Denny Hamlin's Reality Check for Anyone Who Thinks He's Got This

In my mind, I've got to take that body of work and make it just a little bit better. I've got to be a little bit better. I need to be the best that I can at all these racetracks. I can't just go to Darlington and Kansas and Charlton say, "It's been great there." We're going to be great again. Nope. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I believe that I've been competitive for twenty years. Opinions from tonight's podcast, "Strictly Bias," you're going to hear from my point of view. I'm a fighter. No, you are not. This spoils the victory for Jared Allen. He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. I know you do. Two trophies missing from your collection, a championship and the most popular driver. Someone told me that their drinking game is when I say, "For sure." Yeah, and I've already said it. Hey, guys. Welcome to Actions Determinal after race 26 at Daytona International. The final of the regular season. We're on to the chase now. Jared, that is a sweet t-shirt you got there. Wow. Yeah, that looks good. Wow. This is the attitude for the chase. Nice dart I got there too. Awesome. You put this in the group. I ordered it immediately. Yeah, I figured it's just like somebody that ever ties with something that's not actually made. You can get one with Roger Federer, you can get one with Jesus. You get one with just about anybody. Nice. Really Jesus has one? Yeah, everyone. Every major celebrity's got one. Awesome. Well, we did it. I guess we knew we did it after last week. But good regular season for us. 26 races, it was a very consistent, very consistently good throughout the whole thing. So really happy with that result. And then Daytona itself. It was honestly really tough for me to race, obviously, with no rear camera. It's just something that we had gotten used to. We used to race without it, and it was perfectly fine. And the difference then was that your mirrors are kind of more usable. And certainly we just get trained over the last five years. It's just part of how we make moves and change lanes. And I use it mostly to see what lanes are coming. And when it's appropriate to switch lanes and so kind of rely on the spotter only for that. Just, I don't know, it made me a little bit more hesitant, certainly. But it felt like we were in a really good position. That third stage, just by our time, I didn't want to get into any wrecks. I thought that you know, the way the race is playing out, it was whoever could say fuel at the beginning of the third stage could then go get it in the third at the end. And we had planned for that just, yeah, just didn't, didn't quite have the car handling that we needed to when I chose to push it. So we got to work on that. How was the new package? You know, I thought that it was better. From my standpoint, I could tell right away that the car had less grip. Certainly, I believe that handling was more of a factor this time around than what we've had in years past. And you saw that by simply, the pack will show you on TV if handling is a factor. If you notice, we weren't, you know, it would start three wide for about 10 to 15 laps of every run. And then the middle lane would go away. The middle lane would stop. Then the bottom lane then would actually hedge down the racetrack a little bit to give their selves room and air. And the top lane would hedge up a little bit to give themselves room and air to go side to side. So when you see the car spacing out like that, that's how you can tell on TV that handling is starting to be a factor and people are wanting a little bit of extra space to move around. So I watched the race back from about halfway. And I could definitely tell on TV that there was more space between the cars than what had been in years past, which is honestly what we were shooting for is that give us more space, make handling matter a little bit more. And I thought that that was definitely the case. And you saw those that wanted to make moves towards the front and be aggressive. They could. You weren't necessarily boxed in. I definitely feel as though while fuel mileage was a thing, it was a thing for a different reason this time around. The reason that fuel mileage has been a thing in the past is that when you come out on your last pit stop on these super speedways, after your last pit stop, your cars full fuel, if you come out in 15th or 20th, you will finish barring no wreck. That's where you're going to finish is right in that range because there's nowhere to go. That's three by three or maybe it's two by two and you can't pull out of line. It's just we talked about you need 10 cars to go with you to make that work. We were saving fuel just to get to the end of stages, get to the end of the race. So it was a different reason to save fuel. It wasn't because we needed the track position. And I would love one of the X stats people or maybe Bozy who did a great job analyzing fuel summary from the previous race to this race. The field spread was far more than what it was in the past. So in other words, from the lead car to the 25th or 30th place car was far more spread out. And that tells you that we were not really worried about you know having the fastest pit stop. It was just we got to get to the end of the race. That's why we're that's why we're back here saving fuel. So I think they just make some very small tweaks to the stages. Honestly, what what NASCAR would do or if our in charge of it would be to make the stages in five laps before full fuel run. That way, everyone can run all out the entire stages and in who cares if the last stage is a little bit longer or maybe a little bit shorter because of the you move moving the stage numbers. But that's going to give you that's going to give you racing the entire time. And I just don't see people saving a lot of fuel. If fuel is not a factor to get you to the end of a stage and or part of the race. Now, there will be some that will say, you know what my car's not handling great. I'm happy that I'm in the line that I'm in. I'm just going to say fuel here. And I did that for for some of the race as well where it was just like, yeah, I'm happy where I'm at. I don't I don't need to make a push to the front. I don't want to go to the front right this second. So I'm going to say fuel where I'm at. The pace never slowed more than about a second and a half off of like fast pace. So it wasn't like the three or four seconds that we had been