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Term
pit crew
In racing, the pit crew is the group of people who work on the car during a stop in the pits. They try to do things like tire changes as fast as possible so the driver can get back on track quickly.
Term
restarts
A restart is when the race starts moving again after it was slowed down for an incident or caution. Drivers have to be careful and get a good launch so they can move up without spinning or crashing.
Concept
V8 Supercar
V8 Supercar is a major racing series in Australia. It’s known for intense, close racing where drivers have to be very precise with how they slow down and control the car.
Term
wheel hop
Wheel hop is when a tire starts bouncing on the road instead of staying planted. It can happen during hard braking or when the car’s drivetrain suddenly loads the rear tires.
Term
rev
“Rev” means engine speed. When drivers downshift, they may briefly raise engine speed so the shift feels smoother and the tires don’t get upset.
Term
engine braking
Engine braking is when the car slows down because the engine is working against the drivetrain after you lift off the gas. Downshifting can make that slowing force stronger, which can affect tire grip.
Term
left foot braking
Left foot braking means you press the brake with your left foot instead of your right. Racers do it so they can keep the right foot ready to add gas while braking, which can help the car stay stable.
Term
clutch
The clutch is what lets the driver smoothly connect the engine to the gearbox. In racing, drivers can “feather” it to make the power and braking forces change more smoothly, which helps the tires stay planted.
Concept
dampen the load on the drivetrain
This means the driver tries to make the forces coming from the engine and transmission change more smoothly. That helps the rear tires keep traction instead of getting overwhelmed during braking and shifting.
Term
driveshaft
A driveshaft is a rotating shaft that sends power from the gearbox to the rear wheels. If a race car uses a different setup, the way forces travel through the car can change.
Concept
pitch the car in the middle of the corner down deep in the braking zone
Pitching the car means the car’s front end dips and the weight shifts forward under braking. Racers use that weight shift to help the car turn and rotate more effectively.
Term
brake caliper
The brake caliper is the part that clamps the brake pads onto the spinning brake disc. More caliper action usually means stronger braking to slow the car down.
Concept
down shifting
Downshifting means going to a lower gear when you’re slowing down. Drivers do it so the engine is ready to pull when they accelerate again, and they time it carefully to avoid upsetting the car.
Concept
turn the race car
“Turn the race car” means getting the car to rotate and point where you want it for the corner. The host is saying the clutch can be part of making that happen, not just a way to change gears.
Concept
VA super cars
“VA super cars” is a reference to a major Australian touring-car racing series. The point in the conversation is that the driving skills you learn in junior cars don’t automatically transfer 1:1 to these race cars.
Concept
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a training-level open-wheel race series. Drivers use it to learn how to handle a race car before they move on to bigger, faster racing.
Concept
open-wheel wingless
That phrase means a race car with exposed wheels and little/no wing downforce. Because it doesn’t “stick” to the track as much from aero, drivers have to learn to control traction with their inputs.
Concept
Skid barber
Skip Barber is a racing school that helps drivers learn how to drive a race car. The idea is to practice the basics in a controlled way before moving up to tougher competition.
Car
Ford Mustang
A Mustang is a well-known Ford sports car. Here it’s being mentioned as one of the types of cars that were racing in a rough, contact-heavy style.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
A Camaro is a Chevrolet sports car. In this part of the conversation, it’s mentioned as one of the car types that were racing hard and making contact.
Topic
NASCAR
NASCAR is a major American racing series. The host is basically saying the racing they’re talking about felt similar—close and aggressive.
Topic
Trans Am series
Trans Am is a famous American racing series. Instead of purpose-built race cars only, it often uses cars that are based on models you could buy from the street.
Topic
Raleigh series race
That phrase means there was a race event in the Raleigh area. Racing series visit different places, and each stop is a round of the season.
Topic
Stage 1
Some races are split into parts called stages. “Stage 1” is the first part, and drivers’ performance there can matter for the overall event.
Topic
TA2 series
TA2 is a lower-level racing class tied to Trans Am. It’s meant to help drivers build experience and improve by racing regularly.
Term
road course racers
A road course is a type of race track with lots of corners and braking. “Road course racers” are drivers who are especially good at that style of track.
Topic
Kota
“Kota” likely means the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin. It’s a road course, so it tests braking, cornering, and overall driving skill.
Topic
Millbridge
Millbridge is referenced as one of the places/series Carson raced before. The point is that he already had experience coming into Trans Am.
Topic
Watkins Land
“Watkins Land” sounds like Watkins Glen, a well-known road-racing track. They’re saying drivers who cut their teeth in Trans Am can do well there too.
Topic
Cars Tour
Cars Tour is a racing series the driver competed in. They’re using it as evidence that he’s been racing and improving before moving up.
Concept
ARCA series
ARCA is a racing series that helps drivers gain experience and move up the ladder. They’re saying you don’t need every ARCA race—just the right ones for the kind of track time you want.
Concept
Kansas
Kansas is a well-known race track used for big events. The host is listing major tracks where certain races can give a driver useful experience.
Concept
Charlotte
Charlotte is a famous racing area with major tracks. The host is saying you’d pick certain big-track races to help a young driver.
Concept
road course racing
A road course is a type of race track with lots of corners and braking. The point here is that if you only race ovals, you may not be ready for road courses.
Concept
trucks
“Trucks” refers to a truck racing series (commonly the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series) where drivers move from other series into a different vehicle category. The hosts argue that road-course skill transfers, but oval-only drivers may struggle when they switch to road courses in trucks.
Concept
Ark at the Glen
This sounds like an ARCA race at Watkins Glen, which is a road-course track. The host is pointing out that road-course racing was happening right then.
Topic
Pike's Peak racing for the championship
They’re talking about a championship race at Pike’s Peak and how the fight on track affected their chances.
Term
tire limitations
It means the race rules limit how tires can be used. Teams have to plan when to switch tires, which can affect speed and track position.
Concept
tire strategy
Tire strategy is about deciding when to use old tires and when to switch to new ones. Since tires wear out and lose grip, that timing can decide whether you move forward or fall back.
Term
track position
Track position is basically your position on the track compared to other cars. If you fall back, it can be tough to catch up because passing takes time.
Term
yellow
A “yellow” is when the race slows down because of something on the track. Since everyone slows together, it can help you gain spots or make a pit stop with less time lost.
Term
track limits
Track limits are the boundaries on the race track that drivers are allowed to use. If you go outside those boundaries, NASCAR can penalize you because it can become an unfair shortcut.
Term
barriers
In oval racing, “barriers” are the safety structures placed around the track to slow and absorb impact. Changes to barrier placement can affect how drivers approach corners and how aggressively they can defend or pass.
Term
carousel
“Carousel” is a nickname for a particular set of turns on the course. Drivers talk about it because the way you go through those turns affects your speed and chances to pass afterward.
Term
term one
Turn one is the first corner drivers hit each lap. It’s important because it’s a common place to pass, and track changes there can make passing easier or harder.
Concept
created more passing
“Created more passing” means the track setup made it easier for drivers to overtake. Things like where the walls and safe areas are can change how drivers can attack and defend in corners.
Concept
sand traps
Sand traps are sandy areas next to the track meant to catch cars that go off course. The sand helps slow the car down so it doesn’t keep sliding back onto the track.
Concept
caution
A caution is when the race slows down because something happened on the track. Drivers can’t race at full speed until officials say it’s safe again.
Concept
bus stop
“Bus stop” is the name of a specific tricky part of a race track. It’s usually a tight area where it’s easy to make a mistake and end up in the runoff.
Concept
runoffs
Runoffs are the extra space next to the track. If a car goes off the racing line, the runoff is where it can slow down instead of hitting something harder.
Topic
turn one
Turn one is the first corner on the track. It’s often where things get dicey because everyone is bunched up and drivers are trying to set up for the rest of the lap. The host talks about how changes to that corner can affect how drivers take it.
Concept
stage breaks
Stage breaks are how NASCAR divides a race into sections. The race isn’t just one long run—there are checkpoints where the event is effectively split up. In this case, those breaks also lead to planned restarts.
Topic
restart zones
A restart zone is a specific part of the track where the restart is supposed to happen. NASCAR can move that zone to change how orderly the restart is. The goal is to reduce chaos and make restarts smoother.
Topic
Indy Road course
“Indy Road course” refers to the road-course configuration at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (often called the Indy road course). The host groups it with other tracks where turn one can be problematic and where NASCAR may adjust restart zones to improve restart quality. It’s track-specific procedural context rather than a car tech topic.
Topic
Portland
“Portland” is a race track venue. The host brings it up because some tracks have turn-one characteristics that can affect how restarts go. It’s track context, not a car modification topic.
Topic
The Glenn
“The Glenn” is a nickname for Watkins Glen International, a well-known race track. The host is saying that track can have rough moments at times, which affects how restarts and incidents play out. It’s about the venue, not a car part.
Term
G forces
“G forces” are how hard the car is accelerating or turning, measured compared to gravity. If the number is high, it can feel intense and tiring, and it can make driving harder. The hosts are talking about how big those forces get in the corners.
Term
curbs
Curbs are the raised strips at the edge of the track. Drivers can use them to help take a corner, but hitting them can also make the ride feel rough and intense. The hosts say removing curbs changes how fast cars go and how easy it is to pass.
Term
passing zone
A passing zone is a part of the track where it’s realistically possible to overtake. It depends on things like how hard you can brake and how much speed you can carry into the corner. The hosts say the newer track configuration makes fewer areas good for passing.
Term
mid-corner speed
Mid-corner speed is how fast the car is while it’s actually in the turn. If cars go through corners faster, it can be harder to get close enough to overtake. The hosts say the newer setup raises mid-corner speed, hurting passing.
Term
dive bomb
A “dive bomb” is when a driver waits until the very last second to brake, then tries to squeeze into a corner to pass. It’s exciting but can be dangerous if the other driver isn’t expecting it.
Term
lift early
“Lift early” means the driver lets off the gas earlier than usual. In a race, that can surprise other drivers and make it harder for them to time their passing move.
Term
apex
The “apex” is the inside point of a corner that racers try to hit. If you miss it, you often lose speed or end up with a worse path through the turn.
Concept
stop the bleeding
In racing talk, “stop the bleeding” is a metaphor for reducing the damage from a bad situation—like losing position or getting caught in traffic. It usually describes a driver’s attempt to regain control of the race line and prevent the situation from getting worse.
Term
tire packs
“Tire packs” means groups of cars that are close together and running at similar tire wear and speed. When cars are bunched up, there’s more opportunity—and more risk—for drivers to make passes.
Concept
tire wear management
Tire wear management means driving so your tires don’t get ruined too fast. If you protect them early, you can keep grip and stay quick later in the race.
Term
rear tire
Rear tires are the tires on the back of the car. If they get overheated or worn out during braking and corner entry, the car loses grip and can’t stay fast through the turn.
Term
lock diff
A lock diff forces the two wheels on the same axle to spin together. That can help when one wheel starts slipping, but it can change how the car turns.
Term
rear lock
When you brake too hard, the back tires can lose traction and start sliding. Drivers try to control that slide so the car turns the way they want instead of getting unstable.
Term
brake zone
The “brake zone” is the section of the track where you slow down before you turn. Hitting it at the right time helps the tires stay grippy and makes the car easier to steer into the corner.
Term
diff is open
An “open diff” lets the left and right wheels spin at different speeds. That means you don’t have to force the back end to slide or lock up to get the car to turn.
Term
front brake bias
Brake bias is how much of the braking happens at the front versus the back. More front bias usually keeps the back tires from locking up, so the car stays easier to control while turning in.
Term
down change every lap
At a track with lots of braking, you often shift into a lower gear. That helps the car slow down and then pull back strongly when you’re ready to speed up again.
Topic
Martinsville braking and pedal technique
This segment focuses on how Martinsville’s braking demands affect driving technique. The discussion centers on downshifting frequency, timing coordination, rear-tire management, and switching from one-foot to two-foot control.
Term
sync up the timing
Racing is all about doing actions at the right moment. Here it sounds like he learned the exact timing for braking and transitioning so the car behaves better.
Term
not right foot brake
The phrase contrasts “right foot brake” with a different braking technique. It implies the driver initially braked using only one foot, then changed to a two-foot approach to better control the car during braking and transitions.
Term
two foot
“Two foot” refers to using both feet for braking and throttle control—typically one foot on the brake and the other on the accelerator. This technique can help drivers modulate deceleration and maintain balance, especially when transitioning through heavy braking zones on ovals.
Concept
break later
In racing, “break later” means you wait longer before slowing down for a turn. If you do it right, you go into the corner faster, but you have to be very accurate.
Concept
roll off the brake
“Roll off the brake” means you gradually stop pressing the brake as you start turning. The point here is that the outside line didn’t work as easily—drivers needed more braking/precision than usual.
Term
astroturf
Astroturf is fake grass. On a race track it can be slippery compared to pavement, so if you end up on it you may lose grip—though sometimes you can still control the car if you’re careful.
Concept
race ender
A “race ender” means something that likely ruins your race. Here, it’s basically saying that hitting those objects usually causes serious trouble.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
A Corvette is a Chevrolet sports car. On a race track, it’s known for being fast and for how it handles when you’re driving hard.
Term
H pattern shifter
A H pattern shifter is the usual layout for a manual car’s gear lever. You move the lever in a pattern that looks like an “H” to pick different gears.
Term
dog rings
Dog rings are small internal parts in a manual gearbox that help “lock” a gear so it stays engaged. If they wear out, the car can slip out of gear even when you’re driving hard.
Term
popped out of gear
“Popped out of gear” describes a transmission that loses engagement and drops back to neutral or another state unexpectedly. In a worn-gear scenario, it can happen during hard throttle or even while coasting, making the car unreliable to drive.
Term
full throttle
Full throttle means the accelerator pedal is fully depressed, commanding maximum engine power. If a transmission is failing to stay in gear, even full throttle won’t produce the expected acceleration because the drivetrain engagement is compromised.
Term
fuel pickup issues
Fuel pickup issues mean the engine isn’t consistently getting fuel from the tank to the fuel system. On track, it often shows up as sputtering or hesitation during acceleration, especially under braking, cornering, or sustained high load.
Concept
holding onto the shifter
Holding onto the shifter while driving can apply unintended force to the transmission’s shift mechanism. In this story, that habit is blamed for accelerating wear on the internal engagement parts, leading to gear retention problems.
Concept
joint all star race
It’s basically a special race where different groups of drivers come together instead of running separate events. The idea here is to mix NASCAR’s usual weekend structure with an All-Star-style event.
Concept
24 hours of Daytona
The “24 Hours of Daytona” is a race that lasts a full day. Teams have to manage things like tires and fuel while drivers rotate in stints.
