After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Additional terms apply. It is and while we're getting you to the good news, you can get a limited half of your week for those of you who have actually worked half of your week so far. Many of you have not and that's alright too. It's still the hump show, but it'll show the work week for those of you who need a little goofiness. A little joy and what else? A little mirth to get you to the back half of the work week and on toward another weekend.

Here's a couple of things. Number one, it's the last day of May. I know Memorial Day weekend is billed as the unofficial start to summer, but the month of June is actually the start of summer a little bit later in the month.

And so here we are. We are through the month of May. I was just saying to a friend of mine how crazy the spring season. In fact, she called it the spring sprint, which certainly is appropriate.

We could use spring sports sprint. It seems like it never stops, and it's not as though it slows down a ton in June, at least the first half of June. But at least we can focus on one basketball series, one hockey series, as opposed to where it starts in April or early April. We're talking seven and eight series that are going on, maybe nightly, but on the same during the same week. It's pretty nuts.

So I appreciate it. We get to June and we've got U.S. Open. We've got the Stanley Cup final, the NBA finals. There's obviously plenty going on in the world of NASCAR, which we're going to get to, WNBA. You got the NBA draft that comes up later this month, too.

We are never without the NFL, so we've got NFL practices. There's still a lot happening. College World Series and the Women's College World Series, for those of you who love the college.

Softball and baseball. There's still plenty that's happening, not to mention Major League Baseball starts to warm up here and they get into the second quarter of the season and on toward the All-Star break. So June is anything but boring. We have a lot to do in the month of June, but man, April and May now nearly in the rearview mirror.

So there's something. Happy almost June. In addition, this has been kind of fun. We threw this question out there because we're wrapping up May on this Wednesday. What are your top sports months on the annual calendar? We're asking you to rank them since we do love to rank pretty much everything. We rank foods. We rank athletes. We rank winners. We rank. What else do we rank? I mean, everything really. Star Wars movies, people ask me all the time, how would you rank your favorite Star Wars movies? So what we're asking you to do is send us your top three sports months in order. And I'm actually amazed.

I knew this would be the case because we have listeners all over, just everywhere, right? So depending upon the teams that are in your area, your region, maybe what you grew up with, maybe what you played, well, the answers are going to be different. Jay went with October, May and February as his top three. I am set on my top two, but I'm still wrangling over number three. I had an answer that I changed it.

Now I've changed it again, but I promise before the end of the hour, I'll give you my top three sports months in order. Many of you are still weighing in on the whale video. I'm telling you, some people are really suspicious that it might be computer graphics. A lot of you are saying it's not real because when the whale goes underneath the surfboard, the board barely moves. I mean, he's a fish. He's a big fish, but he's still a fish. Well, technically he's a mammal, but how do you know how close he was underneath the board? He came up the other side because he's ginormous, but it doesn't mean that he was right underneath the board. I think he was just curious. He looked at them twice. You could see his eye out of the water twice.

It's freaking amazing. I actually asked Bob, Bob thinks it's real because there's no way that they could recreate that. How do you get the whale to do what you want to do?

Now for the trained whale, you could be in a tank, but I'd have to be one hell of a large tank. And I think their reactions and the authenticity of their reactions. The only question I have is how did she have the phone out? But maybe they saw the whales around them or saw the whale off in the distance.

And so she pulled the phone out to try to get some video. And then lo and behold, Mr. Big Blue Whale was right next to their board with a couple of his friends. We know whales are curious. They get interested in boats and people. I think she just had the phone nearby, saw the whale approaching, took the phone out.

Approaching? How do you know if the whale's approaching? There's a ripple in the water. It's not windy and there's a ripple in the water.

I'm actually amazed by the number of you that are scared. Maybe because, I don't know, maybe because I've seen the video so many times and the whales seem uninterested in them. Maybe because I've seen whales out in open water, whale watching, all that kind of stuff.

This is not Moby Dick here, right? Whales aren't generally aggressive. We're not talking about orcas.

We're just talking about some curious whales, almost like dolphins would do. No one's afraid of dolphins, right? No one's afraid of dolphins. No one's afraid of dolphins. I guess they can't swallow you whole. That's part of the deal.

