior to that tweet.
Yeah, I mean, it was a little bit in the rumor mill for sure that, you know, they were going to make some changes over there and whatnot.
But it certainly seemed like some of the parties were not notified before an announcement.
You know, RCR knows what that's all about.
So, and then the other, I mean, you have it on here.
can't I would love to avoid it. The Hamlin contract talks. I mean, it's so difficult to explain what's going on
without explaining what's going on. I mean, it really kind of, it's unfortunate kind of falls just on my
shoulders here to kind of talk about it. But, you know, I think that there's several, basically there's
several contracts that ended all in the same year. My driving contract with JGR ended.
2311's alliance with JGR is also ending at the end of the year. 2311's manufacturer deal is up
at the end of this year. So all three of those need, well, the other two need to get done before
Denny Hamlin, the driver, and Joe, the owner, can have a signed agreement because I have to make sure,
while it's certainly, you know, it's easy to look into the short term and say, well,
it's offered me good money again. Let's keep this thing going. I've got a great thing going,
all that.
I think that I always have to look out for the financial future of the race team.
I mean, it's what I'm going to do well after I'm done racing.
We have to get our alliance contract done with Joe Gibbs as well.
That's another thing that has to get done.
But it's all pending on essentially, you know, 2311.
If I didn't own a team, like I said in the media, if I didn't own a team, this deal would be done.
Me and Joe's contract is, we are done.
We are done, but it cannot be signed until there's other factors that are played out.
And so, you know, we'll see where it goes.
I'm optimistic.
He's optimistic.
But we just got to get it done.
It's just too late in the season.
I mean, Joe would never, I mean, maybe he's.
looking for, he would never let, you know, in the past, he was always a year and a half advance.
You know, he wants to have his stuff done way, way, way, way, way early.
But we knew this time around it's going to be a little different because of all the factors.
And he knew that my race team needed to, you know, have its long-term deal settled as well.
So I think that, you know, we're happy with where we're at.
We're with Toyota.
They've been a great partner of ours.
I mentioned that they've, they're responsible for 40.
47 of the 50 cup wins.
You know, they helped us get this race team off the ground.
I've been very happy with Toyota.
And actually, I just got myself a brand new Sequoia up there.
TRD Pro thing is sweet.
Did you see it?
I don't know if I saw it.
When I was pulling, when I was making the right onto your road, this orange.
Well, let me finish the story.
Damn.
When I was making a right onto your road this morning,
there was a bright orange Sequoia coming the other way.
Someone else was driving it.
okay so it didn't look like you in the driver's seat because someone else was driving okay but that was
the car yeah say how many of those cars are in cornelia not very many uh you you're getting my license
plate number while you're at it how about my address yeah okay uh so let's move on from that
well wait before we move on i just have one question do you think that because of all these factors in
play. That's frustrating to JGR that they have to deal with.
100%. I mean, Joe knocked on my motorhome door twice before race day, just asking a few
more questions here and there. And he's, he wants to see it get done. He, you know, he doesn't
want to get asked a billion questions in the media like he did with Kyle. Again, I did the best I
could to explain to the media how this is much, much different than Kyle because of these factors
that I'm talking about.
So I'm confident we can get something done.
We just, at 2311, we have to go through a due process
just to make sure that we're making the right decisions for the long term.
Is Coke Zero Sugar the best Coke ever?
I know that's a bold question,
but it's got that irresistible taste to back it up.
Well, one thing's for sure.
When you've got an irresistible match like zero sugar and zero calories,
something sensational is bound to happen.
It's like when me and my co-host Jared
team up to make a podcast.
It's too bad you can't taste with your ears
because Coke Zero Sugar tastes so amazing.
It's hard to put it into words.
But hey, that's my job, at least on Mondays.
You have to taste it for yourself.
Coke Zero Sugar, the best Coke ever?
Racing fans, hit the gas on non-stop action.
Add Draft King Sportsbook to your race day lineup
and level up the thrill of every lap.
Bet on your favorite drivers,
for a shot at taking home major cash.
New customers can bet just $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly.
If you want to find out what bets you should be looking at each week, check out Dirty Mo Doe.
Draft Kings has plenty of bets and the guys break down who the favorites are, group bets,
matchups, and more.
With props, parlays, and more, the action won't stop till the checkered flag drops.
Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now.
Use code Denny.
New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly, only on drafts.
King Sportsbook with Code Denny.
Gambling problem?
Call 1-800 gambler.
For state-specific disclaimers, check the show notes.
21 and older in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction.
See draftkings.com backslash sportsbook for details and state-specific responsible gambling
resources.
Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance.
Eligibility, wagering, and deposit restrictions apply terms at sportsbook.
Dotdraftings.com slash auto racing terms.
We had an eventful ending.
It was eventful, yep.
Man, Xfinity, it's such a crapshoot watching those races.
I mean, it isn't, but rarely does like the fastest car win in Xfinity because there's so many mistakes and someone turns somebody else.
But I tell you what, I want to hear your point of view.
I don't want you to play off of my point of view of what happened or what you saw.
And then I'll agree or rebut that.
Okay.
So let's start with what happened first between Ty and Sam, right?
Are they going through the S's there?
That's right.
And Ty, I don't know, swings out to the right, kind of pushes Sam into the wall.
His crew chief comes over the radio.
All right.
I just want to hear, that's how you explain it.
Ty pushes out and pushes them into the wall.
That's how you're going to say it, right?
they yeah they made contact and yeah yeah okay i'm gonna stick with that all right continue yeah go ahead
okay and then sam's crew chief comes out of the radio says blah blah blah blah blah blah
kind of alluding to that if you get an opportunity to get into it with tie again don't hold
anything back so then i hate that so then we have a restart with uh green white checkered correct
and they go down into turn one and fitting enough
that Sam Mare blows the corner, wheel hops into turn one, and just completely takes tie out.
Now, this I don't think was on purpose, but it is fitting that is Sam and Ty.
I don't think it would have mattered.
I say it's not on purpose, because I don't think it would have mattered who was leading the race.
Sam completely missed the corner and is cleaning out whoever is leading.
It just happened to be Thai.
I'm not saying he wasn't getting in there aggressively, but I do think he just missed the corner.
which is what he said in his post-race interview.
Okay.
And so did you feel that this was an eye for an eye?
Did you feel...
No, I don't think Sam clean tie-out on purpose.
I think he just completely missed the corner.
Slides in there, right?
I never driven one of these cars,
but he has no control once he breaks too late,
wheel hops in there, right?
Okay.
That's fair.
it's a fair way to see it for sure
and I think that
you might be using too much
of people's words literally
because I think that
he was anticipating
I'm going to have to
I'm going to go get to him
and he had to overdrive the corner
to get to him
Ty was already driving in plenty deep enough
he already had a gap
the only way Sam was going to wheel hop
as he had to overdrive it
to make sure he got to him.
Okay.