doing in in in previous races. So I think without a doubt it was better visually from my seat. I felt like if I wanted to make a push to the front. If I had the car handling, I could because there was enough space to go do so. I would have just shot middle. So yeah, I thought it was a step in the right direction and the fans in the need to know as well is that this is all we could change in this amount of time. You know, this is unprecedented for NASCAR to say, you know what? You don't we don't like it. You don't like it. We agree. And we're going to do something about it right now. We're not going to wait till next year. Typically with this, they would just wait to another year. But they had the balls enough to say, you know what, we know this is unproven. But let's just try something different. And they were willing to get with the engine manufacturers, get with the teams and they says, okay, engine guys, what can you give us? What can you give us here? All right, we can give you that much and feel comfortable. All right, we'll take it. Then they went to the teams and says, how much are you willing to change? And they says, you know what? If it's just a spoiler or a bolt-on part, all good. We're in. So it takes more alignment than than the fans realize to make changes happen. And then, you know, honestly, that the drivers as well, being willing to, you know, this is a big race, right? This is one that had some big implications for them to, you know, sign off on it and say, okay, we're willing to try something different as well. Do you want to see a smaller change for Telodega or keep this and try a different race? I think that this is a super speedway package that I could live with. Going forward, but could, you know, could we do more? Absolutely. And would it make it even better? Probably. Is there more you can do with this car without? Is this the most that you could change without making any significant changes to the car? No, there were, there were some other spoiler options. You know, that, that, you know, NASCAR tested. They went with the conservative approach of like, okay, let's not jump all the way into the deep end here. Let's just, let's go just to our neck, you know, so I think that there's options there, but it's going to be incremental of how much it's really going to change. And I mean, even in qualifying, right? And that's why it's, sometimes you got to see it on the racetrack because, you know, if you were to ask NASCAR, they would have said, okay, we think the qualifying is going to be at least a half a second faster than than what it was previously. And it was only like a couple of tents. So it didn't have the big change that that we necessarily thought it would single car. So I think that tells us, hey, we got even more room that we can go because I didn't think the pace of the actual field was that much faster if anything, maybe a little bit from what the fast pace was with the big spoiler and big drag. So yeah, I think that there's there's things that can be done. And certainly I would still love to see these things be a little bit faster yet in single car qualifying. Why do you think the reviews for this new package among the drivers were sort of mixed? Like there were some drivers that weren't a fan of it. Some that said that it was just the same as what it was. I think it depends on, did they have to pit in the final stage or not? So I think that some probably got frustrated that they had to say fuel to make it to the end of the race. You know, so what happens is usually we never we don't have to say fuel to make it to the end of the race. Usually it's the the fuel mileage went from us running, let's say 40 laps on a tank of fuel to now in the mid 50s with this new package. So what we used to have to do is pit. Remember we used to have we used to have the green flag stopped at in third stage that always had to happen. And so everyone pit. So everyone knew they were going to make it to the end of the race. It's just a matter of how much fuel they were going to have to take when they got to pit lane. Well, then when they dropped the green for the third stage, it was and they tell me if you save a lot, we can make it. Well, I mean, I'm not going to race then, right? Because I don't want to have to pit like that's a whole lap or the extra time. So I think that some were chapped by the fact that, you know, in the third stage, if they did not have track position, they couldn't go get it because they did they weren't going to have enough fuel to make it to the end. And that it's that's a rightful reason to not like it. But that's a stage problem that's not necessarily a car. Like I don't think objectively if you're a race car driver in the Cup series, you drove that car and say it felt the same. Like your body tells you when your car is sliding a millimeter, you're telling me you can't tell when there's 20% less down force. I mean, that's not realistic. So if you were to change the stage lengths, make them like stage one a little shorter, stage two a little shorter, and the last one's kind of long where everyone has to green flight pit, is that the idea? Or you push the first one back. So the first one was at lap 35. Yeah. My my suggestion was just say make that 45. Now everybody's good by at least five laps. So you're going to run it out. Then everyone's going to come in, take four tires. You're not you don't even care about fuel because you're going to have to take two cans of fuel anyway. So it's not about time on pit road as much. Okay. So 45 should be the first stage. Then go another 45 in the second. And then that would leave you about 50 left. I don't know if that math adds up. Yes and no, it doesn't add up. But it still it still breaks the race up to where when you pit for your stages, you're good. You're good to go to the end. That that's going to make it to where everyone I I assure you everyone will go all out. Everyone in the top 20 that wants the race to get to the front will go race to the front for the entire stages and the race. I guess so this will be next time we come back here will be the 500. So the math equation will be a little different right because now you're running 500 miles versus 400. Yeah. So yeah, you just have to make it to where definitely everyone's going to have to green flag stop or definitely everyone's not going to need to not the in between and that was the issues we had the in between worse. If you really wanted to save you could make it and that just forced