Concept
Le Mans race
Le Mans is a legendary long-distance race in France that lasts 24 hours. The point being made is that endurance racing has already been attempted with a modified version of a newer NASCAR-style car.
Concept
next gen car
“Next gen car” is a motorsports term for a newer generation of race car regulations and hardware. Here, it’s referenced as being modified for endurance racing (Le Mans), suggesting changes to make a NASCAR-style platform work in a different race environment.
Concept
Dover
“Dover” is another major NASCAR race track. The host is saying people were excited about moving the All-Star event there.
Concept
All-Star Weekend for all three series
They’re discussing a NASCAR event format where multiple racing series run during the same weekend. The goal is to make the All-Star Race more exciting and harder to get into.
Term
field size
“Field size” is the number of cars/drivers entered in a race. In this discussion, shrinking the field is presented as a way to make the All-Star Race more exclusive and prestigious, since fewer drivers can qualify.
Term
O'Reilly series
O’Reilly is a sponsor name attached to a NASCAR series. They’re talking about mixing cars from that series with others in the same on-track event.
Term
moving chicane
A chicane is a set of turns that makes cars slow down and change direction. A “moving” chicane means the track setup changes, which can create tricky, unpredictable moments for drivers.
Term
Chicagoland
Chicagoland is a NASCAR race track. They’re referencing a test there where different types of NASCAR cars were on track at the same time.
Term
predictor
They’re talking about a prediction game they run for the race. They guess who will do well, then compare those guesses to the real results.
Topic
Watkins Glen
Watkins Glen is a well-known race track. The hosts are talking about how the race went there compared to their guesses.
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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 was the best man at your wedding.
Who was your best man, Dale?
TJ.
TJ!
You don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking?
Get him, TJ. 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.
It is Post Watkins Glen, and this episode is presented to you by Arby's.
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This episode is presented by Arby's.
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Get more meal for your money at Arby's.
We have the meats and we have co-host TJ Majors here.
How's it going, TJ?
It's going. How you doing?
I'm doing all right, man.
Gotta be honest.
Feeling a little strange today. I don't know.
Don't know why.
Maybe it was that ass kicking SCG put on Sunday, but I am.
That was an ass kick.
I am. I mean, little melancholy.
Maybe it's that plus then we have Dover for the Ulster race.
So it's just kind of like, uh, calm down now.
Don't be bashing Dover.
It feels weird.
But Dover didn't deserve this.
God dang.
You see what I said the other day?
No.
I said asphalt Dover would still have a points race.
Gotta route up.
Do you just fire that tweet off and then put the phone down and walk away?
Oh yeah.
Because I'm right.
Yeah, you're not wrong.
There's people like, I don't know, man.
There's some pretty bomb races on the old concrete with the gin six.
All right, man.
I got to check the birth date.
They weren't, they haven't been alive when it was asphalt.
Well, it was asphalt, man.
They used to smoke the tires going around that thing.
Guys would go around the corner and tires would smoke.
I feel like archer cars still look like that.
Sometime it used to look like that with that bias.
How would you be able to see it?
Well, you probably wouldn't, but against the concrete.
But they're sideways at least.
Yeah.
Concrete.
Look,
Concrete's for sidewalks, people.
Okay.
I mean, that's the way it is.
Um, yeah, SVG just kicked a bunch of ass, but it wasn't a perfect race for SVG.
His, uh, pit crew was ranked 18th.
That's terrible.
Can you imagine if his pit crew was good?
That's so bad.
Hey, he's only, he's only ranked second in restarts.
What?
Come on, SVG.
What a hack.
Hey, he's second in defense.
What the hell, SVG?
Did anybody go out there beating him on a defensive?
Did anybody pass it?
Like, Tyler Reddick was better on restarts.
Hey, hang your hat on that, Tyler.
What was SVG on speed?
Oh my gosh.
11111111 on everything.
Anything to do with going fast.
He was first.
Short speed rank, long run rank and yeah, just regular old speed.
2311 is going to have a beer toast for Tyler Reddick being one on restarts.
I would.
Yeah.
And how, how much of a pain in the ass must briscoe be if he's
BSVG on defense at a road course?
What a, damn, that's like Newman-esque defensive.
How does that even happen?
I don't know.
I mean, you can't win defense if you're just out there running by yourself with like
second lead.
Ain't much defense to be had.
Sounds like it was a good offense.
Ain't much defense to be doing.
No, that's what, I don't know if anybody passed him all day.
It's what I'm saying.
So how could he play?
I don't see how they could even come up with a stat, a defensive stat for SVG.
He never once needed to be on defense.
We got a question to wrestle on these stats.
Yes, wrestle.
Dale.
Was that the race Chris passed?
It should, on the ranking, on the ranking for SVG on defense, it should say NA.
Yeah, it's no data.
Not applicable.
Yeah.
But how about that 18th ranked pit crew?
Well, they just were probably taking it easy.
You know what I mean?
They were like, you know what?
This guy's got it.
He's got it.
Yeah, he's so damn fast.
Yeah, 111111
We're good.
Let's just get the lugs on.
Let's get them off.
Let's get them on.
No loose tires, no misfuel.
I mean, literally that was the only thing that was going to beat him was something like that.
Knowing this pit crew and how funny the trackhouse guys are, they might have been slow on purpose
just to see if he could still do it.
They're walking around the car.
They're like, hey, 19 seconds.
Stop coming up, boys.
All right, let's see if you can overcome this.
By this, he probably would have been real close.
Damn.
If you ever came a 28 second deficit and won by 7.28 seconds over.
I am surprised a little bit because when we, you know, you're trying to,
as an analyst, you're trying to, I think we all, not just analysts,
but all of us are kind of watching SVG going, all right,
we got a little sample size of what this guy's been able to do since he came into the sport
a very short time ago at the Chicago street course.
And he, you know, he, he put it on him at Chicago street course,
but we had rain and all kinds of things happen in that day.
But otherwise, I mean, he just, did it.
Shocked the world.
And we went ran some other races and he won.
And then he was like, we went to Watkins Glen.
I think it's first time there and he ran all right.
He wasn't strong.
Yeah, it wasn't this.
Oh, it was like top 10.
It's really weird.
And we all got to thinking, you know, what the narrative was out of that was like,
oh man, you know, he's going to be great at these places we don't run at.
Like, you know, this Chicago street course, a new track.
We go to Mexico.
He dominates, but hey, when we go to Sonoma or we go to Watkins Glen,
where our guys got a lot of time.
I know the track.
They go around with him, but no, that's wrong too.
We thought we had it.
We thought we had him figured out like, man, we can keep up with him at some of these places.
No, the cap's widening.
Yeah, it's widening.
Yeah, something happened.
But I don't like what happened here.
He must have had a real, real car that one time at Watkins Glen when he ran eight.
What about Kota though?
I mean Kota, he couldn't catch red.
Where did he finish?
Where was it?
Sorry, TJ.
What's his, uh, where was that rate?
What's the 24 Watkins Glen?
He finished second.
No, no, no.
Go back.
What, when did he win, uh, he was running some one-off stuff.
His first race.
Chicago was the year before that.
It was Indy.
Okay.
What a hack.
10th.
10th at Indy.
Good gosh.
What a bum.
Almost didn't get a top 10.
What in the world?
Yeah, unacceptable.
Hey, Justin Marks.
What in the world, Justin Marks?
What kind of race cards you give the poor guy?
10th.
Make a soldier to a, that must have been like a 40th place car.
I mean, really, the worst car in the field.
The ticker was 32nd that day.
And he brought it, he brought it to 10th.
I don't know, man.
Hey, another thing, SVG, I saw some cameras on his feet.
Did you see that?
Yeah.
Guy don't like his, he don't like cameras on his feet.
Do you know that?
Because it gives away, could give away what he's doing.
Listen, let me tell you something, SVG.
And he, is he coming and calling in?
Yeah, he's calling.
Okay, let me talk to him about this.
So I don't want to repeat myself.
So I'm going to save that conversation.
But I'll just say it.
So he, when I'm sitting, they tried to discuss,
they tried to talk about this during the race.
I think it was Jamie Little tried to explain what was going on.
And she did a good job.
But we were at the Chicago race.
I think this is pretty interesting.
Now, some people may hear this and go,
what the f*** is a big deal?
I need a big deal.
But I'm at the Chicago race.
We are in the middle of the race.
The race is happening.
I'm down on top of a f***ing scissor lift,
because we're doing it radio style for NBC,
which I f***ing hated, except for at the Glen.
It was fun.
I didn't like it anywhere else.
But we're doing it radio style.
We're on the scissor lift down there,
and I'm way on one end of the racetrack.
And middle of the race,
SDG is looking like he might win this f***ing thing, right?
So the broadcast is getting going at f***ing.
All the people at home are going at f***ing.
And I start getting text messages from my friends in Australia.
So, SVG is New Zealander, but he raced in the V8 Supercar.
I went to Australia in 06 with help from Marcus Ambrose.
I met some folks like Crusher.
Crusher is kind of like this agent kind of guy.
He's like a go-between for a lot of the guys over there.
And we had an incredible time.
TJ, you went on that trip.
Yeah, we had some really cool people.
We did.
We got to drive some V8 Supercars at a driving school.
And so...
We basically did everything you could do over there.
Yeah, it was pretty cool.
So I'm getting some text messages,
and one of the people that's texting me is a guy by the name of Paul Morris.
And Paul Morris is a V8 Supercar driver from years ago.
And Paul has served on like the V8 Supercar committee.
This dude, he's a racer.
And you can follow Paul on social media.
He's talking about racing and dudes.
He's in it.
And he knows SVG and all these guys really well.
They all know each other.
They all raced against each other, grew up around each other.
And so Paul's a bit of an old head.
My age, kind of.
A little bit.
A generation above SVG.
So he watched SVG go through V8 Supercar.
So I'm standing on the scissor lift.
We're watching SVG dominate this race.
And Paul comes on the radio and comes on my text message on my phone.
He starts telling me he's like, dude, he's like, he said,
he's kicking these guys ass because of how he uses the clutch in the braking zone.
And so traditionally, now, this is something I think those guys in
Australia do really well with the V8 Supercar.
And I'm sure it happens.
It's well done, probably in Europe as well.
F1 drivers, whatever, right?
I mean, this isn't like a.
It's their craft.
Yeah, this ain't ass car guys do.
But when we use the clutch, if we do, it's change of gear.
We don't use the clutch to control wheel hop or any of that bull.
We don't use the clutch to try to improve tire life over the duration of a run.
And we're watching him.
We're watching his feet during this race or we, you know,
there was some opportunity, I think, to look at his feet during some of this stuff.
I'm not sure if we had a foot camera on him or not.
But Paul was like, hey, when he goes down into the braking zone,
you know, he lifts off the gas, mash the brake pedal, but you'll watch him.
He'll modulate the clutch and he's.
So when you, when you.
At a road course, if you're driving wide ass open into a deep braking zone,
you lift off the gas, you pop the revs to downshift.
You're like 11
And as soon as you put the car into the lower gear, it tries to drag the rear tires.
The rear, it's called engine braking.
And so you're, you're desailing in a high RPM and it's, and it sometimes in bad cases
can induce wheel hop.
The rear tires just start bouncing across the racetrack and you see guys wreck.
When you were racing, you were left foot braking in these zones, right?
Yeah.
You would left foot brake and then pop the gas pedal.
He is right foot braking, I suppose.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's right foot braking and he's got his foot on the clutch.
Yes.
And so what he, what he's, what he's doing is he's, he kind of, when he starts to feel
the rear tires trying to get tight, like the engine braking, trying to drag the rear tire
or even induce some wheel hop, he will modulate the clutch just slightly to dampen
the load on the drivetrain.
The, the, you know, what, yeah, the effect on the, like the drive shaft, like they have,
you know, different components in the next gen car than they don't have drive shafts anymore,
like a rally car, but he's trying to dampen the load that the drive train is trying to
put on the rear tires.
So the tire isn't being, getting his ass kicked.
The rear tires aren't getting their ass kicked into the braking zone in a downshift under
engine braking.
And so another thing that he does is he will modulate the clutch and pitch the car in the
middle of the corner down deep in the braking zone.
He kind of, he kind of will release the clutch a little bit or use the clutch pedal in a way
to help the car pitch and turn.
And so, and he kind of, he's doing that.
Have you ever seen, you ever seen a MotoGP motorcycle racing on asphalt road courses,
right?
Every now and then, a lot of times, you'll see those guys go into braking zone and they're
almost sliding, gliding in there, kind of like an abroad slide.
That's very similar to what he's creating with the clutch pedal or controlling with the
clutch pedal.
No other, no other NASCAR driver is using the clutch pedal like this.
No one.
And so they talked about it during the broadcast.
Kevin Harvick mentioned it, but it allows him to brake much deeper.
And he's using a lot of more, he's using more brake caliper, brake clamp.
He's using a lot more brake force to slow the car down.
A lot of guys, myself included, we use the engine braking to slow the car down, but
that's bad on the rear tire.
That makes the rear tire mad because the rear tire is literally kind of trying to get drug
into the corner depth.
And so I, like when we would go to even Pocono turn one when we were down shifting,
I'm down shifting early using the engine braking.
No, I'm using less brake pedal, brake pressure and using engine braking to slow the car down.
I did that at road courses too.
That ain't the way to do it.
That ain't the best way to do it.
The best way to do it is to use less engine braking, use brake pedal, use the actual braking
system and use the clutch to modulate wheel hop deep into the braking zone.
And so that is, I mean, the dude's just really great at road courses, but that's one of the
reasons why he's not only great, but that also makes him fast on the back end of the run.
Everyone else out there has pissed their tires off.
Sled front tires, made the rear tires mad, doing all those things I just talked about.
And he is out there driving fast, but also keeping his tires happy.
And so halfway into the run or at the very end of the run, this guy is still smoking off
big time laps and no one else can get even close.
Seconds.
Yes.
That is the difference.
And so after we, and so I'm on the scissor lift at Chicago during the middle of the race,
Paul's telling me all of these things, which I understand clearly.
Paul described it perfectly and I tried to work that into the broadcast and say,
here's what this guy can do that no one else here can do.
And it is massive.
And so we went to the next couple of races and he did not want foot cameras.
And if they put a foot camera in there, he kicked it out of the way.
I would tell.
But no, I would tell him, hey, I get it.
This is the thing that you can do that these other guys don't know how to do,
but their ass ain't going to learn it.
Not this.
No, I don't think so.
This is a technique that you need to be doing from the day that you start driving race cars.
It ain't some you can start picking up and learning and understanding.
There ain't no chance.
No way in hell.
There is a single driver in the NASCAR Cup field today that could apply and adopt this technique
and do it well.
They just, it's just not possible.
What if like Connor wanted to at his age may be able to do it because he's young and he's working
with them.
And he's super young.
Yeah.
He's he's still he's 19.
