Lessons from 54 Wins: Denny Hamlin’s Career Secrets | Denny Hamlin DSH #1974

Speaker 1 Pretty early when you're looking to make a change. And, you know, Tyler Reddick, who went to the championship race last year for us,

Speaker 1 we signed him two years before his deal was even up.

Speaker 1 And so he ended up leaving, you know, the team he was with, got pissed off, kicked him out early. So we actually got him a year early, but we had to pay them for that.
Interesting.

Speaker 1 All right, guys, Danny Hemlin out here in Vegas. Got a race tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping in, man. Yeah, appreciate you having me.
Yeah, how are things in your world so far this year? It's going good.

Speaker 1 You know, we're just a couple races in, but,

Speaker 1 you know, it's early in the season. We got 38 weeks.
We're, this is week five, so we got quite a bit of time left. And usually, I don't hit my stride typically till the summer months of the season.

Speaker 1 That's a long season. That might be the longest of any pro sport, right? It is actually.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So we go from essentially Valentine's Day, actually before that now, February 1st to the first week of November. So essentially, we get

Speaker 1 most of November off, December off in January, and then we're back at it. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 And when I say off, like, that's a very loose term because we still have tons of obligations, you know, photo shoots and media shoots and sponsorship shoots that we got to do in the offseason.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, three months off, that's it. We're racing for nine months.
That's nuts. That's a lot of traveling.
Do you ever get burnt out? Absolutely. I mean, this is my 20th year, 20th year doing this.

Speaker 1 But I still love it because I can still win. And like I've said many times, like when I decide to retire, it's when I know that I am going, I have to travel somewhere and I know I can't win.

Speaker 1 If I know I can't win, I'm out. Have you ever thought about retirement? Oh, yeah.
I think about it all the time.

Speaker 1 I'm more paranoid about

Speaker 1 when is that. light switch going to go off where I don't have the skill set that it takes to compete against the young guys anymore.
Right.

Speaker 1 Like I still feel at my age and results would show that I am still on top of my game, but I know that one day Father Time's undefeated and I'm, I'm not going to be able to do it as good.

Speaker 1 And I'm just, I worry about waking up and that being the day. Yeah.
Yeah. Cause a big thing in your sport is reaction time, right? And as you age, your brain slows down.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Have you noticed that you've lost a little step?

Speaker 1 From reaction standpoint,

Speaker 1 I don't think so. I think I'm pretty sharp still on that.
I think one of the things that forces NASCAR drivers out is vision at times. But my vision is still 2010.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 Same as it's been ever since I was a kid. I wish I had that.
It's really, really good.

Speaker 1 I still have that.

Speaker 1 But I mean, I'm sure I'm slower than I was 10 years ago.

Speaker 1 But it's not enough that's hintering me on the racetrack. I never even thought about that vision being a factor for people aging out.
That is interesting. Yep.
Yeah, because I'm like 2,200.

Speaker 1 I'm like legally blind.

Speaker 1 I'm like, wow, wow i'm thinking about laysac man 2010 have you ever have you done it or no laysack scares me dude have anybody scares a lot of procedure it's i know a lot of friends that i'm like

Speaker 1 you know why don't why don't you just get it you know and they're just like i just the fact that they're gonna laser and take off of the skin of my eye i just it scares me i'm gonna wait till some ai comes out or something i just figured by now though that Certainly the doctors have all got this thing down to a science where like the success rate's got to be Success rate is high, but then you hear stories of later on how they lose their eyesight again, like 10, 20 years after.

Speaker 1 And then what are you going to do? You know? Like irreparable? Like your vision keeps getting worse and worse, but then you can't keep lasering it off. So.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.
So it's not a permanent fix. Yeah.
So I. Because my mom got lasag when she was my age and she's losing her vision again.
See, that's, you know, me, I'm more looking up like back issues.

Speaker 1 I have tremendous amount of back issues being in a race car like I've been in. I've actually broke my spine in 2013 in a rec.

Speaker 1 So I do more research on like what can fix my back and, you know, the things I need to do for that. So it's interesting to hear that like, I think it's very simple.

Speaker 1 Oh, you just get lashed and it's fixed. And you're like, no, no, when you do real research, it's like all kinds of things that like you.

