Door Bumper Clear - 152 - Behind the Scenes with NASCAR’s Kip Childress

Episode Date: September 24, 2019

Assistant NASCAR Cup Series Director and pace car driver Kip Childress joins the show to explain his role, how he began working in racing, behind-the-scenes elements of race weekends and more. Then, Kip and the gang cover Erik Jones’ disqualification at Richmond, Martin Truex Jr. spinning and winning, Alex Bowman calling out Austin Dillon, Wrecky Spinhouse, Tyler Reddick’s future, ROVAL elimination race expectations and a peek at upcoming changes for the sport.  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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and make your own podcast. TJ will be your first guest. So download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. That's A-N-C-H-O-R.fm to get started. Hey guys, Casey Boat here, and this is Door Bumper Clear. We have very special guest, Pip Childress from NASCAR in the house.

He has probably one of the coolest jobs in the sport. He'll join Brett and T.J. to cover everything from Richmond to pre-Robul race weekend, such as Eric Jones disqualification on Saturday night, Martin Trucks Jr. going from spinning to winning. This weekend's first playoff elimination race at the roble and, So much more. I'm T.J. Majors. This is Rick Griffin. Get ready.

Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. All right. You got here. New leader. Watch out for this guy. White flag. Recognize.

Hello. Clear. Bring all. Free light. Coming to the line. Door. Bumper. Clear.

All right. Hey, everybody. I'm T.J. Majors. And back in studio this week, I got kicked off last week. Me and Brett. Was it last week? Two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, yeah.

But we got a full house today. Casey's here on three hours of sleep. I am. Brett, you're here. I'm here. I'm looking like you're going golfing after this. Fresh off of a Richmond run and ready for the Roval. Got A.J. Almondinger Saturday, or Saturday.

And then Clint, obviously, on Sunday with a lot on the line. So it should be a fun week. And we have a very, very, very special guest, probably one of my favorite people in NASCAR. You've saved me quite a few times. assistant series director to the Monster and G NASCAR Cup series and

Pace card driver Kip Childress. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm really sorry in advance for anything these guys might say because, well,

you know them both and you know that you don't have a filter. I'm tame. It's this one that he's getting ready to go. So the reason we want to Kip to come on is because Kip texts T.J. and he said,

hey, I love the show. I'm a big listener. And T.J. immediately responded, hey, I'm not the edgy guy on there. So ever since Now that we know Kip listens It's like T.J. skirts up in his face every time

He's scared to say anything. So Kip, we had to bring you on so that you could get credit for Tame and T.J. way down. So you guys might be nicer on the show today? I'm going to be normal. Brett's going to be bad, and I'm sure. I'm always nice. You play so nice here.

Casey, you were very pretty today. Earlier you were asking me if I... If what. So enjoy your youth, too, because I was on three hours of sleep and no bags under your eyes, that's impressive. It is impressive. Yeah. I mean, the three out of sleep, you're kind of, are you foreshadowing what your, the amount of sleep you're going to get soon?

Are you? Are you? I mean, apparently, according to a few people who have tweeted and messaged me, they said that I haven't, or you haven't brought up the fact, or asking if I was pregnant. You've erased your excuse of sleep whenever you do have a child and there's a podcast is rolling. You've erased your excuse for sleep now. For the record, I am not pregnant. Thank you so much for calling that up again.

I guess if I say, if you ask me the question, I'm screwed. If you don't ask the question, I get message asking if it's true. So either way, we might just add a segment to the show. Is Casey pregnant? Spot on or spot off.

So, Kim, you got a freaking important job, man. Which one? I mean, the assistant series director, like that sounds super important, too. Yeah, well, pace car driver is only a few hours a week. That's kind of like a spot. And like that's like a part-time gig compared to that other deal, right? I mean, your day jobs, a lot of stuff going on, I'd imagine, right? Yeah, so, you know, throughout the week, it actually starts today.

You know, we're already, we've got maps and groundwork and things already in place to move into Charlotte. You know, our trailers have already shown up, and they're unloading inspection gear. That starts now. And, you know, with the help of Buster Otten, who's handled our transportation for years, you know, he's taught me a lot about how things need to move in the cup garage. And so, you know, like I said, those guys are unloading. They may have even gotten there last night to do that. So they can get out of there. We'll have another crew come in and then set everything up.

So then by Wednesday night, Thursday, we're rolling in there getting ready to start the weekend. So while all of it's important, so the hours that's involved in. and getting ready for a race, extremely important, right? But the three, four hours during a race when I'm sitting in that pace car, you know, I would rank that right on up there too because I feel like I've got those guys behind me. I've got their lives in my hands. And so I think that pretty seriously too. Right, right.

So how many meetings do you have during a normal week to get everything ready? Obviously logistics you just spoke to, but how many other things are you touching during the week? Yeah, so on Tuesday's our big meeting day. And we generally have an opportunity on Monday to do a lot. of catch up stuff around the house, some honey-do list and whatnot. Right. But, you know, Tuesday, we'll hit the ground running.

And it's everything from organizing where our staff is going to be at what particular time throughout the day. You know, that's first thing Tuesday. We do a recap meeting with all of our series directors, all the key people on each weekend. We all get together. And we'll spend about an hour and a half to two hours sometimes talking about the previous race. And that just rolls right into the upcoming race, you know, previewing all. everything from the driver's meeting videos that gets played every week, you know, right down to things that have happened at the racetrack since we were last there.

And obviously going to Charlotte with the road course configuration, a lot's changed there. And even from last year or this year with the new layout of the chicane on the backstretch, you know, we'll go over all that in pretty great detail. So when we roll in there, it's nothing strange to us. So you guys grade yourselves a lot like a race team would, right? So on Tuesday, that's our debrief day for Stewart-Hoss racing. That's when they go through everything from the weekend. You guys do something very similar there.

I would say identical. Yeah, we do that. And so for us, too, depending on the weekend that it is, you know, this past weekend with, you know, Xfinity series being there with the Monster Energy, you know, Cup series, you know, we do. There's checklist and notes and things that are taken throughout the weekend that we get them all right out there on the table. And, you know, what did we do right? What did we do wrong? And what do we need to do to do to better ourselves the next time we business? at the venue. T.J. and I were very vocal at a lot of races this year on how a lot of the

lineups were managed and the restarts were managed. And I feel like the last few weeks, it's gotten a lot better as far as the way it runs and the accuracy of it. Obviously, a big regime change for you guys on the Cupside this year, brought in a lot of new people. Do you feel like those growing pains are kind of behind us now? Or like, where do you think we're at with that? Yeah, I think so. You know, there's still, you know, some things that we're learning as we go along too. And so, you know, Jay Fabian, who I work with directly, you know, he and I, we, it's been great working with Jay.

And, you know, Casey talked about, you know, having known each other in the past and working with Wayne Alton doing the same type of thing in the Xfinity series, now doing the same thing with Jay on the cup side. It's, I think we have a pretty neat dynamic as Wayne and I did, you know, Jay handles a lot of the technical aspects of what we do. He's in charge of all the inspections that go on, whether it's, you know, when we first open up, going into qualifying and post-trace. He is as much a hands-on series director as I've seen in a long, long time. What that allows me to do then is focus on the logistics, you know, moving the tractor trailers in,

making sure that the flow of inspection is doing what it needs to do. And if there's any hiccup along the way, to be able to try to put those fires out and solve them before they become infernos. Right. There's a lot of moving pieces that people probably. probably don't understand. Like he's saying, to get stuff set up for a race weekend, there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes to make it flow good whenever we get there. And it starts whenever you park your trucks and then you've got to be prepared for all

of us to show up, sometimes three series, you know? So there's a lot of things behind the scene that I don't think people think much about because you don't see it. You just get there and it's already set up, but there's a lot that goes on. Yeah. And you know what? If they don't think about it, they don't have to think about it, means that we're doing something right.