the hand of everybody else. So was that just a missed detail in leading up to this race? Well, I think that the fuel mileage was slightly different than what was projected as well. So I can understand why why that would be missed just slightly. Got you. But overall net positive. No additional changes you think headed into the next five next Daytona race. I would think that they more than likely tweak stages, not car on the next one. Yeah. Onto your camera situation. How does that how does that happen? Is it used for anything? Like do you do you position it in a way that you have an additional angle? Correct. So what I do is I make sure that I just want it to see off my right rear quarter panel when I say it's not usable. It's it's not usable for the same purpose that the digital. That is correct. That is correct. So it's mounted in a vastly different spot. So I put it in a spot where I want it to be my secondary protocol for when I clear myself off my right rear quarter panel. Yeah. Not the backup for the means. That's correct. So in order for them to move the thing back to where okay, it's now my standard camera or it's my standard mirror. It takes a different bracket. Like we had maxed out where I can move the bracket essentially. So it just it wasn't as usable for that reason. And it's yeah, I've never had a camera fail. It's been like five years of this thing. I've never had a camera fail. Yeah. If this happened next week in Darlington, is this not as big of an issue? Not a big no, definitely not. No, no issue really at all. You can, you know, it's just because like LaTart City thought that you drivers basically clear yourself nowadays with these cameras versus the spotter. That's correct. Because it's quicker. It's quicker. And sometimes the information, you know, we don't come on the radio and say to the spotter, tell me if I'm clear high, we just listen to that information. So I don't I don't ask for the information. I just go ahead and look real quick and then make the move. And then as I'm moving up, he'll say clear high. So it's you don't always get all the information that you want. Right. When you need it, so you just yes, you use that camera to to make decisions. What's that bud? Come here. We have a guest. Big Walker now. Oh, he's a mover. And he loves shoes on. Man, he's got shoes on. He's off to the races. Oh boy. That's a good one. We can take a break if you need to go change his diaper. No, I'm good. Just gonna let him sit there with it. Oh yeah. Bask. Back to the mirror. How much would you have raced differently like if the mirror worked or the camera? I knew that was going to happen. Grab me a paper towel. I would have been more aggressive earlier on as the simple answer to that. I don't know. I just, by the end of the race though, traffic, I felt okay with it. You know what I mean? I'm like screwed. I don't care if we wreck whatever. I just didn't want to cause a wreck. Do you understand that like, yeah, hard that is to explain to a competitor that man, I'm sorry, I cut in front of you. I didn't have a mirror. They would have said, hey, idiot, don't freaking race. And if you don't have a mirror, you don't have a way to see, don't clear yourself up. So I don't want to have to, I ain't trying to make new enemies right now. It seemed like, too, I think early in the first stage or maybe late in the first stage, you started to go up and then you're like, I can't see anybody. And that's when I think you, did you bail then? I did. That was at the end, really, at end of both stages. I bailed with a few laps to go because I'm like, you know what? Let's just go up there, try to get some stage points. And then I find myself in a position where it's, you know, all right, it's three wide. I also noticed as well that my car handling wasn't good. Like I tried to make some moves, some aggressive ones, and it was like, oh no, no, no, no, we're not ready for that. And so I wanted them to work on the car a little bit more, they did. And even still at the end of the race, we had like, long way to go. So it was a learning experience for us. I mean, we definitely learned something about our balance that we can take to Taldega and improve on. What percentage of the mirror, like if you had an equation, they added up to 100%. What percentage of the mirror is, you know, part of. - You're making moves and being aggressive. - Yeah, just like, oh, I have no mirrors, so I'm like at 70% at best here. Like that's an important piece. - That's probably a fair number. - That's 30% of what I need to run competitively at this track. - Versus guys that have it. - Yes. - You know what I mean? If no one has it, then I think that it's all- - Sure, then it's all a level, yes. - No problem, which is the way it used to be. But if we just want to run with straight mirrors, okay, let's do that too. So it's just a huge disadvantage versus the competition for sure. - Aside from the major wreck at the end here, the only other cars crashing, we saw it was at the end of stage one coming to the. - I just want to let the viewers know as well. This is not my computer before it gets too late. - Not that I disapprove of it. - I think I got a new computer. It looks good. - Y'all know whose computer this is. This is Travis's. I mean, I heard you do to earn these book eyes, by the way. You win races. There's five. - That's smart. - I mean, I did hear that you were thrown out OH's earlier this week, so I mean. - Yeah, at the sponsor summit. - Yeah, it's right. - Proud of you. - Thank you, thank you. - Right in front of SD. Portanoid as well. She was talking about how Michigan was the best school, football, basketball, all the things. - Best of cheap. Anyway, let's move on. - Wreck at the end of stage one. This was really only carnage we saw outside of. - Yep. - What happened coming to the checkered? - Which record are we talking about? - At the end of stage one. - It was the RFK, yeah. Bushier gets in the wall, Larson goes through the grass. - Priest also, it was a part of this? - Yeah, Priest got spun. - Yeah, he, I couldn't tell, but he was the one that spun through the grass, right? - Yeah. - But he's still in Larson's spun, but then they came back up. - And he still got stage points, right? - Yeah. - I thought for sure that when I was watching it for. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. You want to see Daddy? I know, I know, buddy. Bubba, Bubba. When I, when I saw this, and I saw the SVG won the stage, I'm like, that's it, that'll do it right there. But yeah, I guess it's not loading all that great for me here. But yeah, that took out, that ruined Bushier's day, for sure. And yeah, Priest got in. He got to think that, man, he was up front the entire time and just, where'd he finish in that stage, like, fifth? - 10th, I think, right? - He got points, so yeah. But I mean, what a crushing, like a morale crusher for him to see, as he's spinning through the grass, he look up at, and SVG's now won the first stage, it's gotta be like such a tough one, but. - Eighth. - This is a good way to kind of segue into like, how impressive Ryan Priest's run was. I mean, 67 points on a speedway is gotta be one of the all-time highest point days that there's ever been. To call your win, say, I'm gonna win. - He didn't call his win. - He didn't? - No. - I thought he did. - He bases like, we're gonna go out there and do everything. He didn't go as far as calling it. - Okay. - Well. - But still. - I think that it's still such a awesome performance to drive the way he did, finish it the way he did. Like, I don't know, it just was, that was really, really impressive. His morale, especially on a speedway. It's like, if you go and you take, I don't know, me at Kansas and I say, oh, I'm gonna do everything I can to win. And we just go out there and we run top three in all stages when the race, it's okay. That's a little bit more predictable 'cause you can, you can decide your destiny a little bit better on those types of tracks. We're super speedways, it's really tough and you can get shuffled really, really easily. But they just, I mean, that was a great performance. It was by far his best performance in his cup career. - Even after stage one, he was like positive. He was like, well, get back up there. They never got down. - Yeah, and I mean, he's that kind of guy. He's a bulldog in that kind of way, like competitiveness. And so I just really admired that the performance, his whole team put together for this weekend and then him finishing the deal by making all the right moves at the right time to win this race. - Yeah, if he doesn't go sliding through the grass here at the end of stage one, he's looking at a 70 plus point day, which is, it's unheard of. What he needed to get to get into the chase. - I mean, crushing for SVG, right? I mean, he had been in the top 16 for the last, I felt like months, basically the entire. - Well, since, I think it was since he won last. 'Cause remember, he was like 20 or 30 out going into a row course and he left there 20 or 30 to the good. It would have been Sonoma, right? - Probably. - Possibly. - After not scoring much of any points at San Diego. - Yeah, and I think he never looked back from there. He was inside the top group from that point on. So crushing, I mean, he did his best in his interviews. It's just, I could tell he was upset about it, but he didn't let it show. He stayed very stoic and he's like, you know, he just didn't work out, but man, that's a, it's tough for track outs too. That was the only car that you were going to have representing you in the playoffs and, or I'm going to say playoffs until Chase finally catches on. Similar to the O'Reilly's and the Xternity thing. - You have to feel good for Priesto because, you know, the 25 point penalty that he had. - That would have sucked. That would have, that would have not felt right for him to miss based off of that penalty. - In my opinion, I agree. I think most people agree. - Okay. There was no other surprises that got in or out. It was just those two that switched, and I mean, that switched just in the final race. It just shows that like, you don't need all this other manufactured drama and gimmicks and stuff, right? And it's cool to have like, that big moment. And it's cool when it's authentic, right? Over 26 races, it then came down to the last one. - And he had to win. - Yeah, it was a proper winning in. He had to get those extra points from winning the race to jump SVG. - Yep. - Yeah, that's awesome. - Yeah, I mean, you touched on it, but you didn't manufacture this moment, in any way, right? Before it was a. - It's easy to manufacture a great finish if you throw a caution with three laps to go. Like, you know, that's not what happens, but I'm saying, you can always have a great finish. Every week, if you just say, all right, we're gonna end every race and agree with my checker. But it's that, but eventually the sports fans and the authentic racers know that that's not real. That you can't just load the bases up on the bottom of the ninth with two outs and say, "All right, you can pick any hitter." (laughs) You know, that's eventually they won't tune in because they're like, yeah, sure, they someone had a walkoff. Of course they had a walkoff. You set them up for the walkoff. So that's what, you know, that's the purist that, you know, that's why I think this season is really a lot of good things are happening in my opinion this year because we are getting back in a lot of ways to the purist type of racing. - Let's take a look here at this car service for our wreck that sent us into overtime. Do we still know? Do we not know? - You got loose. - You got loose? - Just got loose. - Just got loose. - Yeah, I think he runs his car's pretty free anyway. On the speedways, it's what it looks like from my seat. And yeah, so what he did is he went up, so he pulled out of line to go low. He then went up to the door of the car that he was trying to pass to try to slide draft them and then pull down. Well, if you, so that's an arrow spot anyway for Carson's car. And then if you talk. the wheel left to then try to get away from him? While you're trying a corner, that's a pretty loose moment. That's going to be a one where your car better be really tight and it wasn't and he lost control. How much of this is to blame for the new package? Do you think that, like how he raced in the car set up? Well, I mean, certainly the old package had so much more grip than that. Yes, you probably can get away with that. Again, it's a learning experience for everyone that you'll see things as a competitor. I see these things and I'm like, all right, I need to store that away. You know, put that in memory bank. Daytona 26 race 2. Be careful with side drafting in the corner and then try to pull low. That's asking a lot of the rear grip of your car anyway. On a mile and a half, that's a lot to ask of your car. But here, certainly with the less down force, I think you played a factor. And poor Eric