Speaker 1 you don't know. And I've had many doctors tell me when it comes to like my back, they're like, yeah, we think we can fix it, but you're still racing.

Speaker 1 So, do you want to take the 2% chance that like your career is done?

Speaker 1 You know, wait until you're at least retired and then come in here and get some work done. Yeah, back pain's one of the most difficult pains to fix, I heard.
Yeah, it's just, it's been nagging for me.

Speaker 1 My discs are degenerative. So, you know, a lot of the fluid out of the disc have dissipated.
So it's just kind of bone on bone.

Speaker 1 And, and, and if you think about how we drive in a race car, like, you know, we.

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Speaker 1 We are imagine sitting in a seat. You pull the straps out.
So it essentially compresses your spine anyway. And then we're running in on race cars that have very little suspension at all.

Speaker 1 So, you know, the fastest way to make our cars go around the racetrack is to put them the lowest to the ground. Well, if it's low to the ground, the suspension has to be really, really rigid.

Speaker 1 And so it just constantly beats on your spine. And it has for 20 years and it's taken its toll.
Jeez. So a lot of drivers probably struggle with back pain.
They do. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Most, most of the injuries you find with drivers are back pain and shoulder pain. Yeah.
I see on social media at least three or four drivers getting like shoulder surgery every single year. Holy crap.

Speaker 1 Have you had to get shoulder surgery? I have. I've had

Speaker 1 two on the left side, one on the right side.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Is surgery like a last resort for you? Are you trying to treat it naturally for the most part? For the most part, yeah.
But, you know, I ran two seasons ago

Speaker 1 with my rotator cuff just kind of torn off the bone. I didn't realize it was that bad.
We thought it was just going to be kind of a little cleaned up microscopic thing.

Speaker 1 And he went in, when he went in there in December,

Speaker 1 he said, you know,

Speaker 1 you'll probably be a two-week recovery and you're good. And it turned out to be a year.

Speaker 1 He opened me up and he was like, what did you do since our last scan? Like, he's like, destroyed it. So, um, yeah, that's, that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 1 It's like, too, I think about when you talk about retirement, like, how long can my body go? Like, I'm really, really beaten up in a lot of places. So that's going to be a factor.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because you see these pro athletes, they retire and then some of them can barely walk 10, 20 years after.

Speaker 1 You'll see when I leave here and I stand up,

Speaker 1 it takes me like 20, 30 steps to like really get my gait back. Holy crap.
It's that bad already. You haven't even retired yet.

Speaker 1 We got to get you some stem size. I know something, though.
I know. Dude.
Yeah. Ronnie Coleman, like, he can't even walk.
It's sad, man. Yeah.
You see so many of these NBA players, right?

Speaker 1 And you can see like their bodies hunch forward. Yeah.
Right. They kind of walk.
It looks like one leg is like stiffer than the other. That's how I feel when I walk is that on my right side,

Speaker 1 I can't bend as good as I can on my left, but it's because, you know, the disc, I have issues on that side. Yeah, basketball is tough on the knees.
No doubt.

Speaker 1 I've actually torn both both ACLs in basketball.

Speaker 1 I love playing recreational basketball. So I have actually a league that I run out of my house.
I have an indoor basketball court down in my basement. That's sick.
We have seven teams.

Speaker 1 We do a draft every year. We actually start our season this Thursday.
Wow. But I tore both ACLs, one in 2010, one in 2014.
Yeah. Playing rec basketball.
So if you weren't racist, you'd be in the NBA.

Speaker 1 No, no, I'm terrible. I mean, when I say I'm terrible, I'm average for a, you know, mid-40-year-old guy who likes to play rec ball, but, you know, in our draft, I mean, I'm a fourth-rounder.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So, so, like, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I used to be quite a bit higher, but all the injuries and getting older, like, I'm not as good as I used to. I'm an outside shooter now.

Speaker 1 Have you ever scored against MJ?

Speaker 1 Ah, good question. I don't think so.
No.

Speaker 1 I went to a camp of his in Charlotte once.

Speaker 1 It was

Speaker 1 the crowd, it was, it might have been one of those moments where the crowd asked him if he could still dunk and he turned around and he did. I think I've seen that video actually.