But yeah, a bunch of you are afraid. I'm telling you, sign me up. If I could be on that surfboard, sign me up. That would be phenomenal. Would there be an adrenaline rush?

Sure. But I'd actually want to reach out and try to touch one of the whales. I mean, they're right there. I don't think a whale would swallow a person whole. It would have to know.

And like spit it out. That's not a krill or something. A what?

A krill. Interesting. So, those are the two things that you're making good use of on our social. We also have our latest Chubby Bunny World Championship. That video is posted to our YouTube and the link is also on Twitter. So yeah, good stuff today on our social.

And I will go back and answer your questions on Ask Amy Anything, the ones that I can get to quickly. So A-Law Radio, Whale Videos, Chubby Bunny. We're all about the animal videos.

Whale Videos, Chubby Bunny Videos. And then also our question tonight. Rank your favorite sports months of the year.

Our Facebook page too and our phone number 855-212-4227. Maybe not a surprise internally, but the Golden State Warriors are losing their general manager and his salary, his control, his success. None of those are the issue. Actually, it's because he feels like he can't be all in anymore. This is tough. This is hard.

I have, you know, so many different things, emotions that I'm still processing. But the bottom line is this job, the one I'm in, and I would say this for any professional, general manager or coach requires complete engagement, complete effort, 1000%. And if you can't do it, then you shouldn't do it. And so that's the answer to the question of why I can't do that to our players. I can't do that to Joe and Peter. I really can't do it to myself.

And that's the question I've been wrestling with. I appreciate your patience, letting me make that decision, everybody in this room. I've only known how to do things one way. My whole life is kind of all the way.

And it doesn't feel right to do something when I can't give it everything. And that's what it takes to do what we've done over the last, for me, 12 years. Joe Lakob is who he refers to as the owner, Peter and Joe, the owners of the Warriors. And Joe actually said he tried to get Bob Myers to stay, offered him a new deal that would pay him among the tops of the general managers in the NBA.

But really for him, it was about wanting to spend more time with his family and not believing that he can devote as much time and energy as it requires to do the job and do it well. Now he was an assistant GM starting in 2011, but was quickly promoted to general manager of the Warriors in 2012. And under Bob Myers' watch, six NBA final appearances, four rings.

That's pretty darn good. He orchestrated not just the drafting of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, but also the free agent signing of Kevin Durant. And he said he did hear from Kevin Durant on Tuesday. Durant called me today. He's in Monaco. Oh, okay.

Not busy with the NBA playoffs. You know, what he did for us, showing up here, knowing what he would hear about when he made that decision, for him to have that courage. I remember Joe and I were on the phone with him right before he decided, and you could tell he knew what might be coming down his road if he came to us. And for him to do it and to completely deliver on everything that you would want. Two finals MVPs, three in a row championships, taking us to the finals, excuse me, three finals appearances, but two championships. What a talent. What a great... If you like basketball, watching him and Steph and these guys play, I mean, that was... I'd do that for free.

Hmm. Speaking of that, Steph Curry, great question from someone at the press conference asked Bob Myers what Steph Curry has done for the Warriors organization. Steph Curry is just... can't overstate who he is. When I talk to him, it's so rare of somebody of his caliber to be who he is. And I think people know him for what he does, but how lucky is this organization to have him as its leader?

And for me to get to watch him be that guy for my whole time here, what a gift to me, and that's one I could never repay, ever. So Steph Curry predated Bob Myers. And actually, Bob was an agent before he moved into the front office with the Warriors. As I say, he was quickly promoted to GM.

So Steph was drafted in 2009, but he was part of Klay Thompson and Kavon Looney, Draymond Green, obviously responsible for keeping the core together and putting pieces around them that reached six NBA Finals. And he believes, regardless of his departure, that the Warriors are still one of the best franchises in the league. This team is in great shape.

It's in great shape. Joe's not going anywhere. He has supported me. He has given me... If there was a metric on cost per win, I don't know how good I'd be, because we've spent a lot of money because he's so competitive, because he cares so much. And to have an owner like that that puts his heart and his will and his money into winning, you cannot ask for anything more, and that's not changing. You've got a fantastic coach.