Jones, watching his onboard is just brutal zero time to react. Yeah. And he had a car right in front of him. So again, just totally blind the car moves and then oh, he's in your lap. So that, that stunk. And that, I mean, how, how ironic was it that Jimmy posted about Carson when that was before the race, right? Yeah. And then he's like, yeah, well, I don't like that, you know, the whole turn of the car's thing. And he got one of his cars. But I thought that was just funny. What did you think of that, uh, that reveal while we're on the topic, Jimmy Johnson, the 48, you were watching it when you were climbing in your car, you saw it on the big monitor. I thought it was cool. I do. Um, it, uh, it's got a flavor of new and it's got a flavor of old. So, yeah, I'm in favor of it. Very cool. That, that 48 neon, that thing pops the holy cow, especially with a mute color, you know, the, the dark gray, dark blue, like that neon 48 pops. It looks like a Hendrick car. And it's like, wait a minute, that's a Toyota. It's very different. I didn't, I didn't even think of that. Yeah. Yeah. What did you, uh, think of the, uh, the wreck at the end of the race? Which one? Or multiple? Um, let's start with the first one. Okay. First one. Zane was trying to cover all possibilities. It seemed as though, um, when I saw it, and again, I don't, I can't, do you play by play right here? But it seemed like Zane was trying to cover one side, the bottom red X is art. No, I'm going to go high. He then tried to move up to cover high. And, and all while his spotters probably telling them where the 45s at, he's probably looking in his mirror to say, man, it's close, but it's, it's the final lap. You're willing to make those kind of decisions on the last lap to cover spots, because you know, if, if the 45 gets beside you one way or another, it's probably game over. Uh, you never know. If he's put three wide middle, it's game over. Yeah. And unless you got somebody that's willing to come get you really, really quickly. Yeah. Yeah. So it was going to be a tough spot. So he figures the best way. It's just that you got to keep the 45 on my rear bumper that entire last lap. And so, you know, everyone's going to be selfish in that instance. It's really hard to bank on someone doing that. But sometimes the good part about being on the yellow line low or the wall high is that you eliminate options for your competitors to pass you. So if you're up against the wall, and you know, they're only got one choice. And that's to go low. And so it acts as protection for you. Same as that yellow line is for the cars on the inside. That's their protection. Um, so when he saw the 45, go that way. He's, he's hedging low, hedging low. And then here you go, the 45 is like, now, oh, you left room high. I'm going there. And they made contact 45 spun them. And then, um, hell kind of broke loose from from there from kind of the ricochets. And then, um, and then on the other one, Blaney got hooked down the back straightaway by the 47. It, you know, you have to do more investigative work to make it not look like really weird. Um, but as you kind of look at all the angles from all the other people as well, it seems like the 47 in the three made contacts slightly before, um, the 47 got into the back of the 12. But I also think the 47 was probably trying to side draft as well. And, and it's, I'm telling you in those instances, these are split second decisions. And I guarantee you Ricky's only looking forward, looking at the side of the 12 saying, I've got a side, I'm going to side draft him. And doesn't know that there's a, there's a three car right barely hanging on his quarter panel. So if he goes low, it's going to make contact. So I think it was initiated by the move of the 47 moving down the racetrack into the three that is coming up, you know, having, he had just avoided a wreck. He's got to come back on the racetrack. He's there. And then the 12 just running his straight line. And the 12 being an innocent bystander of all of it. And going back to this 38 and 45, um, wreck, I just keep watching this replay. Is there a point here where the 45 goes high that he's just stuck to the 38 bumper like in this situation, the 38 is obviously not going to allow the 45 to get to his outside no matter what, right? Because then that's game over for street ride middle. Is there any responsibility of the car in second here is trying to make that move? Just be like, okay, he's not giving me this. I'll just lay up a little bit to better. Not at the end. Last lap of the speedway, no one's going to lift. That's why. Because if you crash, then neither of you win. That you're, you're letting me right to my point of like, I don't think any block is absolutely 100% necessary unless it's the last corner of the last lap because then there's not enough time. You know, where I think that, okay, if you try, if you make a block that is questionable or the car is there, you're just hoping that when you move down into them, they lift. You at least, that's going to be tough for your competitor. Your competitors aren't going to give you that. 98% of them are just not going to lift. So, so then your options are you're probably going to get turned. Where I believe that, you know what, if he gets to the outside of me or the inside of me, maybe I get help. Maybe the guy behind him goes with me instead. And now we, we essentially will shut him in about 300 yards. So, that's why I think that there's still a lot of racing left between turn two and the start finish line to where, yeah, it's an aggressive block, but it's one that him and his team probably think they need to make. And it just didn't work out. It's, you know, sometimes you can get hook like that and you actually don't lose it. You know, you just, you get squirrely and you don't end up wrecking, but you know, obviously this one turned into a wreck. Would the better move have just been the 38 pitting himself to the bottom? Just, I'm taking the bottom lane here. Like, can you, in fact, can you really block both lanes for a lap and a half for three quarters of a lap? No, it's very difficult. Very difficult. And the bottom lane is the lane you want to have, right? Wasn't the 60 down there? The 60 at the bottom. Yes, but it's coming to, taking the white flag, Zane is the only car out front. So going into turn one, he's on the bottom lane and then you're saying, well, just pin yourself to the bottom. I don't, I don't think that's the winning move either. Simply