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Concept
pitstop
A pit stop is when the car pulls into the pits during the race to do things like change tires. When you pit (and how it lines up with other cars) can make a big difference in where you run on the track.
Concept
Hornets nest
“Hornets nest” means a really crowded, stressful part of the race where cars are packed together. With everyone so close, it’s harder to drive cleanly and avoid trouble.
Concept
lap times
Lap time is how long it takes to go around the track once. Drivers and teams use it to tell if the car is getting faster or slower during the race.
Term
clean air
“Clean air” is when your car isn’t being affected by the air turbulence from another car. That usually makes the car handle better and lets you go faster more easily.
Concept
sim
“Sim” is short for a racing video game/virtual training setup. It helps drivers practice the track and learn how to drive there without using real track time.
Term
racing at home
“Racing at home” means you can race/practice using a setup at home, like a simulator. It’s a way to get practice without going to the track.
Term
ride quality
Ride quality is how smooth the car feels when the road gets bumpy. If the suspension is set up very stiff or the car sits very low, it can feel harsher.
Place
Chicago
“Chicago” is where they raced, and the speaker is using it as an example of cars that didn’t handle well. It’s basically pointing to a specific event location.
Term
grip
Grip is how well the tires can “hold” the track so the car can turn and accelerate without sliding. More grip can help speed, but it can also make the car harder to drive if the setup gets too extreme.
Term
floor on the ground
This means the car is set up very low so the bottom is close to the track. That can help the car stick better, but it can also make it bounce and feel terrible, especially over rough sections.
Term
open practice
Open practice is a time before the race where drivers can go out and try different setups. It’s basically testing time so they can learn what the car does.
Term
slamming the track
“Slamming the track” means the car is set so low that it can hit the ground or bottom out over bumps. It makes the ride harsh and can make the car harder to control.
Term
cautions
A caution is when the race slows down because something happened on track. Cars don’t race at full speed during that time, and it can make the race feel like it drags on.
Term
stage breaks
Stage breaks are scheduled segments in NASCAR races where the event is split into parts, often with points awarded at the end of each stage. The hosts note that cautions coming out near the end of a stage can be especially disruptive because the race is already transitioning.
Term
brake rotor
A brake rotor is the metal disc your brake pads squeeze to stop the car. If it “explodes,” it can mean the brakes fail badly and the car becomes very hard to control.
Place
Nashville
They’re talking about a past incident that happened in the Nashville area. It’s mentioned to explain why brake parts can fail and how serious that is during a race.
LIVE
Hey everybody, I'm Dillon Hart Jr. and this is The Dirty 30, the best highlights from
all of our podcasts this week, 30 minutes every single Friday, The Dirty 30 coming
at you.
Let's get right to it.
This episode of The Dirty 30 is presented by Arby's new meat and three box.
Get more meal for your money at Arby's.
We have the meats.
Next question is people want to know how excited are you to be calling the race from an aircraft
carrier?
That's real deal, man.
That's badass.
We're going to get on this aircraft carrier and we're going up in the tower and we're
calling the race from the control tower and we can see some of the race track from where
we're at.
So we'll be able to get the vibe.
I would hope so.
Well, I'm just saying like when we're, you know, I don't like not being able to see the
damn race track.
I don't like that.
Yeah, flat, hard to see.
And so there's, and I just, not so much, and I know we, there's been this conversation
on for a long time now about being at the studio or at the track and all that.
I'm just saying I want to be there to feel the energy of the event happening, right,
in real time.
Yep.
And that feeds into the like Chicago and good time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, Chicago wasn't because we were in a radio.
Oh, that's right.
I was in a no, the fuel event was good last year.
I was in a rented.
It was a shipping container and we were two blocks from the racetrack.
What looking at monitors?
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
And I got, you know, Stefan.
Yeah.
So I told Stefan, I was like, Stefan, come and sit in this shipping container with us
and there's a monitor over here on our right.
So we got the production in front of us, the real, what you're seeing on TV.
And over to our right, we had a big wall of like 12 monitors and they were just fixed
monitors on all the turns.
And I was like, Stefan, you stare at those and if you see a car stopped or if you see
anybody hit anything, I don't give a what you see.
You slap me in the arm and you tell me what it was.
