The Dale Jr. Download Mar 17, 2026

What’s Going on With Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez?

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Concept

NASCAR

NASCAR is a type of car racing where drivers race specially built cars on oval tracks. It's very popular in the US and has many exciting races.

Concept

Cup Series

The Cup Series is the highest level of NASCAR racing where the best drivers race fast cars on oval tracks and road courses. It's like the major league of stock car racing.

Term

speeding penalty

In NASCAR, drivers have to slow down in certain parts of the race track like the pit area. If they go too fast, they get a penalty that makes them lose time.

Term

pit road

Pit road is where race cars stop during a race to get new tires, fuel, or fixes. Drivers have to be careful and slow down here to keep everyone safe.

Company

Lionel Racing

Lionel Racing makes small model cars that look just like real NASCAR cars, including all the scratches and tire marks from the races. People collect these models to remember special racing moments.

Concept

JGR

JGR is a big racing team in NASCAR that has many good drivers and wins a lot of races.

Concept

Hendrick Motorsports

Hendrick Motorsports is a famous NASCAR team that races Chevrolet cars and has won many championships.

Brand

Chevrolet

Chevrolet is a car company from America that makes cars for racing and regular driving. In NASCAR, their cars have special shapes to go faster on the track.

Concept

new body

The 'new body' means the car has a new shape that helps it go faster and handle better when racing.

Concept

mile and a half track

A mile and a half track is a race track that is one and a half miles long. Cars race fast on these tracks and need special setups to do well.

Concept

laps ran out

When the 'laps ran out', it means the race finished because they completed all the laps they were supposed to race.

Term

tire fall-off

Tire fall-off means the tires get less sticky and slower as they wear out during a race. Drivers have to be careful because worn tires make the car harder to control.

Term

When someone says 'seat of the pants' driving, they mean the driver is using their feelings and senses to control the car instead of just looking at gauges or computers. It's like knowing how the car moves just by how it feels.

Brand

Gibbs

Gibbs is a famous racing team in NASCAR. Drivers who race for Gibbs usually have good cars and a better chance to win.

Brand

Penske

Penske is a big name in car racing and also sells and fixes cars. They have teams that race in famous car races.

Brand

Roush

Roush is a company that makes fast cars and races them in big car races like NASCAR.

Term

top 10

Top 10 means finishing a race among the first ten cars, which is a good result.

Brand

Ford

Ford is a big car company that makes many types of cars and trucks. In racing, teams use Ford cars to compete against other brands.

Term

stage points

Stage points are extra points drivers get during parts of a race, not just at the end. They help drivers earn more points to win the season.

Term

back straightaway

The back straightaway is a long straight part of a race track where cars can go really fast and try to pass other cars.

Term

going low

When a driver goes low, they drive near the inside edge of the track to try to pass other cars or keep their speed.

Term

paint scheme

A paint scheme is the special design and colors painted on a race car to show who sponsors it and to make it look cool and recognizable.

Brand

Tesla

Tesla makes electric cars that are different from regular gas cars. People who drive Teslas usually don't wave at each other like some other car groups do.

Term

flashing lights to warn of police

Some drivers flash their headlights to tell others that police are nearby, but in many places, this is against the law.

Brand

Kubota

Kubota makes small tractors and machines that help farmers and gardeners do their work easier. They are popular because they last a long time and work well.

Term

horsepower

Horsepower tells you how strong a car's engine is. More horsepower means the car can go faster and accelerate quicker.

Term

downforce

Downforce is like a force that pushes the car down onto the road so it sticks better when going fast. Less downforce means the car might slide more but can go faster in straight lines.

Concept

back to back yellows

Back to back yellows mean the race has several pauses one after another because of accidents or problems on the track. This can make it hard for drivers to plan their stops and use their tires well.

Concept

practice and qualifying sessions

Before the race, drivers practice and then do qualifying to see who starts where. Using tires in these sessions means fewer new tires are left for the actual race.

Concept

buying tires from other teams

Sometimes teams could buy extra tires from other teams if they needed more, but now they usually can't do that anymore.

LIVE

This is my favorite Dale Earnhardt pain scheme.

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

you never know what's gonna happen.

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This is the most fun I've had in this chair

in the last hour and a half.

I don't know if we've ever argued.

Did I piss you off over the weekend?

I'm still sour that I was the best man at your wedding.

Who was your best man, Dale?

TJ.

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

What are you thinking?

Get him, TJ.

That way it's starting to show.

All right then.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again

for another episode of the Dale Jr. download.

It is, oh man, what episode is it?

It's not on here.

698.

698, usually that's on the sheet.

Yeah, I don't like it.

You know, you look at the sheet

and you might see something different every week.

We're coming off of Las Vegas.

Hey, I printed you standings and results.

You did.

You presented standings, results, which I'm thankful for.

And we're recording this.

Can I tell everybody we're recording it on Monday?

We're recording it on Monday

because I'm going to test tires tomorrow for the cars tour.

And so...

Getting some fall off.

I'm excited to get behind the wheel of a race car tomorrow.

Wednesday's guest.

I hinted on social media about how excited I was

about this guest.

It is none other than this figurine on the table right here,

Magnum TA.

Magnum TA was a wrestler in the 80s,

tag team partner with Dusty Rhodes.

And soon to be world champion before an auto accident

into his career.

And I've never met him.

I've been a big fan of his.

I was a massive fan when I was a little boy, 10, 12 years old.

And so Magnum will be in here for the interview

and that'll be out Wednesday.

He's going to tell us his story about his career

and overcoming the tragedy and all of that good stuff.

And also we talked about getting into trading cards.

Right, TJ?

So I brought this Randy Johnson autographed rookie card.

And I'm going to keep it here in the studio

until we get Randy on the show.

Randy's a guest that I want on the show.

I would love Randy.

Yeah, Randy Johnson.

Randy Johnson is also a photographer on the side

and he's been to NASCAR races.

We got to get him.

Randy, come on, man.

Get on the show.

I'm a huge fan, a big unit.

I want to talk about him hitting that bird.

Steven, go book him.

That bird.

That's hilarious.

Of all the things.

I want to talk.

This man was a machine.

He was.

Let's go.

Randy, we want you on the show.

I'm going to set it back here with you.

All right, there we go.

Randy's up there.

So when Randy comes, well, we'll probably

still leave it up there.

But I'm hoping that's like all these things in here

are like, good, yeah, good energy.

So anyhow, good to see you, TJ.

Yeah, welcome back to a good trip.

We are.

We are in the Arby's studio.

We got to make sure people hear about the new Arby's

Meetin' Three Box.

You got one sitting right there in front of you.

I do.

And I'm getting texts from people that are saying

your advertisements are working because they're

going to getting this thing.

I love it.

Well, you get more meal for your money

at Arby's with that Meetin' Three Box.

A lot of meat.

Yeah, we had the meats at Arby's.

I have enjoyed this relationship.

And it's kind of reconnected me with a brand

that I was a big fan of years and years ago.

So it is.

And there's some things on their menu

that I didn't know they had that are very good.

They're Buffalo chicken sliders are amazing.

But to do it now, anyhow.

Meetin' Four Box coming up.

We got a lot to cover.

Jenny Hamlin winning his 61st win in the Cup Series,

overcoming a speeding penalty, which he seems to do

every other race.

