Sonoma: Who Is To Blame For Denny Wrecking?

- The following is a production of Dirtimo Media. - I believe that I've been a competitor for 20 years. - Opinions from tonight's podcast, strictly biased. You're gonna hear it from my point of view. - I'm a fighter. - You know you are not. - The spoils of victory for Jared Allen. - He's got better luck than Rick and Drake to win. - I know you do. - Two trophies missing from your collection. The 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 Action's Determinal. After the California swing, we now lead the points who thought we would be here. Not me. Way to be honest. Me neither. We got fortunate. You know at the end of the San Diego race, you know, made a little mistake there. Got into the wall, cut a tire. He goes from gaining on us to losing. But then Sonoma obviously had some mechanical issues there. We were actually set up to be, have a good day. You know, I don't know how he was running before the issues. But he never, he dropped like 16th and just stayed there for the first stage. - Never went forward. - Well, you know, I mean, I felt good about it, you know, really on Saturday, kind of our practice, how things went, qualifying went okay. So yeah, I thought we were set up for a good Sunday. But then obviously got wiped out there and finished in the 20s. And the damage of the car is if you couldn't see from home. But it just splitter gets knocked down and bent down. So then you lose all the flow of the underbody, which is where you make the downforce. And nothing was just an absolute wreck after that. - You know, you prefaced that by saying that reddick got unlucky. And yes, over the last two weeks, the 45 team has been unfortunate. But I feel like that's something-- - You got unlucky on Sunday. - Which, which both days? - Or just one day, you're saying. - He's saying with the-- - Yeah, I was saying unlucky is a car issue. - Yeah, I'm just saying that you prefaced it with that. But I feel like that's doing yourself a disservice because you were very pretty good in both events. - Yeah, I thought that on in San Diego, our 14th place bench there was, I thought we were better than that. So yeah, we got unlucky on the caution. We got unlucky on the caution, right? Just San Diego. So I don't know. Either way, we talked about our goals, trying to be within 50 at this point in time. And we exceeded that. - Do you still-- Do you have a better taste in your mouth, though? - Oh, definitely. - Yeah, definitely. Because you know, you'd like to take advantage of, you know, for competition has an issue, you want to take full advantage of it, right? Like, you know, Michigan was a great example where, you know, the 45, not of his doing got caught up in something, we took full advantage. And then we won the race. So like, that was a double whammy. But, you know, it was only a single whammy at Sinoa. But, you know, this was the things that I talked about early in the year, the Salal of Averages. Like, when he had at one point in the season of 5.5 average finish, I'm sorry, but that's not realistic. It just is not. The numbers over time tell you what is realistic. And he just had not had the streak of bad luck and/or mechanicals or wrecks that typically people have at this point in the season. And now it just seems like back to back weeks. It's, you know, it has caught up a little bit. - Are you more disappointed this weekend in losing out on points you could have gained from Reddit or just general that you lost, what was probably going to be a good road course finish? - I mean, both is also the answer. - Yeah, both is an answer. Both is an answer. - Yeah. - That's pretty much my answer. - If you're looking for someone to blame, though, for the bad luck that you got, Danny, just look across the table. - I am not at fault here. - You've jinxed us. - Why are y'all on the chat talking about, like. - Is that's what we do? - I know, but you can't. - No, it, Cher took it to another level on Sunday. When Reddit goes three laps down at the beginning of the race, you can assume that the left end course probably going to take the points lead just based on that Reddit is not going to get those three life spikes and not going to get back on the lead lap. And as long as the 11 card doesn't get taken out in a corner and then finishing five positions ahead of the 45, he was going to take the points lead. - Yeah, but me texting not in the group chat does not jinx. My text does not alter reality of the. - You can't mess with the gods. You basically split the polls. - As Alex Presley would say, "Never split a poll." - I mean, we were on a great run until then. - What I said was going to happen. It actually happened, though. - Is that so? - Yeah, you are now the points leader. - Hmm, okay. - Another topic. Do we just want to talk about the West Coast swing? - Yeah. - Talk about this pain now. - An unknown. - An unknown executive. So if you saw my Instagram post, Austin, known in the chat as the fixer, we just wanted to challenge Austin into, you know, can he. If we give him a tough thing to work on, Kenny really delivered, right? And so we just came up with, "Hey, there's this guy that we met watching the Mexico game at the hotel in San Diego." The story was, he actually went to his very first race in Mexico City, loved it, and actually is going to go to LA for the USA game the same time I happen to be going. And he would love to go to Sonoma. And so I'm courting him as a potential sponsor. So, "Hey, Austin, he's gonna fly with me." You know, we need all the setup. I'll work on the waivers with the pilots, whatnot. But this gentleman has, he's a bit high maintenance and he likes certain things. So one of the things that he likes is a Mariachi band to welcome him at the airport. There's a place called Tacos Garcia. - Yeah. - It just happened to be somewhere where we looked up. - We looked up into Sonoma. - No significance. - No, no, no. So he wants