Door Bumper Clear - 131 - Heated Toilet Seats & Burning Couches

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

AP reporter Jenna Fryer joins the gang to discuss her Darrell Waltrip article and the state of the NASCAR media before talking Bristol, Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer’s run-in, Brad Keselowski’s penalty, outrageous hotel prices and heated toilet seats. Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, what's up, DBC fans? If you haven't heard about Anchor, it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let us explain. Well, first of all, Freddie, the best part is it's free. There's nothing better than using a free awesome service. To make the process simple and easy, there's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer. Anchor helps people find your show by distributing the podcast for you so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many more platforms. Also, you can make money from your podcast with no.

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bumper clear. I'm Casey Boat and we've got another great show for you today. Special guest Jennifer Fryer is in the studio and we'll get to know her as well as hear more about her Darrell Waldrop article. She and the guys will also discuss Bristol, contacts between Boyer and Ligano, Steve Phelps' comments on the DJD and plenty more. Here we go. I'm PJ majors. This is Brent Griffin. Get ready. Be ready. Be ready. Watch out for this guy. White flag. Hello.

Clear. Bring home. Free live. Coming to the line. Door. Bumper. Clear. Woo!

Watch out for this guy. That's what I was saying. Jenna, now we're live. TJ kicks it off. We are. We're live. I am T.J. Major, Spada of the 22 Cup car. Wait, live.

It's... Live. It's... It's live in studio, but it's going to be... Okay. Yeah. You're worried. Jenna is as nervous as I've ever seen her.

Well, this is like Sarah. I came here for therapy. This is my unpaid therapy session, and you guys have stressed me out. I don't know if Brett and T.J. are your therapist or the proper thing. I wouldn't make a great therapist. You're going to need more therapy after this. I thought you were coming straight from the gym and going to be in your workout clothes. I'm half in them.

I fancied up from the waist up. Oh, you did? Yeah. TJ and I didn't get the memo on fancying up. Yeah. Brett Griffin's spotter for Clint Boyer. Clint Boyer only last weekend at Bristol. Got Elliot Sadler coming back this weekend at Richmond.

And I'm stoked about that. And our lovely co-host is back. She's on a streak this year. Of what? Of attending. Yeah, you are. You only miss one. Me too.

I'm always here. I won't recall missing very much. T.J. He's on the streak, too. I am. I missed any. Oh, funny. He hasn't missed one all year.

You know, what are you going to do Friday morning? What's Friday morning? Like when I got to be at the track at 8 o'clock? Yes. Can you believe that? I'm sorry. Man, these schedules this year have been good. And then you look at Richmond and you're like, we have practice at 8.

a.m. That means you got to get up at 8.30 last week. We practiced at 6.15 a.m. Saturday. It's still dark when you wake up. It is definitely still dark. But you're still home on Sunday, though. Yeah. So it's worth it. Xfinity has a one-day show. Unless it rains. That's like, oh, don't say that. Please don't say that. It's not going to rain. It's only 50% chance Saturday. Friday and Saturday.

It drives fast. It showers. It's not like a storm. That's the spirit. Way to come on here and be negative. I know. I learned it from watching you. You did? That could be very true. So are you excited to be. here? So, why did you accept my invitation to come do this? Um, I don't know. I guess I, I guess because I mean, I've known, I've known you since before Elliot had the Yates ride, you know,

I know, you know, I've known you forever and I figured, uh, in a lighthearted atmosphere, perhaps things could be cleared up in a way that you can't do on social, shut up. That's right. In a way that you can't do on social media. And I actually turned down some requests to come do some radio shows over the weekend because I'd already committed to you. And I just felt like maybe just do it once and get it over it. And guess what? Our platform is so much larger than theirs. Is it?

You made the right decision. And you're a lot cooler. There are millions of followers. We're worldwide. You're worldwide. Okay. So is the Associated Press. Yes.

So my platform is also worldwide. Yes. We love that. We are millions. Millions. Millions. listeners. So I've known you, like you said forever. One time I'll tell a quick story. Jenna was in Vegas. She had a bunch of friends with her. I had an amazing suite. And Jenna didn't believe that I had a

really souped up bathroom with a heater on my toilet. So Jenna and her friends came up and sat on my heated seat toilet. Remember that? We were so young when seated, heated toilet still impressed us. They were new, though. We were so young. We were such babies back in the day. It was a $17,000 toilet in this penthouse suite. What year was this? Like 2001. Super long time ago. 2002.

So where all have you been and how did you get to the AP? Tell us your story. I've only ever worked for the AP. That's it. That's it. I got a break while I was in college. I was a journalism student at West Virginia University. AP was looking for some help from a student to cover their basketball and football

programs for variety of reasons. They were based two and a half. Their office was two and a half hours away. So they needed some help, some cheap labor on the ground to go to midweek things that they couldn't be at. So I got that job and it just morphed into, they hired me right out of school. I've been with them ever since I grew up. I started as sort of an intern freelancer and I just went right there.

That's awesome. I have to say of all the people that I follow in motorsports from a media perspective, you cover more motorsports than anybody else that I know. Is there someone that would follow more motorsports on a national and almost international level than you do? Are you only motorsports now? No, no, I'm not only motorsports. Prior to Bristol, I spent the last two weeks working on NCAA tournament. But I do it in a different role.

I'm not the – I do it more from a behind-the-scenes role. I do the Olympics. I do the World Cup. I'll do the World Cup again this year. I'm doing some Formula One this year. You know, I think it's just different. Matt Weaver certainly covers a ton of racing. He covers just different series.

And the AP is just, you know, we are a service. We're a subscription service. We have customers. And we have to give the customers what they want. The customers at this stage are not asking for the Knoxville Nationals. You know, they're asking for the French Grand Prix, and they're asking for Bristol Motor Speedway and things like that. So that you do what the audience wants.

Yeah. Are you from West Virginia? No. I'm from New Jersey. Oh. Jersey girl. So what made you choose West Virginia? Well, for starters, lots of New Jersey kids go to West Virginia for some reason. Really? Okay. I guess we're lured by the burning of couches in the street and the ability to drink all the time. Okay, I like that.

But there were some other factors that put West Virginia high on my list. And I'm old enough that back when you were going to college, you know, there wasn't a real internet to speak of. You had this book, this like 9,000-page book. And you just flipped through it and you're like, that's how you learned about the colleges. They all were in one book. And it told you where it was and, you know, a blurb about it. And I don't know. I landed on West Virginia one day.

And I was like, I'm going to age myself here. And I was like, they got a good football team. They got that major Harris guy. So that was, you know, that put them on my map to start with. and Jersey kids do go to WVU. That's awesome. Yeah. I like West Virginia.

So all these different series that you're covering, I think you've done a good job of kind of being influential with NASCAR to put some pressure on the sanctioning body to bring better practices for media to have better access. And I know a lot of our guys, and it's because you've been around so long and have personal relationships with these guys. I mean, I remember Harvick giving you crap last year. But when you go cover all these different series and you see things they're doing better than we're doing, How receptive is NASCAR when you come back with these ideas? Well, you know, on the Harvick thing specifically, I think he and I got into it at Phoenix, and it became about the media availability gripe when in reality he had an illegal spoiler he didn't want to talk about,

so he changed the subject. He's kind of good at that. He's very good at that. And I think that people, you know, nobody wants to really pay attention to what actually happened there. You know, nobody was talking about his illegal spoiler anymore. they were talking about media availability, and Harvick and Jenna had a fight. NASCAR, this was like five or more years in the making that, you know, a small group of us had been arguing with, not arguing, but trying to work with NASCAR.

And at various levels, because they've had turnover as well. You know, you started with Brett Jukes, used to be in charge of communications, so we started at that level trying to get things fixed, then he left, and then it was a David Higden issue, and then he left, and then it was an Eric Nyquist issue, and then Brent Dewar got involved, and then Steve O'Donnell, and you're just going over, you're asking for very, very basic things to put this at a professional level, just to just add some professionalism through very basic steps and requirements,

and you keep getting told, we can do that, you know, sure, that's easy enough, yeah, we'll do that, and then nothing happens. And then, you know, four or five of us would complain more, and they would say to us, well, the charters are stopping us. In the charters, we can't ask for, you know, we can't force them to do this. Well, I am always of the belief you can do anything you want. You're the sanctioning body. If Kevin, and this was an issue going back several years ago with the Texas thing with

Keselowski and Gordon, Harvick shoved Keselowski into that scrum. And the next race was at Phoenix, and it was a must-win race for Phoenix, a must-win race for Kevin to continue his chance to make it to the final. He had to win. He just started a melee. And he said he wasn't going to come into the media center. And we argued with NASCAR that that's not acceptable. That's not acceptable.