Yeah.

We're going to get back to talking NASCAR in a minute.

But you brought a case.

Yeah, I did bring a case.

So I told you I was going through all of my old baseball cards.

Yeah.

So you sent me that list.

I found them.

And these are the ones that actually have some value.

So here's my little case I present to you.

Look at that.

When did you get your case?

I bought it off of Amazon.

After you saw mine?

I don't know.

That's yours.

Yes, I did see your case.

Yeah.

So I've been putting them all in these nice little...

So I've had these in storage and they're in perfect condition.

And I've been pricing each one, looking up the value of each one

in raw condition, and putting the ones that have any real value

in this case.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Because cards, you can have so many of them things.

I'll let you look through it.

Yeah, take a look a little bit.

Nice.

Let's talk about a little confrontation

that happened on the pit road.

Suarez and Chastain got into it.

Right?

It's a little bit of a...

I don't know what happened on the racetrack, I guess.

I went back and watched both of them, and I can't really find a lot,

like other than just racing each other hard.

What was going on?

Oh, so you didn't see anything.

So, I mean, this is...

Yeah, they were doing a lot of air blocking.

Well, Chastain is the man at air blocking.

Like, that's what he's known for.

I mean, Suarez is not far from it.

Suarez is out front.

Chastain's trying to go to the high side here and turn 3 and 4.

He doesn't have a run.

He might create a run off this right here.

This will get a run.

All right, he's getting right up on his bumper here.

Now it's the game of, where are you going?

Yeah, and Suarez doesn't go to the bottom.

He's just working up right there.

Ross is trying to get his right rear quarter panel.

He gets there.

So, there's a big lift right here.

You can't hear it, but there's a huge lift.

All right, so that was it?

He didn't like him get...

So far, that's all anyone's ever seen from the race.

I think there's one other instance where they're around each other.

Well, look, so when discussing this,

reporters asked Chastain and he said not a chance for a comment.

Suarez did offer this saying our relationship has always been a little weird,

almost like a little bit of a two-faced on his part.

Which, I mean, I think that a guy can be one way off the track

and a guy can be a completely different way on the track.

Logano.

Great example of that.

Super good guy.

Nice.

You don't want to race.

Hang out with him.

On the racetrack, you wouldn't recognize him.

Completely different person.

I just hate that Ross is going to not even talk about it.

Look, we don't... I don't know.

He never really does.

I know.

I hate like...

Boy, that kind of stopped after the Darlington instance.

All that.

Yeah, that's true.

That all got put...

Ross did change after Darlington.

He did.

He is... He still races hard, but he's not as much of a...

Some cars.

Conversationalist.

Certain cars.

Oh, I'm just saying he's not...

Yeah, I know.

He's not going to get out of the car and talk on the microphone too much.

Yeah, you know, Daniel's a guy who has a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

You know, he's looking for the opportunity he feels like he deserves.

You know, and he's...

He was fast.

He has been fast this year.

He was fast yesterday.

He's been a great spire car all year long.

So my question is if...

We saw the video of Daniel moving Ross up the racetrack,

and then Daniel's the one going over to Ross.

Is that just because after the race stuff?

Well, that really wasn't much either, though.

I don't know what happened.

You know what prompts Daniel to go over there.

I didn't see anything on the racetrack that would...

Ross pulled up to him after the race and kind of swerved at him a little bit,

but is that really a...

I don't know.

This was the straw...

This was just the excuse to have this happen.

There seems to be some bad blood between the two drivers that exist from the past.

Or is it the company?

Because, I mean, I'm not going to lie, you go back to Kota a couple weeks ago,

and I'm pretty sure Suarez took out Zillich in a turn one.

I don't know.

That's how Zillich got spun, right?

Well, I don't think that Ross is going to fight Zillich's battle.

No, but I'm just saying like...

Dude, these guys were teammates last year.

Yeah, for sure.

And years before that.

So, there's got to be something that has been brewing between them since years ago as teammates, right?

And so...

I mean, apparently, if the lip reading is correct, there probably is some bad blood.

Oh, yeah.

So...

Yeah.

I mean...

Well, I don't know.

They were teammates, and they must...

Oh, I see it.

That post-race swerve.

Yeah, he swerved at him.

But I mean, Ross made contact with them.

I didn't see that.

Yeah, I see it now.

You know, I think that if you do that to Daniel,

Daniel's coming over to ask you about it.

And we've seen that with Daniel before.

He goes up to guys.

He confronts them.

He says, hey, you know, what was that about?

Why did you do that?

Like, Ross right here is just saying,

I don't appreciate you running me up and almost into the fence right there.

When did he ever get run up into the fence?

Well, they almost...

That lift was big.

Like, they were getting ready to wreck right there.

But he jumped to his outside and kind of was on his door a little bit.

I mean, I just think it...

Daniel's moving up as they went through the corner.

I see what happened in one and two is just racing.

And I'm not...

I don't...

I mean, I'm not saying it's not,

but the guys don't like to be done.

Like, you can't keep working up the track if a guy's there.

I'm not...

Let's watch it again, but I'm just saying...

Don't forget you were wrong about Atlanta,

so you don't want you to lose too much.

I was Ross gaining the spot.

I don't care what the hell happens today.

You know, so I'm not gonna go...

I'm not gonna go...

I'm not gonna gain the spot and be mad.

Yeah, no, I get it.

Like, I'm not sure that...

Like, there's stuff...

I feel like there's something else going on,

because just you got the spot and there was no contact.

It wasn't that big of a deal.

There was no contact.

You actually didn't hit, but like...

Like, I didn't see much before that.

I washed a handful of laps, too,

and I couldn't find anything, so...

Yeah.

There's probably just some bad blood here.

Yeah.

Well, after this, they both walked away

in the same direction independently.

Yeah.

You know, there wasn't...

It wasn't like, hey, you know, I want to fight.

So, I mean, it was some con...

Yeah.

It was some words said and...

I don't know.

I don't feel like this is that big of a deal, but...

I mean, they're right there talking.

Yeah.

And Daniel kind of grabs onto him,

and that's when Ross is like grabbing back, I believe.

See how...

He just put his hand in his chest.

Yeah, but I...

Hands off me.

Last time somebody did it to Ross, you swung.

He did.

I mean, I don't want to mess with either one of them boys.

Daniel will fight you.

He swung on Big McDowell at Phoenix.

Right?

Yeah, I...

Put him in a headlock.

I think...

Ross ain't gonna put up no sh...

Maybe we should just let him go right there.

I don't think it's over.

Oh, they're not letting each other go

when they kiss each other.

Yeah.

And you know they're gonna be racing around each other a lot.

Like, it's...

They're gonna be...

There are two guys that ain't scared to go at it

in or out of the car.

And so I don't see it...

I don't see it going away.

Nope.

It's gonna be fun to watch.

Yeah.

But I think...

So Daniel, you gotta think about it too, man.

He's got...

You know, he didn't get retained by a track house,

so he's in this fire car trying to prove they were wrong

to let him go, right?

Mm-hmm.

And he's making a pretty damn good case of that.

He's had a good...

Yeah, I mean, he ran...

I thought he ran pretty good.

Yeah.

So it would be interesting to see how it goes.