Tacos from Tacos Garcia, waiting for him for him as well. And then we also have some tequila shots as well. So, Austin delivered on this. Now, truth be known. Austin just contacted the West Coast Fixer. You know what I mean. - But that's what a fixer does. - That true. As long as you have the contacts, that's how you essentially get it done. But yeah, we got to thank Nina from Carneros. She basically, with some help, she delivered for Daniel. And by the way, Charlie was our Daniel, if you didn't notice. He was the one with the mustache, the hat. And what was funniest about it is that in the chat, it was the next day at 1 p.m. That Austin says, wait a minute. You know I didn't have a guy from Mexico on your plane. We're like, Austin, we FaceTimeed you with Charlie. He was like, yeah, but I didn't. He didn't recall that that was Charlie. - It was late. - It was late. It was two o'clock east coast time. But he was still in his bed with a hat on. Why did he have a hat on? - I had someone ask me. He was like, why was he in bed with a hat on? - Maybe Austin sleeps with hat on. - I think he does. I think he does. I think actually every time that I've seen him in his bed on a FaceTime, like when we're doing our golf guys, Calcutta or whatever, that he is in bed with a hat on. That's really weird. Because he goes hatless sometimes, but maybe that's his blanket. - You know what I mean? - It's got to be tough to sleep with a hat on. But it was funny. It was one of those things where you just give your manager a bunch of random hoops to jump through and see how many things can clear. - He cleared them off. - He cleared them off and then added some. - Yes. - This was not on the list of things to bring us. - The Anyata was not on the list, but made it happen. It was fantastic. The guys were actually, the band was actually very, very good. I have other videos of them singing. And what I'd really loved about them is that it was all. It was over our car was packed. We were ready and they're still out there singing Like the gig was up You know what I mean? We revealed haha. We were just kidding But they just kept on singing they probably got paid for the hour Well, they got paid They got paid Because when we were talking about what we were gonna do And all this and we're like we should have this and now I'm like realize guys. I'm gonna have to pay for this Like so let's keep it within like somewhat reasonable terms but Yeah, it's just Wild wild that it was very funny I think it was funnier in our world than it was to the to the public But you guys didn't see like Jared was trying to fit all this into a one-minute video and like there's far more Contest that yeah, there's yeah, yeah, you call you call Austin from San Diego the first night That's a six-minute conversation and then he calls back the next day calling Charlie asking if he knew about this That's another five-minute conversation. Yeah, so I'd I'd determine all down But it is funny that when stuff like that gets posted the majority of the comments are from like your inner circle Yeah, and not from the outside world. Yeah, so yeah, it was it was very funny within Within your group of friends Yeah, I mean I've had some time to to look at look at the wreck There's one other guy I need to look at here and But I think I you tell me who I'm supposed to be mad at I Think it's just the field and Sonoma Raceway. Well to me personally It just seemed like You know the data is too messy to really Lock in on one person. I know it's easy that there's got to be someone to blame I Hear you But I I think it's like 333333 of the 77 the six and the 48 I just they were all Hitting each other nobody wanted to get off the bumper of the guy in front of you and The guy way up there's the one that got spun so it just it never What was disappointing is that they came from so far back? It's it's like I'm for carlings clear these guys. What were they doing running to the back of me unless they just are Ping ponging off of each other and they just they did they just kept shoving and Unfortunately, I got the worst end of it. So Yeah, I mean I think that it's it's always very easy to blame the car directly behind you and yes Carson could have done a better job But I don't think that he came into the corner with reckless abandonment I don't it didn't if you really look at the look at how the guys were driving which I can look at You know usually you can tell an intent Through through data, right? Yeah, you can't say I didn't mean to hook them when you're steering wheel Turns towards them, right? It usually doesn't doesn't lie But it's just it's just too messy. There's just all of them had somewhat of a role and not just I got the bent bad end of it so You know wish there weren't so careless, but there's been many people that that've gotten spun like I did in that race So you just got to take it on the chin. I feel like if you're the one that starts it you always end up on the better and then yeah Oh, oh absolutely you usually want to be the one starting or snout the one who doesn't because You know you you give a gap to the person in front of you usually you got somebody behind you That's pretty impatient and are ready to go but In the end I'm I'm very comfortable in saying that that that wreck was a racing deal Is that now what you're wanting to hear I want to be able to I know my anger on somebody and now I just got it well I listen, I would I would love to also, but then it just I think it would be grossly irresponsible Oh, I agree and then you're holding a grudge against somebody that like did they really go in there to wipe you out? No, I'm very confident in that So I just to me it's like listen here it is Late Monday like this is so low on the priority had to look it up on the during the podcast not before it It just is not a priority to me. I'm I move on so I asked you I was like it what kind of mood and it was like you weren't even this was your