I mean, I don't think about it. When we get there, everything's ready to go. And I think, you know, it was, it's been nice having you in there. You've been very informative, especially from like a spotter side of things. We were in the dark a lot about, we only got info when our crew cheese told us stuff. We never got, you know, we didn't get info a lot on certain things. And it's nice to get, you know, even weather update sometimes. It's nice to be thought of, you know, we'll get an email saying, you know, hey,

there's this in the area, be prepared before. It's just nice being informed. You know, it's nice. Communication is definitely a lot better for us. Yeah, the communication is really good now. Well, so one of the things I try to do is I put myself in your position. You know, there was a time, and this was back in early 2000s, when I worked for one of our two-way radio companies, that when the dashed heroes would run, and I hear you talk about the dashed years quite often. Yeah, I ran it a little bit.

Yeah, so buddy of mine that I knew from the time he was five, six years old, Zach Brewer, Zach would come up to me. Yeah, so he would come up to me. And if we were closed in the garage, I ran the radio trailer at the time the Bush Series garage. If we were closed, I'd go up in spot for him. And so I've had a chance to be in your shoes. Yeah. And so I know, hey, what would be helpful for me if I'm sitting up here that I may not necessarily get

unless I walk myself down to the garage and get it? Yeah. So I'll make sure to try to send you guys things that'll help. You know, the most important thing you send us is when you say we are not required for qualifying, by the way. That's my favorite email to get from you. Well, you always question it. You never really know. You're always, it's still nerve-wracking as a spotter when your car's out there and you're not up there. Even if it's single car qualifying, you know, even that, you're still like, there's a car out there. You know, something's going on.

But it is nice to know, and it's been actually, I mean, it's been pleasant knowing and just being informed. I mean, we were always at, hey, we, We were always waiting on from somebody else in the garage area to tell us something, you know, crew chief or something. And there's so much going on down there. It's how you're, by the time you find out sometimes, it was already old news. Yeah. And I get the same thing from the car chief, too, you know, so I know the crew chief stay extremely busy sitting up in the hall or doing the things they do. And it's over and above what goes on with that race car.

That's why there's a car chief, right? Yeah. So I make sure that a lot of times, whatever I send of that crew chief, the car chief gets copied on it. That way, I know that the crew members in the garage are going to have an opportunity. to do know you're right though they're so focused on the car sometimes there's times when the crew she's at hey you know have you heard anything have you heard anything you know so um but it's just nice being informed and i think all of us from the spotter side really appreciate it and uh i know i've sent you messages there for a while just hey this is super nice thanks for all the

info you know it's just nice getting it being thought of so well we appreciate that i think the other element of that too is whether it's you know working with you guys or with the crew members in the garage even right down to the hauler drivers who do such an amazing job I wouldn't. That's one of the toughest jobs in our sport. It is, man. I tell them all the time, you know, if you have an idea, if you have a suggestion or a thought, bring it to me. You know, the door's open.

And honestly, the door is open. Will we be able to accommodate everyone's request? No. I mean, I'm not going to be, you know, I'm not going to make anybody think that every time somebody comes up. But if I never know that there's an issue or something that's needed to happen, I can never make the correction. Yeah. And we'll always look at every angle of it because sometimes, you know, what is good. good for you guys, you know, we have to think about all the other stakeholders that are in play.

It's always evolving. Everything's always evolving, too. So if you stay at the same, I mean, everything kind of moves a little bit at a time. So you might have, you got to adjust sometimes. That's right. You just touched on some of your older jobs. How did you get a starting racing and ultimately end up where you're at? Because, I mean, TJ and I get asked this all the time. How do you get to be a spotter? How do you get to be a hauler driver? How do you get to be whatever? Like, how did you get to be where you're at? How long is the show? Oh, man. So, so I am a third generation official, all right?

So my, my grandfather in the 60s worked at Balma Gray Stadium, but he was also a part of a group of folks like Enix Staley, who happens to be my, was my great uncle that not a lot of people know from North Wilkesboro Speedway. He also had a big hand in some tracks throughout North Carolina, but Alvin Hawkins, that comes from the Balma Gray Stadium area. So between my grandfather and the, working with Big Bill France Senior, they were working together a lot to get racing really going in the Piedmont of North Carolina.

So then comes along my dad. My dad jumps right in with both feet as an official, started at Ballam Gray State. That's the only track, ironically, that I never worked at as a weekly official. But anyway, dad worked for NASCAR right up until I was about 13 years old when he stepped away. the travel at that time, and it was a small group. I have a staff photo, which I think is all, it's just so cool. There's about nine people in the staff photo. That's it.

You know, and dad was one of them. So I'm proud to be able to do what dad did at that time. And so my first racing gig, and I was talking with Matt about this a little while ago, was actually at North Wilkesboro Speedway. I was handed a box of brochures, and as every fan came through the gate, me and a couple of my cousins, we'd stand there, we'd hand out brochures for the next race. Yeah.

You didn't have the internet, so we were social media at the time. Yeah. You're going to be up there in December whenever they clean it off to scan it? Because they're going to put it in iraicing, I think. I will guarantee you I'll be driving it when it pops up on eye racing for sure. Well, they said if they could clean off the track, if they could get all the weeds off the track, they could scan it. That would be so awesome. Yeah, they're going to do it.

They're going to do it, I think. So that'd be really cool. But, you know, jumped in to work at Carraway Speedway was my first actual official's job. It's a great racetrack, by the way. Man, for a racer, it is a great racetrack. You have to know how to get to it because it's kind of tucked away in the mountains, so to speak, in the hills. But it's a great racetrack for a racer to learn how to race. There are numerous amount of champions, you know, like any of the tracks here in North Carolina,

but, you know, when Skinner and Bobby Labani and those guys, you know, former track champions there went on to do what they did. So I had a blast working there right up until I got. kind of called up to go work for the truck series in 95. So, and then from there, just kind of kept digging along until, you know, in the past. So how many years into this are you? So from, from 95 to 99, I worked for NASCAR as an official. And then my first daughter was born. So I backed up and tried to work locally, still within the racing world a little bit, but

tried to work locally. And then throughout a couple of other jobs, found out that working in the real world didn't agree with me. Yeah. So, you know, we, we all say it once it's in your blood, it's there. So in 08 had the opportunity to go back to work for NASCAR as the Canaan East director. Did that for a few years. And then we had some, some, a shuffle that went on and was the director of the West series for three or four years before going to work with the Xfinity series as the assistant director. I think it was 15 that I made to jump over there. Yeah. That's awesome, man. I think what's cool is you've literally worked.

almost in every aspect of the sport. Yeah, you've put your time in each series to get to get to where you're at. You know, similar, a lot of, like a lot of spotters are that way. I mean, you kind of, you kind of, you do a, you do a bush race first or an arc of race, and you kind of work your way and, you know, just work your way up real similar. I had a pace car driving thing, man, where did that come from? So they just hand you the keys one day? Well, the first time I ever drove a pace car happened to be at Carraway,

and I don't remember what year it was, but my dad was the race director there. Okay. And so we're sitting there and I'm a backup announcer. I'm the second guy in the PA booth. And we're announcing the race. And the pace car's coming off a turn four. Skinner was in this race, I believe. And all of a sudden, the throttle stuck.

It was a Dodge Daytona. But it was the hatchback version. It was a throttle stuck on this car. And as he came off the racetrack on the transition to pit road, the wheel, it was a front wheel drive car. The wheels cut left. He drove it straight into the guardrail. Wow.