I definitely have been watching them because of that fact.

Anytime you let go of a car,

you got a chip on your shoulder,

you want to go out there and prove that they made a mistake,

that the problem wasn't you.

So I've been watching Daniel this year.

So Suarez posted a vlog online.

A long...

This just came out.

Yep.

Suarez says that he came over to Ross after the race

in order to apologize for their run-in in turn to TJ

and explained what happened.

And he felt like what happened between them

was just racing, which I would agree.

But he says...

You know, he was upset and disappointed

with what happened afterwards with Ross

and what Ross said to him on Pit Road.

And here it is.

Quote,

I have known Ross for a long time,

and I've always known that he and I

were very different kinds of people.

But that's okay.

I have a lot of respect for him,

but the kind of words that he said after the race,

it's just completely unacceptable.

That's chicken stuff.

That's not good.

I lost a lot of respect for him as a person

because it's just not good.

Not a good look for him

and not a good look for the kind of person that he is,

I think.

And it was just a little bit sad, to be honest.

I really wanted to.

I was getting fired up to fight,

but what was I going to gain?

There's nothing to gain with that.

He's not the kind of person I really want to fight,

but just disappointed.

The Suarez mentioned that he took issue

with Ross hitting him on the cooldown lap,

saying that was unacceptable,

giving that the drivers were loosening belts

and so forth at the time

and that Ross apparently denied doing this.

I said to him,

hey, you hit me on the back straightaway.

He said, no, I didn't.

I said, you hit me on the back straightaway.

You turned right into me and hit me.

He said, oh, you were next to me.

I said, yeah, I was giving you the hand.

I apologize for what happened a few laps before,

and obviously he completely forgot

about what happened off of turn two.

Lap two.

Oh.

Suarez said that he had an issue

with his left front on the last run of the race

that affected the way his car drove,

which influenced him crowding Ross off of turn two.

He said he understood Ross was mad,

but he thought it was a little unnecessary

for Ross giving him the finger for a lap and a half.

And based off of Suarez' on-board,

it looked like Chastain flipped him off

as he completed the pass all the way

until he got to turn three.

Daniel stated by re-referencing the contract

between him and Ross on lap two,

which he said wasn't a big deal

and didn't influence the way

that he raced Ross the rest of the day.

I'm pretty sure that he didn't mean to do that.

It's part of racing.

Suarez overall thought that Ross crossed the line

with what he said to him,

based on lip-reading enhanced audio

that's gotten posted around.

It seemed like Ross made some comments

about the end of Suarez' time at Trackhouse,

like, you got fired.

Incidentally, Suarez also addressed the idea

that he's been out to get Trackhouse cars

and has been racing them, especially aggressively,

which he denied, saying,

I'm not even thinking about that.

So that's all pretty interesting to hear from Daniel.

I wonder if Ross will have a rebuttal of sorts.

I'm sure there's two sides to every story.

Um, yeah, just, uh...

I don't know. I wish...

Maybe the only thing I guessed is I wish Daniel

would have went into more detail about what Ross said

that bothered him so badly.

He might have. We're just also taking off

of what Stephen Taranto had to...

his reporting of it.

Yeah. So there's a blog that Suarez has written.

But that at least lets us know why

Suarez went up to him.

And this is Stephen's sort of, you know, summary of said blog.

Yeah. I mean, from what I saw with the racing stuff,

that's what I saw.

I mean, Daniel definitely went into the corner

to airblock Ross.

He was taking his air, going up the racetrack,

and he got to a certain point, knew that he had to live

because Ross was there.

And I mean, you know how many times I saw that happen

throughout that day? Numerous.

Tons of times. It's how it is.

So I'm not... I think it was just racing.

Is this a story...

Is this a case of guys just kind of

hanging on too tight? Like, man,

why are we...

Why are we so spun out?

Are we wound a bit tight?

Both of them? Are they wound a bit too tight?

Maybe. I think they're both hard racers

right now, too.

Yes, but also if we take Suarez as where

he's going to apologize, and why is Ross

like, immediately getting so defensive?

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah. I guess Ross was

bothered by how he got

raced off a turn, too.

But Ross completes the path, right?

I mean, I'm thinking in my mind, look...

He probably, to your point,

TJ thinks that

Daniel's coming up the track intentionally,

but Daniel's talking about how his car

wasn't driving good, and he was having trouble

keeping his car low.

I don't know, man. I think they're wound

a bit too tight. Well, you think, you know,

Suarez just got fired, he's trying to hold on,

and then Ross is...

All of a sudden, he was the face of Trackhouse,

but now there's SVG and then Connors the Golden.

And they went into Vegas expecting

better results, because Ross ran really good

there last year.

You know, he's a moment. Yeah.

I like it. It's racing. I hope it continues.

The thing is, is, man, Daniel's a good dude,

and Ross is a good guy.

I like them both.

And while I can

definitely see why there might be some friction

between the two, because, you know,

they were teammates, and now they're not.

And that was a contentious sort of split

there for a while between Trackhouse

and Daniel. Yeah.

I don't know.

I like them both.

I don't see this being anything.

I would expect these guys to race like this,

no matter every lap of a race.

All right. We'll see. I think it continues.

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Thanks for watching.

Let's move on to Denny.

61 wins, that's a big number.

JGR goes first, fourth, fifth, and eighth.

You know,

what do we make of,

you know, Hendrick was right up there as well.

They both have led all of the laps

in the last two races at Vegas, for the most part.

I think we're going to see

Hendrick

Chevrolet with the new body.

That's got to be promising

to see it a mile and a half.

But Denny was able to,

you know, Chase was faster at the end of the race.

The laps ran out.

That track goes through a swing

late in the afternoon there with the

shade one and two.

The laps ran out, the nine car

was faster, but

also, we know

that

even if he had 10, 15

more laps with the aero

disadvantage you have as the second car

following in the next year,

I think Denny was pretty comfortable out there.

Yeah, but I feel like

and I would like more of it,

you could hurt the tires yesterday.

You could hurt them and some guys

there's a, there's a,

one caution saved a couple of these guys

like Ty Gibbs

right before the yellow for Connor

was going back.

He was like quick like

and Reddick at the end of the race, like the last lap,

Reddick almost wrecked by himself off a turn two.

I don't know if the TV saw that or not, but

he almost wrecked because

he was fading that quick. So there was a

there was a fine line that you had to walk

and I think the track was going through a change getting cooler

and one and two.

Wind was dying down maybe a little bit as well.

So I don't know, it was

interesting on that side of things.

I think

I would like to see more of it.

I feel like the tires fell off

and then they kind of plateaued a little bit

lap time wise would be cool if they would

keep falling some, but

yeah, well, I think that's been the

you know, they have been able to build a tire

that does fall off more, but it does seem like

you know, when it does reach that limit

it does plateau and stop.

You know, it just falls off to a certain degree

and the drivers have talked about

how like at Martinsville and some other places

where they've tried to bring that

short track tire in

they all they're all like, yeah, we love to fall off

but we all fall off the same and then we all stop

you know and so

trying to find out

how to make a tire

that punishes someone

who runs too hard early

is the tricky part, right?

