Episode 716 of The Dale Jr. Download swings between format talk and on-track chaos. The hosts argue the All-Star Race format “has sucked for a while” and debate a simpler, no-caution “20 laps” concept, including whether to “get rid of the fan vote.” They also praise Dover’s crash-heavy entertainment—“Carnage. We need more of that s***”—while breaking down grip changes, groove movement, and how lapped cars should yield. The show later pivots into silly-season and team logistics.
After a polarizing NASCAR All-Star race at Dover, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio for a new episode of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to weigh in on the race and look ahead to this weekend in Charlotte:
We are trying to do too much with exhibition races
Attrition is entertaining
Rajah Caruth’s on-track incident with Jesse Love
Dale is back in the Amazon booth at Charlotte
RFK’s future charter predicament
Where does Jesse Love go next year?
During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions about:
Driver aggression during the All-Star race at Dover
Moving the All-Star race to Nashville Fairgrounds
First time getting pulled over
Brandon Overton’s Budweiser dirt late model
Nova updates
Dale returning to the Amazon booth
for more content head over to our YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia
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Term
the start
"Like people tell, oh, there's a start. Oh, they're wrecking. They kept f***ing wrecking."
The start of a race is when cars are accelerating into traffic and drivers are still sorting out positioning. Early-race incidents are common because the field is bunched up and everyone is reacting to what’s happening ahead.
"They kept f***ing wrecking. They kept wrecking. That's what we need. Listen. Don't, I mean, it's a shame these cars cost $350,000."
In motorsports talk, “wrecking” refers to crashes that involve loss of control and contact with other cars or the wall. When drivers say “they kept wrecking,” they’re describing repeated incidents rather than a single accident.
"The brakes are way too good. Everything on it's way too good. Way too over engineered. Rip. Lots of grip. Until there ain't none."
Grip is basically how well the tires can “hold” the road. If grip is high, the car can turn and slow down more confidently; if grip drops, it starts to slide.
In racing, grip is how much traction the tires can generate against the track surface. More grip lets the car brake, turn, and accelerate harder before it starts to slide.
"I'm sorry. Brad got spun out by the one car. Who's fault was that? I couldn't figure that out."
“Spun out” means the car starts rotating and you can’t control it. Usually it happens when the tires lose traction, and then the car can hit other cars.
To be spun out means the car rotates uncontrollably, usually because the tires lose traction while braking, turning, or accelerating. In a race, that often leads to contact with other cars and can trigger additional wrecks.
"I mean, oh, damn. That's the thing about Dover. You don't really,"
Dover is a famous NASCAR race track. People mention it because the racing there can get messy fast when cars are packed together.
Dover refers to Dover International Speedway, a NASCAR oval known for tight racing and a track layout that can make early-race incidents feel especially chaotic. Drivers often talk about how quickly things can go wrong when cars are close together.
Term
splitter wedge
"So I'm like, yeah, this son of a bitch is stuck. We had the splitter wedge under the goal. There's underneath the safer barrier."
On a race car, the splitter is a front piece that helps the car stick to the track. A “wedge” is basically a temporary block used to keep that front piece from getting hung up or scraping when the car is stuck.
A splitter is the front aerodynamic extension on a race car, designed to create downforce. A wedge under it is a makeshift support used to keep the splitter from scraping or getting stuck, especially after contact or when the car is trapped against a barrier.
"There's underneath the safer barrier. Yeah. The horsepower less downforce was great for the racing."
A Safer barrier is an energy-absorbing track wall system designed to reduce the severity of impacts. It uses engineered materials and structures so that when a car hits, the barrier helps slow the car more safely than a rigid wall.
"Yeah. The horsepower less downforce was great for the racing."
Downforce is the “squish” effect from the car’s shape that presses the tires harder onto the road. More downforce usually means more grip, especially in corners.
Downforce is the aerodynamic force that pushes the car’s tires into the track, improving grip. In the segment, they’re discussing how reducing downforce can change handling and speed characteristics during racing.
"Oh, tires are falling. Track treatment. Wearing track treatment. I don't know if I could tell a difference."
Track treatment refers to preparation or conditioning applied to the racing surface (often to manage grip and tire wear). In this context, they’re debating whether it changed how the tires behaved and how quickly the car could move up the track.
"they got the groove pushed up, but they're still about a lane and a half up there outside of the groove that nobody's running or using."
The groove is the preferred racing line where tires have laid down rubber and the track surface offers the best grip. Drivers may move up or down from the groove to find faster traction as the race evolves.
"And then we blew a right front off the turn four or two. Yeah, I remember that."
The right front is a specific corner of the car’s tire set, and losing it (like “blowing off”) can dramatically affect steering and grip. The mention suggests a failure or tire issue that ruined their momentum after running well.
"him being a dirt guy, him being a, you know, chasing the cushion. He has special ability."
In oval racing, the “cushion” is the higher, banked racing surface near the wall that can provide grip and help cars carry speed. Drivers often aim for it when they’re trying to find stability and lap time.
Term
concrete track
"Great track. So look, concrete, I still don't think if I was building a new race track, I still wouldn't go. Yeah. Concrete it. I wouldn't."
A concrete track is made from concrete instead of asphalt. The surface can grip tires differently, so track treatments are used to shape how the racing lanes work.
A concrete race track uses a concrete surface instead of asphalt. Concrete and asphalt can behave differently for tire grip and rubber buildup, so track treatments (like resin) are often discussed in terms of how they manage that behavior.
"but there is an answer. There is a salvation. There is a, there is a, a fix resin resin. I'd resin the out of my concrete track."
Resin is a surface treatment put on parts of the track. It changes how the tires grip and how long that grip lasts, which changes which lanes are fastest.
Track “resin” (often a resin-based treatment) is applied to asphalt to change how the surface grips and how rubber builds up. It can make certain lanes come in faster or fade quicker, which affects where drivers can run.
"Look, I don't know. They treat the bottom of Bristol. They don't do anything else. They do want them on the bottom of Bristol. Yeah. So you're saying it's opposite of Bristol."
They’re talking about how Bristol’s track surface is treated to encourage racing in certain lanes. The goal is to control whether drivers stay on the bottom or move to other lines.
This segment focuses on how Bristol’s track treatment influences where cars want to run—bottom versus top—and how that affects passing and multi-groove racing. The hosts compare the strategy to what they’d do on a different track.
"…they've done a really good job putting themselves in a position there to be up front and needing some track position in that moment."
Track position just means where you are on the track compared to other cars. If you’re in a better spot, it’s usually easier to stay fast and pass when you need to.
Track position is where a car sits relative to the rest of the field on the circuit—especially important near the front. In racing, being in the right spot on the track can make passing easier and can affect how well you can manage tire grip and car balance.
"In this moment, you're racing for the lead. You're not really in the best spot on the racetrack…"
Racing for the lead means trying to be in first place. That usually makes the driving more intense because you’re trying to beat the other cars right now.
Racing for the lead means pushing to be first on track, which often forces riskier moves and tighter timing. The lead battle can also be affected by grip changes, line choice, and how the car behaves when you’re not in the ideal part of the racing surface.
"…you're kind of at the mercy of the car on the outside when you're on the bottom of the racetrack and it's really slick."
“Slick” means the track is kind of slippery. When it’s slick, the tires don’t grip as well, so it’s easier to lose control or struggle to go fast.
In racing, “slick” describes a low-grip surface where tires can’t generate as much traction. When the track is slick, the car can be harder to control—especially if you’re on a less-preferred line like the bottom or outside depending on conditions.
"…You don't give your team to make the adjustments on the car that they're wanting to make to make it even better for the last run."
“Adjustments on the car” refers to changing setup during the race—commonly between runs or stints—to improve performance. Teams use these changes to correct handling, balance, and tire behavior for the next phase of the race.
"…to make the adjustments on the car that they're wanting to make to make it even better for the last run."
“Last run” is the final part of the race. Teams try to make sure the car is set up to be at its best for those last laps.
“Last run” means the final segment of the race where the car’s setup and strategy are optimized for the closing laps. Teams often time their decisions so the car is best suited for that last stretch.
"We had a restart. Somehow or another, he was just a little free. It allowed me to get up underneath him."
When they say the car was “free,” they mean it was a little loose and harder to keep pointed where the driver wanted. That can cause mistakes faster when cars are close together.
In NASCAR driving, “free” typically means the car is loose or wants to rotate more than the driver expects—often showing up as oversteer on corner entry or mid-corner. That can make the car harder to control, especially during restarts when traffic is tight.
"We had a restart. Somehow or another, he was just a little free. It allowed me to get up underneath him."
A restart is when the race starts again after a caution. Everyone is bunched up, so it’s easier to get into trouble if your car isn’t behaving the way you want.
A restart is when the race resumes after a caution period (like a crash or debris). Restarts are high-stakes because cars are bunched up again, and small handling issues (like being “free”) can quickly lead to contact or wrecks.
"Rajah Most drivers are going to make that mistake. Connor Zillich made that mistake at Iowa last year underneath the seven car. You're going to get loose. You're going to bust your ass, wreck them."
“Loose” means the car isn’t stable in the turns—usually the back end feels like it wants to slide out. That makes it easier to spin or crash, especially when you’re pushing hard.
“Loose” describes a handling condition where the car’s rear end doesn’t follow the front as predictably, leading to oversteer. The speaker connects it to wreck risk: if the car is loose, drivers can “bust your ass” trying to save it and still end up in contact.
"You're going to get loose. You're going to bust your ass. You're going to take, you're going to door your teammate. You're going to door another guy. You're going to wreck them."
“Door” is NASCAR slang for making contact by driving alongside another car—often implying a side-to-side hit that can spin or wreck the other driver. “Door your teammate” suggests causing that kind of contact with a teammate, which is especially damaging because it costs both cars.
"But, you know, unfortunately, Jesse's the one that keeps being involved in these issues... But aside from that, like, we just need base hits. When you're in this car, go out there."
He’s using a baseball metaphor: “base hits” means doing the smart, steady thing instead of trying something risky. The idea is to avoid wrecks and let the team’s setup and pit work pay off.
“Base hits” is a baseball metaphor used here to mean making safe, low-risk moves rather than trying to force a win with heroic driving. In NASCAR terms, it’s about avoiding big mistakes while letting the car, pit crew, and strategy do the work.
"When you're in this car, go out there. We're going to give you a great car. You're going to have a great pit crew on Pit Road."
The pit crew is the group that works on the car during pit stops. If they’re fast and organized, the car spends less time stopped and can stay in better position.
A pit crew is the team responsible for servicing the car during pit stops—typically tire changes, refueling (where applicable), and adjustments. Pit crew performance matters because quick, clean stops can gain track position and reduce the chance of losing momentum.
"You're going to have a great pit crew on Pit Road. They don't have good stops."
Pit Road is the dedicated lane where NASCAR teams enter to make pit stops under controlled rules. It’s separate from the racing surface, and timing there can strongly affect who restarts where and who ends up with track position.
