Door Bumper Clear - 233 – Charlotte ROVAL: Karma 0, Paranoia 1

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Another dramatic NASCAR Cup Series elimination playoff race has the spotters fired up after race weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Brett Griffin and T.J. Majors are in the Bojangles Studio, while Freddie Kraft calls into the show from the Next Gen test at Charlotte Monday morning.Now that the Round of 8 is set, T.J. talks advancing with Brad Keselowski further than most expected and how the No. 2 team overcame multiple spins on Sunday. Looking ahead to the next three races, Brett asks T.J. to honestly assess the team’s opportunity to advance. Hear who may be favorited moving into the final four races and why there’s no room for error.Kevin Harvick dished payback to Chase Elliott mid-race at the ROVAL, sending Elliott into the Turn 7 wall. The spotters share their initial reactions to the incident, how the fans reacted and the No. 9 team’s ability to stay on the lead lap. Then as Elliott closed back in on Harvick, Harvick made a mistake that eliminated him from the playoffs. Hear the guys talk about how his plan completely backfired.After the first incident, the No. 9 team suffered major rear end damage. The bumper cover then hung off the car for numerous laps before flying off to bring out a debris caution. Why didn’t Elliott get the black flag like NASCAR has done to drivers with loose bumper covers in the past? The crew dissects that call and the tweet that the main NASCAR account sent and later deleted after the yellow flag.Rick Hendrick suggested post-race that NASCAR should now intervene between Elliott and Harvick. Do the spotters agree? They debate and tell us whether they think this rivalry is over, or just getting good. Plus, they predict what to expect between the two in the Round of 8.As William Byron fought for his playoff life late in the race, Tyler Reddick may have had a hand in costing Byron a shot at the win. Hear what the gang says about how the two raced each other. Martin Truex Jr. hung onto his final playoff spot by a thread late in the going after being spun by Joey Hand, who was making his NASCAR debut. Should drivers be able to make their first start in the playoffs? Hear what the guys have to say.Then the crew reacts to Graham Rahal’s tweet about the idea of playoffs in racing versus a season-long championship format. Which is better? Why does NASCAR do playoffs? The guys share some insight.In Reaction Theatre, Kevin Harvick receives no love, someone dares to give Elliott a bold nickname and Christmas caroling starts early.Then, the team makes Championship 4 predictions for both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series heading into the first race of the Round of 8 at Texas Motor Speedway. Plus, hear what experiment Texas is trying in its playoff races this weekend. And is a fan favorite race track coming back to life? Brett has some details. 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.

You're listening to Door Bumper Clear presented by Offerpad. I'm Brett Griffin, and today we'll cover all the drama from the Roval. Chase Elliott versus Kevin Harvick, round two, ding, ding. No black flag for the nine's bumper cover. What? The Tyler Redd it costs William Byron the win and much, much more. I hear we got a new intro this week, too.

So let's go. True. We're standing the best in the booths. Stumble the Monday to tell you the truth. Giving the Finions and breaking the rules. Good call to the holler to bring it to you. Casey you pretty Freddy you fat TJ you suck

Brett ain't so bad Jason is pacing How to play in this racing If someone don't crash and he's gonna go mad Looking for Freddy he's killing the bottle Casey is making messers like a toddler Treat something stupid then don't even bother Brett's gonna block you like TJ is the spot

I see them online though FF in the chat Tell Rick where to stay off the track All of the podcasts are living in fear This isn't the download It's door bumper clear Nah don't get it twisted baby This isn't the download nah This is door bumper clear

Clear, clear, clear. Hey, everybody. I'm TJ Majors. Sputter the Two Cup car, and welcome to the Bojangles studio. We are so lucky to have breakfast every morning. I really enjoyed my sausage biscuit with Bow Rounds. Yeah, the Bo Rout, I forgot how good they are. They are amazing.

Brett Griffin's spotter this past weekend for A.J. Amadinger, race winner on Saturday. I was not spotting on Saturday, but on Sunday I was, man. We finished second stage one, had a rocket. ended up losing a freaking motor before the end of the race. Running top five, had a rocket, Casey. How are you this morning?

I am great. I will say, shout out to producer Jason for showing up to the track. Hungover, I believe. No, that's not true. Let me tell you something. Jason came in my suite.

And, you know, Jason and I are both kind of red. We have a red complexure. Complexure. No matter what happens. He walks in, and I'm like, he and Alex,

walk in and they're waiting on Ward Burton to get there, right? Jason is just hung over. Like, you can tell he's dying. And Alex and Ward were like, Jason, get it together, man. Like, I actually didn't know you could drink enough white claws to feel that bad, Jason. I have not drank a white claw in probably a year now. Don't worry. I've made up for it. Hey, it was Thomas Wreck Coleswendole had a concert Friday night. We had to celebrate and drink to it. And celebrate Freddy's win. That's what I was doing. I was trying to celebrate for Freddy. So tell us how much of that concert you remember, Jason. Well, apparently, Brad Kislauski and Truex were on stage at some point during Thomas Red set.

I have no recollection of that. I saw a picture of that. I was like, wow, I had no idea. I would have clearly noticed that if I had been paying attention. I'm actually pretty proud of you. Thank you. I'm proud that you, like, owned up to it. I mean, he's going to a racetrack, so I think that's fine.

What would Ward say to you? Oh, boy, you look like you're hurting. Yeah. So that's that picture. I tweeted. You'll see that Alex and Jason are smiling and Ward's lips are closed. Lord actually was talking. The lips just to work moving.

But no, it was cool. It was good to see you boys at the racetrack for a change. What did you do all weekend, Miss Boat? I babysat. I watched some racing. I did some work. I kept the house clean for everybody who tagged me in places all over the world. My house is definitely spotless.

I could show you pictures of me cleaning, if you insist. You're preparing for another one? You know, for everybody listening, we just have a whole conversation about them thinking I'm pregnant, and I can confirm that I am not pregnant, so if rumors start flying, no, not pregnant, Chad, not pregnant. I hope Chad's not pregnant. Yeah. That'd be a big deal. Whatever.

Anyways. She is not like that topic. Freddie's not here today. Why is Freddie not here? Yes. Freddy is time over, right? Is that the case? Still drunk?

No, he's up the next-gen test. Super excited to be there, T.J. I figured you guys would test. Are you allowed? They're not going to let us anywhere near there. Oh, well, I know that the colleague guys had a race car out there. And it seems like a lot of teams are obviously going and a lot of drivers are going to show up and drive their cars. So, like, for colleague, they're going to have AJ and Justin Haley kind of split the seat time in that car.

I think you'll see Gibbs do something. similar with their drivers. Obviously, you know, you look at the playoffs now. It's pretty much a three-team show, or it is a three-team show, with Penske, Hendrick, and Gibbs. So obviously, all their drivers are going to be jumped in and out of that car. It's hard for me. Like, if I look at Bubba Wallace last week, he wins this race,

and you realize that you're never going to see that particular car on the racetrack again. Like, do they give Bubba that car since he won in it? Or does Denny put it in his game room with his Daytona 500 cars? He has room for it. Yeah, I don't know. I think that that's a tough, I think the first, it's two, it's the company's first win. And, I mean, does Michael get the car? Maybe Michael gets the car.

Maybe it'll be in their shop, aren't they, they're building a shop in Huntersville, so. Maybe they put it in there and put it on display. I mean, but literally, I mean, that car is, it's probably a $300,000 car by the time they're done with all the man hours and the engine package. And, yeah. And this thing is worth nothing other than the fact. then it's Bubba Wallace's first winning car, which is worth a lot. That's what I'm saying. It's Bubba's first win, which majority of the time I would say when a driver gets their

first win, a lot of them have gotten their cars. But being a company's first win, too, I don't know. Denny versus Bubba, who gets it? Yeah. Yeah. First, I mean, if Michael wants the car, Michael gets the car. I saw the rest of that. It's Michael Jordan.

Michael wants three to the tires. You give them three. You sound like Freddie with Denny Hamlin right now. I'm just saying that's Michael Jordan. You know, if Michael says, you know, hey, I want the fuel cell in my front porch. You put it there. All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about Charlotte because I have to say.

It's a great city. I mean. The Charlotte race. Didn't think I had to be specific on that one. I, you know, we are on to the round of eight. Surprised. Well, we'll talk about this later, but surprise. That's got to be surprised.

He didn't see all these people. Penske car is making that dive eight. I didn't, man. Props to you guys. I didn't even have you guys really going far at all kind of because of that lame duck situation you're in. Obviously, Talladega huge swift shift there, a swift shift. That was a nice swift shift.