We're getting to where we can really do a good job

of building a tire that does fall off

but now trying to figure out how to reward

certain drivers for driving the car straight

is going to be another tricky deal

which I feel like they're getting closer to

for sure

Yeah, I think this is great for Denny

obviously to get out of here with a win

create momentum going into Darlington

with a great opportunity to go in there

and grab another win

Denny knows

how to

set himself up early

in this system talking about

the point system that we have this year

Denny knows he's had to kind of

you know, he's had to kind of climb out of a hole

that he started putting himself in early

but

you know, now that we look at the points

let's see here, Denny's all the way up

to fourth in points

only 78 out

He was 1 minus 126 after Kota

Right, so he's done a really, really good job

and he's going into

a racetrack where he can make even more

you know, more hay and try to continue to close that gap

you know, we talked about

Does he really have any bad tracks coming up?

You know what I mean? No, but I'm just saying

like, he is now

you know, he was such a favorite last year

and looked like, you know, just laps away

from winning a championship

How does he come into this year

new system? I think this system

I think it's better for him

I think this system will reward

a driver like him that can be consistent

and win periodically

throughout the year

and all he needs to do

is find his way into that top three

which I think he will do

without question

and give himself a very, very good chance

of going out there and winning the championship

this year, so I will go ahead

I think you got to give a lot of credit to Chris Gale

on this car because

you go to the back like that and you pass

the entire field pretty much

I've seen enough

Denny Hamlin is my pick for the championship this year

OK then

what do you make of his ability to

win as he gets older

his success rate after

700th career start

he talks about

how hard he works

and look

this is the thing

that

so Denny gets out of his car

and I've heard him say this before

he gets out of the car and he says

I'm not as good as all those guys

I got to work harder

I work really hard

am not

I don't believe he's

correct I don't think he's out working

some of these guys I don't think he's out working them guys

he's got too much to do

he says he's working hard

I believe he's working hard

I do too but everybody else is working hard

I do believe he's

good as some of them guys I do believe he's better

than some of them guys I think that he's better

than quite possibly

a Kale Yarborough some of those big names

that he's looked up to right

what I don't know

couple more years you might put him on

the Mount Rushmore right you might

I do believe talent

wise he ranks way higher

than he wants to admit

he probably deep down inside

believes that he ranks

higher but he's just not gonna say it

and so he says

well you know I'm not as good as some of them guys

but I work harder and that's how I do this

there are I said this before there are anomalies

in our

history of drivers

who didn't fall off

there are guys that won races and they're their

late 40s into their 50s

they just didn't fall off for whatever reason

a lot of guys tend to fall off

around the same time frame in those

early 40s mid 40s

they're toast and

he's not doing that

he's an anomaly he's a

unicorn he's one of those guys

that mentally

is as sharp as he can be

can and still

has the passion and the motivation

to go out there and do it

and put risk

you know you gotta take risks

you gotta put yourself in situations that are uncomfortable

well when you get older

you start not doing that

you quit taking risks

you quit going into the uncomfortable places

you get comfortable

you get complacent

for the most part you're

well off financially and you no longer

start to do the things that you were doing

that got you there

well he still has that passion

and that work ethic

to do what's necessary

but I think he's an extremely

extremely talented driver

just by

the seat of the pants

the feel of the car and the steering wheel in his hands

I mean he just really really

understands how to get that car

around the racetrack

better than a lot of people and so

I will say a lot of that I do believe is being

with Gibbs as long as he has because that

keeps that door open cause Kyle Busch

if he was still at Gibbs could he still be winning

hell yes Kyle would still be winning

that's what I'm saying though there's

the equipment is a big part of his equation

and he's done a good job keeping that

yeah no oh yeah for sure

he started 2311

they're running good enough

that you know one of the first three races

I'm just no I'm just saying they're running

good enough for him to genuinely

think about like could I go

there could I be there I don't know if the

financials work I don't know if he can

you know the sponsorships and I'm sure they could figure it out

but he's not done it he stayed

he's staying where he's at cause he

knows that's his home

that's his home and that's where you know if he

wants to truly finally

secure that championship

why

step out of a cycle that's really productive

into something that you think could work

but you're really not sure right?