"And you have a smart crew chief. Let all of those things help you."
The crew chief is the person in charge of strategy for the race team. They decide things like adjustments and pit timing so the car stays fast.
The crew chief is the team’s lead strategist who calls adjustments and makes race decisions—like when to pit and how to set up the car for changing track conditions. Their calls can determine whether the car stays competitive through the race.
"And the two got up there from pit stops. He did. And I think if he lets the two go, it's possible that he ends up running him back down."
Pit stops are when the car comes in during the race to get serviced, usually tires. When you pit and how fast the team is can change who’s in front later.
Pit stops are the scheduled service stops where teams change tires and/or refuel and make adjustments. In NASCAR, pit stop timing and execution can swing track position—sometimes determining who leads after a caution or restart.
"runway, you know, you got to prove as a driver that you can complete the race, right? And that you can get the car across the finish line."
In racing, finishing the race matters a lot. If you don’t finish, you usually lose out on points and money, even if you were fast earlier.
Motorsport teams often prioritize finishing because a DNF (did not finish) usually means no points or prize money. The speaker’s point is that even if a car isn’t winning every time, consistent race completion protects results and the team’s budget.
"When we were running our Xfinity series, when we were running our Riley team, back then it was a nationwide team, we had some drivers in there that were fast, but they tore all our **** up."
The Xfinity Series is NASCAR’s “second level” race series. It’s where drivers and teams build experience, and you still have to race smart to avoid wrecks and finish.
The Xfinity Series is NASCAR’s second-tier national stock-car championship, sitting below the top-level Cup Series. It’s a common proving ground for drivers and teams, and the competition is still intense enough that reliability and avoiding wrecks can be as important as outright speed.
Concept
Riley team
"When we were running our Xfinity series, when we were running our Riley team, back then it was a nationwide team, we had some drivers in there that were fast, but they tore all our **** up."
A “Riley team” here means the racing team the speaker was running. They’re talking about how that team’s cars got wrecked or survived depending on the drivers.
“Riley team” refers to a racing team associated with Riley—an organization that has competed in various motorsports programs. In this context, it’s the team the speaker ran while competing in the Xfinity Series era, and the discussion centers on how driver choices affected car survival and results.
"Brad comes in. Brad's like 14th, 12th, 16th, 10th, 12th, 9th, 8th, 8th, 10th. And we started creeping down the running order."
“Running order” just means which car is ahead of which at that point in the race. It moves around as drivers gain or lose positions.
In racing, the running order is the sequence of cars on track by position at a given moment. It can change lap-by-lap based on speed, pit strategy, cautions, and how consistently drivers finish.
"So to me, if you're a lapper, you yield to the leaders that are running the top at that point. Because as a lapper, the last thing you want to do is catch you on the extra to the corner."
“Running the top” means taking the higher line on the track, closer to the wall. Drivers do it because that line can be faster, but it can also create problems if a slower car doesn’t get out of the way.
“Running the top” means driving near the upper groove of the track, typically closer to the wall. On many ovals, the top groove can carry more speed, so leaders may prefer it—while lapped cars are expected to yield.
"So to me, if you're a lapper, you yield to the leaders that are running the top at that point. Because as a lapper, the last thing you want to do is catch you on the extra to the corner."
A “lapper” is a car that’s behind the leaders and gets passed (lapped) during the race. Because it’s slower, it can force faster cars to change their driving line.
A “lapper” is a slower car that is being lapped by the leaders. In NASCAR-style racing, lapped traffic can strongly affect the leaders’ line choices and braking/acceleration timing.
"Run the bottom. You don't hold anybody up when you run the bottom. You don't catch anybody because like I just said, when you catch a lap car in the extra to the corner, if you're running the bottom and you have to lift, the guy behind you comes with his massive run."
“Running the bottom” means taking the lower line near the inside of the track. The idea is that it’s less likely to mess up the faster cars behind you.
“Running the bottom” means driving near the lower groove of the track, closer to the inside. The bottom line is often easier to pass from and can reduce the chance of forcing the cars behind to lift or change their setup mid-corner.
Term
extra to the corner
"You don't catch anybody because like I just said, when you catch a lap car in the extra to the corner, if you're running the bottom and you have to lift, the guy behind you comes with his massive run."
This phrase is about how you set up for the corner—where you are on the track and how much room you have. The point here is that lapped cars can force faster cars to change their plan at the last moment.
“Extra to the corner” appears to refer to the extra distance/space and positioning used when approaching the corner—often tied to track position and line selection. In this context, it describes how lapped cars can force leaders to adjust their approach right before turning in.
"You don't catch anybody because like I just said, when you catch a lap car in the extra to the corner, if you're running the bottom and you have to lift, the guy behind you comes with his massive run."
“Lift” means you back off the gas a bit. If a driver has to do it because of a slower car, it can cost speed and make it harder for the cars behind to keep their momentum.
In racing, “lift” means easing off the throttle (or briefly reducing power) to manage speed and traction for a corner. Lifting due to lapped traffic can ruin the momentum of the car behind, especially on corner entry.
"His hesitation made Justin hesitate and core days back there going perfect. When I said the timing, the timing to me was Justin was 23 carlings too close to him on the entry to the corner to figure out where he could run."
“Timing” means the exact moment you turn in and move into your lane. If a slower car is in the wrong place at the wrong time, it can force the faster driver to hesitate or change lines.
“Timing” here refers to the precise moment a driver can enter the corner and choose a lane without getting boxed in by traffic. In oval racing, timing is heavily influenced by where lapped cars are positioned relative to the leaders’ preferred entry line.
"When I said the timing, the timing to me was Justin was 23 carlings too close to him on the entry to the corner to figure out where he could run."
“Entry to the corner” is when you start turning into the turn. Where you are and how you set up there affects whether you can keep your speed and line.
“Entry to the corner” is the phase where a driver turns in and transitions from straight-line speed to cornering. On ovals, entry position determines which groove you can run and how much you can carry through the turn without getting stuck behind traffic.
"...n it was going on, I was entertained. You're that gladiator. And you know what? They kept doing it. And you g..."
The Jeep Gladiator is a pickup truck, meaning it has an open bed for hauling things. It’s designed to handle rough roads and off-road trails better than many regular pickups. People talk about it when they want a truck that can do everyday jobs and still go off-road.
The Jeep Gladiator is a midsize pickup truck built on a Jeep-style off-road platform, combining truck utility with off-road capability. It’s often discussed because it brings the “go anywhere” reputation of Jeep into a format that can also haul and carry gear. In a podcast, it may come up when talking about vehicles that are both practical and adventure-ready.
"...cars, uh, people won't know any update on how the Nova is doing. The Nova is almost finished. Oh, yeah. ..."
The Chevrolet Nova is a car model from Chevrolet that has been around for many years. It’s commonly talked about by car fans, especially when someone is restoring or finishing a specific Nova. If the podcast says it’s “almost finished,” that usually means the project is close to being completed.
The Chevrolet Nova is a classic American car nameplate that’s known for its long-running history and strong enthusiast following. It may be discussed in a podcast because people often track restoration progress, updates, or the status of a specific Nova project. The mention of it being “almost finished” suggests the conversation is about a particular build nearing completion.
"I have to send this thing to a guy for three days for tuning. So it has this computer on it. And so basically right now it not being tuned means it shifts funny."
“Tuning” here means adjusting the car’s computer settings. Until it’s tuned, the car can shift at the wrong times and feel jerky or too eager.
In modern performance builds, “tuning” means calibrating the car’s engine/transmission control software so it shifts and responds the way the builder wants. They’re describing a shift-behavior problem that goes away once the tuner adjusts when the car should shift.
"And so basically right now it not being tuned means it shifts funny. It shifts fast. It shifts too quick."
They mean the transmission isn’t shifting smoothly or at the right moments. The computer settings need to be changed so the car shifts at the correct time.
“Shifts funny” is a description of incorrect or undesirable shift timing/behavior from the transmission control calibration. In this case, they say it shifts fast and too quick, which is why the tuner needs to adjust the shift strategy.
Term
part throttle off
"So like if you let off the gas, it takes off. Yeah. Without even touching the throttle. So it's just, we got a tune on it."
This is about what happens when you’re barely pressing the gas and then let off. They’re saying the car still acts like you’re asking for power, even when you’re not touching the throttle.
“Part throttle off” refers to what the car does when you’re lightly on the gas and then lift off. They’re describing a drivability issue where the car keeps trying to move forward even after the driver eases off, which points to calibration of throttle/torque and transmission response.
Term
600
"[4668.3s] That's why I feel like I can say Briscoe, because I feel like that...
[4671.8s] It's just the 600 is one of those races where...
[4725.4s] This is a 600."
“600” is shorthand for a NASCAR race that’s about 600 miles long. Longer races mean more chances for things to go wrong and more strategy around tires and fuel.
In NASCAR, the “600” refers to a 600-mile race distance. That length changes strategy and tire/fuel planning, and it also increases the chance for mistakes over the course of the event.
Term
mile 400
"[4678.8s] Your Christopher Bell, more than likely, will be leading that race at mile 400.
[4683.7s] Denny will be there.
[4685.0s] He'll be probably leading it at mile 500."
They’re talking about specific points in the race—like being around mile 400 or mile 500. Those checkpoints help describe when the race is getting into the most important stretch.
“Mile 400” (and “mile 500”) are reference points in a long-distance race. They’re used to talk about when key phases—like pit cycles, tire wear, and track position—tend to matter most.
"[4725.4s] This is a 600.
[4728.6s] It's a big race.
[4729.7s] It's a crown jewel.
[4730.9s] Guys try harder in this race, right?"
“Crown jewel” means a big, special, high-profile race. Drivers tend to take it more seriously and race harder because it’s a standout event.
“Crown jewel” is NASCAR slang for a marquee, high-prestige race that teams and drivers treat as especially important. Because it’s a headline event, drivers often push harder and the racing can get more aggressive.
Select text to request an explanation
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Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download.
And it is. Let's see. Episode 716. Is that correct? Yep. Goodness. Post All-Star Race.
Co-host TJ Majors is here. How you doing, TJ? I'm good, man. Did you enjoy the All-Star
Race? I did. I did. We're going to talk about that. This episode is presented by Arby's.
Don't forget Arby's new Meetin' 3 box. You get more mail for your money at Arby's. We
had the meets, and we've got the reaction to the All-Star Race. I'll be honest, man.
I know when they announced that they were taking this thing dover, everybody, no one
said, hell yeah. Agreed. No one. Nobody. Nobody said, hell yeah. Maybe Miles the monster.