To solidify yourself in there, man. I mean, look, I look at these points right now after this reset, and there's only one guy with a big cushion. And in years past, we've had kind of one, maybe two, maybe even two and a half, three this year it's like man Larson needs to go out here and not dig himself in a hole and if he does that he's going to be

in the championship in Phoenix because obviously we know how much speed he's had at mile and a halfs two of these three tracks from mile and a halfs man these other seven guys are going to have to really get after it and nobody's out of it by any means

I mean Brad's I think 16 out you know Denny's his plus seven or whatever that margin is is super small there's no room for air Like you look at the Xfinity Series, and obviously I can speak to this one personally. Jeff Burton went out and made a huge error at Las Vegas. It made him not advance to the next round in the Xfinity Series playoff. If any of these seven guys make a huge error in the next two weeks,

they will be in a must-win situation at Martinsville because these points are so freaking tight. And stage points are going to be more than ever. I mean, and Larson's not safe. He has a bad race. He's going to be right there. you know he has a he definitely has a little bit of a cushion to have you know a loose wheel you know a tire up any you know a flat tire a battery issue who knows and if you're those seven guys you're going to race each other very hard because you know how important the points are among each

other but also if you're those seven guys you're going to try to pressure larson into making a mistake so that he can have a bad race so that you can handicap him a little bit because i mean look this guy's got seven wins on the season. Okay, he could have easily won three or four more races. He's got a lot of second place finishes out there. He wrecked at the Daytona Road course to start the season with a car that was going to win the race there by making a mistake. So, I mean, this could be a double-digit win season for Larson.

Still could be. We've got four races left. But he's still, he's still the guy to beat with Denny Hamlin right on his heels. I mean, look at what Denny did at Vegas. He goes out and wins the race. Man, those guys are, they're hot right now. But if you have one wrong thing happen on. pit road, whether that it's happened before. Oh, it's happened before. You're leaving your pit box,

and here comes, you know, a car that is running 25th coming around your nose and you hit each other. Like, you have to execute at a very high level, and that is every single person on that team. Yep. The next three races are no mistakes. No mistakes. TJ, you guys almost didn't make it on. How many people tried to spin you? Do you have a list? How many people did spin you? Do you have a list? I guess the better question is how many people didn't? I think that might be shorter. Well, Brett didn't. That's a good thing.

I never really saw you behind me most of the day. Yeah, well, whatever you stayed out, we pitted. Yeah. And then once we got shipped from that position, we were just right. I mean, playing it smart. We had a little bit of a buffer, so we were just going to try to grab a few stage points in each stage if we could. And we were in position to do that in the first stage. And, you know, we're a single file going into the, not even racing into the bus stop.

And Bowman just, I guess, decided he didn't want us in front of him anymore and drove through Brad. But I don't, Alex doesn't really race like that. I think he, you know, it's easy to get checked up a little bit and, you know, get bumped and I definitely don't think it was anything malicious, but you still did it, Alex. You're on my list. I mean, it is a racing deal, but at the end of the day, it's an error that can screw your day up. Oh, it made our day way more excited than I wanted to be.

Then we get back there. We're too wide down to backstatch with the 47 or 47, 47, I believe. And the 34 decide three wide into the bus stop is going to be good. We're already too wide. And we're not even, we're just getting to the breaking zone. He drives it on in there. But the first spin puts you in position to be around stuff like that. And that's when your day can go really bad, real easily.

And it did. I mean, we got spun out again. And then we're out. And then, you know, the 24 can't win. Well, he's leading. Oh, great. So there was a lot of, a lot of ups and downs right there. And until we had Harvick, we still had Harvick beat, you know, as long as the 24 didn't win, I think.

There are so many things happening. There was a lot of scenarios happening. We had Harvick beat by like four or five points still. But when he wrecked is whenever it, um, that's what really made it a lot easier for us. Then we were basically just racing the 19, if the 24-1. And he wasn't leading at that point. But we were just trying to protect ourselves and build a buffer with the 19.

And when he got spun out, it put us in front of him pretty easily. We didn't race Texas in the spring in the form of an actual race, but we did run the All-Star race there. You go back and look at it. Penske had three cars in the top five in that race in Texas. They had the two, 22, and 12 finish second, fourth, and fifth. But you go back to our most recent mile and a half, which was Las Vegas. They only had one car in the top five, and that was Blaney.

So it's going to be interesting to see what happens in these next two mile and a halfs, because we know how strong those freaking Hendrick cars have been, but you're only really worried about two of them. You're not worried about all four of them. And then obviously we know that the Gibbs guys have been strong. I mean, their Vegas outing the last mile and a half. They finished first, third, and fourth. pretty solid effort.

All three of those guys are in the playoff, you know. So what do you think you've got to do, T.J. to advance? I mean, I know you want to win, but what do you think's got to happen? Because you're the guy with nothing to lose realistically. I think you just be smart. You take stage points when you can, and you minimize your risks versus reward, because three races, running three perfectly clean races is pretty hard to do. So that's where I think a guy like a guy like Brad,

and some championship guys know how to handle these scenarios and stuff. They know not to take a certain risk. And I've seen it with Brad since I've started working with him. He knows he's backed out a few times when I was like, but you know what? It paid off. What you're saying is he backed out at a time when Joey wouldn't have. He's definitely backed out a few times when I didn't expect it to.

But we still ended up where we should have. His approaches is different. And, you know, a guy like Brad, there's a reason why Brad was probably quietly in the championship last year because he knows how to put smart races together and not knock the fender off and not, you know, he's pretty good about not creating, you know, bad luck for himself. Getting spun out. I don't know if there's a lot you can do about that. No, that's been doing.

But, you know, these guys, I looked at five of the eight guys are past champions. And there's a handful of them that have been there numerous times. and it's going to be, I think that does give them guys a little bit of an advantage because they know how to do. They know how to take care of their stuff at these points. They're not going to take this risk that a guy that, you know, you got guys in this list of having won championships, they're probably going to be a little more aggressive. They're going to be, their anxiety level is going to be higher. They're going to be trying a little too hard.

They might make a move that's going to cost them. They might. You're right. You never know, though. But, you know, it's the guy that doesn't, you know, maybe one of these guys that has one champion breaks through this year. and then, you know, he's on that list now. Yeah. Do you see as far as team orders go, if there are team orders,

for, you know, the Hendrick and the JGRs, and for you specifically with Penske, um, going? We've never, we've never had team orders. The only, the only orders you ever get are at a plate race, look, if you see your teammate and you can help him, help him. That's other than that, or you don't want to, like, if we catch one of our teammates, it's a lap down, you don't expect them to race you real hard.

You expect them to let you go, and they should at that point. If they're a lap down. But, you know, we had a deal like that at, where was it, at Phoenix, 48 car 88 last year, let the nine drive right by. We catch them and he races us, you know what I mean? But that's, you know, how it goes. I would say of these eight guys, Casey, and I may be way off base here, but Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are guys who do a lot together away from the racetrack.

They play a lot of golf together. Their social circles are intertwined outside of the racetrack, right? So I would imagine those two guys are talking about, hey, we've dominated the season. You know, Denny didn't win a lot of races, but he was up front at all of them and certainly had a chance to win a lot of them, you know, obviously regular season, finish second. I would imagine those guys are saying, hey, one of us need to go out and win this first race. we don't have to worry about a Lugano sneaking in or a Keselowski sneaking in. As far as the organization stuff goes, the first real teammate that Elliott and I had was

Del Jarrett, and this is way back when, right? It wasn't as sophisticated as it is now in terms of strategy. But I'll never forget, DJ in the first meeting that we had. He looked at me in Elliott and he said, hey, if we can help each other, I want us to help each other. But don't ever help me if it's going to hurt you. And that was the approach that we raced with. for many years with DJ.

But if you fast forward to now, there are a lot more team meetings that take place with drivers and crew chiefs and owners where they try to keep you aligned and try to keep you on the same page. But when it gets down to four races to go, and you're Brad Keselowski, you're racing just as hard against Lugano

and Brian Blaney as you are the other five or six guys that are left over. You need that point. You've got to be very selfish as a race car driver if you're going to have a chance to win this championship. Now, you don't want to do anything stupid and wreck your teammate because that'll screw up a Christmas party and a heartbeat, but you've got to get all you can get. You cannot go out there with this mentality of team first.

You've got to put yourself first. Yeah, for sure. Well, before we heading to spot on, spot off, I know silly season is well underway with Ty Dylan being announced as the driver of the GMS Cup car next year. any other rumors you guys are hearing since, you know, like you said, four races left? I mean, I think the biggest thing that hangs up in the Cup Series for me is probably Michael McDowell, you know, what happens there with that team. We know that Denny's got at least one charter from that team.

Solidified. The question is, did he get two? And if you got two, that means what happens with the 34 here and a lot of different things there. I think you're going to see the Cup series kind of settle down. Now, look, there's a lot of getting ready to have my crew chiefs, but that's pretty common this time of year. there's some guys getting ready to be coming and going.