because I think you would rather, if someone's going to pass you, you would rather than pass low than high. That's what I'm asking. Yeah. Well, exciting work out. Yeah. What place did you come in, Danny? They said 11. I'm going to have a discussion because I disagree. I think there's a syncing issue between when they think they, the time stamp they have that they said, okay, we press the button here. That's the time stamp. And then we go to all the end car cameras and they're going to walk me through the process because I, and again, 10th, 11th, it doesn't, my point is the same going into this weekend. I just want to make sure for future references, there is no discrepancies on what is right and wrong because I told them, sir, I can tell you for a fact when the green light was on, the 21 was behind me and certainly way behind the 41. I says, if you look at the aerial camera, you know, what I, what they showed you on TV was that, hey, let's look at the race for the lead. Remember, they put the lights in a little box in the water and they says, okay, the lights come on here. so there's a camera on those lights so I'm saying I'm telling you, sir, that the lights were green and we were past the 21 car but he's like in front of the 41 and me and so I says I think you have a timing issue and so what I'm saying is that when the lights are green so I think when they said they pressed the button bam time stamp now let's go look at everyone's let's look at all the cameras of either in-car or available cameras I don't think those lights were yellow and I back this up with a I showed them a photo of here's the in-car of the 21 car he's passing by a solid green light and the 41 is two car lengths in front and I'm but I'm ahead I'm beside him but ahead and I was like so something is not jiving with when you say you pressed it and when the green light when the green light went off or and again there's a transition from I think a green nothing yellow I don't think it goes directly from green to yellow do they go back to the previous scoring no actually they freeze it they actually freeze it and use all I think it's right about the the slight the one second of no light it's it's so short it's really short yeah because you can see in this replay no not that it's a good judge of anything but the caution does come up on the TV before it comes up on the track what do you mean caution comes up on the TV before the trial we're in yellow right now according to TV but the lights aren't on yet they will be in no that that right so so how did TV how did okay that's that's a little bit clarifying so there's a delay then of when we actually when the competitor see and that's a decent delay there you know what I mean that the banner on on the graphic on the TV showed yellow way before the yellow lights yeah and when you say way it's like a second that's that's not how far a car can travel in a second I'm just I'm just clarifying yeah I don't know the answer just clarifying so that I mean that clearly backs up I think what NASCAR and and Elton is saying is that no we we pressed it here and I'm saying you know I saw green lights what are you talking about you pressed it and there's that gap that that I think that there's a sink issue and they need to fix this because well you they're explaining on TV they're going off of the caution light they're showing a box of the caution yeah and so you got fans wondering so so you're the visual sometimes they have a potential to where their time stamp will show one winner and the visual would show another do you understand oh yeah because there's that one second you got a car saw by side and one second one will show ahead versus the other so I think that they got to fix that I agree that's I'm saying it's like you don't want fans thinking something happened or and also especially now with gambling what will happen is yes is that TV will convince the fans look the yellow light came on here freeze it who's ahead but the potential of NASCAR saying no no we pressed that button a second ago and so then we use that video evidence so you could have a discrepancy there so I'd like to see him I don't know how I mean there's always going to be a delay I would think I mean because when you press button and and that in that studio that they're in up in the suite for it to get all the way back to the you know all the way sure there's going to be some sort of delay but it seems excessive I would like to see is there an onboard out there of SVG on this last lap because when the caution comes out on TV he's still in the he's in the chase preces minus two yeah but his problem is he ended up spinning so he didn't maintain pace car speed so that means whatever then you merge back into the field right what was his experience what I want to know is his experience on this last lap like where do you get caught in it if he he's trying to go through the you know because they kept it green through that first he's like the I got to have these spots so he's trying to go through that wreck as fast as possible he's a Daniel die and I think he made an aggressive he had I think there was no way for him to avoid it in the sense of that he either plows into the car in front of him or when you try to slow down in these cars you can't be turning the wheel abruptly with it so a lot of times you'll see secondary wrecks from those that are hitting the brakes and turning the wheel like you can't change directions very quickly especially on super speedway so he is trying to go fast through the wreck because his man is saying the light it's still green it is still green he's trying to get all the spots that he can they spin right in front of him he has to avoid them so he has to turn the wheel quickly and that spins himself out just there's just no way and man it ain't like he missed it by a couple too I mean with pre-wind and that extra bonus point like missed it by a chunk yeah so now one thing I need clarification on is that I know it matters because you're not in the chase but isn't SVG can go still all the way up and points as far as it takes them on the owner side now I believe that once the season is over they re-racked the points oh to say okay there wasn't a chase where would you have ended up except for except for the champion of course so you're saying I thought that this was part of the changes is that just because you don't make the chase doesn't mean 17th is the best you can finish in points I believe that you can now he can still advance