The Dale Jr. Download Feb 17, 2026

It Felt Like An Old Daytona Race

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Concept

Daytona 500

The Daytona 500 is a big car race held every year in Florida. Many people think it's one of the most important races for race cars.

Concept

qualifying

Before a race, drivers try to set the fastest lap to decide where they start in the race lineup.

Concept

top 10

Getting a top 10 means finishing the race in one of the first ten spots, which is pretty good.

Brand

Hendrick

Hendrick is a famous team in NASCAR that builds and races cars in big races.

Term

beach ball effect

In racing, when a group of cars follow closely behind the leader, they can help push the lead car forward like a beach ball being pushed by water, making it easier for the leader to go faster.

Term

lift

When a driver 'lifts,' they take their foot off the gas pedal to slow down a bit, usually to avoid crashing into another car.

Part

quarter panel

The quarter panel is the side part of a car near the back wheel. It helps keep the car strong and can affect how air flows around the car.

Part

suspension

Suspension is the part of the car that helps it ride smoothly over bumps and keeps the wheels touching the road.

Part

transmission

The transmission helps the car change gears so it can go faster or slower.

Term

horsepower

Horsepower tells you how strong a car's engine is and how fast it can make the car go. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster.

Brand

NASCAR

NASCAR is a big group that organizes car races in the U.S., mostly with special race cars on oval tracks.

Part

header

The header is a pipe that helps get the smoke out of the engine. If it gets bent or broken, the car might not run well.

Car

The Dodge Charger is a popular car that many people love because it looks cool and can go really fast. Fans of the car often talk about it a lot, kind of like how you might listen to your favorite radio station for a long time.

Company

Lionel Racing

Lionel Racing makes small model cars that look like real NASCAR race cars. People collect and play with them.

Term

die cast

Die cast means making small metal model cars by pouring melted metal into a mold. These models look like real cars.

Concept

wide open

When someone says 'wide open,' it means they are pushing the gas pedal all the way down to go as fast as possible.

Brand

Haas

Haas is a company that has race cars competing in big racing events like Formula 1 and NASCAR.

Concept

Talladega

Talladega is a big race track where cars go very fast and race closely together.

Concept

drag

Drag is like the wind pushing against a car when it drives fast. The more drag, the harder it is for the car to go faster.

Part

rear spoiler

A rear spoiler is a part on the back of a car that helps keep it steady when going fast by pushing the car down onto the road.

Concept

engine de-tuning

Engine de-tuning means making the engine less powerful on purpose, so it can last longer or use less fuel.

Concept

slingshot pass

A slingshot pass is when a race car follows closely behind another to get a speed boost from the air pushing it, then zooms past to overtake. It was a popular way to pass in older NASCAR races.

Term

loose handling

Loose handling means the back of the car slides out more when turning, which can make the car harder to control.

Term

Tires

Tires are the rubber parts of the car that touch the road. New tires help the car stick better to the track and go faster.

Term

Pit road

Pit road is where race cars stop during a race to get new tires or fuel. Stopping at the right time can help a driver do better in the race.

Concept

Xfinity series

The Xfinity Series is a type of car race where drivers compete in special stock cars. It's like a step below the biggest NASCAR races, and many drivers use it to get experience.

Concept

Daytona International Speedway

Daytona International Speedway is a big race track where important car races happen, including the Daytona 500. It's a well-known place for racing fans.

Concept

ARCA races

ARCA races are car races where drivers can practice and get better before moving up to bigger NASCAR races.

Concept

short track asphalt racing

Short track asphalt racing means racing on small paved tracks where cars race close together and drivers learn important skills.

Car

Toyota A90

The Toyota Supra is a fast and sporty car that many people like because it can go really quickly and looks cool. Sometimes, people joke about who might drive it, like an old grandma, which is funny because it’s usually a car for younger drivers.

Car

Tata Motors Aria

The Tata Aria is a type of car that is good for families and small businesses because it’s big and comfortable. Tata also works on smart computer helpers that can make things easier for people who use their cars or services.

Term

tire wear

Tires get worn out as cars drive, which can make them less sticky and harder to control. Drivers and teams try to manage this to keep the car fast and safe.

Term

fuel talk

In races, teams talk about how much gas the car needs and when to fill up so the car doesn't run out before the race is over.

Term

yellow

When there's a problem on the track, a yellow flag comes out and cars slow down. This is called a 'yellow'. Drivers can use this time to stop for tires or fuel.

LIVE

Maybe Tomi and I should run the Daytona 500 next year.

We were laying in bed Sunday night after the race.

She's like, you should just drive it next year.

I'm like, hello?

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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 want the best man at your wedding.

Who was your best man, Dale?

TJ.

You don't need a cool vest for that race.

What are you thinking?

Get him, TJ.

That's how it is starting to show.

All right then.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr.

Welcome back to another episode

of the Dale Jr. Download.

I'm with my co-host, TJ Majors,

and it's post day, Tonya.

Are you recharged and ready to go to Atlanta?

Oh, man, not quite yet.

I don't know.

Daytona's a long week sale.

I know, man.

I'm still wore out.

I am too.

This is my second Red Bull.

So we have a lot to cover.

But first, I got to tell you this episode

is presented by Arby's and Arby's new Meat and Three Box.

You get more meal for your money at Arby's.

We have the meats.

Everybody got to see the new Arby's commercial we did

with Justin Algar.

That was good.

Oh, man, we nailed it.

Great relationship we have now with Arby's.

We have the meat and three box on the table right there,

TJ.

You get quite a deal when you get one of those $7.99.

So everybody loves a good deal.

But I'm going to tell you, I got to tell you

one of my favorite.

So when we were at the shoot, doing the Arby's shoot,

I got hungry.

I was going to ask you if you ate.

I'm like, I'm going to order from that.

We're in Arby's.

I'm like, why not?

Arby's was closed for the recording of this shoot.

But I was like, you know, there were people there

working, but they were serving the public.

And I was like, hey, can y'all make a like?

Yeah, we'll make anything wrong.

And so they have a Buffalo chicken slider.

And man, is it good?

I had no idea.

I'm a sucker for anything buffalo.

That's your reason.

Not what I was expecting.

Oh, man, it is good.

So I'm just saying it's a little going to eat some

napkins, but that's the best part.

That's the best thing about Buffalo when they just.

Too much.

Soak it.

Yeah.

Yes.

So it's easy to undo it.

Yeah, look, if it don't go, if it ain't, if it's Buffalo, if

it's called Buffalo, like Buffalo wings and they're not

just soaking wet, if it's kind of dry, you're like, what the

hell, man?

It's the same.

Oh, for sure.

It's the same, getting it.

Yeah.

I don't like that.

But anyways, all right, let's get into it.

Just an hour ago, I guess the 40 car out on the racetrack

and got to the lead during the race.

Sure, a lot of people were anxious to hear our, you know,

our comments on just how that ended and what all went down in

the wreck and all that.

But I just got to say out of the gate before we get to that.

We, you know, went down there last year, we struggled with

speed, didn't qualify well, you know, Justin did a good

job to get us into the race.

And then we got lucky and dodged all the damage and

crazy stuff at the end of the race and got it got a top

10, but didn't have a car that was all that effective.

You know, and we went, you know, all as we're building this

car, we were, you know, man, this car is better.

It's going to do better.

It's we got more power and hearing all these things.

And that's the optimism in the company at, you know,

at Hendrick as far as building engines and so forth.

We've, we've been told the same thing about our

extended stuff this year that gained a lot of power over

the off season.

So we're anxious to get to the racetrack and beyond a tone

to really learn where we're at.

But we get to the racetrack and yes, car qualified better,

had better speed and, um, you know, Greg Ives and the

team, they were pretty optimistic.

Greg's so hard on himself with qualify, you know, 14th,

which I would have been thrilled with.

And he was so mad that we didn't make the top 10.

But, um, he's like, I should have done next.

I should have done X and Y and we would have done this

and we would have done that.

I'm like, we're fine.

We're good.

We're happy.

But, um, race starts so before the race, actually, I'm

standing with, uh, Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick.

Uh, and I said, y'all, I was like, you know, this

fuel saving stuff, you know, I don't, I don't like it.

I don't like watching it.

I don't like, you know, I sat on the pit box during

the duel and I can sit on the pit box on the

duel and we can go to the throttle trace for any driver.

I can watch three drivers at a time and what they're

doing with their throttle.

Anyone in the field, I can change it and I can look at

anybody and I'm sitting there and I'm watching them

all run 40, 50, 60% throttle.

Just sitting there holding their throttles right

around 40, 50, 60% during the duel.

I swear, man, I fell asleep.

I mean, I was literally, our cars in the race,

racing on the track and I am, I'm about to fall asleep.

I'm not joking.

I'm not, I'm not exaggerating this at all.

I was like, how in the hell am I this damn bored?

But, uh, we got before the pre, you know, before the

pre race or during the pre race, I, I went to Rick

and Jeff and I said, y'all, I was like, I know that.

I know that all of the big teams that are going to

run every single week, all these teams that are here

today feel like they know exactly how they have

to run this race to win.

We're a team that's here for this race only.

We, we don't have a sponsor for next week.

We don't have a car.

We don't have a race.

We're not going beyond this.

I was like, why can't we go out there and run

hard and say the hell with, you know, saving the fuel?

Let's just take our chances, take our risks that the

cautions will fall in such a way that will benefit us

and save us when we're running short on gas and have

to come down pit road early.

I was like, you know, let's us riding around in 25th

all day long, hoping that we're doing everything

right to try to put ourselves in a good place to

win and then we don't win.

I mean, we're, I don't want to be non-existent.

I don't want to be like, I don't want to, you know,

I don't want to disappear when the race starts and not

anyone ever see us.

I was like, in our situation with our car and our

partners and our one off race, we need to mash the gas

and go to the front and lead laps.

And that might be our only opportunity to really

show everybody we were there.

Right.

And that's what we did.

Yeah, for sure.

The car looked great, but really the only reason I

think, I mean, the car was great.

The car was a really good, competitive, fast car.

No kidding.

But it looked so good because we weren't saving as much.

You know, a lot of guys running, a lot of guys

are still running 60 percent throttle throughout

the entire first two stages.

I said, save fuel, save more than I wanted to.

Yeah.

And so we were, we were, we were just trying to save.

We weren't trying to get to, we weren't just like

on the mat all the time.

He was in certain situations unable to make passes,

boxstand or whatever.

And he would save in those moments.

And then, you know, eventually we would find our way

into, you know, the lead or the front of the front,

front of one of the, you know, the lines in the draft.

And man, that was exciting.

Um, right before the wreck, we had gotten the

lead probably 10 or 20 minutes before that.

And I was watching his throttle trace and he

hadn't had a chance to really understand what he

would do when he was in that situation with the

throttle and he gets into the lead and kind of got

pushed out there pretty far and they came, come

running up, running back up to him, caution come out.

And, uh, we were talking.

I was like, man, it's awesome.

Finally being the lead and get that thing up there.

It looked great.

And, uh, I was like, they played some of that on the

television because I could see the words on the screen.

But what they didn't play was we had a conversation

around the throttle and how much throttle he

needed to use while leading.

He thought that as he was in the lead with all the

drag on the car, which it has a ton of drag, he

would need to use more throttle and he was hard

in the gas while out front.