Speaker 1 And so I went to a camp, but never played basketball with him.

Speaker 1 That's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yeah.
Been to play against him.

Speaker 1 His passion has switched to racing now. Really? Obviously, you know, we started this race team with him five years ago, 23-11 racing.

Speaker 1 And, you know, he said many times that, like, this fills my bucket. You know, we're what's up, guys.

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It's my favorite ice cream flavor. Definitely check them out, guys.
RX Sugar.

Speaker 1 Basketball. did for much of my life.

Speaker 1 You know, the racing aspect and the competition and the cars is what, you know, his dad got him into it when he was when he was a kid um his his father used to take uh him and his brothers and sisters to nascar races when they were younger and he said he just loved the sport and started watching it every sunday and that's essentially how we met

Speaker 1 is i met at him at a charlotte hornets game um i had courtside seats i'm leaving to go to the restroom at halftime he had his security guys come grab me he said hey michael would like to meet you and and uh from that point on he got my number started asking me all these questions about nascar and i'm like what wait a minute what what you watch nascar he's like dude i never miss every sunday i'm i'm sitting in front of a tv watching nascar that's surreal man yeah you get to teach him some stuff about driving um so yeah he actually had um

Speaker 1 one time where he he wanted to get in the real simulator right like

Speaker 1 he obviously has a passion for um fast cars right yeah he you know he drives all kinds kinds of great cars and um but he wanted to get in the toyota simulator that actually we drive to get ready to race in so we we're not allowed to test at any racetracks in real life anymore so what we do is we took that to simulation uh just like a flight simulator for a pilot or what have you um and he got in it and he probably lasted 10 minutes and he was like

Speaker 1 It was out of my eyes. He's like, it's making me shake.
Like, like, it just, and they they had to retrofit him to get in there in the first place, but they did.

Speaker 1 And he had a blast, but, you know, we took him to a pretty easy track. And he was like, nah, it's, I got a newfound respect for what y'all do.

Speaker 1 People don't know how hard it is unless they actually get out there on this. There's no question.
I mean, there's no way a normal person could drive a NASCAR.

Speaker 1 First of all, not as fast as we can, but sustain the G's, the temperature, all that stuff. It would just be too much.
Yeah, Yeah, I just found out the temperature right before this episode.

Speaker 1 I did not know it gets to 140 in that car. Yeah, it can get on hot, hot days, upper, you know, upper 130s for sure, and it can sustain that for three and a half, four hours, which is insane.

Speaker 1 It's, you know, it's just imagine going in a sauna, right? And it's all you can think about is trying to get out. Oh, we can't, we can't, we're in there for multiple hours.

Speaker 1 So hydration, of course, is the biggest thing for us over the weekend. Because I hit my red light sauna at 150 for like 30 minutes and I am drenched in a coolest sweat.

Speaker 1 So three hours at 140, 130, 140. That's, that's no joke.
It's just, I think, you know, my body's just been so trained to do it now.

Speaker 1 That's why I say, you know, if one of my friends wanted to get in a car, they last 10 minutes. It's so hot.

Speaker 1 But I just think over the course of my life, my body has gotten used to being in that type of environment. Early on, did you get lightheaded in that environment?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, it was tough when I first started,

Speaker 1 you know, but the races were so much shorter now. You know, so NASCAR races are probably the longest of stock car races, being three and a half hours.

Speaker 1 But when you're coming up through the ranks, you know, you're running 30, 40 lap races, not 300, 400 like we're running in NASCAR.

Speaker 1 So you kind of get eased into it by only being in there for 30 minutes or, you know, 40 minutes and then, you know, and on and on. But

Speaker 1 it's a very interesting thing. You know, what.

Speaker 1 What people see every Sunday is cars going around in circles, but they have no idea is what makes that driver a little bit faster than that driver, or that car a little bit better than that car.

Speaker 1 And it's hundreds of people, tons of engineers. Um, it's just a huge undertaking, and the sport is way more technical than what it gets credit for.
Yeah, how much is it driver versus car?

Speaker 1 Like, ah, good question.

Speaker 1 I think that's evolved over time. I believe that NASCAR was

Speaker 1 probably

Speaker 1 60%

Speaker 1 car back in the day, 40% driver, because you used to be able to build trick cars.