And they're like, what can we do? What can we do? And I said, Mike Helton can pick up the phone and tell him he's got to go in the media center. That's what you can do. So I got very frustrated with all these excuses on why nothing was happening. So when you finally air the dirty laundry, boom, something happens. and some drivers are not happy with some of the things that have been put in place for this year. There are tweaks that need to be done.

The post-qualifying bullpen needs to be tweaked a little bit. But at the end of the day, they have put something in place that mirrors every other professional sports league, not just other racing leagues, other professional sports leagues. You are now guaranteed access at least once a weekend to every driver in the field. and maybe, you know, Kurt Bush doesn't want to have to talk every weekend, but Lannon Castle does. He's glad to have, you know, to be wanted to come into the media center. Cori LaJoy, he's got an audience that he never would have had because nobody would have even known where to go look for Coriola Joy. So, you know, more good than bad has been done.

Yeah, and I totally agree. And I mean, I guess ultimately all you guys are really trying to do is your job, which is content. And without access, you can't provide content. I don't care. I do not care, and this is 100% true, I do not care if I say, you know, if this is Clint, if this is Jerry Lagano, if this is Kevin Harvick, if they say no comment, if they say, I can't talk to you about that, I have no problem. I at least did my job and was provided an opportunity to do that job, which in the old system, which was a free-for-all, you had no guarantee. And this is the example, and this is, I'm so long-winded, the example I consistently would give, is, is you are the Wichita Star newspaper. Yeah. And you have, you know, the track has been calling you and calling you and calling you. Please come out and cover Kansas.

Please come out and cover Kansas. So the sports editor finally says, okay, we're going to go and we're going to go cover Kansas. And he says, I need you do a story on Clint Boyer. And you should do a story on this person and the points leader in the championship race. They're probably going to send their general assignment reporter because they don't have a NASCAR reporter. Your general assignment reporter is either going to be really young. and inexperienced or they're going to be, you know... You can say it.

They're general assignment reporter. They're old and they suck. No, you know, this is just what they've been moved to. So number one, they're going to show up at Kansas Speedway. They're going to assume to go to the press box because that's what you do in all other sports. You know, why would they think that you've got to go to this place in the infield that they can't find, you know, the parking lots, 62 lots away. They got to take a tram. They have to be there 19 hours before cars are on the track because the days are ridiculously long. And they have no guarantee of talking to any driver. Right. You know, sure they would like to do a story on Clint Boyer. And Clint Boyer's PR people are probably smart enough to say to the Wichita Eagle, yes, you can have 15 minutes with Clint Boyer. But are Kevin Harvicks people going to give this, you know, this general assignment report of 15 minutes? Does he know that Kevin Arvick's going to be in the media center?

Does he know he's going to get him on pit road? No. And so at the end of the day, you go through this cycle enough times. Wichita says, you know, we're not coming out to cover the track. This is a disaster. I get one crummy story on who won the poll, and my guy got no access to anyone else. That had to be changed. It had to be changed to be taken seriously and to be at a professional standard.

We all love to give you crap when we don't see you for a while at the track, especially when we know you're covering IndyCar, right? Let's, let's, hold on, hold on. Hold on. I cover five Indy car races a year. But we love to give you crap when we haven't seen you for a while. There's this misnomer. There's this misnomer that it's like, oh, IndyCar is racing, so she's there instead.

That's how we feel. I go to their five most important events of the year. You're cheating on us. Yep. Don't take it personal. It gives us all crap. You're cheating on us. My question is you can't pick NASCAR because obviously our affinity in this room is

for NASCAR. What's the best series you cover outside of us? IndyCar. Yeah. You know, sports cars, you know, sports cars is great too. But for two, but for two different reasons, the atmosphere is so different. Think back, you know, think back to when we were kids and you sat in chairs outside the hauler or people were like out by the grill having conversations. And people talked and they chatted and you actually went to these towns and you spent the night and you went to the Dutch in or, you know, like, you remember? Then you get the Dutch flu. I mean, you know, the atmosphere in this sport used to be very, very different and it still

is that way in those two series. You know, in those two series, if you would like to talk to someone, it could not happen fast enough. Right. And I'm talking about, you know, the top level guys. I mean, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi and Ryan Under Ray, you know, Fernando Alonzo did more media around both the Rolex. You know, he came into the media center every single day at the Rolex two years in a row. And he does the same thing for Indy 500.

Alex Zanardi comes into the media. That's amazing. Alex Zanardi came into the media center every single day. And Steve O'Donnell said to me, right after the Rolex, he said he had his meeting with the drivers. coming up. And he said, what should I, you know, tell me something I should say to the drivers. And I said, ask him how come you just spent, you know, you just went to the chili bowl and the Rolex. Ask him how come you could talk to Fernando Alonzo and Alex Zanardi and Rico or Brit. You know, why could you talk to them every single day at any time you wanted, but you can't

get a single one of these guys, you know, to do anything? T.J. has everyone's cell phone number if you don't. And he can help line up interviews. I will say, though, I give you credit because if you hadn't gone to all of these other events, you wouldn't know, we wouldn't know what other sports are doing and you're not able to get the access. So now you're doing something about it and making the change for NASCAR for the better. So because we're in Charlotte, another example I often give is the NFL requirements, Cam Newton on a weekly basis has more scheduled availability that's already predetermined. You know what days he talks and what time he talks.

He does more in one week than say your points leader or your champion will do in a month. Wow. You know, and so I just think that that's wrong. And I think that when you're trying to maintain and preserve interest in the series and grow a new audience, you must have storylines. And you can't have storylines if your people aren't available. Yeah. You know what I was thinking this week, Kim? At what point did it change where you would go to a local track or a race?

And after the race, the gates would open and you could go to the, you could cross the racetrack and see the driver, the crew guys and stuff like that. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I'd imagine. At one point, like, like, I was just at Kokem when they do it. So, I mean, it still happens at, like, local. Like, what level does it, what level do you say, you know what, I'm just finished the race?

I'm getting out of here in the next five minutes. You know what I mean? Well, you look at, we just came from Bristol and you look at that ridiculous, walkover that, you know, I guess in the late 90s, early 2000s, they felt they needed to build this hidden area so that drivers could avoid the fans. They took it out now. No, it's still there. No, they're still there.

Oh, but the walkway. She's talking about the fenced-in walkway that has tarps over it, so you can't see who's walking. Yeah, they took that away, I thought. No, it's still there. It was there on the other side. No, it's there all weekend. Now, the drivers, thankfully, don't use it. Yeah.

Because, you know, but. Post-race, they, too. typically do, but this weekend they didn't because there was easier to get golf cards in and out. I'm just saying, like, whatever happened to, like, opening the gates after the race. Got too big. And let the kids down there to see the drive. It was never that way, though. I mean, even in the 70s, the Cup Series wasn't that way.

I mean, I went to my first race at four years old, and I've got pictures of Neil Bonnet holding me and Dale Earnhardt and all these guys and you weren't in the garage. Is it a liability, like a safety thing maybe? It's just credential thing. It's a credential thing. And it's, and you can't, well, to a degree, there is a safety thing, you know, you guys have seen when you come down off the roof or when you're when those guys are coming in off you know off pit road all i'm saying after all that though like after the last car the guys are

gone after the car once the car gets to victory lane that's what i'm saying don't know when the car gets to victory lane if it's not you you're gone i know that they're gone too yeah but i'm just saying like what what level is this like i think what we're saying is if they come in after the race they're going to see i know it's definitely i think it's a nascar thing because i go to some of I go to some of these races that have support races around it. I'll use the Portland IndyCar race last year. When the main event finished, I have no idea what class that race was. I don't know what kind of cars those were.

But Dixon, Dario, all those guys were up in a, you know, then a trackside suite, you know, drinking beers and watching racing. You know, they didn't leave. And when they came down, they signed in autographs. And this is four hours after their race, you know. That's what I'm saying. I mean, I just think now it's going to go too big. It would be really cool if at some point, you know, those guys would sit on the pit wall for a few minutes and, you know, take a break.

And I know it's just so big, but I will say after the race. Your guy would. Your guy would. Yeah. I will say, like, you still see the Ross Chastain's and maybe not the. A level guys. Yeah. They're still there.

So, I mean, there's something to be said about it. All right. Let's get to good stuff. The reason we wanted to bring you in is to. to basically show everyone that you shouldn't be the most hated person in motorsports right now. And to show everyone you have a loving side. I'm not saying that. The Daryl Walter Particle.

Okay, first of all, I got to know why did you write it? It's such a long story. Do you want it chronologically? How do you want it? We want it chronologically and in a two and a half minute version. Okay. So actually working on the story for a little bit, when you talk to people of matter in this industry, and by that I mean people who spend money, purchase things have to sell in high pressure situations.