past it Which I guess is a good thing. Yeah, I mean certainly You know had had reddick had a better day You know what I can without a doubt say that the sting would have hurt a lot more right? But you know in the end we're we're racing for points and the person that Right now, I'm in the battle with you know don't let's not sleep on Ryan Blaney He's only a hundred back now and I closed my gap in six races. There's eight left now He's gonna have to go on a major run and I think the tracks. I mean he's got some super speed ways where he could really pile up some points Some short tracks where he could pile up some points But he's also gonna need some help from us like like reddick helped us get back in it so And to do that on two guys is more difficult than than one but you know, yeah It's just sometimes it's that's racing. That's the answer is that that's racing and I just feel like There's nothing we could have done to change the result From there I just I was the unlucky one that was part of the domino effect I just assume that you were most disappointed about losing out on what was gonna be a good road course that you qualified well You held your track position through stage one and two. It just looked like a clean. Yeah Good day. Yeah, I thought I thought that we had a very good car one I thought we were very close in speed to brisco stage one. He was right there in front of me the entire time I thought I was maybe a little better in the super long run, but it was close. He was he was very good But then never got to see it through to stage three where the track then started speeding up That seems like where the Gibbs cars in general were really strong was in stage three although you could argue tie Gibbs man, if they flip those stages He might have had something for SVG And I think if you listen to his interview that's kind of where Where you get from him as well where he's like, yeah, I don't understand our strategy But then the team's like dude, we got a 54 point day or whatever like it was a massive day Nothing is you know, it's it's hard to assume that you're gonna have the speed to go race SVG, but When I look at lap times I say that the 54 was likely the best shooter to go challenge I mean even though the 19 was the one that challenged him in the end Yeah, it is hindsight 2020 on that because I'm assuming that the team thinks man We're probably not gonna beat SVG straight up here on the same strategy Let's switch it up and try something different because I think they do finish third and if a caution comes out with 15 to go 10 to go then It's maybe a different ballgame. Yeah, absolutely because I think the 54 ran down those guys from quite a quite a ways back and He always he had restarting the teams pretty much every time that he didn't flip the stages. So Yeah, I think that What he had well, I mean you think about it like yeah, they could have flipped it gave a point same thing with you If you would have stayed out like it's it's very easy to second-guess a strategy, but they got 53 54 points and you know it you got to take that Yeah, I guess you do It definitely is difficult when you know you have race winning speed to just take the points, but I mean we've We've sort of done it before not really on row courses, but Yeah, they're in a unique spot because to the to date Nobody's really out ran SVG, right when he yeah, so So you're just gonna make the assumption that you're gonna be the first Well, you would say that he's probably one of the best suitors to actually do it if he if someone's going to do it so I get both sides of it I definitely understand the team's choice and taking the points, but I also Definitely understand ties feeling of like hey, give me a shot. Give me a shot at him. I Can beat him, you know, so it's it's you understand both side. I do appreciate his confidence and like he believes that he can go get him and That but you do right now he's 26 points out of third and in with the speed the briscoe had you got to believe that He had it too. He had it too has tie officially turned the corner now It means fourth and points halfway through the year Yeah, I mean is that breaking news? Are you just saying like this year just like this year in general? Yeah, yeah Certainly we didn't see this performance out of tie last year. No, not not the consistent performance No, but certainly it seems that way that we can week out these, you know more his his finishing positions aren't as volatile as what they were in years past and really years past you had more bad finishes than good. that definitely has changed this year to where there's more good than bad, and that has resulted in. And if you look at every stat online that you can possibly find on social media, it's like, he's definitely the biggest gainer year over year in performance. - Another Gibbs card, it was very good. Christopher Bell finished top five. - Yeah. - With a cast on his wrist. - Really impressive, really impressive. I knew he was good when he got to, I don't know where I was in the middle stage one, fifth or sixth, and he got clear, he got close to me. I pulled back away a little bit in the long run, but he was, I knew he was good at that point, but I think that after I heard how much difficulty he had at San Diego with shifting, steering, and all that stuff, like I had my doubts on whether he was gonna do it here at Sonoma, but man, very, very, very impressive run by him and in his team. - Another driver with a note where they finished Conor Zillich, P7, career, best, finishing the Cup Series. - Yeah, about time, right? Yeah, I mean, that's what we expect from Conor. I thought that we talked about Conor, was it in between seasons where I was like, yeah, he's not gonna run with SVG right now in the Cup Series. I think give it a couple of years, I think he could be a shooter to beat him, but I thought it was gonna be a tall task for him to do it in the Cup Series right now, and he