It backed off the guardrail and it went right back into it because he was locked on of the throttle. And at the time, it was the son-in-law, the track owner, Russell Hackett's son-in-law. So my dad turned around and looked at me and pointed and said, find something to drive. You're the new pace car driver. That's how to happen. So, you know, they don't question dad, off I go. And I don't remember what it was.

I drove a pickup or to clean up. Whatever. Yeah. But off I go. And so that started the pace car driving deal. And I did that up until I went to work for the truck series. I was the new guy with the truck series late 9. 95 into 96, 97, I was driving the pace truck for Wayne.

And then... And the truck series was rolling back then. Not that it's not rolling now, but, I mean, there were some really big-name guys that were coming up. And a lot of trucks. I mean, and it was an opportunity for... And it still is, but it was really an opportunity when racing everywhere was booming, right? But you had late model guys, different parts of the country that you would go that suddenly had a truck.

Right. They'd show up. Oh, yeah. And it was just so fun to work. You know, people will talk a lot about, you know, the old days of race, and that was kind of the old days. And I think, you know, fast forward to today where we have, we scale back a little bit on our inspection crew, and our inspection crew is dedicated to us. That's a throwback to the truck series days from the mid to late 90s. Right.

Right. I was in eighth grade when he was driving Pace Car. It's a while ago. Geez. I would think the Pace Car thing's cool, though, right? Like, I wouldn't think that ever gets not cool. I mean, for us spotting, you know, Daytona 500 certainly is my favorite. race.

But beyond that, like, there's never not a time where I don't put my headset on right before race and go, man, this isn't cool. Like, it's always cool. I think driving a pace car has got that same feeling, right? It is. And so, and I tell my kids this all the time. You know, I have an opportunity to be around race cars every day of the week. And when I was a kid, when I was in the eighth grade, I knew that's what I wanted to do

because it's what my dad did. Yeah. And it was fun. And so now I have that opportunity and have for the last, you know, 20 years to be around race cars all the time. Yeah. And every other Friday I get a paycheck for it. Yeah.

That's just the coolest thing. You get to look in the mirror on Sundays and Saturday night sometimes and see a full field of cars is directly right in your mirror. I mean, that's pretty cool. I would tell honorary drivers this all the time, as we're coming to the green, when we're going down to backstretch, look up in the mirror one time when you see the guys scrubbing in their tires and they're going. They'll come gooseing it up beside you.

I'm like, look back there. There are 40 of the angriest race cars behind you right now. We're ready to go. And you're holding them up. Yeah. Yeah. They're ready to go. Soak it in.

That is a fun feeling no matter where you are, no matter how long you've been doing it. I always think it's cool whenever the tower talks to those honorary pace car guys, you can hear it in their voice, how excited they are to be out there driving, leading those guys to the green. Some are sounding nervous. They are extremely nervous. They're fumbling for the button or they're trying to figure out. And sometimes it'll just look over at us and go, you answer him.

I'm not going to. Yeah. Sound like me before my first goodies day series race at Daytona. That was, I was about ready to throw up. So obviously you have a ton of responsibility each weekend and even during the week. What would you say is probably your most challenging role? The most challenging here lately has just become, with the reconfiguration of a lot of garage areas and a lot of infields, is trying to make everything fit.

And then not forgetting anything. You know, coming from doing the garage layouts for the Xfinity series over to the Cup series, you don't realize how many other little things that you have to make sure fit into the garage that how do you do you do guys have like a dry erase board and have all the things that you need to put in there sort of except i do it on the computer so the one thing the one thing i do and i'll get on uh google earth yeah and and hope that they have an updated image yeah that has become a challenge now with uh you know the reconfigurations at richmond at phoenix and you know coming up at talladega yeah um so that that won't be up to date so we'll kind of use the google earth

but we'll incorporate a little bit of a CAD drawing in there too. And then hope that the CAD engineers had all the measurements right. T.J. crashed his drone or we could go down there and get an aerial shot for you. I did crash it. That reminds me. I got a crazy question with you talking about some of that stuff. So these teams, and people may not realize this, these teams a lot of times bring in their own catering services, right?

So like for Stewart House Racing, we have our own catering service. Obviously the garlic garage that caters, I think they do Hendricks and some of those. on the team. So you're telling those guys where they can sit up? Yeah, and so that has become something that I wasn't used to on the Xfinity side. And up until this point, it's kind of been, all right, we'll find a vacant corner for you and we'll make it work. And so what I'm trying to do now is just kind of take that to a next level. I know the footprint they need. You know, I know that Big John needs, you know, about 30 feet by 10 feet, you know, based on the tents that he uses. And you know, garlic has a trailer that they use.

So I know I've gotten better at knowing the footprint that they need. I'll touch base with them. Hey, where have you gone in the past and has it worked? Kind of along the same lines of you guys. Right. If you've got offers or ideas, let me know. And if we can make it work, we definitely will. Right.

Sometimes we're just going to have to suck it up and do what needs to be done. I can speak for experience. I feel like even on the sponsor side, some of the requests I imagine sponsors might have. You're like, can I have a spot in the garage? And you're like, oh. Yeah, that's a no. And you hate to say it like that. But, you know, when the garages are as tight as they are and you're trying to fit, you know, 40 tractor trailers in there, plus all the stuff that has to be in there.

Yeah. You know, the sponsors, you know, most of the time they deal with the racetracks. So if, you know, if the sponsors need something, generally it's going to be in a vending area. So that's outside the garage. Yeah. You know, but occasionally, and especially when Xfinity comes to play, because, you know, them being a serious sponsor, well, that's a whole other ballgame. So we do make sure that we take care of the folks who are actually sponsored. sponsors of the series. And I will say that I don't think we've had any issues whenever we go to

you guys for requests. I mean, y'all have made it work somehow even when it's the craziest request. So you have a tough job for sure. It's a lot of tractor trailers, man. I mean, people don't realize all the tires that come in after the race or before the race and after the race getting rid of them like, man, it's crazy. Fans don't realize like every weekend it's a different location, a different layout that you have to deal with. And each person has a role specifically. Well, they also don't realize that pit boxes back in the day used to fold up and they used to go into the center of the haulers and that was it.

You brought everything and you took everything home. Now those have gotten so big. We have to have, we have another company. They have other companies haul them for them because we can't fit them in our trucks. Yeah. And so, you know, we're sitting here talking about the things that I'm responsible for and than I do and putting in on a piece of papers what I do. it takes a hundred other people

to make sure that everything goes in its right place. And so where that falls back on me is I got to make sure, like this afternoon, I'll get the maps out to the folks who do organize all that. You know, once the points are finalized coming out of a weekend, and we'll organize the garage. We'll go ahead and organize how every trailer is going to park,

and we get those out to those people that are doing all the advance work. Yep. Awesome. All right, so we go into it, Casey? Yeah. How about a pristine auction? What are we thinking we're going to bid on? So we got a gift for Casey today to bid on on pristineauction.com.

Really? I thought we banned you and him from picking. Well, this is a good one. It's a racing earlier one. Ryan Dungey has a signed photo, and Casey loves Ryan Dungey. So we're going to place a bid on that. Are you going to complain about it? Supercross?

Something wrong? Actually, walking into the studio today, somebody said, don't let them give you a hard time about bidding on Garth Brooks items. So maybe next week we'll bid on Garth Brooks again. That's not happening. I might have you a surprise. Really? Yeah, I forgot it.

And I'll probably forget it to get next week, so it remind me. Instead of a reminder in your phone. I might have lost it, but if I didn't lose it, I have you a great surprise. I might have a surprise. I might have a surprise. Well, that's why I said might. I didn't say I do because I might have lost it. But if I didn't lose it, I have you a really cool surprise.