When you talk to them about what my job is, which is to write about the sport at a much higher level than, you know, Brad's penalty yesterday. Like I don't get, I don't weed into that stuff. I'm looking at things at a much higher level. When you talk to people of matter in the top five things that need to be changed or fixed, that booth comes up every time in the top five. Everybody says it. So working on it for a little bit, really I felt like the pressure was getting turned up on me from outside people saying, how long are you going to ignore this?

How long you're going to ignore the, you know, the elephant in the room? You know what everybody's talking about. You know what everybody's talking about. So the story was actually supposed to run the day after Martinsville. But it got held because of the schedule coming out. And I had some, I write a column every Monday. And so I wrote a column instead on what was, you know, I thought of what was going to happen with the schedule. So it got held a week.

In that time, I was very clear with Fox that I was writing the article. And at no point, Fox maintained and never came off the line that no announcement regarding talent was scheduled. They never at any time said that to me. They never at any time said, he's going to retire next week. You don't need to write anything. You know, you don't need to talk about the elephant in the room because it's going to be fixed next week. So when you approach them, this is for our knowledge and our listener base always, when you approach them and say, I'm writing this article about your booth.

Are you doing that to give them a chance to comment? Yeah. Obviously, to give you an idea of what that means. So when they're telling you, we don't have any plans, then you've got to move forward with what you and your boss think is a relevant article. Yes. And it was a relevant topic, and it was relevant. I was talking with some other reporters this week,

and we lamented that we don't really get a chance to write and report about the things that actually are happening. And, you know, you can't really show how the social. is made all the time because then people will stop talking to you. It was my understanding that DW had been encouraged to announce his retirement at Daytona, and he resisted and did not do that. And now it was my understanding, and nobody corrected this, that it was going to be at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. And I felt, and the people, the pressure, the, the, the, the, the, the, various elements of this industry, the product each week was untenable. And the sooner he announced his plans, I felt that we could, everyone could just move on.

You would not, you would not watch the broadcast and just sit there and roll your eyes and complain. And I just felt like it would calm it down if he announced. and if he went and got ahead, if he went ahead and did it. And because now I think that people, and I think that you're seeing that, whether it was from my article or simply because he's retiring, this overwhelming, you know, love for DW that has come out of nowhere when for the last four years. It's been hate. It's been hate. It's been total hate.

Yeah. So now this guy's on his victory lap, which is wonderful for DW. It was not meant to be disrespectful. The tone was flippin. but I feel honest and I feel that every critic who has had something to say not one of them

has said I was wrong I feel like the timing was obviously terrible and regretful but you didn't know that but I maintain that at any point Fox had said to me that he's retiring next week

he's going to announce it next week if at any point they had said that then either the article probably would not have been written at all and or looked much differently because then I would have obviously written it as more of a send-off and less of a critique.

I've been accused of character assassination and things like that. I don't think I talked at all about his character. I acknowledge DW's lifetime service to his sport. I acknowledge he's an ambassador. I acknowledge he's a dignitary. And I thought the critique was of the overall performance of the booth.

I don't think that I at anywhere said DW is a hill jack. You know, I don't like, I think I just said what, what everybody says. And I, you know, and I, unfortunately for me, nobody wants to come out and say, you know, she's right, because you can't, you know, it's hard to do that. And so I take it all alone. And I, I, I do regret the timing. I very much do.

But I almost, you know, you wonder if, you wonder people's motives sometimes. and maybe because I got calls. I was not in Texas. I was doing NCAA stuff. I got calls starting Friday in Texas from people who said, we heard you writing about the booth on Monday. Word was out. I mean, word was out,

and nobody ever stepped up and tried to stop it. And you've got to wonder why. You have to wonder why people let that go. Is this the most crap you've ever caught over an article? I got a lot of crap over some Alonzo article I wrote. I remember that a couple years ago. Yeah. A couple years ago.

that one was a biggie. I'm just saying you personally attacked and that pisses me off because these same people that are saying you are a, are being a sht to you. Well, it's crazy. Another conversation we've had is it's like the articles become Hillary's emails or something. It's like,

you know, everybody is screaming at me. Not everybody. If you actually look and you go through it, the support is far more in agreement. It's just that the people who are a, offended. And that's more what it is. They're offended at the timing and the tone and the quote unquote disrespect that they believe I showed DW. Those people are just louder. They're just,

you know, whether it's because of who they are in the sport and how many followers they have, those people are just louder. I think that you've seen for at least four years, the general public has complained weekly about the booth. And it's not my job. to protect the booth. I don't want to go off on a tangent, but Dave Moody wrote an article basically. It was so hypocritical, though, of who he is in the media, because on Sirius, he talks to fans like they're the dumbest people

to ever call into a radio show. And then he turned around and attacks you for basically saying what you thought was the truth and what a lot of people were saying. I mean, TJ, was there anything in an article you didn't agree with? Yeah, cut this out, Jason. He's chicken. I don't know. I mean, I think, you know, I think there's a lot of points in it and stuff, but I think, I don't think the timing was very fair.

The time is terrible. I mean, yeah, it's not really. Yeah, the timing's terrible. But also should it, but when you counter that, so what, should I've written it four years ago? I'm going to need to see your emails. Like for me. It's a private server. The timing's terrible.

For me, there were two things in there I didn't like. I didn't like the Mike Joy reference. I didn't like the Michael Waltzap reference. I felt like it was a DWP. and then you were kind of spinning me out there. And I was like, I don't. So is there anything if you had to write it again that you would leave out? Fox wanted.

Fox specifically asked that I mentioned their other talent as an FYI. They were like, well, could you at least, you know, talk? So all the heat wasn't on DW? It wasn't meant to be that way. I understand that's how it reads. It was meant to be an overall critique of the entire product. and I hear what you're saying on, oh, you know, you put Michael in there for no reason. But the reality is, is that DW on that program probably brought Michael in there.

And the reality is that critics and audience complainers oftentimes complain about the Waltrip brothers. They link them together. They don't separate them. That's why he's in there. The part on joy is, you know, it's his job to run the booth. He's the, you know, he's the play caller of. the booth and it's a you know he's lost all ability to really do that the way that he's trained and skilled to do because it's more of a romper room you know i i think that the last two weeks

have been better shows i thought sunday at martinsville was better and i thought not martinsville sunday at texas was better and i thought this sunday at bristol was better tj and i are watching the broadcast obviously we're working although we do go back a lot of times a year later to watch it for our own studying purposes. But I've had so many people tell me that it's so awkward to have Jeff Gordon, who is knowledgeable on current day stuff and DW talking about things that quite honestly aren't true, and that it's awkward to watch and see the synergy that the booth has. I think there is some awkwardness in the booth. And I think that, you know, Mike, you know, Mike leans towards the DW side of it. They've been together for 19 years doing this.

DW is his own personality and it is what it is. It's big and it's large and it's great and it worked for a long time and it's just, you know, they Fox themselves, well first of all NBC showed with their willingness to experiment

and move people around and try new things. They showed that it doesn't have to be the way that we think it has to be and then I think that Fox's the way that they've done these driver-only things or all-driver broadcast or they've used Kevin or Clint or Bracken or Brad, or now they're going to use Chad this week,

I think that they also are seeing that the game has changed. And nobody really wants to, you know, we don't want, you're not selling the product if you're spending, you know, four of eight minutes talking about the 1968 race here. Which nobody cares about, I mean, for the most part. The older family, I mean, in NASCAR's audience, it's pretty old, you know. They might care, but I don't think that you're, building things by not talking about what's current and relevant and happening, which both

the Saturday show, Fox's Saturday show does and NBC does. So Darrell Waltrip's announcement, he comes in, you could not have sat any closer to this guy. You're probably, what, five to six feet away from where he's announcing his retirement. Well, the staging area was over my shoulder. Yeah. So they were all hug, you know, it was like the receiving line in a wedding. And so like, so like all of Fox, I mean like, awkward. Well, I just sat there and like it was it was awkward because Nate and Bob were seated across from me and they were getting a big kick out of it. And then and then that sh-bag Joey Denowitz was across the room like feasting on just the absurdity of what was happening, which was like literally this like wedding receiving line of Stevie and. Daryl, like, I mean, like, this is me in my chair at my computer, and this is them right here.

They're right beside of you. Right behind me. And everybody from Fox was hugging him, and it was a big show. And I just, you know, I had made the decision. I had talked with Fox earlier in the morning, and I said, I don't want to ask a question if it's going to disrupt his day. I certainly am not afraid to ask a question. Well, we know. Yeah.