fell right in line with where you would think he would run, and that's inside the top five. So yeah, you know, he didn't have any negative restarts, pit strategies, wrecks, things like that, so he finally got the finish he deserved. I think people forget sometimes that Shane's a current adult that's been doing this for years. Like Conor's a kid, and so there's a lot of things that he's still trying to figure out. - Absolutely, yeah, he's half his age basically. - So, is there anything new to say about SVG, when in this race? - He looked human, or like less than soup, he wasn't like Superman out there, I would say. - Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I started within a row of him, which is fantastic, 'cause I could kind of watch a little bit, and it still looked rather impressive to me, was it the big gap over the field that we've seen at other tracks? No, but I think what the field is starting to figure out is his approaches to speed in certain corners. I think that that's where he'll struggle to maintain the big advantage that he has over the field is that when I watch him approach 11 corners at Sonoma, there's a few where it's like, wow, I never thought to approach that corner that way. And so, I think the field sees that, and eventually they close it does his, is his really acute awareness of what he needs out of his car, his techniques and all that stuff, is that able to be replicated? That's likely a tougher discussion. But I do think the field can close, and if on a given day, it seems like the Gibbs cars definitely were the next best cars, or next best in speed to him. Sure, you could beat him, but you still gotta put in the back of your mind that the track house cars still have not been great this year. So he's probably not driving the fastest car, but he's driving it the fastest. The car he's got the fastest. So he maybe he gets that advantage back when his car's getting a little bit faster. So he makes you have to be perfect though. Yes, yes, because he's just not gonna make that many mistakes. You know, this is crazy to say, like the worst driving I've ever seen him do, was actually when he was racing Conor at Watkins Glen last year, or not Watkins Glen Sonoma, when they were racing head-to-head, like you would CSVG mis-corner, and you'd see him lock up tires and it was like, whoa, okay, he, he doesn't run just every lap perfectly. No, but that was the first time that we saw him really have to. You need some behind him to keep him honest. Yeah, you gotta keep him honest, right? So, but that's just as long as he's got this little gap on the field he's got, he can run it at 95% and still keep his pace and distance. So we made some predictions two weeks ago as to how many points above the cut line he would be out of these two road questions. I think that's at 60. He ate four. I know he's not 64 Travis. No, I'm just saying the same thing. San Diego. Howdy, by the way, take where he was running versus where his position was at San Diego and he's like 70 up, but he's not, right? You know, this is that that's racing. Wrong place, wrong time and, you know, so how do we feel about his chance for the chase? That's what I'm getting at. He's got to be Jones, Kuzlowski. Joey's 20th, I mean, holy cow. I mean, AJ, with Colleague having no supporter anything is ahead of Joey at Penske. It's just wild to put, wrap your head around, but they just, you could just see that they're, there's just not much speed there. And if you mix in a few bad finishes, you know, you get these wrecks and things that happen. And especially where he's running, you're more prone to get in those things. I think, man, can he avoid the 30th place finishes? You know, he just has some weeks where it's like, SVG is out to lunch and he's spinning. He's spinning and crashing multiple times per race. It's like, if you can avoid that over the next eight weeks, I think he can help, I think he can hold that over at Cindrick Jones, Kuzlowski, 'cause it's not like those guys are having 50 point days. Right? I mean, what would you say to him? Can you tell me, can you tell me the last, has priest had a fifth, has any of those guys had a 50 point day? I don't think so. I'm gonna say no. Right, I'm gonna, like, me neither. Let's save ourselves at the time. I just don't think they have. So, he can bleed a little bit. Would you be worried about like Eric Jones, who's, of light, has been racing really well? Yeah, but I still think there's some chinks in that armor. I think that, do they have the short track speed? Like, we're going to a few short tracks too, right? So, their bigger track program has clearly gotten better, but what about the other tracks? And this little stretch of eight races, is there like one mile and a half? We've got Chicago, Atlanta, North Woksboro, ND, Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire, Daytona. So, where legacy is seen to take in the jump, there's Chicago. Indy, right? I think SVG, he's gonna have to be tidy. Tidy with his weekends. I mean, I think this just comes down to, can he average a 16th, 17th, 18th place finish from your own out? And that seems like a challenge. That seems like an uphill battle. Because again, like you said, one of those-- It depends on how you approach it. Yeah, it depends on how you approach it, right? Do you want to be the guy that's going all out on kill, on restart, trying to get every spot? Or are you willing to take the risk to do that, to get a better finish, or, and then maybe put yourself in a bad spot? I don't know. I truthfully don't know, and I think it's going to be very close in this whole thing, it's going to be very interesting to watch out, because all of those guys, I'd say that on a regular basis, priests runs the best out of all of them, week to week, okay? I feel safest by saying he'll get in. So then that leaves two for these three or four spots. It's not on the list. Where's Chasting? I spent 20 seconds. How