So if you did lose it, what was it? I'm not telling you. It's a surprise. Either way, please, nobody bid on this Ryan Dudgy item. I really want it. Yeah, I put the bid in. Ends tomorrow, so I'll keep you updated. Spot on, spot off.

He's spot off. That. I'm going to be spot off. You don't like it. You don't like it. And you say why either way. First topic. Eric Jones is qualified from P4 and goes from three to 45 points below the cutoff line.

I'm going to give this one to you Kiff if that's okay. Yeah, you know, so the fans came to us. The fans, the industry really came. to us and part of what they've been asking for over the last couple of years is the fact that we need to be able to finalize a finishing order at the track. So that's one of the things that we, you know, it was a big initiative for us to be able to pull that off and go back to the way we used to do it by doing all of our inspections at the track, you know, and it's unfortunate for for these guys that, you know, that they did have a problem with inspection. And now it puts them

behind the eight ball. Yeah, I'm spot on for the inspection process. Now, we used to, waiting, waiting until middle of the week was terrible before. And now we know. We know after the race. So I think that's been, we don't even hear about it anymore. If you're, if you're not right, you're not right. So which is what we've been, we've been crying for.

We've been asking for that to happen. So I'm spot on for the inspection process. If you're, if you're caught, you're caught. So I'm spot off for, you know, Eric, that's a tough break, man. He's had a solid, he's had a solid last couple months, and this is really going to hurt him. I mean, Kip came from the local track where they would do the same thing, right? I mean, you had the room of doom or whatever you want to call the inspection process. So I, too, I'm spot on for the fact that we know that night where you rank.

I'm also spot on because he failed because it moved me up in the points. It's one less guy that I got to pass and one less guy that I got to worry about. I mean, if Harry Jones does not go out and win this race at the road, well, he's out. He's not going to make it. So he's going to do or die situation. But it helps Clint, helps my race team. So sucks for those guys. I wonder if the top three were doing something too,

because, man, we couldn't catch them. I was literally halfway through this race, TJ, looking at you. You were struggling. I was looking at me, and I was running like sixth at the time. And I was like, we just finished second and third here in the spring. Why are we both not contending for this thing? But, I mean, Gibbs was lights out that night, the grip, the speed and what they were able to do. I mean, one, two, three, four is crazy.

Obviously, fourth gets booted, but still, that's insane to be able to pull that off. Yep. Next one. Martin Shrekz Jr. recovers from being spun by Stenhouse while leading to win his sixth race of 2019. TJ, spot on, spot off. I'm spot off because I think they gave him too many positions back from when he got rolling. But he either whether he loses two more spots there, he's probably still going to win this race. He was fast.

And, you know, unfortunate that he got spun by the 17. but I don't think wherever Martin lined up, he was probably going to win that race. He was super fast, so tough to beat him. Rucky Spinnhouse, I mean, Ricky Stenhouse, my goodness, kid, what are you doing? Like, you're on fresh tires, you're going to pass the leader without any problem. He obviously got tied or something and wrecked the leader. It makes racing exciting. It changed kind of the whole scope of what was going on at the time.

It puts Martin at a position where we get to go watch him pass some cars, which passing, and we always say it's hard to pass. but for whatever reason, I saw a stat that we had half the passes in the race that we had from three years ago. It was hard as crap to pass. So for Martin to be able to go up there and do what he did win, spot on for him and his guys. I mean, they're hot right now. I think they're the team to beat. Obviously, Toyotas are fast.

But, I mean, when you look at Martin going up there and passing Kyle Busch at a place where Kyle Busch is maybe the best guy in the field at that particular racetrack, that's a big feat for him. Do I get to weigh in on this? Oh, yes, definitely. All right. So, you know, spot on for Martin for sure, right? So the one disadvantage that we have sitting in the pace car is that happened, and we didn't know what happened. All we hear is put it out. And we're told who the leader is.

And so we're, you know, I ease out of the spot that we're in down there at the end of pit road and looking in the mirror, looking in the mirror, looking in the mirror. And, you know, of course, Martin had gotten away by the time we even got around there. So it took a little while on us driving around a racetrack before we even figured out what was going on. But, you know, to sit there and we're watching the leaders go by as the race. did go on. It was impressive to see how. How come you don't keep like a fan vision or something in there? We do, but we're limited to what they show, right?

So we could see a replay a lot of times and depending on where they are. Gotcha. So here's a challenge with that too. So we've got a fan vision with us and we try to listen to the broadcast on the radio. But a lot of times the only broadcast we get is on satellite radio, which at Richmond is almost a lap behind. Gotcha. So by the time you're here in trouble coming off.

So it's... You're already rolling. Yeah, we're out on our rest. You're rolling. You're hustling. Wow. Okay. If we get back into Spot On and Spot Off, let us tell you a little about FilterTime.com.

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Alex Bowman on the radio after being spun by Austin Dillon. Jason, you want to read this one? Lee Spencer tweeted the quote on Saturday night. I'm going to shove that silver spoon. He's been fed off all his life up his ass, said Alex Bowman about Austin Dillon after. Do you have to beep yourself out on this, Jason? No, I think that word's good. Brett, he can say that word.

This one is definitely for you. I'm spot on because I love this kind of stuff, right? I mean, this is a guy who's mad, and obviously he's mad at Austin Dillon. and I mean, look, Austin Dillon is a truck series champion. He's an Xfinity Series champion. He's a Daytona 500 champion. Silver Spoon or not, the kid can drive a race car. But it's awesome that they're mad at each other,

and I hope they get into it again this weekend. And Alex Bowman is a guy that I'm racing. So I would love to see those guys retaliate against one another behind me on the racetrack, so I don't have to worry about getting involved, and it's just another guy I can easily pass. Yeah, I'm spot on. I like, I mean, this is great when people get mad at each other. You know, at this point, this is great.

It doesn't do, you know, and if they start, gets carried away, which it usually doesn't. But this is good. I mean, this is people eat this up. They like to hear it. People get mad at each other. And who knows, maybe they'll get into it a little bit. Like, Brett needs it. Yeah, I'll take it.

I don't have any spots for this, and I'm going to stay away from that. But what I will say is, what this does show is how important every race is from this point forward. And when things like this do happen, how, how. I don't know the right word, not excited, but how just up on edge. It's intense, man. It is. These drivers are, and especially if you're right now, if you're in that bottom three, then it's going to be tough.

I think what was cool is seeing anything, any type of situation like this when Austin Dillon fans are going back to Alex and like, I hate you, you suck, like all this stuff on Twitter. And then Alex Bowman fans are fighting back to you. Like, there's such a rally behind these drivers. That's what's great about the sport, though. That's why it's always been. Back in the day, you either Earnhardt or, you know, who was, I mean, you were either, like, when Jeff came in there, it was.

It's just like Kyle Busch now. You either love a guy you hate it. Yeah. But the fans, like, if you were a rusty fan, you didn't like the three. No. And we have this all year round, but during the playoffs, I love about the playoffs because it just brings it all together. Rivalries are good. Yeah.

Rivalries are good. I mean, you've got, you know, obviously there's 16 teams in this playoff, but there's six teams that legitimately are racing for the rest of the year. the year. There's five guys in this race that don't even have to start their car by points. Like they're going to make it on to the next round. But the rest of us, man, we got a work cut out for us. So I think the intensity of that to me, it's a true playoff system. You know what I mean? When we had the chase and we had the 10 races, we certainly had, we eliminated one another, but it was just more organic. Like the way this thing is set up round after round after round, you see yourself physically going by. So there's a lot of pressure on all of us this weekend.

