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Welcome Back, Chase Format
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About this episode
Dale Jr. and TJ Majors kick off the new season with heartfelt tributes to Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin’s family tragedy, then pivot into NASCAR’s newly announced playoff format. They break down why the committee pushed for a 36-race feel, the points reset/premiums, and how removing “win-and-you’re-in” changes strategy and fan engagement. The conversation also covers Tony Stewart’s surprise return to NASCAR in a Dodge truck at Daytona, the recent lawsuit fallout, and updates on the Cars Tour (including Flow streaming and a new “Floatium” $10k program).
Topics:
nascars new playoff points format
why 36-race feel matters
removing win-and-youre-in
strategy changes with stage points
tony stewart returning in a dodge truck at daytona
greg biffle and denny hamlin tragedies
nascar lawsuit resolution and leadership changes
cars tour season kickoff and streaming on flow
floatium $10k driver bonus program
ask jr fan questions and banter
After taking part in a monumental NASCAR press conference, Dale Earnhardt Jr. kicks off 2026 with a brand-new edition of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to discuss the major overhaul of the NASCAR Championship points format and more:
- Reflecting on a tragic off-season
- The new points format is here
- The Chase for the Championship will reignite fans’ passion for racing
- Drivers will need to put together an entire season
- After a frustrating year, this is a step in the right direction
- Tony Stewart to make his NASCAR return
- Steve Phelps resigns
- CARS Tour is kicking off soon, with the biggest season yet
During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, fans wrote in questions regarding:
- Using aliases
- Three-person team for the zombie apocalypse
- Favorite recess games
- Dream professions growing up
And for more content, check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia
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Dodge Journey
"...o have to build all season long to complete this journey to be a champion. And the week after that, and th..."
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Chevrolet Corvette
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Hyundai Venue
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This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half.
I don't know if we've ever argued that piss you off over the weekend or I'm still sour that I want
the best man at your wedding. Who was your best man, Dale? DJ. You don't need a cool best for that
race. What are you thinking? Get him, DJ. That's the way it's starting to show. All right then.
Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Another
season of the Dale Jr. Download with my buddy, T.J. Majors. It's starting. Yeah. Hey, congratulations
to your bills. Oh, yeah. We're still alive, right? Still alive somehow. Man, I had this really great
parlay put together and the Jags killed it. They almost wanted Jags. Yeah, almost counts.
Well, hey, I'm glad to be sitting here. I'm glad to be back at the table with all of y'all. It's
great to be in the room with all our friends and I miss doing the show. I miss everybody that's
out there listening. So here we are. We're back and there is a ton. A lot. A ton to talk about, but
the first thing we want to do, we haven't been able to have a chance to say this,
want to send all of our thoughts and our prayers out to Greg Biffle, his family. That was really
tough. Very tough. Yeah, that was tough. The time of year, just everything about it was...
Yep. It was hard and I can't imagine what it must be like for his friends, his close friends,
his family members, and I'm sure that they're all still absolutely devastated and we just
were thinking about them. I also want to give a minute to mention Denny Hamlin and what he
had to experience and go through with his father, the house fire, and his mom. I don't have any
firsthand knowledge or information, but I'm hoping that his mom is doing well.
Looked like she was recovering from some of the stuff that I saw.
Well, I'm hoping that she's doing well and tragically losing a parent. Denny had been
open and vocal about his dad and his dad's had an illness that he's been dealing with and things
weren't looking really good long term in that situation, but then to tragically lose him like
that in a house fire and just scary. That is super, super scary. Can't imagine how terrifying that
must have been and sad for Denny to have to go through this. Both incidents are terrible
tragedies like thinking about going through either of them are just really bad. It is.
Yeah, it is. It really is. We kind of get called up in our lives and doing the day to day and trying
to get our kids to school and get up and do things and just get here and do a podcast.
And I think we forget about how delicate things are, how delicate life is, how quickly
things can change. And sometimes these sort of situations can absolutely put
things into perspective and remind you how brief and short this life is that we live.
And yeah, you take a lot away from it, but you know, one thing about it to me is with this hits
close to home when it's people that you've raced against or you kind of know we've all had personal
experiences with these people. I, Greg, man, Denny and Greg. So yeah, so a lot of people have
heard about this, but you were going to test, you knew Denny because you raced against him,
we built the late model and you went and raced against him a little bit. Yeah, he was one of the
first guys that I got to really be good friends with in the late model racing. That's right. And
such, such, you know, such good friends that we decided you were going to go test a dash car
down at Daytona. We had spent a couple thousand dollars to fit in. Yeah, it wasn't, it was an
experience. It was a junk old race car and we gave these folks a couple thousand dollars for
you to go down there and run some laps and trying to get you clear to actually race in the race.
And so Denny rode down in the truck with y'all. Oh yeah, we roomed with each other that week in
the hotel. Yeah. And what year was this? That would have been January of 03, I think. Yeah. And
um, so we then, you know, we started kind of hanging out Denny Denny. We started talking to
Denny spending more time making trips down and hanging out with us and stuff and became
a pretty good friend. We sim sim raced with him a lot on NASCAR 2003. And then
he was trying to get into a job at Gibbs. Yeah. And he called me and he said, Hey,
I'm coming down to Daytona and I ain't got anywhere to stay. I'm meeting with Gibbs.
And I wanted him to come drive the city car at DEI. And I was, but he told me he's like,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to this Gibbs meeting, but I don't have anywhere to stay. I was like,
come down, stay on the bus in the, in the driver's lot. And so I think he spent the night on the
couch a night or two in Daytona. And then we won the Daytona 500. That had been in 04. And he was
in victory lane. And then when the victory lane syllabus is over, he carried the trophy back to
the bus. Yeah. And so, and you know, he would go on to become Denny Hamlin. He had a really good,
he got that shot with Bobby daughter in the shocks and he went and ran like IRP and ran
really well, really well and opened a lot of doors for him. Yeah. And then he become, he would
become this big time, you know, they become Danny, Danny. Yeah. Winner car owner. And
you know, even though we don't really, you know, he is a part of the dirty mode media
family. And that's a picture of us all in Victor Lane right there. So he's a part of the
dirty mode media family. I don't, I talked to Danny every now and then we might talk about
the trial or text back and forth about different things going on in the sport every now and then,
but regardless that we, you know, we're not quite as close, I guess, as we were back in 2004.
You know, when somebody goes through that kind of a tragedy, you're, you think about them,
you want to know that you're okay, you want to reach out to them, make sure that they're feeling
supported. There's nothing you can, you know, I've been through some tragedies and I still
don't think that I know what to really say or how to really be there for somebody, but you just
try, right? You just, I think it's just the message that you get. Like they like seeing the message
that you actually thought about him a call. Yeah, I know. Sometimes there's been times when, like,
when I've had some, I wouldn't say close friends, I think I would do that for every single close
friend, but there's been some people that I wish I would have done something more, you know,
so you learn from those experiences, but yeah. As you get older, I feel like there's more of
that. Like I should have reached out to that. I should have reached out, like, you know,
when Christmas comes around, you want to send a group, you send it like that. I wish, like,
here's, you want to text everybody in your phone at this point. I know. With Greg, I knew Greg,
because we, I got a boxer from Greg. Greg, yeah, that's right. Killer. He came from Greg's,
Greg had two boxers and they had a litter and killer came from that and Greg would have, and so,
you know, I'm racing against Greg and I don't know him. I get a dog. Somehow I, my sister knew
them really well and was like, Greg's got a dog. You want a dog? I'm like, yeah. And so then that,
you know, Greg would see killer in the bus lot and come by and check on him and we got to becoming
starting to communicate. It's weird how that works. And then Greg would do this calendar every
year for the Humane Society and killer would, they'd won't kill him in the end. So we'd take
these pictures and so I felt this sort of friendship with Greg because I was supporting
something that he was doing and, but I saw the things that him and Harvard got into and I saw
Greg, Greg was like, you know, rub a couple of guys the wrong way. A little bit. Yeah. In 10 years
of spotting for you. I can't ever remember running, having run in with Greg. Not once. Yeah. And so,
so, you know, I'm kind of like, I don't know who Greg is really, right? And then when he,
you know, we rate, we never had a problem on the racetrack. We always race fine.