that championship is going to get a lot harder at 2311

I agree so you know I think

this is his year I think this point system

and this success early

the momentum going into

Darlington I just got a feeling

that he's going to be one of those guys

that puts himself toward the top of this thing

as we get out of the regular season

I think getting this win early too is important

for him because he talked about how

Bowman Gray he was he was racing but he really

was in the car and like wanting to get back into

and I think now you get that victory and it's like

alright let's go and now you're

ready to take on the season

the personal motivation the passion

and all that stuff he talked about that in his

post-race as well how that it's all come back

to him you know you kind of

you you have something tragic in your

life happened or whatever you fall out of love

priority shift

you know you question really

where you want to be in your life and what you

really want to be putting your energy into

priorities definitely shift yeah and so

it's good to see him sort of

you know

understanding man

he's got to understand

like the

things are too good right now and these are the

these are

this won't be like this forever

and he's closer

to the end than he is the beginning

right oh for sure and so like

and hopefully like I think he's

recognizing that like I'm going to make the most

of what's left here I'll be honest

man the season starts so weird now compared

to what we're used to

all the years you kind of you didn't have

two plate races to start the year and then followed

by a road course that's not really a

like that's not really a traditional

or a fair shake to see how it's really

going to how the season is going to take shape

in my opinion you you could have two guys

DNF those plate races that are really championship

contenders yeah and and they were not not

even their fault right so

I definitely think it shakes

the point system up quite a bit and

but I now you're getting

into the into where

this is what most of the schedule

is now as you know the Vegas the Phoenix

now we're going to Jonathan and we're going to hit a short track

and two short tracks coming up so

I really feel like you're getting ready to

see the guys that are going to shine

yeah we talked

about it

Hendrick having a pretty solid day

good to see

I guess in their eyes if you're

a Chevrolet fan a Hendrick fan good to

see the car just perform well it's a brand

who knows you just never know

something even so subtle is the

is the is very subtle changes in that car

but even that can make

you know play havoc on the

the balance of the car and the teams trying to figure out how

to get speed in that but it's good

to see

them go up there and run well Chase Elliott

almost being able to pull off a win

late in the race Byron driving up leading

some laps Larson running well

as he was

it's got to be pretty

difficult I think you know you got the fourth car there

you got Bowman who's out

they adjusted in the car this weekend

the weekend before that they had

Anthony Alfredo

Anthony Alfredo and so

it's

you know I think it's

not

surprising I guess to see Hendrick running so good

I feel like they're on par I don't feel like

there's anything different but I think the bigger question

I think there is you know

Bowman how does he get well

yeah hopefully he's doing

better yeah he you know

there was some vertigo that he's

dealing with and

I guess Mike Joy said on the broadcast

they don't believe this to be

concussion related

read that yep and so

you know just how

how do you I'm sure

he's seeing doctors I'm sure he's

trying everything he can to get this

to go away I've never experienced vertigo

I've heard stories of

different people that have dealt with it in the past

and how at times

it's challenging to

to get rid of and other times it's

it's as easy as a doctor doing

you know a reset

they

I think that

Rick

Hendrick loves to tell this story

back when Terry

was driving his race cars Terry had a vertigo

incident and they sent

Terry Terry's doctor

sent him to the

amusement park and he rode

roller coasters all day

and that fixed it

and so

you know it's the

maneuver that they'll do for you

is very you know it's just twisting and

turning your head in certain

motions and so

you know I guess that's

that's not working for Alex

well more hopefully it gets better man

if you don't have your health you don't have anything

so I hope that Alex it starts getting better

and can get back into a

race car yeah it presents

opportunity so it'll be

I'll be curious you know as to how

Hendrick

navigates the next couple of weeks with

the 48 who goes in there does Anthony

get another shot

Anthony does a ton of sim

for for that program

and that's I believe why he was

you know given the opportunity at Phoenix

but um he's a little more

seminal rally car well I gave him

social media about that yeah we had

me and him had I like Anthony we had

a conversation I was

you know he

spun out of our

at Phoenix

it brought out a yellow the one was

likely going to win the race Carson is

going to win the race luckily the seven got up there

and won it but I was sitting there thinking

man we didn't need that yellow

I was pissed off about that for a couple

days and Martin Martin opened the door

for me to say something um

but I talked to Anthony

it's a

you know it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out

and what this means for Alex long term I

don't know you know I'm not going to speculate

but let's move over to the Ford's

coming out of Las Vegas

Penske 23

and Roush

Keselowski

got a top 10 but I I mean

the Ford's

I was expecting a bit more I think yeah not

the strongest weekend for sure

what's the deal why I don't know

I was really surprised by

the Penske cars like that's just not like

them yeah to be

especially yeah I mean

you know you could say

had a pretty solid day I'm sure y'all have

higher standards for yourselves yeah I would

like to qualify better with Brad but um

but I mean priests ran up in the top 10

yeah all of y'all were right there

around each other

priests and busher ran top 10 pretty much are y'all

happy with that y'all expect more do you

I think you always want more right but I feel

I feel like it was a good building block now

that we

disadvantage as a

organization is Ford

the automobile at a disadvantage at a

Vegas I don't know

you really didn't see any of the Ford's

no but I mean it's

you're like I feel like RFK

was probably the third best company

there that day I feel

like you know as a whole yeah

but I got you understand it's hard to compete

though when you have yeah I mean they were

yeah you're right I mean you got Joe Gibbs

and Hendrick kind of filling out

there's seven spots right there yeah at

least there so yeah but

I mean I yeah I definitely feel like there's

I think there's room to improve there I

thought the week before Blaney shined when

he was supposed to and he did he stepped up

so true you know the sheet here says

you have more confidence in Penske or 2311

I mean

I don't really and I know Tyler won

the first three races but

Daytona things lined up for him that could

have been anybody Atlanta

kind of could have been the same thing

and those are kind of wildcards in my opinion

Tyler did a great job at Coda

that was Tyler did an awesome job at Coda

but looking at Vegas

or you know Phoenix Blaney

was the pick

pretty much so to win when he did

so I don't know I feel like

it's I feel like they're pretty neck and neck

right now I like some of the tracks

that we're going to coming up

I like

I think Darlington

plays into our hands a little bit more when

the when this pace slows down

and stuff like that it's more driver and finesse

I feel like we got a lot of that

there with Joey Blaney and

one of the things that I think is really fascinating

is so we

for the past

I don't know how many years four or five years

we've always

assumed that

Penske was going to have a shot

if they get a car in the final four

they got a shot right because

Penske and Phoenix are

as they are still today

married

with one another

but now that we don't really

now that that is completely

upended

where do we view Penske

as an organization

are they part of

the big three

if you're looking at

the top teams as the A

and then you got the B's

and then you got the C's and D's

do you have Hendrick, Gibbs

and then the B teams

and Penske's part of that group

do you see Penske and

RFK in the same vein

do you see them as similar organizations

I feel like it's getting closer

does Penske need to do more to put themselves back up in there

in the A? I think so I think right now

it's Hendrick and

Joe Gibbs 1A1B

separation, Penske

and then you have 2311

knocking on the door of Penske and then

RFK right below 2311

so during the season who's the car

who's the main Penske car during the season

Ben that wins races

just Blaney

I mean that's kind of what I see there too

but Joe is

he's good at

Joe he can pop off anymore

but he can't

the consistency

but this isn't gonna

this new system doesn't

doesn't provide doesn't pay that

no it doesn't reward what

style of racing has been doing

doesn't reward a lot of mediocrity

yeah

yeah I hear you man

they have a lot of strong races in the playoffs

still I mean

Blaney is the best at Martinsville

they are gonna have a lot of strong races

in the playoffs but they're going to need

to be a top

3, top 4, top 5 team

in the regular season

yeah

to have a real shot at it

it's definitely more challenging now

yeah you got right now Blaney in 3rd

points

and then the only other Ford in the top 10s

Busher Joe is 11th

you got a bunch of them between 9th and 12th

I mean right in that area there's a bunch right

yeah

he's 30th he's out of it

teacher where do you where would you like

to see Brad like these next three races

if I told you Brad is

in 8th and

points

what would you like to see these next

I would like to gain I would like to be between

6th and

probably 10th in points something like that

because I feel like you can

I just want to I mean I feel like we're

starting to chip away at it we just got to qualify

good and start getting some stage points

yeah but it's just tough

man I mean

I would like to be in the single digits at least now

like last year you guys had the bad start so

you're qualifying going out first and it's just

hard to qualify well it's very hard well Phoenix

was tough too because

you know going to this weekend we didn't have a

it was tough

but we have some good races coming up so I think

if we can just go and

we normally get good during the summer like

normally when the racetracks get hot and slick we

normally make up ground in the summer like

we've left Daytona and Atlanta before

35th in points and I think we got to like 7th

in the points like

just straight up so

I feel like we can have a really strong

summer and

I mean you're going to have to have a strong summer

to be in the playoffs now

well

they asked Kyle Larson

in the media center whether the drivers were

looking at points

every week like the media

is or the fans

Larson said he's not looking at points

yet

I feel like

we're all looking at points because we're just curious

as to how this is going to play out

but I think we also realize

the times now like you like every

week you need to be stacking these things up

I look more now than I did

I'm fascinated by it

and SVG told Gluck

Gluck says that the teams have like projections

and are telling the drivers this is what we need

from you each week

I mean we've always kind of had that

but there was always the wild

card if you win

you're in so it didn't matter if you

finished 35th you're like you know what let's go win

man I'm glued to the points

fan and media

whatever you want to call me

look at one bad race though look at SVG

dude I know it

one bad race I'm not glad that happened to him

but I love that it's got that effect

and I've

saw you know I'm looking in social media

I hear people you know there'll be a fan

or two saying my guys already out of it

what am I

why am I supposed to like this

that's not really true

it's not true you just got to get hot

you got to stay consistent

there are some people dude that are out of it

and we know who they are

they were never in it to begin with

let me ask you this

that was my reply the guy said

my driver's out of it

why am I supposed to like this

and I said your driver was never in it

I don't even know who he is

and I can tell your ass he never had a shot

where's your cutoff line right now

my cutoff line

what do you think your cutoff line is

my cutoff line

is Kyle Busch out of it

my cutoff line is probably

I am going to say

that my cutoff line

eighth place William Byron

damn

more shade on Buscher

he's ninth

I know

right there he's not 30th

he's going to kick your ass man

he's about over you

what

where's your cutoff line

I don't know man

tell me who you believe can roll

their way into a championship

below eighth

I don't know

I hate

that's kind of sound crazy but Ty Gibbs

can you stay hot

can he win the championship

he's been pretty consistent so far

he could top 10 himself

in the points

but I don't see him as a champion

what if he wins Darlington

do I think he can win the championship

yeah he wins Darlington

is he and do you think

well I mean he would probably launch himself

into that top eight

if he shows me that he can win then I'm like okay I believe he can win championship

