Pit road is the special area where race teams pull in to service the car during a stop. If something goes wrong there, you can lose a lot of time and positions.
Side force is what keeps the car stuck to the road when it turns. If it gets reduced, the tires can’t grip as well, and the car can start to slide and spin.
A side skirt is a low panel near the bottom of the car that helps control air under the car. If it gets bent or rolls up, the car can lose “stickiness” and start handling badly.
Dirty air is messy airflow from other cars. When you’re behind someone, the air around your car can be less helpful, so the car may feel less stable or have less grip.
Concept
lead to the back
This describes the change in aerodynamic conditions between running in clean air (near the front) and running in disturbed airflow (toward the back). In NASCAR-style racing, that shift can noticeably affect grip and handling because the car’s aero performance depends on airflow quality.
The Nissan Skyline is a sports car made by Nissan. In racing, people sometimes use Skylines as competition cars for certain events or series. That’s why you might hear it mentioned when a race is coming up.
Air blocking is when one car gets in the way in a way that messes with the air flowing over the other car. That can make the other car slower or harder to drive, and it can lead to frustration and aggressive moves.
Term
wrecked together
“Wrecked together” means two drivers were involved in the same crash. When people mention it, they’re usually pointing out that there’s history between those drivers.
“Left front” is the front-left corner of the car. Saying where it hit helps explain how bad the damage was and why the car might behave differently after the crash.
A “short track” is a smaller race track. Because the turns and spacing are tighter, drivers get closer to each other more often, so crashes happen more easily.
The toe link is a suspension part that helps set the direction your front wheels point. If it gets bent, the car’s steering can feel off and the tires can wear or grip in a weird way.
This is about how people in racing—teams, drivers, and crew—often keep each other in line through reputation and social consequences, not just official penalties. The idea is that everyone knows what happened, so there’s pressure to behave.
In racing talk, “crossed a line” means the driver did something that went past normal, fair competition. It implies the move was too aggressive or not acceptable, and that’s when people expect consequences.
This means the driver has to deal with consequences after an incident. Sometimes that’s an official penalty, and sometimes it’s the racing community’s reaction—but either way, there’s supposed to be accountability.
“7” doesn’t clearly tell which car you mean. If you can share the full model name or the sentence around it, I can explain that exact car in a simple way.
NASCAR is the organization that runs stock-car races in the U.S. It also enforces rules and can punish drivers if it has enough proof that something wrong happened.
Here, “factual evidence” means solid proof that NASCAR can point to. The idea is they don’t punish someone just based on what people think happened—they need something verifiable.
“Admittance of guilt” means someone admits they did something wrong. The hosts are saying NASCAR can act when there’s either proof or an admission.
Concept
park him right then and there
“Park him” here means NASCAR/officials stop that driver from racing, usually right after the incident. The point is that handling it immediately is easier than trying to punish it later.
Term
O'Reilly program
In NASCAR context, an “O’Reilly program” refers to a team/driver seat supported by O’Reilly as a sponsor in the O’Reilly series. The host is talking about available ride spots tied to that sponsorship/series structure.
The “O’Reilly series” is a NASCAR racing series sponsored by O’Reilly. It’s a place drivers compete to prove themselves and potentially move into bigger teams.
A “diecast” is a small model car, usually made with metal, that copies a real race car. NASCAR fans like win diecasts because they show the car’s look from that specific victory.
Lionel Racing is a company that makes NASCAR model cars (diecasts). The host likes their win models because they include realistic details from the celebration and damage after the race.
Toyota is the car brand the host says has been doing really well in NASCAR lately. They’re talking about how Toyota cars stay fast even as tires get worn out.
Downforce is the “suction” effect from the car’s shape and wings that presses the car onto the track. More downforce usually means better grip and faster cornering.
Short run speed means how quickly the car can go right after a pit stop or restart, when the tires are still in their best shape. It’s a way to judge whether a team is strong early in a stint.
Tire wear is how the tires get used up during the race. As they wear out, they usually grip the track less, so the car can feel slower or harder to drive.
A pit cycle is the pattern of when cars come in for pit stops and when they go back out. Because pit timing affects track position, it can decide who leads after the stops.
Chicago here refers to a NASCAR event at a Chicago-area track. The key point is that it’s been a long time since the series visited and the cars haven’t raced there recently, so results can be less predictable.
Qualifying is when drivers race to set where they start for the main event. Better qualifying usually means you start closer to the front, which helps you during the race.
A tire run is how long a driver uses one set of tires during the race. As the tires wear out, the car can feel different, so teams plan when to pit and how to drive.
A handling racetrack is one where how the car turns and stays stable through corners matters a lot. If your setup is right, you can be competitive even if you’re not the fastest on top speed.
Wilkesboro is a NASCAR track in North Carolina. “The 450” means the race is 450 laps, and short tracks usually make tires and handling especially important.
Brand
Junior Merchant Sports
This is the name of the team/organization tied to Dale Jr.’s NASCAR efforts. The host is saying Chase Elliott will race for them in that Friday-night event.
It’s how well the car feels at the front when you turn in and start the corner. If the front is fast, the car can get into the turn confidently and keep momentum.
They’re talking about how, at Indianapolis, there’s basically one main line where cars can go fast. If you’re not on that line, it’s really hard to pass.
Clean air means the car isn’t being affected by the airflow from other cars. That usually helps the car run faster and more consistently.
Term
2311
2311 is a racing operation/team identifier in NASCAR. Here, they’re saying Toyota’s relationships with JGR and 2311 are helping the cars perform better.
The hosts describe a “team relationship” where one organization pays for information and coordination with another. In racing, that kind of partnership can translate into better setup decisions, faster development, and more consistent performance across multiple cars.
A winless streak just means the driver hasn’t won in a while. Fans and teams watch it because it can hint that the car isn’t working as well as it should.
“Slip” means the tires aren’t gripping the track as well as they should, so the car starts to slide. That makes the car harder to control, especially in corners.
This means the driver didn’t earn as many championship points as they could have. In NASCAR, those points matter a lot because they decide who has a shot at the championship later.
Concept
chances of winning the title go up
They’re talking about how your odds of winning the championship improve when you’re a little higher in the standings. In NASCAR, the points system means small differences can add up over the season.
They’re talking about a NASCAR race that happened in 2001 at Dover. Dover is a well-known NASCAR track, so mentioning the year and track is a way fans identify the exact event.
In NASCAR, “victory lane” is where the winner goes right after finishing. It’s basically the celebration area where they do interviews and take photos with the trophy and flag.
The Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s biggest race, run at Daytona. Winning it is a huge deal, and he’s describing how he chose to celebrate with his team instead of doing the standard interviews.
They’re talking about interviews that happen right after the race on the main straight. It’s a quick media routine that can make the celebration feel rushed.
The “infield” is the area inside the track, not on the racing lanes. Teams and drivers often hang out there because it’s close to where cars are serviced and where people gather.
“Donuts” are when a car spins in a circle on purpose, usually making smoke from the tires. Drivers sometimes do it for celebration after a race, if they’re allowed.
An open-face helmet is a helmet that doesn’t fully cover your face. Drivers sometimes like it because it feels cooler and more comfortable, but it protects less than a full-face helmet.
Street stocks are a grassroots stock-car racing class where cars are closer to production models than top-tier NASCAR machinery. Dale Jr. mentions them to explain why he used different helmets—because debris could come from under cars ahead.
A green-white-checkered is how NASCAR tries to end a race with a proper finish after a caution. It means the race restarts, then you get the white flag, and the race ends at the checkered flag—so everyone pushes hard at the end.
A control car is the car that helps lead and manage a restart, setting the pace and helping organize the field. It’s a key role because the restart determines how the race finishes.
Term
dies three wide
“Three wide” means three cars are trying to pass at the same time, side-by-side. It’s harder and riskier than passing two-wide, especially near the end of a race.
NASCAR has different racing series. The Truck Series is the one where they race pickup trucks, and he’s saying that in 2017 it was the one year his usual post-race routine wasn’t the same.
A burnout is when the driver spins the tires on purpose, usually making smoke. It’s a way to show celebration (and sometimes to warm the tires) right after the race.
Term
mic live for the whole whole crowd
This refers to the driver’s microphone being open to the entire audience during the interview. In NASCAR, that changes the interaction: the driver can directly feed off crowd reactions and hype them up in real time.
Topic
fishing reel
They’re talking about a specific celebration move—something like a signature gesture. The host is asking if that’s going to be Dale Jr.’s new go-to celebration.
Term
adjustment
An adjustment is a change to the car’s setup—usually made by the team during a pit stop—to improve how the car drives. If the car is too loose or too tight, the team tweaks it so the driver can go faster safely.
A longer run means staying out longer before the next pit stop. Some race setups feel better as tires wear, so a car that’s good on longer runs can be faster toward the end.
A “total link” is part of the suspension that helps hold the wheels in the right relationship to the chassis. If it gets bent in a crash, the car can handle unpredictably—often getting loose and wanting to spin.
This is the last pit stop you make while the race is still going at full speed. Since it’s late, what your team does there—like adjustments and timing—can decide who wins.
Drivers can tell a lot from how much they have to turn the steering wheel. If the wheel angle suddenly changes and the car goes sideways, it often means the tires or suspension aren’t behaving the way they should.
Atlanta is a NASCAR race track. It’s the kind of place where drivers can push hard and try to make the most of each run, instead of just relying on drafting like at the biggest superspeedway tracks.
Super speedway racing is NASCAR on the biggest, fastest tracks. Cars run close together, so wind and drafting matter a lot, and it can be harder to avoid big wrecks.
It means you’re behind in the season standings by a certain number of points. The host is saying that in NASCAR, those gaps can shrink fast if you have strong finishes.
They’re talking about the season scoreboard—who’s ahead and who’s behind based on race results. They’re trying to figure out what kind of finishes you need to stay in championship contention.
A cutoff is the point where the standings become “too far” for certain drivers to realistically catch up. After that line, they’re basically out of the main championship fight.