When he, when he retired or kind of, I retired and we kind of both started kind of slowing down
at the same time. I started seeing him more and we start me, Amy wanted to do stuff with
some of the animal hospitals and stuff that Greg was involved in. And so we would go and
hang out and see Greg and we would run into each other on the lake on our boats and stuff and cut
up and laugh. I know I had a 50 foot one and he has an 80 foot one. It's huge. We would laugh
about how silly those things were. And so I got to know him, you know, we all did. We all got to
know him watching him do some YouTube stuff, watching him do his little dirt race out on his
farm and become friends with Cleetus and sort of open up a little bit and do these videos and
things. And I think we all got to see more of him, more of him, you know, really the true individual
that he is. And it, I learned, I think, all the way up until recently that, you know, he,
he, all the stuff with Kevin, you know, even back in the day, like he just loved to kind of
fool with people, mess with people, right? And he was always kind of poking and prodding and
playing, but he had a really good personality. Those two guys on the track at the same time, too.
I can see where they could run and have some run ins. Oh yeah. But Greg was,
you know, I mean, I'm not, you know, we all know what he did for the Western North Carolina
and all that stuff. But I'm just saying, just as a person, like if you were sitting at the table
with him hanging out, he was so fun. I just, I always remember the story. I don't know what
we were doing. I was at your house and this hell, remember when the helicopter landed?
He just landed in the yard and we're like, I don't know who that is. And he comes walking up
and he's like, yeah, I thought you lived there. I followed this creek bed around and we're like,
holy cow. And we just hung out for a little bit, which was kind of cool. I mean, I mean,
I don't know many people that would do that. Just Greg Biffle, which was kind of neat. So,
but like that, like every time you see him from him, he'd always say, Hey, he's always,
yeah, super friendly. He just loves to have fun too, man. Like he, them races he did on his farm
and stuff. Like you said, man, they were fun to watch. Yeah. And yeah, just a great guy. Yeah.
I love what Cleetus is doing. Be like Biff. Yeah. I think that's, that's a good slogan. Yeah. I love
that Cleetus is trying to keep, keep, remind, you know, help sort of remind people of who Greg was.
So anyhow, want to get into, we had a big announcement in NASCAR yesterday. The playoff
format was announced and I was invited to come be a part of that. And I was excited to,
honestly, I'll be honest with you. I did not know exactly what they had decided
up until a couple, couple of weeks ago, maybe, maybe even seven days ago. We got an email,
probably middle of the off season last year said, you've been picked to be a part of this
committee. You want to be a part of it? I said, yeah. And so didn't know who else was on it.
We get to Daytona and we had our first in-person meeting and go up to this room at the top of the,
top of the grandstands and was like, holy moly, there's all these people here,
drivers, NASCAR folks, network people, media personalities, a lot of people, lots of people.
And I'm thinking, I really thought out of the gate, this is going to be noisy. And I'm pretty
sure how I feel about all this is going to get lost in the conversation. I looked across the room
and I'm like, I don't think I can convince the networks to let go of what they want to hang on to.
I don't think I can convince NASCAR to go as far as they need to go.
We started conversations. We started talking. And honestly, Christopher Bell,
a couple of the drivers were super honest about, you know, how they wanted this to feel.
And that was really helpful hearing from the drivers out of the gate. Mark Martin obviously
put his foot down right away. 36 races is the way to go. He went far. I mean, that's Mark.
Listen, there's a lot of credit being given to Martin and it's deserving because
right out of the gate, he's like, this is the best way to do it.
And he never let off the gas with that. I appreciate that about Mark a lot too.
If Mark hadn't been so adamant at first and stayed the course, I don't know that we would have gotten
this far. And so, and he really did put his neck on the line because when he first said that in
that first meeting, I'll be honest, man, there's a lot of people I think rolled their eyes just,
you know, blocked it out. They were like, yeah, yeah, this is never, we're never going to do this.
So why are we, why are we wasting our time in this meeting going on and on about 36 races? So
did you feel that when you were there? I got a whole story for you, pal. We get through that
first meeting and, you know, it was still, even though we didn't even, you know, the first meeting
was just, hey, this is what we're trying to do. We're all going to gather. We're going to spend
the year going over this and figure this out. And even after the first meeting, I was still
hopeful. I'm like, hey, I'm going to see this through. Hey, I'm going to see what happens. Who knows?
A lot of the rest of the conversations were done through email. We had a couple more gatherings
over Zooms and stuff. And every time Mark was still full on, you know, 36 is the way to go.
Fans are telling me I'm hearing this. I'm hearing that. And everybody was like, yeah,
you know, the fans that are telling you that are your age and we're not sure about, you know,
the 25 year old fan, he's not saying that to you. It's always, you know, we really weren't sure
whether we were being sold a bill of goods. Like, I felt like, hey, man, are we really going to
determine a new system here? Or do y'all already know what you want to do? And this is just a show,
right? And so, you understand what I'm saying? Am I making sense to you? Yeah. Okay. I know it's
so during some of the meetings, I can't tell whether you're lost. Am I am I losing you? No,
I'm locked into what you're saying. So during like some of them Zooms in the middle of the year,
where you kind of like feeling we had a zoom up, we had a zoom. I remember I was in Kelly's office
and I said, I said, Hey, it was like, I don't know, June. Yeah. And I was like, I'll be honest,
y'all. I was like, I'm with Mark on it. I feel like 36 is the best way to decide it.
Like 36 is the best way to choose who truly is champion. I guess there's no argument.
You're not going to change my mind. There's no way you could ever change my mind about that.
And I said, look, I know that's probably a bridge too far for everybody here.
I don't expect us to ever get there, but we need to keep in mind that that is
truly the best way to do it. So this new system has to have a feel for that, an element for that.
And one of the things that I said that I think was important to me, I remember being a kid and
just wanting to devour this sport and just take in, I couldn't get enough, couldn't get enough.
And so I was every weekend, I was like, who's what's going to happen? And I had, obviously,
my dad to root for. And so imagine, I imagine that the hard fans who love this driver pull
for that guy just as hard as I pull for my dad, right? And they tune in and they want to know
how that guy's going to do. And when we had the full season points, you couldn't take a week off
as a fan, because that race might be the race where your guy breaks a motor and gives up 180
points. Yeah, you don't want to miss it. You know, that could be that race that's in the middle of
the year that seems like it's not really that important. It could be the one that loses you
the championship. And I, we had lost that. I had lost that. I was not being drawn
to the sport every weekend. I was not wanting to devour it up. I was sitting there going, you know
what? I kind of know who's in the playoffs. I can kind of check out or you see the highlights.
I'll, you know, I'll see the highlights in the middle of the week. I can miss this one. I don't
need to tune in today. I'm not drawn to it. I had lost. Yeah, dude. And I was, I'm careful to admit
this because, man, I'm a broadcaster. I got all kinds of roles and responsibilities. And so I
don't know if that hurts my position in the sport to say I was falling out of love with it. I really
was. Yeah. And so, you know, I still, the, the, the core of motorsports I love and the idea of
getting cars together and putting them on a track and throwing a, throwing a green flag and a checkered.
I love that idea and always will. But what, what we were and had become was so far removed.
It was. And so gimmicky and, and, and contrived and, and complex, hard to follow. And so
I was not looking forward. I had gotten to the point to where it was like, man, I don't want to watch
this season because they're just going to go all the way to Phoenix and four guys are going to see
who goes and wins it. It's so, it's too much happenstance, too much potluck. It's too much,
it's not enough. I need to really, truly watch this person build this body of work.
It needs to be a whole season's worth of work. Yeah. And yeah, hard work. Yeah. Of good work.
Yeah. And so, you know, there was a lot about it that it was just falling away from me and
I was falling out of love with it. But what I miss was being pulled like a moth to a flame,
being pulled back in every single weekend and going, damn, my guys, you know,
my guy needs to make up 80 points. Is he going to get a, is he going to get a chunk today?
Am I going to watch him freaking work his way back into this battle?
You know, because that was the way we lived it. That's how you, listen, that's how I lived it
in the 80s and the 90s and so forth was, and even in my own career, I would sit there and go,
man, we got to gain 80 points or we need, yeah, can I get 30 on this guy this week?
You know, and you, every single week you knew you needed to do something, achieve something.
Even if it was a littlest bit, I remember during the summer, we'd get on a little bit of a roll of
like, you know, like five or six top fives in a month and you can, I mean, every week was like,
man, we gained a little bit here. We're chipping and like them hot streaks to me were like fun.
Those battles during the summer and being consistent and earning it that way. It's hard.
Yeah. Well, I, you know, I think that I'm excited to tune into a race season where
how you perform at Daytona, how you perform at Atlanta, how your season begins
is going to really sort of give you an idea of whether you're championship worthy because
with the old system and this system that we're bringing back, if you start off in a whole four
weeks in a row, you know, if you, if you come out of the gate, cold, you have a bad Daytona,
bad Atlanta, you get, you get yourself in a hole. It's hard. You got a heart. You got a,
you got a lot to consider. Really difficult. It is. That wasn't the case last year.