You read the article. And I'm here. I showed up, but I don't want to, you know, if it's going to make it look like it's making it about me, or if it brings the focus back onto this awful week that everybody's had, I don't want to ask a question. And I was going to ask a question. Mike Joy came over, and he was very kind and classy about it. And he said, if you've got a question, you know, today's a new day, ask a question. And I would have, except that DW talked like 19 minutes, and there was only time for three. questions. So, but yes, they were right there. What was your question going to be? I was going to ask him if he got as much satisfaction in the booth as he did from his driving career. Who do you, who would you put in the booth now? Well, I don't think, I don't, if you have to have a three-man booth. Do you have to? No, you don't. But if you have to have a three-man booth, I'd get, I did at minimum give Jamie McMurray a shot. I mean,

obviously I think that they're, they're waiting for Kevin and or Chad in some combination. Um, and I don't know how long that weight is going to be. I think that between Jamie and Regan and Jamie Little and Matt Yolk and Matt Yolk, and I think that they've got a really, you know, now they've brought in Ricky Craven, Bobby Lubbani is excellent. I think that they, I think that Larry McReynolds should be at the track. I think Jamie McMurray should be at the track. I think that they do have the people and the ability to do an unconventional, you know, broadcast.

Yeah. You know what I think Regan is. doing a really good job as well. I do. Yeah. I think Regan's... And I think Jamie, you know, for being brand new to this, and I think that I think if you sent Jamie to the track and got him out of the studio, and I do think that Larry Mac is really good with the technical stuff. Yeah. I appreciate stuff. He's used to. Yeah. You don't have to have a three-man booth, in my opinion. I think that you can just have, like, Larry Mac and Jamie Mac, like, in the suite next door with some technology or something, and you know, you're able to kick it out.

Do cool stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's great for D. to announce his retirement. I mean, I'll be honest with you. I think he overstayed his stay in the Cup Series as a driver. I mean, there were tons of provisionals, tons of last place starts, tons of miss races there at the end of his career. And you have to wonder if he was riding along for the money or if he was truly still enjoying to compete.

And it's almost like the booth he did the same thing. I mean, in the last five years, I'm not in the garage a lot because I spend a lot of time on the roof. But how many times have you seen him in the garage in the last five years? Be honest. About 15 times last weekend. At Bristol. Yeah, I saw him.

Before that. I don't know. Not many. I mean, I think that's what the present drivers say. And, you know, D.W. was very passionate in his defense of the criticism against him in his retirement news conference. And he said, oh, people say that I'm not current and I don't know. And he said, I talk to crew chiefs. I talk to people.

I see the data. So he's not unaware. of the criticism about him. And he almost like line by line kind of try address it all. And he does have something to offer. He really does have something to offer. I just think that Fox over the way that they continued to use him was incorrect for the last few years. And since we're sitting in his place, I think that DW would have been gone in 17 if Dale Jr. had picked Fox.

I think that everybody's in agreement with that. And so Fox had a little bit of a problem in that they knew that a change was made, but out of, you know, reverence to this beloved, you know, fixture, their first hire, they had to sort of let it play out. And unfortunately, timing-wise, this is how it played out. Two things. I think, number one, you're onto something about getting McMurray to the track, Larry Mack to the track. Because the thing is, if they're not at the track, and by at the track, I don't mean at the track.

I mean in the garage, you know, keeping up with the times and still maintaining the relationships with people that know what's going on. You lose the ability to effectively communicate what's going on in our sport. There's no way you could take it to you. You could take a two-year break and come back and be able to do your job to the point that you're able to do it now. And on the DW side, my only last thing I'd say is I really wish he was going to call the Daytona 500 next year and then go out. Like I wish he would announce his retirement for this year. Call the biggest race of the year in 2020. 2020 is a cool number and that'd be it. But anyway.

And I do believe that he wanted to get to 20 years. I think that was part of what sort of dragged us out. And as you noted, he doesn't want to retire. He doesn't want to not be part of the show and the circus. He loves it. It's his life, you know. When it's all you've done for 60 years, you know, the idea of not doing it can be frightening. I think some people now forget what he's accomplished, though, too. I think it gets overlooked a lot now. You forget that, you know, he was the, he was at the forefront of being a big personality and selling that and earning paid appearance. He was entertaining. Yeah. In his day, he was very entertaining. And he understood, he understood to make waves, you know, he understood that you can't be

plain and blasé. Yeah. No, he was, I wish some people could go back, especially some of the younger fans, could go back and see what he was back then, how popular he was, how in the spotlight he was, You know, and our modern day DW is Kyle Bush. Yeah. There's no way around it. But he's also, you know, Kyle Bush is also DeLernhardt. You know, he's everybody because there's not, there's just not enough guys stepping up. To be the big personalities.

Like, what do you think Chase Elliott is? I don't have anything. I mean, is he the next Bill Elliott? You know, I mean, you know, I don't know. He's so quiet. And I don't hear enough. I don't hear enough out of him to be able to tell you that. And like, you know, we want to think that Blaney's the next, you know,

whatever we think Blaney's going to be. But same thing. Some of that, you've got to win races. Everybody's waiting on Larson. You know, Larson's supposed to be the savior, but he's got to win races. Yeah.

Yeah. Speaking of Larson, like, how good is Kurt Bush making himself look this year? I mean, when you look at Kurt's having a great year. You look at Kurt versus Kyle.

Like Kyle Larson didn't even in the same statement. I just looked at this. What have there been? Eight races? Kyle, Kyle, Kurt has seven finishes of 12th or higher. Yeah.

He's been very competitive. quietly. He's the most consistent Chevy by far. The first two top fives were him. Yeah. Yeah. He's got more than Chase. Yeah.

And so, Kurt's doing a good job. Fridays are a problem for him, particularly post-qualifying lap when his head's about to explode. Yeah. He's been having good runs on race day. But on Sundays, and I have thought from the very beginning that he's going to be a help to that Chevy can. because they are off and they are struggling. And I think that Kurt has, you know, as you guys know,

he's very talented. But the younger drivers don't have the same knowledge that they can apply to how a car mechanically works. Right. That Kurt, I think, can give that feedback. And Kurt's had success as well, so he knows. I mean, Kurt's a successful race car driver, obviously a champion as well. All right. Well, shall we have him spot on, spot off?

I want everybody to love Jenna. That's why we brought her on to tell her side of the story. I wish that, like, I wish I wasn't thrown out of the club, the cool. No, I'm just kidding. What people don't understand is I don't work for NASCAR, and I'm not, I don't work for one of NASCAR's partners. I don't work, you know. And there are very, the days of David Poole and Tom Jensen and Steve Wade and Ed Hinton and Mike Mulhern. Do you remember Mike Mulhern, the stuff he would write?

And he would write what was actually happening, and he didn't care if people got mad. Well, that's gone away. There's just, there's not enough independence. When half your media is serious NBC sports and Fox Sports, they're all your paid partners. It's not, you know, and NASCAR.com, it's not an independent thought or analysis or your, or your, that's not true. I didn't mean it that way because obviously Nate and Bob and Dustin and all of them do have independent thoughts. but you're limited in what you really can do. You have to tow certain lines.

And I just happen to be one of the last independent standing. I have no, I am not paid to promote the sport. And so I'm a bad guy. I'm going to see your emails. See, I knew you were that time. I know you were that time. Next messages are going to be the next thing you asked for. Better emails, butter emails.

The Russia report. All you people. listening, stop attacking Jenna personally, or I'm going to personally come after you. Will you go to their house? Yes, I'll go to their house. Hello. Yes, that's what's up. I'm staying home.

Well, Matt, you got to stay home and take your wife's phone away. I got to stay home and you're going to get me in trouble. I got a babysit. Yeah, babysit. His own baby. I got a babysit. All right, spot on, spot off. Spot on, spot off.

He's spot off. He's spot off. I'm going to like it, spot off, you don't like it, and you say why either way. So Jenna, Jenna, what happens here is? I know what happened. Okay, good. Familiar. Okay.

Perfect. 47 green flag passes for the lead on Sunday sets Bristol records. Spot on, spot off. How about Jenna? Spot on. I thought Bristol was probably the best race of the year so far. So, I mean, there were 13 green flag passes for the lead in 2018. For whatever reason, Bristol has lost its excitement.

I thought it lived up to it. I thought it was an entertaining race with a lot of storylines. I thought a lot of different drivers had things going on. The Harvick situation was crazy. And to see him still come back on the lead lap, I thought it was a great race. I think spot on. How about you, T.J? I'll go spot on.

It was a good race. Some guys were good up top. Some guys were good on the bottom. And there wasn't one preferred lane that just drove away from everybody. And you didn't have to move somebody out of the lane. It wasn't like a train of cars around the top, and that's all you had. There was guys running the bottom, guys run on the top, getting side by side. I thought it was good.