But I'm talking about, you know, these guys that are 30, 35, 40 years old.
Yeah, you're not learning that.
They ain't going to learn this.
What was it?
What wasn't Joe Logano out there trying to change his breaking foot and all this bullshit,
you know, in practice, trying to do something.
I don't know.
No, I heard about it.
They talked about it.
They said he ran a bunch of laps using using, you know, he's either he's either left front
braking or right front.
He switched in practice, trying to do something different is like, ah, I can't, you know, it's
not working.
We it's we've tried it on the same.
It's the pure possible.
Yeah, it's weird when you learn something and you have something you're doing the same
way, driving a car, breaking with your, if you're a left foot breaker and you've left foot broke
your entire life, trying to switch and be a right foot breaker in the middle of your career
or toward the end of your career is not going to be very productive.
But this is a very, very precise, detailed technique that he has, how he uses the clutch
pedal in the braking zone and down shifting.
And when I asked him about it publicly, he downs plays.
Oh, that's not that big of a deal.
And then he kicks the camera out of the way.
But I'm telling you, he ain't got shit to worry about.
He could talk about this all day long.
These guys aren't going to figure this out.
It's and you're talking about, I mean, listen,
they could still on a good day compete and beat him race with him.
But this is just something that he can do that just gives him an edge edge.
You're also talking about doing this by yourself.
Imagine an a pack of cars like trying to do this as well.
You know what I mean?
That would be even it's, it is a, it's something that is, is natural to him,
like breathing, because it's way, it's the way he's drove cars his whole life.
It's the way all of the guys in the V8 supercar drive.
This is a technique Paul told me.
He said, this is what they teach at school.
They teach that clutch is a, a tool.
It's not just to get the car in and out of gear and using the transmission.
It is a tool to turn the race car.
It is a tool for breaking deeper, breaking more perfect, you know,
performance and breaking zones.
There's reason they do it.
Yeah.
And they teach these guys in Australia and New Zealand to race this way.
And so it's super common for him.
He couldn't, he wouldn't know how to not do it.
He wouldn't know how to stop doing it.
And so it's a habit, right?
Of, and it's, and it's woven into the DNA of his, his road course racing.
But I'll be honest, I feel like that you give him a decent car.
That technique is what sets him apart.
This car also, him out of the VA super cars, their NASCAR,
our cars and their cars are very similar now, right?
So him getting out of that car and getting into a cup car with the sequential shifting now,
like it wasn't, you know, it was almost.
I think there was a narrative or even some media content articles,
all this stuff to your point, TJ, that way back when the next gen was being, you know.
I remember it too.
The next gen was just a vision.
A lot of the, a the genesis of, of the, of the ideology around the next gen came from
VA super cars and the type, you know, I don't know how that connection happened.
I don't know that was it NASCAR, maybe taking a trip to Australia, you know,
to, to a race and seeing what was going on.
I don't know, but I do remember there being some conversation around how
A lot of the components are similar.
Yeah, a lot of the noses look same.
A lot of things that, there was some conversations around, yeah, how they,
there was a, there was a direct correlation to
VA super cars and the next gen car and its development.
Question for you.
Yeah, with like the younger drivers coming up and what they're driving in,
the cars that they're currently in, whether late model, whatever,
are they able to work on this craft of how he's doing it so that when they get up there,
they're ready?
Or is this something that you can only really do once you get to the next gen car?
I have no idea.
I imagine that it's something that I do have an idea.
So over in Australia, New Zealand, they run Formula Ford and all kinds of little, you know,
the Vs, they run like a, it's kind of like a open wheel wingless, you know,
what do you call those things?
I mean, it's a school car.
Yeah, kind of like Skid barber.
Yeah, and they would learn these techniques driving all of those things,
right?
Cause they don't, they don't just drive like the VA super car is a,
is like a stock car.
It's vendors and bumpers and all that.
They don't, they don't drive those.
They don't drive stock cars from inception to VA super car, right?
They go through all types of open wheel, all types of little different series before they
land where they land.
They had the Utes.
I was going to say the Utes.
Yeah, little trucks.
Pretty cool.
I wonder what the Utes look like nowadays.
I don't know.
But they have, they have like an O'Reilly series where it's outdated or older V8 super cars
racing in like an O'Reilly series companion race.
Day before.
But they, they have like smaller school style,
open wheel classes and all types.
They have all types of stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm just wondering if like a guy that's in the O'Reilly or truck can
practice this craft now and get to a cup and be able to do what Shane's going to do.
Or is this kind of like, unless someone comes over, is Shane's only one?
Well, in Australia, every race you're going to run is a road course.
Yeah.
In America.
Yeah.
It's not much.
In O'Reilly, truck, short, you know, grassroots racing, you're not running road courses.
So that's the thing is like, as long as he's here, like,
but look at how much people doing this.
I'm going to tell you something that's impressive that, that, that people
need to be aware of or need to, need to keep in the mind.
The Trans Am series has had a, you know, kind of been renovated, right?
The Trans Am, the TA2, you have the Trans Am series.
They out, they're all over the country.
Paul Monard has been the champion in the Trans Am series the last two years.
You wouldn't even know it.
No.
Right?
Yeah.
Unless you ran into Paul and he told you, but they don't talk about it.
It's very, the series is operational.
It's out there doing great, but we don't really hear about it too much.
Remember the Trans Am series used to be pretty sexy.
And it was awesome.
It still is.
If you're going to call any kind of motorsport sexy, I would say that's the Trans Am series.
It's just in the name alone.
Well, they used to run like the Glen.
They did.
You had some really big names like Scott Sharp and the Raynex car.
Tommy Kendall.
Yeah, it was great.
They had some badass racers in the Trans Am series.
Good looking cars.
Yep.
Mustangs and Camaros and sh**.
And, and they raced like, they raced a little bit like
NASCAR in the sense that there was contact, you know, they raced hard.
Was a little rougher.
Yeah, it was a little bit aggressive at times.
It was fun.
So, but the Trans Am series is back and it's doing great things.
And you see during the Raleigh series race, right?
Brent Crews is out there kicking ass, right?
Look it up.
Did Brent Crews run in the Trans Am series?
He ran in a lot.
That's right.
So Brent Crews is out there kicking ass in the Raleigh series race.
You got SVG.
You got, you know, all these guys out there, Zillich.
All this competition, all these great race cars.
And Crews is out there, you know, putting a six second lead on them in the Stage 1.
It's because of their, it's because of the time they're spending in Trans Am.
There is a series.
Look, I love the Cars Tour.
I want everybody to come run it.
I want Brent Crews, all the next Brent Crews.
I want all those guys to come run the Cars Tour.
Get some short track, oval, racecraft.
But you got to value what the Trans Am series, the TA2 series is doing for guys like Brent Crews.
It is giving them a platform to go out and really become freaking damn good road course racers.
And yes, that's where they can learn techniques like this if they want, you know?
And so, where Connor Zillich comes in, so Connor, so this is my theory, idea.
Connor Zillich comes into the Rally Series and has a badass year last year in our cars.
But what he would do on the road course was probably what we were most impressed by, right?
He would, he ran, he goes and gets in the fire truck at Kota and out, you know, kicks everybody's
ass by seconds in practice and everybody's like, holy, who's this kid?
And, you know, every time he gets in a car at a road course, he runs with SVG and wins.
And he's the one guy that can kind of hold a candle to SVG on a road course.
I think you're going to see a lot more of that from a lot of the guys
that are coming up through like Brent Crews.
Tristan McKee, Tristan McKee has been, is a name in the Spire Pipeline.
He's been in there too.
He's been in the Trans Am stuff.
Carson, Carson ran some TA2.
Carson, yep, Carson did too.
Carson, uh, Quapple.
So, how does Carson, Carson, Quapple, who ran Millbridge and the Cars Tour,
can go out and be a top 10 guy at a Watkins Land because of his Trans Am experience?
So, he was battling with Zillich last year at Kota and he's back and forth.
That's right.
Knows to knows.
Yep.
Yeah, the, can these guys learn it?
Yes, they can, and they can learn it in the Trans Am series.
And if I, I like the Trans Ams.
Dude, if I had, if I had a young kid that I thought was worth the, um, the focus, you know,
worth, worth tutoring, I'd have him racing in Trans Am.
I'd have him racing in the Cars Tour and I'd sprinkle in some Arca races.
You know, I like the Arca series, but I don't love all their races.
Some of their races are, you know, some of their races, uh, you know, their races are great.
And the series has an identity and I love what it is.
But I would probably run them in a few select events in the Arca series to get some big track
like Kansas, Charlotte, that kind of stuff.
Then I'd race some Cars Tour full time and I'd run a bunch of Trans Am races just to get them
as much road course racing experiences.
I can't because it seems like the guys that are doing the Trans Am series and then they coming
into the trucks or a rally, they're damn good road course racers right out of the gate.
And that is an acquired skill, man.
It's tough.
Yeah.
When you run ovals your whole life.
Well, if you don't, if you just run ovals and don't go do some Trans Am road course s***,
you're going to be, be struggling when you get in a truck in a rally series full time
and go to a road course, you're going to get handled.
Yeah.
You learn the basics and you apply it to the trucks and even Ark at the Glen was there this weekend too.
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Kate and Honeycutt won four races in a period of about 36 hours.
Not about a weekend.
Yeah, he wins the arc race, the truck race, and then he went to Ace and ran the cars tour
and won pro and late model stock.
Convincingly, he was challenged a little bit by Trayton Lapsovich and a few others.
But he had, he led like, you know, I don't know, 90% of the laps at Ace.
I was there.
He gets out of the car at Ace.
He gets out of the car at Ace and he stands on the roof and he says, nobody's better than me.
I love it.
I did too.
I mean, yeah.
Why not?
One of the other drivers in the cars tour sent that video to me and they're like,
holy s***, how about this guy?
Get a load of him.
And I'm like, wow, yeah, that's something.
How about that?
I messaged to Kaden.
You had a hell of a day.
Yeah.
You got out.
You said what you felt and it was raw, real, genuine emotion.
Even if it was cocky, it's okay.
Every now and then, it's okay to cross the line, especially if you won four races in two days.
Yeah, two national series races.
If there's a time to ever say that.
That's it.
That's the time.
Anybody with common sense understands like he was in the moment, like he's not saying he's the best.
Look, don't worry about Kaden.
You're good.
Yeah, I think it's fine.
But man, I can't wait to see if, you know, is he going to run with us again?
I don't know when he, I saw him after the, after ACE races and I said,
hey man, I appreciate you running with us.
Hell of a job.
He goes, I'm gonna be it.
I'll be at all of them.
So I guess he plans to run all most.
I would do if I was the best.
Our next race is Langley at the end of the month, like the 20 something,
20 seconds, something like that, Saturday.
And then we only race once in June and once in July.
How about that?
The cars tour has one race in June and one race in July on purpose.
Yeah.
Why is it like that?
Car stores, the fun league.
We want you to go have vacation.
I want you to go see your family.
Go take, go, go the beach.
Yeah.
Cars tour.
We care about your family.
Cars tour.
Take a, hey, cars tour, take a vacation.
That's our slogan.
Take a vacation and run second to Caden.
Take a hike.
No, really a real hike.
All right.
Let's get close to dad jokes.
We better slow it down.
Getting back to the cup race.
Did you guys see the guard rail that, um,
Oh, he killed it.
Cody Ware destroyed.
Mascar did it.
Damn.
Yeah, that was, that was a good hit.
Dude, he hit the damn wall so hard.
I mean, you've wrecked in turn 10 there before just watching that.
It looks like it's painful.
And then his ass is like, all right, we're going to finish it out.
He got it going again.
He's driving around the track.
His ass was like kind of wandering aimlessly out there around the race track with that tour
up race car.
I mean, he is so hard to bounce them almost.
My question is, is look, here he is.
Gosh.
TJ, he is wrecked.
Yeah.
I would say he is wrecked 150 to 200 feet from pit entrance.
And he fired the subtle bitch up and drove it right by pit entrance down the front stretch.
Yeah, I saw it go by.
What was he doing?
I don't know.
Go to the garage.
Maybe thought he was in the bus stop.
He said, I didn't bring out a caution.
I must stay out till I get the caution.
Did he know that he remembered that he hit the wall?
What the hell?
Does he remember that he does not?
They don't throw cautions for him.
Oh my gosh.
Wasn't him at Kansas.
But why wasn't this a caution?
All right.
I don't know.
Look at these cars coming by.
How late?
I mean, last week, John Hunter was spinning.
So during this period of time, you'll see it right in the camera there.
The 21 car Barry goes by.
Yeah.
He did a damn 360 right behind this.
Yeah.
What happened there?
Did the 77 dump him?
That was, that was like on the last stop, wasn't it?
I know.
Where are you looking at?
Like right there?
Yeah.
So during this, Josh Berry is spinning around behind this.
And here he comes.
Well, there goes Josh.
He did a 360 and then kept going without stopping.
I don't know.
He did.
And so they show Josh, they show Josh external from the external camera spinning,
but we never see how he got spun or how he's, you know, if he got run over or whatever.
And I'm only going to assume that he got ran over by Hosevar as Josh was slowing for this crash.
Hosevar must have punted him.
And so last lap, Josh is like, I'm gonna punt you because it's not like Josh.
No.
So Josh tried to send Hosevar if we can get into Josh's car.
That was a fail.
Yeah.
Josh tried to send Hosevar into turn one and didn't do it.
And then he let Hosevar get him back.
Oh my God.
Hosevar.
Oh, Josh.
Yeah.
Tough, tough.
Yeah.
Josh bowled through one of the tire barriers.
So yeah, Josh is like, f**k you, Hosevar.
And he's sending him into one.
And I think it's because Hosevars who spun Josh when the, when the Cody wear crash happened.
I'm just making guesses.
I mean, it'd been nice if we've seen it or also like, I just, I don't know how NASCAR doesn't.
There's a lot.
This is twice not Cody wears out a massive wreck and no, remember last year at Chicago with Cody?
Well, he was so far under the barrier, you couldn't see him in Chicago.
We're riding on board with a 22 Lagana right there.
What broke on his car?
He caught a tire and then he had to go to the garage to fix something.
I saw his tire come off.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
But so he cut the tire.
Did he slide it in flat spot or something?
Cause he went all, he went straight into turn one, remember, and goes around the barriers.
And then he's up coming up through the S's and he's wobbling back and forth.
Yeah.
The tire comes apart.
All right.
There's a lot going on in that race.
If you were, you know,
How many laps to go was that?
Which one?
The Josh Berry deal.
Well, it was Cody wears.
Nine to go was Cody wears.
Okay.
Nine to go.
You got it.
I'm just going to go look at Josh.
That's the one.
Nice thing now is with H.
I would actually T.J.
Look at the 77 and see if he punched Josh during that.
It's been, can you go find him?
