Bristol: Denny Hamlin gleefully enjoys playing the ‘villain’ role; playoff eliminations for Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano; the Round of 12 outlook

NASCAR on NBC podcast

Kevin Harvick’s stunningly slow car in a first-round exit (1:00); what happened to Harvick’s team this season? (5:00); why it’s tougher for teams to dig out of a hole right now in the early development of the Next Gen (7:30); Denny Hamlin’s belief that the driver matters more (10:00); “the driver today is much more like an NFL quarterback than ever before (13:00); Harvick answering those who asked if he had “checked out” (16:00); the difficult sides of a driver trying to soak in the final races of a career (20:00); Joey Logano’s championship defense abruptly ends after a difficult season (23:30); Bubba Wallace’s Round of 12 outlook (26:30); the dreaded Round of 12 layout (30:00); why Ryan Blaney wants Round of 12 chaos (31:00); outside of Hamlin and Larson, some other championship dark horses (33:00); Denny Hamlin’s embrace of the “villain” role (35:30); a good and authentic message that it sends (43:00);