You'd get in a hole and pop off a win. Everything was fixed. Well, that just became,
if you had a bad month to start the season, you just put all your cards in for the wins and you
did all like, it wasn't like a, you could have ran 30th, three races in a row after that didn't
matter. You were going for the win. And I think we talked about it on the show. I, I need the lows
to be low. I need the highs to be high. And we had lost the highs weren't any, the highs weren't
as high. You know, your driver would win a race in the fifth race of the season. Yeah, it was great.
He's into plows, but other than that, I mean, and then if you had a bad race, you didn't care.
He didn't even care. The drivers would get out and go, bad race. Oh well. Yeah, I can win next
week and still be fine. But not anymore. I think even, even though we still have a chase,
even though there is a reset, bad weeks are going to affect your ability to really go win the
championship in that, in that chase. Okay. They've done some, they've done tons of modeling on this
thing and they ran. So I know the dudes that work on the, the algorithm or whatever you want to call
it, where they basically kind of set up the model and then they run it through all these
hypotheticals. I know that people that have worked on this and they've told me that while, while no
format is foolproof to a fluke, this one, this one's going to be, if you're outside the top five
at the start of the chase, you're going to have to be like remarkable to make it work.
That's why people are like, I want less people in the playoffs. It's fine if you have 16 because
it's fine because yeah, like 10th through 16th, you have a very, very slim. You got to hit it if
you're going to freaking eight. So what's the point of between first and 16th to start the chase?
The regular season champion gets starts at 2100 and each person and then seconds,
75 points and so on with a five point drop after each. Sorry? Second, 75 points? What?
First gets 100, second gets 75, third gets 65 with a five point drop for each seat after.
So the guy out front, the dude's number one's 25 points. 25 had the second place to start.
And it's half a race. And that's pretty big because you think about like, it's half a race.
In the original point system, that would be like 90 points. We get 180 points for a good day.
But if you get hot, it is obtainable. It is, which is good.
You don't have to get hot. And you get 55 points if you win now.
But let me ask you this now. P 16 and points, uh, Joey Logano, 16 points,
gets hot first race of the playoffs. How far behind is 16th to the leader?
Look at your notes right there. You're basically starting at zero, right? You're starting at just
2000. Okay. So he's how far back 100? That's a two races. I mean, if he wins the point from that,
that's deserving to me from that point. Yeah. Yeah. But listen, so we're, we'll sit there.
We'll sit there, uh, in the middle of the season, we're watching in the old system,
we're watching the bubble, we're watching the bubble and it's like, you know, a couple guys
and they're like 20 or 10 points apart and you'll have this guy that's in like 20th,
that's 40 points back or whole race back and they get kind of close, maybe 30,
maybe 20 points within, but they never get to that bubble. And if you're, you have, so let's just say
the top three guys in the chase are going to have a points advantage. They are also the
top three, the best three cars of the season. They're great. They're good. They're going to go
run 10 races. They'll make stubbed their toe here and there, but they're not going to give up two
races to the guy that's been 16th in points and had a 16th point season. You know what I'm saying?
It's going to be, it'd be tough. They're not going to give up two race. Three of them aren't going
to give up two races to the guy in 16th points. So like, you might, you might beat one of them
because they might have just, they're going to have to blow a couple of motors.
Couple of accidents and motors. Yeah. They're going to have to have just
chase, which can happen, but I just, you know, it doesn't, I agree. Like they could have cut it
to 12. They could have cut it to 10. They probably should have, but it doesn't really matter because
16th has such a disadvantage. It's like, why are we going to argue about that?
And you'd create some more work anyways with, but if he did win it, it'd be deserving because
he's had to have a phenomenal play or chase. I don't see a world where it happens either.
So I ain't worried about it, but, but it's not going to happen by locking into a win and then
being in the final chain race. You know what I mean? Like how it's been. It's like, you're going to
have to earn it every single week. Like you're going to have to be outstanding. Yeah. I'm happy
about it. Me too. There's 12 drivers in the Xfinity series and there's 10 in the truck,
which I think are, those are better, but it doesn't really matter that they're 16 in the
cup because again, like I don't think I'm not that, I don't feel like, you know,
12th to 16th is much of a threat, 13th to 16th. And I mean, they take offense to that if you're
14th or something in points when the cut, you know, when the chase begins, but I don't feel
like they're a threat to go out there and beat the guys that are going to have, you know, the
top three point seasons. Yeah. So I mean, your champion is probably going to come out of the
top three, maybe the top five some years. Yeah. I, um, I like that. It's just easier to explain
to people now. Yeah. That's true. Trying to explain the playoff to my dad was like impossible.
Simpler. I'm so glad winning your in is gone. Look, I love that when it was, when it was me,
when it, you know, I love that when it's my favorite driver. Yeah, of course, but I'm glad
it's gone. What moments do you think that takes away? The winning your in like the Austin Dillon
thing at Richmond does, you know what I mean? Does he get that aggressive to win a race still?
You know, can you think of any other instance? Probably a good thing. I mean, you lose the
Harrison Burton moment, but like, it's still cool for them to win though. So,
Hey, Harrison Burton, let me tell you this. And Harrison wanted to admit this. Jeff Burton
wanted to admit this and they don't have to. They won that race at Daytona. They did not.
Look, they went into that, you know, they went into the playoffs saying all the right things.
And of course they should, but they knew damn good and well, they didn't have a shot in hell,
winning the championship. And if that didn't exist, right? And they had this system and he
goes out there and Wednesday ton them. They celebrate it just as hard. They're just as happy.
It's just as big of a story. And we've lost nothing as a fan. I've not lost anything.
You know what? I actually feel like that I would appreciate it more if it was just
celebrating a Wood Brothers win with Harrison Burton and nothing else. Yeah, I was fine with
that. The fact that that other playoff baggage was tied to that moment was actually problematic for me.
You know what I mean? It might be like, I agree with that somehow. It's weird to think about,
but I would, I think it weighs it down some. It did. Like I'd be happy. I was happy that he won
the race and he should be in like, but I do think that it went from like here like, oh,
but I mean, taking up a spot. John Wood would sit here and tell us, well, last hole, that costs us
a lot of money because we would, we'd make, that's like a, that's like a $2 million check
when you lock into the playoffs. Right? So that's gone. So there's, there's, listen,
I am a fan. I've got an opinion. I don't expect everyone to agree with mine. John Wood would say
that the win in your end was good for the Wood Brothers a couple of years. And by God, they,
you know, I can understand his point of view. And if I was a, you know, if I was a guy that was,
you know, running the Wood Brothers and I had a charter, I would be like, man, I really enjoyed
getting that, you know, that money if we could get ourselves into the playoffs with a win.
So it, it, it affects everybody uniquely. It really affects probably Trackhouse the most.
Why? Well, you had SVG and then you bring it over Connor, who you think might have a chance
to win a road course. Has anybody done the math on whether SVG would have made it
on this system? That's a good question. I don't know what the new points.
Yeah. I think he's 60. Cause that would have been. Do you know he was 22nd?
He was 22nd points in the old system. I think that I think that if you do the math,
I bet you SVG is 16th in points. I would hope so with this season last year. Yes, by two.
And you know what? He deserves it. Yeah. I would have been like, Hey, yeah, he deserves it.
He deserves it. One, but six races. Yeah, man. He had a great season. Four in the regular season.
Yeah. Yeah. He had a great season. Yeah. And he got the biggest thing to hit. The biggest thing that
I saw with SVG wasn't the road course wins because you expect that from him. It was the other tracks
that I saw him get better at. Yeah. And he's learning them. So that's really good. Yeah.
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I don't know who doesn't know what's going on with all this. I'll give you some more
information around the playoffs if you haven't been paying much attention.
Just for cup, 16 drivers, no win in your end. We're going to start the season. You're going to
accumulate your points. The top 16 in points are going to go into the chase. Race winners are going
to collect more points, 55 total. That's a 15 point increase over last year.
All the points awarded for positions and stage results remain the same. There are no bankable
playoff points, so you don't get a playoff point. You know what? This sucks for broadcasters,
because our asses are used to one thing, right? I'm going to mess up. Be ready. Call my ass out.
Points are going to reset for each series and they'll be a 25 point premium awarded to the
regular season champion. Meaning when we start the chase, the top seed will have 2100 points,
second 2075, and then third will be 2065, and there's a 5 point drop after each.