You can just get in any car.
It's nice.
Well, we're going to look, do it.
I don't think this has been investigated.
I think we're actually going to be the lead on this.
Let's do some hard hitting journalism here.
I think we're going to be, you know, because that's the fun part about,
I don't know if you guys experienced this like I do.
But when the race is over, there's like about two hours of there is of like,
you know, social media investigation work where all these accounts start posting
in car cameras and showing you didn't see like, oh, check this out.
Look at this wreck.
Look at this wreck.
Look at these guys arguing.
Look at these two idiots.
And you're like, damn, I didn't know that was going on.
So that was at about lap 90 or 91.
Oh, what's this nine to go?
What's this?
What's that?
That's the four.
That's it.
So there's the 51.
This is Josh and them are behind this.
This is the 51 about to get wrecked.
I wish we could see a video.
That's not a video, but that's on the five car, I believe of Larson and the 47 is
going to put the 51 over the berm and make him over correct into the wall.
Behind this is Barry because Larson had just passed Josh Barry a couple
of laps before this.
This post says that Barry was turned by and turned by Colt Custer.
Well, there you go.
Well, man, I guess if that happened.
It was definitely the 41.
Okay.
Oh, look.
Damn.
Cole.
Damn, Cole.
I wish we could see a video.
Cole Custer, TJ.
Yeah, it was definitely.
I mean, I can, I'm looking at him here.
Cole definitely did it.
Damn it, Cole.
You heard it here first, folks.
I was wondering how Josh got turned around there.
I wonder what Josh was mad at host of R then for.
I guess something, something had to have happened.
Yeah.
But during the lap or two before that, I'm pretty sure everyone's mad at host of R
still for something throughout the.
Is it just, hey, if I can hit your ass, if I can hit host of R,
I'm going to do it.
Is that what it is?
If you're going to do it, you don't even need a reason.
You don't even need a reason.
Or two years ago.
Just like, yeah, I'm sure somebody in the field is mad at him.
Let me, let me knock this sandwich out.
I'll take one for the team here.
Knock him up race track.
Didn't stop Cole.
Let me get high fives in the garage.
I think Cole just doesn't know what's going on after sometimes.
Yeah.
Freaking my guy, Josh.
Chat.
Dang.
Dang.
I'm mad now.
Mad at Cole.
God dang.
I like Cole.
How can he get mad at Cole?
He's similar situation, just trying to finish races.
Yeah, just digging.
Yeah.
Hey, it's kind of, I remember that end of that race kind of remind,
seeing all that, seeing all those videos after the race,
reminded me of some of the races we used to run at Sonoma.
If you had a, if you had a late caution.
Oh my gosh.
At Sonoma, say you're running 21st, caution comes out.
You're going to have like a five lap sprint to the end.
Get you some tires.
You're going to, you're going to finish 10th.
Oh yeah, they're going to wreck this.
Oh God.
It was so fun.
You would drive, you know, you're back there running,
you know, in the middle of the field,
ain't got a shot in hell getting a top 10.
And you'd have a late caution, green flag,
and you, every two or three corners,
you'd come up on a guy on a sand trap and it'd be like,
oh man, he'd run a fifth all day.
Yeah.
Turn him.
Oh, there's, that guy was running.
Good. Who turned his ass?
You know, we were going to be top 10 one time there
and we got wrecked.
Carl sent David Reagan into five.
We were just, he sent him into us.
And there we are sitting.
Somebody went by us saying that stuff.
That's right.
Look at that.
There's eighth.
Oh, and I know I'm bouncing around here, but that was that.
That was that picture of John Hunter Nurechek.
Looked like you've been in a fight after Texas.
Oh, yeah.
They said it was a bloody nose.
Yeah.
And so I had a bloody nose once in a race car.
Like, I get, I get bloody noses of steel.
You know, when I go somewhere dry,
yep, if I go to Vegas.
Phoenix.
Phoenix.
Yeah.
I don't, I get bloody noses weird.
Or if I'm having, if I've been blowing,
I blow my nose a lot.
I blow it every day when I get out of the shower in the morning.
Amy doesn't like that because I blow it into the towel.
But yes.
Hey, it's there.
But so what do you do with that towel afterwards?
I put in a dirty hamper.
Okay.
Okay.
That's the good answer.
That's the right answer.
If you would have said hang it back up, I would be.
I don't blow it into the towel.
There's tissues I use on the counter.
All right.
Bloody noses.
Yeah.
So anyways, I still get bloody noses.
Boy, when I was 12, 11 years old, I had them every day.
It felt like every day, bloody noses all the time.
I got all kinds of remedies and tricks and stuff to stop bloody noses.
And so he had that bloody nose and it reminded me of a time we were at Sonoma
and I'm running, I'm running in the back with Stacy Compton
and Stacy's in the nine car and we're running and like
we had like an eight lap run to the finish and everybody's getting run over.
There's guys getting sent into the sand traps left and right
and you're like, leave the green out NASCAR.
Don't throw the caution.
It's just let it play.
Let's go.
Let's get home.
There's a spot.
There's a spot and I'm 18th.
I'm 16th.
I'm 14th.
I'm 12th.
Hell yeah.
And we got to the like last lap and we get over.
We are at the top of the racetrack turn seven, I guess up the hill.
No.
Turns five or three.
Yeah.
No, wait, the little four.
Yeah.
Four or five.
So we get up there and I parked Stacy.
I just brand.
I'm like, I don't, I don't, here's, I'm gonna get another spot and I dumped him
for no reason, no reason whatsoever.
And we crossed the finish line like 12th or 11th and I was like, all right.
And I pull into the garage.
Chack and house was the crew chief for Stacy Compton.
And I pull into the garage and Chack and house is walking up to the car.
Like what was that?
And he gets about two feet away and I pull my helmet off and I turn to look at him and he stops
and he has this real funny puzzled look on his face.
He doesn't even say anything to me.
He has not said a word.
He stops and this turns around and walks off.
And I got out of the car and I walked into the hauler and I had, my nose had been bleeding
during the race and it was my whole, I look like Ric Flair.
I had blood all over my face and he was like, and I talked to him after like years later.
I was like, Hey man, you remember that?
And he's like, Yeah.
I was like, you just, you were coming over there to raise hell at me for part for running over
Stacy. And he said, he said, Yeah, I thought somebody beat me to it.
He's like, I thought somebody had already come up and punched you in the nose for something else.
So I was just like, I'm not even going to mess with this.
How awful was that driving with the bloody nose?
I didn't know it.
Wow.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just you're racing.
You're not, you're sweating.
I mean, how do you know?
And I'm down in the mustache.
I don't know.
I didn't.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Geez.
I wonder what would have happened had you not had the bloody nose.
So if he would have actually fought you, he would have probably just cussed me out.
Yeah.
Chad, he had to cuss you.
Yeah.
He just said, man, what was that?
And I'd have been like, man, I don't know.
I would have been more worried about Stacy Compton.
He was a big dude, wasn't he?
I don't know what I was thinking.
I just, I rarely parked.
I've only wrecked person.
I've only wrecked people on purpose.
I could count it on one hand.
I've done it, but not many times.
Stacy Compton.
Kyle Busch.
Kyle Busch.
Yeah.
Richmond.
I wrecked Stanton Barrett at Pike's Peak.
Dang.
Yeah.
In the 40 channel outcar.
Why?
So we're at Pike's Peak racing for the championship.
We're in a battle with Matt Kenseth.
NASCAR had rally, you know, NASCAR had tire limitations or tire rules for the
Raleigh series back then, the Bush series.
We had saved a set of tires and no one else did.
So we are, we're running like 15th.
We got a really, really good car, but we had been out on, we ran on old tires long
and we lost a lot of track position, but we knew, man, we're going to have a set of tires
with 80, 60 laps to go.
No one else is going to have a set of tires left.
The rest of the field was a high tire wear track.
I don't know what happened that day, but we were in a freaking bad ass spot.
And NASCAR decided to give everybody in the field another set of tires with like 80 laps
to go in the race.
That's a little late.
This over big time.
Yeah, that's just over.
So we, you know, we're scrambling now trying to claw back our way forward.
And I don't know.
It was like 20 laps to go.
I don't remember exactly.
Somebody's going to pull this up and prove me wrong, but you giving up your track position.
I'm trying to get back forward in the race and I called him and I needed a yellow to
trigger the gains I needed to make.
And I got on the inside of him and turned him.
That was the same race that I got in a fight with Tony Stewart's crew chief and NASCAR
So the NASCAR people say go to the, go to the NASCAR hauler.
So I go to the NASCAR hauler and I'm standing there waiting on Tony Stewart and his crew chief
and while whatever is going to go on here.
Well, while I'm standing there, the guy that owns the 40 channel car who I'd never seen in my life
walks up and says, what did you do that for?
And I'm like, dude, I don't know what you're talking about.
And I really didn't.
I was like, man, I don't know what the hell you're talking about.
But it dawned on me after he walked away.
I was like, damn, he must have been talking about Stanton.
But yeah, I mean, I've wrecked a few guys, but not, not too many.
That's good.
What did you, uh, from the cup race, what did you guys think of the, uh, track limits?
I mean, or whatever you, the barriers they put up.
I didn't care.
They're fine.
Yeah.
I don't, um,
I kind of wish one was just a wall, like leaving the, leaving the carousel there.
You liked what they did down in the carousel and you want that in term one.
I think it might be what I, so I, well, I think this created more passing
off of one because you couldn't run.
I mean, okay, I'd put sand there.
That's fine.
I want the damn sand traps back.
Yeah, put sand there.
I'm fine with that.
Why did we do, why did we get away from that?
I don't know.
Stopping the race and having to throw a caution.
So the reason why we got away from that is you'd be,
you'd be, uh, halfway into an orally or a truck race or whatever.
Yeah.
And some dummy running 28th would get spun around in the bus stop and end up stuck in the sand
after a, on a restart, like not even a lap completed.
And now we got another yellow.
Yeah, that's true.
And, and it just kind of, it was like, and I think people saw that and went,
they just got to be a better way.
And so they just started paving all the runoffs and maybe they didn't need to pave all of them.
The bus stop, sure, paved the bus stop.
There's a lot of guys getting dumped and getting in there, but, uh, maybe turn one,
turn six, you know, the, the runoff of the carousel.
But if you, like you said though, if you pave one, that's where they're going to start running.
That's why they started running wide.
No, no, no.
I'm saying in the bus stop, you're not going to run wide in the bus stop.
No, bus stop.
Yes.
But turn one, pave that one.
But run, but the rest probably didn't need to be paved.
They paved them all.
They just said pave them all.
And maybe that was just a lot of the decisions by race tracks.
They need to, they need to take a beat.
I'm, I'm being honest.
Like a lot of the race tracks that are thinking about reconfiguring,
I just heard about a short track that I love dearly that this guy,
that this guy thinks it needs to get reconfigured.
It's like, what a stop.
Like I could name Texas, turn one, Phoenix.
Um, it's a long list of tracks that had things changed that didn't necessarily
result in any big benefit and it was unnecessary.
And so I think that, um, this is, this falls in line with that for me.
I would even go back to concrete and Bristol concrete and Dover.
I mean, I know that asphalt technology wasn't that great back then and the cars and the tires
were a lot grippier and they're pulling asphalt up on these hot days and you couldn't go the rate.
I get it.
I get it.
Bristol in 94 through 96, they had bad problems with the asphalt.
It was, you know, you can't have that.
You can't show up, try to have a race and the track come apart.
I get it.
But, you know, I feel like that, uh, I know I'm on a rant.
Not, not everybody's going to feel this way and I don't care.
I don't care being the minority in this, but they, you know, they were trying to fix an issue,
but they just went too far.
It wasn't necessary and it's okay to have a car in a gravel trap in term one and have to
have a caution and have to have a restart.
Why, what, what does NASCAR love more than anything?
What does NASCAR brass love more than anything?
Restarts.
Restarts.
So much so that they have put stage breaks in the race where we have two built in restarts.
So the, you know, the idea that we kind of took ourselves out of the ballpark a little bit or
out of the opportunity to have some natural cautions.
And we've also moved the restart zones to help on the restarts as well.
Help the restarts be cleaner.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that it's necessary there.
We race there forever without any issue and, you know, I get why we might move the restart
zone at Kota at Indy Road course and those type of tracks where you had that silly ass turn one.
Yeah.
Like Portland and so forth.
The Glenn could get bad at times.
I mean, I don't think so.
They made that turn one so fast.
They've cut the curves down.
You can run wide.
You can get on the curb on the outside.
I mean, there's plenty of, you know, if you're, it's more forgiving.
It is.
So I don't think, I don't think they need to restart zone back there.
I really don't.
But it does.
It's not a deal breaker for me.
But the runoffs all being paved and now having to put entire packs.
Like I don't mind the packs because the pavement is there.
But honestly, I just assumed they had never paved it and they had, I wish we still had sand traps.
Yeah.
I think sand trapping turned one because it's a important corner.
It's the first turn after a restart.
It's, you know, it's a downhill, a lot of opportunities to have some cool moments there.
I think a sand trap in that corner is the way to go.
I would say that same thing for the exit of the carousel.
I don't care about really much else about that track.
Even turn six, like that runoff in turn six, they don't use it.
They're not going out there to get an advantage.
They still run turn 67 the final two turns of the track.
Some of them missed the corner, but it's not an advantage.
No, it's not an advantage.
The other thing that I thought I would say is I'm not that big of a fan of how they've
cut all the curbs down.
They've made the bus stop super fast.
It's so fast.
So fast.
And I get it, dude, the next gen car, they were going through there and the curves were big
and the guys were like, I can't race like this.
It's too violent.
You know, the G forces that were going through their heads, they had these mouthpieces in
and they were seeing some stupid numbers on these G forces hitting them curbs and
I get it.
But, you know, we've taken all the curbs out of the track and now we fly through the bus stop.
That braking zone getting down into the bus stop, isn't as much of a passing zone as it
used to be.
No, it used to be a really good passing zone.
A very good passing zone.
That's all of the passing zone.
All of the braking zones got shorter with the next gen, like a bunch.
That's a passing opportunity and you've lessened the opportunity for a pass by
shortening up the braking zone because the performance in the braking is so good.
And then they knocked all the curbs down and now mid-corner speed and all of the turns is higher,
which hurts passing.
So, yeah, all those things are kind of working against that track.
It's just super, super fast now.
It is.
It's its way.
That's why I like to turn one now.
Guys couldn't, if you could, if you got inside somebody there, they still had to make the
extra of the corner.
And you didn't have now that you kind of know how far they're going to go to the left and
you can drive off them easier instead of them driving way out here and trying to chase them.
Now that we had guys coming to me, we had more racing off a turn one,
which led to more racing up through the S's, which was just better overall for me.
I thought it was a game.