They’re talking about being in the top five in the season standings. In NASCAR, that kind of position can make it much more likely you’ll have a real shot at the championship.
They’re saying that being in the top six in the standings is a strong position. The host is using past results to suggest it usually leads to winning the championship.
These are races where cars benefit from running close together. The car behind can go faster because it’s riding in the air “wake” of the car in front.
A parlay is a bet that bundles multiple picks together. You usually get bigger payout odds, but you have to be right on every pick.
Term
teammates working together late in the race
Late in the race, teammates can coordinate to help each other. That might mean working together in traffic so one of them has a better chance to finish up front.
On “drafting tracks,” one car can get help from the air behind another car. That makes it easier to catch up and pass, but you have to be in the right spot at the right time.
LIVE
The following is a production of Dirty Moe Media.
This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half.
I don't know if we've ever argued.
Did I piss you off over the weekend or?
I'm still sour that I want the best man at your win.
Who was your best man, Dale?
DJ.
DJ.
You don't need a cool vest for that race.
What are you thinking?
Get him, DJ.
That's the way it's starting to show.
All right then.
Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr.
Download.
We are not in the Arby's studio, but you can still go get your new Meet 3 Box.
You get more mail for your money at Arby's.
We have the meets and we have a great show for you today.
We got a lot to talk about.
TJ is here.
TJ is remote.
Look at you, buddy.
TJ is remote.
Yeah, he's upstairs.
I'm in my little room where I got my SimRigo, my shoulder.
Y'all seen this?
We're excited about the show.
We got a lot to talk about.
There is a lot that went on, especially if it was the first stage.
Yeah, first stage.
Anyhow, right out of the gate, I want to shout out Jamie McMurray,
he's my teammate at the TNT, which TNT is doing a hell of a job.
We made some big gains over last year.
I'm pretty happy about it.
I know people are still pretty particular about our broadcasts,
and as they should be, and I love to read the feedback, but I think we made it.
We got a badass sort of college game day style set for the pre and the post race.
We're doing a pretty kind of a by the seat of your pants,
pre and post race with some great characters and everybody can kind of
just get up there and say whatever they want,
which, you know, that's, it's fun.
So we've been doing that.
And I want to shout out Jamie McMurray because boy, he turned me on to something.
I pull stuff off of Twitter.
Like I found this handy little 5, 10, 15 lab average deal off of social media.
I wish I could.
Yeah, I wish I, is that who it is?
I think he does a lot of that stuff.
Well, I don't want to get it wrong.
I wish I could credit.
I should be able to credit that guy, my bad.
There's so many people that have awesome grass and stuff on Twitter.
This is a picture of the screen from the monitor on the,
this is just lap times.
Kind of the same thing.
But I can add, I know this is like everybody knows how to do this,
but Jamie McMurray.
So we're in the car or we're on the plane.
I don't know where we're head to the race.
And man, we get all of this information from racing insights.
Our friend Russell and all the guys racing insights are freaking awesome.
And they make our job so much easier.
And so, but they send us all this stuff and we have to, you know, we print it out.
And I've been doing it, you know, doing this job for almost a decade now.
And so you got like probably 150 pages of stuff printed out
and you don't use all of it and you won't.
And if I read through all of it, I would probably,
I throw away three quarters of it.
I'm not going to use it.
It's just not something I'm interested in talking about
or it's not a stat that matters to me.
And I just grabbed the that matters and I put it, I put it in a little pile.
But man, when you're doing the race, you ain't got time to look at all that.
And Steve LaTart went paperless this year.
He does everything off his iPad.
So Jamie and Murray told me about a program
that would allow me to get my little iPad pen and do all of this paperless.
So this was my first weekend where I didn't print a thing.
And it's kind of like, you know, going to work naked.
I don't know.
I don't know how to explain it.
It was very nerve wracking, but it was so, so much easier.
And so shout out to Jamie for giving me the confidence to do it.
And man, I love it.
And so think about how much less clutter you're going to have back at home
because you can just store all this.
Yeah, I know nobody will know this or think about this or care.
But our qualifying show was, I thought it was,
I thought for me, it felt a thousand times better.
The things we were commenting on, the information we had,
the way the show flowed and how, you know,
and I think it was just because it was all easier
for me to get to where I wanted to go in my mind
with all of this on one big space, you know, one big page.
I can just kind of move from one side of this document to the other
and get to exactly what I want to talk about immediately.
And so I was wanting to credit Jamie.
He's a good dude, good teammate.
And so anyhow, Chicago Land was awesome.
I think we had a ton of rain.
And when I tell you, it was raining hard.
It's hardest I've ever had it rain.
It was so loud, raining sideways at times,
but the drops of rain were like baseballs.
It sounded like just big old, big old drops hitting the ceiling
of this, of this fifth wheel as in shout out camping world.
They, they sent me a fifth wheel to stay in and it's freaking awesome.
So we're, you know, it's just pouring rain saturating the ground
and everybody's, you know, probably saw all the,
you know, parking lots destroyed and cars stuck.
So what that meant was when the race started,
there was traffic a mile and a half, two miles long
trying to get into the racetrack, not moving, locked down.
You know, I don't, I don't run the racetrack.
I don't know what, I know they had to shut down a lot of parking lots
and that created some problems.
I don't necessarily want to get into that debate.
I just know that it happened and we're not going to gloss over it.
I don't know what they could have done differently to make it easier,
but I'm actually kind of surprised that that didn't, that's not a little bit.
I haven't really been on social media, but I'm kind of surprised
that I haven't heard more about that.
So I suppose even though it was very inconvenient for a lot of people,
I don't know what you guys might have been picking up on those last couple of days.
The, the race pole, which is not official, but it's something that I love that Jeff
Clark does, got a, like 80% or so.
I think it was like 82, 86%.
It was really high.
Pretty high.
Yeah.
So I'm like, Hey, you know, usually even the people that,
usually the people that do this poll, even if they didn't go to the race,
if they see that traffic, they'll vote no, you know, or if they see,
if they see like a glaring issue, they'll go, ah, no, not a good race.
Were you talking about Sunday or Saturday?
Sunday.
So Sunday, I watched it quite a bit.
I got to the roof quite a bit early and, um, I know they had brought in,
I talked to a couple of people and honestly, I thought the traffic flowed
into the lots where they could park.
And I guess they, they've got 17 buses and had a constant cycle
of buses going to the parking lots.
And, um, it was close enough to still walk and stuff too.
But like, honestly, I thought, I thought traffic flowed in.
NASCAR wanted us to back to race up eight minutes.
Yeah.
Because people were still in the line in traffic.
Yeah.
So I guess the line to get in was less than an eight, what was like,
I think it was an eight minute, an eight minute line.
And that's just like, I mean, it was flowing in.
Yeah.
I got you.
Well, yeah.
And I, I mean, not, I mean, a lot of people probably, we had some,
I hear you, bud.
We had some cameras looking at it, you know, and it's like,
you know, those cars aren't moving and it's way out there.
There's a camera would zoom out and you're like, and the race is happening.
Hell, it was still a line of cars trying to get in when the first stage was over.
Yeah.
I didn't, I mean, I was working.
I didn't see that point before the race.
So like, but is that, is that, I don't, I'm not, I didn't want to,
I don't want to make this part of the show.
I just wanted to mention it, but the race.
So the traffic issue was what it was because of the rain.
I hate it.
I don't know what they could have done differently.
I'm sure there's a lot of people disappointed.
I haven't heard a ton of pushback around it.
We got a great, we got a, yeah, we got a great, was it a good race pole,
which is awesome.
Drivers talked about how much they love this racetrack.
Every single driver that I heard from said, bring it back.
Love it.
Awesome racetrack.
Want to do it again.
And I talked to Steve O'Donnell and they absolutely want to go back to Chicago Land.
And he's like, he told me on Thursday, he's like, Hey, man,
it's look like we might be sold out.
I was like, no, I heard all these bad things about ticket sales
and how in the hell did we get to a sell out?
And sure, we had an awesome crowd.
Yeah.
Crowd was bad ass.
There was a lot of people there.
Yeah.
So there was a lot of people.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know, 40,000.
I heard some numbers.
Maybe it was 60.
I don't know what it is.
That's a great number.
I mean, you're drawing all those folks out and it'd been raining all weekend.
Traffic was mud everywhere and we still had all those folks come out.
So if we get relatively decent weather, maybe they move it to and, you know,
maybe they move back a couple of weeks or forward a couple of weeks.
I don't know when it needs to be, but hopefully we get back there next year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The track also, like I went for a walk underneath the Grand Sands between
sessions and there they had a ton of options.
A lot of going on down there.
There was a lot of there was like the fan area was awesome.
There's tons of food stuff, man.
Oh, yeah.
Third party vendors.
There's everything, man, like a lot.
So I was very impressed with it.
Well, I was happy.
So just, you know, quickly we get to, we'll go over the O'Reilly race.
There was, I don't know, man, that race.
When you look at the statistics in the rundown, you got, I don't know,
Junior Motorsports had four cars in the top 12 or some not terrible, but,
you know, of course Chase getting beat by Brandon Jones on that final restart.
Brandon Jones just did a great job.
Got to give Brandon Jones his flowers.
Guy used to drive for us.
I know what kind of driver he is and I know what kind of guy he is.
And so pretty solid dude and, you know, shout out to him just doing a hell of a job on that
final restart.
He got a great position going down the back straight away on Chase and often the three
Chase just buried it in there, but couldn't, couldn't outperform the 20 car on the top.
So that was frustrating because I wanted Chase to win because Chase has fun in our cars.
I wanted to give him a good enough car to win and I don't think we did.
So, you know, that we'll get another shot at it at Indy with Chase, which will be fun in the 88.
The seven car, Algar had a really quick car, probably a top three car,
but they had a couple of mistakes.
One on pit road.
It was, it was costly.
You know, the eight car struggled tight, no good balance.
The, the nine car couple balance wasn't good, but he fought hard on restarts and was able
to get some track position and do okay.
