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

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);  Visit www.nbcsports.com/nascar and www.nbcsports.com/motors for more NASCAR and motorsports coverage from NBC Sports. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.