Yeah, putting the packs out there.
Yeah, just tightened everything up.
Yeah, that was good.
Really good.
I also like the, that was a good move.
That tightened up the track.
That took some speed away from the racetrack in those two areas.
And we did see some passing presented from that.
You were able to hold on to a guy easier there.
Yeah.
There wasn't like a ton of like, no passing.
No, it's so fast.
The racetrack is super quick and no curbs and they're just flying everywhere.
I mean, if Lugano doesn't have that caution,
it's, but it's, you know, this, it's, uh, you sort of getting to the point now
where you're going around that track with so much speed that the arrows going to be a challenge.
You know,
Well, that's what I was, they come off turn one so fast out by that wall.
It made, honestly, it made the S's.
If you run it on the sim, when you go all the way to the left out by that wall,
your angle into the first S is so much better because you're out here.
It's just less of a turn.
So you're going faster up through the S's.
That's right.
And it makes it harder for the car behind you to stay with you.
I agree.
Well, the packs were a good thing.
I think, um, I, I, I know they were a good thing.
But yeah, I don't know if they want to put a full wall down there because you do have, man.
I thought the wallet leaving the carousel was pretty good.
It was, it was, but you're flying down that front stretch going downhill.
If you had a brake failure or any kind of a, you know, issue, you, do you want a pancake in,
you want to pound a tire barrier head on?
But I mean, I think that you're going to hit that one.
You're going to hit the one out at the fence eventually, but the barrier,
it didn't start until a good little ways into the corner though.
Like you'd have to actually turn.
You got to turn in.
Well, some guys will.
Some guys, like when guys have failures, if you look at Jimmie Johnson, you know,
he cut the corner and so like your instincts sort of cut the corner,
then worry about what happens next.
And I thought the last failure I saw there was it, was it Bubba?
In the one, do you remember that?
Like, or somebody had a failure in what they hung a left into the wall.
They did.
And use that.
You're right, it was Bubba.
The other thing is, is like, if you do have a crash, fixing the full,
how quickly can you fix that full wall, right?
Put that wall back where you're supposed to be if they move it, right?
Whereas the tire packs are easy to move, relocate.
So I think that's the thought process behind that, I'm sure.
Yeah, I thought they weren't an issue to me.
I thought it was actually good, but...
Well, they're moving the race back to the chase next year.
And I think that's fine.
I mean, everybody, I feel like there needs to be a road course in the chase.
Now that we have a 10 race chase, a true 10 race block,
having a road course in there is a good idea.
The Glen's very deserving of it, in my opinion.
It's our original.
And those...
I mean, I know there's other road course races, like Riverside and so forth,
but Glen's our, that's our tent pole road course event.
And it's a, I mean, honestly, man,
that place sells out the amount of people that go to that race every year.
Yeah.
Like, it's incredible.
I mean, it's...
Great crowd.
Yeah, it's a great area, great crowd.
How was it this weekend?
We saw a lot of stuff on social media with the weather and the mud and the s***.
Everybody gets stuck.
I've never, I had to go Thursday morning and I went up actually when I sent
a picture of the group.
I went to my high school and saw my picture on the wall there.
So that was fun, but I went to the track and oh my gosh, I've never seen,
I've never seen the track look like this in all my years of going there
with the fields ruddered up.
People, the crowd, I thought was actually really good all weekend still.
Minus the weather.
Thought the crowd was really good.
People were parking, instead of the parking lot, just along the roads,
like getting into the place, like up the Bronson Hill,
like they're just parking along the roads and walking to their cars and stuff.
I thought, I mean, there was tractors working.
You could look off the roof there and look and see tractors pulling people out
all weekend and doing that.
But, and it didn't help that every single night it rained again.
And in the morning, I mean, we did, we did practices on Friday in the rain and got
some qualifying canceled and stuff.
But yeah, it was, I've never seen it like that,
but I thought, I thought the crowd was still really good.
Yep. Well, a couple of highs and lows throughout the field.
Michael McDowell had a great weekend.
He needed it.
You wouldn't even know it though.
Michael McDowell, dude, I'll be honest.
I hope Michael's not insulted, but I thought this dude might be on the hot seat.
There's all this speculation about Cobb Bush where he could go if he leaves RCR,
if he stays with RCR, I always thought that this seat was one that Kyle could potentially
vie for or, or, you know, work his way into if Michael didn't figure something out.
But to hear Michael talk, you know, he's, he's got us, you know, and Michael's mind,
he's got a plan that he's going to drive this car until he retires in Tristan McKee.
Yes, what he said is the guy that's going to take over this ride.
You know, Tristan's coming up through the truck series and so forth.
He's got a little, he got another year or two, but Michael in his mind has a plan.
And I mean, sure, this is something that he's discussed with the Spire management.
I don't think he's just saying this.
No, he's not just saying this.
So maybe the 71 is not an option for anyone until Michael McDowell says so.
But he definitely needed a run like this to be able to, you know,
to be able to, you know, kind of stake his claim to his opportunity here and it's good to see him
get it. Yeah. Get a good run.
Toyota's were solid. You got Gibbs Briscoe Reddick right there in the top five.
RCR, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch run in the top 10 all day. Both looked very fast and very competitive.
Kyle Busch, what a difference the last couple of weeks has made.
He's run in the top 10 at Texas most of the day. Had a bad result, but the, you know,
the, the speed was there and look where they qualified at that.
It's not like they started up there into state. Like they had to earn that.
It's not like they started up there and stayed up there. That's kind of what they did.
No, I'm saying, no, Austin Dillon started 25th.
Like he actually, Kyle Busch 21st.
Oh, yeah. Austin, I saw him pit way before everybody else one time and he got some track
position by it and he kept it. Yeah.
He did a really good job all day. Yeah.
Let's see here. Austin was six long run speed, four short run speed.
Kyle Busch was five long run, eight short run. So, I mean,
they did qualify poorly, but they didn't just steal track position and, you know,
an air block all day. Yeah.
They had a real pace in their car.
No, they had cars. They had good cars. They were a bold amount.
I'm not saying you guys weren't saying that, but I just want to compliment them even more.
That they had real speed this weekend at a road course.
Austin definitely, he definitely Boswell did something. I saw him pit before, but he wasn't,
like you said, though, he wasn't holding people up when he got there.
Yep. A.J. Allmendinger with a top 10 finish.
I think we might have talked about some of these guys.
John Hunter had a really good day. I thought as well.
Yeah. John Hunter, he pissed some people off at the end of the race. Who did he wreck?
He didn't. I wasn't really.
I saw something. It was Bubba.
Yeah. But I mean, Bubba, Bubba tried to fill the hole. There was a guy passing Bubba,
and he tried to turn him behind him, and John Hunter was filling the hole,
and Bubba tried to cross over in my opinion.
Bubba's trying to come down and fill that gap.
He is, but is the 42 not dive bombing too? That's a dive bomb.
I mean, you're going to fill the gap. Everybody does.
If John Hunter lifts early, somebody's going to dive on him or run into him.
I don't know what's behind him.
Yeah, but look, John Hunter's missing the apex.
Watch his car. He's definitely going up, but there he's missing the corner.
I mean, I don't know. I think it was aggressive on both to your point, like Bubba,
Bubba's turning and cutting across the racetrack to kind of, you know,
get into, you know, stop the bleeding, so to speak.
So with this, this is what I was talking about.
John Hunter was a bit aggressive there.
With them tire packs there, you could actually cross guys that were driving in.
And so I watched Bubba and a couple of other guys turn back underneath the guy,
and they were inside of them.
I get it.
And we couldn't do that before.
Yeah. Going back to your point.
I just think this is, that's just racing to me.
Two guys trying to go for the spot.
It is racing if that happens in the first half of the race,
but man, when you've been busting ass all day long,
and you got yourself a, you know, you're sitting there going, what fucking spot were they in?
10th, 11th?
Yeah.
If you're sitting there going...
They're back pretty far right here.
19th and 18th.
At that point?
Yeah. 19th, I see on the screen.
All right. So you're sitting there, and what do I mean, last for left?
Because John Hunter ended up 10th overall.
Bubba ends up 29th, and John Hunter runs 10th.
So John Hunter had tires.
He pitted late, and he's coming back through the field with those new tires,
and you just want to be taking more.
You want to be taking better care of.
You do.
Yeah, I agree.
Look, John Hunter's going to get by the 23th, and Bubba's like,
man, I'm trying to run 20th here.
Now I'm 29th.
You know?
That pisses you off.
I agree 100%.
God, that pisses me off.
I would be piss-fied as Bubba as well, but you also got John Hunter's box.
It's probably like, get everything you can get.
Go hard as you can.
You know what I mean?
Like, they're trying to get everything they can.
I see both sides of it.
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We got Shane Van Gisburg calling in right here joining
the Dale Jr. download.
Shane, thanks for giving us some time today.
We're going to get a foot, yeah, we need a foot camera.
So yeah, we need a foot cam.
See what you're doing.
So kind of technique you're using.
During this call.
Hey, I wanted to talk to you about that,
and I ain't going to let you off the hook.
What's that?
So you, when we put the foot camera in there,
you kept telling, you kept telling us,
I work with the network, so I know the dialogue.
You kept telling us, man, I don't want that foot camera
down there.
And then we'd put one down there,
and you kick it out of the way.
What's the deal?
I just, I have big feet.
I'm a big fella.
And I put it in the wrong spot.
Oh, are you serious?
The camera was in your way.
Oh, so one of the things, you know,
we talked about earlier in the show,
we were talking about your technique.
And, and I know I've went over this with you before,
but when you were racing at Chicago land,
I was working one of the broadcasts,
and I was down the corner and Paul Morris
was texting me all this information
about how you were using the clutch uniquely.
And it was, and Paul did a really good job
describing it to me and made it make perfect sense.
And he told me that, you know, this is just normal.
This is just, this is how all guys in New Zealand
and Australia race.
And this is like a technique that you're,
you're taught early in your life, yeah?
And so, and you use the clutch in a way to sort of,
it's a pervert preserves the tire.
It's easier on the rear tire in the braking zone.
There's all kinds of things that you're doing
to try to, you know, allow the car to get down
in the corner deeper and not beat the tire up.
And you really see the, the benefit of that
on the end of the run,
whereas your car is still making a lot of pace,
whereas other guys have pissed their tires off
throughout the run and their tires run happy.
But, you know, I think that, you know,
you're, you're concerned,
I think you have genuine concern that, you know,
you don't want a lot of people to really truly see
that technique or understand that technique.
But I got to tell you, no one's going to be able to learn that.
Like our guys that are 30, 35, 40 years old,
they're not going to be able to, like,
tack this, put this in their, you know, their, their repertoire.
They're not going to be able to, like,
start trying this technique and, and do it, do it well.
I think Logano and Syndrake have started to...
They're trying, but Logano, I learned,
I heard them talking like Logano was trying to do it in practice.
But they're not, they may be trying to, like,
put their feet where your feet are,
but they really don't know what they're trying to do with the,
with the clutch.
You know what I mean?
I also think, I also think people overthink it as well.
Like I don't think it is a big advantage,
but of course I'm going to say that.
But yeah, yeah, it's all, all I've known,
but I used to do it because you had to in a V8 supercar,
you know, with the lock diff.
Why did you have to?
Because they would have a lock diff
and you'd have to run so much rear brake to make it turn.
So you could control the rear lock and the brake zone.
And then as you got to the brake zone,
you'd, the clutch would be out as you turned in
and it would help the car to turn.
But in this, you don't need to because the diff is open.
So it, you don't really have rear locking
because you can run so much more front brake bias.
Right.
I don't...
You don't know that the advantage is what it used to be
for you in the previous cars you drove.
Yeah, like it obviously probably is some,
but it's nowhere near.
Like you couldn't, you couldn't drive a V8 supercar fast
and left or brake, you know, maybe for the laps, but yeah, not.
You couldn't do that.
That was your problem.
That was my problem.
That was your problem.
Yeah, but, but here, you know, I don't,
I don't think it's a advantage at all.
But as you said, the older guys,
I would struggle to left or brake, you know,
it would be hard for me to go and do the opposite.
So when you go race at an oval,
and I've probably asked you this before,
um, you're, you know, do you think that you're at a disadvantage
because of the braking?
Uh, I feel like...
Because I've seen, you run really great at even the short tracks,
you know.
So Martinsville took me a little bit to do,
because that's one where you really down change every lap.
Yep.
But now I'm sort of used to it and I can sync up the timing
and look after the rear tires now.
But at first it was difficult,
but I just put a big knee knocker in there
and separated my pedals as much as I could.
And then that may be not right foot brake.
At first Martinsville, I was still doing that.
So yeah, now I just transition to two foot.
Yep.
So we were talking earlier in the show about how,
this was just a dominant performance.
We're picking a little bit with your pit crew
because they were ranked 18th,
but they were probably just taking it easy.
You gave them a day off with the speed you had on the racetrack.
But the, you know, how do you explain,
you know, there's been some moments like we looked at,
you know, you ran 10th in Indy,
the second race you ran in the Cup Series.
You came back to the, you know, you came back next year
and there were a couple, you know, so, so decent runs.
But we all had this narrative that, you know,
he's going to kick our ass on these tracks
that we don't know well.
But when we go to the Glen, when we go to Sonoma,
we should be able to run with him.
And we think our guys could kind of match his pace.
But that narrative kind of got blown out of the water
over the last probably, I don't know, six to 12 months.
And this weekend was, was, what was it about this car?
What was it about the weekend?
What was it about what you were feeling
that was even more exceptional
compared to what we've seen over the last couple of years?
I think it's just being consistent with my people,
you know, working with the same guys all the time now.
And, you know, at, at first, the first years,
I just turned up and race.
And then even when I was with call again, 20, 24, was it?
Yeah, 24, I would just turn up
and not have much influence in the setup.
And last year really from Mexico was really the first time
we got outside our setup window of what we normally run.
And I kind of was able to guide the team a little bit
and they, they listened and got the feeling I wanted from the car.
And once you've worked up poorly,
worked up poorly for everybody else.
So you're starting.
So what, you know, that's pretty dangerous and scary
for I think the rest of the competition to hear
is that you're starting to understand some of the,
some of the, you know, nuts and bolts to turn on this car
to get what you're looking for.
Yeah. And especially when we go back to like Watkins Glen
for the second time, you just refine what you,
what you learned, I think.
So yeah, it's been awesome trying to develop the car
and get it better.
And that seems to be absolutely true
because we saw pace in your teammates
that maybe we hadn't seen before Ross was really quick
at times during the race.
So everyone's seeming to benefit from, you know,
because I basically would Ross told us or said to the media,
he's like, I just told him to set it up just like SVGs.
I'll figure it out.
You know, what it was, you know, which I think is brilliant,
you know, knowing what you know about the car
and what you're looking for.