Um, and, uh, yeah.
Who am I forgetting?
Quiet race.
Otherwise.
Yeah.
Connor.
Connor.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Connor had a badass car at the start of the race.
He did.
He had his car just drove perfect and then they ran him out of gas.
Um, he was low on fuel, probably had about a gallon and a half and ran it out of gas up on the banking.
So, um, not a, I wouldn't, it was a mistake, uh, not a fluke deal, not a, you know, not a happens.
It was a mistake on our part.
There was others that did it too.
Yeah.
And so once he got back there, he, just a couple of the things knocked the side off of it, killed the side force.
The, uh, side skirt rolled up under the car.
He just, the car just wouldn't drive in good after that and spun it out.
Dirty airs, dirty airs.
Way different when you're back.
I mean, it's just different from where, when you go from the lead to the back, it's hard, man.
Yeah.
I'm going to tell you though, man, it looked like a lot of fun.
They got on the fence and, uh, used all the racetrack.
But, um, so a rally was fun, but not as good as I'd hoped, not as good as I expected.
And, uh, JRM left there feeling like we got some work to do.
Do you feel like an earlier race for a rally, like a one o'clock race would have been,
you know, a better start for even for, even for a cup and earlier start to that way.
Cause I mean, I thought the race was good, but if you give, if that's a hot slick track, man,
I know.
I mean, yeah, I think the hotter the track, the better the race, especially there.
Same.
But, but it's, you know, they, they want to get the fans a comfortable experience and they are,
you know, they got the lights and all they spent all this money on the lights.
So, um, I think they've actually upgraded the lights there to LED.
It's like a couple of million dollars project.
So you're going to use them damn things if you spend that kind of money on it.
So, um, I know a couple of other tracks.
I won't say which ones are getting new LEDs, not new lights.
They're just getting their current lights replaced.
Yeah.
Um, which will be what you don't want to say.
Well, it wasn't my story to tell.
So, you know, sometimes I don't, you know, these guys will tell me this happened in the elevator.
Guys like, Hey man, go and get me some new or putting in some new lights over at such and such.
Yeah.
And I'm like, all right, I don't know if I need to tell that information, but anyhow,
so cool, cool to have them.
All right, everybody.
It's the weekend you've all been waiting for and it's coming here fast.
July the 17th through the 19th.
North Wilkesboro Speedway comes alive with the window world for 50.
It's three days of racing, old school excitement.
You can't miss it.
The action is going to kick off Friday with the Zmax cars tour.
We have the late model Spears manufacturing 75 for the pros.
And then late model stock cars will be running the Skyline National Bank 100.
Saturday we'll have the Craftsman Truck Series for the Fate Fest 250.
And then of course Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series stars will take on one of the most
historic racetracks on the season with the window world 450.
Points racing is back at North Wilkesboro.
And you need to be there to see it.
Before the green flag flies, we'll have multi-platinum country hit makers
saw your brown for a pre-race concert.
That's free for anybody who's in attendance.
Be part of the most epic race weekend all summer.
Grab your tickets now for the window world 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.com.
Let's get into the, uh, the cup race.
Hmm. Uh, two incidents in stage one, I believe a lap one.
Yeah. Well, you talking about the lap one was lap one.
Let's talk about that.
So John a hundred Nima check squeezes Stenhouse into the fence.
Stenhouse lifts off the gas after slapping the wall and was it priests?
Yeah.
Precepts.
Precepts.
Precepts.
Avoid and lift.
Precepts has to avoid and Connor has to avoid priests.
And it's just, they all go, nobody hitting anything except for Connor.
Like they didn't hit each other.
It was kind of strange when you first looked at it.
It's like, oh, Chris, priest comes across the track hits Connor.
That didn't happen.
Yeah.
I thought that happened and I thought that's what happened.
I didn't too.
And so, um, but poor Connor, man, he just can't catch a break.
I know.
I don't know what to, I don't know what to think about it because I, I mean, I can't really remember
a driver having this much, this big of a role, long of a run of bad luck.
I mean, I'm sure there's probably all kinds of drivers screaming right now when they're
hearing this going, boy, I had a run like that.
You know, everybody's probably had a little stretch of races like this, but I can't, you know,
we got such a spotlight on him because of how great his season was last year and how
hyped he is as a rookie, but the universe is not pleased.
I don't know what he needs to do, but just keep showing up, you know, that's all you can do.
The organization, the cars aren't good enough right now.
And Justin Marx has talked about that.
They know they got to get better.
And they're, you know, they got all the right people there.
They definitely got the right crop of drivers.
I think they got some of the most talented drivers of the, of the three that they have.
And so, um, personnel as well, they've got a lot of good people.
Yeah, you just got to keep showing up.
Yeah.
Till it clicks.
But, um, yeah, it was a tough deal to see, man.
It was like out of all the cars out there.
I mean, always Connor.
Yeah, I, I, I pull for Connor.
I pull for all these guys.
I pull for Zane Smith too.
I don't know, you know, Zane Smith goes down in the corner and wipes out Hosevar and he wipes
himself out.
I'm like, what in the hell?
What was that?
What was going on?
The last couple of laps that started that and honestly, I don't know that anything
was going on.
Maybe Hosevar did a little air blocking or something that pissed him off.
Um, I asked TV to go back and look for something if there was some contact or
something that might have pissed Zane off.
But we know that they wrecked together at Iowa last year.
And then I believe at some point during the Nashville race, Zane swiped at the
77 and missed.
I know there was a race somewhere in my mind this year where Zane went after
Hosevar and didn't get him.
Um, would you guys say you recall something similar?
Oh yeah.
And so those instances definitely happened.
Yes.
There's a history.
And so I guess I'm a little surprised that I tried to, I reached out to Zane and he
didn't reply back to me.
Um, but I was like, you know, I'm sure he's pissed off.
I'm like, dude, I like the aggression, but you can't wreck yourself.
You know, you just can't do that.
There's too much.
Man, there's so much.
He puts too much effort into this to go out there and do that to himself.
You know, not to mention the car and the crew and the ownership and partners.
You've had speed lately and not just ruined the race.
I know it.
I'm like, dude, you got all this great positive momentum.
Um, I just hated to see it because I like him.
I like him as, as a driver and as a person.
I like Zane a lot and I want him to be around.
I want his deal to work.
I want him to be a successful race car driver in this sport.
And I don't know that he's got enough roots into the ground to make those kind of things
go out there and do those kind of things.
Now, if you're established, you've got a bunch of wins and you go out there and throw a race
by, you know, if you're pissed off and want to want to get after somebody, you know,
you can throw a race and get a get away with it, it.
But I just was disappointed there, but, um, I'm just wondering if anything happened
leading up to that during the Chicago land race, or was that just still like a year's
worth of I'm mad and I'm getting you.
Here it is.
Um, later on SVG would park Austin Hill into the fence backwards.
Um, SVG, um, on the incident with Austin Hill said I was shooting for the bottom trying to
get clean air.
It was really, it was so tight, meaning the situation was tight and he chopped my nose
and got into the wall.
Um, he said, he's sorry about that.
Sorry to the guys.
They're all nice people and it happens.
And he said, they asked him if the contact was intentionally said no.
And SVG, when you speak to Hill, he said, I'll talk to him, but he just grunts
and then Hill was mad in his car.
He goes, you wait, you know, like, I'm going to get that fool.
Y'all just wait on, you know, wait, I'm going to get my opportunity.
So this ain't over.
Um, well, did you see what Hill did on leaving pit road?
So he'll pulls off pit road and, uh, unfortunately we missed that on the broadcast,
which I'm, I'm mad at myself about, or I'm mad at us, I guess for, for not, not seeing that.
But, um, he pulls off pit road and drives into the left front of the 97.
That is, that's some short track.
I mean, we all have wanted to do it.
We've all maybe done it at some point in our careers.
And, uh, boy, you get wrecked.
You want to go out there and you want to wreck him.
You, if you, if you, Austin Hill knows his race is over.
But, oh yeah, he knows it above the roof.
He knows his race is over.
And so when your race is over, you're like, I want his race to be over.
And so what can I do on my way out to make his day a long one?
Right.
So he goes over and slaps him in the damn left front trying to bend the toe link or do something.
Right.
And maybe he did.
But, um, you know that I, I guess we can talk about, I know that Denny was, you know,
had some comments about this, should the sport police itself, all that stuff.
And that's kind of what I saw on Sunday was the garage policing itself.
You know, and there's a, I think there's a, there's a line.
I don't know that I think that Zane crossed it because he wrecked himself.
He crossed a, he crossed a line that maybe, you know, as a driver, you don't want to cross.
Oh, a hundred percent.
But the thing about like turning a guy that pissed you off,
I don't know how to articulate this.
Zane, Zane has to be embarrassed.
You know what I mean?
So Zane has his punishment when he goes back and, you know, that's right.
Everybody in the sport, everybody in the industry in the garage knows Zane and he knows they know.
And that's, he's serving his penalty, right?
He's serving his shame.
And that's the same way for all these incidents, right?
We don't need to eradicate it or rid it from the sport.
Wouldn't you agree?
Like a little bit of this is a good thing.
And the potential that that guy on the racetrack might park your ass,
that being a possibility needs to be in there, right?
And so it keeps some guys in line.
We need a lot more of that, in my opinion.
We need the, we need a lot more.
That's how it used to be.
It used to kind of, you didn't mess with people and the racing was better.
You couldn't just drive through people and do things you did because there were repercussions.
Now everybody, you feel like they feel like they're protected
and they can get away with it.
I agree.
And there's
my whole, the only thing I care about in all of this, I think, is these type of moments are
TV gold and they are podcast gold storyline.
Oh, they're internet.
Boy, social media gold.
Yes, sir.
So that is what our sport needs.
We need controversy.
We need some ruffled feathers.
We need some hurt feelings.
We need some guys that are pissed off and there is a line though.
There's a line that you can't cross.