So that's our difference.
Yes.
You're saying the chicken came first.
I'm saying the egg came first.
And that is the egg or the chicken.
Is the wheel hop?
He's blaming it.
Well, I wheel hopped until I just got.
No, you will hop because you were trying to go in there and run into him.
That's what happened.
And I don't care what he says, but that's what happened.
And I personally, I like Sam.
I sang his praises after Road America about, man, he's trending in the right direction.
He's doing a lot of foolish things early.
He's cleaning it up.
He's doing a good job.
His road course finishes have been very, very good lately.
I think road course racing is a good indication of kind of where you're somewhat at on talent.
I really do.
I think that that's a pretty good indicator.
But I...
I don't know.
He, him or his team completely overreacted to what happened in the S's.
Ty is in front in the S's.
Okay.
It is hard to run side by side in the S's.
Now, people are going to call me a homer because I'm sticking up for Ty.
They can fuck off because I'm, I will call it as straight as I can call it.
It doesn't matter who's involved.
Sam made the decision
I'm going to run side by side with him in the S's
and I'm going to stick it
and I slowed it down
I watched many times
when they made contact
I felt as though
Ty was pretty far
up against the curb to the left
there was a lot of room to the right
now again you can't be all the way to the right
in the S's because there's a wall about to come out
but the rule of thumb in the S's is this.
Whoever is ahead pretty much has the right-of-way.
They have the ability to take the space that they need to make the corner.
Now, they need to leave you a lane and all that stuff.
But mayor put it right on his right rear quarter panel.
Tie is way up against the curb over on the left-hand side.
and so Ty has to let his car switch directions eventually
and it just seems like yes they made contact there
was it crazy agree no it was not egregious tie did not open up the wheel and just say
i'm sorry buddy i'm using your space sam made the decision to
hey i'm gonna i'm not gonna give up this spot here in the s's i'm gonna even though
you're ahead and i'm barely hanging on you better give
me full space. That's just not the way it works. Not the way it works. And so I think then he got goaded
by his team. And I just think that that is not good at all. I think the team, I understand it. I
understand it. But no, I don't. I don't understand it. Let the drivers handle it. They don't need to be
getting involved, especially with a young guy.
You don't need...
I remember Chad Canals yelling at William Byron.
Under caution, in Cup Series
for not taking care of somebody.
And then William destroyed the front of his car
and I think it ended his race or something like that.
It was bad.
It was just, you know,
if you want to sit Sam down after the race
and say, hey, man, he kind of used you up here.
You need to just hold your ground next time.
Like saying, hey,
When you get back to him, you do it.
That's just a bad example.
Because the way he did it was wrong.
He didn't even attempt to make the corner.
If there was nobody in front of Sam Mayer,
he would have went off into the distance
because he overdrove the corner to get too tired.
He did not wheel hop and cause him to get into the corner too deep.
He drove in too deep because he wanted to hit tie.
I do love this rivalry though
Yeah
I
My crew chief said
Hey just hear Ty's interview
I said no I gotta go back and hear it
You know as you know I was out
I was in the state park
And literally
I come across Jared
Mr. Outdoor Granola Boy
And he's
He's got his phone propped up
At the canyon
And he's watching
the green white checker to the Xfinity race.
And I'm like, you're welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And so I'm thinking the whole time, wow, has the rolls reversed or what?
Like I'm not watching Xfinity, not even keeping up with it.
And here's Jared is with his phone.
He's watching a green white checkered of an exfitting race.
Yeah, with a beautiful waterfall at the back.
Yeah.
And then here comes Bubba.
Bubba's walking.
Were you all together?
You in the whole, no.
So you guys, you guys left to hiking.
Yeah.
And then I left like a half hour after you to.
come meet you. And I guess when I got there, I went right, you went left. And then I ran into Bubba.
So we all kind of met at that point at the same time. And I was the one who wanted to watch
stand the race. I initiated that. Your and Bubba's Instagram posts made it seem like you guys
shot the same video. Like, and it popped up on my feed back to back too where it was just like
the same thing. I thought you guys were hanging out. I was in the middle. He had bad.
Bubba was coming up the trail. There's bad service between those canyons, by the way.
Yeah. I was in the middle of the trail watching the race. Denny was coming down the trail.
Bubba was coming up the trail.
And we all, it just so happened,
and we all met there,
and there were two laps to go.
Yeah.
One funny story from that trail is
Corey LaJoy's kid was on his way down.
And, you know, the whole trail is done,
but it's water all over it, right?
There's puddles from,
and this lady I was walking behind,
all white pants.
Oh, no.
He's jumping from puddle to puddle,
splash, got mud in all,
over her pants and she just turned around you know and and Corey didn't know he thought I was because
I was kind of laughing and looking down and then I saw him later at a Mexican restaurant in the
downtown he's like man sorry if he got your shoes dirty I'm like oh no no no I'm good
the lady that got mud all over it was it was hilarious that's aren't you can't go there
a white pants oh I mean yeah that's her fault what an idiot right yeah exactly
for the weekend.
So where do we leave off here?
The,
we watched the,
you know,
we watched the Xfinity race.
It's shame.
Tide dominated it.
Uh,
Sam got the win.
But,
you know,
you can't ignore his last three finishes.
Uh,
let's do give him credit where it's due.
Uh,
he's putting himself in the picture,
uh,
on all these road course races and finishing one to one,
the last three.
So we're talking about the interview.
We need to,
We need to mention the interview.
Ty says in a roundabout way,
I mean, he just makes a dig.
It was very Denny Hamlin of him, for sure.
He says, you know, we came into this thing together,
and we've raced together a long time.
And, you know, he's got a bunch of starts.
And I know he was, you know, going for that second win.
And I was really hoping to get my 13th.
And like, just a smart-ass con.
comment, you know, it was, it was pretty good for Ty, because, you know, he, he kind of had those
comments early on. He gets into it with Ryan C. at Vegas. And then from that point on, like,
AI pretty much does all Tye's interviews. Like, you know, it's just there's, you know, you didn't
see a whole lot of the personality coming out, but it came out again. Yeah. And he came across,
it came across with confidence. Yeah. So I applaud that. I, people,
know I love talking
I do it half the time by the way
people just to ral you up I love it
I love talking about it
it doesn't matter if I'm competing
with the guys on the basketball court
playing golf whatever it is
I love banter back and forth
it's fun to me
so that wraps up
the Xfinity
let's go to cut
first thing I got on here
road course qualifying ringer
talking about you third pole
on a road course this season.
Only driver to have three poles
on a road course in a single season,
which, I mean, take that for what it's worth,
right, up until what last year?
It's a useless stat.
Right.
But it is funny because you are the one
who doesn't want to see any more road courses,
but without any road courses,
you have zero poles this year.
That's not true.
I have four poles this year.
What's the fourth?
I don't know, like a Kansas or something.
How can you say,
oh, I have four poles this year?