But that's not abnormal. I think your Xfinity Series drivers are about to get crazy. Obviously, you know, Sheldon Creed's going to RCR. There's another name there that hadn't been announced yet, a guy that's locked himself in there. So that means, hey, what happens to, you know, Mike Snyder? Obviously, Jeff Burton's out there floating around.

I think the Xfinity series driver-wise is going to have a lot more movement from now until the end of the year than the cup stuff. I think your cup stuff is pretty settled in. Yeah, I think we've already pretty much talked about all the cup stuff that is going to be available in swap. And there's a lot of movement, but I think most of the pieces have already fallen into place in the cup side. Yeah, for sure. Well, let's hear a little bit more about our great presenting sponsor, Offer Pat. Danny and Harrison, welcome to the Offer Pat family.

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Move to Texas, become a Dallas Cowboys fans. That's America's team. When asked where you heard about Offerpad, make sure you select the NASCAR option so they know we sent you. Spot on, spot off. Kevin Harvick's contact with Chase Elliott in turn seven sends Elliot into the wall. Brett. I'm not going to lie to you.

I was watching this play out. and I was like, dang, Chase Elliott just wrecked. What's he thinking? Like, he can't go out here. I didn't see it initially. He can't go out here and wreck like that. But then I saw him climb the banking. And when he climbed the banking, I saw him take a complete 90-degree left-hand turn to try to hit Harvick in the right rear.

And he missed. And I was like, took the 41 with him. I was like, well, he ain't poor 41 guy. He just got cremated there for no reason. But I'm like, oh, Chase got wrecked by Harvick. And he was trying to retaliate. And he missed. And then obviously I said over the radio, hey, the nine wrecked.

So I'm going to assume we're going to get a caution because it was the nine. I'm going to own that. I said it over the radio. And sure enough, but the tower did ask, is there anything, any debris on the track? And the official said, I don't know. And so when the official, remember that? Yeah. The official said, I don't know.

And so NASCAR elected to throw the caution. And so at that point, TJ and I, along with every other spotter there, we got to watch a replay. And it's like, man, Kevin got in there really hot into seven. Maybe he didn't mean to record. He didn't get in really hot. He got in easy, then got out really hot. He got out of the corner really hot. But then the next time the old four ball came rolling around the racetrack, Casey, I noticed a big old hole in the nose.

So when I saw that hole in the nose, I was like, well, he didn't hit him easy, right? So you asked me spot on, spot off, look, I don't care where you live. land on this thing. This is amazing for our sport. Chase Elliott cost Kevin Harvick a win. That cost Kevin Harvick a lot of money, a lot of points, a lot of playoff points, and it cost him the ability to lock himself into that chase. Now, obviously, you know, Kevin was trying to point his way in there, but nonetheless, you and you're Kevin Harvick, you want to win a race every year. You don't want to have a winless season. And here it is, this guy, I mean, look, we saw the, the, the replay of Chase's radio when he was sitting on pit road after that incident at Bristol,

and he asked point blank, what can I do to go help the five car win this race? Well, if that's not premeditated, whatever you want to call it, I don't know what is. So, you know, I saw Jeff Gluck's tweet, and he was like, hey, this is completely different. Like, Kevin has taken this to a whole new level. He's taking this guy out of the playoffs. Poked the bear. Play with the bull. You get the horns sometimes.

You know what I mean? So I am spot on for it. look, I'm not on either one of these teams, and it would certainly change my perspective of it if I were, but I'm not on either one of these teams, and I think that we'll talk about it in a second. Did it backfire? I don't know, but Chase Elliott came back to finish top 12, which is pretty darn impressive when his car looked like a Volkswagen after he hit that outside wall. Yeah, spot on for the, you know, the, just the whole drama, man.

like it this is what makes it exciting you know i don't like seeing race cars get tore up and and stuff like that but man is it exciting that happened right in front of us like three four cars in front of us is where this started and i thought we were going to be in it whenever i saw chase hit the wall and then we come off the corner and i thought we were going to be in it again so it was um and really uh i don't know this is just carrying over man i mean one guy's obviously not happy and he's trying to show you that he's not happy and if if it's me now that i've advanced he probably feels like i don't know how i don't know how kevin feels if he does he feel like he's even now i mean if we look at the scoreboard he's definitely not even i does he feel like okay

this guy i've shown this guy now that i'm not going to play like that he's either going to quit messing with me you know but let's talk about this for a minute let's go in let's let's layer this thing out. Kevin Harvick, Talladega, is about to miss the cutoff. He's about to be screwed. What does he do? On a restart where he doesn't have fourth gear, he hangs a right into Trevor Bain, and he wrecks a ton of cars, and he advances. Kyle Busch yesterday, after the race, said he wrecked me at Marksville on purpose. He gets what he deserves. Yesterday, he wrecks Chase Elliott on purpose. Like, there is a pattern. We talked about it just a minute ago. You got to be selfish racer. There is a pattern of Kevin Harvick being a selfish race. He's obviously shown that he's going to do

what it takes to get into the playoffs, but, you know, obviously to backfire a little bit there. Yeah, let's get into that a little bit. Spot on, spot off. Kevin Harvig then plows into the turn one wall as Chase Elliott closed in with nine laps to go. Now, do you think this was Harvick looking in his rear mirror, T.J. or is this he's clearly missed the turn. for other reasons. I don't think he was looking at the Nile when he did this. I think he knew that Nile was getting close, so his intensity was picking up to get around that car

because there was still a couple cars between, there would have been a couple cars between them at that point. And I think he knows that if that Nile gets there, it's probably not going to be good, especially what was set on the radio. So I think turn one is really easy to overshoot. I don't believe in karma. I really don't.

So I'm going to give karma, zero. I'm going to give a paranoia one. I think T.J. is off base. I heard the in-car camera on the replay and Tim Fido with his spotter says outside, you know, basically the nine is in line behind you. And the timing of that, I didn't know that. It's not in there. The timing of this could be skewed a little bit, because sometimes our audio can be off with a video. If he hears the nine's behind you on the radio. He's going to look. Well, let me tell you what he heard. He heard the nine is in line behind you. And about that same time, he locks the brakes up and he goes and he hammers the wall

and completely takes himself out of this playoff. Well, that changes my answer. So, Casey, I think, once again, I'll go back to, I think, a paranoid Kevin Harvick wrecked himself. But only he is going to ever know. And I doubt he ever admits it. But it made, listen, I was up there. We were amongst the fans.

yesterday. Like this is a racetrack where we spot from the top of turn one. It's not the official spotter stand, but it is the location where we can see 97% of the track. So we're amongst the fans. I mean, we're on the very top row. We don't have seats. We're standing up on a great spotter stand for the road course. It is. It's awesome. Man, this place went absolutely nuts. Yeah, it was loud. Nuts. I thought Dale Jr. took the lead for a second. When Chase Elliott would just pass a car, these people were going nuts, right? It's like we were at Talladega and Dale Jr. was leading. but when he got wrecked, holy middle fingers.

The only race that was most of us were watching at that point is what lap are the nine and the four are going to get back near each other. That was what we were all looking for. So we watched it play out. We saw the caution come out, which preserves the nine's ability to stay on the lead lap, and let's be honest, man.

That's what created this. That's what created this. The next topic obviously is, you know, go ahead, Casey. No, no, no, no. Well, look, if the first, if the caution doesn't fly when Chase Elliott wrecks, the first time, he's going to end up four or five laps down. His day's done.

At least one down. His playoffs done. Dude, that car was destroyed. There's no chance. But the amount of repairs it was going to take, you were going to get lap multiple times. So he's also going to be running dead last when he comes to pit road. You're probably going to lose a lap before you even get back to pit road. So that saved his day the first time.

But as this whole thing kept playing out, I'm going to go back to the fans. Man, every time something good would happen, this whole place would erupt. And it was so awesome to see that energy. I know that actually is really exciting whenever. That's when people are going to come back. Yeah. When people are going to come back when they are standing up and cheering because they're having a good time at that point.

You could hear NBC, which NBC did a great job of telling that storyline because you knew what was going on between both drivers, even though they were also focusing on the rest of the field. By the way, I heard Brandon won again after the race. Did you? No, I heard it. They were Brandon. Brandon won again after the race.

A lot of other sports. You heard let's go Brandon? When I went by you, I could hear it. Yeah, yeah. A lot of Let's Go Brandon's at other sports. I don't know if he knows that too, but I will say, the Xfinity in-car camera that was on Harvick's car, NBC showed the coverage and you could hear them from the car, from inside the car,

like through the camera. Yeah, yeah. So it was unreal. I could imagine that. The re-out is that's the energy level you want from your fans at any sporting event. You know what I mean? So I've got to say that this whole thing is positive for the sport. Now, do we want these Bowman Gray moments every week?