Before the playoffs, you were 10th in points right now. Your season was done. Yeah. Now, 10th in points has a legitimate shot of a championship still. A championship, for sure. Yeah. Round by round. Next one.

Spot on, spot off. Daniel Hemrick not returning to RCR in 2020. Kip, what do you think? Yeah, anytime you hear about a driver that's losing an opportunity, that's definitely spot off, right? But I understand that this is a business, and we all do. And, you know, I hate it for Daniel. I've known Daniel and Kenzie, you know, Kenzie race with us in the Canadian series when I

had that for a long time. Great race car driver. So, you know, I hate it for them because, you know, I don't believe that the right chemistry has been there yet for Daniel to really showcase his talent. We, anybody that's seen him race, you know, throughout the years knows he can get it done. But I think it also magnifies how tough it really is in the Cup Series. So it's, it, it takes everything. It's not just a driver, certainly not just Daniel.

And it's not anybody on that team. It's just everything working together. and I think this is an unfortunate circumstance of that. Yeah, it's hard to be spot on or spot off for this because there's two great people involved in it as well. Like Daniel, what people don't know is Daniel, a lot of people don't probably know that Daniel was the guy to beat super late models for a while.

When he showed up, you're almost running for a second. And he would beat guys like Chase Elliott. He was racing against a lot of guys back then. He was the guy to beat, and he's kind of worked his way up. Like you said, though, the chemistry just probably wasn't quite there yet. I think Daniel has an opportunity to, still get in the right scenario. I think he's done a lot of good things,

and I think if he sticks with it and in his patient, I think the right opportunity could possibly come up for him. But, you know, putting Redick's ready. To me, Tyler Reddick is, he's more cup ready, I think, than Daniel Hemrick was at the time. I agree. So I understand the business part of that, and I agree with the move.

I just, Daniel's such a good person. and nothing against Tyler. Tyler's earned the spot as well, so this is a business decision for them, but I don't think you've heard to last to Daniel Hemrick. I don't think so. Would you have said the same thing

about Tyler last year, though, at this time? I mean, granted, he is the defending Xfinity Series champion, but I think, man, they were a great race team, but he really came on at the end. He came out of nowhere. Yeah, I wouldn't have said the same thing last year.

To me, I've always been a, you need two full years of Xenity racing before you're ready to jump into the cup car. And he hadn't had two full years yet. He ran a partial schedule the year before that, right? Yeah, he ran the 42-some. To me, you got it, and I think guys like Christopher Bell, I think they're just more prepared for the longevity of the season,

the tracks. And Tyler's, to me, Tyler, Tyler has grown a lot this year. I've seen more out of Tyler this year. It started with last year around this time, but he's carried that into this year and shown that he can be the guy to be, you know, he can do this stuff. He's going to have some learning curves when he gets to that, Cup series. That car doesn't fold out like that Xfinity car does. No, but one of the things I think that

it shows, though, for Tyler this year is the fact that the chemistry was, it seemed like it was there right out of the box for that, for that group. Yeah, they were quick right from the beginning. Yeah. And I think, you know, first of all, Daniel Hemrick is one of the nicest guys I've been around in the garage in a very long time. I mean, a true gentleman and a guy that I think a lot of, and I think that he certainly belongs in a cup car. Obviously, when you're in the position he was in last year. He was racing against cup guys. He was not winning races. And Tyler Reddick gets in that same car and he set the world on fire. And I think to your point, Kip, like, you know, Tyler Redick a year ago was at JRM. He was here. He was a teammate of ours. And we certainly saw a lot of potential,

but we saw a lot of mistakes and he would tear up a lot of race cars. I literally, I literally literally remember over the radio telling Elliot, I think we were at Vegas. If you run the high line right here, I think he'll hit the wall behind you. And Elliot moved up and literally, Tyler, the very next lap, knocked all right side off of it. We didn't see him again the rest of the race. matured on that level. He's winning a lot of races. He deserves a shot. We said last week, silly season's about to blow up again. That was your teammate when you did that? Yeah. Jeez, Brett. Hey, man, we're trying to run top five. Are you surprised? It's Brett.

What? I'm just trying to help my guy. I'm not trying to screw that guy, but I did predict the future, and it did happen. Tyler Redick's a hell of a race car driver. So it's basically you confirmed he's going to the... I didn't say he was going there, but that makes sense. I think TJ said it. They announced it. Did they? I don't think so.

Adam's turn to you. Adam's turned. I think he's expected. Yeah, I mean, look, it's what makes sense. Stating the obvious, but yeah. That's actually my old team.

I mean, Luke Lambert was my engineer when Jeff Burton drove that car and obviously Richard Childress and there's still a lot of guys Darren, the car chiefs over there. I mean, it's a lot of good guys on that race team. Yeah.

Well, if Tyler goes there, he's ready. Ready, Redick. Ready, Redick. All right. take a break and see what's coming up this week on the Dale Jr. Download. The Dale Jr. Down. Listen up. When you're done listening to Door Bumper Clear, go listen and subscribe to my podcast, The Dale Junior Download. This week, my former boss comes to the studio, Rick Hendrick. Plus, catch us on TV Tuesday, 5 p.m. Eastern,

and an encore performance at 9 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. The Dale Jr. download, available on major podcast platform. Dirtym. What is Offerpad? We're the new way homes are sold. We're your online home buyer. Offerpad is the modern selling solution with a human touch that lets you skip all the traditional headaches. Selling to Offerpad means no showings. You pick your closing day and will even move you locally for free. Go to Offerpad.com, enter basic information about your home, and the next day we'll send you a great offer.

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Yeah, join thousands of happy homeowners who have already sold to Offerpad and visit Offerpad.com. And the best part is when you buy, they move you. Do you sell with OfferPad? Man, they move you for free. It's awesome. Brett shows up in a white tank top and moves your stuff. No shirt. Please know.

Offerpad.com. Let's go into Fast Lane. Three racing questions. One off-the-wall question. 30 seconds to respond to each. Only 30 seconds. Are you going to start with some talking? Good luck.

Fast Lane. First question. First question. Michael Waltrip. suggested that the Xfinity series and truck series should take stage breaks without live pit stops to save teams money and give fans more racing action. Would you like to see this happen? How about you, Brett? Man, I am 100% on board with this in the truck series. I really feel like the Xfinity series,

though, is not a good place for it. On the truck side, I think it clearly could save these teams a lot of money in terms of what they're having to pay to travel these pit crews in and actually pay the guys to jump over the wall. However, to me, the experience. Xenity Series is a driver, you need to practice the live pit stop to get ready for the Cubs series. So I really wouldn't want to see that happen in Xfinity Series. TjP. Nice. I've mentioned this before.

I think the truck series should do it because that opens the doors. I think you don't have to have live pit stops at that point. So you might be able to go to some facilities that doesn't have to have the pit road that guys can jump over the walls. I don't know if that matters into the equation or not. but, you know, with a break, you can manage stuff a lot easier. I think the truck series should still do it. I think they should still do it.

I think they should go to South Boston, Myrtle Beach. I'm all for that. KIP, what do you think? Yeah, so this kind of takes a page out of the touring series, right? The K&N series where I spent quite a few years there. And the one thing that we used to tell our teams all the time is that we don't want a bad pit stop to take a team out of a race, right? So I think this does make sense in the truck series, I could say.

At that level. At that level, it shouldn't be about to pick crew. No. So, you know, we would limit the crew members. We, you know, we would tell them what they could do. You couldn't, you know, for example, in the touring series, you couldn't change tires and add fuel at the same time. Yeah.