far back? He's got 363. He's-- That's 50. All you have is minutes. He's about 50 back. I'm every week, I tried to beat this drum that I think he's got enough in him to get it. You're like the president of his fan club at this point. I'm not. I'm just your Chastain bro. I just feel as though he is-- too good to get beat by some of these other guys that are in equal-ish equipment. Do you think the Chevy's could start to find some speed and that'll help him out? We're seeing some of the Hendrick cars could Ross benefit too when they start to figure this out. Yeah, and maybe we've seen the worst of it from the speed perspective. But it ain't, you know, Michigan wasn't that long ago, where Chastain was dead ass last during a run. I forgot how he was at poker and it finished eighth, but presumably no stage points because he only scored 34 on the day. Wow, how do you have that at your fingertips? Because I'm looking at Ross Chastain. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think he can make a run. Then it's Joey. It's going to be so entertaining. It is going to be wildly entertaining. Like Joey is with a team that you would think that is going to get better and he's going to get better. So it's close, too close to call. I'm not calling who, with five races to go, you can ask me for my who's in, who's out, but I can't do it with eight to go. You got this, the battle up front now with you, but then there's also the guys behind you and reticulate what the chase has done to the season and how people view it as just made it so much better to watch. Getting rid of the win and you're in, oh, just maybe the biggest, best change ever. Because now we know someone can't just get lucky and pop one off from 24th and point. And that's not the priority for any team. No, they, they, you got 26 races to prove yourself, right? And so one good or bad week should not be the indicator of whether you're in or out. Like it's, no, you got a big old sample size. So, you know, somebody from 30th is not going to just get in and take your spot that you've been running 16, you know, for 25 weeks and then on the 26th week, somebody 30th and points, just knocks you out. Like that, that didn't seem fair to me. And it's not, retic would have been leaving Sonoma going, oh, well, if it was the old format, but now he's probably mad because of it. Like the losses hurt. We all care. I can tell you, without a doubt, we all care about our standings now more than ever. And even the person in 11th, yeah, brisco belt, they know every spot they gain is closer to where they need to be to actually contend for a championship. Yeah. I think we forget about that too, is that this, this battle for 4th, 5th, 6th and points is considerable, right? Because all the data that NASCAR ran about who, where the champion would come from, guys outside of that top six were not likely. I mean, it was a 15. So you have, if you're outside the top six for the listeners, you know, they've run thousands of models in NASCAR. On this, in the champion under this format, typically would come from inside the top six of points, I think the top three is like a, you know, a high percentage as well. But it's not, it wouldn't be unheard of because it's a 15% chance. It's still, you know, it's, it's not 50, 50, but you're not like 5%. So someone still can be eight, ninth and do this. Now I would love to see like, it's 10th place, like 3%, that's what I probably think it is. It's hard to really, for someone to really, truly go on that kind of run. But yeah, all these guys know that it's over that 10 week period, you've got to start with as many points as you possibly can. I think the format, they did just a great job with it. Let's, let's move on and talk about the in season bracket challenge. Yes. Not a ton of upsets, like it wasn't Atlanta from last year, holy moly, that knocked out like five of your lowest seeds, again, it's the speed way to expect that. So I don't know, Chicago, I think it's going to be chalk again, right? I mean, I don't, are you really going to see a lot of surprises at Chicago, maybe, because no one's been there, that you could find somebody beat the other, but I think mile and a half, it's, you're, you're taking chalk here. Which of these matchups at Chicago is the most enticing to you? Hmm, I mean, quickly, it's the Byron Larson, that's the most enticing, right? Like of two heavyweights. Oh, that's, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be like an even money one. Yeah. And I know, I know that 99 out of 100 people would say Blaney is an easy layup over Shane, but that, that mile and a half program at Penske is just not been good. There's no secret there. And that type of track is what Shane will excel on. I was just about to ask you that because Bozy tweeted, "I think that Shane will make the chase with Sonoma great launching point forward because we'll have a great qualifying draw for Chicago. And since the track is worn, it'll be right in his wheelhouse of tire management." Yeah, and I did the tire test there and it, it's amazing it didn't wear out tires more than what it actually did. I, we talked about it last week that there's, they could have chose a tire that wears out a little bit more, but they feel very comfortable with, with this intermediate tire they've got. But it's just, it's one where I could see an upset and it wouldn't be like crazy shocking off of speed. There's one thing to have an upset because somebody had a failure. It's another to have an upset when the guy just outruns you. And I'm just saying that the Shane over Blaney has, it has some of the ingredients, doesn't mean it's going to get mixed, but it has some of the ingredients that you would see. Well, I, I'm talking all this and I just remember Blaney did the tire test there with me. They're not going to forget everything I said. Forget it all. Throw the ingredients out. No, he, I, I don't think so. So apologies for