Me personally, Brett Griffin, no, I do not because that's not. I find that hard to believe. To me, we screw up the integrity of our product if we keep this Mickey Mouse crap up, right? A slow rivalry, you know, rivalries are good. You don't want to see it every week, but you know, you want to see a couple, two, three run-ins a year or something where people just, you know, it's there. Is this over? Yeah, it's still, you know, it's there. But do you think it's over?

Now that Harvick is out and Chase is in, is Harvick going to eat in more difficult? I mean, I think Kevin's goal right there was to knock him out and he's still in. So, guess who has nothing to lose now? I do think. Guess who has a lot to lose? I don't know what all, like, all these talks they were supposed to have had in the hollers and stuff, evidently didn't work. It didn't go very well. I mean, where's Josh Jones at right now?

The peacemaker. I don't know. Look, it's awesome. I mean, look, if you're a Chase Elliott fan, you kind of got your, you kind of had you. I mean, look, you were clearly living in Kevin Harvick's head, and he retaliated, and it completely. I'm pretty sure. It completely backfired. I'm pretty sure that Kevin is.

laying on the couch and all them fans' heads now too, though. I mean, he's probably living up there because there's no way that when that nine catches the four, the four is going to point him by. No chance. He is going to race him, and I would expect that. That's what you do. I would hope that Chase Elliott is not in that same position at Martinsville because Kevin's pretty good there, and he will not make that nine's day easy.

I'm trying to end this if I'm him. You can make his deal. day really difficult without doing something like that again. I promise you. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Harvick is good. It'd be hard to pass him. Yes. He'll make it him him. You know, Kevin can be Ryan Newman times 10 if he wants to be. Yes. Yes, I agree. This podcast is brought to you by our friends at racingusa.com. Google's top rated source for NASCAR merchandise. Fans, I know we've told you for months now about the automatic discounts you get when you place an item in your card at racing USA.com and they're guaranteed

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for more than 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. You fast? It's out there? You got it so fast you left? We broke the track record. Now we're just looking for Victory Lane again.

Is that me on the screen? No. Watching Baywatch. They look just like you, Freddie. Don't worry. Pretty close. Freddie, how's that diet going? That's great.

Eating every snack I can find. I only got 19 hours of testing left, so I should be fine. Who are you sitting around? I got Drew Herring to my left. I got Herm to my right. Oh, yeah. We kind of secluded ourselves from the wrist. Herm had a big run yesterday, a third place finished with old busher.

Herm didn't have a good run yesterday. Top three. Are you spotting from the spotters bar that they have there? No, that's the media center. Yeah. I didn't even know that they had a spotter bar until Brett took a picture of it. You'd think they'd invite the spotters to the spotter bar. How are you going to name something after people and don't even invite them?

Well, because they know you guys would show up. We can't show up. It's a work weekend for some of us. How cool would it be to go to there after the race and there would still be a hangout? Yeah, that'd be awesome. Like the dirt races and stuff whenever they open the gate and everyone goes and hangs out for a while. You give me free drinks. I'll go anywhere.

Freddie, how is testing going so far? Well, according to these last times. Absolutely riveting. We only went out to shake it down, make sure I'm going to fall off. So we haven't really made a run yet. But it's interesting. Some of these guys are driving a hell out of Reddick. Looks really fast.

Cendrick looks pretty good. I don't think AJ's been out yet. But it's riveting action here. What's the sound like compared to yesterday? The car sound different? Strange, yeah, very strange. Strange. Strange is not a very descriptive answer.

Kaz Grala is sixth right now. I told you at the Darlington race, it sounded like they dropped a cylinder when they were driving around. I can't hear. I'm going to sweep, really. I'm not a good guy to ask. All right, well, Freddie, we were continuing our topic of the Harvick versus Chase scandal from the weekend. So I'll just loop you right in the spot-on, spot off.

First, or continuing on, NASCAR does not black flag Chase Elliott for a loose bumper cover before it flies off and brings out a caution. Well, she'll have Freddy, so in case his car rolls or something. Yeah, man, I am, uh, I'm against this because it became very evident on social media from media members, from fans, and even after the race, talking to other industry members, that debris at some point was going to leave that race car and land on the racing surface, and it would bring out a caution. Obviously, if NASCAR black flags the nine, he's going to lose significant track position,

a lap on the racetrack, et cetera, to come in and make those repairs. So once again, the first decision to throw the caution when he tried to wreck Harvick on purpose and turn one and missed saved Chase Elliott's day the first time. The decision to not throw the caution for what would end up being debris leaving his car because it was not secure saved his day a second time. And it's very obvious that with no rear bumper cover, a car that is completely destroyed can come back to finish 12th. I'm sorry, but I got to be spot off for this one. Freddie? I mean, yeah, I think I text you under. I was like, we're now under yellow because the ninth bumper cover that's been falling off for 10 laps, fell off finally.

The interesting to see what that, what happened if that wasn't the nine, it was the 23 or the 50 somethings or something like that. I think I've heard on the radio plenty of times, hey, you know, bring that thing in, clean it up. And I never really heard that yesterday. It was more so, hey, we see it. make a plan. It was pretty obvious that NASCAR saw it. I think they mentioned it on Twitter somewhere. I don't know if that guy still got a job.

But yeah, it was pretty obvious. Tell us about that tweet that was sent out, Jason, because I saw the tweet as a result of Jeff Gluck. He had actually retweeted NASCAR's account where they tweeted something. What did that tweet say, Jason? So the tweet said it was only a matter of time. The caution flag flies for debris on the track,

And it's a gif of Chase's bumper cover flying off down the backstretched. So here you are a billion dollar industry. From the NASCAR account. So you're a billion dollar industry. And your NASCAR Twitter tweets, we knew this thing was going to come off. It was, quote, only a matter of time. So I just, I'm sitting in the parking lot waiting on Freddie to get done, listening on the radio, listening to my scanners, watching the replays on Twitter,

which are phenomenal. And so I just take the time to tweet back to whoever that is and said, hey, you might want to delete that tweet or they're going to fire you. because you as the NASCAR sanctioning body cannot have some intern or some social media guru or idiot tweeting that you knew that caution was going to come out for this guy's bumper cover and yet you elected to do absolutely nothing. So I've seen this account. I mean, Jason follows this account.

He brings a lot of things to my attention. This account does. I think Jason Schultz should be given the range to the NASCAR social media Twitter and he should be the only guy that's allowed to tweet during the race from here on out. I agree. we'd have so much fun. It'd be such good content. While hungover. I don't know how... He had like four white claws the other night.

Forrest Mars, who actually was a second generation Mars member who clearly the Mars family owns M&M's. We met with him one time and he had an old saying, I don't know how you lost your last job, but I tell you how you're going to lose this one. And it's by doing shit like that. All right. Spot on, spot off. Rick Hendrick says, car is the only ones that can stop it, and I hope they do. I wonder what they're talking about. TJ.

I'm spot off. These two guys are grown men. They can handle it, I think. They've already tried to talk it out, but this is, you know, I think we've had rivalries before, and this is one of them. So I'm spot on. Or spot off for that, but I'm spot on for the rivalry. Freddie. I'm sure that he does hope they stop it now, that his guy's still in

the playoffs. The other one's not. That's what I would want myself. You know, is Harvard out? He's gone. He's gone. He's gone.

So yeah. So yeah, if I'm him, I'm hoping to God NASCAR does something to prevent Harvard from coming back of my guy and knocking him at the next round, too. So spot on. I agree with Rick. I would, if I was him, I would hope to see him. I mean, Rick Hendrick is this sophisticated billionaire owner. And Tony Stewart is a very wealthy race car driver.

that's an owner. Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart are a lot of like. A little bit of a loose cannon. Very selfish guys in terms of how they race. Very good. Very talented, very good champions. I don't see Tony Stewart. Look, there's four guys that can really stop this.

Rick Hendrick, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, because those two guys own the car and the other two guys drive the car. So if those four guys can't stop it, why would NASCAR want to stop it? Well, the only reason they would want to stop it in my mind is because Chase Elliott is so popular. Otherwise, if you're a fan of the sport, why is this such a bad thing? Well, it's a bad thing for Chase Elliott because he's racing for a championship in Kevin Harveston. It goes back to are they even in Kevin's mind?

But again, I don't see NASCAR needing to step in and stop this. If they thought yesterday's actions were not correct, they should find them and take away points. You know, when Kevin wrecked him, Chase's trying to wreck him, even though he missed him, is the exact same thing. So I don't see why NASCAR would intervene here, but they very well may. I didn't see. I didn't see that. Oh, yeah. Once they were climbing.