And then when we did start going to more and more brakes, even then, it was a controlled stop. You know, everybody come in and you stop and. Yeah. Are you really, you really ding me on that? You can't think of the assistant series director. Say don't listen to me. But you know, I think that one thing that the Canaan series has done, though, this year is they've put in a couple of breaks. And so now it gives a team an opportunity to have a little bit of strategy now.

So if you want to stay out and move up spot to retain your position, you can certainly do that. But if you need to come in, make an adjustment, add some gas. Yeah. Have at it. Cool. Yeah. To me, it opens the door for local guys. it opens the door for

Payton Sellers to build a truck go run South Boston and not have to worry about what he's going to come in fifth and go out 20th because he doesn't have anybody there but his brothers and stuff to change his tires you know to me it opens the door for more of that stuff and I think that'd be great we've got a bigger problem though Jason

is graduating from college he is getting his resume together he wants to work in the sport he just admitted to the assistant series director that he blew a motor over the weekend party and then dinged him for talking to damn long. Jason, this is not good career path that you're taking in.

He's probably going to hand him his resume after he was recording. We're going to get to the weekend with Jason here. Don't you worry. I'm going for a competition job, though. I think you've got any social media jobs. Well, that's going to work. That sounds like an even better idea, Jason. Ding-ding.

You're out. You're fired. Oh, we're going to the roval for a playoffs elimination race, both of which didn't exist six years ago. What has been the most innovative idea that NASCAR has successfully implemented during your time in the sport? Kip, we'll start with you. We went over the fact that I've been in the sport for my entire life, right? Since chariots.

You know, so. Yeah, thanks. Not quite that. You're not to a great start here. You know, so, wow, most innovative idea. I think that from a competition side, you know, we strive to make sure that everyone has the same opportunity, you know, to make sure that, you know, someone doesn't have an advantage of someone, you know, but whether it's because of they found a part of the rule or because maybe we've made a mistake or whatever. So I think a lot of what we do today with computers, whether it's inspecting race cars in the OSS tent, whether it's timing and scoring, you know, the pit road speeds up down pit road.

How many times did we hear that, you know, we used to do that with a handful of people in a bunch of stopwatches? And so you would miss folks. So you guys need to, you know, to regulate that more. Well, we did and look what happened, you know. But now, I think more than ever, you know, the guys that do get caught for. speeding, you know, they don't have much of a argument. No, they don't. I mean, and it is by the tenth of a mile an hour or less.

So, I mean, it's guys pushing things to the edge. But one thing we can say for sure is that it is the same for everybody. So I think electronics, computers, all of that that's coming into the sport in the last, you know, 10, 15 years really helps. It's an easy answer for me. I mean, when I look at Homestead, when I look at Phoenix, man, we go down there now with a lot more relaxed dress coat. I'm super happy with that innovation And those guys letting these hot race fans walk in With these cut off jeans shorts and cowboy boots and tank tops

We just want TJ and I to be able to wear them That's true You know, Kitten nailed a bunch of them there With pit road speeds with you know Getting everything slow down on pit road To the playoff system that's great now But I got to go with safer barriers, man For sure

Safer barriers have changed a lot of things Save a lot of lives They've done tremendous. They've saved a lot of people, man. So I've got to go with safer barriers. Sorry, Casey. We're not going to be ready over there. Alex Bowman, Clint Boyer, Kurt Busch, and Eric Jones

enter the elimination race at the roble below the cutoff line. Will the same four drivers get eliminated on Sunday? And if not, who will? TJ, do you want to take this one first? Sure. Man, it's, it's, you could roll the dice right here. I mean, to me, unless Ryan Newman or Ryan Blaney have an issue, they're probably going to be okay.

But between the 10, the 24, the 88, the 14, the 1 of the 20, that is going to be, I wish we could just line them up in that order and run like a 10-lab heat race or something and just who, you know what I mean? Like a dash. Like a dash, a dash, a playoff dash. in who's out. Kip, we can take this one. Yeah, so, and I agree with TJ.

It's between, and you added the other two that are kind of in the mix there as well. It's going to be a, it's the saying we used to use at Carraway is going to be a barn burner. It definitely will be. You know, Ryan Blaney coming off as the defending winner, I mean, he's kind of got a leg up over those guys,

but not much of one because I think at the roval there is any corner, throughout the infield or that racetrack could be a calamity corner. It is that technical of a course. I don't, yeah, TJ says Blaney and Newman are safe. I don't think so. They're not safe, but they're quiet race for them. If we didn't have stage points, I would absolutely agree.

But, I mean, I can make up 10 points on Ryan Newman in the very first stage. And if he has a problem and doesn't return to the racetracker, tears his car up, I mean, we saw some massive wrecks there during testing last year during the practices. During the race, not so much because those guys, figure the course out. But here we are with a different course. You guys change the backstretched chicanes. So I think that I like my chances to get in. I mean, for me, a guy like William Byron, I mean, he's only been doing this a couple years. These cars are heavy. Road courses are hard. You know, I can't speak to who's going to be out, but I like Clint Boyer's chances to get in.

And I'm not just saying that because he's my guy. He's a great road racer. We ran second or third there last year. And we got to go do what we did at Richmond. Get stage points, single-digit finish, and I think we'll be fine. You really never know what can happen. Just think about the finish last year. Never. So I think it'll be a great way. It's great place to watch.

Wild cards here are going to be the one in the 20 because they can be super aggressive. The one can really go crazy with this pit strategy. And that's where you can really get in situations where you see guys make up a lot of points really quick on those stages. 20 as well. He can. 20 can go crazy because there's no chance he gets in on points. Zero chance. Agreed.

Off the wall question. A restaurant in England is helping its customers. from having to decide between dessert menu options by putting a pie inside a cake and selling slices. Which two desserts would you combine to create the ultimate sweet creation? Brett. I'm not a big dessert guy, but I love cream brulee and I love German chocolate cake. So I don't know how we pull that off, but if we could put those two together, I'm down. Yeah, I mean, what if you could bite into a warm piece of, like red velvet cake and have like vanilla ice cream in the middle of it cold.

Hmm. That'd be pretty good. That'd be mine. Yeah, see, and I was going the red velvet route too, but with a, so good. Yeah, but with a big slice of cheesecake in the middle of it. Oh, I love cheesecake, too. What if you did red velvet, you know that chocolate cake that, um, what, that nice red dough?

Red Rocks. Oh, yeah. Red Rocks has the best chocolate cake. Yeah, what if you could take a really, the best red velvet and that chocolate cake and do like every other slice? That chocolate cake is delicious. I'd be 300 pounds. If you're in town for the Roble this weekend, go to Red Rocks at exit 25 in Huntersville and get the chocolate cake.

Tell Ron we think it's so good. Tell Ron, hey. It's so good. Jason, what would you pick? I was thinking the chocolate cake and ice cream, like Jason said. Once a happy meal from McDonald's. McClary. Casey, what about you?

I would do a Pazuki, like the cookie. Okay. Is that something they use on the arm? Yes, I make it. It's a half-baked cookie. It's in like a cookie skillet. It's a hard gum. The cookie skillet, like happy cookie, though, and then ice cream, but I would put a nothing, nothing bun cake on top.

Oh, yeah, those are good, too. How are you so skinny talking like that? I don't. Good metabolism. It's catching up to me. Can you send me the recipe for that cookie thing? Because my kids might like that. You know that restaurant?

Well, a Pizuiki is what they call it at that restaurant at Bajs. But it's a cookie. It's basically like a cookie skillet. Kind of a dog did you get a Pizuki. Pizuki? That's what kind of motorcycle you're on. If you go to that restaurant, BJs, that's where they have them. Oh.

But it's really a cookie school. You know that 99 restaurant in Loudoun? You ever seen those? Yeah. They're 99. So they've got a dessert there. And Josh, my roommate, got it last year. And it was cooked on a skillet, I guess a cassardt, and it's a little one.