And so I had, and I think I'm going to try to get Stefan up in that
up in that aircraft carrier, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get
him the access we need.
Might be a little tougher because I don't like to miss, you know, I don't like
to, I don't like there for a car and be sitting there for 15 seconds and us not
know it. Did you do a corner at Chicago the first year?
Yeah, radio style.
Yeah, radio style.
That's right. Not my favorite.
We did radio style at Pocono.
I felt so terrible, like I felt like there's no way this can be good to listen
to. Yeah. Oh, my God, I'm not a radio guy.
I'm just not cut out for it.
No. Yeah.
But you want to know a funny story about radio style from Pocono?
Let's hear it.
So I'm in the tunnel at Pocono and I'm up on this perch
just outside the turn and we're doing radio style.
Here they come coming at me for a while.
Whoa, this guy's in the lead.
There they go.
And middle of when the I had my bus there and at the when the race gets about
halfway, my bus driver's like, all right, I'm out of here, complete race.
You're not spending the night.
I'm going home.
I'm going to leave early by my bus is pulling out of the racetrack and we're
calling the race.
I'm like, here they come down the straightaway two by two, all three wide
into the tunnel. Such a such taste of lead.
My bus driver drives out the tunnel and he had one of the there's the underneath
the underneath the bus at the bottom.
There's these doors and there's these storage areas.
One of those doors was open and he went through the tunnel and ripped the door off.
Oh, no.
And so I'm calling the race and I turn around and watch him drive out with the
door, the door dragging the ground behind him, hanging on by one hinge.
Did you commentate that?
Yeah.
No, but he pulls over, stops, gets out, walks around it, and I'm sitting there
calling the race, watching him looking at all that.
I'm like, God dang.
And he was, he was so embarrassed.
I bet.
But I'm like, what's he going to do?
How's he going to, he can't drive.
I mean, there's in the storage unit now that it's exposed.
He's trying to leave.
He's got to figure out.
So he got a piece of plywood, cut it, screwed it in there and drove on to the
next racetrack.
Like he had to go straight from there to the next race.
But I'm sitting there in the middle of calling that radio style while that's
happening, trying not to like lose it, lose it.
Was that the camper or the motorhome?
Motorhome.
That was a nice one.
Yeah.
The fifth wheel is nice, but yeah, that camper was, that was tough.
I was like, not right now.
Like we're right in the middle of this.
Yeah.
Nicole also said that she thinks she kinda, this is, she made sure that you only
know she kinda wants to try to drive a race car.
Yeah, she does.
So she got to, I know you all saw her in the car with Justin Allgaier and Dale
after the win on Saturday and she gets out of the car in victory lane and I
pick her up and she goes, mom, I really liked being in the race car.
She like whispered it right in my ear and hugged me super tight.
And then later she's like, mom, I mean it, like, that was so fun.
It's like, what was fun about it?
Like the noise and everything.
She's like, I don't know.
I just liked being in the race car and Dale didn't even consider this, but they
get in that race car and it's hot.
Yeah.
Like really hot.
I considered that.
My ass is on fire.
Your ass is on fire.
He even had a fire suit to sit on.
My sole of my shoes melted and it's all over the whole board of the car.
That's what I was getting at this.
You could see the print of the sole of his shoes stuck to the bottom of the
inside of that car.
It was that hot.
Wow.
I know.
You just don't think it like, you know, it's hot, but you just don't think about
it.
It doesn't register that there's not a seat over there to go right underneath that
snowboard on the right side.
So it gives probably, you know, it's cooking.
I just thought Dale was so excited about the whole experience and the moment
that he wasn't really thinking that part through because he was about to throw
in a coal and I was like, no, I climbed in there.
I climbed in the car and I'm like, it's too hot for my ass.
I can't sit on there.
So I got to get on my knees or something, but there's no room for her to sit
down on.
I want her to sit on my lap.
And she didn't have a ton of clothes on.
I'm like, she's our truck driver on the seven took off his Nomex fire suit and
put it underneath my ass so I could sit down on the floor and not get burnt.
And then Nicole just rode on my knees and she got to hold the flag.
She did.
She held the flag and she didn't want to let go of that.
So I helped her hold the flag because the wind could take it.