And I said, man, when you get the lead, you

can really come back off the gas back to 40 or

50%, 60% and let those guys let that, let that

energy from the pack behind you kind of push

you forward like the beach ball effect.

I always talked about, I was like, you don't

have to be as aggressive on the throttle.

You can, you kind of got out too far.

And he's like, yep, yep, got you.

And, uh, you know, we get back racing again and

we get back to the front and got back in the

lead and we got pushed out too far and man, they

came running hard up on him like really, really fast.

Denny's about 10 mile an hour faster as he runs

up on the back of the 40 car.

Denny's got two or three guys up his ass and

he, he's got, he can't lift.

If he lifts, if he lifts for the 40, he's

getting wrecked.

He gets wrecked or certainly somebody behind

him gets wrecked.

If he goes to the, I saw some of his comments on

his show yesterday last night.

If he goes the inside, you know, he probably

clears him easily.

But I think Justin showed some indecisiveness

a little bit about, if you're coming up on

Justin, you're thinking, is he, is he, is he

going to leave the outside?

Is he not?

Cause it looked like he might and he, and

there was enough room for a car, right?

It was tight, but there was enough.

I mean, Denny's coming so fast.

He's got to go one side or the other, right?

And he just kind of, he picked, he picked

the side that Justin was blocking.

And I will not, I want to say that it, it, it's

a race and deal.

There is fault.

There is, there is, there is fault for what

happened, but I mean, it's, it, it's kind of

how those wrecks go down.

Every wreck that happened yesterday was

somebody's fault.

Oh, for sure.

Um, you know, and, and it's an accident.

And, you know, I hate it happened.

Justin's beat himself up over it.

Uh, and thinking about what he might have

could have done differently.

Um, I'm sure he's going to run it back

through a million times in his head.

Uh, but I still, I know, look, there's,

when the car is wrecked and the wreck

has happened in the right, and that

our race is over, there ain't nothing

you could do to change it.

And you kind of got to, all right,

what are we going to do?

We're going to take stock in what happened.

There's some positives here.

We led some laps.

We showed we had a really capable car week.

We had a car that, I mean, put a one to

race.

I don't think any other way.

I don't think otherwise.

I think we had a, there was a lot of

guys there that had cars that could

have won the race, but we were one of

them.

I felt like that we were, uh, a car

that could do some things when it

needed to do something.

You know, um, we weren't, last year

we were running around kind of with

our arm tied behind our back.

Not really with a car that could make

any moves and be on the offense.

And this year it was completely

different.

So just a great job by Hendrick

Engine Shop.

They are a hardworking group.

I go over there and I'm always

impressed.

And, um, there, I mean, when you

think about race teams and they're

always trying to get better, they're

always trying to find an edge, it's

hard to measure all the other

departments and how they improve.

You know, you might, you don't, we

don't really, we don't really take

cars to the wind tunnels as often.

We don't get a ton of time.

We don't really go in there and we

can't really work on the bodies.

We can't really change the quarter

panel defender and go, man, we

gained some here.

We gained some there.

So it's really, really hard to

measure improvement outside of every

department, but the engine shop.

I, I, you know, my suspension

guys aren't going to build suspension

that goes faster.

All I want to do is build suspension.

They don't break transmissions,

rear ends, all those things, hubs, just

make it where it doesn't fall apart.

But the engine shop, they got, they

build motors and they also find

horsepower and they continue to find

it year after year every year.

Now, not just HMS, but all engine

departments are always in search of

a half mile an hour here, a half

mile an hour there, a little bit of

horsepower here, a little bit of

horsepower there.

And they do every off season.

They find two or three, you know,

and that's in the whole, the whole

sport sort of keeps shoving that,

you know, shoving that power and that

peak power higher and higher has

forever.

And so that's pretty impressive to

be able to go into the engine

department and see how that work

is done and see all the incredible

machines and all massive, massive

machines that are creating these parts

and doing things insane.

I get you want to race and be up

front and everything, but is it, was

he a little too aggressive in the

fact that like you're not racing

for stage points, you're racing for

the finish.

So why go out that hard there in

that stage?

Man, we were there to lead right

up front.

We got one damn car, one car, one

race.

You want me to run 20th?

Well, the only part that I don't

understand is if you are not running

100 percent, which no one up front

probably really was, like why

throw blocks?

You know what I mean?

Like he didn't throw block.

What did he throw?

Dude, he was close when Denny's

about five car lengths away from

him.

He was actually closer to the

wall.

He said he sort of faded away

from the wall as we go into the

tri-oval and that.

OK, it wasn't a why make it that

close.

He's against the wall, half a car

length between him and the wall

coming down past the gate.

He starts to fade into the

tri-oval and he that's when he

opened it up for the outside.

He should have stayed tighter

against the wall and he faded

down the racetrack just at the

right moment when Denny's there

to make a decision on what Denny

wants to do.

And Denny's seeing him fade down

and in my mind and Denny's as

well, I'm going to the outside.

And when he did that, he squeezed

Denny in the wall.

It was a bad mistake on this part,

but it wasn't a block.

Well, I didn't mean really block,

but like why?

I guess to back his point up,

like why create a circumstance

that close to that point in time?

But I seen guys dozens of times

get the lead and pull up in the

outside line. Oh my gosh, it was

bad. There was some guys showing

really bad blocks later on.

Well, I mean, not so much

throwing blocks, but I mean,

all day long going, all right,

I'm in the lead and I want to

be in front of the outside line

because that line was that was

the line continuously with the

most energy.

And so I seen plenty of guys

pull up here.

His mistake was allowing

himself to get pushed out too

far and not understanding how

to not let that happen.

Yeah, the door for that.

How to let how to not

allow his car to get so far out

and let it knows over and those

guys come at him at 10 mile an

hour, you know, and it

it was a series of unfortunate

circumstances in terms of

alright, he gets pushed out too

far, car knows over.

He's got guys coming at him at

10 mile an hour and he's going

into the trial as he's kind of

shading down and allowing

if they're catching him on the

back stretch, I doubt it

happens.

Then he probably happened on the

back. I mean, if they're

going down a straight piece of

asphalt, then he just goes

around him.

And so they just happen to be

catching him right in the

trial as he's shaded down.

It was just, I mean, I'm not

take I'm not saying that

just or Justin has, you know, no

fault in it.

Justin is one hundred percent

responsible for this.

I mean, he's, you know, then he

has.

I thought Justin drove a great

race.

If then he has any fault in it,

it's very, very minimal.

But I mean, look, he's, he's,

he's almost he's to the rear

to half.

Yeah, he's a foot and a half

to his outside.

So there's plenty of room there

at one point before the 40

squeeze him up in the wall.

But I don't have a problem

with us running hard.

And racing up front trying to

win the Daytona 500.

I thought Justin did a great job.

He was behind us and competitive

for a long time.

He was right there.

So I hate it.

Took out a bunch of cars.

It, you know, wrecked a lot of

good race cars, wreck some HMS

cars, I'm sure.

You know, they were disappointed

in, in the, in the situation

and

some of the decisions, you know,

that we were making as a team.

But, you know, it felt like

again, you know, I

wanted us to go up front, run up

front, try to put ourselves

at the front of the field as much

as possible.

We had a partner that

have put all of their

funding behind this program for

this one race.

You know, they, you know,

Chris Stapleton sitting right beside

me on the pit box.

That's why I love he's all in.

Yeah, he was there.

Does he want to sit there and

watch his guy run 60 percent

throttle in 20th?

It's a fair thing to say.

Overall, from the other side, it

looked like a pretty successful

weekend from qualifying on.

Yes, I was pretty happy with the

weekend.

They towed the car back to the

garage and got to look at the

damage.

One thing I learned that was

interesting about that.

We were, you know, we

probably weren't going to fix the

car, but we wanted to

see if we could.

I think that's just kind of

human nature in racing.

When you when you crash, you kind

of think, all right, man, let's

let's see if we can fix this

thing. But we got back there in

the NASCAR official.

This is a there's a picture right

there on the NASCAR Twitter post.

The guy in the red shirt, it's

down.

Squad it down.

He's a NASCAR official and he's

looking at that right front and

he sees some deflection

in the clip.

So on the front clip right at

the top hoop bar that

right behind the top

shock mount.

So they've changed these clips to

allow them to crush.

They cut a bunch of slots in them.

All right. They cut about, you

know, they cut a lot of slots in

the clip that are about

two inches long.

And that allows when the clip

has contact with something for

it to crush and absorb.

And we had like a little

bubble.

Of a of a dent,

a little bubble or not that had

formed on that upper

bar that, you know, right

behind the shock.

It was it was I mean, in my mind,

it's nothing.

I mean, it's not like the clips

of the clips bent.

Yes. But could the car go out

there and compete? No problem.

Yes. It would have been

entirely safe.

But they told me they're like

any any frame

damage and it's a no go.

And so they told us right there,

like you're not going back out.

We also had some damage to the

to the header, which was

I mean, that was like an HMS no go.

So when the header gets mashed,

yeah, we're not going to change

the headers.

We had a lot of damage to the

right front upper that would have

had to been changed.

We changed the tow links to be

able to get the car back on the

trailer and load it up.

But I mean, there's a lot

of damage.

But that was interesting to me.

I didn't know about that

frame damage, no go go

failure, pass sort of thing NASCAR

does. But that was just I'm just

noting that because I'll

tell you, I learned more

about the next gen car and the

function of the parts and pieces

this weekend that I have in the

four or five years that it's been

in the garage.

When I go down into the infield

or get around a race car

as a broadcaster, I'm not

going to go crawl underneath

William Byron's car in the garage,

right? I'm not going to go stick

my head under the hood of Denny

Hamlin's Toyota.

I can go talk to the, you know,

the crew chiefs and ask questions,

but, you know, they're limited

on how much information they want

to share with you.

So it's been tough to kind of

learn the car.

Not impossible, but man, it was

fun to again, like kind

of even more so than last year,

I was I got to crawl over the

top of this thing and really

kind of and going through the wreck

taught me some parts and pieces

and taught me some some things

that, you know, NASCAR's processes

and so forth.

But it is a lot of fun.

I learned a ton.

Don't know if we'll get to do it

again, you know, we'll see.

Said that last year.

I know you don't know.

I know you don't.

It's trending in the right

direction, though.

I don't know, man.

You know, you'll have to see,

I suppose these brands,

you know, it's not a Chris

Stapleton decision.

He has he has a blast.

He loves it.

He's all in.

He's all he was right there at

the garage and we're trying to

fix the car and work on the car

after a crash.

But, you know, the the brand

has to decide whether

there what's happening is

working. I know I saw a lot of

bottles of liquor over, you

know, at the racetrack.

That stuff was everywhere.

We went over to Total Wine

to sign some high rock vodka

bottles and they had displays

all over the place.

That's right.

We're trying to activate and

start the traveler.

Yeah, I saw it all out

of the infield, the hats,

the shirts, the merch, tons

of merch getting sold.

So I think it's good for

them, but it's, you know, if

they don't, if they think,

hey, man, this was great.

We went.

We we we've we've kind of

tapped in and got everybody in

the tent, so to speak.

Now let's take our dollars

maybe and go do something

else.

You know, they always

brands shift around, right?

From different sports.

To sort of tap into a new

market, but we'll see

if that was that.