And if you've got real influence on the setup,
I would do the exact same thing.
And it seemed to be helping everyone in the shop.
Yeah, I think so too.
And Ross is awesome and amazing how we can do that.
Just, you know, you can easily be too proud, I guess.
He just sucks it up and deals with it and learns how to drive it.
And that's a pretty cool attitude to have, I think.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then when we're all up front, it helps.
Like it was a pretty special thing.
Three of us in the top five and qualifying was a boost
our team needed.
I got a couple quick questions for you.
A, how do you get through the bus stop so damn fast?
And B, you've got, you've run a lot of road courses, obviously.
What do you think about the tire packs and like what it did
and what you could do to turn one to kind of keep the effect they have?
Maybe maybe you've got some different ideas.
Yeah. I don't know about the bus stop.
Everyone says Marcus was really quick there too.
So to me, it's kind of like the surface paradise back straight
where you're one way to the other and got to be so accurate there.
So maybe it's a bit of that experience.
I'm not sure.
You drive in so deep.
Even watching it on like SMT, it's like, good Lord.
Like how do you even make the corner?
Oh, tell Brad to break later.
We'll follow you.
Yeah. I think turn one, I think it worked really well.
Like the restarts were a lot tougher.
You really had to break a bit.
I think it did a good job of making more of a passing zone turn one.
And you couldn't just roll off the brake and stay around the outside of someone.
And I thought it made the racetrack a bit racier, which was cool.
I put Ford in the driver's chat this week.
You know, when I've raced in the Middle East,
they have like a car width strip of astroturf on the exit of the corner.
And if you go out there, there's a bit less grip,
but you can still get away with it.
So and it looks decent as well.
You know, but those, those tie bundles, they're a race ender.
And we saw that a couple of people hit them.
And yeah, I would, I would add, you know, a strip of astroturf and say,
that's interesting.
Yeah. You got to stay within the track limits.
But if you use it, you know, you're not going to gain anything.
So yeah, there was a penalty for getting over it.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's brilliant.
Well, I, I guess, you know, looking forward, this is a opportunity for you to,
to grab a ton of points and it launched you back into the top 16.
How much are you, how much are you looking at the points?
We got to, you know, it's a different system this year.
How much are you kind of paying attention to that?
Are you plotting out your strategy going forward?
Every week. Yeah.
It's, we've got a sort of gap to the cut line and a predicted cut line in our debriefs.
And it's a focus every week to maximize what we're doing.
And I think it's been cool.
I think we were on the edge of the cut line without the road courses.
And, you know, it's obviously a shot in the arm for us to get those points.
But I want to point my way in, you know, by being good on the, on the ovals.
And the last month has been a little difficult, but the start of the year was great.
So we've got to get back to that.
There's some good tracks coming up for us.
But yeah, I think it's been a good challenge, you know,
trying to manage risk versus reward and maximize the days.
It's been a, been a cool focus point this year.
Yeah, for sure.
Well, it's going to be a lot of fun seeing how that goes forward.
I got one question.
Yeah, go ahead.
Shane, when you, crew chief decided to keep you out and then you pitted later,
did you think that that deficit was too much or were you not concerned?
Yeah, the first lap and I come out of turn one and I looked at the big screen
and I seen Gibbs going into the carousel.
And then he started giving me the countdown of the laps.
You know, what, how many laps to go, how many seconds Josh would tell me
out of turn one, every lap.
And when the second started to match the laps and go the other way,
I thought we were fine.
So were you, were you 10 tenths?
Were you freaking, was that all you had before the pit stop I was?
Yeah, I tried.
That was probably the moment.
But yeah, once I came back out, I, you know, you're just managing.
It was still 25 laps.
So the tires, you still had to look after them.
Yeah, it was, it was a pretty cool moment seeing that gap and hearing it close down.
Yeah.
Oh, you were, I looked at the gap and I'm like, no, there's like,
it's going to be hard to make that up.
And then I started, then you, like, was almost seamless that
as fast as you caught them and then you were gone.
So is it more fun as a driver just being out front?
Or did you enjoy the chase right there at the end?
Boring is good when you're the leader.
I guess when you're out front, you never complain about that.
But yeah, that's one of the best things when you're at the end
and you're on better tires and you're hunting people down.
That's, that's so much fun.
You know, that's what I kind of see.
And I was wondering, yeah.
Yeah, I was loving that.
Well, and hey, we appreciate your time today.
You're a good sport.
I know you got a lot going on and, and headed to Dover for the All-Star event and all that.
We'll see you in Charlotte for our Amazon races
and our little stretch of the summer.
Looking forward to being around and catching up.
But thanks for, thanks for coming to see us today.
And congratulations on such a, such a great performance in Watkins Glen.
Appreciate it, you guys.
Thanks for having me.
Yep. Yep. Congrats.
See ya.
See ya.
Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr.
And we are back for another segment of Ask Jr.
For this, this day's episode of the Dale Jr. Download.
Co-host TJ Majors here.
We want to thank Xfinity for waving the red flag on internet price hikes
and waving the green flag on savings.
You get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need.
You get that for five years.
Same price.
No surprises, no late yellows.
Straight to victory lane.
Just like we like it.
Xfinity.
Imagine that.
It's a great service and a great product.
And we're thankful for all they do for our sport.
Let's get to some questions.
First question.
A couple people want to know,
were you aware that Coles Wendell was going to show up at the car's tour?
Or was that planned there?
So Cole and I have been talking baseball cards.
He lives nearby and we ran to a couple.
We ran to a shop and we've hung out a little bit here lately.
He's got a young, he got a little one that he's raising.
And so he's doing some daddin'.
But had a day off.
Had a friend of his that was like,
hey man, the car's tour ain't far away.
So they drove over.
He's like, we might come.
So I said, just text me if you get close.
He said we're 30 minutes away.
So we sat out there on the back gate and waited for him to get in.
Parked him in the parking lot and got him in there.
And he watched the pro and late mile stocks.
He's become good friends with Lee Pulliam
after he saw Lee's podcast here.
And so he had a lot of people to hang out with and talk to
and saw some great racing.
So it was pretty awesome.
I think it's pretty cool because it's,
you know, he doesn't post about it.
And so like his fans start to see the car's tour
and maybe it gains some.
Car's tour is where it's at, man.
It's always good.
Yeah.
What'd you think?
I saw you tweeted that the truck's tour had about seven
former cars tour drivers.
The truck race results from Watkins Glen.
Yeah. It had about seven cars tour competitors.
And then Honeycutt leaves the,
leaves the Glen and comes and wins both races at Ace
Saturday night.
So pretty, pretty incredible.
Next question.
Speaking of winners, Casey Kane.
Yeah.
What'd you think of that?
I was so happy for him.
Yeah, it was awesome.
I sent him a little message.
Casey Kane wins.
What about Law?
His first ever World Outlaw race.
And Boo Weekly won the PGA Champions Tournament,
which is pretty incredible.
So, yeah, Boo Weekly is,
so he was on the tour, PGA Tour back in the 2000s.
He's an Ascar fan, came to Talladega.
We met, he would,
we would have the charity event here,
or we would, you know, during Charlotte race weekend,
he'd come stay around,
he'd come stay at the house with Sonny and them
and hang out.
We drank and bulls***.
So he gave me a set of clubs that he played with
in a tournament,
he won a tournament with in Charlotte.
He gave me the set of clubs he won with.
Just an awesome guy.
And we've been friends for a long time.
And he was on our podcast last year, right?
We did one of our remote shows.
And Casey Kane was too.
Yeah.
Just a bunch of winners.
Right.
So Boo has been dealing with a lot of injuries
and he quit golfing professionally for a little while.
But he says, man, I'm feeling better.
I'm getting back to healthy.
And he's got everything in order in his personal life.
And he's been playing some tournaments
and doing pretty well over the last four or five years.
He's been playing on this Champions Tour a little bit.
And from his statistics, it looks like he's doing
89 10, 12 tournaments a year.
But he finally won this weekend.
He beat Ernie Ailes in the last round by a few holes.
It was kind of tight.
But he hadn't won a tournament since 2013 of any kind.
Now look at him.
So pretty incredible, man.
He was emotional and just awesome to see.
So he's a really cool dude.
I love seeing that, man.
You know, I love seeing people that are doing these type of things
at this point in their lives.
Like Casey Kane.
I don't know how old Casey is, mid-40s, late-40s.
So he's probably a little bit younger than me.
46.
I mean, you know, 46-year-old Boo Weekly, 52 years old,
going out there competing.
I just seen a post this morning.
Kenny Wallace is driving a super late model,
outlaw super late model, like super silly fast asphalt car somewhere
at 60 some 62, whatever he is.
That's the hard thing with athletes is you retire at a young age.
And well, the racing is a little different.
You know, you can race as long as you want.
You know, your ability to be competitive is determined on your willingness to take risks.
And which does go down.
It does go down.
What do you get?
Next questions came from, I think, on Facebook.
They wanted to know, are you excited for the new Hell at Loose game coming out this year?
Vietnam, yeah.
Yeah, I think so.
TJ, you got on a beta.
Yeah, I didn't.
You tried it.
No, we got on the list, but we didn't get it yet.
Oh, got you.
Okay.
But I would love to.
I think Carson did.
Okay.
Yeah, we played Hell at Loose a lot over the last six years or so.
And I think when the next installment, which is Vietnam, when it comes out,
we'll probably jump on there and trailer looks really good.
Do you watch trailer?
No, it's really good.
Yeah.
Well, you guys play the new Grand Theft if it ever comes out.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah, we'll probably run around behind Stefan.
Yep.
Officer Stefan.
Oh yeah.
He said he's just pulling people over in it now, whatever the version he's playing.
Stephen Stefan has a YouTube stream it and he streams.
Oh, I didn't know he streams.
Oh yeah.
You got to watch them.
They're still on there.
So funny.
Stephen Stefan has a YouTube or a Twitch and he streamed years ago.
He did.
Yeah.
And he would just be, he was just an officer and he had all the lingo.
He would pull people over and talk to him.
He'd pull over people and he's just pulling over the AI.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Persisting.
Getting them out of the car and stuff.
Yelling at him and calling in back up and all this mess.
He came in last week for Bless Your Heart and it's like asking about,
he goes, now the AI, like they're able to answer your questions.
Yeah.
Oh, he's pumped about this.
And so he's stoked.
He can't wait.
Maybe he'll post when he's going to stream.
Now wait.
I think when he was doing all this, he didn't have a girlfriend.
Oh yeah, he's got screen time.
It'd be interesting to see if he streams.
It's, we'll know when she's on the top.
I can't wait to play that though.
I think all of us are going to probably be in a lobby together and do it all.
At some point.
Yeah.
That'd be fun.
Yeah.
Another question.
People saw you tweeting about the 1999 Lysol 200 Bush series race.
Oh yeah, with that's a Glenn.
Yeah.
What exactly was that like at the end having to, you talked about your transmission.
Yeah.
So let's see.
Ron Fellows was driving Nemechek's car super fast.
Ron's a super awesome guy.
Ron taught me as well as like, I mean, there was a lot of guys.
I don't want to leave it.
Andy Pilgrim, more said, Ron Fellows, Bob Bondurant, some of the,
He was like your first real like instructor.
Wasn't he like hands on like that?
That was a, that was a guy named Cooper at Bob Bondurant.
That was one of the first guys I really learned a lot from.
But I, I would, when, yeah, I, I started, I raced that Corvette no one with dad.
And we learned a ton from Ron and Pilgrim and all those guys.
So, and then I went back to try to race the Corvette again in 04 when we caught fire.
Well, we went to a test somewhere, Willow Springs or somewhere.
We went to a test out West with Ron.
It was me and Ron and we were both driving the car and trying to match what he was doing and everything.
So Ron is the nicest guy.
Super cool.
And even back then racing with him, like he was a clean racer.
Like you see in that replay, I cook it down into turn one to get by him.
He gets kind of back a nose back underneath me.
And I just, I just crossed, I just ran right across the right front or the left front of his car.
And he could have turned me right there, but he didn't.
But I, I was like, man, I ain't, you know, we're not going to this.
We're not going to the SS side of side here.
This time.
But yeah, that was a weird deal.
We, I wasn't, we had that H pattern shifter.
And I had a real bad habit of I would, I would go into the bus stop and downshift.
And I wouldn't put my hands back on the wheel.
I would hold on, I would downshift and then I drive through the bus stop.
And then I would be ready to, you know, shift into say, you know, grab a gear and come around the carousel and grab another gear.
And all the while, you know, I drive, I drove some of the race holding onto the shifter and I beat the, I wore out the dog, the dog rings.
There's these things in the shifter that call dog rings.
And they are the ones they keep tension to hold, they keep tension to hold the transmission in gear.
And so when you beat those up and wear those out, you could be going down the, I was going down the
long back straightaway in fourth gear and it just popped out of gear.
Like it just went into neutral and it wouldn't stay, even the full throttle wouldn't stay in gear.
And so probably around 14 or 15 laps to go, I just had to start driving the whole lap
to make sure it stayed in gear and just holding it in whatever gear I wanted to be in.
But Ron was having some fuel pickup issues and he was, he was sputtering down the straightaways and,
you know, you could tell when I get the move off of turn seven, coming to the white flag,
like we throttle up and his car just doesn't accelerate as well as mine.
I mean, we were better.
Our car was a little better at that point in the race, but he was struggling with that.
And yeah, I just had to make sure I held it in gear.
And because if you let go of it literally, like anywhere on the racetrack, if you let go of it,
it popped out of gear because I had been my bad habit of holding onto the transmission
stick while we're driving around the racetrack. And I'm, I'm like, not knowingly,
I don't know I'm doing this, but I'm kind of like holding myself up in the car,
holding onto the transmission as I'm driving, you know, and not, and I wore this damn thing out.
But I, and so I would go home and I race back. This is like, you know, 99. So we'd get on,
you know, you know, we get on NASCAR racing or whatever, Papyrus. And that I started practicing
like shift, put your hand on the wheel, shift, put your hand on every shift, like get your hands
back on the steering wheel. Don't hold onto the shifter because that's easy and lazy.
Um, so it was just a bad habit. I had to break. So I want to know, would you ever cage dive like
with the sharks? No, I got no need to do that. TJ, I mean, I, yeah, I probably try it. I mean,
you're in a cage. What could go wrong? I don't jaws. I don't need to go see it. All right.
Would you skydive? I kind of do want to do that. I would go skydiving today. I don't want to,
I kind of do. I do think I would want to try that, but I'm not. Don't send me any invitations.
Don't tell me you got a buddy. I'm not ever going to do it. I'm definitely not bungee jumping though.
I think, you know, all those things were a possibility until I had a family and kids.