When they got to the banking, that's how he had hung on the inside. Yeah, once he hit that outside wall. Yeah, he hit the outside wall. His car was tore up, and then he climbed the banking going on to Oval 1, and he hung a complete left, and Miss Kevin Harvick looked by what looked like a couple inches, then he cremated the 41 car. Poor Cole Custer's just out there hanging out, and he got nailed. But, yeah, look, that's no different.

The four wrecked him, and now he's trying to wreck the four back. The only thing is he didn't execute it, right? If he hits him there, they're both in big trouble. Yeah. Spot on, spot off. Tyler Reddick cost William Byron the win. Freddie. I mean, spot off, obviously.

William Byron was probably the fastest car here once the nine had damage and the 16 broke. So I would say definitely spot off for wrecking the guy that's racing for his whole season there. I don't think he intentionally did it. I think Tyler owned up to it after the race was over and said, hey, I was just trying to get all I get. The guy had, you know, if Tyler was a top three or four car after the end of the race there, and trying to get all he can get, you know, try to get the first career win. I, you know, it's hard to spot off it because, you know, Tyler at least owned up to it, which a lot of people won't do said he screwed up, said he made a mistake.

But, you know, I'm not going to fault a guy for trying to get all he can get, no matter what the other guy's agenda is. Right. I am 1,000% spot off on this because I was going to win DBC picks and only be one pick back from Freddie going into the final four races. William Byron was going to lock himself into the playoff he was going to kick somebody out which I'm sorry TJ I think would have potentially ended up being you

he was going to change the dynamic of this playoff and I mean look man William Byron's had a good enough season to be in a round of eight I think it sucks that he suffered some bad love it wasn't going to be me it'd have been True X at this point True that's right True X because True X got wrecked we'll talk about that a little bit by some guy I've never heard of he talked to the hand I guess but I look at this whole thing and Redick pushed the 24 car William Byron through the chican,

which obviously forced Byron to lose a lot of spots, and then Byron made a comeback and was running third when he made an air himself and wreck. But again, this is why we go to these tracks. I mean, you've got a guy like Tyler Reddick looking for his first ever win. And at that moment in time, T.J., he didn't care about a playoff. All he cared about was winning his first race.

All William Byron cared about was winning this race. to get in back in and advance in this playoff. This is why, I mean, me and Chris Rice talked about this on the radio yesterday. You watch this race and 40 minutes into this thing, you're like, this is already better than the Oval, the Bank of America 400 that we used to run here. So, man, shout out to Marcus Smith for obviously knowing what he was doing with this product. But just more drama, TJ.

It's all it is. Yeah, I think it's, I think Tyler just wants to win, man. And he should. You know, he's, uh, that wouldn't be the only, the first time I saw contact yesterday with somebody, you know, getting into somebody. And that track is, the place is proven to be pretty good for action. So I'm, uh, I hate to see, you know, I hate it for William. I think William was super nice kid, watched him, you know, grow through the truck series, his fan series, now in the Cup series.

And he seems to always kind of be on this bubble where he's in a, you know, a must win first, second round of the playoffs. I was like he wasn't at Daytona last year that he had to win. And I'll tell you what, though, man, he is stepping up in these situations at Daytona. He needed to do it, and he did it. Here he needed to do it, and he was putting himself in position again. So I hated to see the contact, but, you know, you like to see hard racing, and I like to see a guy that's willing to, you know, drive, you know, hey, I need to win my first race, and I'm going to do whatever I need to take to do it.

you had to do it. So I can also respect that side of things. Tyler Reddick is also paid to drive a race car by somebody, and they want to win too. Jackpot Party is a leading free-to-play mobile game that provides players an authentic Vegas experience with a splash of unmatched fun. Jackpot Party hit big Saturday going to Victory Lane with A.J. Amadinger, and three lucky jackpot players got their hands on his signed driver suit and helmet. Thousands of NASCAR fans downloaded Jackpot Party from the App Store and Google. will play and just because the sweepstakes is over, it doesn't mean the party stops.

You got to get to level 10 is what AJ told me yesterday. Download Jack Pop Party today and enjoy the Vegas slots and fun on your phone. How convenient. It's free to download and free to play. That's Jack Pop Party download today. Spot on, spot off. Martin Trex Jr. is the last driver to advance after getting spun late by Joey Hand, who was making his first NASCAR start. Brett. Man, he did a helping hand, didn't he? He did a bad job by hand. Did Martin have a bad hand? I can honestly say, and I tweeted this,

first time cup starts should not ever, ever be allowed in the playoffs. And this not only was it his first cup start, it was his first start ever. This guy is put in a competitive car, and you think, Brett, you're crazy. No, I'm not. I'm not lying to you guys. This was a Stuart Haas racing. assembled race car. This thing was capable

of going out and running well. All this guy had to do was show up, keep his nose clean, and not do stupid and he goes out here and wrecks a guy in the freaking playoffs and it could potentially have taken Martin completely out of the playoffs. No different than what Kevin Harvick was attempting

to do to Chase Elliott. I could not be more spot off. I remember when these guys used to have to go run some K&N, go run some ARCA, go run some trucks. prove you could do it, and then they let you work your way up the ladder. And now we're letting Joe Hand or whatever's Hand name is just show up out of the freaking blue. I've never even heard of this guy. And it's because I don't follow whatever the road racing is that goes on out there,

nor does the majority of the rest of our fan base. So the majority of our fan base has to be agreeing when I say this. Who is this hand guy even to start with? I'm spot off for the contact because you shouldn't be, you know, you need to know at that point what the scenarios are. Or the fact that that guy's running for a championship. How about we cut him a little bit of slack? But I'm pretty sure the guys are very, very accomplished road racer in other series, you know, to kind of counteract you there.

That doesn't mean he should start in a cup. I mean, we ran an Xfinity race the day before. Yeah, I mean. We run plenty of truck road races. Yeah. Earn your keep. I'm not saying he shouldn't, you know, have to. Jadavion Cloudy.

work his way up. Jadavion Clowny was a number one overall college prospect coming out of high school at 18 years old from Rock Hill, South Carolina. The NFL didn't let him just leave high school and come play NFL next day. They made him go get his body in shape, get his mind in shape, get ready to be a real man before you show up in a real man league. Kevin Garnett skipped college. And the Cup Series is a real man league.

Yeah, but they don't let that happen anymore either. They make those kids go away for a year. Freddie, do you agree? Yeah. I mean, I had my own run in with this guy. We had short-in-one of the stages. You met the hand? Yeah, I talked to the hand.

We short-pid one of the stages, and we came out, and we had a slow pit stop, so we were going to be by ourselves. So I was like, all right, well, we're going to stay up the end of the stage. There's nobody behind you. Just take it easy, and here he comes. And I'm like, well, I guess try to hold this guy off. Like, you don't want to restart behind him in the 52 car. And he's putting a bumper to us. He doorslammed us on the way by.

I was like, there's the one to go in the stage. We are literally probably 50 seconds behind the leader at this point. I'm like, where in the world are we going? True X's strove by me on the front church. If he wasn't on the track, I got to ask true about what happened. But, I mean, it just can't happen. You can't have a guy out there making his first career start. Affects your season-long playoffs.

I'm looking at this guy's stats right now. He's actually got a pretty good, pretty good. He's super accomplished road racer. Dude, he's won Daytona 24 hours in GTLM. He won Dayton. How's his NASCAR stats? Uh, yep. Yep, they're good.

He's, he's here. He's here today testing a Rick Ware car that I assume is straight out of a Stuart Hoss shop, I had to guess. But he's here today. Maybe he's getting more breakfast. Yeah, that Stuart Hoss built Rick Ware a car for this test today. So you're right there to assume that. So good for Rick Ware.

Obviously, maybe he listens to our podcast and he's sick of us, about how they screw up all the races and he's trying to put faster cars on track he's still negatively in the news spot on spot off kevin harvick alex bowman william byron and christopher bell are eliminated after the round of 12 and i just have to say yesterday's race was like a high school like like drama like drama filled like high school so spot on spot off tj man um i I don't know. That's why we run these places. That's, don't you think? I mean, that's why we have, like, the way this schedule and playoffs is built is for that

cutoff race to be full of drama. And what's the next cutoff race? Martinsville. Exactly. And we all know what can happen at Martinsville as well. If you get into somebody, the odds you see in them again in 500 laps are pretty high. so and it's hard to get away from each other as well so you lay the bumper to a guy he's going to be able to get back to you it's not this you know mile and a half thing where you're just going to take the air and he's never going to get to you nope that's not going to happen so i uh guess i'm kind of skipping the question a little bit but um so you're you advance you should be spot on yeah i'm spot on because we advanced but uh it was sure was nerve-wracking i'm spot off that harvick didn't advance i would love to see him and chase both back in this playoff.