but until he can get that win

if he won Darlington

he would be above my cutoff

I'm just saying I feel like

a William Byron or even

what if Chris Buscher wins two, three in a row

you know what I mean

he would then move into above my cutoff line

but then say he follows that up

with a few top

can a guy get hot enough during the summer

to bring himself into there

what I want you to visualize is this

okay and this I'm being genuine

people are going to look

at my cutoff and if I say

eighth place you're going to go wow

how could you say that so early

any of these guys could do stuff

to move forward you're not wrong

I'm only telling you that I don't think

that anyone

can win from outside

of the top eight

in the playoffs

in the chase so you need to be

preferably in the top three

but I could see

in a rare occasion

a guy from

eighth winning the championship

so you're not really looking at any names

I'm not looking at names you're just going by a number

I just think man if you're not in the top eight

I feel like you don't have much of a shot

I think NASCAR mocked it

if you're outside the top six

you wouldn't have won it

sorry

if you were outside the top six

when NASCAR did their mocks

from this race or you know what I mean

doing like past seasons

NASCAR

using this current points system

ran through

however many past years

and no one out of the top six won

yeah

my eighth's conservative

yeah

so yeah I think if you really want

you're dry if you're really a fan

and you want to be serious about your guy having a chance

you need to be rooting that he's finding himself

in that top eight

I think that's a fair

I think that's a fair number

and so I just look at that

instead of really looking at names and potential

I just look at hey man alright who's eighth

alright

alright I can believe that

William Byron Larson yes

I can believe they could get up there

and get something going

the points are definitely starting to take shape

to how

Busher, Gibbs, Logano, Kizlasky Priest

they're going to have to start

knocking down some points here soon

they're going to find themselves

further and further and further and further

you got to start getting good stage points

you can finish this

on the screen is stage points this is where you're seeing

people separating themselves

yeah so stage points are

telling us they're very critical this year

they're very important

Brad's got two

yeah well I mean he's still

12th in point

but that's what I'm saying though if you can start stacking up the stage points

yeah

yeah I mean Bubba is second

in points right now

and

he's got more stage points than anybody

53 the next person has 37

yeah

that's how you do it

I like how it's

so if Bubba had

you know 15 less

points where is he at in regular points

he would be

well he'd be fourth

one point in front of Denny

yeah one point in front of Denny

but it'd be close

it is very close from

from second

15th

you got one guy way out there in front

Tyler Reddick dude is three in a row but

they're closing in on him

that's a fun thing to watch too

can he stop that

from eroding away

are we gonna get to July

and him sit there going

man they're on my heels

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inside the rb studio for another

segment ask jr.