Because I sign the backdrop every time, and there's one, two, three, four.
Let's go to the tape.
Now you're saying I don't know?
I'm always right, Jared.
Haven't we established this?
Yeah, he has signed it four times.
Oh, I don't know where the fourth one was.
Okay.
Anyway, so I know.
It was funny.
Right before the Chicago race, I'm sitting there and it's porn race.
and I'm pleading with NASCAR on via it was Twitter at the time X.
Hey, let's not do this.
You know, tracks flood.
Let's just not make a silly decision.
And then I, we were talking about my car and what we need and whatnot.
I was like, man, Chris, who had on their bingo card?
I'd have two road course polls this year.
Like, nobody, right?
Nobody at all.
I mean, actually, I was a better racer than I was qualifier in row courses.
But I've worked on it.
I mean, I think the key, I mentioned it in post-race is that, or actually post-qualifying
is that, you know, this is just part of the process of getting better is when you get better
on road courses to find speed, it's the first step is putting it all together.
Second is can you run a fast lap once, you know, and then how can you put it together and
run consecutive fast laps?
and then can you do it during the course of an entire race?
I haven't got to step four yet.
But I'm working on it.
I'm getting better.
I really am.
The results that we had at Chicago and Sonoma
are not indicative of how we ran.
I mean, Sonoma, we dominated the first stage.
Martin came up, passed us.
I was still doing well.
And the race got flipped on us and we lost track position.
That's, damn, that's where I've got to get better.
Like I got, did you notice, like I was right on William's ass and we caught
live traffic?
He got through there and I'm just fiddle fucking around trying to get around Andy Lally and
Cole Custer.
Couldn't do it.
That tells you how hard it is to pass though.
We were two and a half miles ahead of these guys and couldn't pass them when we got back
to them.
Like, it was tough.
but it's clearly where I need to work on next is in traffic.
You know, when I've got clean track, I can do it.
I really can and I can run.
I feel as competitive as anyone.
It's when, you know, and I noticed it at the beginning of the race.
McDowell, you know, he was on kill early.
I had my guard down.
I've got the lead.
Hey, I know I'm going to control this thing until we fuck it up, right?
and I think that when I say that,
I'm just saying like,
until I miss a corner,
I'm in control this race.
So he's on keel,
and I'm working my way into it
because, hey, I'm on race pressures.
I need to just kind of feel this out.
Where's my, it's the breaking zone's the same?
I can already tell the track is slicker than it was yesterday.
The lap times were about a half second slower.
Not everything's the same.
I've got to adapt,
but it takes me a minute to do it.
And on lap three,
he dives in there in turn one we body slam a little bit he kind of just shows me up and i mean as hard as it was
the past i'd damn sure we'd done the same thing too um but he was ready and i wasn't so it's just part
of the process i said of getting better and i feel really good about it because we're starting to
run more consecutive good laps in a row but i just got to work on the the traffic aspect that's
the next step for me because if i lose track position that's where it seems like i really start to
struggle. Did you know that once you lost the lead it was going to be
over?
Yeah. Well, I never count my team out. You know, Chris Gabe Hart, Sam, Ryan, guys at the
war, like, they're really good with strategy and they find a way like they'll, they might
have to put me out there on five lap older tires, but they, they're creative and trying to get,
get my track position back for me. They, they really helped me as far as that's concerned.
So I knew just as long as I kept them.
somewhat in front of me, we were going to have a chance.
I could leapfrog him on a pit stop, something like that.
And you saw the one pit stop, me and McDow came out side by side, but he got the penalty.
Oh, that one, I was sweating bullets.
As a driver, you know when you are close to the edge on pit road.
I was running first, everyone ran first gear pit road.
The habit of us is to show.
shift to second gear.
So I leave my pit box,
and I shift,
and I'm like,
oh shit, I'm just being first.
I downshift to first,
and I see I'm full red,
which means I'm way over the speed limit.
And I immediately just jack the brakes
because I'm like,
wherever I'm at,
hopefully I'm right in the middle of the timing zone,
you know,
and I'm not,
haven't already crossed one,
I'm knowing my crew chief is going to kill me.
kill me if I have a penalty here oh i just please don't say it and and you know usually about
15 seconds after you leave pit lane if they don't call it by then you're in the clear
and i pull out and i just i don't even i don't even remember going through the next few corners
because i'm just waiting on chris to key the mic and so the first moment i hear on mike keed
i'm you don't understand my heart it drops because i know
know that I've sped.
And he's just like, all right, you're going to be racing the five here?
And I'm just like, oh, thank God.
Oh, my God.
Thank God.
It must have just timed it.
I can't wait to see what the speed was in that one zone.
Same can't be upset from Michael McDowell, though.
His heart did drop.
Yeah.
Yeah, they had multiple issues.
But, I mean, I think the 24 was the best because, you know, the 34, even when he took
the lead from us, he, you know,
Those two pulled away from me, and then I got my...
...together, and I ran them back down because the 34 was holding up to 24.
And then I couldn't do anything with them.
I was just kind of riding behind him, and then here comes Ty.
He's back into the picture.
So it just definitely a slower car could hold up lanes,
and when I rewatched the race, it looked like I was holding up lanes at some points.
But damn, I can't.
There's no way I can give up position.
I mean, I'm sure if I'm
Ty Gibbs or Joe Gibbs
or Heather Gibbs, they're like,
why don't you just let Ty go?
I'm like, I've been trying to win a championship
for 18 years.
Casey, you haven't noticed.
I'm only 30 points back.
And I need points.
And it matters.
And so, yeah, you just,
it's so hard to pass at that track.
There's multiple factors
is the reason why.
You know, I have a theory beyond tires, even though tires is an equation of it.
Because the tires don't fall off, right?
It's, we're running the same, close to the same lap times throughout a run.
They really don't drop off until the last 10 laps.
Let's just say you can go, let's just pretend, 40 laps on fuel.
You can't, evidently.
Ask Chase Elliott.
for the first 30, you're running, you can run within a couple tenths of your fastest lap time that run.
So what happens is drivers and the reason you're not seeing cautions and any mistakes is that
our breaking markers never move. So our markers are our markers are our markers.
And they don't change because the grip of the tire or whatever is the same through the whole run.
So it used to be back when you could pass way more efficiently.
We had more horsepower, more down force, less tire grip, and less tire width.
So it made, you know, the difference between the beginning of the run and the end of run could be two seconds.
And so what has to happen is when it's two seconds difference is let's just pretend my marker is the five into the bus stop.
I got to move it all the way back to the 650 at the end of the run.
And what happens then is that you don't have a whole lot of tire grip at the end
because you're starting to wear your tires out because the down force is what's pushing down
and wearing out the tires.
And then when I do overdrive the corner slightly, I don't have the tire grip anymore to
get off of it.
To calm me back down.
And it just seems like the grip is just so consistent from lap 1 to lap 40 of a run.