That was probably the only... It's probably more exciting that he's not... I know, but, man, I would love to see them guys racing each other at Martin'sville for that last cutoff spot. That would be freaking epic. You imagine a restart with them on the front row? But to TJ's kind of subpoint there, you know, when they laid out this schedule, man,

they sure were looking for tracks that have that game seven moment feel as we end every single round. We had that game seven moment feel at Bristol going into this playoffs. obviously we continue to have these game seven moments and the schedule couldn't be any better. The only thing we're missing, Freddie, and I'm going to kick this thing to you. Obviously, you want to cover the subject first.

The only thing we're missing here is a game seven moment racetrack to end the season because Phoenix is not that. Yeah, for sure. I mean, if we swapped those last two races, I think that's your home run there. Not that Phoenix might not be the best cutoff race, but Martinsville would be one of the best, you know, championship race is obviously never going to happen because it's not in this day and age.

But the biggest thing I took away from yesterday was how close Kyle Larson was. At one point in the race, he's out. You know what I mean? We stopped on here for all, you know, all season about how this guy's basically got to buy to Phoenix. And at one point yesterday in round two, he's out, you know, because, you know, what a nightmare round it was. And then he bounced back and they got an alternator belt on that thing. He comes back at wins the race.

But what a rollercoaster round it was for Larson. Spot on, spot off. Graham Rahal tweeted. this is why playoffs are junk in racing. A champion is whose best year round. Start to finish not over course of a few races when Larson was below the cutoff line during the race. Brett.

Look, man, this is the format that we're racing with. This is the format that we sign up for come January when we start our season. We know what our tracks are. We know what the goals are. And this is exactly what TV wanted. You know, TV came in and wanted an elimination-style champion. ship when NBC came in and paid hundreds of millions of dollars to NASCAR.

They own that half of the season, the back half of the season. They don't get the Daytona 500. That goes to Fox. So they're looking for something to really ramp up the storylines. And we have a lot of storylines coming out of this. Do I understand where Graham Rahal is coming from? I absolutely do. Obviously, the Ray Hall family very well respected in the racing community,

especially on the IndyCar side of motorsports. But I've got to disagree with him that I truly think this playoff method makes it exciting. You know, is it ideal for everybody? No, because there are a lot of teams that now are not relevant. You know, when you look at Tyler Reddick doing what he did at the Roval, if he's not in that position and making that move, they're not going to talk about him on TV.

You know, if you're Chris Busher and you finish outside of the top 10, they're not going to talk about you on TV. Those guys are making themselves relevant by being in the middle and being competitive. What we do now is we shift to the coverage of NASCAR, really only being about eight guys. And it sucks for the other drivers. It sucks for the other sponsors. But at the end of the day, it's pretty damn exciting. TJ.

Yeah, I think that's great. I've been on both sides of it. We've been, we were spotting. I'm not sure. Did you ever have any seasons in the regular points, Freddie? Or have you been playoffs your whole spotting career? I was 14. I think I was playoffs.

Not this format, but definitely. some kind of chase. Yeah, yeah. So, man, we're basically two, three races away,

possibly two away from pretty much knowing who the champion's going to be. And the storylines are slim. Now we have drama. Now we have who's in, who's out.

I like it because, man, I hate it when it's happening. But the pressure, man, the pressure, this is, it's intense.

It's action-packed. In 2018, team the last couple laps of Martinsville, man. That set the tone for a championship run right there. What will guys do to make it? And, you know, you see Martin get out, you know, he's not going to win the war. So it builds it, man. You build these moments up.

And, you know, and, I mean, I don't know how we go back to any other way. And with, I mean, we've had every three weeks, we have an intense action. impact every race right now all these all these playoff races are no mistakes and when somebody has a mistake it is big it's huge so i i know what he's saying he's kind of old-fashioned on it but being part of the other system and part of this system you know it the the the reward is high but the i don't know the excitement and the pressure the building up to it is extremely high ready yeah i get what he's saying obviously you know he's a kind of a traditionalist you know he's the racer he all they know over there is season the long point battles i think that's all indy cars

ever done um but from a fan standpoint you can't beat where we have you know i mean it's it's it's the same equivalent to watching the wild card team knock out the undefeated team in the playoffs in football or something you know it's yeah you can have a great regular season and put yourself in a great spot but there's no guarantee you're going to win the super bowl at the end of the or even playing the Super Bowl at the end of the year. We have a system in place where you get, you know, you get buys or, you know, quote-unquote buys with all these bonus points and it's going to help you get through these rounds. But, you know, at the same time, if somebody gets hot at the right time and hits their mark,

like, look at Danny Hamilton right now. I mean, he's, I don't think he's finished out of the top 10 yet in these playoffs. You know, how has he not the favorite now over Larson when we came into this way? But, yeah, I mean, I get what he's saying as a, and I don't disagree with him. but the drama they've built into this format is really unbeatable right now. What Graham Rahal needs to do is walk down in the garage and smack Jimmy Johnson on the back of the head because Jimmy Johnson is the reason we have this format anyway. The guy would not stop winning championships year after year after year after year after year.

So NASCAR kept, in my opinion, trying to change it up to figure out how to get a new freaking champion. Wouldn't you say that, I mean, we kind of have the best of both worlds with the regular season championship, Chipp anyways before the playoffs. So in some sense, I would say that NASCAR actually has fulfilled what Graham has asked, what he's saying, but then we just have that added playoff segment that kind of makes it even more exciting. There's only 16 or 17 IndyCar races as well, by the way. So your points are going to stay a lot closer at that rate. When you have, what do we have, 36, 37? And T.J. How many entries do they have in each race? Probably what, 20? 20. 20. It's not very many.

Yeah. It's never going to work for them. But, hey, it works for us, man. It's exciting. I mean, if yesterday's race didn't get you amped up, then I think there's figure skating on another channel. I'm not so sure. It wouldn't work in IndyCar.

It could. Roger Penske's smart. He'll figure it out. I mean, I think any, I will say this, IndyCar was great this year. It's been building, and it's actually what they got going on over there is really exciting. And I think the interraces now are awesome. Indiccar champ was in Charlotte yesterday, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think he's going to be here later. today, right? Yep. IndyCar champ is rolling into Dirty Mo Media. I love it.

Paylo? Yeah. Before we get to our next segment, I want to give a shout out to our friends of Pristine Auction. Pristineauction.com is the most trusted place to get your autograph racing memorabilia. We've missed you guys. Thanks for coming back on our show this week. With thousands of daily auctions starting at just $1,000, you can win authentic signed

racing memorabilia at affordable prices. Just last week, Adelaan Hunter Jr. signed helmet sold for $100. If you want great deals like that, you can use code bumper for $10 off your first auction one on pristine auction.com. Time for a reaction theater. Great job NASCAR. Another red flag because someone blew through some freaking curbing. We didn't really talk about this one. What did you guys think of the move NASCAR made to remove it?

Good. We didn't have any issues yesterday, but I hate that the... That's because it's gone. I hate somebody had to lose a race car over it. The same as Indy. Just notes of self, perpendicular rumble strips do not work. Thanks call.

Kevin fucking Horvick, ladies and gentlemen, I can't wait to hear all the Chase fans chiming in on this tomorrow on the show. You get what you deserve. You play stupid games. You win stupid prizes. Enjoy your seat outside the playoffs, bub. Poke the bear.

Poke the bear. Well, I guess I've got to take back my comment about Arvick and Chase. Harvick them blew it with the nine behind him. He got scared right into the damn wall. Kevin fucking Harvick. God. Is that the same guy?

Yeah. I think that was. Yeah. Harvick. Harvick. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Man, that nine-year-old behind you in your mirror must have really been scary to make you wreck. There's a new intimidator in NASCAR.

It looks like he doesn't even need to touch anybody to make him wreck. I wouldn't say there's no intimidator here quite yet. Intimidator is pushing it. Yeah. As a Harvard fan, watching him mirror drive his way into the wall was hilarious. Tell me you're scared of Chase Elliott getting to you without telling me you're scared of Chase Elliott getting to you. Freddie, I said this before you jumped on. I said, Karma Zero Paranoia One.

That's what I said happened with Harroddill. That's what it looked like. Hey, T.J. Freddie, Casey. Hey, I want you all look at Brett and tell me that that man does not look like the dude from Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Cornelius Jack. I love that cartoon thing. I think he's right. I take that as a compliment. Yeah.

I think I get my beard a little longer. I like that. I like that. It's almost Christmas. Merry offseason. Happy Christmas, right? You know what Chase said yesterday? An analogy.

With the holiday season right around the corner, a special Christmas Carol goes out to one, Kevin Harvick. We wish you a merry-off season. We wish you a merry-off season. We wish you a merry-off season. And a happy Christmas. Sincerely all us Chase Elliott fans. There's a lot of Kevin Harvick hate in these guys.