giving the, the, the Shane fans or the, maybe the Blaney fans, you know, gasping for air, you're fine, you're fine. He was good in the test. Take a, take a look at the top left corner of this bracket. That's a big old question mark. Cindrick Bowman. Who can finish 15? No, I mean, really, yeah, I know. I think, I think whoever can run 15th and that, that group will, will win that bracket. But the four drivers, Bowman, Cindrick, Dylan, Hosevar, one of those guys is going to the semi finals. Even one last race here, 2019, and he was a rocket like I was looking at, uh, practice lifetimes. He was, he was fast the whole weekend. Does that translate though? Nope. Just, just talking. How much though does tire testing and a track, no one's been to help? How much what? How much does being there for the tire test at a track that you haven't been to help? It will help, you know, if it was a standard 25, 25, um, practice session, then it probably would be a bigger advantage, but they're going to have a 50 minute on Friday. So, um, I don't, it'll be an advantage for half of the practice because we're going to, the only difference for us though is that the track is going to widen out in the test that never widened out. So it's very much like Iowa where the guys that test there, the, everyone that goes to Iowa and tests says, yeah, the line was one car wide right around the bottom. You couldn't get out of it. You get loose stuff and it takes off by the time the race happens, practice happens, the group gets pushed up and they're like, man, this is a total different racetrack. So Chicago has the, um, has the ability to be a total different racetrack from what we practiced because we were pinned to the bottom, especially in turns three and four. Um, it, it felt basically like it did years ago. Um, it is rough, it is abrasive, um, but I don't, you know, these guys, the teams, the drivers, they're so good that they figure it out. You give them 10 laps on the racetrack that they get, they know where to make speed pretty quickly. It will be an advantage for the very beginning of practice. I don't see that staying in advantage for very long. Where does the data come from for your old, you know, simulations when it comes to a track like this that you haven't been to in half a decade. Well, the day with this car, the tire test. So we have the tire test, but then the wheel force test, that's really where the teams get the data from. That's where that will get distributed to all the, so Ford Chevy Toyota then followed up the tire test with a wheel force test and they give that data to the teams. So how reliable. is that it's it's it's reliable as it gets it's kind of how you base all your input information so you feel you feel just as good about going to attract like this where you have less data than the average yeah oval yeah yep yeah it equates enough there's there's plenty of other places that you can draw comparisons to it's not like a track that far out in left field like San Diego was a track way out in left field from what we had experienced or had in the past like Chicago while a street course was not nearly as rough is what San Diego was wasn't nearly as long as what San Diego so it's fine I want to let's let's put myself on record here for my picks for the end season we want to give it to do I'm of course taking me you're just going through this this second round here well no he's starting with the first round yes of course yeah I just thought you were saying I'm picking me for the whole thing no that's not what I'm saying no let me stop at the start at the top right top left Bowman syndrome we're gonna go Bowman just because I I don't have a ton of faith in Penske's Mountain I have program yet but that's my reason why even though Blaney was there for the test Blaney has been an outlier for that organization got you Gillen Hosevar I'm gonna take Carson um brisco Gibbs oh that's whoo that is a really good one wow we got some really good matchups brisco Gibbs oh I'm gonna go give me Gibbs I maybe brisco Gibbs is I don't know if you we were talking about today we we're not sure he was born the last time we raised there so brisco just for that reason McDowell Elliot McDow Elliot Chase you're taking yourself into Hamlin Jones matchup yep Christopher Bell and Chris Bush are about the Christopher's for sure Bell Bell Byron Larson although he's gonna have to finish 8th or better so like when I said Bowman syndrome for you know first man to 15 wins yeah I think it's the first man to 7 or 8 like it that's what it's gonna take to win that one you know what I mean right right right yeah what do you think it is in your matchup first man to I don't know I come on man um Byron Larson Larson tested there and Larson's been looking good lately and he he runs the top so well at that track I'm picking all the fan favorites they should love this podcast and then Blaney over Shane so I'm pretty much going chalk there's there's no surprises I bet you whatever the Vegas odds are it's these are the favorites other than the Gibbs brisco is probably a pick them Bowman Cindrick probably is close everything else I think is chalk okay that's it my final picks we'll revisit this next week make sure we keep this paper um what else from the cup race right I mean there was a whole lot of incidences there was only one caution and it was for debris I was hoping that there wasn't thought it was phantom debris but there was a piece of the car on the track it was right before year that was the one where I didn't want that call no because you had settled in I know I know I yeah I'd settled in where I was I was felt good about being able to beat at least three or four of them in front of me that were in front of me in the long run so like I was in a good spot if you actually if they they don't have an in-carve me they only do on tracks that are run well the TV's very smart about when to put the cameras in but like when that