And she wooed all the way to Victor Lane.
She screamed and wooed.
She's like, whoa, were you screaming?
Yeah.
I was like, Hey, honey, we're going to holler now.
We're going to wave and we're going to see people and we're going to wave at
them. They're going to look at us.
We're going to wave at them.
We're going to woo.
And she did that all the way to Victor Lane.
Really, really good.
And all that was great.
She had a great time.
Then we get in the truck and we're driving home.
And this is a day later.
We haven't even talked about it.
And we're driving into the driveway Sunday after the race.
And she goes, dad, you remember riding in that car with that guy?
I was like, Justin, he goes, yep, riding in that race car with Justin.
I was like, yes, she goes, I wasn't scared.
I was like, no, I didn't think you were.
You didn't act scared.
She goes, no, I wasn't scared.
I didn't plug my ears either.
Yeah.
She hates that noise.
I was like, no, you didn't do that either.
And she goes, I kind of want to try it.
I'm like, what do you mean?
You kind of want to try what?
And she goes, I kind of want to try to drive a car.
I was like, driver race cars.
She goes, yeah, but kind of just kind of.
I'm not going to fully commit.
And I'm like, well, I got, you know, we got little, we got little electric cars and stuff.
We got a little track.
I said, we'll just get out there and putt around and you can kind of try it.
And she's like, okay.
Yeah.
So we need to do that before the, before it goes away.
Well, you really want to see.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it's just.
Isla's never going to go for it.
She's too cautious.
She's just not going to do it.
And she's expressed that like she likes to dabble and play with her cart.
She likes to take her little everything around the track.
She's got wheels with, you know, but she's not going to be the one.
But Nicole might, she might play with it a little.
She might play with it.
What was it like for you, Amy, to watch Nicole have fun and.
Oh, I loved it.
I mean, I would, I would have crawled in that car if Dale said, get in there with me.
Or I would have crawled in there if Dale said, we can't get, like I can't fit.
You go, I don't know.
I would have done it.
I don't like to pass up an opportunity for like, that's like being in the huddle.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And so that was cool that, that he got to do that with Nicole.
I really was excited for her.
I was sad that Isla was so overwhelmed that she wouldn't go.
She, she does not like being put on the spot.
And so in that moment where we're like, hurry, hurry, hurry.
You have to make a choice.
You have to run.
You have to, she's like, nope, I'm done.
I'm not going.
And she kind of locked up.
And then she didn't want to get on the stage for a victory lane either.
So she got bribed to get up there for a couple of pictures by Aunt Jamie.
And then, you know, she got down, but she doesn't like all that attention.
Last one.
The new points format has made drivers less aggressive spot on spot off.
Freddie.
I don't know where that's happening.
Who thought it?
Who come up with that?
One of those producers come up with that.
You didn't, Jesus.
Yeah, I don't see that anywhere.
I'm racing.
I don't know about you.
Yeah.
You'll notice my notes.
I've got notes for all of them, but that one, because I could not figure out what,
what that meant.
You know, I think that it's, it's so crazy, especially this points format.
You know, you almost have to be more aggressive because wins means so much.
You know, we talked about this early in the year when they were,
they were put on the show sheet, like after Tyler, I think 13 or four,
whatever was three in a row there.
And they're like, nobody's going to catch Redick.
And I'm like, this points format, 150 points is nothing.
You know, like Redick ran second yesterday and lost 31 or 32 points.
I think it was to Danny.
You know, Danny made up, I think over a hundred points in the last three weeks.
So when you, when you win, you know, you have, you know, it's a 76 point max.
And then if the guy finishes second, that's 35 points.
So if you go out and win every stage and win the race, you're making up 30,
40 points at a clip on him and then 50 or more on guys that are, you know,
behind him.
So it's, I think that we're going to see a lot of flip-flopping.
But I mean, for me, it seems almost more aggressive now than ever.
Nobody's, nobody's just happy to run back and third or fourth and go,
ah, we're having a good points.
I feel like it's across the board.
The further you go back, the more aggressive it is.
Like comments talking earlier, you get back in the Hornets nest and, and EJ,
Eric Jones actually made comments about how much easier it is to race up front
at Michigan and those places versus fighting for your life every lap,
you know, back there 20th to 25th.