Poked the bear. I think it was every call, I think. To leave an audio message 24-7, go to anchor.fm slash door bumper clear and click the message icon. We'll keep playing the best ones on the week each week on the show. Offer pad, question of the week. Freddie, do you decorate your home for the holidays like Halloween and Christmas? I do not ever decorate my house. Megan puts up some fall stuff, I think, would qualify me.

I've seen some pumpkins around the house. So I think that's maybe Halloween. We don't go crazy for that. Megan's dad loves Halloween. He's got all kind of stuff at his house. Christmas, typical. Nothing outdoors. Just Christmas tree.

Some tinsel that stays on a mangle for, I don't know, six months it feels like. But, yeah, nothing over the top of my house. Brett. Yes, to both. What I would love to see happen this year, Casey, is I would love for you get a real Christmas tree and just go over there like every couple days and shake it, you know? And then at the end of the year, when Christmas is over and you got to, you know, get everything out because New Year's Day, your tree has to come down by then. I want you to just see how big of a mess is on your

floor because that's what that airplane looked like when you got up from coming home from the exhumas. We're such a d'b. We use a real Christmas, or a fake Christmas tree for that reason. I know why. I know why, because you can't clean the mess up. TJ I have a some of you guys might know him Freddie might a guy that I used to work with

back in the day Amish you know Amish Amish Amish John he was a tire guy at Wood Brothers Yeah John Stewart Yeah so he does

Christmas lights He does give me his number Yeah he does And he like comes and puts him up He just I have him do the peak my house and stuff And he does a really good job Give me his number I'll say it to you

He pressure wash his too. Yeah, I have them come to my house and do pressure washing and they puts Christmas lights up. Give me his number. I'll send it to you. Yeah, I'm ready to turn my Christmas lights on now. Me too. Jeez. I'm one of them that decorates early. Chad holds my decorations hostage. She will bring them down. It's real early. I wish he could do, I wish he could do T.J. LED lights and we picked the color because we could do orange for Halloween. You probably could. And then when Halloween's over, I know, but I'm talking about late with a remote control. If it were up to me, I bet you could have him do Halloween. Yeah. No, I'm talking about all at one.

I don't want to pay them twice. Like I want to be able to hit a button and they be orange. Hit another button and they'd be white. You can keep your Christmas tree up and you can do Halloween. Halloween. Halloween? Halloween. Whatever.

And Valentine's Day and... Spell Halloween. I'm running on two hours of sleep. Leave me alone. Halloween. Go get a cash offer on your home today with our presenting sponsor, Offerpad.com. Time to get into our Exfinding the X-Fi more than fast moments. You need more than speed to compete in NASCAR.

Where did we see teams need to be more than fast this week? Ready. I'll give my Xfinity more than a fast moment to Kevin Harvest as fast as he under turn one and is abruptly coming to a quick call. Getting away from old Chase Elliott. He's pretty fast at 8-2 or is that 7. I don't know what everyone that is. My Xfinity X-5, more than fast moment, hands down, is Chase, I'm sorry,

Kyle Larson's crew for how quickly they changed that alternator. I mean, the hood went up on that car. They made the change. Send him right back out. He goes on to win the race. To me, there's nothing faster than what those guys accomplished. TJ. I'm going to give mine, my X-Hydie X-5, more than fast.

Is that right? More than fast moment to the guy who we don't mention a lot but was quietly there and had, I think it might have been his highest finish of the year, possibly Chris Buster. is that as high as finish this year? Yeah, maybe a plate race. But yeah, he did a really good job. Herm, that your best finish this year? Yep, Bush's best finish this year.

Tell Herm, I'm glad he stopped sucking and finally got a good finish. Congratulations, a podium. Congrats, Herm. Good job, kid. Hey, there you all. Congrats, Herm. He looks like a little hoops, don't he? We like it faster on DoorPupper Clear, but what we really like is more than fast.

Thank you. There's always tons of action for our XFinity X-Fi more than fast moments. You know what else is more than fast? X-Fi. With a speed for all your devices, you'll also get reliable performance that you can depend on to keep your crew connected. On the track being more than fast means you've got the teamwork and strategy to win. With Xfinity X-Fi, you can do more of what you love, faster internet, and a powerful and secure connection. Follow at Xfinity Racing on Twitter for even more Xfinity X-Fi more than fast moments, and don't forget to vote for your favorites. Thank you to Xfinity, proud premier partner of NASCAR.

We need to let Herm start calling the race for the tower. Hey, he can stop spot and he can become our new David Hoots. Whatever you do, don't talk about it. Herm could be six foot five. I'm talking about how big I am on that show. I'm telling you right now, if Herm was a race director, because Freddie and I talked about this yesterday, we feel like when something happens, TJ,

that there's like this big committee in the booth and they all start looking at each other, like, what are we going to do? and then they somehow another vote with hand signals, and then some guy is the front guy, like the lead singer in the band, and he's the guy that comes on and starts telling you, hey, there's a caution or, hey, there's a penalty. I could see Herm being in the booth and being like,

hey, don't you touch me. I'm calling this fucking race right now, all right? Get off me. That's how he spots. We need some authority and some accountability up there, and I think Herm's our guy. Tell Herm, he's the new race director starting this weekend at Texas, Freddie. There's a little hoots, man.

They want you to become the race director when you're done spotting. No, we want to become a race director now. Next week. You're leaving your best finish of the year. They want you quit now. I actually become a race director. He said he might do, but got to know what it pays for us. That'd be good.

It's one idiot. Brett, who you got? It's pretty simple for me. Whoever let hand race. Sorry. I just, I don't see how a sport of this. this magnitude with this much on the line can let a brand newbie come in and change, potentially change the outcome of the race.

I mean, he's having a problem with last week's feature winner at Talladega, Baba Wallace. He's having a problem with past champion, playoff contender Martin Truex. Whoever let this guy come in and race, I don't know who it is, but whoever let this guy come in race, I just cannot understand why. So you're my, what an idiot. Freddie? I assume did you guys talk about Ty Dillan, Ty Gibbs and Harrison Burton?

We did not talk about that. Now's a great time to do that. I would give my wooden idiot to Ty Gibbs. I had an honorary mention. I can't remember who it was now. I think it might have been Joe Graff that was spun out and pulled out right in front of our leaders as they were coming. That was an honorary woodn idiot.

But I got to give it a Ty Gibbs. At the end of the stage there, teammates battling for the last transfer spot. And I thought Ty was riding behind him. And instead he decided to Jack Harrison up, coming to the checker flag. Hit him once, got him sideways, got on his bumper, hit him again, shoved him in the wall. I understand Harrison's not going to be there next year. But I would imagine you should probably raise your teammates with a little more respect,

no matter how long they're going to be your teammate for it. TJ. It's going to be hard to beat ours, TJ. It's going to be hard to be. I'm not giving my wooden aid to who I want to because I'd like to. Keep your job? No. Jeez, oh man.

There are some really good ones. Not trying to be too controversial here. Shocker. I know. You guys are so surprised. Oh, boy. This is getting worse than when you make your pick for DBC. Yeah.

I'm skipping it this week. Just go. All right. Now you're the new one, an idiot for being a pansy. Yeah. That's all right. Get your skirt out of your eyes. 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. podcast with no minimum listenership. I like money. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place. We love using Anchor. It's a great platform

that lets us hear from the fans in reaction theater with Anchors leave a message feature. So when you create your account with Anchor, you can also utilize their feature 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-F-M to get started. Oh, playoff picks. I'll give a quick recap of how your round of 12 predictions did. Freddie did pretty well. He picked Brad to miss it, but Brad did make it.

Brett did pretty terribly. He had Ligano, Kislauski, and Chase all getting eliminated, but they all advanced. He did pick Harvick right, but TJ had it perfect with Harvick, Bill, Byron, and Bowman being eliminated. Did you all hear that? Yeah. He said the word, perfect. And so now we'll make some chance. Championship four picks heading into the round of eight for both the Cup in the next 20 series.

I'm out. I'm out now. Freddie, you want to go first? Sure. I'll take Kyle Larson. Told you. I'll take Denny Hamlin. Imagine that. What are we talking about? Cup championship four.

We're talking about advancing, right? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Denny could be ninth right now if Freddie would still pick him. Larson, yeah, you're damn right Larson,

Larson, Umlin, Truex, and who else is in there? I mean, you're going to get your other company car with Kyle if you want. I'll take, uh,

no, I don't know, it's probably between Kyle and Lugano. Who's the eight guy? I can't think of that right now. Kazaski's eight. Lugano's out. Elliot's out,

Kyle Bush is out. Blaney. So here's my four. Blaney was wrong. I've got Kyle Larson making it for sure. I've got Denny making it for sure. Those are the two fastest guys, week in and week out. I've got Ryan Blaney making it because when you look at his mile and a half program,

he's been really good. He had a top five at Vegas, which was our last mile and a half outing, had a top five at Texas for the All-Star race, which obviously is going to be relevant to this weekend. And then my other guy that I've got coming in here is going to be Kyle Busch. I just feel like Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch have more speed than Truex. So I've got Truex being the guy that goes from, third out and then obviously you know that's going to leave those other guys out now here's what

we don't know you know is chase elli going to have this magic wand over his head during these next three races and still be able to get into this to this phoenix final round but i mean the way it stands right now i got the five eleven twelve and eighteen because the chase elli kevin harvick thing may not be over i'll think the fours ain't four is bred except swap out i got you ex you'll have i'll take uh the five the eleven the nineteen and the two Nobody picked the nine. Poked the bear. Poked the bear.