There's no way you can spot all 47 Green Flag League changes. I don't care what kind of race you're watching or where you're watching it at. I thought, I've always said since they redid Bristol, it's the best racetrack we go to all year in terms of the ability for the drivers to move around. What I think is crazy, though, is we saw 750 horsepower package put on the best race of the year. and we know we're migrating toward a 550 horsepower package everywhere. So if that had been a 550 horsepower package, what does it do to the racing? Because I want the racing to stay exactly like it was yesterday every time we go to Bristol. The only thing I'm spot off on is I see fans that everybody on social media is glowing about how great of a race it was.

And I had ignorant fans still tweeting me, it's disappointing to see no one was there. Well, no shit. I don't need to hear that or see that. I was at the racetrack. I was there for all three days, but I don't care that no one was there. I've been to football games that was half full and seen a hell of a football game. The people in attendance don't make the event itself great or not great. So some of you people need to get off the negative wagon on that side of attendance.

Look, I wish it was full. No sport is as fixated on attendance and ratings as this one. It's crazy. I mean, you know. You're hitting my rant right now. Geez, way to ruin that. Go ahead. You got time.

You can go now. I just don't think it's get off your phone and go to the race. Yeah. I mean, I realize how many people can go to a Hornets game? How many is that seat? Probably 20,000. Yeah, like 20. Low 20s, yeah.

And so people are, and like, compared to that, like, our numbers compared to that, people are mad when we don't have 80, you know, and even go to like a football game. What is this football? 60 to 75 or something like that. So what needs to happen to make this change? I just don't. I think people have, there's so much. access to our sport and to go out you can literally sit there you know back when I would go to

my first NASCAR races in the in the early 90s it was um you went you you had to get a scanner there you couldn't sit at home listening on your couch like you can you you went and you rented the scanner you had a scanner or you went went to radio shack and bought one and went went and got a program with all the frequencies i remember they used to sell the frequency list there i don't know if they still do you used to buy the frequency list for that weekend and put in your scanner. And it was just an event. Like it was something to go and do.

Now it's, now you can, you can get it all right here. You can watch, I can tell you what lap times this guy's running every lap right here. I can see, I can see everything right here.

I can go out and mow my yard and watch the race at the same time. I mean, you can, there's so much access to everything now that sometimes it's not, you know, and people don't want to,

they don't want to go to the race, but yeah, they want to complain about, not about the people that aren't there. But you say what needs to happen. What needs to happen is what happened yesterday. Put on a hell of a race.

Put on a hell of a show. We need to put on a show. I still think, and we'll probably hit on it later, there's more things that I don't think the local areas have adjusted yet. And it makes it near impossible for, it makes it near impossible for a family of four to go and have an affordable good time. It's the same as going to Disney World. Yeah.

And it's like you can't, like it's. I mean, it's the same for sponsors. Not as many sponsors are in it because of how expensive travel is. I think our sponsors are, I think our number of our sponsors are in it. They just don't do the frequency that they did. We got more sponsors than we probably ever had. Yeah, but from a minimal level. Yeah.

And I realize. Carry the heavy expense of it. These are chains too. And this isn't going to make or break your chain. This weekend is not going to do it. You know, and you're, I don't know, I think you would, I think you'd be, I think you'd get more people with a better rate. You know what I mean?

Like for all the hotels in the area and stuff. And just an affordable package. I mean, think about how much it would cost for a husband, wife, and two kids to go to the track. I mean, you're going to have, how much is a normal ticket? Well, I talked to Marcus Smith on my drive up here today, and we talked about the crowd and the challenges that they're facing. And he said, even if your tickets are free, you know, you have to drive to the race, and you've got to come from somewhere. So you need to spend the night somewhere. Yeah.

And, you know, right off the bat, you're looking at $300 or more dollars for one night. And you can't get one night. can't get one night. You want two and three. And, you know, they can't, you know, there's a lot of ways that this all start happening when we were getting, you know, 80 to 100,000 people in these races. Everyone was like, and people would pay at them. And it's just different now. You can have, you can have, you can have a block party at your house with the whole neighborhood for a quarter of what it would take your family afford to the race and have the same coverage and be in the comfort of your own home. And, you know, the show is a good part of it,

well you have to put on a good show, but everything's so blown out of proportion. To me, I think... Ticket prices are not our problem. Not anymore, no. To me, it's a combination of everything to me. Do you see an issue with IndyCar and other sports with... No, because IndyCar races in, they race in major cities for the most part. They're not, you know, your problems are the markets like Bristol, you know, Darlington,

Martinsville. There's not that many people right there. Yeah, and there's not that, you know, Martinsville, half the people stay in Winston-Salonson, which is a 90-minute drive. It's like you're driving 90 minutes. So those hotels have the luxury of tri-jamp. The street races for IndyCar because nobody wants to run a car. They want to be right there in the hotel overlooking the course.

Those rates are high. Those rates are in the... That's right there. You can almost watch the race. And they're luxury hotels. Like casino at Dover. Yeah. That would be expected to be a little higher.

You can look out your window and watch the race. And I'm talking about like the... Long Beach Renaissance, like beachside with the race course right out your window, they want $400 a night. It should be $400 a night. But the Fairfield Inn in Johnson City wanting $400 a night for a room. I'll never forget. We used to stay for the longest time. We'd stay in that double tree, you know, in Johnson City. And, you know, you'd pay almost $400 a night. So remember the car tomorrow, 2006 test? Where we all had to go up there in the middle of the week. and spend two nights and freezing cold.

$78 for the same hotel. 78 bucks. And it's just offensive. That's ridiculous. I don't mind like that. But the problem is NASCAR can't fix that. Marker Smith can't fix that. It can't fix it.

And it cripples NASCAR. It cripples NASCAR. It cripples SMI. It cripples Bristol Motor Speedway. And it cripples the local economy because I heard the lady at the front desk, answer the phone, answer the phone while I was standing there. And it was another one of the sister hotels. And they were talking about their percentage of full. She's like, I'm at 72% hoping for walk-ins.

And so lower your prices. So did you see what Clint did? Clint went and called around and they were like, I rate's $390, but if you walk up, we'll give it to you for $122. Yeah. So I got a friend that does travel for a cup team. And he called in January to get their rates. And it was basically $1,200 per room because what you guys have to understand, when Jenna says $3 or $400, it's three-night minimums at these hotels.

So he waited. He called this week, got the same rooms for $150. Yeah. Nate Ryan and I did the same thing. for the first time and ever, I mean, I've been going to Bristol since 2000. For the first time ever, I did not book my hotel until this week. I'm telling where I'd stay. I came down until it's the opposite of a plane ticket now.

I went to Asheville Thursday on the way up. That's where I'd stay. I wouldn't stay anywhere near Bristol. Well, if you could, you know, if you're not at the truck, you know, they had an 8.30 practice Saturday morning and they didn't get done until 8 o'clock Friday night. So why, you know, you drive back to Asheville just in time for last call. Perfect. Well, hopefully, you know, not feeling.

up now is a wake-up call and it can start trending back in the other direction where they can start getting back to affordable rates where the fans can go and spend. Stop being greedy and get to 100% capacity. I would say if they can do partnerships with like hotels or something just to minimize the prices at least where the hotels get some sort of value because there's no reason for a $78 room to be $400. No. Yeah. Absolutely not. Nothing. I mean even doubling it. Doubling it to me is still a fair price for that weekend. I mean 140 bucks, 150 bucks. You know what? It drives a damn price up right now in today's world. It's not the fans.

It's us. It's our industry alone can go in and occupy 80% of the rooms in Bristol and Johnson City. They know we need the rooms. They rent hotels out. And Kingsport. So us alone, because we travel so many people, we put them at 80% capacity. So the 20% is gravy. Yeah.

Yeah. It is robbery and it's unfortunate. But anyway. All right. Boyer and Lugano make contact on lap 433 cutting Boyer's tire down. Brett, I need to hear from me. you're a dick. Spot off for sure.

I can honestly say, I don't know what happened. That's what I'd say too. I saw Clint come off the corner under Lugano. Next thing I see, they're making contact. I can't tell by looking if Joey came down or Clint came up or it just was a racing deal. Clint immediately lost his mind and was screaming that Ligano came down and hit him. After the race, I talked to Clint.