We don't make mistakes because we've just.
we've got so many reps at it.
We're not blowing corners anymore.
No one's missing.
I mean,
did we see anyone go off in the grass
and the bus stop?
Dennis Juarez.
Okay.
All right.
That's,
okay,
that's fair.
I'll give it to you.
He hit a curb.
I'm saying,
I don't think we've ever seen a race
where someone did not
miss the entry of the bus stop
and hit the first patch of grass right there.
Yeah.
We didn't see anyone just miss it completely right
and take that over the bypass
So it brings me to my point, which is there's just, there's just so many reps at the same marks
that we've got it down. And we know that the guy in front of you, in order to pass him, I must
overtake him. I've got to get a good enough run off the corner to maintain with him.
Good luck with that. He's got all the down force. You don't because he's out front. And then
I have to pull out and go 100 foot, at least 100 foot deeper in the corner. That's not possible
because the guy in front of you has got the same mark you've got and he's not going to miss the corner.
So it just, we're not, we can't even get close enough to make contact unless it comes on a restart.
So, you know, that's my theory on it. It's just, you know, we've reduced the horsepower. We've added the
width of the tire and we've reduced down force. Reducing of the downforce. And, you know,
and I talked to a few drivers about this,
even on the short track package,
I hate going back and forth
because we do this a lot in NASCAR,
but like,
I'm not sure that this lower downforce short track package is better.
I just,
if anything,
it's reduced the amount of fall off
because when you take downforce off,
it doesn't wear out the tires as much.
So we're working on it.
NASCAR's working on it.
The driver council is working on it,
but certainly we want to,
I mean, we want to put on the best product available.
You know, the other complaint was the length of the race.
I mean, how do you feel about it?
Well, it was right in that two-hour window that F-1 always occupies.
So in that respect, I think it was neat that you could compare to a race like that, right?
Because everyone's like, oh, well, we can try to get these races under two and a half hours.
F1 does it in two hours.
What would that look like for a NASCAR race?
I mean, you got an example of that yesterday.
I'm going to say it.
Breaking news.
The length of the race is the same as it's been for forever.
What you just missed out on is an hour of us running under caution.
Okay, yeah, but that means the race is, yeah, sure.
The race is the same time, but the broadcast is shorter.
Why do you care about the broadcast?
if we're not racing.
That's part of it.
When I sit down on the couch
to watch the NASCAR Cup race
at Watkins Glen,
how many hours am I...
How long are I committing
to this TV show,
to this show?
And yesterday it was two hours
where typically it's three.
It was two hours of racing.
I understand.
If you like racing,
you saw two hours of racing.
What you missed out of one
is a very...
bunch of commercials and stuff like that.
I mean, you know, you missed out on some caution laps.
And yes, you missed out on a couple restarts, you know.
So I get it.
Let's let's not overreact.
Let's take a breath.
I saw on social media, you know, kind of a, maybe a good happy medium of, of,
now I think that the stage caution thing
I hate to throw him under the bus
on his final year
but this came from Kevin Harvick
saying we got to throw out
we have to throw out the cautions
no you don't think it came from him
no I'm not saying it didn't come from him
okay because it did
yeah no I'm saying he got it going in the media
and then then you know
then the people on social media took over and saying, well, he's right.
He's right.
So what Kevin's saying is that, well, we've got to get rid of the stage cautions because
everyone's strategy is the same now.
Well, I can assure you they're all the same now because we're just going to run our car
out of gas and run it from the back because we're not planning for any cautions anymore.
I think a good, happy medium would be, let's go.
go back to stage cautions, but you need to move the stages in a different spot where
it will put you in a decision. Do you want to get stage points or do you want to get a win?
Because it is so hard to pat. And not only will it do that. So you can put them at a...
Can't you just be more... Can't you just throw a real caution more often? Like for the Suarez spin,
can you just throw a caution for that?
they could but naskart they get they keep getting thrown at them every week that you're inconsistent
you know you throw it for this to throw it for that they've been pretty consistent over the years
if someone spins out at a road course in a corner they don't throw cautions for that so they're
they're they're being consistent well then i guess yeah you only have one choice but i mean i mentioned
before the race me and chris gaphart were talking and it was like they ain't gonna let it go green
like they did last week. No way, Jose. They are going to...
You see some tire smoke? Put it out. You said it out. You said that? Yes. Oh, you were wrong.
I was wrong. I was wrong. No question. Eric, I'm rolling. Sitting in the middle of the front stretch. No caution.
I mean, I applaud them. I think they... They ran that race in a very proper way. They did not try to twist any finishes.
they didn't put us in green white checkers
just because they ran the race proper.
And so some people aren't going to like it
because we're going to run in a train.
It's very hard to pass.
If you're looking for contact,
it's only going to happen during restarts.
But we saw it Cota,
restarts got out of hand.
That's not the shit that you want.
I mean, it may be if you're into bumper cars,
you're probably into that.
There's too much on the line.
Regular season championship.
Bubble who's going to get into the playoffs.
Way too much at stake for them to throw fan of cautions.
Grand Turismo, based on a true story,
is a movie about a team of unlikely underdogs,
a struggling working class gamer,
a failed former race car driver,
and an idealistic motorsports executive.
Together, they risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world.
directed by Neil Blum Camp, the movie features an incredible cast led by David Harbour alongside
Orlando Bloom, Jiamen Hansu, Jerry Hollowell Horner, and Archie Medequy as Yan Martinborough.
Some of the most famous racing competitions in the world are recreated through the use of actual
Nissan GTs, drones, and practical effects. The racing sequences are so realistic that the real-life
Jan Martinborough himself actually served as a stunt driver for the film. This is a movie that
needs to be seen on the big screen.
It's inspiring, thrilling,
in an action-pack movie.
Grand Turismo, based on a true story,
is exclusively in movie theaters this Thursday.
Get your tickets today,
rate of PG-13.
Chase Elliott runs out of fuel.
Alan Gustafin thought that once Chase went to the switch,
he could pass him two more times before pitting.
I'm going to have to water up for this one.
All right.
Time for inside baseball.
I got that term from Chris Gabehart
That's his fourth mention of the podcast
Chris if you're tuning in
That's your last one
So
I had
I wanted to get educated on
I needed to know exactly what was said
So I went back and I
And I listened to the audio
Of
The communication
And it said
And he said
we're going to run about 10 laps and again I'm paraphrasing because this is not going to be exact
word for word but I'm going to get the points we're going to run about 10 laps and then you're
going to go to your switch your switch is switching from pump A to pump B pump one or pump two so basically
run this thing out of gas the minute you hear it running out of gas or feel it running out of gas
go to your switch.
And then I want you to come the third time by.
Okay.
Pass me twice to the following time.
It's hard not to throw someone under the bus here,
except for the entire team.
People want to pin this on Alan Guffston.
You can try, and he is, he is, he is the leader, he's responsible.
but where's Chase Elliott in this?