caution came out I actually gave it a little the steering wheel a little really yeah because I was like yes I got through the first slap where I wanted to be I didn't lose anything I'm now I'm gonna go race these guys and then because I knew that that's in a very important stretch to the end of the race and just didn't get to see that through that sucked anybody else with a I don't think there was anything of like no no so I mean that was the cup race we talked about points we talked about in season O'Reilly SVG he had him he had him pretty much the whole time there it was we were went fishing on Saturday afternoon and like with no service I call three fish Charlie called zero okay yep just like you would expect and Germany lost oh that's sorry sorry it's just you know I had no like no service so I was watching the race until I couldn't like there was no service where I was at and and I looked at the final like an hour after the race I'm like hey Charlie give me the top who do you think the top three were finishing it a rallies ding ding ding yeah I was like yep they finished exactly how you thought they were with Connor second and Brent third so that was a you know we we do have to give proper accolades and appreciation to Viking motorsports two cars in the top five right Alfredo and Retzloff they're just they're doing a fantastic job for a relatively new organization great accomplishments they they should really be proud of you know what they're accomplishing they're outrunning you know on a weekly basis that that Viking has got at least one driver beating at least one or two of the Gibbs or junior motorsports cars I feel like it's finishing like five and ten spots ahead of where it should be yeah and we don't know what they're spending with you know we don't know any of that we don't know the room for structure but it just from the outside perspective you're like okay if there's four Gibbs cars that's four that should be ahead of them if there's five junior motorsports cars that's five that should be in problem so now at best they should finish 10th now you have RCR out there like RCR okay that's two more that's two more now your best finish should be 12th that's why we come to the conclusion that they're way out kicking their coverage weekend we got and they are Parker reserve they deserve the recognition Parker Retzloff is above three of the four Gibbs cars and points in this series it's above San Mary he's above a handful of note worthy names yeah I mean hot hot scars or they should finish 15 also if if you're gonna talk about resources and expectations they should finish 15 and was Cory Day out there that's it yep I know I know 16 yep so yeah they're they're doing a great job so I'm gonna give them their flowers I don't really have anything else from O'Reilly's either I mean again I watched half the race and it was enough for me I knew what was I could see where that one was going what's next Chicago before to ban back on them all in half see how this thing goes no more right turns as you touched on Friday practice 6 p.m. Eastern on true TV Saturday qualifying 3 p.m. Eastern on true TV and then race Sunday 6 p.m. Eastern yeah it's a long weekend for you one thing that I we we should you know that the rumors are starting to swirl a little bit about dodging cup have I mentioned while I we would love another manufacturer they are struggling with they're struggling around 15th and trucks so I don't know that that's I know they want to get in there I don't know how much of that is like just a marketing play versus like you're really really truly want to compete but you know the it's starting to heat up that they're really making a push trying to get into the Daytona 500 I know that's something that they mentioned before they got into the trucks this year is like you know what's your aspirations for Cup they're like oh well the quick aspirations is 2027 Daytona 500 does that mean they're just gonna run this year or the whole year because it's talk about going to be on the struggle bus that would that would be a major, major struggle. Unless the goal is just, let's get our name out there, let's get our action activation like we want it, have a presence at the track. I don't know what the motivation is behind it, but like you still gotta get your simulation, you still gotta get, I mean. - How do you, maybe this is a topic for major undertaking? - Chris Rice was on DBC and talked a little bit about it today. - I saw a few clips from it. Yeah, the biggest thing obviously being the engine. - Yeah, and again, that is another significant investment that all the other manufacturers have made. He mentioned that the reason that Dodge just got out in the first place is that Penske was the engine builder for Dodge when they switched to Ford that left no one building the Dodge engine. So are they gonna do it themselves or are they gonna outsource that? Like clock is ticking. So I don't, I don't know, but I just, my concern is that it, you know, they're really, really struggling in the truck series. And again, they're all running the same motors, I believe in the trucks. I hear, listen, I hear, I hear you Corgi LaJoy and many others. You don't have the simulation that the others have. But you're, it's still a cup team. Like you still have sparse enough people that you're still with a cup organization. So to me, it's wildly, it was, they're underperforming from what even I thought they would. Even I knew they had some struggles. Like I didn't think that anyone envisioned that them struggling like they are right now in the truck series with lots of common things in the truck series, but I get it. My guess is, do they turn the corner and when they go back to some of these tracks and have some more data and stuff? But man, wanting instantly, after the year, they've started with in trucks to say, we gotta get the cup. I don't know, I worry about that from my compet, from a competitive