Look, I, but it looked like everybody went in with an open mind. They had a good fan
turnout. Did you think so, TJ? You were there. Yeah, I know. I thought there was a lot of
fans. Like, honestly, it felt like a normal race weekend to me. I believe the fans came
to tell Marcus we won our points race back. Yeah. And so, hey. That's why I went. I'm
joking a little. I think I talked to Marcus. He talked to a lot of fans. He said, man,
they all, you know, they all glad that we're doing this, but they don't want to fall by
the wayside unexpectedly. They want their points race back. And I think with everything
that we saw, they should get it. They should. That should be a points race. And that's definitely
where I think everybody lands. But I thought the All-Star Race, considering it was at Dover,
it was during the afternoon, I thought it was fine. I wouldn't want it again. I wouldn't
take it to the sun instead of on fire like Jeff Gluck said to do. But it was fine. It
didn't. I didn't think it was a failure. I don't think it was a failure. The format
was a failure. I don't think it was a failure. The format is a failure every year. But the
race itself was damn good. It's, you're acting like they had a good format
begin with. The format has sucked for a while because they won't ever go back to 1987, which
is the best format. But this was even worse than previous ones. So what is it? What is
the 87? What is the 87 format? 87 is like, let's say roughly 50 laps first stage, 25 laps
second stage, 10 laps third stage. Yeah, shoot out at the end. Shoot out. I mean, the race
is short. Should be. I'll tell you this. With an open. Did they have an open back then?
They had an open. Perfect. Take two or something. 40 lap open. Yeah. This is it. This is the
deal. You're, I just got done talking to Steve O'Donnell, right? And he's like, man, you
know, we would, if we take the clash to Daytona and it's bad, it's like a bad commercial for
the 500. And I'm like, well, you just make the racing good and it'll be a good commercial
for the 500. But look, the problem is, is we're trying to do too much. We're trying to do too
much with the All-Star race. We're trying to do too much with the clash. The clash, I know
people ain't, people don't, I don't understand why people don't agree with this, but the clash
is an appetizer. It is the table setter. It is, it is, you know, it is. Yeah. It should be
the, how many guys have won polls this year? Is there, is there a poll award for the most
polls? Like there used to be a, you know, of course, like poll award at the end of the year.
Yeah, I miss that. You want like six or five? Do they do that anymore? Oh, let's just see who's
got the most polls. How many polls here? I can do it right here. 88 drivers have polls,
right? Yeah. So, well, let's get to the end of the year. Maybe that's 12, right? Maybe. Yeah.
All right. Probably more, but I want to see those 12 guys run a 20 lap race. No caution,
no pit stop, no bull. Drop the green flag. Give me 12 mother out there going as hard as they can
for 20 laps. It'll be over before you know it, but it's going to be freaking awesome.
That's all you used to do. That's what it was. That's all it needs to be. It doesn't need to be
more than that. And that's, that's let that happen the same day you're going to qualify. Do it on a
Saturday or something like that the week before the 500. Get everybody out there. Have your little
arc race. Have your little clash and then qualify. Hey, it's a full day. All kinds of activity. You
got cars on the track. Fans can enjoy it. And then the drivers, they can go home for a couple
days, come back on Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll start doing some media. We'll boil up the states
on a 500 excitement. Big weekend. Yeah. That's how they need to do it. And I don't want to hear
nobody that says 20 laps is too short. I would run the arc. You never, you weren't around back
when this race was 20 laps. It was badass. And then even if there are only 12 guys out there,
then 12 guys is going to make it a show. So look, fast forward to the all star race. We're doing
too much. The 87 race is legendary. There's the one hot night, a legendary race. All those were
small, simple formats, 50 laps, 25 laps, 50, 25, 10. And you, you know, you have your open,
you have another support series there. You can have your trucks, your O'Reilly series,
whatever. I run a dash race there one time before. Yeah. So that's all it needs to be. And you do
on Wednesday night before the 600. Give, give Dover back its points race. That happens just
like it just happened yesterday or Sunday. And so you give, you give Dover their 400 laps.
And then you have an all star race on Wednesday in Charlotte with winners from 2026.
All right. You could do, you could do the last, you could even do the last 20 winners.
And it's a 20 car field. That's it. Yeah. All right. You could do the last 18 winners. Do
you want a fan vote? Fan vote important? I don't think anybody gets it. Get rid of it.
I would get rid of the fan vote. I mean, the fan vote on Sunday was stupid. The fans are,
the fans, the drivers, the fans love, they're already in the race. All right. So we're gonna,
we're gonna ask the fan vote. We'll have an open and we'll take the winner out of the open,
not second, not third, the guy who won the open gets in. All right. So we'll have 19
locked in plus one guy from the open and have a 20 car race for a million bucks. And that's all you
need to do on a Wednesday night. You don't need to hold downfield out there. You don't, you know,
you don't need to wear everybody out and beat everybody up. You know, you, you have a couple
guys in the open, go out there and put on a damn good race. It's going to come down to two,
three guys like it always used to. Yep. That's right. We had many races off of term four for
that spot, right? And this is your tease. This is your advertisement. appetizer for
your 600. And that's going to be, you know, because it's a big, it's a big ass weekend,
8,500, World 600, all that going on is the F1 doing Monaco, but no, they don't do not anymore.
I think they changed the day to that. That's crazy. That's like the Canadian Grand Prix or
something. What the hell did they do that? I don't know, but it was all that race was sucking
lately anyway. So it doesn't matter. You get up and watch it and first thing in the morning.
So I don't know if anybody else agrees with that, but I think that's what we
should do. I'm mostly on board with it. And you might not like the idea, but I bet when it's
over and done, you'll be happy. I'd be okay with that. I'd be okay with the points race
and just get rid of the All-Star, but I'm not against your idea, but I don't want, I don't
want what we had Sunday. I don't want you to get rid of the All-Star race. No, 100%. You know why?
Because for everyone who ever won it, it's a kick in the balls, man. I mean, it's like,
it's like, get rid of the Daytona 500. Like, why would you get rid of the Daytona 500?
You wouldn't, right? It's a legendary race. And if you get rid of something, right,
all of the history that goes with it becomes worth less. It becomes worthless.
I'm okay. Like, if we're going to keep it how this, where everybody gets in,
then make a points race, or go back to what? I mean, don't, let's not get rid of it just
because we, we don't know what to do with it or don't know, don't know how to make it great.
It was fine. Let's not get rid of it. Let's just try to fix it. And let's simple it down. Let's,
big money-making monster. It doesn't need its own weekend. It doesn't need its own weekend. Yeah.
They, you know, they got to keep, keep f***ing with this thing and keep trying to,
like the clash, right? They keep trying to grow it into this, this more robust, more financially
successful event. It, it ain't that. It needs to be this little thing that it always was.
And it lived in this little bubble that was perfect. Yeah. Charlotte makes sense too on a
Wednesday because all the teams are here. Yeah. No travel. You know, it's gotta be affordable
for the teams. They ain't going to do it if it ain't financially realistic. And so if you
have it here in Charlotte and you have it on Wednesday, that, and you're only asking,
you know, a handful of these teams to really extend themselves. It's a million bucks. Think
about how much money was lost and cars wrecked on Sunday. Oh my gosh. It's a lot. I loved it.
Carnage. We need more of that s***. We need more wrecks.
Not enough f***ing wrecks, man. I mean, I, I, I like how guy, I like... What's the,
what's the counter to that? No wrecks? Listen, no, I'm just asking you. Like when,
when the race started, I was sitting there going, all right, man, hope this ain't a f***ing total,
you know, snooze fest. Then they started destroying it. And I'm like, hell, yes. Like,
even the fans of the grandstands during the replays, they weren't even f***ing ready for that.
They were all had their backs turned and they're like, all right, man, I guess they're getting
st- Oh s***. Holy cow. Chaos. Whoa. You know how to tell it was like that. This is over.
Nobody said this s*** gonna happen. You know how to tell it was like that though. It was.
Look at the replay. These people got their backs turned to the track. The f***ing race just started.
People are still trying to get to their seats. I will say though, there, there was a lot of,
um, they were not prepared. There's a lot of cellphone camera videos from the stands for
this one because it was so early in the race. Like people tell, oh, there's a start. Oh,
they're wrecking. They kept f***ing wrecking. Oh, they kept wrecking. They kept f***ing wrecking.
That's what we need. Listen. Don't, I mean, it's a shame these cars cost $350,000. That ain't
my fault, but they need to wreck these motherf***ers. That's what I like to see. I like wrecking.
You know what I mean? Yeah, it makes it more entertaining. Let's be honest. I mean,
when I was a little kid, I love directs. I'd go in the garage and look at all the bend up s***.
God dang, he bent, he bent that. I didn't think that part could bend. I mean, it was just fun.
And now, you know, you got these guys to go out there and run run. Nobody makes
a mistake. Car does everything right. You know, I mean, listen, the car is hard to drive. I know
it is, but it does have great brakes on it. The brakes are way too good. Everything on it's way
too good. Way too over engineered. Rip. Lots of grip. Until there ain't none. Yeah. But, uh, yeah,
I loved it, man. Then they kept wrecking. They kept wrecking. I'm sorry. Brad got spun out by
the one car. Who's fault was that? I couldn't figure that out. Did the one come down? Did the
six run up into him? I think it was a bit of both. I would say mostly on Ross. Yeah.
I overlaid it with some other cars coming down the track with it. Oh, did you submit some t dad?
I did. Yeah. But also I use the eye test too. And thousands of laps throughout that,
thousands of laps throughout the weekend or hundreds or whatever it is, the 10,000 laps
you got there. Yeah. More than that. Probably now. But, um, watching a car come down that abruptly,
like it caught when I saw it happening. I was like, Oh, did Ross have a comment? I don't think so.
My bad. Yeah. Yeah. He's around too. So Ross makes his comment was we. Ouch. Ouch. Oops. We hit.
I mean, oh, damn. That's the thing about Dover. You don't really,
Ricky, somehow Mirac has kept it off the wall, but you don't, I mean,
we wrecked off it to a Dover and we got stuck under the wall with the split. I bring it up.
But you were like, we, I'm stuck. Tony's here. He's like, come on, get it to the pit. So I'm
like, yeah, this son of a bitch is stuck. We had the splitter wedge under the goal.
There's underneath the safer barrier. Yeah. The horsepower less downforce was great for the
racing. Oh, tires are falling. Track treatment. Wearing track treatment. I don't know if I could
tell a difference. Resin. Yeah. I mean, no, I don't know that. I mean, it made me move
up quicker. It might've, that's what I said. It might've rubbed up a little bit quicker.
Moved faster. Maybe. Yeah. It did. It did. I think so what you're maybe saying is we were
going to get what we were going to get. And I agree with you. I don't think they got a different
over, but they got it quicker. They got lap 200 on lap 30. Yeah, they did. So that was awesome.
Yeah. No, I didn't have any problems with it. I'll say in their rally series,
something I saw that I haven't seen in a while. And it comes from a freaking dirt guy because
they know how to run to top. Cory Day. So they're sitting there running at race, right? And they
got the groove pushed up, but they're still about a lane and a half up there outside of the groove
that nobody's running or using. And they're just not going up there, right? Nobody's just,
nobody's, all of a sudden, you know, 30 laps to go. Cory Day jumps up into the gray and I'm like,
man, is he going to hit the wall? That's probably dirty out there. But he moved, you know, he did
it lap after lap after lap. And he moved the groove and entire car length further up the racetrack.