Speaker 1 But over the last few years, they introduced what this called next-gen car. It's essentially like a Lego set, right? Everyone has to buy the same Lego set.

Speaker 1 Now, you can put it together any way you want, but we no longer can manufacture our own bodies or chassis or whatever.

Speaker 1 You know, to save the team's money, they said, okay, here's the lego set everyone has to buy it and you can put it together any way you want but you know everyone has to run race the same car so now the driver probably means a little bit more uh just simply because we are all racing essentially the same cars even though they may look different on the outside you have a ford a chevy a toyota um it's essentially the only difference is the bodies and the engine wow i didn't know they made that change that's interesting were you in favor of that change what did you think not really you like the the customized?

Speaker 1 I do. I think that the ingenuity, like letting these teams

Speaker 1 use their ingenuity minds to create an advantage is what makes F1 so, you know, mesmerizing for me. It makes it, you know, fascinating for me to see.

Speaker 1 the technology of it and how it evolves and the aerodynamics where

Speaker 1 to me, like when you just kind of buy a car out of a box, it's like, okay, it's cool. It looks cool, but what makes your car cooler than the next? Yeah, it was more strategic back in the day.

Speaker 1 That's interesting. Which race do you think about the most?

Speaker 1 From my career. Yeah, from your career.
2010 Homestead Miami championship race.

Speaker 1 I'm leading the championship standings

Speaker 1 on my way to my very first title. And

Speaker 1 I just, I let the pressure get to me. I let outside get to me too much.

Speaker 1 It's definitely the one race that I would take back in the sense of like

Speaker 1 I took myself too seriously in that moment. I felt like I was, you know, only four years into my career.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I was racing against a guy, Jimmy Johnson, who had just won three or four championships in a row. It was down to me and him.
And it's like, you know, I was.

Speaker 1 going to be the guy that unseeds him. Right.

Speaker 1 And I just remember thinking, you know my style back then was that i used to have fun

Speaker 1 i mean

Speaker 1 there was definitely a weekend in my younger rookie career where if i raced in phoenix i would go to vegas the night before the race you're a partier yeah and i and i and then i would come and race the next morning that's some dennis rodman stuff i mean but it was it's what it's what kept me loose it's what kept me you know loving it right

Speaker 1 but i just back, so then I get myself in this title hunt and it's like, okay, no, I need to lock myself in my hotel room and I need to concentrate on this and look at that.

Speaker 1 And I just took it way too seriously and I didn't race loose. And instead, I raced tight and I made too many mistakes and he won the title.
Damn. So mentally, you just weren't there.

Speaker 1 I just, yeah, I just let the pressure of this situation in the moment get to me, which I just wish I had that to do all over. Wow.
And that was 14 years ago. You still think about it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's just, I've had other opportunities to win a title and it's been close, like really, really close. Comes down to the last race, the last restart.

Speaker 1 But that was the one where I thought my car was better than him. I thought I was better than him, especially in that moment.
And I just,

Speaker 1 I felt like I more gave it to him versus him winning it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, chasing a title, it's hard. Only one guy, right? I mean, you know,

Speaker 1 that's the difficult part about our sport. I think some of the great drivers that we've had in NASCAR, some of them have never won a title.

Speaker 1 Myself included, I've got more wins than anyone in NASCAR that hasn't won a title. But it doesn't mean that, you know, I view myself or my career less than.

Speaker 1 You know, when they, when they talk about the greats of the sport, they're going to go down the list of the winners. Who won the most races?

Speaker 1 Titles, I get it, but there's been people that's won 10 races their whole career, 12 races, and won a title.

Speaker 1 Does that make them better than me? And I've won mid-50s. I don't think so, but I think it's all up to who, whose opinions

Speaker 1 it is. That's in every sport, though.
There'll always be really great players like Charles Barkley in basketball. That comes to mind, right? There's great ones.
And

Speaker 1 you can probably mention many NBA players that won four titles. And it's like,

Speaker 1 They were role players. Yeah.
They weren't the guy. They weren't the guy, right? Where we are the guy in our sport, and it's, it's not a one-versus one sport.
It's a one versus 35 every week. So

Speaker 1 I equate it to the PGA. If you can win 7% of the time, you're fucking hole of famer, right? But we're in a losing sport more than we're in a winning sport.