standpoint, not necessarily what it would mean for their brand. So that take it with a grain of salt. But it's just, it's having dodge in NASCAR, just better no matter what. No matter how they perform necessarily, is it better for the sport as a whole? I think the more manufacturers that you have, the better it is for the sport. Yeah, I certainly think that it alleviates a little bit of pressure from probably Chevrolet, having to support not that they support them, but there's a certain amount of infrastructure you still gotta have for when you have four cars versus 14 cars. And so, yeah, if you can spread that out amongst more manufacturers, then yeah, I think that everyone, it's good for everyone. And then certainly from a footprint perspective and adding to the fan zone, things like that, yeah, that's definitely all good. And you want them to believe that NASCAR is a good platform for them to sell their vehicles in. But you don't want them to rush it though, right? 'Cause then if they come in, it goes bad, there's a chance at the right. Yeah, you don't want them to have a bad experience. And that's, you know, I think it could be very easy. And again, I'm very ignorant in this conversation because I'm not having the conversations with the executives of that manufacturer to know what it, why is getting the cup so quickly your objective? Is it, yeah, we're coming there to win. If you're coming there to win, like I think that that process is a long, long, long runway. Now, maybe they're thinking, well, you just gotta get there first. Once you get there, then you can work on getting competitive. So it'll be very interesting to see over the next few months. I know they're making a big push, big push to do it. But it sounds like the engines might be the hangout. Yeah. Well, it seems more promising now than it's ever been. So I guess that's good news. It is, yeah. It's certainly that, you know, they got in the truck series for a long time. We didn't, we had heard about the Dodge thing, but it's like, is it really real? You know, they made it real enough, you know, to make it happen this year. And then let's see what they do in the future. It's all we got this week. Yeah. What was that? I think it's my laptop. Are you a big World Cup guy now? That game was fun. It was severely, it was actually like going to my very first NBA experience where it's like, you see it on TV? Yeah, it's pretty exciting. But then until you feel the energy of the arena, that's when it's like, wow. I feel like you're doing a disservice compared to an NBA game. Like World Cup atmosphere would be more college fun. I thought you were going to say the highest-rate game. What? That the arena is three times the size. So you go to, have you not been to an NBA game that sold out 15,000 people around a tiny court? Yeah. It feels that I just thought you were going to compare it to college football with atmosphere. Oh geez. I would go as far to say that a proper World Cup game where something's on the line, right? Unfortunately, nothing was on the line for the US and nothing was on the line for Turkey. So it's a friendly at that point. I would argue that that's probably the most electric atmosphere in all of sports. I never been, I don't doubt it. I don't doubt that. That's why I said I'd love to go to a non-USA World Cup. Yeah, yeah. Where you know the fans are passionate. Because there's a lot of pop and circumstance with the USA game. There's a lot of pop and circumstance where if you go to a Spain game, it's just as much. I think we gotta take Travis to a talk. We will, we will. We'll work it out on the schedule. They'll be near soon. And you picked it up quick. I mean, you called that second goal. You knew exactly what was going to happen. You were just trying to set me. You were trying to take me there for the last few miles, weren't you? I was, I was. You're setting it up. Yeah. Guys, we're not going to get into the social media stuff. But I'm just telling you, my social media guys didn't do a good at that game. It was Charlie that was in charge of the videos. Which is shocking because he records everything we always do when we don't want it. He's TMZ, we say it. The guy loves to have his camera up, you know, trying to get some stuff on you so he can, you know, post that meme later. Yeah. So yeah, I sit. It was the very first corner kick. And I was like, ooh, corner kick. I said, you know what I'm feeling? Header, ricochet, goal. That's how this is going to go. And I wish I would have posted the actual clip from the game because you can't see. Cause Charlie's shaking the camera all around. But it went corner kick, header, ricochet, boom, goal. Now it was off sides. But it's, but it went exactly like, exactly like I thought. It was fun. It was fun. It was fun. Also, shout out to the gentleman beside me who I did not realize was a very, very prominent executive. He's a real, not a fake, not a fake executive. No, no, no. I could tell he's chatting me up a little bit. And I was just like, yeah, yeah. And he sent me his name and number. I'm like, I want to look him up. I'm like, oh, yeah, he's with Apple. And he's way up there. So that was a, you just never know. And then we had Z right in front of us, the DJ. Oh, that's what was, I had no idea. Yeah, he's very popular DJ. So, yeah, we were out there in Genpop just living it up, you know? It was fun, fun experience. I'd like to go to another one. We got to, we got to find one. I mean, they have a minute, Lanna, right? Yeah, Mercedes-Benz. Yeah. So we'll, we'll go see. We'll go check it out. Maybe we get a USA game if they can continue. They play on Wednesday, so I don't like their chances. They're favorite, so. I don't like their chances. Yeah, but they just find a way to just, I don't like their chances. I guess we'll see. We can go to a game that's not USA. Yeah, we will. All right, well, appreciate y'all tuning in, and we'll see you after Chicago.