If that was it, man, I had a

blast and I enjoyed our

opportunity to see what it's

like to race on Sundays.

And you guys had the lead for

the minutes.

I'd be cool to just charge.

Can you be able to have the

lead?

Like that's a pretty cool

moment.

They played your audio during

the race and like hearing

your guys' excitement was

pretty cool.

I tell you, I love it, man.

I love.

The competition.

Um, I'll say this, too.

You know, as we kind of shift

away from from the 40 car a

little bit, the whole weekend

felt good from a fan

from a from just a just

an observer of, you know, and

a fan of NASCAR.

There felt like there were

more people there.

I might be wrong.

Might have been the same damn

amount of people as last

year, but it just felt like

there were more people

excited about what was

happening.

It felt like there was more

same on TV.

It felt like there was more

on track activity, probably

not, but it just felt like it.

Maybe we were more excited

about ARCA and truck.

You know, there were more

names in these races.

There were more interest

interest stories, human

interest stories in all

the races.

So we were all kind of tuned

into what was happening

throughout the weekend speed.

It felt like a speed week.

We won't say weeks because

we're only there for

handful of days, but it did

feel like

the old atmosphere.

I had a little bit to it.

I felt like it a lot.

I'm going to be.

I'm usually, you know, I'm

usually I'm usually the kind

of person that's like, all right,

what's going to go wrong?

What's not what's, you know,

I'm I'm not I wouldn't say

I'm a pessimist, but

not an optimist, but

I'm going to tell you, man, I

feel like

we're going in the right direction.

We as a sport, so

we made the change with the chase,

right? We brought the chase back.

Man, I'm still super excited

about that. Somebody posted on

Twitter yesterday.

Man, it's fun to check the points

standings after the race.

And, you know, a lot of that.

Yeah. Somebody said, man, it's

fun to go have to look at the

points and see where everybody's

at. And I freaking agree.

I agree. I'm glad to have to

look at points.

I want to be interested.

And so.

We fix that.

And we had this meeting.

Denny talked about there are

some conversations about some

things that they might do with

the clash. Well, that was from

a meeting that

a lot of us, a lot of folks

in the industry got together

with some NASCAR folks.

And we just had a casual

bull session for a couple hours

and laid it all out there.

You know, what do we think?

And that is the kind of stuff

that we used to do back in the

day. Helton would get a bunch

of drivers and we would go down

to Whiskey River on my property

in the saloon and drink beer.

Bull.

And that's where we came up

with double file restarts.

Now, these double file restart

idea was NASCAR's,

but they took it and brought it

to that meeting.

We sat and drank beer and bull

shit about it.

And we talked about other things

that, you know, other processes

and competition things that

that would make sense.

And a lot of really good

ideas were vetted out

and and and materialized

through those conversations

that we used to have.

And.

So we're it's like a it's

like a step back in that

direction to do those type

of things and have that kind

of conversations.

And.

You know,

we talked about fuel savings

like how how if we could

if we can.

How can we.

Come to a place where,

you know, we like what we see

all the time, right?

Fuel savings and fuel mileage

that's going to be part of races.

Fuel is going to be the

conversation at times.

All kinds of tracks, right?

It's not just a tone and

tall data.

But I think we got an epidemic

that we need to kind of look

at and say, hey, how can we

might not be able to get rid

of it entirely?

But how can we

get back to feeling like

we see the guys are out there

racing, right?

And so.

There's got to be some way to

figure out, you know, a

solution.

And that's what those

conversations about.

So.

We made this choice to go back

to the chase.

We're having these

conversations with NASCAR

that are fun and

everybody's kind of able to

talk openly and honestly.

And.

There's just some really,

really good energy.

And.

I'll be honest.

The Daytona 500 that I got

to see up until the crash

was a lot of fun.

Now, I had a car out there

that was driving hard and trying

to go to the front.

So I was I was getting

what I wanted from

watching that car.

When we crash went in the

garage, I guess there was

some serious three wide

fuel savings going on that

I was.

Nailbiter, I missed that

part.

I didn't get to see that

part. So I can't comment.

But apparently that was not

a lot of fun.

I saw the social media

where the fans are like radio

on the charger for about 30

minutes. Yeah, I heard

the comments from Blaney and

the others. But.

So again, yeah, we got

it. We got it.

We got an epidemic.

That's kind of creeped into

restricted play racing at Daytona

and Talladega. We won't really

see this. I don't think as much

as Atlanta. Do you think?

No, some, but not.

Like, you know,

no race like hell in Atlanta.

Yeah, Atlanta's got another year

on it with age.

Now, you're not going to do

things too critical.

Yeah. So, yeah, I'm

not worried about it this coming

weekend. But we do have an

epidemic and all these creatures,

man.

All of them are saying, man,

you can't unlearn it.

You know, it's here.

Here to stay.

And I'm like, come on, y'all.

Y'all are the smart ones.

I mean, they're kind of right.

They are. But let's let's try.

Let's let's try to at least

have a conversation. We should

always evolve. Let's have a

conversation.

All right. And so

before I tell you my

my idea on what I think

would be things that could

could change it, I feel

like.

And I feel like NASCAR

is on the right track as

an industry.

I am. I have never I've

been so disappointed

and so critical over the last

several years, frustrated.

You know, at times, Joe,

just super frustrated.

I am very, very happy today

with with the direction we're

going. Yeah.

The buzz was good.

I'm learning that no matter

how badly I want it to be

a certain thing, it's never

going to be perfect.

And I'm never going to get

everything I want.

But I'm getting a lot of what

I want.

And I see an industry that's

trying to to to to

find the answers, right?

And so I'm pretty happy.

I'm pretty excited.

And I'm I'm I'm really

is I'm more interested

in what happens this year in

terms of how our season

develops, how drivers

gather points throughout the

year. And I'm more

interested in that

week to week that I've been

in a over a decade.

I am so thankful for that.

And I feel like my passion

as a fan and my passion about

how, you know, Storyline is

developing all that stuff and

who's going to figure this out

and who's going to come out

on top of that's coming back

to me.

You know.

So I'm excited about that and

hope everybody's sort of

feeling the same way.

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When we go to, you know, what

we're seeing at Daytona and

Talladega with the fuel savings.

I don't I don't know that I have

a solution, but here's a couple

things that have changed.

We took away the point for

leading a lap.

We also took away the bonus

points for leading the most

lap. Those are two small,

very somewhat insignificant

nuggets in the grand scheme

of things.

But I promise you, if

you put anything out in front

of these drivers and teams,

they will go for it.

That is one small thing in a

big pie, one small slice in a

large pie that would push the

teams back toward pushing

harder throughout the event.

Right. If you were, if you

knew that if you could get to

the front and lead a lap at

some point and you were going

to get a point, you would

do it.

That doesn't fix the problem

entirely.

Teams are still going to

once they've led that lap,

they might revert right back

to saving fuel the rest of

the race.

Fine.

But they've we found a way to

get them to charge for a

little bit, right?

That's progress.

NASCAR took that away and I'm

going to assume that they

took it away because it's a

whole point.

We changed the point system

from, you know, to giving

instead of giving 180 points

to the winner of the race.

Now you get 75 or whatever it

is.

So they thought, well, a whole

point for leading a lap seems

like a lot.

So let's just get rid of that.

We'll get rid of those and

we'll give somebody the point

for the fastest lap.

I personally think the point

for the fastest lap is silly.

I think they should go back

to giving instead of having a

point for the fastest lap.

I think they should take that

point.

They're giving to the guy

for the fastest lap and give

it back to the person that

leads the most lap.

You could still have the icon

on the on the fun little run

down on the on the TV screen

and it could move as someone

retakes that crown, right?

As the race plays out, right?

I also I still feel like

I don't have a problem.

I still feel like it's

perfectly fine to give a whole

point just to somebody who

leads the lap.

I'd much rather do that than

a fast lap.

Yeah, the fast lap.

It seems useless.

It's never talked about.

No, it isn't.

Go back.

Let's go back to I propose

the idea of going back to

giving people points for leading

laps, giving people points

for leading the most laps.

That would be one thing that I

think would slow,

slightly affect things.

Here's the other thing that I

think would would help.

Or here's the here's the

problem right now is like

you got guys that are running.

You got the whole field

sitting there running 64 to

50 percent, probably even the

guy leading, even the guy

leading the race is running

60 percent, right?

If there's a person that's

running, you know, in the

middle of the pack and they're

like, man, I'm a run wide

open.

They they they they if they

go and pull out of line and

mash the gas to 100 percent,

they cannot drive away from

the field.

The car has so much drag on

it in such a large spoiler

that even running wide open

the pack running 60 percent

throttle will will hang

right on to him.

And so I discussed

this with Denny.

And I believe he agrees

that if we were to take

enough drag off the cars.

So what are you gaining?

All right, let's go back

and say, all right, what's

the advantage you're gaining

right by saving this fuel?

It's, you know, for every

it's a second or two on pit road,

right? Yeah, it cycles you to

the front of the group.

Yeah. So when you come down

pit road, you're on pit road

less. You take you come down

pit road 30th in a big pack

and you pull off pit road

first, fifth, 10th, whatever,

right? So it's a couple

of seconds at most.

If I took enough, I need to

know exactly what NASCAR

I think what I propose to

NASCAR is find out

how much drag to pull off

the car so that if I'm

in a pack of cars that are

running 60, 70 percent throttle

and I mash the gas 100 percent,

I drive away from them.

I break the draft and pull away.

And if I'm running wide open

and I'm driving away from that pack,

then I'm negating their advantage.

And they're going to have to

chase me down because then

if I get so far ahead,

now I had the advantage.

If I drive out to four or five,

six seconds away from the pack,

then I'll just, you know,

I'm going to be adding more fuel

when I come to pit road.

But that's how many seconds

of fuel I'll be taking, right?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, theoretically,

if you get that far in front,

you're right. So it should come out.

If you can, what would

probably happen is you might

get four or five, six cars

pre-race that go, hey, man,

when we get a chance, we're all going to link up,

mash wide open, we're going to drive away from these guys.

Remember when the Haas cars

drove away from the field at Talladega by themselves?

Yeah, I'm not saying that was what was going on.

I'm just saying, if you got four or five guys

that teamed up and said, hey, let's jump off

this strategy of saving and let's run wide open

together, drive away from the field.

Yeah, they were fast.

Well, the the the car currently

can't do that because it has so much drag.

So there's no point for anyone to go wide open

because they can't gain an advantage

by driving away from the field

because the car has too much drag.

So there in lies the issue.

And that I would love to hear from a crew chief.

To tell me why that wouldn't steer us back

in the right direction.

I'm not saying it fixes the problem.

But why wouldn't taking the drag off the car

fix it? I know that, you know, if I'm running wide.

So OK, they might tell you this, they might say this.

OK, Dale, you know, you're taking the drag off the car.

Now I can pull away from this pack.

But the pack just runs 80 percent throttle instead of 60.

They're still saving gas.

They'll run 80 percent to keep up with the 100 percent.

Right. The guy that's full throttle.

The pack is just going to sit behind him

and still save, still beat him off.

They're still going to have you're still going to have people.

I mean, do it. Yeah, I drove race cars

with all types of packages at Daytona,

different splitters, wings, spoilers,

restricted plates.

And yes, you're if you're second, third, fourth, fifth,

you're not wide open.