That is, that would be in the, that would be in the name of safety, right?
We don't want to write right hook.
Like there's a way to turn a guy.
You want to wreck a guy?
There's a way to do it that I wouldn't say is respected, but it's accepted.
Was Sunday accepted?
Well, no right hooks.
I didn't see any right hooks.
Now, you know, Zane Reck and himself, we talked about that, but yeah, yeah.
If we're just hypothetically, if SBG did that on purpose, that's, that's the
traditional way to park a guy.
Now we don't want, we don't want right hooks.
Nobody does and drivers know that's like against the code.
So there's a line, right?
We want aggression.
We want guys pissed off.
We want some people doing some, they shouldn't be doing.
It's great for TV.
It's great for our sport.
It draws fans.
People are going to talk about it.
People are going to tune in next week.
Anytime SVG and Austin, he'll get around each other.
We're all going to be watching.
And so that's a good thing.
And I think also if you let the guys place this stuff, they know that line.
Whenever you see the right hooks, it's never been like payback.
It's heat of the moment.
Them trying to like, it's never been like an intentional like premeditated thing.
I feel like I say, I'm, if we sit here and go, man, I love that.
I want more of that.
Jeff Burton, the mayor who has safety top of mind is going to say, oh, that's good to a point.
Now, you know, we can't be hurting people and he's right.
And so I always kind of think about like, when I talk or say something, I think about what my
peers or the people that I respect might think about my comment or my opinion.
I will, I liked it.
I want more of it.
I hope it continues.
I don't want them to fix it.
Hosts of our, you know, we, we, we were trying to get host of our and
Hyme on the show together and, and host of our for the winners interview and host of ours,
like, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to, to fix the relationship.
And he's like, I like, he, he respects Hyme a ton that absolutely there's no way they
don't respect each other's ability, but he doesn't want to fix it.
Right.
He's like, I kind of like the rivalry.
I kind of want to keep it.
I want to, I want to have a rival or more multiple rivals, right?
And so I like that attitude and that's kind of what, you know, we need guys like that,
but also we need guys on the track like SVG and even Austin Hill.
We've seen him just not put up with Parker guy, right?
And so, you know, it's wild when those, those two hard heads, you know, run into each other
and they're, they're, I said it on the post race.
They're a couple of big boys.
So it'll be interesting to see how this kind of resolves itself.
More than likely nine times out of 10, it, it's, uh, it's kind of a conversation that
happens in the NASCAR truck or they get them together eventually if it continues.
Yeah.
Do you think it's at that point now?
Or do you think Elton Sawyer and those type of guys, they probably will get them together.
They probably will.
I bet you a thousand bucks that Elton Sawyer has a plan to speak to both of them this week.
And if he don't get them together, he's definitely going to have a conversation with him.
Does SVG get fined though?
Because you look at the pre-sincident.
Now there was the verbal stuff that hurt priests, but you can't, you can't admit it.
If he doesn't admit it, NASCAR can't assume or NASCAR could assume.
I mean, we all watched it and I mean, we're comfortable to sit here and go.
I thought it was intentional.
Zane, I thought it was intentional.
SVG, I thought it was intentional.
And we can comfortably sit here and say that, right?
But for, for whatever reason, and I'm sure there's a good one, NASCAR won't assume.
NASCAR will only act when they've got factual evidence or an admittance of guilt,
you know, and, and that's the kind of way they've done this in the past.
If, I think if you, you don't react in the moment, like when we're doing these
short track races and a guy wrecks somebody intentionally, if you don't park him right
then and there, it's kind of hard to park him next week.
It's harder.
Now you can do it, but it's just harder.
Everything, it makes fans mad because you didn't react in the moment.
It makes the drivers that got wrecked mad that you didn't react in the moment.
And that's the way, that's the way people prefer it is like, if SVG parks him, you go,
all right, SVG, that was intentional, man, bring it to the penalty box, five laps,
something like that, right?
That's what they did with dad at Charlottesville Speedway.
You know, he run over Jeff, but I, and they brought his ass into a penalty box for five laps
or something like that.
It was somebody.
Maybe it was, uh, he spun out or, uh, Phil Parsons, I can't remember who it was, somebody.
But, um, if you don't do it in that moment, it gets harder as time goes on, right?
You get days removed from it.
But if they're, I mean, it's a weird box.
They're kind of in now though, because I don't think what priest did,
priest was being raised the way that he didn't appreciate being raised and he handled it.
And he would, you know, he said too much, but like, dude, you said too much.
And then he went on to me, to me, if I say I'm done with you, like, yeah, but you know,
I know what you're saying, but like, no, but he went on TV.
He went on radio shows Monday and Tuesday and said more.
Yeah.
Well, I'm just saying like during the race, if you say you're done with a guy like,
how about how speaking of priests, how about him getting upset that we used his audio
and conversation during practice?
Did y'all hear about this?
So it was all over social.
Yes.
I mean, during practice, we've talked about his head rest multiple times where we'll
do an in-car camera and he's down in the corner and his head's moving around and we
talk about his head rest and how he likes his head rest a little differently than most people.
And we talk about it not in a negative way.
Like, oh, look at that head rest.
It's wrong.
Yeah.
We just talk about how it's different.
And during the practice, so they've asked him apparently in the off season to change
his head rest, maybe raise it up, maybe tighten up the gap between the helmet and the padding.
I don't know.
They made him make adjustments.
He don't love that.
He don't want that.
But he did it this weekend.
I guess maybe, you know, he started easing those adjustments out.
I don't know.
But this weekend, they walk over there as they do every single week.
They got guys, they got inspectors like David Green that walk around and look at everything.
And if they don't like something, they say something.
And so they didn't like something about priest's head rest and they asked him to change it.
And he was pissed.
And he'd come over to the radio during practice talking about it.
Or he was in his garage stall.
I'm not sure where he was, whatever.
But he's talking about it on the radio.
Well, they played it and we talked about it on TV.
No big deal.
No f***ing big deal.
But he was, he was a little bit annoyed, I guess, that that conversation wasn't more private.
And, but honestly, man, it's just a, I don't know why
I don't, don't know, you know,
there must be more to it.
Yeah.
I don't understand.
That's not a big deal to me that we, that that story was talked about in this little moment during
practice, you know, I don't know.
I think anytime a driver is frustrated on the radio, TV or social keys in on it.
Now, I mean, we got, we have to have such great access to stuff.
We, yeah, but I mean, yeah, it's your job.
If there's a conversation going on that we pick up on and we think it's interesting,
we're going to talk about it.
It's your job.
Yeah.
But back to Austin Hill.
Do you think he's going to get punished though for the pit road incident?
Now that, yes.
Cause I think that could, that could work.
Pit road is like a no-no.
Well, he did this off a turn two.
Yeah, it was on the best, on the race track.
But it's, but you know, I honestly,
I could see him being penalized where I could say they might not penalize SVG.
And I know people aren't, aren't going to agree with that, especially if you're an
Austin Hill fan or if you work at RCR.
I mean, I don't know though.
He didn't say he was going to do it.
It's under caution though.
Like that's the, he, I don't know, man.
That's a tough one.
It's a bad spot.
It's car with damage.
I agree.
Yeah.
You could, you could, if he, I mean,
his car with damage didn't want to turn right there.
TJ, you, you're not wrong.
You're not wrong.
If he were to say that, you know, I'm sure if they did penalize him and he'd appeal it,
and that would be his argument.
But that's a tough spot to be in if you're NASCAR and you're, and that's, you know,
here, here they put yourself in their shoes, man.
All these, all you folks listening, put yourself in NASCAR shoes.
You got to react.
Are you going to penalize FDG or are you going to penalize Hill for what he did?
Who are you going to penalize?
Who are you not going to penalize?
I'm going to do this.
What are you going to do?
Just look the other way.
All right.
Nothing happened.
I thought you brought up something interesting though on the post-race show.
And you mentioned that as with this new format with the chase, could we see drivers that
having bad seasons are back and they're having issues with drivers?
Are we going to see more of this?
And I think if NASCAR lets us happen, I think you're going to see a little more of this.
And like, I'm here for it.
Me too.
I think I, I, I feel like that, you know, we made the points change, the system change,
and we made it for, for good reasons and that those were obvious.
But there's also going to be some additional benefits that we didn't expect or we didn't
recall about what the system created and produced in the past.
And with winning your end, every car in the field today is alive in a potential playoff
car, right?
Or a potential chase car.
And so they go to the racetrack thinking, you know, that's their, that's their Z,
that's their hollow, narrow focus is like, we're going to win this race.
Yeah.
And so
even though they know, you know, there, there's a likelihood that they won't win it,
they're still alive.
Yeah.
What happened last week doesn't matter anymore.
We can still win this week.
Yeah.
Now that, now that, now that stuff carries over.
Dude, the guy that's 20th in points or I'm probably further back in that,
the guy that's 25th in points knows that his ass ain't going to make the chase.
And he's just like grinding through these weeks.
He's not the one to mess with.
He is not the one to f*** with.
He is not the one to mess with, which I kind of like.
And we don't know like, I don't know what the deal is with Austin Hill.
I don't know what the, you know, if he's in line for that car next year, he might be under
the spotlight a little bit or the pressure might be on him to perform right now.
And that just took a race away from him as well, you know, and.
Yeah, I'd be surprised, I guess, if he doesn't get that deal.
I think he's run, run fairly decent in that car.
I think he's done, done a good job.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll see.
I want to see the rest of the season, but I think he's training in the right direction
for Austin to get the ride.
Um, and they got a lot of, they got a lot of, uh, you know, time with him.
They know who he is.
Yeah, he fits there well too.
Yeah.
I'll be interested to see though, as if he moves on, that opens up the spot on their,
on their O'Reilly program.
They got two opening spots on their O'Reilly program with Jesse Love going to the 21.
And so, uh, that's going to create quite a bit of churn in the O'Reilly series.
There's going to be a, I think O'Reilly series silly season is going to be quite dynamic.