Let's do the scene picks for Xfinity series. Brett, who are you picking? Oh, man. Look, I think when you look at the Xfinity series, there's two guys with big cushions, Cendrick and A.J. They've been fast all year. I still think Daniel Hemrick, man,

has got a lot of speed. I think he's a guy that certainly could shocked some people by winning a race the next two weeks. I mean, we had him win in Atlanta until his teammate Kyle Busch wrecked him. So obviously his mile and a half program is pretty good. So I'll go 16, 22, 18. And I think Noah Gregson is your wildcar guy here. I mean, he's the guy that's won a lot of races lately.

He seems to be a momentum driver. When he makes a mistake, he seems to compound it with multiple mistakes. But I've seen him making good decisions and having speed. So I could see him at these mile and a halfs. being really, really fast. So that'll be my fourth for the Xfinity series. Ready? I will take AJ Almondinger.

I'll take Cindrick. I will also take Hemrick. And I will take Justin Allgaier as my fourth. And, you know, I didn't come to fruition last year. But I got flipped off by Drew because I didn't pick Brandon Jones. I don't quite reckon Brandon Jones. What am I picking? Allgaier is tough at Phoenix, man.

He has a lot of wins in Phoenix. So if he gets to that final four, he could be a bit of a sleeper there. T.J. A.J., Austin, Justin O'Geyer, and Noah Gregson. I'm rolling with the top four how they are right now. I like it. Time for DBC picks. T.J. won that Charlotte with Christopher Bell.

Yeah. The score is now 14. How about a boy, T.J. Way to go. to seven with Freddie's still leading. Brett, of course, is in second and T.J. third. A distant third. It shouldn't be non-existent.

It should be non-existent third. Let's make picks for Texas. Freddie. Go ahead and pick you, losers. Freddie, who you got? I'll take Danny Hamlin. Brett. Danny Hamlin?

Geez. Wow. I didn't really see that coming. He picked Danny Hamlin. because I've already picked Kyle Larson. You kid. Oh, shit. Oh, man.

All right. He took Danny Hamill. I know I'm pulling a TJ right now. I am going to... Taking a DJ? I'm pulling a TJ. I'm going to go with the guy that I would have picked last week, had he still been on the board.

But he was not on the board because Freddie Kraft took him and Kevin Harvick took him out. I'm going to go with the Wonderboy, the magic man, Chase Elliott. He's got the golden horse shoe up his ass right now. T.J. Well, that changes my whole scenario here. I didn't think you're going to go with him.

I will have already used Kyle Busch. Well, hell. Geez. I got, I just need to beat Brett, so I'm going to go with Tyler Reddick. Interesting. Good pick. We won't see him in the top six. All right. Sorry, Tyler.

Although I did pick Tyler earlier this year, and he did pull through for me because he made sure to bring it up that he, you know, he was like, I'm glad I can help you out. So Tyler, this is your shot, buddy. Good news going to Texas is a weekend for you guys. There's a zero percent chance to rain currently on Sunday. That's because I'm not going. Yeah, we'll be home Wednesday. Every time I go to the freaking racetrack, it rains.

This weekend was finally an exception to that. What can fans expect heading into Texas this weekend? Well, apparently they're not using PJ1. They're using, I just saw a thing on a little bit. It goes resin again. So the resin experiment's going to continue. Great time to do experiments. I mean, the playoffs really aren't that big of a deal.

Unmute yourself. Great time to do it. What? I don't think so. I mean, the thing about Texas, Casey, is it's such a wide racetrack, and we got so spoiled. By being able to go down there, I mean, if you look back at the races in 2003, 2004, 2005, you know, we were able to run a lot of different grooves around that place.

I mean, that's when Casey Kane was coming into the sport, and he was one of those guys that loved to run the high side, and the surface just changed so drastically after a repave and with the current package that we have with all this downforce, and the speed through the center of the corner is absolutely insane, and it just makes it hard to pass. So you're going to see a track position game. You're going to see the cream rise to the top.

The three organizations that have cars left in this playoff, they're going to be the best of the best. And I don't foresee really anybody stepping up and beating those three organizations in these last four races. Should be exciting to watch. I'll tell you what else is exciting. I was at a game yesterday, a baseball game, and I had a guy walk over to me and show me a video.

Weren't you racing yesterday? I had baseball first. I went to baseball. I went to the ballpark at 9 that morning, and Freddie came by, and he and I watched Bodie pitch, and then after Bodie got done pitching, we left.

But in the middle of this baseball game, I had a guy come over to me and show me his phone. And on his phone was a race car going around North Wilkesboro Speedway. And that place looked a lot freaking better than I would have ever thought it was going to look. I know they've been out there doing some work.

But I'm telling you right now, seeing that race car going around North Wilkesboro was freaking awesome. What are you trying to say? Yeah. Anything you want to hint at us? I just think it's great because I know how much of our fan base, our older fan base appreciates and loves that racetrack. And it's coming back to life. I mean, I thought this thing was dead. I thought we'd never see race cars out there again.

Next thing, you know, Dale Jr. is out there. Cleaning it up. He's out there picking up weeds and weed eating and spraying around. up and all the things and the next thing you know, we've got race cars going around that place. Speaking of a race cars going around, Freddie, what are you showing us? Here comes AJ.

Yep, AJ. He goes to, you look at colleague racing and the things they've done to put themselves in position to win races and be fast and contend for championships, that higher of AJ Amadinger is probably the smartest move they could have ever made as a company. Because you take a driver who clearly has a lot of

talent, a lot of experience, and he comes in only to have fun in a no pressure situation. Now, I think that's changed because obviously he went from being a part-time guy last year to a full-time guy this year. Now he's racing for an Xfinity Series championship. But from a leadership standpoint, that higher hands-down helped turn the ship for college racing to go from a team that's just existing and putting okay cars on the track to a team that's putting fast cars on the track. One a cup race, and I'm telling you right now, we don't blow up yesterday.

We would have been in the conversation to win again. So what did you see there, Freddie out of AJ? Anything exciting? Typical AJ, hauling ass. I mean, he's all over the place. It's hard as he can go. I don't know where he went. Where are you going to board, TJ?

I haven't looked. AJ's 7th right now, and his last lap was a little slow. But you look at that. I mean, the good thing there is you got a rookie coming in. And Justin Haley's certainly not a rookie, but he's never been in fast cars in the Cup series. I mean, to look at what Spire puts on the track versus what Collick is going to a.

Collig racing is going to tip. on track. That's a huge resource for Justin Haley. I mean, to have to have AJ go out there and shake the car down and tell you what feedback he's feeling. To get it close, then hand you the steering wheel, you go out and break it down. Like when you look, when you hear the words teamwork in NASCAR, that's what teamwork means. It doesn't mean the same thing as other sports. But when you have an organization doing things like this, it's only good for your race car drivers. AJ went six right there, about a second off. I think you see it. I think you see it, especially with Haley at the road courses, especially like Haley's road course performance from, you know, whatever you want to say, two, three years ago to where it's at now is probably light years different. I mean, he was probably the second or third fastest car here on Saturday.

So it's just, you know, you can see it. Like you said, one of the best things they did was get AJ in house over there to help that whole program out. Yeah, for sure. I got to go. We're getting ready to run. See you guys later. Have fun.

Good luck, Bob, and Freddie. Tell her, good luck with his new role. this week. 10-4, only about 18 hours ago. See you guys later. Well, TJ, you're off to everything's bigger in Texas land. So it's a good thing I'm not going because those Bojangles biscuits, man, I got to stop eating so many of them.

Bojangles biscuits are a plus. Especially in the Bojangles studio. I, man, the spicy, Cajun fries are probably my favorite. And the only bad thing about it is people in Texas don't have, they're not blessed to have a Bojangles. We need to get a Bojangles in Texas. No, but they're blessed with hard eights. They are blessed with hard eights, hard eight barbecue.

Oh, my gosh. There's some of the best barbecue in the world out there in Texas. All right. Well, thank you all so much for listening. Be sure to comment. Send us some reaction to the other messages and have a great week. Looking forward to it. Hala.

See ya. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo. You're going to do it. You're going to win it.