So just pretty silly, basic, simple. We'll learn that quick. Yeah. That's easy,
but I'm going to screw up a couple times in the booth, but hey, I'll be honest. I am so relieved.
Like when you guys heard this announcement, I don't know if y'all felt this,
but when I got out of there yesterday, it was like a ton of bricks being pulled off my shoulders,
and I had this feeling of anticipation about the new season.
I have this feeling that we're back. Let's go. Let's go. I am so excited to tune in and know
that the Daytona 500 is one cog in the leg of this big wagon wheel that you're going to have to
build all season long to complete this journey to be a champion. And the week after that, and the
week after that, and the week after that, you're going to have to tune in. You're going to have to,
you're going to look at the front, the finishing order. You're going to look at the rundown. You're
going to see where this guy finished, and this guy finished, and you're, oh man, is it going to be
sweet? Oh, it's going to be so fun. Yeah, those DNFs are going to really hurt. Oh, it's going to be fun.
I was worried that they weren't going to like truly nail it. I thought there's going to be like
something they missed. I got no issues. The only thing that's, that some people will say is that
it's not 36, but damn, it is nestled right up beside it. It is as close as you can get. It is.
And I was thinking about this. Like, it's like we've drove, you know, we started on the one yard
line in February with this meeting, and it looked like we were never going to get across the 50.
We drove this summer with infield goal range, and we need to take the points, people.
We need to kick the three and get on out. Right? And so,
No need to go for it. No, don't need to go for it. Let's just kick the three, get on out of here.
This was a win. All right. And I, I love NASCAR. I think the world of O'Donnell and all those guys
and everybody that was a big part of that, Tim Clark and everybody. I think the world of Jeff
Binky and a bunch of people that were in that meeting and they're my friends. I would freaking
do anything for them. They were great people, but I did not believe that they would allow us to go
this far. And I didn't believe that they were willing to be malleable enough and open-minded
enough to, to think and consider getting this close to 36. And so, and I'll be honest, I told
them this in the meeting, and I think Mark Martin might have said this as well.
Where we were last year, I would have been nervous to have to be the guy to make the
decision to go to 36. Mark Martin and I were sitting right next to each other and off-camera,
he said that to me. He said, I wanted 36, but I'd have hated to be the guy to make that call
because that's a freaking risk. If you swing and miss. If you swing and miss on that. But
let this is a good, this is a good route to almost getting there. And I can look, I can
really look at this. And the reason why we love 36 is because we know it's the whole piece of the
piece of the, it's the whole pie, right? And it all, all the pie has to be good. And so,
that's why we love 36. Because we feel like that means every single moment, every lap
plays into the result. I can look at what we're doing and feel exactly the same way
about this as I do about 36. This is a full season. This, what you'll have to do is put
together the whole year. That's what I want you to do. And this gives me that, right? And if we need
to, you know, if we need to have a chase and something to sort of, you know, if we need to
have something to sell, fine. How does this change? Does anything change during the races
for like, does race team strategy change for stage points or anything like that now? Because,
man, that's a great question, TJ. And honestly, I can't, I don't know what we're going to see
in some scenarios. I'm just thinking ahead, like, how does it change your
overall look for the race, you know? I feel like, since they've added so much to winning,
that now winning, putting yourself in position to actually win the race, so you, so the stage
points will still be important. We know that guys will strategize sometimes to actually lose the,
you know, take, take away their chances of winning the race, hurt their chances of winning the race
to gain more stage points. We've seen guys do that. Yes, we have. We've seen them do the opposite
too. Yeah. The green, so hold on. The green flag will drop. They'll start racing and the guy'll go,
I f***ing aren't good today. But if I do this and this, I can get these stage points and we'll just
see where we end up in the final stage. And while I, we've got, you know, the third most points,
even though we finished eighth or whatever, right? So they'll do that. We know they will.
But now, so there'll still be some of that. But now, since we've added some points,
more points to winning, that becomes more important, right? So you're going to see,
you might not do that. Yeah. You're going to see people still do a little bit of stage racing,
but less because winning points wise means so much. And so, and I think when these guys start
to realize, TJ, how important it is to be in one of the top five seeds when they realize the
advantage of being one of the top two top seed, they're going to have to get points, points,
points, points all year long. And that's winning races. That's running in the top three.
So we still have the element though of, like you said, the guys that are, you know, eighth to
15th, if they get an opportunity to jump up there and get some stage points, they're going to do it
still to make their, try to make their day a little bit better. Make their day better. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you're going to have guys that are going to go for the win. Like
SVG is leading the road course pits with three to go because he's going to win the race. He's
probably still going to do things like that. And then you're going to have guys that are going to,
you know, cycle and come out, you know, get the stage points and stuff. So I feel like you're
going to have a lot of the same stuff, but for sure. All right. We got some breaking news just
coming across the desk. Tony Stewart, we heard some rumblings about this Dodge truck campaign,
Dodge teasing that they had some legends that were returning to the sport. And this is one
that we felt like might be in the work, in the works for a race or two. Looks like Tony Stewart
is going to be back in NASCAR for one night, three-time series, three-time cup champion.
He's going to drive the truck for college at the opener in Daytona. He hadn't been in NASCAR
since 2016. And this will be his first truck race since 2005. Wow. Boy, he picked the, he picked
the doozy. He did. Goodness. I don't, I wouldn't expect less. I wouldn't say Tony Stewart ain't
scared of it. No, the dude don't give a because now I wouldn't have picked Daytona. I want to pick
somewhere else a little slower. Holy moly. It must be writing him a nice check. I'll say that.
But listen, this is what Dodge wants to do. They want to create noise. They want to create a splash.
They want to, this doesn't work for Dodge by just building trucks, cars, going out and winning
races. They need the story. They need to be the big deal on social media. They need everybody talking
about this. This is a start. That is the way that they'll get their board and everybody at Dodge
to help support financially what's going to be required for them to get all the way back through
the cup series. And so going out and winning races is good, but they need engagement. And so
this is what this is all about. They are going to have the attention. Bring Tony Stewart back
to Daytona in a truck. That's how you do it. 100%. Wow. I'm more inclined to watch the truck
race. Oh yeah. I'm not going to miss it. I ain't going to miss it. You know, NASCAR has got to be
loving that. You know, the truck series has got to be loving that all the drivers that are going
to be in that series for that one night and Daytona. And there's a lot of like not to take away
from Tony, but there's a lot of young guys that are coming to the truck series this year too that are
out of late models and stuff. There's going to be a lot to look at the truck series this year.
That's right. One thing that we got to talk about the lawsuit. I think everybody's ready to put
that behind them. We hadn't really reacted to it. You know, I feel like that I talked to
Jim France, I don't know how long ago, a long, long time ago, and I was like, what's going on?
What's going to happen here? And he said, eh, he said it's going to take a while. He said everybody's
going to have to compromise a little bit on both sides, but it's going to be all right.
And that's what happened. That's kind of what ended up happening. Everybody, you know, it went
probably farther, way farther than it needed to. A lot of things came to light that a lot of people
probably wish that hadn't. And that was unfortunate for NASCAR. A lot of dirt came out.
We saw a lot of bulls*** that none of us really wanted to see, but it is what it is.
And so NASCAR had to give up a lot. The teams even probably compromised a little bit as well
for the good of the sport, but they walked out of that courtroom together and faced the media.
And from what we can tell, have put that behind them and are moving.
It's been quiet.
Yeah, moving forward. It has been quiet.
Which I like.
Yeah. The one thing that has happened since is Steve Phelps stepped down from commissioner,
his commissioner role. He was the president at NASCAR, and then NASCAR made this commissioner position.
And he has stepped down. I talked to Phelps about that. He told me he hopes this is a way for the
sport to move forward if that's what needs to happen. I don't mind telling you that I think
Phelps is a great dude. I know what he said about Richard Childress is not cool. I didn't like it.
I don't think that that was a good thing to say about Richard. No matter what you think about
Richard Childress, Richard Childress is close. Pioneer icon. Yeah, but he's near family to me.
He is. Yeah. I grew up in his shop and my dad drove his race cars and we've got a connection
and a bond unique to a lot of other people that I'm friends with in the industry.