I know I haven't seen any, any less aggressive because even though you win,
you're talking about Xfinity or Raleigh right now, you know,
Taylor's won a race, but he's not guaranteed in, you know what I mean?
So he's having to fight for everything that he has.
Williams won a race.
He's not guaranteed in, you know what I mean?
So it's, every race means something.
Every position, every lap means something versus, oh, I've won.
I'm guaranteed it doesn't matter to me in the cup though.
I mean, it seems like, and, and you, you, you've been on both sides this year of
being running up front and, and being in the Hornets nest, you've been, you know,
up front most of the time, but it's like what Eric Jones means is when you're
running in the top 10, top 12, you, you don't have to worry about other people
around you anymore because it's just enough split out that now the team is
just working on strategy, right?
Now the team is just working on getting to the next stage or the next pitstop.
Making the car better.
When you're in the back, you don't know what to do to make the car better.
Yeah.
Because you have, it's like the car is just junk.
I can't not do anything.
I just, can't do anything.
So the race, that's why it's a Hornets nest between 23rd and 33rd all the time
because they can't get out of their own way because you can't do nothing
because you're just fighting for your life.
And as with most of the, most of the wrecks are not on restarts, but during
the race, right?
To just, yeah, yesterday, I mean, yesterday we were talking about, you know,
we, we short pit that last run and not short pit, but we were like on the
front side of it at least and those guys are running along and I'm watching
lap times and I'm going, Holy s***, we're making up like a second a lap on bell.
And he was like one of the guys that was half straight away in front of us or
so when we pit and I'm like, man, we're going to, we had clean air.
We pit into a hole where we knew we had clean air, which is important there.
And I'm like, well, we're going to be, be way ahead of some
of these guys that are running long.
And we're running like 53, 20s, 30s, and we're hauling ass.
And then we run down a group of like three guys, 54, 20s.
And I'm like, we just slowed down a second and now Bell's faster than we are
because he's in clean air because everybody around him pit.
And I'm like, well, f***, you know what I mean?
But it's just like, once you get in that little hornet's nest, you can't go
anywhere, like your car tightens up a number or two.
And, and it's just, oh s***, now we're stuck again.
But yeah, it's, it's, but I mean, the only thing I'd notice this year is
everybody's faster.
It seems like, or at least they're harder to pass.
So even every field, Xfinity or a Riley cup, no matter where you're at,
it's hard to pass.
It's never, there's no, we started 38 yesterday and I'm like, what's usually
we give goals?
Like, what do we want to be at the end of the first stage?
And we're like 30th, we hope, you know, like, because we know it's going to be
that, that's about where you ended up.
So we ended up like 28, you know what I mean?
It's like, that's, that's a good start.
You know, then we can hopefully maybe get five more the next run, you know?
And then if we're in the top 20, we can race from there.
But it's, you know, and we were kind of heading there and then got tore up,
obviously, but yeah, it's, it's, once you get back there, it's just,
you're trying to get small gains.
But how much of a wild card do you think San Diego was going to be in general?
Not when you're up front, I ain't no wild card.
Back there where I'm going to be running wild card.
I mean, where's the stack up?
I mean, you got a poll on a street course though.
I got three polls in a row on road courses a few years ago.
Right.
So what are we talking about?
Maybe we turn back the clock this week.
I, listen, I know, listen, for my fans, I know it seems like I'm giving up on, I'm not.
But I just, at this point in my career, I'm telling you, my bandwidth is better spent,
focusing on tracks that we have a great shot to win at, and going ahead and winning at them,
using that resource and that time to win at them versus going to a road course and working
my guts out to Joe get five positions better.
The math doesn't math that way.
I just, I only have so much capacity and I just,
I don't have the capacity to work on my road course game at this point in my career,
nor do I want to.
So I'm just going to go get my good finishes like I hope to go get.
We just, the Denny Rose could take, take a couple of weeks off.
Just, you know, take it easy.
We got a good gap to third now.
It's not like, you know what I mean?
Like everyone's just relaxed.
We got not, not, not much to gain, lose.
We're okay.
We just, we need this little summer stretch to take a breath, reset, focus on the neck,
focus on the run to the playoffs after that.
Take two weeks off, then we go in Chicago where you tested and are back off and running again.