We weren't saving gas.

We were just trying not to hit the guy in front of us.

But you're not always wide open.

But we weren't thinking, hey, we're saving gas.

We were just driving in a draft, you know.

So what is that race like, though, in a pack?

Yeah, that's that's going to be the tough part.

NASCAR is terrified, I believe, that

we're all going to end up on the top in a big string

like we were at the end of 2016 or so.

You know, we were, you know, Jimmy

won the Daytona 500.

I think I finished second.

And we ran around the top of the racetrack for a majority of that race.

It was relatively uneventful.

They are they're worried.

I think NASCAR is that we mash a button figuratively.

We change some things and they go from running three wide

and the casual fan thinks that's amazing.

The fan that doesn't really know about the fuel savings thinks this is amazing.

And they go from that to running single file from one from first to last.

And then they're going to be NASCAR will be so disappointed

if that's what we end up with.

And I agree, that's a risk you take.

And I'm and and I wouldn't be comfortable

throwing something out there to see how it works

without a real understanding of what we might get.

My my preference would be that they take the rear spoilers off

and just have like a quarter inch trip lip or something there.

Yeah, whatever they thought they might need.

But I I don't know if they can actually set the car up to where

that's actually drivable without a rear spoiler on it.

The other thing you would need to do is probably de-de-tune the engine.

So you don't want the cars to run over

two hundred two or five in the draft, right?

Sure. You don't need them.

You don't need them at a sustained two hundred five miles an hour.

And that's fine.

They will they can they can they can run

one ninety five two hundred and handle terribly and still look like they're going

fast. And that's that's plenty quick in the draft.

Oh, yeah. So how do we get to how do we get to two hundred two hundred

in draft on average? Right?

How do we I think, you know, they they don't want to go over the certain

number for some reason.

There's like a lift off where there is just a frequency of cars getting

upside down increases at a certain number.

So whatever that is, let's just say it's two hundred.

Two hundred mile an hour.

Drive and terrible.

Drivers got their hands full.

Teams have their hands full, trying to make the drivers comfortable.

I think we can acquire all that.

And it would just be a massive shift from where we are on the rear spoiler,

the drag and all the numbers to go to something completely

the opposite on the rear spoiler.

But I'm with you.

I want them to go into the corner and be loose.

I want them to chase the cars up the track.

I want them to get to the fence, you know, just using a lot of freaking race track.

I want the lead to be an advantage where right now I almost feel like

the leads of disadvantage.

Yeah, I want the lead to be able to get there and be like, OK, well,

I don't know. I always loved.

I don't agree with that.

I always loved like a 1983 look at 1980

and the the 1979 Daytona 500 from 79 all through up until we put the plate

on the car in 89.

You there was a sling shot pass.

You wanted to be second.

I'm OK with that.

Yeah. So the leader was with the leader was vulnerable.

You didn't want to leave.

And you knew the guy was going to sort of back off at the flag stand,

get up the racetrack in one or two and come down the back straightaway

and drive by you.

And that was the plan.

That was how Kale was going to win in 79.

That was how all, you know, dad won all his races in the 80s at Talladega

in Budmore's car and in Richard Childress's car with the sling shot pass

on the back. I like I do like to sleep.

I like being able to back up somebody and get in a big run.

But like, I don't like the pushing somebody.

There's two cars linked together.

Then the guy just pulls out and slips by like that.

I don't.

Well, I would say that, you know, that the car currently

just has too much drag on it.

And that's why it's such a disadvantage for the lead car.

You put that car in a in a train at the back of the train.

It's so much more efficient than it is when it's out front.

I think the current like the rally race is how I think

we would want the cup car to look.

It's a good blueprint.

It is, you know, where are they at on their on their, you know,

their drag to power? What's their how is all that?

Because those guys can build runs.

They can pass.

They can have their hands full at times.

Our guys were not handling good in our,

and I was in the competition meeting yesterday.

They were all complaining about being loose and uncomfortable

and not able to really, which is, you know, kind of what you want.

I don't want my cars to drive that way.

Yeah. And my race team, but as a as a fan, that's I definitely want.

I don't like the cars stuck glued to the track.

It's usually a good race when drivers are complaining.

Yeah. I mean, when they're fighting things, in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's a there's work to be done.

And but I want I want to tell you, man, there's NASCAR knows it.

NASCAR recognizes it.

They're not ignoring it. They're not denying it.

I know that I know that there's some

there's some effort behind the scenes to try to make this thing as good as it can be.

At the end of the race, there was a.

This interesting sort of debate around Raleigh Herbst and Brad.

Brad was upset

thinking Raleigh wrecked the wrecked the field for no reason.

Says the dumbest one of the dumbest things he's ever seen.

There was no chance he had no chance of blocking my run.

I had a huge run.

I don't know if I could have gotten by the forty five or forty seven to win

the race, but I would have liked to have found out that wreck.

Look like the rest of the wrecks.

Me, I know, TJ, you're probably.

You know, this is personal to you because you're spotting for Brad.

I do think it was a dumb move.

I don't think it's a I mean, I don't blame him for trying.

I don't think Riley was like, oh, I'm going to wreck these guys now.

What's the move to make then?

Did Riley Riley didn't come up the track in front of him.

He can't. He drove into him.

Did is it lack of awareness?

I thought it was more like, you know, he's looking at what's happening

out in front of him.

He's looking over here on the left.

And he's just he didn't have all the corners of the car covered.

You know, and it was more it wasn't so much like, hey, I'm going to wreck these.

It was more like, hey, I'm pulling up into an area where there's a car

and I didn't know he was there.

Well, I don't there was definitely no talk no talk on his radio about Joey

getting behind us and starting to shove us.

There was zero info.

He was lacking some context.

I know right now if two cars are coming with a run tandem like that,

you don't get in front of them.

You're going to get your record.

I think he drove into you.

So he's pushing.

See, watch when Joey gets to us here.

I get it. Y'all come with a big run like right here that he drives up into you.

I don't know.

I just thought he was going to go with the 45 and try to secure the 45s winning.

I get it, but I'm I'm telling you, I don't think he knew y'all were coming

or even out there.

I'm I can partially agree with that.

And I also think like, yeah, you go the 45 or if you make the move

to the right and it works, there's a chance you win the Daytona 500.

You got to make the move.

I don't. I don't.

I don't think he had a chance.

No. And if you're telling me he had a chance and you and we didn't,

then you're you're an idiot.

I don't we're blowing by him and he had a chance.

I think he had a lot of momentum.

Let's not let's not try to debate whether he had a chance to win the race.

Did the guy, I think the guy had made a move.

With no intent.

Yeah, I don't think it was just he was just unaware.

And I agree.

And in all of that busyness, yeah, not that it's right.

It's just racing. It's just race.

Yeah, I don't. I don't.

Yeah, he's probably like, oh, I had no idea there was a car there.

Yeah, it's just the end of a plate race.

Yeah, I mean, it happens.

It'll happen again in the future, too.

There was a lot of that going on.

Us included.

I mean, it was very similar to our wreck.

Very similar. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. So look, Riley gets a lot of catch a lot of he got in this

cup car last year, didn't get many good results at all.

Catches a ton of work, but I'm not going to get on his ass on this one.

I think it was just another.

I mean, that he should have, he should have secured the 45 as victory

in my opinion.

But I think he 45 didn't need no secure and he won it.

He did chase.

I mean, chase didn't get a chance to really race him

because Riley got him too.

So chase made a move that's like, all right, I'm not going to wreck here.

I'm still going to try to win a finish

because if he throws that blog, he gets wrecked chase smart move chase made chase.

So I tell my drivers, I told my guys before the, the Xfinity race.

I said, no big blocks.

So at the end of the race, you're not allowed to drive from the top

of the racetrack to the bottom.

I said, you get to choose one lane.

You're going to move one lane.

That's all you get.

And that's the way chase races.

He's like, man, I'm going to move, but I'm not, I'm not chased.

I'm not going to drive all the way across the racetrack and wreck on your nose.

You know, get, I'm not going to get spun out on nose.

Your car trying to block you all the way to the damn apron.

He's like, I'm going to move a little.

And if you got me, you got me.

That's what happened at Talladega when, when we got wrecked on the back

straight away with Jimmy.

Um, I was like, you know, they're coming.

He's, he's got a hell of a run off the back off the two on the top.

And I'm going to move one lane and then I was going to let him go.

That's all you can do.

Yeah.

Without wrecking yourself.

Yeah.

I still got wrecked, but we, um, yeah, we, I like, I liked Chase's explanation.

I'm not, I mean, I thought that he did everything he could do.

And I do appreciate his like, Hey man, I'm willing to do X, Y and Z to win

the race, but like, look, he moved a little bit, but he didn't wreck

himself or the, or the guy that actually ends up winning a race.

That's just good race.

He cannot make that block fully without wrecking himself or the 45 with him or something.

Yeah.

So it's smart move by Jay.

I agree.

Any more on the cup deal?

No, I think over, I think the ending helped, but it was just, I thought

it was a solid day.

Yeah.

A good start to the season.

I agree.

I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Um, I might go to, I know there's some weather talking about some

weather coming in, but I might go Saturday.

Also come in and ask her getting that race in because that rain.

Yeah.

They moved it up a whole hour.

Boy, that was nice.

Yeah.

So early getting done by six.

I know it actually like was awesome.

Damn right.

Like, hey, I take it every week.

I know it was awesome.

NASCAR messing around.

Give us gave us a chase back, gave us a real genuine point system.

Gave us a one o'clock start.

What's next?

Do that.

Carlos and Thunderbirds.

I do that flyover was nuts.

The flyovers, the flyer was rough.

They kept practicing every day.

They do it every week, every year though, but they said this year it seemed.

So this year, everybody was like, man, it seems a little more intense.

This was going on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

He's not lying.

They did.

They, they would, and there's no warning and they just start doing it.

And man, if you're outside, like it, you could get some potential

you're hearing damage.

TJ, what's it like from the spotters booth?

It is allowed.

Like, if you don't have, I put my headset on whenever, whenever I saw them

starting to practice, whatever.

And if I didn't have it on, I put it on because it's so loud.

So they, they were, they were practicing Thursday and they flew over.

And I mean, it blew my right ear drum out and had fluid in it in my ear

the rest of the weekend.

And I was like, damn, that seems more aggressive than in the past.

And then I was reading about it and somebody was asking, actually asking

one of the pilots interviewed one of the pilots and said, Hey, this year's

this year's practices seem more intense.

And he's, they're like, are you lower?

And they're like, we're not lower, but we're going faster this year

than we've ever went.

And so I'm telling you, dude, it was, I wouldn't let my kids outside.

It was going on.

It was that bad down in the center of the race.

Wow.

It was, I had a, I'm serious.

I blew my ear drum up.

It did.

Like I've already got some hearing issues with my ears racing and so

forth.

Um, and it, uh, popped my right ear drum and it was, they were much more.

They probably got together and like, yeah, let's really

way louder this year.

Let's go louder this year.

Let's go faster.

They were loud.

It was loud.

Um, but I ain't complaining.

Freedom.

It's pretty awesome.

It was awesome.

There's nothing better than a fly over.

Losing a tire, running out of gas, wrecking a teammate.

You never know what's going to happen.

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Austin Hill won the Xfinity or the O'Reilly.