You've got arguably one of the best players to ever play and one of the best people to ever play in Steph Curry. So the future's unbelievably bright. I know that some people have said, I'm leaving because there's a lot of big decisions. Well, it's been a lot worse than this. There's been a lot harder summers than this when we started and in the past.

So I have great confidence in what's to come and have no doubt that much success will still be forthcoming. So Bob Meyer stepping away or stepping down and says he doesn't have a plan moving forward, that he's going to take some time before he decides if and when he wants to get back into basketball. We'll hear one more from him in a second, but do we grab the Draymond? Okay, so Draymond Green has his podcast called The Volume, and he was reacting to the news.

Sam's reported that the Warriors, that there has been no significant extension talks as of late and the Warriors are bracing and Bob Meyers are bracing. Okay, sorry. Hold on. That's not the same. That's not right. Yeah, no, it's fine. That's not exactly what I thought it was. Sorry. That might be about his contract extension, not about Bob's. I could be wrong.

Just make sure you peruse it first and then maybe we'll get back to it so we don't completely turn the whole segment up on its head. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. It dawned on me too as I was thinking about Bob Meyers, the fact that he's become a household name because of what he's done with the Warriors and the winners that he's constructed, the winners that he has put together and then kept together. How many people can name the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves? How many people can name the current general manager of the Houston Rockets? How many people can name the general manager of even the Phoenix Suns? Meyers is not only a face and a name that people know in basketball circles, but a lot of people that are maybe casual fans might even recognize him.

Not all, right? Because it's, and I'm immersed in it so it's hard for me to make that determination, but of basketball general managers, the fact that he's leaving the Warriors is such big news, right? Where it wouldn't be. The Knicks are not retaining their GM. I don't know how many people out there listening right now can even name the Knicks' GM. And he's not front and center the way that Bob Meyers has been.

Partly because of the relationship with Steve Kerr and the fact that the two of them have been able to work together that, you know, it's been a partnership, but a team, not that dissimilar to say a Kyle Shanahan and a John Lynch, though they came in together. All right, so are we, do you want me to, you want to set it up or tell me what it is that you heard? We're good to go? I'm not sure if it's the one that you're looking for, but I mean he starts talking about how Bob Meyers, what he's meant to him and how he pushes him and how he... Okay, but what was the negotiation part? Was that about his negotiation? Because we know Bob Meyers is not negotiating. That was the beginning.

So Draymond is... I'm not sure if the podcast came out before the news broke or after. This was from 16 hours ago. Yeah, so probably after.

Okay, let's try it. Sams reported that the Warriors, that there has been no significant extension talks as of late and the Warriors are bracing and Bob Meyers are bracing for a separation. I tweeted, that sucks.

That does suck. Because again, as I told you all, Bob is one of the guys that I roll in with. That I've been on this journey with for 11 years and we've all been plugging away each and every year to try to deliver championships. That's what makes us go. That's what we're all in it for. And so to know that there's a possibility that he may not be here does not sit well with me. Even if he is gone, that relationship will still be like this. That is a relationship that I've built that will last for the rest of my life, someone I confide in, someone I trust.

And so to know that he may not be here, that sucks. That hurts because I've appreciated going to work with him every day for the last 11 years and the things that he's taught me. I think in life we all need people who hold us accountable and he holds me accountable at a totally different standard. And he don't hold me accountable like, oh, I'm the general manager of the team. He holds me accountable as a man. He holds me accountable as a leader. He holds me accountable from a friendship standpoint.

So that sucks. And quite frankly, I hope something has worked out and Bob is back next year. I also hope I'm back next year. So clearly from Draymond, you can tell that this is before Bob announced his decision that he would, I'm sorry to have a chance to listen to it at the time. He would not be returning to the Warriors, but Draymond is reacting to the reports that came out there even before Bob himself confirmed the news. So yeah, definitely a changing of a regime, but Joe Lacob can't afford to hire whoever it is that he wants and considering the system that they have in place and the commitment to winning. Now they're way, way, way over the quote unquote salary cap or the luxury tax threshold.