Yeah, he got good at it. And he found that two tenths, that tenth and a half that's out there.
It's out there. And no one else went to find it. No one else went to get it. And he did that. You
remember we used to do that all the time? Yeah, we did it. And then we blew a right front off the
turn four or two. Yeah, I remember that. You like to bring up the bad things. We're doing so good.
Well, I remember giving you, I specifically remember telling you your four tenths better than
the next car. And like five laps later, I'm like, oh, we're not so much fun. Yeah, it looked fun.
I was having fun too. I mean, I probably wouldn't change a thing. It was fun. Well, that's, but
Cory Day goes up there and fine. And I don't know that, you know, the thing, I think part of that
is him being a dirt guy, him being a, you know, chasing the cushion. He has special ability.
He does. He's a searcher. You got to be, if you're a searcher, you're going to go find that speed.
It's going to hurt you at times, but he's a searcher. But the track,
yeah, the track just hasn't, I know that Cory Day is part of the reason why that happened,
but the track two and the treatment to the track allowed that to happen. The track was great. Yeah.
Great track. So look, concrete, I still don't think if I was building a new race track, I still
wouldn't go. Yeah. Concrete it. I wouldn't. I'd still asphalt my track if I was building it,
but there is an answer. There is a salvation. There is a, there is a, a, a, a fix resin resin.
I'd resin the out of my concrete track. It's somebody's only way I'd ever own a concrete
track is somebody gave it to me on a deal. So they got some cheap ass concrete track. I just
resin the hell out of resin company too. I mean, I will say, why did they raise the bottom though?
The bottom's the way they're running. Why do they resin that? I don't know. Cause I mean,
it goes away quick anyway. The top, but if you're just trying to, if you're trying to get multi
groove racing, you don't treat the part of the track where they're, where you don't want them
running. Yeah. Are you trying to get them off the bottom? Yes. Then don't treat the bottom. Yeah.
Look, I don't know. They treat the bottom of Bristol. They don't do anything else.
They do want them on the bottom of Bristol. Yeah. So you're saying it's opposite of Bristol.
Well at Bristol, they want them, they trying to recreate the old Bristol where they run over each
other. The only way to get by somebody is to push them out of the way. So that's why they treat the
bottom because they run up, you know, they run in the top too much. We still pull it off and run
the top. I know it. So look, I'm just saying if you're going to, if you're trying to get multi
groove racing, or if you're trying to get them off the bottom, don't treat the bottom,
treat the rest of the track. I would do it exactly how they did it right now. It moves so quick.
Man, I like it moved quick. Me and you would be standing there with the guy, uh, the resin truck.
Spray your spray. No, don't. Don't do the bottom. Do the bottom. Don't do the bottom. Yeah.
Half a lane lower. They moved quick. Four hours of that before the guy even got to start
treating the track. They did move quick. And I will say that the weekend at Dover reminds me,
and you'll, you'll know what I'm talking about here. Reminds me of a loud and weekend because you
have, you have, well, you have a race on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You get like,
there was a lot of people camping there on fri, like already on, I'd say Friday. Yeah. You know
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slash podcast for full disclosures. Speaking of the O'Reilly race, we're going to talk about Rajah,
Jesse Love. So Rajah, look, dude made a mistake. I think he knows it. If you saw his post race
interview, he felt terrible about it. I'll promise you. No, I've talked to Rajah. He's our driver.
I talk to him. him a lot. He has no vendetta against Jesse Love. It is purely
coincidence that Rajah keeps making these mistakes and Jesse keeps being the one
swept up in it. And Jesse's sick of it. I get it. Jesse is ready. He is ready for it to be over with
and he should be. And it is absolutely unfortunate that he got swept up in that deal
because they've done a really good job putting themselves in a position there to be up front
and needing some track position in that moment. But that'd be mad. Look, Rajah is in, he's in our
car some races and then he drives for another team some races. And when he gets in our car,
he's got the pressure of what Connor Zillich did in this car last year. He's got the pressure of
feeling like if I don't go out there and prove I'm a winner, I don't get next year. So he's
feeling like every time he's in the 88, he has to win. He can't run second. third. He
can't run fifth. He can't get the base hits. He's got to go hit home runs. He's got a score.
He's got to win the race. And I told him that that's not entirely true. And so, you know,
this is what my advice is to Rajah and we've talked. Let's go get the base hits. In this moment,
you're racing for the lead. You're not really in the best spot on the racetrack. The two's in
a better position having the top of the racetrack. You're kind of at the mercy of the car on the
outside when you're on the bottom of the racetrack and it's really slick. And he's going to make it
tough. He's going to make it tough. And that's fine. And so, right, I told Rajah, I'm like,
what's the what's the harm in allowing the two to win the position? I'm thinking, you know,
you got 60, 80, 100 laps to go. You don't give yourself a chance to race the next corner,
much less the next 10 or 15 laps that might give you the chance to run him down and pass him.
You don't give your team to make the adjustments on the car that they're wanting to make to make
it even better for the last run. You don't give yourself a chance to figure out, you know,
how you could end up finishing in this race. And so, he feels like he has to go out there and
get in this car and win. And he's going to, you know, and he's trying to do everything he can to
make that happen. And he's making these mistakes. And so, he's going to make mistakes. I made him.
I wrecked Matt Kenseth off turn two. Same thing. 1999. Both of us racing for the championship.
Matt had the best car that day. Matt was faster. Matt was going to win. I knew it.
We had a restart. Somehow or another, he was just a little free. It allowed me to get up
underneath him. And I knew that he was going to eventually get going and drive away from me.
And I drove over my head, busted my ass, wrecked us both. Right? And so, I say that because, like,
I made that mistake. Rajah Most drivers are going to make that mistake.
Connor Zillich made that mistake at Iowa last year underneath the seven car. You're going to get
loose. You're going to bust your ass. You're going to take, you're going to door your teammate. You're
going to door another guy. You're going to wreck them. And it's going to suck. And it's just going
to be part of the process. But, you know, unfortunately, Jesse's the one that keeps being
involved in these issues. And it's really, I swear, man. I mean, it's not nothing. Jesse's a good
dude. And I hate it because he doesn't deserve it. And so, you know, I told Rajah, I said,
hey, Jesse's going to race you hard. He's going to be a thorn in your side. He should and he will.
And, you know, and maybe over a course of time, you can earn that respect back and get back to
where there's a little give and take. But aside from that, like, we just need base hits. When
you're in this car, go out there. We're going to give you a great car. You're going to have a great
pit crew on Pit Road. They don't have good stops. And you have a smart crew chief. Let all of those
things help you. Let all those things compliment you along the way. You don't have to go out there
and be the hero. You don't have to go out there and have this heavy lift. That was far from the
right time to be. I mean, I honestly, I think Rajah passes him in 20 laps anyway. Rajah was
running really solid. And the two got up there from pit stops. He did. And I think if he lets the
two go, it's possible that he ends up running him back down. I think he does. But at worst,
he's running second, you know? Which is a base hit. Which is fine. So, you know, to lengthen your
runway, you know, you got to prove as a driver that you can complete the race, right? And that
you can get the car across the finish line. Even if everybody knows you had a car that could win,
coming on second, third, fourth, fifth on those days every now and then, still very good. When we
were running our Xfinity series, when we were running our Riley team, back then it was a nationwide
team, we had some drivers in there that were fast, but they tore all our **** up. And so,
I hired Brad Kizlowski because I knew he didn't wreck. And I didn't really care if Brad could
finish better. I just needed to finish races. Didn't have any cars left. Yeah. And I'm like,
damn, just give us about six weeks where we ain't got to put new rear front and rear clips on these
things. Two cars a weekend. Yeah. So, I mean, we only had two or three good cars. Then we had three
or four **** cars. And now we've done tore up all our good **** for running our **** at the racetrack.
And so, it was a bad time. It was a bad time. It was rough. Brad comes in. Brad's like 14th, 12th,
16th, 10th, 12th, 9th, 8th, 8th, 10th. And we started creeping down the running order.
And we were finishing races. And now our bottom line looks good. Our money looks good. We're not
in the red. Team's happy. Guys in the garage are happy. We're unloading cars. We ain't got a ****
stripped down to the bare metal every week. And so, that's the kind of things that drivers have
to learn and adjust. And Rajah is going to figure this out. He has the speed. ability.
He's going to get even better. This dude has no laps. When he's talking about going out there
and competing against Justin Allgaier, how many laps does Justin Allgaier have compared to Rajah?
I mean, it's thousands. Yeah. Tons. And he's out there trying to compete with that guy who's seen
and done and experienced everything. And Rajah's got very limited feedback and understanding.
He doesn't know. If I drive off in this corner, I'm going to get loose and bust my ass.
Justin's also diverse, too. He's been in a lot of different series.
But Rajah knows now. And he's got to make that adjustment going forward and try to fix it.
So, these guys can feel good racing around him. And we can feel good about getting those base hits.
And lengthening and getting him more opportunities. Those base hits turned into race wins, man.
That sucked because I was pulling for that 88. Rajah was going to have a good run.
And I hate it for Jesse Love because they definitely didn't deserve to get caught up in that.
The lap car messing with Justin. So, look, I don't really know where everybody is on all this
because honestly, I didn't see any of this till it was over with. I watched the finish of the race.
I didn't even see Justin's post-race comments. But I saw social media that he walked up to the
window, talked to the guy. Justin is one of the best ambassadors in the... He is the best ambassador
in the O'Reilly series, I would say. If he wants to go up and talk to this guy and share with him
his opinion about how he thought that went, by all means. I think from what I saw, Justin went
over there, had a conversation, and that was that. I think that's the way to handle it.
Why not? What's the problem? You didn't go punch the guy. You went and talked to him.
I don't know that the guy really did anything wrong. Justin had a ton of racetrack underneath him.
It's just bad timing for Justin where he called him. It's just bad timing. Listen,
the guy... What's his fellow's name? Blake Lothian? I think that's who it was. It could be wrong.
I'm going to say it right here. Look, if Justin has an opinion, he's on the racetrack,
by all means, I support Justin going over and talking to the fellow. But I would also say to
this guy, but you didn't do anything wrong. It's just a bad timing that the leaders are catching
you at this moment. I can see him trying to get out of the way, be out of the way. He didn't go
to the bottom. He didn't go to the very top. He's trying to do whatever he thinks is probably their
preference. Honestly, though, I don't know, man. I don't think Blake did anything wrong, but I don't
know who does that car or whatever, but to me, he could have more of a warning. Hey, the leaders
are coming because the last thing you want to do is be in the news for that. Well, did you listen
to the audio? No, that's what I'm saying, though. Given the info, if that's... You know, we always
got out of the way. We didn't want to be in the picture. I'm watching that. I don't see anything
the guy did wrong. But if Justin sees something, Justin's on the racetrack. I support Justin going
over there and sharing with him some wisdom. By all means, I thought that deal worked itself out.