Well, I can't wait to see who gets those spots.
Yeah.
Hey, everybody.
The 2026 season is in full swing and we've already had some really incredible moments
while we love this sport.
And when it comes to capturing those historical NASCAR moments, nobody does it better
than Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR.
Their race win diecasts are some of my absolute favorites in my collection.
The scuffs, scrapes, confetti, the damage, every detail that tells the story of that win.
It's in these diecasts.
These things look like they were pulled straight out of victory lane.
And right now Lionel Racing is offering free domestic shipping just for Dale Jr.
download listeners.
You can use this promo code download26 at checkout.
Head over to lionelracing.com to lock in your favorite NASCAR moments into your collection today.
So Toyota has been dominating this the cup season
and they did come away with the win this weekend.
They had seven cars in the top 10.
But it looks to me like the tide is turning a little bit.
The Toyotas have an awesome amount of downforce and speed built into their cars
and they are taking advantage of it.
But I'm telling you, Ford and Chevrolet are closing the gap.
They're starting to show up with the short run speed they need to be able to match the Toyotas.
They still got a little bit to go to be able to run as fast as a Toyota does over 40 laps.
So as the tires wear, as the track gets slick, as things start to get more challenging,
the Toyotas continue to perform where the other cars start to struggle.
Some gains still need to be made within the Chevy and the Fords, but they're getting there.
And we are rolling toward this chase and we've had Kyle Larson up on the desk
pre-race and he says, I got confidence that we can get there.
I wasn't so sure at the start of the year, but now I'm seeing it.
I know he busted his ass in the race this weekend, but the five car was fast.
The 24 had two great stages and gave the lead up on a pit cycle,
a green flag pit cycle. I don't know if that would have mattered in the end,
but didn't seem to have the pace he needed just for the final run to the checkered.
But still, I'm starting to, it's so fun because there for a while, I don't know how you guys feel,
but there for a while, I was like kind of digging the Toyota dominance.
But as anything is, you know, get too much of anything, you're kind of like, all right,
now let's get some other boys up here. Let's see some, you know,
let's see somebody come up here and challenge them. It's getting pretty interesting because I
think that before long, I don't know if they'll get it all this year to be able to beat them,
but I still feel like that the Toyotas will be just too good all year, but they're getting closer.
And it looks like HMS is probably the one team that I think gets there first. What do you guys
think? I mean, I think we're starting to go back to some tracks now. Going back to Atlanta,
we'll see a little bit. We'll probably, I don't know if it'll be the best test for it,
but you'll probably be able to see a little bit of how it's going to shake out some. I feel like
some gains have been made. I still think they're by far the best, but I don't know. I want to go
back. I think Chicago is a, no one's been there in so long and these cars haven't been on that track
yet. So it was kind of a cleaner slate than some other places. You know what I mean? Like,
it was just kind of a clean slate going there. And we saw that we saw a pretty big variety in
qualifying qualifying was a lot, a lot more equal than, than what we've probably seen in a long time.
You know, don't you think? Yeah. I mean, I was happy to see the RFK speed qualifying,
Chevrolet put some cars up into the top 10. There was a lot of parody there in the top five.
Yeah. But you know, we, we look at the race, the race starts. I know that Byron won the first
two stages, but generally you begin the, you begin to run any tire run and every, you know,
there might be a Chevrolet that's really fast. There might be a Ford that's pretty good.
And they're all kind of mixed and mingling in and around a bunch of Toyotas. But as we get to lap 20,
30, 40, the gap starts to widen. So, you know, the Toyotas just continue to perform as tires get
mad and hot. The other cars just start to struggle just a bit. But the gap is closing.
Atlanta is a handling racetrack. Atlanta will be an opportunity though for a Ford or a Chevrolet
to pop off a win and take one away from the Toyotas. And then you go to Wilkesboro, the 450,
which is something I'm super excited about. Yeah. I am really looking forward to that weekend.
Got the cars tour race on Friday night. Chase Elliott's racing for Junior Merchant Sports
there. We're going to have, I think Zane Smith might be in that race, but we got a few cup guys
that are going to run that. I don't think that that's a place where, you know, you could just
easily say the Toyotas can dominate. I think the short tracks are kind of free game. Don't you think,
TJ? Well, it's definitely a more even playing field when you go to, I mean, we don't, we don't
all have huge notebooks for tire fall off there, you know, and, and long races and how they're
going to play out. I'm, I'm really excited to see, I think you get a little bit of everything there.
You can have some front end speed, but you're going to, what I like about it is at some point
they're going to catch the back of the pack. And when they catch the back of the pack, that brings
second closer to first, third closer to second. And next thing you know, we got guys all over
each other trying to make a pass from a guy that's not letting them get the preferred lane.
That's right. You know, so it's going to do a lot. And if we get into a long run there,
which I'm hoping, I'm hoping with the package and stuff that we can, we can hurt the tires if you
run too fast a little bit and do yourself some damage in a long run and kind of have all that
put into a bowl at the same time. And, and that would make for a great race. Yeah.
I like it. And we go to Indianapolis. And I think if you put any car in the lead at the end of that
race, they keep it. It's a single lane racetrack. There's no way to pass. You know, if the leaders
out there in clean air, you, there's really no way to pass them.
Super hard. Yeah. Yeah. That's going to be a fuel mileage race. Yeah. You just got to put your,
yeah, it is. You just got to, you're going to call that race to try to put your car out front.
Yes. What'd you guys make of Brad's comments about how Toyota is JGR and 2311 working better
together and that's helping fuel their success? I think, you know, 2311 pays JGR a big chunk of
money to have that relationship. And so that's why, but I don't, I mean, I think they pay,
but I also, I also see those guys, they do work good together. I mean, you can see it.
And I think a big part of that's because of Denny. You know, I think Denny promotes that and,
and pushes for that. And it's, it's almost like a, a seven car team in, in one
aspect. They do all work. work well with each other, in my opinion. Like you can,
you can kind of see it. And if, if they might pay for the, the, the, you know, the information and
technology and stuff, but I still think if, you know, if 2311 were to find some speed at something,
I do think it translates back over to the other side as well. I think their relationships are
just that good. And I think that's more of what you know, he's not talking about the,
you know, paying for the note stuff. I know he's not. Yeah. He's talking more about just
the, but I think that here they all get it. Yeah. But I think the checks, what makes it easier.
The check doesn't hurt. Yeah. So yeah.
Brad just, I think that Brad is trying to,
so Brad's using the media as, as leverage to try to get Ford to react in the manner that he wants
them to react. Brad, Brad isn't trying to change anything about what Toyota does. He's only trying
to use the media to say, so, so Ford will hear it and go, maybe we need to do something, you know,
to make this better. Cause I've noticed Brad over the last several weeks, get more and more vocal
about this is he's getting a little more frustrated with the lack of progress that they've tried to
make to close the gap. So I just think that's him being savvy or, you know, because sometimes
that's what you do, man. If you can't, if you, if the, if the conversation behind closed doors
isn't working, or if you feel like it's not working, you'll go into that media center
and you'll make it known what you're, you know, you'll go use that media center to your advantage
if you can. And so I think that's what's going on there. Yeah. I have another question for you.
You mentioned Kyle Larson and you said they're getting better. Do you have any concern though
that, I mean, he's on his winless streak keeps growing. Are you at any point worried about him?
No. What is he going to do? Leave? They're going to quit? No, no, but I'm just saying like,
like, do you think that he can compete this year? Is you think this is like
for a championship? Oh, I mean, they've got to get their cars a little better.
They got to execute a little better. He's driving his ass off trying to make that thing work. Yeah.
So, I mean, they were all, all really sketchy this weekend. There's a lot
of slip, a lot of cars moving around on top of the race track. It was a handful for all those
guys. And he's, he's that guy that'll he'll push it over the limit. Yeah. And he's done,
this is nothing new with Kyle. Like, in my opinion, I saw no, I don't see a different Kyle out there.
I'm not worried about it at all. If you told me, if you told me he was going to win the next two
races, I wouldn't be, it would not shock me at all. That's right. And he did it. Like he, like,
he's stepped over, he, he has always had that tendency and there's a couple, there's a few
guys like this in the field and most of them have a dirt background. Every once in a while,
they step over the line because they're just trying their, you know what I mean? And
Larson's kind of always been that way, but he always makes up for it. You know,
you know, I don't, I don't, I'm not worried about them.
That was a, you know, the only thing you could say, I guess, Travis is the points lost.
You know what I mean? So like, if you're talking about, well, you know, did he help himself
in terms of his opportunity to win the championship? Well, you know, if he's in fourth,
when the chase starts, that's better than sixth. And he's in that little battle with Ty Gibbs and
Chase Elliott. And he's pretty well clear of Chris Buscher. So I think that he doesn't have to
really worry about that, but he wants fourth. He doesn't want sixth. fifth.
Right? Every spot in that top six matters. And as you, if you, if you start to chase fifth instead
of sixth, your chances of winning the title go up 10, 15%. Right? So you want to, you know,
that's the only thing I would say that I would be worried about if I were him is like, all right,
I got to look at who am I racing in points? What do I need? I need to go out there and just make
sure I'm putting the points together every week to beat these two guys. Right? So I don't think he
runs third down. Blaney, um, it's just going to do Blaney things and do enough to get, get across
the finish line and start to chasing third consistent. Yeah. Hey, this is Dale Hart Jr.
And for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the I'm old drinks and beer t-shirt
we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com
for all the latest merch.
All right, everybody. Let's do some ass Jr. Xfinity is, uh,
sponsoring the ass junior segment once again, and they are waving the red flag on internet
price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. Uh, you get the speed and reliable
Wi-Fi that you need locked in at one price for five years. We are on. This is Xfinity Wi-Fi
that we are actually using right now. So I know we talk about these services, but damn it, we are
customers. Um, no surprises, no light yellows just straight to Victor Lane. It's how we like it,
man. Xfinity, imagine that. Let's get to some questions. Uh, first question. This was a popular
one is, uh, what was your reaction to, uh, the TNT piece about your, uh,
dude, I had no idea that they put that together and I didn't even like connect it to July 4th.