They owe a ton of money in luxury tax. They also have a decision to make on Klay Thompson, though you can't imagine they'd want him to walk. But he's got one more year in his deal so he could be eligible for an extension and then Draymond will have to decide whether or not he's picking up the player option for 23-24. If not, I think in the neighborhood of 27 million, well then he becomes an unrestricted free agent. So maybe he thinks he can get more money somewhere else.

I don't know about that. I think maybe he thinks he can get more money from the Warriors, but that's also a question now because it's going to be someone else that's negotiating. So we'll see what Draymond chooses to do, but that was his pre-reaction to the Bob Meyers decision on his own podcast, The Volume. So it'll be different there, but I do believe the ownership sets the tone and if they hire the right person, well, they could use a fresh voice. They could use maybe a shift in direction. I wouldn't say a completely different direction, but definitely as long as that core is together, Steph, Klay, Dray, well, they can win, not to mention the coaching staff. All right, on Twitter, ALawRadio, our Facebook page too, we're asking you to rank your sports months on the calendar.

Which ones are your favorites, your top three? And let's see, NASCAR consumes a lot of months. The reason we would talk about it on this edition of the show is because there was actually a suspension handed down for a driver who intentionally wrecked one of his competitors, which is interesting.

So we'll get to that before the end of the hour. Oh, and did you hear Jimmy Butler? He's shooting a shot.

And I do not mean on the basketball court. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS. What you watch depends on what kind of mood you're in. Sometimes you're craving comedies like Friends or South Park, and sometimes you're more into dramas like HBO's Succession and House of the Dragon.

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CD Valet, the straight up rates. A sports radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Music Down to 10 on the shot clock, 3.30 to go in the game. Finds Jimmy on the cut, the throw down, he has 20. 28. His 12th make in 28 tries. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Heat up 20. It hasn't been going our way a lot this year, so this is nothing new. We got to go on the road and do something special, but we got a special group, so why not it be us?

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Music Jason Jackson on the Miami Heat Radio Network and then Jimmy Butler. How many times did we hear a version of that? Going back to the beginning of the Eastern Conference Finals, right, when he was saying we're going to be the first team to four wins. Then after game four, when they lost in Miami, badly, and they weren't able to close out the Celtics, had to go back to Boston for game five. What did he tell us after game four? We're going to win in Boston. Then after game five, we're going to win game six. Then after game six, well, these last couple games, they haven't gone our way. In fact, he even said, if I played better, we win game six and the series is over. Every single time they lost in the East Finals, he told us, we're going to win the next one. We're going to win the next one. Unwavering confidence. He said, my confidence sets the tone for the locker room.

And actually, do you still have that bite from last year? So May 29th, well, May, actually it was May 29th. May 29th, so just over a year ago, 2022, when the Heat were upset at home in game seven of the East Finals by the Celtics. So the Heat were the top seed. It was the Celtics who had to win on the road, and he promised that they would be back a year later.

Grateful for the opportunity to play with the guys that I did have the opportunity to play with, and it's been like that every year that I've played in the league. So we had enough. Next year, we will have enough, and we're going to be right back in the same situation, and we're going to get it done.

We're going to get it done. So that confidence goes back to a year ago. And even though it was a roller coaster ride of a regular season, even though they had to go through the play-in tournament, even though their offense was statistically one of the worst in the NBA all year. I'm not making that up.

That's not hyperbole. Go check the offensive metrics, the offensive stats. One of the worst offensive teams over the course of the NBA season. Oh my God. And yet, come to find out, he told American tennis star Coco Gauff they were going to be in the NBA finals before the postseason ever even started.

Oh, this is fantastic. So Coco is in Paris at the French Open. After she won her first round match, she told a story about Jimmy Butler because she's a huge Miami Heat fan.

She actually calls them Wee through the course of this answer. And this story about Jimmy is, I mean, it's classic Jimmy Butler. Fantastic. This was before we were in the playoffs, the Heat were in the playoffs. He offered me tickets to see the last home season, last home game of the season. And then he DM'd me like a couple weeks later asking if I wanted more tickets to see the postseason and I said, I won't be here.