Speaker 1 So if you can win at that rate, like you're going to win a lot. Yeah.
Statistically 3% chance of winning with 36 guys, right? Yeah,

Speaker 1 it's small. It is small.
Now I'm with a really good team and there's, you know, I mean, there's 25, 30 good teams now. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Um, and that's grown over time, but it's more difficult to win now than ever. Damn.
Yeah, I could see that. You playing a lot of golf these days? I like to.

Speaker 1 I certainly don't have as much time to play golf as I used to.

Speaker 1 I used to, you know, before I started the race team with Michael,

Speaker 1 you know, my weeks, you know, in between,

Speaker 1 the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I could do whatever I I wanted. Now those days are designated to, I need to, you know, I'm the owner of the team.

Speaker 1 So I do all the meetings, you know, whether it be from sponsorship, from the social digital side of things,

Speaker 1 everything, competition, I have my hand in everything there. So I have to do that Tuesday through Thursday.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, kind of the Monday and the weekend is all designated to being a driver itself. So it's a very interesting dynamic that I drive for one team and race against the team that I own.

Speaker 1 That is interesting. Has that ever happened before to someone? Dale Earnhardt was the last one that did it.
Oh, God.

Speaker 1 You know, that's been, you know, 30 years ago almost. So

Speaker 1 yeah, he was, he owned his own team. He drove for Richard Childress Racing and he owned DEI.

Speaker 1 And so this was never part of the plan for me to

Speaker 1 own a team before I actually retired. But, you know, COVID happened and it ended up wiping out one of the teams.
And I saw an opportunity there to like, hey, I can pick up the pieces here.

Speaker 1 As long as I can get the funding, I can get the right people to support me i this is something i can do now

Speaker 1 and so uh we made it happen and you know sitting at home for eight weeks straight being locked in i was like man if this is what retirement's like like i can't golf every day yeah so so like i need to come up with something else to do and you know i knew that my career you know i it's not over but like i can see the light at the end of the tunnel i need to figure out what i'm going to do beyond just being a race car driver and i was like ownership is the right thing for me.

Speaker 1 So we started this team. Do you prefer being an owner or a driver right now?

Speaker 1 You know, it's driver

Speaker 1 for me just because,

Speaker 1 you know, ever since I was a kid, I never dreamt to be a team owner. I dreamt to be a driver, right? And so all the goals that I want to accomplish essentially are right here in front of me.

Speaker 1 And I want to accomplish them for myself first.

Speaker 1 Because I've got decades as an owner to accomplish

Speaker 1 the other goals. I can win a championship as an owner, and that would be very, very gratifying because if you ever watch your kids do anything, you're always more proud of them as

Speaker 1 your own accomplishments. So

Speaker 1 I'm more proud of the driver side of things

Speaker 1 now, and that's what I really want to accomplish. My perfect scenario every weekend is I win and my team cars finish two, three, four.
That would be the perfect scenario.

Speaker 1 It hasn't happened yet. We have finished one, two,

Speaker 1 but I think they've gotten the better of me more times than I've gotten the better of them head to head. Wow, yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but you know, I'm a driver, so I know talent when I see it, and I've picked guys that I've like that I'm like, they're gonna be good. And we sign them long-term, and now they're hitting us.

Speaker 1 How tough is that process? Because they probably have other, other offers, right, from other teams. They do.
It's, you know, it's a free market, essentially.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's, you know, there's free agency. These drivers have long-term contracts, but you know when they're essentially up.

Speaker 1 You know, there's a handful of agents within NASCAR that know when the drivers are up. So you start shopping pretty early when you're looking to make a change.

Speaker 1 And, you know, Tyler Reddick, who went to the championship race last year for us,

Speaker 1 we signed him two years before his deal was even up.

Speaker 1 And so he ended up, you know, the team he was with got pissed off, kicked him out early. So we actually got him a year early, but we had to pay them for that.
Interesting.

Speaker 1 Now, you've had quite a few beefs and rivalries. Yes.
Are you on speaking terms with any of these guys? Or is the beef still there? No, I mean,

Speaker 1 I do. I have drivers that I

Speaker 1 don't prefer racing with or against, but I mean, we race against each other, like I said, 38 weekends a year.