And a few things when I got, when I became a dad, crossed them off couple things just
had to get off the list. Yeah. Well, you didn't do it when you had the chance. You're not doing it
now. I do wish we ziplined down there. I kept hearing about the people getting cuts and like
getting scrapes and stuff on the ziplines and having the flesh eating bacteria get them.
I did. I went through a zipline through a forest and like cuts Cosmo. Yeah. Was a blast. I mean,
I don't, I don't know, man. I think, I mean, yeah, I don't know. We were in Costa Rica. Well,
we were, there was like, we could have coat, ziplined in Costa Rica, but
that's where the jungle. I mean, that would have been kind of fun, but yeah, I reckon I don't need
to zipline. That one's, I feel like the safest one though. I know. I feel like that's pretty,
I will, I only want to zipline if I need to get to where I'm going. Like if you're, if there's
like a bar, yeah, like if, if I'm a tree house, you want to get down, if I'm up in the tower
or the booth and I could zipline down in the garage, then I would zipline because I'd be like,
you know what, it's easier going down these stairs, whatever, but it does the zipline just to be
ziplined and don't make a bunch of sense. Can we get a zipline from the Dirty Mo building to the
junior. I'm not ziplining through it. I mean, you don't think of jungle, the scenery. I mean,
I'm just messing with me. I think I get the zipline. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't
skydive, but I'd zipline. What about parasailing?
Is that when you're like up in the air and I don't want to do that. I've seen too many times
where they know that I saw a video of that recently. They let them down into the sharks.
No, I saw one where they one broke and come loose and they storm came in and they couldn't get the
guy down in a blue. He ended up just landing wherever he landed. You know, I'm talking about
he turned into a parachute. Yeah. And he just went. I ain't doing that. Yeah. No, not happening.
What's I mean, you just fall in the water, right? All right, go do it. Look, If you
don't do it. I feel like I want to do it with me, TJ. What if no, I'm not doing that. What if you
did see a shark and they're like, Oh, we're going to bring in and drop you down. They don't know.
I will tell you, do you remember it's when you are in the water and you see a shark, it's way
different. No, I'm saying when you're water, when you saw them, that's way different. We saw them
like when we were when we went to the Great Barrier Reef and we were as opposed to standing on land
when I'm on the ground. I'm just saying that if you're in the water without an in a cage and you
see something like it'd be like walking out of path seeing a bear, I guess. Well, no, like you're
not like it's it's like you're nervous. Dude, have you seen this YouTube video? I don't know how
I felt how I stumbled across it in my algorithm, but there's a guy that survived a bear attack.
Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I wish I could remember the name of it. Did he have like spray?
No, he just he was attacked by a bear, the same bear multiple times over the course of several
hours and survived it. Didn't he? He played dead, I think, didn't he? I mean, he probably didn't have
to play dead. He probably was near death. Get him on the podcast. Dude, that's what I it was on a
podcast. It was like a video podcast. It was incredible. Just one question they want to know.
Someone wants they keep asking us every week. So I'm finally going to ask it. Do you have more
hats or die cast hats? Yeah, I probably have like this Jerky Boys hat. So there's a guy that I get
these patches. So we make a patch, right? We'll make this patch ourselves upstairs. And then I'll
take this patch and I'll send it to a guy in Nashville and he puts it on these Richardson's
and he'll make 30 or 40 of these different colors, you know, same patch, different color hat and
send them to me and I get them in a box. And I really I'm glad he brought this up because
I've got a bunch of these that I'm probably just never going to wear because I don't need 20 Jerky
Boys hats. I'm just going to wear, you know, over the next five years, probably wear about six of them.
And I'm going to take a lot of these. I've got Jerky Boys. We've got Junior Motorsports ones
with the patch. We've got Kars tour Kars tour ones. I'm going to take a bunch of these hats
that I'm probably not going to wear. And it's probably going to be about 15 of them.
And I'm going to put them in the Wendell Juniors ride suburban or Tahoe. So we got we did this Tahoe
where we give the car away on the foundation, the Dell Junior Foundation. So that's happening.
The raffles getting ready to start or maybe it's already started. But I'm all we throw all kinds
of stuff in the back of this Tahoe that we love and use shit that we like in our everyday lives
and stuff that we take on vacation or whatever. And so I'm going to put a ton of these hats
in there for somebody. I love that you guys kind of stock it with like just things that you would
like. Yeah. It's got like I've got this Bluetooth speaker. It's about this big around. It's the
lightest Bluetooth speaker I can find. And you'll get one of those. But you also get a big giant
Bluetooth speaker, like a ridiculous size one, because I love those two. We just walk around
all day just going, let's throw one of them in there. Let's put one of them in there. I love this.
Let's put one in there. You know, yeah, all kinds of stuff. Next question. Someone wanted to ask,
what's your thoughts on Greenville picking Speedway? I don't know where everything stands. I know
they've been having a lot of meetings. The council's been getting together and they're kind of dragging
this out in terms of like, I guess they've delayed the demolition of the racetrack, which is a good
thing. And the track still has some sort of opportunity to survive, although a slim one.
And I believe there is an individual that's ready to buy the piece of land and maintain it
as a racetrack. Nice. Did you race there? No, we did go test there. We used to test there for
the track survive. The Kars tour will go there. And the Kars tour race there before,
that's not a big revelation. K&Ns went there before, some series went there. I'm just saying,
like, we will take advantage of that track's success if it continues. We'll be a part of it,
but as a tour. But I don't know, man, there's a developer that's built a bunch of warehouses
forth all around it. And I think that that guy would like to see the track go away.
And he's made that made that statement. So they got some opposition. And if the track survives,
they've got some challenges. Not only just the track needs renovation, massive renovation needs
about, you know, 5000000 dollars put into it. Parking is going to be more of an issue
now because of the warehouses that have been built around it. But we'll see. Matthew Dillner
is all over this. And so, you know, it'd be good to maybe get a clip of Matthew and see kind of what
if he can give you update. Yeah. Next question. What do you think of the idea of having some
sort of joint all star race with O'Reilly? And you find that's my idea. What do you
think? What do you mean? What do I think? That's my idea. We've talked about this before.
Okay. This was the idea that I gave to Marcus. And this came from
when we started, when we went and ran the road course at Daytona,
you know, we were, we were just messing around, trying some different stuff. And it was pretty
neat. And I got to, you know, when I was out there running, when I was out there broadcasting
with NBC at the 24 hours of Daytona, I thought, man, why can't NASCAR have a class in the 24
hours of Daytona? And we got, we got Doug Yates on the pit box during the broadcast. And I said,
Doug, could you, you get a car out here and get it to go 24 hours? He's like,
yeah, you know, and they end up doing this, right in the Le Mans race with a modified version of
of the next gen car. But imagine, you know, if we did Daytona as a series or as an organization,
NASCAR, and instead of having like a truck race, I don't want this to replace the 500. So don't get
me wrong. But like, maybe it would be cool if we went to a road course like Daytona or somewhere,
and they had instead of truck on Friday or rally on Saturday and cup on Sunday,
they some they somehow ran them together. And now that's not realistic with the field sizes
that we have. But when they when they said that they were going to
take the All-Star Race to Dover, listen, no bulls***, everybody said Dover.
We're what? What? What? Why are we doing that? You know, you know, there's been this debate over
the last, you know, I don't know how many years of what to do with the All-Star Race. Some people
even think that it should maybe go away entirely. So there's been this sort of urgency to figure
out like what how do we get the All-Star Race back, you know, to prominence?
And when they said, hey, man, we're going to go to Dover, I thought.
Well, that's that's going to be a challenge because of how Dover races, right? Dover is a
400 mile race, and it needs 400 miles to have something happen. How are you going to go over
there and run an All-Star Race and make it spectacular? The way you do that is,
you know, you put you have an All-Star Weekend for all three series and you could have you could
tighten up the restrictions on how you get into the All-Star Race, which would make the field
size smaller and somehow find a way to either have, you know, you could even have all three
truck O'Reilly and Cup in the same event. You know, if you could start 42, 43, maybe a couple more
and, you know, you'd have, I don't know, roughly, 12,
12 cars from each series. If you didn't want to do that, then you could do
Next Gen and the O'Reilly series and split it in half, right? But have one race where they're
all on the track together and you got two classes. Now, that would be interesting because, A, it
makes getting into the All-Star Race a real challenge. It's an imitation only.
Real reward. Real reward. Only a small, you know, few feature drivers would get there.
Prestigeous.
Yep. So you raise the prestige of making it, right? And you've got the moving chicane of slower cars
that creates some unique situations and challenges for everybody involved, right? Which, you know,
could present some moments. Yeah. You know, and it's an exhibition. It's worth a try.
They showed, they were testing at Chicagoland and they showed the O'Reilly and the Next Gen
on the racetrack together at the same time. It's wild how big the O'Reilly car is compared to the
Next Gen. Do you see that? Yeah. Yeah. It was fun to see. It's weird. Yeah. But the, yeah, I think
that would be fun to try to see if you could have multi-class racing in NASCAR in an exhibition
like the All-Star Race. You know? It's worth a try. I thought that would really, you would
what are you trying to do if you're Marcus and NASCAR? If you're taking, you know, you're moving
around. You're kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul in this getting Wilkes-Barrell the points race and
having the All-Star Race and Dover not having something and going, okay, well, I'll start Dover.
Not really what we thought we were going to end up with, but here we are. Well, how do you get
people to, like, go frickin' A? I'm not going to miss that. Well, if you told them you were going
to put the O'Reilly cars out on the track with the Next Gen and everybody was going to be competing
for a win between the two class, I would not miss that. Yeah. You would miss that. That would be
a automatic tune in. So I don't know why they didn't really take advantage of that opportunity to try,
but it could be. Watch it happen in about three or four years, if not sooner.
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All right, it's time for the Dirty Mo Dose segment brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel,
they're the premier gaming destination in the United States of America.
The home of the red, white, and blue. Hell yeah. Russell, how's it going, Dale?
What's up, man? Not much. All right. Ready for some all-star race? Yeah, we got a lot to talk
about for this all-star event, but first off, let's talk about Watkins Glen. How did the predictor
do? TJ does not want to. TJ, you want to put your ear most on? I told him you're going to be tough
to deal with on this one, predictor, and ended up well. Well, it was pretty spot on, I would say
overall. It did well. Well, we had a miss with the Hendrick guys. I don't know what happened there
with the Hendrick guys, but you know what? I think we didn't talk about that earlier in the show,
but you're right. Hendrick struggled all weekend. I'm going to chalk that up to,
all of them went off on, you know, the company as a whole, which we're seeing a lot of that in
this sport where companies ebb and flow more together than they ever have. They do, yeah.
Teams go down routes together as a group. Unified more. More engineered than it used to be. It
used to be more individualistic because you had crew chiefs that made a lot of these decisions,
and now the crew chiefs, they just get the setups. The engineers come up with something,
and the whole company buys in, and the crew chiefs just go run the weekend, right?
And it looks like they just kind of, they picked the wrong idea. Yeah. And hats off to RCR too.
Yeah, we did. We covered that. Thanks, Russell. We covered that. Just making sure
you're picking up the pieces here. Yeah, picking up the pieces here. Our predictor had that.
Did our guesses on top 10s or in that bulls*** pan out? Did we do any good on our advice that
we're giving people? Was it worth for s***? We were high on Christopher Bell, and he did not do
well. He did not do well. He was one of the few Toyotas that didn't pan out. No, he was too nice.
He let Bubba go right by. I thought the strategy he did was weird too. That never worked out for
any of those guys I don't feel like. So no, our strategy or ideas that we gave. It did not work.
Almedinger, I think we had. Almedinger, we did have. We had a couple. McDowell, we were high.
We're on the back. Yeah. Bushard missed it by a couple, I think. Yeah. He was disappointing too,
but yeah. I'll start. We got the format here. Buckle in. Segment one, 75 laps. Segment two,
75 laps. The lineup. The lineup for segment two. Segment two will be inverted from segment
one's finish for the top 26. The rest are fielded by their finishing heart. If you,
all right, if you finish in the top 26, you're getting inverted. Yes. So 26 is going to be put
first. Yes. And then you got to hang on the best you can to get the best average. Segment three
is 200 laps. Long time. And that will just be 26 drivers. Yeah. That's your champions,
your former cup. 2025, 2026 cup series winners, former cup series champions, fan vote winner,
and the remaining drivers will be added to the field based on their lowest average
finishing position from segments one and two. Yep. So you go out in segment one and two and
you just do your best. Mm-hmm. Yep. Good luck. Yeah. It's pretty straightforward. It's not very
complicated. A lot of math. I don't find it being a lot of math. That's a lot of math to do. I don't.
So here's kind of how I feel.
There's a handful of guys already locked in, right? 19. Pass went race 19 locked in. So
the winner's more than likely going to come from those guys that are locked in. So by all means,
do the math if you want for your buddy that's going to run 18th.
Okay. That's true. I'm not going to do the math. That's true. All right. So it's going to be fun,
man. We're going to see a couple of segments, 75 laps apiece. There'll be an invert of the top
26 after segment one. The final segment, yeah. I mean, I guess they're just going to start them
how they finish segment two in terms of the top 19, the locked in guys. They'll start on their
average finish. Yeah. That's what I was saying. Everyone. Yeah. The top 26. Yes. Okay. Even the
fan vote winner could technically start seventh. Okay. Okay. Well, and there's a competition
caution in that last one too. 75 laps in. Okay. So there'll be 125 laps. So it's four stages.
You're telling me the things four stages? Kind of. Kind of the way you're looking at it. Yes,
but it's not. I mean, is it not? I mean, it's going to be a break. There's a scheduled break. Yes.
Yeah. So it's a different stage. We do have lines out now. They have been released. All right. Would
you like to hear them? Well, there's a number one. Who's number one? Denny Hamlin. Okay. Yes.
That's why he was talking about the beginning. There's a list of drivers that are locked in 19.
I don't want to name all of them. The lines are out. And yeah, Denny's the favorite.
Denny is the favorite. Yeah. Okay. Larson, Elliott, Blaney, and Bell.
These people are just so lazy. Just keep picking the same guys every week.
I don't think it's going to be any of those guys. I think it's going to be.
Your predictor is lazy, Russ. Because your predictor is going to say the same thing.
You know, it would change with the road course. I don't know what to tell you.
Tim's, who do you like? I like Ross Chastain. Whoa. Yeah.
I think it's going to be weird. That is weird. Plus 2800. It makes sense though. Like,
Ross is kind of a try hard guy. So some of these guys, maybe like it's all straight. I'm not really
like, I get it over. What are you talking about? Ross tries hard every time. They all try hard.
No, but Ross is definitely like, wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that guy,
that a guy is going to try harder in this race? Because it's a all-star race? Ross? Yeah.
Oh man. Hey, I want to call Ross right now and ask him. Are you going to try harder this week?