himself if not that that would that blows but I thought it was I was one of the things I advocated for is like man dude it's like it used to be the win in your end it you know someone that was 30th and points wins locks themselves in the top 16 because of one race like that's it's crazy talk and I believe part of the changes that is that you can still advance up in the points but how do they do that how do they show that other than let the season play out and then re-rack them but how he's what do you mean how he's just saying the chase away they take away the bonus the they take away the bonus I've got a text out to Russell to see if we get an answer okay if not Mike Ford can answer I know they don't want two sets of points yeah on the rebel they can answer I'm just saying that it was one of the selling points that I was like okay I'm good with this because you can you can go all the way back you know if the guy in 17th and points who just barely misses the the chase goes on a great run the last 10 he deserves to be in the top 10 if that's where it took him so theoretically SVG could finish second on the season that's that's the way I understand it hopefully we get an answer yeah that the way the money is given out to you teams behind the scenes is not based on the chase standings that we see that's right that's right but I don't know how they show those two unless it's just I don't think there's a need to show no we don't want to do that Russell saying no 17th would be the best he can do that is full I've got notes saying they were changing that he said because it's just points and there's no way for him to get to 2000 that's a killer that's a killer that we talked about that when NASCAR is that we'll make the lock in these guys out of being able to advance their position is that's unfair they can't well I mean you can't advance you just can't advance to 16 you could have if you're 20 to 17th dude he misses he missed it by a handful of points you're telling me the the next 10 races he's maxed out well yeah you didn't make you didn't make the chase sorry buddy I know but if you take all 36 races new account he could be way higher I don't know why we need to bump these guys up to two I don't know why we got to give an arbitrary 2000 point number to you if you get into the chase why can't you just take the 16 move them over here's our chase drivers whoever has the most points at the end of these 10 races between you 16 guys wins it all why do we have to give an arbitrary 2000 points it could be 3000 4000 5000 who doesn't matter I bet you I have it in my note somewhere but let's just keep keep the show going - At the end of the race, I heard on your radio, you told Gail that you wanted to meet with the pit crew and everyone on the team at the car. I like to believe this was a, okay, the regular seasons over, let's fire them up or whatever kind of talk. Am I over thinking this or what did you want to talk to them about? - I mean, I won't say it on air because it was my speech to them and I don't want anyone else, any other teams to fire themselves up in the same way. So I just, you know, I just put things in perspective and let them know kind of what we needed to do these last 10. That was the summary. - Are you glad, like the chase is hearing you now, you can like turn your focus onto this. Like what's your feelings right now? - Hmm, I mean I'm ready to go. I mean, this is a tough part of our season. It's just, we've been doing this for 26 weeks. Like this is the grind, man, the dog days, it's still hot as shit outside. Like dog days of our summer, it's right here. But now it's like, oh, well now you gotta go, be your best when you're the most tired. So it's what pushes you. So that's where you gotta find the extra gear. But all the other sports the same way. Yeah, that long, you have 17 weeks for the NFL regular season? - No break, we're going right to the playoffs, right? MLB, 100 and how many games? - Six to? - Yeah, yep, still got playoff. So. - Your bi-week was Daytona. - Right, sort of, yeah. So yeah, this is part of it. This is what this is sports. We gotta go do it. - A lot of nothing's given. - And other sports, the players, they say they don't listen to this or listen to that, read the headlines. Obviously, we know you do. You're doing a DM podcast. How do you handle the pressure everyone's saying, this is Danny Hamlin's year? You're the one seed, like how do you silence all that and just focus? - I mean, we've found every way possible to fail in it, right? So, I mean, you know, there's races I wish I could take back. There's things that you were at our control that I wish would change. There's things that was in our control that I wish we had changed. And just you realize over time that, you know, you have to, it's that nothing is given. This sport is weak, too weak, too weak. And favorites matter, but they do not matter. And the sense of that no one, if I don't go out there this week and prepare like I need to, do the work I need to do and execute at the level that I need to execute, none of that other stuff matters. It's people put you as a favorite or something like that because of how you got there. It's not arbitrary in the sense of that. This one just made it up and picked your name out of a hat. It's because of the body of work that you've shown them over time. Now, in my mind, I've got to take that body of work and make it just a little bit better. I can't just go to Darlington and Kansas and Charlotte and say, well, it's been great there. We're going to be great again. Nope. Everything's different. Things are different. Tire changes, arrow changes. There could be temperature changes. All kinds of different things that would make it this, different this time around. And on top of that, those who you did beat the first time around, you think they're just sitting around saying, well, we were sucked in. We're going to suck now. Nope. They're going to come with new ideas and you better find something that can answer those new ideas. Does the process change at all going into each race week and now they're in the chase and for the most part, your competition is your teammates? No, nothing changes that I'm aware of. It's all going to stay the same. And you're going to share just as much information with the 20 and the 19 as you would any other week. That's what makes it work. I mean, the minute you start to put yourself in a silo and say, I'm going to hold everything right here. Well, that's when your