I mean, he's experienced enough.
If Chris, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say it.
If Chris Gabehart sent to me, flip your switch and then come third time by,
I immediately would have said, that's not right.
I would have said, that's not right.
It's not third time.
I can't go that far.
I know I cannot go that far.
That's just, that's elementary.
tree.
So they said it multiple times, and why was it not a red flag to anyone that was hearing it?
They have a war room of people that listen to the communication as well.
Where is the button where someone's saying, did he just say third time by?
Can we roll that back?
Because that's what they would do.
they're recording all the audio
they'd roll
hey Alan that's not
that's not right
he needs to come next time
I just find it
so extremely
bizarre
not Chase
not Alan or not
anyone that heard
that communication
multiple times
did not raise their hand and say
are we sure our math is correct
because
it's it's three
it's three times
worse than it should be.
Like it's, there's, there's no way.
You'd be lucky to go a lap.
So it's, it's hard to not throw one person under the bus because you can't.
It's everyone's fault.
This was everyone, this was on everyone's fault.
So, um,
people want to, you know, pinpoint and think that it's one person's decision and they
screwed up.
There's plenty of safeguard.
in place at a team with that kind of resources where you know and i applaud allan he he didn't want to
talk he was leaving the racetrack you know dusting some of those guys i saw the front stretch and
bob hawkris is basically walking behind him alan refuses to stop but he talks and it's just like
listen i'm not going to air out in the media what what how how we mess this up
We know what our struggle was internally.
We know what happened.
We don't know.
But today I'm part of the media, so I have to talk about it.
I'm going to use all the facts that I've got in front of me to give my opinion of it.
It could be totally...
I don't know the internal communications that they had that we didn't hear, right?
But from my standpoint, I found it crazy to believe that not the driver,
or anyone was not surprised hearing that statement.
There has to be some sort of trigger that this is not right.
Can I try to make a third grade reference for this?
Yes.
How many miles is Watkins Glen, the track?
Two and a half.
Okay, so when you have to go to the switch at Daytona or Talladega,
it might be enough to get you back around the track to pit, correct?
That's right.
Those tracks are also two miles,
but they're a highway track.
It's a highway track.
Wachins-Glen is like...
I think Steve Lattar is a town that you get less gas mileage,
hitting the brakes.
It's my point.
You bring up a point now on super speedways.
It's about wide open throttle.
So to counter your argument there a little bit,
your wide open throttle all the way around the racetrack,
so you use more gas at a super speedway.
Right, but your Sequoia gas mileage,
is better on 77 than it is driving through town.
Well, did you look at the sticker?
It's like 22 and like 20.
Like there ain't much variance.
That's very efficient in the city.
That's two miles.
That's one lap.
But every, I mean, I just don't under,
I don't know any driver that doesn't know how much his reserve switch will get him.
I mean, you know, if you hit it at Richmond,
you never would because you're going to run, you're going to pit,
for tires beforehand.
If you can get two,
three laps out of it at Richmond,
that's probably good.
I don't know.
It just,
it doesn't make sense to me,
but he needed to win anyway.
I know we're making a big deal of it.
He needed to win anyway.
He probably wasn't going to win.
Right.
You needed a better qualifying effort on Saturday.
Yeah, that's what it was,
no question,
which is why you saw him have the emotion that he did.
you know after you know
you heard the Aaron car
and he was just like man Alan I
I screwed up every corner I possibly could
by the way he still qualified 11th
I mean it tells you how good he is on the road
courses
but it's been a frustrating
year I get it but they still got another
shot and I can assure you
every Hendrick car
shorter maybe Alex Bowman
I mean they're they're gonna
try to get they're gonna be pushing chase
and Alex so
Kyle Larson, Austin, Dillon, you have a little backstory on this?
Yeah, I mean, I watched the race back, and, you know, those didn't see Kyle Larson.
I thought he had probably one of the best cars.
He ran us down, but then kind of got stalled behind us, just like tied it, just like
everyone else that was behind us, pretty much.
he was fast and then he had a pit road penalty and he was you know i've noticed
kyle gets ruffled really really easily like when he gets hard on himself like man he made a
mistake or whatever he he knows he had a shot to win and like he's he's just hard on himself right
so then he gets in the back and i you know i could just imagine i've been back there with him before
when we both had penalties and like he drives like a mass
bad band like he's just you know it's just he's just wired differently in that sense he'll he'll put it in
places where i'm like yeah okay and so um i uh i saw the the contact first from austin dill and i look at it and
i'm like damn ad you've missed the corner by a mile like but it looked intentional like if you see you're
going to miss the corner you would just draw you would go to the left that that way you wouldn't run
directly into the back of them so i'm like well it's intentional and he came from a long way back he was
he was pretty pissed about something so i asked cd what it was about because i told him you know hey i'm
going to have to comment on this and so you know tell me what did i not see what did tv not show
he said well when we were back there you know kyle was he said nobody was passing anyone he's like i
I was running behind the same damn cars the whole rate.
You know, I get it.
Everyone's frustrated because you think you're faster than the car in front of you.
You can't pass them.
Everyone's just frustrated.
But at this point, the race, the race is over.
You're not winning.
You're not contending for really even a top 15, right?
You got to just get to the checkered.
And Kyle was trying to make up spots.
Now, I looked.
Let's see.
Where is he?
Yeah, that counters that a little bit.
I was going to say that, you know, Larson's kind of probably wanting to get more, you know, he's still points racing because I know that, you know, like that sixth, seventh through 12th is really tight in points, but he's got a 20 point gap there.
Who knows the motivation, right?
I mean, he's going to want to try to get the best finish he possibly can no matter what race.
He's just, he's that kind of competitor.
But in the end, you have to like, you know, you don't have to.
You can do whatever you want.
but it's it's kind of race management well we fucked this up you can't pass no one's passing so
like i need to just take whatever opportunities come come to me to gain some cheap spots here at the
end um and so ad said that he jammed it in on him in the bus stop really late one time uh because ad was
being held up by somebody else and austin says had i not like just
completely screwed myself to give him room for that crazy dive bomb.
Like, we would have both been wrecked.
And he said to me that, you know, Kyle apologized for that movie.
He's like, yeah, it was late and, you know, understand.
So then I guess what happened was AD says he didn't get out of the bus stop well.
And Kyle was right on him on the entry, I believe it was.
And he kind of knocked him up the racetrack.
So he moved him up the racetrack and then got around him and passed them.
And so AD was pissed off about it because, hey, he had already put me in a compromising position.
And then, you know, the first chance he got, he knocked me out of the way.
And so that's what you didn't see before Austin Dillon went into turn six and shoved Kyle out of the way.
so far
I don't think anything
anything was wrong on anyone's part
I think that this is
this was fair
it probably should have ended at that
um
Kyle acknowledged that
listen I wasn't trying to wreck us in the final corner
I was trying to use leverage
I think we may have mentioned leverage
here on this podcast before on the inside car
and so I think he was willing
to live with whatever result came from
driving in deep into the final corner.