That's going to take a little while to get used to it is no offense O'Reilly.

This is the way it goes, man.

The nationwide, the bus series.

That's right.

It's still the bus series to me.

I know I call it that once in a while.

Yep.

I still, I mean, everybody knows what you mean when you say bus series.

Um, but O'Reilly, the O'Reilly series.

I'm just going to call it the O'Reilly series.

I know it's got this long moniker or whatever.

O'Reilly.

It's going to O'Reilly.

I mean, every other iteration, it's Xfinity series, nationwide series,

bus series.

So it's O'Reilly series.

What it is, what we're calling it.

Um, Austin Hill, man, the dude is hard to beat.

I guess so, I get so frustrated.

Austin Hill's got to love this too.

We, he loves kicking our ass at that racetrack in Atlanta and Talladega.

And, uh, I can't blame him.

And yep, he's good at it.

And he knows he's good at it.

Um, we try to scheme about how we're going to beat him and we

just can't figure it out.

And then fans go on the internet and they're like, dude, you got four cars.

It's one guy, four cars.

How?

But y'all just don't know, man.

I mean, that damn car is fast.

Hey, Jay, like when we try to get around him or go by him, he's fast.

And the car is ridiculous.

And he actually is the, in the XFINITY series, by far the best one at it.

He has gotten really good and really comfortable with that car.

He knows exactly what he can do with it.

And it's, it's, it's hard to beat.

It'll be.

So, you know, I've told my guys, you know, to adjust their strategy

each time we go to Daytona and let's try this, let's try this.

All right.

This time we're going to do this.

This time we're going to do that.

And it just, it ain't, it ain't as simple.

People, I guess people think, man, just line your four cars up and you'll four go by him.

No, we won't.

And so, you know, we can't.

And you know what happens if we lined up?

Four guys are going to line up behind him.

You know, Jeb Burton and all these other guys are going to drive right up in there behind him.

And he's going to get all the help he needs.

Well, yeah, cause I mean, a guy sees that car and I'm getting with him.

That's what it was like when I was racing out there, boy, people, you know,

anytime you pulled out of line, it was always somebody going, hell, yeah.

Somebody wants to get in that car because I know where he's going.

I wouldn't mind having a little bit of that back in the, in the cup series, too.

Or you can, you know what I mean?

I know what you mean.

That's the thing is for some of these guys, a second place finish is a hell of a day.

So if they can get up there and you know what, I'll just stay behind Austin Hill.

Dude, if I'm Jeb Burton or any of them guys and I see the bumper of the 21.

I'm going there, Brandon Poole, all those guys.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So I do believe you can strategize at the end.

Like there's a couple of times we had him, we had him in the sights

and he was in some trouble for a little bit, but we didn't execute.

Yeah, they came, they were smart.

They came down Pit road in the middle of the third stage, put tires on,

gave himself because tires matter a little bit, gave him some comfort

and ability to be aggressive.

And he had the car that he knew he could drive right through the pack

and get back up into contention.

So smart move by their team to give him that advantage.

Austin done a great job behind the wheel as he always does at Daytona.

How can he block so well?

Just a ton of speed, ton of car, but he doesn't block some of the runs

they're going to get there and he knows it and he does.

Well, like what Chase said, he lives to fight another lap and he

he knows he knows he get there.

He'll throw he'll he doesn't.

I don't see him actually block.

I don't either.

He doesn't throw these big haymakers.

He moves early enough so that it's like more of a defense than a block.

It's not aggressive.

It's not like, man, what a dick move or boy, that was aggressive and stupid.

He moves early enough because he's he's got a great spot or two.

They've been together a while.

He's got getting great information.

He understands what line is starting to develop energy.

And he gets in front of that line before it actually materializes.

And so he he's good at controlling lanes.

And if you're able to get beside him, he's smart and patient enough to know

that he's got the car that can recover and get pushed back clear again.

He knows that, man, taking the lead from that car that he's driving

is going to be difficult.

And so, you know, we're look, I mean, we.

I mean, I'll I will tell them going to Taldaga.

I'll tell my guys, all right, all four y'all line up

and just if you can drive by him and let's see what happens.

They're not going to be able to do it.

I'll be surprised.

We found some more speed in our cars.

I think we're closer.

Our guys seem happier about the speed in their cars.

So we're getting there.

But right now he's still a top dog, man.

We got to take him.

We got to figure out how to how to take him down.

And I mean, also, you know, Jesse love his teammate, too.

It's right. I mean, yeah, those just those two are the top.

Jesse's great, too, man.

But, you know, Austin's just Austin's got to Austin.

The the racing at Daytona and Taldaga is it's a it's a mental skill.

And and and and it's a bit of an arrogance,

but it's a mental skill and a confidence in your decisions

to just make them not think about them.

He's you're doing.

I don't know how to explain it other than that.

Like I would tell my guys, don't think about what you should do.

Do it. Just do things.

Just be doing in the car.

You have to just do.

You can't be going, I'm going, I'm going to wait and try this.

I'm going, I'm going, I think I might try.

Should I get down?

Should I get up in that line?

No, you can't think you got to do.

And so Austin's a doer and he's got it.

The car helps perfect it.

Yeah, I mean, car. Absolutely.

I was in that situation.

I had an incredible race car and it made my job of doing way easier.

When you don't have the car and I've been in that situation,

your car not capable of making passes.

You're kind of stuck where you are.

You can't take the risk of getting out of line

because the chances of you losing positions is high.

And so I've been on both sides of it right now.

Austin is the guy that knows his car is capable of

recovering from any maybe incorrect choice or decision he might make.

And so he's he's able to make a lot of like make a lot of moves,

knowing that a lot of them, most of them are always going to pay off.

We're going to have Tyler Reddick call in here in a bit.

Ask Junior coming up.

Dirty Moe Doe as well.

What do you make of Reddick after a tough 24 season going out there

and getting the win?

Yeah, I mean, the Daytona 500 changes your life.

It.

Yeah, I think I'm thinking about, you know, he's going to

he's the kind of guy that, you know, once you win the Daytona 500,

you go on a bit of a media tour and we'll ask him what he's up to

and what his plans are in terms of that media tour.

But he's the kind of guy that enjoys those type of things, I believe.

And loves experiences, likes representing his his brand M.J.

All the things.

So he seems to found some comfort in his.

His situation, the team he represents and the people that he works with.

You see like a, you know,

good, a good rapport, I guess, between him and all of all the 2311.

It's a good mix.

It is.

So they needed it.

You know, I think he's they kind of he came out of RCR, right?

He goes in.

He comes out of RCR with a couple of wins and we're like,

Holy shit, man, he took the RCR stuff to victory lane.

You know, not many people were doing that.

Many times.

He won quite a bit.

Yeah.

You know, and, uh, and, you know, we got in the 2311 stuff and they had some

success and some wins and stuff, but it's not, it's not, I don't think

been what Denny thought it would be.

I agree.

And so, you know, they had a bit of an odd year last year.

They won the regular season two years ago.

They didn't win anything last year.

Yep.

And so I think, you know, they're just glad to, you know, probably just glad to

start the year off with a win at the biggest race.

And they can focus on just racing because last year they had the loss

of just looming over them.

I mean, you wonder how much that impacts what's going on.

Yeah.

So I don't know, you know, we'll see how it works out.

Denny's team has, uh, been working really hard to try to kind of get

into the next gear there for a while.

It felt like that they had measured up to Gibbs.

You know, they're, they're, they're getting a ton of resources from Gibbs,

but it felt like that they had kind of were matching Gibbs, right?

In terms of speed.

Yeah.

Which you're like, holy crap, you know, and then it fell off a little bit.

Now they, you know, they had some good success with the Indie race

last year and all that they've won and they've done well, but they've,

they lost a little bit of that speed it looked like they had last year.

The consistency wasn't there for whatever reason.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know really what you put your finger on it, but we'll see, man.

It's only one race, but, um, they got the start of the year off going good.

And it's a good start.

Teach you how, how does it feel though?

I know you obviously were hoping to get the winner better,

finish without the wreck, but like till he start the season off

on a better note than last year.

Oh man, it's like, it's way different, way better.

It's so much easier to maintain than it is to make up ground.

And it's going to be even more this year with people,

with the way the new point system is, it's going to be even harder to

do. So I think coming out of Daytona and hopefully just go have a solid Atlanta

and then you can start really focusing.

But it's going to be much easier to be in that top 10, top 12, I hope.

So what are we six now?

If you go and have an average Atlanta, your top 12 probably in points,

which is much better than 30th.

If you leave Atlanta 30th in points or around 25th to 30th,

it's going to be tough.

Don't you think?

Yeah.

That's what I was telling our guys in the Xfinity series.

You've got two races where there's high potential for tearing up and getting a bad finish.

And if they go into, if they go into Daytona and wreck out and finish 30th,

you got to go to Atlanta and run scared, be overly conservative

and paranoid about having another crap finish.

And in this system from 20 years ago,

before you were given such a big advantage for winning and all of that, even, you know,

I would say in this system 20 years ago and even more so now with the advantage given to

winning and so forth and the advantage given to the top three in the chase.

If you, if you have a bad two or three or four races or if you're in a bad spot,

if you're outside the top 20,

tough after five events, you've messed up.

I'd say after three, it's going to be really hard.

I agree.

I was, we were, when we would start the year, I was kind of always like paranoid

about like stubbing your toe early and coming out of the gate with three really

kind of subpar results.

Some of you can't even control.

It takes, it seems like it takes the whole year to climb back in.

All right.

So we've got our Daytona 500 champion on the line, Tyler Reddick.

Tyler, thanks for joining us today.

I know you've got a lot going on, my friend, but it's all good stuff.

Tell me where you are and what you have going on this week.

Yeah, we're in New York City today.

This morning we did, we did SPN, we did get up.

Just got off of, you know, with Kelly and Mark.

And yeah, it's nice.

My wife's been wanting to go to New York City, so

I picked the easiest path possible to get us there.

And that's when the Daytona 500, so.

Dang right.

That's a beautiful ring, man.

What's nice are Disney crews or New York?

Well, you know, I think Alexa's sitting right over here to my right.

This is the first night you've been away from rookie since he was born.

So I was definitely odd.

I found myself waking up at like 3.30 in the morning, expecting, you know, like

to hear some crying or something.

We're both crawling into our bed.

So yeah, the parents just, you know, more than anything,

got some really good sleep last night, which was nice.

Oh, man.

It's good.

Yep.

Um, any other, any other big shows this week before you get back to work?

We got First Things First.

Yeah.

Oh, I did Good Morning America yesterday.

Yep.

Nice.

Yeah, CNN.

Yeah.

We got a few more today.

I'm trying to just, you know, I'm going where they point me.

I try to keep up, you know.

Yeah.

Well, this is the great thing about winning the Daytona 500.

That media tour is a very traditional experience.

And I think one you'll enjoy and look back on finally.

Absolutely.

You've had a couple of hours.

You know, now a good night's sleep to reflect back on what this means to you.

I mean, I've experienced it.

Everybody says that when you win the Daytona 500, it changes your life.

You'll be everywhere you go.

They'll call you a Daytona 500 champion.

How's that?

How's that feel after, after you've had some time to think about it?

Just almost too good to be true, really.

I mean, you know, I, I loved watching NASCAR races growing up.

And one I would never miss is the Daytona 500.