You know, it's sort of like a, they were, so we get this text messages from our producer
on the, um, pre race and Jeremy, he's a great guy, told tons of fun to work with, easy going.
And there he's done some inside the NBA stuff. Uh, so he, he's like, Hey,
kind of wants our show to have that feel where we're just chopping it up and giving each other
hard time. And he, he texts us. All right, man. That's what we're going to talk about y'all.
Segment one, most patriotic races in NASCAR segment two, you know, it's just, that's it.
That's all you, all right. You're going to talk about that segment one. No more notes,
no more information than that. You're on your own. And so we sat down at the desk and I got the, uh,
the text messages tomorrow, we are on at 4am or tomorrow we're on the air at 4pm local.
Here's what the outline of the show looks like. Segment 12345
and it's just one bullet point for each segment. And so I start writing down most patriotic NASCAR
moments. Um, I mean, I'm having a hard time picking one. And so my mind went to like, you know,
I just remember racing in Daytona or as a kid going to Daytona in July and I thought that was
epic being at the beach during that weekend, racing in the morning and getting out on the
beach in the sand and playing as a kid or swimming at the pool by the afternoon, um, after the race.
And Daytona just felt like where we were supposed to be. And, uh, anyhow, you know, we're going
through everybody else starts talking about a race and, um, they talked about the Dover 2001 race,
which was cool. And then they, Marty started talking and teeing up this piece. And as soon as
he started talking, I recognized the race he was, he was presenting and I'm like, oh, and they started
running this piece. Uh, I can watch it. We got a monitor in front of us. So I'm watching it happen.
And the drivers are looking, I don't know what the drivers were watching, but they got this iPad,
you know, and I guess it's, you know, scenes from the race or whatever. And that was just really cool,
man to hear them, hear them all have an opinion or a comment or, um, and then, uh, the fan reaction
to it on social media afterwards. Uh, I got text messages from my wife and, you know, just my sister,
everybody, um, it was cool. I mean, it was just really, really cool. I was, I, uh, I told Jeremy
thanks for that. I got a connected to a couple of the individuals in the production team that
worked on that piece directly and thank them. And, um, you know, I was just awesome. I felt like a
million bucks for, for that brief moment. What do you remember of the celebration after you won
that race? Cause I think people, a lot of people were tweeting in about, you know, how iconic
that was. What do you remember from that? You know, just the, I don't know how drivers feel
about it today, but when you win a race, um, when you back then, when you won a race,
NASCAR couldn't wait to get you into victory lane because they had an interview that needed to get
done and everything as soon as you got out of the car in victory lane, it was like somebody had you
by the wrist or by the arm and they were like, all right, you're go over here, sit here, stand here,
put this hat on, smile, take this picture, change your hat, hold this, hold this photo, hold this
trophy, put this over here, hold this flag, put this hat on, change this hat, put this hat on and
victory lane celebrations would often feel like a photo shoot or like work.
Um, I, and I got a taste, taste of that when I was racing in the bush series in 98, 99.
And so I had an, I've had an intentional, anytime I won, I was like, I'm gonna do what the hell I
want to do. I'm all, I'm all celebrate with my team. Like when we won the Daytona 500 and 04,
I pulled down on front straightaway and get out. We didn't do front straightaway interviews.
They wanted your ass to maybe celebrate a little bit, but get to victory lane and get, get so the,
so the, so the broadcast could get the interview and because the broadcast is trying to go off air.
Yeah. We're on a big network and they're trying to get the hell off air. They got,
they got another damn show to run. They got another TV show, whatever it might be that's got to start.
And so you couldn't be farting around, you know, in the infield somewhere,
but I was like, I'm going to do it the hell I want and celebrate with my team.
I don't want to be around any handlers, any NASCAR people telling me where I needed to be and go.
And so we pulled down into the infield and do some donuts and I see Michael do it.
I see Michael in his car. And so I park and he parks and we get out.
And it's just like, man, we'll get to victory lane soon enough. No rush. We'll get there.
And then everybody runs out there. Chocolate Myers and all my team.
I think the hardest when I watch that clip, when I watch that clip, the hardest part of it
is there's a real short clip of Danny Earnhardt, my dad's brother.
And I remember it. Yep. And the look on Danny's face.
That's really the only time you see that too. Like I saw he just walks by the camera as he's
passing by and you can see him and there's everybody around Danny is, is in elation.
And there, there, there are a couple of people got their hands on Danny and they're shaking him
and everybody's just jumping and happy. Danny senior has this look on his face.
Like he like, like the same look he had on his face in February when we lost dad. And
that's the hardest part for me because I know that
I was young and naive, right? I lost my dad, but I was young and naive and I was,
I wasn't, I didn't realize what I'd lost. You know what I'm saying? And Danny did. He was old enough
to know. And so that was tough, but just a really cool piece. And I just remember we were going to
get to Victor Lane when we got to Victor Lane. We weren't no damn hurry. And so, but now they do
the front straightaway interview and all kinds of stuff. So they go ahead and get the interview
knocked out. But all right. Next question, speaking of the broadcast, people will know
how was the hot dog and beer after the race? Oh man, the hot dog was really good.
And the beer was fine. I could drink it. Probably not my preferred. It was a heavy,
light. I don't believe. What's your go to topping for hot dog if you get a pick?
Chili, mustard, ketchup, dill relish.
TJ, ketchup. Thank you. I don't know why people are like, Oh, you can't have ketchup on a hot dog.
Yeah, you can. Yeah, it's great. It's class three. A lot of places. Yeah. I think Chicago,
it's like mustard only, right? Some places won't give you ketchup. Yeah. Well, that's
ridiculous. That is ridiculous. All right. I don't disagree. I'm hungry. I know.
I'm going to keep you longer. So delay your going to lunch. Yeah. Next question. Did you
ever do a helmet swap with any driver? That's a great question. I never did. I might have swapped
once with Jimmy Johnson or somebody, but like Tony Stewart had a different helmet for every race
in his final year. And I don't know how many helmets drivers have these days, but most guys
could have multiple helmets during a season. I wore the same helmet all year every week.
And so by the end of the season, I had one helmet that I used all year. And I didn't have an, I was
going to keep that. So there are some out there that I've gave away, but not many because I didn't
use but one helmet over the course of 12 months. And sometimes I would keep the same helmet into
the next year. So some helmets I wore multiple years. I figured you'd have a few. That's crazy
that you just know, I get one that fit and was comfortable. I didn't, you know, you try to,
I kept trying different helmets and I'd be like, this thing gives me a headache or
it's not comfortable. Where's my old helmet? Give me the other one. You know, and
I just stick with what worked. Same with shoes. Once I got a pair of shoes broken, I didn't
want any more shoes. I just wanted to keep wearing the same pair over and over until
they fell apart. Gloves too. I hated new gloves because they just, they're not comfortable.
Once you break in a pair, you should kind of want to wear the same ones.
What was it like making the transition from the open helmet face mask to?
I didn't mind it so much. I wore the open face because dad did, but in street stocks,
like, you know, and stuff like that, we had, we had, I think we had different helmets. We had
closed face helmets and stuff back in the street stock days because it was flying all over the
place in those cars. But you didn't know when somebody, you know, you didn't know what was
going to come out from under the car in front of you. So you didn't want to be an open face helmet.
But I just switched to the open face because dad had it and it was comfortable. It was cool and
nice. But the closed face helmet took some getting used to because it's hot. It's not as
cool. It's hot even though you got the air pumped in. It's just not as, the air blows in there,
but it's just not as a, it's a little stuffy. Yeah. Another question. You talked about
Chase Elliott earlier in the show. People want to know what was your conversation like with them
after? Are you kind of like, he was like, man, I'm sorry. I was like, dude, I am so thankful
that you drove our car tonight. You know, I know you wanted to win. You did everything you could.
That's a, you know, that's a tough, you know, green white checkered. You're going to win some,
you're going to lose some kind of thing. And I didn't think we gave them a good enough car.
And anytime you got Chase Elliott behind the wheel as a control car on a green white checkered,
if you got a good enough car, you should come out on top. So I feel like we could have given
a little bit better race car to end. I mean, he was running third with 20 to go and he got,
you know, they got side by side and he goes, dies three wide, takes a lead. So I mean,
he did a really good job just even have a shot at it. Do you feel pressure when
the cup guys come down and get in one of your cars to make sure that that moment is great for
them? Yeah. Yeah. Like when, when those guys get in the car,
you're, I mean, you're pretty proud. We're proud of our team. We're pretty proud of it.
And we're pretty confident in the job we can do and the cars we can put on the racetrack.
But man, and it, and months before the race, you know, you, you, you learn or sign the deal or
whatever he agrees to drive the car. And you're like, man, this is going to be fun. Just like for
the late model stock race, the cars tour race at Wilkesboro chase. You want to do this? Yeah.
All right, man. Meet you at the shop. Let's see how the seat fits. All right. Hell yeah.
That's all fun. And you're all excited. And then you get to the racetrack on race day
or even for practice. And you're like, I hope this thing turns good. I hope this car drives good.
What if he drive, what if it drives like
Yeah. Yeah. And then you're like, sorry, Chase. Sorry, man. We didn't give you a good enough car.
You know, it's a lot of pressure and, and you kind of, you don't want to let them down, right?
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I feel like that's a good spot for us to stop this week.
All right, man. Appreciate all the questions. Those are some great questions today.
Xfinity is waving the red flag on internet price hikes and they're waiting,
raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need.
Five years locked in at one price. No slowdowns. No late yellows. Just straight
to victory lane with Xfinity. Imagine that we're using Xfinity to bring this show to you today.