If it was running into the side of three,
he was going to be okay with that result.
He certainly, there's no way that Kyle Larson says,
I'm going to come in here and spin out Austin Dillon.
He knew Austin was upset about something, right?
He knew that he was just trying to, you know,
probably door slam him a little bit,
and then they battle it out to the checker flag.
But they both spun, lost positions,
and then it just fueled.
Austin's fire even more.
So I think that was Austin Dillon in the wrong?
No, I can't find any place where Austin Dillon's in the wrong.
Was Kyle Larson in the wrong?
No, not really.
He had a fast car.
Yes, he probably put Austin in a bad spot.
Then he knocked him out of the way as soon as he could.
He's just trying to gain one or two spots here at the end.
Now, it's for 19th.
Is it really worth it?
probably not
you know
AD needs to win next week
Kyle's going to be in the playoffs
I don't know
everyone makes their own decisions and it's fine
but Kyle you would think
because Kyle would do it to him
if AD if the rolls are reversed
AD did the same thing
then knock Kyle out of the way absolutely
Kyle's going into turn 6 on the final lap
when he got back to him
Kyle would have done the same thing
zero question about that whatsoever, I think,
which was, I think, fine.
Both of them, they were fine.
They were just in a little shove-a-match.
I think it's just Kyle went in there a little too deep,
unintentionally, and spun both of them out.
Well, Austin Dillon needing to win next week is a good segue
to what we're about to talk about,
which is Daytona start the season.
I notice when we talk about Kyle, you really get quiet.
I mean, you don't have anything.
opinion of this, huh?
I'm just letting you say what you need to say.
Okay.
Get it out there.
Well, I just, I want to be fair to everyone, and I, I deem this just kind of a racing incident
that ended up crappy for both.
Yeah.
I mean, they're racing for a 19th.
That is what it is.
Yep.
Right.
Daytona.
Hold on.
Okay.
I was going to move segue that into.
Okay.
You're about talking about Bubba.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bubba had a good day.
There was not a first time winner, so Bubba is still alive in this, in this playoff race.
Staying alive.
he's one of the big guys on the bubble this week in Daytona.
He can win and lock himself in,
or he can race well, stay above the cut line,
and hope for someone who was already won to win this race.
Yeah, I mean, I think that selfishly,
we would like for him to gain 30 points on the 9 as the team owner.
But I'm rooting for Bubba.
I want him to run whatever race he needs to run.
to get himself in the playoffs.
I think he deserves it.
I think he's been working really hard.
You saw the emotion that he had after Watkins Glen.
That emotion stems from someone that's working really, really hard,
and he's finally seeing results.
And you know what?
He run 12th.
He finished 12th.
But you know what?
He ran in the top 10 of both stages.
Legitimately.
Legitimately.
It's been a lot of.
long damn time. Maybe never has that been the case for Bubba on a road course. So I want to give
him props and applaud him, pat him on the back. When I leave here and go to the 2311 meeting,
I'm going to do those same things because I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the work that he's putting in.
We had quite a bit of talk and dialogue the night before the race talking about little things
that we see. He's more open to being, you know,
showing humility and wanting to get better.
Like he's not being defensive.
And that's something that I think that early on in his career,
you know, when we first started working with him,
I noticed a little bit of a trade of is that, you know,
when things didn't go right, it was like, well, where can we point the finger?
Like it's surely someone's fault for this, that, and the other.
He's put this team on his shoulders.
and he is just he's grown up he's being a man he's you know he got married him and Amanda I think
that that was a good thing for him like he's just I'm really proud of the man he's becoming the competitor
he's becoming the leader he's becoming listen we're we we still as a race team let him down at times
we do we we're going to go through that we're in the growing pains of trying to
build a championship contending organization.
I promised it in year five.
We're year two and three quarter right now.
He's a great driver and he's continuing to get better.
He's a restart monster.
He's putting races together.
He's managing them.
This was, I think, the first road course where he can honestly say,
I gave it all I had, every lap.
I didn't give up.
I faced adversity.
We lost a little track position.
I battled it back.
I got the most out of my car that I could today.
And that's all we can ask.
I think that, you know,
we as an organization needed to be better this weekend.
For him to have his by far best road course performance
from beginning to end in a weekend where Reddick frankly struggled,
that tells me we've got to get our stuff better
at Watkins Glen. So the Gibbs cars were fast. We got plenty to look at there, but I think that
he deserves it. I hope he gets in. You know, I'm in a very difficult position when you look at the
bubble on what I do. But, you know, I love the Gibbs family. The Gibbs family has been, you know,
Let's just say this comes down to points.
So Bubba's confident.
He's fantastic on Super Speedways.
Absolutely.
He's won on a Super Speedway.
He's always in contention at Daytona.
If you're Bubba this week and you have a 30 point advantage on the cut line,
how do you race this race?
Do you hang out the back?
Are you as aggressive as possible?
You pin your car to tie Gibbs's back bumper.
No matter where he is.
Or front bumper, whatever it might be.
No matter.
Doesn't matter.
If he's running last, you need to be second to last.
He can't make up 30 points, and if he gets in a wreck, you're in the wreck.
He can't gain on you if you're right together.
Kyle Larson did that to me a few years ago in the regular season championship.
This is after Briscoe spun us, and then Kyle took over the lead,
and I needed to make up points on him.
That guy was my biggest drafting partner in the entire Daytona.
I was like, I'm trying to shake them because I'm,
like, I need to put him in a spot where only I can fit into this hole and he can't.
And that little shit just pinned his car to my car all day long.
And I couldn't gain on him if I finished six and the stage.
He was seventh.
Like, he was my biggest drafting partner the entire race.
So you're coming down.
You got one lap to go at Daytona.
You're running behind Ty and Bubba.
Let's say Bubba's leader.
ties in second.
It could be either or though.
Going through turn three and four,
either of those cars decides to pull out,
to pass the other, to win the race.
And you're in third.
Which car are you staying behind?
The 23.
Are you saying that because you're the owner of the 23?
Or why are you saying that?
Well, I own the car for one.
Okay.
I mean, that's the biggest factor.
I mean, I get it.
It's by the letter of the law,
I probably should be pushing Ty.
Ty's got plenty of years.
I'm just, I mean, he's 20 years old.
He's going to be in this sport for 20 plus years,
and he's going to win championships.
I'm financially invested in the 23.
I think Bubba has paid his dues,
and he's a deserving playoff driver.
I saw it last year when he drove the 45 car,
to top 10 in points.
I just think he's ready and he deserves a shot at it.
This is not saying Ty does not.
Ty has put together a rookie season
that needs to be mentioned more.
He's above the curve I thought he was going to be.
I'm really impressed with Ty Gibbs.
I mean, he was eating up my back bumper all day yesterday.