teammate then does that, you're now missing out on information that's going to help you. So I just think that it's not the way to be. I'm OK being teammates for that six days of the week and going to race on the seven. What's going to separate these? So look at the point standings here in the chase. After all the simulations that NASCAR has run, a driver from the top six was the one that went on to win the championship. Well, five of the six-- Most of the time, but now all the time. Five of the six are Toyota. They're all strong. Like what's going to be the difference maker between that bunch? Tough to say. It's week to week. It could be qualifying. It could be stage points. It could be execution. It could be pickrue. Viewous mistakes, I feel like. Yeah, it's just-- there's always a defining moment in your race. It's just what is it, if you could put them all together, then usually you have a good, solid race. No matter how your car is on speed. So it's all the little things. Darlington's up next for PM practice and qualifying on Saturday. I'm assuming that's Peacock. Uh, no. No idea. I believe it's true. TV, I'll double check that. One person I know has no ideas, my mom. Trying to keep up with what's on what channel this week? Practice is somewhere different qualifying. True TV. It's on true TV, right after law and order. [LAUGHS] Or rate before. And rate before table talk. Yeah. And then the race Sunday, 5 PM, Southern 500. Your last five starts here. Finished 11th, 7th, 1st, 7th, 4th. That's not 7th, 5th, 5th, 5th, that's just Darlington. Last five starts at Darlington. 11, 7, 1, 7, 4. It's good. It's not great. We need a low, low, low single digit. Finish here. We don't need it, but it's what I want. What we're in for. What's the point? We're going to win. OK, do you just answer it then? We're going to win. No. We're going to win. We're going there to win. That's right. We're not saying that we're going to win. What was your question? I was going to say how many points, but I think what you want to leave with you answered. Yeah. It's 10 weeks. There's not one week that's going to define one way or another. It will after week 10. But again, there's lots and lots of racing left. It's almost-- I mean, it's almost a third of a season. So like, we've got to just-- everyone just take a breath and relax. I can't do that. I know. Do you think that all 10 races are going to be needed in this chase? I don't think that anyone goes mistake-free for 10 straight weeks. It's just way too hard for sport. Chad, you're asking does anybody-- I'm saying, do you think, based on the sample size of 10 races, is there a scenario where we could go to Homestead and someone is up 76 points? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. We just didn't really see it. I mean, you barely locked up the number one seed going into the Daytona. And that's a 26-ray sample size. This is now just 10. Right. You know? It's possible. All it takes is a couple wins. And I mean, points can inflate huge. We saw it at the beginning of the year when Tile Reddick went on that run. It was like, holy shit. Yeah, if it ever going to get there-- if a driver wins the first four races of this chase, it's really going to put a damper on the rest of the field. That's right. Yeah. Before we wrap, Danny, what's the qualifications for handling travel for Danny Hamlin? Because I feel like any bum can do the job lately. How dare you talk about all this patent like that? No, I'm talking about Jared this time. Jared. Fortunately, I was just handling travel for Charlie and I guess, Cory. But what happened? They went to the wrong airport. Yeah, I put in-- we were leaving the hotel. We were supposed to-- Danny was down in Fort Lauderdale. Where was the summit at? Jupiter. Jupiter. So the airport we flew into was 30 minutes north of Jupiter. North of Jupiter. That was in Stuart. And I just put in-- I was looking for an Uber. I think I just put in Atlantic Aviation or whatever [BLANK_AUDIO] and it took you to Palm Beach. - Palm Beach. And like the distance was the same. So I really didn't think twice. However, there was a moment where I was like, I'm 99% sure that we came from the North. (laughing) And this Uber is taking us out. And I kind of just like quickly put it to the back of my mind. I was like, no, no, dude. - And then, so, okay, so there's Stuart, all right, Stuart, Jupiter, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale. Okay. They then realized, oh shit. We don't have time to go back up. Stuart, so they just kept on going south and they had to go all the way down the Fort Lauderdale. - But it was funny though, 'cause I'm the person who's arranging the Uber, I'm kind of leading the brigade here. So we pull up to the gate. The Uber driver is driving us. Keith tells us, pull right up to the gate, tell them the tail number, they'll let you through. Right, the Uber driver's probably like, what, I've never driven on to a tarmac before. So it pulls up to the gate. The security guy comes out and roll down my window in the back seat. Yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tail number. Look over at Charlie, he's filming. - Of course he's filming. - He's, of course he's filming. - CMZ. - Give him a thumbs up. Like, no problem, Austin, we got this. Like I can handle getting this to the airport without you here. And then the guy comes back and he's like, are you sure that plane's here? And I was like, yeah, it's here. It's here, yeah, absolutely. And he makes us get out, go into the FBO and then a moment of walking there was like, Charlie, I think I, I think we're at the wrong airport. (laughing) So thankfully, thankfully it was 30 minutes in the right direction. We were actually going 30 minutes towards where we were trying to go, just not by car. Trying to go there by plane. - Nice. - Well, I was where I was. - Danny wasn't late. Danny, we still waited 30 minutes for you. So you were not late at all. - Yeah, no, no, everything was on time. For my standpoint, I just didn't know what you all had to go through. - For what it's worth, Travis, this would be a very different conversation if Danny was at the airport already waiting for us and we had gone to the wrong one. - I don't think he would have been waiting. - Probably not. - I would have said it's a four hour drive up to Daytona. I'll see you all there. All right, guys, appreciate it. Let's go get it now. (upbeat music) Check out dirtymo media on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.