I mean, I would have been mad. Was Justin running the middle?
I think Justin was running the top. Did that guy run Justin's line? Well, he went up and definitely
ran Justin's line. Yeah. So Justin wasn't running around the middle of the bottom? No, no. Justin
was not running the bottom then. He moved up. So to me, if you're a lapper, you yield to the
leaders that are running the top at that point. Because as a lapper, the last thing you want to
do is catch you on the extra to the corner. I was... I see Justin there. I see him do that. He's
all right. Look, man. The guy... Look, Justin's going to give him some advice. He knows better
what to do next time. But honestly, I didn't think it was a... It sucked for Justin. He's
my race car. I'm on my car to win. I'm happy for day. Nothing against the 17 guys. They work hard.
Like if that had been us and we caught a lapper at that point, I'd have been pissed.
Like if you're in the last lap at Dover or something and a lapper runs your line like that,
he's probably... I'm guessing the 55 was multiple laps down at that point. You know,
and if he... Like even if he wasn't, the last thing you want to do is be in the news for that.
In my opinion anyway. Yeah, I agree with you, Jay. All right. What do you think he should have done?
Run the bottom. You don't hold anybody up when you run the bottom. You don't
catch anybody because like I just said, when you catch a lap car in the extra to the corner,
if you're running the bottom and you have to lift, the guy behind you comes with his massive run.
If the lapper runs the bottom, everyone just rolls on by it, especially when the outside was
dominant. You ain't lying. You ain't wrong. I believe you. You're right. Yeah. I mean, I felt
like the guy gave a lot of racetrack for both drivers, but he kind of made... His hesitation
made Justin hesitate and core days back there going perfect. When I said the timing, the timing
to me was Justin was 23 carlings too close to him on the entry to the corner to
figure out where he could run. If he's where Corey Day is and they're back a little bit,
Justin runs the top on entry and then turns down. Corey had a better opportunity. Corey had
the better opportunity. I mean, that's like dirt racing and a place like Dover, it's hard to hide.
Like, you know what? I mean, it's hard to hide sometimes at Dover. So we're all happy with
Dover. We're heading into Charlotte. Prim's coverage, part of the season, five
races starting this weekend. So I'll be back in the booth. Got to get my **** together.
I'm not happy with Dover, by the way. I forgot something.
You know how we're on the roof a lot during the day and most of these racetracks, almost
all of them pretty much at least just put a cooler with ice in it because I don't have any
ice that lasts from 8.30 in the morning until 6.30 at night. And when you're on the roof all day,
it's nice to have some access to some ice. So Dover used to have a cooler up there and they
took it away. Mother. I know. No shade, nothing. Marcus. Yeah, I mean, they took the ice cooler
away. They took the ice away. How come this isn't a bigger story? This is, I was waiting for it.
Let's get Jordan Bianchi on this. Yeah, please. Pull that up on the Twitter. Good Lord. Ice at
Dover. Can you type that in? Is it a hashtag? Spotters, ice at Dover. Yeah. I hope it's a
hashtag after this. I don't believe a policy wants ice. I can bring my own water, but I don't have
ice that lasts for eight, 10 hours on a roof with no shade. Well, I'm just glad you survived,
TJ. Me too. It sounds like it was just horrid. You know, I survived because I have my cool shirt.
Did you wear it? Sunday? I did. I did. Yeah. Okay. Well, we're great. We're moving on. Dover
should get a points race next year. The All Star race probably move back to Charlotte.
Maybe it runs midweek, leading up to the 600. You foreshadowing? Sure. I don't know how else
they're going to do it. Manifest it, TJ. Unless they make those, unless they just make the season
a week longer. I guess they can do that. Last one Wednesday. All right. It doesn't need its own weekend.
It doesn't. Let's talk about silly season, TJ. You're a spotter. Y'all gossip like crazy.
I just read Jordan stuff. I mean, that's how the door bubble clear started.
The whole damn show started just because of spotter gossip. So let's, let's talk about Kyle Bush.
Despite the sluggish performance, it's increasingly likely that Bush and RCR remain together,
signing an extension. These words are Jordan Bianchi's words. Team and league sources say this
comes from Jordan Bianchi. So team and spotters say what a team spotters say. I mean, reading Jordan's
stuff about it. I mean, it, it makes sense. Man, doesn't know. Yeah. I mean, hey, if he keeps running
like he's running, I think he'd be happy to sign an extension. I mean, they're running pretty good
last three weeks or so. And you think about like, what are the other options if you wanted to go
somewhere else? That's what I was saying. Like it doesn't sound like the options that everybody
was talking about are really there. What happened? What's going to happen with RFK if they can't
find inventory for a, a charter for the third car? They run open? I don't know. I'm, I'm assuming,
assuming you'd have to, if you're going to keep the team. Yeah. So I think,
I think that that was probably, I mean, I think that was, you'd almost have to, I guess. Yeah.
I don't know. But like financially to run an open, they said it was only 5000000 dollars.
Difference. There was a, there was something on social media. I read about it. There's like,
they, they've, RFK's done the math and they, they said to run open, it's going to be,
it'd be this much less. I mean, if it's only 5000000 then sure. I mean, 5000000 is a lot,
but they can make that work. I mean, what does it cost to rent a charter for a year? Right? Yeah,
I don't know. Your buddy does. I know, but I'm saying, does that 5000000 does it cost five
million to rent one? I don't know. Your buddy knows. I mean, let's call them. Yeah, call them.
Let's call them. Give an answer. Not this, it used to probably cost 5000000 probably
cost more now. Yeah. Maybe, maybe it's cheaper to run open. Well, I think that they understand
what it would cost to run open and they're, they're, they're, if they feel like they have to,
and there's no other option, I think the RFK is willing to do it. I think so too. Well, and I
think they have sponsorship. Like they've sold that car, which I guess maybe helps alleviate.
I don't know, man. I still, I think they run three cars and if they have to run open,
they run open, which will be, I agree. Well, it'll be wild. Now, can you pick and choose the driver
that's in the two that are in the charter that's racing for points? Could you move like who's in
that around? That's a good question. I'm sure NASCAR wouldn't let too much. So isn't there something
like, isn't there something for like a locked in driver they made for like a past champion or
something provisional? Isn't there one of them? No, I'm talking about like, you mean weekly? Like,
I know like, okay, Chris Buscher is really good at this track. Let's put him in the chartered car
and let's put Ryan Priest in the open. I got you. I thought I was more worried about qualifying in.
No, no, no. So rally, moving on. Raleigh Herps is going to move on. They're, they're saying that he's
going to sign a deal with legacy and that that puts Corey Heim into 2311 next year.
There's the, you know, there's the speculation around the 48 car.
You know, I don't know what to think about that. I just feel like that they have equity in,
uh, you know, in Bowman and I just don't, I don't know that they're going to be quick to,
to give up on that. I feel like it's been like that for a long time. I has. They got, well,
Ally loves Bowman and they're going to have some influence. Yeah. I mean, we've seen that before
though. I mean, we've seen guy, a sponsor stay with drivers. Yeah. I mean, I think they're talking
about Corey Day could be a guy that moves into that car, but I just don't know even with his two
wins, he ain't ready. He just needs, when are you ready though for Carl? I've always, I think
two years of a rally. I agree. I've always felt two years. I do too. Two years in a rally, but
even after two years of a rally, are you, like the cars are so different. Yeah. The cars are so
different. You're still going to have a little bit of a learning curve. So you might as well throw
them right in there. That's what I'm saying though. Is it, do you think putting them in a
different car for so long? If you're committing to the guy, like, like Hendrick could commit to
this guy for a fight a long term if they wanted to. So he's, this is the deal. Wouldn't you rather
him do this? He needs to drive the next gen, right? But why are we, why throw him in there
full season right out of the gate? Yeah. Why don't you run your, let him run some more races,
have some fun, race for championship this year in no rally series. Then do that again next year,
but really have him, but also run five, 10 cup races. I mean, I, right. I agree with you to an
extent. Get him, get him in your wheel force car, get him, get him laps in the next gen so that he,
and tell him, look, you're still going to race for this championship, the rally series, but your
focus is trying to learn this next gen. I just feel like it's changing. That's, that was the
traditional path. That's how it was. You ran the bush car and you got a few cup races and then
you kind of went full time, but I feel like the transition from those cars to a cup car
was easier than this, than an O'Reilly car to a cup car. I mean, don't you think?
The sooner you can get the cup car, the better because it's so different. I agree with you,
but there's still, there's still common sense and judgment and race craft. Yeah. No, I'm not,
that he needs, that he's developing and needing to learn, right? And he's doing a great job.
Look, dude, he's kicking ass. Well, I think one, someone that we're overlooking this weekend that
had a really good run, and I know there was a lot of attrition and stuff, but I thought Conor
Zillich had one of his best races. He did. And, you know, he's probably not getting noticed for
that much, but I thought he actually drove, he moved around. That was one, and that's a tough
place. Yeah. It's not an easy track. That's, that's the interesting one is Jordan mentioned
what Hendrick try to buy out. That would be the only way forward, I think, is for them to go in
and try to buy out. But the one thing is, is like, if he buys that deal, if they get Zillich,
what's that mean for day? That's like, that's the roadblock because they're not gonna get rid of
Byron. They're not, they're locked in. They got, yeah, they got A's. They is their guy. I get
I don't know. I mean, think, I don't think Mr. Hendrick will go and get Zillich. I
think day is going to be the, but I'm just saying, I think it'd be interesting. Like if I'm an owner,
I'm like, I know days of my guy, but if I can get Conor Zillich, it's going to come at a cost.
I think he can afford it. Maybe they think, I don't know. That's gonna be,
Justin Marks is his name in the price. It ain't gonna be cheap. Yeah. Justin Marks has been
investing all this into Conor Conor all these years and
was hoping that he's the future of trackouts, right? So you're going to just let him walk
out the door for some zero chance. I do that. Well, I'm not saying he's going to let him walk
out the door, but he's got a contract coming up the next year. So it's like, well, do I let,
do I lose him next year for nothing? Or not depends on maybe Conor doesn't even want to go.
And this is all moot. But if Hendrick is saying, I want Conor, I'm going to get him,
you either got to re-sign him now or you got to let him go because you're not going to,
if another year he's a free agent. Oh, I mean, it gives you a year to try to lock him down.
I mean, yeah. I mean, the thing about them guys is do you, you don't let them get to the final
year of their contracts, right? You go ahead and extend it before the end of it. But to me,
I don't, this is, Justin has the, he has his scenario, his perfect scenario right now with
his drivers. He's going to have, he's got a young up and coming guy that's going to be,
has proven he's getting better and better at all. Well, Shane's been getting great at all. He's
been getting better and better too. And you know that you're going to have a shot at winning. How
many road courses we got? Yeah. Five or 56 races a year. I don't think Conor Stan at
Trackhouse is a bad idea either. I don't either. I think it's perfect. I feel like that the pathway
for HMS forward is extend Bowman. Get your, get Corey Day ready. And Tully is ready. I agree. Yeah.