Whit Smith 518 wants to know what, what's a win?
What's the goal for the road courses?
Top 15's.
Top 15's.
I think that, you know, that's, that's good enough damage control for me.
No, I'm not expecting to go out there and run 30th.
Like that's unacceptable, but yeah.
I mean, I, I'm going to leave those tracks thinking, I mean,
where have I been in the road courses this year?
10th and 15th?
Yeah.
So like, okay.
It's just, it's not our standard of expecting to go to the track and win.
I think, I think a 10th, 15th place finish is we're going to put you in a great spot
heading into Atlanta in the points.
That's my hunch.
But then we're going to have to get lucky, right?
Is that don't get caught up in the wreck?
But everyone's got to get lucky.
Everyone, you're right.
But, but you, it's not like you're starting from scratch.
It's not like, oh, well, who gets lucky or unlucky?
You are retic.
It's no, no, no.
Well, if you're behind, you have to get lucky and he has to get unlucky.
You know what I mean?
So it's not, you know, it's not totally straight up.
Yeah.
Unless you win.
When you're behind.
Unless you win, you're going to be usually by a spot or two.
So it really doesn't get you much.
You have to win to get the true like win.
What else we got here?
Oh, Michael, he's helped motivate you in the off season.
Yeah, I mean, you know, he just, he was more speaking to the general crowd.
He wasn't necessarily speaking to me.
He wasn't challenging me, but I saw it as a challenge.
You know, for, for context for those don't know, he just, you know,
he dressed the team in the off season.
We talked, you know, as ownership, we wanted to talk to 2311 about what our
expectations were, where we want to see our team, you know,
how we expect our guys to work together, all those things.
And yeah, it was just, you know, I think we're, I don't know the full context.
I don't remember exactly how it got brought up.
It might have been talking about like adversity, like, you know,
these races never go as planned.
Like so, so what now what, you know, how, what's your next best
move, right?
And so I forget the context, but he, he just brought up myself and it was,
you know, it was right after all the bad stuff that had happened.
And he's like, yeah, I'm interested to see what, what Denny does and how he were,
you know, what does he do from, from last year?
And you know, does he, does he respond or does he fold up 10 or something like that?
And, you know, so at that point, I'm just back in the room.
Okay.
It's, you know, sometimes things like that is what all you need to fuel you.
Yeah.
But it's, you know, I, I've gotten a fuel inside of me anyway.
I, I'm a competitor, right?
I love to compete no matter what it is.
So it feels good.
Yeah.
It just, it still feels like there's just a little, the dial's been turned up
a little bit this year.
The last eight weeks have been pretty, pretty phenomenal.
It's been a, one of the best runs certainly I've ever had.
Do you think it's, you and Gail just finally, like as in, like, I have a theory that I think
you guys finally like, have like clicked.
I don't know the things really have changed much.
You know, we interact the same as we have last year to this year.
I mean, this really goes back to the starting at the playoffs of last year.
You know, if you look at the results there, like this started long ago.
And do we need to talk about the earlier races in the season that we definitely should have won?
So this is not, I don't think this is just a last month thing.
It's been like this for, for a minute.
So, and it's, in my mind, it started last year.
Like that, that just seemed like that Vegas race was
the moment that unlocked something else.
Yeah. I mean, you know your stats this year.
They're, they're pretty, pretty insane.
Well, and they are, and how about this?
I'm not leading the standings that the 45 team, it doesn't get,
I know that media is talking about us right now, rightfully so.
We've been winning, but do you know how ridiculous a, you know,
a five or a seven average finishes in the cup series?
Like, and how hard that is to do?
I mean, the 45, it ain't like he's like running like, and that's how we've caught him.
It's just, he's still running in the top five to top 10 every single week, like every week
when he didn't get wrecked.
So they're on just as a historical run as what we are.
All right. Don't forget about stopping by the online merch store, the zero to freedom line.
Let's take a look at some of these shirts in the zero to freedom line.
Look at that. Good clean on the front and on the back.
You got the American flag with a bunch of the, looks like some gin five race cars,
star stripes and stock cars.
And then another clean front there on the blue Dirty Mo and again, the eagle.
Zero to freedom.
Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com May the 6th.