Speaker 1 So, you know, and it's very difficult to keep a rivalry in NASCAR because we have what they call a motorhome lot. So, so we don't, many people don't stay at hotels.
They have a bus at the racetrack.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 then you got the girlfriends are hanging out and the families are hanging out and our kids hang out. And it's like, it's hard to keep it totally separate.

Speaker 1 And you can be rivals on the racetrack, but then when you get back and you're like, oh, our kids are hanging out, it's like. So it's just friendly competition.

Speaker 1 Yes, but it's still everyone for themselves and everyone's still really selfish as they should be. Right.
Yeah. Cause that was a problem, like labeling you as a dirty driver, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, I think that I kind of got that because I got into run-ins with some of the more popular drivers in NASCAR.

Speaker 1 One of the more, you know, the fanfare guys, you know, the, you know, maybe their dad raced and then, you know, they, their fan base went over to them.

Speaker 1 And then when I come in there and maybe I roughed them up, probably did, you know, they don't like me. And so that's fine.
And I've kind of taken on that heel,

Speaker 1 the villain role within NASCAR over the last few years. You can monetize that, you know?

Speaker 1 Jake Paul did it. I have found found that it's not hurt me in any kind of way.
Because attention is attention, right? Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1 You know, it comes down to, you know, who

Speaker 1 on social media is,

Speaker 1 you know, getting the most

Speaker 1 views.

Speaker 1 Yeah, not only views, but kind of engagement.

Speaker 1 You know, there's some that are top of our sport performance wise, but they just don't move the needle in the social landscape. And so,

Speaker 1 yeah, there's a a balance there to be had, no doubt. Yeah, no, that's a good point, though.
In every sport, you see, the top athletes are a little scared to speak out sometimes.

Speaker 1 And it's even more so in our sport because they got a brand they're representing on their chest, right? And so when you have that,

Speaker 1 they don't want you to be too far one way, too far the other. They want you to be right in the middle of the road.
Right.

Speaker 1 And so they never really say anything controversial, which to each his own, but I just, I'm at the point in my career where it's like,

Speaker 1 I just, I don't care. Have you lost sponsors because of what you said before? No, I definitely haven't.

Speaker 1 That's good. I had the best sponsor for the longest time.
FedEx was my sponsor for 20 years. It's the first year that they're not on the car.

Speaker 1 We're really at the mercy in NASCAR of the chief marketing officers of these big companies.

Speaker 1 All it takes is for them to say, well, we want to take our. media spend.

Speaker 1 We want to spend more money in Europe. We need to get bigger in Europe.
So we're going to spend our money there, right?

Speaker 1 And so that's the tough part about the NASCAR business model is that us teams are, you know, we're essentially professional fundraisers, right? We got to find people to fund

Speaker 1 this thing that we're doing, right?

Speaker 1 Because, and it's, you know, it's, it's kind of what we're fighting with with NASCAR right now is that, you know, can we get proper sharing to make it to where we're not so sponsorship dependent?

Speaker 1 Because I think NASCAR has a star problem, but it's because these guys are afraid to speak out because they they they know if they lose this they're out it doesn't matter how good they are that's such a good point though because the ufc fighters are not scared to speak out because dana white will let them say whatever i think that's really helped them in the star power i think that's right i mean it's really the sports great anyway but i think that the fact that they let their their athletes be themselves say what they want i mean i just think that people resonate with that yeah because i'm not gonna lie when i I was a kid, I remember hearing about NASCAR daily, like on ESPN and everything, and I would know the drivers, but these days, I feel like I don't hear about the drivers as much.

Speaker 1 Right. You know, it's, it's become so commercialized.
It really has. It's just, it is a different sport now.

Speaker 1 It's still, it's still thriving. I mean, any, any given weekend, it's the first or second most watched sport every single weekend.
Wow. It has a core fan base that follows every single week.

Speaker 1 But yeah, it's, we're definitely in a turning point where we've got to get this thing

Speaker 1 better for everyone and get this thing growing bigger. And I think globally is what's going to happen next.
I think so. I'd love to see more of you guys on podcasts and long form media.

Speaker 1 I don't see too many of them speaking out, like you said. Yeah, I think

Speaker 1 it's been something they have been apprehensive to do.

Speaker 1 You know, I started my podcast just a few years ago, Actions Detrimental. And ever since then,

Speaker 1 the core fan base has followed us because I was the first one to really do it. And now you're starting to see others go on podcasts, at least.
No one's, you know, not many are really starting one.

Speaker 1 But again, I think everyone's very, very worried about saying something that's sensitive and then getting in trouble. Well, yeah, because you got fined for it, right?

Speaker 1 I did. I did.
I've definitely gotten fined for things I've said on my podcast, but it's like.

Speaker 1 So I can see why they're scared, you know? Yeah, that was a big fine, too. That wasn't like a little.

Speaker 1 No, it's, you know, most of it was just admitting that I crashed into somebody on purpose because he was getting on my nerves. He had gotten into me many times, and I was like, all right, screw it.

Speaker 1 Stop going down. I'm taking that, I'm taking you with me, right? And so, you know, finally, NASCAR was like, oh, that's probably pushing it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do they bring deals to the teams or are you like in charge of bringing every single deal? Oh, that's that's a good one. Um,

Speaker 1 I haven't been aware of, I can only speak for 2311 racing, yeah, but i don't think nascar has brought us any sponsorship

Speaker 1 um it's on us to to go out and find these deals that's tough um which which you know that's what makes it very difficult and it's essentially what our team is fighting for right is that we believe that there's enough money to for everyone to be healthy right but since you know nascar is owned by you know private family you know they get to dictate the terms or you know or they have dictated the terms and we finally are pushing back on that um because we have to do we have to raise so you know to to to run a race car a nascar car is 18 million dollars a year that's whole just kind of that's per car that's insane and you know we have three cars that we run so we have to come up with a dramatic amount of sponsorship just to break even every year and again it's it's like we're just paddling water every single year hoping that these companies can send continue to see value, which they have.

Speaker 1 We've got some great long-term partners that have seen value in the program. And

Speaker 1 so I think NASCAR maybe has brought some other teams some deals or

Speaker 1 whatnot, but not ours.

Speaker 1 Not that I'm aware of. Yeah, they're not obligated to do that, right? No, they're not obligated to.
And really, it's tough because

Speaker 1 if NASCAR signs someone, say like their fuel partner or their tire partner, you can't go and get a competitor of theirs to sponsor your car. They lock you out of that category.

Speaker 1 And so when when it comes to the most important things when it has to deal with cars is fuel and tires,

Speaker 1 we can't Google sponsors. It's riding through tires, right? Yeah.
I mean,

Speaker 1 I think we probably

Speaker 1 pay

Speaker 1 about $700,000 a year in tires. In tires.
That's crap. Yeah.
That's crazy, man. And you're not allowed to get a sponsor for it because they have one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, Goodyear is the official provider of NASCAR tires, but we have to purchase them. They're not given to us.
We have to purchase them.

Speaker 1 But that's an agreement that they have with NASCAR itself. And again, it's a category where we couldn't go get a Michelin to sponsor our car.

Speaker 1 You think the cars are going to shift towards electric over the next few years?

Speaker 1 I think the NASCAR fans will be very apprehensive to embrace that.

Speaker 1 I think that NASCAR fans are the ones that have been around for a very long time. And even the new ones, and I think even consumers themselves in streetcars like to hear sound.
100%.

Speaker 1 I think that we've seen even in

Speaker 1 American culture itself that, man, there was a big push for electric and it's starting to come back a little bit because, you know, for whatever reason,

Speaker 1 maybe they're seeing that it's not saving them as much money as they thought.

Speaker 1 But I just think generally when people like to drive, they like to hear noise. Yeah.
Plus the refueling, that'd be hard. It would take so long to charge them.
I don't know how that would work.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's certainly, you would think that it would shorten our races, right? And I think that NASCAR has always been very big on, you know, hitting this three hour, three and a half hour window.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, can you make a car make ample amount of energy, you know, a thousand horsepower for three and a half hours? I don't think so.
Not right now. No.
My Tesla takes an hour to charge.

Speaker 1 That's a supercharger. Yeah.
So it just would take.

Speaker 1 I think it would, I think there's a place for it, but is it an exhibition series or something like that but i think there's going to be a hard time convincing our race fans that you know you see cars going fast but you don't hear them going fast yeah that's going to be a challenge how often are you engaging with the fans all the time yeah i mean all the time i i kind of had this rivalry with nascar fans it's just like where you know where i've kind of leaned into the villain side of things.

Speaker 1 So, you know, I like to egg them on, especially when I win. Yeah.
Do they get to you ever or are you kind of just knowing that? I love it. You love it.
Like when I I go around for driver intro.

Speaker 1 So after they introduce us for our starting position, we get in a truck. We drive around the racetrack and they kind of parade us in front of the fans.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I mean, you can, you'll know where I'm at on the racetrack by the, you hear the booze just kind of moving all the way around. And so I just, I love hearing the noise.

Speaker 1 Like the worst thing ever for an athlete is when they call your name and people just clap.

Speaker 1 That's horrible. Nobody ever wants that.
And that means you're irrelevant. I think that's you internalizing it.
Because some people, if they get booed, it destroys them mentally, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like it really eats with them. I just think about how can I go back at them by winning and then saying something snark after the race.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, the best success or the best way to like prove people wrong is success, right? Absolutely. You don't even have to.
That's what gets to them the most. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Which one of your 54 wins is your favorite one?

Speaker 1 I've had a lot of good ones, ones, but I would say 2016 Daytona 500. That's my very first

Speaker 1 Daytona 500 win, and it was in the closest finish in NASCAR history for that race. Wow.
And so

Speaker 1 how I won it was just amazing. You know, I fell back to fourth or fifth on the final lap and then found a way to weave through the cars that last lap to win by, you know, probably that much.

Speaker 1 That was special to me. and then you know my team allowing me to keep the car so like i have this

Speaker 1 kind of my media room or kind of my my guys room and i have my glass my my my garage is all glassed in i have my daytone of 500 winning cars sitting essentially kind of in my living that's awesome dude yeah that's iconic what's your favorite stage of the race beginning middle or end

Speaker 1 i like the end simply because like by the time you get to the end

Speaker 1 young drivers, you know, sometimes have messed up. You know, they've taken themselves out.
Like you see who has managed the race the best

Speaker 1 by the time we get to the third stage of the race. So always the end.
The track changes. I mean, people ask all the time, hey, don't you get bored? You're just, you're going in circles.
And I said,

Speaker 1 the only way I can equate this is that every time I go down the straightaway,

Speaker 1 I'm trying to figure out how to take this corner faster than I just took the previous.

Speaker 1 And all the while, the track is getting hotter. It's getting more rubber laid down on it.
And I'm having to adjust my line to optimize how my car makes that corner.

Speaker 1 And when I try a different line, I analyze it going down the next street. I analyze it.
Was that better? Was that worse?

Speaker 1 And I try to approach a different way when I go into the next corner. So we just do that over and over and over.

Speaker 1 And then when you're trying to overtake somebody, it's, you know, okay, now I got to run. They're running the line that I was running the fastest.

Speaker 1 How can I now make time in a different line to pass them? So it's constantly a chess game. Yeah, because you don't have time to be bored.
You're constantly thinking

Speaker 1 present moment. I mean, it goes by really quick.
In my seat, it just takes a long time when you're watching. Right.
Yeah. 500 laps, right?

Speaker 1 If the track is small, it's 500 laps. You know, like out here in Vegas, you're looking at probably a 260 lap race because it's a mile and a half track.
Okay. Wow.
That's man.

Speaker 1 Well, Denny, it's been awesome. What do you got next? Where can people find your podcast to keep up with you? Yeah, it's on all platforms.

Speaker 1 Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlet. It comes out every Monday

Speaker 1 afternoon. And what we try to do is get out of the race car.
And if I can go straight in the studio and kind of download, that's what I'll do.

Speaker 1 But otherwise, I'll wake up early Monday morning, kind of talk about the race, how my race went, kind of analyze what you saw on TV, maybe what you didn't see on TV that I saw from the driver's seat.

Speaker 1 and we break that all down. I love it, man.
Check them out. We'll link below.
Thanks for coming on. Thanks for watching, guys.
See ya. Appreciate it.