He had calmed down. He was like, man, it's just one of them racing deals. I got in him. He got into me. that's one of those things though where people wonder if TJ and I are up there fighting and we're not because I know I didn't even look at him I don't even look at him with me yeah TJ for sure I knew that TJ was keyed up and saying inside and obviously I know that Clint can see that that he's underneath joy legano so that's not a deal where I thought you know TJ didn't give the right information if that's the case T and I are going to have a conversation advice first if it well TJ actually wouldn't come down there he would text me after the race was over on the drive home and being asked so I mean spot all for it happening it certainly ruined our day it ruined our chance to win the race but but i just truly don't know whose fault it really was uh you know i'm you never like to see a car get taken on the race

unless it somebody's running really good and you're competing them for a win maybe but um you know spot off isn't that what just happened exactly um i don't i can't place blame on either one i i was actually surprised the tire cut as fast as it did i had to hit the valves down i've seen cars hit way harder than that all day and not have an issue at all. You know, I hated, I thought Clint did an exceptional job to get it slowed down as much as he did. Because when I first saw him go straight, I was like, oh, that's going to hurt. Then he kind of. He just scimmed it.

Yeah, which, you know, I was glad to see that it wasn't that bad. But I didn't see Clint didn't run up there and say, well, I'm going to run into his left rear right here. And you don't cut down on somebody there on the straightaway. We were going straight. And Clint was just, you're trying to get everything you can get, you know, off the corner. Clint's trying to be right on us so he can get the arc into the corner and shoot to the bottom and the next one. You know, you're just trying to get everything you can get.

To me, that was just bad luck on the short track deal. It was something that they could probably hit 10 more, nine more times right now, and it wouldn't happen. So, you know, I hated it. I'm glad I didn't wreck us both right there. We raised each other all day. Yeah, TJ and I did. I don't even think we hit one time.

No, I don't either. I mean, Clint found some speed, which was cool and weird. At the same time, Clint found some speed in a long run rolling right on the bottom, kind of like an old Bristol, which is awesome there because every few laps you see the guy get a little loose. They were fighting the cars. They were driving them, which I thought was really cool. And we were running a complete opposite line. We could run the bottom one too, but we were running up in three and four.

And it was fun. I mean, I enjoyed it. Kislauski penalized after starting three wide with 14 to go finishes P18, TJ. I got to go. spot off with the penalty because that doesn't that's not consistent we had a three wide start earlier this year that didn't that just went away um you know uh i i i don't know how you was penalized for not following directions he yeah the penalty was he didn't line up where they let me ask you this though so the other guy followed directions so let me ask you this here was

my take on the on the nascar chatter they were telling him what to do which was to get behind the six car yeah and they told him at least five times in my ear i don't know how many times in real world and he didn't do it and then it appeared to me that if he would have done it they weren't going to black flag him even though they said they were going to black flag him and they do this all the time post the two and then the two gets in the right spot and they wave it off they used to go and they don't do that and no other sport does a penalty get announced and you go oh never mind the guy actually it's not holding anymore because when we threw the flag for holding tj let him go and he let the defensive and go hit the quarterback so never mind on that

so so here's my question is was he really going to get black flagged after they said black flag him if we don't to the line three wide and I think it's no. Probably not. You know, I'm spot off for the obviously it was a miscommunication at some point. I don't know if there was a there was a mix up obviously before that to be lined up where he was. Do you want to tell him how that happened? Are you going to me to tell him how that? What, the blending? Yeah, just he rolled out and we used to have a guy with a paddle and the guy used to stand there with the red paddle and if you came off pit road before the end of the field went by, you stopped and when he flipped the green you all took off. And you merged in, blended in behind the end of the field. And they, they just kind of kept going and

blend it up. And that created, that created, okay, well, you just pitted an eye in front of a couple cars that didn't pit. And that wasn't right. You know, they, it kind of was self-inflicted a little bit. I lost my mind on the radio. So we are running, we're running sixth. Prat active. I ought to be good this week. Before the caution, we're running 15th. Okay, we're running 15th on the racetrack. This caution comes out. they open pit road we elect not to pit it puts us sixth on the racetrack with old tires the first car coming off pit road is the two he's going to have two tires okay he's going to be lined up on our inside seventh brad came off didn't follow the rule he kept going and blend it up in front of us because he was able to get two tires and get off pit road before we even got to turn one so here he sits

in front of us and i tell bug i'm like i'm telling you NASCAR hasn't seen this they have no idea this has happened they're going to miss this call call it in you know what NASCAR calls the 14's questioning their position on the racetrack. No, I'm not. I'm questioning the 2's position on the racetrack. The official can't even relay exactly what we're asking to be relayed to the tower. So this, you know what, NASCAR says, Jenna. They say, 14's where he's supposed to be.

I'm like, oh, no, they're looking at the start, finish line. They're not looking at the pit procedure. We were coming to the green. We were on the backstretch coming to the green with the wrong lineup yet again this year, and they finally figured it out and said, hold the one to go. and that's the one to go lap where they told Brad to get down. He didn't get down. Spot on for throwing a penalty.

Spot off for. TJ and I'll tell you, once you give us one to go, we get in the mindset of we're going green. The drivers get in the mindset of going green. Nobody wants to give an inch at that point. So they're putting all of us in a really bad spot to have the lineup wrong to give one to go and then try to get us all to change it.

Yeah. When you get one to go, you're like, okay, this is what's getting ready to happen here. You're kind of prepping yourself for that. I mean, it's kind of, and now hold it. I guess somebody like calling time out or something. It's like icing the kicker kind of. You're just kind of, okay, now what's going to happen now?

We're moving a guy here? Do I need to reposition myself? Do you think they miss Hoots? I do. I miss him every single Sunday. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, when you've had consistency for so many years and now somebody else is doing it. Yeah, and there was just something about, you know, his voice too, that you, when he spoke,

you listened, like, you didn't, and he, I don't know, just. just the voice he had was just, you know. It's an assertive voice. Yeah, and you knew you needed to listen. Like when big mic stands up in the driver meeting. So by the third time you hear, you would hear who say, you know, put him here. Or it was like when you heard that like the second or third time and you could hear the urgency in his voice, it was like. Uh-oh, very trouble.

Yep, I'm moving right now. Yep. I'm on my way. Kyle Bush's comments about Expinity Race without him in it. Jason, you want to read that? So Kyle Busch said, I hope all the fans. who packed this place today and everybody who is going to turn on the TV and watch because Kyle Bush ain't in the race will enjoy a great race.

Spot on, spot off. Jenna. So I asked him the question. He was in a terrible mood. It was after Saturday practice. And I asked it because I was going to ask him about Harrison Burton being in the car. And I said, are you going to watch the Xfinity race hoping to lead that into Harrison Burton?

He goes, nope, don't give a shit. And I said, I said, said, oh, and then he finished with what he said. And I think good for him. I think it's spot on because he wants to race every single chance he can. And he doesn't do it just to fool around and dick around. He wants to go out there and win. And I don't have a problem with that.

And, you know, I know that fans do. I know fans don't like it. But I think it's good on him that he still cares. And he wants to do it. And this is how he wants to spend his time. So spot on. You know, I'm spot on that Kyle's a racer, and he likes to drive anything and everything he can. But I also really have been, I just enjoy seeing these up and coming.

These kids get shots like Harrison and guys like that. I enjoy watching these guys race. They're going to be the next stepping stones. You know, I like how they can get doses at times, you know, but then go out there and race amongst yourselves and see who's going to, you know, come out on top. I'm spot off for the sport because it would have been better if Kyle had actually been engaged, watched the race, tweeted about the race, engaged himself in social media, supported a guy being Harrison Burton who is currently driving for KBM.

And I would imagine is filtering anywhere from $2.5 to $3 million to be able to do that. So for you not to be able to ask your follow-up question alone, spot off. And I do agree that if he were engaged in the race, the way that Dale Jr. is engaged on Saturdays, I think that that's helpful to the sport. And give them credit. Like, these are the up-and-coming guys. And the sponsors probably want him to show support for that series. I would say so.

It's almost an ignorant comment. Yeah. It's borderline. I understand where he's coming from. And I don't, if I were him, I wouldn't necessarily to say that. Yeah, but you got to be so careful because if we're all just going to dump on him for it, then he's going to stop doing it. He can't get to stop.

I know. But do you know, you see what I mean? This is the cycle that it, that you get these drivers in. I mean, he probably made that comment, too, because so many people have dumped on him already that it just, I mean, that's probably how he's feeling. Yeah, he was mad. He was mad. He was stressed for time. And he was mad he wasn't going to race. Yep. Spot on, spot off. Riley Herbst interview after a K&E East Race at Bristol.

Jason, you want to play it? The car's killed. Look at the right side of the thing. Oh, yeah, I can't, I can't see the right side over here. So Riley Herbst out in today's K&N race. Yeah, Hannah, I could tell you from I can see the right side and it's pretty well used up. What a doucheback. Jenna, you got to go first. It's media-related. It's unfortunate.