You know, there was many years there where I'd be sitting with my parents watching it

and pulling, pulling for you to win too.

And just, I mean, it's, it's unreal.

You know, again, it's, it's one of those moments that

are going to be a centerpiece of, of a centerpiece and highlight of your racing career.

And it's just, yeah, you know, like I'm in the middle of that right now.

It's just, it's just in the moments after the, we took, we won the race and,

and coming back around to the start, finish line and even celebrating with my team

right under the flag stand.

It just, it's just like, man, I was, I was told my wife many times, I'm just waiting for,

just waiting to wake up laying in my bed and

and sit up and we, you know, it's Sunday morning.

And yeah, it's just quite literally unreal.

It does help, you know, it's a reality check, seeing the ring, the watch, the jacket,

everything that goes with it being able to celebrate with, with the team

staying in Daytona an extra night.

Gosh, I mean, it just, it happened so much happened in that final, you know, couple of laps.

There wasn't like a lot of, the only opportunity I really had to like

get hit with the emotions of the opportunity in front of me was with that,

was that caution was, was about eight laps to go.

Other than that, everything just happened, you know, so fast.

There was a lot of time to think about what was happening in the moment.

How about the, the traditional things you got to do

Monday morning with your, you know, your footprint and all that stuff and the race car

inducting everything into the Daytona USA.

How was that experience?

I know I was, I was always kind of like, you know, it's,

I wanted to party with my team and go, you know, go stay up till three or four

o'clock in the morning.

And then you got to get up at like seven to do all that stuff.

But it was like, all right, this is what's happening.

So that's what we're doing.

So how'd you go?

How'd you get through it?

Um, yeah, we, we, we were able to get, get the back room over there at Oyster Pub.

We stayed there for quite a bit.

Yes.

Drank a lot of beer, celebrated hard, ate some, ate some food.

And, um, yeah, we went, um, if you can use your imagination,

I'm not going to name names, but we went across the street for a little bit.

Yes.

Um, and then my wife dragged me out there.

She's like, all right, this is enough.

Yeah.

Was able to drag me out there at what?

Two, two, 30.

Way to go.

Yeah.

Oh, that's not even that bad.

Good work.

Way to go.

I know this is a shock to you, but, um, everyone, you know,

thought I was feeling pretty bad when we woke up around six, 30 or seven o'clock.

Yeah.

No, I mean, I, I mean, I, I mean, I drink a lot, but

you know, I didn't, I didn't feel bad, bad.

I was very surprised by that.

You know, so.

Very good.

Weird how that works, isn't it?

I know, I know, but you know, I wasn't doing like shots and stuff.

I knew I needed to be, you know, like someone, dude,

I'm going to tell you right now, that's legendary work going into Daytona,

down toward the beach or having some beers after winning the Daytona 500,

like actually going into town and getting down a little bit and celebrating.

That's how it should be.

That's, that is perfect.

It, you know, again, I, when we would race in Volusia, you know,

if we would come into town, you know, on, if it got rained out or whatever it was,

you know, when I was rolling with my friends like Devon Moran and Bobby Pierce,

it always seemed like when I was younger, the place that we would roll into,

if we went to Daytona was Oyster Pub, you know, before I ever raced at Daytona

International Speedway.

So I didn't really play a hand in where we were going and how it all came about.

I was, you know, in victory lane, doing the media and everything.

And when I found out we were going to Oyster Pub, I'm like, man, that's just like,

it's a perfect fit because, you know, just full circle moment, you know.

Yeah, for sure.

Well, we won in 14, it was rain delayed and it didn't end till like one in the morning.

So we never really got a chance to do that.

Yeah, we got like, I do, we got a head start in the race up, man.

We were very fortunate.

I know that's awesome, man.

We were all done with everything and it was like 830 o'clock, 830.

And I'm like, oh, that had been awesome.

Oh my gosh, we've got it.

And they had a and we had the weather that had every all the all the flights held.

So you couldn't leave.

Even if you wanted to leave, you couldn't leave.

That was really awesome.

Oh, dude, the rain.

I mean, so this thing has had a rough life already.

So I leave the media center and it's raining hard outside.

And I go to open the rental car door and everything seems fine.

But when I shut the door, because it's so raining so hard outside,

like the ring was wet.

My fingers were wet from the rain.

Marine just came flying.

I mean, it went flying like 50 feet across the garage.

I'm chasing it to the gutter, trying to keep it from falling into the gutter.

When I was just on with with Kelly and Mark, the dang rain came flying off again

after I gave Kelly a hug.

I would give Kelly a hug, went to shake Mark's hand and there the ring goes again.

So yeah, this poor rings already lived a rough life.

But that's OK.

It's good.

Yeah, that is good stories.

We know you're busy, man.

And I'm thankful for the start of your season and how well it's going.

I know you want to keep that momentum up.

This all-new sort of vintage point system is going to reward a great start to the year.

And you've got some good work done already.

So good luck.

We'll see you in Atlanta.

Enjoy the media.

Enjoy all of the attention because you'll be back to square one, back to zero.

Oh, yeah.

When you get to the garage at Atlanta.

I know, I'm excited about it.

I've really enjoyed this.

And yeah, we've worked so hard, man.

I know we need to wrap, but it's been so cool to work so hard to be more consistent

at the speedway stuff and to be able to put ourselves in the mix at the end.

I'm really excited about Atlanta, too.

Just the last time we were there, I definitely screwed it up.

But we were in the mix.

So yeah, Atlanta is really, really fun.

And it's been really great to be able to turn the super speedway stuff around for me

as a driver and kind of get back to where I like to be up at the front.

Absolutely, buddy.

You've put in the work and starting to reap the rewards from that.

So enjoy your week and congratulations again.

Thank you, guys.

It's on a 500 champion.

Yep.

See you, man.

Congrats.

Tyler Redding.

We are bringing back one of our favorite segments from last year,

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Lionel Racing, there you go to source for all your racing die cast needs.

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Collectors are going to have the opportunity to submit photos and videos

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I know.

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Three.

Hey, everybody.

It's Dale Jr. with TJ Majors and another episode of the Dale Jr.

Download and the Ask Jr. segment.

Let's see here.

I'm getting my pages.

This segment today, the Ask Jr. segment,

it's brought to you by Xfinity.

And they are waving the red flag on internet price hikes.

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You know, it says they're waving the red flag on internet price hikes.

I don't, they've not hiked the price.

I don't see why they're waving.

There's no need to wave the red flag.

They have not hiked my price.

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No need to worry about it.

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I'm pretty happy with my service.

So let's get right to the Smash Jr. question.

First question comes way of red.

I saw this conversation.

They said if you could build a truck team with four drivers,

you can't take anybody from Xfinity or Cup, obviously.

Who would be your four drivers?

I'll probably throw Kaden in there.

Yeah.

I think Kaden needs another year or two of cars tour and he'll be ready.

Jade.

I was thinking about that.

Jade, Avedesian.

Yep.

Forget how to say her last name.

Yeah, that's it.

Very tough.

I think she's got what it takes.

And I've talked to Corey Day this past weekend,

who's raced with her a lot.

And he says she's the real deal.

So I would get her in a truck.

I like, you know, I'm going to lean into the cars tour a little bit.

And, you know, you could pick one.

I would just pick one guy, but you could pick one of many between,

I know, Butterbean's already in the trucks.

Yeah.

But Connor Hall.

I mean, Tristan will be ready.

If you don't count him.

Tristan, yeah.

Tristan's good.

Really good.

McKee.

Kate Brown.

I mean, there's, there's a lot of cars tour guys that I think I would

be fine and confident putting in a truck.

What about dirt series?

Any young kids you can think of other than, you know, like Jade is,

think any of them dirt guys would be good at putting in there,

like, like a Bobby Pierce or some of them guys, you know what I mean?

Like, let them try.

Who was the kid that was the dirt kid on the Dodge deal?

Carson Ferguson.

There it is.

Carson Ferguson.

Yeah.

I hear good things about him.

Yeah.

I already did really well on that deal.

Like, and for dirt, late model stuff.

Kate Brown.

I mentioned him.

Jared Friar.

Trevor Ward.

They all late model stock dudes, dudes that I think are talented.

I would take Carson Ferguson.

Jade.

It'd be a toss up between Mike Christopher and Austin Beers.

I do Austin.

Yeah.

Austin's in our, in our fantasy.

He is.

Austin's in our dynasty college football.

Champion.

Like a modified guy.

Yeah.

How could you not pick him?

I put Austin.

And he's talented.

Yeah.

Champion now.

Yeah.

Who else?

We got, we got a fourth truck.

I still would just move Kate.

What's your take on Cletus's truck racing on Friday?

So Cletus busted his ass off, busted his ass off the corner,

which I figured might happen.

We, if you watched his test at Rockingham, which I did,

he busted his ass off the turn two similar situation

and got, got in the wall with his truck.

They cleared him, which is fine.

Is he ready to race trucks right now?

No.

Will he be?

Could he be?

Yes.

I would, if I was NASCAR, I would be doing everything I could

to get him better.

And what he needs is more arca races.

He needs to race short track asphalt.

I know he has a track, but I mean,

he needs to do more than Crown Vicks and things like that.

He needs to go race unbiased.

But I mean, he could race in the car store.

He could run the triple crown for, for the late model stocks

for NASCAR.

I don't care.

He just needs to be racing more than he's doing it.

And he needs to get more experience and get better.

I mean, what happened to him at Daytona could happen

to anyone, happened to me, could happen to anyone.

It could, but I just think that he needs a bigger

library of experience so that he can then be better at the truck

and go back there and really compete.

I want him racing in the truck series.

I want him in NASCAR.

I want him bringing his followers to our sport.

I want him to have success.

I want him to have fun.

I would say that he might not tell us,

but that probably wasn't too much fun what happened

at the truck race, right?

So why don't we, as a sport, get behind this guy

and surround him with the tools, get him in the sim,

get him in the, you know, get him all the experiences

we can get him so that when he does go out there,

he knows what he's getting involved in.

He knows what's coming, right?

And so my, my feeling is, is that I don't know

that he understands what's about to happen

in, in these situations.

We needs to have some inkling.

And so we need to do everything we can

to give him the support and help.

And that's, that's what I would do.

If I was NASCAR, I would be giving him,

I wouldn't be worried about creating content

and making clicks and how can we put him

in front of the camera and how can we make a

YouTube video that hits two million views.

I wouldn't worry about that.

I would be making him a race car driver.

He's got the clicks.

They're coming.

They're there.

I would be trying to make him a race car driver.

And all the experience he has up to this point,

nothing is close to what that was like at Daytona.

I mean, it could happen to anyone.

Look, he didn't do anything that didn't happen

to any of us, but I just don't feel

like he's as good as he needs to be,

to be, you know, able to come out there

and actually have fun and do well

and have a respectable result.

But look, at the same time, I don't mind the clarity.

I don't think he's, I'm not saying he shouldn't

have been out there.

He wasn't ready, but he should, you know,

they let, you know, Capetti race in the

Arca series, one of his very first races,

you know, and won the Arca race in 1979.

Didn't have much racing experience at all.

His dad was like, why, why are you going

to mess around with his short track stuff?

If you want to run cup, just get in a damn cup car.

You know, he was racing in the cup series in 1980.