It's got like a browning on it and ice cream on. It's just melt and looks really good. He grabs on to the castor and skillet with his hand. It purps himself. And I'm videoing him as this is happy. It's hilarious. He grabbed on that thing. He was like,

ooh, that's how I'm like, yeah, it's a cast iron skillet, you know? And your ice cream's like melting on it. Yeah, it was pretty nice. Man, we love pristineauction.com, an online auction site with only the most authentic and affordable memorabilia.

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This first question comes from Go Ducks 42 underscore Mick. It appears because of aggressive restarts, tires being cut,

or rubbing fenders has increased. Can teams risk being less aggressive on restarts with track position

being so important? TJ. These restarts are wild because of this package. The package that we run now bunches us up together more on restarts, and that's what's happening.

We're running out of space. We're putting, we are four wide more now than we have ever been, in my opinion. We are four wide racing, and the more you get on a restart, the easier it is. It's hard to pass when everything gets singled out. So you're trying to get, you have all these drivers trying to get as much as they can from the time they go green for that first lap. So, and they run out of space, which is, I mean, that's racing. That's what racing is.

We're behind A ball in this playoff round because of exactly what this guy's asking about. We tried to make a move to the high side on a restart with Busher. He made a super late block. Clint tried to shoot the middle the same time he tried to shoot the middle. Blaney shot the middle. Boom, we hit. We cut a left rear. We had to pit.

We lost a lap and never really gained it back. So we lost a ton of points. We were running in the top 15 at that point. He ended up finishing 25th. So we gave up at least 10 points with a restart error. But yeah, I mean, to TJ's point, it's so hard to pass, and these restarts are so important, and they're so racy. That's when our cars are the most racy is on these restarts. So if you're going to get a guy, you got to get him in.

Yeah, so I listened to you guys a week or so ago. Maybe in last week talking about when the green flag goes, you think we ought to be able to just to go, right? Instead of having a wait until the start finish line, I think this is a big reason why we don't do that. Every time I hear people talk about that, I envision a motorcycle race and a whole shot trying to get down to that first turn. And, you know, one of the reasons we went to the rule that we've got today is to keep from stacking them up five wide

and crashing them in the first turn and losing all the race cars at the first lap of the race or whatever restart should happen to be. So, yeah, you know, I think now and more so than ever, you can't give up anything on these restarts or the start, you know, of a race. You don't have to dig in and, get going and just hope that you don't, you know, get into some of my split.

I like the start-finish line deal. If you don't, we're going to be laying back getting big runs, and it's going to be, it's going to be chaos. We're going to be sixth-wight at the start-finish line because everyone's going to try to time it. And if you, if the green, there's going to be, I just don't think we can do it and not put you guys in a box there because you're going to be looking who pulls out when or are you, you know, who's where.

And I think it's, I think the system works really good right now. This next question is definitely for Kip. I know. Actually, the last three are all for Kip. So basically, Brett T.J., you can talk about talking. Next one is from Tyler Head 18. October is usually the time when NASCAR announces the following year's rules package. Are there any changes or tweaks being rumored for next season?

Yeah, so this is the part where I get to say, go see Jay. You know, so one of the things I did talk about, though, is that the fact that, you know, Jay and even a step further than that, you know, our guys are extremely talented group of guys that are back in the R&D portion of our office. You know, they are working on that. The great thing about our sport today is that there is a collaborative effort that goes on between us and the teams and the sponsors and so on and so forth that, you know, so there are things that are, I'm sure, being looked at. The beauty about what I get to do is I don't have to worry about that right now. So, you know, I hate to say that, you know, like I would normally, to a team, go CJ. But that would be the case.

So we hear rumblings of big things are coming with a Gen 7 car. Big things are coming with a motor package, right? So, like, from your perspective, when the OEMs come to the table with you guys, is it a tug-of-war a lot of times between them internally? Or a lot of times, they come to the table and they all three kind of want the same things. Yeah, so in the meetings that I've been a part of, I don't see much of the tug of war. Generally, it's maybe after all that's happened.

Okay. So I can't really answer that one, you know, so much. But I do know that by the time that I'm, you know, generally brought into those, it's nailing down the fine-tune items. Okay. I just care. I mean, because the OEMs, obviously, Chevrolet, Toyota, Ford, they're going to want to beat each other.

Sure. So I would imagine the ideas that they're going to have or to beat one another. But I just was curious when they come to you guys, because like you said, it is a collaborative effort. Yeah, the one thing I think is cool is that, you know, Ford Chevy and Toyota, they don't have the opportunity to pass something by without the other two knowing what they're doing. And so, and I think that because of that, it makes it easier on us to keep the playing field level because, you know, everybody signs off on, everybody's in agreement on it. But I think now more than ever, and we'll see it when we see the new car come out in 21 is how much those cars are going to resemble, you know, what we see out on the street. more so than they do now. That's awesome. I like that. Nice. Kip, another one for you.

Kaniak underscore Nation asks, who has been the most fun to ride with in the pace car? Yeah, so that one, we've had so many honorary drivers. And granted, I've only really been in the Pace Car for the Cup Series for this year, but, you know, throughout the last couple of years in the Xfinity series, but we all get to work with these honorary drivers. And probably the one that was the most fun was Chip Gaines. We were in Texas at Texas Motor Speedway a couple years ago

and Chip and Joanna and all their kids show up and everybody knows Chip from from you know. Yeah, the TV show there. Fixer up there. Yep. So he comes up and we're there and it's a Chevrolet racetrack so we've got our Camaros out there and we're giving rides to the

fans and to the ones who have paid to come up and ride and generally when we're doing that we're running about 100, you a touch more than 100 around the racetrack. And so there's me and there's Teri and a couple others that are driving. So they're out there and they're really moving. So Chip comes over and I introduce myself to him and there's a lot of media around and he gets in the car and he's, you know, well, the first thing I have to tell him, dude, you're in the car, you're in the driver's seat now. Training starts right now and he's like a kid in the candy

store. And I tell him, I say, yep, so today you get to go 45 miles an hour. He looked over at me And I'm not going to say what he said to me But he was not impressed with 45 mile an hour What made it even better was the fact that Once we get out there on the racetrack And I'm showing him the line to run And telling him how critical it is to run Pit Road Speed

Here comes his wife and his kids They're riding with one of the drivers They go fly and buy us And so anyway we finished that up And we put him in the car with Terry And Terry ride a little bit And they had a good time.

Then the funny part about that was I took Joanne and the kids around with me. And so we're running about 100 around the racetrack. But I stay right down to the bottom of the racetrack. Terry has got Chip right up on the wall all the way around the racetrack. And she looks over at me and go, why won't you go way up there? And I said, with all due respect, ma'am, I said, he's been doing this a lot longer than I have. And if he scrapes his car against that wall, it's Teribani. If I bend this car up at all, it is a long walk back to North Carolina.

real big trouble. Yeah. That's right. You have had some really cool experiences. That's awesome. Yeah, that's for sure. Oh, look at this next guy. Of course.

Your number one fan, Landing Castle, asks us you can tell all the listeners how you discovered and you were discovered and hired to be the all-time greatest drivers meeting host. That's funny. So for 20-some-odd years, I had the opportunity to announce football, basketball, and baseball and softball at my former high school where I went to school just up the road and welcome North Davis in high school. So throughout doing that and had a blast doing it, I have not been able to announce as much. And since then, we've built a new high school in the area.

And so I made the transition over to Oak Grove High School to where I still get to go and announce some basketball games. We were at Michigan earlier in the year, first trip to Michigan. I liked that race. Yeah, so, yeah, I bet you did. So we're there. and I get approached by Jay. And what normally happens is we have someone out of our Dayton office that will go up and welcome everyone to the meeting and introduce our special guest.