Her mic was hot. You know, I probably... Your mic's hot right now. I walk away from many interviews saying, what a douchebag. I don't know. What I'm lost on was, did he say something else that the mic didn't get? I think it was the mannerisms in which he was giving her while he said, obviously you're an idiot, Hannah, my car is killed.

I can't help you can't see the car. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just unfortunate. Her mic was live and, you know, she's not taking as much abuse as I would take in that situation, which is lucky for her. Could you imagine printing that somebody's a douchebag? Like, what would happen? She's probably thought about doing it a few times. That's what Twitter's for.

Oh, boy. Spot on, spot off. Which one? Spot on. You know, she spoke her mind. It's just unfortunate, you know? Bad timing. Yeah.

Just like me. She's a victim of bad timing. She got a couple thousand new Twitter followers out of it. I think she actually came on and co-hosted our show earlier this year. I think she needs to change her name to Hannah News House and stay in a Hannah Newhouse. I think she needs a stage name. This was awesome. I mean, this guy's being a D-bag and she calls him out.

I don't know how you could spot off it. So spot on by 10 years ago. go if this happens, you never hear of Hannah again. I'm glad that we've progressed enough to realize that, you know, she was being candid. She didn't know her mic was hot. A producer in her ear actually made a comment to her saying, man, that guy was being a turd. And so she was really responding to him not knowing her Mike was hot. I'm not positive. I think she was told that it was off.

I'm not positive, but I thought I heard that she thought it was off because somebody told it. Obviously she thought it was off. Yeah. Let's take a break and see what's coming up on the Dale Jr. download this week. Dale Jr. Dad. Junior Dad. Listen up.

When you're done listening to Door Bumper Clear, go listen and subscribe to my podcast, the Dale Junior Download. This week, I guess I'm really excited about Richard Trilter sits down to talk about his career and relationship with Dad. Plus, catch us on TV Tuesday, 5 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. The Dale Jr. Download, available on major podcasts.

The Daily Download. And we are back. head in the fast lane. I'll give these guys three topics pertaining to racing and one that is off the wall. They'll have 30 seconds to respond to each. First question, Kurt Bush said after the race he would have wrecked his brother to win. Do you think he would have actually done it? T.J. I don't think he would erect him. I think he might have tried to move him, but I don't think Kurt would erect him to win. I do. I absolutely do. I think that Kurt at this stage of his career in particular understands what being part of the show's about,

and I think that Kurt wants to win, and he wants to prove things, and I think he knows that he would have probably scored a lot of points. And I don't mean that, you know. I think he might have scored fan points. But literally you meant it, too. Yeah, but I think that would have been a popular move, and that's the kind of stuff, unfortunately,

that the sport needs to create buzz. So a long time ago, Kyle Wrecked Kurt in an all-star race, and the next day we were all in the lake, and Kurt ended up on my little bit, but he was like, man, I'm going to wreck this guy. And I'm going to get him before the years over. And he never did.

But I know Kurt didn't forget about that. Being that you're at Bristol, a place where Kurt's had success, to be able to take down the villain, who also is your brother, I hope he wasn't threatening us with a good time. I hope he meant it. And I hope they're first and second again somewhere with 10 to go, and he actually does it. Hey, you just sold 40,000 more tickets to the fall race. That's how you feel Bristol back up, though.

A brother reckon a brother, you're going to sell some tickets. Steve Phelps said NASCAR hopes to attract more OEMs. Does the sport need more OEMs to grow? Brett. I don't necessarily know that we need more OEMs to grow. And where I'm more concerned about this is this is where this 550 horsepower motor thing is coming from. We have the most expensive 550 horsepower engine in the world right now. And if 550 horsepower is our goal, it sounds like to me it would also be more of a factory-made engine.

So obviously from a cost perspective, that helps attract OEMs. But I don't know. Are there enough Nissan and Dodge and Kia owners in the world that if we start fielding those cars that they're going to come watch the sport because their, man, the car they drive is on the race? I don't know. I kind of compare this to the sports car series where you see other manufacturers.

There's a lot of manufacturing the sports car stuff. I don't think adding more could be, you know, could be too bad. I don't want 20, you know, but if we add one or two more, I don't know if it would necessarily hurt the sport I would say yeah they need more OBMs as someone who you know goes to the Rolex 24 where there's you know 13 different manufacturers and all these different cars

I see that it actually does bring car enthusiasts out and you're able to do more with displays and Corvette Corrals and you know and I think it just it's just more it's just more and I think that more in this case is better because it is a reason to bring in new people. Martin Turex Jr. has led the most laps in four of the last five Richmond races, but has yet to win there. Where will his first win of the season come on Saturday night or at a different track, Jenna?

I don't know where Martin's luck at first win is going to come. He doesn't seem to have any luck at all right now. I don't think it'll be at Richmond because I think Kyle is going to be very tough to beat on this streak he's in of winning everything. that he drives. But Martin, Martin is the one struggling there in the JGR lineup, whether it's something with him and his actual team or just bad things that happened during a race. He's not getting any breaks.

He only has two top fives all year. He's only led 14 laps. That's not an opportunity to win a lot of races. I mean, you look at Denny. Denny's only led like 94 laps and he's got two wins, you know. But at the end of the day, you've got to be leading laps and you've got to be finishing top five. so I don't think he's going to win at Richmond.

I think we'll see him come back to life at one of these downforce tracks somewhere this summer. Yeah, I kind of agree with you there. I don't see the dominance that they've had yet, and I'm not saying they're not going to find their stride here. Maybe it starts this weekend, but I don't see them hitting their stride yet and getting to that rhythm that they have as a previous team.

You know, Gannasi picked up an engineer by the name of Jeff Curtis. We all call him Jazzy, and they picked him up from the 78 furniture, row crew. So I don't know that Martin and Cole aren't missing Jazzy a little bit because, man, it certainly seems to have helped. I mean, we were just talking about how fast Kurtz been. It certainly seems to have helped Ganassi. Something has. And I've worked with Jazzy, and I know one guy can make a big difference. And I would be, I don't know, if I were a media person, I would be going to Ganassi and saying, hey, can we talk to this Jazzy guy?

Because somebody's making a difference over there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Off the wall topic with the Final Four National Championship game tonight, what non-racing sporting event tops your bucket list? T.J. I'd like to go to a college football championship game or a really big ball game. I've never been to a real college football game yet, so it's awesome. I don't know because I've had the luxury of doing a lot of things. I think there's nothing like the 100-yard dash at the Olympics.

Olympics and I've done that. I didn't ever get to see Michael Phelps swim in person. That would have been pretty cool. I don't really, you know, I don't know. I tell people, go to the Indy 500. I say, go to Talladega. They're racing events. And if I tell you guys, I want to go to Lamont this summer, that's a racing event.

I mean, I've just been to a lot. I've been very fortunate to go to a lot, too. And it's just been because of sponsors that we've had. I mean, M&Ms took me to a Super Bowl. I would have to say looking forward Zion Williamson in an NBA finals game because I've never been to the NBA championship game. I've been to playoff games. Been to the World Series, been Super Bowls, been to like Jenna said, a lot of, been fortunate to do a lot of stuff. But when Zion Williamson makes it to an NBA finals, I'd like to go to that.

That'd be cool. Yeah. I saw Shaq play in an NBA finals once. That's awesome. Against the Nets. It wasn't a great series. Yeah. That's cool, though.

Yeah. Ask DVC. This question is from Cassie Labrie. What is your favorite Daryl, your favorite Daryl Walter at memory? Jenna? Yeah. I was waiting for her.

I didn't know if I should ask you first. Why am I going first? I don't know. You know, I like when he did the icky shuffle. God, you stole mine. I'm sorry. That was classic. Yeah, I like when he did the Ikey shuffle.

I liked the way he handled the 2001 call of the Daytona 500. And on a more personal note, he, you know, if you wanted to have an entire show on the, you know, ridiculousness of the Hall of Fame selection process, we can get into that. But DW, I felt was sort of blackballed in the early voting. And I remember the Fox had him a lot. They did a live show for the announcement. And I remember him just sitting there, just, you know, really, like, emotionally wounded. You could see him having to host this show and seeing him not get voted in.

And I wrote about it and I went and spent some time with him in the bus at Charlotte the next day and talked to him about it. And that's something that I'll remember. Yeah. Without you guys, TJ. I mean, you kind of covered all of them. I know. Thanks, Jenna. He won a lot of races.