with my good friend tj majors

we have been talking about vegas

and

doing our show and looking forward to

to this

segment and how many great questions y'all might have

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let's get right to it

alright so first question

a lot of people have been tweeting in facebook

asking what did you think about

Sheldon creed and

and taylor gray

that's right

well I was watching the race

obviously

pulling for

our junior motorsports drivers to do well

and

so going down the back straight away

Sheldon goes low

taylor gray goes low as well

taylor gray is not really

trying to go under

larson or I think it's

the 17

of day

he does have a run

but he kind of moved down there early

and then so Sheldon creed

goes even lower and gray makes

a second move don't you see it that way

tj where he kind of he made a move

down to go under day

into three but then he made us

you know like another half block

yeah and then I think this has been going on

I think this was going on for a couple laps

like I kind of saw that as well

that was one thing that the broadcast

didn't tell us the lap before

was almost identical yeah didn't

you see that yeah I mean he was definitely

to the point where it's

getting kind of if you keep doing this

he's only going to take it so when creed says

you know you can only

block so many times

I think that's what he was talking he's also referring

to the lap before we're almost the same

identical thing went down

yeah I agree

yeah I mean I don't the gray kid had

he's you got to cover it earlier

than that in my opinion because Sheldon

obviously was look like he was going to go to the bottom

the only way to change that

is to

you got to go way earlier than that you can't chop him at the last

second and give Sheldon a chance to

move up I guess yeah at that point

Sheldon's already committed to the bottom

too and you're just coming down taking all the air in front of him

and

that's what happens

yeah I was kind of surprised though that Sheldon

fenced him I know

Sheldon maybe wanted to

send a message but didn't expect him to

actually get into the fence but he sent

him down in the wall there

what he did he have any interview after the race

Kevin Gray yeah

I know he's pretty disappointed

I didn't really see a post-race

interview or anything but we

here we go

I don't know he says though it's a video

he just says

in quotes here that Sheldon had

the mentality to go into turn three and wreck me

did he say can you take me higher

I just feel like that

you know that I don't think

either one of these guys

are looking too good right now I know that

I like the mentality of

if you block you pay

you know blocking

there's some limitations to it

and I do feel like that Taylor Gray blocked

the same block two laps in a row

and at least

in the video that we got to see from the one

where he gets wrecked he made

two moves like he moved below the 17

then moved another half a car

when the double zero creed

makes his move

and I don't know man

I feel like you can block a lane

but you can't block the whole racetrack

he doesn't even go all the way to the bottom right here

you see what I mean like you got to cover it earlier than that

so Sheldon Creed definitely

Sheldon Creed did not have to put him in the wall

though for that he definitely didn't enter three

with arms wide open I don't know

there's many things that justify getting

put in the fin no

that's probably a little too far but

you could have worked him up a little bit I don't think he was trying to

recommend I don't know yeah maybe Sheldon Creed

just thought he was going to slide up the track

and lose a spot that's kind of what I

Sheldon probably was like oh

I mean he's not really hitting him that hard right there

I think Sheldon was like oh damn

I didn't expect that to happen so is that a move

in in

54's eyes where if he doesn't try to save it

right there that much because it kind of overcorrects

right if he just slides

I mean yeah but like is that one

of the ones where you just commit to spinning out and

oh man how can you I don't know

I'm just saying like I don't think you can

I think you would end up

there's a good chance if you turn left

and stood in the throttle you'd still back in

I mean that wasn't it would come around

hit left front it wasn't like you hit him

and instantly spawn it was like well the thing is

Sheldon sent him and the Sheldon hit him

and continued to drive he would just stay it on him

yeah like here you're going

you know honestly

the shame we don't see more of that on Sunday

um it's usually

J.R.M. cars it's better

stop it

we're have we're working on that

it's good they were good this week yeah it was good racing

yeah junior merge force guys

we kind of had some that were decent and some that weren't

so good but it's

I guess it's good when you're frustrated running

8th, 9th

next question uh people will know your

reaction have you seen Carson Hosevara's

Darlington car I saw

us uh like the

unofficial

fan photo from inside

the garage oh so yeah I haven't seen this check this

that's hilarious

look

this is

my favorite

Dale Earnhardt paintski

the it's the

1981 car

and it gets no love

because 81 was a lost year

dad started the season

driving for Rod

would sell the team

to JD Stacey which dad

would race for four races before leaving

to go to RCR

and then at the end of the year leaving

there to go to Bud Moore for two years

so the 81 year

is forgotten lost

unappreciated but

the car is underrated

that yellow nose with those old vintage

stripes

is just in my opinion straight

badass vintage um

it stands out yeah and so I've ran

that scheme

and so we ran it

on Martin Tricks car especially at Darlington

when he won the championship in the chance to deal

I was so pissed off we had

I'm like I got Martin Tricks

junior in the car

that is my dad my favorite scheme

of my dad's right we're going to Darlington with a chance

to clinch and I'm

on the pit box

and I must have been practicing or

something because I didn't see the car

before they put it on the grid

but he pulls out on the racetrack

to do his pace laps and they've got blue

tape on the valence

and so it's a yellow nose

and I'm like I was

I don't know why that's hilarious to me today

that I was so um

annoyed by that but I was madder

in hell that Bono Manion

had put blue tape on the valence

of the yellow nose race car I wanted

yellow yeah right

and I was like

they did a poster for this car too

did you see that they remade the poster for

like the race yeah and they actually

like it I thought the detail

was actually really good because I think they changed

back then it was the the back stretch

was the front stretch right and they

actually changed and made the poster

yeah so if you look at dude

yeah well that's how it looks now

in the old they have

a comparison of the older brother it's right here

posters right on the wall

we see the I like to see the grandstand

but you can't see in the camera shot but

yeah um

I thought the detail was good that's awesome

so this is awesome

I love this design I love this paint scheme

they had to obviously slide the 77 back

a little bit um

which getting that number back to the senator doors where it belongs

is awesome um

martin martin shout out

I uh the other thing

that I love is

and I said this on social media so

some

fans

out there believe

that throwbacks are gone

like the idea of running

throwbacks are gone

and so

I'm not you know I'm reading on social media

and

as Bob Pocrus and some other people were

talking about how they're going to celebrate some of the

some of the you know the the past

champions and and legends of the sport

at Darlington fans are like

well I wish the

I wish throwback weekend was still a thing

and I'm I don't know why they got rid

of throwback weekend and

and man throw and then there's

other people that are saying that throwback ran

its course the car nobody could do

a throwback anymore any good so

I just find

it I don't know where people

got the idea why not that anyone

said you can't do throwbacks or we're not

doing throwbacks

NASCAR

basically I don't know if their messaging

wasn't good enough or whatever but

what probably should have been said was

we're

shifting our focus

away from

the idea of focusing on the

throwback paint schemes we're shifting the

focus actually to the physical

people and legends that are

drive had drove those cars

they have had

a lot of people come into Darlington

in the past

so this is not nothing new

they celebrated the 75 greatest drivers

of the sport on stage on the front

straight away there last year or the

year before and so

you know they've had a lot of

you know

historic

guys come to this particular

race for years every

every time I say yeah so that's what

they're gonna shift the focus toward that

no one ever ever ever

ever said

we're no longer doing throwbacks

and I think that was something that kind of got lost

in the whole conversation

teams are still doing them obviously

a lot of truck teams, Xfinity

teams, Cup teams

it's just no longer going to feel like

this sort of forced

campaign that you

you're kind of scorned if you don't

and you're criticized if you do

now if teams

want to do them they can do them

the teams that don't want to do them

don't have to do them

you don't even have to do it at Darlington

I know that we'll likely see

a throwback somewhere else during

the season and that'll be for some

some reason some connection to that date

or race or whatever which is fine

2311 this past week

was Kurt Busch's winning

like you can do it wherever

so for everybody out there

NASCAR's

not shunned

the idea of a throwback paint ski

there is just a

new renewed focus I think and it's more

of a track thing the track itself

is like hey man

the track would come to me

in the past and go

throwback weekend

what decade should we focus on

and I'm like

why do you want to focus on a decade

why put everybody in this box

yeah I agree and they were like

it needs a purpose it needs a reason

it needs something

I'm like just let people do whatever the hell they want

just let it be throwback weekend

and that's what you do

that's who you are

but they were like no we gotta do the 70s

next year we'll do the 90s and 80s

I'm like why do you got it

cause you're forcing yourself down this runway

that's gonna come to an end

and so in my mind

Darlington is our vintage

retro track

and it should be where

if you want

to do something unique

and kick it back to something old school

you can do it there and it will be accepted

it will be appreciated

it will be expected

when teams you know

junior murder sports hasn't done it all the time

we would go to Darlington and not have them

I would grind my teeth and go upstairs and go

hey why aren't we running throwbacks

what the hell you know everybody's doing them

I'm talking about them I'm in the booth

and my cars don't even have them

sometimes we just

sponsors don't want to do it or whatever

so now it's sort of a no pressure thing

do it if you want

and I think you know I'm great

I'd rather be that way

now if you do it

it's a bigger deal

now it's not expected

and when it happens people go oh look at that

that's neat

this weekend's so hard to spot

and we should be

celebrating the physical

people that have

we're standing on the shoulders of these

giants right I love that saying

that's who's going to be at the racetrack

that's who we should be celebrating

that's why the scheme is out here

that's what we should be thinking

looking at talking about

you know and so

the cars on track are kind of neat and it's fun

to see some good throwbacks out there

and we'll have our share in the truck

and the rally and the cup series

next question is

we had the NCAA tournament coming up this week

how many brackets will you fill out

just one I respect that

why do you need to fill out multiple brackets

that's kind of like I didn't think there was like

even a play

because then it's like I'm rooting for this

game here but then it screws up my bracket over here

just I know I don't know I mean if you're

betting

for money maybe you're throwing casting more

lines out into the lake right

but I'm not

and so

I'll probably find one to fill out

somewhere

and that'll be the one I hope

works out just one like some people will put

multiple brackets in the same pool

I don't think that should be allowed

that's for the people that are trying to win money

they're no longer

they no longer are investing emotionally

into a bracket they're just like trying to win

just playing the odds

I personally want to just fill out a bracket

and then come in here one day and go

I was right on every

freaking wall in Travis

look here I was not wrong

if he is though man that bracket

is going to be on the wall for the rest of the show

right

actually I hope it happens

because I'll most likely will tell your bets

that I'll be celebrating

so listen

I usually

wait for somebody to

come to me and say

this sponsor wants you to join this thing

and fill out a bracket

but why don't we just do a dirty mo media group

right

I'm sure everyone

in the office is listening now

and we could all join

a group fill out our brackets

and that's that

let's see who does the best

I'm all for it

I want to do it

but I only like doing one

yeah you can only do one

alright we got time for one more

this one is

which do you prefer sausage patties or

links

well I like a biscuit so I'm going to go with patties

sausage

and cheese and egg

if it's not on a biscuit what are you picking

sorry

if you don't have any biscuit what are you picking

yeah no sandwich what are you doing

I'll still go patty

see that's the move right there

whoops it got off of my

waffles on to my sausage

it makes everything better

I do like a sausage

link though if I'm not on a sandwich

I agree

there alright

you can't eat a link on a sandwich

I actually had a sandwich once

where they took the link and cut it in half

I'm like that's no I can't do that

let's do it let's add one more quick

we can't end on this question

I mean we can if we want to

probably not

the next one is how long should you wait

until hitting your horn when you're behind someone

at a light that turns green

if they're just sitting there

right away yeah right away

there's an obvious

moment where you realize they're not

seeing the light

as soon as you recognize that that is the case

little tap

it's seconds

I don't lay on it

that's obnoxious

but I'll do a little

the double tap move is the way to go

I don't know man

if you lay on the horn

you're just

right oh yeah

no I'm just saying if it's like

one two three even

that's too much like a tap is like excuse me

that's right yeah it's like a tap on the shoulder

nudging somebody yeah

I'm the kind of person

that's saying

like when I drive down the road

I wave

when's the last time you waved at somebody

oh if they're letting me in

homecoming traffic

come on bud

I'm a waiver just a car

damn random person just coming at you

maybe if my window's down

when's the last time

somebody's waved at you

not often do you remember

what did you think

they're crazy

oh you thought they were psychopaths

really not just

not just the hey man

I'm wondering did they know who I was

yeah that's what I was wondering did I know them

do I recognize that car?