A couple of those new shirts will be on there for you guys to enjoy.
We're going to San Diego to race these cars that we're looking at.
And the race track itself is pretty daunting.
And but you two guys are probably the only two guys.
There may be a few more that aren't that intimidated by such a project.
But every time that we go to anything like this, it's chaos.
Our, you know, for all our series, the trucks, a rally for cup, it's going to be chaos.
And, and I want to talk about that a little bit.
We, you know, what, what, first off, kind of what, what's been the preparation.
I've heard some different things about drivers spending a lot of time in the sim.
I know if you go do a sim session for, for this racetrack for two hours,
you're lucky to get 20 laps because it takes so long to get around there.
And, you know, for a driver, I've heard honey cut in the trucks has run almost 400 laps on the sim,
which is insane.
I don't know.
That's what I heard from a Toyota official this past weekend.
So, you know, and you have our racing at home where it's available to you.
How much time are each of you guys spending on sim?
Is that going to be beneficial to you?
Do you see it as beneficial to other guys?
How do you guys prepare?
Yeah.
I did some R racing actually last night.
That's probably the only sim I've done and in an MX five out of, out of things.
And yeah, actually Carl got on last night and we were racing each other,
but I went through a few virtual cars.
That's for sure.
It's tough, man.
Oh, I like that.
Even the first corners on the edge that right.
And then you come down that hill and it's bumpy and then hit on as a wall.
Like, so I've crashed there many times.
Yeah.
That's difficult.
I've destroyed some virtual Chevy's, unfortunately.
But yeah, it's, it's challenging.
It's so technical and I've been spending most of my time on eye racing.
Eye racing has done a really good job keeping the track updated and,
you know, even better than what the OEMs can do with the simulator that we have at
the GM tech center.
So, um, yeah, eye racing has been really good.
And, and honestly, I prefer eye racing over the big sim for this week just because of that.
So, um, yeah, it's, you know, whenever the track changes,
you want to be driving the most updated track possible and eye racing's done a good job of that.
So it's, uh, it's, it's cool.
I mean, it's, it's definitely tough.
Like Chicago was tough, but I feel like this track is even more technical than what that was.
I feel like that was a lot of 90 degree corners and just kind of stopped and goes and a lot of
the corners were the same.
And, um, I feel like this track's got some more character to it.
So I'm excited for it.
What about the, um, you know, there's a couple of corners where you're coming,
you know, around and, and there'll be a tire pack right in your, right.
I mean, did in front of you, um, like where, I guess, uh, the broader question is, is like,
you know, where every time we go to one of these tracks or every time we do something new,
anything new, it's just a lot of chaos and, and problematic issues and people
finding different ways to hit things and new ways to hit things.
Um, and, uh, I just, you know, there's some areas that are kind of questionable that I'm
a bit concerned about when we start racing through them.
Right.
It's one, it's one thing to go out there and run by yourself.
The whole track.
Right.
Every corner I see on the track is different, unique, bumpy, challenging.
Like I can see.
Yeah.
What is.
Carnage at every corner almost.
Yes.
Yeah.
And so with the next gen car and how, how that car ride, the ride quality of that car and
how unique it is to anything else that we do, um, there are some really, really rough spots.
And I think you saw that at Chicago, like the first year, a lot of cars were high and soft,
like the 91 car.
And then everyone's gotten greedy.
Like it's gotten lower and lower and stiffer because that's how the car makes grip.
But there's a huge compromise between getting the floor on the ground and ride quality.
So luckily it's an open practice.
So we get to try some things, but I think it's a huge compromise.
You're going to see some bad handling cars.
Yeah.
People getting greedy and running too low and slamming the track.
I went out there last week and I think it's, I mean, I lose count at five, but that back straight.
Oh my gosh.
It's so rough.
Yeah.
Even driving the road car, it was rough.
So it's going to be interesting to see how the cars go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you've been out there?
Yeah.
Last week we did a bit of promotion stuff and.
You got to run around the track itself.
And well, no, half it's not even built.
Right.
There's a little traffic.
Half it's on a runway.
You went.
They can't be there till Thursday.
Have you been out there personally?
I went out there.
You went together?
Two or three months ago.
Yeah.
How much of the, how much did you get to learn?