And he wrecked out a lot of cars

trying to qualify for races,

but he eventually got it figured out.

So I don't know that there's,

I don't have like a, you know, a strict standard

in terms of approval and so forth,

but I do have opinions about it.

I just would be working harder to give him,

get him shorten that curve, that learning curve,

like speed up his opportunity to be able

to learn what's going on.

And I watched his in-car Bristol in the Arca car.

And I'll be quite honest, man.

I mean, in the first 30 laps,

like he didn't know what was going on

or what he was doing.

He's not, he's not driven around,

he's not driven a race car around a short track.

He's not, you know, he's ran some crown big stuff

and all these different things.

And he has fun and it's awesome.

But like to get in an Arca car and go to Bristol,

you could tell how he was using the throttle

and so forth that he was very, very inexperienced.

So he needs to be racing a lot.

And if I was an Arca car,

I would be trying to help him get that opportunity to race.

This next question is,

what's a song that puts you in a good mood?

And Dale, you can't use your typical,

your walk-up song that you always play.

Oh, I can't.

No, that one's off the table.

Well, I mean, I'm just going to have to look at my,

what song puts me in a good mood?

Just like drinking my hand.

I hear that and I'm instantly just like in a good mood.

Probably sailing for him.

Why are you picking my side?

Just kidding.

Okay.

What about you, TJ?

TJ.

Um, good mood, huh?

Mr. Brightside.

Okay.

That's a good one that comes on at bars

and people instantly are singing and gets the vibes going.

I mean, I like a lot of songs.

He does.

Like, I like a lot of songs.

Well, you don't have to pick one then.

Uh, George Thorough, good.

One shot, one bourbon, one beer is a good one.

That gets me in the mood.

Um, TJ's new song, let him know.

I'll have to check that out.

It's good.

I did not see that coming.

I did not have that on my bingo card.

I did not see that coming.

Dude, it is good.

It's like old school.

TJ.

That's, see, that's like,

the rap music I like is like the old school.

Yeah.

90s 2000.

Let him know is good.

Like it gets me high.

It's me ready to go.

Um,

yeah, I'm just looking through the stuff I've downloaded recently.

It's just like now, like we've had some nice weather.

Put the windows down.

You just like, man, I just want to go have some drinks.

Yeah.

I don't know if, if I have a playlist on,

on my phone for kind of like it's houseboat rock

that have yacht rock.

Yeah.

Houseboat rock.

So it's all the same kind of stuff.

Somebody had come on Eileen.

Someone blame it on my youth by blink 182.

Yeah.

Oh, um,

the blink 182 song,

my favorite blink song is stay together for the kids.

I think I know that.

Oh man.

It's, it's hard.

That's the video where all the kids are in this, uh,

concrete home and there's this wrecking ball

kind of crashing through it and tearing it apart.

And it's really heavy.

The music say to stay together for you.

I like the if, if I'm being honest.

And if I can, if I'm, if I can pick what I,

if I'm able to pick the music and play what I want,

I'm going to play hard, punk, dream, oh,

kind of the wonder years.

Danger summer, some blink,

angels in airwaves, maybe a lot of angels in airway songs.

Good for me.

The whole, uh, yeah,

the whole dream Walker album is pretty bad ass.

I'll, but I got a controversial statement.

Oh, what?

Oh boy.

I was live.

I think that I know.

I think that angels in airwaves is better than blink.

I'm sorry.

I know there's a ton.

I mean, blink is like,

blink is everything to a lot of people.

Yeah.

Massive fans out there.

And I am a fan, but I was a much, I enjoyed

angels in airwaves more.

Kind of moving parts is a good band.

I like, I don't think it's that crazy.

But I thought I was buckling.

Yeah, I don't, I don't think it's that crazy.

You don't think so?

Not really.

I was hesitant to really put that out there because

Yeah.

They're pretty good.

Yeah.

Somebody said must, must say surprised at juniors music choices.

I don't know why people surprised.

I've talked about this.

Yeah, I know about my, my love for, uh, alternative music,

alternative rock.

So I have a big, big alternative rock guy from the 90s in the grunge

and really punk and popular, uh, current punk and stuff like, you know,

Blink and angels and airwaves, which isn't current.

But I mean, you know, stuff like that is the closest thing to alternative music that we have today.

So it's like where I go.

It's just where I got stint there, right?

By my, by my interest in alternative music, trying to find something somewhat similar

to what that used to be.

You run the gamut, Dale.

You can, I feel like if someone puts a song on, odds are you're going to be okay with it.

Yeah.

Hey.

Yeah, I don't.

That's a good habit.

Yeah.

I'm more like, I don't know.

I like more classic rock stuff.

I do too.

I'm a big boz skag.

Yeah.

Boz?

Yeah.

It just, he just came across.

Lido shuffle.

The lead.

Okay.

What song?

I'm going to tell you right now.

Top of my list.

Put on.

If you can't play the who song I like.

Eminence front.

Lido shuffle.

Lido shuffle is going to put me in a good mood.

Good to know.

Another question here.

Do you have any irrational fears?

Like I have one that like I have an 18 wheeler just not going to see me and just like.

Sorry?

And like an 18 wheeler just going to like not see me and just change lanes and.

Oh, I mean, if you have a fear, it's really irrational to you.

It'd be hard to figure out what's irrational if you feel like it's a rational thought.

Well, do you have any fears that most would say is irrational?

Oh, no.

Do you DJ?

I don't think so.

I don't think I have any.

Yeah, I don't have any like that.

Yeah.

What did I know of?

All right.

Once I kind of bloody knows them for a while there, I thought I was just going to like

wake up in like a pool of blood.

Like it's not going to happen.

Yeah.

But that's like a thing that like.

I don't know.

I don't want to hesitate to say.

Because maybe they're not too irrational, but I worry.

I think there's times when I will say this, I do this.

There are times now that I've reached 50 51.

And I see people at my age dealing with some health issues.

I've lost some friends that are around my age.

I start to worry about the end.

I get worried about what it's what is what is it going to be?

And, you know, what what's going to be the thing that that that finally, you know, takes me out.

And so, you know, I think back over all of the dumb.

You know, sitting in a.

There used to be a tiny room in the back of dad's deer head shop.

And it was really small.

That's where they kept some transmissions and rearing gears.

And we would go in there and they had a parts washer.

And I always every race, not good.

Every race I would I would clean the wheel bearings and get them ready and pack them.

And you'd go in there and you'd parts wash.

With no gloves on splatter all over getting it all over you.

But you got your hands and stuff.

And then we'd get the brake clean and spray that get all over your hands.

And then you're smelling it.

You get high in there sometimes.

You clean your hands with SD 20.

Yeah. And I mean, you know, you just think I look back.

I'm thinking what all these chemicals and crap that I've been around

that I shouldn't have been around shouldn't have messed with.

Should have been better about wearing gloves and things like that

when I was younger.

And then I think, you know, well, damn, Richard Petty's, you know,

damn 90 years old race with asbestos floorboards in his race car.

And he's still here, you know.

And you know, you always I think about all these years I smoked cigarettes

and, you know, I didn't have to do that.

Shouldn't have done that.

And even though my doctor tells me, you know,

I don't have to worry about it now that I'm well clear of that.

And then you got the lady that's, you know,

there's a 90 year old grandmother that smoked cigarettes all her life.

Yeah, I don't get it.

She's still alive and kicking.

So I don't know.

I get in my head sometimes and worry.

I am closer to the end than I am the beginning.

And Amy will say, just enjoy the day.

Yeah, she's the opposite.

Just enjoy one.

Yo, just enjoy it.

Just live.

And when it ends, it ends.

But, you know, why are you gonna, she's right.

Like, why are you gonna sit here and worry

about the end eventual coming of the end of your life, right?

And spend the final, you know, several years doing that

instead of just enjoying what's going on.

I got my health.

I feel great.

I feel young.

I need to go be bopping around and have some fun.

Lisa says her daughter's got a fear of elevator.

Someone else said they have a fear of worms.

Yeah.

See, I don't see those.

Like those are a little well, I have the jury phobia.

Oh, yes.

It's not a fear.

Like I'm not scared of jewelry.

I just get, it's, I just think it's disgusting.

I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm like, it's an itch for me.

So did Reddick with the Rolex and ring?

Necklace, Rolex, ring.

I don't care.

I don't care if somebody wears it, but I don't, I don't,

the person that my wife that I'm gonna be affectionate with,

I'd rather her not have a whole lot of it.

It's an itch for me.

I can't fix that.

I can't.

I wish I could.

I wish I could turn it off.

I wish I could pull that fuse.

Yeah, that's a wrap.

Yeah, that's a perfect.

It's an itch.

Yeah.

I forgot about that one.

It's not a fear, but it's more of an itch.

And I don't mind it on other people.

I don't want people to think, oh, I can't,

you know, I'm going to give deal and complex

or being around him.

I'm not bothered by it with other people.

Yeah.

But my daughter's got their, I can't get in their way.

They're, they've got their ears.

They can be themselves.

Yeah.

They got their ears pierced.

They wear necklaces and all that stuff.

And it's an itch for me, but you know,

I gotta, I gotta let it go.

Uh, last question.

I saw, unfortunately, Robert DeVall passed away.

Did you ever get to meet him when he was doing

any days of thunder or anything?

No.

Bad ass actor, man.

I know he did days of thunder.

That was awesome.

But he was in Lonesome Dove.

So I was, Lonesome Dove is an eight hour mini series

that was on regular television.

And I'm going to tell you right now,

if you look at the cast, it's insane.

Um, if you've never watched it, I know it's a lot,

but I mean, we're down to, we're bingers now, right?

We sit down and watch eight hours of damn shows all the time.

If you haven't seen Lonesome Dove, you need to watch it.

It is incredible.

It is so, so good.

And, uh, just some serious heavy hitters in there.

And he was one of the lead characters.

I remember when I was, uh, I think I was, uh,

10th, 11th grade in school in high school when that came out.

And you're, you know, I'm a, I'm a kid.

I'm not a mini series.

Ain't supposed to be impressionable on me.

You know what I mean?

I'm not supposed to be diving into mini series.

I'm hanging out with my buddies or playing video games or whatever.

Right.

But I don't know how I got, I'm, I'm thankful that I tripped

into watching, uh, that show.

And I remember going to school and talking about it with my friends,

like sitting down in school going, dude, you see last night's episode?

Holy s***.

Um, it was a good, good movie.

Amy bought me a book about that, um, movie recently.

Like that's how, that's how much I enjoyed Lonesome Dove.

So I was a big fan of his and then he, you know, before he was in days of thunder.

Awesome.

Well, man.

Hey, look, that dude lived to 95.

That's like, that's a life.

I, I mean, if I got, that's 15 more years than I'm expecting.

I'm, I'm thinking like 80 is a good number.

If I can get 80, I'll be pretty happy.

Anything past 80 is like extra.

And it seemed like he had as fast, but it's not like he was like,

Yeah.

Age, I can't even believe that.

I'm not even halfway there yet.

And I feel like that's ridiculous.

Yeah.

I hope I know that things don't get easy.

And I know there's, you know, I was just talking to, uh, a fellow this morning

that's a lot older than me.

He's like, man, when you get old age is a, is a, is a pain in the ass

because everything starts to hurt and nothing works.

And doing things that you took for granted is monumental, uh, to accomplish.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm not looking forward to that part.