I think that makes sense too. And not, not to mention Kyle is going to mentor Corey,
like no other in my opinion too. Yeah. Yeah. And that, how's that bad? Yeah. Right. I agree.
What do you, what do you think of a driver that was mentioned? I didn't put on the list, but Jesse
loves future. We're just talking about him. Like this is second season. He got a championship. Like
yeah, where's he go? I think he's as good as Zillich in my mind. I, I maybe, you know, on the
road courses, Zillich has a bit of an edge because he's just, he's kind of unique there. But yeah,
he's definitely better road courses. I think on ovals and in racecraft, you know, Jesse loves
behind, you know, I know there's a, I don't think, I don't even know that, I mean, I think if you
put Jesse love and Corey Himes situation, he does everything Corey Himes did. I think he wins all
those truck races in that truck. I think he does all those things. I don't know if he does all that.
I do. I think he does. And so, I mean, he's been smoking his teammate this year, Austin Hill.
Yeah. I mean, I mean, am I wrong? I think if you put, they don't, Austin's been a bit off. Austin
had a great, Austin had a great start to the year. It's almost 100 points better. Yeah. But it's just
every week. It's like, it was different last year. Last year, Austin Hill was better neck and neck.
Yeah. Neck and neck, but Austin Hill was a little better and the two just point that pointed out
better in the championship, you know, during the rounds. But I thought for the core of the year,
the 21 was better than two, but this year, the two is definitely the, the better of the two
over there at RCR. And I honestly feel like the RCR Xfinity a rally program
isn't as strong as it was last year, but Jesse is bearing fruit because I think he's just that
talented and bears some concrete last week. I'm just kidding. So I think Jesse would, if you took
the numbers off the cars and put Jesse and Connor, let them, you wouldn't be able to tell the
difference. I don't think so. I agree. On an oval, yes. Honestly, Jesse, Jesse's probably a little
bit worse at road courses, but he's probably a little bit better at super speedways. So I mean,
but I don't think you would see a difference. So do we think though that RCR is able to keep him for
a third year over Riley? Because if Kyle returns, Kyle and Austin have those two like, I agree.
That's the tough part because Austin Dylan, this, this dude, I would say, I would say Austin
Dylan and I are really good friends. And what I've, what I've seen since him and Kyle Bush have been
teammates, I have been really impressed. He's been a little more of a leader. Yeah. I've been
impressed with what he's done on the track and off the track. He went into that bull riding
team stuff to learn business, to learn how to run things. That was, that was by design for him to
understand and learn some things that would then transfer over into whatever role he may play at
RCR going forward outside of the race car. His, the tough part about it is, is his racing career
isn't over. And he shouldn't, I don't think he should step out of the seat until he's ready.
Yeah, me too. But, you know, he's in a spot where he's got to contemplate those things.
You know, if we resign Kyle and we get Kyle for an extension, that's great. Kyle Bush,
RCR, that's, you want to have a driver that, that, that caliber, right? So you do it.
Is, is, is a losing Jesse Love, if you can't retain him in the Xfinity series or Riley series,
if you can't retain him, is losing, you know, possibly losing, right? Is that
the gamble you want to take by staying in the car a couple of years if you only can run
your two cars, right? That's some tough, that's some tough things that they'll have to navigate.
But I don't see anything that tells me that Austin should get out of the car
because he runs just as good as Kyle. He actually had a pretty good race. He did.
He had a good race quietly too. I mean, he's still, he's still a great cup racer.
And, and I don't, and boy, you cannot get out of that car until you're ready.
You can't, cause you, once you get out of it, you can't get back in it.
Yeah. But sometimes, you know, sometimes the, this is the bad part about the sport. Sometimes
the sport quits you before you're ready to quit the sport. Yeah. But I don't think that's
happening here. Not everybody, no, but not everyone gets the chance to quit, pick when
they want to quit. Well, you also got to remember that Johnny Morris is that sponsorship is tied
to Austin. Austin and Johnny have a relationship for a long time. Austin gets out of that car.
What happens to Johnny Morris's participation? Right? What does Jesse do? You know, what's
Jesse do? Does Jesse, you know, how much longer does he need to run a Riley? I mean, if he's
getting, if he gets a call from certain teams in the cup series, you have to, you'd have to,
you know, take, take it seriously. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what
teams would be calling. There ain't many cup opportunities. There's not. No. That's the
thing is the seats don't open up often. Not a ton of silly season. Even though we're sitting
here speculating about a bunch of, there's really not going to, it doesn't sound like there's going
to be much churn. Yeah. A lot of it's just musical chairs though, but there's very few
words like someone is just moving off of that seats opening up. Yeah. I don't know, man. I mean,
I don't want to name names, but there's a lot of drivers in the cup series that I could see. I,
I put Jesse in there, right? Cause I just feel like that that guy, you know, Jesse's can do more.
Yeah. Yeah. Jesse, I think needs to, I think Jesse would do, needs to be paired with
some veteran, you know what I mean? Another veteran driver to work with too. Like,
like a Kyle or somebody like that would help Jesse. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of guys that
are sitting there in the, in the, um, a rally series that are ready to get out of there.
Um, yeah, there's a lot. Yeah. I mean, I'm hearing rumors about both the guys over at Spire or not
Spire, both the guys over at Haas, uh, Creed and Sam are itching for cup opportunities. Yeah. I
feel like that it's now, you know, it's, it's time. Uh, and they're, they're out there like,
we're, what are my, what are my options? And I think like, but at the beginning of the year,
people probably would have thought, Oh, Spire is going to, that Suarez seats going to be available
at the end of the year. And you look at how he's racing right now. Like, I don't think you get rid
of him. Yeah. So it's like, he's, he's doing well. I mean, the pressure on it spires not on
the, it'd be McDowell on the seven. Yeah. But with his comments, with Michael's comments,
what was it a couple weeks ago? Travis said he was going to stick around and that was for
Tristan. Yeah. Yeah. He was, he was going to move out of the way for Tristan when Tristan was ready.
Tristan McKee. I know I heard that too. So it sounds like McDowell has control over his future.
Yeah. Or at least to see at the table to have the influence on it. The other, the other team that
basically makes its own decisions, not necessarily based off of, you know, what kind of money the
driver might could bring to the program is front row. Yeah. You know, but they, the thing about
Bob, the owner of that team is he's loyal to his drivers. Like he sticks with them. He, he, he, he
picks his guys, builds relationships with them. And he's not a guy that quickly cut bait.
Yeah. Yeah. That's the difference when racing versus other sports is the owners and the
relationship with the drivers is different than, Oh, this fellow player just not performing. Boom,
you're gone. Let me get someone new. Hey, this is Dale Hart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr.
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it the right way with indeed rich. Hey, everybody, we're live. That's the worst open ever. We're
here on the dale junior download me and TJ been sitting here arguing. Yeah, talking Dover
over everything new guy. We need ice. Yeah, he's really pissed off. Yeah, I am apparently Dover
has a box of ice that's up on top of the spotter. No, there's no ice anymore. Apparently Dover has
a box of ice up on top of the spotter stand so that TJ and other spotters can get fresh ice during
the day. They removed it this year. TJ was on the spotter stand for hours hours Sunday without
any new weekend all weekend without any new ice. Why didn't you adjust like you should have seen
like okay this day they didn't have any like let me figure it out. What do you think I did? What do
you think? I mean, how do you adjust by a cooler? I have a cooler. Well, how long does your ice
last in a cooler in 90 degrees nowadays actually last pretty long. Well, okay. Exfinity is waving
the red flag on internet price hikes and raising the green flag for free ice. Now you get the speed
and reliable Wi-Fi that you need locked in at one price for five years. There's no surprises like no
ice. There's no late yellows just straight to victory lane with ice with ice. Imagine that.
That's right. Exfinity imagine that. So we're having fun here. It's been a great morning,
been a great day and evening and all that. So we've been here all day podcasting like crazy.
But let's get to the questions. One of these art here in the chat wants to know why were they so
aggressive in Dover? You think it was because of- I loved it. They just didn't care. I don't know.
I loved it. I'm here for the Rex. I like to see every now and then some cars crash.
I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I just, you know,
every now and then likes to see some crashing. Yeah, I mean, I'm not too proud to admit it. You
know, there used to be a thing back in the 90s where or back in the day, 80s, 90s, whatever,
that you get clowned on for saying that if you said, man, I like the Rex.
People would go, oh, you're only here for the Rex. You don't love racing. You just want to see
the crashes. Yeah, you're not a racer. Well, I'm one of those people. I like the Rex.
So when- I don't like the Rex. Dude, when it was going on, I was entertained.
You're that gladiator. And you know what? They kept doing it. And you get restarts.
They kept wrecking. Well, we heard you were entertained. I was.
I was. I like good racing and a good finish battle, but I also like the Rex.
The format, the format definitely aided the invert. Yeah. The invert definitely aided into
some comers and goers. Yeah, it did. So yeah, I thought, I thought the format was fine.
It was a little long. I know the last stage got a little, a little boring, but hey,
it's like a four hour race. It could have been a ton worse. And
it's like eight hours. They threw a green flag. They raced and they threw the checkered and a guy
won. It's all I can ask. I won. Next question comes from John Deere here in the chat.
Do you remember your first time you got pulled over? Yeah. Yeah. And?
Well, me and dad were at the farm on highway three before DEI was built out there.
So we're out at the farm shop and we're closing up and it's time to go home.
I left first and dad is locking the gate. I get going down the road. I'm in my little black
and silver Eston pickup truck and I'm 16 and I went past a highway patrolman and I saw him put
his brake lights on and he, you know, I went, he went down a hill, but I knew he was turning around.
So I pulled over and he come running up and pulls up, pulls over behind me and gives me the ticket.
And so while we're sitting there, dad goes by. Oh, yeah. That's the worst ticket. Yeah.
I get my ticket and I drive on down the road and dad's sitting on the side of the road at a gas station.
And I pull in there. He goes, you give you a ticket? I said, yep. He goes, I guess you got to get a job.
I said, all right. And so I went to an Exxon station in town and applied for a job and I worked
in the Exxon station and it was a self, full service, full service. So I pumped, I pumped
the gas, cleaned some windshields, cleaned windshields to pay for my lawyer to turn it into a muffler
ticket or whatever. So I got it reduced. And yeah, so I worked at that gas. This was, you know,
I was going to high school. Then after school, I'd go over and pump gas for about three or four hours
and I ate at Waffle House for the first time in my life, which was, I mean, that's the moment.
There was one of those right behind the gas station. But anyways, it was,
yeah, it was good. It was good. Like that's, people ain't going to believe this, but that's the way
the dad was. And he was like, hey, man, you want a job? Come on out to the farm.
So I got fired from the dealership. Some long story, but there's a work there that fired me.
And my dad, I came home and my dad was like, damn, he fired you? Can't believe that. What an idiot.