84, right? My biggest thing is hands down his personality. I grew up in Pageland, South Carolina. We all talk a lot of shit. If you're from Pageland, you know how to talk. DW was the best. His nickname was Jaws. So since my icky shuffle memory from the Cincinnati Bingle football player that he was mimicking can't be used because Jenna stole it,

I got to go with just man, his personality because he came in and he kicked your ass. He told you he was going to kick your ass and then he celebrated. It was cool. All right. rant. I got a rant. Jenna has been kind enough to come into our studio and spend a lot of time with us. This show is one of the longest we've ever done.

and TJ's phone has not stopped buzzing since she got here. How many notifications do you get every second? Because that thing is, the battery should be dead on it. It's very busy. Roger Penske has a lot of spotting things to talk about. I'm still at 95% bud. Notification Central. His babysitting opportunities lining up. Got to go.

Yeah. Turn an airplane mode while we're on the show. This is serious. I'll steal the phone. You should take his phone. I heard that that's a thing in the Major's house. Yes. It's a respect thing.

Jason. Jenna is a guess she said, whatever she said stays in. Anything else we want to rant about? I feel like we've, you want to rant about your losing streak? I know, you're kicking my tail. I came out, so we do this thing, you know, where I pick a driver, he picks a driver. In the last four years, I've beat him. And it's gotten to the point that at the end of the season, it's not even close, so we quit picking.

So this year, I just came out gun and shooting out all these big names, and I took off three to nothing. Since then, I've lost four in a row. So here we are going into this week, and I've got to pick. a driver and I'm just going to keep firing away and go with Denny Hamlin. Oh. Loser picks first. Yeah. So, man, you are still swinging.

You know what? Looking at this list, I'm going to have to go with. It takes a while every time. Yeah, I have to study. I will take. We should force you to give your pick before the show starts. I'll take Clint. That's a really good pick because our short track program is definitely of the 14 car.

And obviously the four was super. super fast too, but the 14 cars short track program is our strength as a race team. I hate to tell you guys this, but if you don't drive for Gibbs or Penske, you don't win. Penske's leading all the laps, period. Yeah. And Gibbs is winning a lot of races. Yeah, I mean. Hands down.

Maybe it'll be Blaney's time. Agreed. How about some fantasy tips, best driver at this track? Who do you think? I will say, late in the race yesterday was we had the 13 in the top 10, the 95, and the 37. So I don't think we're going to be as lucky this week. The 95 I would probably throw on that list this week. Obviously, Amarola is in a great car, but he's a guy. I think this is his best track, Richmond. I really do. I mean, I think it's a place where he can lead laps and contend to win. And I think, again, our cars are good enough to do that there. And I mean, I hate to pick us to our high sky because everybody's like, we're new shit. You picked us to a house guy. Yeah. Daniel Hemrick better get on his horse and get that thing giddy up. because like T.J. said.

13 looked decent. Here he is, tore all the pieces. I don't remember which wreck got him or didn't get him. 13 beat your boy on a restart. He did. And I would have never predicted that. I actually advised Clint to take the bottom, assuming we would clear the 13 really quickly,

and we didn't. You know, we call him stage winner, Ty Dillon. Stage winner, Ty Dillon. Good for Ty. Right? Good for Ty. Obviously, I wanted to win the stage. But, man, I got to say that I'm a big Hemrick believer.

He better get going. Yeah. Chevy. Chevy problem. Can we talk, this is not in the script. Can we talk about Corey LaJoy for a minute? Talk about anything you want. Because he did Jeff Gluck's 12 questions.

Was it great? And I think people didn't really read it because they were like, oh, Cori LeJoy. Question number five was about if you or crew chief came up with some secret illegal part, would you want to know? And just to summarize, Gluck gets him to this point where Corey LaJoy defends. illegal parts as it just depends on risk versus reward. And he says, for example, if you run it all summer, win all the races, make the chase, he said if you run an illegal spoiler all summer, you know, win all the races, make the chase, qualify for the final race.

It's only a $100,000 fine. It's probably worth it. Well, damn, Cori LaJoy, way to just throw down. Yeah. Like, you know, I think that I can, I think that's a guy. I can get behind. Corey's a great personality. He says what he thinks.

He tweets what he thinks. Yeah. He's funny. He's got to stop wrecking, though. I don't know what's going on there. And I think he can drive. But, I mean, yesterday, you ran over the race leader. I didn't know the guy wrecked.

Well, that's kind of, you know, you got to see and you got to get warnings. And experience. And I don't, you know, I think that there's such a huge difference between the front of the field and these guys in the back at the field. And, you know, hopefully experience helps him. And hopefully, you know, I'd love to see, I'd love to see Bubba in something. competitive, you know, before we just dismiss him. He's got to be careful, too.

He's making some comments that are putting him on the family. All right, you said you're behind on money. Okay, once you say it, you can't keep saying it. You can't keep laying those comments out there. But I think Bubba's another guy, man. Like, he's a great personality. He's hands down the best African-American driver to ever come through our sport. I mean, how many truck races did he win?

Five? Yeah, he's very competitive when he runs out. One El Dorah? Like, I mean, he won a lot of races. So I want to see him, like you said, get in a company. had a situation. Same for Corey. He understands the racing. He understands the racing on the track to me as well.

He understands the... Bub is a hard racer to you. He's not one of them guys trying to make a friend out there. He's not, which I appreciate. Me too. I absolutely appreciate that. Yeah. Same.

All right, Jason. Go ahead. All right, I watched Clerks, the Bob Pockris recommended drama and indie film directed by Kevin Smith. Dante, the convenience store clerk, is called in on his day off during an event day of the story serves customers,

banters with friends, and reunites with a former girlfriend. But sorry, Bob, I just wasn't a big fan this movie. It took place in this, like, same scene, one scene the whole time, and there just wasn't much action. It's also black and white, which I'm not a big fan. No one I haven't seen it. I've never seen it.

I don't know it, I just let it go. But there were some funny parts, and, like, they played hockey on the roof. They closed the door down, played hockey on the roof for a little bit, and then one of the clerk got fine for selling cigarettes to a four-year-old, kind of random. and then my favorite part was when Dante had a help a customer pull a stuck Pringles can off his hand. Jenna, what's your movie recommendation for next week?

Yeah, Dana's got a great movie. Oh, I don't know if it's great. I want him to watch Cannonball Run. That's a good one. Yeah, I want you to watch Cannon Ball Run. Have you watched it before? No, I thought you were going to do that in real life. I thought you were going to go with, like, you've got mail or something like that.

No, I want him to watch Cannibal Run. I'm on this kick of, like, this nostalgia kick of, like, the old stuff from when we were kids. And I think that you're probably young enough. I mean, Cannonball Run would be entertaining for him. Yeah. You're going to like it, Jason. I'm going to pick Howard the Duck eventually. Are you?

Yeah, we got to watch. Howard the Duck's funny. How would I never thought Cannonball Run. You nailed it. I mean, it's so ridiculous. And I can't wait for you to see how, like, it never could be made in 2019. Right. Because it's so completely inappropriate.

No, yeah. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to go back and watch it. I forgot about that one. Don Deloise, Terry Bradshaw. Yeah, you'd be arrested. Roger Moore is Roger Moore? He may not get it either.

Yeah, there's probably a high chance of that. Yeah, that's his first beard. That's his first beard, too. I can't stand the shave. Jim, any last thoughts before we close this thing out? What do you think of our show? You like it? I like your show.

I'm glad I came. I thought it was going to be therapeutic. Did it? Is that? Yeah, I'm feeling better. Again, I absolutely recognize the timing on my piece was terrible. So, you know, let's just move on. And again, if there'd been more to talk about, that thing wouldn't have had a six-day lifespan.

Yeah. So let's look for more things to talk about and ask our people. Hey, we get love on our reviews. We get love on our feedback on Twitter. So people are going to show you the love. It's going to start raining love this afternoon. I'm not going to hold my breath. It's going to happen.

Tweet, Jenna, your love. Well, thank you so much for joining us. You're welcome anytime. I don't know. I don't know if they want to give me two hours of their Monday every week. Why did your watch keep going off? Geez. What? Oh, TJ, you're just trying to make up for it. Sher do you want to take it from me?

Do you want to hold it until the end of the show? What was it? What was it? Just breathe thing? So there were some times last week. I'm not even lying. Like when Moody put his article out and then Fox had this like coordinated thing where all the talent retweeted moody all at the exact same time. Oh, you think it was coordinated. I mean, it's a little weird that they all did it in the exact same two-minute span,

but whatever. In this, you know, my phone's going off. I'm getting alerts and I haven't looked at it yet. And my phone, my watch starts going, I get the high heart rate alert and starts, I'm going to breathe. I'm like, I don't want to look. I don't want to look. Well, that's all in the past now. Thanks for coming on.

Thank you. And hopefully you enjoy the show. Yeah, hopefully. We'll see. I've got to download. Decompress. Thanks for joining us and thanks for listening, everybody. We're out. Have a great week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.