I'll be in Madrid and then Rome and then France. And then he said, okay, when we make the finals, let me know if your family wants some tickets. So this was before we were even in the playoffs.

This is before we lost to the Hawks for the first play-in game. And I just felt like I knew that, you know, everybody was like, we have a three percent chance of making the finals. But when he sent me that, I knew we were making the finals because he didn't say if we make the finals, he said when we make the finals. So now that he were in the finals, I can say that story. But I remember screenshotting it and sending it to my family and I was like, oh, we're going to the finals. So that's my Jimmy Butler story. He pretty much said that we were going to the finals before we even qualified for the playoffs.

And I just really liked that mentality of him. So that's the story. I think her match was actually a three-setter where she lost the opening set and had to rally.

And she kind of tells the story because she used that as inspiration. I mean, they were down. They hadn't even made the playoffs yet. And he's already offering her family tickets to the NBA finals. So I'm thinking, slides into her DMs, he shoots a shot and, you know, just to add a little something, something to it, he offers tickets to the NBA finals.

Maybe that was his motivation. Maybe he thought if I could impress Coco Gauff, get this team to the NBA finals, then I have a chance. Shoot your shot, Jimmy Butler.

Shoot your shot. Do you think she goes? I mean, it depends on whether or not she's back from Paris, right? So if she gets to, let's say, the quarterfinals, the semis, she'll be in Paris on through next week. So unless she's planning on coming back from Paris for an NBA finals game, if she achieves her goal and her dream, I don't think she'd be back in America for that. But she could.

I mean, there's private jets, private planes. Maybe he'll offer to pay for her private jet to get back from Paris. The thing is, though, he would want her to focus on tennis, right? He would want her to, I think, knowing what we know of Jimmy Butler, if he really cares about her or really has a thing for Coco Gauff, he would want her to succeed as well.

I feel like that's the case with Jimmy. He understands because of what he's done and how winning is the most important thing to him, he would want the same for her. He would want her to be happy and want her to compete all the way to the end of the French.

So I'm thinking no. That's why he offered family tickets. I don't think he'd mind if she made the trip. Except that would mean she'd lost.

Well, not necessarily. Day trip to America for the final. Except that that would take away from her practice schedule and take away from her sleep, probably. She'd be jet-lagged and then not be at her best.

I don't think so. I think he would want her to devote the same, and actually I think he'd respect her more for devoting the same energy and the same attention to her craft as he does to his. Relentless. He's relentless.

He's tenacious. I think he would admire that in her. I can see that. Yeah. But either way, he's interested. Oh, he definitely slid into her DMs and offered her family tickets.

Of course he's interested. Love it! Way to go, Jimmy Butler. I'm rooting for you, man. I'm rooting for you. This kind of cute story from Coco Gauff.

Alright, coming up. Not so cute. Just Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin getting into a brew.

So, ha ha. And actually, now a suspension. And not just a suspension by NASCAR, but a message for the entire garage. This is where you listen up. I once went to a driver's meeting before a race.

That was really cool to hear the NASCAR officials speak to the drivers about the specifics of the track and what to expect and what not. I mean, it was kind of cool. It actually sounds awesome.

Oh, yeah. No, it was amazing. It felt like you were inside of the brain trust.

Like a fly on the wall. It was pretty cool. Alright. It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

On Twitter, ALawRadio. If you haven't seen the whale video, we're giving it all kinds of extra views. But also, we'll get to this coming up.

Your top three favorite sports months on the calendar year. I'm actually really fascinated by the variety because I guess I thought it would be more standard, but it's not. We've got all kinds of different answers and that makes more sense considering the variety of peeps who are listening and hanging out with us.

So, yay. It's the Hump Show. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Last year's winner of the Coke 600.

Left of your screen. The inside of Chase gets loose. You see him lift out of the gas. The flames crowded Chase, got into him.

They saw some retaliation there. Or did Keselowski get into the left rear corner of Elliott there? I saw Elliott. You see Elliott lose his nose and lift out of the gas.