I was like, yeah, well, here I am. I need a job. I thought dad was going to put me to work
on Kelly's late model. Well, he gave me a job shoveling out of the horse barn.
So I did that for two weeks every day until he finally said I could go in there and work on the
race car. So I mean, he was that way. You had to pass a test. I had a buddy of mine. I was
racing my late model car out of his shop, the deer head shop. And it was just me. And I didn't
know, right? I'm 23 years old and I didn't know how to make, I didn't know how to set up a car.
I mean, I kind of did. I could get it set up and go drive it, but I didn't know like what changes
to make or how to make it faster. I just didn't know. And I knew some basic that I could do that.
You know, I'd set the caster in Canberra the same every week. I'd put the same four springs in it,
same crawl, same nose, weight, trailer, track bar, and I'd go race. If I was a little loose or a
little tight, I'd change lift for spring. And that was it. That was my racing. And I'd go back every
week running the exact same. I didn't try to get better. I didn't change spindles or do fun like
that, right? I wasn't smart enough. So I was trying to hire somebody to help me. And I had a buddy,
his name was Wesley, and he works at Gibbs now. Wesley came and I'm like, Wesley, come over here,
man, I'll try to talk my dad into hiring you to help me. Wesley didn't know any more than I did.
We were the same age. We had the same IQ, same, same, same racing knowledge. But if I just needed
someone to help and my dad said, Yeah, I'm not gonna hire him. I introduced him to dad. I said,
Dad, man, this is Wesley, you know, paying, paying bare minimum, a couple hundred bucks a week.
And he'll he'll work out here. He's like, I ain't gonna hire him. You don't. I'm not hiring somebody.
And I was like, Wesley, how long? Dad's like, Hey, work for a couple of weeks and just
if it works out, you know, you I'll hire you. And Wesley's like, for free. And dad's like,
Yeah. And so Wesley worked for two weeks for no pay. And then Wesley came to me and he goes,
man, I don't know how long I can do this. I was like, just hang in there for weeks. He worked
for no pay before he finally got hired. Dang, he wanted to test it. What if you Wesley is a good
dude? Yeah. Dad was like that with everything. Like we, you know, he didn't give us all the good
you had to damn earn it. You know, yeah, earn it. Yeah.
Teach it. Do you remember your speaking ticket? Yeah. It was bad. I mean, I wasn't going too fast.
We were coming back. So friends were following me and I was coming down a
four lane road and I was turning right onto a side or it was kind of later at night and I
swung out to the left a little bit to make the corner a little bit faster.
And there was a police officer coming head on at me and he saw the headlights were about to turn
back and he pulled me over like maybe a hundred yards from my driveway. So my parents saw it.
Oh yeah. Not a good idea. Not good. My dad wasn't mad. He was just, he was just like, well,
guess you're going to get your job. Not quite the same. I got a ticket in the business park here
last year for not coming to complete stop. And then I get a text from James is he's driving bio
what happened? Well, got pulled over. Oh, this business park. You gotta watch out.
The complete stop got you. Yeah. By the tricon building. I got that at the top of the hill here.
So we were, I was driving out of this business park probably about three years ago
and you get up to the intersection. Yeah. He sat on the left. There's nothing over. Yeah.
There's nothing to the left. They haven't developed yet, but we would all roll through that stop sign
and the guy pulls me over. Hey, I mean, I roll through it and he pulls in behind me and pulls me
over and he pulls up and he walks goes, uh, pulled you over cause you didn't stop that
stop sign back there. And I said, I don't never stop at that stop sign. I was like, I'm here every
day. I never stopped at it. He's like, well, I thought it was a yield. You do now. He was like,
well, there's all these businesses around here starting to complain about it because nobody
does. And I was like, dang. really? They're complaining. It's like there's nothing
developed over there. So there's no traffic coming. So I don't know why anybody stop. You stop
and look at nothing. They even got the road finished. They park in all these different
parking lots now trying to get you. Yeah. Like I've, I've now I'm like, people like hate being
behind me. I thought that was a, I thought they couldn't park in like parking lots like that.
Well, they do. All right. Maybe they can. I don't know. Yeah. Uh, next question.
Dale, I saw you tweet about this week and some people have been asking, what did you think
of Brandon Overton's, uh, bud car? Love it. I think sweet. Yeah. And Brandon promised me
a door. Whenever they kind of get done with it, uh, he's going to send us a side and I think
we're going to put it in the studio. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of sweet. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's, uh,
it's, I thought that was a one race deal, like a one off. He just still running it and he's
still running it. It's awesome. I mean, why wouldn't you just keep running it? I don't know.
Why not? I know he's been sponsored by Budweiser for years and he's had other Budweiser cars from
their history in, in, in motorsport. Um, but it's just, it's neat. I appreciate it. I think it's
awesome and it makes me want to pull for him, right? And that's, that's awesome. And that's
anything, whatever gets you to kind of engage, right? More and, and what they're doing is awesome.
So what he's doing is working, uh, and I appreciate it. Uh, speaking of cars, uh, people
won't know any update on how the Nova is doing. The Nova is almost finished. Oh, yeah. The Nova,
I have to send this thing to a guy for three days for tuning. So it has this computer on it.
And so basically right now it not being tuned means it shifts funny. It shifts fast. It shifts too
quick. They, you got the guy that's got to get in the computer and tell it kind of how to shift,
when to shift. Really? I didn't know there was that much to it. Oh yeah. You pull up to a stop sign,
it's trying to go. Like if you let off, it's always trying to go. Like it's got,
like the throttles, like it's part throttle off for you. So like if you let off the gas, it takes
off. Yeah. Without even touching the throttle. So it's just, we got a tune on it. We got to get,
and the guy that does it takes it for like two or three days and drives it and tunes it and drives
it and messes with all this. And I ain't knowing how to do that. So I ain't messing with that.
But soon as he's done with that, she's ready. We'll be taking the kids to school and stuff.
I'll be fine. About out of school now. The car, oh, it'll be here for Fendi.
We're bringing it here to Junior Motorsports Thursday and you can come look at it.
And Sonny's going to bring it and he said he's going to put ropes around it. I said,
there better be some damn good ropes. I don't want nobody touching this car.
Ever. You need a fence. Never touching it. This is my baby. Security. Yeah. Let me beat it up a
little bit before you start putting your hands all over. But it's fine. Are you planning on beating
it up some? Well, I mean, it's going to get, get the first scratch, the first. Yeah.
If I'm messing with it. You did drive that Mercedes, I think, through the woods at one time.
That wasn't me. That was you. I was with you. In case it came. No, I was with you.
I did not drive a Mercedes through whatever it was that the car that was a pace car for the
Formula One wasn't it? Yeah, that was a, I didn't drive that through the woods. Yeah,
you drove it down the trail. I was with you. Oh, I was with you and we did it. All right.
It was a badass car. It was a AMG Mercedes. Yeah. Took it down, took it down through the woods.
Yeah. Needed to go check something out. Out in the graveyard. Yeah. You took a
left at the bridge and we went down that way. Yeah. I guess I must have been turning it in the
next day. You know how you are. Oh, yeah. Turn in that rental car. Yeah, it's turning there.
Next question. People want to know, are you excited to get back in the booth? Yeah, I am. It's a,
I don't remember how fun that is until we get back to doing it. So like, if you talk to me,
we're going to do a practice show, right? We're going to practice and qualify.
I'm going to get in there. I'm going to start doing that show. And then when we're done, I'm
going to go, God Almighty, I forgot how fun this was. And so I know that's coming. When you're
doing that this week? Yeah, this weekend. Next week. Well, I mean, like an evening this week.
Saturday? No. Practice and qualifying. He'll be there. Oh, yeah. Should
be. Lots of ice. Without He'll be right next door. I can go out of the booth
right to him. Yeah. Your spotter stands right on the roof with us. Hey, Charlotte. Do you go
all the way to the top there? I didn't know where, I don't know where you're at. Yeah, for you,
he will TJ. All right, come on up. I mean, you normally never done this before. I actually do.
I mean, you do. How do I remember this? Well, I mean, I don't know where the TV booth is there.
Never been in there. I've actually walked out of it and come over and said, Hey, all right.
You guys are like all up on the top of the,
yeah, it's a little sweet stuff there. Yeah, it's daunting.
But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I know that I'm not, I'm probably
bit reserved on my emotions right now about that, but it's just because I'm nervous.
That makes sense. Yeah. But then I feel like with it being when you don't do it,
like for a long time, it's like anything else. You don't get to like test it out. You don't get
toy with it a little bit. You just throw you right back in there and go live and you start.
And so, I don't know. I'm hoping I'm still good at it and hoping I have fun. I know I have fun,
but I hope we're... We set the Amazon thing. Everybody loved it. Most everybody loved it.
That's a thing. 98% of the people loved it. Can you repeat it?
Can we repeat it? Can we kind of deliver on what we delivered last year?
Whew. Next question was, is there a crew chief that you didn't dry for that you wish you could
have driven for? A crew chief? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Rodney Childers. We were high school friends
and, you know, he got into the deal and it just never worked out.
But that would have been probably awesome. You saw what him and Harvick did together.
That's probably... Is there one now that you're like... I'd like to try for if I like... It's
different now. No, because the crew chiefs are not the guys setting the cars up as much anymore.
Yeah, it's more engineers doing it. You know, you could still try for Rodney.
Yeah, you could do one off. I mean, the window's open still. The door's open, I guess.
What about a driver? Is there any driver that you'd never really got to know that you wish
you knew earlier, you know, like hung out with? I know someone that I never...
All of them, man. I like being friends with everybody.
I always thought I never got... We never crossed paths very much, but like Brendan
gone to me would always seems like someone that would have been a lot of fun to hang out with.
Yeah. I think you'd been fun to hang out at the casino.
Yeah.
At the casino?
Because that's what his family does for a living. Oh.
He just seems like... I've always heard good stories about him and he's a good dude.
Yeah. I agree. I wanted... I set out to be friends. Like my hope when I... When the new
guy came into the series or even with Kyle Busch when he started racing in the Xfinity
series or Riley series or whatever. Like I want to be friends with everybody. Like I...
I want to be pals. I want to race hard, have fun. We'll get into some disagreements on the
racetrack, all that fun stuff, but I didn't want to... to be... I don't...
I'm not a... Like I want to be... be buddies with everybody.
I will say you were a lot... You were open to all them. Anytime someone new come around,
you're like, oh, hey man, good to see you out here. Like when Scott Speed come to the party
that one time, you're like, hey, man, what's up, man? Like...
I mean, I just sometimes it just didn't happen or something's happened on track or...
Does it make it harder though to be friends and then go on the track and...
I don't think so.
There's going to be days where you run into each other and screw each other over, but
I could... I'd get out like and go, dude, what the F? Like, you know, you're on the wall there.
What the frickin' hell? Let's be buddies and let's talk it through. You know,
we're friends. Why did you do that?
I know.
Should I expect that next time? Is that how you're going to raise me?
Yeah. Yeah.