But I don't, you know, I would love to live that long guy.

Lay.

By now.

Man, not a lot, not many of us will be that fortunate.

Agreed.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, that's what we got this week for us, junior.

Yeah.

That was heavy, man.

We got into some deep stuff.

Deep conversations.

Yeah.

Stop it.

Stop it, Travis.

I was asking those deep questions, man.

Um, we got everybody in here pondering their life choices.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm, uh, now I'm like scared of looking for semis on the road.

Someone was like, uh, final destinations made me

ruined everything for me.

Yeah.

Is my nose going to bleed here in a minute?

I mean, I feel, I feel like that, um, I've said this before,

but I think our, our, um, all of our like stories is written.

That's kind of how I live life.

Like, man, your destiny has already been decided.

Like, I don't know.

Sounds like back to the future line.

It's probably BS, but that way I don't have to worry about it.

If I assume that whatever's going to happen to me is already been decided,

then yeah, I just get to live blissfully and ignorant.

The, uh, just kind of go about what I want to do.

Keep on partying and having fun because some,

some, some, somehow the end has already been decided to mark me the last day.

So you might as well have fun and drink today.

All right.

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All right, it's time for Dirty Mode Doe.

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All right, I've got a really nice one up today.

I'm already one leg down Switzerland for the win over Italy.

Olympics.

Yeah, buddy.

And what?

What sport?

Hockey.

Nice.

I got a little parlay.

Of course.

That's right, buddy.

But we're going to Atlanta, another track

where it's almost impossible to pick a winner.

Russell, what in the hell should we do?

Like, what went wrong first with our picks this past weekend?

It's just a product of Daytona and trying to win the Daytona 500.

We had Chase Elliott in the list, and boy, he came close.

So we're not complete buffoons.

No, anyone is cool.

We're not totally incompetent.

There's some competence.

You got to look hard, but there's some competence here.

If you didn't watch the race and looked at the results,

you would think otherwise.

You got to look hard, but we are competent at this.

I think we're going to start off the weekend, though.

We're going to, in O'Reilly race, we're going to bet that.

Austin Hill, no doubt.

Wow.

Just more motivation for me to somehow forget how to beat this guy.

I'm going to have to go drive the fifth car.

Oh, God, or we just kind of put somebody in there to,

hey, when 21 gets outside, you rub them a little bit and get them into the fence.

Amy told me I should run the Daytona 500 next year.

Really?

Yeah.

I was like, what?

We were laying in bed Sunday night after the race.

She's like, you should just drive it next year.

I'm like, hello?

Are you okay?

There's a lot of momentum in this sport.

Oh, man.

I don't know.

Um, anyhow, what do we do?

No one, it seems like we know no more about how to pick the winner for this race in Atlanta

after Daytona.

I don't understand.

I don't believe there's anything we could take away.

I don't, I disagree.

I disagree.

I think Chase Elliott's a great bet.

He was up there.

He's going to win.

Well, yes.

He's defending winner there.

Jesus.

He's won there last time he was there.

I think, you know, he's been there.

Josefar was good at Atlanta last year.

He was there in his duel.

He was up there at the end of the 500.

I think there's some stuff we can go off of.

All right.

Do you think this race with the new nose on the Chevy changes things a little bit though?

I think where it could change stuff is,

Ford's dominated there in qualifying.

Will we see that continue?

They've won every poll there since we've reconfigured this track.

I got a theory.

Okay.

They have won polls, which is all about speed,

all about straight out run by yourself speed

at the track that's been reconfigured and repaid.

What we see though at the end of the races

isn't a bunch of forwards up there dominating.

Right.

And so as tires age as the track loses grip, handling becomes more important.

Straight line, streamed out, trimmed out speed is no longer your friend.

I feel like that from what I've heard, if everything's true about the Chevrolet,

they not only got, they just made their car that was pretty good last year even better.

And so if you like Chase and if you like Josefar going into Atlanta,

you've improved their chances to go out there and get the job done

because of the changes to the car.

Apparently the car has more downforce, but less drag.

And those are two things that I don't know how you do that.

That's a hard thing to do is adding downforce while reducing drag.

It doesn't sound like it makes sense.

Those two things don't happen at the same time.

But what they've done, what they've told everybody they've done.

So we'll see.

I know that NASCAR made a little adjustment to the nose of this Chevrolet right at the

ninth hour going into Daytona.

But I don't think it's really changed the cars all that much.

And the advantage that they may have created by changing the body somewhat is

should bode well for a Chase or a Josefar.

How do you feel about that, Russell?

Oh, I'm still for them.

Absolutely.

The right side tire is going to change.

This is pretty big.

Yeah, this just came out.

The construction, that's what's underneath the tread is similar to changes made for the

tires used at other one and a half mile tracks.

It's designed to have more wear.

The construction tread combination,

the Atlanta tires are only used at Atlanta.

But it's a tire that will lean toward, I suppose,

what we've been seeing Goodyear do to increase wear at all the other race tracks.

I love this.

I know that Goodyear is taking a big risk here without an opportunity to really go there

and do a ton of testing to truly understand how this tire is going to react.

I know they've probably done a little bit of testing, but

it's hard to really simulate what 40 cars out there is going to do at a race.

Yeah, so this is a bold move by Goodyear to try to give us more of what we want.

If the cars are now going, it's going to lose grip.

It's losing grip every year we go back.

Handling is a premium.

We see that at the end of these races.

Guys need to be aggressive and changing lanes and so forth

and be able to hold that car wide open.

And now you're going to give them a tire that supposedly should,

in all theory, wear more and lose grip over the course of the run.

So you're going to have to dial in the handling on the car.

It's going to be important.

You may give up a little bit of speed in qualifying.

You may see your favorite driver have a poor qualifying or a mid-pack qualifying effort.

Don't despair.

They could have built that car to race well,

and it may cost that speed in the qualifying run.

So don't despair if your guy doesn't qualify all that great.

It could actually mean that he could have an advantage

when he's tucked in that pack three wide with no air on the car

and then tires are really pissed off.

And don't judge it by the first, the first stage and stuff either

because a lot of times the cars that qualify good tend to stay up there

and work with each other.

But once the, once you pit and everyone's on a little different fuel deal there,

I hate to say that word, but, you know, people are going to take,

people up front are going to use more people in the back take less

are going to come out in front and it's going to cycle a little bit.

So it should build as the race goes on.

And especially have some tire wear.

I agree.

What do you think, Russell?

We won't have as much fuel talk this week as we did last week.

I agree.

Not as much. There will be some.

I sure as hell hope not.

Yeah.

Well, because when you pit, you can't pit here.

You almost lose laps when you pit here.

Right.

So, so you, it's not going to be like short pitting or coming early.

You know, you're going to run as long as you can

and you're going to want to be more full than not.

No, but even, even yellow, even after the stage,

like there's still longer stops because it takes longer,

you know what I mean?

You can do tires for you can finish the fuel.

So there is going to be some cycling like that.

Yeah, there'll be some, but it won't be as much of that fuel only deal.

It'll be hard to dominate.

Yep.

Yeah.

Well, I like the chase and host of our idea in terms of picking a winner.

We have some group bets.

Let's see what we think of these.

What explain to me what these are?

You can use pick one driver.

They have to finish ahead of the other drivers in the group.

Really?

Yeah.

Basically a head to head between four drivers.

Between four drivers.

Wow.

That's interesting.

So we got Stenhouse, Bowman, Priest and Busher.

Who are you picking there?

I like Chris Busher.

Oh, plus two eighty five.

I like Bowman.

Yeah.

Bowman has been strong there last race.

I mean, he's, he's the reason he secured chase the win last race.

They need to rebound.

So he's going to be really smart.

They had a terrible finish.

This past weekend.

So he's got to go there and get to the top 10.

So while he may, you know, I think his risk assessment will be really good.

He's pretty smart and savvy at the road at these types of tracks talking about Bowman.

Yeah.

So I think he's probably going to go there and just try to lock down that top 10 finish.

I feel like Busher is still hard to beat at that stuff though.

Yeah.

He's just so good at it.

I'll take Bowman.

What about Stenhouse?

No, thanks.

His luck was last week.

Yeah.

It's just, I don't know.

He was good there last year too though.

A lot of changes last year.

I don't know how that team's doing.

He finished second in the 500.

Okay.

Yep.

Riley Herbs finished what?

Top five, six, two?

Yeah.

Is he going to run top five at Atlanta now?

Predictor?

I'm just asking.

I, I asked.

Take your guy.

Take your, take Stenhouse.

I'll take Bowman.

Okay.

All right.

The next group, Kyle Busch, Brackas Lasky, Ross Chastain, and Busher again.

I like Kyle Busch.

I liked the speed.

I mean, Daytona, but I like the speed out of him.

Yeah.

I like Kyle Busch too, I think, in this group.

I'm a Ross Chastain guy.

Are you?

Yeah.

I got a group.

TJ.

Wonder who I'm going to pick.

Who you going to drive into a wreck more like it.

As long as Chase doesn't spit out in front of us, we're pretty good there.

Okay.

All right.

So Brad, I mean, the six is usually pretty good there.

So I don't think it's far fetched.

Brad's going to, yeah.

Brad, you know, you're going to take Brad.

No one's taking Buscher.

I'm this one.

Yeah.

I have a question.

There's a lot of people that are in leagues where you can only pick one driver to win.

Yeah.

Who's a driver that you might want to pick if you're in one of those leagues?

Chase.

Now, do you want to use them up yet though?

Oh, you get to pick, you can only pick the driver.

Oh, then I'll take host of R in this race.

Man, this race is such a dice roll.

I feel like this is definitely one you throw a.

That's why I think kind of a.

I do.

Not like host of ours throw away, but no, this is where I pick a heavy.

I might.

I mean, this might be a McDowell for me.

I was going to say any spire car.

I feel like I feel like McDowell, maybe even a Suarez Suarez sends a like Atlanta.

Yeah, you could do Suarez here.

Yeah.

So just call me the predictor.

Some good calls, man.

All right.

Russell, thanks for tuning in today.

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it, buddy.

Good seeing you, Ross.

Tim's good to see you.

Thank you.

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About this episode

Dale Jr. and co-host TJ Majors reflect on the recent Daytona 500, sharing behind-the-scenes insights about their team's strategy and performance. They discuss the challenges of fuel saving tactics, the excitement of leading laps despite being a one-off entry, and the crash involving their car. The episode captures the tension between playing it safe and taking risks, with candid thoughts on race dynamics, throttle management, and the emotional aftermath of the wreck. Alongside racing talk, they share light moments about sponsors and personal anecdotes, making for an engaging mix of technical and human elements.

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Dodge Charger Tata Motors Aria Toyota Supra

Original notes

The Daytona 500 is in the books, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio for a new edition of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to discuss all the major happenings from the Great American Race:

Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports’ Daytona 500 effort
Having nothing to lose by trying to lead
NASCAR is on the right track as an industry this year
We need to do something about fuel-saving
Riley Herbst’s last lap move
Austin Hill is really tough to beat
Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick joins the show

During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions regarding:

Dale’s dream NASCAR Truck driver line-up
Cleetus McFarland’s Truck debut
Songs that put you in a good mood when you hear them
Irrational fears
Memories of Robert Duvall

And for more content, check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia

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