Well, I, I didn't learn a ton, honestly.
Like I saw like three corners, but I didn't even get to drive on it or anything.
I was there just last week and it's amazing that we're going to race there next week.
Because there's not much.
Would build tracks in Australia.
It would be done months before they'd be building here.
It's a week out.
Yeah, they're doing it all the week of.
And that's the thing like they couldn't, because it's on an active runway, they didn't get access to
that until I think some, yeah, it's like some point this week.
So, you know, they get five days to build it.
And, you know, you've been practicing on this iracing thing that you're relying on and, and
treating, you know, like it's the truth.
And then, you know, a guy with a forklift decides he's going to put the wall there
and set it there.
And all of a sudden.
Couple feet can mean.
Yeah.
What you, what you just spent for, what Kate and Honeycut just did 400 laps of is useless.
So it's kind of, it's kind of one of those things where you can't really rely on
the simulator too much.
You just got to go there and walk the track and see what it's like.
Yeah.
How do you think NASCAR handles cautions there?
Because, you know, when we have a, if, you know, on the road courses, that's the toughest part
about this whole deal is when the caution comes out, particularly race at the end of stage breaks.
It takes so long to run a caution lap at most these road courses.
And this one's, you know, the longest one that we've, we've got.
That's the one thing I'm kind of curious as to how, how NASCAR might call this race.
Would they maybe be less likely to throw yellows in certain instances?
Let, sit there and wait and hope and pray this guy can get his together and get moving
or whatever, right?
Do they hold that flag a little bit longer?
I mean, I get so bored of some of these races.
Yeah.
The cautions can be so bad.
I hope they, I mean NASCAR knows it too.
Like they, they, they'll be the first to admit that, yeah, we, the cautions are too long.
But whether it's TV or, you know, if, if when I exploded a brake rotor at, at Nashville,
they had to go out and find every single piece of brake rotor, because if not,
someone was going to run it over and get a flat tire.
So, yeah, I mean, I, they always have a, a reason, I guess.
But man, when you're in the car driving around under caution for 20 minutes, it's like,
I mean, it's going to be three and a half miles.
It's going to be a six minute lap on the course.
And that's the thing they, at stage breaks, we always do like a full lap and then
one time by two, like it's, it's going to be a long.
I wonder if they'll, I wonder, I'm surprised.
I hope they just open the pits right away.
Right.
I'm surprised that they haven't, I'm so, I will be surprised, I suppose,
if they don't change some of their protocol a little bit around caution.
And then do the choose after the second lap open or something, hopefully.
It should be two laps of caution, Max.
Like open the pits right away, unless there's a crash right there,
but you should be able to open the pits right away.
The stages are only 20 laps, so we'll get eaten up pretty quick.
Yeah.
All right.
That was another episode of the Dirty 30 presented by Arby's new
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About this episode
From calling races in an aircraft carrier tower to watching live action from a shipping container, the hosts paint a vivid picture of race-day coverage and track logistics. They recount a wild Pocono moment where a bus driver left mid-race after tearing off a door, then describe Nicole’s daughter riding in a race car and wanting to try driving one herself. The conversation also jumps into strategy—points formats, clean air, cautions on road courses, and why sim work can’t replace walking the track.
Original notes
From bus doors getting destroyed to Michael Jordan's motivating words, and maybe even a future racer in the Earnhardt family - this week's Dirty Thirty is one for the history books.
To start us off, Dale Jr. talks about broadcasting from an Aircraft carrier this weekend at San Diego, and the time he saw his bus have an issue live on TV at Pocono.
Then, he and Amy talk about Nicole's ride in Justin Allgaier's car to victory lane — and how it may have sparked her interest in going racing someday.
After that, the Door Bumper Clear crew discusses the Cup Series drivers' aggressiveness this year under the new points format.
Over on Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin sets his goal for San Diego and Sonoma, and shares the words Michael Jordan said during a pre-season meeting with 23XI that sparked DH's tenacious approach to this year.
Finally, Red Bull brethren and road course aces, Connor Zilisch & Shane van Gisbergen, discuss what they are expecting heading into the historic weekend in San Diego, racing on a Naval Base.
That's all for this week! Don't forget to shop at shop.dirtymomedia.com
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