All right. Let's ask Chase Prisco. You went here from this weekend at
Chicagoland. We were just talking, Chase, about the 2000 Daytona win and what I remembered from
the celebration. And I was telling them back in those days, they wanted you to get to victory
lane as quick as possible. And then as soon as you got to victory lane, there was somebody
telling you the next thing you were going to do for the next hour, get out, do an interview,
put this hat on, hold this trophy, change this hat, change this hat. And there was really,
that was like stuff that got in the way of what you actually wanted to do, which was high five
your guys backslap, scream, jump around, spray champagne and act a fool. When we won those races,
I would always delay going to victory lane. The NASCAR wants you to get to victory lane. They
got to, they got to interview the broadcast needs. The broadcast is trying to get off the air.
And so, but I'm, you know, I would always just drag my feet and go into the infield
and goof off. But what's the experience like today as a, as a cup guy, when you win the race,
right? Do you have to continuously remind yourself to drive to the front straightaway
for the interview? Or is that, is that like, you know, is that a natural thing after all
these years now? Cause y'all been doing the front straightaway interview for a couple years.
And I kind of wonder what goes through your head. Yeah. For me, honestly, I feel like my whole
career, it's pretty much been on the front straightaway. I guess my truck series 2017 would
have been like the only year where it wasn't like that. So yeah, you kind of just, it's kind of
normal now. You know, you do your burnout and you get out and it's kind of cool because now you
celebrate with the crowd, I guess, and you kind of hype the crowd up on the, the mic
where I guess before it was a little bit harder to do that, you know, especially now they make the
mic live for the whole whole crowd. So that part of it is really cool because you can kind of feed
off their energy and get them riled up and get them screaming. But, and also it allows your guys
like normally all come run out there on the front straightaway. So you do get a little quick moment
like why everybody's still excited because it's, I mean, you know, it's different 30, 45 minutes
later. Like it's not as exciting, right? Like so you get that first initial where everybody's fired
up. And so I enjoy how it is now. You know, I didn't get to do a whole lot of it, how it was before,
but you do get to at least, you know, experience that with your guys. The tough part I feel like
about now, at least in Chicago land, you know, you would, you would take your pictures with all
your guys and it was like a five to 10 minute thing. And then they're taking them out of there
and even taking the car. And then you're just going to buy yourself for the next 45 minutes to an
hour. And then you don't see your guys again until you get on the airplane. So it is kind of unique
how it is because you do want to, you know, hang out with your guys and like experience with them
and you don't really get to do a whole lot of that.
Chase, speaking of your celebration, is that going to be your new celebration going forward,
the fishing reel?
Yeah, I think on Bass Pro Shop weekends, that's definitely going to be the new thing. I thought
about it last year. I'm like, man, this is kind of cool. I think if it was a Bass Pro race, I don't
think it'll make a whole lot of sense. You know, if it's like Columbia bank or something on the car,
but certainly for Bass Pro Shop races, I think that's going to be the new thing. Johnny and JP
thought it was pretty good too. So yeah, that'll be my new thing.
Oh, you're reeled it in too fast. You need to reel it in.
Yeah, I got to throw it out there a little bit more and then do it next time.
Wait, when the bait will, when the bait, we got to come up with a celebration for the bank.
You're opening the vault. I don't know. Yeah. You're opening the vault up.
Yeah. Spin the deal.
Oh, yeah. Like LaShaw McCoy used to have that touchdown celebration where he'd spun the vault
thing and then like pulled it open. Yes. Yes.
It could be you, Chase. It would be awesome. Yeah. You need to look that up.
Well, a fantastic job all day long. You know, when the race started though,
there was some work to be done. I don't know if you feel like you had the car to win the race,
but I was kind of surprised at how like you were able to get your car better. Byron's car
maybe wasn't as good as it was earlier in the day. There was a lot of, you know,
guys that were improving their cars or maybe not so much. Yeah.
Did the track come to you too? Yeah.
Could be the track. There was a lot of change with the race track it looked like.
Yeah, there was, it was definitely an odd, honestly, just an odd weekend, not even a odd race.
You know, the weekend started and, you know, what I remember Chicagoland being,
it was very different than that. And maybe some of that's just the next-gen car.
Like if I was in an O'Reilly car, it would have felt the same, but it had way more
grip than I remember having. You know, the bumps were somewhat similar, but still different at
the same time. And so yeah, the weekend started and we were just extremely tight. Qualifying
was still tight and I would be lying if I said that I was excited for Sunday. I thought it was
going to be a 7th to 10th type of day, like just with how my car was. And James texted me first
thing Sunday morning and was like, look, I've been up all night long and I think I figured out,
you know, some things that will help you not be so tight. So he said, just drive with some
explosives in there and yeah, we'll see how it goes. And so yeah, the race started and I was
like, okay, I'm definitely not as tight as what I was. I was actually on the free side.
So I felt like I was maybe an adjustment or two away from being able to kind of be where I needed
to be. And then yeah, we were able to kind of slowly get some track position and get up into the top
five and then, you know, up into the top three and your car just changes so much from being in the
top two or three to being intent that, you know, I honestly kind of went back to the free side.
But all night, I knew my strength was kind of the longer run. I could see that with the 24.
But I knew I was kind of racing the 11 it felt like for what was going to be the win.
And then my car, I got it into the fence and bent the total link and then I was out of control.
And James just did an amazing job there on that final green flag stop, obviously flipping
or not flipping it, but kind of jumping Byron. And then just tightening me up,
even only seeing, you know, eight or so laps to me with a bent total link, you could see how loose
I was all of a sudden and was able to give me an adjustment. And, you know, if we don't do that
adjustment, I definitely probably tank super hard at the end with just how how loose I already was
at the end. Did you know the total link was bent? Or did you learn this? Yeah, as soon as I
hit the wall and drove through three and four, I was like, holy smokes. I went from my steering
wheel, kind of being here through the corner to here and here. And yeah, I was sideways and I
was still able to kind of run Byron back down, but I was going to spin out at any point. So yeah,
they did a great job. Like I said, it just getting me tightened up just enough to be able to kind
of hustle it again. When you look at the points, we talked about this in the post race, you know,
it's been a couple of great weeks and you've been able to kind of leap frog a few cars.
You've had a little bit of time, I guess, to maybe look at that and kind of position yourself for
what you want to do over the next several weeks. We've got some tough racetracks to go to. I think
you have to have some confidence for Andy, but what's your opinion on the racing in Atlanta,
how you feel about your ability there and then going to Wilkesboro for the 450 for the points
race there? Yeah, I think, you know, the points thing, I think going into this past weekend,
you know, our whole goal this whole time has been we need to be top five in points. And we've,
you know, done ourselves a huge hole to begin with. But yeah, last weekend, I think we were 107
points out of fifth. And truthfully, I think James and I finally, we talked about it last week. It's
like, well, maybe fifth is going to be a little tough, but let's try to get to sixth or seventh.
And now we're 46 points out of fifth. So it's very realistic now to get to there. But you're
going to need to survive Daytona and Atlanta. But yeah, I'm excited for Atlanta. I love the
racing there. I hate super speedway racing, truthfully, like Daytona and Talladega. But Atlanta
is so fun because you just take every single run you can get. You're just absolutely getting after
it. And it's just, I don't know, like I just feel like I'm at a rental go cart track and just
being the most aggressive guy on the racetrack. And it's a lot of fun. So yeah, I'm excited
to go there and do that. Hopefully can have a great finish and survive and kind of get out of
there. But then yeah, North Wilkesboro, 450 laps around there is going to feel tougher than the
Coke 600 and Southern 500, I feel like. It is just so fast. And you don't really get any time to
take a break. So 450 laps around there is going to be, I think pretty interesting. And then yeah,
Indianapolis should be a great track for us. And a couple of the other tracks, Richmond and
whatnot. So yeah, just got a truth that I feel like survive Atlanta and Daytona. And if we can
do that, then I think that, you know, there's a realistic chance to get to top five and points.
And if we can win another race or two before the end of the regular season, then we're in a really
good spot. Yeah, I think so too, man. I did not think that fifth was realistic, but it's crazy how
the points swing so wildly. And a win, I don't need to, I still have a hard time like
realizing how quickly you can overcome a hundred point deficit. I mean, we saw Denny chew away at
that lead that Reticad for a while. And he worked really hard methodically to get there. And there
was some problems at Reticad as well. But you know, I sit here and I've kind of looked at the
points and I go, all right, you got Reticad and Denny up there doing their thing. Blaney's just
going to sit in third and probably just try to get, you know, get across the finish line to start
to chase there. And then you got Gibbs, Chase Elliott, and then Larson battling for fourth,
fifth and sixth. And then there's a cutoff there. I don't think Brisco or I don't think Brisco or
Bush or anybody kind of gets into that conversation. So they're all battling for seventh on back.
But now you're sitting here with a realistic opportunity, you think, to actually get yourself
into the top five. I mean, the top six has an 85% chance of winning the championship, the top six.
So if it ain't fifth, six ain't terrible. Yeah, definitely want to be top six.
Yeah, you got a shot at it though. I didn't think you did. I didn't think you really could get there.
Yeah, I'll be honest. I think, like I said, I mean, James and I literally just talked about it
going into this weekend where we were 11th in points, but, you know, eighth, seventh, even like
they were all within pretty close striking distance. And, you know, we literally, I remember
saying like maybe fifth is not going to happen unless you just can go and have this amazing streak.
But we were trying to just focus on getting to sixth or seventh. And yeah, now I mean, fifth is
very attainable. I mean, only 46 points is not a lot of points. So yeah, like I said, we just need to
you got to survive Atlanta and Daytona. Those are going to be the two that are going to dictate
if you get to fifth or not, just because, you know, the other races, the odds of having these
big swings aren't really there, at least as high. So yeah, hopefully we can survive those two. And
if so, I feel like the ball is definitely in our hand to go and get it. All right, man. Well,
we'll be pulling for you. You're a good dude. Love seeing you win and have success. And we love
Bass Pro Shops. So yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. So hey, keep kicking ass and hold on. Before we
let Chase go though, Chase, do you have any questions for Dale for next week? Since
Chase and Noah are going to be taking over the helm next week for you, Dale. Yeah, I'm excited.