And I did appreciate what Phelps said about him and I would tell that to Phelps and Phelps would
agree that it was a dumb thing to say. I agree. We've all said things and taken messages that we
probably would prefer or some people not to see. But if you're a guy in Phelps' position,
you can't say that in a text message. You can't be bulls*** your buddies and think that, man,
this is a safe space. And so that was a mistake on his part. He's owned it from what I could tell
and Steve Phelps will land on his feet. He's a good dude and he's done some great things in our
sport and he's shepherded our sport through some tough times. And I know I'll catch some
for that. I don't give a s***. This is what I believe. And so and I also like O'Donnell. I've been
around him my whole career. I know exactly how he feels and what he thinks and where I know
where his heart is. And if y'all were paying attention during the trial, we all learned
that both Phelps and O'Donnell were actually trying to get the teams what they freaking wanted.
You know, so I mean, aside from what Phelps said about Richard, Phelps and O'Donnell were kind
of working to get everything right. And they felt they were trying to make it work. Yeah. I mean,
so NASCAR, I don't believe will the commissioner position will go away. They're not going to
feel it. I don't think they're not going to. There's no need to have a commissioner in our
sport. O'Donnell is the president. He'll he's going to move us forward. And I feel confident
about that. I think the dude has he's he's been he's been at the short track ranks. He's traveled
around, came in, he's been to all these little bull rings. He's got 30 years in this sport,
seen all the levels, done all the jobs like he knows this and he kind of knows what and he,
you know, if if there's if you're part of the group that is a bit nostalgic toward what we used
to be, you know, and how, you know, kind of fun the sport was in the 2000s. He's a guy that was
around for that. And I think he's a guy, too, that can can pull us back in that direction
where I wasn't so sure that the sport was willing to go before all this went down. So
I, you know, we'll see. We'll see how it works out. Ben Kennedy is a good dude. He works hard.
I wish he were. I wish he were. I wish he were 10 years older with 10 years, you know, more with more.
I wish he was maybe he's ready to take on more, but like we need him now and he's, you know,
we need him now and he's not really I don't think ready to be that guy for another
chunk of time. And so gosh, you know, I can't wait for those paths to kind of
cross to where he can because I think he's got such a good head on his shoulders. He knows the
sport. He's been around it, too. And and I trust his level headed and, you know, he's a little bit,
you know, you know, I don't like street courses and all this sort of short tracks. I'm just being
me. You'd have been great at street courses. I hate street. I hate road course racing.
I know there's people that love it and I'm good with that. And I'm good with the sport
having road courses. I'm not going to be a hard ass about that. And Ben Kennedy loves those type
of things. Ben Kennedy loves the San Diego race idea. It's going to be cool. I'm liking that too,
but he loved the Chicago deal. He's all about those kinds of things. He also appreciates
the short track too, but he knows the sport needs to try to, you know, do unique and new
things every now and then. There needs to be a good mix and all that. So, you know, he's, he's,
I think he would be a good, he's going to, I think he will be when he finally decides to really sort
of, you know, take over. He'll be the guy to really steer us in a good direction. But we have
done some things that I never thought were possible. Yeah. Coliseum race. I mean, I hated that. I
know, but I mean, I never, 15 years ago, I didn't do that. I mean, there's, and there's people that
look, I'm just, I'm not saying I'm a hundred percent correct here. You're just too old school.
Look, I'm not old school. I just, I don't think we needed to go to the Coliseum. Yeah. We had,
it was pretty cool for one year. No, it's like we, we went to the Coliseum and we ended up at
Bowman Gray, right? Like how, when it was right here the whole time, like it didn't just build it.
Yeah. It's right. It's right here. Try this first. Yeah. Right. It's right here. We should, what are
we doing? Like we waste, all right. I don't know. I mean, maybe you need to be the commissioner.
I wouldn't double you for commissioner. You heard it here. I don't know. What is,
what kind of voting power do I have? Um, they will do it if they bring back 36 races. No,
I don't need that. I think you, I think you like where it's at. I would do it if they sit,
if they walked in this room and asked me to do it right now, I'd do it. I'd have to call Amy to
say, man. Think about being a commissioner. You might want to wait a couple more hours.
She's a, she's a trick. Um, I, uh, I'll be honest, man, I'm kind of in a good spot
with where everything is. I'm not, I'm not pissed. I'm not annoyed. Uh, I was for, I was all of last
year, all that negative negativity and trial and, and I was just so trial wore down a lot. I was so
annoyed and they're the, our freaking format. I didn't realize how bad I hated the format until
it finally got out of here and I couldn't say it. You know what I mean? You couldn't be completely
honest. It was like an X girl your day and like, well, I mean, I'm a broadcaster and I want that
job. I want to be here. I do want to be here, but I can't sit here and go, hell yeah, tune in there.
You know, 600 at Charlotte. I hate this playoff of stuff though, but don't, you know, still, still
tune in to the race, but yeah, but so it's a tough spot for me to be in. I don't want to lose my job.
You know, I don't, I don't, not that I would lose my job, but like, you know, you want your,
well, that wouldn't go over well. Yeah. You want your broadcasters to kind of stay out of
so, um, I was trying to protect myself and every, you know, I don't know.
So a lot of gains have been made with the, the format, the, the tire made a lot of gains last
year. The car, I feel like there's been a lot of things with the car that are being adjusted
and trying to go in the right direction. So there's a lot of things that are, that are looking good.
Yeah. One thing that I found interesting, Chip, Chip Wilde, good buddy of ours, he, uh, he's,
he's, uh, now with the drivers advisory council. Yeah. They work with NASCAR on safety, other
competition initiatives. He was named the former date. He was named, uh, the executive director
of the driver advisory council. He was a former Daytona track president and NASCAR executive
also. I wonder why he left the NASCAR building to go do this drivers advisory council. Cause I
don't know. I mean, he's been in touch with, I mean, he's always been in touch with all the
drivers. Like, I don't, you know what I mean? So I doesn't surprise me that he's working with them,
but I don't know the, why would you leave the big building? I'll be honest. I, I don't know.
Yeah. I don't, drivers. I couldn't do it for you, the commissioner. You could tell us. I mean,
dude, I could not do it. I could not be the advisory, uh, whatever. I couldn't do it. Why?
Do you say, deal with those drivers? Deal with drivers. I used to be.
In cases we got egos still are. We don't, we all think we know everything. Yeah. I deal with that
in our league. 31 of you. And we all think that I, our idea is the best one. Of course. Like,
if you got 12 or 30 or 10 or five in the room, all five are going to be like, no, this is what
you need to do. 100%. And you're like, uh, and then text them aside. And I'm still sitting here
thinking the same way. Am I not? Like, I still am the same way. Yeah. It's, it's tough to do.
Like if you, if I annoy the out of you because of my takes, like how like hardheaded I am about,
this is the way this is how that's how drivers are. Imagine four or five of those in the same room
trying to be the guy, the corral that. No, thank you. It's tough. I guess Burton was like,
God, I had enough. I think he's still, oh, he's a, he's a, oh, he's with, oh, he's still evolved
though, right? What is the, uh, what are they, they always do that? What did they, he's going to
stay on as a, what do they say? A consultant or advisor or consultant or something. That's always
the, yeah, you can go here for that mug. Man, if you get the, if you get to stay on as a consultant
deal asset gravy, you ain't got to do you sit back. Yeah. Am I right? I mean, I guess it is. Yeah.
Cause even when they make like coaching changes and stuff, this guy's going to sound as a special
advisor to the board or something. Okay. Yeah, sure. I'll do that. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? Do they
get paid to do that? Or is that a paying role? Yeah. I got to change my number. Hey,
you want to stay on a consultant? Give an answer to that text. No problem. It is a,
it is a tough deal though, because everyone has a different view. I don't know. I'm just bulls***,
man. I don't know. It is tough. Good luck. Chip. Hope you enjoy that. You gotta be hands full.
So the cars tour, I'm wearing a t-shirt representing cars tour is starting their season.
Um, our first races, uh, toward the end of February, we got two back to back races on the
21st of February. The cars tour goes to coastal plains. That's a Saturday. And then the next
following week, we're Southern national. So two back to back races, the 21st and the 28th,
that'll kick off the cars tour season on flow exclusively. If you're not a subscriber flow,
you're missing the hell out because they've got all the, all the chillabow bulls***.
Flow's pretty much got everything. They got everything. Yes, you're missing out. And it's
one flat fee. You don't have, you know, yeah, you don't have to buy the subscription and then
buy the races. Some streaming platforms sell you the subscription annual subscription and then
they make you buy the damn race. The worst thing ever. Bulls***. It's so bad. I get so mad when
that happens. Well, that's why the cars tour chose flow. That's why we wanted to be a flow,
cause you pay one flat fee and you get everything. You get, you get college sports. Oh, there's,
there's so many categories every weekend. They have 10 to 20,000 college sports events
every weekend. Not to mention the short track and dirt stuff, everything they have on there.