Flames come out of the pipes. Chase it up. Squeeze Chase into the wall and I think the rest is self-explanatory.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It's a big brouhaha. That's NASCAR on Fox. Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin. Two very popular drivers.

Established drivers. And both were, well Denny was far more heated than Chase after their race going back to Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600 on Monday. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

This is a video on YouTube that's been seen, oh my gosh, hundreds of thousands of times. And if you were watching the coverage on Fox, you know that reporters caught up with both Chase and Denny and asked them their perspectives. Chase, he of course gave a more obtuse answer about what happened and how this whole wreck started. Denny said there was some retaliation there. Was there any retaliation on your part?

Like I say, once you hit the wall on these things, you can't drive them anymore. So, unfortunately not. No, just an unfortunate circumstance. He obviously didn't want to admit it. He did the, oh I can't hear you, sorry. And then, sorry I can't hear what you're saying, but yeah, my car, I just couldn't drive it. The wheels were dead straight. Even after we crashed and like destroyed our, he goes down the back straightaway and look at both tires, front tires are pointing the correct direction. So Denny Hamlin's not buying it. Not buying the fact that Chase Elliott just lost control of the car because the tires, they were messed up and so he could no longer steer. I'm looking at the video and he did get into the wall, but then when he bounced back, he felt like, well, I can't speak for Chase. What NASCAR believes happens is that he felt like he got crowded and that Hamlin is the reason he ended up in the wall. So when he came off of the wall, he essentially bounced off of the outside wall at Charlotte. When he did bounce out of the outside wall, he then turned his car into the right rear corner of Hamlin's car to wreck him on purpose. Right, so again, Chase Elliott ends up in the wall and in retaliation, because again, he feels like the reason he's in the wall is because of Hamlin.

There may have been a bump there. He comes down off the wall and turns his car into the right rear corner of Hamlin. Elliott says his car was undrivable. Well, you heard what Denny Hamlin said about it. Again, that's Fox, NASCAR, and then actually Denny Hamlin with Dirty Mo Media, which is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s media.

And so NASCAR had to weigh in and the senior VP of competition is Elton Sawyer. Man, they did a, this is like CSI. They went back and watched the tape and looked at all the evidence. If you back up to the race last night on lap 180.

Stay at your local CSL plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity. The incident with the 11 and the 9. We started last night gathering all the data, in-car camera footage, radio communication that led into this morning with a deeper dive. Continued to look at in-car camera footage, all available resources, and we landed on the fact that this was an act that definitely in our view and with the resources and the data we collected was an act that was intentional. And as we have proven in the past to be consistent, you know, hooking someone in the right rear and turning them head on into the fence is just not something that we can tolerate and we won't going forward.

Again, we've been consistent with this and our messaging has been consistent as well. For those of you who are familiar with NASCAR, who've watched NASCAR for a long time or know about Dale Earnhardt Sr., he died on the last lap of the Daytona 500 going back, of course, 20 plus years now. When his car took a quick right turn and slammed into the wall, the outside wall. Now this wreck with Denny wasn't nearly as violent, it wasn't nearly as drastic, but I have zero doubt as someone who's followed NASCAR for a long time that Elton Sawyer and NASCAR officials will never forget what happened with Dale and how the drastic right turn, that quick right turn, boom, slamming right into a wall is ultimately what killed him. Now NASCAR has changed a lot of its safety features. They've added these barriers to their walls that are supposed to soften the blow when, or soften the impact I should say, when cars wreck because it is going to happen over the course of a race.

That they're going to take a quick right hand turn, maybe a tire goes down, they're going to slam into that outside wall, they're going to go in nose first. So they've added some barriers, they're called safer barriers, so they're supposed to absorb impact. They've also mandated now different head and neck restraints, even going back to the days when Dale Earnhardt was still racing, he didn't like them, he felt like they were restrictive. Well now a lot of those different safety restraints, plus the cages where the drivers sit, right, so it looks like an actual car, but inside the car they're essentially strapped into a cage that is supposed to protect them. So they've done a lot of safety features, but what they do not want is a car going 200 something miles per hour or 180 miles per hour and turning right, slamming nose first into a wall. And again, I have zero doubt, even though you're not going to hear the name, this is the reason why, because that's what happened to Dale Earnhardt. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, so Chase Elliott gets suspended because he clipped the right rear of Denny Hamlin's car and Hamlin immediately flew into a perpendicular right hand turn and boom, nose first. You can see his car, his entire front of his car is crushed, it's smashed in, and that's not what they want. And so Elton Sawyer is not only saying that this is the only acceptable outcome of our investigation, because we do believe it was intentional, because Chase Elliott didn't think before he reacted in anger about the consequences, but because we have to make an example of him. This was the only decision that we could make. We have to let our drivers, our competitors, whether it's in the Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, or even the Craftsman Truck Series, that this is not an act on the racetrack.