And for whatever the reason, and I'm sure it involved actually planning for the upcoming seasons, no one was available to be there at that time. They were going to be there for the race, but you know what, driver's meetings are two hours before the race. So I'm handed the script and said, you're at today. So I'm okay, how did I get? pick to do this. Well, you've announced ballgame. Surely you can do this too. So, you know, I look over the script and thankfully there wasn't a whole lot of names that I could really butcher. And De Benedetto is not hard to say, by the way. I can't do it. It's hard for him. De Benedetto. De Benedetto. That's your best one. That's your best one. He's in the shower.

D. Benedetto. That's what I've been doing. Now if you can say the De Benedetto, without the D part, you'll be even better. But at any rate, you know, they came up and ask if I would do that. So I put on my announcer your voice and off I go. And so the meeting was over. And next thing I know here comes Leonard Wood walking in the trailer. Oh, that's awesome. He said, where they've been hiding you? Why aren't you doing that? And so he goes up and tells, you know, Mr. Helden and he tells Steve O'Donnell and tells everybody that'll listen. Yeah, this guy needs to be doing this. Richard Childers walks in. This guy needs to be doing this. I even got stopped by Kyle Bush along the pit wall one time. This guy needs

to be doing this. So the next thing I know is I'm in there every week. And I won't lie, I love doing that. That's cool, man. It's another. opportunity to meet some really great people within the industry. And I'm a little bit of a ham too when I had that microphone. That's fun. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. So everyone this week wins a D.B.

shirt, right, Brett? Yep, everybody wins a shirt. Even Landa Castle? Even Lanna Castle. Landis a big fan. If you bring it to the racetrack this week, and we can give it to him in the garage. Yeah, we'll get his address. I don't know where he lives.

Landon's never been on here, has he? No, we've talked about it, but he's not been one of the first ones that wanted to come on and do it. We should have Landon on. We should. He's been asking for, it's been years now. Sorry, Alandon. And then this week's DBC reviewer that's going to win a t-shirt is from Brassware and at Dale underscore Yeah, 406. His review was, my wife does not watch the race on TV with me, but every week we hide from our kids and listen to DBC together.

It's just one of the fun things we do together each week. Wait, what? Because of you. They're hiding and listening. It is not G-rated. No, they're hiding from Brett. It's just one of fun things we do together each week. That's fun, funny, and stress-free for us.

I'm team Brett and she is team TJ. And parentheses, TJ has gotten old and boring. Just kidding. Thanks. It's because he knows that Kit listens to the show. That's what happened. Just blame Kip. So send me a DM on Twitter.

It'll get you your t-shirt. Yeah. For our rant. No, wait a minute here. I know storytelling, Jason? Well, no, I was going to ask like, why do you have to hide to listen to us? I mean, is it that bad? I think something else is going on there.

Yeah, what else? Okay. Yeah, maybe that's why kids can't listen to the show. Now we need to go to, yeah, let's quit talking about this. No right. I thought just, I got your point right there when you said. I wasn't thinking that, but I got it. I didn't insinuate much.

You did. You did. Yeah. Jason, do you have a story to share for our end? So, Jason, I don't think so. Where did you start the night? So we were watching my friend Ben, Tyler and I were going to watch the race together. Saturday night race in the playoffs.

Okay, sounds like a blast. Yep. And so we were just going to have fun and watch the race and drink some beverages. So you obviously took shots. Yeah, every caution we took a shot. There wasn't a ton of, how many wrecks? I know, but we are all like. It's like there were five.

But we're all these like skinny dudes, Kyle Jude's and it's like. He's rubbing an in. I'll tell you what. It sounds like a hell of a time. Are you kidding me? Three guys sitting on a couch taking shots. We also drank some beer and.

Boy, you and CC, you guys party it up over there, huh? We had some. We had some P.B and Js. We got crazy. We had some white claws. Is it pop-off vodka? Oh, that white claws, too. White claws?

This is getting even better. I want to ask you about your opinion on white cloths. Oh, Jason. I bring you a really nice bottle of tequila. I said that's already gone. And you're drinking white claws. Well, somebody else drinking is you'd have thrown up if you drained that already. Man.

Anything else we're going to rant about today? So, Jason, are there any videos from this night? Nope. No, yeah. You know there are. I got to work on your party invite list. DBC picks. I've kind of let TJ come back

And I'm trying to give him a chance Because he's never won this thing So I'm going to keep giving you a chance This is my last week after this I'm going back full boar So I'll take Chase Elliott He's good at Watkins Glen Truly he'll be good at the roble

Man I was looking at thinking about the list A little bit ago And man this is going to be a tough one to pick from But I will go with You know what I'll roll with the 19 I think he can win three in a row I'm going to go with the 19.

He was tempting, but it's hard to win three in a row, but I think he can. It is. What do you think we'll expect from this weekend? You probably have a big job to do. You know, I think it'll be every bit as exciting as it was last year, if not more so, with so much on the line for so many guys. It's going to be interesting to see coming down to that last chicane on the last lap, who's in a position to make something happen.

Can you see in the driver's meeting when you're, looking out there. Can you ever see those guys pressure building or stressed? I mean, because obviously, I don't go talk to a lot of guys other than just my guy on race day. But when you look out there, can you see who's kind of got their panties in a wad? Who doesn't? Not during the drivers of mean. I think it's still too far ahead of the race, you know, and a lot of times, too, with all the autographs that they signed coming in through the red carpet or whatever. And I think there, they're still somewhat relaxed. And once they leave us, I'm sure that's when it starts. Yeah. Yeah. Well, oh, man.

Thank you so much for Joe. They were a lot nicer to you, so I appreciate that. We're always nice. That ain't true. Kip, thanks for listening, dude. Thanks for coming on. We love how people come on in the industry, tell their story. And you've got two important jobs, man.

We appreciate you. It's a blast doing my job and coming in to be with you guys today. Thanks for having. It's nice to know that people listen and think about stuff. I mean, there's still certain things I want to see, like. shade down the spotter stand If Clint's a leader When Clint takes a lead to throw up

When the caution comes out When you pull out in front of them Will you flip them off for me? Did you do that? No No Just tell them it's for me He'll get it

Kip I want You know next time you have your meeting Can you suggest a podium On the front stretch For the top three And we just gate it We rope it off And let fans come down there

And stand in front of us Like Formula One Yeah you can be your idea I don't care Unfortunately it wouldn't be my idea I think that's been thrown out there on a number of occasions. It has been. And I think that, you know, F-1's got their thing.

We've got ours. I think it works. I want to see the fans get in there. I want to see Jason come down and blow a motor. Me too. I want to see that. Jason, you're going to racetrack this weekend, right? Yeah, I'm doing social with the shopmler Speedway, and then I...

Is that like an internship or is that like a volunteer? Freelance, little stuff. Help them out on race weekend. Oh, yeah. Saturday night. Isn't this where you dropped your phone in between the wall and the safer area? Should I tell Kip that story? What an idiot.

Last year at the Roval, I was taking some content out at Turn 3 of the Oval, and then dropped my phone in the safer barrier as I was taken. Were you able to get it out? Not until after the race. All right. This was in the morning. So that's not happening this year. I'm going to have my pop socket and my camera cord around my neck, so I won't drop anything.

Hey, the good news is now you know who you can call if you ever have to get something retrieved from there. It's true. I can't wait to get that resume, Jason. Your credentials are just blowing him away. Yeah. Well, anyway, well, thanks for coming, Kit, man. It's been awesome. You're welcome anytime. Have a good week, everyone.

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