It's ridiculous. So a lot of racing too. Yeah. So anyways, there also flow has a new program
called the floatium. Oh, think about the word podium. It's called the floatium program. It's
a $100,000 program for the 2026 season. It's kind of like the noble five. Every two races
will set up a group of drivers that'll be able to race for $10,000 in the third event.
And this will just reset every two, every three races. We're going to have a driver in the pro
and the late model stock racing for 10 grand. All right. For example, if you go
to the first race of the year at coastal planes and you run into top three, you have locked yourself
in to the floatium in race three. The next race at Southern national running the top three,
you're locked in to the floatium in race three. So the third race could have six guys. It could
have three. The same three could have six. That's right. The same three could run top three both
weekends. It could have three, it could have four, five or six, and you don't have to win the race
to get to 10 grand. But if you win, you're in. You don't have to win the race to get to 10 grand.
If you're in, if you're in, you know, you just finish ahead of the other guys in the floatium,
they'll have a banner on the windshield to signify that they are part of that program in the third
race of the season or third race of each, you know, each block. So that's just a bonus on top of
the bonus. It's just a 10 grand carrot out there for these guys to, to put in their pocket.
Somebody's getting it. Damn right. All right. Our purses have increased for our champions
in both the pros and the late model stocks, 30,000 to win the championship in late model
stock. The pros doubles to 15,000. We're paying back to fifth and pros were paying all the way
back to 10th in the late model stocks. The late model stock purse is crazy. I think second,
20 grand, third is, third is 12,500. It's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. Right.
We're going to Nashville fairgrounds, April the 11th. Got to get up there and do a little tire
test and see what's going on. Make sure we're ready to go. But hopefully everybody comes out
and supports us. Nashville fairgrounds is in a battle for its own existence. The cars tour,
there may be a one and done. I'm not sure. I'm hoping not, but the people in Nashville
are going to have to get to work if they truly want that race track to survive.
We had an owner's meeting that kicked off our season. We all got together. We're voting on a
couple of things, some procedural stuff for our, for our series, but everybody's really,
everybody's in a good frame of mind to get this season started. Any other big changes with the
cars or tires or anything? No. Hoosier is going to keep building our tires. I know there's some
series that are changing. We're pretty happy with the Hoosier. We may make the tire change at some
tracks from the 45, but that's still on the table for conversation. Nothing's changing.
Are you looking for more tire wear? Are you looking for more fall off still?
I love fall off. Yeah. Every time we can get fall off, we're going to take it. Yeah. But we don't
build the tires. Hoosier does. So we've been running the 45. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Taking me into the weeds
there teaching, but I'm excited about the cars tour. I hope everybody will continue to support the
series. I think it's the best short track racing in the country. It's opened the doors for a lot of
young guys, which is what they're supposed to do. So that's right. Yeah, buddy. Let's go do some
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Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. We're live on YouTube. I'm rusty. Gotta get back going again.
It's that time of year. Yeah, this is Ask Jr. and fun little segment we do where you guys send in
some questions. It's good to see everybody. How's everybody being? How was your Christmas?
All of there is. Yeah, everything. How's everybody? Are they responding in the chat?
Are they excited about today? Did you get crazy on New Year's?
We did. We did have some fun. Yeah, I went to Texas CME's family.
We did a Christmas after New Year's, so we had a lot of fun. But I'm excited. We've been here
today talking about the new points format, wrapping up some comments about things that
have been going on in the sport, the cars tour. We're cranking that back up. Got my year on today.
Excited about all the things we got going on. So I don't know, man. After that announcement
yesterday, I feel like a ton of brakes been lifted off my shoulders. I'm excited and looking
forward to the season. Ready to go today, toner? Ready to see some racing? The chat's excited
to be back. Awesome. Yeah. I'm excited to be back. It's gonna be a good year. I got a feeling.
We got the Tony Stewart news today. Like it's just like a good week. Tony Stewart.
Gonna race a truck at Daytona for Dodge. Crazy. We had heard some rumblings that there was a,
you know, and I don't think that's the end of the, you know, bringing the legends back.
You know, I don't know who else. Casey Kane I heard was rumored to possibly
maybe be in that truck at a time or two. But yeah, it's gonna be fun to see what Dodge does.
But Tony Stewart coming back running Daytona. That's a big story. Are you ready for questions?
Yeah. All right. So first question is when you were racing and you stayed at hotels,
did you ever stay under fake names? Yes. How'd you pick? I was in, when I got burned in the Corvette,
we were in hospital under William Bonney. I think that's Billy. I remember that.
Billy the kid's real name. Yeah. William Bonney. It's mostly the one I use.
That's it. No other ones in that Billy the kid, I think. Yeah. So
William Bonney. Like I always just wonder, like I always, I don't, I don't do that anymore, but,
you know, back in the day, that was fun to do. It was fun to do more fun to do than practical.
Yeah. I would say for the most part it was either in like Mike's name or JR's name or
something to a lot. So that makes sense. That's not fun. No, it's not fun. Next question.
Then the zombie apocalypse is coming. Who are three people you want in your team?
Does anybody know, is that they give us a date when it's coming?
Nope. Oh, okay. Well, you mentioned it like it just been, you know, like, hey,
apocalypse coming like breaking news, apocalypse coming next week. Okay. What am I doing?
You want three people on your team to help fend off the zombies? Damn. Truex is a good shot.
He's a good shot. Yeah. Dude, I've seen Truex hit a dollar bill with a bow and arrow
at a hundred yards. Hank Parker Jr. But you can't fend off zombies with bow and arrow.
Hank Parker Jr. And all the juniors, Hank Parker Jr. Truex Jr. And me. Yeah. You get one more?
Oh, well, while we're at it, let's see, what are the juniors right there?
I would say, I need somebody who can, oh, the dude who, oh, he's on YouTube.
The outdoor boys? Yes. The outdoor boys. Yeah. Dad? Oh, that guy is crazy. Yes. My fingers are
so cold every episode. The outdoor boys. Him. Yeah. That guy, I was thinking about him. Luke?
Luke. Yeah. Luke Nicholas. Hell, yes. Dude, we are surviving this. I am not worried. Oh,
yeah. That's the main guy right there. The two, the three juniors and Luke. We got it. I would
just take him. I'll probably take you because of your basement. We could just, you got a lot of
supplies down there. No, you can't though. Dale's on his own team. I got beer. Well, it's my team.
I can pick my own team. Got the supply of beer down there. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good,
that guy's channel is good. Yeah. Who else you taking TJ?
We do need a compound. So I'll do like, I do like my property. Come on. Oh, the property. Yeah. If
there is a, yeah, if they're, I feel like we could set up a good facility there. If there was a zombie
apocalypse, I would be texting all my family be like, y'all come on. We'll just all camp here.
It's in the right place to defend too. Like where it sits. Yeah. Do you know anybody that has a
bunker? No. Yeah. We thought Carl Edwards had a bunker, but we've learned that he's,
he's not the prepper that we thought. We thought he was prepping all these years,
but he's just sailing. I don't know when that has a bunker. Yeah. Surprisingly. Yeah.
Do you want a bunker? I mean, you know, if you're, if, no, no, I was thinking about this the other
day. I mean, the bunker, right? It's underground. Great. You're hidden. But once they know the
bunkers there, they just got to just suffocate the breather pipe, right? Or the, you know,
the way, the ventilation, right? They just, I mean, eventually, they could run you right out of there.
Pretty easy, right? You can't stay there forever either. Yeah. Well, I don't know how those,
yeah. How do, how do you get the oxygen? Well, there's ventilation and stuff. There's some,
there's some fun, fun ways to hide it through, you know, shrubs and bushes and whatnot. But
I mean, once they've kind of learned that it's there, you're kind of trapped. You're also wasting
a lot of money on something that like, oh dude. Yeah. Could you imagine? No. Like building a
bunker and then never using it, never needing it. And then that would be awful. Or you do use it,
but you have no idea when you can even go out. Yeah. You're just in there for like, like, I'm,
I'm not talking about like hurricane shelters or like out in the Midwest where there's
tornado shelters under your house. Those kind of like a house underground. I mean,
these, you know, buying a silo or missile silo somewhere out in the world, in the middle,
middle of the country. And then, yeah, like building your house underground really. I don't
know, man. It's a lot of waste. Yeah. I would love though to tour one. What, you want to tour one?
Like a real bunker that's been remodeled? Yeah, probably. Renovated?
It's probably nice. I want to tour it and check it out. Go down, go down and in there.
I think if you're going to do that, you need to make it also like, somebody get us a tour.
We need to find someone's got one in. We're going to. This is live on YouTube.
This is how the internet works. I know. But like then for the guest show, we go to their bunker.
I know. Well, I don't know about that. Let's not do a show. Let's not work. Let's just go have fun.
Let's just go look at it. I want to go work. If I was going to do a bunker, always trying to put
me work. I don't want to work. I want to go look at it. I'm trying to build content. What if you
go and it's like super awesome? You can bring a damn camera. Okay. What if you go and it's super
awesome and you want one? You're not making me up, huh? What if you go and it's like super awesome?
Like, man, I want to build one of these. Well, I was hoping that would be the case.
Like you would go in there and it could probably awesome. Yeah, it could be. I have feelings.
I'm not building a bunker. You say that now. I mean, you build a Western town.
You know how tight I am and I'm like, what if I build this thing and then I'm like,
get to the end of my life and I'm like, damn, that was foolish. I shouldn't have built that.
But you could make it like your man cave too. So like you can use it.
Like that's what I would do. Okay. You bought every pair of night vision goggles and more so one
day. That was to play paintball. I'm just saying. You've made some decisions. You've made some
decisions that were, we play, we bought night vision goggles to play paintball at night and then
to chase each other around on golf carts and pitch black without headlights. But I've never
built a bunker and wasting that money. How many night vision goggles did you have? I think we
ended up five. They weren't the big $20,000 pairs. Back then they didn't have like,
they were as good as you could get. He bought every pair like they had in all the stores here.
Look, stop it. That was a different time. I was a different person. You bought 10
quarter scale or not that person anymore. I'm so much more frugal. Your go carts are on sale on
eBay. Yeah. So y'all got rid of all that crazy stuff. We painted the curbs of a road course that
we don't erect anymore. I know. I've got a little paved kidney shaped go cart track on my property
and I want to dig that damn thing up or waste it's because every time I walk by, I'm like,
what a waste of money to build the bunker there. Oh, well, it's down on a creek bed in a flood
plane. So it can't. Yeah, you don't want to flood the bunker. So what would you put there?
I just dig it up. I want to dig it up because it's a reminder every time I drive by it that I was
stupid. I'm like, you know, if I can just make it a grassy meadow, I will maybe forget that I did that.
That one time we came back from Talladega and you're like, you want to go paint the curbs on the
go cart track? Sure. This ass junior is getting a little too honest. Can we move on to the next
question? Do you want a random one from a fan here? That's usually what this part's about.
This one. No, I don't. That's usually what this segment's about. So pen bus rule wants to know
which current or past driver is the best cook. Huh? Is there a driver that's a really good cook he
wants to know? I don't know. How would I know? Random random. I did go into Ellie Seller's bus
one time and he was cooking pork chops in vinegar or he was boiling vinegar.
Yeah, I got that right. So he was boiling white vinegar in a frying pan and he had pork chops
in there. White vinegar for sure. I've never heard of that before. It wasn't like applesauce.
Huh? What? I saw some pork chops. Boiling applesauce also. He had a frying pan with about
a half inch of vinegar boiling and he had the pork chops in it. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. That doesn't
sound good. I know. I was like, Hey, that's interesting, but that's Elliot. I wish I could do
his accent because then I would tell you, you know, I would do an Elliot Seller impersonation
and really sell this story, but it's kind of try it. No, his accent would make you want to try it.
I don't think you would. I mean, it's probably good. Yeah, I mean, I'll admit it. I went home
and tried it. It wasn't too bad. A little gives a little gives a little tang to the to the back
end of the pork chop. Yeah, not bad. What was your favorite recess game growing up kickball,
freeze tag, four square dodgeball, red rover. I was always good for some kickball.
Kickball like, you know, on the diamond. Yeah. Yeah. Where else do you play kickball? Well,
we had a game called map ball, which is like kickball, but a little different. Oh, you could
once you got on base, you could stay on base for just running. I just like hide and seek
just regular hide and seek or tag. Do you capture the flag?
No, man. Dude, I was old. We didn't even, we didn't, we didn't have like,
we just had to see when I was, when I was, when I was a kid, we were just still playing tag. We
were still hiding and seeking. I promise that you just sitting there all day. You're good.
Well, when we got the, when we got a ball for kickball, that was like,
that was like upgrade, like the new PlayStation coming out.
TJ, I mean, that kickball was always pretty fun. Dodgeball was always fun to you. Dodgeball was
fun. They had the, you had either the rubber ones or did y'all ever play hide and seek in the
neighborhood? Yeah. So like we lived on a, we'd go up to memos in Kenapolis on VA street. I mean,
it's a block, you know, um, that was fun. If you knew that, yeah, when you knew the neighbors.
Yeah. I mean, like you were literally like, all right, you start, you're up at Mammals house on
the steps counting to 150 or whatever. And you had limits how far you could literally go to the
other end of the block and hide under somebody's front porch. And they would, you know, it'd be
like an hour. There's one little leg of the game taking this old hour for the, for the person to
find, I mean, it was like fun. That's the way to play long form. Yeah.
Hide and seek, long, yeah. Speaking of hiding. Um, so a lot when, when I used to do this to
Amy all the time, but now I don't know why, I guess, because the girls are in the house,
I quit doing it, but I used to hide and scare her all the time, all the time around simply,
like literally just around a corner, not like, and just so easy, so much fun. And Nicole or
Isla, my oldest is doing that. Oh, nice. All the time to all of us. Perfect. It sucks because
she's good. This little girl is hiding around every corner ready to get you. Have you thought
about return the favor? I'm almost, I'm going to have to start. It's probably a good idea. I didn't
want to encourage it because I didn't, you know, Amy's not a big fan of all of this. She didn't
like getting scared all the time. So I didn't want to kind of, but now Amy's on a trip. So I got the
girls this week and I'm going to tell you, man, I'm just going to say we've had a really good week.
I don't want to say it's easy. I don't want to say that. Don't do that. It's early in the week.
It is early. It's Tuesday. I've got the girls for the whole week. It's been great. It's easy.
It feels like a whole week. It feels like it's been a whole week. All the days are long. I had them
all day Sunday, all day yesterday and today and then tomorrow and Thursday. And we haven't had one
hiccup. Not one argument, not one disagreement. We get up in the morning. We brush our teeth.
We're downstairs. We're dressed. We've left on time for school every day. We're happy. We're
not arguing. We're not fighting, going to bed on time. I can't wait for Wednesday. Everything's
going well. Yeah. So maybe while Amy's gone, I can start scaring the ____ out of Isla to see
how she feels about it. But here's the problem. Because Amy would get mad at me. If I scared Isla,
Amy would be like, you're encouraging it. Don't do that. That's the problem though,
is you're going to do it now thinking you're okay. Isla's going to see it as, oh, I can do this.
Oh, she's already doing it. But she's going to do it more. And then when Amy comes back,
she's going to get her good. They'll grow out of it. They're going to grow out of it. I like it.
I like it. I like a little mischievousness. I like a little... Oh, Nicole's got that. Dude,
I know. Nicole is me. Nicole's, yeah. She's going to be a problem. I mean that in the nicest way.
So we have one user saying they used to play tackle hide and seek. How do you play that?
I think that's just football. Damn. That's like... So to tackle it, to get them,
you got to tackle them. Holy cow. Yeah. Like, okay. Wow. Yeah, that seems...
I'd never heard of that. Me neither. I don't...
Next question. We had some people asking what the hood's going to be next year.
I'm glad we got a round of that. So the hood on the wall, we get this hood made and then we sign
all our guests sign it and then we donate it to the foundation and they auction it off,
which we have an item right now on eBay for the Dell Junior Foundation.
NASCAR has an alumni group and they sent hats to all the people that are in the alumni and I
guess I'm one of them. Kenny Wallace got a hat. Well, I got that hat in a box and I thought,
well, I'm never wearing this, right? I'm glad to be an alumni, but I'm not walking around with a hat.
It's weird to wear it. It says alumni. I'm not doing that. So I signed it and I put it on the
Foundation's eBay. You can go to the Foundation website if you want to bid on this. It's a one
of one and I signed it. So it's like, there's not another one like it. Maybe you'll want it. But
anyways, like that hat, we're going to put this hood that we have in here. So we had everybody
sign myself, all of our guests and we're going to have to put up a new hood. So I thought to let
TJ pick the hood this year and TJ has chosen. I've chosen. And we're not going to tell you what it is,
but I want everybody to try to guess what TJ, what hood and you're never going to get it.
Try as you may, you will never guess this hood. But I think it might upset some people. It might,
but it's going to make a lot of people happy and it's going to surprise some people and it's pretty
badass. It's a good idea. It's going to look great. I'm going to take some for it. But yeah,
the fact that we have to give you a compliment hurts me. I will say this.
It's a pass driver and we'll, and he's with us. He's still with us and we'll get him to come in
and sign it. Maybe he'll be a guest. I'd help it out. There you go. Yeah. Oh yeah. He's got to sign
it. He's definitely got to sign it. Yeah. Okay. It's going to look cool. Yeah, it will. It's very
iconic. I can't wait. And it's TJ's idea. Look at me. Let TJ get a little skin in the game here.
Have a little fun. Yeah. Do you see the shreddit? Dale's being nice to TJ. Yeah. I'm just waiting
for your turn. Dale's always nice to him. They said I was an asshole last year. Yeah. It was
because of the points format. Okay. We're good now. We're good. It's going to be a great year,
y'all. Write that down. It's going to be a great year. I'm going to bookmark this one, TJ. I feel
like it really is. I'm not bulls***. I feel like it's going to be a freaking awesome year. We're
all going to have fun. I think it'll help, but you're still pretty damn moody. We'll see. I do
get moody. What? Usually when you lose your football games, I lost last night in the national
championship. Got beat by Houston. TJ got beat by Houston as well in the playoffs,
but I made it back. I just didn't defend my crown. I can't believe you didn't pull out the trick
play. He would have been ready for it. I was waiting for you to do it. He had my ass kicked
by halftime. It was over. There was at one point. I think you were going to score one point. I didn't
think you were going to score. So I was like, geez, when you kicked that field, I was like,
Hey, that's just getting the points right there. That's just making it not look bad.
All right. But anyway, we got one more note. You want one more? Yeah. Okay. Let's see here. If you
could erase one slang term from existence, what would it be? Six seven. God, I would love to
get rid of that. I didn't know if your kids are saying words. Oh my gosh. Six seven. I want that
gone. A slang term from existence. Like even my buddy's three year old saying six seven now. Yeah.
I know everybody's saying that. I don't mind the point guard from Charlotte. He came up with that,
right? I think so. Yeah. There's different. There's different. I've had this argument already with
with Madeline Estella that there's different origins of how it started. I thought it was the guy
were like how tall already was like six seven and that's like how it started. I thought that's how
it started. Me too. But who knows? We'll do a different one then. If skill experience and
capability was no issue, what profession would you like to have? Just basically what profession
would you like to do? Yeah. What would you like to do if you could do it? Man, I had two.
I think I had there were two that I do recall like growing up. Man, I want to be I wanted to
play for Washington as a football player and I wanted to be a rock star. That would be like this
is this is like 12 year old me like lead guitarist. Yeah. Oh, you don't want to be the singer.
Okay. I think football players. It is almost everyone. Every kid probably wanted to be a
football player. I wanted to be a football player, but now that I watched the game, I'm like yeah.
Oh, I know. I want to be it anymore. I don't know if I want to be that. Do you want to get hit?
Hey, they hit hard and they get hurt a lot. There's a lot. It's so much different now though.
I mean, their injuries are like eight months of rehab. Oh man. Yeah. Did you see George Kittle
this week when you hurt? Do you see what he requested at half the locker room? A bottle
tequila. Yeah. I guess he finished the whole thing. Yeah. Rock star. Yeah. That's gonna be cool to
be in front of like a massive crowd and you can imagine. I'm sorry. Good job. I was just gonna
kind of join what you were saying. Like when you think about being a rock star, we're all jaded
or we're all kind of we all think it's just you get up on stage. You got thousands of people
singing on your song and it's just, you know, sunny and 70 and sunshine and roses.
But I bet it's there's some crappy stuff. Oh, tons of crappy stuff. Oh, I'll bet. There's gotta be.
You see it when they've made it. But when they're in a, you know, a 12 passenger van
going from small venue to small venue. But I mean, I think that even that part of it could
be pretty fun. But trying to figure out how to get it. I've been around some dudes that are like
not, um, I've been around some bands that are like local bands and so forth. And it's like
they feel like they're this tiny minnow in this giant ocean and no one's ever going to hear them,
right? Or they're never going to get that song that like takes them to a national level and
living that would be tough. And then once you do get the hit, right, you write this bad ass song or
it gets really, takes off. Yeah. Then you got to back it up. And you see, so you see a lot of people
like just never came to, you know, replicate the success and some are the one hit wonders.
It's hard to hit. It's hard to write one hit. It's hard to write a second harder.
I think I was texting you during, during the Christmas break there. We went to my mom planned
an ACDC tribute band and it was actually fun to go and see, but they had their renegade parked
out front. I was thinking like the whole time, like, man, these guys are, they're this minnow
right now, but they were really good. And I was thinking about things like where you, and I went
and looked at their schedule and they're like all over the U S they're from Kentucky, but
working their ass off. They're working their asses off, man. Yeah. I would ruin that. I would
say I would do it for the party. And so I'd probably, you know, I'd be a very, I'd be like a
short little, I'd have short shelf life as a rock and roll star because I would,
I would be, I would explode and burn out. VH one would have had a documentary or whatever
happened to Dale Jr. So we, I'm sorry. I'm being honest. I would have not held it together. Nope.
I would have raised hell and, and hey, some, some of them survived it, but I'm not sure.
Like we would go see a kid rock. Like we'd see it when they were into, you know,
when they go to their next show, the next night somewhere else, they're hanging out with other
people. Yeah. They're partying all the time. So yeah, TJ, me, we would hang out with kid rock and
all kinds of different people over the years, go to concerts and raise hell with them,
blind and all kinds of stuff. And we went to a third eye blind concert. Were you with
on that? I don't think it was like 2003. And we rate, we, we parked the bus in the
behind the stage. They let us park in their little place and we're out in the middle of the Midwest
near Indianapolis, but we were about three hours away from Indianapolis.
And they had this big amphitheater in the middle of corn field. It was somewhere, I don't know,
Indiana or somewhere, but I remember us watching the concert. And then afterwards we drank beer
with the band and everybody that was back there, we partied all night and we're sitting there and
they were like, Hey, where's the next one? And they're like, where we're playing in
Indianapolis in town. And we're like, well, we'll go. We'll, we'll just get up and when
are y'all leaving? Well, we're cranking up. They told, they're like, we're cranking up at like
four AM and they're going to pull out and we'll be in our bunk sleeping. And I'm like to my bus
driver. I'm like, can we go? You want to get up before and drive? Follow him. He's like, yeah.
So we went to the next thing and watched him again the next night. That'd be pretty fun.
Yeah. Yeah. But it gave you an idea of like,
you know, you can party, but you got to figure out how to like have enough for the next night,
the next night, the next night, then you get a day off and maybe, you know,
give another three night run. I wouldn't like that. That's why on the stage, they sometimes
duct tape the city name. So the band, the singer doesn't mess it up. Oh man. Touring would not.
I wouldn't, you wouldn't, why don't they have a little more time between shows, right? That's
make their money. What was the show you remember going to Raleigh and remember Jack Black, that
first band that he was in before he was, remember, we went up there to see him one time. What was
the band? Oh, that's what it was. Yeah. I forgot. We went and saw Tenacious D Greensboro. It was
awesome. I don't remember where it was. I remember going up there. It was hilarious. It was good.
We got to meet him, went backstage. This is like 2004, like way back when Tenacious D was just
tenacious. It was so fun. I forgot about that. Yeah. We saw Third Eye. We saw
Three Doors Down in Tremont. Shitty old badass, you know, flat one level bar in Charlotte.
Badass place. A lot of history, but that's like the place where everybody would go before they
would blow up. Damn, we've seen a bunch of bands. I heard a Smith here one time, which was pretty
good. All right. Well, that's it. All right. Well, this was fun. Anyways, I hope everybody's
having a good off season off season. Yeah. Good start to the new year. We'll have a couple weeks
off a couple more weeks till we go to Daytona. We'll be back after the clash. We'll be back
on this show. When are we coming back after a clash? All right. Just after the clash. We're
coming back Tuesday. So we'll see how the clash goes in Bowman Gray. That should be fun.
I'm looking forward to that, but I'm really excited about cars going to Daytona and getting
out on that racetrack. Yeah, it's going to be awesome seeing how that all goes down. Wednesday
10am. That's right. Fire them up. Yep. So everybody, hey, thanks for tuning in. Thanks
for being a part of this with us today. Appreciate everybody that's going to tune
into the whole show later on when we get that out. And yeah, have a good week and we'll see you around.
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