I've been there personally many years ago. I understand that you can be having a bad day, things are not going well, you're going to have a bad finish, and you have these type of altercations. But retaliating in that manner is just not going to be acceptable, and that needs to be across the board, and let our competitors know that. I mean, Hamlin himself was on social media calling for Chase Elliott to be suspended, so he will miss the next race that's coming up.

It's actually Gateway, which is outside of St. Louis, and even though Chase has denied it, you look at the video. I guess we can use the hockey analogy, right? Or the hockey comparison. Jamie Benn, the captain of the Stars, was suspended two games because he took a stick and slammed it down on the neck of Mark Stone, who was already on the ice. He says he was falling and bracing himself with his stick, that it was unfortunate that his stick just happened to come down on Mark Stone's neck. Let's just say that's actually true.

Okay, I don't believe it, for a second. I think Jamie Benn got off actually pretty easy. But let's just say, on the.9% chance that it's actually true, it doesn't matter, right? Because what it looks like, and the potential for injury and harm, those outweigh, those optics in that video, it outweighs whatever possible, I mean, very slim possibility that Jamie Benn is telling the truth.

You can't allow something like that to go, even if, there's a very slim chance, but even if Jamie Benn is actually telling the truth. So same thing with Chase Elliott. Because of how drastic it looks, because it very much looks like he turned his car into Denny Hamlin's with the purpose of wrecking him, even if Chase Elliott is maybe telling the truth, maybe, I guess there's a chance you can't let it go. And there is a precedent in NASCAR too. And Denny Hamlin knows this well. He owns the car that's driven by Bubba Wallace. Bubba was suspended a race last year because he hooked another driver in a race, and that's considered one of the more dangerous moves. So all the drivers know that you can't get away with hooking the right rear, and because of the implications and because of how dangerous it can be, they had to follow precedent.

And Denny Hamlin made sure that they did, because he wasn't going to let it go until Chase Elliott was suspended. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. It is the hump show as we head up toward the top. It's quite the mixture on our social media.

Your questions for Ask Amy, and I'm going back and answering them as best I can. Your comments about our Chubby Bunny World Championship. The video is now on our YouTube channel. Your reactions to the whale video. Some of you swear it's fabricated because the surfboard doesn't move when the whale is underneath them. I mean, it's a giant whale. He was pretty far down, but anyway. And how do you expect the shadows are there?

I don't know. Yeah, I mean it looks real to me. I'm going real. Just the man. It was perfect.

It was absolutely perfect. It would be hard to replicate that. Plus their reactions too. But then also, your favorite sports months. I would say there's a lot of people who are going September, October because of the start of football season. Many of you were saying January because of the football playoffs. A bunch of you are going with April. March because of college basketball and March Madness. A lot of you going with April because of the start of the NBA and the NHL playoffs. Some of you are going December because it's kind of the end, well it's bowl season, but it's the end of the NFL regular season plus of course the conference championships and college football. I'm going October number one because it's the only month of the year in which all four major professional sports are operating.

Plus you still have golf, you still have NASCAR, you still have a lot of the other sports as well. MLS taking place then too. But October is my absolute favorite because of the NFL and the baseball postseason. May is my second favorite because you're talking about second round of the NBA and the NHL playoffs so it starts to get better teams against better teams and man we've had a doozy in May. And then I'll go with January because of the NFL postseason and college hoops conference play. We'll talk to you tonight, it's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. Boom! Donate today at your local CSL plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity.