In 2023, Denny Hamlin became a full-time podcast host for the first time in his life and it is safe to say that it was a huge success. The Actions Detrimental podcast, a product of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Dirty Mo Media, drew in thousands of listeners who were keen to hear what the Joe Gibbs Racing ace had to say, even if they weren’t his fans. However, the endeavor did cost Hamlin a lot of money and even championship points early on in the season.
Hamlin is not one to shy away from speaking his mind and with a platform like Actions Detrimental, he could do it even more candidly. The 43-year-old is opinionated and while he has gained a lot of fans because of that, it has also got him into trouble at times, However, The Cup Series star has no regrets, and on a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download podcast, he expressed as much.
Denny Hamlin says he expected to lose money with the new endeavor
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During the final laps of the United Rentals Work United 500 in Phoenix on March 12th, Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain had a coming together which saw the Trackhouse Racing driver go into the wall. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether Hamlin intentionally wrecked a fellow racer so no penalty was meted out immediately.
However, in the Actions Detrimental episode following the event, Hamlin admitted to wrecking Chastain on purpose. NASCAR took notice of this and it did not take them long to take punitive measures. The 43-year-old was fined $50,000 and 25 points were docked from his tally. It’s safe to say that he was not happy about it.
However, when Dale Earnhardt Jr asked him about his first year as a podcast host, Hamlin seemed to have gotten over it as he joked about the whole situation back then. “I had a fun year doing it. I appreciate you offering the opportunity for me to do that this year, was a lot of fun. Cost me a little bit of money but it’s fine. If we didn’t think that was going to happen, we were just fooling ourselves,” he said.
New endeavors are always tough but Denny Hamlin took on the challenge of hosting a podcast like a champ. It never felt like he was out of place and the 43-year-old credited the people he worked with in keeping him up to speed with everything that was going on.
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Actions Detrimental host credits his team for keeping him up to speed
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One of the first people Denny Hamlin thanked was his co-host, Jared Allen. Allen has been a constant alongside the JGR star throughout the season and Actions Detrimental wouldn’t be the same without him. Hamlin also revealed how his co-host had follow him around on every race weekend.
“Luckily for me, between Jared following me round everywhere I go on any given race weekend. A lot of times he is around me during the week when I’m not at the track. You got Travis there helping on the producing side of things. They helped me be prepared even if I wasn’t,” Hamlin said.
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“I think that it was better than what I expected. It’s everything I thought it would be in the first year so, pretty happy with it,” he added. The Actions Detrimental podcast has been a hit and it hopefully will be back in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. Did you like Denny Hamlin’s first stint as a podcast host? Let us know your thoughts.