We also got to know like Casey Kane quite a bit.
Yeah, we were pals.
Yeah, Casey started coming over to quite a bit and yeah, it was fun.
I like being buddies with all the other drivers. I did.
Yeah, it was fun.
But if it... Sometimes it just didn't happen.
Like there's a lot of guys that I never talked to and just...
I'm not going to talk to... I'm not that guy that's going to go up and start the conversation.
I'm not like, you know... I didn't... like,
clopple. Me and clopple never talked.
Now we're, you know, we're working together to try to work our workers' kids up through the ranks.
But when we raced against each other, we had some run-ins on the racetrack where we disagreed
and didn't like each other for a minute or two, but yeah.
Gotcha. Well, I think we'll end it there.
That's it. That's how you want to end it.
Yeah, that's how you're going to end it.
That's a good way to end it.
That's it. I think that was good.
Yeah, that was great.
Okay.
You're terrible at ending things Travis.
Do the people at home want us to quit?
There's no more good questions. Not even one.
Not seeing any right now.
All right.
Geez.
Do we're going to do some dirty air?
What?
I'm sorry. We're going to do some dirty mode dough.
Yeah.
Okay. All right, let's do that next.
Well, you want to...
Yeah. Wrap it up.
Yep.
Yep.
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Way to go, Travis.
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Way to go, Travis.
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Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
All right, it's time for Dirty Mode Doe.
TJ, me and you're going to handle this.
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Russ did say that Denny was going to win on Sunday.
Said he was a favorite.
Tim said Ross Justine, who didn't make the all-star race.
Well, we're going to head into the 600.
Ross tried harder for damn sure.
This is being recorded on Monday.
There's no lines today.
I do have the model.
You got the model.
What's the model say?
Take a guess.
Who's number one?
Denny Hamlin.
Number two?
Kyle Larson.
Nope.
William Byron.
Nope.
Briscoe.
Nope.
Chase Elliott.
Tyler Reddick.
Two.
Where's Briscoe?
I think Briscoe's going to win it.
Briscoe is ninth.
He can't win this one.
It's too long.
It's 600 miles.
It's too far.
Okay.
What does that have to do with?
Why does that have to do with it?
You won at Pocono.
Yeah, I just think I just don't like this.
This is one of the strengths to me.
It's not one of the strengths to me.
Set on pole last year.
Yeah, we crashed two minutes ago on practice last week, too.
All right.
So who's going to win it, TJ?
I mean, C-bell to me stands out on this one.
C-bell, I believe, just what he won here a couple years ago.
He's ain't done it.
Denny goes back to back.
Do we think?
Well, with the bell, though, it just feels like every week
something's happening to that car.
Like, he just can't.
I'm not saying it's all his fault, but...
I know.
But I mean, I don't judge Dover.
It doesn't matter to me.
He can pop off.
Yep.
Yeah, and I mean...
Still no.
That's why I feel like I can say Briscoe, because I feel like that...
It's just the 600 is one of those races where...
Your Christopher Bell, more than likely, will be leading that race at mile 400.
Denny will be there.
Denny will be there.
He'll be probably leading it at mile 500.
But it's always that...
It's that race where it lends itself to the opportunity of a guy like a Briscoe
to slide in there and start his run, just like he did last year, and a Byron.
See, that's what I was going to say, because I feel like they're the team that just finds it.
Well, Briscoe, Byron, there's all these guys that are sort of on the fringe
outside of that top six, you know?
And they're the guys that we thought could get in there and mix it up this year.
Well, this is the weekend where they might be able to toss themselves into that conversation.
I feel like it's the opposite for me.
This is a 600.
There's more opportunity for mistakes.
It's a big race.
It's a crown jewel.
Guys try harder in this race, right?
But I mean, I think it's Denny Bell.
Honestly, this is probably one of Brad's better races,
because it's longer and it just takes the mental strength of not making...
You know, okay, I got a fifth place card.
I need to try to run fifth.
Sometimes guys try to run third in it, and it bites them at some point.
What about Kyle Larson?
I like Larson too.
I do this year.
He's had some mistakes in this race.
What do you make, though, of like...
Do you make anything of the streak of him going winless?
It's been like 30 some...
Or is it a non-story for you?
Non-story.
I don't think it's a big deal.
Charlotte also has been a track where Hendrick has been able to capitalize.
Yeah.
They owned it for a long time.
Yeah.
So I could see them...
I could see them coming out of here with a win,
but I'm not sure what's driver it would be.
What about Hosevar?
He's obviously got some speed seeing success now, but is it too...
I don't think he has the fast...
I don't...
Last year, he ran like, you know, top 10 all night.
Had good, you know, good speed, and I think he can do that again.
I don't know that Spire is going to beat the Toyotas
or going to beat a good Hendrick night.
Yeah.
I think he's going to run fourth at best.
If he can run great, if he can have a good night, fourth is it.
Yeah.
Which is a great run.
Absolutely.
It's a great run.
Oh, he'll take a...
If you told him on fourth right now, you'd be like,
Spire probably like, let's, we'll take it.
Spire would be, I think, I think Hosevar would be like, I want to win.
Well, he wants to win, but I think if he's being honest,
would be like, I'll take a fourth.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think Chase Elliott could be really fast this weekend.
I just feel like it's kind of similar to a Texas.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just feel like he's got some momentum right now.
You know, a couple of months ago, we were talking about Chase struggle,
and now he's got two wins this year already,
and nobody's talking about the things we were talking about.
So the weights, you know, I think, I just think he's going to be good.
Man, if he won his third race, the 600 at Charlotte, that would be a statement.
Yeah.
Alan's back to be in the best.
I think, I mean, this is more points up for grab than any race.
This is technically the second most important race outside of,
well, actually the most important race that now,
and that is a great point.
Teams know that we talk about that stuff.
So this is why I think guys try a little bit harder
because they know you can get a lot of points this race.
Try harder.
I think they go make moves they might not,
they're going to be more aggressive.
They had this conversation.
They don't try harder, but they're more aggressive.
I know.
So like Ross, Ross was more aggressive and trying harder.
How like, how tolling though, is it Dale for this race to be in the car?
Well, I'll tell you this.
You definitely recognize when you've crossed that threshold of 500 miles.
Our bodies are, our bodies, we get muscle memory.
We get, you know, we get conditioned.
We get conditioned and you recognize when you go beyond that three and a half,
three hour, 45 minute mark and that extra 100 miles,
it's, it, you have to, you have to focus harder to stay focused.
You have to, you have to think harder to stay locked in.
You have to, you're, everything about you starts to say,
well, this should be over.
Why are we still doing this?
I'm tired.
I'm ready to, I'm ready for this to be over.
You know, everything about you has,
is going beyond what you're traditionally doing.
And is it more notos on a bad night?
Oh, that's gotta be burnals.
Yeah.
That's no fun.
500 miles into a hole.
I mean, if you're running 20, 20 second,
not, not a bad, not, I mean, a bad night as far as like,
you know, several laps down.
But even if you're running like 17th, 18th and you're struggling
and you know that's like as good as it's going to get,
it's a, it's tough.
It's not fun.
Long, you keep looking at the scoreboard going, damn, what lap is it?
Yeah, it's only, it's only three 12.
Lot of green flag stops possibly as well.
So more room for mistakes there.
Turns the room.
Hope lots of Rex.
I love the Rex.
Let's wreck them.
Some, some of them.
Yep.
Yeah.
Anything else?
Any other drivers we should be on the lookout for?
I really don't know.
I don't think so.
I mean, there's some guys that need some good runs.
Yeah.
There's some, I mean, I look for Blaney to bounce back.
I think Blaney will be.
I think Blaney will be all right.
I think Blaney will be fast.
I think maybe not top three, but I think Blaney will be good.
He's been good there.
I'm interested.
A syndric.
I mean, another, I mean, syndric surprisingly running
quietly, really good.
So there's, you know, and then what happens, you know,
does Joey turn it around this weekend or?
This was a race last year that SVG had a relatively decent night.
You know?
Trackhouse had a good night.
Yeah.
But I remember this being one of the ones where it was kind of like,
oh, okay, he's running 22nd.
You know what I mean?
He's not, you know, he's respectable.
He says, yeah, 18th.
So maybe that'll be a driver I kind of pay attention to
to see if he can, you know, because it is a long race.
You know, you might, you might not see him.
You, you, even if you're not running well in the first 100 miles,
you still got a lot of race.
Exactly.
You have to stay in at the entire race.
Yeah.
To be able to sort of rebound, find yourself, you know, attrition.
The car's going to change.
And this is one of them races where you can be running 20 second
and then get a caution at the right time.
And your 12th, get a good restart.
Next thing you know, your eighth or ninth and your whole race is flipped.
Oh yeah.
Yep.
For sure.
So I'll be, be tuning in to see if SVG can, can have a solid night.
Suarez is he has speed?
You know what I mean?
There's a lot of, there's a storyline almost with every driver.
For sure.
Kyle Busch, he's kind of got his, that'd be a driver too.
I think, you know, Kyle's running better.
Starting to show speed, had great speed at Texas, good speed this past weekend.
Give me a, let's do a top 10 bet.
Three drivers.
And we're going for good odds.
We're not going for sure of things.
So I'd put Kyle Busch in there.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's going, what's going for it?
I know it.
I want to go for it.
We're going for it.
I'm going to put Kyle Busch in there.
Carson Hosevar.
And of course Carson's odds might not be all that great.
The model has Busch 15th, Hosevar 16th.
Yeah.
So I would put them two in a top 10.
Where's Briscoe?
Briscoe's ninth.
Yeah.
I'll do Briscoe.
That might move it to those three.
I think Briscoe, I mean, that's like, I don't know if that's really reaching that far for that.
That car should be top 10.
One guy.
No, Dale's just trying to, yeah.
Dale's just trying to get people to win a bet.
Yeah.
Win a good bet.
All right.
Let's move on.
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Whether it's die cast, sheet metal, trophies, shirts, whatever you got in your collection,
we want to see it.
I'm going to throw out a new item that I want to see this time around.
Trading cards.
Okay.
I've seen a lot more of them people post.
Let's see some trading cards.
Let's see some trading cards.
So whatever you got, take photos, videos.
Videos usually win, but photos have won before.
We're going to do a social media post at our Dirty Mode media accounts.
And you can tag or post along with that, respond to it.
And we're selecting the winner next week.
So good luck.
Also, May 21st.
That's this week.
Junior Motor Sports Fan Day.
Dirty Mode media is going to have live shows starting at 9 a.m.
That's going to be on SiriusXM as well if you're not able to be here in person.
Daniel Trotta and Larry McRandals will kick it off.
And then around 11 o'clock, you'll have Dirty Mode live with Mike Davis, Kenny Wallace and friends.
And then at noon, bless your heart with Amy and myself.
And then one to two, doorbubber clear.
If you can't make it out, tune in to SiriusXM.
We're going to also be posting the shows as normal podcasts.
Thanks for joining us here at the Arby's Studio.
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