But if, if,
If JGR or anyone at JGR has a problem with me pushing Bubba, we got to have a talk.
You know, 2311 is a big partner at Joe Gibbs Racing.
I think that they know where my allegiance would lie on this one.
You're racing Martin Truex for the regular season championship.
It's a long shot.
You're back.
Still quite a few points.
How are you going into this?
one was your strategy i mean we gained we gained on them you know i we gained 21 points on the 19 at a
road course this is a good weekend for us really was i hate i didn't control the beginning of the race
because i at least wanted to leave there with a stage win for one more playoff point um i mean listen
had i run my normal finishing position at a road course william would be breathing down my neck
now for second in the regular season.
But I just kept them in tow the whole race.
And so I just, I'm really, really happy with the weekend.
Can we get the 19?
Yeah, we can.
What would need to happen for that to happen?
So we need to go out there and we have no reason whatsoever but to be on keel the whole
time.
Just we're going to try to get as many stage points as we possibly can.
Now, again, everyone is.
Super Speedway racing is different than it used to be.
We've talked about this a billion times.
everyone's going to try to go right from lap one.
I do think that this is going to be a just an absolute crash fest.
I think that the pushes are going to get too extreme.
Anybody know the weather?
Travis checked the weather for me at Daytona.
This will tell me a lot about a few things.
I just think that it always is a crash fest.
When you see the checker flag fall at the summer Daytona race,
There's very few cars in the picture.
I need to get stage points, and I need Martin to probably get caught up in a wreck.
That's, I mean, if I get stage points, I only need to beat him by about, he needs to get in a wreck.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't wish, I mean, they're deserving.
Let's, let's be honest.
You know, the 19 team is very deserving.
I like James a lot and Martin a lot.
I respect them both a ton.
They're deserving.
I know that it's something that they worked for
and they really got hot there in the middle of the summer.
We were now getting hot,
you know,
leading into the playoffs.
But,
you know,
you can't deny that they,
you know,
when they win,
they dominate.
And,
you know,
I think this would have been much,
much more compelling had this podcast not cost to be 25 points earlier.
Are you regretting that now now?
It's easy to look back on it now,
right?
But in the moment, did you think that...
All actions have consequences, right?
I made decision to go into Phoenix,
you know, go into that restart and run Ross up the racetrack.
I made that choice.
And by making that choice,
I not only cost myself 15 points on the finish of the race,
but then another 25 post-race.
That's the lead right there.
So, but everyone has that story.
Everyone has, other than the points penalty, which is bullshit still,
everyone has races that got away from them.
And so you can't go back now, and we're still in a better playoff point position than what we were last year by far.
So I believe the way we're running right now, we're primed for a deep run.
Travis, what's the weather?
What were you looking at?
It's looking partly cloudy, high 80s, right now.
High 80s on Saturday night.
So how does that lead to a crash fest?
Okay, so the slicker, the racetrack at Daytona is significantly slicker in the summer race than it is.
Is the race Saturday or Sunday night?
Saturday.
Saturday is sunny and 90.
Not partly cloudy.
Okay, sunny and 90.
Okay, so the track's going to be hot for most of the race.
Even though it's a night race, it's still that heat carries in it.
So what's going to happen is the push drafts, people are going to continue to be pushing
harder and hard.
They're going to be fifth in their line.
We're going to be running two by two.
And the people fifth and sixth in line who feel like they need to go somewhere, they can't
win the race from there, not in lap one, not at lap 199, whatever hell, maybe 160.
Like you can't win from there.
So they're going to keep pushing their line until they're, the rest.
wrecks happen and then they hope to make it through.
But also this is the last chance for everyone.
Everyone else.
Everyone else to get to the playoffs.
So that's what I'm saying.
If they're the guys fifth or sixth in line, the only way to make a move because it, you
know, these lanes, because these cars have so much drag, they just go back and forth.
Top lane.
It's literally Interstate 77 traffic.
It's just which lane's going to go.
Neither one of them go.
They just, we just run two by two.
So the urgency is going to come from back in the pack,
or it's going to come from third place,
trying to push first place past and let them clear
so they can switch lanes.
It's going to be a lot of X.
And so guys survive.
If you're true X racing you for the regular season championship,
well, first of all, let's mention that you win the regular season championship,
you get 15 bonus playoff points.
How significant is that in the grand scheme of things when trying to win the,
the full championship.
It matters for sure.
You know, there's not been very many point layups when it comes to making the final four.
So it's, you know, I think that our prediction that we made maybe, what was, about 10 weeks ago on who's going to make the final four.
I think those are, that's, they're pretty much the strongest cars for right now.
So I think we'll talk about next week kind of our, we'll do a mock bracket of who we think's going where.
but I think that Truex and William Byron have got really good playoff points that they just need to not make mistakes.
And then, you know, if they can win in the second to last round, obviously they're going to go to the final four.
But if not, we always at least have one car make it in on points.
And they're in the two guys in the best spot to do that.
And then we would be next in line in third.
So I was about to ask is if you're Truex and you're racing you for,
the regular season championship.
How do you manage this race?
Do you just avoid crashing at all costs?
Yes, he would just hang out at the back.
Yeah.
Pressures on you to make up those points.
Yeah, and even still, if he doesn't crash,
it doesn't matter if we win both stages
and he collects zero, I'm still, you know,
how far am I behind 39?
Yeah, so then I would still have to win the race
also and him finish like 15th or worse.
So he just needs to not crash.
Yeah, and you have to get stage points.
Or he can just race it out and run right next to me.
And wherever I run, he runs.
He, you know, tie is going to want as many pushers as he can get.
And if Martin's in the back, that's not helping tie,
because he's going to try to out point Bubba, I would think.
Is there anyone in this race that you could look at that has momentum?
No, it doesn't matter.
But let me just tell you, I'm going to go on the record right now.
I see someone like Chase Briscoe winning.
Out of the blue.
Just from nowhere, bam, Chase Briscoe comes in, wins.
And that's worst case scenario for you.
So wouldn't you said that you wanted Bubba just to stay with Ty?
Because you have these other drivers, shouldn't Bubba be kind of looking at the other drivers?
and be worrying about potentially competing to win.
Daniel Suarez, guys like that.
Because if someone else wins,
it doesn't matter if he's in front of tie.
Yeah, but...
Okay, so if someone wins a super spooy race,
it's because of what they did.
You're not going to prevent someone else from winning.
Now, he can be part of the story.
If Bubba is up front, he can dictate...
So, say there is a line up top.
let's just be hypothetical.
A line up top and there's someone that's already in the playoffs leading that line.
And he is behind someone that if they win, they get in the playoffs.
I can show you what Bubba's doing.
He ain't pushing that guy.
So when it comes down to the end, Bub is checking up.
Sorry, buddy.
I'm out.
Here, someone else take over a push.
And that would kill the line and the other guy would win.
So you can manipulate your line by just not pushing.