Yeah, me too. Yeah, I guess what's the do's and don'ts? I feel like you can tell me the
do's and don'ts and I'll try to keep it on the tracks. But it's going to be hard to keep that
that thing steered in the right direction. This is this is what this is all you need to know.
You are not live. Anything that happens that you don't like can be thrown in a trash can
never just see the light of day and you control the narrative. It's fun. You're going to have a
good time. And just yeah, yeah, just have fun. Yeah, it's a great layoff Noah be yourself. Have
fun. It's great. It's a great space. I think you'll you'll enjoy doing it. And if we have
excited, it's it's yeah, it's awesome for me because I got to do and sometimes I can't be there
or Amy's taking me somewhere that I can't actually do my show. And so I'm really,
really thankful that you guys are you guys want to do it. So I'm very appreciative of that. It's
going to be a lot of fun. I think people are going to tune in just to see how y'all y'all do it
differently. Yeah, heck yeah. Call me the substitute teacher.
That was going to be my backup plan there for a little bit almost. That's right teaching license.
So yeah, we're finally going to use it. That's hilarious. I can't even picture that. Yep,
perfect. All right, buddy. Well, thank you. Yeah, thank you guys. Appreciate it.
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets.
Get your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Get your bets.
This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by FanDuel. Russell is here. Let's talk about,
we got some lines that have come out. We also got some top 10 props to talk about.
We're headed to Atlanta. Tyler Redick looks like he might be the favorite in terms of
at least with the odds. Blaney, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Larson, Joe Legano
is at plus 1400. And then Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Briscoe, Josef R. Denny has kind of
struggled there even with his great season. I don't know if he can get up there and figure it out.
What do you guys think about who's going to win this thing? Who do we bet on to win?
I'm not a bet to win this weekend. I don't really like to bet to win this weekend,
but I agree with the books and have Tyler Redick as the top, then I have Chase Elliott,
and then the big surprise on the board is the highest he's ever been as Carson Hosevar.
Yeah. He won the last drafting track race. He's been finished top 10 and six of the last
eight drafting tracks. I like them there. Well, let's go with some top 10s then.
I like Zane. Zane Smith. He read the notes. TJ
No, he ran good there last time too. He was fast there. He's top 10 in the last four
drafting track races. Let's put Zane in our top 10. Let's get two more.
You can do this parlay, but also people maybe just bet Zane top 10 alone because it's plus
two 80. Yeah. Plus 28 All right. We'll bet Zane alone at two 80. What about Suarez?
I think Suarez goes there with a little bit of a chip. I think he he's motivated there. Not that
he's not trying every week, but just I feel like Daniel could have a really good run.
I like Christopher Bell is leading there late when Hosevar hooked him. I just feel like
Christopher Bell is on a mission. I don't want it. I don't remember if he Hosevar hooked him.
He looked like he was a con. Last time we race there, I feel like I remember something like
that going on. I like Hosevar. If you got Suarez up there, I think it's not uncommon to see teammates
working together late in the race. Pinsky does this all day long. They start the race and run
the first two stages and dominate it. But when they I know, I'm just they bury themselves for
the end. They do. But I'm saying if Suarez is up there, I think you could put Suarez and Hosevar
in a in a combo. Like I can see Cedric running top five first two stages and then I know they
you know what I mean. But he could have a really good run too. But what about C bell and Suarez
C bell and Suarez would be plus 358 I like it. Yeah.
Let's do it. C bell Suarez. C bell starting to come on to bad a lot of bad luck.
Yeah, he's starting. I don't know. It just needs to break through. It seems like
what about Ricky stenhouse? He'll be up there. He was up there near the last race. I don't I
could see Joey being up there. I could see Brad and Joey both being up there with with the nine.
I could see the nine being up there. Yeah, you're not going to trick me. I was lousy again this week.
No. Oh, yeah. Man, I had your hopes up after Saturday. I thought I was going to send a text
say look at how smart we are and then look what you did during the rain. Yeah, killed me.
Yeah. Yeah, we hurt you. Sorry. I almost stopped right there at Christopher Bale and
Suarez. I think that parley lands. I'm not going to try to get too stupid or too cute with it.
Anything else? Oh, I have one for you then. He hasn't done well on drafting tracks.
Denny versus Bell is Bell's minus 115. I like Bell. I do too. Yeah. Denny has not been good there.
Doesn't have a top five there. I don't know what it is, but Denny is one of the best
restrictor plate racers of our time and I don't know what it is about the racing at Atlanta,
the new Atlanta. He just seems like it'd be right up his alley because it's exactly how
like we used to race at 2004, 2002, 2003, the runs are coming fast and furious and you can
take all the runs and make the passes and it just seems like this would be right up his alley,
but he just kind of hangs around. It doesn't really go for it early and then when it's time
to go, ladies got too, it's too, it's too congested. I'll be curious if with the new
format with points, does he change his style because I hope he does past years like the one
year during the playoff race, his goal was just to get 20th. Yes, I know. I mean, you're a Denny,
bro. What's the mindset? Well, I mean, hell, this week, he said that he was lazy at times and so
I'm like, what happened to the no mercy Denny Hamlin that we saw a couple of weeks ago? Like,
the fact that he was- Damn, you're trying to wreck him. No, I just want him to
race the whole way. Like he was saying that on multiple restarts, he would instead of
getting out of line and making a movie, just stayed in line and push and said it like,
he got lazy. Like, I think he needs to stay on the chip and go for it. I will say though that
Denny did finish better than Bell in every drafting track race this season. So.
Yeah. Well, I mean, you guys, we might see a different Denny Hamlin this Sunday
with the point system the way it is. He might be going for it.
Sounds like we need to get Travis a radio. I don't think Gale wants that.
During the right. No, Denny. Let's look at the bracket while we got Russell here.
Bowman versus Gilliland. Yeah. The numbers totally lean towards Bowman. So.
All right. Yeah. Briscoe Chase Elliott. I think you got to take Chase Elliott,
his home track. Again, this is our dominant for Chase Elliott.
Hamlin, Mabel, we just talked about Byron and Blaney. Yeah, this is an interesting one. I
still think it leans to Blaney, but Byron's been really good at this track too. So.
That is a tough one. I feel like if you had to, if you ran them straight up,
I like the, I like the Chevy's better right now than I do the Ford's.
But I don't know. I think this is, I mean, this is a handling racetrack.
Hamlin is going to be important. And I, I don't think that the Ford's were,
I don't think the Ford's are the same Ford's that were good here over the last probably
four or five years. You know what I'm saying? Is that don't make sense? Like
Toyota's gotten way better and now Chevrolet's maybe improved somewhat. So I think it,
the job gets tougher for Blaney. I don't know. I've seen the end of this race.
I like, I like Blaney's execution better than I do the 2014 right now,
even though they just did sweep two stages last week. Yeah. He had a good, really good run.
I don't know. I mean, I think of these races are,
I don't really know if I see someone that stands out. It kind of just like
lines up right as Blaney got the pit crew situation sorted.
It's been better, but it has not, not improved to the level where
like you would like, yes. Yeah. That might be what ends up costing Blaney.
You can't give up a bunch of track position in Atlanta. It's just really hard.
There's a lot of churn in the top five, but if you're 15th man,
it's really hard to get their runs and make the passes you need to be able to move forward.
Yeah. Like, like Blaney still a 32nd rank pit crew for the year for the year.
I know, but they've made changes. I didn't know if that's,
that's what it's been in the last five weeks.
At Chicago, they were the 17th best.
Yeah. So they've, they've made some gains, but still not top 10.
That might be costly for him Sunday.
At what point they just got to make the move and give him Leganos.
What's Leganos pit crew?
Leganos for the year is, is the second best.
You got one, you got one driver racing for a championship. What, like Roger, what are we doing?
Yeah. I mean, I don't want them to make the change, but come on.
Yeah, you do. Why don't you?
Because I want Denny to win.
Oh, all right.
Well, Russell, appreciate you coming in brother.
No problem. Are you going to be in the racetrack this weekend?
Of course. Wouldn't miss it.
All right. I look forward to seeing you there.
This dirty Modo segment is brought to you by Fandall,
the premier gaming destination in the United States of America.
Thanks for joining us here in the RB studio. Sorry we're not there,
but we're still loving our Arby's meet and three box.
You can get your new meet and three box at Arby's now.
You get more meal for your money at Arby's.
We have the meets and I appreciate the show.
Thanks for tuning in everybody.
Thank you, TJ Travis.
Thank you, Briscoe for calling in Russell.
It's been a fun show guys. We'll see you.
Check out dirty Mo media on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.
About this episode
Dale Jr. breaks down a busy Chicago weekend, from a rain-soaked event and parking headaches to the surprisingly strong fan turnout and positive driver feedback about the track. He also talks shop on TNT’s improved broadcast setup, crediting Jamie McMurray for helping him go paperless with race notes, which made qualifying coverage smoother. On the racing side, he reviews the O’Reilly race, praising Brandon Jones’ restart win, noting Chase Elliott’s near-miss, and calling out mistakes and fuel issues that hurt several JR Motorsports cars.
After a triumphant return to Chicagoland Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back behind the microphone with a new episode of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to recap the weekend in Chicago and break down the biggest storylines from around the NASCAR garage, including:
Dale has gone paperless thanks to Jamie McMurray
The rain in Chicago was disruptive
Zane Smith has been running too well to seek revenge
Shane van Gisbergen gets even with Austin Hill
Don't mess with the guys buried in the points
Chevrolet and Ford continue to close the gap on Toyota
Race winner Chase Briscoe joins the show
During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions about:
TNT's feature on Dale's 2001 Fourth of July win
What Dale remembers from that race celebration
Dale's post-race hot dog-and-beer experience
His preferred hot dog toppings
Helmet swaps with other drivers
The switch from open-face helmets to full-face helmets
Dale's conversation with Chase Elliott after the O'Reilly race
Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