that's not a terrible thing

am I supposed to know that person

I don't think

oh man psychopath

I think

damn that's nice

do you know that

back in the 60's and 70's

literally everyone waved at everyone

driving down the road

is this facts?

yeah facts

I don't think that's a fact

everyone waved at everybody

in town

riding around I mean

let's say 80%

now no one waved

I wish you would come back

I feel like if we all waved at each other

driving down the road

where would be a better place

I must start by waving at least to one car a day

but do you wait

so somebody said they waved to

if it's the same car as them

the wave

I just feel like

not like

is there a Tesla wave?

there's not a Tesla club like the Jeep

most people that have Teslas don't even look at each other

so you don't really wave

Jesus Teslas are schnobs

I guess they don't even like recognize

you just an anomaly?

I did try that

you're just one of the non-smobs Tesla owners?

well I probably had

I probably had mine near like kind of one before

you did get yours first

I mean it wasn't I was in the early days of it

so when you saw when it was like

what's up

now it's like now they're all over

and they got the blinders on

I just feel like if everybody waved more often

at each other driving down the road it would be good for all of us

do you ever flash your lights to let people know

there's cops back there

I do that

give a little tap there

yeah I flash

lights to trucks if they want in

or cars that are trying to blend over

I look around though to make sure there's not a cop around

because you're not supposed to do that

yeah you're not supposed to do that

yeah

not sure but it could be

against the law

like letting other people

there's a road 801

there's always a state trooper

sitting out there

and

if I were to drive by

and see the trooper

I'm going up the road a little bit

and I'll be like hey y'all

slow down a little bright light flicker

careful with this business park they got cops everywhere

looking for speeders and rolling stops

I gotta shout out

my friend Garrett Barger

just retired from

North Carolina Highway State Patrol

nice

Garrett used to go with me

every weekend

to Myrtle Beach Speedway

to race late models

like he was part of my volunteer crew

Donnie Reeves

is his uncle

who

Donnie Reeves is one of my dad's

best friends been on this show

Donnie has

and so Garrett's related to Donnie

and that's how we met

and we became friends since we were 16

and he was

he was kind of going to be one of those guys

that kind of like worked on my crew

my team my entire life

as I drove up through the ranks right

like you

mean you become friends and you spotted my race car

for most of my career

and so

but he decided one day come up to me and

I'm like I'm going to join the highway patrol

I'm going to go do that

and he just retired

I watched him do this whole career path

yeah pretty neat

according to A.I. in the United States federal courts

have generally ruled that flashing your headlights

to warn other drivers of police activities

protected under the First Amendment

as free speech

I can do it

I know the troopers out there probably don't appreciate me

alerting me of the drivers

I don't know how that's a bad thing

I'm saying somebody

slow down

probably in everybody's best interest right

that they obey the law

but if somebody is being

they're going 100 mile an hour you're not going to help them out

you're just trying to help out the casual driver

but Garrett like

I don't know if you remember this remember that time we were coming back

from Virginia and Norfolk or whatever

when I ran that little

that little car up there

we were going down 85 and that car

they were hanging out the window swinging

a bat around and we called Garrett

I don't know if you remember that or not

and Garrett went and they tracked him down

oh man we saw some

crazy

it was like 2-3 o'clock in the morning

and they were

we were on 85 south

they drove by us we were in

the escalade

back in the escalade days

they were swinging a bat out the window

I don't remember that

I do remember

I found Garrett on the highway

and

I'm following him

he's in his little Camaro trooper car

and we're going

we're near DEI

and I'm following him down the road

and there's a car in front of him

and so I had somebody with me and I was like

watch this I was like I know this trooper

in front of us you better hope

and I was like watch this and we get down

we're going down this straight away and I pull out

and past Garrett and the car

in front of me

and I was like watch

I bet the person driving the car was like holy crap

why did the

what couldn't add it up

somebody brought up

Briscoe could have used somebody flashing

some lights at him yesterday

he got a speeding pedal he got pulled over on the way

as did Denny

no in real life

Briscoe got pulled over on the way to the track

you didn't see him tweet about it

everyone was like oh this was foreshadowing

he got a speeding ticket on the way to the race

alright everybody

we send some love to Xfinity

they're waving the red flag on internet price hikes

and waving the green flag on savings

now you get the speed

the reliability that you need from Wifi

locked in one price

five years no surprises no late yellows

a straight shot to victory lane

just like that folks

we've got a winner Xfinity

imagine that

appreciate y'all tuning in

we have

Magnum TA is our guest

this week

I was a big fan of his when I was a little boy

and I have never met him

and I'm thrilled to

get this opportunity to talk to him

hopefully you'll tune in and listen

he's got a lot of great stories from the wrestling days

back in the 80's with Dusty Rhodes

and going against the four horsemen

in the NWA

and just a great story

so I'm looking forward to that

and we'll see y'all tomorrow

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About this episode

The podcast dives into the recent tension between NASCAR drivers Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez, exploring their on-track confrontations, past teammate dynamics, and Suarez's public apology contrasted with Chastain's silence. The hosts also discuss Denny Hamlin's impressive season start and championship prospects, the evolving competitiveness of teams like Penske and RFK, and the impact of tire fall-off on racing strategies at Darlington. Additional topics include throwback paint schemes, driver behavior, and fan questions about racing incidents and traditions, all wrapped up with sponsor shoutouts and upcoming guest teasers.

back straightaway back to back yellows buying tires from other teams Chevrolet Cup series downforce flashing lights to warn of police Ford Gibbs going low

Original notes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back from vacation and into the studio for a new edition of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to unpack all the action from NASCAR’s visit to the desert in Las Vegas:

Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain have an altercation
Denny Hamlin is looking like a championship favorite again
Who is emerging as a powerhouse team?
Where is the points cutoff for championship contenders?

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

Sheldon Creed and Taylor Gray’s dust-up at Las Vegas
Carson Hocevar’s throwback paint scheme for Darlington
Dale’s NCAA bracket
Sausage links or patties?
How long do you give someone until you beep when the light turns green?

Arby’s Meat & 3 box is available for a limited time at participating locations while supplies last. Prices may vary. Get your Meat & 3 box at an Arby's near you today.

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