I'm assuming that's pretty easy for that to be on Bubba's mind, right?
He's going to be thinking that the whole race that, hey, so-and-so is leading.
He hasn't won a race yet this year.
If he wins, I'm out of the playoffs.
Or is that something that Freddie is going to have to provide him as a spotter.
He knows.
He knows.
He'll know all that, for sure.
Listen, I know we can try to break this down a million different ways.
You've got to just execute the best race you can.
can constantly keep yourself updated to the points. I get it. I've been in this position before
in cutoff races where I've had about a 30 point lead going over into the cut line over the next
round of the playoffs. And it's like, you're always nervous, right? Are we going to get a new winner?
How am I doing on points? You know, but just get the best finish that you possibly can.
If Bubba doesn't, if Bubba does not get caught in a crash, I don't care what Ty Gibbs does,
short of winning the race,
he won't make up the 30 points
because there's not going to be that many cars left at the end.
Do you like ending the regular season at Daytona
having this situation?
Yeah, I think it's one of the best scheduled changes
that our series is made
is putting Daytona's, I mean,
why? Because of
what if it was a walking?
The wild card?
What a barn burner.
I mean, because of, yeah,
because of the wild card.
Like, I talked about in the media,
as a race team, you always have to budget
on one more winner coming
in that very final race in Daytona.
I mean, you heard Kevin Harvick and Brad Kosalski,
and we're starting to swim bullets a little bit,
like a little bit.
A.J. E. O'Mdinger was really fast in practice.
He's going to be a contender to win Watkins Glen.
Then, oh, we can't afford a new winner.
At Daytona, one of us is out.
So you do. You have to budget,
which is why you need to run yourself up
further in points throughout the regular season.
You can't, man, when you're on that bubble,
it seems like, you know,
we're, we have far less
winners than what we did last year, but still,
you need to be in the top 12
in points to really kind of feel good
except for if you were Martin Truix
last year and, you know,
second or third in points and then didn't make
it because all the winners. Right.
So what do you, you're, you're head to your
23-11 competition meeting after this.
What are you going to tell that 23 team?
I don't know.
I just want to.
want to hear kind of what they're thinking strategy-wise and, you know, try to give any input
that I possibly can and be as supportive as I can.
Fingers crossed.
Yeah.
I mean, listen, either way, it'll be good for Toyota if one of the two, you know, whether
it's, there's no really anyone else that can make it catch him in points, right?
No, Ties blow him.
I swear as, but he, he needs a monster day.
Right.
If Ty's not going to catch him, then Suarez isn't going to catch him.
Swares is 43 back.
Yeah.
So that's less likely even more.
So it's just...
How many points can you accumulate in a single race?
What is the most?
60. 60.
So 10 for...
10, 10, 40.
Okay.
So what's the breakdown on the 40?
40 for first, 35 for second, and then it goes down one.
Got it.
The rest of the way.
So that's why you kind of, hey, you know, on the TrueX, if I can gain 20 during, I'm still down 19.
So that's why I took off the four or five.
Right.
It's about 14th or so.
Yeah, we'll see how it plays out.
It's going to be exciting weekend in Daytona.
Looking forward to it.
One of the best facilities we have on our circuit.
One of the best races that you'll see all seasons going to happen this weekend.
So make sure you're all tune in.
I'm scrolling through Twitter here.
Ross said that he's going to do everything to push Suarez to a win.
Yeah.
Watch out.
That's a dangerous pusher.
But no, I think you're going to see a lot of that.
You're going to see a lot of locked-in teammates pushing the others.
I just think that the wrecks are going to come from the person pushing.
I mean, we know Team Chevy is always Team Chevy.
I mean, they're Team Chevy until they die.
I guess they're just pushing any Chevy to a victory, right?
It doesn't really matter.
Sure.
But, I mean, you think team Chevy prefers Suarez or Chase or Bowman?
Or...
Teammates are always fun.
I wish, again, I'm with Dale Jr. on this.
I just wish that we didn't start these team alliances and shit.
It was so much easier when you just were able to be selfish.
I mean, you know, it's a lot of the two by two racing you see is because we're, everyone's pinned to, well, I'm behind the same manufacturer.
Got to push them.
Like, it's just, it's really kind of hurt the racing a little bit as well.
Yeah.
But I still think it's going to be freaking crazy this weekend.
I agree.
I mean, that's the beauty of ending on Daytona is that you don't know what you're going to get, except you know you're going to get crazy.
Yep.
Before we sign off, we got a review from Bill's Mafia at 93.
this guy sounds fun.
Thank you, Denny and Jared, for great insight every week.
I'm a die-hard Ligano fan.
And even though you both have had your share of run-ins,
I'm guessing he's talking about you and Joey,
not me and you over the years.
This show has given me a newfound respect for you
and what you're doing for the sport.
Awesome.
Well, thank you, Bill's Mafia 93.
You know, I wouldn't be too personal.
I pretty much got into it with everyone at this point in the field.
Lugano, I got a huge amount of respect for him.
And I've actually, remember talked about earlier in the years.
He maybe should be on Mount Rushmore by the time his career is over,
as many wins as he's going to have.
So thank you for tuning in.
We hear it every week.
Thank you all when you were at the racetrack.
I mean, most, I'd say most of the comments I got,
it's talking about the podcast, not good luck today or whatever.
I saw one thing had a nice t-shirt for you that he was wearing.
It was very, very nice.
Denny Hamlin sucks.
Yeah.
I think you should sell that on your website.
There was a better one on the backstretch that said F, blank, blank, K, Denny Hamlin.
I saw that one.
So he made sure he was like, Daddy, Denny.
You know, make, they fake you out, make you think that, hey, look at me.
I'm a fan.
Fuck you.
I was the most interactive with the fans during the ride-alongs this week.
I'll try to do that a little bit more because you guys are awesome.
I mean, I love it or hate it.
I really appreciate the passion because it's so funny to see.
I see more 11 gear around the racetrack than I've ever seen, so thanks.
We're going to give you a camera now.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah, we need to do it on a track that's, uh,
Daytona would be pretty good,
but where it's close,
close confines.
Is there a ride around at Martinsville?
Bristol will be good too?
Yeah, there is.
So anyone listen to this,
for the next 10 races,
one of the races,
Denny will have a camera.
Hey, let's not get disrespectful, though.
Well, no, no, no.
Just saying make noise.
Make noise.
Yeah, yeah.
We appreciate the noise.
We appreciate the cheers, especially.
And, yeah,
let's have a good week this week
let's get that 23 car in there
and let's go race for a championship
don't forget rate review
follow at dirtymo media
at denny hamlin and at jared allen
and also don't forget
subscribe on youtube this show
the clips are on YouTube
daily and then the full show on video
is put on YouTube come Friday
so if you miss the audio version
check out the video version
and don't forget to subscribe while you're out
awesome
so you guys
next week.
Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