How many races are you taking off, man? Are you just not trying at all until the all-star race?
Hey, buddy, I'd appreciate if you try this weekend. Could you? I think it's going to be
a bigger **** on the track though. I'm going to say, Ross, Ross, Ross, Ross. I've got it.
I've **** got it. The answer to your performance. Try hard in all of them. And Justin Marks said
they've tried doing that. They found speed recently, so they're going to have a better
car. Well, if he would have tried harder, they would need to find the speed. Look,
wait, where did they find? They found speed. Plus he's going to try harder. If you don't bet
on this guy, you're a loser. Ross has like, where's the speed at? Justin Marks quoted,
said they found speed at Texas. That's great. But say the guy's going to try harder and he's
going to run better because he's going to try harder. He's ridiculous stuff. We got try hard
Travis over here. Everybody goes into every race and tries their hardest, but he's going to try
a little bit harder this race. Who's not trying? I just think it was not trying their hardest.
Apparently Ross, I just mean even the 51 was trying his hardest. He was. He tried to go
all for you Travis. He kept digging. He kept digging after that wall.
He is doing all he can do. That's all it's got. I'm giving it all I've got captain. I think some
drivers never seen that guy on Star Trek. I think some drivers go a little faster.
Warp speed ain't fast enough. I'm giving it all she's got captain. Do you think every driver
this week is locked into this race? Because I don't 19 apparently not that locked in.
Like, are they focusing on this race? Yes, I don't. We're all having meetings about how to win
this race, but is every driver truly like putting in the time? I don't know if every driver is.
I'd fire a f*** for you. I feel like what the f*** are you doing buddy? Or do you think some
drivers like I'm going to there's like there's about a there's a hundreds of thousands of dollars
worth of sponsorship all over this race car. There's $350,000 of money invested in the damn thing.
Somebody somebody busted their ass putting that engine together and getting it on the dyno for
you. I don't get out there and f***ing drive it. And what is the outcome of that race?
If some drivers I'm going to focus on Charlotte. I'm going to do some other stuff.
Million dollars for a million for the driver. A million dollars. I will say if you're running 20th
in the last 75 laps of this race, you're probably not going to move wreck the s*** out of somebody
or do something dumb to tear up a race car. I don't think that'll happen. Travis,
there does. There is a moment in every single race, even for Ross Chastain, where he goes,
my ass is kicked. And that's just how it goes. That's not new. I mean, that's if you want to
if you want to point to a moment where somebody says, yep, this is all I'm going to get. And
if you want to call that not trying, then you can. But that happens, you know, that'll happen with,
I don't know, 50 to go. Yeah. In this race, in every race. The last run. There's some guys,
though, even, even though they're sitting there running 12th and it looks like they got a shot
in hell and it's 50 laps to go, they're sitting there going, I need a f***ing yellow. I need
a yellow. They're like, they're jonesing for like some opportunity to like turn this around
because they still think they've got a f***ing chance. Jonesen, you foreshadowing? Could be.
Better try hard this weekend, Jones. Jones, I don't think he's going to make it. If he gets
put in first place at the end of this race, I think he could win it. Yeah.
Yeah. Who? It's a hard track to pass on. Oh, if you got him, Stephen, just Texas Ross was in
the building. Is he still here? Stephen, go get him. I wonder if he's trying hard wherever he's
at. He's just half ass in it today. But he's plus 2800. That's a really good value. He's really
good at Dover. He's good at Nashville on the concrete track. I don't know. All right. Looks
like you know how to feel about this. I think the, you know, this isn't straightforward. This
isn't like, Hey, remember, we're going to drop the green flag and you're going to run 400 laps
and the fastest guy is going to get to the front and they're going to figure it out. And this is
a Denny Hamlin-esque. You know, if he's the favorite, you know, there you go. You know,
that's the guy that more than likely has a chance to win. I think with the inversion, the averaging
of finishes between the two segments, you could have, I mean, this is all a ploy to keep the
obvious favorite from having an easy route to the finish line, right? They want, now they don't
mind if Denny wins, but they want him driving through the field to do it, right? They want him to at
least have to pass a few cars. Try hard. Yeah. Don't be a try hard. Isn't that what I'm saying?
Yeah. Somewhere. Yeah. So they want him to drive through the field or drive through a few cars.
So they're going to try to say, Hey, okay, Denny, if you're going to go out there, let's just use
Denny as an example. If he's the fastest guy in the best car there by far, they'd love it if he
could start fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth in this last stage and have to work his way into the position.
Yeah. I get the idea of it. Yep. Yep. That's what's up. Yep. It's kind of fun. We'll see. That's
all right. It's an exhibition. Yeah. I don't know if this track fits like that, but we'll see.
Can somebody come from the back and listen to this track and this is either going to go
really bad or really good just in general. The inverting is going to make it interesting.
I'm just saying like, yeah, I agree. And I'll start race at Dover. That idea is going to go
bad or really good. What do you think? guys think? Is it going to be exciting and
entertaining? What's predictors say, Russ? It's going to be passing. Does the predictor predict
excitement? The predictor has no emotion. But remember, the pick crews are going to play
a major role this week too. So during qualifying, there's a pit stop and then the fastest pit stop
is picks pits as well. So yep. So you look at road is very challenging there. That's a great
point. The pit crews like bubble Wallace has the best four tire stop this year. So he's a player.
Denny Hamlin's the eighth best four tire stop this year. So we write him off. I mean, damn,
eight is pretty good. There's 40. I get it. But if I owned a cup team and we had the eighth best
crew, I'd be like, hell, yes. Yeah. I'm pretty happy. Well, I actually have him ranked as the
third best crew overall, but he's got the eight best stop for the year. So, hey, so what's the
issue here? We're looking good. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're looking good. You're looking good. Like,
if you're owning that deal, you're feeling pretty confident. But like where Blaney's crew has had
some mistakes early in the year, they cleaned them up lately. So like, is this a, how were they at
the Glen backwards stops? Pretty good standby. I think that's the wrong track to use to compare
though for Dover. Why? Well, yeah, I'm just asking how they were. No, it's a backwards stop. I think
they were eighth. There you go. That's pretty good. They were good. Solid. Speaking of your
post race reports with the grades, we had a couple of questions about
SVGs. What was the one there? So SVG dominated in every category as predicted. Like, would you
call that race win by SVG? Just pure domination. Nobody could do much of anything, right?
Yes. Yes and no. What was, could you guess, could you guess one area where maybe he wasn't quite
the best? He's looking upstairs. Get off there. And how is that crew? Okay. Well, obviously,
the pit crew is just kind of follow where they fall and that's roughly 18. He was only second
best on restarts and second best in defense. Yeah. What are we doing? How did he get beat?
Because he didn't have to defend anybody. Should he be number one? Should he be the best?
Right. If he doesn't have to defend, then we need an NA right there. We need a non-applicable.
But he still had to defend at some point. And he didn't, when did he not defend better than
someone else? When he was getting passed. When? Who passed? Wait, when he didn't pit?
Did he not? Yeah. Did he get penalized in your algorithm by pitting? No. And giving up positions?
That's not how he gets penalized. How did Chase Briscoe win the defensive battle?
Because he, he held more people off than. Are you kidding me? He just won by seven
something seconds. That's pretty good defense. There's some, there's something not quite adding
up here. No. He, he did, he did get passed. Oh, he's stumbling. He got passed. No, he didn't.
Nope. Nope. Never. But he sucks. He's terrible. He's not the best at defense. Chase Briscoe had
better not gotten past one time this entire race than he did, didn't he? But look at Briscoe did
not. He got passed here right here. One time. Oh, we're adding to it. 34 So all right.
It's possible that Shane was the best at paired for this question. You need to be prepared now
that I'm looking at the notes. You can't trust you anymore. It is possible that Shane was the
best at defense. It's not, not the number. He never got. I respect it. I respect tolerance.
Is there like a one or two spot tolerance in this whole thing? If he never got passed,
how are you not the best at defense? Because he was not in a defensive position long enough.
That's okay though. I mean, because it's all that should be beneficial toward the
staff. Yeah. That's where that's where speed comes in. He was by far the best in speed.
No, you're deflecting. You're just going to introduce the NA. That's all we want. Yeah.
Yeah. Like not applicable with some no data something. No data. I'm wrong. Something like that.
I liked it better when this was on Travis.
All right. So we feel like can we make any gambles here? Can we make some bets? Who do
we want to bet on? We're going to have to second. I bet on Ross Chastain. You're betting Ross
Chastain to win the all star race. I am. Something weird is going to happen. Part of the try hard
Travis group try hard. I love that. I like it. I do agree that there are some environments that
play into certain drivers instincts and attitudes and personalities. The all star race
free for all sort of, you know, wild sort of, you know, this whole format. It is a kind of a
it is a race where a Ross Chastain won't check out. Yeah. And he'll go for it. What's Bowman's line?
Bowman's like plus 1000. He was another one on my list, but I don't like plus 1000. Yeah,
that's pretty strong. Yeah, it's strong. Reddick at 1400. This is not a reddick track though.
This is a Bowman track for sure though. It is. Man, yeah, but it's just what is it?
Top 10s and top fives. He's won there. Yeah, you're right. But let me ask you this. Does
like Bowman success there? Does it come in long run? You know what I mean? Like where is his speed
at? Like, where does he get the success? Like overall, like his highest points. Does this format
hurt him at all? These are near fuel runs. Yeah, I mean, I'm, you know, you're going to have these
are long run to end it. You're going to need to be good on the long run on all these. I mean,
75 laps of numbers long run. Yeah. And then 120 to end it. You're going to have to pit
in there. Definitely have to pit. I have a non, O'Reilly question for Thames. I'll, I know
you don't typically like to bet champion right now, but Algarve's plus 225 to win the championship.
Would you act on that? He's got 155 points ahead. No, I wouldn't. I'd wait till he's kind of on
the slump. If he ever gets on a slump. That's the thing is I don't know if he's going to like.
Yeah. Well, I mean, then you've lost it. I mean, if you wait till it's gone, the price is gone.
I feel like he's in a bit of a slump now compared to how it started.
Yeah. Then I, if that's the lowest it's going to get, then now you've missed it.
It's definitely hurting. It's all a fame. So don't bet 225. Don't bet 225.
I'm going to do it. I would feel like I honestly don't think, so I was looking at the
points. He's a steady Eddie. And I was looking at the point. Say like Reddick finished fifth.
Justin had a decent finish, but both of them
gained chunks of points on everybody around the top 10. Even when they just had a decent day,
they gained teens and sometimes in some cases, 20s over everybody else around them. So
Tyler's bad days now are probably the most impressive to me. It's not even the winds.
It's his bad days. Aren't bad days. Yeah. I just don't see them. I don't see the gap closing.
Man, I see if anything, it kind of probably stays pretty similar all the way to the end of them,
into the regular season before the chase begins. I don't know that that number
improves in terms of the bet. No, probably not. I like that bet. I mean, look, I don't want to
jinx myself. I'm superstitious to a point, but 10 race or how the rally's an eight race
chase? Or is it 10? I think it's eight. Yeah. Like usual, right? So they got two less races,
but it's still a block of races where I feel like, you know, Justin's been able to put together
chunks like that, do a really good job. Nine races. That's right. The trucks is eight, I think. But
I don't know. feel I want to bet on the future. I feel like
you're going to have some pressure for some guys that are going to develop.
Brent Cruz is coming. getting better and better every week.
He will be primed and ready for a run toward the end of the year. You know that the two and
those guys are going to get it together. Jesse loves. So it just, I don't know. I'm going to do it.
I think Justin can do it, should do it, but it's going to get a little tougher toward the
end of the year. Were you surprised Russ this weekend at a little bit of the speed? I mean,
I know no one saw Hendrick being like that, but it didn't seem like once some of the guys up front,
like once, uh, like Joey took stage points, we never really saw it and Blaney counters hung
around to top 10 all day, right? Like eighth to twelfth is in that area most of the day.
Were you kind of surprised at that? Hendrick performed pretty well again. He's having a
quietly a really good year. Yeah, I just think that was a Ford, Ford struggled again this week
overall. Um, we saw different Chevy's be really good this week. You know, it's, it's been a Chevy
discussion, but you know, you had track house and spy or, or an RCR were all pretty good this week.
Mm hmm. Yeah. Bush is the one that surprised me. You're going raw testing, Tim. Yep. I think
I'll, I'll back that. Anybody else want to make any predictions on a winner for the All-Star
Race before we cut all y'all loose? Man, I'm, I'm going to go with, uh, Briscoe. Yeah, he was
fast there last year. Ty Gibbs, throwing a blind out there. I'd say the 19 car has been good there.
I think those are two wise decisions, two wise choices. All-Star. Go for it. Russell.
The predictor has number 11, Denny Hamlin. So you're just going to go with the predictor every
week? Yeah. Do you ever have, do you ever go? Do you have, no one has no emotion. The predictor
has no emotion. Neither do you. I know you have emotions. You got kid things in the background
here. So where, where is emotional Russ at? I've worked with, um,
take a look at long to have emotions. Turn around, look at your Emmy and rethink your decision.
Yep. That, yep. Now look at that. Tell us your decision. Look at that. Emmy, get a tear in your
eye and then tell us who you think is going to win. Alex Bowman. Okay. There we go.
Finally. All right, man. Here we go. Thank you, Russell. Looking forward to
Charlotte in a couple of weeks. We'll be in the boot together. Ready to go. Yeah, me too, buddy.
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About this episode
After Watkins Glen, the Dale Jr. Download bounces between race talk and a deeper dive into what separates drivers: restarts, pit-crew ranking, and why “defense” stats don’t always apply. The conversation then turns technical—clutch modulation, engine braking, and wheel hop—tying it to V8 Supercar experience and how drivers learn these habits early. Later, they debate track changes, cautions, and strategy at venues like Sonoma and Chicago, before shifting to Trans Am/TA2 road-course development and an All-Star format discussion.
Original notes
Shane Van Gisbergen’s road course dominance continues, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is here to unpack it all on a new episode of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to chat all things Watkins Glen and look ahead to the All-Star race at Dover:
- Exactly what SVG is doing differently than all other NASCAR drivers at road courses
- The Trans Am Series is training a new generation of great road racers
- Catching up on all the calamity from Watkins Glen
- The risk of making unnecessary changes to tracks
- Race winner Shane Van Gisbergen joins the show
- Recapping this year’s format for the All-Star race
During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions regarding:
- Cole Swindell at the CARS Tour race at Ace Speedway
- Kasey Kahne and Boo Weekley are still winning
- The new Hell Let Loose game
- Dale’s 1999 Busch Series win at Watkins Glen
- Cage diving with sharks
- Hats or die-casts
- Greenville-Pickens Speedway updates
- Multi-class racing in NASCAR
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The Dale Jr. Download
Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
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130:31